e e e e e they're on they're all on a way of speaker tonight all right I'd like to call order tonight's
meeting meeting of September 18th regular public agenda Mr Jones please call the rooll misss barve here Miss Bower here miss borov here miss Brody here miss serani here miss Will Williams present
Miss Winkler here Dr Kowski here Mr Murray here Corman present please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance ready I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation
under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all executive session we had uh updates Personnel Hib and legal status no additions to the agenda and I'll move over the superintendent report Dr Mast thank you Mr
Murray so last night last night's defeat stings because the issue that existed yesterday still exists today with no concrete solution our schools are still over capacity and class sizes are creeping up our schools still have
critical needs HVAC electrical and fire alarm updates that cannot be ignored while those needs still exist we heard through the election results last night and the community conversation in the weeks before the vote that the Community wants to create a different
path built together that is exactly what we plan to do again the volunteers on the board of education and I will need time to listen to the community's feedback from Tuesday's election and then consider feasible options please be patient with us as we
undertake this process while I am hopeful challenges still lie ahead we spent years looking at how to address current and projected enrollment growth even the alternate options that we looked into weren't ideal additions to
the schools don't get us any more state aid and were limited by parking environmental restrictions and more modular units were pricey and not an option the community favored on the survey last year the simple fact is that
we need space not just a few classrooms or a few modulars but real space for SPF students the outcome last night was disappointing but I am confident that we can come together and still build SPF for the
future it's a future that our students our parents our teachers our staff and Community can be excited about and hopefully agree upon thank you again for everyone who voted we look forward to listening to your feedback in the
coming months as we consider next steps thank you thank you Dr M uh business administrator report Mr Jones thank you um just want to talk about RIT School uh so RIT you remember last year we did um
a full RFP and we brought in Reddit school and uh last year's opening was a little tough uh this year took a different strategy and um happy report it was a very strong opening the school year for RIT school um and uh we did a uh staggered opening so we let the
community know that they had to sign up by certain dates so we get in um and we had a fairly large uh weight list for this year uh the number of people that signed up for before after care increased by 27% over a 100 uh students uh we're currently working through that
list to be able to get everybody in that we can and our expectation is that every one of those uh families who need for after care will be allowed uh in some cases we may need to get uh some licensing for additional space uh from the state to make sure we can use the
space for before after care and we are Staffing up uh with more external employees and also using our internal employees to help us with that um and so we're actively in communication with all those families in the wait list and uh excited to get them in that's it thank
you Mr Jones uh board president announcement uh New Jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of to attend the meetings of the public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of the act the Scots family repard of education has caused notice of
this meeting to be published to have the date time and place thereof posted at the Board of Education offices at 3:13 South Avenue Fanwood such a notice is also provided in written notice form the Union County Hawk Star Ledger Township Clerk of Scotch Plains AB Bor Clerk of Fanwood and the annual notice of regularly scheduled meetings as adopted
April 25th 2024 and revised August 27 2024 I don't see Mack here so I don't think we have a student rep update so I will now move over to the instructional updates which I believe is
the opening of schools presentation so good evening once again with what some have called the positive opening and years behind us I wanted to share some highlights of our preparation for the 2024 2025 school year with this
strong beginning we anticipate that this will be an exceptional Academic Year for all of our students we approach each new year with an administrative Council summer Retreat an important event in our preparation this Gathering brought put
together our leadership team to not merely plan but to Envision the school year ahead from multiple perspectives we engaged in comprehensive discussions on critical topics that shape our work and our priorities for the year the resolve
Counseling Center provided invaluable insights into Innovative approaches for supporting our students mental health experts from Imagine A Center for coping with loss guided us through strategies for assisting children in navigating loss these sessions reinforced our
commitment to nurturing both the intellectual and emotional well-being of our students our exploration of diversity and social justice through case studies challenged us to Foster an increasingly inclusive environment discussions on the
impact of social media on our students led to the development of strategies to guide them responsibly through the digital landscape Dr Hines and his team have success successfully implemented strategies to increase student
engagement and attention by thoughtfully reducing the overuse of cell phones during the school day the most productive use of our onetoone iPad infrastructure to benefit student learning was examined by the entire P
to2 team we also addressed the emerging role of artificial intelligence and education analyzing survey results to inform our future Direction in recognition of the Paramount importance of safety we also devoted
time to refining our threat assessment strategies ensuring our schools remain secure and environments conducive to learning the Cornerstone of our retreat was an enlightening session led by Alicia D Lorenzo her presentation
unleashing a culture of aliveness served as both an inspiration and a call to action resonating profoundly with all in attendance Miss dorenzo challenged us to reconsider our approach to education in today's complex world she emphasized the
critical importance of human connection authenticity agency and Collective efficacy as driving forces behind organizational success M Lorenzo provided a practical framework for enhancing engagement productivity and
organizational attachment this framework is not merely about improving efficiency it's about cultivating a culture of Vitality that promotes Innovation creativity collaboration and growth throughout our district the session
concluded with a palpable sense of energy and purpose and an invitation for her to be our keynote speaker on September 4th we emerged equipped with actionable insights prepared to invigorate our staff and students and amplify the core values of our
educational community our creative summer workshop again provided the opportunity for students to explore new interests or further develop passions in a variety of meaningful mini courses this culminated in an open house where families got to experience these activities and to appreciate the
evolving musicianship of our young instrumentalists summer is also a Time devoted to curriculum development and preparing for the implementation of changes to standards tweaking p ing guides and developing new units of study with the leadership of our supervisors a
large number of dedicated teachers collaborated all summer long to ensure that a comprehensive yet flexible education to ensure a comprehensive yet flexible educational Journey we've updated our K through2 English language arts proficiencies um establishing new
standards of excellence in literacy our elementary and middle school programs have undergone thoughtful revisions to better serve the evolving needs of our Young Learners a highlight of our summer initiatives was the Arts integration Leadership Institute this unique program continues
to Foster Innovative interdisciplinary learning approaches where academic concepts are brought to life through artistic expression enhancing student engagement and comprehension having engaged in a significant Arts integration experience last year a group of our fourth grade students that you
can see in the picture in the lower right hand corner took center stage at The Institute down in Princeton the summer teaching Educators from across the state about their work in connecting literature and the Arts I'm also pleased to report on the success of our SPF boost program as you
know this was funded um by the state um due to a competitive $230,000 grant program the data tells a compelling story nearly half of the students enrolled in this program met or exceeded expectations on the njsla test
and moreover over 83% of participants performed at or above the approached expectations level notably our map assessments Pro to be highly accurate predictors of njsla performance this correlation validates our approach and provides valuable
insights for future planning it stands as a testament to the dedication of our Educators and the resilience of our students demonstrating that with appropriate support every child can achieve success as we prepared for the new Academic Year we welcome 72 new staff
members to our educational Community this includes one administrator bringing fresh perspectives 39 teachers ready to inspire 30 support staff eager to contribute and two coaches prepared to motivate each new College each new
colleague brings unique experiences and fresh ideas invigorating our school Community their enthusiasm is palpable and we are confident that they will play a crucial role in realizing the vision of Vitality and innovation developed during our summer
Retreat so it was a busy summer in terms of uh facilities work um at we had some security camera expansion uh won't go too much detail but just some areas um for the uh football field to make sure we have full coverage for the increase
in amount of uh people we have there uh fire alarm upgrades that's still in process netting ham a total revamp the fire alarm at netting ham uh we did some work actually um at Evergreen the summer as well as we tried to do the expansion um technology upgrades new wireless a point a access
points um that we uh actually used a program called eate to get a discount on it's a federal program uh in terms of Maintenance uh various work orders you know new fire doors at um Terell ceiling tiles and different hallways some faculty faculty room upgrades uh
concrete pavement repairs throughout the district we try to do that uh we started do last year we started doing that and we're going to do that every summer now um custodial we used a we switched over to new vendor for some savings so it's a new state contract uh that we're using um so excited to use those products uh
Grounds was challenging the summer we had some serious staff turn turnover we have five people so just so 80% turnover um but we're able to uh mitigate we've hired new people and this year at Kohl's we had to um hire a company to do Kohls uh to get it ready for school which they
did so it was great um and then we had the the summer uh projects um big one was the you can see on the right hand side there the high school stairs so these are just stairs it's it's another way of egress goes down to um some electrical infrastructure but it was a
highly needed uh replacement um we did in the middle there we have started to install a new sound system for the football field and for the lower field were um some of like the soccer games and field hockey are played uh right now currently he being installed in the
middle there you see the uh new bleachers uh in the gym so they look pretty nice um and also on left side we replaced um some of our the alumni bricks and put them in the in the front of the school uh so when you walk in you
can see them there on the left um and there's room for space for growth there as well so um and then uh of course the big project we have which is uh fairly massive for us was turning the business office uh into do additional classrooms at Evergreen so we have uh six
instructional spaces um and uh two uh one room for otpt and one for small group instruction um and it was a challenging we had vendors here all hours of the night uh after these board meeting after summer board meeting they were still there working um and just want to say
for this one uh to say thank you to uh uh our buildings and ground staff who chipped in as they could when was needed for you know to make sure we got it done on time Nick KY our director of buildings and grounds was there every single day uh to make sure it got done uh for changes on the Fly things that
were unexpected uh but it adds a freshness and a newness to Evergreen uh and walking through yesterday uh teachers are very happy uh with the new layout um excited excited for the new space following these preparations we
inaugurated the Academic Year with a convocation that encapsulated the spirit of our district the EV the event featured stirring performances by our spfhs marching band and varsity cheerleading squad the rendition of our national anthem in Alma Mater by our
talented students instilled a sense of unity and purpose among all attendees we were privileged to hear from a a diverse array of speakers including our superintendent our senior board student representative Mark bastal our Board of
Education president PTA council president and the mayor of Scotch Plains each speaker along with our keynote speaker Alicia D Lorenzo contributed a unique perspective to our Collective vision for the year ahead rein reinforcing the notion that education is
truly a community endeavor the culmination of our preparations was realized on the first day of school as students enter our halls there was a palpable sense of anticipation and potential it was a day marked by promise
and Collective enthusiasm of students and teachers alike as as well as parents when they were reunited at the end of the day you could see in the bottom right corner um that was at the dismissal for kindergarten where mom and
daughter are just rushing into each other's arms and that happens on that day exponentially and it really is just something that can can fill your your heart with joy [Music]
so our spfhs marching band has already distinguished itself this year we're looking forward to their home show this Saturday night um right there on Tyson field their performances have set a high standard for what promises to be an exceptional year in both academics and
extracurricular activities [Music] [Music] and that was several weeks ago now the dedication and talent of these young
musicians underscored the importance of Arts education in developing well-rounded confident students our commitment to exellis extends beyond the class room as evidenced by the impressive start to our fall Sports season our boys soccer team
remains undefeated while our girls volleyball team secured a bracket win at the Madison tournament our gymnastics team has begun the season with a perfect record and our cross country teams demonstrated great promise at the Cherokee classic from football to tennis
our student athletes embody the spirit of dedication and teamwork that defines our district these early successes are not merely about winning competition itions they're about character development fostering teamwork and imparting valuable life lessons that
will serve our students well beyond the time in our schools as we look towards the remainder of this school year we are Guided by a powerful theme all to here belong this is not merely a slogan but a commitment to creating an environment
where every student regardless of background or ability can find their place discover their passion and chart their path to success this theme encapsulates the essence of our efforts from our summer Retreat discussions on diversity and
inclusion to the expansion of our facilities and the warm welcome extended to our new staff members it's about fostering a culture of Vitality where everyone feels valued empowered and prepared to contribute their unique talents to to
our school Community we are dedicated staff enhanced facilities Innovative programs and the unwavering support of our community we are poised not just to navigate this school year but to make it truly
extraordinary We Stand ready to transform the inspiring ideas from our summer Retreat into tangible realities that will benefit every student in our district I extend my sincere gratitude for your continued support and
Leadership together we are authoring a new chapter in our District's history one characterized by inclusivity Innovation and inspiration thank you thank you for the presentation does anybody have
comments sure I just want to thank you for putting together the presentation it's hard to believe that it's okay is that better yes it's hard to believe that it's only been two weeks of school and all of that has happened
and um I have even more details about the summer curriculum work when I give my report um there's a lot to report out on and I also want to say how impressive it is that we've been able to attract 72 new staff members in our district um at this at this time when that's a
challenge for a lot of districts so I think that really speaks very highly of our district um and I look forward to welcoming all of those new staff thank you thank you Mr Ry anyone else no okay so we will move
on to uh our first public comment one of two uh in accordance with Scott Spain Family Public School bylaw 0164 and 0165 the meeting will be open for 15 minutes for public comments maximum 3 minutes per speaker speakers addressing superintendent items business functions and other board business will be heard
first if time remains speakers May address other matters speakers please state your name and the town in which you reside please note board use the public common perod is an opportunity to listen to Citizen concerns but not to debate the issues or enter into a question and answer session or cross-examination between the public and individual
members be aware the not all issues broke before the board meeting will be resolved that evening boards May respond to public comment by seeking additional information or delegating the authority to investigate the issue to the superintendent for her design so I will now open the first public comment section for 15 minutes first when you
please State your full name and the town in which you reside once you come up to the mic hello good evening my name is Melissa lanar I reside in Scotch Plains um I'm here to discuss the busing injustices that I feel is happening and that short presentation I must have
heard the word community at least 10 times if not more so I'm hoping that this is a tighten it community enough to get the busing issues done so if our children receive free public education then they should also receive free transportation we pay enough taxes in our town for the correct amount of funds
to be allocated to providing the transportation our children required to arrive on time and safely to school each day parents should not be turned away for being 4/10 or 2/10 of a mile short to be transported to school busing should be free and available to anyone who requires it parents should not have
to go crazy trying to find rides for their children or leave their children over an hour earlier at the school's doorstep because they have to drive their children themselves before heading to their jobs students should not have to sit in bad weather waiting for the school doors to open in the morning or wait over an hour after school to be
picked up it is not safe to leave the children unsupervised especially well the gun violence that has been occurring more often in recent years our children should not be forced to walk between 30 to 45 minutes carrying over 15b book bags to and from school on unsafe and busy streets to arrive at school or at
home this is a huge Injustice to the students and the parents of the Scotch Plains family community a community who prides itself as being a United and family oriented District many parents have already reached out several times to the heads of busing the business administrator principes Vice principles
as well as the super attendent herself to no avail parents have reached out to friends and family anyone who can help them to get their child or children to school again to no avail our cries for help are not being dealt with and have fallen on deaf and uncaring ears this
needs to stop our children and our parents should not be subjected to this mistreatment distress and aggravation that this is causing is not healthy and it's not acceptable we hope that our busing needs will be dealt with with the utmost of haste before we need to start petitioning picketing and calling local
newspapers it would be a shame to see in the newspapers I rate parents and students ring against the Scotch Plains fedw School District over busting injustices instead of a nice heading that re Scotch Plains Fanwood School District takes the win again against Westfield please give us the option for the be free busing that we deserve we
thank you for your time and anticipated cooperation thank you hi my name is Brad Herman I reside in Scotch Plains so I want to start by thanking Dr mass for her comments in the Union County Hawk back in May where Dr
Mast acknowledged my concern about school events being scheduled during Passover and that there is a need for the district to do better unfortunately here I am barely 4 months later once again having to voice my concern about school events occurring during a major
Jewish holiday this time during the days of rashash Shana my son's football team has four hours of practice scheduled in total which are comprised of two hours on Thursday October 3rd and two hours on Friday October 4th which are both during
rashash Shana rashash Shana and Yong kipur are the high holy days in the Jewish calendar there is a reason why schools are closed on these days the high holy days are the widest served holidays on the Jewish calendar and marked the period known as the days of
awe now my son who has a lot to prove as he is a freshman player not an established Varsity player like other Jewish students possibly in this situation has to choose whether or not to progress as a player or to adhere to his religious beliefs observances and
traditions we are in the year 2024 in a district that has significant Jewish population and that Prides itself on diversity what I am seeing on the calendar with 4 hours of football practice scheduled is troubling I am highly in favor of Sports and Physical
Fitness I mean I work out like crazy but at the same time there is a time and a place for all of this my son as well as me and the rest of the family will be in synagogue those four hours can easily be made up on the prior days leading to the holiday my son and others shouldn't have
to choose between their religion and their growth as players I'm sure that scheduled practices are occurring in other fall Sports and activities besides football during rosashana in fact I am aware of a few that are occurring I know there were footnotes on
the calendars about kids who have religious obligations being excused from practice unfortunately such footnoted and even emailed statements like that back when the district kept schools open during Passover 2024 didn't truly prevent assessments new work assignments
and school events from occurring hence I don't really believe that our kids statuses on their sports team and other activities won't potentially be adversely impacted just because there is a statement that says that they are excused for practices if they are observing rashash Shana even if there
aren't adverse impacts there still is peer pressure and self-imposed pressure to succeed that could be mitigated by at least not scheduling practices during a major Jewish holiday if there are rightfully no inter Sports practices scheduled on Christmas day there should
false Sports practices scheduled on Russia Shana a Jewish adult understands how to navigate a world that is increasingly hostile to Jewish religious practices children and Adolescence do not and should not have to thank you hi my name is Colleen I live in
Scotch Plains do you need the street address no okay I um don't have a prepared comment I did want to speak a little bit about Dr Mass's comments at the beginning of the meeting and just really address how remarkable it was for
you to be so gracious in the words that you put together in speaking about connecting with the community and the plans moving forward I also just wanted to take a couple minutes less than three to acknowledge the work that went into um the communication around the
referendum and really say how much I admire what I see as increased efforts toward transparency significant public Outreach and I value very much the time that goes into that in addition to the other roles
that board of education members and board administrators and School Board School District administrators have at the same time things like prep caring a public presentation about how much exciting things are happening in the school district this took time this took
a lot of time but it's part of a deliberate effort and I see that to communicate the great things happening in our schools and to make what is happening in our schools more and more accessible to the community I'm thrilled thrilled to see public debate about what
is happening in the schools and I know all of you share that same spirit it's exciting to me especially given the fact that we've had unopposed Board elections in the past that people are now coming forward with new ideas and strategies for how to improve our schools I think
it's absolutely tremendous and I hope that they continue to add value to the incredible work that's happening I know that the board will continue their efforts to be transparent and I know that has been Dr Mass style from her Inception
here I would like to offer to be helpful wherever and whenever I can and continue to thank you all for the job that you do for our children I greatly appreciate it thank you thank [Applause] you Gary Morris Fanwood um couple things
one thing in relation to even even the busing um I still think it would be really advantageous to have some type of um carpool website where um parents can connect and and carpool I think would
make a tremendous uh difference in the traffic around our schools and as um as she always says about the uh you know the drop off uh it would be great anything that could help that drop off
to be safer is a good thing um I wanted to I wanted to uh just Express something that maybe again in the future we could fix this um so you understand what can happen in something
that seems like it's very Innocent but can really be traumatic for somebody uh a friend from work told me he got a he got the phone call while he was in a meeting a robo call from the school now he's changed the contact information for
that number to be Scotch PLS Fanwood emergency because that's the snow emergency phone so that he knows what that is you know when he gets it early in the morning oh it's it's the school closed so he gets that call you get scotch PLS Fanwood emergency showing up
on your phone in the middle of a meeting he drops everything goes out and you know and it's and it's a robo call about the election is there some way to move something like that to a weekend instead of on a weekday while people are at work it just is that's kind of it's it's not
it's not right it's a very scary thing with with the atmosphere that we have in in in some places in our country to get a call in the middle of the day on a nice sunny day a call from your um from
your school um lastly I am still confused because I went to so many meetings too many meetings too much time and it just seemed to switch back and forth on how you can vote I
thought if you voted no on the first one you were locked out of the second question that was specifically said in meetings and that wasn't the case in reality I don't know why was that a mistake at the at the voting booth was
it a mistake the person that communicated that so I'd really like to know what was it allowed to be were you allowed to vote no and then yes or were you only allowed to vote no
no and that's basically it thank you Mr Marc Henry Linsky Fanwood I'm one of the old SPS that's selfish and doesn't like children and doesn't like Hax increases According to some of my community members online um I watched the
presentation it was really someone talked about how great the communication was the first time I really understood the implication of it was the first meeting I went to in Fanwood a couple weeks ago I thought the presentation was not
done in the most aboveboard way uh the numbers were cooked in such a way to make one look at the annualized costs when the residents had questions they were told to ask the individual members couple of which I found to be
deliberately evasive but the answers did not come to the community as a whole if I'm in a council meeting the council answers on a whole I sat with some of my neighbors who were truly concerned about the implication one woman was crying
because if this went through she was going to be forced to choose what she was going to eat what what she was buying her grandchildren for Christmas or whether or not she was moving that seemed to not move anybody so I've I came from an
environment where Cost Containment was the rule of the day and the rule was this is what you have do better with less I remember my first CEO telling me this is your budget I don't care how you allocate it my patients my nurses and my
doctors better be happy that was a very freeing moment for me because I was free to move and meet those goals and the Mantra has always been in organized Healthcare do better with less I'm not seeing do better with less here I'm
seeing do more do more maybe with more or do less with more so you know what your dollars are to allocate when the year starts we didn't know we didn't know what we were going to get we knew what we'd like to get in reimbursement but it was always a flex you can
allocate that money as a board and I think you need to have people in leadership that bring that stuff to you and you allocated appropriately I don't think there was Forward Thinking in this I don't think it was communicated well at all and I'll leave you with something I learned in business school and talking
with the people or any other person on the other side of the table there are allies adversaries and enemies you're not allied with the community in my view it might be adversarial but that's okay we come out of at the other side don't make an enemy of the
community thank you we on time we are at 15 minutes okay exactly okay so I'm going to close the first public comment there's another public comment portion um towards the end
thank you everybody for your comments letters to the board there was fours received from the public by the board and they were sent to the appropriate administrators we're going to move over to committee reports I believe Mr serani you have Mr before we do that can Mr
Jones make a comment on the transportation of course sorry go ahead no problem so I just want to address the transportation um I saw I suggest anyone go to uh our website and look at the budget presentation just to see the massive
increase in cost in transportation over the past three years it's up over 150% and as you know our our state aid has been up over the past five or six years and um 100% of that state aid increase has gone towards Transportation uh and this is due to a
uh National shortage of of bus drivers um if we wanted to provide uh busing for for everyone um it would be an increase mostly this is back of the envelope sort of numbers but you know 6.4 million uh to increase that so we have a tax L of of 100
million so that's a uh 6.4% of our budget would have to go towards uh the new new Transportation um and that in terms of a tax increase would you know around 5550 a year for an average taxpayer so
you know you're more than that then it'd be a pretty massive increase uh cost to to uh expand busing and on top of that um because we don't have uh space or land we we wouldn't be able to buy our own buses or hire own drivers because we don't have a place to bus them or repair
them um and so we would have to Outsource them and so the rule of that is that you absolutely have to take the lowest bidder regardless of service uh and as most people know in the district the problems that we have with busing are with our Outsource busing that we
have through Durham uh we don't and it's there's a lot of problems with that and they've been with us for a long time and we have relationships with them going to expand busing you'd have to potentially get a new vendor um and so you don't know what you'll get with that I can just give one story in terms of a a
district uh uh and how they put their um busing out to bid to try to save cost last year uh and new vendor did did make it um but there was a massive massive problems this year uh with their busing uh students uh late of course missing
stops going around in circles not knowing uh where they were going um one incident of a of a driver pulling into a parking lot and uh having two students on the bus still and they didn't know where to go and so they just parked there until a parent found the the
students track the students phone to the location so um it is a uh it's unfortunate that the costs have gone up so much and uh also uh today actually uh Governor Murphy uh vetoed line vetoed a
bill that would have helped us with busing um citing that he thought that uh it would compromise safety um so I know associations of of business administrators in the state it's uh their number one concern uh that they brought to the state is that they want
um they want legislation plus that makes it easier uh to transport students uh in addition to funding for busing because of the massive increase in costs and that you've seen across the state that districts are cutting using um for for
uh for locations where it's not required uh so it's a it's a big problem and it's something we've been talking about for the past uh two years um and hoping and and brought forth many bills and I've personally uh
uh uh provided uh feedback to the state on some of those bills to be read uh uh in Trenton and so we're uh constantly focused on it and it's a it's always a difficult problem but one that I understand that's extremely difficult uh and is absolutely the hardest part of my
job is busing and talking to parents who don't have busing and uh it's some of the stories they have are are pretty gut ring so it's a it's something that uh we're constantly trying to work on and improve and make it efficient um so that's it m Mr Jones was the bill that
got veto the one to reduce the requirements for drivers as far as because I think I think it was stated that in order to get a license to drive a bus you have to be able to repair a bus was it that portion of the that never even got to that was part that's part of the requirement that never got
to the governor yeah that that never got but that was one of the that was one of the ones that we tried to the my Association tried to get through that didn't even get to the Govern got to the assembly but never made it to him the one that passed was like uh allowing staff members uh to take um students to
uh uh sporting events so if a staff member wanted to get a certain type of license and they had uh and a pass passenger uh van they could be able to drive let's say you had like a I don't know fencing team small number of of students that the the coach or would be able to them drive them uh and he he
vetoed that so uh it doesn't make it uh yeah yeah any type of small membership uh events um but yeah that's what he be do thank you
okay so uh we met the curriculum committee met on uh September 10th and our meeting was very lengthy because our September meeting is always to discuss um the summer curriculum work plus any other agenda item so every content
supervisor does come to this meeting to update the committee on what was done over the summer my report is six pages um so I I highlighted the most important pieces if anyone does want a full copy they can email me the board did receive
a full copy of the committee report um but I will give the highlights um so in terms of English language arts um summer curriculum work um there was collaboration with all teachers across grade levels from K to 5 uh to review
reading and writing workshop curricula and align with newly revised Ela standards again I'm just there was some work in grade K and one on the foundations curriculum um and I'm again I'm going to summarize so in English
language arts grades six through 12 um as part of the cyclical review cycle um they reviewed existing units and um this is neat they added new units including celebrating diversity through graphic
novels um in order to engage kids in English language arts um a unit called bias Justice and power and a unit called overcoming obstacles they also created benchmark assessments attached to those units um to replace map assessments m in
in those areas um skipping down um another highlight is work done on in 12th grade English language arts um where they created mini courses uh mini courses comprised of college portfolio
narrative non-fiction and dystopian literature um and these mini courses were developed based on feedback from previous students so that's exciting um English language art work in uh
Middle School uh some of those highlights are um work done on new elective courses one being the magic of movies in which teachers across grade levels created that curriculum um where students would be able to become movie
critics uh look into the history of movies and develop their own movie Pitch thereby practicing their writing in terms of science and engineering Cor curriculum work and social studies curriculum work um we actually had a visit from one of our
Junior students um who discussed a plan for hosting a science competition at the high school but uh for students enrolled in grades 6 through 12 called the lab room and this competition would be held um in the format of shark tank in which students
could work in small teams choose a scientific problem to solve um go before a panel of judges do the research and propose a solution to the problem so that's a really exciting and Innovative idea that was developed by one of our high school students so we look forward
to seeing how that unfolds uh during the course of the year um another project um miss dinaa and miss balusu discuss their ongoing work in the detect um research project um which has been ongoing the focus of
the research is on epistemic practices highlighting modeling collecting data analyzing data and communicating the data um teachers attend professional development in the summer that help them develop strategies for supporting students in thinking like scientists and
making metacognitive connections so that's an interesting ongoing research project that a couple of our teachers are engaged in um in terms of middle school science in grades 6 through eight teachers met to review the units of study from open s ed
curriculum um Elementary science and social studies um we had a very um comprehensive overview of how science and social studies um are working together um at each grade level to um
create interdisciplinary units so each grade has different interdisciplinary units that were presented so for example in kindergarten um no I'm sorry in first grade um there's an interdisciplinary unit called engineering toy design where
um first graders are taught economic Concepts from social studies but then also pulling in like um air and weather units um from science and they're given a budget and have to um buy materials and design a toy that moves with air and
with um the weather conditions so that's an example of like the interdisciplinary methods that are being taught at each grade level in second grade it involves um decreasing population of Monarch butterflies but then looking at how um this population is important um you know
in a social contct social context sorry in third grade um providing students with an opportunity to learn about inventors and innovators from diverse backgrounds fourth grade studying habitats and survival um but using social studies Concepts from geography
and physics okay um the media specialist discuss their summer work um okay um Heritage months and holidays over the summer a focused group of students and teachers provided feedback regarding the ways they
experience Heritage months and holidays in our schools they developed materials to support elementary teachers in discussing these important events provided support for read alouds and morning meeting conversations and help to create materials to inform both teachers and students about the diverse
Community we live in um okay I'm going to come back to the board approval items uh um in mathematics okay um the mathematics Department reviewed and revised pacing
guides for k to5 math um and some Innovative math work that was done in grade two was exploring small group structures for differentiating math using rotating
stations um in 6 to 12 math um talked about the Department examining um cour examining our courses and developing quarterly assessments this year the math department will be giving quarterly assessments to every student in grades 6 through 12 um just
to support and improve student learning the special education department did Summer work as well examining the scope and sequence of the reading curriculum and creating an assessment guide for English language arts and math self-contained um special
ed staff worked on the planning of community- based instruction outings and life skill opportunities for special education students within the district as well as in the town and local community um and self-contained um teachers also continue to modify and
supplement the General Ed curriculum to meet the needs of their diverse Learners okay in Fine Arts um some of those teachers were busy actually in the the summer courses teaching music and art to our students this summer um and
investigating a music technology curriculum as well in World Language curriculum updates were made to the following High School courses Spanish 3 academic and accelerated Spanish 5 academic and accelerated French 1 French
3 academic and accelerated Italian 4 academic and accelerated and Italian 1 um okay and then going back to there are two items for board approval on the agenda tonight one is the adoption of an
AP African-American studies book um as you remember there was not a text that had been um recommended for this course so some research was done looking at what other districts were using what would be the best text and um freedom on
my mind was selected and is being recommended um there have only been again four texts that have been recommended by the College Board to support the AP African-American studies curriculum so um the board is being
asked to approve freedom on my mind um as being the most comprehensive and accessible text and is requesting 25 copies of the text at 11498 each and that is on the agenda for tonight the other thing on the agenda for board approval tonight is the
program of study uh the board should have received a copy of the entire program of study Dr McGary summarized for the curriculum committee the changes to the guides which included new Middle School courses some language changes in English language arts sections that
align with the revised New Jersey student learning standards and a change to Spanish instruction in grades two and three um due to Staffing difficulties um in in our world language Department the revised documents will be shared were shared with the board and
we're being asked to approve that program of study and that is my very lengthy report only a piece of it and the curriculum committee meets again on October 8th thank you Mr Rion any questions for anybody any other committee
reports okay seeing none um we received the enrollment report pass over now to Dr mass for her motions so first out of District placements second
um we do not have hibs to weigh in on three field trip requests again none none listed here at this time and for the program of studies that was just
mentioned um moving on we also have the proficiencies that we just discussed and six the textbook adoption that was just discussed do we have a motion so move M Winkler do we have a second second miss borof the
Ames uh any comments or questions Mr Jones can you please call the r since we have curriculum in books Miss barve yes Miss Bower yes Mrs borov yes Miss Brody yes Miss serani yes
Miss Williams yes Miss Winkler yes Dr Kowski yes Mr Murray yes motion carries Dr Mass personel I move that the Board of Education approves the superintendent's recommendation for the Personnel report
that we discussed this evening in exec do we have a motion drowsky do we have a second second M Williams any comments or questions Mr Jones can you please call the rooll misss barve yes Miss Bower yes
Mrs Boro yes Miss Brody yes Miss serani yes Miss Williams yes Miss Winkler yes Dr Kowski yes Mr Murray yes motion carries over to you Mr Jones for board uh business functions
y I just want to mention on the enrollment report we're up over 50 students from this point last year um and up five from June and we expect more as the uh new developments continue to open uh the one by Terell um okay for
number one uh staff training two related services a special ed three is a parental contract for student transportation four is for Evergreen so for Evergreen just as a reminder we are uh next summer going to be replacing
some of the windows we couldn't do it this summer um and that's number four um number five is uh just approving our use of uh Educational Service Commission every 5 years we have to do that uh number six uh non-public
standard um amounts we have to approve um that we we we uh are required to manage these funds but we use um to manage this is for a union Catholic but we use the Union County ESC to to manage this and pay them in fee um number seven
is uh to create for 200,000 for a track uh repair we had something go down uh one of our schools this year and this just to have an open purchase order um in case uh to make repairs uh quicker um again this is a uh through a a co-op in
something the the mammoth County Co-op that we approved uh last month it's the new one we're using and it all has been a publicly bid and they won the bid as the uh lowest bidder in Mammoth County number eight uh security drills nine Financial reports 10 dispersements
and 11 is paying bills thank you Mr Jones do we have a motion move Miss Brody do we have a second second Miss Williams any comments or questions all those in favor
opposed motion carries we will now move next to board policies there are none new board business other board business Le on reports do we have any Le on reports I have one um so uh the special education
parent advisory group cpag sorry um on Monday evening uh to kick off the first of their meetings uh similar to tonight um Dr rimus provided um the group with an update sort of on
on new accomplishments over the summer some changes within with Case Manager some additions of Staff um and some restructuring um it's all available on the website um any parents uh that are looking for information specifically on
their cases um all of the letters have been sent out um and then we got an update on CPAC on some of the things that they're doing this year um they recently just sent out a survey so that they can get um some on the extended school year programs they wanted to get some information and collect parental
feedback on how the programs went um so each school this is really important each school um has a Le Zone which um provided we have enough volunteers so if you are involved um um you're interested
in getting involved please uh reach out to cpag which you can find um via the SPF website under special services um they do need some more Leia zones uh one of the things that they reported back on that they that um they worked on this
summer is actually collaborating um with Dr dearis at netting ham but to bring together all of the principles at um the various schools across the district so they can collaborate on some of the projects that they've done internally um and so cpag is going to help put that
together um what else uh good news the life skills room in um the high school is complete and um everybody is very excited about that and um just to remind everyone the next meeting um actually
September and March are just caregiver meetings um FYI if you're interested in going and the me next meeting is Monday October 7th at TMS Middle School in the media room at 700 p.m.
and that's it thank you m b any comments questions any other Weis on reports I have a report from Garden State Coalition of schools um we met today uh it's a Statewide group Garden State Coalition of schools gives us the
opportunity to Advocate as a district along with other districts across the state um and help amend bills and try to make an impact in Trenton today we had a guest speaker Morin bogram Brogan who is
the program director for the Statewide traumatic loss Coalition um and she talked about the kinds of services that they provide to districts uh when they're traumatic losses and uh it was a
very good program we also received updates on things that are happening in Trenton um including um uh modifications improvements to the um New Jersey educator
evaluation system um and um also uh looking at uh requirements for teachers um and uh for example for new hires and teachers Rel related to residency in New
Jersey and the Staffing shortages um their bills coming up related to consolidation um their new members on the State Board of Education um and uh there were some bills signed related to
literacy um and um also uh conversations around the um uh uh evaluations of school districts cusac and uh so we had updates on all those things and I'll mention as an as side we had the most
board members present today of anyone at the meeting um and so uh if anyone else wants to comment welcome to was a good meeting maybe you can join us next month the meeting next month is
when it is at the state um conference at the board of bed conference thank and there'll be a panel of legislators thank you m power any other leaz on reports Workshop reports okay resolutions so we have four
we have uh the week of respect October 7th through the 11th we have school violence Awareness Week October 21 to 25 we have National principles month as well as teachers administrators and support staff
resolutions do we have a motion to approve these four resolutions Miss Winkler second Miss Bry any comments or questions all those in favor
opposed motion carries board minutes we have a motion to approve the August 27th regular public meeting minutes so moved second we have a motion we have a second the Ames any comments or questions
all those in favor I opposed motion carries all right second and final public comment section in accordance with Scotch Spain Family Public bylaw 0164 and 0165 the meeting will be open for 15 minutes for public comment maximum three minutes per speaker speakers addressing superintendent items business functions other board business
will be heard first if time remains speakers May address other matters speakers please State your full name in the town in which you reside please note board use public commment period is an opportunity to listen to Citizen concern but not to debate issues or enter into a question and answer session or cross examination between the public and individual members be aware not all
issues brought before the board meeting will be resolved that evening boards May respond to public comment by seeking additional information or by delegating the authority to investigate the issues to the superintendent or her design with that I will now open the second and final public comment section please State your full name in the town
in which you reside hi I'm Mark Alo and I live in Fanwood uh a little background on myself I grew up in this town my two sisters and me from 1975 to 1992 went to Scotch Plains Fanwood High School I left Scotch Plains Fanwood for about two decades and
I lived in four different states and in 2014 I had the opportunity to come back and there was one town that I wanted to come back to and that was Fanwood uh my daughter has Down syndrome so special education was critical for us and ironically my son breezes through AP everything so there's a little bit of a
dichotomy there in my class or in my my household I want to I hear the word diver Unity a lot I want to address that maybe give you some things to think about for the board as it relates to the referendum uh Dr Mast I really do appreciate your comments there is no additional space today the referendum
got voted down the money's gone and now my question for everybody is what are we going to do differently now that the vote is down do we get a different result and I keep coming back to the word diversity when I was on the public forums there's a couple things that went through my mind I kind of saw that Brady
brunch tile of all the people on the call and they were really all people that were tied to the board in some way either Consultants principles obviously uh I believe some board members on it they were heavily invested in one outcome which is to get the referendum
ped I bleed this town I love the school system I also voted no I believe there could be some people in the room that also voted no they equally love our kids and they love our school system when it comes to diversity and what I'm thinking of uh one of the things I'd encourage everyone to do if you haven't already
there's a private Facebook group the Scotch Plains board referendum private group there's some extraordinarily there's some extraordinary talented people on that group all walks of life construction experience business experience Finance experience and it's
the internet so it's a bloodbath there in terms of arguing and it's a lot of it's unproductive but it's hard not to see the value that people bring to this discussion um I think there are two groups in this discussion there's people that will take whatever is proposed as fact and then there's the people that
are kind of from the show me state and I'm one of those you can't tell me that the board the budget for a new school is going to be $8 million and then on the other hand say we're going to go up 1 to 2% that math doesn't work on $120 million school budget I need to see how
that 1 to 2% came about now if it's going to be 5% that doesn't mean I'm a no vote but I've got to see some transparency and I've got if there's Alternatives that have been studied we need to see the Alternatives uh one of the best teachers I've ever had Don Cabe may you rest in peace the guy changed
the course of my life Deca teacher uh probably 30 years in this school system unbelievable guy he always had a expression Alvito show your work if the board and the volunteers have done all of this work which I know you have show the work just post it in daylight if
there's Alternatives that been analyzed show it um I was convinced that the Alternatives were a little bit lacking so thank you for your time and thank you for all you did and I thought your comments were great recognizing the board thank you for that thank you as
it's this will be short Henry Linsky from Fanwood again so I started with a criticism and I was always taught you if you bring a problem bring a solution public education has always been a mystery to me you have the best
educated group of people working for you probably outside of any other industry they all have at a minimum of bachelor's degree many have Masters many are beyond that friend of mine educated the Educators I know what kind of education they have and they are focused
on one thing they're focused on educating students I don't think you're tapping into those people with regards to solving the crisis that you have right now we have an enrollment problem we have a budget problem we have a fiscal problem and I have willing to
bet because this always worked for me if you got enough of your outspoken people in a room and said here are the parameters okay we're going to mourn the loss we had a problem but we didn't win but here are the par parameters and if you had a good facilitator you might
have some really interesting ideas that came out of that group tapping into your staff is the best way to solve a problem I don't know what the culture is here I hope you do that if you don't I hope you consider that because I will tell you that it had been wildly
successful and he certainly needed those people to tell me when I was being stupid so something to consider so not a criticism but a suggestion of as a way to go forward I wanted to leave it that way I'm not completely a
chromogen thank you good evening again Melissa Lano Scotch Plains um in the course of everybody speaking here this evening it jumped out to me that we keep mentioning the overcrowding of our schools I teach also for a living in East Orange not the wonderful District that I'm happy to
live in you know I lived here but over there it's a little bit more violent but I'm hearing the overcrowding the overcrowding the overcrowding so my confusion is this I live near the boatcraft area they tore down boatcraft and they put all the these wonderful apartment buildings that now brought
more students which is already adding to the overcrowding problem then on the South Side in front of Kohl's there used to be the beautiful garden area which they tore down and they put more of these apartment complexes which just added again to the overcrowding issues
so I don't understand how we have overcrowding issues and then we continue and then also talking about the spacing we say we don't have spacing to expand to put modules or whatever other things that we were considering but we had enough spacing to tear down an entire Garden area and put more apartment
buildings that are bringing more students that are adding to the overcrowding in the classroom as as well as adding to the busing problems which thank you Mr Jones to trying to clear that up wasn't satisfied with it but I thank you for trying to clear up that issue but I'm just not getting it I like
as a teacher I you know I deal with the overcrowding I deal with all these things but yet we keep building more apartment buildings that are bringing more students and just adding and compiling to the problems that are already existing we're not handling the issue that we're that's existing but we're just compiling it and adding to it
so I don't understand how where was the thought process in that I mean maybe I'm super tired because I just came from my back to school night so my brain's kind of fried I don't know if I'm making any sense but this is just not making sense to me I I don't know I don't get it and why why bring more students when we have
overcrowding problems I I don't know hopefully we're going to figure out in a more productive way because I don't think that's being very proactive if we're adding to the problem we got to fix the problem and then you know maybe invite more people after the problem's
fixed food for thought thank you thank you Gary Morris Fanwood um I have an engineering background and quite frankly trying to figure out how you guys do Logistics of districting stuff just gives me a migraine cuz I don't even
know that's got to be the most complicated thing ever so again this is not the don't yell at me but this is just an idea anyway you have you have these apartment complexes coming in can
we call them Flex districts so that you can choose what school they go to they're where they live doesn't determine it you do they're not paying school taxes you now decide where they
go so let's say Evergreen has you know a down tick in enrollment you say boatcraft your kids are going to go to Evergreen this year and that's written into their lease and that's it um it's not really fair that they're not paying
the school taxes and it's not their fault they're just moving in because it's a nice community right so and and again to preface this if it's the affordable housing no they they they will be normally District I'm talking about the market rate Apartments which
is 80% or 85% you guys choose where they go and you can now balance the schools without having to redistrict everybody just a thought just throwing it out there crowd sourcing things things you think of when
you're when you're you're up all night when they're uh uh doing the doing the paving you know what I'm talking about we have one more night oh my gosh it was like an earthquake um another thing um
uh at work um this is kind of crazy I worked for a multi-billion dollar company and they redid our office it was great I'm sitting there and I get I we have we don't have assigned desk I'm literally getting a sunburn because somebody thought it would be great to
have these beautiful skylights literally I I had a red arm I had to I had to complain to Human Resources they finally came in and and and tinted it because I complained um and the thought again how it relates to air conditioning and
everything have we looked at uh actually tinting windows to help alleviate that you can change the temperature of a room 5 to 10 degrees with tinting a window that's really cheap really easy thing to to to look at doing it's just again
Innovation how do we how do we these are the kind of things that I do around my house if you saw how some of the things are held together and keep working in my house that's what I do um and and I I I somehow make it work I have two cars right now that don't have air conditioning my wife is comp complains
like crazy in the hot part of the year but it's not so much now which is kind of cool and thank you your time thank you Mr Mars Hi how are you excuse me my name is Joe skavo and I live in Scotch Plains and um
my wife and I have been living here for 30 years we raised our children in this community and I have to tell you the uh the great schooling that my children got in this school uh they went on to uh fantastic undergraduate colleges because of this school and then graduate schools
and they are out there doing wonderful things like we all hope our children do uh and because they're our future um so that's one thing I just want to kind of impose on the people here about the great job that you guys have done with that and it seems to be
continuing um I guess a little while back probably about five seven years ago um I was kind of walking around the neighborhood looking and stuff and um I go GE like where's all the little kids you know and it was sort of a little depressing but then all of a sudden it
was like um you know when the the seasons of the year you would win thir to Spring to Summer and boom it's like I see all these little kids coming and playing uh the development and and I say the upd development of homes let's put
those other apartment buildings aside that's some government thing regulation so uh I'm like w gee you know this uh Community is really a great Community we have tons of friends and so do my children uh even to this day from uh the area here so I think it's really
great uh I guess I I would I I wanted to say that in light of this uh the bond issue that you all put on the table um so I'm not involved in the school now and I guess um we don't get a lot of information anymore you know and we're not we used to be very involved with the
kids in their programs so I guess there's less information so um and then Dr mass please correct me if I'm saying something incorrect um I thought that the uh P paper that came out about the bond referendum I thought was actually pretty good I thought i' said hey we
have this issue it kind of highlighted some things but you know you really had to come down talk to them to understand what was going on um we talk about school crowding when my children uh were in uh yeah this must be about 15 years
ago uh there was a big thing in the community about they had a p trailers at the middle schools and the schools and I remember my back and forth all the meetings we went I'm like oh my God but I have to tell you at the end of the day we had to put our faith in these people
and uh you know we got through it and it was fine so that we could have less students in a classroom and they can get a Best their best education possible um I I um so you know kind of reflecting all of that um I'm
disappointed in that um the community didn't uh approve the bond and and I say this and I know it's a lot of money but I say this because it's our future right so what's going to happen is you know like I'm not going to be here 30 years from now but um sorry your
time you want to finish your thought okay um you know though 30 years from now we want to see those little kids come and right and we want them to run around and be happy and they only going to be here and then all this up building
is because these people are doing the right thing with the education the smaller the classrooms are the better they are and I'm not a teacher or professional so um and then the only thing I'd say to the board is that you know um and I know it's hard there's a lot of numbers and stuff and back and forth but I'm ask you to finish your
thought Mr SC oh I'm sorry thank you thank you thank you and uh Mr President we're at 99 which is 15 minutes we're at 15 we at 15 yes okay thank you okay I'm going to close the second
final public comment section um we're going to move to upcoming scheduled meetings we have the October 17 teacher and staff tenure celebration as well as a ruggy ro public board meeting and then uh we're going to move to the good of the order does anybody have
anything for the good of the order thank you so I I really just needed to say this and get this out there um we as a board and individual board members have heard and read me many accusations of impropriety over the last few months we
are all members of the same Community as you are all we are all volunteers who willingly and most mostly joyfully spend hours of our time helping the students and the community we bring different life perspectives and expertise to the
board some of us have raised our children to become successful adults and some of those adults have decided to come back and live in this town some of us are still raising their children in our school system we are all
here for the well-being of each and every student in this District as well as the staff we represent a true cross-section of our communities to say that we are here for any other purpose is offensive My Hope moving forward is that
the community can express their opinions without attacks and accusations we should all be involved in the community and give each other mutual respect thank you m BR anyone else for the good of the order M I wanted to make two just uh two
public announcements one the candidates night is October the 8th that people want to come uh for that and I also want to mention as an aside that um uh the deadline is coming up for any senior
citizens and uh who are interested in a tax freeze the deadline is uh October 31st or November 1st so uh for people who are over 65 um and I also uh wanted to uh just
take a minute to uh thank everybody who uh worked so hard on this referendum it didn't pass but uh a lot of time into websites into all the different Alternatives that were considered um and
uh so I just want to express my appreciation for all that effort thank you Miss bow anyone sure Autumn starts on Sunday at 9:43 a.m. so enjoy the colors changing in our trees
and the nice cool Sweater Weather that's coming thank you I just said two things uh one thing um if you heard that big list of things that um missani was reading about the curriculum committee um there is nothing more uplifting than
those committee meetings there's just so much wonderful work going on and as a teacher as a previous teacher I know how sacred those summers are and the fact that our teachers and Educators and you know are taking time out of their Summers to come in and do all this great
work it's just like I always leave those meetings with such a big smile on my face and then secondly um the marching man home show like Dr McGary said is this Saturday at 4:30 um we are the host so we performed last but you know I think we we go around around seven
something but if you guys can come out that'd be awesome and then obviously as always please be be careful at drop off it's a zoo out there there the K turns it's it's a little crazy but I think they'll get it to they won't anyone else for the good of the
order saying no one do we have a motion to adjourn so move second all those in favor I opposed motion carries we're adjourned thank you everybody good to see yeah good to see
you as well well you yep