Everybody's on. >> Good. Thank you. Okay. Uh, pledge of allegiance, please. >> Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all. >> Thank you. Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Balado, >> here. >> Mr. Pico, >> here. >> Mr. Bardo, >> here. >> Mr. Yaggum, >> Mrs. Herald, >> here. >> Mrs. [clears throat] Sharpstein, >> we have a qu. >> Thank you. This is to advise the general public and to instruct that it be
recorded in the minutes that in compliance with chapter 231 of the public laws of 1975 entitled the open public meetings act stanh hope board of education located at 24 valley road in Stanh Hope New Jersey has caused this notice to be posted at the office of the Stanh Hope Board of Education mailed to
the New Jersey Herald the municipal clerk of the Burough of Stanh Hope the Stanho Post Office and posted at the Valley Road school and on the Stanh Hope public schools website setting forth the time date and location of the The Stanh Hope School District in partnership with the community commits to provide a quality comprehensive
education for all learners with equal emphasis on academic excellence and citizenship through values, respect and service. Our vision is to inspire and cultivate a community of innovative, curious, compassionate and globally minded learners equipped with knowledge, problem solving skills and the ability
to persevere to make a positive impact on society and shape a better future. Uh an executive session will be held for the purpose of student confidentiality. Formal action may be taken. That brings us right to presentations. Up first, student council. You want to say anything?
>> Yes. Uh so thank you uh all for allowing our student council um to come present at our board meeting this evening. Um, in speaking with our student council representatives and our eighth grade adviserss, um, we felt as though it would be appropriate to have, uh, our
students come out quarterly at least, um, to just kind of share a little bit about what's happening, um, within the school from the students perspective, some of the things that they're doing, um, you know, in line with the board's efforts to incorporate and include uh, that student voice a little bit more into our meeting. So, I'd like to
welcome Alacia Green, who is our student council vice president, and Olivia Yo, who is our student council secretary. >> Thank you. >> Hello everyone. We are Olivia Yo and Alia Green. We are in eighth grade and we are here as representatives for the
entire middle school body. We are here to provide a report to the board of education members about what we have done as the student council, what we plan to do, and the overall climate of the middle school. We would first like to thank you for approving our DC 8th
grade trip. Second, we would like to thank our HSA for their financial donations and efforts to enhance our student experience. Going forward into the school year, we are happy to announce that we are going to host many school fundraisers for our DC trip costs. Some fundraisers we are going to
be hosting are our student vers staff sports events, popping popcorn, and a movie night for the kindergarten through fifth grade. In regards to the culture and climate of our middle school, council members agree that the students feel safe and supported by staff.
Although there's the presence of middle school bullying, we don't think there's an active pres Oh, no. I did it. Okay. Although there's the presence of middle school drama, we don't think there's an active presence of bullying, harassment, or intimidation. As of the student council, our overall
goal is to leave a more positive environment and leave it better than we found it with more role models for the younger students. >> Thank you for your time. Do you have any comments, questions, or concerns? Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Thank you.
>> Anybody have questions for them? >> Questions. >> Hold on, ladies. Anybody have questions? >> You're not off the hook yet. >> Let's [laughter] see if anybody has questions. >> No. None. >> No. Uh they've so far they've been doing a wonderful job. They've they've already been very active. Uh you know, we're
already in November. We've had multiple fundraisers. Um, and one thing I can I can say about this group is they certainly they mentioned it, but they serve as wonderful role models for uh for our students across the board, not just the middle school. So, thank you guys for your time. Thank you for
preparing um your statement and uh we wish you a wonderful rest of the week. >> Thank you. >> Okay, with that, can I have a uh motion for executive session? >> Motion. >> Second. Second. >> Okay. Be it resolved that the Stan Hope
Board of Education adopts the following resolution. Whereas the Open Public Meetings Act chapter 231 of 1975 permits the exclusion of the public from a meeting in certain circumstances and whereas the Stanh Hope Board of Education is of the opinion that such circumstances presently exist. Now therefore be it resolved by the Stanh
Hope Board of Education, County of Sussex and State of New Jersey that a closed session of this board of education where the public shall be excluded will be held at this time for the purpose of student confidentiality. Be it further resolved that the action of the board with regard to the above entitled matter shall not be disclosed to the public, I'm sorry, shall be
disclosed to the public at a later date and to the extent that the same is not prejuditial to the interest of parties involved and would not result in the possible invasion of their right to privacy. Can I have a voice vote, please? All in favor? >> I. >> Any nos or abstensions? Okay, moving on. We are in executive
session. There we go. One more. All right. That brings us to the superintendence report. Okay. Thank you. So, uh for um this report since our last meeting, we've had two uh incidents where students were suspended in school suspension from
school each for one day. Uh we also had two investigations for uh HIV. Both investigations were founded. Um, I wanted to put out, we put a couple notices out last week, uh, that nominations are currently being sought for the gen, um, the governor's educator
of the year, uh, which is the teacher of the year, and the educational specialists um, person of the year, which uh, includes our par profofessional staff, uh, guidance counselors, child study team, pretty much any role within the building that's
not a classroom teacher. Uh so we are collecting nominations electronically this year through the use of Google form. Um so anybody who's interested in nominating it could be a parent, it could be a student, it could be a staff member who nominates a colleague, it can be somebody from the community who's
just aware of of you know the good things that are happening here. Um >> so anybody can nominate. Um I wanted to recognize uh all the work that went into our veterans recognition program that took place a couple weeks ago. Um Nancy
Lashure uh who replaced uh my secretary Kathy Yonai this year. Um you know that was the one piece that I think um made her a little bit more nervous than others because of how much it was talked about and the expectations that were set for this event. Uh and she definitely lived up to the expectations. She did a
wonderful job. Uh everything that we needed to have done was done and it was done correctly. Uh tremendous attendance. Um, wanted to thank the the HSA for all their support. The teachers association um for their support with refreshments, Lenipe Valley uh band and
choir um and all of the uh the Valley Road students who who you know created um gift packages and they wrote poems and they um performed during the event. Uh again, it was just another success and I'm I'm happy to say that Valley
Road continues um to demonstrate their support for those uh who sacrifice so much for us and our country. Um the next item just to follow up on the New Jersey school board's conference uh that was attended by uh Mrs. Shariffstein, Miss
Balado, Miss Herald, and myself. Um you couldn't have asked for better weather, that's for sure. Um and the uh conference was very well attended. Um, you know, I think we all walked away with with um a little bit of of something in different um areas within
the uh this this the school and and the board and the district that we can uh that we can learn from and we can grow from. Um and uh yeah, just uh it was it was a nice opportunity to get together and and learn. Um brief staffing update. Uh you'll see on the addendum for
tonight uh that uh I'm making a recommendation for guidance counselor uh which is a position that we've been interviewing for now for for three or four weeks. Uh apologies for not getting it on the regular agenda, but we had followup um second round interviews on Monday. Uh and it just wasn't enough
time time to get it on the agenda and I felt it was though it was important enough um to to recommend the uh the approval during this meeting. and just you know as we've been I don't want to continue to beat a dead horse but par profofessional staff continues to be a struggle um for every one that we're
able to bring in feels like one or two people are resigning um again mostly mostly new people we're not really losing the people who have been here for a period of time um but we have been able to supplement mostly with uh substitute teachers and substitute paras uh we have a great pool we have great
people um so you know we're we're doing okay it just it's it's a time consuming process each day trying to get these position filled. Um, and it's uh it's causing a little bit of a log jam of of workflow everywhere else, but otherwise we're we're doing okay.
>> Great. >> Bounce right into curriculum update. Uh so the one piece that I have to update for curriculum is that uh I think I mentioned at our last meeting that I've I've put together a committee that includes myself, Principal Dataldo, and five of our teachers all from um
different areas that they're teaching to serve on an artificial intelligence uh intelligence steering committee uh with the main goal of drafting an AI plan to coincide with the artificial intelligence policy uh that I plan to present to the board at our December
meeting. Uh we've met four times. We have two more meetings scheduled. Uh we during our meetings and even in between we have reviewed common research. Uh we've reviewed sample AI plans from up to eight schools throughout the state. Um we've begun the process of drafting
our own plan. We have a very rough first draft uh that we're going to be pulling apart and working to refine uh over the next two uh two meetings over the next two weeks. Uh, so I feel feel pretty confident we'll have something um for the board to review at our December
committee meetings uh and then hopefully approve at the December uh public meeting. Um and uh it's you know to to I don't want to overpromise and underdel
in that um we are setting expectations that this is a long-term process um with the initial expectations the initial um um goal is to train our staff um allow our staff to build confidence in the use
of artificial intelligence allow them to build capacity and the different tools that are available to them so that when we do roll this out to our students likely the 27 28 school year um our teachers feel
confident that they can properly instruct our students on appropriate use. Um that said, we have already been talking about building into curriculum lessons from kindergarten all the way through through grade 8 on the ethical use of artificial intelligence and the
effective use of art artificial intelligence and you know what it is, how it works, why it works, um and how and why we would use it. Um so again uh the plan may feel a little light when it's initially drafted but it's
something that we will be embedding into the plan that it will be reviewed at least annually um so that we can continue to add and change and modify as as new technologies come through >> questions. Okay,
Matt, personnel, curriculum, school climate. >> Yeah, Steve handled a lot of it. Um, regarding the uh candidate that we will be approving tonight, will there be a gap from when they can get uh like from when the current guidance counselor leaves till they get hired?
>> So, there there's definitely going to be a gap. Mrs. Capola's last day is next Wednesday. She begins in her new district in December. um the most it would be uh because um our current candidate plans to submit a
resignation tomorrow. So it would be 60 days after that which brings us to mid January. Uh she did share that she is going to request um an early release so that she can possibly start right at the new year which would be great for us. Um but at the end of the day, the district
does not have to approve that and the expectation would be that she would fulfill the contract expectations uh and give the 60 days notice. Fortunately, we do have a lot of holidays in between. Um you know, so we we will be having some time off from school, which helps. Um
the other thing that that I think is important to note, um Miss Capola, our current guidance counselor, has already shared that she is more than happy and willing to to help with this transition even after she leaves uh our school. She's spent more than 12 years here. Um and and she she looks at this place as a
second home. And she's reiterated multiple times that anything that we need or she needs, she's only a phone call away. Um, I spoke with uh the superintendent um that hired her to her new district just uh yesterday. Uh we were in a meeting together. Uh and he he
also stated that, you know, if we need anything, if there's anything that that we need from her that he can do to help, he'd be more to than than than happy to uh whether it's allow her to come for a couple hours to assist. I don't see that uh us needing that to happen. Um but
it's there if we do need it. >> No. Thank you. Um it would touch base on the need for more Paris. Um we have uh stipen appointments for Keith Moresy and Julian Boveve. Uh and that the homework club was kind of restructured to four
days per week now. Um with a kind of a new way that we're looking at implementing that after school for one hour. Hopefully having kids sign up in advance to be able to um to have that time with the with the staff. or a
teacher. And then um we touched base on the AI plan and that uh curriculum. So we'll go over that next meeting. And then just um we also went over the board vacancy spot which I'm sure we'll touch on here as well. So that's [snorts] all
I got. >> Okay, that would bring us to business services. Uh Mr. Jagnum's not here. Um, so I can run through it quickly, although I I think some things have changed since we spoke based on the agenda. So, I'll let you update on that. So, we'll skip that one for now. We'll
come back to it. Uh, the few things you'll see on the agenda is a transportation agreement that we need to approve tonight for a classified student. Um, which, you know, is what it is. It worked out uh pretty well to our benefit. Came in a little under what we were expecting, which is nice. Um, there
is just a standard agreement for the fire alarm inspections that you'll see in the agenda. Uh, our audit was underway. Our financial audit. I see they are not here this evening. So, I'm guessing timing didn't work out for the presentation, but I expect we'll see them next month. >> I would expect this in December. >> The books arrived today. They just couldn't fit us in this.
>> That's fine. Okay. Um, do we know if there's any findings? Her recommendation? >> No, no findings at this time. >> Okay, great. Um, and then, uh, as far as the door project goes, there's still a couple of things hanging out that need to be fixed. Um I think you said there was an access point
that wasn't working properly that was jamming up a few of the doors. So um that is still underway >> since our last meeting that's been addressed. Okay. Uh we did have somebody come out. uh still a couple lingering things, okay, but but the the bigger issues have been have been addressed and
Miss Lama has been uh instrumental in in working with them and and trying to to better understand how to troubleshoot these issues so that we can um address them, I guess, on our own without having to need need to call support as often. >> Okay. And then uh parking lot, we
briefly discussed surveying and what was happening with the parking lot. I don't know if there's any new updates. >> No update. just waiting on the on the survey to be completed so we can move to next steps. >> Okay. And so that brings us to the bigger issue which I see on the agenda is an approval of the termination in the state health benefit plans. Um so we had
talked about uh ordering our experience modification and moving to the shift which is more like a group risk plan that enables our school to participate with other similarly situated schools to the benefit of having a lower [clears throat] cost. Um lower is relative because everybody's going up
double digits. So maybe our increase will be less if we make it into the shift, which it sounds like they took us. >> So So we we haven't gotten any of that yet. The motion that you have on here is required for us to act we have to approve this before we can actually go ahead and accept any other
>> uh bids. Um Carissa, you can probably speak to that a lot more eloquently than I can. >> So we need your permission when it's go time to give them 60 days notice. This motion is pretty much saying you will give us the permission once we have the
information from the shift or anywhere else that we may be getting information from anything from the RFPs. >> Okay, >> that we can allow the 60-day window to begin for an earlier entry out of the state health benefit plan. So just
actually terminating. So just because we're approving this motion, >> we are not terminating with the state health benefits plan yet. >> Okay. >> But once approved by the board, we have the authority to then terminate. >> Yes. >> Got it.
>> In all, you know, um in all honesty, based on on the rate increase from the state health benefits plan and the fact that we came back with a really good experience, in all likelihood, we're going to be looking to to to >> Do we know what that experience was yet? I as at the meeting and we didn't know. Do we know now?
>> Do you have any idea? >> I do not have the dissected numbers, but I can share it with you. Sure. Yes, Dan has it. >> I have the whole >> Okay, great. >> By way of history, we've been unable to do this previously because our experience was poor, right? So, in in the insurance world, if your experience
is greater than a factor of 1.0, you're bad experience. If it's less than 1.0, you have good collective experience. Um, so if we're good, we're good. uh moving in this world means equal to or better than the current plan. So, anytime you can do that and still pay less money,
we're in pretty good shape. Um benefits across the state are going up anywhere from 20 to 30 to 40%. Um several districts are having a significant battle uh with that cost. Um and there's primarily down at uh Atlantic City at school boards. I attended a number of
sessions on health benefits and the reasons for the increases and they know the reasons for the increases. Um there's just nothing they can do about it now retroactively. So >> So put a monetary value to the potential impact that we're that we're facing. If we don't look to move, we're expecting a
$200,000 increase in in health benefits cost to the district next year and a $100,000 increase this year, which would be unbudgeted. Right? we can budget for next year and we can factor that that that 200,000. It's coming from somewhere, right? It's it's nobody's
giving us that money. So, there's going to have to be reductions in in our current budget. But the hardest issue, the biggest issue that we have is $100,000 to the current budget. We can't modify that, right? We've we've already allocated our funds. We need to find it from somewhere. I'm very confident that
we will, but it's it's not going to be easy. were, you know, we might have to go into a spending freeze. We may have to, you know, make some accommodations that we maybe didn't have to to make in previous years, right? Um, but with a potential shift in February, March, we
can probably minimize um, you know, that increase for the current year and it'll put ourselves in a better opportunity to to plan and budget for next year. >> Yeah. I think the important thing here is to understand there still will be an increase. We're just hoping it won't be as big, >> right? So, you know, the all of the
health insurers in the state are working on how to resolve the issues that drove costs up, but it's it's a huge problem across the board. Um, and it is a statewide problem whether you're privately insured or insured through a company or insured through something like this. All of us are seeing that across the board. So, um,
>> and it's also discussed that we're looking to go into a contract with whoever is new for not just one year, but a year and a half. >> Okay. So we would go in midyear this year and then our renewal will not be until July of 2027.
>> Okay. The ship only worked on a calendar year basis. >> Nope. A July through June, which is awesome. >> Does changing the health uh health plan have anything to do with uh the teachers contract? >> It does not. It is not a negotiated item
in the contract. It stipulates equal to or better than. So as long as we maintain that we can >> I just wonder >> we we have engaged with the teachers association though um just to maintain complete transparency uh they're aware of what we're doing they understand the
concerns that we have and we've asked them to to begin developing questions and sharing their own concerns so that we can get ahead of it so that this is not us dumping a change on them and then re reacting to their concerns and their questions from there. We want to have
everything answered and addressed before a change. But to to Matia's point, they don't have to approve a change. As long as we're providing a a plan that's that's the the same, equal to, or better than what we're currently providing, then we can make a change.
>> All right. Thank you. >> Yep. Any other questions? No. Okay, then we will move on. Policy and communications. There's almost no policy on tonight's agenda. The two items that are on there
for breakfast offer versus serve and lunch offer versus serve really just comes down to kids now are offered in the different categories. So fruit, vegetable, grain, meats, they have the option of not
accepting one of them and not being told that they have to have all of them. they can accept all of them, but it basically gives a little bit of student choice. >> This is a policy that we honestly should probably have had for a while when it was initially distributed by Strauss as
mayor policy management um system. Uh the district was not required to adopt the policy. But over the years it we you know again Chrissa you may be able to answer the the why to this a little better than me. But over the years it
then did become uh a required policy for us to have and we're just catching right now that we didn't. So um it's not changing anything that we're doing. We're following everything within the policy. We just need to make sure that we had something in our policy manual. >> And you may remember we announced that we're also being monitored by the
Department of Agriculture. This is something that's done every three to five years. I feel like we kind of missed a year because of COVID, but this has been brought to our attention because we're trying to get all of that, all of our ducks in a row. So, something did transpire from the last monitoring
until now that we need to have this approved. >> Speak to the other ones, too, ones that we struck. >> You can if you want to say why you struck them. I was just going to wait till they showed up next month. Um so so you'll see on the the agenda I I struck three different policies and three uh
different regulations uh from the agenda tonight. It's something that we reviewed in our policy committee meeting. Um however, there were very good questions brought up about specific language. Um often references to library resources
and library materials. Given we don't have a dedicated library in our school, we wanted to get some additional feedback from the board's attorney. Uh so that night I I contacted Doug at Bush Law um and asked for uh a review. Um he
um honestly stated that he didn't have a lot of familiarity with the Freedom to Read Act, which is the new law that's going into place in December that is pushing um all of these policy changes and revisions. Uh so rather than rushing into a bunch of changes, um I'd rather
get the the opinion of the attorney. He needed a little bit more time. Uh I expect to have that within the next week or so. Uh and then we can get them back on the agenda for December. Um and have the board review the the policy and regulation before we uh I ask for any
kind of approval. >> Good. Any other questions? Okay. Avery, Sussex County Ed Services. >> Sure. Hold on one second. Um they continue to move forward with the purchase of the building next door.
The appraiser and architect have both as of their last meeting um two weeks ago, the appraiser and architect had been in to look at the building. um they are seeing um an influx of students that weren't being accepted any place else
and consequently it's also um caused an escal escalation of behaviors. So they are struggling a little bit with that. Um they were also preparing for their audit and the last item was that they spent a significant
amount of time they are facing a 35% increase on their healthcare and um so they are struggling they have no other options because they are small >> um because of the type of organization that they are >> um the way they're structured they they
have no other options so they are trying to figure out how to swallow a 35% increase in their healthcare We we did a straw poll um at my superintendent's round table meeting yesterday and it I would say at least 40 to 50% of the districts that were
represented are covered by the state health benefits uh plan. Um and the overall consensus is that most districts are stuck because of their experience. um we fortunately have good experience and have an opportunity to to get out if
it's appropriate for us, but a lot of these other districts, especially as as Avery pointed out, not only do they probably not have great experience, they're also so small. >> So, >> and I think it also has to do with something to do with the fact that they're an educational services commission as opposed to it had
something to do with that. But yes, they they are also very small. They didn't have they did mention not having great experience. So they are truly stuck. >> And many many years ago 2010, we were
doing this just the other way. >> Our experience levels were so bad when we were in the private plan and we needed to saw out the state plan in order to help offset it. So >> that is the world of health insurance right now.
>> Yes. No one is a mutant. Um, questions for every All right, that brings me to my board president's report. Um, it was a little more active than I expected. I'll go with the with the easier topic first. I attended a call with a handful of board presidents from other districts across
the state. There is um a desire within the New Jersey School Boards Association for the folks who are what's called the county VPs of legislation to work with board presidents in their county to identify items that are meaningful and important that need to be pushed forward
through resolution and legislation. Uh the biggest topic of conversation on that call was the HIV law and the need for a revision because it is a very broad law that was put into place and doesn't take into consideration certain factors that we see play out every day such as the age of the child when the
infraction occurs and and how school districts are supposed to handle that. Um so that was the main topic of conversation on that particular call. There will likely be a subcommittee at the New Jersey School Boards Association to address that. Um but we are seeing a little bit of kind of movement um you
know with ahead of legislative season to get in there and and have a little bit more of a voice on certain laws that maybe aren't working the way they were intended. Um so that was the first one. The second one is an update on regionalization. [snorts] Um so I have here for everybody we did get some
communication from the Rowan Institute uh regarding moving forward with our study which we know is approved through a grant so there's no cost to the districts. Uh as part of that we all received a board survey which if you completed it, thank you. That asks us basically uh basic questions about the
study and kind of the things that are important to us as board members that went out to all of the boards. There is a staff survey and there is also a parent and guardian survey. So what happened here was um Netkong and Byum
have sent out the parent survey already. the parent and guardian survey. Um, Lenipe has not, we have not. I wanted to share it with this board first along with a proposed cover letter. Uh, both Lenipe and us would use the same cover letter being that we haven't sent it out
yet because there will be some overlap in people getting the survey. So, for example, in Byum, they sent it out first through their Genesis system and then through Nixl and posted it on their school website. So through a Nixl alert, it's possible that folks in Stanh Hope received it from that Nixl alert because
Nixl is based on zip code and postal code and Stanh Hope services part of Byron from a postal address perspective. In NetCong, they've only sent it out through their Genesis. It only went to parents and guardians in Netcom. So we are looking to get this out because the survey responses are due by December
12th and knowing we have a holiday coming up. Um so I printed out a copy of the proposed cover letter here. Uh again, the Lenipe Valley board president's also uh been involved in this particular cover letter with me um just so we can stay coordinated in our
efforts. Again, this was the first communication we got from Rowan. Um so some of the boards acted much quicker. Uh and like I said, my goal here was to present this to all of us first. Um so we can't really alter the questions that are contained in the survey because
those are from Rowan by Rowan. It is part of their normal process. um and in the part of the data that they gather. Uh so that's what you're seeing there is just a copy of the questions. It is a very brief survey. Um and then like I said the cover letter that I propose we send out that kind of explains a little
bit more background about where we are and why we're doing this and who the data is going to. So I will give everyone a few minutes to take a look at that. But the hope is that we can get this pushed out by the end of the week. again coming into the holiday next week and then having only two weeks left for the for the parents and guardians to
respond. You'll see the survey is not dissimilar to what we got from as board members either. It's it's similar. It's not identical, but it is similar. >> Can I ask you a question about that? I mentioned earlier that I had a problem with the the third spot.
>> It says about um at least uh rank your top three. >> Yes. >> One being the most important. It said only to choose one from every [snorts] um look at it one from every section or whatever you want. Column. This is a
column. This they're all columns here, right? >> Yes. >> So there's four items here. You would rank your top three of the four. one. >> So, one will be left blank. >> One of them won't be ranked. >> Okay. What I did, that's why I probably had the problem. >> The first one, I did what I thought, you
know, second most important. The second one, I did the same I did the same thing all the way across. Okay. >> By the time I got to the third section, I wanted to go to the >> to the next uh >> page and it was it wouldn't let me go. >> That's why. So, like I messed up, right? Yeah. If there's four options, it's
asking you to pick three and put them in order of most important to least important. >> I misunderstood the way that they asked. >> Yep. >> I I read it the same way when I initially looked at the survey. So, you're in good company. >> I could go back and redo the survey. You can Okay. >> Yes, you can.
>> Thank you. >> Other questions, comments? >> So, just a heads up, somebody had posted the link to the survey on Facebook. So, >> yes. We we know it's been posted widely on social media, especially on some of the town forums in neighboring towns. I haven't seen it on ours, but maybe it's
made its way there now. I don't know. >> It was it was by room then I saw it. >> So, it is it has been widely posted. Again, the intention of this and you see what when it's titled parent and guardian survey was for people who are active now in the community. Again, and that's part of why I say in the cover
letter here, this is not to exclude people who are not parents or guardians. Their feedback will be sought at a later point in time throughout the process. This is just the very initial steps of data gathering. Other comments, questions, concerns, anything? Nothing. Okay, Carmen, you
good? >> I'm good now. >> Jen. Okay. So, that would bring us to public session one, but seeing as how we have no public, we will move past that. Um, travel and workshop reports were
submitted. I know I did not do mine yet for school board. So, we do need to get those done, those of us who went because I don't see any of ours on here, so I will do that. [laughter] Um, so that brings any questions on travel and workshop before we move on? No. Okay. Uh, minutes for approval. Can
I have a motion, please? Motion second. >> Thank you. Uh this is a voice vote to approve the regular meeting minutes from last month. Voice vote. All in favor say I. I. [clears throat] >> Any nos or abstensions? Anybody not
here? No. Okay. Any recusals? All right. That moves us to administrative action items. Can I have a motion, please? >> Motion. >> Second. >> Thank you. Uh, number two is what we just talked at length about regarding the uh, school benefits plan.
Anybody have any further questions or comments? Okay, move to a roll call vote, please. >> Mrs. Batalado, >> yes. >> Mr. Pico, yes. >> Mr. Valardo, >> yes. >> Mrs. Herald, yes. Mrs. Sharpstein, yes. Motions carried. >> Thank you. >> Policy action items. Motion please.
>> Motion >> second. >> You two are very in sync this evening. [laughter] >> Uh so this is just the two that are there now. The breakfast uh and lunch offer versus serve. Questions? Any additional commentary? >> Okay. Roll call vote, please.
>> Mrs. Balado? Yes. >> Mr. Pico? >> Yes. >> Mr. Bardo? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Herald? Yes. Mrs. Sharpstein? >> Yes. >> Motions carried. >> Thank you. Uh education action items one through three. Can I have a motion, please? Motion. >> Second.
>> Thank you. >> Questions, comments? >> Okay. Hearing none. Roll call vote, please. >> Mrs. Bonalado, >> yes. >> Mr. Pico, >> yes. >> Mr. Bardo, >> yes. >> Mrs. Herald, >> yes. >> Mrs. Shariffstein, >> yes. Motions carry.
>> Uh, personnel action items uh 1 through six and addendum items 7 through 10. Can I have a motion, please? Motion. Second. Thank you. Any discussion? Okay. Hearing none. Can I have a roll call, please? >> Mrs. Balado?
>> Yes. >> Mr. Pico? >> Yes. >> Mr. Valardo? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Herald? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Sharpstein? Yes. Motion's carried. >> Business services action items, agendas, items 1 through 11. Can I have a motion, please? >> Motion. >> Second.
>> Thank you. Thank Mr. Moscatello donating money for a portable keyboard. That's fantastic. I see that as item seven. >> That's wonderful. >> Yeah. Any other questions or comments? See people reading. I'll give you a
minute. Number nine is what you were referring to regarding the transportation contract. >> Was that something new that came up or was that uh >> this is um we spoke previously about a student who was placed by CMO in a residential program. Um we are
responsible for the the education of the child, right? >> So therefore, we're paying a tuition to the local public school for him to attend there. Um be it's too great of a distance for him to attend here. Um uh we got the tuition agreement first but
didn't receive the transportation agreement until at least three or four weeks later which is why we have both them on different uh meeting agendas. Um considering you know transportation can run anywhere from 30 to $50,000. This
$82620 is is not anything to be concerned about. >> Do you mind just explaining to me why we have to pay for a child to go to a different school? uh because of special circumstances child was placed by CMO which is >> I can't get into the specific
circumstances it's uh it's it's uh it's a confidential matter >> um it's outside of our control >> so you know there are situations uh where students come to our school and through the process of the child study team we identify them as special needs
um we sometimes determine that our school our programs are not suitable able for that child. Therefore, we send them to either another public school or a private placement because they reside here. This is their home district. Uh we are responsible for all education
related expenses which includes the transportation of the child. This situation is not that. This is very different because we are not placing the child. However, we're still responsible for the educational re uh costs which does include the transportation. So
there there's honestly nothing that we can do about that. The child's family still lives in town. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. At at baseline, the way the laws are written in the state of New Jersey is even if a student were to choice out to another district, we are still responsible for transportation or aid in Lou in many cases. >> Yes.
>> So it's just part of the way the law is written. Sending district has to cover that transportation cost. >> And if it means anything, this is well below the Aiden L cost of transportation. So we are even saving money in that aspect. >> It's new to me. So, I was just curious. That's all. >> Fair. [snorts]
>> Any other questions or comments? All right. Roll call vote, please. >> Mrs. Balado? >> Yes. >> Mr. Pico? Yes. >> Mr. Valardo? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Herald? Yes. >> Mrs. Shariffstein? Yes. >> Motions carry. >> All right. New business. Does anybody have any new business?
>> I don't have new business per se, but >> I'm very impressed on the HSA. I mean, they are the hardest people that hardest working people that I've seen in a long time. And I encourage anyone that's listening or watching this uh this
meeting to support them because without without the HSA, uh we would been in a lot of trouble for fundraisers. And I just like to take this opportunity again to thank them that I appreciate everything that they do for our school.
>> Thank you. Appreciate it. >> Any other new business? >> I have a question. Uh, this Sunday I got to hang with my nine-year-old nephew who is in Woff and there was a situation in his school where um they also switched this year to a
double math block and there was like a big recess lunch I guess issue within their district. Whereas there was something called transition time and that was eating into their time right uh
for I guess 20 minutes lunch 20 minutes recess so forth and so on. Um so that was issue number one. So my question was you know do we have like are we following law to make sure it's full 20 minutes being that we just switched to the double block which I assumed we were but just wanted to know.
>> So we switched to the double block for middle school. There is actually no recess requirement for middle school. However, we're still providing students with the option to go out for recess. So, new this year, partially because we lost our EHA, our study hall, is we give
students the option to either go outside or to stay in the cafeteria for quiet study time and quiet social time. >> Okay. >> Whereas in many districts at the lower grades, non-m middle school, that physical education component and requirement between vis and resource and recess is required. Right? So again, we
only moved to the double [clears throat] block in middle school. >> Okay. >> Right. And then um there was another issue where I guess some kids because they were told to be quiet in line were being withheld from recess and I was told that that's against the law as well that you can't withhold kids from
recess. >> It's discouraged, right? um it's strongly discouraged and if it's something that is happening on a regular basis it, you know, I I would probably make the argument that it could be
deemed uh as as out of compliance. >> Um but it's it's probably something that most schools do um on an as needed basis uh because it's it's one of those very
minor um but appropriate consequences, right? you're not looking to I don't want to keep a second grader for after school detention, you know, for a minor infraction like cutting the line or talking out of turn. Um, you know, so withholding recess one day is is
sometimes, you know, the consequence that you go to. Uh, if a if a student is missing recess weekly, I I think that's kind of where where you you run into a bit of an issue. Well, >> thank you. Just thought it was interesting. Just curious to learn more. >> Absolutely.
Anybody else for new business? Okay. So, very quickly, I know uh Yakub is not here. I he he may not be coming to the December meeting, so this would have been his last meeting. Hopefully, we'll see him in December, but if not, I just want to make sure on record we thank him for his years of service. Not
sure how many years they are. Two terms. Was he at five or six years? >> Or is it one? >> I think he was he he was voted in and then he was elected. So, I think he just completed year four. >> Okay. So, maybe four and change possibly. But I just wanted to make sure we acknowledge that and thank him for his service in case we don't see him
back here. Any old business? All right. Hearing none, that would bring us to public session number two. There is still no public. Can I have a motion for adjournment? >> Motion. >> Second. >> Thank you. Voice vote. All in favor?
>> I. No. Abstension. Recusal. Negative. All right. Thank you everyone. >> Thank you.