I I hereby call to order the regular meeting of the Kingsburg Board of Education to be held in the boulder Middle School auditorium adequate notice for this meeting has been mailed to the Asbury Park Press filed with the municipal clerk of Kingsburg posted on the district website and posted inside the office of the Kingsburg Board of Education 100 Palmer Place Kingsburg New Jersey on January 4th 2023 roll call please Mrs Clayton Mrs f here miss kellah Moran here Mr manowski here Mr kitchen here Mr cook here Mr cisano here Mr Hoff here miss feraro here please stand for the pledge pledge allegiance to the flag of United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all please take note of the exits behind us and where you came in in case of emergency um I we'll start off with um the high school student representative reports we have Jasmine munz and Gabriela Rivera hello everyone so first off we had homecoming which was great this year but I'm sad to say it's my last one here as a Titan our fall sports awards were last week and many were recognized for the Excellence you're now moving into winter sports welcoming new coaches in boys and girls basketball by familiar faces returned to bowling and wrestling and we're looking forward to a great season um we also had new and returning clubs starting up in the high school with the e-gaming club um having a big hit with the Gaming Community the Key Club has also returned to keenburg and with the advisement of a formal formal former khhs graduate they also had their induction ceremony in October and the National Honor Society has been working hard soliciting donations for their annual food drives uh the student council is also returned and brought back the heart of KHS um we are looking forward to our spirit week leading up to the leading up to the winter pep rally and the reindeer games um as the year moves forward the college acceptances are rolling in and so far we have Au Leon uh Rosemount College Fairley Dickinson Chestnut Hill and St Peters then we have NAA Tucker with Montclair State St Peters East straussburg and William Patterson uh Siri Beth Cruz with St Peters and Rowan University Ariana Lawrence with Fairley Dickinson William Patterson and Montclair Alexandra morero with Monclair Marvin zamb brano with Monclair as well and Michael suvan with Monclair Andrea Flores with New Jersey City University Stockton and keing University and myself with the University of Montana William Patterson St Peters and Keane University uh the student council and all four classes have decided to combine the efforts and host designer bag Bingo and a gift auction on Friday March 15th please keep an eye out for donations as well as getting your ticket to the event uh the class of 2025 is hosting a little Titan movie night on December 14th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. the class of 2026 and 2027 are selling KT jibbit for $5 and then the class of 2024 is selling Drew Lynch tickets for $5 the show is at count basy on Sunday December 3rd and also the open mic is returning to the high school on November 30th from 6: to 8 p.m. come and enjoy the talents within the halls of the high school the first annual cookie award is on Monday December 18th from 2:30 to 330 and all KS classes gift wrap from 2:30 8 2:30 to 8:00 p.m. more details to follow thank you very much thank you to our high school repr representatives from buer we have Emily Reyes and Katie Lindberg current happenings at Joseph R buer Middle School November 2023 okay there was a schoolwide book fair in November where the students had opportunities to select books and a variety of other options the cross country team had a wonderful season and ended with the pizza party two weeks ago Boulder had students from the cross country team who participated in the run for roses at St Rose School in belmare buers cheerleaders basketball and wrestling teams had their tryouts last week good luck to everyone eighth grade class officers were successful in their candle sale and would like to thank everyone who participated the drama club had a class trip to count bayy theater in Red Bank yesterday to see the a presentation of navida on November 29th they will be presenting their annual annual cavaret please save the DAT and come out and join us for the first marking period we have 19 students who made the honor roll and seven students who made high honor roll a few weeks ago all buer students put on their best Smiles for this year's pictures Miss Lopez and the Spanish club have started their afternoon school meetings free film nights serving their delicious foods and many many other activities the junior National Honor Society held a fundraiser where you could purchase eight different fun styles of Titan socks our student council was selling GR attitude grams which was a perfect time to send a thank you note and a sweet treat to a friend classmate or teacher students with no conduct were rewarded with time in the brain break room Mast visited Miss bufano's science class with marine biology activity with her eighth graders the students really enjoyed this unusual hands-on experience Boulder had a great turnout from the parents for both evenings and afternoon conferences November 16th and 17th the deadline for eighth grade students to apply for a mammoth County vocational school is December 1st good luck to those students who are competing for entrance to mass the Marine Academy of Science and Technology on Sandy Hook high technology at the Brookdale campus in lincraft Allied Health and Science in Neptune Communications and wall and biotechnology and freeold on Wednesday November 8th author Maddie Juliano and illustrator Morgan Spicer visited our school again they were here two years ago with their pet feret musky this time they told us all about their new book called stubby story and we also had a chance to see little stubby Joseph R bul Middle School would like to extend wishes for a h very Happy Thanksgiving to everyone thank [Applause] you thank you to our student Representatives we'll now move on is uh does anyone have committee reports Mr cook uh thank you Mr President good evening everyone the financial committee was held earlier today at 6:30 myself and Mr manowski were in attendance Mr felle was excused for the evening uh just a couple of points that were discussed of course the bills list and the transfers for this month were discussed everything looks to be financially sound the HVAC system project that's been going on as some of you might know um that's been going on and they've been having weekly meetings every two weeks to make sure that it's staying on timely budget um and also two other points the uh the Administration has also applied to two grants at 2 per Century Grant and a submission of new innovation Grant which will of course help the district and then we were also granted the high impact tutoring Grant in the amount of $997,000 so that's going to go a long way for our students uh particularly the third fourth and possibly the second grade thank you thank you Mr cook any other committee reports Mr manowski um on November 6 the policy committee met um you'll notice in the agenda that there are a number of policy items that that are up so I'd just like to touch upon them shortly the main one revolves around the new state law regarding sick leave and the ability of teachers to take off for certain days so you notice that 1642 is sick leave due to that new rule allows when we can require them or may ask them for proof of the reason for their absences um 2270 regarding religion in schools uh last year during the term of the Supreme Court there was a ruling uh specifically regarding a football coach praying on the field so the rules um ferally under the Constitution have changed to some degree and so our policy has been updated to reflect that um the threat assessment uh uh uh Team sorry can't read my own handwriting um if everybody recall is on August 1st of 2022 uh Governor Murphy put into law a a new threat assessment requirement however at that time the uh the recommendation to all boards was to hold off on setting a policy until they gave us specific guidelines um July 19th of this year they finally came around with those guidelines so again this reflects the guidance that the state has provided us to follow that law correctly um evaluations um again 3161 4161 has to do with evaluations of teachers for medical reasons again the case law is that if boards have them in place it can protect them regarding when it is required and how we can do that um again our attendance and uh policies go along with that sick leave now um 1642 in the new state law that's the same with the updating and abolishment of the sick leave prior rules that we had because we now have a new policy so we abolished one sick leave rule because we have the superseding sick leave rule um 5116 um the change in that Homeless uh children and youth's policy really is that they change the naming it's no longer just children but we recognize that our older students are also possibly homeless and so the name has been changed to uh children and youths and the last is just the right of privacy ruling um or policy regarding recordings especially in school and the Privacy rights afforded to our teachers and our students when they're within our buildings thank you Mr mowy any others I was just say youut two UTS um we'll now open to the public for comments and questions relating to board agenda items only seeing none will move yeah if you can when you come up if you could just please state your name and address hi I hope everyone's having a good night um uh my name is Athena Barnes I have attended Kingsburg School District my whole entire life um my son Grayson is in kindergarten so he just started his first year at Caruso School I'm sorry is it agenda item comment is it what now you can only comment on agenda items you could do General comments at the end oh okay okay sorry just yeah we'll we'll tell you when it's time yes okay but uh yeah we'll be opening it again at the end of the meeting uh seeing no one else for agenda items only we'll move on we need a motion for the approval of minutes Judy thank you a second second Mike thank you Mrs friselle Miss Kell Moran Miss Kelly her Moran yes Mr manowski yes Mr Kitchen yes Mr cook yes Mr cisano yes Mr Hoff yes Miss ferroro you're up the superintendent of schools recommends positive action on the following items under Personnel one retirement two resignations three professional employment four non-professional employment five long-term substitute teachers six long-term substitute teacher revisions seven transfer of nonprofessional Staff eight leave of absence Medical nine leave of absence maternity and child care revision 10 leave of absence family revision 11 re of absence intermittent Child Care 12 substitute teacher power Professionals for the district 13 substitute secretary 14 coach advisor positions rescinded 15 coach and advisor position revision 16 kingburg Early Learning Center home visits 17 Title One family engagement coordinator 18 professional development costing $150 or above do I have a motion for the approval of personnel um make them Judy Judy do I have a second I'll second can thank you roll call please any questions Oh yes any uh questions or comments from fellow board members Mr Hof no so he's able to substitute prior to getting his official certification in his hand so he can start off as a substitute higher why is that substitute amount so high uh because it's based on his his salary it's his annual salary divided into the daily that's what we do for our long term he's not working as a he's working as a substitute he's starting but prior to that's what we've done with all of them start no he did not start yet January we're hoping or sooner yes it's when he gets the paper in his yes any other questions or comments from fellow board members see none roll call please Mrs felle yes Miss Kell Moran yes Mr manowski yes Mr Kitchen yes Mr cook yes Mr cisano yes Mr Hoff yes Miss Ferrara yes under policy and regulation number 19 policy first reading alert 231 number 20 regulation first reading alert 231 and 21 policy second reading alert 231 I have a motion for approval of policy and regulation I'll make that motion Mr do I have a second okay I'll second Greg any questions or comments from fellow board members see none do a roll call please Mrs friselle yes Miss Kell Moran yes Mr manowski yes Mr Kitchen yes Mr cook yes Mr cisano yes Mr Hoff yes Miss Ferraro yes under General number 22 District Hib report number 23 annual preschool operation Plan update and updated preschool enrollment projections and number 24 memorandum of understanding between the Kingsburg School District and integrated care Concepts and consultations do have a motion for approval of General I'll make that motion thank you Ken do have a second Judy Judy thank you any questions or comments from fellow board members okay could you explain number 24 please number 24 is professional development that will come in and and give the staff professional development awesome thank you any other questions comments see none roll call please okay Mrs friselle yes Miss Kell her Moran yes Mr manowski yes Mr Kitchen yes Mr cook yes Mr cisano yes Mr Hoff yes Miss Ferrara yes and there's addendum A1 professional employment A2 non-professional unemployment and A3 leave of absence medical I have a motion to approve for the addendum I'll make that motion thank you Mike have a second who got first Mike yes second yes I'll second second thank you thank you any questions or comments from fellow board members saying on roll call please okay Mrs friselle yes Miss Kell her Maran yes Mr manowski yes Mr Kitchen yes Mr cook yes Mr cisiano yes Mr Hoff yes Miss Ferraro yes okay School business administrator board secretary's report the superintendent of schools recommends positive action on the following items uh board secretary's report monthly certification and payroll Certification Number One approve receipt and acceptance of the September 2023 board secretary's report two approve appropriation transfers three approved bills list four approved submission of the 21st century community Learning Center Program Grant five approve uh 2324 home instruction six approve add a district tuition 2324 seven approve the following consultants for 2324 eight approve the submission of the NJ Innovation dual enrollment pilot Grant nine approve the acceptance of the high impact tutoring Grant 10 approve sale or disposal of assets do I have a motion for approval for the business administrator report do I have a second Patty got that sorry yeah Pat okay second I'll second can any questions or comments from fellow board members saying none do roll call vote please Mrs friselle yes okay thank you Miss Kell her Moran yes Mr manowski yes Mr Kitchen yes Mr cook yes Mr cisano yes Mr Hoff yes Miss Ferraro thank you we now open it the floor to the public if you can please come on the bill list just was say on the bill list um if the board secretary would be so kind is to show the individual board members that are voting that they abstained on that item with respect to their name got it thank you you don't have to V you have Mr has a question can I speak to them eight n oh I'm sorry I I can speak he just oh yeah so those Eight Is Us submitting for a grant so that's going to be for dual enrollment with Brookdale so it would be to cover cost for the students to take part in dual enrollment it's a very competitive Grant but we try for any that we can get so we're not sure of that one yet but we did submit an application for it number nine we did receive that's the one that uh Mr cook had referenced that's the high impact tutoring Grant it's specifically targeted towards third and fourth grade that one was also very competitive we were actually shocked and that's exactly what we had requested so we got 100% funded for the plan that this for add that's this is additional you're welcome uh we'll move on now and'll open up to the public for questions comments concerns if if you can just come up please state your name the town where you live okay so like I said when I had no idea what was going on um my son has started kindergarten this year in Caruso and before I start I would just like a comment to be remembered throughout what I have to say is that I allowed this to happen since September my son has been dealing with severe bullying spitting kicking punching hair pulling verbally abusive comments that I have brought to to the attention of Elise McMahon the principal and the vice principal Mr Henry which have all gone disregarded and absolutely no report has went anywhere and no one has genuinely listened to anything I had to say my son begged for his class to be changed and I was told that that is not a thing it's way too late in the year this was said to me in October while my son was begging to get away from one student that relentlessly basically tortured him and other students recently which was yesterday or the day before my yesterday my son was physically basically picked up off of the ground 2 feet away from the door that they go into breakfast at 7:29 in the morning 1 minute before the door opened and he was picked up by an older student and thrown to the ground to the point where I had to physically carry him back to my car hysterically crying I went to the school 1 hour later to have a meeting that I demanded I was not able to see the principal I was not able to see the vice principal but I saw Miss corion I believe her name is and I was told that something would be done about it it was an older student when I demanded that my son be brought into the room to talk to him with her in the room because he would not tell anyone what happened to him only me I saw an extremely large red mark on his neck and I took a picture of it and I pointed it out he then was brought back to class because he wanted to stay in school I told him that he would not be in contact with the student that did that to him because he was an older student I called the principal back Elise McMahon and asked what actions would be taken against the student that did this to my son and I was told it was before school hours it didn't matter that it was on school grounds and that I allowed it to happen happened because I was there so I then wanted my son unenrolled from school which I did not do that because it would not be fair to him to be unenrolled from school I told her how serious bullying is especially now that young Stu young people and children commit suicide daily from being relentlessly bullied and nothing being done I looked at the student handbook and everything on kingburg school district website about how serious they take bullying and how things would be done I then on the phone with her demanded that my son's records be printed out of every single complaint that I ever made which was SE six to seven times that I called the school from September to now it's not even December and this has been going on all year she then told me she was not going to print anything out for me to see that she would not look at video camera to see what had happened when I wanted to know exactly what happened to my son and wanted to see wanted them them to see I saw what happened I wanted them to see how brutal it was what happened to him she told me she would not look at the video camera and that she would not print out what I wanted to see because I called and was hostile so I just wanted to bring it to Kingsburg School like to everyone here that I have made police reports about it because I had no other choice but to do that because nothing was being done throughout the school and that I want to let it be known that that Elise McMahon and Mr Henry of cuso will not take any of my complaints reports or worries and concerns seriously and that they think I allowed it to happen to my son because I was there and it was before school hours one minute before and it doesn't matter that it was on school grounds so I just wanted to bring it to everyone's attention that I have absolutely no help when it comes to him being relentlessly bullied and absolutely no one in the school district will help me and pay attention to any of my concerns thank you wait one second so sorry I have no you're okay um there is a section when you reference the school website yes there's a form if you don't have access to a printer I can print it for you so it's a form to fill out to officially request yes so if you fill that out and you officially request a hi form it will be opened okay so if you could do that and then everything else that you and does that go through the St New Jersey and not well if we report it to the state of Jersey but we we have to follow a certain procedure that will be followed and what gets done after that is filled out it depends on the outcome so of everything that's in there youall have to identify yourself okay child in that form do does she have to write or whoever fills it out we're in this together um do I have to do we have to fill out for everying in that's been going on since September that has not been taken care of you can put everything on there it's up to you what you news report and everything because I had an incident myself as well where I went to the school and nobody could locate me to the after school program that that our child is uh currently enrolled in and I had actually spoke to Mr Henry who went on the thing and I not jokingly walked around the school two times and nobody could direct me to a door to find my child to escort him out of the school after the after school program well the after school prr program is completely separate from the school but I'm saying that vice principal should at least know the door to direct me to to pick up my child it's a completely separate program so he wouldn't necessarily know that but that's separate but we we could discuss that too but for if you can if you don't have access to a printer we can print it for you but if you could fill out that form with as much information whatever incident you want to include on it you could do separate you could put it all on one however you're more comfortable doing it and then the other stuff I'll I'll speak to Administration and is it really considered my problem I like it has the school has nothing to do with that happening on school grounds and one minute before a door opens it's not the school's responsibility to handle the bullying well it it's if it's deemed bullying like that's there so I'm sure you probably saw in there too like there's certain criteria for bullying that have to be met and there is a lot of times when people say it's bullying it's bullying and we may agree but the criteria isn't met okay so it has to like really meet the strict criteria but we do have anti-bullying Specialists that will be able to go over so once the report is done and it's investigated they'll go over all that with you and tell you what was founded what was not founded what the investigation showed you're fine walked into the school and talked to somebody and asked for his portfolio and his things they should have been able to print them out and give them to her you there's there's a form for that too to yeah to request records there's a records request form something that somebody should have concerned her with yes yes there's a records re request for do that no I'm say could do that yes there's a record request you could also find if you can't find it you can always email me directly to or call my office okay thank you so much thank you for coming to speak and we hope works out anyone else from the public seeing none we'll close do I have a motion to adjourn I'll make that motion oh yeah yeah Mr Bennett um can I go back to something that was that we previously voted on tonight because I don't I wanted just know more information on it I'm not sure I you want to go back to something earlier in the agenda and ask the superintendent a question I I no I don't think that's an issue okay I don't know you can change your vote but let's just get your answer F no which is fine um I just want to go back to superintendent number I'm sorry so we've done that with every person who we put in the same thing so if you become a substitute in a contracted position that we're just waiting for you to have your certificate in hand for that's the way we've historically done it it's contractual that's what we've always done so the person who was previously in that position the person who was in a like position it's always been the same if we know that they're signing a contract with us that's the only time it's a way to get them to start earlier honestly until the paper's in their hand but the both stes are the same both January 2 or sooner well that's why it says or sooner because we're trying to get him in sooner and then he would be a substitute sooner and then start yes okay [Music] I guess before we Jour Ken you have anything just want to wish everybody a Happy Thanksgiving I know times always seem tough at the darkest hour but you know we there's always a light at the end of the tunnel we've made it this far in this year and uh we're going to continue to keep striving for better and it's good to have your family it's good to have friends it's good to have those people warming your hearts especially around the holidays so I wish everybody is uh enjoying it it's going to have us safe and happy and uh thanks thank [Music] youim thank you Mr off thank you Mr President um Good Luck to our retirees I want to thank all the voters out there for voting for Mrs uh kiman and Mrs Judy F and I there's a lot of people out there who talk a lot of smack but I didn't see anybody's name on any other ballot we ran on opposed but again everybody knows more about S2 than we do and everybody knows more than our superintendent than we do so thank you um the h family the Board of Education made its annual donation to project Paul this morning with our hams and our turkeys so that's a good thing on Monday the 27th at Friendship Park we're going to have the Barrow tree lighting I believe the buer band may be there I believe maybe I heard maybe if Santa Claus is free he's going to make an appearance and from my family to all your family Happy Thanksgiving everybody thank you Patty thank you Judy just like to welcome all the Personnel that was hired tonight and wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving thank you Mike um I'd just like to thank the student representatives and all the other people who spoke tonight um following the last meeting I was reminded um from some of our student Representatives how difficult it can be to come up here they look like they have those statements written and they very easily rattle them off but we got to remember that these are our eighth graders and our seniors that are that are coming here in front of a room going on YouTube for however long we're going to keep those up for um and making these statements and I'm I got to be honest I'm really proud of them for coming and and Having the courage to do that keeping us informed it was great to hear about all the college admissions I'd like to thank Mr broy for putting that into his newsletter as well it's great to hear those accomplishments and again not only the students that are going on to college and their acceptances as those roll in now because of the Common App um but also those that are doing making career choices as well you know people who are going into the military and making those decisions and just like to wish everybody a Happy Thanksgiving Greg um everybody said it better than I could so Happy Thanksgiving and thanks for coming just want to thank especially parents coming we love when parents come and bring things to our attention we always want to encourage people to come and speak to us if you have problems and wish everybody a Happy Thanksgiving have a motion to adjourn I'll make motion Dy thank you second all in favor I