do you want me to invite Mr yeah but we got to go through the beginning first yeah yeah yeah yep y okay okay we're ready we're good okay that's okay come on in good evening everyone and welcome to the calwell West calwell Board of Education regular public monthly meeting today Monday January 29th 2024 today the board met an executive session actually it says 6 p.m. but was 5:30 p.m. here in James calwell high school room 105 265 Westville Avenue West calwell New Jersey the purpose of that meeting was to discuss Personnel litigation miscellaneous and old business matters that meeting had been advertised and is in compliance with the open public meeting act and njsa 10 col 4-6 also known as the Sunshine Law the matters discussed will be made public when confidentiality is no longer required and formal action pursuant to said dis discussion shall take place only at a meeting to which the public has been invited tonight the public conference meeting is beginning at 7:03 p.m. here in the James calwell high school cafeteria 265 Westville AV in West colell New Jersey the Board of Education meeting is being streamed live but all Community questions and comments are welcomed here in person the calwell West calwell Board of Education public conference meeting is also in compliant with the open public meetings act and njsa 10 4-6 also known as the Sunshine Law notices have been sent to the progress in Caldwell New Jersey The Star Ledger Newark New Jersey and tap into West Essex notices have also been posted at the Board of Education business office in the Harrison School building Grace Street West Caldwell and have been delivered to the clerks of the burough of Caldwell and Township of West calwell for posting Brian can you please take the role yes student rep representative mine Alberta here miss St Martini here miss lfi Jefferson here Miss Mack here Mr teola here M Gro here you have five voting members present we have a quorum great Maddie want to lead us on the pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands nation under God indivisible with libery and justice for all Brian are there any Communications for the board this evening there were there were none thank you okay so we're going to move to the superintendent report I'd like to invite uh Mr develin up to the podium to recognize one of our retiring coaches sure thank you uh I'm honored to be here tonight to um thank one of our coaches that is retiring after many years of service um Mr Bob Mella um I should start out by saying that um when I was first appointed in to this position had the honor of being appointed by the Board of Ed in 2015 um they gave me a yearbook before I started and I was going to the yearbook and I remember saying to one of my colleagues I looked at the football picture and I said they got more coaches at Caldwell than they do at Ruckers you know there were so many coaches there and most of them were volunteers um and I I think at that time it was Ken trimmer was the head coach uh Dan Romano was the offensive coordinator Tom Lamont was the defensive coordinator um but one of the things that's interesting is that over the past few years uh really the Old Guard has sort of turned over to to to the young to the young guys um but it really speaks to the culture of Athletics here uh the board has certainly been very supportive of all of our Athletics and extracurricular activities um but it is the people of the the community the guys who many of them played for our teams and want to continue to coach for our for our players that really make this a special program and those of you who've been in other school districts really can see it when you travel from one athletic department to another and I certainly would um thank Dan Romano too for his service who I think has really been able to carry on that tradition Dan couldn't be here tonight but um um he wrote a couple of words he wrote some things down here uh and I'm going to read about Bob okay tonight it is our pleasure to recognize a very special person Mr Bob Mella Bob has been part of the calwell West calwell Community for close to 50 years he is truly a legend Bob started his teaching days in North Bergen in 1963 while there he coached baseball and football and was involved in five State football championships in 2006 he retired from teaching after 43 years at North Bergen where he was the department chairman for health and PE upon moving to West Caldwell in 1977 Bob immediately became involved in our communities he served as the councilman in West Caldwell for 15 years and is currently involved in our Recreation Department serving as the director for special events for the past 16 years Bob and his wife Joan have raised two fabulous children Rob and Mike both doctors both outstanding athletes and both involved in our current football program Bob shift to Caldwell football had much to do with Rob and Mike in 2010 our Caldwell football staff led by then head coach Ken trimmer reached out to Bob and asked if he was interested in coaching at Caldwell as luck would have it coach Mella agreed but he agreed on one condition that he work as a volunteer not wanting to get paid at all he worked the same as every other paid coach and refused any compensation coach Mella cherished the opportunity to coach with his friends to work with his coach to work with coaches that coached his sons and most of all to enjoy the opportunity to coach with his sons Bob Mella coached football with the Chiefs for the past 13 years this year after an amazing run coach Bob um Mella has dedicated to has decided to retire from coaching football after 53 years we owe Bob Mella a debt that can never be repaid and are proud to consider him alleged legendary part of our Caldwell Chiefs family thank you coach Bob Mella everybody like stand up come on get on your feet let's make some [Music] noise just a couple a couple more things please everyone be seated um we know that uh coach Mella has got plenty of Caldwell swag we couldn't really think I don't think he needs another shirt or sweatshirt but we do have some uh some goth balls that you can use in your in your time off but Chief with the Chief's head on it absolutely with on there um the other thing that we should say is that not only I mean Bob has also supports the community with through Unico and and student scholarships uh he's very much a part communicating with us about trying to get special fense events and fundraisers um and also his wife Joan uh is one of our most dedicated and uh and supportive substitutes yes I and they love to travel and I think if it wasn't for the fact that they can't travel in the fall because Bob continues to coach that Bob would probably continue to coach so now that you will be free to travel Joan we were still going to give you some blackout dates when we know the AP testing we need you here etc etc etc but we do want to thank you both uh for your continued support absolutely congratulations well first of all very humbling uh 53 years I didn't think was long until I got invited um to my first State quarterback when we won a state championship his 65th birthday so I said wow and uh I have to thank the COA West COA border of Ed for allowing me to do this um I have to thank coach trimmer and he did came up to me and he said how would you like to coach with your sons I don't know how many people can go to work every day and not mind it I enjoyed it I enjoyed it because the kids we had three things okay I told them if you're not having fun don't play football and I had a mother call me last year and say did you tell my son to quit I said I never told him to quit I said if he wasn't having fun football might not be for him so she she thanked me and of course the kid stayed and they played four years of football so I have to thank the board and I have to co thank coach trimmer and Coach Lamont and now coach Todd Romano for allowing an old man to stay on the field so again uh it was great never minded one day coming to work and I knew my sons were here back in the 90s and they won that state championship that once you're a chief you're always a chief so thank you very much [Music] um before I I just have a quick statement but I'd like to open it up to the board if anyone would like to make any comments I would just like to say thank you Mr Mella for your service I was a chief too I went to school in the 90s and you really um are a legend in our community and we appreciate your volunteering you've certainly made an impact on the students um and community members so I know you're going to still be busy though because you have a lot of grand kids so doing the traveling and your grandchildren enjoy you're welcome that's right that's right I just want to make a formal statement on behalf of the board that I wrote um before I do that on a personal note I feel that um Mr Mah you're one of the people that's responsible for me being here uh we had a lot of heart-to-heart talks when I started to run initially for the board and I look to you as a father figure a mentor and I'm so grateful to you for your wisdom and guidance to me personally always I can say in our community there's very few people that talk the talk and walk the walk and this gentleman right here is definitely one of them so thank you very much now I'm going to read my formal statement okay that I that I wrote for you so Mr Mella on behalf of the Caldwell Board of Education I'd like to expense extend our heartfelt gratitude to you for your unwavering dedication and exemplary service to our district and community throughout your tenure as an esteemed football coach as you embark on the next chapter of your journey in retirement we reflect on your profound impact not only on the field but also in the lives of countless students whom you have inspired and mentored in the spirit of the Caldwell Chief's motto once a chief always a chief coach Mella you have exemplified the values of leadership integrity and perseverance instilling these principles in each player that you have coached your commitment to Excellence has left an indelible mark on our school and community and for that we are all eternally grateful while you may be retiring from your official roles on the field we take comfort in knowing that your passion for shaping young minds and fostering athletic achievements will endure we know where to find you somewhere on the sidelines of a high school or a recreation game offering guidance and support to those who seek it let let us remember the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson who said what lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us your legacy coach Mella will continue to inspire generations of chiefs to come thank you can we stand up one more time please I think 53 years we can stand up one more [Applause] time so we're going to get a quick picture for the going to take a two minute break and get some pictures all right BR Bri we got to approve minutes right everything everything okay okay yes okay we're back back in Action we're good okay thank you guys so much again okay we're going to move on with the agenda um committee reports we have committee reports tonight so let's move on to that personel yeah let's do Personnel we'll do Personnel first all right so for personnel um we had a Personnel meeting on January 16th at 3:30 um myself Miss Mack Dr conin Mr McCarthy and uh m Jones were present the the committee reviewed um the projected need for a special education teacher um we re we previewed and discussed three it job descriptions um as well as three draft job descriptions two it and one coaching um the administrator reviewed the recent sick leave Law and the potential impact of the district and the administrators provided updates on ongoing negotiations and that was our committee report thank you any questions or comments from the board about the Personnel committee report Okay C finance and Facilities finance and Facilities thank you sure the finance and Facilities committee met on January 18th from 5:15 p.m. to 6:48 p.m. board committee members present included president Julian Gro and myself Danielle Mack Dr Christopher Conlin Caitlyn Jones and Brian McCarthy were present for the administration the committee reviewed all finance and facility agenda items for this meeting it was noted that the purchase of an F250 maintenance vehicle was budgeted for fiscal year 2024 and replaces a vehicle that was retired last year the board also thanks the Washington and Wilson Wilson hsas for their continued work for the district and recent donations which are going towards seam clubs and after school programs the committee started their initial review of the upcoming fiscal year 2025 budget members of the committee agreed that expense containment and the minimization of tax levy growth would be priorities in the budget Creation with the latter goal the Committees will be targeting an under 2% tax levy increase for fiscal year 2025 the public hearing and adopt hearing and Adoption of the fiscal year 2025 budget is scheduled for May 6th of this year so mark your calendars thank you great thanks Danielle any questions or comments comments from the board no nope okay all right so we'll move on to the approval of minutes can I have a motion to approve the minutes please I'll make a motion to approve the minutes and may I have a second Brian can you take the role please yes uh Miss D Martini yes Miss lalie Jefferson yes Miss Mack yes Mr deola yes Miss Gro yes 5 Z motion carried okay so now we're going to move to public comments on agenda items only at this time remember there'll be a time at the end of the meeting for things off of the agenda for this time just items on this evening's agenda okay public participation shall be governed by the following participant must be recognized by the presiding officer and must preface comments by an announcement of their name and address statements are to be limited to 3 minutes duration participant may speak no more than once on the same topic until all others who wish to speak on that topic have been heard all statements shall be directed to the presiding officer boards may use the public comment period of the meeting as an opportunity to listen to Citizen concerns but not to debate issues or enter into a question and answer session or a cross-examination between the public and individual board members be aware not all issues brought before the board this evening will be resolved boards May respond to public comment by seeking additional information or by delegating the authority to investigate the issue to the superintendent or his designate the presiding officer May interrupt warn or ter a participant's comments if it exceeds the allotted time or is objectively obscene participants may be civil liable for any obscene defamatory or slanderous statements made during public comment does anyone want to come up and make comments on anything comments or questions on anything on the agenda right now no we're good okay we'll have a chance for items off at the end all righty so moving on let's go to our votes um we're going to start off with curriculum and and Technology Terry please upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools motions to approve items a through L under curriculum and Technology including item number 412 modified under a on this evening's agenda great thank you Terry do we have a second please I'll second it okay Brian will you take the role please yes um Miss D Martini yes Miss Lind Aly Jefferson yes miss Ma yes Mr Dian Bola yes M Gro yes 5 Z motion carried okay Personnel Personnel under the recommendation of the superintendent of schools motion to approve items a through n under certificated and items a through e under non-certificated under Personnel on this evening's agenda okay um any questions or comments on the board nope okay do we have a second please pleas I'll second Brian can you take the role please yes Miss Ste Martini yes M lalie Jefferson yes Miss Mack yes Mr dimola yes Miss Gro yes 5 Z motion carried okay finance and facil can we do finance and Facilities yeah it's so finance and Facilities upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools motions to approve items a through I under finance and it a under facilities on this evening's agenda any questions or comments from the board nope nope okay you have a second a second great Brian can you take the role please yes Miss St Martini yes Miss lalia Jefferson yes Miss Mack yes Mr dimola yes M Gro yes 5 motion carried and we have no updates to policy so we have no policy vote this evening so now we'll move move on to public comments on anything off of the agenda um once again same rules apply I'm not going to go through it same that we just read it before okay um anybody have any comments they'd like to come up and address the board on anything off the agenda or if something occurs to you that's on the agenda that you'd like to come up and talk about feel free my name is Ann Mano and I live at 141 small Avenue I'm not sure if you're going to be able to answer because I you just said you can't give me answers but um I know I brought up two things in the last meeting in December about police presence at the middle school and the other one was uh busing um basically to the high school since it's not centrally located so I don't know how to proceed further um you know my next step is to try to get um maybe other parents involved um I've recently talked to people about it and someone told me that um they know of a high school student on Central that the parents are paying a neighbor to drive their child to school every day to the high school so I really feel that this is something that needs to be addressed and that you know people just don't want to take the time to come here they're I mean today I had to work all day I had to go to CCD I actually picked up dinner rather than cooking to come here so I think that that there is a major need but no one is making the time to come here to say anything um same thing goes like back when there was an all day kindergarten luckily we were able to Rally up parents to come um because it you know just went on and on and on for years like that when we were the only District so I don't know what else to go further um there seems to be more police presence at the middle school recently but I don't know if that's because I came here or that's just a coincidence I did talk to someone at my job cuz I'm a teacher that happens to be a retired cwell police officer and he told me that there's only four like three or four cop police officers at a time on the schedule during the day believe it or not that's what he's informed me I don't know if that's true or accurate but that's what he had told me cuz I was telling him my concerns and he was a retired police officer so I'm just here again um unfortunately the two people that I've that are on board with me they were didn't come tonight one just had a baby and the other one just didn't come um but I don't know how to proceed further about busing to a high school that is not centrally located and that there's a lot of working parents that cannot drive their child to school and again it's just the times are different now and I believe there's a major need for busing even if it's that parents have the option to pay or it's sub you know or there's maybe the board is the district is paying for part of it but parents have to pay for part of it or whatever but I really feel like it it should be addressed uh sooner than later my son isn't going to the high school until he's only in sixth grade but there are parents that are in need of busing in this town and there isn't busing that live far thank you I don't know if there's any um thing that anyone wants to say or you guys are not responding basically is that my understanding no yeah and it would be great if you could send an email to Dr Concklin that would be terrific especially about the busing issues if you could put this in writing and put it so that there can start a correspondence between yourself and the administration that to me would be your next best steps we're listening to you but we don't administer the district so it would be great these are administrated administrative items so if you could email Dr Conlin if you need his email just see him right after after the meeting I'm can find it on the on the district site I'm sure yeah so let's start a correspondence okay so that's great so I really didn't know how to go about it so that's why I'm here again to see if anyone could give me some help yeah so let let's start a correspondence with the superintendent okay with your spec like with I mean you're you're being very eloquent right now but if you could just put it in writing so that there can be a correspondence not a problem I will if I don't get it will be over the weekend probably because I have report cards that's fine that's fine that's fine okay thank and an thank you for taking the time out know it's bu people just don't want to come they're just busy they want to come but they're just so busy all right thank you you're welcome thank you anybody else can I just add one thing yes yes go ahead please do email me but um in terms of the cwell police they are there in the morning in the afternoon but there there are staff is limited so if there's an emergency or something comes up that's why you may not see them there they've told us that in the past like they have to leave because there was an accident or some other thing that they had to be involved in but they are typically there in the morning and during drop a drop off in the morning and then a dismissal in the afternoon unless there's an emergency on the because there's not that many Poli offic but we do work with them and we do try to have them there for for drop off and dismissal thank you thank you an anyone else he Liz come on up Liz Hart 149 Ravine um I just wanted to quickly ask Dr Conlin about the budget so last year I had requested that it be posted on the website the preview budget because it was um advertised in you know the paid newspaper and not everyone um subscribes to the paid newspaper so I just want to confirm that that would again be available on the website this year yeah we'll make sure we get a post on perfect thanks thank you Liz anyone else I really didn't have anything until John Walker 63 H drive until she brought up the police presence at the middle school if there's not enough police officers in cwell Police Department to make sure kids don't get hit by cars at the beginning of school and after school if there's an emergency during the day that requires more than one police officer should that not be a concern for every single person in this room you'd have to talk to the calledo police we don't hire them we don't we're not involved in what they do we just ask for their support okay so could I just State for the record that there are lots of programs nationally recognized and certified ifed for threat response for actually the school themselves to take action uh to mitigate those uh lack of resources in the public sector thank you I'm sorry thank you hi Beth Dean Memorial Road I'm uh wondering if you can give an update of the construction and status of Harris in school um the in ter what's your question exactly I'm sorry if you can get an update of the construction status and uh what's going on at Harrison school so Harrison's being renovated it's in the middle of being renovated right now they finished the first phase and there's two other phases to be completed we're hoping the renovations are finished by sometime in the fall of 24 that's our hope the fall of this year the fall of September of 24th so the beginning of the next school year okay so what is completed what has been completed in Phase One um uh Renovations of internal spaces for to be able to move the old board officers into new offices and now they're going to be renovating the offices that existed back into the classrooms that they were before when the building was first built and then there'll be Renovations outside of the building to add a a vestibule and um we're also looking at the HVAC in the the gymnasium so all of that will happen in FA in the next two phases of the the construction renovation sorry so the what was previously the board offices has been well where the board offices were moving to that part has been completed so for the most part yeah it's still got some things to be completed in terms of HVAC finishing some other finishing pieces um and then then they'll be able to start working and finishing the the uh classrooms to update them and then we have to go into the um gymnasium to update the HVAC we're trying to wait until the school's not going to be in full use because we use that space um throughout the day so we don't we want to wait till the end to be able to convert that so that'll be something that hopefully happens over the summer but we all know sometimes construction gives you one deadline and seems like it's always six to 8 weeks after that okay so anticipating that that could be completed by the fall of this year then how will that building be used that would be a conversation that happens next year probably potentially for 25 26 there hasn't even been any conversation about that we're just in the process of getting the renovations finished before any conversation goes into how what we're going to be using Harrison for so you're thinking no new students there other than the the current programs in the fall potentially could be used for that's something the board will decide sometime next school year okay all right I I have a a different question should I continue on or should I um does anyone else have anything to speak about with Harrison buing okay so okay can we'll bring you right back up hi Alysa Manelli I live on Forest Avenue um I I wasn't going to speak but that struck me as odd I'd like to ask why you would plan renovations if you don't understand the purpose of those Renovations so we we we had exer money to expand the opportunity for students to be in smaller classrooms we're looking at the potential for new housing going up so we wanted to use the federal funds that were available when they were available two years ago to start these Renovations they were half finished and we wanted to make sure we finished the school to make it a viable school what it can potentially be used for has to be decided it's there's so many factors that go into what the final determination the board wants to use that facility for in terms of demographics in terms of housing sales and where students live and where they don't live and other schools potentially renovate there's so many questions like I'm thinking of five now so we wouldn't be able to really make it the final determination what Harrison is going to be used for until sometime next school year okay um thank you come on sorry so my my other question was about um the uniform State memorandum of agreement with law enforcement that was just updated you voted it's approval tonight so um my question is what is different in that agreement than the previous one um the there's not too much different there's every year we have to sign the memorandum of agreement there was some updates in how boards and uh the police can communicate with each other in terms of sharing um information information about students information about security concerns information about um our security process and information about um student issues okay you know the Department of Justice uh recently re uh released their report about ivaldi's shootings which is a horrifying read and um I would I would recommend for the board members to read at least the executive summary it's 30s something Pages horrifying and so I am hoping that the board has plans to work really closely with the local law enforcement County State Fire all of those people and really review the plans that are in place and how that is communicated to staff not only within the district but outs outside the district with other law enforcement so coordination was really critical so okay thanks you're welome thank you the last meting I brought up the Raptor hack where she just suggested with Communications I highly recommend and wanted to be noted publicly that Raptor was the only sock to compliant school safety software and communications platform and they got hacked in the entire United States so when picking a vendor please make sure that our children's cyber security person personal information and our family's cyber security and per personal information is very well guarded thank you thank you anybody else okay I'm going to then close public comment and ask for a motion from the board to end public session now at 7:37 p.m. and enter into executive session back in room 105 can I have a motion I'll make a motion and can I have a second I'll second okay um sure all in favor uh I all against uh nay any extensions uh motion carried great so um before we close I just want to remind everyone if you're involved we have our steam referendum committee meeting this Wednesday to all parents and administrators who are involved with the board on that Miss D martini and Miss math are heading Steam on Thursday Mr Dan B and I have our first meeting about the Fieldhouse with the coaches and administration of the high school and athletic director um and so we will you know continue to share and be transparent as those meetings take place um and we are done we will see everybody in February we are remind me where are we in February middle middle no no we're element we're at our first Elementary School Jefferson or I think it's Jefferson I do think it's Jefferson but check the webite so February we're at Jefferson School okay so that's where we'll be and and mo meeting is adjourned thank you so much everybody