e e e e evening we would like to call the meeting to order and welcome everyone this meeting is being held in accordance with the schedule of meetings at the organizational meeting held on January 3rd 2024 adequate notice of this regular meeting of the kennor board of education has been provided to the home News Tribune The Star Ledger and the local Source on January 11 2024 a copy has been filed with the Kenn bur Clark posted in the board office the countor B Hall brle and Harding schools as is provided by the open F meetings act thank you Mr Gala can everyone please rise and join us in the salute to the flag congratulations to the flag the United States of America and to the repblic for it stands one nation God indivisible withy and justice for all Mr Galo can we please have a roll call Viner here David Drogan here Ferrara here ather here L here Pichi here tear Zimmerman here we have Corum okay thank you we will now have receiving of the minutes and committee notes of the secretary these include the regular Boe minutes of the secretary from May 13th 15th 16th and 29th 2024 and the committee meeting notes from June 4th from the finance and Facilities committee meeting May I please have a motion to accept the receiving of the minutes so move second okay motion made by Mr ferera second by Mr bner all those in favor please say I I opposed eyes have it motions Carri Mr do we have any public correspondence um no we do not okay thank you so much at this time before we move on to the superintendent reports and presentations I would like to make a statement um similar to what I said in the um acknowledgement ceremony we had and it is to Mr Arlington and it is a farewell acknowledgement first and foremost we'd like to thank everybody for attending the meeting tonight and we want to share some heartfelt words about superintendent Arlington Kyle has been a beacon of change for our district since he arrived keeping us grounded and moving forward through the toughest times schools have faced amid increasing concerns with funding maintaining School operations and keeping programs thriving despite budget cuts and dwindling revenue streams Kyle remains steadfast during the covid-19 pandemic his unwavering communication meticulous diligence and Keen attention to detail provided steadfast reassurance to countless parents affirming their trust in the district's ability to safeguard their children's well-being superintendent Arlington's Visionary approach to meeting the educational needs of future Generations was predominantly displayed throughout the referendum process his extensive and effective communication with numerous stakeholders over several months played a pivotal role in ensuring its success thanks to Kyle's leadership students for generations to come will benefit from upgraded improved facilities and a new and optimized configuration Kyle's focus on student achievement and improving education for Kenworth public schools has been unwavering his approach care and concern for all students and their future have been admirable every plan and decision was carefully crafted with Precision Kyle you've modeled first class leadership for our teachers and our leadership teams we know you will continue to shine and have a lifelong impact on all students and families you'll serve in the future we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your dedicated time and service to our student schools and our community we will miss you dearly personally every time I drive past a new school building I will think of you we thank you so much and we wish you the best on this next chapter so thank you very much at this time we will have the superintendent's reports and presentations thank you for those kind words as I said outside it's been a challenging but rewarding experience leading the kennworth schools um and I'm really grateful that it has been part of my professional Journey so thank you for the support yeah uh prior to our board meeting we were able to celebrate some of the adults in our school community in a pre-board meeting reception and uh during this board meeting we'll be highlighting and celebrating some very special young people uh the first of whom is Nan Shaw yeah principal Davies is going to do a much better job than I could possibly do uh in speaking about your strengths and talents AS Val dictorian but on behalf of the board know that we're really proud and thankful of your and for your efforts as a representative to the board I think you came to every single meeting uh with a detailed report and we're always prepared to answer the questions that the board had uh so thanks thank you for that level of preparation and for serving as a really strong role model for the school Community thank you yeah Mr Davies uh so good evening everyone thank you so much for uh allowing me to recognize some of our wonderful students at David Bry Middle High School um as Mr Arlington said our first um Honore is Nan sha um and Nan sha has served in so many capacities here at David Bley uh it is sad to see him depart from us um not only has he been the student rep uh to the board he has served as the student council president for our entire school he has been with the student council for seever several years um valoran is the highest one could achieve and when we had a recent luncheon um some of the students that were part of that luncheon in his class said of Nan that he walks on water um and they said that because he is someone who elevates who we are as students as Learners in our school Community um and all of his peers every single student here in the school looks to nans sha as the Pinnacle um of student achievement of Academia of involvement of everything that you could be as a young person um in a high school setting um they look to you nand as that individual that just has has focused so so high and has achieved such great things um a couple of just notes about Nan sha real quick um he has uh he started the robotics Club here at David Bley he's the founder of that club he's the president of that club and he has pushed that club to excel uh significantly and we are now a competing robotics team uh because of the work nand has done uh behind the scenes and in front of the scenes um he has served as the principal's advisory Council he is co-editor of the air print our newspaper um he has the top GPA of his class he's received numerous High honors um ABC Awards he's part of the NHS the National Honor Society the Spanish Honor Society the list can go on as um as the students indicated he can walk on water too apparently um one thing though I want to say about both nand and Dennis um is that as a principle it's really important to have those kinds of individuals that elevate others um you know we want to establish and create an environment at all times where students achieve and they look to each other and Nan creates that healthy sense of competition among his peers uh to be the best and his peers look to him and he has made our school a better place so I want to say congratulations nand on um achieving the valid dictorian status also congratulations and thank you for being the student rep to the board um nand is going to be studying mechanical engineering At Mercer University and he is off to great things and we wish him well uh congratulations n [Applause] Shaw good evening everyone I'd like to say thank you for everyone for listening so attentively to my reports I know that there was a few jokes hidden there and every single time I knew I can count on everyone laughing I'm so happy that I was able to come here at as a choice student and feel so accepted into this community it's been a crazy few years and I don't think I would have replace them for anything else I've had a lot of opportunities to grow here and I want to thank each and every one of you for making that possible as I said to Mr Davies I thank you for opening all those doors for me I couldn't have done anything without you guys so thank you very much [Applause] man gets two certificates tonight uh for student rep and then for validor so congratulations you also now get two tokens of appreciation uh behind you and the purple one in the back term thank you um also um here tonight is Dennis shestak um I met with Dennis and Nan this morning they've been working on their graduation speeches and they're going to be darn good I have to say um and again much like I was speaking about nand uh Dennis is a true pleasure to have as a student it is sad to see Dennis graduate it's also exciting to see Dennis graduate because of the wonderful things that he's off to as well Dennis is going to be studying engineering as well um at NJIT next year and just a couple things from his um list of accomplishments he is also part of the robotics club uh he's the lead electrical engineer of the robotics Club he also has earned um significant amounts of ABC Awards high honor role he too inspires his peers uh through his hard work his intelligence his determination um Dennis also works at the ACU reference medical lab in Lyndon um he's a member of the band um part of the senior quartet um he's off to great things as well and again um Dennis is also just a quality human and kudos to his parents um who have raised him same with nand um it's wonderful to know that they're bright individuals that they're determined and hardworking but it's also great to know that David Brey is graduating good humans um good citizens of our country that are going to contribute positively to the world U Dennis is one of those individuals Dennis has achieved the distinction of the salutatorian of our class of 2024 congratulations to Dennis [Applause] want to say something Dennis thanks guys the that one yes congratulations uh unfortunately I don't believe our Union County unslung hero was able to attend tonight correct yes Anthony lman though to just give a recognition to Anthony lman he was awarded the Union County unsung hero award um Anthony lman was a wasn't able to be here tonight which is strange because anony lman is always at school um and he's just a young man that brightens up everyone's day um he's always here he's a wonderful young man he is off to great things as a young person too graduating this year so congratulations to Anthony Lano thanks Jeremy Mr Miller and Mr Davies um are going to next introduce and tell you more about some of this year's scholar athletes good evening everyone um unfortunately two of our three scholar athletes couldn't make it this evening but before I get into uh presenting our scholar athletes I just want to publicly congratulate our girl softball team um Unfortunately they couldn't make it tonight they have their dinner uh and involved catering and all that so they couldn't res schedule so uh coach fch coach panado and and the girls had an outstanding season uh they were Conference champions and then they also won the sectional Championship so publicly I want to just congratulate them on a on a great year uh and I'm sure they're having fun over at the VFW tonight um which leads me to our scholar athletes um every year when I get up to do this it it it's and I always say it's kind of bittersweet when you get to present some of our student athletes that have come through here and and the things that they've accomplished not only as athletes but as as students in our building and and just good kids in our community um it's great to celebrate that but then you realize that they are no longer going to be on our soccer team or our softball team or whatever it may be and and they're hard shoes to fill uh you know when you have somebody these kids come through the program um but Athletics I'm a product of an being an athlete and the qualities that are involved in athletics carry over through your academic career which you'll see a couple uh students tonight but also just in your life in general uh when we talk about work ethic talk about commitment teamwork um time management there's so many things that go into it and to see some of our kids Excel the way they do it's it's really makes me proud uh that they're a part of our programs um so I'll just talk briefly about the two individuals that are not here tonight uh Sophia pessa um is not only our Union County female scholar athlete but she is also our Brian Piccolo Award winner that the Kenworth Unico uh sponsors and then Mike koric um who is our male Union County scholar athlete um two great kids great in the classroom and and also on the playing field the one young lady who made it tonight which I'm glad um this young lady just she exhibits you know all the qualities that you want uh not only in a student but an athlete and also I could just tell when I see her around the building I see her around her friends that aren't athletes uh it's she's just a good allaround person um she is our New Jersey uh in Scholastic Athletic Association scholar athlete uh she went down to a nice banquet down at the Pines Manor she will be continuing her academic and athletic career at fdu uh very sad to see her go because she's such a great girl uh but I'm happy to acknowledge her Bianca sod [Applause] than um I just I guess thank you for like this thank [Applause] you thank you all right thank you guys congratulations and we look forward to seeing you on the field next Tuesday thank you so this time we're going to move on to board business everyone is welcome to stay but if you're interested in leaving now would be a great time for you to make your exit congratulations and thank you for coming bye take care congratulations to probably thank you so at this time we're going to move on to um any superintendent updates Hib report Etc with Mr Ary yeah uh as part of my report Mr ganel is going to give an update on the budget uh but first start with uh some details around where we are with our referendum projects all right good evening everyone um um this is uh my monthly update on the referendum project and fortunately for one of the phases is almost complete uh so as you know we broke it up into three projects uh the HVAC project um Harding continues progressing very well with the unit ventilators uh the controls and work balancing of the HV system HVAC system is in progress and we do expect to uh have substantial uh completion by uh July which is a little ahead of schedule so that's good news uh the field project 95% of the um Paving is complete they're doing some we were doing some work out there um today uh Turf installation is complete um the sand and the rubber infield was uh applied last week and into Saturday uh the track as scheduled will be delivered uh after graduation so not to uh um to allow us to use the field for graduation uh and then the fence and the installation is 90% complete as well um the additions project we're about 85% complete with the addition of the foundation um the the uh insulation is being done the underground electrical and the plumbing and the storm drains are all being uh coordinated and installed at this point uh and then excavation of underground utilities is also working um and then um that also is on schedule for completion sometime during the Spring of 202 five uh so here are some pictures of our H HVAC uh upgrades uh your typical unit ventilators going into their classrooms um the work uh do work would do quite uh nice work I believe they are cleaning up after themselves I haven't heard too many complaints I do appreciate the teachers who are giving up their classrooms for a couple of days while that uh is taking place over at Harding here's some of the additions work you can see the block is being installed you can see there the white lines down the two Center and those are the drain pipes um um coming in so uh as you'll see you'll every every week you'll see a little more and more uh with that project getting completed uh here's some of the field upgrades uh you could see um um fascinating process if any were able to see it and watch it from the right from the um installation of the drainage system to the multiple levels of stone that were put out there I mean massive amounts of stone uh and then finally the um all the um leveling and the the compaction uh to make sure that this project uh goes correctly the the installer of the turf has to sign off on the field prior to it being installed so they have a standard that they're require that they have to meet so if the contractor doesn't get it to the exact specifications that they want they will not put that field Turf down um so that was that's a a little bit of reassurance that hopefully the project was done properly um and that's the end result that's a Drone footage that our it Department uh took last week um after the um all the lines were down the rubber isn't installed you'll see those up in the top leftand Corner you'll see the bags of rubber pellets ready to be installed which were done basically last Friday and Saturday correct yeah so they're down now um the field is uh complete um and we're ready for the graduates to take the field on H the 18th so we're very excited moving into the budget um restoration um the legislature uh passed two bills to assist the school districts that lost state aid in fy2 as you recall we lost $1.6 million in Equalization ation Aid uh one bill provided a restoration of Aid amounting to about 45 amounting to 45% of the Lost Equalization Aid uh the other allowed the districts uh under certain circumstances to increase uh the tax levy beyond the 2% limit uh Kenworth was eligible for both options uh an increase in the tax levy and the restoration of the equalization Aid um application processes for both both of these uh processes were a little bit different so I'd like to summarize these um as I outlined it to the finance and facility committee uh last um last Tuesday uh during our discussions so the tax levy increase process districts uh needed to submit uh a budget to the executive County Superintendent for approval once approved the budget would be advertised in the newspaper the board would then hold a public hearing on the additional hearing uh on the on the public uh on the additional budget and approve the new budget after that approval taxes would need to be recertified uh with the municipality and the County Board of Elections um the additional Aid acceptance uh districts needed to submit a budget uh for approval to the executive County Superintendent then the board would approve the revisions um so as I said kennworth was eligible for the tax uh increase only of $1 4,529 you can see that on line F there other adjustments so that would be that our uh tax levy could go from the 22,7 41697 up to the 22 m756 226 um it's the recommendation of the finance committee not to take that opportunity to increase the tax levy by the 14529 um the laborious process that is involved the time committing by the board um just is not um and then the confusion of the increasing the tax levies midyear there is a question whether the actual the community would actually receive a second tax bill for that supplement so the committee uh is recommending that we not pursue that uh there's very little upside to to to doing that um the committee did however um um is recommending that we do uh take the 63396 which is the 45% of the loss of Equalization Aid and restore some of the programs and services um and supplies and materials that we eliminated from the original budget um if you recall um through the month of April we looked at a budget reduction plan um to um to come up with that that involved uh uh multiple um categories uh this is the worksheet that we will be providing to the executive County Superintendent that um outlines what our advertised budget is the change that we would make as a result of the um uh additional Aid that's that M middle column there uh middle number dollar sign column there and then finally what what the amount would be um uh the final budget and you can see there uh the first line the 3200 line we're looking at restoring teaching positions and Chromebooks um the second line is restoring teaching positions in the basic skills uh interventionist positions uh the third line is restoring certain stipend um uh the the fourth line there is restoring uh stiens and increasing a secretary from a 10-month to a 12-month position and then finally the final line there uh is uh employee benefits um um associated with the restoration of those positions that we outlined uh above if you recall this was what we had originally cut from the budget to get to the uh 2% tax um that first time the amount cut to 1.5 1,566 th000 and this is where we are basically restoring it we're not restoring anything in professional development we're restoring $64,000 in uh supplies and materials which is essentially the Chromebooks uh we're restoring uh $342,000 in Staffing and the associate uh the associated benefits that go along with it as well as some uh stiens positions um essentially um from a from a programmatic standpoint uh the g&t program will be restored to 2024 levels or current levels uh grade four will be restored to U 2024 levels all music uh programs at both Harding and Burley will be restored to 2024 levels physical education both Harding and burle will be restored to 2024 levels uh basic skills interventionist levels would be uh also uh increased um and um then those stipend positions in the Chromebooks as I said um so the next steps here would be next week once we get approval from the executive County Superintendent on that form um we would submit the budget uh uh for approval um and vote on it next week so there's no impact on the tax levy as a result of that uh this was a pure Grant if you recall last year we did receive something similar was much smaller it was like 660 something thousand um that's where we we we brought back um we put in a a sleo over here a full-time s over here um so very similar process it's just a lot more money this year wish it was more uh originally it was supposed to be 66% of the equalization Aid loss but it wound up being 45% that's the uh the way the meat grinder does work down in Trenton with the give and take for various things so are there any questions regarding that am I allowed to ask a question not right now not right now board members have questions about the presentation okay thank you thank you Mr G thank you Mr gel uh I'm gonna end my report with a review of Hib later in the meeting you'll be voting on the cases from I'm showing no I'm showing you Ma's report I always have trouble with that you'll be voting on the cases from April later on but uh tonight there are three cases from from May I'll give you time to look at them some of them are a little bit complex and so if I can answer questions in a way that keeps uh students anonymized I will um if not we'll find a work around okay take any questions think need another minute okay everyone okay Mr Zimmer another minute everyone okay okay okay thank you Mr that concludes my report okay thank you very much at this time we will have uh report of committees review of resolutions and board discussion of first is finance facilities and negotiation is Mr L okay sorry if I'm a little rep repetitive didn't stole a lot of what I had here so um just hang on so the committee met on June 4th the committee notes were distributed to the board today and posted to the shared folder the purpose of our meeting on June 4th was to review the additional state aid as outlined by Mr Mr ganello's presentation um the committee unanimously agreed to use the aid to restore some of the programs staff materials that were cut from the budget approved on April 29th as a loss of that um Equalization Aid um M went to more of the detail than I just gave you the board will need to take action on at the June 18th meeting to accept the additional Aid um the committee also reviewed the status of the construction Pro projects along with the recommendation that the athletic fields be restricted to the use of students in school during the school hours for security and safety um issues um Mr ganel has report to Mr Arlington included analysis of the contracts in accordance with PL 215 chapter 14 pursuance to that law Kenworth Board of Education intends to renew award or permit um to expire contracts previously awarded by the Board of Education these contracts have been and will continue to be in full compliance with all state with um all state and federal statutes and regulations um that's basically resolution number eight um so let me get to resolutions um one through four the the standard every month you just heard Mr Arlington's report I reviewed the financials and the Billings they all are in order line for line item transfer there was none that met our $5,000 cap um number fber field trips you'll see that one trip is to Colorado we're not paying for that we're only paying for the cost of the trip for three I mean for the class which is $385 I knew you were G to ask question maybe actually I wasn't but better so six are field trips seven are cont um contractor payments I looked at those also they all seem to be in order um 8 to 13 are are basically what I just talked about those contracts that Mr ganel went over with u Mr Arlington um basically are contracts from all the vendors we use they need to be in place before the year starts there are contracts moas with all of our vendors that we might use um there's also the busing transportation involved in there Union Tech contracts and environmental safety um agreement um all those contracts are basically in your packet if you had a chance to review them some good reading if you didn't do those contracts um 14 to 17 are non-public the non-public school programs as you know we act as the conduit for the state to supply funds for um St Teresa's basically um 18 and 19 are agreements with Union County ed services um and that's all I have on resolutions so um any questions on that questions and then we'll go into the other parts of this scad I do uh no one likes to conference more than me I'm not questioning that so I do want to know about the kennworth diner what kind of a trip is that uh some of these are field trips that are listed for students who require life skills as part of their IEPs yeah I think that's what that is and do they so what happens there they just go in and have a cup of coffee or breakfast or well each student has different life skill needs depending on their levels of functioning so for some students maybe ordering for a menu and like proper restaurant decorum might be part of their life skills AB I can get more information on that but but it's absolutely needed you see some of places in Westfield that up I'm sorry but you see it all the time question that's the first time I saw also um back to these like uh trips we we used to go to like Washington DC or to Turtle Back Zoo so um is there other trips besides Blackford pool well those were previous okay current Curr and then okay the other cost the 10% that's all with the school the public school for it's no none of our money but they that's the only that's the filter that state needs to get the money to them okay also nursing we pay for the nursing that for the n no we're not paying for we don't pay for anything we're the conduit we just act as the the money transfer okay but say it's none of our dollars for this District involved with that we just the state has to find a way to get the money to them and they can't give it to them directly they give it to you and then so we give it to them I got you and is that a full-time nurse there or you don't uh I don't know anything about the program there I really don't I that's what I have again we have nothing to do with it really we're just a transfer P basically paper okay it's on the paper depends on the funding level too so changes from year to year the funding changes based on the number of students so they maximize it if they have enough to get a fulltime they do thank you okay question Mr so okay so I just have like two other things so um some policy um from the steering committee I'll read I'm just going to do like the reader digest version p1140 is affirmative action pr11 1530 is employment um complaint procedures and p1550 is discrimination basically all three are mandated and all all three either expand the definition revise the definition or update the codes so that's kind of the reader digest version instead of going into lengthy detail on those um and finally as negotiations um we have negotiations scheduled for this third upcoming Thursday and that's the status on negotiation so that's all I have anyone any additional questions from Mr L at this time no thank you Mr Ladi we'll now move on to personnel management Mr Haven uh there are eight resolutions tonight one of which will be um discussed in close session but the seven that I can talk about uh resolution 20 is a acceptance of a retirement resolution 21 is an elementary [Music] um special ed lld teacher uh resolution 22 was a revised leave of absence resolution 23 is the approval of sat po Camp resolution 24 are summer buildings and grounds support staff resolution 25 are co-curricular stiens and resolution 26 is the approval of substitute staff that is it anyone questions for Mr curriculum instruction yeah happy to read the curriculum and instruction news since uh chairperson te couldn't be here tonight but first I neglected to say my report or articulated congratulations to Denise RIS whose resignation or retirement is listed uh we wish her the best and thank her for her 11 years of service to the korth students there are two curriculum and instruction resolutions tonight resolution 27 uh recommends approval of a bunch of curriculum guides that will be written in the summer or next school year and resolution 28 is Hib from the month of April there are also several policies under cni um to take a page from Mr lad's book most of them are about uh the removal of policies listing protected classes and instead pointing you uh pointing your attention to where those protected classes are listed in statute so that's the case for the curriculum content which is a policy and is mandated equity in school and classroom practices and complaint procedures and um there's a typo on page two that should say religion in schools uh that's also revised uh so to is regulation 2411 uh around guidance counseling um in that policy we outline who is entitled to provide counseling services to students the bilingual education policy and regulation is updated as well uh the biggest changes include changes to definitions identification organization and additional requirements of a school district it also went from uh I think English as a second language to B to bilingual and then there is a sportsmanship policy which is recommended um and keep in mind the sportsmanship policy is sort of in conversation with our civility policy that we wrote and approved last year for the first time and then of course the njsi AA also has its own sort of code of conduct so those three things are triangulated um and updated in the sportsmanship policy to reflect those changes anyone have questions for Mr Arlington about curriculum instruction or any of the policy just quick question so because we the curriculum writing because we really don't talk about that so that just an update for the following school year pretty much uh no or yeah it depends on the scope of the work which is why there are varied hours so some may have just updated standards that need to be plugged in or aligned so that requires fewer hours there may be uh a major revision a minor revision or a new course that's completely uh new and needs to be written so that reflects the number of hours determined by director hle for that work sometimes it's because it's up per the 5-year curriculum Cycles sometimes it's up because there are new standards sometimes it's up because teachers bring to Sam's attention this needs Revision in these ways uh so it could be for a multitude of factors all right thanks yeah you anyone else yeah um 2260 the uh um it says board shall ensure District physical education is a co-educational setting what what do what does that mean I mean you can have fed classes for females and some fizet classes for males so schools can't schedule maybe like they used to a long time ago gender specific classes okay thank you good yeah thank you anyone else okay um any old business I have two things under old business uh please continue to check our website for updates regarding the referendum and school business we also have Revisited a few time our tab committee um unfortunately we're not able to schedule for the end of this year but it's something that we are going to continue to work with our teams to move forward for next year to find a date that works for everybody that's involved anyone else for old business new business yeah i' just like to uh thank all the staff that was available over the weekend for Fusion Dance Center's uh 20th uh dance recital uh it was a fantastic event my daughters were in it but uh nonetheless the school was open it was clean and everything functioned well so thank you to everybody who's available thank you next year's we be in a brand new state-of-the-art Auditorium yeah yeah I just wanted to acknowledge as we already heard me shout about before the art show that's going on in the back's gym till 8:30 tonight if anybody gets out of here and there's time left uh it was nice to see that back again the Student Art on display um some really truly amazing pieces back there um some amazing artists here in the building and um certainly worth seeing if anybody hasn't seen it yet thank you we'd like to congratulate all of our Scholars our athletes um and their families for there were so many victories that we celebrated this year throughout the year we would also like to thank and congratulate all of our seniors and their families we know this is a huge milestone Stone in their lives and very important to them we would like to take a moment too to thank our teachers all of our team members and our leadership teams for all the support and dedication throughout the year that make the schools possible and we'd like to wish everyone a well rested summer and healthy and excited to see you back in the PO at this time if there's no new business we'll move on to opening the meeting to the public for a comment motion to open to the public second okay motion made by Mrs Zimmerman second seconded by Mrs Drogan all those in favor of opening the meeting the public please say I I opposed eyes have it motion carry Mr G yes uh public comment will now be accepted the Board of Education sets a limit to for the public to speak uh at at the board metion for 5 minutes per person unless prior permission has been granted by Board of Education to extend the time pursuing to bylaw 0167 for the record uh prior to making your comments please include your name and address okay is there any uh public at this time that would like to make a comment please step up hi I'm Sherie Brennan and I live at 19 North 21st Street I have uh twin fourth graders soon to be fifth grade and I just wanted to um bring attention to bullying at Harding it is a huge part of my family's life it has caused us so much stress and disturbance this entire year and this is the third time I've come here I've written multiple emails to people in this room to people outside of this room but just to get it on record so everybody can know about it my son is the one who receives most of the bullying um as of the beginning of the year of fourth grade I thought brand new grade maybe this will get better October 9th first time my son was hit by a child November 7th my child was shoved by another child November 17th my child was in recess and was hit on the back while he was on the jungle gym um December 5th a kid came into the restroom and was horse playing and knocking my child around um in between this a few of these incidents were the same child and it was the same child who had hit him in previous years so I was introduced to Mrs cuculo by Mr Arlington to try and make this stop with a staya away agreement with two children the staya away agreement if you're not familiar with it is that let's see all comments and discussions about the other student are not allowed no gestures no physical contact both of those students did not sign this and both of those students continued to hit my child throughout the year my child was accused of things that he did not do by people in this room there was nobody who saw them so they are going by other students by inference by a reputation my child might have he was wrongly accused the um the video cameras that should have picked up on these were either not there they were fuzzy they were not working never got any resolution from that my child was hit on March 1st my children were both removed from the after care at this school in the cafeteria because they could not stand the fear of getting hit there so as of December they were out and they've attended after care at the rec center and have not been hit one single time which is great um one of the teachers here refused to let my student my child go to the bathroom repeatedly which humiliated him there was a student who attacked my Stu my my child in the bathroom and kicked him in the groin to the point that he missed two days of school I brought him to our um urologist who could see trauma on the spot so don't not believe that that happened um my child was hit by one child in gym Mr bubnowski took my child out of the classroom he was in later brought that other child both into the hallway made my child apologize to that child and shake his hand how intimidating is that bullying is not only being hit but it is being intimidated this school is the scariest place that I Dro My Children off to I imagine it could be worse in other places in New Jersey but this school is pretty bad I'm happy that we have one year left if I had choices I would go somewhere else you need to create a culture of no tolerance for this I don't know who was in charge of discipline I think it's the principal and the vice principal but they don't they do not follow through on the consequences that are in your books I'm not confident in the ability of these two to be able to create a learning environment because you know it comes from the top and comes down I don't blame the teachers as much as I blame the top they make the environment my children were supported to a certain extent but not enough to relieve it all my child my son was was injured outside of this school and he's missed about 6 weeks of school and it has been wonderful because he has not been stressed I haven't been stressed my daughter hasn't been stressed when you stress one of us you stress all of us we're a loving small family and what you do to him it happens to us I was in a school on the day of the Apex field run and I was in the main off I'm sorry to interrupt you but 5 minutes has run out so we unfortunate cuz I could go on we have board policy I'm sorry you feel that way but we have board policy that needs to be enforced and it can be addressed at a later time thank you is there any other public that would like to speak at this time I would like to make any comments okay can I have a motion to close the meeting to the public motion to close second second okay motion made by Mrs Drogan seconded by Mr HTH are all those in favor of closing the meeting to the public please say I I I oppose I have it motion carried the meeting is now closed to the public Mr Gall we prepare to vote on resolutions yes we have 29 resolutions on the uh uh public agenda at this point this is for Resolutions numbers 1 through 29 do any of those need to be voted on separately no okay uh biner yes Drogan yes Ferrara yes hather yes mad yes Zimmerman yes panichi yes motions carry unanimously thank you you Mr Gala do we have a need to go into closed executive session yes we do can I please have a motion to go into closed executive session second motion made by Mr hether seconded by Mr ferera all those in favor of going into to close executive session please say I I oppos eyes have it motion carries Mr ganel be resolve the Board of Education the Board of Education meet in private session which the public shall be excluded to discuss the topics of personnel superintendent's annual evaluation Kaa Grievances and employee designation settlement um we will also be going to discuss negotiation with the superintendent contract and all units of the Kaa which private session is being held pursuing to section 7B and a public means act matters under discussion will be uh disclosed to the public as soon as final decisions are made and voted upon okay uh biner yes Drogan yes Ferrara yes tther yes madadi yes Z yeah panichi yes we are now in Clos session thank you everyone