yeah you'll you'll do the student update and then you can go sit down and then we'll call you you got it okay everybody could hear that okay good evening everybody this is the February 27th public meeting for the kenalan Board of Education New Jersey open public meeting 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 interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of of the act the kinan board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published in the Suburban Trends on January 21st 2024 and posted in the public library and filed with the bur clerk we call uh call the board Please Mr iser here miss Leonard Mr Mayers Miss Pella here miss Portman here Mr belli here M Donaldson here there is no closed session today so please stand for pledge of allegiance IED Al to flag United States okay our first routine matter is approval of the minutes for January 4th reorg meeting and January 23rd regular meeting can I have a motion to approve motion to approve second any discussion on the meetings anybody see okay seeing none uh Miss Francisco we pull the board Please Mr Isa manger yes Miss Leonard yes Miss Pella yes Miss Portman yes Mr Petrelli yes Miss Donaldson yes Jordan so I'm sharing the he the highlights and accomplishments of the student Halls from the Kon Public Schools keil Cisco School the week of February 12 was quite an eventful for Keel we celebrated and observed the following heart week in our physical education classes thank you Miss B for hosting and involving KHS peer leaders in supporting our K students for the week kicked off the KE cares food drive to benefit the local food pantry thank you Mrs Yago and Miss Mrs Velasco special Valentine's Day parties and activities on February 14th we held stem night this past Thursday February 22nd thank you to the curriculum Department staff members and high school students for making it a great night for our students thank you to our Keel students and families for joining us a very special thank you to Mrs Lewis for starting koala Cafe in Keel teaching students important life skills during the process of baking selling and distributing baked goods to the K Cisco staff the KHS National English Honor Society and their adviser Miss Florio have started visiting with first graders on a weekly basis to support them in learning and serve as mentors for our young students we are very excited to observe read Across America beginning this Friday March 1st prm's social Outreach Club will visit and Mentor with ke students during lunch periods please join please join us on Tuesday March 6 for our first ever ever Lego celebration at the kinon public library hosted by Miss o and Miss gersen in partnership with the library second graders will attend a science SE themed field trip to the Mayo Performing Art Center on Monday March 18th we will celebrate author day on Wednesday March 20th with visiting author Michael Patrick O'Neal on Thursday March March 21st we will hold our first family engineering design night sponsored by Kesha We are looking forward to it from Stonybrook our Stonybrook Business Club visited KHS and met with members of the fbaa to learn about the interviewing process thank you to the members of FBLA and their adviser Mrs Gilligan thank you to Kesha for wonderful wonderful fifth grade snowflake Sor the students were treated to an inflatable air hockey a basketball shoe a giant janga alongside a wonderful wonderful dinner and dessert sty Brook student Council held its yearly Bagel breakfast on Valentine's Day despite the delayed opening that day the entire school had breakfast at the same time the kindness crew surprised each student in the school with a Valentine's Day card that included a no homework pass for that day Stonybrook held its first talent show on February 15th and it was a huge success we have so many talented students we will welcome author and illustrator Jay Cooper on March 1st to kick off read Across America week Stony Brook will celebrate read Across America week with a full week of activities beginning on March 4th thank you to Kesha for sponsoring our first family engineering design night that will be head on held on March 12th we are looking forward to our fourth grade sweetheart dance that will be held on March 15th from PRM prm's family stem night took place on Tuesday February 6th students and their families enjoyed a variety of fun scientific activities we'd like to thank our science supervisor Mrs Travi along with the student helpers from KHS and the PRM Kesha for making this event possible the first teen k of the Year happened earlier this month our seventh grade students had fun playing games like basketball and spikeball in the gym running through the infl inflatable obstacle course dancing and listening to music in the cafeteria and most of all spending time with their friends it takes a tremendous amount of effort and coordination and volunteer assistant to make this possible and we are grateful for PRM sa and all of the parent volunteers for help making the team canteen happen the after school homework club which which was created based on idea that was brought to our Administration by our student council began meeting early this month this club provides a quiet place for students to do homework after school and students have found it very beneficial an interest meeting was held for students who would like to participate in the PRM play we are pleased to announce that this year's musical will be The Adams Family auditions will begin in early March the social Outreach club members are going to Keel on Friday to celebrate read Across America with the younger students the induction ceremony for the newest members of the kinan chapter of the National Junior Honor Society will take place March 6 this is always a wonderful celebration of extremely noteworthy honor for these deserving students and their families we are looking forward to the E 8th grade tea canteen on Friday March 8th and the seventh grade tea canteen on Friday March 5th from KHS the spring Musical Shrek will be taking place March 7th through 9th and tickets are being sold online the girl swim team won the 2024 North Jersey sectional championship this is the second year in a row the KHS girls team has won this Championship the k SJ hockey team on the 2024 Halverson cup at the J has freshman sophomore fencing Invitational KHS had three first year fencers in the top eight with their respective weapons congratulations to Dylan castalano Smith first place in foil Sam baldino third place in sa and Holden wood seventh in sa the sixth annual community health fair will take place on March 26th in the khhs gym Kenan High School's future Business Leaders of America Club provided a co co co comprehensive preparing for an interview presentation to the business Club of Stonybrook Elementary's fifth graders additionally they conducted mock interviews to enhance their interview skills congratulations to Dylan castalano Smith Claudia Kroger and Nathan Sher for their performance with the north Jersey region one Honor Choir these students were selected from hundreds of the best High School singers across New Jersey the student council hosted a winter pep rally for the first time since 2018 hiding all the sports and their accomplishments congratulations to KHS wrestlers Caleb Vasquez and Parina sh shakova kalea placed first and Paulina took third at the girls and Jack tournament congratulations to KHS students Emma clitus Addie mler Michaela toia Nathan schz and Claudia Kroger for performing with the 2024 Morris area Honor Choir these students were selected by an audition from among the best High School singers in the area congratulations to our students who received the NJ seala by literacy in Spanish French Latin and Korean congratulations to the the Spanish recipients Sabrina avado Samantha Bassin Caitlyn Jones Sophia Martin Andrew MTZ Sophie pogan Gianna Soro Nathan schz and Clare Wang congratulations to the French participants Cole prior and Addie mler congratulations to the Latin recipients Josh Cho Thomas solarino Abigail gatley and Grace mcallion congratulations to the r Russian recipient Sophia pogan and congrats to the Korean recipients a and Kim thank you thanks Jordan thank you thank you for subbing okay next up is the superintendent update and um just like for uh for all the student recognition if everybody could once your students recognized if you could just stay seated for so that all the kids can be recog the students can be recognized together and everybody could just participate in that one thing then we'll go to recess and you can all leave unless you want to stay for the very exciting board business that we have going on today okay thank you Mrs president I'm always trying to push you know staying for what we talk about it's really fun exactly exactly and hi everybody this is uh this makes our meetings as good as they could be as great as they can be thank you Jordan for filling in you did a great job um this is what it's all about I promis the board and all of our community last month that I wouldn't speak too much tonight so I'm not going to I'm going to keep to my word I don't want to bore anybody you're not here for that uh for for that particular board business so on the heels of what Mrs Donaldson said we are doing some things differently starting with our our look and with our technology the board invested recently in this so for allowing our community to hear us a little bit better and to function a little better and what we noticed during the December athletic uh recognition for the fall is that some of our parents some of our kids and and trust me I know you want to get home there's stuff going on this is the last place you want to be but by the end of it there was very little support so that's why we're asking tonight what we'll do is I'll start I'll call up Mrs utel we'll start with Stonybrook she'll do her recognition if there're students parents at that point we're going to step back we could take pictures if you'd like you go back and then we'll keep it rolling we'll go into Mr mongan and Mr buer with PRM and their students and Mr scandin and Mr Lenell and then we'll call up Mr suda and uh Mrs sapio for the high school and at that point like Mrs Donaldson said we'll just take a quick break so it won't be painful this is why we're here it's about school it's about kids and about programs and recognition so I'm not going to speak any longer but I am going to going to ask Mrs utel Principal Stony Brook to come on up Mrs utel good evening everyone uh first I want to thank Mr mango and the board for letting us take the time um these recognitions are extremely important to me so the first one I really want to let you know that I am truly honored by this recognition it is for a Stony Brook staff member that truly does go above and beyond in what he does every single day so if you bear with me I would like to take a moment to read the letter that Mr mango and I were honored to receive via email from the New Jersey Association for health physical education Recreation and dance and it reads dear kenalan school's administrative team on behalf of the New Jersey Association for health physical education Recreation and dance it is my pleasure to inform you that Shan Pika is the recipient of the 2024 Elementary physical education teacher of the year award by virtue of this award shaan has dis distinguished himself in our profession this recognition is evidence of his dedication to professional Excellence testimony offered on Sha's behalf enthusiastically validates his commitment to his students to provide qu quality instruction and knowledge receiving a state level award bestowed by one's professional colleagues is a coveted honor of which Shan should be very proud so on behalf I also want to take a moment just to share some facts about Mr Pika he has been teaching in kenalan for 20 years he has two amazing daughters both of which I have been honored to be the principal of he is a Community member he takes pride in that he has been a coach in this community and takes great pride in that he is my bus arrival person so thank you for that but goes above and beyond each and every day the other thing that Sean goes above and beyond for is he is the co-creator of something called PE Jam he works in conjunction in with Butler and as Mr mango and our board have shared that we really work with our community members and surrounding neighbors and they have created an event that has come back to life at Stonybrook in the past two years for each event he has invited over 70 teachers fizzed teachers from around the state of New Jersey and it is one of the most amazing days our fifth grade students get to participate as the models in lessons that teachers model for each other so not only is it a form of professional development for his colleagues but it is also a way for them to network with each other get to know each other and to ask questions and for them to also see new equipment that is being used around the state so Sean it is my incredible honor to congratulate you on besta on behalf of myself Mr mango and I hope the Board of Ed I can speak for you and all of the staff members if you could please stand because we want to give you a huge Round of Applause for what you do if you would like to come up and take a picture you want to come up I know he earned a beautiful award yesterday at his conference so AB congratulations Shan I am also honored tonight to take a moment to recognize our kindness crew Mrs Tanga if for those of you who do not know her is our school counselor she is amazing there are no other words to say about Mrs Tanga she also goes above and beyond in what she does for our staff our students and our families each and every day this year we brainstormed together and we wanted to really create another committee that focuses on random acts of kindness within our school Community we pride ourselves on our motto kindness counts at Stonybrook and it is something that for all my students sitting in the audience they know it is something I take very seriously and Mrs Tanga ran with our idea she started a kindness crew this year with fourth and fifth graders and they have been meeting once a month to create random acts of kindness one one that was spoken about earlier today and to watch our students work with her on their lunch hour they eat together they talk together and they brainstorm ideas and that first meeting was a joy to watch they created as a fourth and fifth grade team over a 100 ideas of random acts of kindness that they are hoping to do throughout this school year and we've done many we did ones at Thanksgiving and then the latest one as on Valentine's Day which was a huge surprise when every student arrived back from lunch and found a no homework pass on their desk so which was a joy so at this time I would like to invite Mrs Tanga up to join me and acknowledging each of our students students when we do acknowledge you we would like first families for them to stand at their seat and then again we will invite you all down to take um a picture so thank you Mrs Tanga for everything that you do thank you I'm honored to call up these students um they are absolutely amazing kids and I'm going to start with our fifth grade ERS in the kindness crew Molina Vargas Logan Handler Eevee chin Meredith Antigua Catalina Gomez and Emma Wilson if you guys would stand and then we're going to do our fourth graders and for fourth grade we have McKenzie zman Amanda Brock Madison Taylor Michael anelli Charlotte Reed Michael zisha Taylor Selby Juliana katerino Nicholas bachio Analise keters Sophia Maris Emma bordo Jackson Reed Moki theala Emily magnani araa duain and Ilia leasi if you guys could stand it truly is an honor for Miss Tanga to be here and for these students to be recognized they go above and beyond as well in showing random acts of kindness students if you are here we're going to ask that you come down at this time families you may join them so that we can take a group picture and then please feel free to take a picture with your child I know take a picture thank you guys come on in sry the girls lost you go in and closer take a picture yeah should move the should I move the thing should I move the thing all right well moving down the line to PRM I want to call up Mr mongan principal and Mr buer assistant principal come on up seat imagine hello everyone it's so great to see everybody here to celebrate all the accomplishments of our students um obviously as you know as a district we spend a lot of time acknowledging the academic achievements the athletic achievements the artistic achievements um and as you just saw uh we also like to honor students for the character that they show and one of the ways that we do that at PRM is for acknowledging students that demonstrate the qualities of of the pillars of character um so what we are going to do is when uh what happens is our teams meet each each week throughout the course of the year um when they see students that demonstrate outstanding character they uh talk about it they acknowledge these students we uh mention them in our newsletter we do an announcement uh on the morning announcements to acknowledge them but this is also a great way to acknowledge these students as well and to do it with our community as a whole so with that said we would like to uh are pillars of character for the second marking period we begin with the pillar of citizenship this is awarded to students who make choices that protect the rights and safety of others demonstrate the qualities of being a good Community member and cooperate well with others simply stated their actions make our school and Community better the following students received the pillar of citizenship in the first marking period And when I call your name if you could please come down here and join us Shrea Jen Wall and Jake [Applause] Pepe good evening everybody the pillar fairness the pillar of fairness is awarded to students who uphold the rules of Good Conduct are open-minded when encountering new situations listen actively to those around them and treat others fairly they model exemplary conduct in their interactions with those and they follow and the following students the following student I apologize as a recipient for the pillar of fairness for the second Market period congratulations to Alex Marsh the pillar of respect is awarded to students who are considerate of others feelings are courteous to others are accepting of differences and treat others how they would like to be treated they let those around them know through their words and actions that they are valued the following student earn the pillar of respect this marking period John Eisen [Applause] Manger the pillar of responsibility is awarded to students who consistently try their best persevere when faced with challenges demonstrate self-discipline and are accountable for their words and their actions they set a positive example for everyone with whom they interact the following students are the recipients of the pillar of responsibility for the second marking period congratulations to Julia lock and Eva shend and the pillar of trustworthiness is awarded to students who are honest loyal and follow through on what they say they will do these students can be relied on in any situation and their integrity shines through in their actions and their interactions each day the following students receive the pillar of trust trustworthiness in the second marking period Richard Cho and Oliver [Applause] Deja parent of our pillar awardees if you would like to come down and take a picture please come [Applause] down for [Applause] okay and now at this point uh we would like to honor some of our students how who have risen to Great Heights in really both areas of Music we have in our building uh at this time please join me in welcoming Mr Lenell to present for [Applause] choir good evening and thank you all for being here tonight to honor our students uh tonight I'd like to honor uh we had a student that uh has uh risen to Great Heights and is doing a wonderful job in in chorus and uh she was accepted to the Morris area Honor Choir uh that got to perform with uh Tom Shelton from Ryder University Westminster uh choir college and uh performed at a concert last month uh she's done a lot of Performing around here and I'm sure you're going to see her face uh a lot uh this year and over the next few years she's uh coming up uh she just performed in something this last week she was in spelling be yes she was in spelling be just right nearby and uh she's actually performing with with us in uh Shrek we have a couple middle schoolers that are coming over to play Parts in in Shrek next week so I hope you'll be able to make that but uh tonight I would like to honor Savannah [Applause] mango spe [Applause] we are proud to have students in the instrumental music program uh who are a achieving at such amazing levels as well and to introduce that please welcome Mr scanley [Applause] all right so on like Mr mango those of you guys who know me well I don't know how to do this fast but I'm going to do my best so I'm going to speak fast hopefully you listen fast but anyway first off I just want to mention one neat thing of all those kids that came up to be recognized for their High character in all sorts of different categories this teacher is really proud to say that the overwhelming majority of them are also in my classroom and I work with those kids every day and boy do I see that character on a daily basis it's awesome to see them get recognized so I have two groups of kids that I would like to recognize we have um much like Mr Lyell we have different honor groups outside the school that our kids are that are open you know an opportunity for them and what happens is the first one I'm going to recognize we're going to do this in two chapters the first one is North Jersey area band North Jersey area band is made up of 30 middle schools in the Northwestern portion of New Jersey it was to give the kids for lack a better term those of us who grew up out there in the 70s we know it was always called Cow Country there wasn't much out here so uh it was made to give those kids a chance to play in an Honors group and where they didn't have to compete against the kids in Bergen and Hudson County who were studying with all the pros who work in New York so but either way so they created that group so what happens is we all recommend a slate of all stars and from that slate of All Stars every member school will have a portion of their list selected to put together a balanced band so what I'm going to do is I'm going to rec recogniz the five students we're very proud this year to have five students from Pearl Miller I think most of them are here tonight so either way I'm going to recognize them whether or not they're here all right but first off on clarinet we had Miss Emily Cho I'm sorry Emily's son wrong kid so we had Emily sun on clarinet please stand Emily I know you're here I thought I saw you here there you go excellent Emily sun on clarinet on alto Sachs we had Joseph JoJo canari who could not be here tonight because he's out watching his big brother hopefully achieve a massive milestone in basketball tonight um so hopefully he gets to enjoy that with his family but JoJo canari was an alto saxophone player on baritone horn we had Alex Maddie and these were all of our eighth graders I know Alex isn't with us tonight but then we also had normally we only do eighth graders for this privilege but every now and again we have a Ste seventh grader who sticks out like really sticks out this year we had two and it was pretty neat watching these two guys because they play the same instrument and they compete with each other in the most friendly way compete you know pushing each other and and whatnot so uh it was really awesome to have two trombones in seventh grade and they are Richard Joe and John fusa if you guys wouldn't mind standing and now that we mentioned all you guys come on down with your families and let's get a picture of our North Jersey area band kids come on down Emy [Applause] all right this next group this is called New Jersey region one band and what this is is in the state we're cut into three regions North Central and South but we call them one two and three um however so the this group is a little different this is a lot more competitive or Cutthroat as we like to use because it really is and what happens is is this is open to any kid who wants to try out who is in the northern portion of the state so roughly on audition day there's safely six or 700 kids running around this year it was at Wayne Hills High School trying to get a hold of some of those a little bit over a hundred spots that are available for him this year we had a we had five kids try out which was one of our biggest Cruise in a long time so that was really awesome so then to talk about this this is the absolute highest level a middle school kid can achieve when we come to the high school level we have the All State band where the three regions compete to make one more big one but for middle school kids this is it this is the highest they can achieve so I mentioned before about seventh graders in Area band we have three of our five kids were accepted into this group this year they had their first rehearsal last night up at Mount Olive middle school or moms as they call it and what incredible things I happen to be working with the group uh coordinating with the conductor and you see our kids playing like at such a high level with these really really good kids out there was just such a great thing but we have three seventh graders and this is just first off I believe my history because my memory is bad I'm old I don't think we've had three in region band in about 20s something years it's been a long time I've not even sure it was in my tenure all right so but either way three seventh graders this is Monumental so every one of you uh you young musicians you are already setting a really high bar and we are so proud of you so let's have the uh but first off before we do one thing you know so I said we I have to interrupt for a second I work with the absolute coolest colleague in the world so right now I teach seventh and eighth grade band right so these are technically my students technically but since we were fortunate enough to hijack Mrs Hendrick from the high school and we now have her fulltime although I teach the seventh grade band class and eighth grade band class and Mrs Hendrick teaches the sixth grade class we are sharing our small group lessons so I'm teaching sixth grade kids Mrs Hendricks is teaching seventh and eighth grade kids um for these guys we had an opportunity for them to build their skills so Mr mongan and uh and Mr buer uh let us try a pilot program this year where we just open the band room at lunch and one of us might be given a lesson in the back room but the other one is out in the band room and we just let kids come down after they eat and play all they want so two of the guys would come down there and play a ton and they were getting hit by me Mrs Hendrick every other time so by the way no secret I'm talking about Mrs Hendrick but what an absolute wonderful colleague to have but like two of our kids are trombone players she happens to be married to one of the finest trombone players in the area so she really knows what that sounds like so either way just having her work along with our woodwin players she did some awesome work with our clarinet student and again this is a lot of these kids come down before school during their lunchtime we work with them on their preps on our preps we just love working with these kids so first off got to acknowledge Mrs Hendrick being a huge part of the team that I'm up here taking credit for so Mrs [Applause] hendrickx sorry to make you guys wait so on trombone we had Mr Richard Cho again we had John fuza again and this one young man he kind of joined the party a little late he's like about five weeks out I think I'd like to audition and he managed to put together an incredible audition and as a seventh grader make it into a very competitive field and that was Colin toia on percussion now come on up for some pictures guys and again I want to thank the board and Mr mango our local Administration for taking the time to recognize these kids and I apologize if you ever give me a chance to brag about the wonderful kids I work with I'm going to take it so thank you all very much for listening and I hope you guys enjoy the rest of the presentations this evening okay now we have Mr suda and Mrs Sapia from the high school come on up good evening it's my honor to introduce Mrs sapio who's going to speak about two of the finest students who've ever walked the halls of Kinnelon high school and also to recognize our students from the sealed by literacy so Mrs sapio thank you so much for joining us tonight um I uh want to just say uh first off it is a pleasure uh thank you to the board of education for allowing uh kenel high school to be a member of the New Jersey Association of student councils it's extremely important for us to be involved we have put kenon on the map and it's uh pretty awesome uh this year this last January um we had Jordan Dodie um win the njasc State Board president candidacy and we are just so proud of you uh this is the first time that Kinnelon has had a president serve on uh on the association state board and uh this is our fifth consecutive year um as an State office uh officer okay so it's extremely impressive Jordan has been a able to speak in front of over 1500 student leaders across all the state of New Jersey and it is extremely impressive what she has done with the state board with a charity and I'm extremely impressed by you at all times and um just I literally told you 5 seconds ago can you read and you did it so and also if you don't know Jordan is our uh student council executive board president for the high school so it is an absolute pleasure um that I get to be your advisor and because of you I also have been uh elected to serve on the Board of Trustees for the njsc uh so that is a uh absolute pleasure that I get to do so I just want to say thank you Jordan congratulations on serving your 2023 term of the njasc board president okay congratulations just so you both know no come on Mr Dodie let's go all right yeah we also have other officers from the njas Mr Dodie served uh as president of the njsc in the 1960s ' 80s ' 80s ' 80s 1985 and Mrs Do's uh Mrs Dodie as well served on the njsc state board on one more um our next recognition is for a lovely lady who literally does everything and um it was actually Jordan's idea to uh put in the application and uh this past uh year we have our student leader of the year for the entire State uh being award awarded to Riley Darlington so proud of you this is an amazing accomplishment we are so proud of you thank you for always being um a part of this Association um always being involved with the school it you are just always helping everyone and your heart is just everywhere I love it so and also I just want to point out that the last time we had a student leader of the year for the association was in 2014 with Conor Horton does anyone remember Connor Horton so it's just pretty awesome that 10 years later we get to uh experience this again so congratulations Riley jellington thank [Applause] you [Applause] congratulations thank you next i' would like to speak about something that is true to my heart and I would like to say thank you to Senora fusa for uh starting this program for us so um the New Jersey seala by literacy is a program where students are allowed to take an assessment approved by the New Jersey State Board of Education um and if they pass then they become by literate in English and one other language so uh all these students I'm so proud of out of every single one of them we had a 100% passing rate this year for every single language and I'm just so proud of that and I just want to say thank you to the World Language department at the middle school and high school because without all of you we would not be able to have this possible okay we need the consistency from middle school to high school in order to be successful by their senior year um and also thank you to Mrs parella mentioning that we could do other languages this was our first year that we incorporated Russian and Korean so we have uh a passing rate in Spanish French Latin Korean and Russian okay so I'm going to call your names we'll do each language H at a time they we'll take pictures and then we'll do the next language okay so first off I'm going to start with uh Latin Joshua Cho Thomas solarino Abigail gatley and Grace mallan if you are here could you please come down [Applause] congratulations no it's just you hey it's okay you represent where are you let me find you here we go there we go I sorry come on Mom she's biling [Applause] uh she could not be here tonight but uh aan Kim uh she uh was by literate in uh Korean so congratulations to her uh I will now move on to French um Madame is extremely proud of you Madame cette as well as Madame Adams uh this goes to Addie mler and Cole prior [Applause] congratulations thank you conratulations [Applause] and um last but not least we have Spanish and I just wanted to read something on behalf of Senora White as a Spanish Department we are extremely proud of our nine seniors who have earned this recognition it's been one wonderful Journey working with them over the years every student unique in their own Mastery of the language has given me such Pride it is not easy to be proficient in multiple languages it requires a great deal of discipline love and appreciation these seniors have come into my classroom every year for the last two years ready to work and it's a wonderful to see all of it pay off for them the possibilities for them are endless my favorite and most memorable moment of this this journey was being able to surprise them with the news that they all passed I sent them on a scavenger hunt around the school to reveal pieces of a sentence that told them that they passed when they finally got back to the classroom and put the sentence together they all clapped jumped up and down and congratulate each other like the tight-knit little family they are they deserve this recognition special congratulations to Sophie pagoden who has been recognized as a trilingual she has passed the test in Russian and Spanish so that is an impressive impressive beat so congratulations thank you so I'll call now Sabrina avato Samantha Samantha Bassin Caitlyn Jones Sophia Martin Andrew mitx I hope I pronounced that right Sophie pagoden Gianna satoro Nathan schz and Claire Wang please could you join us we are so impressed by all of you thank [Applause] you thank you thank you thank you so much I appreciate all the uh patience and um um have a great evening thank you so much right thank you and as I promised when we started I'm not going to be long-winded but I could tell you parents and as a parent um I know after you work all day you get tired you come back to the school whether it's events whether it's travel whether it's whatever it may be plus our lives as adults but these moments are fleeting you have to hang on to them while you can and that's why um the board and I believe and always recognize izing all of our students at as many meetings as possible so come on back next month if you like it's our winter sports recognition and we just go on and push forward so thank you for coming I hope it's still not raining we're going to take about a 10-minute recess and then we'll get into the boring stuff so enjoy congratulations again to your [Applause] families get started have a lot of space in your yeah okay we're going to go ahead and get started with the rest of the meeting mango you're holding up the meeting bye babe okay uh first up our next are committee reports and first up is finance so finance committee did meet um a lot of our meeting was about uh just the upcoming budget and our Capital um projects so we talked about um we went over reunification plans with Mr shivas those are still ongoing um we've got a lot a lot of work done on that but we haven't finalized them yet um we talked about the security infrastructure um the next phases of that and um the committee is recommending we concentrate on um the high school cameras um because they do need to be upgraded they're all analog and they're not digital which is going to be requiring some rewiring um but that's um from a security and safety concern that was the committee's recommendation to um focus on that uh we talked about just the budget sort of the process is ongoing right now um Mr Janice Sally updated us on phase two of the tech projects um for Stony Brook and Keel and he's going to be moving forward with that because he has to get the purchase requests in to get all the hardware um we discussed lacrosse netting the lacrosse netting around um after the turf was done when it went back in it's in not in great shape and there's real there are big gaps in it it's a safety issue for people who use the track and the track is widely used by our community so so um we had one of the lacrosse coaches come up with an in a temporary solution so the committee is recommending um we look at that and and do a more permanent solution when we have to tackle resurfacing the track um because that that's like a $25,000 uh budget so the temporary one's a lot less like 12 like 2500 or something um pay to play we talked about some of the issues with our uh our school today registration I believe there was a meeting today uh so more more will follow on that that's being uh resolved right now and um the town and and the district are going to be working and meeting on a the updating the Cisco Building and sewage treatment plant um agreement that we have um there's we've had to that's been on the on our list of things to do for a couple years now um it's there's some vagueness or ambiguity in our current agreement and we're going to iron that out so it's a lot more clear on who has what responsibility for what um that's pretty much it the capital reserve and small renovation projects we did just kind of touch on where we are with that and that those will be presented when we do our budget briefing next month that was it for finance do you want me to do I'll take it okay my person Personnel in negotiations thank you to Jean for doing the second half of the notes for me since I had to leave early um but we talked about the the two sidebar agreements which were in the notes so there's a link in there for the notes um we did talk about some of the generic things that were discussed across all the Committees and then I'll just point out that there were some job descriptions in their um you know proposed uh job descriptions that David shared with us so there's five or actually probably more than five there's five bullets but there's a couple of bullets have a couple of Subs so if you didn't get a chance to read those when the uh agendas went out just take some time to kind of read through those job descriptions and then let us know if you have any any feedback on those um and I think all the rest of the stuff were was the common topics that went across Ross the committe so it's pretty easy this time around Kelly education okay so we were able to have our education and Student Activities meeting on um February 15 um we talked about the possibility of having a departmentalized schedule at Stonybrook we talked about just the benefits of if we were to do that what that would look like um we talked about the benefits uh for the teachers that it would be you know teachers could really use their passion move forward towards a specialization area that they are teaching and that they could focus on updates and best practice in like an area of specialty we also talked about how a lot of our kids really need a lot of help with executive functioning training and organization and this would give us a real time life example to work on um as well as you know transition coaching um so that was just something that we talked about the possibility of we talked about the possibility of having like a mindfulness training coach within the dis within the district um more to come on that it was just you know a beginning beginning talks um we talked about a senior early release program where if students you know in their senior year really want to pursue specialized schooling or if they want to pursue like a job study or work um that they're going to be utilizing in the future that we could potentially let them release earlier so that they could pursue those interests while still working towards um their diploma we are very excited about the tutoring grant that Lauren Thomas got for us so we really kind of mapped out what teachers would be doing that when the third and fourth graders would be able to um have that extra tutoring because the grant you know it can't be during the school day so just mapping out when we could do that before or after school we approved two textbooks for the high school um we talked about just a screener for kindergarteners so that we can make sure that the resources match you know the students needs as they come in to make sure that we are really setting each and every student um each and every kindergarten up for Success within the classroom we talked about summer math academy which is just a phenomenal idea by m tretta um a lot of our high school students try to jump ahead in math if math is a passion of theirs um and what they're doing is they're either going to like other school districts like Mountain Lakes or they're going to like online um math classes so there are enough of our students that are doing this that Mrs trombetta figured out how we could do this in District um to really just support our students that want to pursue um as much academic rigor as possible and really pursue their passions academically um again Mr tretta we're very excited to say thank you for all the help that you've done in moving towards updating our website that's going to roll out soon and we're really excited about it um and overall it was just a really great meeting lots of positive things happening okay thanks Kelly policy hi um the only real thing of note the only real thing of note um had to do with um a proposal for a new policy to govern booster clubs um we don't have a policy on that and although we do have several sporadic booster clubs this would kind of give definition across all activities that would like to or do have a booster club so you'll see that on the agenda um for discussion and you know we'll we'll talk about it then but that's the bulk of what we did during policy committee I'm sorry I did not put out a um a memo or anything about our meeting because it was this so sorry delegates New Jersey school boards do you have anything Mike I don't have anything for tonight no okay and moris County I know we all attended the three of us went yes um so the uh New Jersey the Mars County School Board Association meeting um focus on mandatory training for board members that's due every year um depending on what's been you know done in the past and your level as a as a member um there was an interesting breakout session that we attended specific to Pilot programs which are um which are focused basically on either commercial or Residential Properties within a town um that are given significant tax abatements or incentives and it was led by a Prine council member they've had several Pilots uh placed into pip recently so it's just it provided us an opportunity to I think to have some conversations among the board and uh with some of the kinan council members regarding you know these possible types of agreements and contracts and the potential impacts to the district to the school district and and the budget so that's just U I think it was nice information to to have some conversations with yeah he talked about the pilot uh payment in Le of taxes and how 95% of that income goes to the town and five and 5% goes to the county and the district doesn't get any money so if there's a demographic impact as far as students it's a real issue if the town approves a pilot um so payment in Li of taxes and then they have depending on the uh the contract the district would get no uh revenue for 15 30 years it really just depends on the contract so the councilman from Paran was the one member that voted no and uh unfortunately for that District they had I think three or five construction projects which were going to increase their student body by potentially 500 kids with no increase in Revenue so it's um it's something just to keep an eye on and uh we we've been in conversation with our Town Council just to know that um you know if you do building and you you approve it that that method of not paying taxes but just getting a payment in front is um harmful to a school district so just something to be aware of we did learn a lot I'm really glad we went uh and listened to it cont that the district is not um it's not circumvented or and it's not done you know without us unknowingly so directs us yeah we'll have a demographic study March so next month we should have that demographic study and then that will be a a something that we can bring to the council so that we have that information um ongoing conversations all good stuff though uh legislative rep the uh the governor gave his budget address today um so in it yeah and um sounds like he's increasing education funds but the individual districts I don't think that comes out until Thursday Thursday Leap Day leap day yeah so once every four years we get some no I'm kidding um so uh that's that's the biggest the biggest piece of legislation that um is due in June but in terms of our budget process we should have some more more numbers on Tuesday there's just a couple bills that are interesting down in Trenton um one the Senate education committee looked at a bill that would allow individual districts to raise their tax levy cap should their state aid be decreased so you would be allowed to raise the tax cap to match your loss in state aid if that were to happen to the district to it's a bill it's not a law yet but that is assembly it's in the Senate um it passed the Senate education committee and it's going to Senate budget and Appropriations yeah uh there's an interesting one about an elementary school therapy dog pilot program so uh if we get some therapy dogs in elementary schools um some interesting things about apprenticeship data and um common application and web portals for substitutes and other teachers um so the state department would under this proposal um produce a common app so that there wouldn't be different applications you'd have to fill out for different places you just fill one out and much like the Common App I think for no it it actually says for substitutes and Educators yeah for common applications for employment at New Jersey Public Schools so they would open a portal and then that's how it would go um again that didn't go anywhere it's uh still in the Senate um one that did pass the Senate has to do with an evaluation review task force um and they would be looking across the state and making recommendations for Teacher evaluation processes um and methods so uh another another group or committee making recommendations about something that would affect schools um and finally there is another one that was on the agenda not not our agenda but in Trenton and that was actually pulled back it's s 2421 the freedom to read act um that would among other things um require Local District it would require the State Department of Education and the State Library um to make model policies and then would would require local school districts not to the way that I read it at least not to adopt the model policy but the model policy is to assist districts districts would be required to have policies um that would you know govern what what screening goes into determining Library materials how to and then setting in place a process for um asking for certain materials to be removed um so having those policies in place um that did not get heard at least last time I checked um in the education committee but that's it exciting stuff for policies Morris County Educational Service Commission did you guys meet they have a board of directors meeting this month and every month but the next meeting that I'm eligible to go to because I'm not on the board of directors is June okay so June community relations and Kea Jen uh we met at the beginning of the month um with the administrators uh the mayor councilwoman Frank leaders of the HSA and just shared uh the latest happenings within Town within the school um the HSA has provided a lot of really nice um grant money for um teachers which is uh like very appreciated and you know it was just like a Roundtable discussion to update everybody on where we're at it was good I have and just while we're all here I know we're missing um Mr Meyers but I jotted down some dates so the 5th next Tuesday we'll have our preliminary budget the 2425 budget and it'll be upstairs in new cafeteria uh 7 o'clock then on the 12th will'll be here and that will be to adopt the preliminary and then also uh Charlene Peterson will be here for ethics and superintendent training that's on the 12th then on the 14th we have round one will be here we'll have we we'll we'll figure out which site we would like to conduct the uh interviews but the first round with the for the Babs position for the business administrator uh that closes on Thursday so far we have 13 applicants of the 13 five do not have experience I can't fault somebody for trying um I'm looking right now at bringing in six so uh that day we'll have some food at the board office for some of you if you can't make it for like the start at five I understand that but um you know it'll it'll be a long night on the on the 14th then on the 19th we have ffs and policy committee um the 21st we have Personnel negotiations education Student Activities Committee and we do have a new alert that's out Mr re so we'll have some fun with that the 26th is our public meeting and then really after the holiday when we have to figure out we have to select the date um during the week of the 8th through 12th to do the final round for the ba because remember the ba like the superintendent we have to have a contract that's approved at the County and in the public it's not like hiring an a regular administrator so um a lot will have to be done during that week we'll have to pick a date where you know we all could get together we'll have it down to two or three max if there's that many standing when we're done and then on the 15th to 19th we'll have our committees again and then we're at the the 25th which is our public meeting and Adoption of the 2425 budget so it's going to be it's a lot we have a lot of work April 15 committee meeting yeah we'll do we'll do committee that week let in the that's in the email you sent us right all these states I think I sent the fifth and the 12th and 14th I don't think I sent everything El but as I'm sitting here and I'm thinking ahead we have a lot yeah okay no we'll be okay okay um moving on KES Carl's not here and education foundations I know we haven't really gotten anywhere with that which is um definitely something we're going to I have to move forward with in the next couple weeks okay itions and hearings citizens for agenda items if anybody has anything they want to say come up and talk about nope okay moving on to agenda items um have anybody on Virtual do we have no there was some no nobody nope okay um agenda items so i' like to make a motion to do a block vote with a roll call for items a through D so moved okay all right so we're going to be going from uh does is there any discussion now John did we want to amend the policy or have a discussion on the policy yeah okay yeah okay so we're going to go ahead and and uh open up the floor the table to discuss any of the items a through D um I did have um I don't know why I didn't catch this on the first reading I think I just didn't read it really clearly for the policy for the booster club yeah but there was um there were two sections number three in the first one and number six in the second one that I think um I would like to amend to read the athletic director or central office as opposed to um the principal of the high school since the booster Andor other clubs could affect the whole district and not just necessarily the high school um I think it read that it would be um what's the actual word so instead of it's saying that the um the policy yeah and three is it already changed okay so for guidelines the high school principal since the booster clubs or any other organizations will most likely be affecting the whole District I figure the responsibility should probably be you know where an advisor or reference to the booster club organization in order to assist and and form them a board it might be something that's better that comes at a central office instead of just one building and I think the same thing applies to guidelines number six so you're talking number three yeah and then there it it appears three at least three times yeah um one is on page three and it's under guidelines for operation number three okay I have that so theoretically should we table this and bring it back next time or do we need to prove it yeah I think we should table it yeah I would say probably table it make the changes and then we'll bring it back for second reading next time motion to table motion to table actually it's to postpone the vote and and refer it back to committee okay okay yep second motion what she say okay all in favor I yeah so we'll just clean up that wording thanks all right okay so does anybody have any other discussion on any of the other items uh I'll just say on the Personnel negotiations if you didn't notice today there was a couple of added things from what was sent out on Friday so it wasn't really anything major but there in the electronic copy they're highlighted in yellow but if you want I can point them out real quick um so the Personnel the Personnel negotiations attachment D had a couple of items added to it and then under appointments under number three appointments number two and three were I don't remember if those were added or just update I think those may have just been updated from the original one so if you didn't get a chance to look at the electronic one that came out today those with the updated items you you want me to do it um Mr pretell you want me to read it off um I don't know do we you want to read them you can you can sure that's fine um two and a half months is that a set contract for all sports or is that that's because the athletic direct uh the athletic trainer took is on leave okay so that's not okay rather than hire try to hire an inter yeah all right and so what what um what we changed under the B section was the uh we the approval of Matt Miller as PRM Musical Tech stage director that dipen which was available um and Sabrina toay as KHS musical manager so for that sement at the high school we extended um Mrs Talbot who's here tonight her leave for five weeks for consistency for Mrs pulus resignation and in turn then we approved maler o Connell as our kill kindergarten teacher replacement for um for Mrs pulis and that was it the other things that fell under under the uh the in the the C-section for pen Pal's meet and greet at Cedar Crest and then under the a section we had an amendment to the idea Grant and we had the approval of the game day contract that those were the that was today and Mrs tal but thank you for being so flexible and helping us uh last year and this year together and I look forward to having M Mrs okon come in I hate to lose Mrs pulis but Mrs okell will be a a stop Gap in kindergarten for us so I'm very happy that we were able to um accomplish that anybody have any other questions or any comments discussion on items okay seeing none Barbara would you pull the board please this D manger yes Miss Leonard yes Miss Pella yes Miss Portman yes Mr pelli yes Miss Donaldson yes okay uh we have nothing for committee of the whole unfinished business does anybody have any unfinished business no new business um we do have the change to the meeting date for April uh we're going to be meeting on Thursday why was Tuesday was was Tuesday there was some conflict right it was not in the window of the approval oh yeah for the for the dates for right for the budget so we have to move it to the the Thursday which is April TW 25th correspondents we have any correspondents Barber do we have anything no okay no correspondence petition hearing and hearings of citizens for non-agenda items okay all right board member comments John nothing I gave that up for [Laughter] L that's a good one Jen that's a good one um I want to congratulate the bowling team they are I can't believe you didn't do that state champions including Mr iser's son so that's huge it's huge huge huge accomplishment and we're very proud of of the bowling team and then also just very proud of all the recognition um that we heard earlier just really Excellence going on and it's a privilege to be able to see everybody shine and really do such great work Kelly um Mr mango just reminded me that the girls swim team arec champions as well and they they did really great section section SE Champions sorry um but I I know that Applause like I I'm just constantly impressed by our students I feel like we just have for a very small District we just have these amazing kids that continue to impress me constantly um whether it's in sports or academics all the kids that were here tonight with the character development that they're kind of showing I'm I'm just really Blown Away um I know that this is the hard part of the year right it's very tedious the weather's very gray um but I just encourage everybody to lean in uh because this is where the work is this is where the academic work is this is where the character development is is to push through tedious things and really come out triumphant on the other side for our staff and our students um but spring is coming and good things are coming so hang in there um because we just have some amazing things coming uh for for our school for our district and I hope that everybody goes and sees Shrek the weekend of uh March 7th thank you have a good night Dana congratulations to all the students and the families that were here tonight and um I'm looking forward to next month as well the recognition for some of the athletic teams and for their families too it's a lot of lot of work it's a lot of running and it's why we do it all so uh I'm happy to be a part of it and just I'm happy I'm happy for the weather to be turning as well so I'm must spring I have a big smile when it's a sunny day so uh no just thank you Mike I'll Echo the congratulations to all the kids who are here tonight in their performance as well as all the administrators and the advisers and everybody who you know kind of is the backbone of all that happening so uh thank you for that congratulations to the bowling and the swim team teams as well manag that and I'll just say congratulations to the basketball teams who had great Seasons but both lost tonight unfortunately I just found out the boys lost unfortunately but uh they both teams had good Seasons there too so I just thought I'd mentioned that so thanks everyone okay I I would like to I was kind of blown away when I was looking at the extrac curriculum list how many volunteer coaches we have so I I was I think that's really amazing so I would like to thank all those volunteers that are helping our track teams and our lacrosse teams just stepping up to do it because they love the game and I think that's also just a great message to our kids um and just reiterating what we saw here tonight it's really awesome I'm I'm really glad that we've come to this part of our meetings where we now recognize our students and our staff because it's it's really what this is all about so um that's all I have I actually wouldn't mind two more weeks of winter because I haven't finished skiing but uh I'm going to Colorado so it doesn't matter I'll just go where the snow is have a good time all right um we don't have do you want have anything to say Dave any comments yeah okay I have something I'd like to say I don't I don't know what it is I said it to in CAC that if you're not a resident of Kon or um the out side when we're talking Sports academics you never heard this anywhere but for sports it is true it's like folklore that were not competitive and then I you know Mrs Francisco ran the numbers for me so I'm I'm devising a plan in my mind and start contacting some parents who don't send their children here to the high school and choose a different High School um because I don't because despite that and despite uh the lack of some of the athletic facilities that we've had here well before me and this board that just seem to be consistent but yet our kids and our coaches do nothing but achieve every time you turn around and all somebody has to do so if you have a neighbor and they're talking about sending their child somewhere else for high school and because it's Sports please tell them it's folklore and all they have to do is go back to December 22 and then follow those board meetings where all of our kids and our coaches are acknowledged for achievement because you know while I have some other things on the plate that we have to deal with I think some of this this nonsense has to stop so I'm I'm devising a plan um to battle it back because it's not true and but you know and yes we didn't have the greatest facilities in the world on the field and everything else but we're getting there um but despite that we still do well just by what you heard here tonight and we'll see that next month and even in wrestling too cayb vquez second time in a row um I know they still have their more tournaments but a bunch of our kids on wrestling team so it's coming it's here so um yeah all good all good and I'm happy that Winter's over I'm sorry I'm sorry we're not doing no no no exec no EXA have a motion to motion aha