can everyone please rise for the flag salute 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 call the meeting to order toess in the event of an emergency all people may exit right or left from this room and proceed to an exit door all doors will open from the inside the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interests is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the the Helen board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published in the north Jersey record record News Herald the board's official newspaper on January 10 2024 notices of this meeting indicating date time and place publicly on the door of the main entrance to the school and filed to the clerk in the municipality of haon roll call please Mr Abasi here Mr colada Miss C here Mr here Mr Martinez Mr moel here Mr Ramadan here Mr web here and Mr here okay um first we have a presentation by our first grade teacher Mrs Sharon keer Miss keer take it away do your thing Sharon you can go wherever you want miss keepering good everyone I'm H Sharon kefir I'm here to give you guys some good news so hope you're ready um hailton public school has been awarded two grants from um arts and education the resident program um let's see aiee programs are co-sponsored by Young audiences arts for learning New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania and the New Jersey state Council on the Arts our district in the past has received several grants which included the murals that are on the back wall right behind the gym here and the lockers that was part of one of the residencies and and we also um were very lucky to have um Hector Morales who is a afro Latin percussionist and he worked with our eighth grade students and did an amazing amazing program with them um he's a Grammy award-winning artist and the people that he works with are of the same caliber so this is the caliber of artists that we're getting through aiee that are coming into the school which is really amazing a really great opportunity so these programs provided amazing experiences for the uh students so I'm here to talk about our current grants that we received um initially Miss Barnhill um lit the fire under me to uh get my feet back in and start again so um Mary Rossy who is our professor in Residence from William Patterson University um she and I wrote this uh the grant one of the grants that we received um there was also a steering committee that was established that included um Melissa nasanta who is our Music Teacher Michelle Tuscano who is our art one of our art teachers Lauren Cosgrove who is our secl counselor and uh Christine caram who's one of our second grade teachers um the one of this grant will benefit um actually we got two grants one was an Arts lab Grant through um young audiences and the other Grant was directly through aiee they're kind of under the same umbrella corporately um but they co-sponsor each other um the first grant that we received um was a 16 week residency which means for um one day a week the artists would come to the school and they were working with the second grade students we currently have a teaching artist her name is Molly Johnson she does a lot of ESS work with the student social emotional learning work and um she is working right now with the second grade students to um they're exploring seal Concepts emotions and they are going to um do basically what they're going to create is a public service announcement from puppets that they create which um we've discussed with Mr waa we're going to have on the morning announcements um so the other students can uh see their work so we're really excited about that um there's a 15-week work session with the artist there's uh one session for a culminating event which I'd uh like to invite any of you if you would like to come it is during the day however but you're welcome any of the times that the artists are here in the school if you reach out to me I'd be happy to connect you with the right place so that you can see what's happening because it's really amazing um what's going on in the classroom so they work for the 15 weeks and then they have one week where they have a culminating event where parents and of course yourselves are more than welcome to come and see the product of what they've created uh let's see what else there's in in that 16-week program there is also a professional development day that the teaching artist Molly Johnson will come in and provide um PD for all of the teachers and there's all the assembly um and of course you know they will see uh the assembly actually is another artist that comes in and does seal work with a certain grade levels we're yet to be determined we're still working on that but that piece of The Residency is being sponsored by our PTA so they are generously supporting that piece uh let me see what else we have I think that's it for the first grant um bill could you pull up on the next slide for me please so here's a quick example there we go all right so this is on the grand Residency program this is just one example of what they did one day Bill if you could hit it again please thank you so this is Molly Johnson asked the students to take a look at these um photos their art that she had created herself as an example for the students and asked them what emotion they saw related to each of the photos bill just hold it there for a second I'm gonna if you go back to the photos what really struck me about this was the student responses and Not only was I impressed by it but I spoke to a couple of second grade teachers and they were amazed at the vocabulary that the students were able to elicit in response to this um some of them bill you can hit that now thank you so here's a list of this is second grade students talking about um meditative disappointed unsportsmanlike there's so many words up there that they wouldn't normally use in their normal conversations with their second grade friends but the teachers themselves were impressed as to what the artist through the work that they're doing was able to help develop vocabulary with the students so it's it's really integrated into um their literature as well part of the piece of this residency um is the students are going to also go through script writing for their um puppet for their PSA so again you know there's a writing piece to this as well she's doing amazing work in the in the classroom and the students are really enjoying themselves um I'm going to go now to the grant that we received it's a Bill if you hit it thank you sir um the second Grant we received was through the young audiences and that's an Arts lab Grant this residency was much quicker when I was going to present I think it was back in December when I got sick none of these had started yet um but now we're this residency is already completed they did their five weeks um Laura Mory is um a dancer and she comes in and she's very gifted in working with the teachers and the students it's amazing I've known her for a long time her and I have worked together in the past on other Arts integration projects and um one of the most impressive things she basically left it to the teachers how they wanted to incorporate dance into the curriculum and so she's that flexible that she was able to work with each individual teacher um one of the first grade teachers Mrs Saul chose a science topic um the other four of us me included we chose um seal which I think is an extremely important thing and near and dear to my heart so we chose that path and Bill if you can hit the next uh slide for me just take that's um Laura maresi in the right hand corner I just want you to see the look on the students faces which is priceless to see the level of Engagement and the happiness on their faces it just makes it so worth it it really does and she's absolutely fantastic with the kits um Bill if you want to hit it again and this is just a a couple of the other classrooms again you can see how engaged the students are just by the positions that they're in they're following along they're right with it and she's also very gifted if a student isn't interested she's also very gifted with at least getting them engaged in some way or another whether it's counting or something she's really good at that um bill I think there might be one more but again you can see we had the last part the last slide on the right was actually an impromptu dance party and um we happen to most of the teachers were in there at the time with the students but it was a it's a really fun experience um one of the things that we worked on in the SE part was um emotions and how you can start from a small emotion and that emotion builds and dance really lends itself to expressing that in movement so it was a really worthwhile program for the students I was really happy to be involved in this Mary Rossi I will tell you is an invaluable part of all of this she is following Molly Johnson the artist who works with the second grade every time Molly is here she is here shadowing her supporting her and helping her out with whatever she needs so she's a wonderful asset to the school and I just want to give her props so thank you guys that's it does anybody have any questions for Mrs I don't have a question I have a comment um it's a cool feeling when you get to become a principal finally in the school and especially a school like this um but I think a lot of principles go their entire career without getting a Mrs keeper on their staff and I I got to start out with a M keeper on our staff and it's noticeable and it's tangible it's heartfelt um I think you're a special educator that you're special woman it's just a pleasure to to to to work with you and see all the the crazy beneficial things you do for our kids you're just a rock star and normally when I go into a classroom I'm the rockar Mr W Mr W Mr W I went in I saw your kids dancing with the the other I think it was Miss sa's room maybe and no one cared that I was there that's how engag um and and and that's a sign of really cool teaching and I just we're blessed to have you don't leave us ever because you're a rockstar thank keeper I know how much work a grant is it's not just writing it and you know putting all the pieces together but then once you get the money you get the grant then you have to execute the program that you proposed and there are deliverables and it's all kind you know it's very involved it's a lot of work so we appreciate so much all the work that you and the others put into it and um you know I've been lucky enough to see a couple of the the programs that that have come through already and I'm looking forward to this one and I like that um the last couple of ones I think were more for the older students so this one is back down to younger students so that's great and it's I love the idea of this grant because it you know it um uses art it kind of crosses disciplines and uses art to you know talk about Ela or math or science you know it's it's such a great Grant so thank you so much for writing it and for getting it and for executing it for sharing it with us thank you for your I apprciate let's see let me find my agenda let's see all righty so next we have no correspondence so can I have a motion to accept prior minutes so move second moved by Mr MCO seconded by Mr Gman roll call please Mr yes Mr yes mrman yes um Mr moel yes Mr yes Mr web yes and Mr yes okay can I have a motion to open the floor to Citizens on agenda items only so move second moved by Mr MCO seconded by Mr web roll call pleasei yes yes Mr yes Mr Mo yes Mr rad yes Mr web yes Mr yes okay so the floor is open uh for agenda items only anybody motion close Okay uh moved by Mr Gman seconded by Mr web roll call please mros yes C yes mran yes Mr Mar yes Mr Ramadan yes Mr W yes yes okay moving on to reports um so good evening everyone and thank you for joining us tonight um to start off I want to extend my heartfelt condolences to the enosa family uh as you may know Pablo inoosta father of 10 children seven of which are currently students at HPS passed away on February 14th our teachers and our staff administrators and the entire Community have done all they can to support and comfort these students and the whole family I hope it makes their return to school after such a heartbreaking loss a little easier knowing that we're all here for them next um I want to touch on our District's delayed opening policy so the policy and Public Relations Committee met earlier this week to review the policy and discuss possible adjustments in order to address some of the parent concerns that arose during the last storm the last snowstorm uh so first I want to emphasize that a delayed opening policy has to be flexible just because of the unpredictable nature of you know causes for delayed openings so those are usually weather related um but they could be related to other issues as well but in general it's for the safety of our students and our staff so this year we had a unique situ ation we have a unique situation in that we're undergoing a construction project that has taken up much of the parking space available to teachers and staff so for this reason the second delayed opening was called on Thursday February 15th if the the teachers and staff can't park their cars to come into school they can't be present for the students so the good news is that we expect this project to be completed before next winter hopefully by September so barring any additional storms this school year hopefully this won't be an issue at all going forward um just a note about the construction project so the planning process was started as soon as all the information was available however an extensive project you know such as this one has many moving parts and it could not actually begin until we got all the approvals from all sides um in addition it's a 10-month project so no matter how no matter when we started it was always going to run into the school year and winter months at some point so all that being said uh Mr W and the administration along with the board will review for next year the start time for delayed openings which is currently 10:30 a.m. to see if we can adjust that a bit uh in order to accommodate our working parents um so next I want to thank everyone who's already replied um with their availability for the board retreat um if you haven't already please please please reply because I really want to get a date down I want to lock down a date for for the retreat um unfortunately it's going to be really hard to get a date that works for everyone but if we have one date that works for most people most members um then we'll we'll go with that date um you know if not we're going to have to go into the summer months which gets tricky because then people are taking vacations and so um if you haven't gotten back please do and then we'll we'll go from there um so on another note I want to congratulate our own Boe commissioner Nathan Webb and our own nurse fagins Naisha fagins for being honored by the helden bur council at last week's Black History Month celebration them both for their dedication and contributions to our school Community um I also I want to thank those who have contributed to the collective um board ofed donation for the Tricky Tray if you haven't I would like to you still have time it's a really nice way to show our support for the PTA and for all that they do you know for our school um you can give your donation to miss Austine or to Lois in the board office and there's also still time to buy tickets for the event so reach out to Kathy Bole her number's on the the flyer that everybody got um and if not Lois been forward that again to to everybody it's Wednesday March 20th um and lastly I want to give a shout out to our certified Angels program just before this meeting they held their showcase for Dance Art music and photography and it was awesome um the students and the staff take so much pride in their work and it's heartwarming to see yesterday was a sports showcase um and I wasn't able to attend that one but I'm sure that it was great as well so congratulations to all our certified Angels uh students and staff for an excellent job and hot off the press we just found out tonight that our very own commissioner Mr Guzman is being honored by certified angels for their 2024 um yeah their Honore for 2024 so congratulations to Mr and that's it for me I will turn it over to uh Chief School administrator Mr W thanks Bo president Isa um I I also want to you know give my acknowled s Jose family there you know you have that many children that you been that this town for so long it's it's a big deal um and I want to thank you like I I was GNA go to the the Wake no matter what but it felt good to have something to go with just thank you for going with me I know a lot of Staff members also went there and um it was a beautiful ceremony with the the singing and the the there was a lot of Joy there despite the obvious sadness and I left with the optimistic feeling because of that Joy um so I want to thank all the people the hell the public school community that generously donated towards the family um that's appreciated and very welcome um uh as far as uh commissioner web and and nurse diin again you guys are amazing I I Kansas or Kentucky and you came here your speech was really interesting to listen to so it was nice to get that slice personal life and then see your your little boy which is also very very nice and meet your wife the first time I believe um so that was great as well um and then miss keeper like I said like you know Miss Nas Mento Miss Pas Gro and and wasan was car man I'm Tre a million other people on these kind of projects but like I I get a little bit emotional just because I your classroom and my office are are pretty close together I walk by all the time you're you're always always doing something fun and cool and interesting with kids and they're always having a Flash and it's it's it's just nice to see that like everything's working in your room and I I know you it takes a lot of work that you put in to make that happen and it's it's it really is I get a kick and a pleasure and a joy when I walk by a room every day you are a rockstar like I said um so now let's transition to other things so let's talk about the construction um I just want to show you pictures we've taken the last two weeks so you know that we're actually they are building something um so we finally got the steel delivered and um you know that was about two weeks ago when the the pillars of the steel were put in uh so that's the first picture of our new floor which is gonna be awesome uh Bill if you go to the next picture you see they're working diligently making sure everything's right uh this was about a couple days ago uh this is when the steel beam finally got put in that's why you saw the the crane um thank goodness we only had to relocate one preschool classroom for two days um just because we didn't want to even risk a wind you know anything like that U it was nice we only had to really locate one and the teachers uh were where M capella was fantastic M um M buckworth Mr TR did a really good job with that we go to the next one but this is the foundation for our new floor if we can go forward bill and here you're going to see what's going on inside this is actually where they're digging the uh the the elevator uh we have to have an elevator in order to comply with the Ada which we're happy to comply to um but this is some this is like this used to be the preschool wing and now it looks like like a like a bomb shelter or something it's totally different so we go next one uh see more of the work they've been doing we got one more buil and this is more of the elevator projects they're work working on Phil and perfect so that's just you can see that there is you know they are actually you know doing what they say they're going to do um every week uh and sometimes twice a week uh I'm gonna pronounce the name wrong but there robberto orto lberto from the Cara Rabino he's he's been great he's our our contact man from the car Rabino which is our architect firm he does an inspection report and he gives us uh and L myself inter made weekly or qu weekly update um and the rain has pushed us back a couple days because there's some stuff where they just need the ground to dry or the air to be dry um but we're still on pace so that when we start the year next year the all the rooms we lost are going to be back usable and then it's just going a matter of time that the Cosmetic stuff they have to do in the second floor um but there's a chance that by the start of the year the second floor is available but it's also a chance that we might say it might be the second week of school third week of school that the second floor is finally ready um and if if we have to tell some of the new preschool classes hey you're you're going to start the year but you might just be a week later or two weeks later than everyone else um at least we know everyone's still going to get in where the Tas we had the the lottery so they were we're at good Pace um moving on with my report just you know in our effort to telling you the biggest thing right now is making sure we're fully staffed because that's biggest problem education Statewide so tomorrow evening I'm going to uh fairly Dickenson in Madison to do mock interviews and M Cusack was kind enough to join me and then on Friday I'm doing mock interviews with William Patterson in the evening with uh Miss bug is kind enough to join me so that'll be a good thing um flus is gonna give us state aid news very soon not tonight it's not out yet uh but we know that Governor Murphy says State AIDS up 900 million hopefully we get some of that so um I think we will and and that'll be good news so a lot of the programs we've made looks very strong like we continue and grow a lot of things I know uh Miss helaa says by the end of this week she's going to release a report to the board you're going to see it the same time I do um about what the info she's gathered for the paries um and there were some really good ideas that came out of that so you know with extra funding these things can happen so I'd like to see you know at least a couple of them Reach fruition um on Mondays our read Across America day that's a big deal to Hell the public school um listen um I've talked to the board president about why you know the the letter went out a little later than it usually does um we'll keep that confidential but it's something won't happen next year but we we've contacted all the dignitary and explained why the letter went out later than usual uh no one had a problem with it we're still filled up all our spots a lot of our spots and was keeper actually as triple book I think uh I don't know if you know that yet but um we have a lot of diaries that want to read to our kids uh and we're excited about that um for me I got my uh my birthday celebration for January and February birthdays we're g to be hanging out on Tuesday doing that uh my last cabinet meeting or our last cabinet meeting uh Miss Troy and Miss Roman gave us a data analysis of a benchmark assessment did the test they took in October to see how they did now we're in in in January uh went the way they should in every single grade level in every single subject this everything went up which is what we need to see um and right now we're assessing at about State average schoolwide but that's at the midy year so there's we still have from now until our next Benchmark in March to see where we're likely to be when we take the final state test in May uh but if we're at State average now that's ahead of the curve where we were last year and last year we went up about 12% overall if we combine our Ela and our Mass course so we're hopeful that the trend is going to continue you never know but um right now we're hopeful that it's going to continue and then as um you know board president Isa said uh a reminder for the trick to tray it's on March 20th I get paid tomorrow so that's when I have to buy my mom and all my aunt's tickets uh so I'll miss buasi in this Bo I'll be bothering you tomorrow for tickets um but you hopefully we can go again and have a great and that's my report thank you Mr W okay moving now to um our business administrator misson thank you madam president so the first thing I just want to remind the board members to um complete their disclosure forms I'll continue to say this until you know the deadline is passed so anyone that needs assistance with it please just reach out to Lois in the um Board office and we can kind of get that hasn't completed um the other thing Mr Walker mentioned about the state a numbers it does look positive hopefully I get some information between the next couple of days and um I'll send out you know email to the board MERS let everybody know where they are and how we stand that as far as how we uh the last thing I wanted to kind of talk about was the audit review is one of the resolutions today on um 13 6 and 13.7 um if you look in front of you you do have your AMR report which is the auditor management report this is a summary of the big comprehensive report um this is also for the Commissioners that are online there's an attachment that you can look at label AMR so that you can follow along I'm just going to go through where we you know how we ended up financially with the um audit and how did we did the first thing I'll address is the cap which is the 13.6 so this year we have three audit findings on the um the audit um one the first one was related to the bid threshold which we've addressed within staff internally and also the processing of getting the purchase orders out and making sure that we stay within that capap that's recommended by the Auditors um the second finding has to do with um you know getting the paperwork necessary to go along with the purchase orders which is a political disclosure for um we have a threshold of what when we go over a certain amount on a purchase order that we need to make sure that any vendor is not you know donating to um a political party and that's what theable disposure for and the last one is the ass is this is just an enrollment count that is done every year on oober 14 and we need um that there were some discrepancies on there and the order recommends that we kind of do a different processing when we're um actually doing the account other than that um if anyone has any questions I can um answer anything there but overall the audit audit went pretty well thank you okay um the other thing I want to talk about is the finance and if you look into the book that we have on page 13 I will go down some of the um totals and we can you guys can ask me any questions after that so this is a summary of um our financial Outlook at the end of the year the the report starts off in section one at the top and it lists all the total expenditures of the district as of 2223 um our total expenditures were 19 million and with that how the um surfor is calculated is that we back out the pension course which you see is in um for the 4 million too and then with that that is a total expenditures adjusted expenditures of $15 million for last year now how we um come up with our Surplus that we can use in a subsequent year meaning that we are able to roll over um a certain amount of um surf buus money to balance out our next budget and we what with that is um the 2% adjusted amount with of the $15 million um which comes out to $39,000 um that we could actually use to help budget our um 2425 budget if needed in addition to that we also have some allowable adjustments of 66,000 which consists of extraordinary Aid and also non-public Transportation Aid okay so that was a surplus over the year with that total is 376,162 other Surplus from a previous year you'll see that on the next page when we get there we can use that those funding to budget our budget if we are off balance so this happens every year when we are audited there's a surplus and we get a percentage a Max percent of 2% that is we're able to use to help balance the budget going forward so consistently from what I looked at the budget it's been around the same amount every year okay um with that being said if you go down to section two this is where we have most of our reserves we have funding that we are able to use and on our big comprehensive um man um budget um um documents there is on page 72 which you can actually see that it breaks down that $8 million part of the $8 million consists of our capital reserve it consists of our main reserve and other emergency reserves that are in the bank in casing we need them and and if you go to page the next page over page 14 and then one more page over to page 15 you have you have a $6 million of the specific reserves that we just talked about which is part of the $8 million these reserves have um been on our books um going forward and that's our reserves that we can use in case we need to do any type of Maintenance or capital projects which we're spending $2 million of that right now and then we also have a $250,000 in emergency reserve and also our unemploy employment Reserve so do we have any questions here regarding reserv and what they could with the Six Million that we have here has that been deducted from the project the construction project so two million of that is Will be deducted because this is a year look back so they're taking the $2 million in account for that so this $2 million is budgeted in our budget now so if you take that 2 million from the 4.8 just kind of take that in consideration because once the audit is done for 2423 they recalculate this figure to see how much we use it so overall we're in a good financial position with our reserves and also our Surplus and as I stated earlier once we get the um State a numbers we'll take that all in consideration when we're balancing the budget any questions on that okay a copy of this these are you guys copies and we also have the attached copies that are on the agenda online any thank you our other ume reports personnel and management Mr Gman yes mam president uh agenda items only and also we met yet again uh to discuss the expansion of the certified Angel program to include a u parent gazon to serve the entire School District utilizing available federal funds uh which I will discuss more I guess on bu okay curriculum and Technology Mr web agenda Z okay policy and public relations Mr Abasi um yeah nothing to report There's No Agenda items today other than and the only thing I was going to report on was um that we discussed delayed opening policy um and you you spoke to that in your president's report so uh nothing else for me over thank you security and safety Mr Gman um nothing to report um and Mr Walker did touch on the construction project oh if I could add one thing um and a big part of the the thanks to this is for the ha did a lot of work George did and the Jessica and the chief danielli and uh as well as Danielle and you know may Johnson um once the the Steel part of the construction project is over U it looks very likely we're going to be able to make a slight walkable pathway from that and Rance of the campus into so into our bankart campus so that people don't have to walk all the way up and then all the way around um and I know a lot of people worked hard to to make that happen and you know the the construction company was their point was reasonable they said let's just wait till the Steel's done because that's the big the big boy part um but I I appreciate a lot of the people that worked hard to to get that advy Advantage it's also going to help alleviate the the congestion that we're facing thanks for that George nothing else Community engagement Mr aasi um yeah again I mean everything I was going to touch on has already been reported on I was going to remind everyone of the read Across America coming up on Monday um the the certified Angels uh discussions you've already had and the the the events last couple days um Hello's report we'll look to see if there's any additional extracurricular activities we can you know pull from that and try to incorporate in future years and then again just spotting the the PTO the tricky trades coming up on March 20 um other than that I have nothing to report and I you know if if a commissioner M Mo Moscow or commissioner quadrado have anything to add um other than that nothing else over I could jump it two AR I know that uh one of my former students Christian is U he's working on the hden uh recreational baseball and soft as well so we we were asked to put that in our our morning announcements we've done so we're going to have the the waiver sheet available to kids if they want to come to our main office and pick it up so they can bring it home to Mom or Dad's sign um but yeah we definitely want to partner with the with that organization okay he had um I think there was something already in terms of like a like a meeting or a trial or something in the rec center Satur yeah Carlos probably knows more about that than I do yeah Saturday what's gonna be Saturday and Sunday right now Saturday right we had one last week Saturday and Sunday we also had a coaches meeting and then after this weekend we're going to open up for B cages during the week as well so been working on dates with councilman Norris so yes that'll be at our morning announcements and anyone that needs the a printed out version of the whatever the waiver is going to be we'll have that ready for great thank you good baseball season is coming yes um he finance and physical plant Mr mono uh we met we discussed the bills extens this way um and uh ba spoke on the budget but the audit other than that we're good okay um so let me do my state and County now and then we'll go back um so there was a county um SBA meeting on Thursday February 1 um the topic was advocacy and special education um so you know this is a very involved area and though we're not expected to be experts you know as board members um it's helpful to get a general understanding of how special education Works in New Jersey um so that we're informed when it comes to our district so I ask Lois to circulate the presentation to all of the board members I hope you all you know received it um the next and last County meeting for the school year is Wednesday May 29th um it's it's really more of a celebration kind of um event it's to honor the um County teacher of the year and who is Road from Clifton and um they give out other Awards as well um and that's going to be at the uh black bu steakouse in Riverdale yeah uh there's also coming up on March 11th The Unsung Caro award presentation um this is only for high school students but Manchester is recognizing several students so if anyone is interested in attending that that is um 6:30 to 8:30 at the Muhammad Ali School number 23 in P um and then you to see your your your emails for other notices um and about events or information um that's you know coming up or taking place um okay and then Mr Marino do you have um nothing tonight nothing to report okay thank you all right so let's go back then um personnel and management Mr Gman I like to move items 8.1 through 8.4 okay so moved by Mr Gman seconded by Mr web roll call please I'm G look there one oh oh okay okay go back if you do the roll call I'll go back oh yeah I know which TR to talk about Mr aasi uh can I look can I just ask one quick question on 8.4 the Green Team I saw the uh the Board of Ed member there was still vacant can can you just does anybody know what the responsibilities would be associated with that so we we actually talked about that um I believe Visa in new business is going to bring that up and invite board members is that correct if they want to be um it would it's we're required to meet twice per year Omar um and you know we talk about some of the the environmental or green projects that we've done or we're looking to do so it's kind of thing where you know it would be probably about at the minimum or the maximum maybe two or three half hour meetings a year um and if we don't need a board member on there but of course we would love to have a board member on there so if someone wanted to volunteer their time on that we'd be happy to have it okay um and yes for the roll call okay Miss quadr yes Mr Gman yes Mr moel yes Mr Ramadan yes Mr web yes Mr zissa yes okay now skipping oh no let's go back to the appointments I apologize I skipped the appointments 7.1 can I have a motion to accept uh appointments uh 7.1 so move second moved but I'm sorry I missed who who Moved moved by Mr Gman seconded by Mr web roll call please Missi yes Miss Cado yes Mr Gman yeah I just want to note that that's not a change in the uh special it's just a change in the name of the firm my vote is yes Mr moel yes Mr Ramadan yes Mr web yes yes okay now going back to curriculum and Technology Mr web I'd like to move 9.1 and 9.2 second moved by Mr web seconded by Mr MCO roll call please Mr bosi yes Mr yes Mr Wan yes Mr moxo yes Mr Ramadan yes Mr web yes yes okay finance and phical like to move item 13.1 through 13.22 second mov by Mr MCO seconded by Mr web roll call please Missi so just a really quick question um on the on the acfr document um on 13.6 uh page two it one of our major initiatives there lists you know the Expansion Project um to for address increased population throughout the district and then right above number two it's got the daily average enrollment over the past 10 years or so and it's been like a steady decrease from like 2016 essentially is so right now we're at enrollment an average enrollment daily of 988 are are what what type of increase are we projecting do you think Mr WKA so we had I'm sure someone here will know the name of this service we had someone that comes and projects what's the name of the demographic study demographic study person uh come and their firm's this is maybe two or three years ago Omar but their firm's prediction was that we're probably going to stay about even to what we're at right now however um you know there there is some talk about other projects that the municipality may may move forward on as far as housing so you know it's our job to whatever is done you know we're going to have to make sure the kids are are accommodated for so you know we're we're paying attention to that but uh that prediction was made absent of information about any other housing projects that may or may not happen Okay so we're going to we're we're expecting to hold around steady and so we'd be less crammed in the school yeah when I first got here we were at our Peak right like with the the 105 and that that was we felt it right and um and also the at that time or similar to that time there was the I'm sure it's still going on but the the the conflict Syria and we had a lot of refugees come and that also bolstered us for those particular years um but right now we're we're a little more comfortable but I think that could change at any time okay and then I am going to abstain from P 4351 in 13.20 otherwise yes across the board Miss C I'm going to abstain from p 41010 4934 and 4629 in item 13.20 otherwise yes thank you Mr Gman uh I just want to comment real quick on the demographic study yeah it's about about four years old and I have it if you want me to forward it to you Omar I still have it um when they did it I couldn't believe it uh it was laid out for about 10 years and they predicted that our school district was going to stay the same enrollment for about 10 years and not a little bit a little bit under and that thing has been on the money but um just remember that when the demographic study was done uh it didn't incorporate all these new projects that the town is considering so we may want to consider at some point doing another one just want to point that out my vote is yes good and it wasn't it was inexpensive I don't remember it being a national I think it cost 6,000 I don't know why I remember the number but I believe that's what it cost i000 that okay Mr moel yes Mr Ramadan yes Mr web I just have a question on 13.4 in regards to the 2009 Chevy Silverado yes we missed that guy it um there was a accident on um the school premises and we took it to the insurance to be evaluated to get P um fixed but they deed it um total L okay so this was a district vehicle it was a district vehicle yes no one was hurt the new one's coming in a couple weeks yes I'm working on you're working on you also 13.4 what is the uh swing education so that is a um it's just another substitute procurement Service uh right now we use Northern Educational Services U which a lot of mate County schools use um but we're we're seeing that like if if we could find alternative means to to find subs or attract Subs we want to do it because it's it's very hard to do that right now everywhere um so we we want to get demr and my V yes thank you and this I do have one question I'm on 13.3 the tutoring Grant we're getting it's so great to hear that we're getting all of these grants and all this funding that one's a nice a big chunk 72,000 and I was just wondering um what that you know how that plays out what that goes I really like this one this is one you know a lot of times we talk about like the title one Grant or the uh you the estr gr that we were told that we were going to get this this one we actually had to go out and get for ourselves um and I'm I'm really happy that we we were able to do that I know you know Miss Barnhill and her team worked hard to procure that uh this can is primarily supposed to be used for third and fourth grade but they said if you're a school that has a lot of grades you can use it for a lot of grades um we wanted to do this in the event that the State numbers weren't going to be good because we didn't know two months ago would be good so I said Beth I really want to try and get some some change here because then I can guarantee I can keep the summer enrollment programs and I keep the after school tutoring programs and the enrichment programs and now that we got this plus we're gonna get good news on St a now we even more stuff um but if we got if we had had a bad State a total this would what we would need to use to make sure that the the the after school and the summer program we going to stay alive I'm really proud that we got this it's great and that was really great that you were proactive um because now we have you know hopefully we'll have this is help even more money that's great um okay so yes I I abstain on um P 4017 and vote Yes for the rest okay so okay so now down to new and old business um Mr do you short so as as our fellow board knows as the fellow board members know last year 2023 our board adopted our strategic plan for the next five years the first two goals the first one was student achievement second one was social emotional learning and with that being said um the Personnel committee has met to discuss the expansion of the certified program to include a parent coordinator that would service the entire school to fund that project certified Angels could pay could pay with it with their own um Surplus that they have which won't cost anything to the taxpayer or we can use federal funds that we have available which also will not cost tax so um I just want to share uh this uh these uh sent with with my fellow board members a parent coordinator plays a crucial role in increasing parent involvement fostering a strong connection between parents and school and promoting a deeper understanding of parents roles and responsibilities in the children's academic education by hosting meaningful workshops organizing family activities and engaging in community outreach a parent coordinator can create opportunities for parents to to actively participate in their children's education these workshops to cover a range of topics such as effective communication with teachers understanding curriculum supporting homework and promoting positive behavior at home by providing these resources parents can gain a better understanding of how to support their children's academic Journey a parent coordinator serve as a contact person who initiates and maintains a close connection and relationship between the parents and the school this ensures that parents feel supported and have a reliable point of contact for any concerns or questions they may have by having a dedicated liaison parents can feel confident in reaching out and accessing the resources and support they need to help their children succeed current research emphasizes the importance of a parent involvement in promoting in promoting School Success at the same time the lack of participation among parents of socially and culturally diverse students is also well documented today's families constantly deal with stress that impact students abilities to participate in academic and extracurricular school activities if schools are to do an effective job of educating their increasingly diverse populations of students they must find ways to communicate and build more Cooperative working relationships with parents our parent coordinator slamily coordinator can help establish organize and maintain meaningful parent involvement programs and activities conduct workshops such as how to access the real time Port portal for example according to our school administration only 30% of our parents check the real-time portals which means only 30% of our parents actually know what their child's grade actually is that's very conern uh apparently Aon can also attend and conduct meetings as requested and needed Empower parents and of course help bridge the home and school by helping parents get information and support they need to ensure their child's academic and social success for the last three years the certified Angels program has played an integral role in the ultimate success of the students at HPS the program has demonstrated its positive impact on its members and the entire School community in order to further enhance the connection between parents and the school the addition of a parent coordinator is crucial a parent coordinator will serve as a dedicated liaison between the school administration and our parents and and that that means the entire School Community not just kids that attend certifi gos by playing a hital role in fostering increased parent involvement by Bridging the Gap between the school and the home the parent coordinator will provide the necessary support and resources needed to ensure that parents understand and fulfill their roles and responsibilities and their children's education with that being said after discussing this in committee um and uh after discussing this with our superintendent and our business administrator I am making a motion to authorize um our superintendent uh to direct the certified angels to post a part-time because we have to crawl before we walk uh apparently aison uh of course subject to approval by by our board attorney in terms of job description and obviously subject to approval by our business office as it pertains to how we're funding it and um we can move forward go ahead what we'll do is we'll this the district is going to post it right okay um and then when we uh and Jeff help me out if I'm I'm this speaking uh what we'll do is we'll once we when we create the job posting I will delegate responsibilities uh for this particular position to be supervised or or evaluated or whatever um you know you know how I want but it's very likely I'm going to look to use what your recommendation is uh it's extremely likely I'm to use recommendations for the certified Angels but it's still going to be a Hil of Public School employee um but I I'm happy that your advocacy and from my end and from L's end and from too's end and Lisa's end um we all work we all went into that meeting fig let make it work and we're g to make it work so Jeff formally what do we have to do now Jeff so a moot a motion to approve the creation of the parent coordinator part-time position um and authorize the administration to post for it and then it'll be subject to a job description which we can work on and do retroactively just because we got to check on the funding piece of what the language for the Federal grant is we have to put that that Federal language into the job description so we'll have that for the future but at least tonight we can authorize the creation of the job the position and authorize the administration to post for it so Jeff assuming that assuming that the board all votes votes yes on this um you know will it's motion that it passed and you and I will work later in the week and L as well and we'll we we'll create a job description and and a funding formula for it correct Madam president if I may I have a motion um to authorize the superintendent to post for it uh pending the approval as ulated by the board attorney so move second okay so moved by Mr Gman seconded by Mr web and Mr MCO please yes m p yes Mr Gman yes Mr Moo yes Mr Ramadan yes Mr web yes MRSA yes forward with that thank you okay and then the other item for new business is the Green Team um so I'm just looking at the folks who are making up that committee now it's Mr waa Miss Augustin Mr spado our vice principal U Mr Man our director of facilities um Miss strel who is a teacher but I know she's involved in like the gardening club um Miss cartina who's um haa president and then we have one of our parents um Mr Baker so it would be really nice for a board member to be on that committee you know just to kind of have it you know have be be involved and it's so nice to sit on committees like this because you get to um you know work with colleagues who outside of the board you know in the school and parents and so if anybody's Mr Abasi if you're interested or if anybody is interested uh they should reach out to youa Victor loved this yeah Victor baby I mean it's a great topic it's a great it's a great initiative who doesn't want to be green so um if anybody is interested please reach out out to Mr W if you're interested you're on okay and that's all any other New or Old business hi all right then can I have a motion to open the floor to Citizens um on operations of the school so move second moved by Mr mosow seconded by Mr web roll call please oh okay all in favor I I okay the floor is open if anybody would like to start with anyone here miss also here so it's only for workers HCS employees so that's just a question that I have I also wanted to um uh commend um our p uh we did a they did a phenomenal job with the father dance they did um last Friday was mother son mother son dance which was great and for children for moms that didn't have that opportunity to go out to dance with their and I was there and I volunteered so I it and I was really um uh I want the uh I would like the uh committee team for a commun engagement to come forward as far as Bo M do something with the parents and the children in school and continue to keep this community engaged that could be with the library or the public library or the hill Community um events committee there's many different factors that you can get people to come out and that was one of the topics that we have at the Academy and I think that the baseball thing is we only have about 20 people so far um and this school is really big thousand kids we be able to SCH a lot more just to answer your first question M it's a good question there so um when the board was creating their strategic goals uh one of the goals Victor is probably the the leader of this goal but we all kind of agree with it anyway uh was to it's called sustainable NJ that's New Jersey government grant uh for for going green um and right now we're at a bronze level and we're we're trying to slowly get up to a higher level and we're only one school in our D it's going to be hard to get to that highest level when you're competing against schools like the s that have 20 or 30 schools um but that's that's where this originated from um and and I don't want to talk too much about employees but you're right like we we have to have at least one parent rep uh but if you're interested email me and they'll be happy to to put you out let me let me look to do it or at least consider what the best way to do that is there thank you anybody else motion to close second okay moved by Mr Gman seconded by Mr web all in favor um and I just wanted to make a note I wanted to you know address the comments about Community um the events when you go to these events they're so they're so wonderful you know you get like the event tonight for certified Angels it was so nice to watch these kids really shine you know they've been practicing they work hard they work with their um you know coaches or instructors and they're so proud of themselves and and we're you of course the parents are so proud and it's such a nice thing to come together to celebrate that the dances my my daughter was at that with my husband and they had a wonderful time I wasn't there but I could feel the energy you know the community events are awesome and um there's such a a great way to it's not just about Feelgood it's about building morale building building community so that when we have challenges we cannot you know all come together um and we're not coming at it um kind of like in a vacuum or you know we're we all feel like we belong you know so um absolutely more community events um you know and and also tying in you know Ed not just um the fund aspect but educational aspects of it you know there's there's so many levels that we could do that on so I appreciate that comment and I you know I agree we there's a there's we do a lot we do a lot in this school and thanks to the PTA we have so many any um additional you know events aside from school events but we can do more and now that we have all this money maybe you know there's even more I like I like your attitudeis well the governor said he's gonna fully fund the schools this year say a lot things okay Al righty well on that note let's uh motion to adjourn all in favor I I okay thank you everyone have a great night