okay good evening everybody I'd like to welcome everybody to our Tuesday March 18th Board of Education meeting uh at this point would uh Mr Boyce would you do a um no what am I doing I just did that part okay i' like to do our flag
salute everybody stand up for flag salute of the United States of America and to the repu for andice M Bo can you do a roll call please yes Mrs Van Horn here Mr seril is absent Mr Jess is absent Mr Carlson here
Mrs Sherwin here Mrs crasa here Mrs Dale here Mr kimick here Mr Garcia here and Mrs Shaw is absent okay thank you Mr boce we have a forum public notice adequate notice of this meeting in compliance with chapter 231 of the
public laws of 1975 entitled the open public meetings act has been provided by action of the board of education at its regular meeting on January 7 2025 notices at the corer news The Star Ledger circulated in the school district and a post of notice to this effect on the board of education website and
building bulletin board administrative headquarters 51 West Cliff Street Somerville New Jersey okay so we had a 5:30 start tonight because the board will enter executive session right away uh the Board of Education of Somerville School District in the county of Somerset will
adjourn into closed meeting to discuss items which fall under within an exception of our open meetings policy and permit the board to have a private discussion since it deals with specific exceptions contained in njsa
104-112 B and this evening those two items are pending and anticipated litigation and Personnel employment matters ing a specific perspective or current employee being resolved that the board board will now go into private session to discuss matters rendered
confidential by Personnel employment matters affecting a specific prospective or current employee any discussion held by the board which need not remain confidential will be made public as soon as practical minutes at a private session will not be disclosed until the need for confidentiality no longer
exists all appropriate persons who may be discussed in private session have been adequately notified we anticipate the board of act the board action to be taken following the executive session can I have a motion to go into executive session please uh Miss manorn second second Miss
Sherwin the board is in executive session at 5:34 okay good evening everybody uh the board has concluded its executive session can I have uh another motion to return to public session don't move Miss Van Horn second M Sherin all all in
favor I oppos exensions okay board is back in public session at 602 or three all right uh the board is taking action uh on one item out of the executive session we're just going to do this now because it's directly tied to
Executive session um I'll read the resolution and I'll need a first and a second so resolved that the Board of Education approved the settlement agreement and general release for employee number 5985 first don't move Van Horn
second M Carlson um any discussion Mr Boyce you need to do a roll on that one yes Mrs Van Horn yes Mr Carlson yes Mrs Sherwin yes Mrs crasa yes Mrs Dale yes Mr kimik yes Mr Garcia
yes okay thank you very much okay so welcome to everybody that's in the room we opened the meeting before and there was nobody here so it's good to see people in the audience this time we've already done our pledge and uh at this point we've reached our public comment session of the meeting so I'm just going
to read our uh public comment um just guidelines at this point uh comment is invited on any matter related to the school district so it could be an agenda item or not an agenda agenda item when permitted public participation shall be governed by the following rules under bylaw 0167 public participation shall be
governed by the following rules one a participant must be recognized by the presiding office officer and must preface comments by an announcement of his her or her name Municipality of residents and group affiliation were applicable two each statement made by the participant shall be limited to 3
minutes in duration with a total amount of 30 minutes for the session itself no participant may speak more than once on the same topic until all others who wish to speak on the topic have been heard all statements questions or inquiry shall be directed to the presiding officer and any questions or inquiries
directed by a participant to another board member shall be redirected to the presiding officer who shall determine if such statement question or inquiry shall be addressed by the presiding officer on behalf of the board or by the individual board member and lastly the presiding officer May interrupt warn or terminate
a participant statement question or inquiry when it's too lengthy interrupt or warn a participant when a statement question or inquiry is abusive obscene or maybe defamatory request any person to leave the meeting when that person does not observe reasonable the Quorum request that the assistance of the law
enforcement officers removal of a disorderly person when that person prevents or disrupts a meeting with an act or obstructs or interferes with a meeting call for a recess or an adjournment to another time when the lack of public decorum interferes with the orderly conduct of the meeting and wave these rules when necessary for
protection of privacy or to maintain an orderly operation at the board meeting that was a lot okay um okay at this time are there any members of the public that would like to make public comment okay we'll start over here hello members of the board my name is
Gregory RS and I'm here with my wife Kelly we live in Somerville our daughter juny is one of the nine fouryear old that did not get chosen for the prek lottery this year and I wanted to take my time to voice my concerns about
this this is an ongoing situation there's a lot that I won't be able to get to tonight so I'm going to be as quick as possible and only touch on a few points first I want to start with a quote from the Department of Education website high quality preschool can
change the educational trajectories of young children and influence their lifetime achievement and wellbeing improvements in children's kindergarten Readiness lead to increased achievement in school Success with such benefits as increase earnings that
continue for a lifetime so board members when we discuss a child's kindergarten Readiness I don't understand how we are prioritizing nine three-year-olds who will be attending prek for two years while leaving nine four-year-olds with no access to prek at
all this is obviously unfair and it's a mistake I brought this up personally with the superintendent principal and director of curriculum who advised me that the paa grant required three-year-olds to be included however they also admitted that
they arbitrarily chose the number nine even though the grant doesn't specify a required amount this is disappointing to say the least as is the fact that it appears not much effort has been made to find capacity for the disadvantage children
while a Reconciliation is underway to find out why this occurs I understand it's also too late to sign those spots from the three-year-olds correctly to the four-year-olds so now the goal must shift to figuring out how how to get this small amount of four-year-olds into
prek for the upcoming year there's been a lot of time and energy spent on the referendum to allocate $50 million to to Somerville School District including Millions on a new turfield at the elementary school but this has come at
the expense of time and energy that should have been spent figuring out how to help our youngest children access pre which as we know is so vital to their success I kindly ask that this issue become a high priority for the board and
you work to find alternative Solutions I only started looking into this over the weekend but I already came up with ideas so that none of the four-year-olds would be excluded I'm conf I'm confident if you try to find a solution you
can and I ask that you commit to trying because at this point it doesn't seem like anyone is doing anything to resolve this the only feedback we've received so far is to just wait on the wait list and this is unacceptable thank you and I look forward to seeing how the board plans to
address this issue okay thank you for your comment are other members that are public wanting to make public comments we'll just we'll just start here and then we'll go around hi thank you for allowing me to speak I am James basone life res
Somerville and I'm coming to speak about uh my four-year-old who also was on the weight list so um you know we we were very excited optimistic that she would she would get in uh I guess she had a pretty high probability based upon the amount of open spots um but you know we
just we just had a bad experience in terms of not much insight into the process itself um anecdotally I heard that the you know the actual uh Lottery was posted prior to the streaming of the the lottery itself um and then also when
I was posted a lot of the people on the wait list the names were there so you know that's not exactly confidential right um but yeah I've been been a resident my whole life I've been uh a property taxpayer for five years now so if if there is something that can be
done um to help with uh getting the four-year-olds in would be very beneficial and just even having an Insight of like I understand the grant requires threeyear olds but um you know can you put one three-year-old in and then allow the majority of the
four-year-olds in um just the logic behind it doesn't really make too much sense to me uh especially when I have another one on the way so my very expensive with with daycare so appreciate more insight there but uh
thank you thank you for your comment and congratulations all right here sir Eric Alvarez some rille New Jersey my daughter is also one of the four or one of the nine foury
olds um I guess I just have questions um is the district doing anything to create a new section for the affected foury olds so we're not going to answer questions right now just make your comments and when public comment is done
then um we'll close public comment and you we'll address okay thank you are there any more preschool I see Mr s we're just going around I'm not trying to make you last if you're going to stand up you need to just address the board
and sorry to make you do that I apologize so um just state your name and Canard James mone's wife and yes this is our third child so um we were definitely very much looking forward to getting our daughter in preschool you
know we have three kids in daycare now it's going to be very difficult and we've lived here for quite a long time like you said you know we pay taxes my concern is everything that this gentleman said and my husband said earlier but then also it was the the false hope that I think the parents who
have the threeyear olds and the parents have old uh were given um I was told there was no lottery for the last five years um when I called the day I want to say the day it was like February 23rd when I called the District they said oh
we never said there was going to be a lottery for the four-year-olds only the three-year-olds which really got me excited because you know then I'm like hey I don't have to plan my daughter's going to get in um that was something that I was told um I was also told that there was going to be a lottery so it
was very dis organized I feel like um and then even for the the three-year-old parents you know they were told that their kids were you know going to have a great chance of getting in and then nobody told them that only nine of them are going to get in I don't even know 30 something were weight listed um I don't
think that's fair um additionally yes like you said I did not like that our children's names were posted I didn't really understand how that happened um yeah so there's just a lot of disorganization a lot of FAL that we were given um it was just very emotional
for I think everybody whose child didn't get in I'm sure and just like everybody else I do want to I want some answers I just feel like there was not a lot of clarity we weren't really told how many spots were going to be um provided we didn't really know anything at all um
and I know some of this is out of your control and I understand that but I think a lot of people here are just okay thank you for your comment cor hello my name is Sharon bck I live at 548 Carlson street I'm a high school
English teacher here in Somerville and I'm also president of the Somerville Education Association um so good evening I wanted to start off by saying congratulations and thank you the Board of Education made a commitment to the students of sumerville by engaging the referendum to make necessary facility
improvements um the sea supports this and um certainly made phone calls I think I called every board member here as well so um thank you for allowing me to leave messages on your phone and not just hanging up on me um to tell them uh that the vote was existing um and
certainly we support the improvements to our district um however the second reason I'm here is to discuss um curriculum within our district we can have students attend amazing facilities available but the curriculum to support that if that's not where it needs to be then the students are going to be at a
disadvantage um I meet with Mr lisco on a regular basis but I have yet to hear a clear plan of what's happening with curriculum um this is concerning considering it feels like another lost year lost opportunity um during the month of July we had um Educational
Consultants from blond and Mike Winer here um with the staff and they conducted the Cur AIT um the staff was energized they were engaged more than I think I've ever seen them in my career here um in Somerville um and in October you adopted the
curriculum audit and so I was under the impression that the board wanted to address the issues in this audit um in fact I believe that Mike and Ron were both hired to work with the staff to implement some of these changes to address the audit but this the problem I'm seeing is
that the staff has not seen Ron or Mike since July um and we have now pass another school school year we have um you know the old top down approach and my question to the is why haven't we
seen the people Reed to help us get to where we need to be as thank you for your comment anybody else who would like to make public comment Mr suan I get the rest of the hour I think it was 30
minutes Dennis suvan 8 South Richards Avenue um first comment as a retired teacher having taught in the district from 1973 till 2008 I want to make mention of the two individuals that I work with during my career who are
retiring Carrie Plotkin was my instructional assistant for many years at central school and I had in my career career I missed 33 days for Illness but 10 of those days happened consecutively
in 1997 and Carrie stepped in they didn't need a substitute in the room the law required it but she she stepped up and she she managed my classroom for two weeks and if you ever had the pleasure
to be in one of my classrooms you you know what that entailed so I uh I I followed her career all all the years ever since I've been gone and uh it's bittersweet I'm sure for her but she was a tremendous asset to The Faculty at at
Central School and at Vander and especially for myself as a special educator I could not have done the job I did without car so I'd like that right into the you into the official minutes that personal I wish all the luck in the
plus she's the apparent of two great you know sum of her products as well one of in Washington now trying to trying to steer our country in a good direction so on a personal level I I wish her the best I also had the pleasure to work indirectly with Denise Lang at the high
school at the very end of my career I didn't have direct classroom contact with her but when you walk by a classroom you can get a sense of what's going on there and most high school kids don't like history and they don't like
science well my classroom was fun her classroom was fun as well because we uh you know we we understood where the kids were coming from and she was a constant professional and again I want to wish her the best last comment I have and I wasn't prepared to speak but in terms of
the preschool program as a u i got my start in the Head Start movement in the 60s as probably one of 50 men in the world that had a degree in Nursery K education the earlier you can get kids in
school the better off they're going to be some of those had a great tradition of special education nursery school prek and I just ask the board to do whatever it takes to make sure that
every child from age three and up has a chance to attend our flying schools yes thank you thank you Mr some there any other members of the public who would like to make comment I see none can I have a motion to close public comment please move Mr Carlson
second please second any discussion okay all in favor I I all oppose exensions okay all right public comment is now closed uh I do just want to um make a few comments about um some of the
comments that were made uh relative to preschool I just want to assure you I I've seen emails I've seen the questions that you've asked um the board is very aware of the concerns that that are being expressed I think some of the questions that you're asking are not something that can be addressed tonight in a public meeting um you know I can
only assure you that um you know we will have discussions as a board I know the administration is also U discussing preschool um I I am very familiar with the idea of what is involved with paa in terms of the education uh requirements that the Department of Education places
on districts um that's different than what we had in place two years ago um so there are things that have changed the other thing I'm hearing is just around communication and just having forn knowledge of certain things and and I you know my commitment around that is that um you know we will endeavor to do
much better than than what happened this year Lottery is something that's very very new it's something that ched in a lot of communities but it's something that's very very new to Somerville and my impression is that you didn't really understand that fully as well so I I can only assure you that the board is aware of that and and committed to to making
uh improvements in that process as well um relative to um the comments made concerning just uh focus on curriculum u m cornic is out the hallway there you know uh I I can only assure you again that that you know the board is committed to that process and committed
to focusing on uh you know what's happening in the classrooms for students and that's what we're all here is just focusing on students and making sure that um you know that the work and the support that is provided uh to our Educators and to the students is is uh what's necessary for have to do and and
the the best job that they can do with the students and uh Mr Sullivan thank you for your comments as well I do have something in my president notes that that um you know I just want to make clear in terms of some of retirements as well but I I do appreciate you coming out and actually making those comments
okay all right moving on with that um moving on to the answer that you gave us is I'm not I'm not going to engage this right now public comment is closed so I apologize that the comment the public comment is closed um so we're not going to have discussion publicly about this right now I can assure you that the
administration um if you have questions specific to this the administration is available to answer those questions but we're not going to do this in the public forum right now because the board members are not the ones that can answer those questions immediately right now so I thought you I could ask a
question well the question was what you asked me over here I think and if the question's different any the emails that were received because there were about 30 questions that I'm aware of that were asked within the emails my my ask ask of all of you is that you email the superintendent directly and he can respond to the questions and again if if
you're not satisfied with that response then we can entertain those comments again at the next meeting but I think the most appropriate thing to do at that point is you have not engaged with the superintendent I'm aware that one of you has I'm not aware that all the others have and I would ask that you first reach out to the superintendent seek an
answer from them have that conversation around that I think um you know if necessary you can meet in person with with staff to have discussions about the concerns that you have and then at that point if you're not satisfied with that then you know the board would be involved with that okay okay thank you I
thought there would just be more information on yeah I I apologize thank you okay all right and Mr Boyce can we do approval of the minutes please do I have to do that yes approval of the minutes thank you resolved at the Board of Education approved the minutes from the Board of Education meeting as
follow February 11th regular meeting can I have a motion for that please Mr Carlson second second M Van Horn any any discussion okay Mr boy can you do a roll for that please yes Mrs Van Horn yes Mr
Carlson yes Mrs Sherwin yes Mrs crasa yes Mrs Dale AB Mr kimik yes Mr Garcia yes okay thank you um board president's report I have some prepared comments that I'll try to be very very um quick
with in the interest of time uh I do want to note that this is neurodiversity celebration week um you know I think that that's something for the community to be aware of neurodiversity is basically saying everyone's brain is wired a bit differently and it's a much more inclusive way of thinking about um
straints that students have and we typically think about students having ADHD or being diagnosed with autism or you know other areas that people kind of consider disorders and neurodiversity really kind of speaks to the idea that it's not it's just a way of uh being and it's a way of being creative and
thinking about approaches of things somewhat differently and it's just something again that I wanted to kind of bring to the board's attention uh we have lots of people within this District that um you know have all sorts of diagnoses and we have many staff that work directly with all these individuals and do a great job of I think supporting
them and and thinking about the way that we can be inclusive in our approaches so I just want to thank all the people that do that on a daily basis because um you it's a big part of of making our school something that uh everybody feels welcome in I also want to acknowledge the staff members who are retiring at
the end of the school year um Mr Sullivan mentioned Miss pkin who has been an instructional assistant at Vander um really since 1995 so she's been in the district for 30 years um so that's quite of a you know a career and a legacy to
have within the district the number of people that she's worked with and the students lives that she's touched I think is something that um you know we should all be appreciative of Denise Lang is also retiring this year she is um has served at Somerville high school as a chemistry teacher from 2006 to this
year and again that's that's quite a a tenure within a district and it's something again when you think about just the impact that somebody has in terms of being a high school teacher and then um Miss Taylor has served at somville high school as a French teacher from 2015 to 2025 and she is also retiring so I just want to acknowledge
that and thank those people for their service and the commitment that they've had to our students and the contrib that they made to to the community itself um I also want to thank the Elliot family who donated a 9ot Baldwin grand piano to the Somerville high school music
department the donation was made in honor of Don Elliot a generous benefactor and and Somerville high school graduate from a class of 1944 so thank you to them for that donation that was a quite an expensive piano that was donated to the district and it's something again that students and I
think the music department will benefit from greatly and there's just a few I want to just uh point out to the public uh regarding um uh some agenda items the first is that the board is approving two board goals this evening um it's really something that we have not done as a
board since I've been involved with the board so I want to thank board members in terms of just their thoughtfulness around developing goals and and you know kind of getting that established as something that's important for the board to do the second is that we're approving the school calendar for the next school year so that's something again that um
has gone through a a number of iterations and there's been a lot of conversation around just um making adjustments and getting input from all of the parties that are involved with that so I want to thank everybody that was involved with that process and then also importantly is that tonight the
board will approve a tenative budget there'll be just um an overview a little bit within terms of our finance committee notes but there's been a lot of work done around tenative budget as well and a board hearing will take place or the budget hearing will take place at the LA the next meeting and then I just want to thank the residents of
Somerville uh who turned out the vote on March 11th regardless of how they voted um you know we've been saying all along it's just important to have people go out and vote um you know the the support that the community always shows to the schools uh relative to the referendum
relative to just um you know the the the commitment to I think just having the best schools possible is something that we're all proud of uh there are a number of items on the business agenda relative to the referendum because um you know there's there are some Bond items on there that that will take place with
that and then a lot of people don't realize but there were Communications committee meetings that were held that had probably over 25 people in attendance at times there were there were a lot of people that commit a time out of their own time uh to meet with board members and to just uh support um
you know making sure that the referendum was well communicated um so with that I'll turn it over to the superintendent for superintendent report just a quick question Bill yes sir the time situation we have do we need to come back to my report okay with I would i' like to get
um I'd like to get our student reports and then you can go all right so why don't we do that you're on oh my Riley is it on okay hi it's been a while but I am back so I'm going to start with the reason why I was gone winter sports
uh winter sports have officially come to an end sadly boys basketball ended their season with a record of 19 and9 and also won a conference Championship the girls basketball team finished their season with a record of 23 and six as well as won a back-to-back Conference Championship and made it all the way to
the state semifinals very exciting uh boys and girls fencing both have very successful Seasons as they both took on some pretty tough opponents uh boys swimming ended with 500 record and girl swimming team had a very successful season as well um something exciting is
that our Valkyrie Club basically the people who do uh the newspaper at our school they have officially launched a website and it's pretty cool so I would definitely check it out if you are interested um yearbooks are still on sale they're currently
$105 and you can get them either it's a little pricey I'm not going lie sorry you either get them through the J's website or just somewhere on the school website um the Genesis Club is having a service meeting to prepare for their big
movie night and they're celebrating St Patrick which is really fun um we would also like to congratulate the February students of the month month um for the Freshman Duan dorsy and Adriana pelino for the sophomores abir aalos Mendoza and
Vanessa quisada Villa uh for the juniors Devin Heron and Emma March and for the seniors AA Barbarian and Riley D I don't I don't know how I can I don't know how I can go have competition um so now that winter um Sports over we
obviously have spring Sports coming along so they officially started last week um tryouts and practices started last week this is our second week going um and baseball softball boys and girls lacrosse and boys tennis have their first scrimmages starting this week um
back to the late bus I know we love to hear it Branchburg Transportation offers a late bus to students who live in Branchburg and are staying after school for a club tutoring or Sports um students must sign up in the main office each day if you'd like to take the bus prior to 1 p.m. and please note if you'd like to take the bus home
you must sign up if you have not signed up you will not be let on the bus if you have any questions please let the main office now um Men's Choir is open to all students at Somerville High School even if you're not in the actual choir class um they do it every Tuesday 2:30 to 3:15 in room 102 by the auditorium and you
can email Mr n with any questions um we also have a shoe Drive fundraiser going on right now so if you're cleaning out your closet at home um smack is hosting a um a shoe Drive fundraiser um their mission is to kind of collect new and um gently used shoes which will benefit the local and Greater Community in three
ways it helps clearers out closets at home um the shoes are donated to developing countries to support their economies and smack will receive a donation based on the number of shoes that are donated their goal is to get at least um 2 200 pairs of shoes and the collection dates will be March 3rd to
April 25th the bin is in the main office at Summer High School um earlier this month at the high school we celebrated fcl day which is social emotional learning um this day is celebrated across the world to support children's academic success mental health and wellbeing um there were different activities throughout the high school but in the
library you could color make bracelets there was a lot um you can dance and we even had um a visit from Jeter the therapy dog um and lastly there's Showcase of art tonight where Riley's um painting actually is um so if you want to stop by there they're doing it 6 to 7
at the high school um and students artwork I'm exploring art communication design and 3D experience classes are being held to represent their artwork throughout the year great thanks so much thank you thank you um awesome report you two are welcome to leave if you'd like to because I know you have things
you have to do all right so we'll see you next month okay all right have thank you care all right okay we're going to move a couple things around the agenda because um one of our board members at least has to leave in that so I just
want to make sure we have time to um address the action items that we have to do and then we'll come back around again to the reports that we have to do um so what we're going to do right now is we're going to do a consent agenda on um the items that are preschool through 8
and then 9 through 12 um and then we will come back to committee reports so public hear the committee reports it well all right so at this point I'd like to make a motion to approve that items 1 through 25 be moved upon the recommendation of
superintendent of schools appointments and salaries are contingent upon verifi documentation can I have a first for that please no move Miss Van Horn is there a second second M Sherwin is there any
discussion I just wanted to say thank you to miss plin as well because she worked with my daughter and uh she was amazing and we were very lucky to have her so congratulations to her any other comments or discussion okay Mr Boyce you do a rooll
please yes Mrs Van Horn yes Mr Carlson yes Mrs Sherwin yes Mrs CR yes Mrs Dale yes Mr kimick yes Mr Garcia yes okay thank you and then for the the 9th through 12th grade
items um a motion to approve that items 26 through 52 be moved upon the recommendation of superintendent of schools appointments and salaries contingent upon verified documentation um can I have a first for that sir Miss Van Horn
second D good job [Laughter] okay any discussion okay I do want to make it clear that this is where the tenative budget approval is is set um so next meeting is the public hearing on the budget what
this allows us to do is for the tened budget to be reviewed by the county now and for the county to actually make sure that um the budget is able to be approved in April um and then this is also uh the section that
has board goals that are also set in here as well okay all right Mr Mr Boyce can you do a rooll please yes Mrs Van Horn yes Mr Carlson yes Mrs Sherwin yes Mrs crasa yes Mrs Dale yes Mr kimik yes
Mr Garcia yes okay all right thank you for that all right now we are going to go back to superintendent report thank you Jo so lots of things first of all want to thank the community uh for you know a
real really wonderful three months of engaging over the referendum Brian and I and and Bill were able to get out and many of our board members and engage directly with uh members of the community answer all questions they had we want to thank everyone for coming out and voting uh as we said from the
beginning it was informational we just wanted people to have it so they could make a decision that was best for them and their family and I think there's some really exciting things there uh for the future of Somerville um our children are going to be better off for it and have really great opportunities uh inside the classroom and now so I'm
excited about that um number two uh just unfortunately uh they are not here uh but the preschool parents we were able to sit down uh with the one did reach out and I want to urge and welcome uh anyone else to to reach out for those conversations it's important um that we
are able to engage and answer any questions they have and we're happy to do so so we'll continue those conversations with them um and I do have their names I can reach out if they don't reach out to me first so uh just wanted to to add that and I am sorry if there was any miscommunication um you
know obviously we want to get everything out we can to all of these folks and we'll certainly reflect and make any adjustments that are needed going forward um I want to uh congratulate both our High School uh and our middle school for wonderful musical
performances All Shook Up and Willy Wonka happened in the last two weeks and if you were uh lucky enough to go and see and you were really in for a treat our children um our staff members that supported them our parents and the community um really did a great job of of putting on Great Performances and as
you know eventually uh they'll have a brand new facility at the high school um as a result of the referendum to um have those performances so that that's wonderful to see um I also wanted to uh congratulate and we'll do so in a more formal and a
much more expansive way our retirees uh there's nothing more important to a school district than staff members have dedicated their entire lives uh to the children of sonville and I want to thank um Carrie plin Denise Lang and Susan Taylor for everything they did for our students I only was able to know for a
short amount of time but their reputations uh speak volumes for everything they did for our children and I thank them I thank them uh personally already but uh we'll do so a little bit more formally later in the school year and that's always a you know a Bittersweet moment as we get to thank
them for all their service but uh you know wish them luck in their retirement so thank you for everything you did for our children um what I'd like to do now is a little bit of update uh on our audit uh as I have been doing I put that both in my newsletter but also at the board meetings here update um all the
important work that our administrators and staff have been doing um for the uh curriculum audit um that was uh discussed earlier so first of all um our Focus remains on enhancing data driven instruction strengthening intervention programs and supporting our Educators uh
for Student Success um we continue to leverage data to inform teaching and learning in February and March our curriculum in construction team and building administrators have been communicating and organizing uh in in building level meetings uh deep Dives uh analyzing uh you know test results from
the SLA I ready and Link it to improve student performance for the upcoming tests um additionally administrators at all three buildings are reviewing I ready diagnostic data for both Ela and math to guide instructional planning and the idea really is to to find where our
students might be uh needing a little bit of extra support in terms of learning standards and adjustments accordingly uh weekly monitoring of I ready my path at bothan of and Middle School um really helps get targeted support there in terms of intervention there's a six- week expend extended uh
uh day math program that's going to launch in April at both uh the elementary and middle school along with the Ruckers online reading program to further strengthen literacy skills in terms of multilingual Learners this is actually this room has been a hot bed of activity where uh 89 of our uh you know
St members have begun the SEI sheltered English instruction training um in which we're partnering with Dr nrin and Miss AOA who are experts in their field uh to provide um you know the necessary best practices to help uh ml students um and
and take the access data meaning the standardized test for multilingual Learners to inform instruction but also uh teach best practices and those best practices don't only help multilingual Learners those are best practices that can be used for any Learner in the classroom especially those that might be
struggling and by getting all of our teachers that type of uh training we know that it's going to help all of our students in the classroom and the idea is now we have 89 of of our staff members going through but to make sure that all our staff members have been trained in SEI and then you just need a
refresher every so often but we want to get everyone that that formalized training and this is just the start of that um in terms of curriculum development and instructional um alignment there's refining math Frameworks and pacing guides that been worked on uh with Miss Kain at both Vander and the Middle School um
standardizing District approved resources to make sure there's consistency instruction in instruction um strengthening intervention programs uh by monitoring it but also getting training for those folks that are doing our intervention work and monitoring and managing our intervention work and
launching uh A literacy leaders committee this spring uh to to take a big look um at what's being done in the classroom um for uh literacy and Ela um our data teams as I've talked about prior uh are are up and fully functioning since the FL both at a
building and a district level um they continue to meet at the very minimum uh uh monthly but also continuing to get uh training they had some direct training in February they have another training coming up in April um and the idea is that they are going to be able to TurnKey that information in other words
um as we get our teachers up to speed our data experts are going to be able to take that information digest it for them and help the teachers to make realtime adjustments for the students in the classroom um they're using I ready diagnostic uh number three uh at the high school which is a real indicator of how students will U be able to perform
on njsla um and we're using link it assessments for 8th grade algebra 1 students that's not something that has been previously done but we want to get that indicator so we know where our students are um and we're holding March and April meetings with that link at representative uh to continue that
training that I spoke of finally teacher Recruitment and hiring uh improvements this has been obviously a goal and a focus of ours since the beginning of the year but especially since Dr sentes has been on staff so we're implementing Frontline recruiting systems for streamlining and uh organizing and uh
creating a coherent hiring practice developing Sops in hiring selection and um discipline aligned with our board policies uh Distributing the uh you know surveys for future staffing needs and also participating in multiple job fairs to get the word out and try to recruit
as we know that's a really important part uh today's day and age if I go back 20s something years when I started an education you have hundreds of applicants for open positions as we know that's not the case anymore so it's really important to try to partner with universities and get student teachers
and uh and those folks into the building and meet them and establish those relationships early and we're doing that but on top of that going to these job fairs getting the word out that this is a great place to work because it it is a tremendous place to work and recruiting people that way and Dr sentes has
already made some nice Connections in just a short amount of time she's going to continue to do so um and so that we can um you know find people you know we have these three retirements that are going to sting but you know the idea is to try to find folks um that are able that can step in and and help our
students achieve so uh with all that said you know we're really making great strides in addressing those audit recommendations we're going to continue to do so um and uh I'll continue to to share all the the great work that our staff and our administrators and our students are doing so thank thank you
okay thank you 643 all right um we're going to jump down to technology curriculum instruction and you have you have the floor okay go for it okay um so I we met
as a curriculum committee on February 26th and on March 12th so two times really since our last meeting and most of the things that we discussed um Mr lisco has already discussed in his report because we we do at every
curriculum meeting talk about the audit and how we are coming to those goals so a couple of things that were not discussed um did you discuss the profession you didn't discuss the professional development I did feedback okay so um we had a professional
development Day in February correct yes and a um we the administrators asked the staff for feedback regarding this and out of 275 staff members 225 people
provided feedback um and it seemed to be very positive feedback correct and they were happy with the um it seemed that a lot of people were happy with the PD that was offered that day some Focus areas are data data analysis and vertical articulation and future goals
we're hoping for a joint PD day with Branchburg um next year planning for next year increased ESL training um increased seci training which Mr visco spoke about and um more and more teachers are receiving that ICI
training each year so again as he said eventually for everybody to have that training [Music] um discuss that discuss that okay let's just move on and this past one that we
had on March 12th pretty much um we discussed the budgetary impli implications of the state aid decrease so how the budget will be affecting curriculum and that pretty much took up our our conversation
for that time um so I don't know what if that I I share or that's enough I think much will be covered in the in the budget report y okay and that is it thank you any questions for Miss meaning
that she has to leave in so thank you m enjoy the uh the high school all right let's jump down to or I should say up to finance security buildings and grounds I think Mr Garcia
you're going to do that report uh yes so this evening the board voted on a tenative budget for the 2025 2026 school year following the board's approval the budget will be submitted to the county superintendent of schools for review and
approval a public hearing regarding the budget is scheduled for April 29th at which time the board will vote on the adoption of the final budget the finance committee has been actively engaged since early November in reviewing the progress of the budget development
process the committee began by establishing key budget goals assessing and rollman projections and prioritizing capital projects the committee has carefully reviewed the programmatic section of the budget to ensure that it is aligned with both the evolving needs
of our student population and findings of the recent curriculum audit Additionally the committee examined the revenue side of the budget unfortunately the district experienced a reduction of $31,385 current programs furthermore the
district remains committed to funding capital projects as part of a long-term capital Improvement plan notable projects included the tenative included in the tenative budget are the replacement of the HVAC systems security upgrades and playground replacement at
Vander School the Board of Education meeting on April 29th will feature a comprehensive budget presentation as part as part of the public hearing on the 2025 2026 budget during which we will provide a detailed overview of these areas and
others and that concludes the report okay thank you any questions from board members all right okay Communications committee Communications met on February 24th and March 4th and all of the
meetings were basically focused on the referendum getting the word out and getting people involved in in helping to get the that word out okay great thank you so much all right that was a that was Big T those are long
meetings too so um you know I do want to thank you for that there were um a number of board members that were involved with that uh I'll just make mention that our ad hoc negotiations committee met on March 11th um that information at this point is negotiations related so will not be
shared with the community but just know that the committee has been meeting because we have active negotiations going on right now as well all right and then um with with that um are there any old business items one item just because we went out
of order I I did miss one important item and I want to uh just Rec it already happened so I was going to say it before it happened and that is uh very excited uh about the appointment of Miss Kelly Shrea in the audience here well I want to thank Kelly uh for stepping in since September as our
acting assistant principal and doing a tremendous job and servicing our kids down at Vander uh she is a dedicated educator who cares uh so much for our kids and and and is um really excited uh to step into this role I know uh in a permanent sense but we're really excited
to have someone uh that is so knowledgeable of Elementary education curriculum um and uh the right-hand person for Miss Lindsay fer so congratulations Kelly introducing uh the upcoming agenda
item I'll congratulate thank you so I better to do it that way it works thank you congratulations that's great uh any other old business items okay can I have a motion to close Old business move Mr Carlson second
second any discussion okay all in favor I all opposed extensions great new business items are there any new business items from board members okay seeing none can I have a motion to close new business so mve
we'll change this up mwin second Mr Carlson nice all right any discussion see none all in favor all opposed extensions okay new
business is closed uh can I have a motion to adjourn M Sherwin second still move Miss Van Horn thank you uh any discussion all in favor
allos we are close out of session at 6:51 thank you everybody have a good night