[Music] Good. All right. Start off with the pledge of allegiance. [Music] I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. Roll call, please. Mrs. Balado, Mr. Epicar. Mr. Pico here. Mr. Valardo here. Mr. Yagnum. Mrs. Herald here. Mrs. Shariffstein
here. We have a quorum. Thank you. Uh, Sunshine Law. 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 Stanh Hope New Jersey has caused this notice to be posted at the office of the Stanho board of education mailed to the New Jersey Herald the municipal clerk of the Burough of Stanh Hope the Stanh Hope Post Office and posted at the Valley Road School and on the Stanho 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. Okay. Uh, an executive session will be
held for the purpose of student activities. Formal action may be taken. Item number one, board goals and objectives, ethics training. Thank you, Kelly. Hi everybody. Thanks so much for having me in. I really appreciate it. So, uh, as part of your annual, um, ethics
training, we're going to just do a little bit of a brief update on some of the new things with ethics, um, in the presentation and then we'll go on to, uh, board and district goals. So, again, I have to make that disclaimer that this is not to give any
type of legal advice. It's just forformational purposes only. So, you have the act that we're going to talk about through the presentation. Um and then also about some of the minimum standards that has to do with um ethics
and uh the code. So you're all um aware that you have to abide by the code of ethics, the um mandatory training. We'll talk about that in a little bit. Have those disclosures done in April. That'll come up really soon again. And abide by
the um prohibited acts. This gives a little snapshot of um what the commission looks like. And you can see there that there's two vacant seats if you want to apply for that. Um, as board members, you can sit on the commission, which I don't know. I think it would be
pretty interesting. Um, but a lot of work, I'm sure. Uh, again, those financial disclosures, they were due in April. Just keep that in mind again that that they'll be due soon. Um, and then your mandatory training. I just wanted to point out
that on year three with governance three, we just updated that and it's a student achievement piece that's really super interesting. It talks a lot about the lighthouse study and how boards can kind of move the needle with student achievement um based on their strategic
focus. So, um if you're not in year three and you just want to take a look at that, um the first half of it is really super interesting about that student achievement piece. And as a board member, I think that um it's really beneficial to to just take a look at that.
And then um as we had um talked about numerous times, uh you have the advisory opinions and there's usually um about 35 of them each year. Um but one of the things and you'll see this little cute little policeman. Um we're noticing that
boards are just saying, well, they're just an opinion. And um the reason why we have that little policeman there is because we're saying like if a policeman told you that you would get arrested if you did certain acts, you know, you wouldn't like test that knowledge, right, or text that uh guidance. Um and
so we're asking you to please abide by those opinions. Um they are uh very important and they spell out exactly uh what you should be doing as a board member. Um, but we've had some some issues with some board members lately. So, we just wanted to um highlight that.
And these are some of the current um advisory opinions. Uh, another slew of them probably come out towards the end of the year. Um, and we don't have to go through them, but they are they are going to be emailed uh to you and they're in that uh schoolboard notes
every single time there's an update. So, you have those. And then also you have the complaints. They have 180 days to put in um an ethics violation complaint, but they do have to put that factual evidence in. So usually see about 85 of them per year.
They drop off because they um you know the people that are complaining about the board members usually don't have that factual evidence, right? So you'll see um that they kind of drop off. And then this is some of the um sanctions that happen when you uh you
know have a violation. The reprimand is just a letter saying don't do that again. A censure is actually a letter that's read at a public meeting and stays on the website for 30 days. A suspension is something that um is is pretty high level and there's one in
particular that I'm just going to point out when we go through. And then a removal, we haven't seen that um for quite some time, but there you know is always time. Uh, but that's for something that's like repeat offenders. And then of course you have the code. I put that in your packet so we don't have
to read through them. Um, but it's important to have knowledge of that. And then um some of the cases uh they're in there and we I don't have to read through all of them, but I do want to just point out this one. So a lot of times board members say like why do we
have to do this ethics presentation year after year? Well, you're by statute you have to. But it's like, you know, there's a lot of times where board members have been on for a really long time and they feel like, oh, we're in ethical standards. But you can see here
where there's a 15 plus year board member that decided it was a good idea to go to an employes's house, pick up a letter, um get that letter over to the BA and tell the BA don't give this to the superintendent and then voted upon
um some of the uh criteria from that letter instead of recusing herself. So 15 plus year board member and still you know violated uh the code of ethics. So, you know, we have to be mindful and we have to do these little refreshers because even after 15 years, sometimes
people do things like that. So, she got suspended for 60 days because of that. Um, this is newer uh guidance and I just want to go over it because a lot of times board members don't understand the difference. So, between recusal and
abstension. So years ago if you were uh legally conflicted you would just abstain. Now the guidance is that you should recuse yourself if you have a um you know any type of uh legal conflict. You should recuse yourself from the
discussion and the vote uh and not just abstain. Abstaining is that you don't have enough information to make that vote. Recusal means that you're legally conflicted. So um super important. That's a that's a newer guidance and uh
we just wanted to point that out. And then of course if you have any type of business or any any extra favor that you would get more than any other board member that's sitting at the table, you should recuse yourself from those type of discussions and those votes.
And uh we put this into the packet because a lot of times people say, "Well, what's a benefit to me?" Well, sometimes a benefit is direct that you're very obvious and sometimes it's indirect. it's, you know, maybe a family member that's going to try to get a job
or what have you, then you would recuse yourself from any of that type of activity. I included these in the um packet as well, some of uh the conflicts of interest that you could read through just giving you an example
and then um also that uh guidance about the definition of who is a relative. there's a chart in there that um is really very helpful. And then of course we know that we can't hire uh any relative to the CSA or your board member. So you have to be mindful
of that. And this is a little bit of newer guidance uh because there was a family member that wasn't part of the union but um worked for the district. Before you would be able to be part of negotiations, but now the new guidance
is saying because that family member even though non-union, their contract is kind of based on the union contract. So they're saying that that is a conflict. So then you couldn't um be on negotiations and you couldn't uh vote to
ratify the contract. So just be mindful of that. Even if your family member is not part of the union, you should um recuse yourself from any activity as far as negotiations or ratifying the contract. That's a little newer.
And then um campaign season is coming up. So we don't usually see this where the union um you know gives endorses you, but if they do, then you would have to stay off negotiations for a year. And then again, uh, if you have
relatives in the district, especially, um, this guidance about the board president, if the board president had, uh, anybody working in the district, the board president shouldn't pick anybody that's on the committees because it seems a little bit of a conflict of interest that you could be guiding uh,
those chairs. So, you would stay away from that and you wouldn't be on personnel negotiations, anything to do with finances. And then um advice of council defense that uh you have to have all four of those components there if you want to say that well the council told me it was
okay to go ahead and do something. Um a lot of times we have board members that say that and um they it doesn't fit all that criteria. So just be mindful that if you are going to do something and say that oh well it was the advice of council that you would have had to have
given the full story full disclosure and done before the act disclosed everything um if you wanted to use that because we're seeing a lot an uptick of uh advice of council um cases and uh they're very very specific that they
want to see all four of those components in that volunteering in schools of Of course, as a board member, you can volunteer in schools, but it is that degree of involvement. If you're giving a directive to a staff member, a board member should never um do that. So,
you'd stay away from that type of volunteerism. If you're going to read or um come into the class and help or what have you, that's all good. But if you're giving any type of um you know uh directive to a staff member, then you would have to shy away from that type of
uh volunteerism. And then we put some examples in the um packet as well just so that you could see the difference between um an inherent violation and um not inherent. Social media always a big fat problem.
So um if you could stay off it as a board member, that would be advisable. But if you can't and you feel that you want to um comment on different things, just put this disclaimer exactly the way you see it on there um so that the public realizes that you're not speaking
in your official capacity, that you're speaking as an individual. Super important because the vast majority of the complaints are all about social media. And then also, just because you have that disclaimer doesn't mean that that's
a get out of jail free card. You can't speak as a board member just because you have that disclaimer. So, you would have to speak um where the public would realize that you're speaking in your personal capacity. And that is it. Very compelling, right?
Thank you. So, good. So, we're we're set with our ethics for the year. Thank you so much on that. And um it's my understanding I put into your packet an example of uh some board goals that I recently did with Hawthorne. They did a really great job on those, but it's my understanding
that um you've drafted already. So why don't we chat about uh about those? I'm going to pull it up on the board. Yeah, that's great. So, uh what I'm going to pull up are are drafted suggestions, right? Obviously,
it's it's uh the board's um decision to ultimately decide and vote on goals for the district and and for the board. Um but I find it's way more efficient uh with our time if we can at least put some ideas down for us to review.
Definitely. Um so here's the first one um which is actually a repeat goal from last year. Uh if you remember, this was an initiative that we were hoping to complete uh but for lack of time um and
and a lot of other things going on. It's not something that we were able to do. We had hoped to do it in the spring. Uh so the hope is to then um bring in the school culture and climate survey for the community, for the staff, for the students, and deliver that in the fall once our our students and staff had
settled in. Um the verbiage is the same as what was approved last year. Uh it's to enhance the overall learning environment and promote a positive, inclusive, and supportive school culture by conducting a district-wide climate and culture survey. This initiative will engage all stakeholders, students,
staff, parents, and community members in providing feedback that will inform inform strategic decisions and improvements across the district. Action items include the following: survey design, stakeholder outreach, survey administration, data collection, result
sharing, and uh development of an action plan based on results. Um open to questions, comments, feedback. Again, something that we did discuss last year. Yeah, we still feel as though it's a worthy
initiative. Yep. We're still moving forward with it. So, okay. All right. All right. So, moving on to two. Uh, two is also a goal that um we drafted last year. Uh, it w was our third goal. Um, and it was partially
completed but not uh fully complete. And it's an item that I had planned on talking about in our curriculum update today. Uh, and this is in the area of curriculum instruction and programming. build student choice in elective scheduling for middle school grades six through eight students to provide more diverse offerings and to promote
exploration of the arts and STEM during the regular school day. So, we've made a lot of progress towards that this year in that we were able to successfully move our STEM, art, and music teachers from a part-time capacity to full-time employees. Um allowing us to expand on
these curricular areas at the middle school level. uh instead of having a tip uh one or two art classes for the year or for the semester, instead we were able to expand music into the middle school, which we hadn't in in multiple
years. And for this start of this year, the kids will have each course as a quarter, a 4 day a week quarter. Um quarters one, two, and three, each kid will have a music, an art, and a STEM.
And the plan and the goal to at least partially achieve this goal um would be to give students choice in their marking period for elective. So after experiencing music, STEM and art, they'll be given the opportunity to
select one of the three curricular areas for their fourth quarter. Now it won't be just general STEM, general art, or general music. Um the reason we delayed it to fourth quarter is so that we can uh develop a comprehensive curriculum for different types of courses. Examples
that I might give would be for music instead of general music. Maybe sixth grade is doing guitar, seventh grade might be percussion and eighth grade could be music history, music theory, rock and roll, any of those types of things. Whereas STEM might be, you know,
robotics in one grade, coding in another, and broadcasting in in another. Those are just examples. They're not anything that we necessarily discussed. But coming up with that many courses does take time. It takes time to draft the curriculum and come up with ideas. Um so that that would be my my goal for
this year with the ultimate goal either the year after or the year after that. Allowing students to have choice throughout the entire year. um building enough courses so that either by trimester or by semester or or even by quarter the students will have choice of
up to six electives at any given time. Um so again a goal that we had already drafted gave a little bit of of context and some background happy to hear any feedback discussion ideas or concerns.
Is there any merit and I'm not saying for this year but say for next year if you're able to go mostly choice to not limiting it to the grade. So like let's say somebody in sixth grade they took STEM, they thought they'd like it, turns
out it wasn't their cup of tea. Now maybe in seventh they want to do something different. But just because we have such a small group of kids, is there any merit to merging six, seven, and eight when it comes to choice so that it's not grade specific?
Scheduling would be really difficult only because of the the limited number of students and sections that we have. It we have two sections at every grade level. If we had eight sections at every grade level, it would be a little easier to manipulate schedules where you could
have, you know, let's say a a team schedule, a team schedule, a team schedule with grades six, seven, and eight. Um, I'm not saying it's impossible. Um, I honestly attempted um a little bit of it when I was experimenting with schedules last
winter. Uh, it's definitely something to look at, but I I do think that it would be challenging to do that. Thank you. But again, as we do this, you know, I'd like to involve the board as as much as possible, get some feedback, review, you know, what we're putting out.
Anyone else? Sounds good. We're good with goal two. Yep. Okay. Goal three is something that um I put together. Uh I I did have a conversation um with Matia a couple weeks ago, just trying to to I'm sorry,
I scrolled up too much. uh plan some ideas that we should focus on. And we we agreed that we didn't really have um a whole lot of content driven instruction and we wanted to go based on
on academics and student achievement. Uh given we added a double block to our middle school math program this year and we hired a whole another teacher to accomplish this, actually two teachers to accomplish this. Um, I wanted to draft something that's that's speaks to
to that initiative. Here we have to maximize the instructional impact of double period math blocks in grades 6 through 8 by strengthening student engagement, accelerating overall learning, and improving performance on district benchmarks and state assessments.
Give you a minute to just review again. Questions, feedback, anything. The only thing I would say for year one, it's good if we carry this forward, it would be to offer if we could again um you know, a more advanced math if we can
get there. Right. When we developed the zero period for the high school, the hope was they could take math there, but that's not playing out. So, we still don't have a place for geometry if any kids need to get there by 8th grade. I don't know if the two teachers will afford us that, but yeah, I think that's something we can't lose sight of. It's possible. Um, we definitely have
the opportunity to send kids to the high school to take geometry. Um, we haven't, you know, again, small school, we haven't identified a student. um couple discussions that we had about some incoming fifth graders possibly moving forward. Um but yeah, you
definitely need the the student in order to do that. But yeah, I mean we've done it before. We've incorporated geometry with our own staff. So just a thought there something around offering, you know, more accelerated and I definitely see this as a multi-year goal. This is not something that we can achieve in one year and we
won't even have the data to measure it after the first year because even though the kids will take the NJSLA this year, we won't get the results until next fall. Yep. Um so at least two if not three years. Um you know anytime you have a new initiative and new staff, you're looking
at a minimum of three years before you can really see true results. All right. Do you want to do more goals or you want to just keep going? I got them. I'll take both. So on the board goals similar to the district goals two are carry forwards one is new uh so the first goal there uh again as
he talked about with student choice that's been a goal for a while now and this is here just to remind us of our role in supporting that and doing what we can to bring uh good ideas to the table and to move that agenda forward. Uh so that's board goal one which is the
same as it was before. Um any questions on that one? No. Okay. On board goal two, again, this is this is still a carry forward. Uh this is continued participation in New Jersey school boards. I know we've made a little bit of movement, maybe not as
much as we'd like as a board. You know, I know Kelly and I, you had talked about coming in here and doing some overall board training because we have some folks who can't get out. Um you know, so we need to look back into that collectively. Um but, you know, leadership within NJ JSBA for those who can. We have some new folks who are
going to um ed services. I know uh Avery got a new school board member designation. I know, you know, Jen has one, I have one, a few. So, uh I just think this is something, you know, as we continue to grow as a board that it's also again important to keep our eye on in terms of board leadership. So, I
don't know if anybody has questions on that one. Yeah, you're up to um with today you'll be at seven um credits. So, you need 16 to be certified. So, so you're getting there, you know. Um, so we're we're seeing an uptick in the boards wanting
to uh get certified as a full board. Halfway there, almost. And then number three is new. And the reason this one was drafted is because I wanted to memorialize the work we are doing relative to regionalization. This doesn't say that we are regionalizing.
This memorializes the board's um commitment to go through the study which we put all the motions forward. We put all the and and they have all passed to say that we are engaging in the study. That's all this is intended to convey.
It's not intended to convey a a desire one way or the other to regionalize or not. It's simply to do the study. Um which we're committed to doing. The grants have have come through I believe through NetCong. They're the lead in this. Um so it's just memorializing that as a board we're doing that work. Uh so
thoughts on this one? I just want to make sure it's worded so that everybody's comfortable, so that it's clear. It's not a drive towards universation, just the commitment to do the study itself. Okay, everybody okay with the wording of it?
Yes. Yeah. That's not supposed to match what's on this paper, right? What's up there? That was last year. Last year's last year's I just included it in case we wanted to discuss And before it's it's this paper.
All right. We have two different papers in front of us. Yes. I never I never handed this one out because I put it up on the board, but I can. Then why do I have it? I gave it to you. Oh, you gave it to me. I'm sorry. I just assumed everybody. I I just neglected to hand it out if you don't mind passing three. Certainly. Sorry, Matt. Your way.
Didn't we have a um a district goal that focused on the um kind of the the physical, social, and emotional well-being of students last year? So we have that on there or I could have sworn we just put focus in on just making that something that we
were going to continue to stress. 2425 is the paper you had in front of you before. Correct. Uh and that's what's been out there. So the two that I said remain the same and the other one was the BA position. I think that was two years ago. Yeah, we did that and we had voted that
it was u at that time it was achieved and we had moved on from it. Right. Should that just be something we always want to continue to put a focus on just like our educational and our curriculum like we're never fully achieved in that. Right. Is that is that something we should just keep
some continuation so that we don't lose focus of it? I mean something worth discussing important. Yeah. You know. Yeah. And and I think we see it come through in the CSA evaluation too. Um where we talk about certain aspects in the evaluation. I forget which standard, but I remember writing in
there the things we're doing towards, you know, positive behavior interventions and and referrals and pull outs and all of those things to support the students. So, I don't think it goes away ever. I agree with you, but I think we had the gold a few years ago because we were lacking some things we needed to build, right?
And so, we built those and I think that's why we moved on from it as an overall board goal. But it doesn't ever go away. I als I also think I'm sorry I didn't mean to cut you off that with the climate and culture survey which is pretty comprehensive it gives all stakeholders really a voice and an
opportunity to express how they feel we're accomplishing things like that and to also offer their feedback and and opinions to help us develop additional programs or or you know additional courses to incorporate you know whatever it is that that people are looking for
us to put in. So, I do think that that piece is there. Um, you know, and it they're always open to continuing looking at different goals and and and different areas to focus on on a on a yearly basis. I think it's it's it's pretty clear and I believe everybody at this table understands that just because
these are the goals that we're establishing for this year, this is not the, you know, the end- all beall of all of the things that we're doing in the schools, right? We're obviously doing a lot of other things. All of these goals, at least the district goals, tie directly to the the budgetary
um additions that the board voted to to move forward with this year, right? The additional math teacher, um the uh what was the second? Music, STEM. Yeah. The the the fulltime additional special teachers, right? Incorporating that student choice. A
considerable amount of money went to that. So it makes sense to memorialize our our movement in that direction in the district goals. Does that make sense? Okay. So if everybody's okay with this,
I will since we do are missing a few board members, um I will send this out draft email to the board. Yep. Uh just so that everybody can review and then we can put together a motion to approve next month. Does this work for everybody? Yep. Kelly, I have a quick question
because we're missing some of our board members. The ethics slideshow that you provided, would you be able to send that to us digitally so we can share that with our board members? Absolutely. I'll I'll email it out to everybody. I actually have it. I'll put it. You sent it to us. Oh, that's right. I sent it to you.
I'll I'll put it in PDF format and I'll send it out to the board. Okay. Okay. Great. Thank you so much. Thank you so much and thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, Kelly. Feel better. Yes. Rest up a little bit. Have a safe trip to your home.
Thank you so much. Okay, well that was good. So that moves us forward onto presentations. Access for ELLL's assessment presentation coming up. All right. So thank you. So, um, we are
required as school districts to report out on the results of any standardized testing within to the board within the community within 60 days of receiving the results. uh for whatever reason the
access for ELLs which is an assessment that's taken for our English language learners the results are coming back to us earlier than they ever have and before the other standardized testing results. So, in order to to meet that
that um compliance issue, uh I have to report on the access for ELLL's this month instead of waiting, which I typically do to report it with the NJSLA and our DM results. Um because we're so small and because we don't have a huge
ELLL population, we are are restricted in how much information I can provide. Uh I'd love to be able to break this down by grade level. I'd love to be able to break this down by number of years students have been in the ELLL program, but because we all of those numbers
would produce uh a number of students less than 10, we're not allowed to communicate that information. Um so just as a reminder, the this assessment is administered every every spring to students who are learning um English as a second language. The score range is
one through six and students who score a 4.5 or better are eligible to test out of the program. So the total number of students kindergarten through 8th grade that were tested last year was 22. The year prior was 18. Uh and you can see
all of the levels um uh that they achieved at. I think it's important to note that unlike the NJSLA, right, where a a one or a lower score is not it, you know, you would consider it not proficient, most of these students, as you can see
the 11 who scored a one, we wouldn't expect them to be proficient. Those students moved to our country, you know, from um whether it be overseas or or from another country with zero uh English proficiency. Therefore, the
expectation would have been that they would score a one. Um, the goal of the district is to over the next several years move these students from level one to a 4.5 or better. So, hopefully we'll see that trajectory um, you know, over
the next several years. We had quite a few families uh, move in and register students again this year uh, with zero English proficiency. Um, which again is one of the reasons why the board made a a financial effort to increase services for these students. Uh, we moved to
Rosetta Stone to free up a significant amount of time for Mrs. Connelly, who's our LL ELLL instructor, to work with these students. Um we have on the agenda for tonight um a a stipended uh opportunity for Miss Connelly to serve
in a coaching capacity, coaching our staff outside of school hours to help them with resources to support ELLL students, but also to help community members, whether it be uh learning the English language, helping with forms, helping um just with them better
understanding uh the expectations within the school and and within the community. Um, so we had four students score at 4.5 or better last year. Uh, we are just getting these results now. Although it doesn't necessarily mean that they will exit out of the program, they are
eligible to exit out of the program. So aside from getting that score, they also need the recommendations of their teachers. Uh, if a teacher says yes, they scored great, but they're really still struggling, we'll continue to offer and provide the services. But if the teachers come back and say, "Nope, they're they're great. they they're able
to pick up everything that we're putting out there, then we would move towards um declassifying them as an as an ELLL student. Questions? Um, I know that we can't obviously have the resources that are on our website in
every language that somebody might come here speaking, but are we do we have anything set up for parents who are obviously not English proficient so that the important parts I mean it's all important, but the the parts where they have to sign or things that they can
actually understand proficiently what they're signing. So to an extent on the website you are able to translate the content the numerous amount of I mean I'm looking at it from the hoster where you can select the language I mean I looked a little bit but I didn't look too much
but what you but what that won't do is change the language of the forms that we produce and then link to the website. So certainly parents can change the language of the physical website. The forms is more challenging. We do we really try to prod provide them in
Spanish. We know that Spanish is not the only language that's spoken by our families. Um but trying to find resources and people who can help translate it. Um that's where the challenge lies. I know that there are opportunities to do so with artificial
intelligence. However, I don't necessarily feel comfortable translating something that I then can't proof or I have nobody to proof to know exactly what we're putting out. Right? I don't want to put I don't want to put correspondence out and have absolutely no idea what it says. No. Um, we use those tools to correspond
during the school day. Somebody comes in to register and they're speaking another language. We'll we'll break out the technology and we'll be able to kind of have that conversation, but to put anything in writing is is a little bit more challenging. We are we are trying to get better with Spanish. Um, our instant alert system
also allows us to translate into Spanish. um just have to remember to click that button which sometimes every time we've had an another um speaking family another different language we've actually utilize outside
resources to help us with that transition. Great. So, just because I, you know, I I I sit here and I think to myself, it's got to be so difficult for the children that come in to learn, but then for their parents and stuff as well because they're not getting obviously
the same support and may or may not have the ability to get that on their own, of course. Thank you. Okay, that moves us on to correspondence uh budget approval for the preschool program.
Yeah, I mean it's we've been getting correspondents on this now for several months. Uh this I believe is the final letter that says that we are approved. We're in good shape. Spend the money. And we have the new addition or the money that we requested to get back from the prior year that the state reduced. I
believe it's 25,000. That sounds right. Yes. Questions on that? Okay. Uh to your report then? Okay. Uh no HIVs or suspensions since our last meeting. Um back to school
night as a reminder is Thursday, September 11th. That is ne not next week, the week after. Uh the program runs uh 6 to9 for most families. We do offer uh 5:30 for anyone interested in coming in and listening and hearing
about our RTI program, but we'll get information on that uh within the next week or so um out to parents. Um, just want to really thank our facilities team, our technology team for everything that we have to go through. They have to
go through and endure throughout the uh throughout the summer. Um, Mr. Pico was nice enough to come and spend some time with us during the ice cream social and walk the building, greet some of the kids. And one of the comments that that I feel especially proud of is, you know,
especially somebody who has a a a long history of working in school on school boards and and with facilities, just commenting on how clean the building is and and how crisp everything feels. Um, and you know, they they had to do that again this year with several
construction crews, you know, walking through and delaying what we normally do. uh construction was supposed to be done by mid August. You know, although it's done enough and I'm very happy with the outcome, there are still things that have to happen. So, our facilities team,
unfortunately, is trying to wax our hallway floors while people are still walking through and and working on the building. Mr. Lama is trying to program our our new doors while unfortunately not all of the door handles are here and operational and installed. Again, we're
in really good spot. I'm not I'm not saying that that I'm concerned in any way. I just want to acknowledge the hard work of of both of those departments uh to get us where we are able to open next Tuesday. Thank you. All right. Um staffing update. Uh we we
are in in my opinion pretty good shape. Uh we are still in need of a few paraprofessional staff. Uh that's not uncommon especially with the influx of preschool students that we have with needs. uh and that we have eight students from other districts coming into ours all again with needs. They
have special needs which is why they're coming to our school and engaging in our programs. Um I did you'll see on the agenda that I I um am looking to hire I interviewed Tuesday two individuals um of last of last week uh no I'm sorry
today is Wednesday. I interviewed them on Monday process paperwork Tuesday and looking to hire today on Wednesday. Um so uh it was it was good. Um for physical therapy we had put out for a shared regional position with Lenipe
Byum um Net Kong and Stanh Hope. Uh the reason for that is because we had a resignation of our previous physical therapist who was shared between all of the districts. Unfortunately, because of the timing uh and because we're pretty locked into the budgetary number, we weren't we did see a few candidates, but
we weren't able to come together and agree on a candidate at a price point. Um so we negotiated with J&B Therapy, who we use for occupational therapy, um a a significantly reduced rate for our three districts to use a physical therapist for three days. Um, so if and
when you look at the contract that we're looking to approve, it's for three days of physical therapy, we are only in need of one day of physical therapy, but we will invoice Netcom and we will invoice Lenipe for a day each. Uh, so the
contract looks larger, but a lot of that money will be coming back in. Um, having one contract for them instead of three was one of the the reasons they gave us a reduced rate. Uh, so we're not that far off from what we were paying for similar services last year. Okay. Um,
construction updates, like I said, we're in pretty good shape. Uh, we do have a handful of door handles that are that were faulty. Um, doors open and close. The the electronics of it aren't necessarily working. So, they're rushing the parts to us. We do hope and expect
that they'll be here before Tuesday uh, and installed and ready to go. If they're not, we do have precautions in place so that we will be, you know, safe and secure. Uh, but that's really the only thing left other than a couple tweaks with the door project. Um, if you haven't had a chance to, I mean, they
they look great, but the functionality of them um is even better. Our ability to from our phones, from the computer, lock doors, mass lock, mass unlock. For example, uh the doors were all unlocked today so that we can get in and out of classrooms for the ice cream social. We
wanted to lock all the doors so that the kids couldn't get in unsupervised and and destroy what the teachers had put together. Mr. Lama, couple clicks of a button was able to lock every door in the building, right? And then I come through with a key fob. I can open them up. Uh so the functionality is
outstanding. Uh science lab um looks beautiful. Couple couple things that are still left to do, minor things. Mr. Pico was able to take a look in there today. Uh but very happy with the the actual construction and and the product. teachers very happy the kids were kids
were wowed as they walked in uh and were able to check it out. Underground storage tank is out. We no longer have an oil tank on our campus. Um we had several whiteboards vertical whiteboards uh installed all the way around our math classrooms so that the kids can work in
groups not just at the front board but you know in the back of the room in the side of the room and the front of the room. Uh carpets have been installed in the classrooms where we needed new carpet and we did the finishing touches in in the music lab. Um Chris, am I missing anything? Any projects? I think that's it.
We do we do continue to have some frustration with the air conditioning units. Uh it feels great in here. Uh but the main office, our my the administrative offices, the STEM lab, and our two kindergarten classrooms, for whatever reason, the rooftop units continue to malfunction. Um, they have a
part on order. Again, I'm hopeful that it's ready to go for Tuesday. Uh, I'm not concerned in that we're barely going to touch 70 degrees. It's not going to be a heat wave that we have to be concerned about next week. Uh, but there is a level of frustration that it's it's now been over a year and we're still
having, you know, some issues. Um, the architect and the contractors are receptive and they are responsive. It's just a matter of of getting the part that we need uh for them to to repair and replace. Um, Uh yes. So all those problems that you're having with the air conditioning, is it is it a
do we have to pay for the uh parts? In other words, we're all we are under warranty. This is all um it's all repairs that are covered uh with our initial contract. Thank you. All right. Um, again, you know, as it gets colder though, you know, I'm I'm hoping to get this done soon so that we
can see the air conditioning in action for a period of time because the further it's delayed, if we're not using it, we may run into the same issues next spring. Uh, so we're we're trying to get it rectified. I'm confident that the contractor is going to continue to work with us. Uh, however, 95% of the
building, as you can feel in here, is operational. It is working. Uh, and again, it's not a safety issue. Thank you. Okay. And the last piece that I have on here is the the ice cream social which was held today. Uh thanks to the HSA for again sponsoring. This is
you know the 11th year that we've done it minus the co year uh where we had to cancel. Um they brought in an ice cream truck this year uh which was super exciting. The kids were not expecting that. Uh and uh it was it was a lot of fun had by all. The kids were able to walk the building, see their friends,
see a bunch of our teachers who were able to stay. middle school kids were given locker numbers and combos and allowing them to struggle through that today so that they're not struggling through it on Tuesday. Um, want to thank the teachers also for for staying back and for the parents for for getting the kids out here.
Great. That's all I got. Thank you. Thank you. Unfortunately, it's still you curriculum. Keep going. Sorry. I I know it's probably unbearable at this point. Um, so on the agenda for tonight, uh, I'm requesting approval for
the music updated music curriculum. It it's pretty much the curriculum that we've had with some tweaks. And the tweaks were necessary because we have not offered music theory to our middle school kids in over 12 years um, since I've been here. And we haven't in order
to save our band and choir program. But now that um the position is a full-time position, we were able to reinccorporate that, offer again a little bit more choice, a little bit more selection for our students at the middle school level. Um so we just dove right back into that curriculum, made sure that it was
appropriate um for our students and for our programming. Um and then I talked a little bit about uh the the schedule release that I have on here. Uh the intention was to talk about our future plans with student choice in the
electives. uh spoke a little bit about how each kid in middle school will have music, art, and STEM for the first three quarters this year, be offered choice, marking period four, with the intention of expanding that choice program um next year and and into the year after so that
the kids are they're they're not just looking at very general subject areas, but we we can kind of really focus in on on specific content in areas that students are interested. Thank you. All right, Jen. curriculum. I'm sorry, policy, communications, and
committee. We did have a policy committee meeting. You're going to see I think it's two policy or three is the dress code split. Two policy and one regulation. Okay. Um, regarding we discussed dress
code both for staff as well as students. Just kind of a refresh of the wording. No, nothing really changed. you know, the the general don't wear your pajamas to school, don't come in a bathing suit, wear appropriate shoes, um that kind of thing. Spell that out a little bit more
for staff on what is and isn't acceptable. Um because it used to have one standard, co kind of changed that and now it's trying to get back to what the standard was. So, that was updated a little bit more. The other
policy or it's a regulation is the having to send an in there. It's okay. I'm open it right now. The policy is only for staff dress code. There's no changes to student in it, right? I pulled it up because I wanted talked about it, but there's nothing that we're approving tonight relative to
and the regulation was attendance. Do you want me to speak to that real quick? So, so again, um, Mrs. Harold spoke a little bit about changes that we made during COVID to accommodate the the culture that we were current living in at that time. And one of the changes that that the board agreed to make um
was to the attendance policy. Again, we were encouraging families to stay home if they were ill, even if it was the the slightest sniffle or the thought that they might become ill, right? Uh and we were encouraging them to do that. We were trying to offer virtual instruction
for them. So the policy change that was made was to no longer require parents to send in a written note to excuse their child towards truency. Now parents were able to just make a phone call. Um that in itself has almost
created a lack expectation right in whether or not students should be coming to school and when they should be coming to school. Um we've moved past a lot of that from COVID. You know, a sniffle shouldn't keep you home from school. Um obviously it's still at the parents
discretion, but the school has an obligation to monitor truency and if students are truent to follow through with corrective action plans, you know, within the school for the family and ultimately if necessary bring them to truency court for a hearing. Um, so what
I'm recommending is that we go back to the policy precoid where in order to excuse a child for the purposes of tru truency, a parent will either have to send in a written note or a doctor's note. It doesn't mean that they have to go to the doctor if the child stays home
because their allergies are really bad. They simply have to write us a note. Um, it also doesn't prevent them from from keeping the child home. Uh it's just that extra that extra layer that we're hoping to enforce to improve our attendance. Um although impro attendance
has declined a bit over the last four or five years, we're still not in bad shape. I think I've mentioned multiple times here at our board meetings, we're one of only two districts in the entire county that are not on a corrective action plan for attendance. This proactive approach is is designed
to keep us there so that we don't move into that that that gray area where now we are in a position where we have to do a corrective action. 7 to 10 years ago we were yes we we were there we've come back and sliding a little so we need to when I was when I was hired here 11
years ago our chronic uh absenteeism rate was at like 14 or 15%. Within two years, we got it down to six or seven and we've pretty much maintained that with a with a slight uptick since co
questions. I I have a question. So, if a parent uh sends in a note that their child was sick, um I'm trying to put this in the right perspective. There's a certain amount of days that
the child can miss without being negative. So, if the parent is one of these parents that keep them home for a sniffle, um do we send a letter to the parents telling them that they're getting close to
We we do we do send letters out. Um a lot of times the letters are are just based on general attendance and and that's when they're general, right? That's when Mr. and Mrs. X, your child's missed five days and we're at this point or your child's missed 10 days. When the
absences start accumulating towards truency, that's when the letters become much more specific and we outline, well, these are the consequences. These are the things that will happen if this continues. We do have in our policy, which is in most school policy for
attendance, that regardless of the reason, if a student misses 30 days, it's an automatic retention. Okay. I just wanted to make sure because you know sometime parents do that if their kid gets up they're sneezing or
something. Oh stay home from school today but it affects them in the long run you know. So I just want to make sure that the kid doesn't suffer because the parent keeps the the children home. We emphasize that at kindergarten orientation, preschool orientation, back
to school night. Um, one of the things I always tell the parents, if you're unsure whether or not your child should go to school, don't let your child tell you, send them to school and let our school nurse tell you, okay? Right? Send them to school and if they make their way to the nurse, Mrs. Frank will either tell them you're you're not sick enough
to go home or you know what, you're you're pretty miserable. It's it's time to send you home. Thank you. Okay, that brings us to board president's report. Uh, so not much uh for me, you know, individually. The only thing, and I'll bring it up under old business, is moving forward with the
regionalization study we just talked a little bit about in goals. Um, we've had a few email communications back and forth about setting up now the steering committee, which is the next step in the process. Um, other than that, nothing else has really uh moved forward at all
with regionalization um or, you know, anything other than what Steve's already reported on from my perspective. So again, under old business, we'll have the discussion around kind of where we are now and what the next steps are. Um, just so we can have a full discussion around it because I'll need a volunteer for another
committee member, too. So, we'll get to that in a little bit. Okay, that would bring us to public session number one, but we have no public, so we will move past that. Uh, and that brings us into the sections for approvals. So, uh, let's see here. Can I
have a motion, please, for the minutes, uh, from last time? So moved. Can I have a second? Thank you. Uh, this is a voice vote, please. All in favor say I. I. I. Think I need to abstain from one and two. I don't think I was here. Okay. So, this will have to carry forward again. So, we'll carry again.
Yep. We carried forward last time. Sorry. That's okay. Yeah. I think that was the meeting. I know you're abstaining from one and two and affirmative in three for three. Correct. So, really, we're now just going to vote for number three, right? Okay. All in favor of number three? I.
Thank you. Any other nos or abstensions? Thank you. I guess now we have to update our uh agendas here to show the recusals going forward. Yes, I I made note of that especially on our administrative action items. Yes.
Thank you. Okay. Uh so board member resignation. Uh motion to approve with regret the resignation of Mr. Ifar from the Stanh Hope Board of Education effective August 21st. This is a roll call vote, but I'll need a motion, please. Motion. Second.
Thank you. Go ahead. Roll call, please. Mr. Pico, yes. Mr. Valardo, yes. Mrs. Herald, yes. Mrs. Sharpstein, yes. Motions carry. Thank you so much. Uh, administrative action items one
through nine. Can I have a motion, please? Second. Second. Thank you. Give everybody a minute to just peruse through those. For line item number five, this new
agreement with Washington Township. Um, how does that change from what we had budgeted in the prior year? Um, so we this was a shared service that we had for the last two years with Unity Charter School. Um because of some
concerns about Unity Charter not not paying us the bill uh in a timely manner, uh we've decided to separate from that contract. Uh if we were unable, so we then approved the staff member um at a part-time rate because we
didn't at the time have a shared service partner. Uh Washington Township School District was in in uh looking for a part-time LDTC. uh I was able to connect with them. We discussed um a potential contract to to make the individual
full-time. Um so really it's the exact same agreement that we had the last two years. Uh I feel fortunate that um we were able to do this. Uh it was a good employee who was ultimately potentially losing medical benefits and and losing salary.
Um, the reason for a position like this, you want to do shared services and have them full-time, even though it's a little bit more money because now you have to pay the benefits, is it's very difficult to find these staff members that have these titles. And it's especially more difficult to find them
at a part-time role. So, if we didn't find a shared service, in all likelihood, we would lose this employee and have a very difficult time finding a new one. Sure. Does Unity Charter still owe us? Yes. And what's the status of that? They're they're making regular payments
with the intention of being paid in full by the end of the school year and we are closely monitoring. Board attorney has been involved uh and has communicated with their board attorney as well. Thank you. Thank you.
Number eight. What exactly does the SCIP do? Is that like boosting morale for teachers? The skip committee is the school improvement panel. Okay. All right. It is required that all school districts have a skip committee. Um and um
it it is an opportunity for the the people who are on this committee to meet with administration to discuss. We meet monthly which is a little bit more than what is required to discuss areas of improvement throughout the school um areas of of concern um that there may
be. Um it's required that we discuss the evaluation process. Uh the things that are put in place to evaluate staff and to support staff. Uh we review progress for teachers who need mentoring plans. Um so it's it's it's almost like I consider it a monthly check-in if that
makes sense. Uh Mrs. Far has served on the committee for as long as I've been here. Um, full disclosure, skip committee members aren't supposed to serve more than a three-year term in a row. Um, and we are looking to enforce
that moving forward. So, Miss Kish, who I'm recommending that we approve, would be new to the committee, and the expectation is that Miss Kish now would have some experience on the committee, and we would find a replacement for Mrs. Ferry next year so that somebody else
can restart a three-year cycle. for number nine. Is that always part for the course using Sussex County SEC for um It's actually not. It's a new initiative uh that was put together uh in consultation with the prosecutor's
office, the state police department, and the Sussex County uh education department. Um it is not a a Stanh Hope thing. It is a countywide thing. So there I don't want to go into specifics because it's safety and security. I' I'd rather that be be kept more
confidential. Um but it is a uniform plan that every county district will follow should there be a need to to relocate and reunify. Yeah, it used to be lenipy for us. Uh it was it was we would approve a few schools um
and there was a lot of confusion as to what would actually happen. I always had concerns about Lenipe. Should, god forbid, there actually be a a tragic emergency like that, I don't think it would make much sense to go a mile and a half up the road
and have people who were probably impacted also helping us get through it. Um, so there is a plan in place. We've done a ton of training last year to make sure that everyone is prepared should we need to do that. Um so to answer your question the location is new the plan is
new but the practice is not. So maybe um is it more appropriate to discuss this uh I guess like when I think of transportation if multiple you know if if Lenipe or ourselves need to have the same sort of transportation
and how does that particularly work? We the through this plan Yeah. Um the prosecutor's office, state police, and county um department of ed have contracts in place with local transportation companies
to assist should there be an emergency. And you know what what we've been what has been explained to us from law enforcement is should something like that happen, you're talking hours before you even need transportation, right? They're not
letting anybody leave until this the scene has been investigated, until everything's been cleared. Um, you know, so it's not like somebody a bus needs to be here in 10 minutes to move these kids. You're talking hours before that happens. The the goal is to keep parents
and the community o offampus here and to move them towards the site in which the kids are going to be relocated. [Music] Thank you. Any more discussion? Roll call vote, please. Mr. Pico, yes.
Mr. Valardo, yes. Mrs. Herald, yes. Mrs. Sharpstein, yes. Motions carry. All right. Policy action items one and two. Can I have a motion, please? So moved. Second, please. Second. Thank you. Uh, so two on here. We just
discussed dress and grooming. These were specific to staff and attendance. Any discussion further? I just want to go ahead. As far as the children wearing uh pajamas to school, I know in my room
they have sometime they'll have like on a Friday the kids wear it'll be pajama day. Do we have anything like that? So we don't allow pajamas in school unless it's pajama day. Okay. And and we we do have spirit events where kids are allowed to and our our
lower elementary teachers will often have that as something that the class can earn. But we do feel as though our kids should be coming to school as prof as young adults and professionals. So we prefer that they don't wear pajamas on a regular basis. I agree 100%. But there are no changes to student
dress code that we're changing. Okay. Okay. All right. Uh roll call vote, please. Mr. Pico, yes. Mr. Valardo, yes. Mrs. Herald, yes. Mrs. Sharpstein, yes. Motions carried. Thank you. Education action items 1 through five. Motion, please.
So move. Second. Thank you. Okay. Uh let's see here. We have any discussion on one through five? Is there any way to effectively measure how successful number two is?
[Music] Um or document the times that it's been used. The time will be documented. We'll have we have the teachers just like so I compare this to the technology coach position that we have where we have somebody here to offer support to to the
teachers in in that area. Um we ask them to keep a log not necessarily that they're being paid hourly but so that we have a good idea of what they are doing. So tracking progress, I don't know so much that there that there's really going to be measurable items here, but
in uh tracking the use of the position would definitely be something that that we are planning on doing. Um Mrs. Connelly is is planning on um hosting parent nights for for uh families who are are not English speakaking. uh
offering help having having kids help out with uh child care because I know that's usually a barrier anytime you're having parents come in. Uh so yeah, we we definitely will be monitoring the amount of time that's put in in the programming that we're we're implementing. Thank you.
Also, I believe we discussed her helping with afterchool activities so those students feel more ac like involved. Yes. Any other questions or discussions? Um, on music curriculum, I'm assuming
Mr. Bear played certainly a large role. He was the primary drafter. I just want to say because I did read through them really well done. Um, so, you know, I'm I'm certain that he had to put a lot of effort into that and everything. That mostly goes to him and and principal Death. They work together on
that. I just wanted to say good job. Hearing no other discussion, could I have a roll call vote, please? Mr. Pico, yes. Mr. Valardo, yes. Mrs. Herald, yes. Mrs. Sharpstein, motions carry. Thank you.
Personnel action items 1 through 21. Motion, please. Second, please. Second. Thank you. Give everyone a minute to take a look through line item 20. Uh, was that one of the teachers that
we were bringing in for for full time? Yes. Is this normal to have to do this as a The reason we had to add 20 is because the NJ DOE has not officially issued his teaching certificate yet. Okay. Um he's he has a substitute
certificate. He has subbed um for years up at Lenipe. Uh this is precautionary. Should the certificate not be issued by Tuesday, uh we have the ability to to request an emergency. Should the certificate not be issued by
Tuesday, this motion would still allow him to begin the school year as the teacher of that class. Okay. just without the actual certificate affect his pay rate or how would it will depend on when the certificate is issued right
if we get to a payroll period um and the certificate is still not there we aren't able to pay the certificated rate and we also can't start him at with medical benefits because he wouldn't have the certificate to to fulfill the actual role
I feel confident that's not going to happen is that due to the state taking their time in Dragon Defeat. So, could we like retroactively approve him at the right rate? Again, a lot of it's going to depend on when on when it's issued, right? Um I part of the issue may be that um
attended college out of state that usually takes a little bit longer than somebody who maybe goes to an instate college. Um but like I said, I I feel confident we'll have it we'll have it done. We'll have it figured out and there won't be an issue. This was more than anything else just to take the the
precaution and be proactive. Any other discussion? Roll call vote, please. Mr. Pico, yes. Mr. Valardo, yes. Mrs. Herald, yes. Mrs. Sharpstein, yes. Motions carry. Okay. Business services 1 through 21.
Can I have a motion, please? Motion. Second, please. Second. Thank you, everybody. A minute. Read through. Were there any additional contracts uh for the special education this year that we
received or is everything uh additional uh yes um I'm just trying to put my my time frame involved uh and and I'm trying to remember the last time I I had mentioned who else we were bringing in.
We have eight students. Um we budgeted four. Y uh so we're in a financially we're in a really good spot now. It's just a matter of finding the paraprofessional support staff to to work with everyone. Um that's not to say that we won't be staffed come the start of the school year. We have a very healthy substitute
teaching balance uh um um that will be able to come in and help out with that. But it's always nice to get permanent people in place so that there's consistency. [Music] Any other discussion? How much more room do we have? Um, as far as if we were to
get other kids, um, we have room in our programs should we need to accommodate a student who moved into district. Um, I don't believe at this point I'd be looking to bring any other tuition
students in. Um, one of the programs the numbers are are slightly lower because a couple of our Stanh Hope students have I don't want to use the term graduated, it's not the right term, but they've they have succeeded enough to return to mainstream, which is great. I'd like to
see them be successful before I start filling seats with students who don't live in town. Makes sense. Um, so I'm not looking to bring in any other addition uh additional tuition contracts right now. Also considering it's hard enough to find power professionals. For sure.
Thank you. Hearing no other discussion roll call, but go ahead. I'm sorry. Um just on the same one 19 when I clicked that attachment, it didn't have any information on it. Um so I didn't know if that was intentional or if anything I'm missing that we
should know about. So, I'm showing the attachment is showing a retroactive for Mrs. Dataldo uh to do a virtual I'm sorry, not a virtual an educator's evaluation meeting back on August 7th. Okay. Training. It's a required training.
Okay. And then Mrs. Frank is looking to go to an annual um inservice uh in October. No cost to the district. Okay. Yeah. I don't know. Maybe it was my computer or something, but just a minute. Thank you.
Uh in 20 um I noticed that the field behind us is going to be used for football practice um and uh which I think is awesome as well as cheerleading. Uh I would just caution you when we created the contract
uh for the renovations of turf, the amount of damage that's going to happen from the practice versus what we could actually accomplish if there was no physical activity being on there. We might see dollars wasted. When you when you airate a field and you put seed in it, but then you have 20 kids playing
football on it, your results are going to be very limited and varied. Um, so just having a clear expectation of what's going to happen between lending the field out versus trying to rehabilitate the field and if it makes sense to spend money doing that, I think is an appropriate discussion to have so
we're not just throwing dollars away. I think the one of the main goals of wanting to get the field to a point where it's playable was to open this opportunity up for the community, right? Um an added benefit too is that you know we we will use it we use it sparingly
for phys you know we have beautiful facilities inside they you know we will use it there we will use it for recess uh we'll closely monitor it and make sure that if if it does need a rest or a break right we'll there's no reason we can't reach out and say hey we need to take a couple weeks we need we need to
take some time um you know as of right now it got some pretty heavy use in the spring uh and early summer and I think it held up okay is it the greatest turf in the world. No, but when you have nowhere else to practice, uh, you know, the they the community has has sincerely
expressed their appreciation for being able to use it. I couldn't agree more. I think it's wonderful. I just don't want us to hold the standard of that needs to be co Johnson with how it looks, right? Because we're spending the money to get it there and we're not going to get
there if we're having constant physical. I don't think there's that expectation. Okay. And obviously if that comes my way, it'll it'll be something that's addressed. Um the discussion itself reminded me of a request that we unfortunately did have to deny. Uh it was a request to put um portable lights
on the field. Um I spoke with the town administrator and and the process that we'd have that they would have to go through. First of all, the request came in too late. it never would have been able to be uh approved um in time for their desired use, but
they'd have to go in front of the land use board because of of the impact that it would have with with our neighbors uh down below. Um so we always do our best to accommodate and and say yes, but unfortunately that was a request we weren't able to approve. Fair enough. I think it's great. Thank
you. Can we with the football practice? Could you like uh limit them limited them to not practice during rain when it's rainy because I feel that we'll get torn up more when the when the ground is wet.
Uh it's definitely conversation that we can have. Again, like I said, we're going to we're going to monitor the use of the field. We're going to monitor the turf. Um and uh we we we do have, you know, when when we get behind, Sunnyside will come out and they'll help us with with the grounds. Uh, and they always
give us recommendations, too. Um, and they've been they've been pretty fair and reasonable with us. All right. [Music] Thank you. Okay. Go ahead. Roll call vote. Mr. Pico. Yes. Mr. Valardo. Yes. Mrs. Herald. Mrs. Sharpstein.
Yes. Motions carry. Okay. Uh, before we get to new business, Jen, I think we skipped and services update. Oh, brief services update. I just I knew something was missing. I was like so soon out of my head. No, I um I had
the pleasure of attending the ed services meeting because Avery couldn't. And I will say their building looks great. They are all set to open up. They are fairly well staffed even with pair of professionals. Um although like anybody else, they can always use more.
Unfortunately, where they're not well staffed is their principal resigned. So, their superintendent is currently for the foreseeable next couple of months doing both superintendent's job and the principal's job. Um, and they're the
timing of it is kind of tough because they're still working on obtaining the other building that was beside them. So, they're trying to figure out how they want to hire for the principal. They were talking about whether or not they hire a supervisor or two supervisors and the superintendent
because if they obtain the other building now they need somebody in the other building. Um so best how to use that but o overall I mean it they're ready to start the school year. They're excited to welcome their families back. Um the families all are aware that the
principal is no longer there and the superintendent um had gone out and met with most of the families personally over their summer extended program to have conversations on specific needs. So they're in good shape. Thank you. Any questions for J? Okay,
that'll move us back forward to new business. Anybody have new business before the board? I'm not sure if this is new business uh or even if the school get should get involved in it, but I have concerned about all this technology that the kids from fifth grade to 8th
grade, they go on their tablets and they're they're looking for things. It's hard to explain. They're looking for what's going on in the in the world and there's a lot of predators out there. I don't know if there's a way
that they could be told or or how to not do it or stay away from certain things. Uh it's a it's hard, but I just have concerns that something might happen because, you
know, my granddaughter does the same thing. She's always doing something, but my daughter keeps an an eye on her. Um, but just in case parents don't keep an eye on them, I would not like to have anything happen because the the student didn't know um what to do or what or
what to stay away from, if that makes sense. We have multiple programs in place for our students, okay, that teach them responsible use of technology and responsible use of of the internet and social media. Um, obviously, you know, we can't go home with them and we can't guarantee
what they are and what they aren't doing. And like you said, there is a there is a responsibility on the parent, right? Um, in the past, we've we've attempted to do parent nights. Um, we've had every time very low attendance. Um, you know, it's not something that I'm against doing again. Um,
I would be I would be hopeful that we'd have more parent uh more people come out. Uh, there are definitely grants available that we can take advantage of and and and organizations that can come in to support us. Uh I think if not last year or the year before uh we had
someone I think it was Jenny's house come out and and they they offered a program for us and I think I had one family attend. So it's it's a struggle. I definitely see it. It's just that I don't know. I have I'm a sensitive person and I don't want
to see anything happen to any of these students. Um if I can if I can help it. As long as we have that program I'm happy this way here. clears my mind that somebody is trying to let the kids know what to do and not what not to do.
And aside from from those programs that we bring in, uh that is addressed by Principal Decatalo and and uh Miss Capola, our guidance counselor, every year they do a middle school summit, okay, where they spend a whole day going through expectations and, you know,
responsible citizenship. uh and they also have beginning of the year assemblies with uh our our K through five and and really focus on cyber bullying and and proper use of of the internet. Okay. I'm still learning. So we all Thank you.
Didn't the Lions Quest program also address some of that with the younger grades as well? That's one of the programs that comes and I think that they work with our fourth and sixth grade students. Good. Thank you. That's all I have. Thank you. Any other new business? [Music]
Okay, that'll bring us to old business um on regionalization as I mentioned. So, where we are now is we're ready to form a steering committee that will help inform the um group through Rowan University's Institute for Policy
Studies kind of uh what we want to study, what we want to make sure is included in the study. Um and and that's the purpose of that steering committee is to work with th those folks from Rowan University and to ensure that you know we're we're getting what we think
we need out of the study on all sides from all districts. Um most of the districts right now are doing up the board president, board vice president, the superintendent, the BA. There is room for a third person on the committee. Um so I'm looking for a
volunteer. I know that's hard. We're down a few people this evening. Uh but if anybody would just email if they have express interest in joining that committee. Um it will be a large committee four schools times you know four to four people each four to five people each makes for a large committee.
So what we have said is we want at least one to two representatives from each board there for the meetings but we can't schedule around 20 to 30 people schedules for every meeting. Um we don't expect the meetings to be very frequent maybe once a month. Um, but if there's
anybody with interest on that, uh, please send me an email. Um, and I will let you know if you want to do it, unless you know right now. Where do meetings held? So, we don't know yet, but in in our district somewhere. It'll be either at Bum here, Nekcom or Lenipe. To date,
they've been at Lenipe when we were doing the initial committee, which was to do the applications. Um, those were mostly at Lenipe. We had one at Byum, maybe. We did one at Byum. I think we did one here, too. Yeah. So in this immediate area those at night probably right
they are usually in the evening. Yes. Okay. Yes. Can you give me an example as to like something the steering committee may bring up to the group at Rowan because my understanding is the feasibility study will provide all information and
all data. It will absolutely everything that they they know to include that they can think of to include. Do they isn't isn't this study supposed to include everything, right? But what what is everything? They look for they don't have a set of boundaries inform them as well of things
that that may or may not sample of information you would want them to include in the study on on potential structures of districts that they they want to like look into. Right. Um right. So the potentially
keeping this the schools with the same community versus doing a K2, a 35, you know, a 68, a 912, uh, kind of thing. So you're getting input from from all all um participants in all three communities
on what they might want to see the study look like, if that makes sense. It does, but like isn't the study like if you said, "No, you guys go ahead and just do the study." what are they going to provide us? So the difference and correct me if I'm wrong on this, my understanding is the
needs of for example our small communities can be vastly different than say if you take Bridgewater, Cherry Hill where they have so many more buildings and people to accommodate. So it could be something as little but not little as
Stanh Hope doesn't currently have transportation, right? So, you know, to me that's an important component to say, but if there's nobody saying it, the people doing the study may or may not know that that's of an importance up here versus a community that already has busing for
everybody. Okay. I mean, I realize that's to help drive the local information about the communities and about what's happening and about what we would like to make sure is included. Right. There's a lot of conversation around about, hey,
yes, there there could be really great things, but there could be things that will change dramatically that people might not like as much. We want to make sure both sides of the story are told. We want to make sure everybody who sits on that steering committee and and is involved and engaged and and at points they'll come to us with questions. Hey,
we found this. We think we see this. What do you think of it? We don't know what that is yet. We haven't had those meetings, right? And you have to realize this entire process is very new. The law only changed very recently. So I think there are last I checked uh
maybe 10 to 12 districts interested. I believe two to three studies have maybe been completed. But the process itself is very new because prior to the law changes there were so many impediments and financial drawbacks to doing this. People didn't move forward at all.
Right. So, we need to be sure that we have representation from every community who is there to lend a voice and to help drive this thing in the direction that we need to see it going and making sure that obviously it stays within the grant that's funded. Nobody's spending any
money. That was ground zero for us. Nobody can we're not spending money to do this. So, right there's time and money involved. So, we want to make sure that it's being directed in the right way. And the steering committee will have to report to the board after their meeting. Yes. Okay. Yes, absolutely.
And also, I don't know if Mr. Hagman remembers this or not, but in years past when we were kind of all acting as individual schools, the studies were hitting our offices, we were pumping out the information as opposed to you guys
pumping out the information. Yeah, there there still will be a component of of our our offices needing to give absolutely you know information as part of this but but as to Matia's point right they're going to come to the steering committee with questions on
what information are we are we looking to provide what are we looking to to collect um and again to your point we we don't really know what to expect it's all new it's all new I feel like you guys are more involved this with this steering committee and
with the Rowan universe Rowan University input. Does that help? Definitely. Okay. Appreciate it. Sure. And I don't know, Matt, if you have an interest or time. Um because, you know, it's one thing you could have interest but not time. But because you bring up a
lot of really great points, maybe it is something you want to think about joining into because there there are things I find sometimes that you ask, but I'm like, "Oh, wait. I didn't think of that." and and they're really good ideas. I appreciate that. Unfortunately, um
I'll be leaving the board as of December. So, uh yeah, I'm sorry to hear that, but but appreciate your kind sentiments. Thank you. Thank you. Any other old business?
[Music] Okay, hearing none, I think that moves us to let's see public session number two. We still do not have any public. Which brings us to our executive session. Can I have a motion, please? So moved. Second, please. Second. Okay. Thank you. Uh, be it resolved that
the Stanh 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 in the 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 activities. Be it further resolved that the action of the board with regard regard to the above entitled matter shall not be disclosed
to the public at a later date, 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 the parties involved and would not result in a possible invasion of their right to privacy. This is a voice vote. All in favor? I. Any nos or abstensions?
Thank you. We are now in executive. Thank you. Can I have a motion to reenter public session, please? Motion. Second. Thank you. Can I have a voice vote? All in favor? I. Any nos abstensions? Okay. Now, that brings us to adjournment. Can I have a motion for
adjournment, please? Thank you. Second. All in favor? I. Thank you. That's it. Closed.