notice with the respective clerks of the city of Lambertville, Burough of Stockton, and Township of West Amwell and advertised in the Hunan County Democrat and Trenton Times newspaper. Please join me for the pledge. 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. Jennifer Bach here. Mar here. Jada Bashetti
here. Brian Cle, Kevini, Aaroni, Michael Shra here, Lonnie Todd Marino here, uh Jim Gallagher.
All right, we have a smaller group, but um we have Gina on the phone. Um if anybody's interested in knowing that and Kevin will be joining us a little late. So, if we can start with the PTO and LAF updates.
Hello. It's been a little bit since we've been here. Sorry. You've been busy, huh? You've been busy. Yeah. Yes, we have. Um, I hope you guys have all had a wonderful summer. Um, as summer winds down, the PTO has been busy working alongside administration and
volunteers to welcome students, staff, and families back to school. Um, last week we provided t-shirts and popsicles for kindergarten camp, Kona Ice for 9th grade orientation, and popsicles for pre-K orientation today. Um, this week
we're hosting our break the ice social with Kona Ice for grades 1 through 4 and our middle school ice cream social where Kona Ice will be serving novelty ice creams and School of Rock will also be there which is really exciting. Thank
you. Um, I'm really excited about these events because they are traditions from the former West Amal PTO and Lambertville PTA um that we were able to continue in the new building. So, that's pretty cool.
We've also been supporting our staff. Last week, we partnered with um Miss Jane Ellen um to provide lunch for new teachers. And tomorrow, we will provide a welcome back lunch for all district staff here at the high school. And then next week, we're organizing our back-
tochool barbecue for grades 9 through 12. Thanks to a generous donation from ShopRate, we'll be serving hamburgers, hot dogs, and veggie burgers. Um the volunteer signups went out on Parent Square and they're posted on our Facebook page. So if anybody would like
to volunteer, we're always welcoming volunteers. Um it's also a good way for parents of the younger kids to come up here. This building is kind of intimidating for people. Like I didn't know how to get in it my first time. So just familiarizing yourself with the
surroundings, meeting staff, it's it's a good way to like a good segue. Um, our first PTO meeting will be Monday, September 8th at 7 PM in the South Elementary Media Center. All meeting dates are posted on membership toolkit calendar. Um, looking ahead, our
district-wide back to school event will be an outdoor movie night at on Ele, really exciting. I've been wanting to do that for a long time. We'll be showing The Sandlot. Gates open at 6:30 and the movie begins promptly at 7:00. This is not a drop off event. Please do not have
your children Um, admission is $25 per family and it includes popcorn. Um, there will be candy and drinks available for purchase. Registration is open on membership toolkit and volunteer signups for that event are also available on our Facebook
page and they went out on parent square. This movie night will take place will take the place of our September kids night out. And the first drop off kids night out will be Friday, October 3rd. And all of those dates are also posted on our membership toolkit calendar.
Um, we are ex also excited to announce that Beyond the Bell is back for the fall semester. We have 11 confirmed clubs so far, including jiu-jitsu, bead making, cooking club, garden club, and there's there's a bunch more. We're still looking to expand. So, if any
community members or staff are interested in leading a club, we'd love to hear from you. And then finally, um the PTO is thrilled to partner with the Lambertville Nature Explorers to revitalize our school's community garden. Jen Gford and Jillian Vivolei,
parents of South um elementary students, have already made incredible progress clearing the space. And then we had um Jason Vyance come from Riverbend Landscaping with his crew today and they cleaned the whole thing out. It was the
transformation is incredible. It looks really, really awesome. Um, and then tomorrow, um, Jen and I are going to go in and lay the landscaping fabric. The wood chips are being delivered on Wednesday, and if anyone wants to come and help haul wood chips, we're happy to
have you. Um, and we look forward to working with the district and working with the green team to kind of maximize the garden's educational impact because there's there's a lot of stuff we can do with it. We can have a lot of community events and a lot of wonderful things we
can do. And that's all I got. Still not better. Thank you, Jeff. Thank you. Hi everyone. Good evening. Uh I'm Kate at the LA. Um first of all, I just want to congratulate Jess and the PT A
PTO. Um they've done a lot of work. They have a ton of events. Um, and I had the opportunity to see the little preschoolers enjoy their ice pops today and they were so happy. Um, they loved it. So, you guys are doing really great stuff. Um, like the PTO, we have been busy this summer. We, um, had the
opportunity to receive some new grants that we're looking at. Um, so we're really looking forward to supporting the district in the year ahead. Um, we have our first fundraiser, which is golf day, our annual golf day. We got our date back, which the first October, first Monday in October, October 6th. Um, and
I'm pleased to report we got our first sponsorship today. So, um, we're starting to raise some funds and we are hopeful that the teachers will come up with some really nice new programming that we can support this year. And that is it. Thank you. Thank you.
All right. Next is correspondence. And as per board practice, the correspondence is posted to the agenda um for this tonight's meeting for public review. I need to um have a motion to approve
the regular meeting minutes from last. So move second. Thank you. This is a VO voice vote. So all in favor I any opposed? Any abstensions? Okay.
Then we have a presentation on our gifted and talented review. Thank you. So, uh Daniel Lennon will be presenting tonight an update. Just for some background, obviously we had um our G&T
program reviewed uh by an outside consultant as part of the review of our programming and then with that they made recommendations. So last year, Gay Owen worked with um a parent group and a variety of folks for input and then
we'll be presenting tonight where things are and where things are going with ENT moving forward. Thank you. Good evening members of the board and the community. I just want to say a special thanks to all the parents that committed um many hours last winter
and spring to our program um is a parent advisory group. So the parent advisory group came out of the suggestions when we did the PCG gifted and talented program overview. So if you remember when they presented I think it was um two years ago in April and May one of
the suggestions was to involve the key stakeholders in the decision making and so we met um beginning I think it was the first week in February and we probably met once to twice a month um for the rest the remainder of the school year. we finished by the end of April so
that we could share with the curriculum committee and then do some work over the summer. So as a result of the work with the advisory group um we've put together a revised and updated gifted and talented program and the first thing
many of you will notice is that um it has a new name. So we completely rebranded it in the sense that we used to call it enrichment. Um and enrichment is something that we provide for all students. So we often talk about enrichment activities. Gifted and
talented um has very specific criteria, identification and programming. And so um many of the parents on the committee learned a lot about the different our board policy, what other districts do. Um we spent a lot of time doing some
research and getting an overview about what gifted and talented is. And um just so everybody knows, there is legislation and regulation um that says that all students K12 in the state of New Jersey
um need to be um identified and then provide programming for many districts it very different um and the state says you must do this but they don't tell you how to do it or what it looks like. So in many ways that's very very good
because we can design programs based on the needs of our students and because we're so small we can take it even one step further and design programming by grade by student clusters. Um so it's a wonderful opportunity. So I'm just going
to give you a brief overview of what um the committee and PCG and where we moving to next year. There will also be a phase two where we'll put some things into place um in 2627. Um and I'll provide updates over the
year as we get closer to any other new programming or new identification. Again, you're always welcome parents um or community members to reach out to me by email if you have any questions. So with that, we'll go ahead and get started. So this was the gifted and
talented vision that the um parent advisory committee came up with and developed. We spent a lot of time word smithing as you can imagine but basically what we wanted to get across is that our program identifies and cultivates the exceptional talents of
gifted learners. So through this um vision, we strive to foster curiosity, perseverance, and lifelong learning for a range of creative opportunities. I will tell you that all of those words were chosen very, very carefully. We originally had about 13 bullet points
and we all re-evaluated, pivoted and say, "Hey, let's keep it simple. Let's let this vision guide us." And through those two bullets and those very very specific words, we provided um an overview for a program that's really
going to meet the needs of our students. So gifted and talented, as I said, is a little different than enrichment. Um the lessons and activities are designed to challenge the advanced learning needs of GMT students at their level and pace.
The emphasis on intellectual challenge, creativity, and cognitive growth. So the most important thing and something we will as I said be adopting in 2627 is we are going to extend our gifted and talented beyond the intellectual
challenges. So beyond the academics um and this aligns very much with our district goals in the sense that we're going to look at how are students coming to us and what kind of gifted and advanced learning needs do they have in the arts. So we will developing a gifted
and talented art program. We'll be developing a gifted and talented music program. We also there's a component that was recommended to us through PCG which is a leadership component. Um so we want to be able to offer offer those opportunities to our students who you
know not necessarily are gifted in math or reading or writing but they have that creativity or that leadership. Um and so those are things that'll be coming in the upcoming years. So this is a really important slide for
many families and I remember in my many years um as a gifted and talented teacher and when I was supervising and had a lot of parent meetings about what gifted and talented is. So it's very very interesting when you start to look
at the different styles. So if you look at the behavior characteristics, so what is the learning style for an academically strong student, right? Typically we say those are the students that do school well. Um they learn quickly and easily with instruction.
Many of us can automatically picture maybe one of our own children or maybe we have a family member that learns and can easily adapt to instruction. A gifted and talented student may need a little bit more instruction and they're
often self-taught. So, they have a hobby or they have an interest they um that they might proceverate on. I only one of my students I'll never forget she only wanted to write, read and talk about cats, right? So, the teacher kept saying
where is she gifted? How come she's coming to you as gifted and talented? Well, she was highly motivated to learn about cats and research about cats. It's just one simple example. But oftentimes the other thing is to think about their
thinking style. That's why when we will talk about programming and even though the state says we have to identify and provide resources and programming for K2 students, our K2 students, our five and
six year olds are still developing their own thinking. So to think that they're divergent thinkers oftentimes that that hasn't even begun to be tapped into. So that's why I oftentimes really refer to
families to look at these slides. How do they complete tasks? Does it take them a really really long time because they're thinking about something else or do they complete it quickly? And where does that fall in this behavior? Um, so just some
things. I'm not going to go over them all, but I want to draw your attention to the difference between high achieving versus gifted and talented. So the identification process is very similar to how we would identify
students in any type of programming. We use a universal screening and multiple measures. It is more than one just data point. So it is more than just the NJSLA or it is more than just an IR score. It is more than just parent or teacher feedback. We have to take all of those
things into um consideration as we are looking at where students are. Sometimes student work samples won't do justice to the creative thinking or building or constructing if we're only looking at a writing sample. So that's why we look at
multiple measures so we can get a clear portfolio or picture of what the child looks like. And then we have a G&T committee in the school very similar to we have an MTSS team that will determine eligibility.
So by school level and again this is a little bit what I was talking about with the state's requirements in our elementary school at South Elementary. There are pullout sessions during accelerate. There's also in-class enrichment or support with the G&T
teacher. And then some of the things that they would be doing are project-based learning, STEM and science challenges, math extension projects, book clubs, and creative writing. So you can see that this provides the flexibility for the teacher that if she
has seven students in a in her third grade G&T Accelerate, she's going to design something that they're interested in. So if they all have an interest in math, maybe they're going to be doing a math extension project that's going to lead to building a town that has, you
know, lots of different moving parts. So that's why we have the flexibility. So in middle school, they will have pull out sessions also during accelerate in the STEM lab or should say the steam lab. Um, and this is something new
because last year we weren't able to um maximize the flex time for our gifted and talented students in middle school. So, we're really excited about that as well as some pushin and in-class enrichment. And then we have those are
some of the examples again additional STEM activities, opportunities for debate in ELA and then research projects. So again, we're looking at ways that we can meet the needs of the students in order to provide an enriched
and an accelerated um class for them. And then in high school, this is very typical in most high schools 9 to 12 honors AP dual enrollment is directly aligned with um gifted and talented. There could be an opportunity for a gifted um or an independent study. This
would be something like our performing arts academy where their final year is a capstone. Um, and then mentorships. So, as we look at all of the different things that we provide in our very inclusive small community, we see that
we're doing a lot for students. And sometimes we don't necessarily realize that because we never put it in a chart like this or we never say, "All right, how do our pieces go together?" Um, but I did want to show you, we do do a lot to meet the needs of our advanced level
learners. So, parent communication, this is also a huge part of what we talked about for in our parent advisory group. So, what will that look like? Because parents often ask their 8-year-old or 11 or 13year-old, "Oh, so what did you do in
accelerate?" Well, that could have been for some kids the very first 40 minutes of the day or the time right before or after lunch. Well, a whole lot's happened by the time they get home and maybe they sit down to dinner or having a conversation in a car ride. So, this
gives the teacher the opportunity to share quarterly updates, whether that's a newsletter or um different types of ways that parents can know what they're doing. And then parent teacher conferences. Parents are welcome to meet with the gifted and talented teacher
during those conference times that we're going to have at elementary and middle school. And this slide goes over the criteria. And again, what we've done with this, this is what I was referring to when I was using a little edgy speak earlier
about multiple measures. So, we look at these assessments and these data points to say, what can we do? what does this look like for this child? So, the Kogat, which we've given here in South Hunter for many years, um we actually are now
just giving it in second grade and then we'll give it again in sixth grade. So by second grade, most of the research says that the seven-year-olds in the spring, which is typically when we give it at the end of February or in March, though at that point in time, students
have mastered a lot of the developmental skills they need to get a clear understanding of what their cognitive ability is. So that's a little different than their academic ability. it is um they're very different kinds of
assessments um their problem solving their thinking um their spatial relations and so we give that assessment to get a clear understanding it's normed it's given in many districts um to identify what the um excuse me the
cognitive ability is of a second grader and then a sixth grader we're also using the I Ready diagnostic assessment um and I've had several conversations with families amilies in the middle school to say, "Oh, well, the kids didn't really take it seriously and they didn't really know it was going to count." Well, guess
what? It does. And so we will make sure that we clearly communicate to students to say, "Hey, look, this is why we take this seriously because what we look at when we look at the I already diagnostic." As some of you may remember when I reported out about um the student
data, it come um the different levels or performance bands are mid or at grade level, above grade level, two grade levels below, one grade level below, or three grade levels below. So when we're looking at a gifted and talented child and they're being given the diagnostic
in either the fall, winter or spring, we're looking at students who are coming in at grade level or above grade level. Um if a student is typically scoring below grade level, um that may be an indicator that there's a gap in
something and maybe they're not ready for um gifted and talented at second grade, let's say. Um, but maybe that's why we give them also the opportunity in sixth grade to have everybody reassessed. The dibbles is a maze assessment. It's comprehension. So
again, we're getting another piece of what that student can do. We have teacher and student rubrics of gifted behaviors in a checklist. Some of the teachers um maybe have been familiar or parents with the Renoulie scales. They were extremely extensive and oftentimes
didn't give us the information we need. Um and then parent student um input. So if a parent has specific um noticings or things they would like to share that um we will provide that opportunity so that they can go ahead and prepare that. And
then all of these will fall into a point system that we then look at saying okay if a student scored within this range then they can be considered for gifted and talented. And so here is the services information.
So again the grade intervals we we assess in grade second in second grade as well as again in sixth grade. Um so the screening assessment is the Kogat. There's a little bit of description about what the assessment is. There's
classroom teacher input and checklists and recommendations. And then there's review of student achievement data. This all goes um before a gifted and talented committee very similar to our data team meetings where and it may take place at a data team meeting because that's where
we're looking at all the data and then the teachers, the principal, um myself are all included in that decision-making process and then information is sent home to the families um of the results. the current the Kogat scores or the
Kogat um scores that the students took, second grade students took last year have not gone out yet. They will be going out the second week in September and they will be going out with a letter. Um and then the gifted and talented accelerated classes will start the first week in October for those
students that are identified in grades three and four. any student in um grades five, six, seven or eight that was previously in gifted and talented um or our enrichment program will continue and
they will meet during the accelerate class as I said um with the gifted and talented teacher at the middle school and high school. The gifted and talented teacher is also the STEM teacher. So that provides a lot of opportunities for that messy learning and hands-on
activities. Um and those teachers have been working um also with the high school to provide vertical articulation. So the teachers are meeting to say okay so I'm doing coding with our third graders. What does it look like when they come to fifth grade when we're also
talking about coding? So that's been a um process that they've been working on since the spring and over the summer. And that is um an overview. I also wanted to point your attention out um part of the recommendation from the
parents and PCG as well as the state is requirement is to have a website. So you will find the gifted and talented website on our school district website and there you can see an overview of the vision. You can see I will upload this
presentation tomorrow. Um there's some there's an there's some FAQs. There's also a gifted and talented guide. Um, and that really is just a PDF of some questions, um, and everything that's in this slide with a little more detail. Um, so you're welcome to take a look at
that and then certainly email me if you have additional questions. Again, know that this is an evolving process. We're going to roll this out and implement it this year with the idea knowing that we will probably bring the advisory group together in the spring to say, okay, so
now what's our next step? How are our students needs being met? What do we need to do to further grow and strengthen this program? Any questions from the board? The multiple measures are they weighted equally or is there a different waiting
for? Nope. Nope, they're not weighted equally. And that will be the rubric that we will share with families in the spring when we go through because last year we were putting the the pieces together. And so we used so any student we felt as we rolled into this the
updated program that was currently in gifted and talented stayed in gifted and talented. So our second graders are really the new group, the new cohort. And so um with coming together with the advisory group and the um the team we
determined that these were the measures. So there'll be a rubric as I said. So you know the Kogat will weigh heavier than um maybe the dibbles right because that's just a reading comprehension piece but we want to know what that is. Kogat will probably weigh the heaviest
because that is the cognitive ability that's gives us a real insight on where the student is as a thinker. And will you also take some of your special needs kids are going to have fairly detailed educational assessments that may include a version of an IQ score. Will you take that into consideration as well if they've scored
uh through that testing? Well, yes, we will take that into consideration in terms of stu uh in terms of teacher input, but they will in terms of trying to create rubrics that align, they would need to be part of the have one of those assessments. But when they take any one
of those assessments, as all of our special education students do, they take it with all the accommodations and modifications. So, all of our students take the Kogat, no matter what their programming is. all of the students take I Ready no matter what their programming is within whatever their based on their
IEP needs. So yes, it's all taken into consideration and then we look at all those pieces and then if we still say oh wait, you know, we're looking at, you know, Woodcock Johnson score, something like that, it doesn't really match this
h we need to do some further research for the um I Ready assessments. I know we've gotten them a few times. Um that's that how do we that's not point in time already or is it only looking at the the diagnostic? Yeah.
No, but like do we do it a few times in a year? Right. So when we're um when it's part of the GMC, are we looking at it over time or just one time they take? We will pro we will look at we'll pro most likely we will look at
the spring diagnostic because as we saw when I did the student data report um June the growth was huge right so it only is going to benefit the student and then that is to I mean that is to say everything is you know we look at that's
why we take so many multiple measures because if they're one grade level below an I ready but they have a coat score of 135 you know we we're like well wait a minute so let's let's know and then what does the teacher see what does the what does the STEM teacher see what does the
art teacher see so you know that's why we have the conversation with the teacher input um I truly believe that you there's no there's no profile of a gifted student that is the same for every student
um and then last question I saw that we had um advance possible advanced math class at the middle school level um What what does that look like? Is that like maybe like a seventh grader jumping into algebra? Something like that. So, it's the algebra 1 for eighth grade currently is what we have.
Okay. If you had younger students who seem like they would benefit, would they be able to do algebra since everybody's if they meet the algebra 1 placement criteria? Okay. Um so, that is something else that we um took into consideration when looking at pre-alggebra and algebra
1 placement criteria. Um, I did have several questions from families about, you know, my child's not in pre-alggebra. How are they going to get to BC calculus? And I said, you know what, we never, if a student says, I want to do this, and they demonstrate that they can with a variety of
assessments and placement, then we certainly will give them the opportunity. Um, I truly believe that nobody should be tracked as a seventh grader, especially in math. I think sometimes there's a perception that being an academically strong
student is somehow not enough if you don't meet the GT standards. Will you have any sort of communication because being academically strong student is fabulous in and of itself. Oh yes. for for parents to just to provide a comfort level that um G&T is
wonderful for students who fit into that criteria, but simply being I don't even want to say simply, but being an academically strong student is tremendous in and of itself. Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's why by the time students get to nth grade, right, everybody the playing field is
now wide open. So maybe you weren't you didn't meet the criteria as a gifted and talented student in second or sixth grade. You you can go on to take, you know, five APs. You can go on to be, you know, president of the student council,
sit on our board of education. You you can go on to be captain of the football team or, you know, the lead chair in I don't know band very well, but I'm thinking the lead clarinet. Drum. Okay. Drum major. Drum major. Right. And so there are lots
of opportunities and that's what I I really truly like to share with families and it's sometimes very hard because until you've had a high schooler or you've gone through the high school process, you don't know what gifted and talent, you know, you think that you because they're in this gifted and
talented that they're all of a sudden not going to be challenged or, you know, our opportunities blow open, you know, when we get to high school and we want to be able to celebrate all of those students. Just as we've this summer where we've had students in the national ed equity reaching top goals and our AP
scores and students getting fours and fives. I mean those are all things to be our dual enrollment numbers that have quadrupled. So you know every single one of those little boxes is a check to somebody who is academically strong. I know there has been um there's been some
type of perception that oh I used to go with you know the G&T teacher and you know there was some exclusivity you know that's why we built accelerate right and this year at the elementary school we even
redesigned the schedule so that they would have more opportunities so it's a staggered accelerate so more students can um have opportunities beyond you know when we only had one period or they they didn't get a chance to meet. Um,
and the G&T teacher, STEM teacher will come into the classroom to work with students because sometimes, you know, all of those measures didn't really add up. But that's not to say that student's not going to go on and write a book or that student's not going to go on and, you know, teach the math lesson on how
to solve the fractions when they're decimals and quadruple exponents or whatever it may be. So, but I hear what you're saying. Thank you. Just hopefully to put a pin in this as well. I it we have talked a lot about this in curriculum. So, I don't want to
get you with any of the of any further questions, but I did want to just say how much I appreciate the process that went into crafting this because it not only is reaching for that academic excellence
that we all want, but it also involved our community. And the fact that this had such a strong parent advisory group is really a great thing. Um, I think that in this particular group, I I was a G&T student when I was in the district.
Um, in fact, my teacher's daughter is sitting in the room right now. It it is really important that our community be involved as resources for these children especially. Yep. Absolutely.
I also wanted to say that I appreciated um the way that the group looked at all of the successes of the previous enrichment program and that this is building upon that and you made the distinction that enrichment opportunities are available to all of our students and especially those that
are academically successful to say they're they will get more advanced information and go deeper into certain subjects. So this is on on top of that not absolutely not and that's truly you know that is a lens in which I have to choose all curriculum
programs right so as we've looked at wit and wisdom and the the masterpiece art and the books that those students read it is really a glimpse into some very rigorous challenging um resources that
give that gifted student or the student that has an interest in whatever whatever this whatever the book the you know the heartbeat that the fourth graders go on to learn about how the blood travels through the body in fourth grade and then they read love that dog
which is or and heartbeat like so there's so much extension and opportunities within the programs we choose so that we can meet those new so nobody's bored nobody's doing something over and over again the same way we work with small group instruction in math so
that students don't you know we don't have to do all the problems. You all have shown us in this assessment that you're going to go and you can do a project. These students may not they're going to get something different. And that's really what we want to be able to communicate clearly with our students.
Um is that everybody gets something different. So we don't just go out for gifted and talented. We go out to maybe work with the physical therapist or we go out for gifted and talented or we go out for music or whatever it is. We go out for ESL. go out for lots of
different things because those that's the need I have right now and that's how it's going to be serviced. So that's why we design the schedule with accelerate. That's why we choose the programs that we do because there's more than one way, right? And so we have to be able to say
and I have to be able to stand and support and speak to the board about this is the best program for all 17 19 22 students in this classroom and not just these four or whatever it may be. Any
other questions? I have a quick question. Can you guys hear me? Okay. Yes. Yeah. Oh, great. Hi. Um, so thanks Jane and Ellen. Um, thank you for the great presentation. I was just hoping that maybe you could explain a little bit
about why it's sixth grade, why sixth grade is the second time that the KOAT and I guess like the other kind of um review of student ability or however you want to put it is is being done. I know
you talked a little bit about why second grade was chosen, but um I'm I'm curious about why sixth grade is the second. Sure. Um and that really and that also came out of the parent advisory group that it should be assessed another time. Um many districts don't many districts
once you you take the assessment um or and you're identified in second grade that's it. Um but we really felt and I feel very strongly that all of a sudden as we just talked about with Martha like things happen and opportunities are out there for students um as they get into
middle school. So at middle school students in in spring of sixth grade will now have seventh and eighth grade ahead of them as well as program opportunities in high school. So we really want to know again what is their cognitive ability? What has developed in
these now you know 11 12 year olds that we didn't see when they were seven and eight. So, we want to get another sort of check-in just like you would go to the doctor to get a, you know, an idea of the pulse and you would get a blood test and you'd get your blood pressure and cholesterol, all those things
checked that you might not have gotten checked when you were seven. We want to get a clearer picture so that we can provide programming. Maybe we see that there is a cohort of students that have very strong math ability. So, do we have
enough math programs for them? um would there be an opportunity for them to double up in a math? Do we consider offering an AP stack class to ninth graders? So, we want to be able to have a clear understanding of where students
are without just the NJSLA or without just I ready, right? Because I don't feel like they give the full picture. This is just another look at where our kids are as they approach seventh um and then move into 11th and 12th grade. It
also gives us a clear understanding of developing different types of pathways because the Kogat assesses what's called nonverbal reasoning and it's a very different type of assessment. It's very logical thinking that we don't ever you're not going to get an eye ready or reveal or wit and wisdom. And that's
that piece where if you've ever done like folding paper or seven trees are this and four trees are this and how much is left. So it's that logical piece um that oftentimes are on graduate exams or elsats or something like that. So
where does that if our students have that ability what are we providing for them? Um so it's just another way for us to get a clearer picture on our students that would then be entering seventh grade. And it was also I'll just point out a recommendation from PCT when they
did the overview of the program. That all your questions, Gina? Okay, then we'll move on. Yeah, thanks. Yes. So busy time. Um obviously tomorrow is our first day back for staff. So all of our staff are returning tomorrow,
Wednesday and Thursday for inservice. to be prepared for our students coming on uh September 2nd after Labor Day. So, it's an exciting time. Just a few things that were mentioned already, but some reminders about to break the ice and the ice cream social um which will be happening this week. And then obviously,
if you remember last year, we did uh the barbecue just for our seventh and ninth grade parents. But this year, now that we're a full high school only, we decided that we want to invite all of our parents in high school. So, we're really hoping that we'll get a good turnout. 9 10 11 12. Um there will be
obviously a ton of food from 5 to 6 and then like we did last year, kids will be doing different activities and then we will have a parent program from uh 6 to 7 o'clock in the auditorium and we'll be touching upon a bunch of different things. So we're hoping we get a big
turnout for that. Back to school nights, which were mentioned, but they'll be coming. So I just wanted to get everything down on the calendar for for that as well. Um, just for the middle school, just a few updates. Our playground equipment will be arriving this week. Um, our maintenance staff
will be installing it. We're our goal is to get it done by midepptember. Um, obviously there's a lot of moving parts right now and they're working on some of the other playgrounds for our preschools. Uh, and as soon as they're finished, they will get to that. U we still have a few punch list items we're working through with our contractor
resolving some HVAC and humidity issues in the middle school and we're hoping to get that resolved in the next week or so. I do want to stress and you'll be seeing me send this out again uh this coming weekend. I think Friday it's going out. If parents, you know, first we're encouraging parents at the middle
school to allow their kids to take the bus. Um, but for some reason, if you need to drive and drop off in the morning or pickup, please watch this video just because it is a new school building and it kind of walks you through where buses will be going, where parents will be going, how that process
is going to work in the morning and in the afternoon. So, um, you know, we'll have plenty of folks out there next week to assist parents for the first couple days as everyone gets used to it. But if you didn't get a chance to watch that video, please do so. Just a couple transportation reminders
and I sent this out on Friday, but I wanted to remind everyone again. So, all bus information has been posted in Encourse. It's been there since Friday. Um, as a reminder, we're asking students to be at their bus stop 10 minutes before their scheduled time in the
morning. Um, and remain there for 10 minutes. uh after scheduled time, we all know in the first week or so, we got to work through some of the challenges. And even though the routes look great in our software system, we have to adjust. So, you know, if the bus pickup time is, you
know, 8:00 a.m. and the bus isn't there by 8:02, we're not looking for kids to say, "Gee, I can go home today." All right? We want them to stick around for a little bit. Um and then we'll work through some of that. We're asking for parents to give us some flexibility as we get acclimated to the routes. And then obviously if any parents have any
questions about the route or the times or anything along those lines, feel free to reach out to our transportation coordinator who does a great job, Amanda Brown. Here's her email and her phone number and she'll get back to you and answer any of those questions. I did want to provide an update on the
turf field. So, we talked about this at our last meeting. We've been talking about this for several months. Um, this is a rendering of what the turf project looks like. I just wanted to remind folks and I went through this at our last meeting, but um just to be
transparent again that as the design of the turf evolved in January, we did determine by our engineers that we needed to add some additional drainage um to manage the storm water and the storm water requirements. So, after over the last several months, our engineers
have been working on that design. Um, and they just recently provided that to our turf vendor, and you can see from the drawing below, what they're going to be doing is literally installing a drainage system underneath the field, inside of the field. Um, and a lot of the dirt that will be removed, or as
they call it, spoils that were removed from the field for the turf will get put over to this area with the red X, which will become another practice area for our football program. Um, right now there's a drop off there, if you're familiar with that area. Um, now it will
be level once we remove all the dirt. Um, so they did design that under the field so it we don't have to increase the size of our drainage basins or things that are already existing. Um, with that came some additional costs. So, you can see what the original price
was. Um, the new drainage system, the cost to remove the fill in the top soil from the existing field. Uh, we will actually be utilizing it on three different areas of the of the campus, the area that I showed before for the additional practice field. We're going
to have a stockpile top soil over near our pole barn just for our baseball or softball fields. And then we're also going to be utilizing some of it over on our middle school site as well. The total new cost, you can see there, um, the board was aware back in the winter that there was going to be some
additional costs for the drainage system. The board had made the decision as we built our budget for 2526 to put a deposit down on the field project of 500,000 using the capital reserve account to pay for that and then to finance the remaining amount. Um the
next steps last week we actually submitted all the applications to DRCC and Hunter County soil conservation as well as delivered a set of plans to West Anell um Township. Uh the goal was for the project to start at the conclusion
of the fall athletic season and be ready for the spring athletic season. We spent a lot of time talking about the goal and this has been a goal for the board for the last several years really since the referendum was now that we have middle school and high school on one campus was to try to maximize all of our
extracurricular activities from the athletic side to remain on campus the best we possibly can. Um, as middle school parents know, right now between Hua Park and UI Field and other places, Flemington with um, you know, the park up there as well, Len Park, um, we are
transporting kids all over the place and the goal is to try to keep them on campus the best we possibly can. So, on the agenda tonight, and the reason why I'm bringing this up is we have two items related to the turf project. One is an updated quote that reflects the new price and then the
other is a resolution authorizing um Phoenix, which is our financial advisor, to put out an RFP for financing the project. So, in other words, the remaining balance, we put it out there to see what kind of interest rates we're going to be getting. Um why are we financing this project? Because it
allows us some flexibility with our capital reserve account to focus on some other things and specifically with the high school. So, we're in great shape now with the elementary school, obviously with the middle school. So prek8, you know, is really solid. The focus moving forward will be the high
school over the next three years of different things between the academy, some other things that we're looking at. Um, you'll see when I do our district goals, uh, in September at the September board meeting, one of our goals is going to be really focused on the high school experience for our students. Some of the
things we want to move towards, you know, from a facility side as well. So, um, that's the reason why the board made the decision to finance to provide some flexibility. So, I know that tax bills came out August 1st. I get that, right? Um, so,
you know, and I understand, you know, taxes and how expensive and the majority of folks's tax bills are going to the school district. I did want to share that, and we've been talking about this, but we will have some referendum debt that will be rolling off the books. Our last payment of our old referendum debt
comes in February of 2026. So taxpayers will experience referendum relief starting July 1st of 2026 as our payment where we reduced and you can see by that number over a million dollars. You can see up here on the chart what we were paying 25 and 26 and then where
that number goes in 2627 once we lose that old referendum debt. So that's something we've been talking about for three years but it is close to happening. The way the tax cycle works, as you know, you know, from July to June, so you get your tax bill in August. So even though we're making that
last payment in February, the relief won't start to occur until the next cycle in July. So I did want to point that out. Um I also did want to point out at our last board meeting, we talked a little bit about this concept of arbitrage with the interest that we
earned from um our referendum funds. And I know there's been some misunderstanding of that. So, I felt like it was important to really clarify that and what that is and explain what it means for a school district. Um, so basically this gives you a summary. When
voters approve a referendum, the district often sells bonds to raise money for projects like construction or renovation. Exactly what we did. We invested the money, right? Sometimes the district doesn't spend all the money right away. It sits in an account until the project bills come due. So obviously
that money was in an investment account. As we get payouts from the contractors based on the progress they make, we're taking money out, taking money out, and paying the contractor for their progress. If those referendum dollars are invested in short-term accounts, they can earn interest, which ours did.
But if the interest earned is higher than the interest rate the district is paying the bond holders, that's considered arbitrage by the IRS. The IRS doesn't allow school districts or any government entity to profit this way on borrowed tax exempt money. So when the
interest earned is more than the IRS permits, the extra has to be paid back to the IRS as an arbitrage rebate, which if you remember from our last meeting, the board approved the amount of 573,13523 be paid back to the IRS. For South
Hunter specifically, we earned 2,84162026,011 in interest, but we were only allowed to keep the 2,268,490 888. The remaining 5731 13523 was paid to the IRS. The reason for that is the
rate of return on the interest account that we invested the referendum funding was 4.5%. The interest rate on the bonds that we got was 3.82%. So we earned more interest because of that 4.5 compared to the bonds at 3.82.
So that is how that calculation is done. I know there was misconceptions that you know there was misuse of the referendum funding. Therefore we were being fined by the IRS. That is not accurate. So hopefully this will provide clarification on how arbitrage works and
the reason why we were paying federal government 572,000. Um so westill next steps I just wanted to share a few other updates. So on our finance agenda tonight you will see a contract for our commercial broker Kushman Wakefield. So we have entered
into agreement to sell the property. You will also see 10X on the agenda for our finance. That is the company that's handling the auction for the property um under the contract portion of the agenda. The contract has not been included because the contract actually
it's being held in in Peter's office because it actually has the reserve price for the property which we want to keep confidential at this point. Um just as a reminder because it's an online auction, the district and the board sets a reserve price that's confidential.
What that does is it protects the board of having to accept an offer that is too low. So there's a reserve price. The number is there. We know what it is. Obviously, the auction company knows what it is. If anything comes below that reserve price, the board does have the
right to honor that and accept that, but it also has the right to turn it down. If a bidder bids the reserve price or higher, the board must accept the offer. All right. Right now, the property is live. So, if you click on this link, you will see the property is up on the
auction site. It's been up since last Thursday. And the actual auction is right now tenatively scheduled for Monday, October 6 through Wednesday, October 8th. So, what will happen is it will go live auction. It's online like similar to like eBay, which is quite
interesting to me. And we'll be able to see from the board's perspective how the bids that come in and what they are. Regardless of what they are, we have to go through the three days. So even let's say if a bid came in the first day and it met the reserve price, we can't shut the auction down and accept it. We have
to go all the way through through Wednesday. And then from there, depending upon how things play out, the property is being sold asis. All the buyers that are potentially interested know that their job is to do all this research on their own and based on what our commercial broker provides them
before the actual auction date on October 6th and then bid accordingly based on having that information upfront. Now, another development, just so you're aware, is we did receive a call two weeks ago from Hunton County with possible interest in purchasing the
property. Um, they have decided to investigate the water issues on their own before making an offer on the property. Two things that they had mentioned to me on the phone about possible interest. One was a possible senior recreation center um that they
were looking and have interest in. Um the other was um the possibility of a um library. So I guess right now um where they're using for their South County library is a rental facility and there is always a possibility of moving it to
a new location. Um but they are aware of some of the water issues that we've discussed. So they wanted to investigate that further before they move forward with a formal offer. Now speaking of water, I know this is tough to see, but I'll be sending this out. So, as you
know, we've been dealing with the 14 dioxide issues that are related to Lehigh Power Fluid, which is right next door. Um, the latest round of testing, which I know it's tough to see, but it is here for us. You will notice when there was testing done on 2205 and
51525, the numbers came in below the recommended, which is 33. But unfortunately, when testing was done on July 31st, it came in at 0.856, 856 which is above the recommended level. So um and then there's some other issues
with some neighbors around who had the same situation. So um we actually met with Lehi back on June 20th and then again today actually this morning. Both sides had legal representation. The meeting also included their licensed
site remediation professional or their LSRP that they had to hire as per the D. Um they shared at the meeting that they have a proposed groundwater treatment solution that include the use of amberorb. So I have a link there. It's made through dupant. The the goal is for
it to collect um the actual molecule molecules of 14 dioxide. So if you want to click on the link and take a look at it a little bit further. Um they are waiting on a quote for the equipment in the installation which they hope to have by the 29th this week. Um, from what
we're being told, the installation based on the infrastructure they set up could take a day or two to actually do. Um, until the remediation is complete, they will continue to provide bottled water to whoever owns the site. And then the big point of conversation is we're
really working with their legal representation to try to memorialize what we talked about today because that is really important to obviously Hunton County who may have interest in the property or any buyers for the public auction because the questions that they are going to have is what's the
remediation who's responsible and when is going to happen. So those are all things that we're working towards. Um, and we're going to have further conversations this evening in executive session with our board attorney and some other folks as far as that process, but I just wanted to be transparent so you
know where things are in that process. Um, any questions from the board on anything I present? That water treatment is on our well at the Westwell building on our water, not or is that on their water? It would be on their well and nothing on
our properties. So if they are the I don't I don't if they're the ones adding the d whatever dioxane yeah does this solution also help them not do that anymore because we're getting a fix
but is it still going out from them like are they going to be fix so what will happen is it will literally bring it to the surface filter it out put the water back into the ground so so it will assuming would not just for us but for any surrounding. Yes, they would remove
it. So that amber sworb is on is in their property itself. It's in their no in their they have a similar to our well room even at the new middle school. They have a similar on their site. So it would go into I thought it was saying that they were going to come to West Enroll building
and remediate. So it's the goal would be is if all and again I I just want to be fully transparent because they're right now we're kind of like the test case for a small water source. Yeah. Such as this. They don't know 100%. This is what's
being recommended. The amount of amberorb and how much is utilized I think is going to be kind of give and take as they see how it goes. But there's no absolute yet because this is kind of new for everyone. But at least the positive is we're closer to a
remediation solution than we were when we met June 20th. Um, and just since we did receive the correspondence on the turf, could you talk a little bit more about the product for the turf and the plastics and Yeah. So, if you're familiar, you I'm
sure everyone has kids that may have played on a turf field at one time. Um, one of the ma major issues that's come up with turf field is the little rubberized pebbles that's inside the turf. Um, our turf will not have that product. So, we are going what's called a pivot turf. We're probably going to be
one of the first school districts in the state of New Jersey that will have it. Um, it does not contain any of those rubber fibers. So, it's a new type of turf um that doesn't have any of the rubber fibers, which was a concern with runoff and going off the field and getting on kids legs and everything
else. That will not be in this turf that we are putting on our feet. Tony, on the turf and the cost, we didn't have the turf. We were just going to still have the cost of maintaining the field. Yeah. And so that didn't there's a
little bit of it's not a complete trade-off but that would have been an ongoing cost for however many years you have grass on the field. Sure. Absolutely. Yeah. We did look at that was one of the things very clear. Yeah. That that in addition to the fact that we had we have another building on
campus that we would have to put a field on anyway. So that we are mitigating costs. Absolutely. Several ways that that was the other plan although had a cost assistance. Yeah. We we have to point out that the other plan that only got one field that only one team could play
on was going to cost 1.8 to 2 million. That's right. With a little reserve practice field, this allows every team to play on with a reserve practice field for a lot less because that 1.8 to 2 million could have also expanded bigger. That was three years ago. That was three years ago. So guaranteed
that that was probably up to 22 now. So it's a lot of savings. Plus, every team can you can use it, which is obviously a lot more fair to all the students because there's only a matter of time before that field hockey field like it did last year. So, field hockey and soccer and football
are all in the same season. So, how could we talk a little bit about because I know that it'll be available to you. So, from a practice side, Jason will work it out where there's a rotation each and every day where teams will split the half. So, you know, like you might have field hockey on one end and
girls soccer on the other or boys soccer and then football would, you know, rotate in probably once a week. Um, and then for games, because our football games are typically on Friday nights, um, and we only have four home games, it
opens up all kinds of possibilities for games after school, games at night, multiple games where there could be a four o'clock game and seven o'clock game, um, depending upon how we want to do it. So, you know, I know in conversations with Jason, we would make sure that it's equitable so all of our
sports get access equal amount of time. Um, and then obviously for the spring, we'd be looking to utilize it for middle school girls softball. Um, and then our varsity softball team would have the new field, but it also provides us a backup plan. As we know, sometimes with
weather, if we do have inclement weather, we oftentimes will try to move games to uh Diamond Nation and utilize their turf to pay for it, which we wouldn't have to do that. We could just slide varsity down through the Oh, varsity. Yeah. Yeah. So, it gives us some
flexibility there. And um I I had a conversation with the the field hockey mom earlier this month and um one of the things that she was saying is that if there's if there's senior night like that can actually be made special and it can be a senior night instead of field
hockey. This year in years past the senior games have had to be during the day and it hasn't brought as much of the community out. So we'll have the opportunity. Yeah. For all of our sports, all of our senior nights will be on the third. I also wanted to express appreciation
for our grounds um staff and how how they stepped up and really tried to limit the costs whenever possible. Yes. You know, a lot of the grading and the the soil moving we're doing in house and that's um greatly appreciated.
Was that mentioned on the slide about the the using the um irrigation to run in house? No benefit also. Yeah. So, we now have irrigation on the field hockey field, the outfield, and the baseball field. Um, once the turf field goes in.
Yeah. Well, we're using we're using it now, but it gives us more water source. Yeah. Because right now, this tank that we have can only do so much where if we take a field off it, it allows a lot more flexibility for the other grass are get additional watering, including the
outfield of the new girl soft. Gan a question? I have a question about the arbitrage. Okay. So, um on the uh the arbitrage piece. Oh, I was if if somebody wanted
to go and like read up on this, is it available if they you know, if you wanted to search IRS arbitrage rebate school district, you could Yeah, it's there. It will tell you, right? Okay. Any other questions?
I have a question. Um, and excuse me, this was asked because the volume is kind of like going in and out a little bit for me. So, um, but one of the things I was curious about, and I've I've gotten some questions about it with regard to the turf field is, um, I think
that there are some concerns about like some environmental concerns and, um, you know, in particular with some of the POS contamination and microlastics that's kind of been in the news a lot. And so I was just wondering if that's something
that you could speak to at all with regard to the use of turf. Yeah. So just the fact that we are using a pivot turf that doesn't have the granules of rubber inside which has caused some concerns about PAS because
besides getting on kids, you know, when they slide on it, but more runoff when there's heavy rain and then they r it runs off the field and then can get in water systems and things along those lines. That is something that we considered and there's this product that's now come out like I have
mentioned before where I don't think there's any other schools in New Jersey right now who have utilize it as of yet called pivot turf that does not contain any of those materials. So I think that's a great step in the right direction as far as you know dealing
with the issues of PAS. Okay, there are no further questions. will enter the first period of public comment. So, if members of the public would like to address the board and come to the podium, please state your name and your municipality. And we ask that you keep your questions um or comments
um to 30 minutes. Hi, I'm Joan Vandervine from 346 Rock Road East. Um when I went to the tour of the um junior high, I'm sorry, the middle school. I was raised in the Midwest. We call them junior highs. Um I
got some questions from people because I posted pictures and they said, "Where's the playground?" And I didn't know there was going to be a playground. So, how soon will the playground be photographic? Um hopefully by September 15th, the
latest. Um we're going to have the equipment. We're supposed to get it by Thursday or Friday this week and then our maintenance team to save money rather than having the installers put it together are going to install it. So I can go after September, middle of September. Oh yeah, absolutely. Um, so the turf or the turf that you're
explaining for the high school is the same kind of product that you're going to use on the playground as well. No, we're going to use more uh for the playground area. It's going to be more like wood chips. We're not using a rubberized material for Okay. So, it's not it's not rubber. No.
Okay, good. That'll be good. All right. Thank you. Yep. I always like to point out when students are a part of the decision- making process, students were pulled and they decided what playground equipment would go in at the middle school. Correct. We gave them a list.
No, on the the equipment, what equipment they want? We gave them a list about five or six, seven, eight things. What was your top three? And swing sets are still they still love a swing set. Hi, I'm Robin Deal from West Enl
Township. Um, I just wanted to uh thank the board for your donation of the kitchen equipment and the playground equipment from West Township. Um, as you probably are aware, we're going to spend a lot of money on Huitt Park this year
through grants and open space funds and that certainly goes a long way to helping us revamp the entire experience. And I know a lot of the children's from our school district have been using that park and it really needed the work. So that we really appreciate that donation.
Thank you. You're welcome. Anyone else online? Uh we did have one online um that actually came in yesterday so I looked at already and it's related to our homework policy. So, I'm going to read it and then I'll talk a little bit about
it. Um, and it is, let me just tell you who it is. Um, it is Scott Lion who is in Lambertville. Um, he said, "In recent communication, you conveyed the district's consensus on homework expectations. I noticed through most of the grades, the policy correlates to the
NEA endorsed 10-minute rule where daily homework averages to 10 minutes per grade level, but the high school numbers far exceeded those rules of thumb. A baseline student with five college prep classes could spend roughly three hours per night. And an ambit ambitious student with one to two AP classes could
be spending 4 to six hours per night on average. That student might start homework at 400 p.m. and take a break for dinner at 6 p.m. then return to homework at 7 and study till 9, 10, or 11. Is this really what the district's leaders recommend? I believe this is far beyond the healthy expectation. They
want to understand how they arrived at these numbers and why they think a typical smart high school student should have no time for anything but coursework. So, I actually started like an email back and forth um with Scott just to kind of clarify
um based on the policy. So, just a few things I'll say about it is that um the high school is a little bit different animal. I also, you know, kind of went back and explained that I felt like his numbers were a little off as far as the expectation. Um, typically when we're
talking about homework, we're talking about probably five core areas, right? Your English, math, science, social studies, and world language. You're not necessarily going to see a lot of homework in your elective areas. You're not necessarily going to see homework in PE. Um, so, and then the high school schedule is a little unique because even
though it's an eight period schedule, only six classes meet per day. So, you're not meeting all eight classes. There's three in the morning and three in the afternoon with the drop schedule. Um, I, you know, and I said this in my correspondence, I would not recommend a
child taking five AP courses, um, for a variety of different reasons. Um, keep in mind when we talk about the AP classes, they are college classes. So, AP school boards recommends that each one of those classes have an hour
homework a night. our policy actually says 50 minutes a night. Um so that is something that we really try to educate our students on uh that you know with all the other things that you're involved with you really have to weigh
like over extenduating yourself so or extending yourself. So it's really important to have those conversations with parents and kids during the planning process. We also highly recommend to students and parents that if your child is going to take more than
two AP classes, you take a study hall, which is 55 minutes during the school day to obviously work on homework. We also have a flex period of 30 minutes during the school day that meets every day, five days a week, where students can utilize that to complete homework as well as get extra help from teachers.
Um, so I think when I did the calculation just in your no normal college prep classes, it was somewhere if every teacher assigned 25 minutes, it would be a little over two hours. Um, you know, I don't necessarily think that's going to happen um all the time.
Um, I think these are kind of guidelines. It was developed by teachers. It was developed with a lot of input from district parent council and obviously the board and it's not set in stone, right? So, it is something that we'll be evaluating throughout the year and eventually collecting parent input
on. Um, and then if we need to make tweaks, we will. Um, we don't want students to be overwhelmed. We've talked about how some reason the guidelines don't meet students needs that we want parents at the elementary level, you know, to be reaching out to teachers. We
want students at the middle school level to start advocating for themselves along with maybe some parental support. And definitely at the high school, we want students to advocate for themselves. and then we can work around that accordingly. So, um I don't, you know, I don't expect students to be doing four to six hours of homework each night.
That's not what the intention was. Um and you know, I think we're going to have to see how it plays out, you know, and then we'll re-evaluate it throughout the year and then make any changes that we see fit based on, you know, feedback from kids, parents, the board, um our teachers, uh you know, and then kind of
go from there. comments from Okay, seeing none, I will close this um segment of the public comment and we'll move on to the board committee reports. First will be buildings, grounds, transportation, finance, and safety. I
know that Mr. Keys isn't here, so that's something that you can I can do. Yeah. Yep. So, I mean, just some of the things that we'll point out. Um, if you look at our contracts, we have a long list of different things that we typically approve. Um, you know, at this
time of the year, I already mentioned a few with our, you know, our broker and then also for the auction. Um, some other things that are on there is we will be last year we used um our after school tutoring program which we'll be offering again this year and we used Hey
Tutor as our vendor so we're renewing them as well. Um, Arbiter is, uh, the group that we'll be utilizing for, um, our maintenance facility for requests when we, you know, things need to be fixed. McGown does all of our well management for the middle school and the
high schools, all of our water testing and all those different things. Uh, Massios does our food delivery for our food services. Tools of the mind is something that we're required to do for preK. However, we use our prek funding money, so it's not coming out of our district budget to pay for, and that's
the curriculum that our teachers utilize with our preschool students. Um, I already mentioned about uh 10X and Kushman. Magnolia is um some consulting that we had for our administrative retreat this summer with our administrative team. And then we have
some other contracts for um shared time and full-time students with Hunter County Vocational School District or Polytech as most folks know it. So we have students that attend their four-yearmies from 9th grade to 12th and then we have students who go 11th and 12th grade and we have to pay for that.
So there's contracts and then we also have some parent contracts for transportation um you know for our extended school year program and then for the upcoming school year. Um some other things I'll just point out. Um as was mentioned before,
there's actually a bill of sale on here um for the items that we donated to Westwell Township that they're going to utilize as we just heard about the turf quote which I've already talked about and then the financing resolution um the acceptance of so this was something that was important if you
remember um there was some concern during the summer that title funding was not going to be released. The good news is the title funding from the federal government has been released and we actually have gotten the money. So, um we now have the money and can utilize that in all the ways that we budgeted
for when we developed our budget. So, that was a good good news. Um joint transportation agreement with Delv Val that we typically do to share transportation services. Um there's a few change orders as we wrap up, you know, our projects. There was actually a zerobased change order for the
elementary um project uh that was hanging out there that we discovered as we begin to close it out. Um there is uh some payment apps on here for um our school construction projects, a joint transportation agreement with Trenton
and and Yuing as well for some of the students that we utilize as far as our choice program and transportation that's provided. So we do a motion and then we have discussion. Correct. Okay. So looking for a motion to approve items A through S.
Second Jennifer Baffler. Uh we have discussion question. Any questions? Question actually. Oh, I was gonna ask about Mashios, the contract with Mashios. I I
recall I I don't remember how long ago, but there was conversation about I guess kind of looking at other food providers for our cafeterias. And I'm not suggesting that that be done right right now with, you know, this on
the agenda, but I'm just curious if that's something that we can do um going forward into next year. I think generally speaking there's some dissatisfaction with with the food offerings in the cafeteria. Um and I'd be interested to
see what other options there are. So that I mean obviously we have a contract for this year. If the board decided that they wanted to go out for an RFP that's something we can discuss for next year. Um, I will say that the last couple times we've gone out, Matthews has been the only one who's bid
on it. But, uh, you know, again, that's something we can discuss as a board as we get closer to the spring. Okay. Thank you. So, if two people bid on it, it's still cheaper. We have to take that one, right? So, it doesn't doesn't really matter. Well, also if there's concerns about the
quality of the food, last time we talked to Matthews, they they um basically addressed the the concerns that were brought to them at that time. Yeah. I would recommend if there's concerns for folks to bring those forward, so I can address them with masses. Okay.
The state because the state says we can't give our kids good food. We got to take the cheapest one. Another great thing to do. Okay. Any other questions? All right. Ready? Senator Rexler.
So, I just I wanted to to just preface. We're voting on all of the items. Um here that uh I do want to acknowledge that the turf product that you found is is um you know, less capable of producing the the
microlastics. it is still um a plastic product and um I do acknowledge all of the the benefits and we are going to have you know multiple teams being able to use the field but I you know I know that when we were talking about the cost at the last time with the the original
cost I had voted no to that and so you know I'm going to be consistent and stick with that but I wanted I did want to acknowledge that we had good conversations around it and there are lots of merits to it um but I'm just kind of acknowledging the community
concerns and the rural character of where we live and the the concern about PAS and I know that I had you know talked a few times about that we've we have done a lot of capital projects but that's I just wanted to preface that by saying that doesn't mean that it's there
aren't many merits and that you you have researched and and found a unique product um for the field and we we did get a a a good um contract track on a good a good a good rate. Um, but just I wanted to be consistent with what I had
uh what I had originally gone with when when we first had the resolution. So, I I'm um I'm going to vote no on that one. Okay. Yes. Gina Bashetti, yes. Kevini,
yes. Aaron, Michael Shroud, yes. Ronnie Marino. Yes. All right. Then we will move on to the personnel committee. Gina, do you want to give an update on the personnel?
Yeah, I can. Just let me um open up my Okay. So, um the personnel committee met on August 20th. We met virtually. Um it was a a short meeting. Um um and in that meeting we uh discussed
the resignations, appointments, and other actions that you see on the agenda this evening. Um there are no current openings in the district. Um however uh Tony did share updated job descriptions for the secretary for director of curriculum assessment and instruction
and uh an updated job description for the counseling secretary. That doesn't mean that new people are being hired for those positions. It's just updating what the job responsibilities are for those positions. Um, additionally, there was new teacher orientation on August 19th
through 21st uh, last week. And also, um, all teachers in service uh, in the district are having an inservice, uh, day are having inservice days from August 26th
through 28th in advance of the first day of school, which of course is September 2nd. And that was it. So with that, I'd like to move um A and B on the agenda. A B second
question. I see that we have um Science Olympia. Yes. Here. And I know I've been like keeping an eye on that with Mrs. Cubic um retiring, but I and I it just caught my eye. Um, and I don't know if we if you
would um uh that it's not one of our STEM teachers who's on there. They're they're not going to Are they going to be involved with Science Olympiad still or it's Mrs. Bur? A former G&T teacher. What's that?
She's a former teacher. Yes. Okay. All right. Had a passion for that area. And as soon as Martha obviously announced, I think Shannon emailed us the next day saying, "Okay, good. I want this. I want this. I want this. One of Yeah. Good. No, I just because
I'm trying envision Science Olympiad without missing and Well, now we're still working through because Martha obviously not only ran Science Olympiad, but we have the competition here and everything else. We're still going to work through that. Hopefully, we can host it at the new gym over there. Yeah. Um, as long as Shannon's taking that on.
I don't know what the agreement was within the organization of someone else who's been doing it. So, I have to find that out, but we're more than welcome to continue to do that. Right. Oh yeah, we have to do that. Thank you. I I would just like to take a moment in
looking at this printed out of how amazing we have for extracurricular activities. There is a lot out there for our students this year and and this is great. Yep. Anyone?
Um Marennetti, yes. Um Kevini, yes. Shout, yes. Um Jennifer Bachelor, yes. And Ronnie, yes.
Curriculum and technology. So, uh curriculum and technology met on August 13th at 6 PM in um C101. Uh actually, but yes, it was in the media center. We hadn't switched over yet. Um we talked
about technology and all of the updates that were going on. Um typically August is used as a time that we start revamping all of reinvigorating all of the systems. Um so, um we were getting ready to have Encore sync up with Class
Link and Parent Square, which are two systems that we use. Um, without getting too technical, it's nice that they all talk to each other. Now, um, in addition to that, punch list, all of the the actual physical items that were going into the middle school and St. John's
were being installed at the time. We looked at um some revamped curriculum for um, French, STEM, media, agriculture, and um, a new English elective called analyzing award seasons. Um we did move forward with the um
French curriculum and this the um a curriculum. So we will be moving that for um for review by the fullen board and approval tonight. We also talked about the G&T program in curriculum as I mentioned earlier.
We went over our assessment calendar um which was immediately uh thrown a curveball the next day by the state. Um so it it will be further revised or it has been further revised and we will be getting a a revision next month. Um the
state it will be administering two sets of NJSLA this year. Um and um we'll be switching over to a new vendor which we are especially thrilled about. We also went over um some communication
on dual enrollment. Um and then had a really great final piece which was the national education equity program. Um we did receive some communication about that. Um it is a program that I I'm happy even in our discussions amongst
the board um we are getting a little more awareness of where students can actually zoom into college classes from a classroom here within the school building um with a school district proctor in the room and they can get
college credit. Um we did have students who excelled at this last year and the program did send us an acknowledgement of that. So um we will be giving some recognition to them. Um we we referred it over to school and community and um
we'll be giving some recognition on that a little bit later in with that. I would like to move item A. Okay. Any
discussion? Uh, Gina Bashetti, yes. Kevin Kovalevi, yes. Michael Stra, yes. Jennifer Bacher, yes. Mark, yes. And Ronnie, yes.
Okay. Policy. Policy. We met on August 6 virtually. We have three items for first read. The first being the activity fee participation fee program. This is not mandatory. It was suggested by discussion at school and community and
finance. The recommendation to extend the current practice of applying the act activity fee waiver from 7th and 12th down to 5th through 12th. Further, there will be a cross reference between students receiving free and reduced lunch and the waiver will be applied
automatically. Any payments received for these students will be returned. The second item is uh regulation 6471 school district travel procedures also not mandatory. These are updates that are being made to align the text of the regulation with our current practices
particularly the administration of the submission process. It's to ensure best practices are used. There was a review of approaches taken at three other districts including kind of central. These changes will not result in any increased cost to teachers and staff. necessarily about just having a
consistent documentation aligned to what we do what we do today. The third item we're first to read is the student sun protection uh policy. That's policy 5339.01. This is mandatory. This is to encourage
protection against harmful sunrelated skin diseases by using protective measures. Uh we did opt to uh go uh with u we're not going to include optional language requiring a written permission from the parent to carry or use sunscreen. We are going to include
language that allows the principal or design to control the use of certain sunscreens, aerosols or those with strong scents that may be problematic for other students. and education will be provided on the appropriate time and manner to apply sunscreen which will not
include using aerosol sunscreen on a crowded bus. Um that we will direct our students in that regard. On second read we have the honoring student achievement sorry um we have honoring student achievement. Uh this is policy 5440.
Uh this is not mandatory. We did talk about this fairly extensively at our prior meetings. Um, this has to do with the change in the approach to the honor role that's going to start in 9th grade. And then we will have the two the honor roll and the high honor role. Uh, nothing to add here other than there
will be communication included in the 2026 student handbook and this is going to be covered at back to school night. And just an upcoming teaser, we will be talking in the fall about our approach to AI and there will be some discussion about changes in the regulations around
our school choice program of the Department of Education did a significant rewrite uh in the spring and we'll be addressing that this fall. Okay. Okay. And we have a motion to approve
approve the first meeting. AB, would you like to move any discussion? Just as a reminder, anytime that we have a first read, there's a period of time between this meeting and our next
meeting where any questions can be forwarded to to Martha for a discussion policy group. So, okay. All right. So, Kevin, yes. Michael Sh, yes. Jennifer Bachelor, yes.
Um, Martha, yes. Gina Shetty, yes. And Ronnie Johnson, yes. Okay, I will do the report for school and community. Um, one of the items that we talked about in school and community
is um a new program called the um community classroom program and that supports our uh community engagement goal that was on the strategic plan. That goal specifically was to establish and maintain a lasting collaborative relationship between the district and
its community in order to enrich and engage learning experiences for both students and community members. So how what that will look like is we'll be recruiting volunteers that bring different um expertise on the v various topics um and they will talk they'll be
able to report to us I things that they would like to speak to students about and then teachers will have access to um a database where they'll they'll be able to invite experts into the classroom to support various uh lesson plans. We did
want to note that it's important this does not replace the mystery reader program or any of the other informal programs. This is just um an addition to that to really um make use of all the great volunteers and all the great community members that we have that um
bring a lot to our community so that our kids can learn from them. Uh we talked about turf fundraising. So, Delval High School um raised funds for their turf installation. I think it was back in 2001.
Yeah. Um so, we took a look at at how they approached that and how that might work for us. Tony's going to go back to that and um present a draft back to the school and community uh committee for us to take a look at how we might look how
we might approach fundraising for the turf. Um, and that would be through tiered sponsorship, primarily looking to businesses uh to sponsor that. We also talked about the honoring honoring student achievement policy revision. Um, as Martha mentioned,
that'll be at a back to school night and principal West will review that at his first meeting with the students. Um and we'll look at that and how that correspondence also fits with a lot of other um changes that we've made that are really designed to support academic
excellence of our students that so that includes homework policy, the gifted and talented program um and the expansion of dual enrollment just to name a few. Um we talked about the academic excellence highlights. Um, not only did we have we
had five students who took the National Equity Lab um, courses, including um, there was an introduction to psychology from Wesleyan University and two of our students scored in the top 10. And then several students took the essentials of
personal finance at Wharton School of of the University of Pennsylvania and two of our students finished in the top 20 and one of our students finished in the top five. So obviously that's something to celebrate. most of those students have graduated, but that we we celebrate
our our students and our alum. Um, so we're looking forward to seeing that. We also had six students who received scholarships through LAF. um and they participated in uh the summer scholarship program and they took courses at um the main college of
pre-art pre-ol summer program, Ruter's honors engineering experience program, Penn State AR architecture and landscape architecture summer camp, outset summer medical program at Colombia, Outset Summer Nursing Program at UNC Chapel
Hill, and RVCC pre-calculus one. So, as you can see, those are pretty um fantastic offerings that our kids took advantage of. We're very grateful to LEAF for supporting them. Um but those are some things that we really need to um celebrate as much as possible. So,
we're we're going to be putting together um news bites or social media, something to really celebrate those kids. So, and that was it. And I have nothing to move. So,
we need to approve routine um items, the acceptance of the harassment, intimidation, and bullying bullying report, which we did not have one over the summer, and then fire drills and safety drills, which we did have two, just so that just at LM.
Um, so that's a voice vote. So, um, all in favor, oh, excuse me, Ronnie, oh, sorry. I just have a and so um there's lots there hasn't been this meeting or last meeting and I'm not sure
about June but there's no enrollment information it oh yeah yeah that was my fault I forgot to put it on there I can add it okay thank you do it yeah I will take care of it okay thanks
so back to the routine items vote all in favor anyone opposed Any abstensions? Okay, that will um lead us to the second period of public comment. If anyone has any um they would like to address the
board, please come to the podium with the same practices as stated prior. Any new online? Okay, seeing no questions, I will close that period of public comment. We do have reason to go into the executive
session. Um we when we return we will be taking no um actions. Um so folks are welcome to stay but we will not we won't be doing anything when we come back. So thank you very much. Oh that's right. We need a motion to
to move it to executive session at 8:37. Yeah.