##VIDEO ID:9K0MDFBt4kw## e e e call to order a meeting of the Wang burough School School District Board of Education it's a regular meeting it's January 23rd 2025 can please all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance pledge allegiance 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 [Music] all welcome to a meeting of the Board of Education of the burrow of Wang please be advised that this and all meetings of the board are open to the public and media consistent with the open Public's meeting act chapter 231 laws of 1975 and that the advanced notice required therein has been provided this is a regular meeting of the Board of Education of the burough of Wang at which formal action may be taken this meeting is being live streamed on the district website where a recording of the meeting will also be posted the public will have an opportunity to be heard as shown on the agenda at Point points in the meeting provided for the public to address the board recording or photo photographing other than for private personal use requires the consent of parents Guardians whose children may be included in the image so our first item of business is to administer the oath of office to our newly elected member Mr Adam craft um repeat after me I Adam craft I Adam craft do solemnly swear do solemnly swear I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and allegiance that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the same and to the governments established in the United States and this state to the governments established in the United States and this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people so help me gone help me goone I Adam craft I Adam craft you solemnly swear that I possess the qualifications you solemnly swear that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law for the office of member of a board of education prescribed by law for the office of member of a board of Education that I am not disqualified as a voter that I am not disqualified as a voter pursuant to RS 19 4-1 pursuant to RS 1941 nor disqualified due to conviction of a crime or offense disqualified due to conviction of a crime or offense listed in njsa 18a 12-1 NJ 12 and that I will faithfully impartially and justly perform and that I will faithfully impartially and justly perform all the duties of that office according to the best of my ability all the duties of that office according to the best of my ability so help me God [Applause] congratulations and I'll get you this sign sign the code of code of ethics code of ethic it's right there no that's the oath no there's another one oh there's a Code ofs welcome to the board Mr craft right can we um do a roll call please miss Bishop Johnson there you [Music] go Mrs Amadeo here okay here we go is absent Mr Gonzalez here Mrs Harvey here Mrs jet yes here Mrs Maddox here Mrs Santos is absent Mr craft here and Mrs a Aro here and all a present seven great we move on to presentations um we're going to have a presentation by Mrs Gwen thoron from the New Jersey school boards Association on our code of ethics thank you very much good evening it's nice to be back um this is part of your annual responsibility is to have ethics training um it's something that we do yearly um and I know you're um there we go and you may want to turn just if you want to watch it's a little easier to see if you turn backs or not to the screen um so we revise this um program every year and update it so while it does cover a lot of material that a lot of you are familiar with um for those of you who are new it may be new altogether new but if you've seen it before it is much the same but with some updating and changes so this presentation is in for informational purposes only um it is not designed to provide you with legal advice your board attorney is the one responsible for providing your board with legal advice so the school ethics act um and here's nj1 18a again that's where all educational law resides is in 18a um from 21- 12-21 uh that goes back to 1991 was designed to ensure that the public would have uh confidence and respect for the operations of boards of Education um you are the largest group of unpaid public officials who at one point voluntarily ascribed to the code of ethics now it's in shrine in law and you're required to abide by it but it's something that I think you can be very proud of that this is a Code of Ethics around behavior that you all uh support so again board members and administrators must avoid conduct that is a violation of the public trust or which creates a justifiable impression among the public that their trust is being violated the school ethics Act is designed to give you um some specific standards by which you must operate and provides for a disciplinary mechanism to ensure uniform maintenance of those standards across the state and I would point out that it is the minimum standard of expected Behavior okay it refers to the code of ethics to mandatory training to acts that are prohibited as well as your disclosure statements um we're going to go over the code of ethics um and mandatory training and all of those pieces I would point out for those of you who are new you have 30 days within which to complete your financial disclosure statements for the rest of you you have until April the 30th to complete those who enforces the ACT what is that mechanism that you must follow um and who do you look to the SEC the school ethics commission is composed of nine members they're appointed by the governor it's a gubernatorial appointment two Schoolboard members two administrators and five non-school officials um right now the two board seats are currently vacant and one of the school administrator seats is currently vacant um the governors sometimes are remiss in appointing folks but we are optimistic that they will have full contingent shortly so um those School disclosure the financial disclosure statements again if you were just storn in and or started work as an administrator you have 30 days all of the rest of you is school officials um have until April the 30th it can be done online your business administrator will forward to you an email from the doe you can fill it all out online I go back to the old days when it had to be done in duplicate and handsigned and given back to your business administrator now it is really pretty easy uh a little hint for those of you who are new once you do it once print a copy so that next year have all of those addresses and information from the preceding year it makes filling it out on an annual basis that much quicker for all of you I do it every we as members of school boards Association the professional staff we also have to file the financial disclosure statements and live by the code of ethics mandatory training um in your first 90 days if you're a brand new board member you must attend governance one which is new board member orientation um there are certain statuto statuto required components to that it includes New Jersey qac which is New Jersey quality single accountability Continuum Hib which is harassment intimidation and bullying CSA evaluation open public meetings Act and the code of ethics all of those are in fact covered at new board member orientation um by way of Interest tomorrow night is the first night of the weekend orientation program programs um it's been completely revised and um it should be very much improved and we're really looking forward to that um change in gov 2 which is in the second year of your first term you're required to take a year of training it's on finance and policy and in year three um you must take it again and it's around student achievement and Labor Relations negotiations essentially in every first year of any term subsequent to your first you are required to take gov 4 So Adam if you completed the entire sequence which I believe that you have and you haven't been off three full years then you can just go to gov 4 you don't have to repeat gov one but if there's a break in service that's longer than 3 years you have to go back to the beginning that's from the school ethics commission not from New Jersey school boards I'd like to point that out we're not making it used to be 10 years and they shortened it to 3 years break in service okay um the training is available in person um live virtual as well as a self-paced online course so if you aren't able to attend an in-person course which I would certainly recommend that you do especially as new board members you can do it online at your own paste in your jammies and sweatpants at home at your leisure making life infinitely easier for everybody okay um the ethics commission issues two different kinds of decisions they provide advisory opinions as well as adjudicating cases an advisory opinion is exactly that it's if you think you might have a conflict or you think there might be something that you ought not to participate in as a member of the Board of Education you can request an advisory opinion from the the school ethics commission ahead of that conduct or that vote coming forward and they will get back to you with an opinion and let you know whether you can participate or not sometimes the ethics commission will make an advisory opinion public if they believe that it is of such overarching importance to all members of boards of Education to be aware of it um so that um if you go to their website you can read all of the advisory opinions so an advisory opinion is really just um where they opine on whether the proposed activity or conduct would likely be a violation of the code of ethics and again it's this you know the school ethics commission the state administrative agency responsible for these things if they're determining that the conduct which is subject of an advisory opinion would con itute it and you have engaged in such conduct after having sought an advisory opinion it's more likely that you're going to face a more significant penalty so you know my little policeman is there so you know I had a board member say to me well it's just an opinion I don't have to abide by it well if a policeman tells you to stop your car and you keep driving what happens it's the same notion right you know that you have a problem then you don't do it right same kind of thing okay there are advisory opinions that are released here are some of the ones from 2024 um again you know asking questions so that board members can get clear answers ahead of time um just here's one where an adult child works in the district as the musical director and as a substitute could he or she participate in matters related to the superintendent um because someone who is if you have a family member employed within your school district here in Wong you would be conflicted out of evaluating the superintendent setting terms and conditions of employment because it's a conflict because you have a family member whose employment is dependent upon the superintendent's recommendation for Reemployment so it would be a conflict for you to participate so these are always interesting to read and they really do help to guide you as you're thinking about whether you should participate in a particular area or not um I'm this PowerPoint obviously is available on your website so you can review it I'm not going to read through every one of these cases we would be here for a very long period of time if I did although I could speak to all of them okay here are more that go on um how what happens with an Ethics complaint um any member of the public any member of a board any citizen from anywhere doesn't even have to be a resident of Wang could file a ethics complaint against a board of education member you don't have to reside in a community um you can go online find the ethics Complaint Form you have 18 180 days from the time you become aware of the behavior or the incident that you think is an Ethics VI viation to file um and then you have to provide information around what section of the ACT you believe has been violated and provide evidence to demonstrate that that particular section of the ACT has been violated okay so just keeping that in mind um it's really important to know that it can be filed by anyone okay what are the penalties let's say someone files and ethics charge against a board member um they are found to have violated the code what are the penalties um a person can be reprimanded which is the lowest least significant form of penalty um and it is exactly what it sounds like you get a letter from the commissioner that says you have done something wrong but it does not result in a formal resolution you can be censured which is a more formal um methodology the board must read the resolution in public it must be posted for 30 days within your District so that's much more formal you can be suspended from your board of education um for engaging in any activity or matter for a designated period of time 30 days 60 days 90 days that has happened um happens recently um they also have the authority to terminate your membership on a board of education they can remove you permanently from your board of education okay or employe if you were an administrator okay and here are the code you're required to uphold enforce all laws rules and regulations you just had heard Adam read that um as he was sworn in from the State Board of Ed court orders pertaining to the districts and desired changes shall only be brought about through legal and ethical procedures okay you will agree to make your decisions in terms of the educational welfare of all children and will seek to develop and maintain the public schools so that you're meeting the needs of all children regardless of their ability race Creed sex or social standing um and so one of the things that's most important is to remember that you always represent every child in the burrow of Wang not just the third graders if you have a third grader not just the sixth graders not the lacrosse team you know not the magical singers not any one group but all students all the time okay you're required to confine your board making your actions to policymaking planning and appraisal and you will work with your colleagues to frame policies and plans only after the board has consulted those who will be affected by them whether it's your faculty whether it's your community members parents um and that input comes in different ways depending upon what it is you are doing at any given point in time okay you will carry out your responsibilities not to administer the schools excuse me but together with your colleagues to see that they are well-run um this speaks to micromanagement you have educational leaders who are employed to run the day-to-day operations of the school district that is not the role of the Board of Education you don't want to get up at 4:00 and decide whether there's a snow day next week right that's not your job that's your superintendent's job or your principal's responsibility or a teacher's responsibility in the classrooms um so you are not there to tell the teachers how to teach you are not there to run the school district on a day-to-day basis um and you stick to policy planning and oversight you have to recognize that your Authority rests with the full Board of Education and make no personal promises nor take any private action that could compromise the board you must refuse to surrender your judgment to special interest groups or partisan political groups or to use the schools for personal gain or the gains of your friends which means your neighbors um other parents you have to make sure that you make decisions in the best interest of all students when you think about it and you reflect on it your community members and your parents have their voice heard at The Ballot Box they can come to a Board of Education meeting and be heard your teaching staff has a process because they have a negotiated agreement they have AG grievance process they can have their voices heard the only group that doesn't have an structured way to be heard are the kids so you have to be the voice for the children you have to speak and act on behalf of the students okay you will vote to appoint the best qualified Personnel available after considering the recommendations of your chief administrative officer you have to support and protect School Personnel in the proper performance of their duties um sometimes this is difficult not so much perhaps um with teaching staff um often times this happens with coaches um that who were employed in a school district as teachers and you know you may be a parent who's really unhappy with the coaching style of a particular individual but you can no longer stand on the sideline and complain about the coach to other parents because you're required by law to protect Personnel in the proper performance of their duties that doesn't mean you can't have a concern or want an issue addressed but you would have to follow the chain of command to talk first to the coach and then to the principal and then work your way up to the superintendent but that doesn't include coffee clutching with parents on the field about why your child should have had more playing time than somebody else's child you're required to refer all complaints to the chief administrative officer and you will act on the complaints at a public meeting only after the failure of an administrative solution so again if you hear something see something say something you really can and should communicate with your Administration if you are hearing about a complaint but you cannot solve that complaint you have to allow your Administration the opportunity to solve whatever issue is involved and sometimes don't mistake someone coming to the podium and saying I didn't get a solution to my problem it may not be the answer that a person wanted but that doesn't mean that there was not work done on solving a problem okay so here are some new cases um a lot of these we're finding have to do with social media um and elections not surprising um but again I I think the one below C 2422 is most instructive um a board member who had a child involved in an HIV complaint um that they believe was invalid and decided that they would um go and speak with the board's attorney um talk to the board in close session um regarding their child and in that particular instance if your child's involved not only should you not be talking to the board attorney you should be recusing yourself from executive session in that regard um and so again the person was reprimanded okay um here's again you know a teacher was to be discussed an executive session a board member texted the teacher to notify them that they could accuse the board president or the ba or the chief School administrator for Mal Fein if they did not receive a rice notice prior to the executive session um the board member made a personal promise that he could take action if the teacher had not received a rice notice by sending such a message the board member acted beyond the scope of their Duty and the conduct had the potential to compromise the board they were reprimanded that one's not fully adjudicated yet okay this one actually recommended suspension of 60 days a board member who had been on the board for 15 years um usurped the authority of the superintendent for making disciplinary recommendations they went to an employees home picked up a letter presented it on behalf of the employee directed the ba not to give a copy of the letter to the superintendent it and then instead of recusing herself um the board member advocated on behalf of the employee and question the superintendent that one's a particularly egregious one um and so they are recommending a 60-day suspension for that so they will take action if if something is significant and egregious okay um again I'm going to let you read the rest of these this one has to do with endorsing um Schoolboard candidates while using their school identification badge um and again you know insisting that having new members would change the new majority um which had made a claim um there was no evidence of a disclaimer and so as a result of all of that um they were found to have violated the code okay so one of the things that sometimes confusing to Board of Education members and this is an important distinction sometimes you may be faced with um a motion that comes before the board or a topic that comes before the board um and for some particular reason you may not want to vote on it so you may want to abstain from voting which is neither a negative or a positive it's just an exstension you're not voting however sometimes there are things that may come before the board that requires you to formally disqualify and remove yourself from participating not only in voting but also in the discussion and that's an important and significant piece if you need to recuse yourself that means recusing yourself from the discussion and the vote abstaining is not voting right Which is less significant um because you want to make sure um that when you need to recuse you're recusing as opposed to abstaining and that's a really important piece if you have a conflict of interest and you have either family involved or close friends involved and there's an issue where the public perception could be that you were acting for the benefit of your friends or your family as opposed to acting for the benefit of the students you could find yourself in a difficult position so again just be very thoughtful about that okay prohibited acts you must recuse yourself if there is a benefit to you the school official or your immediate family if it's about a business interest or professional activity in Conflict using your position to secure unwant unwarranted privileges advantages or employment and this extends to others beyond the definition of an immediate family member um any kind of service or employment that might Prejudice your independent judgment um a gift or favor if you were to accept it if it was offered with the intent to influence how you were going to vote and any kind of financial gain so you know the div the dividing line here is am I deriving a benefit that is greater than a benefit that would acre to any other member of the public so that is how you can always measure whether it's something you need to think about recusing yourself from um again you shall not represent any person or party other than board members um in a matter before the board I've seen indications sometimes where board members want to be helpful um especially um perhaps with a special education uh hearing perhaps or um meeting with a 504 officer um and wanting to help a neighbor or a friend or a family member and going with them to do that you can't do that as a board of education member okay again it's not a conflict if anything that is ACR is greater than the anybody else's gains okay so um again the definition of a benefit a direct or indirect Advantage profit privilege or gain whether it's personal financial or otherwise so it's not just money it's not dollars and cents okay the determinative factor is the perception of the public not necessarily the school officials belief that they are able to be objective because most folks if you ask them and you say can you be objective we all would like to believe we can always be objective sometimes that's not possible but it's beyond what we think as individuals it includes the Public's perception and to give you an idea of how significantly they look at that this was a a district uh in Middle sex County took place just not a long time ago um the Acting Superintendent son was one of 160 people on the uh employment list as a substitute okay um clearly the superintendent should have read the entire list but didn't and accidentally did not recuse herself um and so again it was a violation and it was inadvertent she freely acknowledged and admitted the mistake but she hadn't read the whole list but it was 160 which is probably about 10 pages worth of substitutes um so again you know you just sometimes you have to be very thoughtful and careful about what your vot on um so you know not recusing herself constituted using her position to secure employment for her son even though it had nothing really to do with her it was done through the employment office you have to have 60 credits you can substitute in New Jersey these days in the era of teacher shortages especially in the winter substitutes are hard to find um and so just be mindful that that's an important piece okay um a member of the president of the parent teacher Association um and with spirit wear and selling it again you can read through all of these cases you have to be very careful um because you as a board member you would not want someone to feel compelled to purchase Spirit Weare from you because you're a board of education member thinking that somehow that's going to help um so again you just have to be very thoughtful of it um and think carefully about it um a board member voted on two resolutions to name a school building in honor of her supervisor whom she had a political and professional relationship for over 20 years um so again it was seen as her participation in voting on this would further her employment with the person who was being honored by naming them the school after this politician who was a pretty powerful politician in the state of New Jersey um but but the board member who voted for it um lived to regret it and was censured for it okay relationship definitions um when we talk about a conflict any member who of your immediate family member is always going to generate a conflict whether it's a spouse civil union domestic partner or dependent child residing in the same household that's the definition here's the definition of a relative you can read that entire list they have expanded it um it means probably almost everyone you've related to and even second cousins you don't know you have I'm exaggerating and kidding but it is a very expansive list um again although relative does not appear in the prohibited Acts or the code of ethics a relative can create a conflict anyone not listed may be considered another if a conflict exists um they finally issued a chart that outlines who is a relative and in the packet of information I gave you I included that chart so you could see it when it came out I did this ethics presentation at that time a couple years ago in a district the ba literally stood up and applauded it because they had waited so long for the ethics commission to say exactly who is a relative so it's I included it for you a copy of it um because it really is helpful for you to understand and know and be able to say hm does my husband's brother-in-law cons does that is that a relative you'll be able to figure that out now very easily okay um again if you the superintendent cannot recommend nor may you hire the relative of a board member or a relative of your superintendant you can't by do that an administrator cannot exercise director indirect authority over one of their relatives so we actually have cases where someone is employed in the district superintendent changes superintendent now is related to someone who already worked in the district who they may have been responsible for supervising they have to create an alternate administrative arrangement for that okay um a board member may not take place in employment matters um or supervisors in the chain of command between a relative and the chief School administrator that doesn't apply to you because I don't think any of you have relatives working in Wang but in many districts that's absolutely the a problem a board member cannot take part in the search discussion um voting to hire a new chief of school administrator or engage in post hire evaluations and contract discussions if you have a family member in the district and that includes a substitute or a part-time summer worker a lot of the high school districts employ kids you know summer workers to work on the fields or whatever help in the district so that would conflict you out of the process for evaluation okay for collective bargaining for negotiations and this chart is in there um again if you have an immediate family member or a relative who works in the district you're just out altogether okay um if you yourself or an immediate family member um does not teach in this District but is in a similar or the same Statewide Association njaa AF American Federation of teachers aflcio um again you can't participate in negotiations but you can vote to ratify the contract absent any other conflict okay so again you can follow this but it it's something that is important um in terms of campaigns and collective bargaining if you were endorsed by the Teachers Association you may be conflicted um if negotiations begin within a year of your election but it's not an automatic exclusion it used to be so they changed it that you if you had been endorsed by the Teachers Association you had to sit out a full year of your term your first year of your term and could not participate now they have said it's not an automatic exclusion unless a financial contribution is given with the intent to influence well who's going to admit that they gave a financial contribution anyway I didn't write that okay impact on committee assignments if you have a relative that works in District this again is a relatively new phenomenon they've now said that if you have a family member working in the district depending upon what that relationship is that you can be excluded from committees so here's an example where the board president is excluded from Personnel negotiations curriculum instruction and finance committees there's essentially no committee left okay a board member works in the tech department can't be involved in all matters or in committees that remotely touch upon or directly related to The spouse's employment including without limitation Personnel negotiations Andor finance committee so they have expanded those um exclusions that's a relatively recent in the last year and a half advice of council defense for penalties one of the more recent phenomenons is that sometimes Board of Education members will go before the ethics commission when they've been accused of violating a part of the code of ethics and say it was on the advice of councel our board attorney said I could do this okay well again there are certain limitations around that defense and you have to make sure that um you meet these criteria to use an advice of council defense you must have sought the council's advice prior to the action not after the fact that seems pretty logical the individual who offered the advice or relied of approval relied upon possessed Authority or responsibility you can't say my third cousin who's an attorney told me it was okay it has to be your board attorney um all pertinent in facts and circumstances were fully disclosed by you to the council and they will check with the council by the way um and the individual complied with the advice received all four factors have to be present in order to use utilize that defense and again it's very fact specific but in other words saying well my attorney said it was okay a is not necessarily an automatic defense against an Ethics charge but it's a creative approach um volunteering in school there are some limitations on volunteering for Board of Education members it typically has to do with the level of involvement with students and staff the frequency and the level of interaction and Authority so you do not want to find yourself in a position to either give direction to or to take orders um to student staff and be utilizing resources and funding you want to avoid that um so here's what is important and the easiest way to to use this any oneshot things in the district are perfectly fine if you want to volunteer to work at field day not a problem you want to shapon a field trip not a problem um and anything that's open to the public this doesn't account for that okay but we're talking about not being in a classroom every day giving direction to students giving direction to staff it's those kind of activities that would be problematic so you can't be a volunteer coach for example or you can't be an adviser to a school club because you would be giving um direction to students and interacting with them on a regular basis and or with staff okay so again you know one time infrequent intermittent activities read Across America all of those kinds of things are fine um if you're an officer of the PTA or your home room parent again that's fine um because you are not in the building on a regular basis okay we suggest that you always let your superintendent know if you're going to be in the school as a parent and volunteer um and make sure you refrain from discussing District board business while you're in their school social media um the SEC has said that if you are engaging in the use of social media as a board of education member it is the content and substance and the context of the statements you make that will determine whether there's a problem with that or not if there is a Nexus a connection between what is being posted what you have said and the role uh or membership that you enjoy on the board of education okay so a member discussed without a disclaimer a policy she moved to abolish um indicating it was reviewed by the board Council and opposed by Ford board members um a board member shared a campaign image of the three candidates running for the board without any further comment on a personal social media page um the first example there is a Nexus between what was said and board business the second one there is no Nexus it was just a posting of a picture of three candidates okay what is a disclaimer um a disclaimer is a statement that you can add if you wish to post on Facebook X or whatever we're calling it TW X um Instagram you know whatever social media Pages you might um want to be using um you can simply say the following statements are made in my capacity as a private citizen not in my capacity as a board member these statements are also not representative of the board and its individual members now you need to provide both parts to that disclaimer because you just don't want to say that it's your opinion which could leave someone with the impression that well it is your opinion the board has endorsed it okay so using them together indicates that it's your opinion but it is not representative of the board particularly important at election season when you don't want to give someone a misimpression around an endorsement because you are free to endorse whoever you'd like or put a side in your yard that's always something you can do that is not forestalled however I will tell you that using a disclaimer can clarify what you're posting however even if you use a disclaimer it is not dispositive meaning it is not a get out of jail free card so you can still find yourself in trouble even using a disclaimer depending upon the substance of what you say the context in which it is said okay so again it clarifies but it's not an automatic okay um if you don't use the actual disclaimer that's here you can use other words that are similar as long as they are clear and so that someone reading it um would understand that you're speaking solely for yourself and that it does not imply any action on behalf of other board members so you don't have to use that exact language but you should have something okay um I would also point out that if you have an election page that you've used to campaign that you should not be using that page once you are elected because it is implied that it's for the district for board business and so if you wish to continue to post um you should use something else never ever use your District address to post anything you should only post from your personal email address es and not your District email accounts because that would imply that it was tied to the district and board business okay so thank you for serving your community um you are contributing your valuable time and skill in an important effort of which there probably is nothing more important um and we appreciate it it's actual actually January is National School Board month so I like to thank you all for your service I was a board member 100 years ago um it seems like 100 years ago um I loved it but what you do does make a difference in the lives of children so thank you for taking your time to listen tonight but more importantly for the work you do all year long um because it makes a difference for the children in your community so thank you okay um there are resources that you can go on and look um at all of the school ethics commission decisions you can look at all of the advisory opinions that you might want to look at it's really sort of interesting to see some of the kinds of things um that transpire um but you don't want to find yourself in those decisions trust me always air on the side of caution is the best advice I ever give all the time and I know I've said it probably for the last how many years have I come done this story I don't want to even think about it but um air on the side of caution it can never get you in trouble okay so thank you very much are there any questions okay well thank you good luck enjoy the New Year hope to see you all at G 4 and G one um and if you need anything Patty's available I'm just sort of pitch hitting um for her um and I look forward to seeing you in October at Workshop um and hope to see you if not sooner at something thank you thank you very much [Music] Gwen okay next on the agenda um it's a presentation by Mr James hagga from thought exchange on the transportation survey that was sent out for that standing by okay you're ready just one minute everyone we set that up he is oh there he is there he is Tada hi James thanks for join joining us this evening um James is with an organization named thought exchange um you all had the opportunity to participate in a pilot question on Transportation as well as um their system for commenting and um raing those comments James is going to go through um the data that we collected um and give the results thanks you just need to share your screen because we can't see you otherwise okay wonderful thank you Dr Glazer and and thank you everybody for allowing me to take a few minutes to contribute to the discussion this evening and I as Dr Glazer mentioned I plan to just um give you a a walk through of the data that was collected in the recent survey so I'm just going to um share my screen here bear with me and and can I can someone please just let me know if you can in fact see my slides yes yes okay wonderful um so just by way of of quick introduction uh in December uh we supported the district to um Implement and and run uh an engagement um focused on transportation and effectively trying to gather uh the voice and perspective of community members as it relates to um different critical perspectives within um the focus area of transportation and everything associated with that um and before I uh start to walk you through the data itself I I also just want to say upfront that um this engagement it is perhaps a little bit unique to some other surveys that you may have run before and there's there's two um distinct but crucial parts to uh how the engagement um was designed and and I'm going to just name them so that you understand the first was to gather um to ask a series of of of survey questions um that effectively allows you to have a bunch of of quantitative data um that I'm about to walk you through and so th those are pretty standard survey style questions but in addition to that we also um ran what is called an exchange uh where there was a question essentially looking at you know what's working and What needs Improvement around transportation and that was an opportunity to collect the direct voices of of of the participants where you know as opposed to a a multiple choice or a Liker style survey question people are responding um in an open text format uh and they're also then able to anonymously interact with other people's thoughts and rate those ideas so that's a very different uh approach to Gathering voice and data and we did both of them the the quantitative and the qualitative and so I just want you to understand that um as I jump in here uh the first uh very straightforward u in this engagement we had a total of 129 um uh people who who answered questions um 73% of whom were family members uh 27% who were staff um so you can this is again just pretty straightforward um and please uh interrupt me at will if there's something that anyone wants to dig into and if not at the end of the presentation we can take some time for any uh questions so here's the first substantive question uh how strongly do you agree with the following the district has been success ful in providing safe and efficient Transportation so far this year um you can see on the right hand side we have what we're calling a favorability score and the favorability score is essentially um taking both those who answered either strongly agree or agree and and and putting that into um into a you know an aggregated score so 77% of people either were in strong agreement or an agreement um and again 123 people in total answered this question um so obviously uh it's a majority of people who have a very favorable view on this particular question uh the next is the bus service provided by Durham and first student have met my expectations for safety and reliability this question was answered by 15 people um and and again the favorability score here is 83% so 61 people indicated that they agree and an additional 34 individuals indicated that they strongly agree our bus drivers have been professional safe and courteous again an 83% favor ability score um this question was answered by 115 people uh 58 of whom indicated they strongly agree and 37 of whom indicated that they agree pickup and drop off times have been consistent after the October adjustments uh this was answered by 115 people with a favorability score of 7 9% reflecting uh 37 people who strongly agreed and a further 54 people who agreed so again uh I think this just reflects that um since those changes made in October uh there's there's a pretty clear consensus that um things have been consistent this next question is my child's current pickup and drop off stop uh is is safe this was a um a question that had 86 respondents uh 44 of whom strongly agreed 26% of whom agreed it's an 81% favorability score now um in the the the quick explanation for what you're seeing here is that if you indicated in the previous question that you you had an issue effectively that you were not satisfied you didn't agree or strongly agree then you were prompted with a further question a followon question that only went to a small number of people as you can see 16 people answered this question what safety concerns do you have and as you can see here on the slide these are some of the responses that were included when those um 16 people were prompted to provide a further text or explanation as to why um their safety concerns existed so you can see here we have to drive to the intersection on the main road where there's no sidewalk or shoulder we know there are no other options but it's scary waiting there in in the winter months with slick roads and heavy traffic another person indicated that there was no safe place to stand um and uh timing not being as reliable people being left on buses with parents wondering where their children children are um so again these are uh just some comments from a small subset of the of the overall group and those people were specifically asked this question based on having given um an unsatisfactory answer in the previous uh question or an answer that indicated that something was unsatisfactory to them uh additional question here how strongly do you agree with the following the district's communication about transportation um has been appropriate for my needs um this one had a 57% uh favorability score with um 114 respondents in total 24 of whom strongly agreed with the statement 41 of whom agreed with the statement uh and then you can see there's a smattering of people um who either strongly agreed or disagreed and then u a more sizable group of people who were in this category neither agree nor disagree which you you can think of that category as neutral you know that those people don't have a strong view uh that they're choosing to register one way or the other they're effectively maintaining a a neutral stance on this question um I I mention that in part because that that group that have identified as as neutral here is is larger and so um you know if you eliminated uh that that group that would obviously uh impact uh and and strengthen that favorability score and and similarly uh you know group of a smaller group of people 33 people specifically were asked um you know what could be done to improve communication or support um so some of the questions uh some of the responses here uh one person saying everything has greatly improved we were getting notified when our driver would be different in the beginning of the year but not since that would be my only criticism um another person saying something similar about not always being uh in notified about substitute drivers um however uh communication um has improved and that they love their regular bus driver uh who's always nice and and on time uh another question here um and I know I'm I'm moving out a clip but hopefully this is all registering and making sense how strongly strongly do you agree with the following the district should consider adjusting bell times to improve bus route timing efficiency this had a favorability score of 41% so 111 people um answered uh 18 people strongly agreed qu 7 agreed um a smaller number strongly disagreed or disagreed and then again uh a very sizable number who uh neither agreed nor disagreed or maintained a neutral position there so 39% of people 43 individuals um were neutral uh this is the last of the kind of um core survey questions um so if your family hasn't opted out of courtesy busing but doesn't use courtesy busing or transportation services could you please share the reasoning and uh and this specifically was asked of people only um if it applied to them and if it didn't apply they could skip so there are only eight people who responded so this is not a sizable um you know data uh amount of data for this question um and uh as you can see from the options that were presented in this uh question it was effectively evenly uh evenly split um so some identified concern about the future need others were unaware of an opt out option others um wanted to have a backup transportation in in case of of emergencies uh others mentioned a preference to keep the option available despite infrequent use um so uh I I spoken to the um superintendent about this and I think that you know this isn't a significant um response and so not particularly useful um to be frank um now I want to move on to the second part that I mentioned up front which is the more uh open-ended um responses uh to the following question which was asked um of of all people in the in the uh engagement overall what is work work well and how can we improve your transportation experience so quite a simple and straightforward question um 136 uh participants um engaged in some way shape or form 100 unique thoughts were contributed and um in the way that this process works you're not only able to contribute your own perspective but you're also invited to rate the thoughts of others and all of that is again Anonymous and and so there were 154 ratings of those 100 thoughts and just to explain one step further what those ratings effectively do is they help to demonstrate what are some of the thoughts that have prioritization across the group as demonstrated by them having a very high rating um so it it indicates that many people have rated that particular thought high and some other thoughts may have been rated lower indicating that they don't have as much support across the group so first I want to show you some of the verbatim thoughts that were the most highly rated in this exchange so um you can see here that the the number of these thoughts are are one they're very positive um bus driver is very courteous ensures safety my kids drivers are excellent they ensure my kids get to school and home safely uh we have a great driver time is consistent route is no longer too long knowing what to expect when to expect the bus is huge and not having children on 60 Minute plus bus rides is also important um another person commented that it's the first time that I can remember buses having the students to the schools before the Bells starting on time no stragglers from the buses um so these are some of the thoughts that have been the most highly rated again indicating that they have been um rated by multiple people and consistently rated uh high in in the five-star rating system that we we use uh what I'm showing you here is what we call our common ground and differences and to explain this the idea is because individuals are raing the thoughts of other people we're able to analyze that data and identify areas that may be um uh where where there may be differences of opinion um as illustrated by the rating patterns but we're also able to identify areas where uh whole groups of people have consensus so while they there may be groups that have disagreement on certain issues in this case timing efficiency on one side and root duration on the other side everyone had common ground around the importance of communication um and parents wanting timely notifications about delays substitute drivers and any changes in the schedule and that effective communication can help uh mitigate um anxiety H reduce uh reduce anxiety and manage expectations so the the point of this is is really just to say that um there's diversity of opinion and perspective in um in the in the community around the issue of transportation and there are also issues that uh really provide a consistent common ground and bring everyone together despite the fact that there may be some difference of opinion on on certain issues um this is just reflecting um that while you know there were hundred individual thoughts contributed this is putting those 100 thoughts into theme sets Okay so these are themes and they're presented based on on the themes that had the highest rating so um issues like bus drivers substitute drivers student Behavior consistency and reliability these are some of the themes that emerged clearly across the 100 thoughts that were contributed by members of the community question can you hear me wow y sorry can you go back on screen absolutely sorry I just wanted to clarify when you say these are the ones that were highest rated that means they were the most discussed not that they were rated best it wasn't a or or was it what what this is reflecting is that um these these themes which include multiple thoughts within each of the themes that those themes had overall they're in they're presented an order of which had the highest rating associated with the thoughts that make up that theme so put differently there were multiple thoughts about about bus drivers and those thoughts thoughts were consistently rated the highest of any other theme uh or grouping of thoughts thank you uh what I've done here is I've just included um a sampling of of some of the top thoughts uh from um some of those key uh um themes okay so around the theme of bus driver you know the bus driver is very courteous ensures safety um so far our route has been on time each day and our driver really is outstanding uh but the the bus driver is kind and helpful my child feels comfortable getting on the bus and the driver ensures the children are safe um I'll just jump down here the whole busing experience has been much improved than previous Communications are more clear bus timing is consistent um uh very courteous and kind to to the kids so again uh there's quite a lot of very positive Reflections that are being shared and um and these are things that are not only being identified by the individuals who contributed the thoughts but those thoughts are also then being rated quite favorably by others who are reading and interacting with those thoughts uh this is the next category around student behavior um just quickly to explain uh because the uh the way I just pulled pulled this presentation together this is a slightly different view into the thoughts and you'll notice this little uh smiley face or in this case neutral face what that indicates is that there's um a sentiment that's been uh applied to some of these thoughts and the sentiment can either be U neutral negative or positive so in this case these thoughts were identified as neutral and then you see a little uh person icon with the number 19 next to it and that indicates that this thought which was contributed by one person was rated by 19 different individuals uh and that's what's um informed the overall rating of the thought um so most students are arriving to school on time to learn it would be good to see students leaving promptly at the end of the day rather than waiting um another person commented uh teach bus safety appropriate behavior like teaching buckling the seat Bel um providing clear expectations here's an additional theme around consistency and reliability you can see that both of these thoughts uh were assigned a positive um sentiment we have a great driver the time is consistent route is no longer too long um so that's a a very favorable thought and also our regular bus driver is great so please keep him and also the current route and timing works for us here is a theme around root efficiency um students are arriving to and from school in a timely fashion students can start their school day on time and can minimize their time on the bus route home all Valley View neighborhoods should be on one bus to improve efficiency the other bus has a significantly earlier drop off time and doesn't make sense uh this is the last theme I want to show you and it and it's focused around parent feedback um and again these are uh these are the the among the the most highly rated um thoughts in the parent feedback section but I just want to to note you see that each of them are is um assigned a positive sentiment there were no negative uh sentiment comments in this theme at all so a person has said major improvement from the disastrous past four years another person has said I think the consistency has been phenomenal I appreciate the cohesiveness of when students arrive in the morning um and another parent um saying we are a special needs family and more than happy with the bus service um so that uh in essence concludes the presentation um again I hope that it was clear and um and conveys uh a good reflection of of where um the respondents in your community are at with respect to those critical questions that you were seeking uh input and feedback on Thanks James do any of the board members have questions for James additional questions is now okay we will um be putting obviously the presentation on the website we'll be sharing it um I think you could hear the areas for Action items especially with communication around delays and subd drivers I know that that has already started to um change we've spoken um to the bus company to let us know as soon as there is a sub not just you know when when we find out we um have a wonderful partnership with the police they are they have been tremendous the challenge with all the construction in town or with accidents or whatever they might call us at 1:00 and say oh we haven't still cleared this accident and we send a message and then they call us at 2 2:30 and say we're really good we're going to be good to go we got it done we like oh but we just told everybody that we're going to be delayed so we're we're trying to figure out how best to um address that but I do think the subcommunication has gotten back as soon as we know thank you thanks so much James pleasure and thanks for hanging in tonight yeah good luck with your meeting thank you all right so oh he did I was trying to make sure Aaron switch um we have a couple members of the public in the audience tonight so just out of consideration for their time and the effort that they made to show up I'd like to switch up the order of the agenda and move our executive session to the place where the comments from the public on agenda items is and go to the comments from the public on agenda items now that would put the executive session after all the reports so we'll go comments from the public on agenda items our reports and then go to Executive session first you have our remarks then the committee reports I can't go straight to the comments will they okay we can do that only because we haven't given our report I they have a comment all right remember it's comments on agenda items and then at the end it's General okay so I will move the executive session to after comments from the public on agenda items and we'll go into superintendent remarks perfect okay we pull that up put on my glasses um so hello everybody good evening um this is my first chance back to wish you all a happy and healthy New Year um I will say we have certainly hit the ground running um in the absence of our principles tonight I'm going to share their principal report first and then um um Karen if she has something to add a ba report and then we'll go back into my comments so from from um Mrs vickner and Miss kid on December 17th our treps entrepreneurs hosted the annual Marketplace event at Valley View showcasing the exceptional student creativity and business Acumen students generated a commendable total profit of $1,510 through their sales efforts they've pledged to donate 10% of those earnings to the planfield Area Humane Society um also at Valley View academic achievements students excelled in the American mathematics competition amc1 um congratulations to our top performers Ariana pel securing first place Prav agal and Tyler louu tied for second place and omesh Ken earned third place the AMC 10 is sponsored by the mathematical Association of America and F Fosters problemsolving skills and positive attitudes towards analytical thinking among students and that testing does cover curriculum up to 10th grade on January 15th Bayberry held its annual third and fourth grade spelling bee and Jula Felix Alay was crowned the champion in first place with isan kilara in second place and Benjamin tanos in third place every everybody did a great job congratulations and then the next day at Valley View January 16th there was a spelling bee here they had 23 rounds it started in the morning I don't think I didn't think it was going to finish but it did and Alec chawii emerged as the winner Ariana Patel in second place and Lila Castello in third again congratulations it takes a lot of hard work I might not think so but it was is very competitive so congratulations in honor of our Martin Luther King Day of commemoration and service Bayberry held their own Day of Service January 17th their service projects ranged from um small ways just you know helping out around the school with projects and the community um and also larger things the kindergarten packed 97 bags of snacks for the homeless the first grade created Happy Meal place mats delivered to Meals on Wheels and they also read to our preschoolers kind of loved that kindergarten and preschool our second graders made bookmarks for the library third grade organized I loved this was my favorite organized a classroom cleanup to help the custodians and the fourth grade made Valentine's for um Community senior citizens looking ahead from the schools the PTO is organizing a talent show there are no cut auditions scheduled for tomorrow Friday at Valley View um the actual talent show will take place on January 31st at 6:30 p.m. um they are very excited to showcase the student Talent this is a PTO fundraiser tickets adult tickets are priced at $10 since PTO is not here I'll just share that with you but student um admission is free they will be doing the same thing at Bayberry um their auditions are February 21st at 6:30 and the talent show is February 28th get all your kids together um there'll be more information and signups on the PTO website um also very exciting Performing Arts month um on January 15th the band concert um that Mrs Morrison does was held classical Treasures um and I understand I had to miss it but I understand it was a resounding success um so congratulations to Mrs Morrison and all of our talented band members Additionally the chorus concert was held on just Tuesday night January 21st there were exceptional performances hey Aon if you run my PowerPoint I think there's pictures of of all of this stuff um they um also had exceptional performances under the guidance of Mr R um it was really a fun night and um you'll see that three of our science teachers participated in the science learning walkthroughs at the high school they were able to collaborate with the teachers from the other sending districts as well as the science supervisor at the high school um on teaching practices and resources you see up on the screen our girls basketball in athletics both of our boys and girls basketball teams have advanced to the quarterfinals um really amazing honestly I attended the girls playoff game this afternoon they won their quarterfinal game and are going T 23 to 12 if you see on the screen um they go to the semi-finals on Monday that is an away game the boys will be in their um semifinals on Tuesday that game is at home home at 4:00 if you can um join us uh yesterday at Bayberry in um anticipation of Lunar New Year and Chinese New Year the students had a wonderful um Chinese acrobatic performance by leelu the students were this from Mrs ficner the students were amazed at the acrobatic tricks and enjoyed learning about Chinese culture this was also um brought to Bayberry by the PTO so thank you PTO for an engaging assembly uh Valley views community outreach had an amazingly successful coat drive donations from community members in Wang and waren combined um were brought here to Valley View Bayberry also um did a collection eight bags of coats collected at Bayberry alone all the donations are given to Family and Children Services in um plane field as well as the plan field Action Service organization so truly thank you everybody who um donated and was so generous with um helping other people in the community do you have a PA update well let's see well in in January the business office um does W2s and 1099s that's a big project on our plate because we're a fiscal year we don't close close our books in December like a lot of companies do but we are still responsible for that part of the taxes so our all employees get their W2s and all the vendors get their 1099s and we so we do a semi close so that keeps us pretty busy over there that's that's it okay well I'll keep going then with my report and this is for all of you Governor Murphy and Gwen U mentioned this in her presentation has declared January 2025 as the 23rd annual Schoolboard recognition month um each of you will get your own copy of Governor Murphy's Proclamation yay um but I also wanted to take um just a minute to publicly thank you for the many many hours you volunteer in service and will volunteer in service um to the district students your your role uh doesn't get a lot of thank yous honestly but I am grateful for the work you do we are all grateful um for what you do for our schools and community and honestly for your efforts to come together as a group of nine to learn about your roles and responsibilities and to create a culture of collaboration I I know it has been no small task you should be very proud very proud of how you're representing the district and um just a a little foreshadowing we're going to look forward to really celebrating and honoring your achievement um that you attained board certification in May at the county meeting so yay and really thank you everybody um just a few upcoming things um we've sent out the um save the dates and registration and agenda for first strategic planning meeting next Wednesday January 29th all three meetings are going to be held here in the APR 7:00 um the first one like I said January 29th the registration form and agenda was sent out it's on the district website it's on the burrow website um the first meeting uh you will have the pleasure of a state of the district report um and then as a community we'll be identifying strengths and weaknesses of the district the second meeting will be on Monday March 3rd at that meeting we continue the conversation and begin to discuss the future 3 to 5 years of the district identifying broad themes to focus on our third meeting Wednesday March 26 um is where we start doing that goal setting right what what are our goals for those three years or five years whatever determined and after those goals are set um we come back and create an action plan the administration for first year goals we will um publicly give feedback from each of these meetings so people who were not able to attend will um be able to understand what's going on it really is um an opportunity for all of us to reflect and really important um to share input right into the future of the district I keep getting asked this question it's on every flyer yes come to all three meetings if you can only come to one meeting come to one we we really want to hear your voice and yes we encourage you to bring your friends your neighbors we you know somebody said the other day it's on the burough site we sent it out to every organization to the chamber but I don't have kids in school we need those voices too right we need every voice um you're all taxpayers and people that volunteer and work in the community so please please plan to join us um all three meetings are going to be facilitated um by our new field service rep again you heard Gwen um reference her Patty Reese um from the New Jersey school boards Association and we're following their model of strategic planning also upcoming Wednesday February 5th 7 p.m. right here in the APR um we're going to be having a referendum Town Hall public meeting regarding the field and Outdoor Learning comment here at Valley View um they have had the internal stakeholders meeting hearing from teachers coaches special education the principls um anybody that would be um within the schools using the space and now we need the input from the community the project Architects and construction management will be at the meeting I will say um after chillers and to use um we're pretty excited to move forward with the projects and this construction would be scheduled for next summer it will not impact the schools being open in the summer but obviously um the work is done on the field and in the area where you enter here the APR so those areas would not be available uh and then this Thursday uh next Thursday the 30th the regionalization study committee is is reconvening we're moving forward with the review and Analysis of the public data for the five sending districts to the high school that's test scores qac performance reports long range facility plan um and they are also the Rowan study team scheduling inperson meetings with the superintendent ba special ed directors and curriculum staff just in preparation for the next steps of that study um that would also include a demographic graic study which I'm excited about I think that'll be really valuable to us and then just finally a reminder the district will be closed on Monday February 17th in honor of President's Day and then the schools are closed for students also on Tuesday February 18th so staff can participate in a full day of collaborative professional learning um and then our next board meeting will already be Thursday February 20th thank you thank you Dr Glazer okay so we'll move on now to committee reports Mrs jwet can you give the report for the curriculum committee okay curriculum update here we go can you hold on one second sorry Mrs J Sor I had a question but I can't save it for no go ahead I was just I just um Dr Glazer I just wanted to to clarify the outdoor Commons work that's happening this coming summer or next summer summer 2025 if we can get the design what happens is right we have the internal stakeholders now we need the community input that'll be February 5th following that the Architects come up with their basis for design right we would advertise the bid same process we went through last year um then you would have the bid opening you would approve that bid and it would be scheduled for God help us summer summer 2025 and that includes the referendum and I I apologize if you said this and I missed it um okay H have um we asked the Town Council to promote the Strategic strategic planning meetings and is Big Bo it is published we have sent it out to every group okay great from the chamber to everybody in town it's posted at the library it's posted on the um burough site and the burrow also did a blast I think yesterday um as they also have the registration and agenda blast thank you it's fine oh it's fine we want everybody right we we want everybody to come so it's a great question okay uh curriculum committee minutes and this was for Thursday January the 16th at 405 and it ended at 4 at 5:15 and it was virtual committee members present were Jessica Maddox myself uh Board of Ed president Jennifer AG oo Daniel Medio and our Administration and guests were Dr Julie Glazer superintendent Denise vickner Bayberry principal Nicole D TOA director of special services okay the referendum field and Outdoor Learning comment followup there will be a town hall for the Outdoor Learning Commons in field on Wednesday February 5th 2025 at 7 p.m. we will be sending two of our teachers to Maine to attend a conference regarding the development of the Outdoor Learning space the life skills room at Valley View is being discussed at the upcoming construction management meeting and a timeline will be developed for the room to be ready for students and staff use curriculum update curriculum writing and revisions for K to4 Ela and math started in the summer of 2024 are continuing and are planned to be completed by this summer we have to remember that the textbook is not the curriculum curriculum development involves teachers understanding the grade level standards and skills expectations and writing curriculum to align with State Standards using a variety of Resources Administration and staff continue to work on curriculum throughout the school year at Bayberry Ela and math were addressed with committee representatives from each grade level and special educa uh education excuse me the ELA curriculum is being aligned with the science of reading program and teachers are exploring and piloting math programs professional learning with conquer math has helped to inform the review work at Bayberry is currently focused on grades three and four with our IDE consultant assisting with sorting through our current curriculum and resources Valley View curriculum writing last summer also included science and PE grades 5 through 8 have reviewed math materials and are piloting specific lessons Andor units for our general and accelerated math program grade seven and 8 algebra and geometry curriculum has not changed however they are also reviewing resources as part of this work curriculum committees are also looking at where professional development is provided by the various Publishers to support their understanding and enhance instructional strategies a little bit more hang in there sending uh districts articulate horizontally with each other and vertically with wung Hills Regional High School including the content area supervisors to align curriculum and expectations with the high school okay other topics the director of special services and the whole department have worked tirelessly to prepare our district for the required State monitoring of compliance this has been a huge undertaking involving six areas of oversight we will not receive feedback until the summer a discussion regarding the world language program at Bayberry and Valley View schools was discussed now the NJ dooe New Jersey Department of Ed all all districts are required to have K to2 programs that ensure students students meet the New Jersey student learning standards to equip students with necessary knowledge skills and attitudes to participate successfully in the 21st diverse wh Century embracing the state's multiculturalism and diversity including the acquisition of diverse languages and cultures World languages education provides Learners with the essential language skills and cultural understandings in languages other than English necessary to live and work in a global culturally diverse World presently we have a culture a cultural World language program at Bayberry and an introductory language program at Valley View we have two updates for the district calendar 2024 2025 District calendar should read June 20th 2025 Jun juneth is a oberved the 25 2025 2026 District calendar should read September 2nd 2025 Labor Day School closed that's all thank you thank you Mrs jet uh Mr Gonzalez can you give us the committee report for the administration and finance committee please [Music] sure administrative and finance committee met on 4 p.m. on January 14th uh notes from the committee discussion were agenda items employee professional development pay application HVAC F uh fiscal year 2025 summer 24 shared services with Long Hill and Wong Hills Regional for anals anal analysis and updated bus routes trading Transportation consultant approv continuing use of PPM Cooperative to purchase technology equipment we also discuss new business for f school year 2026 ET res ET resignation short-term long-term disability plans uh more robust offering starting 71 Colonial life insurance we discuss implications of offering short-term policies as well as existing long-term policies at 4:45 throughout the exchange of presentation Mr Hugo explained the thoughts of uh exchange um with um with us and how it could relevate to our district through the ex change and not through AI company but the use of generated AI uh Mr James then demonstrated the results of the transportation to the survey we conducted as well a pilot throughout the exchange overall the transportation has improved as students have been arriving on time and in the morning still work to do this afternoon uh in the afternoon as some routes bus drivers have received a large amount of praise for their safety and procedures comments included concerns including unsafe waiting areas traffic and Speedway visibility and spine spots and distance and accessibility the general value uh from the survey and the comments is that the respondents feel that the routes um and stops are safe we also discussed some previous instances of individuals concerning regarding Transportation discussions of providing additional training for the students and bus uh safety and Behavior Uh there was noticed that you need to improve transportation Communication in cases of delays and substitutes the general consensus of the parents family regarding bell times was neutral while teachers it was also General neutral generally neutral with some strong disagree referendum projects updates uh discussion reference to the field of the Outdoor Learning Commons with school T stakeholders reports uh from The Architects will be sent to the district so that there will be no plan to share be a plan to share Community meetings Wednesday February 5th date uh for the town hall share the plans with the community and uh discussed open items and a punch list of items faculty usage pricing we also discussed that we discussed individuals use of facilities referred to the policy for further discussion and consideration Transportation follow-up the meeting the meetings to prepare needed to uh need need to be rescheduled uh upcoming events we have Valley View band concert Wednesday January 15th that already passed um and we have the um District closed for Reverend Martin Luther King which also passed and we had um some other uh meetings in here as well that passed but then the the Board of Ed tonight and then the first public strategic plan meeting Wednesday January 29th and the town hall on the Valley View Outdoor Learning comments referendum project is Wednesday February 5th the meeting adjourned at 6:20 and I forgot to mention in the beginning of the meeting that um Mrs Harvey Miss agaro um Mr hagga Dr Glazer um Karen Bishop Johnson Mr Fred and myself were all present great thank you uh Mrs Amadeo could you give the report for the policy committee please yes um the policy committee met virtually on Wednesday January 15th from 5:30 to 6:50 p.m. in attendance were Dr Glazer myself um philis jet uh Jen agero and Manuel Gonzalez uh there were two policies up for a second reading p554 honoring student achievement um that was a second reading and P 919 booster club also a second reading the committee uh did not receive feedback on these policies and both were approved for the agenda this evening and we'll be up for a second reading uh new business the admin finance committee asked policy to re-review our facility use policy due to a rental request that came in from an individual user Dr Glazer provided a review of that issue as an example for consideration in reviewing this policy um the committee discussed if we could make rentals easier for personal use by individual residents and we proposed creating an additional renter category that would separate individual non-residents paying rent and custodial fees which would be called class 4 from Individual residents class three that would pay only custodial fees for personal use of space of the space um a class three rental must be for personal use only uh groups nonprofits for-profit entities would pay the rental fees and additionally um a resident or Guardian must be in the space the entire time of the rental custodial fees will be charged hourly um if approved for a first reading tonight this policy along with any of the others up for review uh will be shared with the board tomorrow so we can all discuss um uh p1642 one use of sick leave um this was a policy was listed as missing by the njsba annual wellness check which the board received this month the policy was abolished because our sick leave policy is spelled out in the current teacher contract and we did not want to contradict it with the new policy um P 5111 eligibility of Resident SL non-resident students last year this committee affirmed this policy stating if a student moves out of District toward the end of their last year at school either fourth or e8th grade we would let them finish out the year without paying a paying tuition the state law has changed however and now families are required to pay tuition in this instance this changes mandatory law and goes into effect immediately even though the mandatory revision to the policy language goes through the standard first and second reading process um P2 365 acceptable use of generative artificial intelligence Ai and p571 academic Integrity these two policies were reviewed as a starting point for what guidelines might benefit our district around um AI policy and student use Dr Glazer suggested passing these policies along to the principles for review uh and feedback before discussing further um and finally some followup um transportation policy um I had offered some ideas in December's meeting on how we might update our transportation policy to include more routing safety guidelines um Dr Glazer and the transportation coordinator will provide feedback on these points at our next committee meeting um MOA memorandum of agreement Dr Glazer informed the committee that new guidance was provided on this and that uh pinky would provide a comparison of the current policy and new guidance at the next meeting great thank you Mrs Amadeo uh Mr Gonzalez a negotiations committee ready for that one um oh that was the um I have the notes on that sorry okay for the negotiations committee um we met um on the 21st and um our next meeting is on uh February 6th thank you um moving on now to board liaison reports um our legislative liaison is not in attendance tonight um Mrs Maddox can I assume you haven't been sworn in yet to the Somerset County educ no updates okay um Mrs Amadeo any update from the Somerset County School boards Association um there's a county meeting on January 27th um Somerset and Hudson County um on a where they're presenting um a title what you need to know about the board secretary's report um uh this is um this is a topic that's been discussed before prior meetings I think a lot of us have seen this um but if you'd like to go it is available um and then the next meeting is May 8th so we have some time on that one that's a good meeting mark your calendar thank you uh I have no update for the school boards Association other than to remind everyone to do their mandatory training um for the regionalization committee there is an upcoming meeting on January 30th and then Dr Glazer is there any update for the mujc no Mars Union joint chair committee hasn't hasn't met perfect we will okay so moving on to community engagement is there anyone here from the PTO or we or cpeg okay now we'll move on to comments from the public on agenda item we welcome input from the public there are two times during the meeting when the public is invited to speak the first opportunity to comment on agenda items only is now the second opportunity for public comment is towards the end of the meeting total time allotted for public comment is 30 minutes before you make your comment please state your name and Municipality of residence in the event it appears the public comment portion of the meeting May exceed 30 minutes the presiding officer May limit each statement made by participant to 3 minutes duration our public forums are not structured as a question and answer session but rather are offered as opportunities to share input with the board in instances where the board feels a response is needed the presiding officer or superintendent will address the comment New Jersey statutes do not permit the board to discuss Personnel or hiring in public session names of students should not be used members of the public should consider their comments in light of legal rights of those affected and identified in their comments and be aware that they are personally legally responsible with potential liability for comments that they make to the board the board shall not be held liable for comments made by members of the [Music] public okay all right we'll move into executive session whereas the open public meetings Act njsa 10 colon 4-11 permits the Board of Education to meet in closed session to discuss ma certain matters now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Education adjourns to close session to discuss one a matter rendered confidential by federal or state law student matters a collective bargaining agreement Andor negotiations related to it and pending or anticipated litigation or contract negotiation and or matters of attorney client privilege further resolve the minutes of this closed session to be made public when the need for confidenti confidentiality no longer exists and action may be taken so moves have a second second any discussion all in favor say I I I okay adjourned for executive [Music] session e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e okay back from executive session moving on to action items um Dory can you move Administration administrative items sure uh I move number one approve minutes of previous meeting two affirm the superintendent's Hib report three approve philli Fields modifications have a second second any discussion roll call okay Mrs Amadeo yes Mr Gonzalez yes Mrs jet yes Mr craft I'm going to abstain from one and yes to two and three okay Mrs Maddox yes Mrs Harvey yes yes Mrs agara yes okay motion passes okay um Mrs Amadeo could you move Personnel I move uh Personnel items one approve appointment two revise appointment three approve before and after Care staff four approve revised leaves of absence five approve extra duties six approve District staff to provide support services during school district sponsored activities uh that's it second any discussion okay roll call Mr Gonzalez yes Mrs jet yes Mr craft abstain Mrs Maddox yes Mrs Harvey yes Mrs Amadeo yes zaro yes motion passes okay Mr Gonzalez could you move um items under operation Finance sure um number one approve payments of bills number two approv transfer of funds from 2024 2025 number three accept Financial reports number four approve shared consultant Services of Wong Hills Regional High School number five approve Cooperative pricing system participation number six approved contract for Falcom Management Solutions throughout a Exchange number seven approved payment application for Bayberry and valy view HVAC upgrades number eight approved changes for order um for Bayberry and Valley View HVAC upgrades uh and that's it second any discussion I have a couple I have a question about thought exchange um so that was that was a sample of what they can do um if we were to pay for this product are they still going to administer and produce that report or is it something that we do and we have to create ourselves the report gets that produced and we we have to build that so we get a designated person to work with us to do that um the good news like we had no since it was a pilot we had no um access to the data to any tools so if we move forward um I will be trained and up to four other people could be you know Administration whoever whoever we think would use it best would also be trained to be able to access that information um and generate those reports so we have a person that can do it but we are also trained how to use the tool does the cost include a single survey no no no unlimited for a certain duration of time or um I what January 31st it's a year so we have one year got it and then we decide right did we use it right right right um and do they have stat statisticians that help us figure out our questioning questioning language is so important in terms of getting the right answers and not a bunch of Goble deg so I just so we told them like with the transportation pilot they assigned me a person um and we said so this is what we need to know and they came back with questions the um the lyer scale that strongly was actually structured opposite right because all all of the district surveys before that went the other way and that same person said you know that's not really the industry standard you should really consider you know this um there were um survey questions that they felt would be um encompassed in the overarching question I know you all took the survey so I know you know what I'm saying there was the overarching question then there was the quantitative survey questions and the qualitative piece so they were able to structure that so it was very targeted okay thank you sure anyone else okay roll call okay Mrs Harvey yes Mr craft abstain Mrs Maddox yes Mrs jet yes Mrs Amadeo yes Mrs aaro yes Mr Gonzalez yes motion passes uh Mrs jat could you move the item under curriculum curriculum a uh a approved revised 2024 2025 and the 2025 2026 District academic calendars second any discussion roll call okay Mrs Amadeo yes Mrs Harvey yes Mr craft yes Mrs Maddox yes Mrs agaro yes Mr Gonzalez yes Mrs jet yes motion passes uh Mrs Amadeo could you move items under policy please I move policy items a first reading uh for use of SK school facilities and B second reading honoring student achievement and booster clubs second any discussion I actually just want to say one thing about this because I think it's um just for board members it's sometimes hard to find these documents for reading um so I'm going to send an email out to everyone tomorrow where you can find them and make sure everyone knows follow up anyone else okay roll call please okay this is yes Mrs Harvey yes Mr Gonzalez yes Mrs Maddox yes Mr craft yes Mrs jet yes Mrs agli Arrow yes motion passes it moves us on to board business does anyone have any yes just away yes I would if the board wants to discuss it uh we can but um um I would really like for all of our documents to be put into the board agenda folder so that we don't have to constantly keep looking through the committee folders when it's time for the board meeting and if there's anything that's updated so if there's policies so that our chair of policy doesn't have to email all of us the policies they should be in the board packet for us to see prior to us being at the meeting um so anything that's updated any um items that were provided to the Committees I'm asking for those to just go in even if they're in the committee folder for them to then be duplicated and put into the board agenda packet so we're all looking in one space instead of going through four different folders to try and decipher whatever the heck it is we're doing so that's what I would ask for because it's just more of a convenience for us we're all obviously very busy individuals and to make it just more efficient for us so that we know where things are and what we're looking at uh would be extremely helpful I thank you and I just want to ask because I I opened it up just to to make sure I see the attachments for the agenda I see um the minutes I see the Committees and the meeting times um the policy folder supposed to go with the current agenda right for the public tomorrow and then it would be in the folder so that's an easy one which folder it would be in the the it it would be in both the committee folder and the board folder yes that's what I'm asking for usually it's so usually it's not but if we but if we're voting on policies we should be able to read all of those ahead of time even though they're in the committee folder that's fine I'm just asking for them to be also put into the board packet and then anything that's provided even in curriculum where we get um to see um any type of presentations prior to the it being presented at board meetings if those are in the committee folder they should also be shared anything should go into to the board agenda packet so that we're we're just looking in one spot because it's it's just a little bit much that we're going back and forth all the time and sometimes documents get updated but like which one are we looking at or it's it's just a bit much so if everything that's updated could just be put into one place prior to the board meeting that would be appreciated got it in particular with policies because they're long and you need time to give feedback I I'll I would love a folder a policy folder within the board meeting folder that is updated at the beginning of the month that says first reading policy name second reading policy name something like that I think that would be helpful agree that's a good idea Dory I would appreciate it too yeah just to make it easier for us it's better organized that way any other board business okay we're moving on to comments from the public but there's no one here so could I have a motion to adjourn so moved all in favor say I I I I I meeting adjourned e