Can I get a motion to come out of executive session? Motion. All in favor? Uh, please stand for the pledge. Can I get a motion to approve the minutes? Motion. All in favor?
President's report. I'm going to read uh Mr. Thberg's uh president report. Good evening everyone and welcome to our June 2025 meeting of the Rollinsville Board of Education. I'd like to extend a warm welcome to all of our guests joining us tonight. Whether you're here
in person or tuning in from home, thank you for being part of our school community and for your continued support throughout the year. As we wrap up another incredible school year, I want to take a moment to reflect on the many celebrations that marked this exciting time. Earlier this month, we proudly
watched our youngest learners at Sharon Elementary School take stage for their moving up ceremony. Their energy, enthusiasm, and sense of accomplishment were truly heartwarming and reminded us all of a time us all of the joy that comes with learning and growing. We also recently celebrated our eighth grade students at Pond Middle Road Middle
School as they marked their transition to high school with a special graduation ceremony. Their hard work, resilience, and growth over the past few years have been remarkable, and we look forward to all they will accomplish at Robinsville High School. And of course, we just held our Ramsville High School graduation. Momentous occasion filled with pride,
memories, and anticipation for the future. Congratulations to the class of 2025. Your achievements, leadership, and spirit have left a lasting impact on our schools, and we can't wait to see where your next chapter takes you. On behalf of the entire board, I want to thank our dedicated educators, staff, administrators, and families for making
the school year a success. Your commitment to our students is at the heart of everything we do, and we look forward to the summer months. As we look forward to the summer months, I want to wish everyone a fun, restful, and safe summer break. Whether you're traveling, relaxing at home, or taking on new adventures, we hope this time brings you
joy and rejuvenation. Thank you again for joining us tonight and have a wonderful summer as Dr. Lorie Burns, director of early education. It's really been an incredible year. It's been a large undertaking to start 14 classrooms. Uh that's larger than
most programs typically start with. It's essentially like a small elementary school, but we really did a great job and that's really due to the from our board of education district leadership team and our building leadership Mr. Gau and Dr.
O. program in the state of New Jersey and that is primarily due to our preschool what we call our core team we have this our preschool instructional coach and intervention and referral specialist don't be shy
we have a lot of acronyms so pers is for preschool instructional coach and referral specialist. And then we have Missina who is also one of our pickers based over at Sharon Elementary School. We have Miss who is our community and parent involvement specialist CPI. And
then we have Miss Try who's not here tonight, but she is our district registrative assistant for preschool. And then we have nurse Butler who is our school nurse. So, we have a lot of information to share with you, but we also have our friends in the hallway that are very excited to do a little presentation for
you. They are going to do a mighty minute and mighty minutes are a short way to get children's attention back. Um, it looks like a lot of fun and it is a lot of fun, but it's very intentional teaching. So, once our children do their performance, then we are going to go over a data breakdown from the entire
year. So, we have students from Miss Crawley's class. Very excited. So, hopefully they're not shy. Now, we have students from Jones's class. And we have students from Mal's class. So, welcome everyone.
Very nice job everyone. Thank you so much. We are going to dive into the curriculum in a little bit. So we'll talk a little bit more about the mighty minutes. But before we do that, I do want to talk about enrollment information. So we started this school year with 161 regular education
students, 10 inclusion students, so students that are in the PA school classrooms. Ended with 176 regular education, 10 IEP students in inclusion. And then going into next year, we already have 204 students who are
regular education. So those will be for the 18 classrooms that we will have for next year. Five students for inclusion spots. And we do have current 31 spots open. Uh but our 18 classrooms are operational. So what we're looking at is
about about one spot one to two spots per classroom. Being that we're only at the end of June, I I do think that we will fill. So if you're interested in enrolling your student for your child for preschool, I would recommend that you do that very soon. 92 of our students have rolled over. So there are
threeyear-old students who are becoming our fouryear-old students. They have all stayed with us for our program and 88 of our students who were four year olds this year are moving into kindergarten. So that's more than 85% of our kindergarten uh rosters are already with
our preschool program. And when we do preschool registration, there is an inerson component that is required. So as they're finishing up their registration, they do have to come in with um the community member has to come in with their child and they get to meet the district registrant and all of our
which is excellent because parents, you get to meet us and then any paperwork or anything else that needs to be finalized, you can do that right there. Any questions that you have, we can answer those questions right there. So, next up, we have Missurriculum
that we are doing our fidelity. It is based on the really learning through that going to We really promote exploration discovery. We have specialies that the children
engage in each month that really interest component you just saw ago are very focused their ability to follow directions
we also progress. Social emotics English. They also group everything and we use TSG. 24% expects
to goals. Another one. So again really tough. So what can we do? So we're talking about those are we had
numbers meeting really bring those instructions. 98% of three and four year olds are meeting as well. However,
obviously the goals that they have as a three-year-old are not our support where our children are so that everyone at home can hear us. So uh we everything in preschool is intentional. So we utilize eers which is another acronym for early childhood
environment rating scale and that means everything that's within the learning environment has to be a certain way and it is all researchbased. We go by the saying that the classroom the physical classroom is the child's first teacher. So even the furniture, the materials
that are used, the labels that are made, the way that the classroom is set up, and then adding in that teacher's instruction is all formally assessed through Ears. When we are in our third year as a program, we will be formally assessed by the state for eers and get a
a formal score and that will indicate how we are implementing our program and is it to fidelity and how well are we doing. The highest score that you can get is a five. We strive for five. And I do think that we are are already as a program beyond that trajectory. But Miss
Ne is very much an Echer's uh guru and uh Miss Patina as well. So she would like to speak to that move around a lot. So I'm sorry. Um so as Dr. Burns said, Eker's early childhood environment rating sale uh scale it is the process quality. So
exactly what our children are experiencing as they're in our classrooms. There are 35 areas that get scored in our Echer's observations. This is a threehour snippet of a day where we are going in and keying in on a yes or
no scoring system for our scale. So this is the subscales. The 35 areas that we score are broken down into six subscales. You have your average space and furnishing, average personal care, average language and literacy, average learning ex activities, interactions,
program structure, and then the overall pro program. And you can see that except for average personal care, we're above fours, reaching up to the fives. And the five is considered good for an echor rating. Our areas of strength were the
indoor spaces and furnishings with a 5.7 encouraging children's use of books which was a 5.5 and individualized teaching and learning which is a 5.4. So again I had mentioned earlier curriculum really encourages that we scaffold to our children's abilities. That's
individualized teaching. Encouraging children's use of books in some cases especially in like some classrooms that may not um have been exposed to implementing reading materials to it to early childhood. You might have a bit of books out and it's like all right guys
uh we're gonna do small group in a little bit so I want you to read your books. That's actually a negative way to use books. When you're forcing children to read a book, then you're not using it in a positive way. It's almost like a punishment. So, it's really important that when we're encouraging the use of
books, it's because they're choosing it and we're showing interest in the fact that they're choosing it. And we getting a 5.5 in that our children are being positively reinforced with literature and listening to stories and showing their own interest in those books instead of it being a forced activity.
So, we're very lucky that our teachers understand that difference between forced reading and choosing and enjoying reading. Um, and then our indoor space and furnishings, our playgrounds, um, are an a gross motor activity that we are also scoring high with those beautiful playgrounds. But our indoor
space and furnishings is making sure that we have interest areas, that they're engaged in, that they're safe, that there's no hazards, that everything's appropriate. Now, areas that we are looking to improve are meals and snacks, which was a 2.5. What that keyed in on, and we've actually seen
progress in this area since um since halfway through the school year, was an indicator, is offering supplemental food to children who come in with things that are not healthy. So, if it is a morning snack time and they come in with Doritos
and fruit punch that's full of sugar, we need to be able to supplement that with something healthy. Not force it, but give them the option to choose if they want something different like 100% no sugar added applesauce or having just 100% fruit juice. So, we actually talked
as a team about that and how to address that moving forward. That was the big one for that meals and snacks is that supplemental component, math materials and activities. So, we said how math has been one of those areas in multiple grades throughout the tri-state area that is hard to get. That's that's a
tough area to get all the materials in, to get all of the math talk in. We are continuing to support that. In one of our PDs that we had, we had wonderful teachers who presented on math on daily activities and how to wrap that in to
Yes. Yes. There we go. High fives. I love it. Um, and how to wrap in that math talk into the littlest thing that they're doing. How can you enhance it? How can you add that math talk? Uh, we also have looked through all of the materials in our classrooms to enhance them next year to support those math
activities that they have access to during their choice and intentional play. And that aligns also with understanding written numbers. Hence how one of our mighty minutes today they started practicing that writing in the air bringing in those different activities to help support these areas
so that we can continue to grow as a program. Oh I went the wrong way. Sorry. So along with Ears we have another layer another tool. Um it is the teaching pyramid observation tool that we as PERS
conduct with our teachers and this is for our teachers to implement best practices for social emotional skills daily into their practices. Um, these are the key practices that we work on. Schedules, routines. Um, providing
directions, appropriate, short, quick directions. Teaching behavior expectations every day, teaching students what they should look like and positively phrase, uh, walking feet, quiet hands, quiet bodies, teaching
friendship skills, problem solving. Um, we are lucky enough that we are really adding an extra layer of that SEAL part into our day daily because we know when students get to kindergarten and first grade, they are doing activities within
groups. We want to teach these, you know, those foundational skills, the problem solving, the turn taking, the working together as a team. So, as they get older, they're more independent with that. Um, you can see all of our classrooms, we're lucky to have calm down corners. So, can take a break when
they need it. When there's self-regulation, they're having difficulties, they can take a break. We do something called super friends to promote positive friendships between peers um problem solving steps. So when we look at
when we look at our data from this year, we really really did great in our schedules, routines and activities. We really focused on this because this is our every single day. We really focused on making sure our teachers knew that um activities should be no longer than 20
minutes, that there should be more child-led activities, that students should have exposure to a schedule and know what is expected. They could run the classroom on their own at this point. Um we also are really really proud of our collaborative teaming
between our IAS and our teachers. You know, we're really great. They worked very hard uh to put those two together. But it shows in our classrooms that they are both engaging in positive ways with children. Both adults in the classroom
seem as teachers and it really makes a difference for the children to feel comfortable and navigate every single day. Some areas of improvement are really teaching those friendship skills. So we see great play all day. We want our teachers to take it to that next level. We want them to acknowledge it.
We want them to praise them. We want more team um activities throughout the day, whether that's in small group or large group. And also teaching those problem solving steps. We want students to know what the steps look like independently and praising them as a
whole group daily when they are, you know, problem solving on their own so that as they get older, they're able to do it on their own. One more slide. from us and then we promise we'll move on. So another component of our program is having a
preschool intervention and referral team. So this is when we are brought in to support children that are showing some challenges whether it's in transitions, it's in activities, maybe it's curriculum based, maybe it's developmentally based. So we get pulled in to to be able to consult as a team.
This team includes the PICS, the PERS, our CPIs, our nurse, it includes parents. It includes sometimes consults with uh CST and our therapists pending the needs of our students. So, out of
163 PEA general ed students, we ended up having 34 students brought to our team. Uh in terms of a take a look or we have an early screening inventory we do that can sometimes be three different scores. There's an okay, a rescreen, and a
refer. When it's a rescreen, it's like, "Hey, there might be something they need a little extra help on." So, they pull in Kayla or myself. So, we had 34 students come to us from both sites combined as like, "Hey, can you come help out? We might need some supports." Out of those 34, only 20 of them ended
up becoming an actual per team student who we implemented supports either at home or in the classroom. Out of that 20, we had six of them dismissed by the end of the school year by May, which is meaning that they were able to take those strategies that we put in place
and succeed on their own and we were able to back off and they were still succeeding because of the growth that they showed. And then two of our students were referred to CST. So these are incredible numbers for a program as large as we were for a first year program. To be able to support so many
students and see that we were able to even dismiss six of them was absolutely fantastic. Um, good evening everyone. Um, just to reiterate, I'm Courtney Sean. I'm the community and parent involvement specialist and I have had uh the pleasure all school year of working with
some of you and then um meeting some of the members of the Robinsville community because it's kind of the glue that brings our whole program together. Um so I just wanted to start off by uh sharing with you just the um different uh members of the community that are that have been a part of our program. Um we
were heavily involved uh with the Robinsville Police Department uh starting off the beginning of the year with um car seat inspections, right? Because we were noticing that during um it's especially at ponds where most of our students are picked up and dropped off that uh parents were having some
challenges with their car seats. Some students were not properly strapped in or not being strapped in at all. So we kind of looked at that need and said, "Hey, immediately this is an area that we need to address." So, we formed a partnership um with the police department and then um during parent
teacher conferences in the fall, we had uh car seat safety inspections and uh it went really well. Parents expressed an interest and then parents that were not able to make it were able to make an appointment with the police department on their own time uh to do the corrections that needed to be made. We
also had the K9 unit uh come to visit us. Uh very active. He's a very active dog. Um but the the children loved him and he did all of the tricks and it was amazing. Um we have two awesome SRO's. Um Officer Greenwood at Pond who uh
replaced Officer Bole and then um Officer Shane at Sharon. Uh they're celebrities in their own right. All the children love them. Um I'm a little jealous if I if I'm going to be honest with you. They have such a great bond. But they came into the classroom and they just kind of introduced themselves
and to make the children feel safe. um so that they knew that when they saw them throughout the building, it wasn't anything that they needed to fear, but to know that they are there to protect all of us throughout our school day. Um they also uh read stories with the students um about what what their job
entails and then a lot of them walked away with it saying they want to be like Officer Greenwood or they want to be like Officer Shane, which was amazing. Uh the fire department came during fire prevention week and so they got to um take a tour of the fire truck which was great. Uh we partnered with the public
library at the Robbinsville branch and we did um a parent academy which are ho they're hosted once a month. So in December we did literacy at the library and we presented different um strategies um for improving literacy skills at a preschool level. What's appropriate,
what's not. Uh during um dental health month, uh Robinsville pediatric dentistry came to visit our classrooms and just went over uh dental hygiene, proper brushing. They even received a tool kit to take home with toothbrushes, toothpaste, and an instructional
pamphlet. See if I can get this. Yes, there's more because we did a lot. Um, the public works department came during our recycling unit and the students got to tour the truck and have dialogue about what items are things
that can be recycled, what are things that are not. Uh, Amazing Athletes is a local um, sports program run um by Mr. Sha. Uh, he actually came during uh, Robinsville Night Off and we were able to partner with him to make sure that there was a preschool-based activity for
Robinsville Night Off this year which was amazing. Um, and then we opened we had him open up um, recreational activities specifically for preschool students because we were told by families that there was an interest there and there wasn't a lot in the community in terms of sporting events
for children that age. So, I was able to partner with him and kind of get that ball rolling. Uh, we partnered with all of our students at Pawn in various ways. Uh, Pond TV did a lot of recording of our events like our fashion show that we
had. We've also had readers from both Pond and Sharon come down to the classrooms to read for students and do other activities. Um, and then every parent academy that's held, um, volunteers from the high school come to earn their community service hours. And
so they assist with child care, just, um, event organization and anything else that kind of comes up. They're kind of a one-stop shop. And they've they've been amazing. And it just kind of goes to show that our students all the way from preschool up to 12th grade are amazing in our district. And we should be proud
of them collectively. Um, we partnered with the Soore program. Um so our transition coordinator um Miss Didden uh worked in Mrs. Jones's class with um a student named Dulce and Mr. Learner and she um assisted with um
supporting the kids during uh getting ready for lunch, putting their CS out for rest time, and then just doing activities with them during small group. Uh partnered a lot with the PTA at both buildings, which was uh amazing. Uh both PTA presidents uh kind of jumped right
in. didn't know where we fit, but they were uh very welcoming and gracious and working with us to make sure that our students had what they need coming in. And then we also brought Sharon Shines, the community service project. We also brought that to Pond for preschool,
which was nice. Uh the Brownie Troop, we partnered with them. They actually donated books to our rising kindergarten students, and they have plans during um next school year to come and actually read to our students.
partnering with food service. Um, Mrs. Como from Food Service, the uh, manager, she and I have been working to discuss our lunch menu because we were noticing that we have some dietary restrictions in our community that needed to be addressed. So, she and I along with uh,
Mrs. Butler have been working to make some adjustments to our lunch menu and same thing with our our snacks that we were seeing with our score. Um and then she also um came out during and did some parent academy with u Mrs. Butler and myself on healthy eating habits. And
then she also during week of the young child provided healthy snacks for our students. Uh at every parent academy, Mercer County Board of Social Services um comes to offer support to any families that might be in need at that time. And it's something that is very
private so families can have those conversations and get the resources that they need without feeling a little embarrassed. Um which is also part of my role. They can reach out to me as well and I can provide them with support. Um one thing about our program is um it
somewhat created a hardship for our private providers in the area. Right. So um Dr. Mr. Burns and I have been working with the private providers to uh form a partnership so that they don't feel like we sort of kicked in the door and kick them out, but it's we can collectively um do our best for our students in
Robinsville. So, I have been sharing out summer camp information for those private providers. So, Chestnut Montasauri, um I go STEM Academy, Kitty Academy, and Malver School, we've all been working together to figure out ways to partner uh to best serve our students
in the community. And then next year, um, we hope to partner, we started the process, but we were unable to do so this year with, um, the senior center. Uh, I can't tell you the name of the program yet, but it's amazing. You guys are going to love it. So, we'll come back next year and tell you about that,
but you're going to love it. Um, so piggybacking off of that, um, our parentmies, like I said, are hosted monthly. And just throughout the year, we kind of played with the format and we ended with it being a hybrid format. So parents have the option to attend in
person or virtually based off of their um their schedule. And it's just a means of providing family with information and resources so that we can best support our students. And the topics were um gathered at the beginning of the school year. We did a a
family needs um survey. So I took the information that families said that they were interested in hearing more about and that's how we chose the topics. So this year's topics and they are subject to change because next year when we do the survey if other topics come up
then we'll focus on those as well. But we talked about the importance of play which was a preschool play date. So we met at our brand new playground at pond and families kind of got a little meet and greet and some of those children became acquainted. Some some families exchanged phone numbers and now they're going to be lifetime friends which is
amazing. Um October we talked about medical mindfulness which is when we talked about our healthy habits. So our healthy hygiene food habits. Um November was um developmental milestone screenings and referral services. Miss Ne did that. Uh December which was the
one I told you about at the library literacy at the library. January uh Mrs. Patina did age appropriate approaches to working with children with challenging behaviors. Uh Mrs. Butler again jumped in and did health and wellness. Uh March and April are super busy and we
understood that for families. So we kind of decided to take a little pause. And then in May we did transitioning to kindergarten for our students that are four years old moving into kindergarten. And families that are newly registered to the district were invited to attend that as well.
um looking at our attendance for each month. Um we played around with like so if you just noticed that obviously transitioning to preschool and the playd date was largely attended and then transitioning to kindergarten was largely attended. Um and that's because
families wanted to know a lot about what was to come. Uh I we believe that the attendance kind of was a little lower in the middle um because of schedules, right? Every parent has a million things to do um between sports, dance, just
trying to survive, right? Um so we were playing with the idea of changing the times, changing the formats so that we can better serve our families. And then sometimes families don't attend because that's not particularly a need in their
household. Um but we'll do more with that next year to kind of get our attendance up. In addition to parentmies, we have um ECAC meetings. So another acronym, right? EAC stands for early childhood advisory committee or
some people say council. Um I learned in my research that you're supposed to take the first letter of your district and throw it at the beginning of ECAC. So we are REACK, that's our name. Um, and so the purpose of recap, I gotta train my brain to say that, is to basically just
review the implementation of our preschool program and make sure that we are addressing um the needs of the program and make sure that our program is ultimately high quality and we're getting that five that Dr. Burns mentioned. And so, as you can see with ECAC, our
attendance uh went up. Uh there it's done four times a year and it went up each time and we had to change the location, the time and the format to try to get um uh it to be well attended and as you can see our changes were
successful. Uh we ultimately decided again on a hybrid format. Um and then we changed the time from the afternoon to the morning so that teachers would be able to attend. And the reason why we did that is because uh teachers in
preschool to grade three are um part of the ECAC. So we can't have a meeting that they can't go to, right? Because they're in class. Um, part of the ECAC is myself as a CPIS, our PIP pers, um, our nurses, um, parents and guardians,
school board members, right? And, um, other community stakeholders, which would be, um, just members of the local community, businesses, higher education, outreach programs, the private providers, faith-based organizations.
And so thinking about next year, uh this year for ECAC, it was we kind of just invited anyone um just because we were a new program and we wanted as much information in the community about our program as possible. But moving forward for next year, we will have subcommittees for ECAC so that it could
be more of a linear focus when we have our meetings. Um so the committees that we will have are um child care collaboration and again that's when we're working with the local private providers to see how we can um do that collaboration community engagement. So
I'll continue to work with uh local organizations culture and climate so that we are accurately representing the Robinsville community health and safety to ensure the health and safety of our students and staff. Needs assessment and partnering with the PTA.
um focusing also on special education and then our transition through early childhood, which again is preschool all the way up to third grade. Okay. So, I promise I only have two slides. Okay. Yeah. So, um I'm I'm Mrs. Butler and I'm one of the preschool
nurses. I always like to include Sharon because we work together. They have more preschool classes than than even though we have two different We really work as a team. I feel that with all of preschool. Um so just a quick um
snapshot, we did about 1,800 visits just for preschool. Um and you'll see it says 1100 entries were about absences. And you're probably like, why do you care about absences? School nurses always do because we want to make sure families aren't in need or they don't need supports or referrals, but um PA really
wants you to do specific follow-ups on everyone that has a three or five day consecutive absence. Our awesome tech department helped us get notifications so that every day that we had a three-day a student that was out three or five days in a row, we all got emails saying, "Hey, you know, this student's
been out." And so that was actually helpful for all of our schools from Sharon through the high school because now all of a sudden we've got notifications and when you have a thousand kids in school, you don't always know who's been out. Um, so that was really helpful. It was really helpful actually in the beginning of the year because we had a weird stint of
pneumonia um that was actually hitting our younger kids which isn't common in September and certainly not with um the type of pneumonia that was going on. So when we started watching these three and five day absences I was able we were all able to communicate with families and find out what are the symptoms maybe it's time to go back to the doctor and
sure enough we had a couple students that did have pneumonia. So that was really helpful. Um, also working with Courtney, um, if some of the consecutive absences were due to little ones that didn't want to go to school, which happens when you're three and four and all the way up through high school, um, it really helped to to bring Courtney
into the situation and go over routines and ways to get kids kind of in school more on time and coming to school more regularly. And it was fun because some of our little ones, um, I can think of one specifically that really didn't like school. And honestly, in the spring, she was so sick and she came to school and I
I was like, "Oh my gosh, what are you doing in school?" said, "I don't want to miss school anymore. I want to be I want to be in school." So, that obviously worked. Um we um in addition to um doing all those calls, we also met all the families face to face for registration. We did it all summer and then
additionally we did it in the spring and it was really nice to have face tof face communication with our families because you learn all the medical situations that are going on. We can plan for a safe and healthy um school year. And then this also um brings us to what educ
our staff needs in the classroom so that they can have a nice, safe, and healthy year. Oh, I forgot to show you my picture. I did try to help kiddos to um blow their nose adequately. So, I did go in to all the classes. Um they were very
productive. I think we'll have some good nose blowers um in the next school year. Um and I know the teachers loved it. Yeah, I did bring cleaning supplies. Um so, part of PA also is getting all of our screened by November 1st, which can
be something if you don't have the right screeners. So, we were so lucky to have these tools. The OE screener is for hearing and the spot vision is for vision. Obviously, um it wasn't just helpful for the little ones, it was helpful for all three schools, for our kids with special needs. We were able to
really screen them. Sometimes it can be really tricky. Um also, three-year-olds don't like um anyone in scrubs or a stethoscope. So, when we come to them trying to get a screening, they're pretty. We have to remind them that we're not going to give them a vaccination. We have no shots. Um, and
these screeners are really quick and efficient. So, we're able to get all the screenings done well in before November 1. Um, as Courtney discussed, um, I did a couple parentmies which were really nice and helpful, I think. Um, and the kindergarten readiness one I thought was
really great because, um, we did that at Sharon. So our families that aren't in Sharon were able to kind of check out the school and there was a lot of Q&A that went on which I thought was really important for our families. They're able to ask questions right there in person. I thought I thought that was a really good parent academy. Um with referrals
and supports, you know, some of these consecutive days out um we were able to find out that some of our families didn't have insurance. So Courtney and I would tag team that situation and and help our families with that. And we also had a lot of new families to the area. were able to get them some pediatricians that were local, get all those flu shots
in on time. Um, in addition, I did a lot of professional development with our staff. Um, as I said, with registration, learning all the different medical situations that were going on with our students, I was able to share, you know, seizure management in the classroom. Um, what asthma looks like when they're
little, um, you know, and disease prevention with the blowing of the noses. So, it felt like a really successful year and we're really looking forward to another year with our preschool. Thank you very much. So, believe it or not, that was the shortened version. Um,
because as you can see, everything that we do with preschool is researchbased, intentional, and we have data to speak to any point. Um, if you ever have any questions, you can certainly always contact my office. All of our contact information is on the preschool tab on the district website. Um we're always
happy to talk about early childhood education data or preschool. But I do want to thank the team for presenting tonight. Uh we often say we call ourselves the dream team because while preschool PA preschool is new in Robinsville, it's not new to us. So when
you add up the preschool core team, our years of experience, it's over 50 years in preschool pea experience. Um, and I also did tell my colleagues last week it was such a great year due to our teachers, instructional assistants, our principles, our preschool core team, but
also due to every leader of every department because it was a huge undertaking to have 14 classrooms and to do this so well. And it it had to be done well if we in making sure that every department leader was on board to support and and that's why we had such a
successful year. So, thank you to our parents, our guardians, board of education, administration, teachers, IAS, and preschool core team. Thank you. Thank you. Absolutely great job and I'm so looking forward to the next year and
all the great things that will be done then as well. It is truly a all-star team that we have uh working. is a dream team that we have working in this group. Thank you and thank you to our young students who uh participated. [Applause]
I I would like to ask uh Dr. Wnooki and Mr. McCree to join me at the microphone for a honor that we need to uh bestow upon one of our administrators. As we know, we have a great district and
a great district. It means obviously that we have great teachers, but we also have great administrators who support the work of our teachers. We we have an administrator who's dedicated several years of his career uh to working with our district. And he's uh moving on
going on to his next adventure and um his next success. And I think it's so important that we recognize the work of the people who are supporting the great things that that we're doing and and will continue to do for our students. Just want to uh read this this plaque uh
in grateful recognition of Matthew Delesio, athletic director uh with sincere appreciation for your outstanding dedication and unwavering commitment to our student athletes and student programs. If you could please come up uh started this ride January 22 and uh
it's been lifech changing um it's made me mature as an adult as an administrator obviously was my first position um so to achieve everything that we got to achieve together for the kids and just to see their successes and
how much they've done this time and how welcoming the kids have been the and everything that the board does for athletics in this district. Um I couldn't have asked for a better start to my career. Um leaving is always bittersweet. Uh you know uh I'm going to
miss everything but the drive up here uh as it took me an hour and 45 minutes my last day here uh to get home. Um but thank you. I'll forever hold this this district in my heart and from you guys for from afar and just all around the
support that was shown to me from the day I walked in the door. Uh if I didn't get a chance to thank even though he's not here, Brian Betts, uh he was a huge instrument in in that support. Uh the guys up here with me right right now um
did nothing but show me how to do it and how to do it well. Um and just always instill in me as long as you're doing what's right for the kids, you're going to be fine. And I kind of lived every day here that way and I will continue to do that forward.
So, thank you for instilling that me. Uh, and just so you know, Matt was announced as the CBC athletic director of the year this year. And a giant trophy sits in our case that you could see on the way out. That's like the the Stanley Cup. So, congratulations.
I'm going to uh to share my report and then we're going to turn over uh to Mr. Nash who's going to do uh uh a presentation for us and and do some uh some some professional development. Um,
first, uh, let me, uh, once again congratulate our recent graduates and our students who are moving up to the next level of their education. Uh, thank you for our inspiring prek presentation. Great job, Dr. Burns, her team, and all of our administrators who helped
establish this program. But most of all, thank you to our young students. It's great to see our students come out at Made by Night. Um, okay. And as I mentioned tonight, we're looking forward to the wisdom and guidance of Mr. David Nash, who will share his presentation and discussion
later this meeting. I want to talk about um some things uh uh reductions in budgets um have real practical consequences. We we lost many great educators and at this point this is a topic that I know is out there so I
wanted to address it. We will not be offering the theater class virtual enterprise and are struggling to accommodate our drama and improv clubs. Uh while we do still uh plan on holding those clubs, it's it's been a struggle
and um we are diligently working to uh be able to preserve those. Um these changes though were required um for our revenues to match our expenses. We we're not happy about these reductions either. uh and we'll continue to advocate for new alternatives driven by uh matching
sources of revenue. What does remain is our commitment to have consistent and proper hiring protocols to identify the best possible educator for any position available. Our students deserve nothing less than the best candidate. Uh but our outlook
absent a cost correction is troubling. We can get to a better tomorrow, but only by working together. Please give us an opportunity to share possible pathways forward with solid sustainable plans to get there. This can be achieved. If you believe we need to add
a position or a program, advocate for that initiative. We agree that changes are needed uh but additions need to be uh funded to be enacted. We can offer a plan based on community's goals, but all initiatives need funding to start and also a sustainable funding source to uh
to preserve them going forward. We've uh begun scheduling public out public outreach events. Let's make these events a regular occurrence for us to hear the voices of every stakeholder in our community. We hear you and we are here to create a path forward for our
children together with your input. Moving forward, I plan on presenting updates on the crematorium issue each month, even if the update is no status change. This month, I can only report that the change in legislation has stalled as has not been moved forward by
the Senate leader. Our local political leaders should all be commended for their work getting us to this point, but getting this legislation heard is a statewide issue. Regardless of your position on this legislation, the leader of the legislative process controls the
agenda and our communities uh must ensure our voices are heard. In closing, never forget how great a district we can be and what we can achieve together. Thank you and have a great evening and a great summer. And now, without further
ado, I would like to introduce Mr. David Nash, director of legal education and national outreach. Um, the floor is yours, sir. Thank you very much. And, uh, thank you for having me. I do have to say that it is a tough act to follow
those incredible students, um, and your entire team. Uh just seeing the amazing work that you are doing um is really it's just so heartening. U so thank you for having me. Um I happy to have a chance to talk with all of you about
some of the um important roles and responsibilities that you all have as members of the board of education and um understanding the confidentiality provisions that are so important under state and federal law. Uh that we all to
make sure that we are adhering uh to so um the presentation that I'm going through um all of you have access to and we're happy for this to be made available and uh for the entire community um as I am presenting of
course I'm talking about many important legal topics um I am touching on some case law that we should be aware of uh some key legal considerations um I hope we have some questions and convers As we do that, um I do have to point out that
uh during the presentation I'm not giving legal advice. I'm giving you information. Uh you have a wonderful board attorney um that can give the legal advice piece, but very happy to walk through uh some key information for all of you.
The presentation is also available and we have a QR code for anyone who would like to have access to it. So uh this is what I'm going to talk about. Uh I'll talk about uh the confidentiality uh responsibilities of our members of the board of education. Uh the code of
ethics and a few key provisions in there um that relate to confidentiality and some case law some things that we can learn uh from others who um have looked at that issue and perhaps sometimes not adhered to ethical responsibilities when
it comes to confidentiality. Um, I'll talk about specific protections for student information, specific protections for staff member information, um, understanding uh, the open public records act, open public meetings act, um, and of course some
emerging issues with technology um, as we are um, trying to grapple with confidentiality. So, uh, it seems like an eternity ago. Um I was once in your shoes as a school board member and um I appreciate how
daunting that responsibility is. Um and there are so many um huge aspects to that role. Obviously developing policy for uh the school district um developing and approving the budget for the school district, approving personnel. Um those
are all critical issues. Um those are really out there uh very much in the public eye for everyone to see as we are approving those personnel, approving the budget, approving policy, other aspects of what you do um at various stages in
the process are not as available for the public to see. So discipline issues when we're talking about uh student behavior issues and student discipline issues. Um, I do recall when I was a board member how awkward it would feel when a
parent would um challenge a decision that was made regarding student discipline and the board of education now had a role in that process uh looking at that challenge. Uh it's so important of course that as you're looking at those challenges and
gathering some very sensitive information and hearing some very sensitive information that uh we maintain the confidentiality of that information. And it's not easy. Of course, as a schoolboard member, you're a member of the community. U you know so many people um and having the community
understand the need for uh the maintaining of confidentiality is crucial. Uh same is true for staff issues that could happen. Um if you're dealing with staff behavior issues and having discussions perhaps about potential disciplinary uh action involving staff members, um there are
very strong laws protecting confidentiality there as well. Um so I know your role as board members require you to act on difficult issues on sensitive issues and often to have access to to very sensitive information.
Um I mentioned some of the key laws that um I'll touch on. Um in addition to the code of ethics and open public meetings and records act, furpa, the family educational rights and privacy act really is a huge part of governing student information. HIPPA could uh does
govern medical information for students and staff members uh that you may have access to for various reasons. Uh we have specific requirements around what are called race notices. If we are dealing with an issue that requires a
discussion about a particular staff member that um would happen in closed session and making sure that staff members are aware if those discussions are taking place. um doesn't happen often, but if there is a tenure um
hearing and the board is struggling and looking at the issue of whether or not to certify tenure charges, that information is really taking place in close session as well. Um and you know, another example would be our anti-bullying bill of rights. Um when
parents may have uh questions about a decision that was reached uh during an HIV investigation and that hearing talk about that issue and discuss whether or not the issue did involve bullying. Um, of course takes place in closed session
and has lots of sensitive information. So, um, as you're dealing with all these issues where there is exposure to sensitive information, there's a few anchors that we always want to keep in mind. Uh, the code of ethics for schoolboard members obviously is a huge anchor, uh, a huge guidepost that we,
uh, need to make sure that everyone in the community understands. so they understand uh the parameters that you're working within. One big piece that I think um is very important is to remind everyone that the authority of the board
of education rests with the entire board of education. And we of course have some very narrow emergency situations where a board president and superintendent may need to in narrow circumstances um confer and there may be some emergency um steps
that have to be taken if we don't have time for a board meeting but that is incredibly rare. Uh generally we're talking about the entire board having authority and having authority when it comes together at a appropriately uh advertised meeting as a board. Um board
members uh really are charged with focusing on policym, planning, appraisal, um making sure that schools are wellrun and it can feel like a fine line between making sure they're wellrun and wanting to run those schools. Um the
instinct can be there to say let's just do this this way right now. Um and it's understandable. So the code of ethics makes clear that authority rests with the full board, not with individual board members. And u it's very important that the community understand that we
really can't ask board members to make personal promises or take private action. Um it does require the board as a whole. So I wanted to pull out one specific provision from the code of ethics um that is I think you know very important. Uh every board member pledges
I will hold confidential all matters pertaining to the schools which if disclosed would needlessly injure individuals and that's a pretty broad concept thinking about the things that could needlessly injure individuals. In all
other matters uh as a board member I'll provide accurate information and in concert with my fellow board members interpret to the staff the aspirations of the community. So, a huge part of the role of a board member is getting that feedback from the community, hearing u what's working well, what could be
improved, um and communicating that uh to the superintendent and in the school district. So, what are some examples of um information that if it were disclosed could needlessly injure and potentially violate the code of ethics? Uh if
specific details of allegations against particular staff members or students uh were disclosed. Um that would clearly be an example of something that could needlessly injure individuals and it could um compromise
um your action as a board as far as investigating, reaching conclusions, determining what action to take. Um the actual discipline against students and in most cases um discipline against staff members is not
public information. Um, ultimately tenure charges would be public information. Um, increment withholding would be public information. Other actions which would be the vast majority of progressive supervision would not be public information. Um, if sensitive
health information about students or staff members were to be shared, if information about substance use uh were to be shared, if other private data um school districts uh do have access to some very personal information um about
particular staff members were to be released. And there's all sorts of potentially embarrassing information uh that could uh be something that you become aware of as board members in, you know, dealing with staff or student behavior or discipline issues or health
issues. So, you know, those are just some examples of things that could cross that line into needlessly injuring and violating the school ethics act. Um it's important, I think, to learn from some cases that are out there. So, here's one
example of a school ethics case. There is a statewide school ethics commission um that really oversees whether there are any potential violations of the school ethics act that board members have to follow. Uh that commission looked at this case where a teacher
alleged that a board member violated multiple sections of the school ethics act um when he sent an email to a parent. So, think about how easy it would be to want to do that to show that you're being responsive to a parent who's raising a concern. A board member
sent an email to a parent commenting on a teacher's conduct while that conduct was being investigated. Uh that is an understandable instinct, but that clearly crosses lines and
violates the school ethics act and could undermine and compromise the ability of the board to deal with what could be legitimate issues involving that staff member. So uh this was an example where the school ethics commission did find that the board member by just sending
that email and expressing their opinion about this particular teacher crossed that line and violated the ethics. Um, sometimes folks will say, "Well, what if I just send an email and I say that I'm not sending it as a board member. I'm
just sending it as a community member." It's really impossible for you to lose that board member hat when you are a member of the board of education. You're wearing it. You're wearing it 247. Um, and saying that you are now commenting
on this issue, but not as a board member. school ethics commission has said that really is not sufficient. Now, that can be sufficient in other areas. You know, uh if you're a member of the board of education, you're allowed to have political opinions and to express
your views and to be on social media. Um you know, for years when I was doing school law trainings, I would suggest that people stay off social media, but I realized nobody was listening when I made that recommendation. Uh so there's nothing um wrong with being on social media and as you're expressing your
views it is it can be quite prudent for folks to say I'm expressing my views as an individual and to sort of clarify that we actually have some guidance even from the US Supreme Court saying that it um does help a board member's right when they're
expressing views on political issues to make clear that they're expressing personal views and not that of the school But that wouldn't be helpful in a case like this when you start talking about individuals. So this is an example of a board member acting beyond the scope of
his duties and potentially compromising the board of education. Um and the school ethics commission further said uh that you know by responding to that parent's email at a time when the issue was still pending and there wasn't a
final determination um really is violating the ethics act that says we only uh deal with issues um when there's a failure of an administrative solution. But the issue in this particular case
was still being investigated. there was no failure of an administrative solution. There was an issue that was still fed. So, um I'll give you another example of a case involving a board member. Uh this was a board member who was concerned that there had been a
prank um at the high school. The board member was concerned that, you know, a group of seniors um had taken a car and driven it around the high school track and thought that perhaps the district wasn't doing enough to to address that
very serious prank that took place. Um the incident uh was found uh to have been properly addressed uh by the principal and superintendent um when the commissioner looked at uh what occurred in this case. So you know
the issue was taken seriously was addressed including uh the district making sure that law enforcement was contacted that the board was properly advised of the matter nothing was hidden away. Um But you can see how messy this case became. The board member had a
spouse who was a teacher in the district um and was supervised by a non-tenured principal. Uh the board member and apparently board member spouse didn't like that non-tenured principal very much. and that board member did start
communicating with fellow board members through email uh talking about how perhaps this non-tenured principal was not a good fit for the school district. Um and even though there was no one meeting where you know a majority of the
board got together, you sort of had what we would call a rolling board meeting happening where indivi one individual board member would send an email to another who would send an email to another and a majority of the board collectively reached a decision that
this particular person shouldn't receive t. Uh that was a violation of several provisions of the school ethics actu. uh when that occurred um it violated the provision about board members carrying out the responsibility not to administer
the schools uh but to make sure they're wellrun. Um the case actually involved the board member conducting private meetings with the chief of police um sending those letters second guessing the principal and superintendent. Um it violated the provision that the board
member would recognize that authority rest with the full board and not make personal promises or take private action. And um the provision that says board members will support and protect. That's an important provision in the school ethics act that it's actually the
obligation of board members to not just be neutral but to support and protect school personnel in the proper performance of their duties. Um so the last thing we want to do is create um avenues to bypass the proper chain of
command. And certainly it's perfectly appropriate and natural for members of the community to bring concerns to board members and that's sort of the system that we have that's supposed to happen. Uh the idea really is to make sure those concerns
are directed back through the superintendent. Um and the district has the opportunity to address those issues. So it's not as if uh that shouldn't happen that community members approach board members. The key is how do we respond when that occurs? So of course
um a lot of student information could be information that you end up having access to um when you're dealing with student discipline, student behavior issues. And I'll walk through a couple of key things that you should understand and the community should about student
records. Um, New Jersey um really defines student records very broadly. And if you have a student record, the idea is that it is confidential. It is something that a parent can see. Appropriate school officials that need
the information can see um but others should not be able to see. So student record really is anything maintained by the school district educationally relevant about the student that a second person sees. Uh so you can think about how broad that
definition is of student records and the kinds of information that under federal law and New Jersey law uh we need to keep confidential that u there is an exception of course when you need the information as a board member for you to get it um in order for you to access
for example, on a on a bullying allegation. Uh but then there is the obligation to keep it confidential. The um student records law um applies not only to sort of traditional records, things like grades that a student might
have and transcripts. Um if you had two staff members that were communicating about a particular student, uh that would be creating a student record. So if those staff members are sending emails or text messages back and forth, even using their own personal
devices, they would be creating a student record. If two board members are talking about an individual student and discussing educationally relevant issues regarding that student, they are now creating a student record involving the student that a parent would have a right
to see. Uh so very important to sort of understand how quickly student records can be created. Um, Furpa is the federal law uh that largely um is mirrored in our state law that covers student
records. Um, and it does place a strong emphasis on any personally identifiable information not being shared with others. U there is some limited information like directory information uh that the public and military
recruiters and colleges and other folks can get access to if a parent allows it. and does not opt out of the sharing of that information. Um, but generally speaking, there is very strong protection for that information. Also, very strong protection for any medical
information uh that school officials may have. So, you know, usually when we're dealing with student records, we are dealing with things covered by FURPA, student records law, but sometimes you get information as school district directly from outside medical professionals. And now we have HIPPA
rules that also protect that information. Uh there's also very strong protection for information if a student is struggling with substance use issues and there's a separate federal law that deals with um heightened protection for
that information. So a student is struggling with substance use, they may be seeing a student assistance uh coordinator um working through those issues. Um and that information supposed to have a very high level of protection.
Now again, it's possible as you are dealing with potential student behavior or discipline issues uh that it may be relevant for you as a board member in close session to have access to some of this information. Uh but very important
to understand how much sensitivity there is and how we need to protect it. uh HIV in particular. If there is an appeal of an HIV decision that uh comes to you as a board of education and now you have to consider whether to uh accept, modify,
reject the decision um of the board regarding that HIV issue. If a parent does that appeal, you do get a copy as board members of the initial complaint and that includes all the allegations
against that child. Um it is supposed to be a redacted copy without personally identifiable information of that student. Um but let's face it um you know as a board member you live and work in the community and there is real potential that you might be aware who
that student is even without that personally identifiable information having been included. So critical to keep that confidential as well. Um, so again, nothing unusual about uh folks um coming to board members, asking for
help, asking questions. That's natural. If requests are made for access to student information, really critical to refer that uh back to the superintendent and not comment and reiterate the strong state and federal
laws that prevent sharing of that confidential information. Um, if there is information that's available to the parent or guardian under FURPA, it wouldn't be for a board member to disclose that. It would be for superintendent or a designate of the
district to disclose that information. Um, even innocent things, right? We sometimes I have seen um innocent mistakes made when it comes to images of students. Um so a group of students um
is recognized by the school district for some incredible thing that they have done perhaps some academic achievement that they have uh received um and board member uh wants to take a photograph uh with the students and put it on social
media and brag about how wonderful the school district is. All good intentions. Uh that would be another example of something that should work through district channels, district social media, and with the um assurance that individual parents gave permission for
the sharing of those images. And you might say, of course, every parent would, but we can't take that for granted. Um parents might not want that image of their child posted on social media. Uh so being careful of that is very important. Uh the open public
records act um governs so much of what school districts do and there is kind of this working assumption that um information from the district should be available for the public but we do have these uh very important exceptions
um regarding personal information. Uh so you know public records are could take various forms. uh oftentimes now it is electronic records that are maintained by the district. Um it can be things that are on personal
devices as I mentioned. So you want to be uh very aware that you could be creating public records and not even realize it. Um when it comes to the public's right to see those public records, I mentioned student records as
a big exception to that. Public uh public employee information is another big exception, you know, including things like sexual harassment um and discrimination allegations, grievances, uh for I think for obvious reasons, uh the public would not have a right to see
a board of education's strategy on collective bargaining. If the public sees it, the party that you're bargaining with would see it as well. Um there is an exception for what's called advisory, consultative, or deliberative material. So um there is
some ongoing discussion um among administrative staff in a district about some strategies for addressing a district challenge. Um that sort of uh discussion, debate, brainstorming is not something that the public necessarily
gets the right to see. They do have a right to see when the issue is presented to the board for action. Uh of course attorney client privilege. you uh may be in close session and um discussing sensitive legal matters with the board attorney.
Uh you want to be very careful about not sharing that information. When we um send emails, even um emails about laws and policies that we disagree with and we're sort of
venting and expressing our views, you could be creating a public record. So here's an example. Uh New Jersey had passed in 2019 uh legislation requiring uh the inclusion of instructional materials on the political, economic, and social contributions of persons with
disabilities um and um persons who are part of the LGBTQIA plus community. U some people didn't like uh that legislation that was passed. a Hackinack school board member sent an email uh to the acting superintendent at the time um
indicating that she was disgusted and appalled by this new law. Um and she thought the email was something that was private between her and the superintendent and she was just venting about this new law that she disagreed
with. Word got out, I'm not sure how, but word got out that that email existed. uh there was a formal request to see it under the open public records act and it had to be made public. It had to be provided. Um so the very quick um
sort of gut reaction that we might um share with the superintendent or other board members or other administrators in the district uh could potentially create that public record that the world will have a right to say. Um it's common for
members of the public again to request information that's not actually public information. We don't expect every citizen to be an expert on the open public records act on furpa on the open public meetings act and it's not necessary for each of you to be an expert on all of the nicities of those
laws but when in doubt refer the matter to the superintendent. I know that sounds like a broken record um but it's very important because once we do release information um in many ways the harm is done. We can't get it back uh once we've made that release and it's very difficult if
not impossible to remediate any harm that could be done. So the open public meetings act um is a very strong law. It's our sunshine law. the idea that uh generally speaking the information um that we are acting on is out there for
the public to see. Um there is an obligation to advertise our board meetings. Um, one of the issues that we do have to be careful of is u avoiding that rolling email that I mentioned in
one of the cases where you could be effectively creating a public meeting by board member Aing board member B who emails board member C and uh now eventually a majority of the board reaches some decision through that
email chain even if it's rolling and it's not everybody at once. Um, so you want to be careful about that. Um, if you are of course going to meet as a board of education, the public has a
right to know. Now, is it possible that a number of board members happen to gather at a um school function? Of course. Um, you you gather at a athletic event for the district, you're all
there. Uh the problem is if you start conducting school district business when you are all there together. Uh so you know the innocent um gathering of majority of the board uh for various functions that have nothing to do with
board member action is not itself a violation. Starting to discuss that board action creates a public meeting and creates an issue. And I recognize as I'm saying that that it sort of goes against human nature. You see, um for
fellow board members, it's very difficult to not uh begin discussing board business uh once you've done that. Um there are some topics uh that uh can and must be discussed in closed session. Um and you know there are good reasons
for sometimes barring the public from seeing specific information. Um and you know we give you some of the examples of that here. Of course personnel is a huge area. If there is something being discussed that could have uh could result in adverse employment action for
any school district employee. The employee has a right to rice notice. Uh that is something that needs to be discussed in close session unless the individual employee waves their right and requires that the matter be
discussed in open session. which could happen. Generally, it doesn't. Generally, u the employee does not want the issue to be discussed in public, but it could be. Um there are sometimes issues that can
occur where board members are together in close session. Let's say uh the board members in close session are discussing collective bargaining strategy, which is a perfectly acceptable reason to be in close session. um and a board member,
you know, raises another issue that could also very easily cross the line um and violate the rights of that staff member if that new issue involving that staff member is now discussed and the person wasn't given that notice in
advance. So being careful about that. Um, if there is going to be a close session, there is a requirement, of course, to have a board resolution to explain the reason for the close session. And it can't just be a general reference to all
of the possible reasons that you might have a close session meeting. So, you know, with that, um, I'm happy to answer questions that you might have about confidentiality, the role of the board, the various federal and state laws that could come into play. Um, I know how
challenging the role is of a board member and I know that by necessity you often are getting access to very sensitive information that you need in order to act questions at all. I hope this is helpful information. Um,
I know how um how difficult it can be to be a board member. I I remember the hours that I put in uh for the six years that I was on a school board. So, I appreciate how hard I'm sure everybody is working to to do this important work. So, thank you so much for having me.
Thank you very much. That was a very informative, important uh presentation. I greatly appreciate you coming out. No problem. Um board uh board secretary. Good evening. I have some announcements uh to update. So uh board meeting. So uh
same location as as as tonight for both July and August. Uh the HVAC system is being fixed at the the middle school. We have a lot of construction uh started at Sharon Elementary. They're ripping the ceilings out. Uh probably 75% of the
school right now. Uh taking the the HBAC units out. Uh we're fixing stuff that we're finding done from decades ago. So we're making it right uh for long-term impact for our students and our community. Um new domain has been
launched, robbinsville k12.gov. gov. So when I started here five years ago, we had three emails. We got it down to two. We are now down to one. Uh all the systems seem to be working. We're working some kinks out. Some are very easy. Uh but we're going through it
right now. Uh operating that and our new website is launching tomorrow. Same look and feel but different provider and we're adjusting a few things. Just to go back with our website domain is also security items. So the it's a.gov. It's not owned by an individual corporation.
People thought our old email was uh but it's now owned uh by us and through the government at no cost or very very minimal cost. Um subscription busing. So an update on that. This is for those families who uh do not have courtesy
busing are within around the two mile mark for for uh elementary and middle school and within two and a half mile mark for the middle school. I'm sorry for the high school. Uh we've mailed out those packets. uh both email communications and um uh which are
microtargeted to those families who were eligible to receive that. U as of uh this afternoon 12 people have signed up um and um have paid already actually for the deposit. Uh deadline is June 30th. So we'll make a decision at that point
uh going out to bid or see if we can handle some other alternatives for them. So that's where we stand right now. Any questions? Okay, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Crease. Uh, we'll move to committee reports. We'll start with ED policy. Uh, Miss
Leman, Nick, the um the people who have not responded, if they don't get back to you by June 30th, are you going to be reaching out to them just to confirm that they're not going to be part of the subscription busing plan? Uh, it depends. So, most likely not. Uh but if
we do have enough to go out to bid and we go out for a bid and there's open seats, then we'll give a second chance for people to have rolling applications to come in. If there's not enough to bid, which you know, we need around 30 people, 35 people to to make a proper
bid, um then we'll we'll make that decision at that point. So, in about a week, we're going to have a decision point to make and we'll announce that. Uh, I've been informing the board members uh, every week on the email systems of what's going on and we're doing. Um, and and thank you for bringing this topic back. I'd like to
thank my staff as well. I mean, Miss Arway, our transportation director, has researched other school districts, so our our policies were matching. Dr. Wnooki updated our policies. You have that approved for tonight. Uh, you know, Miss Delegrad has worked a great amount
uh, writing all the FAQs and the documents for it. Miss Korea uh this is in VA is making uh financial account numbers so we can track it for the future and what the costs are going to be and so forth. Um and so we can we can track all this information. So a lot of work has been put into this uh all
within in a few weeks. Uh I hope it's a true success. Um, but we're right now we're in the wait and see and getting the the applications in. And the deadline really is uh concerning because we have to go out to bid and it takes about a whole entire month to bid
because the county has to approve the routes. They have to give us permission. Then you go out to bid, you have to give it for 20 days, it comes back and board approval. So that takes about a whole month and then we're going to have to launch it immediately and send out bus passes. So working that timeline
backwards like it's a very very tight turnaround that we're doing. Um and if it doesn't work this year, we have a a a boilerplate for next year. We'll start it much earlier for the families. I'm just thinking I don't want to strand those 12 families. I think you said you
have 12 people who've already paid. Yes. So you're almost halfway there. Almost. Almost. So maybe just a little due diligence to follow up with the other half of the amount of people so that we don't leave those 12 people who really need this and
who needed it so much that they paid that now they are without transportation. We'll we'll send out another point. There's also a Facebook group and a family that we're working with that was also pushing through social media. So we're going to we'll send out another push um and we have that through our parents square system
to all those families because we have them in our database. Okay. Okay. Thanks. Now I'm ready. So, the ED policy committee met um June 10th and we discussed a number of dis um topics including an in-depth presentation on the process, policies,
and communications with families involving math placement at Pondro Middle School by Miss DeFazio and Mr. Fusco. The committee also discussed the second readings of policy um 1110, 3141, and policy and regulations for uh policy
8330. The committee also reviewed the first reading of policy and regulations 8611 involving subscription busing. Items to be acted upon at this board meeting include the approval of the second readings of policies 1110, 3141, and 8330 and a first reading of policy
8461. Our full report is included in the minutes for further details. Any questions or discussion? Thank you, Miss Leman. Uh, Mr. Ray, personnel. Thank you. On June 10th, the personnel committee met in the office of
superintendent. Board members Nadia Bandukta, Tanya Leman, and myself were joined by Dr. Arizo, Dr. Wiznooki, Nick McCree, and Lisa Tremor to discuss several topics related to personnel. Topics included the monthly personnel recommendations by the superintendent,
an update to the interview process for the athletic director position, second reading of policy 1110, a discussion about developing a job description for an events coordinator posting, an update on the county approval of administrator contracts, and
two employee issues. Items to be acted upon at this board meeting include the personnel recommendations by the superintendent outlined in the monthly personnel report, the approval of the athletic director, the approval of the administrator contracts, and a second
reading of policy 1110. Our full report is included in the minutes for further details. Thank you, Mr. Ray. Comments or discussion? All right. Uh, business. One sec. Mr. Wright, can you just um maybe give an update or Nick an update how that events
coordinator position would be funded? Yes, I can take that. So, we're still working on the the job description. It's evolving. Uh, but it would be funded 100% through facilities rentals. We're looking at a part-time position. When it gets posted, if you know anybody, please
have them apply. Um we are looking for somebody who not only can take care of all those facility rentals but also expand upon them and generate more revenue for us. We were just discussing with Aramark our food service vendor if they have any contacts. I would really love to do corporate events here. Uh we
have a massive beautiful facility our auditorium uh they can rent the classrooms out for micro meetings. Um, we do have a ropes course, a confidence course, and we can teach them those events and something fun and then our food service can take care of it. We actually had Aramark here, which is a
multi-billion dollar national company, and they loved the location. And so that's where we got the idea from and and and Miss Avery also had thought of the idea of of making this. So if we can get somebody who can push these corporate events, make a website for us and do all that, this position will
easily fully fund itself. Um, so it will be paid through 100% facilities rentals account, no cost to the taxpayer and generate that revenue that we could use within the school to fix things up that we would normally use money that would be should be going to the students
instead. So thank you. Any other comments? Okay, business. Uh, that's me. The business committee uh met on June 12th. Um our agenda uh focused on capital projects, end of the year budget activities and advancing key initiatives
across facility security and technology for facilities and maintenance. Uh the RHS interior door replacements remain on track for summer installation. LED lighting upgrades across all schools totaling $53,000 are scheduled for installation this summer. At Sharon
Elementary School, replacement of three water fountains and water fillers is scheduled for June 23rd. So, that should have happened by now. Uh, the preschool playground upgrades, including $98,000 shading, canopies, and new benches are advancing, and that
money was from uh the grant. Right, Mr. Chris? Uh, in the Robinsville High School Auditorium, $34,000 in lighting repairs and $110,000 in projector replacement will be completed this summer. The middle school playground repaving project budgeted at $42,000, is
set for summer repair to address safety and liability concerns. We also reviewed planned asset disposal of outdated vehicles and equipment for facilities funded by rentals. These are not no taxpayer funds. A $26,000 uh TVAV
upgrade in the middle school captorium has been approved and is scheduled for the summer. The high school auditorium carpeting was delayed um to allow for finishing up the lighting upgrades and the Wandor replacement is probably going to occur this fall. summer projects. The Wandor replacement
is budgeted at $438,800 with $38,800 covered by facility rental funds. Completion is anticipated for September 30th. The rod HVAC upgrades at the elementary school and middle school are moving forward with an August 27 target completion and a grant allocation
adjustment submitted to to the state. Additional summer projects include the high school stage curtains, security enhancements to the high school maintenance barn, the asset pit replacement and kitchen painting at the middle school, and various repainting and fencing adjustments districtwide.
Finance and budget. The year- end budget closeout is underway with a focus on finalizing priorities. The 2028 bond referendum feasibility study is progressing. They expect to conclude in August. a $30,000 rental charge to red for the 2425 school year. This will
greatly help our budget. Transportation, as Mr. McCree just discussed, uh plan action for a subscription busing grants and donation. The committee acknowledged a $1,961 donation from the host of parents to fund a health and occupational students of America advisor
security technology. The PA system integration with the phone system is now complete. The district is proceeding with panic button installations on 21 pilot phones beginning in on June 23rd. A point-to-point wireless bridge installation at the high school maintenance barn begins the same day,
supporting cameras and wireless access points. Additional camera memory storage has been ordered to support new security infrastructure. For technology, the IDF expansion near the gym at the high school will also be installed on the on the 23rd. So, I should be done
um with nine new security cameras. As Mr. Crease also mentioned that Robinsville k12.gov domain rollout was scheduled for yesterday with pilot accounts already in use. All 21 Prometheian boards at the high school have been installed and an order for 16 additional boards at the elementary school and middle school have been
placed for summer installation and the Google+ upgrade has been completed. Action items for board approval is approval of the HASA grant, approval of $300,000 from the maintenance reserve, and decision and approval for using up to 2 point uh 2.5 million from capital
reserves. Our next business uh committee meeting is scheduled for July 10th at 5:00 pm questions, comments, our community relations, Mr. Nman. Hey, good evening. Uh community relations committee met on June 12th um in
attendance by superintendent Dr. is here joined by the board members myself Nadia Bandukta and Miss Amanda Hangelo and Mr. Anthony Ray. Um the team shared updates on the schedule presentation and discussion with Dr. David Nash uh during the open session of the board meeting on
the June 24th chap today. The board responsibilities and the scope of authority will be evaluated clearly defining the roles of a district leaders and their obligations to a community served. Our prek will present at the at the next board meeting which happened today again coordinated by Dr. Burns, director of early childhood education.
Yes, our prek students will be involved in the presentation which was awesome. Allowed it. Other community issues discussed including crerematorium issue for which there is currently no update. Um as the last shared legislation to this issue has not yet been moved forward. Dr. Pizzer will be providing
updates which he did on this issue as part of the superintendent report each month moving forward. During all future executive sessions, a rolling PowerPoint of board of education meeting notifications will be played for the public on the main screen which I saw today which is good. The first of Robinsville school public outreach event
is scheduled for this June 26th. This is an event requested by a group of stakeholders in our community. District administration is happy to meet at their convenience con convenience to answer any questions. District administration will accommodate any and all groups and will do so at their convenience at a location of their choosing.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. N. Uh, questions, discussion. All right, I'll move on to public comment. Uh, time will be allocated for public comment at this meeting. Members of the public wishing to address the board of education on the agenda items must state their name, municipality, and
group, if any, they represent. Member of the public shall not be permitted to speak until he or she is recognized by the presiding officer in accordance with district policy 0167. Each comment shall be limited to three minutes. No participant may speak more than once. No dialogue between the speaker and the and
the board and or superintendent shall exceed the three minute time limit allotted. Live streaming of the meeting shall be for viewing only. The public will not have the ability to to participate in the public session comments unless they are physically present at the meeting. Although the board encourages public comment, the
presiding officer can interrupt, warn or terminate a participant's statement, question or inquiry when it's too lengthy and may also interrupt and warn a participant when a statement question or inquiry is abusive, obscene, or may be defamatory. Moreover, the presiding officer can request any person leave the meeting when the person has not observed
reasonable decorum. In adherence to the protocol established in New Jersey School Boards Association, the board will use public comment period as an opportunity to listen to residents concerns, but not debate issues or enter into a question and answer session. Issues raised by members of the public may require review and investigation and
may or may not be responded to by the board or superintendent during the meeting. All comments will be considered and a response will be forthcoming if and when appropriate. Can I get a motion to open public comment? I'm sorry, public uh for 20 minutes. Motion. Second. Second. All in
favor? I. All right. Public comment is open. Hi, my name is Taylor. Wait, am I good to go? Oh, sorry. Hi, my name is Taylor McCagn. Um, I am a co-head stage manager of the upcoming fall drama. Um, right
now I do not have a director of the fall drama nor a representative for the fall drama I mean for the drama club as well. Two board meetings ago it was stated that no clubs and extracurriculars would be affected by staffing changes. I say now that this has changed due to recent
circumstances, but my club and my show should not go under because my director and my representative for all of the drama club events and production stuff that we do was let go. The drama department is incredibly important to me and to numerous kids in
this school. It's unfair to leave us without a director and a drama club representative. On behalf of all of the kids in the drama department and the musical department and all the other departments that put together to make everything amazing for us, we need a director and a
representative for the drama club. I have worked for my position since I was in seventh grade and it would be incredibly unfortunate for me to all the progress and along with all of the other kids that have worked so hard for what they want in this school to
go to waste. Our production starts in mid August for boot camp from August 11th to August 22nd. We need a director as soon as possible. I hope a solution can be found to this issue and the fall drama and
drama club can continue. Thank you for your time. Hi Nushin Canani Provinceville. Um about the uh agenda I have about seven question that all all about the agenda. So if you don't mind me going through them. Um number one um there was a
beautiful representation with the kids and all that and the program that they showed for the um kindergarten. I mean and prek it was very fantastic. One question is what is our vaccination rules because did she did talk about you
know they coming down with the pneumonia and then you know other vaccination situations. So I want to know what is our vaccination rule for Robinsville because that's one of the questions that I'm being asked. Um the next thing is um maybe this is a very uh sore subject but after what she uh discussed I think it's
a perfect subject to bring up. Um um I know that we have a fund uh shortage and I think everybody in Robbinsville knows that we have a u shortage uh of funding. When I was looking through this um agenda, I saw that two individuals um
are going to make $400,000 as a salary for this coming up year. So um I think for two people $400,000 is a little bit questionable. And if you want me to go, I'll address it more in details, but I didn't want to go into details and be
disrespectful, but it is a lot of money for two individuals. I can show you right on the paperwork later on. The third question that I have is um the physician that I saw in here that it says 19 um 1,00 um $19,000 per year for
a physician. Is it a physician that is full-time here? Is it a physician that is only here one hour a day? 19,000 for a whole year is a little bit small for a physician. And the fourth thing that I'm going to ask you is I like to know about this district homeless liaison that we
are having and that person is going to do the also the education stability. Um if you can explain a little bit about that because I don't think we have had that or or I missed it. I would really appreciate about that leazison and that situation. I would really appreciate that. Could you just repeat that one
real quick for me again? the uh district homeless um liaison. Yes. And um I have all of it marked in here. You guys can even have that. No problem. And um the next one I wanted to ask you is about you guys also have talked about the
Medicare um the children who are going to be using the Medicare. So what's going to happen if the Medicare gets cut? Are we having a second idea of what we are going to do? Because we cannot leave them hanging. Um the next one is all um I wanted to talk to you guys
about was all about the all the transfer funds from um from my calculation that the transfer funds is going to be a 300,000 and a and a 2 million and 500,000 that one is going to the capital and one is going to the maintenance. So
where are those money are changing hands is if if you guys could explain that's a lot of money and the two others question that I have I ask on the second half. Thank you. Sorry, I have public comments.
Seeing none, can I get a motion to close public comment? So moved. Second. I I do I I did take notes on your comments. What I'd like to do is to have complete answers and we could post yeah written answers so that we could share it with everyone. So I'm sure others
have similar concerns and the same goes for anyone any written question that's submitted to us or question we hear we'll always uh you know make sure we make it available widely to everyone. We're gonna No, we we'll we're going to put the answer out publicly. Yeah. Yeah.
Now, we want we want to make sure everybody has the same information basically. And I and I know uh you know, thank you for coming out to talk about the drama program. Uh you know, I know speaking for myself and you know that we are committed to, you know, having the drama
program. I know Mr. uh Dr. Po mentioned, you know, the the cuts earlier in his uh remarks. Um but, you know, as far as getting a fall play and the director, you know, that's something that we are, you know, still committed to. So I should mention like and it's the reason why I mentioned it in my my
presentation. While it's been a struggle, that doesn't mean that we're not going to have those club positions filled. It is our our our full intention, but I I wanted to make sure that we were transparent with the public in regards to what the situation is. We have actively uh identified people who
were recruiting for those positions and we have a couple of different alternatives in the works, but it's not con concluded yet. So I'm, you know, wanted to be transparent in regards to what the current status is. We do agree that it's important for those clubs to continue. Just to for the record, the
positions are funded. The positions are funded. Yeah. Yeah. There's no Yeah, there's no question about the funding of the position. The only thing that was not funded that the reason why I stated separately was the theater class. The clubs are funded and like I said, we do anticipate getting those positions
filled. All right. Monthly resolutions. The superintendent recommends that the board of education approve the following personnel education policy and business action items. Uh personnel appointments uh all personnel appointments are
pending criminal background clearance where applicable and any salary stipen less than a full term will be prrated to the start date. Um there's a roll call, right, Mr. Mo motion motion first to approve. Second. Okay. Roll call. Any
discussions? Discussion. Okay. Miss Bandukta. Absent. Dr. Gold. Yes. Miss D'Angelo. Mr. Howard. Yes. Miss. Leman. Yes. Mr.
Nandon. Yes. Mr. Ray. Yes. Dr. Pierro. Yes. and Mr. Oldberg is absent. Thank you. Motions pass unanimously. Sorry, my computer froze. [Music] So,
any old business? See any new business? All right, we'll have our second public comment. So, time will be allocated for the public comment at this meeting. Members of the public wishing to address the board of education on agenda items must state their name, municipality, and
group if any they represent. Member of the public shall not be permitted to speak until he or she is recognized by a presiding officer. So, same rules kind of apply as mentioned before. I'm going to open up uh public comment for uh a reminder also three minute limit.
Um open up uh public comment for 20 minutes. Can I get a motion? Move. All right. All in favor? I Okay. Public comment is open on all school related matters. Hi, Miss Canon Robinsville. Um, the two
last two things that I was going to talk to you guys about was about this Saturday that is going to be the LGBTQ um program that we are having it for years. It's going to be uh in PJ Pancake from 2 to 4 and you're all invited to
come and thank you for all those who already have been coming. we appreciate you and we would like you to bring more people from the um me uh from family and members too that um I think the students really appreciate it. Um the next thing
that I wanted to talk to you guys about I am very very surprised that you guys do not have any update about the crematorium because at the last time that I was at the council meeting I brought it up and uh the council and the mayor had update they actually did talk
to me about it and I don't know if it is the room for me to talk to you guys about it but it was an open meeting and I think I am being taped over there too. So I can tell you that I was told that they have a conversation with the owner and they are going to talk to him about
the mausoleum and because of the mausoleium and the situation that this is and this situation may go away that it had nothing to do with the legislators and everything. So I was um making sure that um it's not going to
happen again because you know if this person sells it and leaves and somebody else comes in and wants to do the same thing and they told me that uh they are hoping that this is not going to happen and um one of the councils told me that there is another um um that another
township that is having the same problem and um they are talking to um the senator and then uh they are changing that 10 yard or me to make it less. I didn't get really catch that. I don't want to say it. Um and they are if that
passes we are completely covered. So they are not going to be able to make it even if they sell it and then it doesn't go through. So yeah, there is a very very um good update and I this Thursday at uh 7 o'clock it's a council meeting
and I would appreciate if you guys one of you or all of you or however you would like come and listen because uh I will definitely get up and I will bring it up again just to be under record again because that's what I was told exactly not past Thursday the Thursday
before. So there is a good update on that. Thank you. Thank you. Any other public comments Dr. Bizu, can you actually repeat the update that we have? And I think we do we do have the update and I agree with
the comment. Just let's uh close out public comment and then discussion. There's no other public comment. Can I get a motion to close public comment? Motion. All in favor? Thank you, Mr. Randon. Sorry. Yeah.
Okay. I I shared the information that I have available. I I know that uh many many stakeholders are working on different initiatives. I think that right now the most pressing aspect is the legislation.
uh and the legislation is potentially um could be changed and but this is all a matter of having our voices heard and by having our voices heard that's open to people who have whatever their opinion is on that this issue. So that's what I
brought forward. I do know that the town obviously is uh is is supportive of the community as they always have been. Uh so that's another aspect to it. But I what I brought up was I thought the issue that is most um most relevant at this point. And
the um what what you refer to is kind of information I know has been around for a couple of months. So that's why I really didn't go into that because that was something that you know I think is um has been an idea that's been discussed previously. So So I could have shared that but I I thought it was already
public information. Yeah. I have no uh no second. Is there some No. All right. So motion to adjurnn. Second. All in favor? I we are adjourned.