##VIDEO ID:Mm-pa6NP46U## e e e e e e e turning I said I was was good evening I'd like to call an order to a board of uh education Wong School District regular meeting on today's agenda we're going to first stand and pledge allegiance I 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 all miss Karen Bishop Johnson can I have a roll call please oh I'm sorry uh welcome to the meeting of the Board of Education the bur of watchong please be advised that this and all meetings of the board are open to the public media consistent of the open public records act chapter 231 laws 1975 and that the advance notice required therein has been provided this is a regular meeting of the Board of Education of the buau of Wong at which formal action may be taken this meeting is being live streamed On The Board District website where a recorded of the meeting also will be posted the public will have an opportunity to be heard as shown on the agenda at points of the meeting provided in public to address the board recording and photography other than private personal use requires the consent of parents Guardians whose children may be included in the image now may I have a roll call Miss Mrs agley Arrow here Mrs Amadeo Mr C I'm yep Mr Gonzalez here Mrs Harvey here Mr Ang graia absent Mrs jet here Mrs Santos here and Dr Vince Kua here thank you okay now we're going to call up U from Legacy construction management Mr O'Brien for an update on our referendum another update another update [Music] I love it good evening um so uh just I don't have an actual presentation I just wanted to give a uh an update on some key um information and some stuff that's going to happen in the next uh 24 hours and and so forth in the next couple weeks um so the biggest um item I want to bring to attention everybody is that we are starting to meet um with the stakeholders um for the two additional projects that we have which is the Outdoor Learning Commons as well as the uh multi-purpose field that's out here in Valley View so that is scheduled to meet with the stakeholders and then after that we will have a uh Community involvement uh meeting will be scheduled and and I'm sure the school will post that um what it is and we will have some Community input for those two upcoming projects um again those are the Valley View Outdoor Learning commments and the multi-purpose uh field um we do have some active work still ongo with the projects that we had for the summer um the HVAC project just um so everybody's aware I mentioned it before that project is not slated to be completely done until the spring of this this uh 2025 that's with the chiller systems so that was always going to be uh an ongoing project through the spring um that equipment has been procured and now it's just about scheduling because it is a lot of work to do and is it is Big disruption um to do that just uh right now with the winter because we need the systems uh active so that's scheduled for uh Springtime um and the other project with the media center as well as the art room and the front office and the toilet rooms at Bayberry we're in the close out so we're just getting through the final paperwork and making sure all the documentation and everything set for the warranties so that's the phase that we're in um there will be odds and ends that we um do need to get through with them which will fall into the warranty uh phase so we still have a couple um nights here and there that there might be a worker that needs to come and address something as we get informed and Ricky finds uh any issues that do come up or teachers let him know of an issue with any heating system we address it um with Ricky and we coordinate that um but other than that that's that's the update I uh have um and I wish everybody happy holidays and a Happy New Year and I don't know if anyone has any questions but I did want to let everybody know in the public that we do have the stakeholders meetings coming up uh tomorrow thank you thank you Conor thank you thank you thank you thanks for staying and being here yes thank you thank you for everything you're doing happy holidays Chistmas and thanks for getting it done so we could close for our staff yes okay so we're going to change things up a little bit um um I I'm I am I'm looking at them um it we're going to uh have if it's okay with all of you I'd like to move the um public comments before we go into executive session um just because of the time frame and since we're here is everyone okay with that okay um yes right so at this time we're going to move to comments from the public on agenda items only uh 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 agendum items only is now the second opportunity for the public comments is towards the end of the meeting total alloted time will be 30 minutes and we're going to stick to that uh before you make comments um please state your name and Municipality of residents in the event it appears the public comments portion of the meeting May exceed 30 minutes the presiding officer May limit a statement made by the participating of three minutes duration our public forum forums are not constructed uh as a question and answer but rather offered as opportunities to share input with the board in instances where the board feels uh response is needed the presiding officer or superintendent will address the comments New Jersey statutes do not permit the board to discuss Personnel or hiring in public sessions 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 for potential liability for comments that they make to the board the board shall not be held liable for comments made by members of the public Community people okay want to do that too just they could speak okay um so we we can also do committee reports too if we'd like um person uh we have um I see there's someone here from wef and um PTO so any and CPAC no no updates okay all right no no members from the public we're going to go into take ex sesh can we have Karen kid do her principal's report so she can go home it's been a long day absolutely absolutely all right Miss kid you need I have there I have cheaters you want them day all right the Santa hats on the way too all right good evening everyone during Mountaineer Mondays this month student groups explored the concepts of emotional regulation and resilience through collaborative and independent activities on November 26th first grade held its annual Harvest Festival by performing songs for their families and participating in traditional crafts and games the community outreach Club at Valley View and the third grade class at Bayberry collected donations for the adoptive family program sponsored by the hearts of wa Chang we were thrilled with the generosity of our school community and excited to provide an amazing experience for our adopted families thank you to all who contributed our basketball season began on December 2nd it is wonderful to see our athletes back on the court please come out to cheer for our Mountaineers Bayberry students and staff were treated to a preview of The Nutcracker by Washington Rock dance studio on December 3rd Bayberry after school clubs have begun students are enjoying drama soccer basketball and a sports club on Wednesday December 4th the watang PTO sponsored two assemblies for our fifth and sixth grade and seventh and eighth grade students featuring Dr Michael Fallon also as known as Mikey Fallon Dr Fallon's presentations are known for addressing topics such as empathy inclusion and self-awareness the parent presentation was rescheduled for January 9th at 6:30 p.m. at the Valley View allpurpose room we hope that you can attend the PTO sponsored holiday Boutique where students and families shopped at multiple vendors to find gifts for their family and friends was held after school at Valley View on Friday December 13th fourth grade chorus glee club and the band performed their Winter concert on December 12th congratulations to the fourth graders Mrs Riley and Mrs Morrison on an amazing performance our annual treps Marketplace took place earlier today here our young entrepreneurship showcase their creativity and hard work this was an excellent opportunity for all of our students to shop for Unique holiday gifts while supporting their classmates entrepreneurial efforts I have to tell you I think all of them made a profit which is amazing so cool in December some of our Middle School language arts and Mathematics teachers participated in learning walks hosted by LGH Hill for the sending districts and High School staff these walks were a great opportunity for our staff to collaborate with our neighbors on teaching and learning practices in their disciplines later this school year additional learning walks are scheduled for scheduled for all content areas both schools announced and celebrated our teacher of the year and our educational support professional of the year I will leave the name dropping for Dr Glazer's report and the high school invited all of the e8th grade students from the sending districts to hear the band in choire perform this Friday December 20th our uh our uh buses have been set up and our eighth graders will be traveling over there on our early dismissal day we look forward to the first of many great experiences for our eighth graders to transition best wishes to everyone for a healthy and happy holiday and winter break thank you thank Youk you thank you thank you Miss kid okay I at this time we're going to go into executive session um whereas the open public meetings Act njsa 10 4-11 permits the Board of Education to meet in a closed session to discuss certain matters now therefore be it pending and anticipated litigation on contract negotiations Andor matters of attorney client privilege have a second so moved second okay any discussion okay we'll be right back these I'm in favor I all in favor in favor hi know this already after 12 meetings won't be long if you're stay 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 it's not here yet it's only 7:30 yeah no we're F we still have the we have to call back to order yep actually do you have a business administrator report you do report right V report oh no it's still under me have to it's on I think just take his that's matter just use mine use mine okay um so we're going to move on to superintendent remarks um we already went through yeah superintendent remarks this one's mine actually business administrator report business administrator report okay uh tonight we are just announcing the election results the annual school election of the Wang burough school district county of Somerset was held on November 5th 2024 there were 5,358 registered voters as of October 24th 2024 there were 7,427 votes cast that's everything um and the results for the three-year terms are as follows uh Dory Harvey for a term from 2025 to 2028 received 1513 votes Jessica Maddox for a term of 2025 to 2028 received 15 161 votes Adam craft with the term of 2025 to 2028 1,554 votes Thomas nadini I'm going to ruin that name um same term the terms are R 25 to 28 uh 1,335 votes Wayne oborne 1,340 votes and ryen received 124 votes board members you have to who Okay so the three um the three winning um votes and the board members to start this January will be Dory Harvey Jessica Maddox and Adam craft congratulations thank you to everybody actually who has been involved I think it's I'm thrilled right that there are five people and 124 wrin that are willing to be a part of this process and serve so thank you it now me thank you yeah that you up to me yes ma'am to me so while we still have an audience before I get to my um notes and since Dr Vince's Kua um was able to get here before the audit I have a proclamation to read to you and and I have um something else for you we also have it for Mr Ang Gracia and even though he's not with us tonight I will also um read uh the portions of his Proclamation that are different from yours so in honor of Jennifer vincus Kua whereas Jennifer vinces Kua generously gave 9 months of service on the Wong Board of Education graciously filling a vacated board seat from April 2024 through December 2024 I'm not going to say your name every time okay and um where Dr vinc K had diligently served on board committees including Personnel human resources in addition to her service on matters of instruction budget social emotional learning and mental health she brought valuable experience to board issues with her educational background inquisitive nature love of children passion and support for the teaching profession embraced a c of diversity equity and inclusion and advocated for School counseling practiced independent thinking gave invaluable guidance to the board and administration and made decisions in the best interests of students and selflessly served on the board with honesty and respect for the community volunteering many hours in an effort to make the district the best it could be um whereas Dr Vince's K has experience commitment sense of responsibility and integrity will be greatly missed by her colleagues on the watang board of education now therefore be it resolved that the watang bur Board of Education expresses deep appreciation for um Dr vincis kua's efforts and valuable service to the district recognizes all the people she touched through her dedicated volunteerism on the board and wishes her continued health happiness and success in all of her future endeavors so we do have a copy of the proclamation to give you we also um have planted trees in your honor so five trees 10 total for you and for U Mr Ang Gracia will be planted by the Arbor Day Foundation in a forest of great need in your honor this gift is in celebration of yours and Mr Ang gracia's service to the Wang bough Board of Education when we plant trees we plant the seeds of peace and the seeds of Hope the trees planted for you are an act of optimism kindness a labor of love and a commitment to stewardship thank you for your service thank you for stepping up to fill the vacancy um we'll miss you thank you it's been an incredible honor and I have some words to share but I'll do that after your remarks speak to about Anthony um because I I want to make sure that we also honor his service this is for you though thank you so much and then for uh Mr in Gracia also a proclamation um and I have to say I'm not going to lie they're very similar because that's what we do but I will read the differences in honor of Anthony and Gracia who gave three years of service on the watang board of education from January 21 through December 2 four um whereas Mr Ang Gracia diligently served on board committees including Administration personnel and operations and Finance in addition to his role as vice president on matters of Staffing facilities operations finance and technology and whereas Mr angaria brought his valuable experience to board issues with his construction background inquisitive nature and love for the Wong burough Community Mr engrassia also practiced independent thinking providing guidance to board and administration as we make the best uh make me as we made decisions in the best interests of students he has selflessly served on the board volunteering his countless hours in an effort to make the district the best it could be maintaining high expectations for student staff in the community while advocating for academic Excellence his experience commitment and sense of responsibility will be missed now therefore be it resolved that the watang burough Board of Education expresses their deep appreciation for Anthony and gracia's efforts and valuable service to the district recognizes all the people he touched through his dedicated volunteerism on the board and wish him continued health happiness and success in all of his future endeavors um and again the certificate of the donation of trees says that same thing he just gets his his own copy of that um and even though he's not with us the this evening um I hope that um with he's with us in spirit and we'll make sure that he receives both of these um documents did you want to before I go to my next I just wanted to share some words of um esteem and appreciation for you all um thanks for the privilege of serving the watching board these past few months this precious experience offered me the unique opportunity to grow deeper understanding and respect for systemic Partnerships that take place in order to provide our children with an environment that inspires nurtures and challenges them to be the best that they can be in this brief time I have witnessed passion and commitment which are the key ingredients in grit to carry out our community's mission and vision with the tangible Investments of countless hours preparing and holding committee meetings negot ating contracts and even working through unexpected barriers that come up um we have the opportunity to cheer our amazing Educators and kids even during their School concerts School openings and last days honoring the memory of professionals who despite no longer being here with us leave their lasting impression on so many I deeply recognize and acknowledge that these efforts occur due to the incredible work from our superintendent Dr Glazer our business administrator Karen Bishop Johnson principal ficner principal kid director doota and the incredible team of teachers Paris special ed teachers Specialists and secretaries thanks to our community members for their engagement and expressed concerns let's maintain that open dialogue always highlighting the strengths and the growing edges of our district remember to frame your concerns as constructive feedback colored with respect and when warranted your suggestions there is work that Still Remains and we need to Broach some tough conversations with that respect and collaborative stance and so we have um we have I believe we have the right people on the bus and with this partnership um we will be able to accomplish much with strong working relationships with our key stakeholders and participants both internally and externally let's maintain that cohesion and diversity of thought and experience because incrementally we will continue to reach Greater Heights um and as we invest on this curriculum and training it will take take us much higher let's ensure a careful selection process that anchors on the resources that we have plus the ones we will continue to have with sound research proven pedagogy that will positively impact our children so thanks watching we are an exceptional community and we are in the best of hands so let's continue that good work and thank you for this honor thank you and I'm just going to briefly continue because Miss kid covered a lot of ground but we do have the exciting announcements coming so I I want to get to that first of all to our people that are still here tonight and our people that are at home watching thank you for everybody that was able to join us for the open house and our tours of the new art gallery and art instructional space and the library learning Commons it was um just such a lovely experience to be able to invite the community in I want to give a special thanks to our school resource officer Mike delinsky who was able to be at the secure entrance so all of the staff could be inside participating in the event we will be doing more events to showcase our referendum and other projects um as they're completed and um as we continue to program U Mrs kid talked about um Dr Fallon um and his rescheduled parent present we hope you will join us for that event it is rescheduled for again I'll say it again January 9th at 6:30 um we would love for you to be able to continue that conversation um with your children it was also so wonderful I know you're still sitting here so to be able to do the ribbon cutting of the Adventure Course in the Valley View gym just wonderful things happening um as I said to those gathered Watchung is a special place and to be able to support the community and schools at this level is is remarkable I am not going to repeat all my comments but I will say we are so grateful so very grateful for the opportunities the members of our community have afforded to our students and our staff not just now but for the future um so thank you for that it's my favorite time Year all I have to do is say good news all good news so um next up in good news we have teachers and support Professionals of the Year this is an initiative of the governor's office and every year we solicit nominations from the community and parents and from colleagues um and last year and this year we've tried to make it a little bit special um surprising people in the class and with their students um this year at The Nutcracker um ballet that um happened at Bayberry at the end because many of those students were students at Bayberry they chose to announce um and for this year it was it is kindergarten teacher and mileno and support services professional shopa shahen we um were able to surprise them with flowers and balloons you'll see those pictures um and again it was just so much fun the kids cheering it was you got to love it and we're we're proud to have that level of Staff with us here at Valley View um we did uh two different surprises and you'll hear why in a minute um our teacher of the year is special educator Kaitlyn basil um we surprised her in the math classroom and the kids were just over the moon and you'll see um some pictures I know there oh there you go that's with um Caitlyn and here's our other person our support professional is Cindy Scalera one of our um pair of professionals recently retired there they she came and surprised right there's Karen surprising um Caitlyn it's a lot of fun to do this there she is with her students um we couldn't like I said this level of staff is is more than a gift not just at the holidays but always so I love being um able to be a part of this and again to repeat we don't pick the people they are nominated from the parents and the school learning community so it's really a wonderful um thing and we're thrilled that we were able to um surprise and honor our staff um then we had Aaron if you're going to keep going there there we are at The Nutcracker there's you might recognize some of our former students Bayberry and Valley View now we're up to our friends giving thank you again we um W comes in and you'll see if you keep going we had pizza lunch there's dancing here I send you the pictures don't worry you don't have to I send you but there's dancing it's really a wonderful event and again thank you to our we volunteers for showing up and making sure that um our students and our staff this isn't obviously the only thing you got to see all my trunker treat pictures last month and pretzel days um it it's really a lot of fun and I'm thrilled that we're able to do it I do not have pie pictures from Thanksgiving from cpeg but I will tell you that the we we purchased um pies for the faculty at Bayberry and Valley View they were a big hit so that was a great fundraiser I hope it did well for ceg thank you um then keep going Aaron we had um the Mikey Fallon uh assemblies at fifth and sixth grade and seventh and eighth grade sponsored by our PTO um you see them in character here it was um wonderful both assemblies wonderful you can see the kids so engaged in his message um I will not spoil it again I hope you will join us um adults to have that conversation with your students in January keep going Aaron thank you now the holiday Boutique it was just Friday again thank you PTO I know a lot of work goes into that um a lot of people I even found some presents to buy surprisingly I don't know if you can see what this is this woman is putting fairy hair into people's hair I will tell you I thought it was fun I would have done it but the line like was incredible it was who knew fairy hair was the most exciting holiday thing you could do next time um and then today we had our treps Marketplace I know U Mrs kid um talked about that we talk about it often in the curriculum committee that is our program funded with the Youth Services Commission of the county giving our um young entrepreneurs real World Experience um they get to launch their own business they um work on their business plan and marketing and then today um they set up and actually sell uh their products to their um well to their classmates fifth through 8th grade during the day but then adults um after school and I will say it was very nice to have the um County Commissioners come and celebrate that as well and our um advisor Carissa stanzak is she still here Carissa oh she um also wrote a beautiful beautiful summary of the whole program um that was available for a county presentation so really wonderful and again lots of nice pictures from today um and the whole month wrapping up thought Exchange our pilot with thought exchange Transportation um question is still live through Friday please um we've had as far as I'm told really good participation people raing the comments and adding thoughts they told me when I asked today I think we have more than 50 thoughts and 600 ratings which is unbelievable to me like I don't know what I was expecting but it wasn't that so please take some time um through Friday complete that survey thought exchange will be analyzing the data and presenting it to um board Committee in January and then we'll have the Public Presentation in January with the results and the analysis we appreciate that level of input it it really gives us um working points right action action items to help us keep improving um there have been posters and flyers from the district and from the buau um about a new initiative the special needs registry again I know cpeg has been active getting that word out also this is an initiative through the Somerset County prosecutor's office it's voluntary but open to all citizens it helps our police officers and emergency service professionals assist our residents with special needs in the case of an emergency it lets those First Responders have that information if somebody has a disability or special emergency contact information maybe it's um um physical description or or specific ways to approach the resident um this is um really interesting there's a page on the prosecutor's office website it's on the district website and again we've posted the information in both schools um really a nice program um as Mrs Bishop Johnson shared this is the um last board meeting of this combined Board of Education when we come back in the new year January 6 we will have that's a Monday everybody not Thursday Monday um we will have our um reorganization meeting it is open to the public and we hope you'll join us finally just because I get to do this as we get ready to take our holiday break just I hope everybody can pause and take a minute um we want to extend our warmest wishes for good health happiness and peace we do have an early dismissal on Friday and the full district will be closed um next week December 23rd through January 1st we all return to the district on Thursday January 2nd I hope it's been a wild ride this last month I hope everybody is able to have a relaxing and rejuvenating time with friends and family merry Christmas happy Hanukkah happy Quanza to all who celebrate and a happy happy New Year to all thank you Dr Glazer okay uh we're going to go ahead and uh move on to Personnel committee um no you have that oh I'm sorry that's right um okay we are going to introduce Valerie yes where is that okay all right uh now we're going to introduce our um our auditor uh Mrs Dolan from uh nisia Lop um she will be conducting a um update on our audits report thanks for running here from your last presentation one of those nights where I'm running many times now we AG we appreciate it oh and thanks for the copies thank you again and sorry I was a little delayed I was at another presentation the same night so I'm trying to cover as many meetings as I can before the new year um just so you know like they said my name is Valerie Dolan I am the partner from nisaia um we've conducted our audit and we've actually completed and filed the audit um I wanted to take some time to come and present a little bit of background on the audit itself just is a quick refresher as it's a one time a year thing for everyone the audit is actually comprised of two documents there is an annual comprehensive financial report or the AER which is a very large document that document is broken into four main sections there is a small introductory section just sort of talks a little bit about the district itself there is a large Financial section which breaks down all of the details of all of the financials of the district additionally there is a the third section is statistical section it is labeled the J's that's actually a 10 years comparative so we find that useful it's not only 10 years comparative about Wong it's 10 years comparative about the burrow of Wang and Somerset County as a whole so it does give a lot of history if you're trying to look at anything in particular we do reference that section A lot the last section is the K section which is the compliance with single audit with our single audit requirements which is the compliance for all of your federal state and Grant funds second second um document that you have is the smaller Gray book which is our annual which is our management report to you um there was a last minute revision Karen has some new ones um we've actually eliminated recommendations so you actually have a clean audit with no recommendations which should be a commended it's not an easy thing to do to get the clean audit I wanted to make sure she had the correct documents to go into a little bit of the financials yes it's a very big book it's probably 160 some odd pages long but I would say there were probably of the most important pages in that document that is the audit schedule C1 that audit schedule C1 walks you through your budget that budget talks about all of your Revenue all of the changes to the revenue any transfers Appropriations it goes through every line item you can see that whole picture of the actual operating budget when you're all said and done it comes to the end and it talks about your fund balance picture um fund balance sometimes is a little bit of a misnomer we don't don't ever call that Surplus we just call that fund balance because that is comprised of a multitude of information within that fund balance for you you have a little over um $3 million but in that $3 million there's a couple of there's a bunch of little buckets um you have an unassigned allowed fund balance which is your the state allows the district to hold 2% of their budget plus any allowable adjustments so basically they say whatever your budget is you can hold 2% that's about $725,000 that's your free fund balance they ask you to hold that you have some encumbrances which encumbrances represent um goods and services that had been ordered but not completed by year end that roll into the subsequent Year's budget very small $99,000 there was all probably one or two small POS most of the bills were paid by year end um there is an unemployment reserve of about $58,000 that unemployment Reserve is the employees money for the unemployment if there were any unemployment claims it would come from that Reserve you have a capital reserve with a little over a million a million $100,000 in that capital reserve that capital reserve is set aside and what it can be mostly used for is your own local improvements but really the best place we see that used is for the funding of state grants they require you to have a contribution a local match to be eligible for their funding so that capital reserve shows you that you can afford and that you get your you can contribute your 40% so they will give you yours um that number has been on a steady like I look at there is an analysis that we've looked at over the years it is a declining fund balance it's on us a little bit up but it picked up mostly because of Interest earnings this year because interest rates are up your capital reserve picked up most of the growth was in interest leaving you with two pieces amount that was used of that same million $3 million to support the budget you're currently in which was $81,000 leaving you with what we say is the Builder for your 25 26 budget which is a little over $1.2 million while that sounds like a lot of money there's four almost $490,000 of it is interest from your referendum so if we were to take that $490 out you're actually a little lower at $740,000 which means you'd be actually starting a little lower while it's beneficial now the referendum funds are being fully spent in this most of this current year that means those interests will dry up so it's going to get tighter as the referendum funds slowly Decline and therefore the interest earnings one of the things we did do for the district is you actually earned an additional $300,000 in interest on the referendum but what we did is it was set aside and for a unique accounting term called Arbitrage Arbitrage is a very interesting thing um we haven't seen it happen in most districts but we are seeing it currently in all the new referendums what that means is your Bonds were issued at taxfree if your earnings are greater than your bond interest rate you're paying them that differential is no longer tax-free that is a calculation of Arbitrage you will be responsible at the end of the fifth year to pay that money to the IRS in the form of a tax so what we've done is we've set that money aside so that it would be Ben be available to you when that Arbitrage C payment is due so that you don't have to raise it within that any one budget so we took those reserves and then put that money aside and then only brought off over the difference into that Surplus number Additionally you had grants that came through your funds of about $450,000 that's federal state and local this is the last year we've seen the spending of all of the federal covid funds that have been in place they've been in the forms of Carissa ARP sr1 sr2 sr3 they've all finished and have been spent so those Grant monies will come down and leaving you with um your smaller grants that come that being said in our report as I said you have no formal recommendations so no formal corrective action other to accept the audit as required tonight we do have what we call our suggestions to management which is really our way of communicating things that could potentially be problematic in a future year if not handled properly through the district one of them is in the area of those federal and state grants with all of that Federal funding comes Auditors it's any possibility that the federal Auditors could come and audit you on any of those Grant funds we do review them but they do come in we are they are very difficult when they come in we've seen it various of the way they come in Sometimes they come in and could look at everything Sometimes they come in and look at one or two items we just say to be on the lookout in case they come be prepared to have a second audit other than myself and then the other one is also in the area of federal and state grants the way the federal government operates all of the grant money that's allocated to Wang is sent to the Department of Ed once you spend the money you then request your funds from the Department of Education so what we've seen is a delay in in a lot of our districts is a delay in requesting the funds so what we're doing is just reminding everybody be diligent and make sure you're requesting your money timely so that you're not utilizing your own cash for the grant funding that the state is holding on your behalf the state will tell you they'd like you to do it monthly we feel that quarterly is usually sufficient to get the cash flow proper I would love to answer any questions if anyone has any but all in all it is a good audit good clean audit thank you and thank you for doing such a wonderful job explaining to this to us prior too yes spent a long time explaining well the first one so at least my first one is um okay great anyone any questions for her no question thank you so much thank you so much a great evening have a happy holidays everyone you too thank you for running here and for changing the appreciate you thank you you have it open all right now we're going to move on uh to committee reports what's in yellow in yellow is not public I don't see any I don't know which one you have oh no I thought she you said personnel sorry yeah it is personel okay right um the Personnel committee met on Thursday December 12th at 5:30 part in attendance was committee members U Muhammad FR Anthony and Gracia Jen Forin Kua and Dr Julie Glazer um we were able to look at new business in terms of um Dr Glazer meeting and interviewing secretaries and updating roles and responsibilities um there are now three different secretary draft job descriptions uh special education department School secretary and principal's secretary they will be reviewed by the committee in January and then will be on the BOE agenda for approval um the seatan Hall University affiliation nurses of the committee was revised and the agreement to place clinical students we up we have updated the language to reflect a partnership with school districts and students instead of patients their attorneys are now reviewing the committee discussed an administrative medical leave for a staff member um also on discussion was other board agenda items in regards to the B View school secretary recommendation the B view para professional the additional before and after Care staff um the revised salary for the before and after Care staff as updated by the minimum wage of January 2025 The District substitute custodians the administrative medical leave the revision to extrac curriculum sorry excuse me um to revision to extracurricular staff and the home instruction assignment and that was all um discussed on that meeting thank you all right um curriculum curriculum okay all right our meeting met on December the 12th from 4:10 to about 5:00 that evening I was present committee members also were ftim of Santos Dory Harvey Mohammad fge he's the vice president they came in virtually Administration that was present was Dr Glazer Aly view principal kid Administration virtual was babber principal Denise victar Dr Glazer attended the Somerset County superintendence Retreat and attended several sessions that have been discussion topics in the curriculum committee cell phones the problem is not the cell phones it's the social media access and how the access is used global this has created a significant increase in bullying and other issues related to social emotional and mental health the committee followed up on a discussion regarding cell phones in the Watchung B schools at this time cell phones are kept in backpacks at Bayberry Del view students must keep them in their lockers if a student needs to call home they may do so in the principal's office exceptions continue to be made for students who need a device for medical reason reasons or for use in a class as part of a class project the policy committee will review the Board of Ed policy regarding the use of cell phones and other electronic devices to make sure it reflects current needs technology the question of moving from assigned onetoone devices that go home and returning to carts and in school use only was a topic at The Retreat not just for screen time but also related to bullying screen-free instructional days happening in several districts was also discussed the general consensus for those present and the principles attending our committee was that there has to be a balance between the use of technology devices and written responses since the state tests are taken on computers students have to become proficient at learning keyboarding skills and using the technology beginning in the lower elementary grades AI Dr Glazer shared a presentation she attended AI for Education leaders at this time AI is evolving is in wide use there are many aspects to consider for Education our policy committee will be reviewing various other District policies and a general policy introduced by Strauss Esme to assess Us in developing our own as we explore AI in Watchung borrow Mikey Fallon this present is very very well known to our district all references have been checked he was able to do a remarkable performance for Bayberry and valy view students despite being advised of a family medical crisis however he was not able to perform for the schedule parent Workshop that evening and the parent Workshop will be rescheduled for the beginning January I think it's the 9th referendum field and Outdoor Learning comment projects there is an internal stakeholders meeting schedule before the break and there will be a community input scheduled early in the New Year this will be followed up at our next schedule committee meeting UPC coming events early dismissal dismissal Friday the 20th District Clos for winter break December 23rd to the January 22nd and reorganization meeting will be Monday January the 6th thank you thank you I do just want to make sure I reiterate it was only our Valley View students it was an assembly for fifth and sixth grade and 7th and eth and it's important because it wouldn't have been age appropriate for our Bayberry kids and since our PTO funded it I don't want to I don't want to get them in hot water because it was wonderful thank you thank you Mr um all right so now we're going to go on to uh policy um policy U Miss Harvey would you mind reading sure we had our meeting on Wednesday December 11th the meeting was between 5 5 and 6:26 p.m. it was virtual in attendance was Dr Julie Glazer Manuel Gonzalez myself Danielle Amadeo and Phyllis jwet we had a couple things to follow up on we went through policy 54440 honoring student achievement um the committee's questions were answered by the superintendent it was explained that it um it isn't that we don't want to honor student achievement it was just that our Awards didn't necessarily fit into the the policy specifics and since this isn't a mandated policy the committee initially agreed to abolish it since it didn't apply to us after further discussion um and adjusting the policy language to fit our District's needs the committee agreed to delete the Athletics part and uh recommends the policy for first reading then we went over the policy regulation 7510 use of school facilities the committee didn't have any further feedback um from the first reading and we didn't hear from any other board members so that should be on for a second reading uh then we also talked about Transportation the committee discussed adding details to the policy that was proposed that are specific to Watchung and agreed uh with what was added and deleted from the policy the committee agreed to have the superintendent and the transportation coordinator review the details added to the policy and come back to the committee with any suggestions prior to sending it to a Strauss Esme attorney for review um this policy will continue to be worked on and the superintendent will report back to the newly formed policy committee um and the current policy members in January 2025 uh we also went over the booster club and the committee reviewed multiple booster club policies and are in favor of allowing a booster club to exist in the Watchung schools the purpose of a booster club is to raise money for a specific sports team or Club in the school district the policy should be up for a first reading we had no new business that's it want to read operations sorry um the operations and finance committee met on Tuesday December 10th at 5:00 pm uh committee members in attendance were myself Muhammad F Dory Harvey attended virtually uel Gonzalez um Administration was Julie Glazer Karen Bishop Johnson and Ricky Boyd and our guest was Valerie Dolan who presented the audit annual audit review um we we also discussed our ref we had a referendum projects update um we had an update now from Connor but we also discussed the change orders um the punch list items um the close out of the Northeast contract legacies day-to-day on-site presence ceased on November 30th of this year um Valley View still has five remaining units to be installed we also dis had a discussion regarding the field and Outdoor Learning Commons with the school stakeholders um there will be a meeting with them I guess it's tomorrow um and we also discussed the community ad hoc committee that had looked at HVAC um back in 2022 and um we reviewed the 2022 drawings of the field with the understanding that um when the time came to um look at what we were going to do with the field and the learning comments that the board and the admin would need to still develop a plan um we discussed Transportation there was a followup um regarding ing um thought exchange a process for communication with parents and there were some safety concerns that the board was made aware of with a certain bus stop and safety inspection was requested and completed and the stop was deemed safe um the agenda items of course is the audit um some employee professional development some pay applications uh the reappointment of porio as special Council um because our agreement expires at the end of this month um payments of bills transfers and financial reports that's it thank you all right um now we're going to move on to um ad hoc negotiations committee that's myself uh there's no updates currently for negotiations we'll be having that meeting on Monday uh prior to the reor um board liaison report um there's also no updates there uh Somerset County Educational commissions uh Miss Harvey any updates no we had a meeting but I couldn't attend it cuz I can't drive there so so I'm sorry but hopefully in the new year because I like going there a lot they're very friendly and it's great to kind of see everybody from all the other districts so got it all right and uh Miss adeo is out today so we don't have an update for Somerset County boards Association um Somerset County um uh School boards Association uh Miss ago you have anything yeah I just I have an update um I know at the last meeting I told everyone that it didn't look like we were going to get board recertification I I did sign out an email but I wanted to let the public know that there has been a change of events and because of the hard work of the policy committee over the summer um they were able to clear the Strauss Esme audit um of the policies and the school board is going to accept that and so we do qualify for recertification Y and the award go out in May we will celebrate again in we will celebrate again yes o policy committee wo policy committee thank you very much for all your hard work all right uh nothing on regionalization committee um and ujc um Dr gla or anything unfortunately I was out of town for their meeting but we start again in January thanks all right and we already had asked prior for PTO we and cpeg and I don't see that anymore anyone else is here for that um so we're going to go right into uh action items um Dr Vince Co do you mind moving uh action items administrative please yes I motion to move um administrative action items one approve minutes of previous meeting two approve the memorandum of agreement between the watching burrow Board of Education and watching burrow law enforcement officials is there a second I second um second can I second no no I can't right okay um all right um all in any discussion no okay roll call please okay uh all right let's see who's here Mrs igly Arrow yes um Mrs Harvey yes Mrs jet yes Mrs SOS Dr vincis Kua yes Mr Gonzalez yes and uh Mrs Amadeo Mr Ang Gracia Mr fras are all absent so the motion passes thank you okay uh Personnel fman you move Personnel um we would like to move personnel number one approve appointment number two approv before after Care staff number three approv salary adjustment or before after Care staff four approve leave of absence number five approve revised extracurricular positions six appoint District substitutes for 2024 2025 school year second any discussion second okay roll call please okay um Mrs Harvey yes Mrs Jette yes Dr vincis Kua yes Mrs Santos yes Mrs aaro yes and Mr Gonzales yes Mr F Mr Ang Gracia and um absent so the motion passes story operations and finance please everybody involved over here sure uh I'd like to move one approve payment of bills two approv transfer of funds for 2024 or 2025 three accept Financial reports uh four approve professional developmentschool business and related expenses five authorized submission of Esa title I is it IIA yeah okay thank you uh carryover Amendment Six except audit for the school year of 2023 24 7 approv payment application for Bayberry and Valley View HVAC upgrades eight approved change order for Bayberry and Valley View HVAC upgrades and nine approve Legal Services agreement special SLC conflicts councel second any discussion no nothing there um the number seven for the HVAC um does do we know if um these are deposits that are being made at this point because that's being done next year right well number seven is just so every month we every month it's just you know numbers one yeah and we're up to number seven uh the number seven payment we would approve tonight and it's due um by about January you know early January right when we get back and that's the number seven that's paid so you can see the remaining Balan is getting lower right we're almost you know almost finished okay towards half of their of the amount the H I don't think he understands that this is the pay yeah that's I mean that's this is approving the amount that will be will be paying them this time which is 38,2 and now it's bringing down the balance to 91 left every month they every month we are coming down a little bit you know a little further all right thank you um okay so um we'll do a rope call please okay all right let me just see okay um Mrs Harvey yes Mrs jet yes uh Dr vincis Kua yes Mrs Santos yes and Mrs Leo yes and Mr Gonzalez yes okay and Mrs adeo Mr fras and Mr Gracia are absent the motion passes right um and we didn't skip anything that we didn't go back to right so policy curriculum policy okay um policy can you move those sure I move items under policy one for first reading policy p5440 honoring student achievement and P 9191 booster clubs and two for a second reading p/r 7510 use of school facilities is there a second second okay call please okay uh let's see Mrs Harvey yes Mrs Santos yes Dr vinc Kua yes Mrs jet yes Mr Gonzalez yes and Mrs agero yes okay and we know that Mrs Amadeo Mr Ang Gracia and Mr f are absent motion passes all right um so we move on to board business anything on board business no okay uh comments from the public seeing that there's a lot of people here in the public everybody uh Riano 44 Gard drive and a uh parent of a first grader happy holidays everybody it's nice to see Smiles up here just saying that so that's good um Dr Glazer I basically just had two comments about the retreat that you um that jet mentioned um the the count the superintendent um the sort of in R disorder the there was a AI presentation and is there anything um about digital literacy or or Internet literacy or anything that that sort that is being rolled out to districts too I know I've seen stuff I forget what district it was but I'm just kind of curious if that's a topic that well media literacy has been a topic for yeah forever but we can that is part of the curriculum now um so I'll go backwards here at Valley View it's part of the library media curriculum it's it's their standards it's very intentionally um integrated into every right language arts social studies science good um they spend a tremendous amount of time is if you know what media literacy digital literacy is um helping students be critical thinkers to to figure out um that news probably doesn't come from social media and as much as adults might like it The Daily Show or coar that is not news right to help them to be able to discern fact versus opinion to be able to um learn the difference between summarizing and plagiarism um how to be a consumer of media print digital what whatever media it it's and and I started at valy view because it's obviously more rigorous up but backwards um I don't know if you remember but in October we have um you know there's Red Ribbon Week there's week of respect during that Red Ribbon Week there are a number of activities I know at Bayberry even for kindergarten and first grade a lot of activities about um digital literacy media literacy and again starting early to help students be critical thinkers and consumers and that's a big part of the AI right part of it you're starting to see AI also be a part of that yeah I think we're still expl I mean look if you use Google Maps if you use Netflix right we're already doing AI I think the focus of the presentations I've seen and I know um U Mrs Jet and Mrs Galera have been going to presentations the difference between because we're using it for everything right it's looking at the generative AI the um prompts right how you put a prompt into chat GPT one of one of those kinds of things um very interesting and I and so much to learn like that I think that even in our curriculum committee we were all surprised I think not to like volunteer but I mean this is what I basically do at work all the day all day so if you guys ever need help with you know large learning mod uh languages and I I would be interested just in learning about how to write better prompts it seems to make we we did an exercise from the presentation about how AI can um all on its own create bias and um change it was what was it hallucinate it makes a hallucination so you might believe it's real but it's not I would be very interested in learning to write better prompts just so I could understand how it's being used better if you're board one night uh Google Gand off AI it's a it's a obviously Lord of the Rings theme just going to say okay it's a it's a um it's a basically a a a progressively harder challenge to convince Gandalf that he should give you his password um and how you can try to trick people by what you're prompting them with I say people AIS um uh and and it's it's something we've done internally at Blackboard um just give everybody sort of like uh best practices and whatnot I mean we have whole like trustworthy AI stuff and it's it's that would be really interesting top of mind when it comes to edtech so um thank you the other thing I was wanted to I was curious about was the cell phone part that you mentioned um curious I I get that it's not the phone that causes the bullying it's the social media but are there policies or or rules or things that are are being explored at how they could actually restrict the students from oh all over the country literally there have been policies implemented in districts in New Jersey it's a big topic of conversation but to not like if they're if we're not restricting the use of the phone out you know obviously school oh so it's not it's in school okay just in school that makes me feel better good I hav't worryed about it yet I only first grad but still just in school what was that Google um gangler and a and off g n d o n d a LF g n d LF better AI really not a Lord of the Rings person no hitron for you going to say no hobbiton delegate this one to my son anyway again Happy Holidays thank you guys thank you family learn something new all the time remember him hi Christine Eid 105 Tiffany way um a quick question can you just expand a little bit on the honoring student achievement um new policy um I just I wasn't sure if I understood it correctly that there was a policy you're changing the policy and it's including or excl I'm I just missed it sorry sure um oh you could do it yeah yeah oh you do I was going to say do you have it to pull up that was all no I didn't have it it's in the folder in the committee I know but I just put everything away that's all right if you want to pull it up you get I I can start I can start off a little and then you finish it the overall is fine you don't have to um no it was just um we had Parts in it that were academic um that didn't necessarily fit with what we did we do honor students for service and whatnot um but one of the bigger Parts was the Athletics because we don't have an athletic director or anything it seemed more High School based than us um but after we were reviewed it for a bit the committee had some questions it was mainly to the the title of it we didn't want anyone to think we didn't want to honor our students because we do and we do that every day right so um once we remove the Athletics part of it out of it and I think um we made some suggestions for the superintendent to change a couple of things it fit what we did in our district so comes more all-encompassing under one umbrella term or right and just left it as just for academics and service in our community so and the policies will go in a folder in the um with the current agenda it stays up until the next agenda so people can comment or board members can comments and if there's a question it can come back to the committee before it would be for second reading okay great thank you very much so you didn't need it anyone else okay all right um I'd like to take a moment and um since this is the last meeting of the year I'd like to thank you all for giving me the opportunity to be in this position these last 12 months has truly been an experience um I put together um a lot of different cliff notes that I was going to touch upon but I'm just going to keep it really simple um you know this hasn't been my first rodeo being in a professional standpoint for the school system I joined here for the reasons of trying to make a difference for the kids I think every single one of you also have the same intention and also your family members too who I've met um and I just want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart it was really truly a pleasure I'll be on the other side next year and hopefully one of you guys will take the the stand and come up here and um it's just been an honor to serve you and the community and my family and um you know everything that we have to stand for here and the administrative staff I can't say enough that's another list that I can put together um it was your first year coming on board I joined you here first year on this side you've been correcting me all year with all my mistakes and my my jumps and if it wasn't for you guys I would be skipping committees and all kinds of stuff because I mean I definitely this there was no training manual for this but I appreciate the opportunity um it's really been it really been a pleasure working with you guys and um I'm not leaving yet I'm going to just be on the other side of the table so some of you with exception to Dr Vince COA I'll get to see you guys again next year in Dr Vince school now we're going to just see each other all over town we never missed we never saw each other before but now you're going to see me everywhere that's right yeah that's how it goes but um but thank you thank you I really really do appreciate working with you guys you guys are awesome and I love you all you thank you thank you for your leadership no truly thank you and Mo just reached out he was not able to be here he had a final he wanted um me to make sure to tell you Dr Vince sua and Anthony um that it was his pleasure to serve with both of you and much success in your next um Endeavors and hopefully everybody stays engaged in the schools even when they're not on the board so from from Mo thank you thank you all right um I think that's it that's it motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second second all in favor I discussion meeting adjourned thanks everybody happy holidays holiday we take a quick photo before yeah of course yeah of course wait e