e e e e e e e for at the schol board meeting I said yes in fact there will be drama school we got
we are blessed to have a preview of the uh the School Musical which is going to be fing this weekend Matilda you our director [Music] follow really thrill we are very excited
for this weekend I uh we have the most incredible creative team tolyn um we've got just the greatest group this show together and the children of sou hun are going to deliver um um so I'm really excited our we've
got a show Thursday night at 7.m Friday night at 7.m a show Saturday at 2 and Saturday evening at 7 so thank you when I grow up I will be tall enough to reach the
branches that I need to reach to climb the trees you get to climb when you're grown up and when I grow up I will be smart enough to answer all the questions that you need to know the
answers to before you're grown up and when I grow up I will SS every day on the way to work and I will go to bed late every night and I will wake up when thees up
and I will watch cartoons until my eyes go square and I won't care CU I'll be all Grown Up When I grow when I grow up when I grow
up I will be enough to car all the heav you have to around you you're a grown and when I grow up when I grow up I I will be brave enough to fight the
creatures that you have to fight all day lying in the Sun and I won't CU I'll be all grown up when [Music] I e
e e e Prin [Music] [Music] [Music] the you did you hear what we said
just UC it's the trunch full speciality [Music] an [Music] feel this great J no on hello um I would first like to
apologize for my absence of last month's meeting I came down with a nasty he for so not okay for our Sports this month um the athletes of the month are Liam Cyra for winter track Conor keys for boys basketball Noah leg for wrestling Sophie
Henman for girls basketball me for bowling and Noah Cormier for wrestling for girls basketball our star player Katie fumming ended her four year um her
four years with a final score of 1, 156 points making her the third highest basketball scorer in both men's and women's in South uh for boys basketball they will continue and play their first round of
States on Wednesday for winter track Liam Syra participated in the njsi AA group one championship for high juns on February 25th and for wrestling they won against New Hope on rumble on the river which
was they won which was so exciting um for spring Sports our spring Sports start March and finally um a recognition for Ed Cooper um he was honored at the mini Maxell award dinner on February 2nd he was selected as one
of the top football players in all of New Jersey Pennsylvania in Delaware for clubs um our Key Club our Key Club celebrated school bus driver appreciation they made handwritten notes
and WR thank you letters for each bus driver thanking them for their hard work and dedication um NHS or not NHS night at The Nest sorry night at The Nest practices have started this month and students have been practicing for their
final dance and the games are going be competing and nice for the musical um our South musical as you just saw they're having three run uh three-day run this weekend Tuesday wedn Tuesday oh my God sorry Thursday Friday
and Saturday they have a show on Thursday Friday and Saturday nights at 7 pm and Ma at 2m on Saturday as well and you can buy the tickets by searching up South musical 2025 tickets um this month we celebrate FFA
week um our student our members of the ffas um went around the building providing snacks and refreshments to all the teachers and staff um and they had a whole week dedicated to it so they had different themes per day Tuesday was PJ day Wednesday was camo day Tuesday was
Thursday was matching or twin day and Friday was blue and gold day and lastly um our Festival the Arts took place this month which is really cool it was a presentation of all the Arts of South hon Visual and Performing our Visual Arts included 3D sculptures
watercolor painting and ink sketches and more um and they were presented from both the middle school and high school students so a variety from all students at South hon and there were live performances as well um the high school jazz band performed as well as the high
school vocal Ensemble and the musical also put on a pre presentation to preview their show that's it thank you thankfully very good um with that we'll go to PTO and the laf updates we'll start with
laf thanks guys good evening um so a couple uh events here from the or notes from the laf versus our spring event is coming up on March 29th Saturday it is a laf auction slightly different than what you're used to and casino night so we're
trying to mix it up a little bit um it's from 6:00 to 9 at the Amwell Valley Fire Company in ringos uh tickets are available on our website um encourage you to definitely check it out it'll be a lot of fun um you know we're also continuing to look for our uh table
sponsors so we have sponsors that are um for each of the different gaming tables so Blackjack things like that so looking for table sponsors um as well and all that information is on our website um secondly we are also working with the guidance department and team um
for our summer and Senior awards for this year we have put out the announcements I know for our summer Awards our senior awards are coming quickly behind that um I know I believe the summer awards are due uh midm March and Senior Awards will be due after that with uh the evaluations happening in May
and then obviously our senior award um night in you know in may as well um and lastly I'm just happy to say that we've seen an uptick in Grants so we're very very happy about that uh we've actually reviewed four grants at our last meeting earlier this month and um two of which
were approved I think one of them physics day we'll be talking about later um and we have a couple more that are kind of coming back through for um another review in our upcoming meeting and so I know I've seen some additional traffic so we're really excited to kind of see some of that uptick and we hope it continues so um and that's really it
from us thank you m sure very good uh PP everybody um that performance was awesome I'll take that kind of drama at the board meeting any um uh we have our March kids night out coming up it's going to be Friday
March 14th as always 6:30 to 8:30 registrations open on membership toolkit hopefully we can get them outside goes much smoother when we're outside um beyond the bell registration closes this Friday it's it's really exciting after um the social media push today we have
almost 80 students so that's pretty pretty awesome like I said it closes Friday we will not be accepting any forms after Monday March 3D um and that's due to the fact that some classes have to be condensed and we have to shuffle people around teachers
around um as it stands right now um we have enough to run 12 classes if we get more registrations by the end the week we can run 14 so that's pretty incredible for such a small
school um we started planning for our fall semester already um we started reaching out to current enrichment teachers and locking them in for the fall um we have like four or five that are that are going to come back um and we're hoping that chess drawing and mad
science will also be returning as they were our most popular classes um and then today I started reaching out to um I started digging into um the surrounding area and their enrichment programs hope well hope well offers I
mean the stuff that they offer is kind of like mindblowing so one of the companies I reached out to is um a mobile app inventor and they use a program from MIT and they teach the kids how like coding and how to make mobile apps and they run it through fifth and
sixth grade but there's actually a man in New Town who's fully trained in this so I I emailed him and I asked like where do we where do we go but it's kind of where the world is trending so it would be pretty exciting to offer that to our students um I also reached out to some
of the programs that hope all uses they use um first te a greater Trenton it's a golf club um and a lot of these programs they um kind of run themselves which is another perk they they train the people and we just kind of handle
registration um I reached out to Lego they do stem I mean they do it in the middle school but we could offer it down in the elementary school and I reached out to a company called Firefly they do all kinds of stuff nutrition um Fitness Tennis stem you name it they they do it
and they they do all the things so that's kind of where we're looking to go we're looking to kind of Step Up the game a little bit and make sure that we're offering everything we possibly can to the students in the district um so hopefully we can roll
that out in the fall at prek K4 and then see what what the 58 building holds for us um the wathon date down at the elementary school is Friday April 25th with a rain date of Friday May 2nd and we'll be working with Miss Burkhead on
that to um get that rolling and then we have middle school end of the year events the fifth and sixth grade dance in activity night um I know Dances aren't everyone's favorite so we're going to let them do whatever they want they want to dance inside they want to play outside the world's their oyster um
that'll be Friday May 30th from 6:30 to 8:30 it's a drop off event um we do need help with all of these things so anyone who wants to help will take it there will be a DJ candy bar glow sticks treats outdoor activities something for
everybody um then the sixth grade class is going to go to Dorney Park Friday June 6 and we'll be fundraising pretty heavily for that I think um if you have a middle school student or a pre- student at West W you got a gude hawk um packet so if you could please sell that
I'll post it on social media it's a little tricky because you have to put a seller in with the code so I could always just put hardigan in or whatever um but look for that and then we have the middle school end of the year picnic Friday June 13th it's directly following
school that is a half day there will be um a barbecue whiffle ball tournament and an inflatable obstacle course for students prek and then Fifth and six to kind of end the year and then the elementary school field day is
Friday May 16th and it's going to be at the elementary school um there will be Inflatables fun stations in an outside barbecue for the kids for lunch and then the middle school on location field day is Wednesday May 28th and we're going to work with Miss Ryan on details for that
then next we have um penny wars coming up we've never done a penny War so that's pretty exciting um so it's it's going to be prek through 6 I'm just waiting on confirmation um from the office for 7 through 12 but at the elementary school each grade level will
be getting um a jug and the students will bring their change no paper money in each day and the CL and the grade levels will compete against one another and then the winning grade level will earn a prize of some sort the middle school kids said that they wanted a raising K's
parties I did reach out to their community outreach program to see if they would help us out with that so we'll see where that goes the theme um for the elementary school is Super Mario Brothers and then the theme for the middle school and location is March Madness and then gets a little trickier
at the middle school level so they're going to have two jars per class it's not grade level each class prek um Fifth and six will have two well the prek will have just one but the fifth and sixth graders will have two jars they'll have their main jar that they're going to put their money in and then they're going to
have one where other class can put money in to take away from their from their amount so it could get pretty competitive um and then we also thought um we kind of wanted to spread the love a little bit so we decided that we were
going to donate half of the proceeds of Penny Wars to um a local charity and since the sixth graders are doing a community project right now um they're working with animal abuse shelters we are working with Mr hollahan to hopefully donate and work with the sixth
grade to donate half of those proceeds to a local animal shelter so it's pretty exciting so save all your change and send it into the buildings all right that's it thank you thanks je good thank you very much okay um correspondents we did have
some correspondence this month that is all available online uh with the agenda for the public to review um up next uh we will need the we're going to approve the minutes of the Reg meeting and the executive
meeting from January the 27th as as well as our reorganization meeting from January the 6 I have a motion to approve those thank you Ronnie can I have a second second by Aaron thank you very much any discussion on the
minutes all in favor I anyone opposed anyone abstain okay um uh next uh this evening we have um miss Patricia ree from the New Jersey school boards Association and she is
here to to talk with us about uh School Board ethics so miss ree thank you for coming out thank you for having me um and um it's wonderful to start a meeting with this performance by the students I mean
because that really is why you're all here is to um you know to help your students and and music and the Arts are near and dear to my heart my daughter is is an Elementary music teacher in Middle sex County but she's also um at a high
school in Somerset County she's the assistant director of the marching band and the director of in indoor drum line so I've been like a band Mom since for many many years and still now I'm I'm the band mom's mom but but but you know
it it really is why we're all here is is for the students so um as as um as Jim said I'm Patty Reese I'm from New Jersey school boards Association I've been with the association for 10 years almost 10 years in in this summer before that I
was on my local board in Somerset County for 12 years um and uh you you some were asking about bwen Thorton she is still with the association she is now the senior director of content and she's based mostly in Trenton she tries to get
out to districts periodically uh but her gain into Trenton um and is my gain to be able to come come back and be closer to home as I live in sumet County so um I'm very happy for that uh so tonight
we're talking about ethics um you know it's it's um something that we encourage boards to do every year and it is monitored you know on on qac um so if you want to we'll just go through this um it can be somewhat dry because it's
legal ease uh but um it really is important information so I always start with our standard disclaimer that this presentation is for informational purposes only uh if you have any questions about Le legal questions or anything else please
contact your board attorney go ahead the the school ethics Act was um was um enacted in 1991 um and it really is a way um to monitor the um make sure that board
members are living up to the expectations of their Community um and this is the actual wording of the school ethics act and just in the second box you know that board members and administrators must avoid con conduct which is in violation of their public
trust or which creates a justifiable impression among the public that such trust is is being violated um you can go um mean and school board members and school officials are really the only ones that are held to the standard in
New Jersey only elected official um and and it's a pretty high standard but the legislative intent of the ACT um is to make is to preserve the The public's perception and the con the confidence that your their schools are being
managed appropriately um and what the school ethics act does is having a specific set of standards that you are held accountable to the code of eth ethics is is that list of Standards um and then they have a a disciplinary
mechanism so that if you don't live up to those standards that there's something that can there's some discipline that can happen there are several pris provisions of the ACT uh the um code of ethics applies only to us uh School Board El
school board members and Charter School trustees and the mandatory training requirement is also applies only to school board members and Charter School trustees I just saw something that came came through our email today that more
and more states are uh implementing mandatory training for Boards of Education um which is interesting see because this has been New Jersey's done this for many many years the list of prohibited acts um applies to all school
officials and all school officials have to uh submit a uh Financial disclosure and uh conflict of interest disclosure statement on an annual basis that's that it also includes board members School administrators Charter School trustees
and administrators and we at New Jersey school boards Association also have to supply a disclosure statement every year who is on the school ethics commission um and the school ethics commission is the uh organization that
um enforces the act the school ethics commission is a set of nine members that are appointed by the governor for threeyear terms there can be no more than five U commission members from any
one political party of those nine five are non-school officials two are School administrators and two are school board members but if you see on the the graphic that currently both School Board member seats are vacant and there is
only one school administrator on the commission at this point how that impacts things is a decision they can't enact a decision unless they have by they need six people they need a quum of
six so if there's a meeting that happens and they don't have six people there that just delays the decision for however long until they can get to the six we're not quite sure why they don't why they're not um filed it's it's an
appointment by the governor um you know that it's just it's just the way it is I'm not sure I remember the last time it was a full complement of commission members on the staff so for your financial and personal relative disclosure statements anybody
that's newly elected um or um or a new admin administrator must file their disclosure statement within 30 days of when you were sworn in or as an administrator when you started your position um returning school officials
have till April 30th of every year generally comes to you by email um from the Department of Education um and just for your reference those those um disclosure statements and I know because you've been on the board a while you
know you've done them they are public information so you can go to the school ethics commission and look up anybody they don't it's not really your whole finances it's just to make sure that there are no conflicts um but sometimes uh people are surprised that it's public
information um so the school ethics act also identified exactly what training is necessary and mandatory for new board members there is a new board member orientation training program that must be completed within 990 days of one of a
board members is sworn in um and that's relatively new two years ago you all you had a year to do that but they but um they felt that there's a lot of information as a new board member that you really need to have quickly um and
so that's why the 90 days is is done we just had our second for for the for the November you know those that started January 1st we just had our second weekend um but we also offer for all the trainings we offer inperson um a live
virtual uh and then also a self a self-pace for that you can take at your own convenience um governance too you have to take by the end of your um the end of your second year and that is is about finance and policy governance
three is about student achievement in labor and then governance four four is every time you're reelected that first year of your reelection you have to take governance four which is a legal update and that the legal updates are um up
updated every single year there are two um avenues that people can there are two um ways that you can interact with the school ethics commission as a sitting board member you can ask for an advisory opinion and what
that is is in in anticipation of an act that you might do or vote that you might take you can ask them if they feel that it would be a you know it would be a violation of the code of ethics um again you have to ask for it before you taken
any action um and that um and that whatever information they give you you will buy by um and that um you know this is where you need six members to get it decision but and sometimes board members think an
advisory opinion is just that it's an opinion but it really isn't when you're seeking that opinion um they expect that you will abide by that opinion if you don't then um if somebody files an Ethics complaint your penalty could be
harsher uh and the analogy we kind of use is if a police officer tells you that something that you're going to do is illegal and then you do it anyway um you shouldn't be surprised if you you know for the repercussions of whatever
what whatever legal repercussions that might be and just I'm not going to go through all these um because I know you have a full agenda but I will explain how it is to how you can read these These are um
different advisory opinions that were decided released in 2024 they can decide them but they also need the six members to vote to release them um what what you're seeing is and tomorrow I can send out um a PDF of this
of this of the PowerPoint your superintendent the the each case is linked um and you see the first one says A14 uh 24 a a signifying that it's an advisory opinion um and 24 signifying
the the um the year that the decision was reached um and so um you know this one um the first one just just to go over one uh the the board member asked if they could review the resume of candidates before voting on the
superintendent's recommendation the advi the school ethics commission said that it's outside of their jurisdiction to decide whether or not a board member can uh look at the um résumés of the candidates uh before they vote on it but
that if they do um that they have to be mindful that it is only upon the recommendation of the superintendent that you can hire someone um so that's and as you go through um sometimes they're quite
interesting to to to read the school ethics commission and there are Links at the end of it to get to that but it's a subset of the Department of Education so you can find all this information on the Department of Education website um you can go through the next one which is
also more advisory opinions you know if you have time read through some of these because um it's it's helpful um a lot of the advisory pinions show up in in guidance on conduct that they that you
can and can't do uh and so in reading through some of them um it really does help um especially when you get to things like social media which we'll go to everyone a little in a bit um so the other thing that the school ethics
commission can can look into is if somebody filing an Ethics complaint against um a school official excuse me um and it's a very specific claim that must that that can be made um and it can
be made by any member of the public uh against a school official and keeping in mind that they don't have to live in your community they don't even have to live in New Jersey that when when board meets some boards scream their meetings or
record them and and save them anybody anywhere can look at that and file an Ethics complaint but if they do uh they have to file it within 180 days of when they say it occurred uh they must um
include what section of the school ethics act um they violated they feel the board of school official violated and they must provide the factual evidence for the um commission to look into um and they're not going to do
research they will only look into the information that is provided to them and then if it's against a school official that school official will have the opportunity to respond uh but again it's only what's presented to them they they don't have paral leals that that go out
and do the research it's not investigatory other than presenting um what it is that um that is given to them uh and the the key thing one of the key things that factor into their decision
um is they they look at can a would a reasonable person think that the ethic the school ethics Act was violated the code of ethics was violated there's really no definition of who that reasonable person is but that is something that a standard that they use
and it's really one of the few areas that it's kind of used is is in um School ethics complaints this slide shows the different levels of penalties or sanctions that that the school ethics
commission can recommend and when I say recommend they go through the case and they make a recommendation the recommendation to the Comm Commissioner of Education who then can decide to agree change it or or do something
totally different so uh the first level is a reprimand and the reprimand is simply that they just like a rebuke by the commissioner that the board member violated ethical standards a censure takes that up a step it's not only a
rebuke but you have to have a resolution at your local board meeting at a knowledging that I'm publicizing that as a board member has violated the code of ethics they can also recommend suspension of a board member for any
period of time and finally they can suggest uh recommend the removal of a board member completely um and when when you're suspended that means you can't sit at the table you get no information it's as if for that period of time
you're not a board member um that's I mean mostly I see referans and censures sometimes a suspension and very rarely uh removal but it's still they can do that so the next several slides go into
the actual code of ethics um and there are 10 tenants of the code of ethics um and I have a handout I can give you that list the code of ethics um as a poster reading through every single one of them but I just want to draw your attention
to the bottom the code of ethics is listed what what's listed there and on the bottom it's the standards or the factual evidence that somebody must Supply if they're going to file an Ethics complaint uh and that's the kind
of information that um that the commissioner is looking for I if you want to just kind of cycle through um that you know be it's all all there as I said that goes through Jay I'm sorry didn't mean to interrupt
but if you recall at our at our reorganization meeting we read through this list of items through J taken turns so that everyone will be sorry now that's okay no no most boards do that's helpful because I feel bad about not reading through them however you have a
full board meeting and and um if you've read through them and I'll give it to you as well um it it it's just you know the important parts of those is to look at what the code says and what the what factual evidence somebody would have to supply uh if they if they feel you
violated the next couple of slides are about um code of ethics cases and again these are links so the first case c45 23 um when I send the the PDF um tomorrow uh you can click on that and see the
case what you'll see as you read through this it identifies um what um what the violation or the board member um whoever submitted the complaint uh what they
thought was the violation um and then as you read through that on the bottom you you'll see in the um the code not the code the uh the law the statute uh 18a 1224 but in parentheses you see e e is
the tenant of the V of the code of ethics that um they said um that was supplied that that the board member potentially violated uh in the first case it shows that yes the the um ethics
commission felt that they violated tenant e um uh uh of um of of the code of ethics which essentially is that Authority rests with the full board um you can't make any decision and IND isual board member has no Authority
unless they're sitting at the the board table at a notice meeting with Forum president um that um and they recommend this this is this case was decided and the commissioner um must have agreed so this person this board member was
censored um and the next one they they call a drer in and the next one you can see that they violated tenant CD and E of of that to the next one this one this one says a
recommended recommand so this is still waiting for the commissioner's decision on this and again this is uh tenant e which is Authority West's um arrest with the board and this one this is an
interesting one um uh this is a recommended suspension of 60 days I've not really seen that um before Shuma you know see that too much but in this case it might be notable to say you know a
board member um a a board member um took inappropriate action that was beyond the role of a board member the action of the board member usurped to the authority of the superintendent who
was responsible for making disciplinary recommendations the board member took it upon themselves to go to the employees home pick up a letter presented on behalf of the employee directed the ba to not um give a copy of the letter from
the employee of the employee to the superintendent and then instead of recusing herself from the matter um in which she had a personal interest and personal involvement the board member advocated on behalf of the employee and questioned the superintendent's
recommendation of that employee so that board member clearly went above and beyond and you see that that that she is a 15-year board member um I I I do believe that she it's been on for a long
time but I think um before the the case was resolved or had the recommendation I think she lost her next election but again like you wonder what were they thinking all right we go to the next one there it there is a difference
between recusal on exstension a recusal signifies to everybody that you feel or it's been determined that you have a legal conflict and shouldn't participate in the discussion or the vote an exstension is is if you don't feel like
you have enough information or you're just not comfortable for whatever reason again a recusal is you feel or it's been determined that you have a legal conflict uh and it comes out in how the votes are Ted so if you're if it's if
it's an exstension it might be um 531 right so 543 against one exstension if it's a recusal it just be 53 and and so um which could impact things when you have to have a super
majority vote um but again a recusal also means that you don't participate in the discussion and you don't participate in the vote School ethics act also identified um different acts that they that the
school that is felt to be prohibited by board members uh and the recommendation is to recuse yourself if any from that list if you have a financial involvement that may impair objectivity and you might might see there's a few cases over
the years where people had a side business um that that um making um you know like t-shirts for the soccer team uh and um they they should they you know when it came up for a vote on on using
that service that person really should they needed to recuse thems so that's kind of what that is if there's any financial gain to you or anyone in your in your immediate family um okay it also
identifies um it gives the def what they consider the definition of a benefit uh which is a direct or indirect Advantage profit privilege or gain whether personal
financial or otherwise uh and again the determining factor is the perception of the public there if if a reasonable member of the public feels believes that the um the school official is not objective then um that that carries
weight and the case that here is about an Acting Superintendent um in I think one of her first meetings this came out of middx County as well in one of her first meetings there was a list of all the substitutes um for um the coming
year um and she did not read this the list before it went before the board and her son who' been a substitute in the district um was on that list um and she should have read it and should have like um
you know she just should have read it should have read it ahead of time um and then the challenge is that you know as a superintendent she can't hire her CH you can't hire family members as a board member you can't either uh and so there
was that and um they um recommended the that they recommended um that the um and it was approved by the um by the commissioner to reprimand that um to recomend that superintendent she's still
there so um this these next slides talk about um just show some cases where there's um to kind of identify what a con they feel a conflict or a benefit to a board member
is and again um you'll see that um in the first case it's they recommend the commission recommends a reprimand that the they feel that the um board member violated uh a tenant A and C A being
they will uphold the policies and procedures and laws of the state of New Jersey um and that um the board is a policymaking body through the advis and this is where it's hopeful to kind of read The Advisory opinions through the advisory
opinions over the years the school ethics Commission has further delineated what is considered a family member in the beginning a family member was somebody who lived in the household they dependent you know a spouse a
significant other dependent child um and through different cases it's become much more complex than that and and you see in the second paragraph um things such as a step brother or sister or half brother or sister um an individual
um spouse or partner by Blood marriage or adoption um those are all things all uh relationships that um could be considered a conflict and I I said talked about this
before as a as as a superintendent or board member you can hire your relatives but if you become superintendent um or you become a board member and you're relative already works here uh that doesn't mean they have to be fed it just
impacts uh what you can and can't do um if you're an administrator you can exercise uh any direct or indirect authority over their over their own relative um and if you're a board member
um you can't take part in any employment matters if you're relative looks here employment matters concerning the superintendent or any supervisor in the chain of command between your relative and the superintendent so if that's a
principal or a supervisor or a director then as a board member you'd have to recuse yourself from that any discussion whatsoever on that um and then if you're looking for a new superintendent you can't um be part of that process you
can't any part of that process so in collective bargaining it also impacts if you have a family member uh it impacts what you can can and can't participate in this graph kind of shows that so if if your immediate family
member works in the district um then you can't um be part of the negotiations uh you can't um also can't take part in uh the ratification vote um but if um if if
it's your you know if you are the a staff member and another District or a relative is a staff member in another District you can't take part in um um sorry you can take if they're part of the state same Union um you can't participate in
negotiations however uh after the um memorandum of agreement salary guides and total compensation package are agreed to you can participate in the ratification vote um and if your relative doesn't work in the district and they're not the same not the member
of they not in your District but they're not a member of the Union in the district they're in if it's the same district you can take part um in um both negotiations and the vote to ratify the only Proviso is um if your family in in
in one of these if your family member is a like a a a member of the Union in a leadership position either on the county or the state level that would impact whether or not you can be part of negotiation and on that I would say um
you know talk to your board attorney there had been some um cases where um unions have the bargaining unit has I endorsed a candidate for school board in hopes that by endorsing them
that they could not participate in negotiations um and so uh what they say now is that that that's not necess necessarily the case um if you get an endorsement that doesn't include any
money or any Financial um gain uh you know campaign donation um or that um there's no expectation that you will vote however they want you to vote then the recommendation is just sit out for the
next the next round of negotiations if it's the same year or the next year that's really where they're going now with that one of the things that has come out in advisory opinions and ethics cases is um the impact having a family
member work in the district can have on you as a board member and the first instance it's the board president um and their child works as an instructional assistant in the district and how that impacts the president now in most boards
the president sets the Committees um the president in this case can't choose the chair or members of any committee uh or be part of any committee that remotely touches upon or directly relates to
their family members in employment so that really does impact impair the ability of the board president in those I mean an instructional assistant there's several committees that um they may not um put people
on so you just have to be mindful so something else that has come out recently and and in um with the school ethics commission is PE board members have been using what they call the the advice of council defense um and
they've decided that I guess it happened enough and there's a case reference there um from 20121 that had now identifies if you want to use the advice of council defense you have to do these four things
you have to seek the advice before you took the action that the person you're asking the advice from is qualified or has the authority to give you that advice if it's if you just can't go ask you know the notary public you need to
get a legal guidance um and I the other thing is like a if you're going to seek legal council has to be some body who's familiar with education law not like the land use attorney down the road um that
you have the third thing is you have to to you have to have disclosed all the important information and then whatever advice they gave you you listen to now you can use that defense and if you can prove all four things um you still may
be found to be in violation of the code of ethics you just won't get a penalty or you'll get a lesser penalty um but you still could be found in violation you know that cbard members are among the most active people in
communities we do many many things um the the the code of ethics doesn't prevent you from volunteering in the schools I mean you always have the right to you know among other things advocate for your child if your child's in in in
the school um but if you're going to volunteer and the schools just be mindful of of certain things don't it shouldn't be frequent you shouldn't be in the district in in the building two to three days a week um because it might give the impression that you're managing
the day-to-day operations if you're in the district that frequently and a building that frequently um you should never um supervise or give instructions to students or staff again that implies that um you know you're managing the
district um uh strongly recommend that you not handle money since you handle the district's finances let somebody else if you're doing a PTA or PTO activity or you're um you know volunteering at your kids basketball
game don't be the ticket collector let somebody else do that but you know if you want to if there's whatever else you want to do you can just be mindful of that and then if you're going into the school at at an invitation maybe of your child's teacher or a specific class let
the superintendent know give them a heads up that you're going to be in the school um it it's just really helpful to them because you know especially in smaller districts people know who's on the board and and you may not think they do but especially your staff they know
who you are and they're they're not as familiar with the the chain of command as others are they know that the board is up here and the superintendent's here and it just could put them put the staff member in an awkward position not knowing what to do and and we we don't
want to do that this slide just talks about um inherent violations or not I mean you know we'll go with the not at one time in frequent um activity read Across America a um a executive you know a PTA
person um that should be fine um but um voluntary being a volunteer coach is really not um appropriate anymore um because you're directing right you're now you're directing students and if you're a coach you may have to direct um
maintenance staff to do something with the field uh and so it's that then gives the impression that you're you're managing things when when you're not it's not within your Authority um
then we get on to um social media the school ethics commission spends a lot of time in recent years adjudicating social media cases um but as as the what the uh the school ethics commission looks at
with social media um they consider the content the substance and the context of whatever it is that was posted um and again there's that if a reasonable person would believe the statement was made in their official capacity then
they will rule um they will rule that the board member has violated the code of ethics it's all about um be not not giving the impression especially on social media but anywhere that that
you're speaking for the board uh and with that um we go to the next slide it talks about a social media disclaimer that is recommended that you use um and and the school ethics commission gives one for you um you don't have to use
that word for word but you do need to if you're going to use a disclaimer need to state that it's your personal opinion that you're not speaking for the board or you're not making any representations for the board however even if you say that when I said in the beginning that
they look at content and context um there have been board members who have used a disclaimer and still still been found to be in violation because the content and context of what they um what they posted um they will that you know a
reasonable person would think that they're speaking uh for the board uh so be very very careful about what you do Post um and make sure that you say that I'm speaking for myself you know my capacity of a private citizen I'm not
speaking for the board or implying any Act on the board a few slide a few questions about you know Q&A about um the the school ethics act again um you could use a disclaimer and you could still be found to be in violation there's a couple
years ago there was a significant case out of um middle sex County and um very um volatile School Board election and and and they felt that they did violate the um the the school ethics and again
by using the disclaimer like say it's not a get out of jail free card you they still look at the content and the context um of what what it is that you post um and if you share you know some of
this uh some some guidance uh if you had a campaign account social media account once you become a board member it's recommended that you don't use that because your average member of the public doesn't really understand doesn't really pay attention to because they
don't have to um timelines so that that you know what you may have posted on your campaign before you were sitting board member um could be very different than what you post after um and they're not going to know that difference so a reasonable person might look at
something from a year ago and say oh well that's how they feel about a particular issue which as we all know once you sit on the other side of the table and you have a broader range of information um because that's you know what you get when you're a board member
your opinion may not have changed but it may have changed so so please don't use a social media campaign um social media site once you've been elected a campaign site and bear in mind that last time I did this somebody said well somebody
running for municipality does I said because they're not bound by the code of ethics you are um they don't have the same restrictions um you know keep in mind that the school budget is probably the biggest budget in your municipality
but um so um you know be mindful of that uh if you're sharing something from your personal account a family event even if you're saying come see Matilda the the the school PL this you know you can do
that just don't put any uh editorial commentary in there is really what it down to and don't be the administrator of the social media page because then you're the one who the administrators get to judge what comments stay and what
they don't what you know what comments stay and what they can delete um and it's just best as a board member not to do that again generally people know you're on the board uh and your your comments and your opinions carry extra weight because you're on the board
you're an elected official um so that's the um the the I know it's kind of long kind of a lot of information um but um thank you for all that you do uh and um you know continue doing what you're
doing uh especially in these times that are very challenging uh and um again and then here's some um some of the uh resources that and links that are available should you have any questions
but um I'll take any questions now anybody anyone from the board have question read no and I'll just this is the code of ethics my card um in case and if anybody has any
questions I I um am always available my contact information is there don't report back to anybody if you call me I'm going to you know answer your question and I don't call my boss your superintendent board president it's kind
of confidential but anyway thanks thank you very much for coming have a safe travel so thank you and just so board members know the presentation was linked on board doc so it's available to you go back to and look that okay with that uh we come to the
first period of public comment oh oh I'm sorry think we have oh we do I'm so sorry let's have for intendance update that um all right so just one thing I wanted to point out I thought it was
really important um putting together this presentation and moving forward you'll notice a new graphic I have here in the corner just I think it's important to keep our strategic plan front and center right and I just felt like you know having this these are you
know the five different tenants that we talked about when we developed our strategic plan as a community obviously our mission statement which is in the middle but that truly does drive all of our work so you'll see that graphic on our presentations moving forward just so we kind of keep that front
center um so I want to provide an update on preschool also on the west fwell uh School water situation as well as a building update an update on 58 and then talk about something new that the board has been working on with me um about a
performing arts academy and what that's all about so first in reference to preschool um I just want to formally announce at the board meeting tonight that our plan uh moving forward for preschool for next year and and probably
Beyond uh if you look we are working on developing an uh a three-year lease with the St John school for preschool and our plan for next year in September as we will house three preschool classes at the elementary school and the other two will be at St John's so uh we'll also
have in the language of our contract with St John's um you know in thecate claws just in the event that there was funding that was cut in the state we're not stuck into a lease but that will be our plan for the uh District Preschool moving forward for next year and
hopefully for the next several years once we work through the [Music] lease so just an update uh on the water situation for West Amwell uh we did receive communication from the d uh
since our last board meeting basically that communication was really one of three options um the first option was determine whether or not Lehi fluid could remediate the issue on their site before it even contaminate enters other wells in the area um the D was not exactly
sure if this was possible it's something that's being investigated the second option was install an expensive and complex complex water treatment system which would be the responsibility of Lehi fluid power and then the last one was connect to existing public water
supply for lamberville City so um as I had mentioned in the past the D has appointed a what's called a license site remediation professional on lsrp who we're waiting to hear back from just to work on next steps uh I know it's a little difficult to see at the bottom
there but in the mean time Lehi fluid has been reimbursing us for all of our bottles of water that we're using for cooking and anything else on site um but they are working with us on that so that is the water update so then what does that mean next steps for West
anwell next year so we will move out of West anwell at the end of this school year 24-25 this includes the staff that is currently housed in the front house in front of West anwell they'll be relocated to a building uh we currently have a commercial real estate broker
doing a broker's opinion Andrew and I met with him for the first time back on January 8th I believe it was um he had told us he'd be working on that over the next couple months he is doing it for free for us and the board is waiting on that we did share uh UPF front some of
the environmental issues that we're dealing with with the water just to kind of take that into account when he does his broker's opinion um we'll continue to wait for a solution on the water issue as we work with the D and the lsrp and then once the board has all that above information they'll make a
decision as to next steps for West Nell just a couple other things I wanted to make you aware of for the 58 building save the dates so we're going to be having um a fourth grade parent night so obviously you know a lot of new with the
new building that's going to be opening up you know how's the building going to work schedules what's the academic schedule going to look like what courses will students be taking what electives will they have you know the opportunity to take World languages all those different things so we we're going to be doing a bunch of parent nights we're
going to do a separate parent night just for our fourth grade parents obviously they're transitioning out of the elementary school that's going to be on Wednesday April 9th we'll do that at the elementary school um and then we're going to do a 5 through seventh grade parent night on Tuesday March 25th so
all of our current 5ifth Sixth and 7th that will be rising up next year at 6 7th and 8th we'll meet with them we'll do that here typically in the future we will do that at the new middle school but obviously it's not ready yet um so we'll do the fourth grade one the elementary school in the 5 through seven
here uh at the high school and then we'll also have which we normally do an eighth grade parent night on Thursday March 27th for all of our current eighth grade parents Rising into the high school next year so just keep that in mind we'll remind you with more details as we get closer but I wanted to kind of
put that on everyone's calendar all right so let's talk about this so we um we've been talking about this for the last few months in a variety of different committees um just to kind of give you some background so you're probably
familiar that Polytech which is the vocational program within the community um has been expanding upon theirm and a lot of their programs um are four-year programs now you know I know when when I was in high school vocational programs
were typically in 11th and 12th grade but that's evolved um eventually all of their programming will be 4-year programming so even some of their traditional two-year programs in 11th and 12th grade will evolve into four-year programs so I requested a
meeting with their superintendent back in probably early November just to talk about that and talk about possibilities for our district and I posed a possible situation to the superintendent of whether or not he'd be interested in
partnering with us develop a Performing Arts Academy here on our high school campus um for some of my high school parents you're probably aware that right now North Hunter and vhe hosts several different acmy so I felt strongly of you
know why can't we get a piece of the pie and some of the other you know high schools are already getting a piece of pie so we sat down we kind of talked had some initial conversations um after thinking about it he was very supportive and interested in moving forward uh so we are moving forward and I just wanted
to share some details of our planning and where we are and and what this program would look like obviously what we saw tonight goes well that was not planned by the way but it just kind of happened um where we were doing the Matilda performance so this just kind of gives you a little bit of a
timeline um we are in the process of developing so with Polytech this would be a joint effort it would fall under the Polytech program but we would house the program here at our high school on the campus um starting in the 26 27 school year so not next year but the
year after um the accademy would be open to obviously our South students as well as other students in hunon as well as other Cy so it wouldn't just be hun County um if there are students who in neighboring Counties have an interest in
a performing arts program however their County either doesn't have one or if there's not enough room in their County for a number of seats um they would be open to applying to our program right now what we're looking at is the first year there would be kind of a rollout
over three years we're looking at a theater and a dance program in 2627 in the second year we're looking at more of what we're calling a music education which would include a vocal instrumental and then the technical theater so all the aspects of the behind
the scenes um you know many of our students are into that technical component from the design of the sets to also all of the visual audio and all the things that go along with that the lighting that piece of it and then we're also going to investigate down the road
the possibility of maybe adding a visual arts component obviously our community is well versed in Visual Arts it's a huge thing for our community so be it would be a great fit um I really thought thinking about this uh Performing Arts
Academy makes sense for our community you know it's interesting when I had this conversation with folks outside of South hunon a lot of times when they think of South hunon lamberville the first thing they think of is the Arts right because of our community so that was the reason why um I decided to move
in this direction plus no one else has it so it's a great find for us moving forward looking at kind of what this looks like right now there would be an entrance criteria so students would have to audition right so there would be a criteria that would be set up by our
teaching staff our teaching staff would run the program our teaching staff would still belong to us in the program but they would conduct auditions right now what we're looking at is Sometime Late in the fall so maybe late November maybe early December we would have auditions
for the theater and the dance progam program our plan is to offer 20 seats in each program so from 26 27 we would offer 20 seats for theater and 20 seats for dance obviously some of our students might take up some of those seats but hopefully we would have students from
other places as well um again students from other districts who are accepted in the program become our full-time students right so they participate not only in you know the theater program or the dance program but they're taking all their gr graduation requirements here
within our high school they're participating in all of our other extracurricular activities just like our students right now that are in whether it's a biomedical or animal science or whatever it may be they belong to North Hunton or Vorhees that these students would belong to South hunon and be our
students right now the current student tuition rate that we pay for our students to go at a district to the Polytech program is $10,100 per year so for each one of our students that decides that they want to go into a four-year program um right now that's
how much we need to pay so that would be the tuition rate U we would work on how we would divy that out so right now North hund and Vorhees has a contract in place with Polytech where a certain percentage goes to the district and a certain percentage goes to polych we
would do the same however I believe that our contract would be more advantageous to us because we would get more of a cut of the pie because we're providing all the STA right now North Hunter is not necessarily doing that polych is providing the STA so again for any student that was coming
from out of our district we would generate that tuition as part of our Revenue when we talk about student experience since we're partnering with Polytech this would be a Career Technical education program so what does that mean it means that our students as
part of their experience over the four year starting in ninth grade would get real world real career experience out in the field and that would be a Continuum so it would look you know more minimal in ninth grade and more extensive in let's say 11th and 12th grade so what
that could mean is for example janellen and I had a zoom um last week on Thursday with Music Mountain the two owners of Music Mountain they're very interested in partnering with us they were very interested in perhaps taking students in Junior and Senior year and
having them do an internship for credit in the academy working at Music Mountain right so that's just one example where again that work um experience in the field for students who are really really serious about this that perhaps want to go on the college
or you know into this as a field of of you know their career down the road this work-based experience is a important component of that so it's not just taking classes here at South it's literally getting out in the field we're having folks to come in and do master
classes so it could be a professional actor a professional dance instructor whatever it may be um you see there's a of different things that I've listed here um for dance team we could participate in UDA Dance Competition which is a national competition there's
a lot of different Avenues and places where this could go um our staff has been working on designing this and has come up with some really unique and cool ideas um for what like a Junior and Senior year could look like in the program just so you know the way it
would work is if a student completes three year three years in the academy program they get an endorsement on their diploma so when they get their high school diploma they would actually be a Performing Arts endorsement on that diploma so obviously if they're applying to a college or university and they want
to study the Arts that's a huge piece for them as far as accepting and things along those lines so next steps um we've put together what's called an advisory and Business Partnership committee we have actually have our first meeting next Thursday on March 6 and the committee
consists of myself Jane Allen the polych superintendent and their director of curriculum instruction we have local businesses as I mentioned before we have our teachers in the program we have a counsel child study team member um and folks that are in the field of theater
and dance that will be joining us and the first meeting is all about you know kind of us sharing our ideas but more from the community side of things what do they think from their professional expertise like what could this program look like and what role maybe could they play in this program either by providing
us Insight on what it should look like or the experiences for our students to actually go out in the field and earn course credit um curriculum planning so the sequence of coursing so we've had some release time for our performing arts department you know and they've been planning out what n9th grade 10th
11th and 12th would look like we're working on articulation agreements with two and foure colleges so obviously we want our students to be able to get dual enrollment credit so we're working on that um we have to get CTE accreditation from the NJ Doe so we'll submit a pretty
extensive application before the end of the school year and hopefully we'll get approved by that over the summer um promotion of the program so the nice thing about this is Polytech would actually handle the promotion of the program for us they have a a recruiter
that they've hired who's director of recruiting for them um so they would have the opportunity to design different things as far as brochures and if you've seen them as parents things you get in the mail or whatever for their programs we would take the same approach um and then like I said our our staff is
developing an audition process and then we're looking at facility planning right so you know a lot of folks have asked with some of the additional room that we would have available to us now at seventh and eighth grade will be moving out we're looking at that and how that could perhaps play into the academy
program and what that looks like um so you know and again we have time based on the audition process and how many kids we get that would really Drive facility conversations if there was anything that we wanted to do let's say nothing would happen this summer but the summer of 26
in preparation for September of 26 so it is exciting um we'll continue to work you know through it and I'll share updates as we go over the next several months this advisory committee will meet in March and then we'll have a second meeting in April we'll have minutes for that meeting that we need to submit to
the NJ dooe um and our teachers are really excited about it obviously you saw some of the talent that we have in our theater program um you know we've had conversations with Laura D who's very very excited about it has some college Partnerships and connections of herself that she's already maintained so
um you know I think it has a lot of promise for the district moving forward yeah okay board members you have any questions for the superintendent so Tony I know we had we talked about some of these questions but
just for the benefit um of others um what uh what would what what are we looking at for like a minimum size to to run on let's say I know we want to do 20 and 20 um but depending on how many applications we get it also it also
depends on how many applications we get for students outside of the district as well because that's where we're going to generate the tuition which is going to offset the cost of the program so you know app you know typically the way it works right now with Polytech they have an application deadline I think of
around December 15th I actually had a phone call with the superintendent today just to talk about we probably would bump this up to sometime in November and then auditions would take place and then by January 10th we would want to offer seats and then we would give students a
week to decide whether they accept them or not and then from there that's going to really drive next steps as far as can we actually do it facility wise what we would do and how much tuition we'd generate like but on and even on the flip side of that what if we you know we
have 20 seats but what if we only fielded you know worst case scenario some like 15 applications or audition would we still continue or we would I mean right now we have the staff right so we're not hiring anyone new um
obviously down the road if the program was to grow we would use the proceeds of the tuition to help fund or fund staff um but I see it as for next year like we have or two years we have the existing St in place so the hope would be at
least for year one if we only got 15 seats for each program we still do it yeah any other question so is there a scenario where something like this gets popular and there students in our district that have to audition that wouldn't be able to get into the program
because of the auditions and people coming from outside our district want to do this there's always a possibility of that you know depending upon the level talent and and teachers would develop that audition process think so um how since we are
using existing staff how would having a program like this impact the availability of those staff members to existing students for just regularly offer classes it wouldn't impact at all
if a student wanted to take a the class but didn't want to be in the academy we' still be able to do okay so these classes would be mixed between kids who are in the academy and then just regular South students who want to whatever exactly students who are in the academy
would have a requirement of different things they would have to do each year obviously students that weren't to take a theater class of ninth grade and then take something else in 11th but not 10 like it's totally open and flexible kind of like it is now what makes that possible is the the teachers were
teaching middle school so they won't be teaching those classes have more time Tony you talk about this is like a true partnership with Po and so when we have to look at facilities or any equipment yes so the the nice thing
about partnering with polych is we can utilize their budget they get a lot of funding like they get over $200,000 a year in what's called Perkins loans and it's specifically geared toward uh CTE programs so like one of the first things that the superintendent asked me
is like equipment wise what do you need for your Performing Art Center or what would you need for this because so that's something that we work out where hopefully they could fund things like that we you know we just did a lot of work a couple years ago in that space but there's other things that we can try
to utilize you know if we're going to take an existing classroom and renovate it into a dance room right they could help with the cost of that you know than to come out of our District budget Jun how would busing work if we have
students coming from out of County possibly just like it does now we would be their districts would be required to transport them just like we do where we have to take students to you know North 140s and even some other places outside of hunon County it would be on the
districts to do that or provide what's called L right you know just to just to clarify so the uh the courses that were all what really sets the academy apart is the sequence of what you take the total number of
credits and the classes they can take and that gives you and you know getting accepted and that's kind of gives you that uh credit what it was it called on the diploma y so you could be take the other students not in the academy could take lots of those classes but if they
don't do it in under the guid sequence and also that work-based learning experience you would not get that extra that's correct that's correct any other questions okay um now it is time for the first
period of public comment um so as always uh we will open uh to the public for comment on any item anything you want to talk about um just a reminder before we start public comment we do have procedures and requirements that include standards of conduct that need to be followed by members of the public during
public comments if a member of the public becomes disruptive during a public meeting including During the period of public comments and member of the board charged with running the meeting that's May shall warn the disruptive member of the public that continued disruption may result in being prevented from speaking during the
public meeting or being removed from the public meeting disruptive conduct includes sustained and appropriate behaviors such as but not necessarily limited to shouting Interruption and use of profanity or comments seen as abusive obscene or defamatory and no participant
may speak more than once during each public comment session um we do have a second one later in the meeting so uh at this point uh if there's anyone in the audience who would like to come up and address the board we ask you to come to the podium give us your name in the community where you live and uh try to
keep your remarks to the board to about minutes does anyone have something they like to bring for the board this evening uh good evening everybody my name is Matt Lin I live in lamberville um so always I want to thank the board
for everything that you do um put a lot of time and work and I really appreciate it um around the Performing Arts Academy so I have a little bit of experience supporting that um as a volunteer um I do think that you know
just from the things I've done that there really is these you know synergisms that you could create like even the technical part about building a stage and things like that that's that's a lot of work and there's a lot of electronics going on in that um do you have like a plan just you know just put
together you know is it going to cost us this this year and then you know like do you have like points where if we see this then we know we would need to do this thing to build another theater I'm making it up but you know has has that
kind of just those um you know three four five year contingencies been thought about at all and could you share that not yet we're still in the design phases so that will be happening over the next couple months but my goal here is not to toss the district more money
so I mean you know I think looking at the experience and I've met with uh the superintendent in North hund wores about this on several occasions like the goal is not necessarily to make money either although that would be nice is to break even and provide an incredible
experience for our kids yeah okay great yeah it's a school you don't want to make money you you want to teach kids thank you thank anyone else have something that to bring before the board on like SP was down well uh so I just
like to point out you know the referendum part of it was for who need to get seventh and eth grade out of the high school and have more room for high school students we now have 20% of the high school population's choice that's according your data Mr Soo from December
if we let's say worst case 40 of these kids we actually get 40 kids in 20 dance 20 theater that would May onethird of our high school students don't live in the district we'd be trending towards the majority of students at the high school not actually living here so all of our $
33.4 million the referendum is for what so people from Flemington can dance here so people kids from other counties from Mercer from Somerset can come here come on how much money do you think we have nearby uh communities are saying we're
looking at 6% increase of the budgets we have people saying we need tens of millions of dollars a loan and South Hunton has tens of millions of dollars to spend on anything come on wake up thank for your coming does anyone else have something i' like to bring
before the board hello uh Andrea little from West dwall Township uh we're getting to this time of year the budget review will be next month uh and hopefully we're going to be outlining to the public the upcoming year identifying key take Ways by
building teacher resources and uh fund allocations we do hope that we can be close to that 2% cap for the community um because the community has been stretched with a lot of change in the district and maybe some of that change
was needed and um maybe some you know we can be like more thoughtful for um so I have a couple of different questions and points and I did see about you know your plan with um Jesus school but um had a couple questions just to
make sure we're like understanding what choice is and choice is meant for being a spare seat in the district that um needs to be occupied uh but we do also know that this year kindergarten Choice put that
age group to three classrooms vers two so I'd like to know um as a statement uh if you could explain to the community at some point for 2526 what the choice decision was by grade um because I
believe that came out in January um that you would have that information I'm not mistaken so are Elementary classes going to have choice in there um we know that the elementary school is very tight it doesn't really accommodate additional
kids in our you know in the district or outside we really want to keep it two classrooms for our district to keep the classroom sizes small which the Educators last week were pointing out um or last month so that was one of my questions just here like when you will
you share by grade what the choice allocation is and then number two um I do know there's a curriculum open position open which I know that there needs to be support there um but I'm just kind of curious on when you're going to be approving for that description why it needs to be a
principal if that's a state regulation I I don't know that answer U because it feels like it could be like a director or is that something that could be like PDM work to get started to understand what that job responsibility is uh just by adding another administrator to again
this small District just seems like a lot as we're configuring to the new three buildings uh to keep that in mind it can be be creative on just putting less burden onto the district and putting it more in the classroom in the books and uh resources for the teachers
thank you thanks for coming anyone else have something i' like to bring it's from shanon Burkhead and it's just south hun Regional Education Association partnership with anwell lodge number 12
freeing accepted masons would like you to save the date of April 3rd for our annual family literacy night join us to listen to a read aloud play Bingo for books participate in activities that promote literacy across content areas and more students will also get to take home their favor from thousands of
brands of new books we are giving away we look forward to seeing you there so I did send I think today earlier today just to save the date and then we'll send out some more information as we get closer okay if there is no other uh public comment at this time I will close
the period of public comment there will be another one at the end of the meeting um Lucas anytime if you're right go home and do your homework I'm sorry I should have said something beforehand but appreciate your report I will say Lucas do you happen to know the dates of nth
and S is it 21st and 22nd or something like that it's like the third week of March I think 14th and 15th okay thank you yes so it's coming up so it's only a couple weeks out um tickets will no doubt be on sale soon if you have not
been tonight at The Nest I encourage you to go it is a very cool uh Student Competition I mean it is great to watch these kids they compete really hard and then they all hug each other and get together at the end and it's aot a great Community thing and a lot of fun it's a
two night thing so Lucas thanks again for your contributions have a good night and a good day in school tomorrow um with that we'll move to our committee reports we'll start with buildings and grounds Mr Brian Mr Brian so Finance building grounds transportation and
Safety Committee met February 20th um my notes are valid as of been if anything been updated since then feel free to let me know um buildings grounds updates so School construction now Tony in your in your update you provided some of the
stuff already so D release the TW permit so as a result septic equipment has been ordered and we're just be the septic field and as of Thursday we're still waiting for approval on a spr Sy stuff from the DCA still
is we mentioned or brought the water the water issues that West Anvil school um and again like Tony had mentioned the potential options were and we still waiting for guidance official guidance from the D guess the important take home from
that is bottle of waters being provided to everything up there for the for the students and the staff um again Trek program we mentioned that and so since then St John's have agreed to the three-year lease with the exit clause if the the funding
um and we're still waiting on the brokers's opinion for the next steps for w dille School bid documents just being prepared for the athletic field um there be an update or next steps will be discussed in the March meeting um I had in my notes that the
bus delivery was scheduled for today I don't know if that happened or not Wednesday Wednesday and then after that camera installation will follow with regards bu maintenance bus inspections took place on the 7th and the 14th of February and everything is
up today buses safety update District safety council meeting occurred on the 11 and just the the items a through L to approve this evening I'm including those field trips in there Grant acceptance l Grant for
physics day the re South and Regional midle School building approv resolution to approve the name the address to the midle school so that I move to I move yeah move items 8 through l so
moved can I have a second please second second by Jen thank you any discussion on items a through l there is no discussion let's vote Jennifer bachler Yes Mara Dennis
yes yes Frank ke yes kin kovaleski yes K are you there I'm here can you hear meon yes yes Ronnie tomino yes G yes uh
Personnel can you hear me Tony uh the Pres committee met on February 19th and at that meeting we uh were advised ofel actions and appointments that are on the agenda for this evening additionally we uh the the
superintendent advises of two Personnel issues in the district we were provided with an overview of the district's non-- 10e review process and also um the negotiations committee uh has started negotiations
with sha that's we given status of data on that and finally um the committee was provided with the job description of the principal in charge of instruction and special projects so with that I would like to
move the Personnel actions listed in item a under Personnel we also need to move the item extracurricular extracurricular appointments Y and exec okay so you're thank you Mrs fet for moving motion
items A and B for approval can I have a second please second second com so lir thank you any discussion on these um I would note that uh Emma sned who was on uh listed here as to be hired
as a a leave replacement kindergarten teacher is a South Alum and I always love to point out our many South and Alum that come back here and and contribute after they've completed their college so very excited any other
discussion let's go Mar Dennis yes Jif sh yes BR ke yes keski yes Aron yes M St yes jennif Bley yes
Ronnie Tod Marino yes yes uh curriculum and Technology um we met on Wednesday February 12th uh so we started off with a technology update um Vince advised us that we would be getting quotes we
actually just moved them in uh Brian's approvals um just to take note we did pull as much equipment as possible from West dwell and extra stock from the high school before those quotes came in uh we also went over briefly the data meeting review this was the first
time that the high school could had met um to do the data meetings and um the five to six um was able to kind of drill down a little bit further as they had already been through the process we talked about the March 7th professional development day which will include a
wellness day for our staff um the PTO than who will be providing lunch for them and um then it'll be ending with time for discussion and collaboration across both grades and departments we talked a little bit about the dual enrollment program which again is a new
program that we started this year um and talked about successes and where you know we wanted to kind of blast out a little bit in the future um we have 31 students currently taking dual en enrollment courses um and uh Miss Lennon
talked about meeting with counselors um and administration to improve scheduling availability in the future um we also talked about looking at additional options for um both classes and with successful partners that we know our
students kind of go to so Arabian was was one that was mentioned we looked at Middle School updates for next year um obviously we'll be doing some curriculum writing as um stem Haag and World Language theater
will be moving from specials to longer form and uh semester quarter classes and um also we went over the process that we actually go through when engaging teachers to write that uh
curriculum as mentioned in Tony's update uh there will be parent information nights for the middle school we also talked about um high impact tutoring we um were able to get 16 students signed up uh between two days uh to do high impact tutoring which
will help us um kind of move them from one uh testing number to another so it's kind of our cus students that we were were focusing on and then we talked about the Performing Arts Academy and
um then finally two new things that came from last month um were bumped off so we will be starting an English curriculum pilot program um for grades nine and 10 and uh it was brought to to our Administration by the teachers uh so
we're really excited to see this piloted and um like Whit and wisdom it does have a multimedia approach and balances with non-fiction tests which is part of our new standards K through five social studies curriculum um will also be uh
coming in next year and we're we're currently looking at a new program and more to come on that that uh at K through five social studies program okay thank you thank you for the report
uh policy Den policy met on February 5th virtually we have two mandated changes both for the respective policy and regulation the first one is 7441 on electronic surveillance in school buildings and on school grounds the
change here has to do with a clarification related to the policy the policy and the regulation already provide that school districts with at least one school building that is equipped with video surveillance equipment capable of streaming live video wires wirelessly to a remote
location must enter into a memo of understanding with local law enforcement which will provide the authorities the capacity to activate that equipment and stream live video the clarification that was added and that's in the policy today is that should be done in emergency situations only so that language is
being added to the policy and the associated regulation and in South hun and there's already a requirement there the um documentation from law enforcement should they actually activate that service for the policy and regulation that 9320 cooperation with
law enforcement which is also mandated there are two changes and one slight addition of language there's an option for the superintendent to designate a law enforcement unit for the district for South hundon there are dedicated me
Mos memorandums of understanding with each local law enforcement department so that option is not necessary for us and uh the section now addressing handle with the Handle With Care Program which is required by the New Jersey attorney general the program requires law enforcement officials to notify the
district when a student enrolled in the district Witnesses something traumatic outside of a school environment and designate an individual for that handle with repair notice that is now incorporated into the policy and Regulation and that is our superintendant and then we needed to add
the designation for other drugs in the second paragraph the policy to address that cannabis is now no longer at control of substance but it still triggers reporting obligation to local law enforcement um those are all first reads so there's nothing on second read
I do want to mention it's not in the agenda but we did discuss a non-mandated change to regulation 5117 on inter interdistrict public school choice having to do with a priority to siblings of students who are already part of the
choice program because that is is not in the agenda I'm going to just pull that we'll say that as a first read when we talk next month but nothing to move okay well these are these don't we have to move these for the first reading we do move these we'll move we we'll
move these items for first reading and then they will be available for all of us to look at and read and if you have any changes or suggestions for changes you you'll communicate those to Martha there you go she will bring those to the next meeting then the next in the March meeting we will remove the second reading and at that point they will
become the district policy so this is your opportunity to look at the policy while you're in the policy book feel free to poke around and look at some other polic okay well so that said so you have made a motion to move item
a right with that policy and regulation to to to approve those on the first reading to approve on the first reading yes okay and so we need a second second thank you Mr Keys any discussion
on first reading those Poli okay let Gina P yes Brian Keys yes Kevin keski yes Aron ly yes Michael stra
Yes Ben for bachelor yes Mar Dennis yes Ron Marino yes G yes school and communi Comm met on February 18 um we continued the discussion about the 2025 committee
polls um last month I shared we decided that we wanted to expand com that the district celebrates EIC achievement um and also developing um parent resource guides covering various topics um and then we also added the goals of meeting
with representatives from the community um to improve and expand collaboration and um find certain activities and also just to strength in Partnerships and we talked about um beginning the development of the
volunteer database which is a part of the Strategic plan or action plan for next year our next um we also took a look at the climate survey if um folks remember the climate survey is something that we've put at we've been putting out every year
past years and and um so we wanted to take a look at those at the the data collected from the last survey and then also um approve the question so that that can go out to distribute the survey and we
talked about end of Year celebrations it's start um shared there going be dance for the fifth and sixth grade and sixth grade um possible have a trip to Dy Park and SCH picnic and then for the fourth grade there will be a breakfast
and brag with an award ceremony and um video of graduates over the years um and we took a look at the 20 2526 school calendar which is
okay don't move can I have a second on that make a motion to this is so moved and we need a second second by Mr stra now are we approving this C we are okay right any discussion on the
calendar I have a question yeah do we know so our holiday our Easter our spring holiday yes whatever we call that now um do we know are we taking the same week of spring holiday that surrounding school districts are taking yes and no
some but not all um honestly what we looked at from the calendar committee uh or the school and Community Committee uh and some discussions we had administratively we really wanted to take in account to be fully inclusive um
Easter end Passover so we structured our um calendar and spring break next year around some of the most important days of Passover in alignment with the St the project any other discussion on the counter this it The Voice vote okay then
all in favor I anyone oppose anyone abstaining okay um so with that uh we move to routine information items um we do need
a um we have we have one one we did okay so we did have a a a harassment intimidation and bullying report what happens is we typically talk about these in the executive session and then the following month we will vote to approve those obviously that is confidential
information we cannot share that report with you in fact a lot of names and details aren't sh with us but uh um so we do need a motion tonight to accept the HIV report that we discussed in executive session last month so move by Michael thank you have
a second please second a second by Mr Keys thank you uh any discussion on the HIV I'll be Spain just I wasn't in okay all right fair enough um and this is
also voice believe all in favor I I anyone oppos and one exstension okay uh fire drills as you can see we did uh have um fire and safety drills on the dates listed there
uh the enrollment report is uh available online and that brings us to our second period of public comment same rules apply as the first one uh you're welcome to come up and make any statement you'd like to the board uh we try to keep it to around three minutes and um with that
second public period of comment is open would anybody have something they'd like to bring before the board okay do we have any online comments one we already did okay um so if no one has anything to bring before the
board then we will close the second period of public comment and uh with that we do have a need to go into executive session this evening um we will be uh coming back to this room there will be no action taken after that executive session I expect
will'll probably be out for 25 to 30 minutes so I do need a motion to go into executive session at 8:56 p.m. so move by Ronnie thank you and a second please second by Aaron thank you all in favor I I oppos