welcome to a meeting of the Board of Education of Somerset Hills please be advised that this and all meetings of the board are open to the public and media consistent with the open public meetings act and that advanced notice required therein has been provided this is a meeting of the Board of Education of Somerset Hills at which formal action
may be taken the public will have an opportunity to be heard as shown on the agenda roll call please Mr Baker here miss Ballard here Miss Clark Emory Miss Cooper here Miss gills M
Gomez Mrs hooby yes Mrs Santoro here Mrs Ry here Mrs fenda here we have a quorum okay thank you um we are going to be going into executive session the open public meetings act authorizes a public body to exclude the public from that
portion of a meeting at which specified topics are to be discussed under circumstances where the public consideration of such topics will clearly endanger the public or where the personal privacy or guaranteed rights of individuals whose activities or Affairs are to be discussed would be clearly in
danger of unwarranted invasions and the matters about to be presented for discussion clearly meet the circumstances test of such act the Board of Education of Somerset Hills now adjourns its public session to reconvene an executive session for the purpose of discussing the following Personnel
student matters contracts negotiations and litigations can I please get a motion to go into executive Miss Ballard in a second Miss Ry thank you you could rise and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance please
to 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
okay thank you and we have a lot of good stuff and recognitions to get to so I'm going to hand that over to Dr brel for the report of the superintendent thank you Mrs Brenda um the first order of business tonight are our student um
student Representatives we're going to kick it off with our folks from the Middle School we have teddy Dee and Owen fery are here to uh present onome hello hello my name is Tedy grand and I'm here representing middle school
infinight tonight I would like to talk a little bit about BMS boys basketball the boys basketball team had a good season this year the team ended up with six and six records winning six games and losing six games the boys s the L game in the first round of the playoffs losing to
Mountain Lakes by three with a score of 52 to 55 the Friday after that game the boys ended the season to win over Madison Middle School with score 59- 60 our team includes 88th graders that
included myself Ryan frame Dylan gim Gregory Lewis Grant Adams Car sing s bori and Max W eighth graders will be missed we also had five five seven on the team Chase Thunder whip faral
case de Johan Ramirez and Teddy thanks to coach Reed and Coach Petri while it is sad see while it is sad that basketball season has come to a close we have BMS spring Sports to look forward to including baseball softball and track I definitely can't wait to play baseball
teams kick off the seasons on March 24th and hope they have good season lastly I would like to talk about our fifth eth grade uh research by our literacy teachers Miss Kimel Miss geores Miss McGovern Miss cor
Miss turn and this students were able to pick research topics that they felt passionate about or wanted to learn more about and then created a trifold that they set up in the media center students gave informative presentation using the
trifold designed to share with various students and staff some resarch topics that were discussed for social media and mental health climate change and its effects the effects of fast Fashion on the environment and multiple presentations on different animal
species it was a great event where students were able to Lear better research skills and create a presentation and discuss and discuss what they Le thank you so much for allowing me to speak tonight and allow [Music] thank you teddy I'll take the stage from
here one of the best activities here that represents our school is the culture and climate culture and climate sets us apart from other schools because the students in this club get the opportunity to create meaningful events for students that combine both education and F we have some great activities
coming up such as TI which is created by own gang the but the student with the most community service hours gets caught up to pie te Bas during their grade LUN it's a fun event and we love that we have teachers cbms that volunteered for such great it's a great way to promote
doing community service as well another coming up is our staff basketball game against the Harlem Wizards on March 17th 7 p.m. in the high school lower G this great team was formed in 1962 to create a better basketball one that combines both Sport and entertainment we had many
teachers at both BMS and Bedwell volunteer to play against wom thank you to our BMS teachers including Mrs St hours Mr Malik Mr B Mr mcgoverin miss thyman Mr RoR m brown Miss Boger Mr calri Mr H and M we are holding a pep
rally at BMS on Tuesday February 25th to promote the event and ser up for school spirit lastly I want to talk about the fifth and sixth grade play Charlie and chocol Factory the play is being held on February 27th and 28th I will definitely be there to support my sister and the rest of the amazing casting cre of the
Ms Right col thank you for having me here tonight and for your time have a great rest of your night thank you teddy and Owen and we have Norah Durack with us tonight to represent the high school [Music] nor can you hear me okay perfect good
evening everyone hopefully you are all doing well this last month you have had had a lot of student events and fundraising the senior class had night of the stars and it was an absolute hit everyone was dressed up and we even had some parents join us on the dance Flor admittedly that might have been my favorite
part uh the senior class is also planning the senior versus faculty basketball game so far they've had 20 students and over 10 faculty members sign up to participate half the funds raised from the game will be donated to the Red Cross to help aid with California Wilders our girl club will
also be participating and they will beting a s sale the game their proceeds will also be going forsed so that's really great to see um the junior class recently hosted a Exel which was Val St be he was actually great over D hallway you could not get through everyone was
very excited uh the money is going towards their junior prom the sophomore class posted a candy grand for Val as well and so many students were excited they were like oh I'm going to S to this person it was everyone was really involved in it um
they also recently had the fast team driver safety presentation and that's really interactive and also super educational for safe driving as many of them are you know going to be getting their permit soon so it's good um Harvard model Congress leaves tomorrow
morning and they've been working super hard they will be returning on Sunday um our musical weekly blonde is also right around the corner performances will be held on March 7th 8th and 9th and everyone has been working super hard in it and at least I can say I'm super excited to go I have a
ton of friends in it so I'm super excited to see that um in addition to the musical in March we also have our signing day coming up which is something to look forward to a lot of students have committed for athletics so that's really great to see uh we also have spring sports starting and I know that everyone's really excited about that as
far as Sports Go I do have our sports update so for boys basketball they are currently 1410 and second place within the division they received their uh the 11th seed in the NJ siaa tournament and they're going to be in Hackettstown on
February 27th girls basketball currently is 195 and they clinched the division championship last night they also received the fourth seed in the njsa tournament and they we will be hosting a
game against West moris on J 27th boys fencing is currently 112 and tied for the championship and Oliver Po and prod will are fencing in the njsiaa state individual tournament so that's really
great to see girls fencing is also 112 and tied within the division as well they won the county championship and Emma gr is fencing in the NJ siaa State individual tournament as well for ice hockey uh Records pretty decent and they're H being very competitive with wi
their ice hockey league being that it is the best in the state so that's really great to see um boy skiing is having a great time in the snow I know they've been looking forward to going up on the mountain girl skiing is currently 228 and the girls made the state playoffs
and races are next week so that should be really exciting boy swim is 47 and Tanner uh pagle was invited to the meet of Champions as a wild card and for girl swim they are 5'7 and Ella Ekko was invited to the meet of Champions as a
wild card boys track is State sectional champions for the third year in a row and state championship ships are this Saturday at the Bennett Center in Tom's River so that's amazing um girls track is going very well the girls finished eth in
States um boys wrestling finished the regular season with a 146 record and the District Tournament is this Saturday at Watchung Hills High School and for girls wrestling there's currently a record of 122 Gabby Rudy won skyling conference
individual girls wrestling championship at hunon so that's amazing and she'll be competing at the girls regional tournament this Saturday at Union High School right thank you so much thank you Nora um our next item uh up on the agenda for recognition tonight
is a recognition of the High School Pinnacle staff um and uh they're a group of very talented um writers here at the high school who uh are also very busy uh because a lot of them could not make it tonight but uh
it was a tremendous honor uh on behalf of um the board to recognize um them for so I will um make mention of the students that are involved in the Pinnacle and for uh their recognition
and I believe we have um I believe we have a slide here um so Miss Snyder is here here uh with with her daughter so welcome and congratulations uh so they've received publication Excellence for the 2023 24
Pinnacle literary magazine they were awarded uh first place with special Merit by the American Scholastic press Association review and an excellent rating in the NCT realm contest so we do have this presentation that we will send
out uh to parents and it will live on our website that does have a clickable link to check out um The Pinnacle site so congratulations um Miss Snyder and we do have some folks here that we are going to recognize with a resolution the first is Lyla
Beckerman uh Marley beers Lyla fredman Jessica Fu Emma grow um vanika
Gupta Julia [Music] hos sorry here Olivia Highland Aya Johnson Joseph Kalinowski [Music] [Applause]
Georgia kissell Robert [Applause] Lopez Stella McDonald Salerno Kaye mwan Kenny Joseph Morandi Alana [Music]
natii Emily pja Gana Charles Quinn nias sanan Abigail Sebastian PR Nash [Music] th Fiona
Vitali and we have um some recent graduates from the high school they were members of the class last year's senior class Rose Castello uh obviously these folks uh are all stud studying in college uh Gian gesi Ava
Highland Briana hoe and Morgan Sykes so congratulations to all these folks and to miss Snider and at this time um Miss frienda we do have some recognitions um for the board [Music]
mhm our first person someone who actually went through the school system and now is having her second graduation as a um retiree so um whereas Lori heus has been employed from September 1984 through June 2025 as an elementary
school teacher and whereas she exemplified expertise commitment and professionalism in her duties and and now therefore be it resolved that the somerset Hill School District and Board of Education recognize Lori he's retirement effective July 1st 2025 and
extend to her congratulations and best wishes for a happy healthy and enjoyable retirement whereas John wace has been employed from January 1996 through February 2025 as a high school teacher and whereas he exemplified expertise
commitment and professionalism in his duties and now therefore be it resolved that the somerset Hill School District and Board of Education recognize John ls's retirement effective March 1st 2025 and extend to him congratulations and best wishes for a happy healthy and
enjoyable retirement at any given time a board of education and an Administration and the folks that are in the district uh are involved in three budgets at the same time uh you're involved in building
your future budget you're involved in spending your current budget and monitoring that and you're involved in reviewing the budget before that so every year we have uh an audit which is an opportunity to bring in a third party
to review uh the Financial Health of your district and to review the practices uh that take place uh from a financial perspective in the district um so we have our annual uh audit presentation uh tonight and our auditing
firm from Supple Clooney and Company um are here to present uh their [Music] findings whoops okay good evening um this is the presentation of the audit
for the year in it this uh June 30th 2024 um as U superintendent says every year required to have a financial but you also required to have a compliance audit with rules and regulations of the State uh you should have received two reports one's the annual comprehensive
report that has the financial statements in it and then there's a small report it's called the auditor management report even though this report is only around 20 pages long it's reported by a audit manual that the State Department of Education gives us and it's about
three 350 pages long all these different compliance requirements that they uh require us to look at and it deals with uh you know Personnel payroll purchasing and it also includes uh Student Activity funds this is the funds that they're maintain at the school they collect
funds for different classes and this is where your recommendations would be and under the Student Activity and what's required is that the recommendation be read into the into the record uh so on page 13 of the smaller report um there is just one recommendation and
it deals with the student body activities and it just says the district take measures to ensure that the analysis of balance in the high school student activity fund agree with the reconciled bank balance and what we're trying to say there is you're collecting funds from different purposes by different accounts you know class
accounts fundraisers different activities that didn't equal what the money was in the bank there there's a discrepancy between the two we're able to get it to work but it just took us a long time to do that so that's what you want to do it's an internal control in other words the money coming in should be recorded what's in The Ledger should be recorded what's going
into the bank account uh and that's the only recommendation we did have this year everything else was uh you know everything else we checked in the uh business administrator's office anything we asked for was in compliance with the rules and regulations so that was the only recommendation we had uh the bigger
report is this is the actual uh comprehensive report this is where the financial statements are there's a lot of information in here it's not just Financial uh it's also about demographics and debt capacity and and things like that um a lot of redundancy in this report there's three or four
different presentations it's budgetary basis Gap basis then there's a combination of Gap and cash bases U makes a little bit confusing um but there's one schedule I always like to point out to uh you know administrators and board uh members it's it's called
the it starts on page 89 and goes to page 99 it's the budgetary comparison report and the only reason I like this schedule it's the only one in here what very detailed it's it's your budget it tells you the amount of revenues You Realize by different categories it tells
you where you spent your money by the different categories it gives you the variances to the budget to what you had so if you're working on your 25 26 budget you kind of can use this as a guideline and it's the only place in here that actually operates uh presents your information as a profit and
loss and uh that's your fund balance and you come down to the yearend you basically end it where you started from I mean you start it with 11 million 600,000 in Surplus you ended the year with 11,309 so you're basically where you started from Z for financial
healthwise it's uh it's very good now your Surplus is comprised of 11, 309,000 but that's not all free and clear because as you're operating during the year you're putting money aside for different purposes that you're allowed by law you have a capital reserve of 5.4
million this is for Capital Improvements you want to make to the district you have a maintenance reserve of 1,67 now that's a reserve there to maintain the facilities not just build them there's unemployment insurance of 53,000 uh you have the money that you're
using in the budget 393,000 there's a reserve for incuman is 2 mil5 that's just unfulfilled orders so when the orders come do in July August September you have money set aside to pay for them and your unassigned Surplus that's your 2% that the state let you have is
1,488 so financially you're very healthy uh also when a report I mean it's a single audit we check all your grants that you're getting during the year okay and you get what they call we give you a clean opinion in other words you're in compliance you have internal controls or in compliance with all the rules and regulations of the state U if there's
any questions about any of the reports that we do I don't know if you had these reports for a while but if you if you had a chance to look at them and if you have any questions I mean if you don't have any question questions tonight I mean you could ask I mean if you have a question fine I mean but if you don't have anything just get back to me through the superintendent or the ba we
glad ask sorry go ahead um I've had several people ask me how much Federal funding are are we getting what's the best way to what display shows the total federal funding I know there's covid
money that we're spending but what display shows the total federal money for this particular year just the place you would see that it's it's um I mean I can see it in various spots
but I'm looking yeah no I just want to get to the schedule it's it's in the back yeah cuz I know back in the one no it's it's it's the C2 it's the detail of the grants in other words here
on on the C2 page 100 on 100 okay and if you see your revenues up at the top it'll you go across it'll say Federal sources $932,000 right okay there perfect that's your total federal that you're receiving
from okay from outside sources and I obviously I know a lot of the covid money was in there um yeah so the current number is going to be different than then I from what I gather so but yeah um okay let me just that's 900 okay
let's go back let's go back to page let's see let's go back to page 88 it may be on here it could have been passed through in other words even though it's federal aid it could have been passed through from the state but this is the only only federal aid we have is the Medicaid
reimbursement for 500 000 everything else is coming from the state right that's a that's a whole that's a whole separate item that's a whole separate thing yeah on the Medicaid good but thank you very much okay you're welcome there any other questions comments if you have anything else on me
I'll get back to you if you need to do anything I I would just like to uh thank the the ba and the superintendent for the courtesies they extend US during the engagement we come in we kind of be a little bit disruptive we ask for a lot of information because we're looking at all the detail and they also i' like to thank the board for the uh appointment
we do appreciate the business so thank you thank you thank you [Music] [Music]
bit of a review here um last month we were able to announce at our board meeting that uh school newspapers online did recognize the work uh taking place at the high school we have a press release uh that we're able to produce in
the interim since our last board meeting uh high school did make the top 20 uh we were the 19th School in the country to be recognize uh second year in a row that we were uh able to earn this recognition and we're only the second School uh in New Jersey U to be
recognized so um a lot of great things happening in the area of literacy here uh at the high school bedwell's had an it had a exciting month for sure um they had a a Lego day um in conjunction with
or a Lego design contest in conjunction with World Lego day uh we had a few students at the at Bedwell uh Nora Markley and Finn Reagan who approached um Mr Pho last fall and proposed a Lego
contest uh there were over 100 projects from all grade levels that participated in this contest a lot of great designs robots cars Towers houses Sports Fields classrooms a maze and a giant Mr thurlo was
created um Mr T they call him um when I was growing up Mr T meant something else um but so Mr thorow was a new Mr T and uh the winners uh received a a great 3D
printed mini finger a mini mini figure uh that was equipped with a bronze platform and a Bedwell logo so that was um a gift from parent Mike Donahue who printed all of these items um personally
and donated them uh to Bedwell so certainly many thanks there uh and we had um some great honores and something that uh again is uh was just awesome coming out of Bedwell um Bedwell also set out to
collect as many boxes of cereal as possible to donate to the Market Street Mission uh with the idea that they too could demonstrate a chain reaction and that Chain Reaction both literally and figuratively was on display with a giant
serial box Domino path um and you know I've seen a lot uh in my days as an educator and uh being on site that day uh was a first for me and it was awesome um so throughout January students uh were led by Megan dly uh and the fourth
grade link club they collected 8 120 boxes of cereal um miss geling our second grade class was the top collecting class and grade four was the grade level to collect the most um the week of January 27th represented
bedwell's great kindness Challenge and students decorated kindness theme Book theme bookmarks to be distributed at Bedwell and at the burnor libraries and they also decorated coffee sleeves uh for Priscilla's pantries a pantry and
Bear coffee uh so we also had a schoolwide pep rally and um that's where the the great Domino um the Domino chain took place uh so there's great photograph that Bedwell passed along um
and uh character Ed is is there also and um it was just something great so we do have a second slide here just kind of demonstrating as best we can just the depth and breadth of this project it took the entirety of the gymnasium and they were able to get every single kid
in there and uh it was uh it was something the Bedwell band was on full display and another great day in Somerset [Music] Hills uh the high school uh sophomore class had I think fast uh interactive
presentation it was an assembly and uh they came uh to the high school in early February it was a culmination of the high school Auto Safety requirement and the entire sophomore class again took place or took part in this um students were paired up in the teams they use
handheld remotes and with a goal of earning points uh for their team by buzzing in with correct answers um to multiple choice and true false questions um driver safety is critical uh whether you're talking with a teen or an adult
um it's such an important Point here and it's far too often that as drivers we pass um accidents and collisions on our highways uh 50% of teen deaths from car accidents were from cars driven by teens
um another staggering statistic is that 94% of crashes are due to human behavior and 30 and every 39 minutes someone is killed by a drunk driver uh these are sobering facts whether you are a uh
student here at the high school uh a board member a member of the public or or or or what have you um so this is a uh a really important um activity for our sophomores and for our uh future drivers here uh in the area and um we
were able to Garner the support of the somerset County's Somerset County prosecutor's office and the New Jersey Division of highway traffic safety uh Mr spouts and Mrs ok' Conor uh really made this um a very big success at the high
school we have a few photos there there um kids had a great [Music] time we have some budding French um French language experts uh at the high
school mayam and Parker capgro are eighth graders at the high school who won the American Association of teachers of French Nationwide French writing contest uh so the prompt ask the students to write about a French speaking place that would like to visit and to include what they would like to
see what they would like to do and what they would like to eat um the students demonstrated an excellent command of future T higher level vocabulary and sentence structure was evident and the writing uh was well researched um so it was um it was a great day we were able
to uh hand deliver a monetary prize of $75 to each participant and um it was just another great example of great things happening in our uh World Language Department my assistant Mia likes to
challenge me every month and um she does have a phonetic breakdown of the title of the slide and I did practice it I'm a bit nervous um but um feliz feliz tazan
o Les uh which is uh about as good as I'm going to do at this point um but uh she does like to have fun with my slides um high school has an everyday hero that
um that they named uh Kaye mcowan Kenny uh who's a senior at the high school and she was also recognized uh earlier tonight for her work on the Pinnacle uh she's the everyday hero in February uh people describe her as selfless uh she considers uh others other people's needs
first um she has positive contrib utions um to make her learning environment better uh she's been described as very mature uh in what she contributes to classroom discussions uh sets a positive example and easily makes friends uh with
those um uh that needed uh she's involved in extracurricular activities and she cares about making the high school uh a great place so it's great to recognize uh her Mash's Food Service uh featured a
February event at the high school Jersey fresh roasted mushroom tasting uh February 13th over in our uh cafeteria uh Christian Kalinowski and his team focused on uh mushrooms and uh they made
uh chicken marsala soup and they roasted mushrooms at the Pizza Station and it was a big hit our history hallway is a monthly uh has a monthly Staple in our um reports here for the board the girl up Club
started an empowerment initiative where one component is for club members to create an informative display in the hallway in February the girl up club uh created a display for Black History Month uh so special thanks to J
petango we heard a little bit about sports uh and we have our winner Sports and certainly um the hockey team has a nice action shot there they have a recent uh 3-2 win over North hunon and we're told from coach spouts that
they're finishing their season uh playing their best hockey uh as is the ski team they are uh moving along in the the the state U playoffs uh if if you will for skiing and our wrestling team
there's a photo there we have a new coach uh coach filieri who is also a physical education teacher at the middle school there's a photo there from uh a contest at our tournament in Irvington and we had uh two of our wrestlers uh
won um their their weight classes and many of our wrestlers uh placed in that event so that was always great to see uh March is uh quickly approaching and uh so is Legally Blonde so if you're interested um come join us and you can
get tickets uh for that as well on our website and the intergenerational prom is is uh coming in early May May 2nd and we are planning to have uh 75 student volunteers and approximately 100 senior
citizens from our community and uh it's going to be a roaring 20s theme 7 weeks into 2025 and you can certainly get um more information from our website and from our Friday folders
regarding the happenings at um inside the district uh and as we move forward uh towards next school year kinderart kindergarten registration has been uh moving forward we have 82 kids in counting um already registered for
kindergarten we're projecting about 95 um to be in our in our kindergarten section so um things are moving along there we have been doing some work uh in our operation responding for excellence
uh we held meetings in January uh and early February and we have a third meeting next week I'm looking forward to that very much uh right now we were able to develop some communication loops with uh families that were able to be with us
on site twice um I I would like to point out the depth and breadth of the feedback uh was extraordinary uh it was extremely helpful it was Vivid and very appreciative apprec I appreciate very
much uh we focus in four um four separate areas in order to examine the work that we're doing uh in order to improve and to get better and to focus on uh our end results for our end users um we focused on enhancing our
organization developing a supportive culture with families um focusing on our evaluation process and the implementation of services themselves and also planning for our future uh we were able to have um one one of those
evenings in particular uh was very productive and we then capillari that work out and um asked those that couldn't be in attendance whose children are uh qualified for special education services or have a Section 504 plan um
to submit their experience through a survey as well uh so we were able to um connect with folks that couldn't make it those evenings and connect with folks that were able to make it those evenings and got robust information from both groups uh so um we are actively uh
putting um that feedback together um what you see up on the um up on the screen um is I I can't say that it's graphic art that I personally created but I did feed uh some very important
words into a generator that um that really speaks to the feedback that we received in person and through um a survey instrument with the community who have children that that are qualify for
special education services or children who have a Section 504 plan uh so some of the I'm going to read uh the words that are in there um uh because they're important words and they speak to uh the themes that that that have come out in
these sessions and the themes that serve as our Direction um inclusion communication consistency collaborative screening supportive friendly involvement recognition sharing access transition
provide authentic engage articulation implementation strategic Partners individualized invest connect transparent timeline accountability behaviorist neuros pychology Advocate
feedback workshops counselors mindful understanding realistic logical rational social needs graduation open data measurable patient transparent transitions options working with
functioning parents students Educators discussions team members and counseling these are all very important words to me uh and I think that they're very important words to the folks that have been able to connect with us uh as we
drive our work forward and as we continue to make efforts to connect um our efforts to the end users on the front lines in our classroom so our kids can Excel and um they're they're important words to me these words
were the words that were written um and spoken with the highest level of frequency in comparison to others so these are all really critical words certainly there's context uh to each of them that we are going through in coding and we're going to begin um that next
level of work with our parent groups on the 25th uh so it's been really um it's been really impactful to me and to the district and certainly to the students here so um I'm excited about this work uh We've also have a group of about
a 100 parents in the district and staff members that are on a um a um email blast uh list that we have that have asked to be included in future communications and events Etc uh guiding this work uh and in that group we do
have 50 15 committed uh parents and staff members who are very interested in establishing a special educ parent advisory group and that is uh will'll serve as our next level of work um and that's a collaborative uh engagement
with with all parties and it's really important that um that we do that and and that's next on the docket we are developing a budget and uh certainly the early winter months uh focuses on that uh I've been reporting
you know on that work we're in kind of the phase of what I call the hurry up and waight phase uh so we're we're sort of ready for the governor to issue his budget address uh he has that addressed scheduled for February 27th and then um
48 hours after that the Department of Education releases uh state aid allocations to the district and then um we we kind of get into that Final Phase of putting a tenative budget together that is balanced for the board to
consider in a budget Retreat we will be having a budget Retreat on March 15th at 8:00 here in this room and that will um outline a lot of the NS and bolts of of what our budget plan is and how everything kind of came together what
our priorities are uh we are bracing for a reduction in state aid and um you know we will uh be prepared for that so um not a surprise
altogether um and I I think I shared last last month maybe I didn't the what I do and it's not the over really exciting but uh I do follow the state treasurers reports throughout the
year and what you're what we're finding as a state and as consumers we're spending less right and when you spend less money there's less taxes coming into the state When there's less money coming into the state there's less less to distribute out uh
so things like school funding and things like the budget are dependent on re Vue streams and so when revenue streams don't produce the same amount of Revenue don't produce the same amount of fuel you have um some
variations in how state aid is able to be allocated outward um earlier in the meeting you heard uh Mr Baker has some dialogue uh about covid funding right and many school districts are seeing um and we've all been prepared for this but
Co funding kind of coming off of the books and those allocations being expended and uh many school districts use covid funding in variety of ways and you have to prepare for that reduction you know of funding so um we're prepared
and um you know be a different type of budget year but we will present a balanced budget uh to the board and uh more to come on that on the 15th if not sooner uh we were recently at the Bernardsville planning board and um last
Thursday night that board uh did agree with the district that the installation of LED lights on Old cot field is consistent with the permitted use for that particular site um and uh we presented what's called a courtesy review to the planning board and they
responded in kind with an approval letter uh to the board's Council on that so we will be prepared uh in our budget to um to install uh hopefully uh in the summer in advance of the fall season so
just as a bit of a reminder to the board there's been a significant um Improvement in the quality of athletic lighting uh since 1977 uh we intend to contract with musco sports lighting um and uh they are the
industry standard and uh certainly um I would use the term precise to describe how their lighting um impacts our uh facilities uh here's a photograph of what the top the the actual uh lighting
unit looks like it's very different it's not the big giant bulb that that we saw in the 70s um and if if you have school AG or School AG kids that participate in in Youth Sports up at the Polo Grounds you will have seen them um very similar
uh we have four pole locations our site at the high school is a bit different because on the visitor side we do have um we do have those structures that we have to kind of work around so the poles themselves are not uh uniform you know
they don't kind of create a box uh we will be constructing what they call a 50 candle watt lighting system uh so what that means is the center the average candle
um for the core for the entirety of the project is an average of 50 um so in order to get light to the center of the field from the other side of the shed you have to have um certain level of height and a certain level of Direction there and [Music]
um we're looking forward to kind of having that system in here um we're focused on being good neighbors we spent uh a lot of time listening and learning and I've spent um a similar amount of time with our vendors
explaining um what it's like um to live in the in the OT region and what I feel like our responsibility is uh as a board to that region uh so we have ensured with our venders and with Architects that uh the lights that we
install will be maintained uh on the field uh you have a heat map there uh photograph that does outline uh where the intensity of the light is uh and then you see how as you move into the stands and behind the stands um the light
dissipates so the field gets lit the neighborhood does [Music] not um final final uh Point um you know congratulations to the board um you you sought out to listen you sought out to
learn um you sought out to work with the community and you did that and um I'm happy for you you I I know it was an area of of big priority for a long period of time so uh well earned and at the end of the day I I think that it is
a um a big bonus for the students at the school district level to be able to uh have access to our facilities and and that was the goal of the board uh we are we've finalized our decision to move forward with a website
hosting platform called final site uh I did discuss this a few months ago um between final site and another vendor uh we are moving uh forward with final sight we like the customer service very much we like um kind of the their behind
the-scenes support in in the development of the website we have a goal to roll over on August 1st and the intention is to give you the month of August to get some of the bumps and wiggles out of the way um you know in advance of uh the
start of the Academic Year um in the event that you haven't had a chance to look at some of the other exemplars is a national Regional and a local uh Exemplar that uses final site Virginia Beach man Olive am mendum uh there are about 20 or 30 different
types of templates uh a lot of different options we're at the point now where we internally are examining the templates and uh just for fun we'll we'll throw out three templates for the board to you know kind of give an opinion on um but
we're kind of identifying those as we speak uh we will also be having an app um and I showed that video a few weeks ago okay uh moving on um we continue to
examine uh cell phone usage uh as as a point of reminder we were asked by our Bedminster rep in um the fall to think about how we're utilizing our cell phones uh in our schools and we found
that um students K to8 are in alignment with Bedminster as far as uh particular um practices uh we don't have a cell phone policy per se uh we're getting close to having those discussions with the policy committee uh but we don't
have a policy right now what we do is we have um school-based practices that are built into our um parent handbooks um Etc uh we did have a survey and I want to give you a little more detail as far
as survey participation we had staff members about 54 uh 378 parents 358 kids and 57 uh didn't answer who they were but they did participate um so uh just a kind of a a
brief snippet of of one particular prompt that we'll talk about tonight uh when should students be able to use cell phones in schools uh 438 parents and students which is about 50% of the total um answered always and uh 2/3 not
surprisingly of those 438 were students um interestingly there were students that answered never uh so it it wasn't unanimous um there were 104 respondents uh which is about 10% of the total who
answered never uh 90% of those respondents were parents and teachers uh we use a descriptor called teacher discretion uh I would say that there was um a lot of alignment around teacher
discretion meaning um 231 respondents which is about a quarter of the respondents um who answer answered teacher discretion um and 75% of those folks were parents and teachers um that
would be applied with any as an example any in school um in school practices in order to curb classroom use uh there were some outlier responses uh 15% of participants felt one of two
ways uh that students should be given 100% autonomy or it should be dependent on the grade level um neither of which are probably realistic um so if you're a parent over a third believe that a student should
have access access to their phone and just about a third a little less than a third believe in the school development procedures for cell phone usage um of the remaining third uh about half of that group uh believes that
students should not have any access um our next level of work here on behalf of the board is developing a responsible course of action so uh through Dr Butler uh we're going to lead
a review of the research on literature and Adolescent impacts and uh that task force will inform the policy and Personnel Committee of the board um in which to you know best prepare that group in order to um have discussions
and um consider all the various options and to um think about um the next steps here so um I have had um conversations with people that are are vly against cell phones I've had conversations with
people who are fully supportive I've had conversations with people that say you're in charge figured out yes perent teachers that should never have access or disc uh I can look into that
specifically for you and get back if I could yeah no problem uh we haven't gotten that far are you interested okay okay yeah and it's you know I think we need to be guided like surveys are
surveys right and and I think when you have these polarizing subjects you're going to get um you're going to get a a slice of of a few different perspectives you saw that with with the allott lighting project um and I think that
next level for us is to dive into the health and safety impacts longterm on um screen time and you know what that you how that impacts a child I'm really
happy yeah and I think and I appreciate that and I think it's important to be thoughtful and deliberate in this work and um you know it's um it's certainly important work looking ahead um responding for excellence meets on the 25th you're all
more than welcome uh we are interviewing again for the Bedwell principal position uh which is taking place uh in late February and early March uh we're kind of at the not the very very beginning of that but sort of getting into the middle
um I have identified a finalist for the business ad business administrator vacancy which I'll be going to the executive County Superintendent on for approval um budget gets um up and mve in next week and we have a tenative um
adoption for our budget uh I wanted to take a moment uh if I could for a few more moments there's been it's been a busy month um from a federal perspective and and I want to share some some important things to the board uh particularly around some of the major
executive orders um and I'll argue that every executive order is Major um they've been um you know they've consumed U members of the public they've consumed members on the board that have a very significant fair questions about
these executive orders and I just want to share how does that impact work in Somerset Hill School District right that's it's important so uh a variety of orders came through and I want to kind of give the backdrop to all of them um
protecting American people from Invasion executive order so that comes against the backdrop of a well-established law that protects the rights of undocumented non-citizens to attend public schools um the United States Supreme Court ruled in the case plier versus doe that
discrimination based upon immigration status is unconstitutional this is also outlined in the New Jersey statutes so New Jersey statutes as a reminder drives what boards do they drive what school districts do and administration does so
that's like our recipe as you will uh New Jersey statue prohibits bwing any student from public school based upon immigration status the district has developed specific guidance for school-based staff in the event that any school is approached by a federal
agent all principles and school-based staff are prepared to execute our protocols accordingly uh in concert with me and the board's attorney uh to my knowledge I have not been any situations involving K to2 schools in New Jersey and that includes Somerset Hills ending
racial indoctrination in K to 12 schooling it's important to stress that the order does not specifically compel local school districts to take any action regarding the executive orders that have been issued in the past month New Jersey statutes are at odds with the
dictates of the executive order the order gives appropriate federal agencies the the education defense Health and Human Services 90 days to advise the president of the United States on strategies to meet his goals again the
order does not specifically compel local boards to take any action the executive order does offer insight into the curricular changes sought by the current federal Administration it is impossible to predict for now what recommendations will be made to the president moving
forward and which will be adopted by federal agencies there are several new statutes that require instruction in topics found objectional by the order as an example instruction to allow students
to know and understand the nation's Heritage of slavery and freedom that's a requirement instruction to learn about the contributions that African-Americans have made to our society that's a requirement the requirement to incorporate instruction on diversity and
inclusion and the instruction will examine the impact that unconscious bias and economic disparities have at an individual level and society as a whole that's a requirement regarding the rights of transgender students the statute directs the commissioner of
Education to establish guidelines for accommodations for the needs of those students the commissioner has done so and echoed the requirements outlined in the New Jersey law against discrimination which is still
active executive orders and funding a presidential order discusses a recis of federal funds to states and their local school districts that are non-compliant with its dictates the order itself recognizes that doing so may be limited
by law and pushes the boundaries of the executive Branch's Authority by attempting to push the boundaries of the federal government's authority to dictate Educational Services and curricula at the state level keeping men out of women's sports
it is important again to stress that the order does not specifically compel local school districts to take any action this order is at odds with the existing New Jersey Law and with formal mjd guidance and guidance from the New Jersey state
inner Scholastic Athletic Association the district follows the state statute outlined in njsa 18 that permits students to participate in athletic activities consistent with their gender identity the best way to describe all of these
matters is there are multiple entities at the state level from the Department of Justice to the attorney general to the Department of Education to the njsiaa that are examining all of the orders and none of them have given us
any direction uh to the contrary um to to to operate outside of how we always have so I wanted to share um that information with the board Bo um and in specifically because it has U Been a um
a topic of conversation I have uh taken several calls and meetings uh with concerned parents and residents of school AG children and non-school aged children regarding the functionality of the district so I wanted to uh share that information with you this evening
excuse me I know youve read that a lot it was I'm sorry there was a lot there so you mentioned yes New Jersey has our laws that we abide by um and our requirements
for graduation and the whole you didn't mention there though if we contradict what the president has set forth has there been any indication of
what's the consequence is it a funding issue is it a yes what like this is serious like there's a lot going down and I know that there was a lot that you read you know and and it started with
yes we are this is Black History Month as it should be you know um but then there's a lot of stuff that's changing you know I don't want to be political but you know it affects our children and our
children's education and I guess are we prepared or is the state prepared to fight back against such orders so I would say
that the orders that I mentioned many of if not all of them are on some level in conflict with State Statute so your question is is this as I understand it is the state prepared to fight back and
what I will say is I don't speak on behalf of the State uh but there are multiple legal well there are multiple legal entities that are examining the orders from the Department of Justice the Attorney General representatives from the doe that is are packed with
attorneys uh and even the State athletic association um are examining all of the components of the order uh I would imagine that they're taking a deep and Broad look at these and I would imagine that when they arrive at
conclusions they will give direction to school districts to the department Etc but um there are there are a lot of um examples inside of the orders that are in conflict with State Statute right
so now you know that needs to be weighed out and um you know it is an important point to reinforce that the United States Constitution provides the responsibility to each of the state in our Union to
oversee education and so um you see in some of the language that that I shared tonight there there's some overstep it seems in the orders where they're trying to prescribe so we're going to leave
that work up to the folks at Justice and attorney general and the doe and in the meantime uh to be clear many of in many of these cases we are not as school districts
being compelled to change our work you're in constant communication obviously with the Department of Education and the governor's office and what that and if there is something you would let us know like right away okay
yes good all right thank you yes um certainly that's my job thank you thank you for the time thank you um that was a lot of very important information included in there thank you for taking the time to explain
it to us and the public as it stands right now um and we will open it up to public comments the first public comment section we very much welcome input from the Public Public comments are welcome at this time on any actionable agenda item towards the end of the meeting
there is a second public forum on any topic please state your name and address comments are limited to 3 minutes at 3 minutes you will be interrupted and asked to pause to allow any other members of the public who would like to speak an opportunity to do so an individual May return to the podium to complete their statement after everyone
else has had an opportunity to speak for a total of two times at the podium please understand that our public forums are not structured as question and answer sessions but are offered as opportunities to share your thoughts with the board in instances where the board feels there is a misunderstanding or inaccuracy the board president or
superintendent May address the comment in accordance with Jersey statute the board will not discuss matters regarding specific Personnel public comments will be limited to 30 minutes in this section a reminder for all parties and attendance to remain respectful and that there should be no interaction between the speaker and the audience no members
of the audience should interfere with or interrupt the speaker's comments we thank you in advance for your input any public comments at this time okay can I get a motion to close public comments Mrs Santoro and a
second Miss R thank you um okay then we will move on to the approval of the minutes I am going to ask for a motion to approve the public input and action and executive meeting minutes for January 2nd 2025 and January 20 for
January 2nd and for January 22nd 2025 can I get a motion to approve the minutes Miss R and Miss happy did you do you want to do a second I'll second okay thank you and is there any discussion regarding the
minutes no okay then roll call please miss Ballard yes Miss Clark Emery yes Miss Cooper yes Miss Gomez sorry I just have a question today about should I have since I wasn't here
on January for okay thank you Mrs copy oh now you have me thinking was I here January second yes you were here what you in thank
you okay Mrs Santoro yes Mrs Ry yes Mr Baker yes and Mrs Brenda yes motion passes okay great thank you um business operations Mr Baker if you could provide us with that report
please okay I just want to uh tell the board the reason I'm wearing airpods is uh I have a hearing loss for a lot of frequencies and in some environments like this is very difficult for me to hear everybody so I am not listening to music these were these were gifts from
my grandchildren from Christmas my wife thinks they're stupid anyway moving on it's my five or my 504 plan is what it is anyway anyway um so the business operations committee
met twice since the last time we were here and I was only able to write up one set of minutes because we met yesterday in a special session which I will talk about um but back on February 5th the committee met all members were present
along with Dr brochel and Mrs valestra um and we also had two guests um Mr Brian Morris from phoenic advisor and Mr Tony soline from Wentz law which is our bond Council um we talked about four
different items and one of the items was obviously uh what we're going to do on the referendum going forward and they gave us more of a financial um picture and a timeline so they they have figured that we can do
tax a tax neutral referendum of approximately 38 million at the moment that's based on a 4% interest and U getting 34% back from the state on any uh Renovations or improvements any
constru new construction would not get the 34% um Debt Service they also talked about if we wanted to go higher than that we could go let's say for each million dollars we go beyond 38 million it would cost the
taxpayer about $10 for every Million Dollar on an average house so that's where that is so um and we could also do a second question if we wanted to get above the 2% tax increase so those are
some of their parameters we also talked about it's important what our bond rating is when we get to sell the bonds um if we go through with this then we're going to um hopefully get a good Bond rating that's based on the local economy
the financial strength of of the school board and you heard our accountant today say we're very strong position our balance sheet and our level of debt our current level of debt is is very low compared to other schools the committee ask a lot of what
if questions about how we do this do that it's we had a long we had a long conversation but we're still thinking of key items are uh the security vegetable vesu at uh Bedwell security upgrade throughout you know the district cameras
doors our Locking System needs Improvement stem Labs science labs the Bedwell Media Center where some of the items that that the committee has been talking about for a long time that are high on on our Target
list so based on that we have to get State approval the architect would submit plans and it would take uh about 6 to 8 months so the earliest we could have a public vote would be December not November so we could do December January
or March so those those are where we are right now um I'm going to shift into what we talked yesterday we had the architect come and they gave us a presentation of of everything they found
as they T all four buildings and I equate it to like when you have your home up for sale they come in and they find every little thing every door knob every little scratch and that's what these guys did I mean it's a long list of stuff I
mean it will make your head spin when you read it all but you shouldn't be afraid of it because it's a lot of stuff that is just cosmetic you know and we were not going to do that but um so we'll all get access to that document which is a web based document and it's
really cool the way you can work through it and you can say well how about how about bedw how's the roofs you can look at the roofs they have pictures do 3D modeling and they give costs so you can see what's there and so so the committee will be working with the architect over
the next couple months to come up with a a group of projects that will hit the 38 million and maybe a little bit more maybe a little bit less so um we had a long discussion with them yesterday and it was it was very good but um they they
found everything every crack in in the floor you name it it's there um which you know when you sell your home you're not going to fix everything you're going to fix I got a bad roof I got a bad boiler or I got a bad um uh um there's a
big crack crack in the wall and it's leaning you know things like that so they they didn't find anything that was that I felt bad about you know everything they found we pretty much know is there so that was good um we also talked about the budget
Dr brochel talked talk talked about is the budget and I read this morning in in the newspaper that the worst you're going to lose is 3% that's every school district will not lose more than 3% of state aid so 3% of
our state aid Dr brel calculated was $72,000 not a big numbers compared to schools who lost Millions last year so hopefully we'll be maybe 1% I don't know but we'll wait till next Thursday and that will
help us um finalize the budget um Dr boel said that you know he's almost balanced the budget with what he's got but he's waiting for the state AIDS he's got a few more things to do so we'll learn more at our next committee meeting and then at our budget retreat on
Saturday the 15th um another item we talked about was um he's still recommending and the committee agrees that we should apply for a grant to get money to do a
consolidation study with Bedminster all right um that doesn't mean we're going to do it but we can get grant money to do that and so uh as long as both boards agree we'll go for with getting that Grant um
I'm not sure how much the grant is do you have any idea what the grant level is Dr BR the studies seem to have been around the $75,000 range okay but don't quote me on that yeah suround that okay so so
we'll continue to to pursue that as a committee and uh we we might get a resolution on our next um uh next board meeting we also talk about the hot water heater which is at at at the middle
school one of those is broken so we have to fix it $9,000 um and the maintenance department will do that um and I think he also mentioned
um I think that covers it all okay all right so I'll turn it back to Mrs frienda okay thank you I'm sorry can I just add one um one point point to this uh regarding the facility uh study that was done this was
a an additional add-on item that I felt strongly that the board should do given that we brought on a new architect and um I will say that the quality of the work is superior and the tool that you all will
be um availed uh is outstanding and so it's um it's a new age as far as your architectural services goes um high quality and uh I want you to know on the administrative side the we are very very
happy with the quality of their work and um reading the room of the business operations committee it seems like that opinion is [Music] commensurate thank you um okay so then I would like to ask for a motion to
approve action items number 1 through 15 on the agenda Mr Baker in a second Miss Cooper um and is there any discussion I will just um support what Dr brosel just said the
investment that we made in this will pay 10-fold wait till you guys see this um the documentation and the level of detail that we now have access to and instead of getting a bind
you know it used to be facilities we get a binder every couple years and we take it off and dust it I mean this thing is going to live and anytime A change is made to our buildings it will be updated and you know it was an investment that
was well worth it so I'm so glad you brought it to our Attention our Architects did an amazing job um I think you guys are all going to we were all pretty excited so we were it it it was incredible just the level of detail in this and you can go through it like zoom in like you're touring a house or
something and see all the areas walk through the buildings you could read what's like on the boxes in the classroom it is truly um wonderful and I know that Dr vir and Heather are saying it just there this is like a web-based
platform and and we are everybody will have access to it so the in especially in the discussion of a referendum everybody will be able to go in you will be able to see every of information you will be able to see the different items that they have tagged throughout the
buildings on the roof on the ground on the pavement every you know like everything top to bottom but you know they walked us through it last night we're going went through one building one school and we're going to be playing with this for countless hours and weeks and whatever to really get on top of
everything but I just wanted to make sure that everybody understood that it is a web-based platform that you will have um access to and be able to peruse you know the same way that we it could take hours yes go through everything but I know it's hard to get excited about
but get excited cuz it is so cool is excited is there anybody else Bob very uh um snaps for you to get all that in from the meeting last night into this
report today impressive yes and also you know you always explain things in a very um understandable way for your fellow board members and the public so that is definitely appreciated I know we have a lot of work on the budget side and you know with in particular with regards to
the referendum but it would be an exciting couple week I mean we really only have a few weeks I think to dig into this right yes we got to move on this yeah um so I'm looking forward to digging in and getting this all detailed
absolutely absolutely okay if there's nothing else we'll do roll call M Clark Emory yes Miss Cooper yes M Gomez yes Mrs hoppy yes Mrs Santoro yes
Mrs Ry yes Mr Baker yes M Ballard yes Miss Renda yes motion passes um before we move on does anybody have anything for old business for business operations or for new business oh wait she wanted
tostain I needed to can we do it over again yeah you want to do it you want to roll is that the best way to do yeah I think so okay I just gotc we're going to roll again okay Mrs M Clark Emory yes M
Cooper yes M Gomez yes Miss Mrs hoppy yes Mrs Santoro yes but I will abstain from 234 four and five okay Mrs Ry yes Mr Baker yes Miss
Ballard yes Mrs fenda yes motion passes okay thank you so much for that um and we will move on to curriculum Miss Cooper all right um our curriculum committee met Tuesday February 4th for an hour and a half all committee members
attended as did Dr brochel Dr Butler and Dr ederton we began the meeting with a presentation by Dr ederton on math sequencing alignment and achievement during the transition between the Middle School and the high school for years the transition between between algebra at the middle school and honors geometry at
the high school and between honors geometry and honors algebra to in the high school has been a struggle for many students and families this has been confirmed by data Dr ederton presented on student achievement in the past two to three years according to these these data while students who achieve an A+ in
in middle school algebra 1 tend to achieve an A+ the following following year in in high school honors geometry those who receive an A in middle school algebra 1 typically receive an b or a B minus in high school honors geometry
while students who achieve an A minus or a B+ in BMS Algebra 1 typically receive a B minus or a c in high school honors geometry Dr ederton also presented related njsla data in 2003
Middle School 7eventh grade students in Algebra 1 scored a level four none failed but none scored a five among eighth grade students who took Algebra 1 20% didn't pass the njsla and only 4% achieved a five in 2024 all BMS 7th
grade students scored at least a level scored at a level four or five and 14% of eighth graders didn't pass the njs laa and 5% achieved a level five after considering these data Dr Edon concluded that we may be over identifiying
students for math acceleration in grades 5 through 7 and placing too many students in honors geometry in grade n the proportion of students in uh Somerset Hills placed in an accelerated pathway in the middle school is 50% or in uh twice as high as the percentage of
students taking accelerated math in Bedminster in light of these findings in 2024 2025 teachers will recommend students for for high school geometry honors only if they have a current middle school algebra 1 grade of at least a 93 and as a cross reference
njsla algebra one score of at least 760 and iy scores consistent with these results to ensure uh middle school and high school algebra geometry course geometry courses are aligned articulation and visits between the high school and middle school teachers will
continue this month Dr ederton also recommended delaying double acceleration until the high school decisions to double accelerate students before 9th grade should be based on solid evidence of exceptional student achievement no math acceleration should be offered Beyond two years ahead she also
emphasized the importance of accurate conservative recommendations based on multiple data points given the significant percentage of accelerated Algebra 1 students in Middle School not passing the njsla some members of the committee recommended that the district increase the rigor of
middle school algebra 1 Dr ederton uh emphasized that this may be might be best achieved by increasing the time allotted to math instruction with the same teacher at at BMS given the vast discrepancy between the number of minutes allotted to math instruction between BMS and other middle schools the
curriculum curriculum committee has repeatedly discussed and supported this recommendation while the committee understands logistical challenges associated with increasing time for math instruction it feels strongly that this is critical to improving student achievement and math in the middle school and high school and should be a
priority for the district we then briefly discussed some developments regarding instruction in Asian-American and Pacific Islander contributions to US history in our community and just as a reminder beginning in 2022 New Jersey Law required student districts to or school
districts to Pro provide instruction on the history and contributions of asian-americans and Pacific Islanders as part of the implementation of New Jersey student learning standards and social studies this fall several students from the high school participated in and graduated from the Asian-American and Pacific Islanders
inaugural youth leadership program in which students learned more about aapi history by developing their own individualized and personalized projects congratulations to all who participated in this excite participated in this exciting new program and finally we briefly discussed the implications of
recent Federal actions in our district um thanks to Dr brochel for providing a detailed summary in his report tonight um no concerns with regard in erased regarding any of the PD or field trip requests currently on the agenda for approval and that concludes my
report thank you so much um so at this time I'd like to ask for a motion to Pro uh to approve action items number 1 through 10 on the agenda Mo and a second Miss Ry and is there any discussion regarding the curriculum no um I I know we've been
talking about adding mad time um for a long time and I know we were able to achieve that um to a degree right towards the end of Co I or like as we transitioned out of Co so I'm just wondering what you think the feasibility of that will be
and you know how long we would be looking at it taking to do something like that cuz I know the master schedule is complicated so it's certainly something that we are
committed to trying to do um there are a lot of factors um in creating the master schedule but it's definitely at the top of our priority list we think it's really important yeah
okay thank you is there anybody else I yeah I have a question in this um is about um the difference between bwell
middle school and Bedminster how did Dr Edon found you know like there is a discrepancy like it's 50% of the students that are in accelerated in B and only 25% is there can they share something that we can do like they they
are sharing with the school or something with why is a discrepancy how is there something we can do um well I know Dr ederton has been working with the principal at um and um you know looking into things I think we're trying to um
maybe be a little bit more conservative okay so it it depends on what Bedminster wants to do though you know we we looked at what each school was using to kind of decide you know who would accelerate and we do use many of the same data points
um not all exactly the same though so yeah the requirement like maybe we say recommendation of a teacher and we don't do it things like that okay right thank you correct me don't they use coat they do use coats who do use coat it it's a a test that they take
earlier on in their school career we were think but also was the N results and they were late right but El I think um we don't do the how do you call the the teacher recommendation I think that's and we they do it here I
think we look at te teacher recommendations so that's I think I think also that to what Dr Butler was saying I think that it's like there's likely going to be somewhat of an evening out in that the data has borne out that we've been likely
overidentifying kids for acceleration so whereas you know like bringing in the njsla data now bringing in our I ready data now it that is giving much more um context to identifying these students um so I think that you know on our ends
we're kind of working that way and then through those discussions that Dr Edon has had with staff at um Bedminster they you know they can make decisions on how to proceed you know with their identification process yeah we're working toward evening hour thank you
okay I me there's we also discussed I'm so sorry we also discussed how um Co played a large part in you know um how children have been
affected in their math achievement you know so it's like we we can't you know when I listen I was on the committee you know we're listening going oh my God you know these scores are you know how is this possible you know because we've always been but you know it's we're just
coming out of a pandemic too and kids were virtual and it's like it's like this perfect storm and then you try and align our um standards with Bedminster and Bedminster to us and then it's just it's
it's it's very difficult and we we do say now that you mentioned Co we do see that um for a while we didn't really have reliable njsla data we do have that now and we do see that it is strongly correlated with performance and achievement as students go on so that's
something that we can really use to um make sure that we're placing our kids in a place where you they um can do their best um I'm sorry guys I'm just gonna I'm just gonna let those just and I just wanted to
reiterate on my report was talking about uh the achievement of a small segment of our students between you know seventh and and and ninth grades or 7th and 10th grades and um I think overall it's important to remember that recognize that you know our math our math
achievement is improving we've in we improving year after year last year we saw quite a significant Improvement um I think they're just areas that we can continue to focus on Happy was there something else you want to say it flew
out attention Okay um anybody has you want to say thank you okay um well then we can do call Miss Cooper yes M
[Music] Gomez Mrs hoppy yes Mrs Santoro yes Mrs Ry yes Mr Baker yes M Ballard yes Miss Clark Emory yes Mrs Renda yes motion passes okay wonderful um and before we
move on does anybody have any items for um new new business for a future agenda or old business for latest curriculum no well then we will move into Personnel Miss Ballard okay all right we have a lot of policy
but not a lot of personnel we just reviewed the agenda for the Personnel uh section basically in our meeting so that's all I have for personnel but wait for policy thank you then at this time I'd like to ask for a motion to approve action items number 1 through 19 on the
agenda may I have a motion Miss Bard and Miss Santoro and um any discussion personel is a tricky one okay then we'll do roll call Miss Gomez yes Mrs
hoppy yes Mrs Santoro yes Mrs Ry yes Mr Baker yes M Ballard yes Miss Clark Emory yes Miss Cooper yes Mrs frienda yes motion passes okay before we move on is
there anything for new business for a future agenda or old business for personnel nope okay then we will move on to policy okay um I just wanted so my report for some reason the printed report that you have in your hand is
missing some of it but I have it on my phone so I will go into to that so just when you see me on my phone it just is H for the second page I'm going to read off of that I'm asking for an exemption um so we met on February 6
from 4: to 5:15 p.m. um in attendance was Mrs Clark Emory Mrs centuro Mrs fenda and Dr brell um we did a lot of first readings of policies uh the first was policy 5111 which is the eligibility
of Resident nonresident students um this is related to the payment of tuition for any non-certificated staff members who do not reside in the district but have been permitted to enroll their children in the educational program of the districts without the payment of tuition
they must now be charged a uniform T tuition amount submitted to and approved by the executive County Su superintendent pursuing to njsa 18a 383 this does not impact our current practice uh
p546 uh High School graduation the filing of the FAFSA which is the federal financial aid form is now required for high school graduation it is however possible to opt out number 5512 harassment intimidation and bulying
in the case of a criminal matter police are the first line of inquiry and reor second the actions are not parallel additionally uh hold on second sorry additionally there was also discussion of the possibility of the board taking Hib refresher
courses if so desired oh and I missed I missed the paragraph I'm sorry a suggestion was made for an expedited system for handling HIV appeals but the suggestion was withdrawn and is not submitted for first reading um 55 33 student smoking new language electronic
smoking devices includes electronic cigarettes vaping nicotine and other substances staff must notify School leaders when a student is under the influence parents and superintendent must also be notified optional R which includes quote students may be required
to have other counseling education end quote 7441 electronic surveillance in school buildings and on school grounds this develops a memor of agreement between the police and the school to activate video equipment and view live streaming video during an emergency
situation p8500 Food Services the revisions of the workingclass fam's anti-hunger ACT include but are not limited to new terminology expansion of income ult eligibility to qualify students for free meals and additional parent
notifications of sco meal information p 9163 spectator code of conduct for inter Scholastic events and this is new schools must adopt a policy that requires immediate removal of a person
persons from the event or School premises for violating The Spectator code of conduct minimum disciplinary issues include suspensions of a person from attending future inter Scholastic events for violating said policy are required education component
for violators parent acknowledgement of receipt of the copy of the policy and code of conduct Provisions for the policy to be posted at all venues hosting competition to the extent possible the policy shall also include an appeal
process um P320 cooperation with law enforcement agencies school districts must annually review revise when appropriate and adopt the uniform State memorandum of agreement between education and law enforcement official NOA pursuant to the
St statute all requirements are detailed in MOA new addition includes option that the superintendent designate a law enforcement unit for the district as well as the Handle With Care policy which requires law enforcement officials
to notify the district when a student enrolled in the district Witnesses something traumatic outside of the school environment the superintendent will designate a point of contact in each School building task with receiving these notifications
and then we went on to uh policy second reading which policy 0155 the board committee bylaw um and then substance abuse the students administrative regulation um and then in March we are going to go through a variety of other
uh policies to review um p551 6 use of electronic communication devices uh p571 academic integrity p571 0 student Grievous grievances P
0614 conduct of board meeting which was requested by a board member in last month's meeting but we didn't have time to get to it so we're going to do it in March and that ends my report thank you very much so then I would like to ask for a motion to appr
approve action items number one and two on the agenda for policy can I get a motion uh Miss Ballard and a second Mr Baker and discussion regarding policy I don't just want to talk about the cell phone usage so I could do that
and you want me to do it now it was in the it was in the superintend so I just wanted to touch on that quickly um I appreciate that a task force is going to be developed um you know because since we started having
conversations on this board watching what our neighbors in basing Ridge are doing there's a lot of Buzz a lot of talk about it so I appreciate that you're going to kind of um you know have Dr Butler guide us through this process
um I do think it's important and I think you know there's a lot going on for our kids so to not consider this um I don't think that would be advisable for kids and what's best for them so I appreciate that and I just wanted to say that so thank you I look forward to the input
that the committee has or the task force has for the committee uh Miss R um I just wanted to talk very briefly about The Spectator code of conduct um I think that's a very good dip policy that the state is putting down now and it will make it
clearer what our responsibilities are as a district and hopefully um teach not only children but their parents about um behaving in public because we have seen
not necessarily here but we have seen you know districts where fights have broken out and and awful things have been said and things like that so I guess I'm not applauding us necessarily I'm applauding the state with coming down with this guidance for us because I
think it'll make things a lot clearer for everyone involved thank you I I I could touch on that I think it's it also helps the administration teachers and and everyone
involved to help um maintain order at these events do you you know what I mean you know gives them a little bit of backing you know instead of saying something and then having somebody come back and you know I'm going to get a lawyer or whatever you
know what I mean so there's this is good and because this is something that came out of njsia it also is it will be a level of uniformity across the state so um of course we add in our own fits to the policy but there will be a level of
um uniformity which is really important that everybody's working from the same place is there anybody else for policy nope okay then can we do roll call please M
Gomez yes Mrs hoppy yes Mrs Santoro yes Mrs Ry yes Mr Baker yes M Ballard yes Miss Clark Emory yes M Cooper yes Mrs fenda yes motion passes okay and is
there anything um New or Old business for policy NOP okay then miss sanur we can move on to Student Services okay all right so student services met at um on
February 6th at 5:30 and all committee members were in attendance as well as Dr brochel um Dr brochel gave a really detailed report of the first topic we talked about so I won't go into um that
in any level of detail and that is the responding for excellence meetings um but he gave us you know the information that he has now shared in his superintendent report the only thing I will say is that the committee is deeply committed to enhancing our special
services and we know that the work that um Dr brochel is leading the district in will only support that so you know we're we're glad that we have been able to bring community members in get feedback
you know have staff participate in that and um you know as we move forward into budgeting the committee feels that the board should really support this work in whatever way is recommended by our
Administration so I just that is what I wanted to know from a committee standpoint next we talked about school climate as that was one of the goals set um and the committee is very pleased to know we will be embarking on a school
climate survey utilizing the New Jersey school climate Improvement platform um through Ruckers This is a free online tool for datag guided School climate Improvement uh it is currently being used by a growing network of 175
districts and 600 schools throughout New Jersey um some of us had learned about this platform over the years predominantly through New Jersey school boards by all accounts it is a really deep thorough dive into school climate
so you know we are definitely glad that we're going to be using this the platform offers our district resources to support team development a calendar of suggested meeting topics and agendas and notetaking tools the actual survey
that will go out to staff and um community members uh it's a validated School climate instrument that is administered electronically to students in grades 3 through 12 staff and parent caregivers interactive data reports with
insights and the ability to compare perceptions within and across schools and by groups data analysis features for exploring School climate straints and news tools for goal setting and the development of strategic excuse me
strategic plans including interactive graphs to monitor progress over time so I included the link in our report but it's probably worth um repeating that you can learn more about this um tool School through New Jerseys school climate.org
and um you know as we've talked about the culture and climate is really critical for our students success as um Scholars and human beings so this is a really important initiative and we're glad to see that we're going to be
embarking on this um next we T we talked about capturing kids Hearts which is a program that has uh that begin and this year at the middle school and we were very excited to hear that great progress is
being made at the middle school with capturing kids Hearts our consultant has conducted walkthrough and training sessions and is extremely impressed by everything that is being done over there by our staff and students they said they
are all very quick Learners and the uh adoption of this program has been excellent overachievers over there um there is a common shared language that is taking hold that is helping to drive a positive culture and um we were so
pleased to hear that student conduct is improving um as of this time in 2223 there were 164 reported conduct incidents last year 23 24 there were
136 and this year at this time there are only 47 results so that is pretty drastic numbers um in such a positive direction um and you know one of the things that has been noticed that kids are feeling
like teachers want to know more about them as people and individuals than just what their grades are and that's critical to their success so committee was thrilled to hear that finally we discussed um a program that BMS will be participating in and it's called No Hate
In the Garden State and it's run by the Office of the Attorney General the division on civil rights and the division on criminal justice and they invite middle and high school students with a passion for civil rights and social justice to participate in this
program it aims to empower the Next Generation to work to eliminate bias and discrimination in their um communities so um they participating youth are invited to elevate their voices and act as Community change agents so the middle school is going to
be participating in that so we look forward to hearing more about how that goes and you know the details of the program so okay well in a change from months past there are action items for student services so I'm going to ask ask for a
motion to approve action items number one through 4 on the agenda can I get a motion please Mrs s and Mrs Cooper a second and is there any discussion regarding student services I I just have a
[Music] question why is it the survey is only third grade to why did why is it third grade and not kindergarten because you have this
wonderful exciting program going on you know with the integrated don't know okay don't know okay but I can ask I can ask the researchers okay I think when so the the work that takes place at Ruckers goes through the institutional review
board oh so we didn't pick the three no no no no so that's that's Rucker's work okay and um you know so there's some considerations there as far as how they conduct their research on human subjects which is okay what's happening all right thank you
yeah anybody else first I just wanted to uh let we start with I just wanted to I'm very happy to see that a lot of work has been put into creating or at least the beginning
of it a parent advisory group I feel like that's where you really can get a lot I mean a lot of people sit outside and talk to one another and those are really good conversations but if we
don't coales those conversations into actionable uh activity then we're really not serving our children and our community as best we can so I'm very
heartened by the idea of creating a parent um a parent group and um you know I commend everybody who showed up for the first meeting and the second and I'm sorry I could not make the second but I will certainly be there for the third
thank you um anybody else so if just to piggyback on what you're saying unfortunately I had to work on those nights and I wish to God I could have gone because special ed you know who I am but
um if you listen closely you know and I am a new board member one thing I am hearing throughout there's like a theme going on here which is culture creating a healthy culture within I mean not that
there wasn't but it's something that is so important in Somerset Hills you know not only to take care of the health and well-being of our children but the health and well-being of their parents the health and well-being of the
community at large and that's huge you know and it's and it speaks volumes to the direction and and I will commend our leader here you know I mean it's it says a lot about leadership and who we are as
a district so I thank you and I thank the board because you've been here way longer than I have and you know it's it's just a testament to you know who we are and thank you I think it is something holistically
that this board is extraordinarily committed to and the recognition that hear it and that we and that we focus on academics we focus on achievement we focus on Wellness in order for those things to be achieved you have to have that that culture and climate existing
from day-to-day so this is something that that as a group we have been very committed to and so happy to have you on board to continue the work um is there anyone else that has anything for student services yes um just question
I I know you probably it but I think it's excellent that you guys are going to have a parent of committee so to speak is that going to be open does the public know how that's going to be for what for what we were just talking oh
yes special service yes so we did invite parents in the district um to participate and we're finding that it's not just one lane that we provide we like to provide kind of multiple lanes because of people's schedules uh so we
do have an inperson model and then we do uh send surveys out um in targeted ways um to get information back um the best way I can describe it is I I like to have circular flow to the way we do work
not linear um you all at the board feel very strongly and I'm hearing it about um having a capillary out and and and really connecting and I feel the same
way and the work that we do can't just be done one way and um I'm just a piece of the circle you're just a piece of the circle we've got 1600 kids and scores of parents and 16,000 residents of of all
the folks that we serve school age families non-school AG families we have challenges that impact um everybody in in in unique ways and we need to be creative to go out and get that information get as much information back
and to develop relationships because those matter the work that we're doing with um parents of children who have qualified for special education services or Section 504 plans um is really
important work and what is coming back to us tenfold is relationship matters relationships matter and when I'm with those parents and and when I'm reading survey information back that's
what they're saying relationships matter and I whether we're talking about this topic or athletic lights or whatever whatever the topic is
everyone's got a really important voice right and one thing that I feel like I'm able to provide is that Avenue for safe spaces uh in non-threatening ways to share information that might not always
be awesome right but it's so important that I'm able to kind of feel your feeling and to be able to translate that into action to Pat's point to board action and we're not spinning our Wheels
you know we're moving this this work forward and connecting out um and um you know it's important to me to be able to connect it's important to me to put you all in the positions to be able to do that you know I love having you at events hey can I come sure yeah come on
you know and and you guys drift around and listen to people and and and I'll argue that the work that we did you know around the lights wasn't around found the folks who wanted the lights that wasn't where the real work
was done the real work was understanding the folks that live near here and you know how does that impact because those feelings informed the work of the policy Committee in a really
significant way the policy committee got together and wrote the most heartfelt policy that I've ever been connected to as a superintendent they did beautiful work but that work would not have been able to transpire if we don't spend the
time and understand like what what is your experience if you're a resident of of vott as an example or old army or whatever in the in the region here and it's important for me to be able to create create that information and that
information comes from circular flow not from just top down you know give me a call if you have a problem but like really like let me feel it and so you know I I take all sorts of feedback um from folks and you know I like to translate it into into digestible
workable pieces so um so we we're always trying to get um kind of topical engagement um and uh that's going to be a Hallmark not only of this board but of my leadership so um we'll always kind of have that so thank you you and I just
wanted to add to that um that that this work that did the outgrowth I think that Dr brel mentioned in the report the parent advisory group um that will be then the next will then be the next layer of that where there will be that's
a parent-led group so that's actually not District employees leading the group that would be a parent L group and um so that was what Dr brel was referencing with you know 15 interested parties so far from that um from families of IEP
and 504 students and then um and then through that work then they then have the ability to further connect with District staff and invite them in and invite actually other specialists in the fields to comment and you know inform
the parents and the work so that and none of that would have been possible without this without this so I think I think we're in a good I think we're in a good place for that [Music]
work is there anybody else no okay can we do roll call Mrs hoppy yes Mrs Santoro yes Mrs Ry yes Mr Baker yes M Ballard yes Miss Clark Emory
yes Miss Cooper yes Miss Gomez yes to number four because time right yeah and Mrs Renda yes motion passes okay then we'll move into board
announcements the views and opinions that are may be expressed by individual board members of the Somerset Hills Board of Education during board announcements are solely those of the individual board member and do not reflect the views opinions policies regulations Andor positions of the Somerset Hills Board of Education and or
any other individual members of the board does anybody have anything to add for board announcements no okay then we move into second public comments um and I do have to read my
Spiel so if no one here is going to be making a comment I apologize but um public comments are welcome at this time on any topic please state your name and address comments are limited to 3 minutes at 3 minutes you'll be interrupted and asked to pause to allow any other members of the public who would like to speak an opportunity to do
so an individual May return to the podium to complete their state after everyone else has had an opportunity to speak for a total of two times at the podium please understand that our public forums are not structured as question and answer sessions but are offered as opportunities to share your thoughts with the board in instances where the
board feels there is a misunderstanding or inaccuracy the board president or superintendent May address the comment in accordance with New Jersey statute the board will not discuss matters regarding specific Personnel a reminder for all parties and attendance to remain respectful and that there should be no interaction between the speaker and the audience no members of the audience
should interfere with interrupt the speaker's comments thank you in advance for your input do we have any public comments no then can I get a motion to close public comments Miss Santo and a
second okay Miss happy for a second and then that just leaves I have a board announcement I'm making a lot of trouble today just make it super fast go ahead um I just want everyone to check
your emails um I don't recall the date but the unsung hero program for our county is coming up in midmar they extended the registration it's actually passed okay so yes so it's in your emails yeah um but it's where the county
every school district uh selects an unsung hero and then they get honored um at the votch school on a lovely evening and a bunch of us went last year and it's well worth your time if you can squeeze into your schedule I'm sorry but
you know that one is I it's so important and I knew I had it in my head there so I I I don't March early March it is March March 3rd oh it is bad early yeah that's why they they that's next they
literally extend it's in your mailbox it was still open yeah you have to register they seem to be pretty flexible if you contact the yeah yeah they want you to be there yep um very sorry thank you a very um out of
the ordinary departure from I appreciate protocol um and all that's left and is a motion to adjourn I'll make a motion to adjourn and a second Miss Gomez and all in favor bye okay everybody have a great night thank
you so much you g go