--------- Um, good evening. I call to order the meeting at 7:13. Notice is hereby given that in accordance with the open public's meeting act chapter 231 the laws of 1975 notice of this meeting has been sent to all school offices officially designated
newspapers filed with the township clerk and posted in the board of education office 48 hours in advance a roll call please >> certainly Mrs. Assur >> here >> Mrs. Austin >> here >> Mrs. Leler >> here >> Mr. White >> here >> Mrs. Pinterelli
>> here and please stand for the flag salute. Okay. Um the board president's report. Um, I don't really have anything to report other than, um, I'm very pleased to
announce that our very own district superintendent, Mrs. Signori, was asked to be featured as a Starbridge AI spotlight speaker. Starbridge is hosting one of the largest AI conferences in New York City. Uh this conference brings
together government officials, education administrators, um executives and investors and she will be representing the Rivervale School District this summer on a national forum. Um she will be sharing all about our student achievement gains, our
datadriven instruction periods, and much much more. Um, we wish you good luck and thank you for representing and bringing our district um um recognition on the national level. So, thank you. >> Thank you. I didn't know you were saying
that. Thank you. I appreciate it. I'm proud to represent our district. Thanks. >> Oh, sorry. Committee reports, buildings and grounds. Mr. White, >> thank you. Yeah, just um brief uh few
comments the I guess uh with the warmer days coming. Just wanted to review how our HVA system works and uh Mrs. Zelledo is going to jump in uh and add or correct me if I say anything, but I just
want to make it brief. Um I it's my understanding that some parents have had concerns, which is why we're uh going over this um today. So, so people understand um our HVAC HVAC system is
not like that which is in your home. Uh we we do not have the capabilities of turning the system on and off. Um today heat, tomorrow air conditioning. Uh when the heat is turned on, it's on
it's on for the duration of the winter. And when we decide to turn the air conditioning on, it takes uh anywhere from an average of five to seven days to transition. Uh pipes need to be cleared of of uh water that's in them. Is that
correct? And uh we need to transition the system. We'll just leave it at that. Uh from heating to cooling. Um, additionally, when the air conditioning is turned on, if the air temperature on the exterior outside is too cool, the
air conditioning will not not turn on. So, in theory, it could be 55° outside and the classroom could be 80°, the air conditioning won't turn on because the air temperature outside that the system uses
will cause the system to not turn on. Is that correct? That's correct. >> Okay. Also, the this is something that I didn't know actually, but the classrooms have one system and rooms like the gymnasium, the media
center, and the hallways have a different system. Right. So, correct. So, it could be very cool in the in the hallway and and a student or teacher or parent who's in for whatever reason an event could say, "Why is it really hot in here?" the system may be functioning
properly. It's just two different two different systems, right? >> That's correct. >> Okay. Um that's all I had and I wanted to open it up for any board member if you had questions to really specifically ask
Mrs. Zippalito uh because she's far more likely to have the answer than I would. Um, but you know, I these are these are real concerns that people have and and that's why we're bringing it up at a public session right now. Um, where we
could all be on the same page and relay information to um, you know, the public accordingly. Hopefully, people watch this and they can hear straight from the horse's mouth as we sit here live or or later on. But does any board member have
any follow-up questions or comments or anything like that? >> If a parent, student, teacher, anyone has a question about the system and how it works, who should they ask? >> They can reach out to me. >> Perfect. >> That was a very good question.
>> Okay. I'm just going to elaborate a little bit more because I want to make sure that that we're clear on this and Mr. White's understanding is very accurate. Um, let's first start off by saying I think
we can all agree that this was a very strange week last week. I mean, who would have ever thought you would hit 90° for 3 days in the middle of May? So, with that said, the we have
technicians that come out to service the the chillers and to help us with the startup process. And uh they won't even schedule with us unless they can predict that the temperatures will be consistently a
certain temperature. So, if we wanted to get them on the calendar, let's say December for a May 1st startup, they're not going to schedule with us because they're not going to be able to see that far out into the future. So, we do have a maintenance contract with
them. So, it's not as though we have to call and find somebody. They know that this is what their responsibility is. We had shut down the boilers on May 14th because we looked ahead and saw the weather pattern and noticed that it was
going to be potentially 90° the following week. So again, technicians came out on the 14th. They started the system as best that they could. Let's just say stage one.
They had all indicators that the chillers were going to operate as normal. You can't fully start up the chillers without the cooperation of mother nature. So that was the the point
at which we couldn't go any further. Roers did not have any problems when we started. Halddram and Woodside did. The uh second compressor would not go on at either one of the schools. And um come
to find out that Holdrum the Freon was low. So we had the technician, we hurried up, got an emergency purchase order, ordered the Freon, got that up and running, and there still may be um a
chance that there's an actual leak. So Freon just doesn't dissipate. Um but for right now we have all systems and all indicators are that we're going to make it through the rest of the season. So Halddram is operating all of
its rooftop units the chiller whole building is working. Woodside we had a um again started the first compressor was the temperatures wouldn't allow for the second compressor to come on. It's
not as though there wasn't air conditioning at Woodside to the point of the art room, the music room, the hallways, the gym, all had air conditioning. the classroom univventilators, which is what the
chiller is um operates, they were not working, but the teachers had their hallway doors open and the principal was able to rotate classrooms, teachers, groups throughout the building so that they were all able
to share in that cooling. It turns out that the when the technician came back as recently as today, the chiller at Woodside had right now four blown fuses in the first
compressor. Those are replaced. The temperature was not high enough today for the chillers to kick in, especially this morning when it was 60°. In the afternoon, they were able to
start the chiller with the first compressor. The second compressor has not yet turned on. We have the technician coming back tomorrow with the second compressor's fuses and hopefully that is all that we need and then the
entire system will be up and running. Um, does anybody have any questions about that? >> Are those under like warranty? No, they're over eight years old.
I don't have a question, but I just want to comment also that a lot of people may not know in the public where it's a challenge turning the heat off and turning the air on. Um, because there's a state law regulating
a low temperature in the schools. And I'm saying that correctly so people understand. So if the if the temperature gets too cold in the school, that classroom or that building may not be able to be occupied. Correct. So
there's a challenge in strategically turning off the heat and turning on the air conditioning. Just so that's out there in the public so people understand that. Um, it's like just to reiterate my first statement, it's not like our home units where we can turn it
on one day and off the next day. So, I don't have anything else other than our next meeting. We're going to have a meeting on June 9th where this issue will be uh at that committee meeting again. So, thank you. >> Thanks. I just wanted to piggy back off of that. That's a good example. We did have some warm weather a couple years
ago in April and so we did get some questions then like, can't you put the air on this? It's going to be a really hot week in April. We can't make that decision because we'd have to shut the boilers down when we know that most likely after that sporadic heat wave, we're going to get back down to 40s at
night and and sometimes colder. And we have to make sure we have heat for these buildings. So, just like you were saying, it it really is making sure that we are looking at the weather and then trying to predict mother nature and make sure that we are uh ready for the heat
but not not um being so proactive about it that we end up getting a cold spell and now we can't provide any more heat to our building. So, it's a really delicate balance of making sure that all of those things are being taken into consideration. I do have one more
comment and I just want everyone out there who may be listening or follow up on this to understand that our admin staff that's Mrs. Signori, Mrs. Ziplo and Mr. Tracy uh work very hard to keep these systems going and it is very
important um something that I have been educated on and slightly admittedly I'll change my tune. It is very important for our staff and for our students to be comfortable and for them to have a a good teaching and learning environment
and no one likes to be uncomfortable when they're at work. Um I understand that more than most. So they do work very diligently to have these systems going and to make sure our teachers and all of our staff and our students are in an environment
where it is the best working and learning um environment for them. I said environment too many times. I'm sorry but everybody gets it. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, one last comment on this is to take from Miss Signori and add to
another challenge is especially with these cooler mornings where we have the boilers off and we are required by state law to bring in outside air. So now you have these cooler mornings and unfortunately some people um you know
we're just colder people. So every it everybody tolerates the temperatures differently and by bringing in some of this outside air it mimics what one might think is air conditioning but it's really outside air. So you are doubling
up on the coolness from where mother nature stopped and now we're bringing that into the mornings into the classrooms and sometimes it's a little cool. So we just keep trying to say please bring bring layers and we're doing the best we can. So any other
questions? Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you uh Mr. White for providing the board and the public with this important information. Um, communications and policies.
>> Uh, no, nothing for tonight. Thanks. >> Okay. Uh, curriculum and technology, Mrs. Austin. >> Nothing for tonight. >> Finance, that would be me. Um, I have nothing to share for tonight. Uh, negotiations, I don't think there's anything to share
for, right? Um, and personnel, >> nothing tonight. >> Okay, great. Um, please note the committee meeting schedule. Um, hello. Public comments on agenda items only. I
will read this one and it will also pertain to um in another section, but I will not read it again. Um, the Riverdale Board of Education is committed to encouraging the citizens of Rivervale and employees of the Riverale School District to speak directly to board trustees in order in order to
facilitate this communication. Residents and employees are requested to sign in before speaking, to maintain an appropriate sentence to quorum, and to limit their remarks to no more than 5 minutes. The board will also take under advisement the written comments and opinions of non-residents that are submitted to the board secretary, being
mindful of its responsibility to maintain the orderly conduct of meetings. The board retains the right to rule on such matters as the speaker's right to address the board as well as the appropriateness of the subject being presented. The board's decision in such matters is final. The board also reminds all members of
the public that while it subscribes without reservation to the principle of keeping the community informed by policy and law, it cannot allow public discussion of personnel matters. Nor can trustees comment on any current or pending litigation. If a matter concerning an employee of the Riverale
School District is of interest or concern to a resident, the matter should be referred to the responsible principal or the superintendent of schools by telephone, letter, or email. Um, I will open public comments to uh at
7:29 and I will close public comments at 7:29. Um, superintendent report please. Thank you. Good evening. Um, so I just want to remind the board in my Friday email I had let you know that the school
performance reports had come out. Um, the school performance reports are really just a snapshot report of how we did on last spring's state assessment, which means you guys have already been given detailed information and more at
the October district assessment report that we did in this past October of 25. So, they they they're actually later than usual this this year for some reason. We just got them. I let you guys know in one of my emails and I just want to let the public know everything that's
in them has already been shared. We've met all of our marks and all of our schools and all of our content area which is fabulous news. Um and they are posted on our district website in case anyone does want to take a look at them. My recommendation though would be if you
want to know more about how our student achievement is, don't just look at those reports. They will give you numbers. But if you really want to understand it, go back to our YouTube channel, grab some popcorn. I think it's about an hour and watch our very detailed report. Um, but those snapshot reports are up on the
website. And that is all for tonight. Thank you. Board secretar's report. Okay. Um, I just want to read the um, thank you that was received to the bo to the board
from the RVA. Dear members of the Riverale Board of Education, on behalf of the entire Riverale Education Association, we wanted to extend our sincere thanks for the delicious pretzels delivered to each of our buildings. It was such a wonderful and thoughtful surprise. Small gestures like
this go a long way in making our staff feel valued and appreciated, as well as um I'm sorry, appreciated as we work together for our students. Thank you for your continued support and for sweetening or in this case salting our
week warmly the RVA and that's all I have. >> U Mr. Rosini and I delivered the pretzels and we definitely had a lot of fun. We had a lot of people saying oh is it pretzel day? So they were they were very thankful.
So, okay. I'd like to uh could I have a motion to move general resolutions G1 uh through G6? >> I'll move G1 through G6.
>> I'll second. I'll second. Um any questions, comments? >> I just have a comment. I'm happy to see that um our governor has publicly acknowledged the need to address the
rising health care costs. I don't think people really understand this does affect our budget, does affect the children. It's very important. Um and I hope that something's done. That's it. May I have roll call vote, please?
>> Certainly. Mrs. Mrs. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Austin. >> Yes. But I'll abstain from G4. >> Certainly. Mrs. Leler. >> Yes. >> Mr. White. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Pinterelli.
>> Yes. U. May I have a motion to move resolution a business resolution B1 through B24? >> I'll move it. >> Any second? Sorry. Second. I had a question um regarding these
awards that going to um different services for the OT and speech. I see a lot of being approved and I'm just curious what the difference is between all of them. the difference between the um
>> um it seems like there's multiple speech uh language services and there's different companies. So I was just curious why there's it's not all coming from one company for all them or if it's one person or how
exactly it works. So, we solicited RFPs, requests for proposal, and we um unfortunately there is not a one-sizefits-all company and some of the therapists that we had been using
through the region have their own companies. So, they are the people that we have been using through the region and um it Garden State is a new vendor. Um, ESS Clinical is a new vendor. So, we
are going out on a limb and in trying some new therapists. Um, and uh hopefully that this this works. It's it's new territory for us. This is the first year without the region and Mrs.
Datano and and I worked through this together this process and we're going to make sure that this this works and the good news with uh for instance ESS and Garden State they have
more than one person in their company so that if somebody may be ill and not able to make it or not be able to reschedu our hope is that we'll be able to utilize especially for some evaluations s um you
don't necessarily need to know the student. It was more important for us to get um therapists that we had already been utilizing because they know the district and they know the culture and um how they operate. So that's why and
obviously different disciplines. You have your occupational therapy, you have your physical therapy, your speech and language and ABA. We are going to be hopefully putting on at the next agenda um a shared service agreement with
Montville where we are um going to be sharing a um behavioral consultant with Montville. We'll have her one day a week and they will have her 4 days a week. So, somebody that we have utilized through
the region and then um continue to have her oversight with us. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Roll call, please. >> Certainly. Mrs. Assur, >> yes.
>> Mrs. Austin, >> yes. >> Mrs. Leler, >> yes. >> Mr. White, >> yes. >> Mrs. Pinterelli. >> Yes. Uh, may I have a motion to move personnel resolutions P1 through P8? >> I'll move it. >> One and second.
>> Second. >> Um, any questions or comments? >> Um, I would just like to point out P1. Um um I'd like to thank Mrs. Sanuli for her many years of dedication to the Rivervale School District. Um
we wish her a happy and relaxing and well-deserved retirement filled with joy and lots of new adventures. Um so thank you Mrs. Sanuli. May I roll call? >> Certainly. Mrs. Assor, >> yes. >> Mrs. Austin,
>> yes. >> Mrs. Leler, >> yes. >> Mr. White, >> yes. >> Mrs. Pinterelli, >> yes. Um, since we do not have public I'm going to um skip the reading of well
I read it already um the reading of public comments um and move to so let's see I will open it at 7:38 and close at 7:38 um any old business
any new business >> motion to adjurnn Can I have a second? >> Seconds. Part: 2
Okay, good evening. We're going to call the meeting to order. Notice is hereby given that in accordance with the Open Public Meetings Act, chapter 231, the laws of 1975, notice of this meeting has been sent to all school offices, officially designated newspapers, filed with the township clerk, and posted in
the board of education office 48 hours in advance of this meeting. I'm going to take the roll call. Mrs. Assur here. Mrs. Austin >> here. >> Mrs. Burkowitz is not. Mrs. Leler >> here. >> Mr. White >> here. >> And then flag salute, please.
Okay. Well, let's introduce our guest. We have Melissa from New Jersey School Boards. Okay. Um, just before we get started, since it's the first time I'm here, I'm Melissa with New Jersey School Board Association. I am your field service
representative. I rep I support all of Bergen County. So, if you have any questions with anything that you're doing with your board governance or just need to chat, feel free to pick up the phone and call me. Everybody has my card and um my information is also on the
website. So whatever it is, if you're not sure about something, you can come directly to me. You do not need to go through your board president or through your administration. Um what we talk about will stay with us. Um unless we need to get more information or something along those lines, but I want you to be able to feel comfortable doing
that. Um a little background on me. I am new in this role. I've been in the role just about six months, and it's been an amazing six months. learned a lot. Um, but before that I was like you. I was a board member for nine years. Um, I sat on the Ultipan local board of education.
I was very involved in school boards with their training and stuff like that. But New Jersey school board uh rep did not come to our district very much. Um, so I learned a lot in doing the role. And I just want you to know that the whole point of New Jersey School Board
Association, it is an association of board members. That's what what we are and that's what we're here for to support you. Okay. Um is there anybody here in their first year? Okay. Um you're already halfway in so a lot of this isn't going to apply but I'm going to go through it. Uh there's a lot
of slides here. I will send this um to you tomorrow. Um and you'll be able to access all the links. There's tons of information in here and resources that you'll be able to utilize. And there are plenty of um cases that we're not and
opinions that we're not going to go into in detail. I want to highlight a few just to talk about them so you understand the importance of it, but in general, if you can't sleep at night, feel free to go through this. It will help um maybe get you to sleep. Some of the stuff's good. I'll probably cover the good ones, though. Um anyway, so as
we get started, we're covering ethics this evening. And just know that there is legal information in here. I am not an attorney. I do not represent you. I'm not giving you legal advice. Um, if you have any questions, you should always go to your board attorney. Okay.
Okay. So, I'm going to start with the School Ethics Act. And the School Ethics Act was created to um just as it says there um it's essential that the conduct of the members of local boards of education and local administrators hold the respect and confidence of the
people, right, of your public. But it goes a step further than that because it is also important. It is the impression of what the public sees you doing. Okay. So, there's two pieces to that. And some the reason we're going to go through
some of these cases is you have to learn to look at things a little bit different than just what your intention is because your intention isn't necessarily what's going to help you. It's understanding what other people looking from the outside might be seeing or what their impression is,
unfortunately. Um so what we're going to go through are going to be considered the minimal ethical standards. Um and let's go through those. So first of all who enforces the ethics act is the um school ethics commission the SEC
and it is nine individuals and they're appointed by the governor and they're broken up to two school board members um five non-school officials and two school administrators. for a long time there during the previous governor there were only six members on the SEC so there was
a lot of delay in getting opinions out and stuff like that and I'll go into that a little bit more but the key is now with the new governor um there are more individuals being appointed the interesting thing was as you'll see is the non-school officials were on the board but we were missing the school board members and the school
administrators um so that al also wasn't very helpful okay so provisions of the act it's about accountability so you have four pieces to it. So you have mandatory training and code of ethics. Those two things apply only to board members. And then the other two pieces, disclosure
statements and prohibited acts. Those apply to both board members and administration in your district. Okay. So the first thing we're going to talk about is mandatory training. So mandatory training, if you are new, you would do that in your first 90 days.
Governance one. So I'm assuming that you did that. Did you do the weekend or online. Did you do virtual or did you do just at your own pace? >> Just on your own pace. Okay. Um that we offer all different kinds now. And um
you know, just a heads up, the the go the governance one new member new board member orientation weekend is great. And the nice thing about that is it doesn't cost the district anything. It doesn't cost the board member anything. It's a weekend to get immersed in it. But the
um so you did your governance one in your second year you need to do governance two and you'll see there what each category covers uh by by the end of your third year you need to do governance three and then for any board members when you're new term and just think of it as when you're swearing in
you must do governance four and governance 4 is updated every year so the information is new every year it's legal information um so you only need to do it the first year of each new term again whenever you're being sworn in. It is really important though that you do
these trainings and that you do them on time because the SEC is definitely um looking for that and keeping an eye on that. Um you can if you go to workshop in October, you can take the next year's
training at workshop and get credit for it. Okay? So if you have to do the next year, you can do that. Just check back with me if you're thinking of doing I don't think governance four is offered. So it's really more about two and three and you won't see governance one there either because of the time frame of the
90 days. Um so financial and personal relative disclosure statements at this point if you're a new board member you must do it within 30 days of being sworn in. Um but returning school officials it's April 30th. I'm sure everybody is done at this point. Again, you want to
make sure uh because there have been many issues with that and the SEC is definitely cracking down on that. Um this just goes through an example. So, you'll see on here where you see C85-24, that's an ethics complaint. Okay? And
you can click on that link when you get this and you can read through all these and you'll see all the information there. What it looks like to do an ethics complaint. Um but as you can see, numerous financial disclosure statement cases occurred in 2025 with varying penalties. Therefore, it's important to complete the disclosure statements
accurately and timely. I will tell you this, before I did this role and had to teach ethics, um there were things like you don't think of necessarily that you would put on there. And so I when I
first came on board with school boards, I had to do this form, do my ethics, and then I went through the training and I'm like, "Oh, wait a minute here." Right? you start to think about some of these things because the way they ask those questions, obviously everybody here has done it. So, you know, there's multiple different multiple ways you are asked
about your earnings, right? Um, and just as everybody knows, you're you're not disclosing your income or the money that you're making, but you are disclosing where the money is coming from. And obviously, the purpose of that is to make sure there's no conflicts, right?
It becomes a public record. It's searchable. Anybody can have access to it. Um, so one of the things my husband works for Dell and I'm like, wait a minute, there's a lot of Dell computers everywhere I'm going, including where I am. I'm like, there's got to be contracts with that because one of the
questions is about the contract. So I went to our legal department. I said, you know, what do I do here? He doesn't sell. He's he's an architect, an IT architect. He doesn't do any of that. What do I need to do? And she said, oh yeah, you need to have him go and get the list of contracts and disclose that.
And I'm thinking, my husband is going to kill me. Like, I'm gonna get divorced over this if I sent him back to his company and ask for this. He's gonna definitely want, never mind if I were a board member as opposed to an employee because you're you would be in the same boat. And um so I ended up doing I just
list my husband works for Dell. I literally just write it out there. And I'm sure there's many schools using Dell products and it's there. And the point of it is to disclose as much information as you can with that you're comfortable with obviously right um to me it's a lot easier than go getting a list of
contracts and everything else is yes he works for Dell and that's where we're connected and and that's it um so just something to think about when you're doing these if you're not sure error on the side of over reporting that's my way of looking at it again knowing it's public so just be careful what you want to put on there um but think of that
from that way okay we're going to go through this if If you don't mind, I'd rather just go around the room for the board members to read the code of ethics. Just read the stuff in blue. Um, we're going to go through the code of ethics. We're going to do it quickly, I promise. And then, just so you know, the
in the blue is the code of ethics. Underneath it are the standards. Um, the standards are what you would need to prove that there was a conflict. We're not going to get into that. I'm not going to read that, but I just want you to know what it is when you're going through it and when you have this
information. Um, so would you like to start with A if you don't mind? Okay. So, important thing about this one is obviously a lot of board members look at themselves as volunteers, which you are because you get that great big paycheck right at the end of the month, the end of the year. Um, I know the
public often thinks that you get um a stipend or you get uh benefits or sometimes a car and obviously none of those things happen. So um but what you also need to look at yourself as is you are actually a representative of the state right? So you're on the local
level but you are an elected official that represents the state. So when you are taking your oath you need to realize that you are um promising to uphold enforce all laws rules and regulation mandates by the state right things like
that. Um it's important that you understand when you sit at this table that that is your role that you must uphold that. Um boards do things differently and board members do things differently. But I I know even when I sat at the board I'm like why are we doing this? What if
everything's coming from the state? Why what what do we do here? What is our purpose if we can't change it or vote no etc. Right? Um what I will tell you is you do have a lot of power in your role. What you need to do is work your way back up. You need to work to your state
representatives, your assembly people, and things like that in your current role if you choose to do that. But what you really don't want to do is vote no here at the table for things that are mandated or that you are legally, you know, put out by the state that you're supposed to uphold. And the only reason
I say that is because that complicates things and makes it more difficult for your students, right? Because then you turn into lawsuits and you turn around and around on different things. Again, everybody has to take their role the way they want to. But I just want you to realize that this isn't the only way to do it. There
is an opportunity as a board member that you can speak to your local representatives. You can get involved in schoolboard association and you can get the county level if you haven't gone to them. There's county meetings and your voice can be heard um through those options. So just want you to know you
have more than one option and that was the important piece of that uh part of the code of ethics. So, this one's pretty clear. You represent all children. Okay. See Right? So, you know, your your role is
not to run the district, right? But to oversee it and these are the ways that you do it through policy, through planning, through appraisal. We're in the process now, right, of the superintendent evaluation. Make sure that you get involved in that, that you do your part. Um, and the other piece
here that's interesting that's not yellow. Um, but you make your you make these moves only after the board has consulted those who will be affected by them. That is why when you do policy readings, you have two readings, right? It gives your public the opportunity, those that will be affected by it to
come in and speak and give you commentary. Right. So again, it's it's not to run the run the district, right? It's to oversee it. And by the way, if you have any questions while we're going through this, jump in. Don't hesitate. Okay. E go right back around. Sorry.
>> Okay. Okay. So, one thing that I see a lot with new board members um and some that have been here a while, you will hear them say, "I represent the people that put me here. I represent the people that voted for me." And actually, that is not true. You represent everybody in the district and most importantly all
the students in the district. You don't have your own group of people. When you get on the board, things change drastically than from when you were running as a candidate. And you know, it's a little difficult to make that move. And it's something that most candidates don't think about before they get on the board because now you have to
work possibly alongside somebody that you were running against. And that all has to change because the only way this works is if the board works together because obviously the board um functions with one voice, right? The majority
voice is the board is one voice. Okay. F Right. So that's again a similar um you represent all of the students in the district. G Right. Um so so obviously everything in executive
session is confidential. It remains in executive session. The key here is I will provide accurate information. Um, and that's really important because when you leave the board table, you're speaking, if you're speaking as a board
member, you should be speaking about what the board agreed upon, right? That is the one voice. You know, you don't have to hide. Excuse me. It's it's great to be transparent. If you voted no for something, it's on the record. It's okay. But once the the vote has passed,
everybody has to get on board. That's how boards work. Um, so that's the key here. and making sure that you're providing accurate information and not your personal perspective based on what you thought when you didn't agree with an opinion or something along those lines.
H We're almost done with these. >> Okay. So the only person that the board um evaluates and hires and terminates or doesn't renew is the superintendent. Everybody else is at the recommendation of the superintendent. So that's really important to understand as well.
I back around. >> Okay. That's really important especially on social media. We're seeing a lot of um and I'm sure everybody is um individuals ganging up now on librarians. That's a big thing in in the
schools. Um so it's important as a board member that you're very careful in what you say and what you do out there, especially in social media. And it is important, it is your role to support um your staff. Okay,
last one. Okay. So, this speaks to chain of command, which is super important. Um, you'll find and and you'll see this especially, I was on a local district, so I get it when you have children in the district and you're doing things with the families, whether it be with
sports or other organizations, you'll find yourself a lot of times with other um parents and the kids are all hanging out. you're having, you know, pizza, a couple of beers, and all of a sudden somebody starts talking about something that played out in school, right? Do yourself a favor and remove yourself
from that conversation because even though you're hanging out with individuals with the mindset of we're just a bunch of parents, you are always perceived as a board member. And this is the part that gets a little complicated, right? Because you certainly have the right to hang out. I don't mean that. And if if you're like kind of stepping
back and not being involved, that's fine. But what you don't want to do is you don't want to get too into the details. You don't definitely don't want to get into the debate and the conversation because anything that you state, most people are going to look at you as if you know more. And chances are you don't know anything about what happened withever that whatever that
incident is, you know, and we know that as board members, you would know that, but the rest of the public thinks you know everything that happens in the district and you're privy to all that confidential information. So, they're going to read into anything that you say. So, just be aware of that. I, you
know, I felt that way. You know, I was like, "Oh, no. People understand the difference." They don't. I can promise you that. Um, so just be very careful with that. And it's really important because your role as a board member, things can escalate their way up to the board table. And if you've been involved in it, you will have to recuse yourself
and remove yourself from doing the job that you're here to do, which doesn't make much sense if you get too into the weeds of the details or any of that kind of stuff. That being said, anything you hear, I highly recommend you pick up the phone and you call your superintendent or send a text or carefully worded email
just to let your superintendent know what's going on. It goes to that no surprises situation. Um, and chances are she's very well aware of it, but just so that she knows what you know what's happening out in the community. Okay. Ethics complaints. I'm hoping you never have to do one and I'm hoping you never
have to get one. So, this will just quickly it goes over any person may file a complaint with the SEC alleging a violation of school ethics act. Um, it doesn't have to be somebody in the district. It could somebody outside the state. It could be a lot of things.
Okay? So, the reason you want to be careful is it it could also be somebody who wants your seat, right? It could be somebody who's looking to create an issue in the community. Um, and it doesn't appear that you have those issues here, but it can happen at any time. So, it's just something to be
aware of your behavior and what you're doing looking through another lens. Um, and then this goes into you have to do it in 180day window and stuff like that. Okay. So, what are the penalties or the sanctions? The SEC recommends the uh
penalties and sanctions to the commissioner and these are your options. It's a reprimand, which is basically just a slap on the wrist. Um, a censure is a formal disapproval by the commissioner, and that is something that actually gets adopted by your board in public session. Um, so it's a made very
public. Suspension is you're barred from engaging in any activity matter for a designated period of time. And then finally, it could go as far if it's egregious enough to be a removal. Um, if you're not sure, if you are doing something and you're not or or planning
on doing something, um, make sure if you seek advice of your board attorney that you're giving your board attorney all the details. All details. Even if you think they're not important, it's it could make a difference in what you're re what's recommended of you, right? So,
if you're getting advice of counsel, the key here is that you follow that advice. Don't ask for counsel and then choose to do something different and expect to be defended or in a good place should it come down the pike to have an ethics complaint. So that's the key. If you ask
for the advice, you should take the advice. That's the only way that your board attorney will be able to defend you. Um let's see. So here here's an example. Um a board member told the public, uh no, I don't want to do that one. Hold on.
A board member sent an email about attending a CPAG meeting as a member of CPAG using her board member email. In doing so, it creates a justifiable impression that objectivity or independence has been impaired. Um, and again, you can go to this and you can
read all the details on this. Does everybody know what CPAG is? Okay, it's I'm going to probably say it wrong. Um, special education parent advisory. Okay, group. So, um it is a
group that um that's usually involved with the schools, right? Usually each school has one and it's kind of parentun, but the school steps in and helps a lot. And you know, it's supposed like the goal of it is to have it parent run, meaning what they're looking for for support and the school kind of
brings in speakers or different um options to help them. And it's supposed to be like a support group kind of situation and an educational group. So you have a board member who was involved on both ends, right? They were on a committee that was involved with uh special education and those kind of
things as well as heavily involved on a personal level in the CPAC group. And sometimes it's it's very important when a board president is assigning the committees that they take these things into consideration. And it can go either
way, right? Logically, you would think this person knows a lot about this. They're passionate about it. They'd be a great fit for the committee. Unfortunately, sometimes that's not a smart move because it gets difficult for them to separate, right, their passion
and their interest from the two things. So, when you're acting as a parent and an advocate, it's one thing. When you're acting as a board member, you can easily get that thing muddied up. And that's what happened here. Now, the reason that the conflict was found and supported was
because it was the board member sent out an email to the group accidentally from her board email. But without know, you know, without knowing this individual, my bet would be there was probably a lot more involved than this that got to this point that somebody had to find a way to
create calling this out. Um, so again, you want to be really careful if you're passionate about something. maybe the committee for that is not the right thing. I'll give another example, finance committee. If you happen to be a CPA and and or um an investment, a
finance person, a lot of people would think it's the perfect fit to be on the finance committee. Sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't depending on the individual. But the key thing is you also have to know as a board member, am I going to know too much? Am I going to go down
into the weeds into going into running the district and getting involved too deeply because I know too much personally? So, you want to be careful that you don't, I guess, get too deeply into something that you're overly passionate about.
Yes. Great. And another option that you have is through New Jersey School Board Association. We have attorney of the day. So we have an attorney. Um we have two attorneys and actually one worked for the SEC. Um, so my point is they're
not going to also give you a legal advice. You're going to want to go to your board attorney for that, but you may want to jump off and start out there, um, and reach out to them. And you can always reach out to me and I can give you those contact informations. Um, but yeah, it's it's especially important if you're worried about having a
conflict or if you're not sure. Um, because as we go through this, especially with family members with negotiations and all that kind of stuff, you definitely want clarification. If you're not sure, air on the side of being cautious. Um, this one, this one's a really egregious
one. So, I'm going to give you this example. A 15 plus year board member took approp inappropriate action that was beyond the role of the board member. The action of the board member usurped the authority of the superintendent who was responsible for making disciplinary recommendations. The board member took
it upon themselves to go to the employees home, pick up a letter, present it on behalf of the employee, direct the BA to not give a copy of the letter to the superintendent, and then instead of recusing herself from the matter in which she had a personal interest and personal involvement, the board member advocated on behalf of the
employee and questioned the superintendent recommendation of an employee. Okay. So, what that played out to be, the board member was friends with the staff member um and the staff member was going to be um there was going to be
a discussion during executive session and the staff member did not want to come and didn't want to make it public. So what the staff member did was write up their side of the situation as a defense, gave it to the board member who
actually went to the house and picked it up, brought it in to the district, have the BA make a copy of it, handed it out to all other board members, not giving any heads up at all to the superintendent. Superintendent knew none of this. Then the exe executive session starts on this item and she has he or
she I don't know has no idea that this letter is out there and then that board member continues not not to recuse themsel but to sit there and defend that individual right so that is so crossing the line everybody gets that right that is definitely an an example
of egregious um behavior so that ended up in a suspension of 60 days So, uh, real quick, we'll go over recusal versus abstension. Um, recusal means that you're going to remove yourself from the vote or the discussion
because you legally cannot be involved or you have because you may have a conflict or you may have an interest or something along those lines. Okay? In that case, you would recuse yourself. If you just are choosing not to vote on something, you would abstain. Those are the differences. What I will tell you is
if you abstain from something and you should have recused, it's not a big deal. The big thing here is that you make sure that you do not vote on something that you may be conflicted on. Okay? I get questions, um, what if my child is in the band and we're voting on
band uniforms? Should I recuse myself or abstain? And the answer is, if your child is getting a uniform just like every other child in the band, you do not you can vote. That is fine. Your child is not getting anything different. If your child's the only one getting a new uniform, that would be a different
situation. and hopefully that's not happening. Um, but so just take those things into consideration. Also, what I will um caution you about if your if your child um is uh has an IEP or any kind of things
along those line and they may be in either the billing or you know that you're approving or within an agenda item, you have to be careful because it's difficult to identify them because they
are identified right with a code. So, just make sure that you have conversations with your administration and that you're given a heads up if you need to recuse yourself from something along those lines. Okay.
So, relationship definitions. Um, you'll see right here there's a link. Um, and this goes through all the different ways that a relative can create a conflict. Um, I'm not going to go into it because again, it's so convoluted. It's crazy. It's a very long list. If you're not
sure, request your board attorney to give you um a recommendation on whether or not you would be conflicted in in certain situations. Okay. Again, that's another one of those things on the p on the disclosure forms that you fill out, right? Is do you have any family members
in the district? That's why uh not just in the district, sorry, that even may work for the association. There's a ton of questions on that when you do your disclosure statement. I think I listed everybody I know. I don't even they was even related to half of them. Um and again it's just easier to er on the side
of putting it down. So advisory opinions are different than um ethics complaints. Advisory opinions are the opportunity for a board member to get the SEC to weigh in in whether something they're going to do is a conflict or a problem.
Okay? And you have that opportunity to do that. There's a couple of uh restrictions. First of all, um it has to be a future conduct. It can't be something you did already and say, "Well, should I have done this?" That's not the same thing. They will not um give you an opinion on that. Um and the
other thing is you should um they require that you check and see if anybody else has asked the same question. And I'll show you some examples and you'll see how easy it is to find that out. Um, and it is usually has to be related to you or a member, a
a board member within your district. You can't ask random questions about um hypothetical situations about people that aren't within this. And the reason for that's obviously to keep it under control. Um, the goal is to avoid you from doing something you shouldn't do,
not to try to catch somebody else that was doing something they shouldn't have done, but you don't want to go through the ethics complaint process. Um, the other thing is you need six votes from the SEC to make the opinion public. So what was happening that was why I mentioned earlier only having six
board members, SEC members was a problem to get these opinions out because all of them had to be there in order to do that. So that's why it's good that they're starting to fill that board up a little bit more. Um, so the same thing goes if you get an advisory opinion, you go to the you go through the process of
asking for an advisory opinion and you get one, you have to listen to it. you don't get to say, "Well, I didn't like that answer, so I'm going to go ahead and take my chances." Um, these are examples of advisory opinions, and you could see they're much they're very straightforward forward. Um, you can
click on all of these, and you'll be able to see the examples. Um, and if you Google it is on the Department of Education. That's where all of these are. And they, this is the ones that you're seeing here are from 2025, but they go back further, etc. When you read these, be careful that
you're reading all the details because your details might be slightly different and if your details are slightly different, it may be a different opinion. So, make sure that everything aligns and anything that's pertinent is aligning with what you're reading in the questions. Um, and they're really easy to basically Google and and find.
Um, they're very straightforward. Can a can a board member advocate for their child? Uh, does a board member who supported the local union have a conflict related to negotiations? very easy to to um find the answers to that. So the ethics regulation definition of a
benefit is a direct or indirect advantage, profit, privilege or gain whether personal, financial or otherwise. And again remember this is the perception of the public not what your intent was. And it's really important to understand it doesn't have to be a monetary um benefit. It could
just be the impression um that there's a quid proquo or something along those lines. Um, this one's a good one. A board member spoke during the board meeting about how he was running for general assembly. He was using his position on the board to solicit support and or votes for his
personal political campaign. He used the schools to acquire a personal benefit. And the recommendation was a reprimand. So basically during new business he said, "Hey, by the way, you're all here." Because he had a full house. Um, just so you know, you guys love what the job I do here. I'm now running for
general assembly. So please get out there and vote for me for that. I mean, obviously, it's not appropriate to use your board seat to do. Um, this is a list of prohibited acts. Um, and if you're in these situations, you would recuse yourself. Um, if there
is a benefit to you as a school official or your immediate family due to business interest or professional activity and conflict. Um, so if you have an interest in a business that's coming before the board, um, I I can't think of one right now, but
uh, for example, you're you own a restaurant or you own a, you know, a pizzeria and the board is trying to decide if they're going to go through the process of approving certain vendors to, right, provide food to the school, you would need to recuse yourself from there. What that means is you're
recusing yourself for the conflict. Um, and you're not involved in the discussion, not just the vote. Don't be involved in the discussion. Don't be in the room for the discussion. Um, gifts, favors, all those kind of things. So, you can go through this list. Um, it's not a conflict if you're not acrewing a
greater gain than any others. That goes to the example that I gave you with the band uniforms. Um, okay. Again, you can read through all these cases. I'm gonna give you this one because it's a good example. A board member was promoting his nonprofit to the parents
in his community as well to staff and teachers. The determinative factor is the public's perception. Oh, I'm sorry. I read the Yeah. So, the the example here, and this is um a fairly local district that this happened at. I believe it was the board president was involved in a nonprofit organization
that did tutoring um for for students right that were struggling and um had economic issues etc. It was a free tutoring volunteer program. The board president brought it to the superintendent. The superintendent thought it was a great idea. They came
together. This organization comes into the district starts offering free tu free tutoring to the students. Turns out a complaint is lodged against that individual and the reason for it was he used his position as a board member to
get the other organization involved in the district. Now, this is the perfect example, right? As a board member, by the way, there was no financial gain here. He was a volunteer in both organizations. There was no benefit from that perspective. The benefit was that
he used his role to help connect and that organization into the district. Um, if you read it, it's a very long decision. It goes back and forth. You can tell that they had a hard time trying to um to find this individual guilty of a
conflict. Um, because the the purpose by that individual was truly on the up and up. Um, but if you switch out the details a little bit, obviously it becomes a problem because you're it's almost deal, right? The reality is, I'm assuming had the board president simply
stepped out of it and said, "Hey, to the superintendent, I know this great organization. In case you want to reach out, I need to step away from it, but this organization exists." Maybe that would have helped. That case is so important just so that you understand again, it's the perception of the public, not just your
intention. Okay, I'm going to skip through these cases. Hiring personnel. If a relative already works in the district, when you become a board member, that relative is fine, right? You may be or
you will be um in conflict when it comes to anybody that is above the level of that family member, right? So, if it's a teacher, then the principal, superintendent, etc. you would need to recuse yourself from any discussion or
involvement involving those individuals including um the CSA evaluation, hiring um a superintendent, renewing the contract, etc. You would need to recuse yourself from that. And once you are on the board, you cannot have family hired
into the district or relatives. One little note on that one, too, because sometimes this also gets confusing because you think, okay, obviously if they're a teacher, that's pretty clear. Um, there was a district that was a new board member got onto the board. They were in just about to start
a superintendent search and that new board member wasn't able to partake in it because they their spouse was a um coach for one of the sports. I think it was even an assistant coach and they've
received a small stipen through the district and therefore they had a relative that was um employed by the district. The board argued it went in for to get an opinion because in their mind it's such a minimal stipen. Why would this
have an impact? Unfortunately, I would say it's most likely because you kind of draw a line somewhere and you can't say well if you make this much money you would have an impact or that much money etc. It's just a straight rule. So, that's one that's really removed that you might not think of. That's why I bring it up as an example. Um, we talked about committee
assignments. I mentioned that before. Just be careful that you don't put yourself in a position or if you are assigning committee members that you don't um get somebody that's going to get into the weeds in that role. This goes over collective bargaining and
it's a chart, but again, we can we'll go through it real quick. Uh, relationship to a board member. If an immediate family member or relative works in the district, um, yes, they do. Current member of a statewide public teachers union, no, they're not. Uh, do can you participate in negotiations? No, you
cannot. And can you vote to ratify the contract? No, you cannot. The reason for that is even um nonUN um roles within a district tend to uh have their increases based on the decision from the um union uh contract.
That's why. But the key here is if you're not sure, get that um recommendation from your board attorney as to whether or not you're conflicted. Campaigns and collective bargaining. So board members who receive union endorsements may be conflicted from collective bargaining if negotiations
begin with the year of the election. This is one of those that's a very gray area. um endorsement of a candidate by a local and or national statewide union doesn't create a per se future conflict unless a financial contribution is given with the intent to influence. So if the question is you ran for the board, you
were endorsed by the teachers association, the questions, can you be on the um negotiations committee? The answer is maybe. Right? All the circumstances have to be looked at. Did you get a financial um uh donation to do
mailings, etc.? Um how much did they endorse them? Did they just say, "Yeah, we endorse them one time and never heard anything else about it." Did they send out a mailing campaign? All these things come into play. So, it's not a black and white. And I do think one of the reasons for this is for
it is also a political move. Sometimes there has been examples of associations endorsing candidates who they really don't want to be on the board, but they know they're going to win and they do that to keep them off the negotiations committees if they endorse them. And and
that board member may not even accept the endorsement or want the endorsement, but that's also and that's why it's a gray area and it's not just black and white because it could be outside factors in there. Volunteering in the school. Um, the key here
is if you're volunteering in the school, you need to be really careful in what your role is. So, there's three things that I'm going to recommend that you avoid. Don't handle money in a volunteer role. Do not oversee any staff members and do not oversee any students
in your role. Any questions on that? Because that usually No. Okay. So, um I I had somebody ask me u obviously board members tend to also be super volunteers. That's how you get into
this. And um especially on a uh elementary level, the school's always needing volunteers. So, if you are going to be volunteering, just be careful when you come into the district that you're not having conversations with the staff and saying, "Oh, what do you think about that math curriculum we just passed?"
Those are the kind of things that you want to avoid because what I can promise you is when you come into the district all teachers know that you're a board member and usually after you step into the school within five minutes the entire school knows that you're there. And even if you are somebody who gets
along very well with the staff, there's still going to be some that will have a level of discomfort and fear that you may be in there evaluating them. So you want to always keep that in the back of your mind to make sure that you're not making the staff uncomfortable. Okay. Also, if you're coming in the
district to volunteer, come in to read a book, you're coming in to help with um the Christmas uh shop that they do or any of those things, just make sure that your superintendent is aware that you'll be coming in the district. It helps her know who's coming and going and then if
she gets a call, she understands. She she's able to manage it. Um, as we mentioned, um, we're going to stay on point with the purpose of the visit. I will also tell
you I've had questions about advocating for your child. So, as a board member, um, above all else, your child comes first. So if you need to advocate for your child in any way, you put the board
hat aside and you make sure that the individuals that you will be speaking to are fully aware that you are there as a parent and as a parent only. But do not hesitate to advocate for your child because you're worried about creating a problem uh with your board role because that should be first and foremost.
Just do it carefully. Um, social media when a board member, okay, social media, if you're going to use it, just be careful. Okay. Um, we're going to get into the next slide. Gives you a waiver to use.
You're entitled to your opinion in social media. And if you use the waiver and you make clear that your opinion is not based on your role as a board member, just be careful if it's a topic that the that you've been discussing in the board. The waiver does not it's not a get out of jail free card. You can't
put the waiver in and then just go completely off the rails um with something that's happening in your district, etc. because it doesn't work that way. You can't use the waiver in that in that way. And the other thing I want to recommend is if you're involved in the mom's the Facebook mom groups,
which every every town has it. Um and you're seeing conversation go on, don't get involved in it. Don't you will never win a debate on social media. It is not worth putting yourself out there. And when you see, hey, do you think we're not gonna have school tomorrow because it's gonna snow and you know that they're going to have school, don't do
it. They'll find out soon enough. Somebody will jump on there and give the right answer. Somebody will jump on there and give the wrong answer, too. But let that play out, don't step in there and take that role. If you see something brewing in in your town, just keep in mind that just because the
loudest voices aren't necessarily the pulse of your community, but also make sure you know you let your superintendent know what's going on if something's brewing. So once again, she can be prepared. This is the waiver. Again, it'll be in the presentation that I sent to you um
that you could put on your uh post if you are posting something. I these are examples. I I won't go through those. And these are just a few other tidbits. Um when you are at the board table and if you have your phone out,
just be aware you shouldn't be scrolling on your phone. I have watched that multiple boards. Um, don't scroll on your tablet, on your phone, etc. when you're in a meeting because somebody here might be um scrolling through designs and somebody over there might be
doing something else, sending a text, and to the public it would appear that you may be having a side conversation. Those are things you want to avoid because then you'll end up with somebody opening your text and that goes down a road that you just don't want to go down. And it's also just not a good
look. if you need your phone. And I'll be the first one to tell you my kids. I had one that wasn't even in kindergarten when I was on the board. And so they're home with babysitters and I had my phone out. If I was getting a call, I was going to take that call. Take the phone or a text. Take the phone. Excuse yourself. It should be important enough
to do that. Leave the room, deal with it, and come back. Um this way you do not give the perception to the public that something else is happening. Okay? Um, and I'll tell you even now if I had it, my daughter's in college and I would still take, you know, be worried about that goal if it was emergency.
Um, and that's it. These are more resources that you can go through and again I will send this to you with the links. So any questions? Nothing. All right. Thank you. And just I want to also just say thank you very much for everything you do
because I know you probably don't hear that very often as board members. I know how hard it is. I know how much time it takes and we greatly appreciate the work you do. All right, good evening everyone. Um, our supervisor of curriculum, Kim Dalling, is here with us tonight and she
is going to kick us off with our uh board goals. We have the academic goals, um, social and emotional wellness goals, operational goals, technology goals, and just to kind of remind all of you, um, I've said this before, so this time of
year is actually a a process that I really enjoy. I meet with um, all of our departments. I meet with um, principles, the administrators a lot with Miss Dalling. And what we do is we really talk about what's been helping, what's
been working, what's not working um for our current goals, what do we want to do more of. We Kim and I look at data a lot to see what do we want to keep on there from year to year, what might we change? And so, um, it's just a really good it's good conversation that we have together,
um, as a district and we we really just keep thinking about how we're going to move forward and continue to make the progress that we want to make. So, I really do enjoy these conversations and these meetings. Um, tonight you're going to see too, I mean, Miss Darling always does wonderful presentations. So, tonight you're going to see one of the
things that um she's adding to the academic goals is really to take she's going to like take a kind of back on a memory walk here about some things and places that we've started because one thing I want everyone to realize
about the goals is they are not okay intention. There should not be shiny objects where they're like sound like these wonderful goals that are really just fluff. Sometimes our goals seem very similar to the year before and it
might be a minor tweak, but it's a very impactful tweak. And so that's what we want you to kind of focus on tonight and um take away from from this evening. Um it's not to make a lot of shiny bells and whistles for you guys. It's real
work that that gets done. So, with that, I will leave it to Kim to kick us off and thank you so much for being here tonight. >> Thank you. I can't believe that it is May and we're here talking about next school year, but I am excited. And we are going to start with student learning
and achievement. As Mrs. Signari was just saying I'm going to talk a little bit about our first goal with data and take us down memory lane to show you where we started and where we are today and where we're moving forward for next year. So our first goal is really going
to talk about cultivating a collaborative and reflective learning community that leverages our assessments. This is something that we have been talking about throughout the last few years with NJSLA or park and then it was NJSLA. Next year it'll be NJSLIa
um and really synthesizing that data with our link data with um information with formative assessments in the classroom and building those structures to give time to teachers during faculty meetings and during times with me and our consultants to really tear apart
that data and do what's best for kids and have those DDI periods where you can um be intentional and have targeted um targeted instruction and data driven learning. in all of our classrooms. So what does that look like? A few years
back when we started, we started with basic assessments. We were looking at formative assessments. We were looking at tests and quizzes in our classrooms and we were taking apart what our kids understood and what they were having trouble with. And that's what we were using to differentiate instruction in
the classroom, which was a great start. But then we had these lovely evidence reports that were given to us with NJSLA where we were able to see the standards that our students were doing really well with and the standards that we were kind of on par with the state or below the
state, which is what we looked at. And then after looking at those standards, that's where we would have our goals written for the following school year. and we would say this is where we we should focus on because we're always happy to celebrate areas that we do well but there's always areas that we can do
better with and this was our starting point using these evidence reports and then after a couple of years of looking at them we started to identify trends. What that means is we were looking at standards that we had trouble with over
two years, over three years, meaning that our kids were either on par with the state or below the state. Then we would look at curriculum, say, okay, where do we teach this? How do we teach this? How much time do we spend on this? What materials do we use? And we have
really good discussions with the people who are in the classrooms and saying, oh, well, I need more of this or I need less of this or I need more time here. And this is where we take our curriculum from and we say we need to move this up. We need to have more time on this unit, less time on this unit. We need to
purchase this. And that's when we start for the following year. So after we identify trends, income link, who as you all know is I love link it. Linket um I have love tearing apart the data. It gives us really really good
information. We have benchmarks three times a year. But besides the benchmarks, we also are able to prog progress monitor. So after we identify these trends, then we also look at linkit because I think you've heard me say in the past, NJSLA is one assessment. I give this a lot of
information, but it's still only one assessment. And if you really want to get a good picture of a child, you don't just use one assessment. You can't. So then we were looking at linkit data in conjunction with our data from NJSLA and
saying okay this standard we missed on NJSLA how are students doing on link it is it the same is it not the same and if it was the same that was an area that we were focusing on for the following school year and we were starting there that was our starting point for the
following school year with linkit another great thing that linkit does here too is you can see this is an example of how the students did, the school did, and the district did. It also, if you clicked on um the red on the bottom, it would give you a list of students as well. So that the teachers
could easily um differentiate in the classroom. And with all of this, we had some really good success. If you'll notice, this is um a slide from our district assessment report, my favorite night and yours, um for the year. This is a slide that we
presented out in October. We're very proud of of how our students are exceeding and progressing. 35% of our students were exceeding in grade four ELA. 49% in grade 6 ELA. An increase of
37% in math at HDR since 2021. These are huge numbers that don't just happen overnight, but it happens from looking at data and tearing it apart and looking at what is black and what is white. data really has very few gray areas and
that's how we can um show progress and grow with our students. But just like this, we have areas to celebrate. We tear apart the data. There's areas that we need to focus on for next year. And after looking at this, we said one of the areas that we were going to look at
was grade three ELA. So this year, this is how we moved forward from looking at from synthesizing NJSLA and link it and how are we going to use it. So each teacher received on the top, it would say their name and their grade level and all of the standards for the for ELA for
their grade level. And what we did was is we met and we looked at form A to form B. And we looked at the standards that our students decreased on in Lincoln from form A to form B. And again this work is happening from B to C but
this is just an example for you can that you can see and those skills. And then we said okay where were our students last year or the year before? What areas were they were we consistently struggling with? And that was highlighted in yellow. And from here we
looked at the questions. What types of questions is it being asked? What types of questions do we have in our curriculum? What types of resources do we have in our curriculum for all of these standards? What are you doing in the classroom? How often how long are you spending on this in the classroom?
And having good conversations to help our students. So, this is where we landed this year with this goal. And then next year, we're going to level up. And this is what it's going to look like
as an example for next year. Just going to stand over here. So, next year, this is exactly what our uh teachers saw this year when I was just showing you this and then this. Everybody got one of these. We had good conversations. We talked about it. And
then we built instructional strategies. But next year, we're going to talk about goals based upon um link it from the year before, based upon um how teachers did with NJSLA. A this might look a little bit different to be very honest with you next year because I don't know
when we're going to get the scores. Um they're telling late fall, maybe even early winter uh for next year. So our district assessment report might have to hold off till a little later. I know you're all devastated, but it will happen. I promise. But this is what we're looking for for next year when it
talk when it comes to data building goals and instructional action plans with each one of our teachers based upon their individual data for their students. We're going to identify priority areas which you saw um up the standards that this individual teacher
an example of a teacher might have had trouble with some actions some tiered supports and then those students that are in those tiers really looking to see where was the benchmark score after you retaught it. What was the progress monitoring score? And then we also
incorporated dibbles this year as our early literacy screener. This is for grade three. So we um those students do um take Dibbles as well. They take it in K through three. So they would have a benchmark score and also a Dibbles progress monitoring score because that's something that we're incorporating next
year as well is progress monitoring for Dibbles. This year we just did the benchmarks three times a year for that. So the teachers are going to easily be able to see what has worked, what's not working, and then if we have to go back to the drawing board. So this would be
for priority area one. Priority area two is vocabulary development and the standards for that and so on. So we're going to be building structures with the teachers for this after each assessment. So they have nice data right here. It's
easy to see. You can see growth. And you'll see at the bottom that we're going to include coaching cycle structures based upon this data. So, our coaches that we're going to have next year, um, Meredith Alvo and Shelley Klein are going to be working with our staff members based upon those standards
and based upon those skills. So, data analysis and planning will take place in September and October where we're going to look at linkit, look at NJSLA if we have it, probably not. Um, and Dibbles. Then the plan is to co-plan for November and December, get in those classrooms
for January to March, and then really reflect um and refine what we're going to be doing for the next school year. Um but I can't think that far ahead right now uh for the next school year in in April and June. So this is the plan of what it's going that what that goal is
going to actually look like in real time in our classrooms with our teachers. Just so you have a little bit of a better idea of that. Okay. Okay. Goal two is uh teaching and learning. We are going to continue to
implement a cohesive and engaging curriculum that of course will align to NJSLS. We do have um some content areas that are up for a revision cycle for next year. So we'll be uh writing computer science and design thinking, science, visual and performing arts and world
language across all grade levels. So, we will be busy in my office again next year. Just as always, we'll be providing targeted professional development to our staff. Okay. Okay. Okay. All right. I'll take health and
wellness. But before I do, um I did just want to say thanks again to to Mrs. darling where she talked about the leveling up on that first academic goal. It's really a a a huge shift. Um you
know, you talk we talk a lot about individualizing for the students and now she really took this structure and is individualizing for the teachers as well. So now not only are we really personalized instruction for kids, we're personalized coaching. And you've heard
us talk about moving from a PD model to a coaching model the last couple of years. And so this year in particular was a coaching model, but now next year it's like individualized coaching models based on their kids individualized instruction. So it sounds like a lot,
but it's it's really an incredible thing that um Kim should probably package and it's it's really great. So, I'm very excited to see how this um you know, how this gets implemented next year. I think it's a really really great next step
that she created for the support for our teachers and our kids. So, >> definitely. I was going to say we were going to do a lot more coaching this year. We ended up doing a little bit more PD because the state threw a wrench at us and said, "Hey, we're changing your test." So, >> we have to we have to also flow with any
of the punches the state gives us. So, >> yes. Yes. >> Um so, health and wellness. Um every year we we focus on this goal. Um some of these are enhancements and some of these so you'll kind of see that one of the the first goals I mean really it's always obviously to prioritize a culture
of care and and connection across the district and have supporting learning environments. And one of the things that we've done was the the child study team, they worked with a group of students a couple years ago to implement something
called unstuck and on target. And that program was really aimed at the elementary school to help some students with sort of like executive functioning type skills, organization, things like that. And then last year we it was going
so well that we wanted to kind of expand this outside of the child study team. And so the child study team members worked in collaboration with the guidance counselors. And then that went really well. So next year the guidance counselors are going to be doing cycles
of this in fifth grade um mostly in fifth grade because that's the grade that we realize needs that support before they transition to the middle school. So we're hoping that that goal next year is going to really target that population of students and help them so
that they can hit the ground running at Hulrum. So we're excited for that goal to take off. The next uh one was vision boards. So we do vision boards with sets of students at Halddrum and we were doing it with all all grades and then we
really found that it was most impactful for the sixth graders. So kind of the same thing. They get there. They're new. What is their vision? What do they want to set for themselves? So we're going to kind of enhance those vision boards, saturate the sixth grade class with it. and then we are going to do it with the
other grade levels but more on a um choice that they that those student if those students choose to do so. So that's how we're kind of reshaping the vision boards that we've been implementing the last couple of years. And the third one is great. You you all know we do have a partnership with
Westber and Mental Health and we have a full-time uh clinician Sam who is on staff from Westber and but we feel like he's part of our staff. He's here with us every day. He has been doing a lot for the social emotional goal, but one of the things that we're going to start
utilizing him more. Every year we try to utilize um his expertise to sort of help with this goal. And there was a recent law that was passed that all schools have to have a threat assessment committee. Um and that is to help
identify students that may be in crisis and may act on that on on that crisis. and you want to be proactive and be able to kind of see that and get those students the help they need. So, I talked to Sam during this process and he
is going to be a member of our threat assessment teams. He's also going to be more involved with our INRS because sometimes the INRS process can be academic, it can be behavioral, and often social and emotional wellness goes along with both of those things. So to
have an expert like that sit on those cases to help guide us on the best um supports that we can give that student, that'll be another area. So um he's been a wonderful addition to our schools and I just think it's going to be even more beneficial as he continues to expand his
role with us. Um so that's our our main health and wellness um that we're going to focus on as far as our board goals for next year. Thank you, Kim. And then we have operations. Um, I can't read that from
here, Kelly. Or do you want to thank you? Okay. Um, let me stand over here. No, I think there's only one slide. Uh, operational goals. So
very excited. Um this is to maintain a safe and healthy environment and develop and implement an annual budget to continue to support educational and operational initiatives while providing financial uh fiscal accountability to the community.
Oh, hold it closer. You hear me now? Okay. So, I'm not going to repeat that. You can all read it. Uh, this is my personal goal each year is to bring the finance committee a draft budget by the
first finance committee, which will be January 4th of 2027. This gives everybody a chance to look at the budget, see where we are, and make some decisions um that are responsible for the community.
In that vein, for the 2627 school year, we had made the decision to purchase a district van, which will help to offset the
transporting of some of our indisted students. Right now, we're going to start small. The law came into effect in July of 2025 that you can purchase a it's a driver and eight passenger van. You do not have
to have a CDL license to operate that as long as you're a district employee. And then there's a list of criteria in terms of your driver's license has to be run every so often. And so we're going to use that van to help to offset some of
the costs of transportation. As you are aware, region 2 has been disbanded. So on this particular agenda, you will see later on this evening that we have written RFPs for related
services that are region 2 had been arranging and organizing for us. We have now done that. So we are awarding to uh related services, therapists and consultants. We're going to continue sharing
services. Anyone who's willing to share, we share with. We look, we seek, we find, and we want to make sure that we get the best prices for our district and also services. Reason being I say that is we have a a an agreement with the
township that if one of our vehicles has broken down and their mechanics are available, we work with them. We also work with Ultan. Just an example of where we share those types of services. And then onboarding. Um this is a goal
that has been actually a couple years in the making. Our platform is switching from our finance from um one to the other. And we're finally in the process where payroll we are fully implementing in the new platform. Accounts payable
we're fully implemented in the new platform. We're all going to be totally on the new platform once July 1st comes. So, we're at that final stage and thanks to Mr. Ogara for his help and assistance with my department. Um, we appreciate
that. And now for technology. Do you want to come up and do it? Come on. Take take credit. >> Well, thank thank you very much. So, yes, technology goals for uh next year.
We have uh our first goal is two grade levels of new student devices. So every year we do a refresh um cycle uh two grade levels get new devices. They carry those devices for a few years as we go. They have insurance, they have um coverage and it's it takes quite a bit
of time to get those devices ready. Um and then we have to recycle the old devices. So that's quite a bit of a process through the mostly through the summer months. Um this year coming up we have a migration of our Genesis platform. So, Genesis is our student information system and we are going to
be saving a little bit of money. So, that's always a good thing uh by moving Genesis to a platform that's hosted in their environment which also increases our security profile because that's just less trouble for us here that we have to kind of protect and allows Genesis to um
and Genesis protects many districts. So, uh by moving that platform over to Genesis, it just provides us with cost savings and some extra security. So that's a a big project for us this summer. Um we will also speaking of security we
will be researching and implementing new uh content filtering systems and cyber security platform. So as you guys can imagine cyber security is something that we deal with pretty much on a regular basis. Um I say it all the time. It's the only thing that keeps me up at night as we see uh you know pretty large
companies getting compromised. Uh schools are no different. We have to protect ourselves. So we are looking at new uh content and cyber security platforms uh for this coming year. And on that same conversation we're always
looking to uh improve district security and cyber security practices. Um is a little bit different part of the conversation that first goal is more about platforms and things uh you know basically products that we can use to help protect and then there are some other things processes behind the scenes for our technology that we have to
implement. Um, if you're all familiar with 2FA or MFA, you log onto your bank and you get something on your phone, you know, to kind of, you know, prove who you are. We're instituting more of that in the district. Um, as as we go, every system that we have will basically have some kind of 2FA or MFA, anything with
sensitive information. Um, and we're we'll improve our data backups because it's so important to have good data backups. if there were ever a compromise or a problem with uh with security, making sure all of our data is backed up is obviously very important. So those
are are the technology goals for the coming year. Thanks. All right. Thank you. Thank you very much everyone. Okay, for this uh part of the evening, are there any is there any old business,
new business? I have a motion to adjourn this part of the evening and then we'll take a little bit of a recess. >> Motion to adjourn the retreat. >> Second. Thank you.