un States good evening everybody happy New Year Welcome to our annual uh board reorganization meeting uh to begin this meeting has been published um in accordance with chapter 231 uh the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to advance notice of and to attend meetings of this board except where specifically Exempted by law at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the board of education has caused notice of this meaning to be published by having the same advertise in avable times also notice that this meaning has been mailed to the members of the Board of Education the burrow clerk all elementary schools the middle school the high school Hornblower Early Childhood Center and posted on the district website also this meeting is being televised via the district's YouTube and Facebook pages at this time the uh I'll read off the official annual School Board election results from this past November's election uh in first uh Dr Lissa msaga with 1,289 votes she had 23.2 n% of the vote second was Miss Brenda Pacho with 1,242 votes she had 22.44% of the vote uh next was estan Mr estaban Leon 1,70 votes with 19.33% of the vote next was Mr Michael Sheldon 647 votes 11.69 % of the vote next was Kenya Nicole AR Arabi excuse me 496 votes 8.96% next was uh Mr Nelson Barrera 454 votes 88.2% of the vote and last was Miss Erica Jacko 330 votes uh 5.96% of the vote okay at this time um could Dr Lissa massagi please come up for the swearing in uh she will be sworn in by judge lewitz I'll hold no I um no I want you to sign yours yes I've heard because I'll have her sign that one bring your family up bring your family up turn around all right please your wa okay ready ready okay you say you repeat after me okay I state your name i l m to solemnly swear to solemnly swear that 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 to the same and that I will bear true faith and aliance to the same and to the god governments established and to the governments established in the united states in the United States and this state and this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people so help me God so help me God I state your name iiss Mia do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I possess the qualifications that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law prescribed by law for the office of member of a Board of Education the office of member of the Board of Education and that I am not disqualified and that I am not disqualified as a voter as a voter pursuant to RS pursuant to RS 19 colon 4-11 nor disqualified due to conviction of a crime or offense nor disqualified due to a conviction of a crime or off or offense listed in listed in njs njs 18a 12-1 121 and that I will faithfully and that I will faithfully impartially and impartially and justly perform and justly perform all the duties of that office all the duties of that office according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me God so help me God congratulations now you have to now you have to sign a good one go the microphone once again congratulations Dr massaga welcome all right next would uh Miss Brenda Pacho please come up swearing her in will be uh Mr Mayor Michael melhan I state your name I Brenda P do solemnly swe swear to some swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and I bear a true faith and allegiance to the same and allegiance to the same and to the governments established and to the governments established in the united states in the United States and the state and the state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people so help me God so help help me I state your name I do solemly swear do swear that I possess the qualifications that I possess the qualification prescribed by law prescribed by law for the office of member of the board of education for the office of the member of of Board of Education and that I am not disqualified and that I'm not disqualified as a voter as a voter pursuant to RS pursuant to RS 19 colon 4-1 19 call calling for das one nor disqualify due to conviction nor disqualify con conviction of a crime or offense of a crime or offense listed in njs listen to njs 18a 18a 12-1 12-1 and that I will faithfully and that I faithfully impartially impartially and justly and justly perform all the duties perform all the duties of the office according to the best of my ability of the course of the best of my ability so help me God so help me God congratulations Madam [Applause] ch Mr PCO congratulations welcome at this time I'll turn the meeting over to the board attorney Mr Jonathan Bush for the election of officers Mr Bush thank you very much Mr Paladino the temporary chair of this body at this time we're going to do do the nomination of officers so I'm going to open the floor for the nomination for the position of board president yes I'd like to nominate truste Bennett meanie okay there's been a nomination for trusty Bennett meeting are there any other nominations seeing none I'm going to close nominations Mr Paladino can you please take the roll call sure trusty benett me yes trusty dtis yes trusty daro yes uh trusty MSI yes uh trusty munz yes trusty Pacho yes trusty Williams yes congratulations [Applause] congratulations just the proced do want thank you very much everyone happy New Year I am both humbled and honored to be elected as president of the board uh I look forward to working together welcome the new trustees uh Mrs Liz msia Dr Liz msia and Brenda Pacho and uh Lewis our outgoing president I just want to say um you were worked tirelessly and uh I know you put in a lot of hours and I know the president's position is um you know very rigorous but I'm looking forward to picking up where you left off so thank you all very much and at this time do we have any nominations for the position of vice president Hi um sorry yes I'd like to nominate Nicole dtis as vice president any other nominations hearing none please call the rooll sure trusty dtis yes trusty daro yes trusty msaga yes trusty munz yes trusty Pacho yes trusty Williams yes president benini yes congratulations thanks okay did we want to do another roll call okay all right so first official role trustee daro here trusty massaga here trusty munz here trusty Pacho here trusty Williams here vice president dtis here president benini here okay and I think we're just gonna Loop this a little out of order we're going to do a um Dr TOMCO if you have any marks thank you president Ben congratulations uh Miss dtis as well uh to our new trustees welcome to the board um this board has been extremely productive uh since I've been here nine years ago I came here nine years ago uh we've done a lot together uh all the board members and trustees have worked together uh we we've had some uh some incredible successes but we still have a long way to go with regard to academics and some infrastructure needs as we still have a growing population of students that are coming coming here because of the great things that are happening in this district and the township as a whole um um just I've seen The Rebirth of this community over the last several years uh and uh with uh with this new board sitting I know we'll continue to do uh more so progress and uh thank you very much Tom co uh Mr Paladino do you have any remarks I do Mr Ean wanted me to make a couple of comments for this evening wanted to congratulate the new board members were sworn in uh looks forward to working with uh the new board as we continue to make progress uh with the district in the year 2024 uh apologizes that he can't be here or be watching live uh his family has made some prior commitments for his birthday it's his 80th birthday um so he is preoccupied there so happy birthday Mr Egan and congratulations everybody okay thank you all right we're GNA move on to uh curriculum and instruction there are no items so we're going to continue do we do remarks by citizens do have to have comments at some point yeah all right no one signed in yeah just for the record just say that nobody sign speak we're going to move on to remarks by citizen but no one has signed in so we're going to keep going we're going to move on to personnel there are no items either so we're going to move on to board action and board policy and we do have items there we have our meeting dates and uh student code of conduct so I have a motion motion and a second second call the rooll trusty Dara yes trusty massaga yes trusty munes yes trusty PCO yes trusty Williams yes vice president dtis yes president pamini yes we're going to move on to purchasing and finances there's nothing there uh move on to remarks Again by citizens no one no no one's there um so we're going to just move on to remarks from board members bar Clos CL in remarks why don't we begin with trustee Tracy Williams thank you Vice sorry thank you president um Bennett meanie um I just want to keep it short and say congratulations to both of our new trustees um I'm just looking forward to working with you both and also congratulations to our new board President and Vice President thank you thank you and trustee Michael Darrow uh yes I'd like to keep mine short and sweet too if possible uh so I would like to congratulate uh Brenda Pacho and Dr uh Lisa MSA for uh coming onto this board where you know we're going to work together well we all know are going to participate and move this school district uh in the right direction Al together and I look forward to working with you with you both I also look forward uh congratulations to both uh president uh Gabby benam Min and vice president uh Nikki dtis um I'm sure we're all going to just get used to this the way the new board is set up and I I I look forward to the rest of this year thank you thank you and trustee Brenda Pacho well G to make it shorter too so I was going to say thank you for the voting for people both for me thank you I'm going to do my best and I'm going to work with all the new the other thust members and do my best thank you so much and trustee Dr Liz massaga good evening I would like to say that it really is such an honor and a privilege to be seated among such an esteemed group of dedicated trustees it only took me four years to get here and it just shows that hard work really does um make your dream come true and my dream has always been to do what I can do to make um the educational system as wonderful for our kids for every child and to to do what I can to keep the politics out of it but I do want to say thank you to the voters who put their trust in me to uh my campaign team because you guys have been absolutely amazing and I couldn't have done it without you um and all the volunteers who helped and to my family who have stood by me put up with me eaten cereal for three months because because I wasn't there to cook dinner every night I won't go there I really won't um and it's it's been a rough journey and we're here but I want to just say that um I'm here to support all of the stakeholders the the children especially the parents the teachers the taxpayers I am one of all I wear every one of those hats and it's so important that we communicate and we all work together and I'm very grateful to be a part of a group of dedicated people that shares my vision and we may not always agree but we can agree to disagree respectfully and I look forward to working with all of you um I wish everybody a very happy healthy blessed new year and progress thank you and our outgoing president Lewis munes truste munes good evening everyone um I too want to Echo everything that's been said welcoming Brendon Dr Liz masaga to uh this side of the table it's uh it's a very rewarding um opportunity that we get to really do our best for our kids in our community so I'm sure you're going to enjoy every bit of it even in the times when uh you want to pull your hair out uh it's going to be uh definitely going to be worth it um want to congratulate uh president benini and vice president um Nikki dtis uh I'm glad that you get to step up and and and take on this challenge uh working with Doc uh want want to thank you for uh uh your guidance uh during my time there Matt and Mr Jonathan Bush for all your help while I was sitting in that seat it is not easy um it is a daily and you you will see it is a daily daily um commitment um but you know I had a great group of people behind me uh working with me and uh guiding me and uh being very open-minded for the many ideas that I would throw out on the table and uh we would work together to get it done so I want to thank everyone for that uh for the opportunity and I look forward to uh dis new board thank you thank you um before the vice president and I do our closing remarks I just wanted to acknowledge our student who is here ryanne Czech Ali Al do you want to say anything tonight um thank you so just on behalf of Belleville High School I'd like to wish everyone a Happy New Year we hope all of you had amazing holidays and um to everyone joining us um I'd like to wish you a congratulations and a really warm welcome that's all for today I hope you all have a great evening thank you and vice president Nikki dadis hello everyone happy New Year um first I want to say thank you to my fellow Trustees for putting your faith in me as vice president it's really an honor congratulations to Gabby for making president we're definitely ready for this year also a big congratulations to Brenda and Liz I look forward to working with both of you this year and that's it everyone have a good night thank you thank you um and I'll just one up you Liz it took me a couple of tries to get here too um anyway uh our next meeting regular scheduled meeting is January 22nd so I just wanted to wish you all a Happy New Year and looking forward to good health and good things and progress um so motion to close second all those in favor I I very good any opposed okay