please note this meeting of the m board of education is open to members of the public to be physically present members of the public that attend will be asked to follow the same procedures as all other visitors to our schools those procedures can be found on the agenda page of our website Additionally the board meeting will be live streamed for viewing purposes only anyone wishing to view the meeting May do so via Zoom the webinar ID for this meeting is 891 6198 968 and the required password is 1 15192 call to order pres uh announcement adequate noce of the agenda of this meeting has been provided to the Ridgewood news and the record specifying that the Mawa Board of Education will meet on January 3rd 2024 in the administra of offices 60 Ridge Road Mawa New Jersey copy was filed with Township everyone please rise for flag ready begin United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible and justice for all thank you very much uh as I mentioned earlier tonight's meeting will be in two parts we'll have a reorganization meeting of the board first with an action meeting uh immediately following first of business is announcement of the results from the um election the official results of the November 7th 2023 election are as follows this is an order as the candidates were on the ballot daniel' Ryan 2350 votes Janine T Jansen 2,650 votes Richard dilva Jr 2859 votes Jeffrey lenheim 1,39 votes Michelle Salman 2,110 votes and Brett Copan 2,885 votes at this time I'm going to ask the um three members who have um received the most votes to come forward um take their oath of office uh we'll start with Miss Janine Json Miss Janson you have the um oath there if you could just go to the microphone and please read um Del's office I Janine Jansen do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the governments established in the United States and the state under the authority of the people so help me God I Janine team Jansen do somly swear that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law for the office of member of a board of education and that I am not disqualified as a voter pursuant to rs1 1941 nor disqualify due to conviction of a crime or offense listed in njs 18a 12-1 and that I will Faithfully imp personally and justly perform all the duties of that office according to the best of my ability so help me out thank you Mr Jon welcome and please take a seat on the [Applause] days next we have Mr Richard D Silva Jr please I Richard D Silva Jr do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the governments established in the United States and this state under the authority of the people so help me God I Richard D Silva Jr do solemnly swear that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law for the office of member of a board of education and that I am not disqualified as a voter pursuant to rs19 col 4-1 nor dis disqualified due to conviction of a crime or offense listed in New Jersey statutes 18a colon 12-1 and that I will faithfully and partially and justly perform all the duty duties of that office according to the best of my ability so help me God thank you [Applause] Mr and lastly Mr Brett coplin I Brett coplin do Solly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the governments established in the United States and this state under the authority of the people so help me God I Brett copin do silently swear that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law for the office of member of a board of education and that I'm not disqualified as a voter pursuant to RS 19 4-1 or nor disqualified due to conviction of a crime or offense listed in njs 18a col 12-1 and that I will faithfully impartially and justly perform all the duties of that office according to the best of my ability so help me God thank [Applause] you uh thank you very much at this time we'll take a roll call uh from the ma board of education for the 2024 Year Mr coplin here Mr davero here Mr Dila here Mr Denise here Mr Gallow here Mr Hughes here Mr kmari here Dr morthy here miss Jansen here thank you very much um at this time if I could take uh nominations from the board for the office of president for the 2024 Year Mr bler I'd like to nominate Dr Mory thank you are there any other nominations seeing none uh we'll have a roll call vote for Dr morthy to serve as president for the 2024 Year Mr copin yes M davano yes Mr dilva yes Mr Denise yes Mr Gallow yes Mr Hughes yes Mr karski yes Dr morthy yes Miss Jansen yes thank you very much Dr morthy if you please come over here and take a [Applause] seat thank you thank you very much okay thank you all right thank you everyone everyone thank you very much um I now need nominations for first vice president Mr kis Mari I would like to nominate ricka all right uh we have Rick to Silva do we have any other nominations all right Mr bleer can we take a roll call vote on Mr dilva for first vice president please okay for first first vice president Mr coplin yes Mr aano yes Mr dilva yes Mr Denise yes Mr Gallow yes Mr Hughes yes Mr kmari yes Dr morthy yes and Miss Jensen yes all right thank you very much congratulations Mr [Applause] dilva uh now I'll take nominations from the floor for second vice president dry I'd like to nominate mrki thank you very much Mr kisari uh any other nominations from the floor all right Mr bleer we need a roll call vote please on Mr kmari for second vice president Mr copin yes Miss davano yes Mr dilva yes Mr Denise yes Mr Gallow yes Mr Hughes yes Mr kisari yes Miss Jansen yes and Dr morthy yes all right congratulations Mr [Applause] Kari all right now we uh open the floor to any board member remarks um please Mr coflin you know how it works I got oh he can't wait to be back on this day um I'll keep it short I just wanted to thank everyone uh I haven't had a chance to thank um the the residents of MAA uh publicly uh for coming out the vote in November uh it was a low turnout but I appreciate all the support I'm humbled by the trust uh that everyone has put into me um coming back for another three years I'm looking forward to working with this board um I want to thank my family for the support um and love and patience um if you've ever run uh for a seat someplace you know how much patience um is needed to get through that process it's not an easy or fun process but I do appreciate their support throughout the whole thing also want to thank Michelle um Danielle and Jeff for putting their names out there too it's not easy to do uh there is a lot of scrutiny throughout the whole process um and it takes a big set of you know what to go out and do that so um thank you all and and to my fellow board members I'm happy to be back I'm looking forward to working with all of you thank you great thank you Mr coplin and nice to have you back uh any other board member remarks Miss if I may thank you so much much for everyone's support who came out tonight and everyone who's watching it was as Brett mentioned lots of scrutiny throughout the process but the Mawa Community really showed up for all the candidates and spoke their voice and I think that's really powerful Testament to how important the MAA board of education is and the work that we do here so I look forward to working with all the the members of the board to really serve the community and and all the fabulous children that are here and that are aware and their parents so thank you everyone for your trust and support in my candidacy and election thank you thank you Miss CH welcome to the J anyone else so I guess I can't I have had the opportunity to uh to thank Danielle and Michelle and Jeff for also coming out um and to thank the community for uh for the trust and and the support and I'm happy to be back for another three years looking forward to it thanks thank you thank you very much much um okay so uh any other remarks at this time okay uh public questions or comment public participation at board meetings is in accordance with bylaw 0167 at this time members of the public may ask questions or make a comment on educational issues or School matters of community interest as a matter of fairness you asked to limit your questions to no more than one and your remarks to no longer than 3 minutes if you are here representing a group please identify yourself the group and your position in the group if you're here as an individual please give us your name and address uh I need a motion to open the meeting to the public Mr dilva and second by Mr Gallow we are officially open to the public okay seeing no one come forth uh I need a motion to close the meeting to the public Mr Mr kisari and second by Mr Hughes all right let's move on to our appointments um do we take those together Mr wer I oh I did close so we're GNA go Dr morthy we'll take one through 18 um appointments and then we have approvals 1 through six and we'll do approval number seven separately okay so that's fine so appointments I apologize uh so let's take appointments number one through did you say 18 Mr bler all right correct um so we will take appointments 1 through 18 we need a motion on the floor Mr D Silva second by Mr copin all right um roll call please Mr bleer Mr coplin yes Mr davano yes Mr dilva yes Mr Denise yes Mr Gallow yes Mr Hughes yes Mr karski yes Miss Jansen yes and Dr morthy yes and welcome back to all our appointments all right now we will take approvals one through eight um six we'll do one through six one through six we will do board member code of ethics separately so one through six uh I need a motion on the floor uh Mr Gallow second by Mr Hughes Mr bleer roll call please Mr copin yes Mr davano yes Mr dilva yes Mr Denise yes Mr Galla yes Mr Hughes yes Mr karski yes M Jansen yes and Dr morthy yes all right now we will take approval we'll take the board member code of ethics number seven uh separately I'm going give board members uh just a minute to please look at that because that's an important piece of what we do here um so take a minute please to read through it um and this is what guides uh our um ethics as a board member all right let me have a a motion on the floor Mr Copan second by Mr Denise for approvals number seven Mr coplin yes Mr aano yes Mr dilva yes Mr Denise yes Mr Gallow yes Mr Hughes yes Mr kmari yes Miss Jansen yes and Dr morthy yes all right now I need a motion to adjourn our reorganization meeting um Mr D Silva second by Mr Hughes uh and we are officially adjourned you are okay we year Jour 7:15 excellent let's move on to the next meeting all right our next meeting Public Work session uh this meeting of the MAA board of education is open to members of the public to be physically present members of the public that attend will be asked to follow the same procedures as all other visitors to our schools those procedures can be found on the agenda page of our website additionally the board meeting will be live streamed for viewing purposes only anyone wishing to view the meeting May do so by via Zoom the webinar ID is 891 6198 9608 and the required password is 1 15192 all right Mr bler call to order and roll call please uh Mr coplin here Mr davano here Mr dilva here Mr Denise here Mr Gallow here Mr Hughes here Mr kazari here M Jansen here Dr Mory yes here and student representative uh Gabby morett here all right adequate notice of agenda of this meeting has been provided to the Ridgewood news in the record specifying that the MAA Board of Education will meet on January 3rd 2024 in the administrative offices 60 Ridge Road Mawa New Jersey copy was filed with the Township Clerk uh salute to the flag U Mr cin would you lead us this evening I pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible Justice all that's my husband I can tell from The Ring to uh all right uh do we need a executive session a brief one at the end okay okay so let's move on to agenda questions please let me your questions at this time to resolutions under new business on this agenda as a matter of fairness you're asked to limit your questions to no more than one and your remarks to no longer than 3 minutes if you are here representing a group please identify yourself the group and your position in the group if you're here as an individual please give us your name and address this section of public participation will be limited to 15 minutes please specify the resolution you are referring to in your question all right I need a motion to open the meeting to the public Mr dilva and second by Miss Jansen thank you um all right we are open to the public uh all right seeing no one come forward motion to close the meeting to the public Mr kism marski second by Mr Hughes all right Dr Doro um before your report this evening I'm going to give an opportunity for MAA student representative to present her report um perhaps we'll do this uh in the meetings we'll move up the student representative report uh so you guys can get to other things you need to but let's let's how let's see how it goes this easy lot of pressure Miss maretti thank you okay so on Friday December 22nd before break we a group of seniors went heing at all the elementary school which went well and then all of our winter sports are having a good season so far especially the girls basketball team and the bowling team then MHS International night which is for grades 6 through 12 is on the 18th at the high school and it'll be hosted by the World Language department and cultural appreciation club and then they'll have booths and activities for everyone who goes then alumni return day is this Friday where kids from college will come back to talk to all the seniors and that's hosted by the guidance Department and then action through Athletics is planning the Hoops for Marcus game and they'll be selling T-shirts to raise money um our junior college night is January 11th which will be hosted by Guidance and it's about the college process for juniors and their parents and then our top soaring Thunderbirds were picked for the month of December and they were Miss cranka and Julia Rodriguez and Julia was nominated by her peers for demonstrating the spirited and inspiring pillars and Miss cranco was nominated for demonstrating the inspiring pillar thank you very much appreciate that c can someone explain the MAA saring Thunderbird is I feel like it's new I just saw it today and and uh I don't know if we'll ask Miss maret but maybe Dr fair you could explain how that came to throw you did a great job yes great job thank you very much so it is new this year our new assistant principals worked with Mr Pascal um um on creating an opportunity to highlight students and staff every month based on six pillars it's an acronym s o a RS I don't know the that's makes sense t t excellent have a good night thank you um well I great idea I think that's it's great to give recognition to both our students and staff so great great idea uh all right um Now we move on to superintendence report Dr dor thank you very much I don't have a lot since we just met two weeks ago um I just want to say Happy New Year to everyone and I just want to welcome the the the new board members um we greatly value our work and bhip with you and we greatly appreciate uh the amount of time that you put in to our district so thank you so much um for putting your hats in the ring and we we look forward to working with each and every one of you so thank you um I should have cross referenced my report with Gabby because she took three of my things so Shoring Thunderbirds is Out Sports I'm going to still going to say it anyway because it's a great opportunity we every meeting we try to Spotlight something to celebrate MAA because there's so many things um the the girls soccer uh the girls basketball team is absolutely doing a phenomenal job um they're s in1 at this point and I I just I just want to say I got a chance to see them at pasac Valley and the energy of the team is is second to none um they're they're working really hard and we're really proud of them um it was a great showing by the MAA community at a away game so I want to make sure that everyone continues to support our Sports programs boys basketball team is off to a really nice start at 6 and3 and our Our Girls bowling team is 5-0 just to Spotlight a couple of them um so I and this is not a slate on any other sports we're proud of everyone they're working really hard but I just want to Spotlight those three that they're they're off to a great start we want to wish them continued success and I want to make sure everyone goes out to support our team so good luck to our our MAA athletes and thank you to our coaches for spending all the time with our athletes I know it's it's a it's a lot um but it's great to see the connection that they have with our student athletes so thank you very much um saring Thunderbirds is off so I have excellent all right thank you Dr Goro um Mr Blaker you have a report for us this evening uh yes again just a very brief report um since we were just here a few weeks ago to Echo what Dr Loro said Happy New Year everyone to all new board members uh welcome and look forward to working with everyone um you'll notice on the board agenda there's no committees uh listed currently they will be established following tonight's meeting um Dr morthy will uh make appointments to various committees we will have that on for the January 24th meeting and um Comm will begin their work very shortly um that's my report for this evening thank you thank you Mr bler uh Dr Fair do you have a report this evening I do two brief items um our first is uh just some more recognition of some great things that are happening in the district um the ITA the international Technology and Engineering Educators Association in December selected participants for their 2425 cohort of the 21st century Leadership Academy the selected program empowers dedicated Educators to develop new Knowledge and Skills and become more effective leaders in the Technology and Engineering professions the year-long program kicks off at the ITA annual conference in March facilitates regular engagement through monthly virtual discussions to encourage scholarly activity and professional growth one of our own Kim L stem teacher over at MAA high school was selected to be a part of this cohort of leaders in stem education a few weeks ago so we want to publicly congratulate Mrs L on this great accomplishment uh secondly uh agenda item 17A we have a retirement announcement Mrs Sharon Tio um Mrs tiio has been teaching in Mawa for over 19 years and even her children have gone through the Mawa school system Sharon started her career in District as an instructional pair professional and later became an elementary Home Room teacher most recently she served our elementary schools as a math specialist providing intervention for students in all grade levels K through five and supporting teachers classes with different instructional tools recently Sharon became a grandmother and looks forward to spending time in Pennsylvania with her daughter and her grandbaby in her retirement Sharon will also be spending time with her son and traveling with her husband so I wish Sharon all the best on this next chapter for her thank you very much Dr Fair um all right my report this evening um all right so um I just wanted to say first off I'm humbled and grateful to be selected by my colleagues here to serve another year as president of this amazing group of individuals to have earned your trust and respect once again and to be given the opportunity to provide guidance and Leadership to our board for another year excites me tremendously I also look forward to continue working cooperatively with our central office team uh Dr Doro Dr fa uh Dr bino uh Mr bler and Miss Rizzo um also congratulations to my vice presidents Mr dilva and Mr kisari uh my fellow board members uh miss davano Mr Gallow Mr Denise Mr Hughes uh a welcome back to Mr coplin and a warm welcome to miss Jansen looking forward to working together as a full board and making 2024 an amazing year for Mawa students we have a lot of exciting things coming up in 2024 including our strategic plan I'm calling it 2.0 I know if that's okay Dr joro I I've labeled it I hope that's fine uh considering a referendum to enhance our district negotiating successful contracts with our supervisors and administrators improving transparency and communication as a board and continuing our efforts to recruit and retain the best teachers and staff for our district um I would also like to thank my husband Jay my wonderful children vene and Ria and my parents Raj and Leela for their love and support of my volunteer Endeavors they have been patient and understanding of the hours dedicated to what gives me purpose in life all right now you know I like to give some advice so my advice for 2024 life is full of give and take so give thanks and be grateful for what you have and don't take anything for granted May the coming year be a canvas of Beautiful Moments a tapestry of successful endeavors and a pallet of vibrant experiences here's to filling each day of 2024 with positivity and gratitude thank you very much all right that's my report for the evening um committee reports I I feel like we Mr Gallow had some endof year final reports but just in case any final reports by our chair people from the 2023 Year all right then let's move on to board number remarks any other additional comments from our board we had a long meeting last time we really did I want to make I there no Mike if we knew this was on this agenda we could have held it to this agenda uh did you have a word Mr Kar yes thank you sure first of all that last Mee was great and I enjoyed all the exchanges and I look forward to 2024 having many more of those exchanges good thank for as long as we did last night um I would like to thank everyone for obviously um allowing me to still serve on the executive committee um it is an honor and I'm happy to be there um Brett welcome back glad to have you sixth position great place to be we got all the votes and very very proud of you although while you beat me in in fantasy football this year yes I did I still got more votes than you in the six position it's great it's great to have you back and and the Insight you bring from the last time you were here so it's great and Kine uh you ran a great race and and in the face of some serious campaign silliness um you buckled down harder and your supporters really ran the table in those last weeks and and you stuck to your guns and it was impressive to see and it's great to have you here with your ideas and what you bring the board and I'm excited to work with you and Rick my oldest friend and just is obviously it's great to have you back I think you now have more board experience than five of us combined something like that so it's good to have your knowledge and your your historical understanding of what's going on here and what you bring to the table and you're also a class of 93 graduate which is awesome but that's it happy New Year look forward to working with all of you and very excited thank you thank you Mr garski yes I think Mr D Silva is our senior most board member at the table so and I get another year on executive committee to try and get it right again well before we Institute term limits we'll see how it go uh any other board member remarks PR I yes I just wanted to also add my support for Miss tiio who is retiring she um helped my children at Betsy Ross during a particularly difficult time through Co and I think she used great agility in teaching in a hybrid environment and I think that really impacted academic progress so I just wanted to add my congratulations to her and thanks for getting to do very nice thank you Miss Jansen Mr Gallow I'm actually jumping ahead a little bit to 16d 16d you know it goes on from two P Pages plus this is one of the superpowers of our district this is an area where there are uh expert teachers in our district who are sharing our expertise with their peers um this has been a program that we've probably been doing for a number of years now but it is getting to um is getting to the Nobel prize winning level now when you just look at the course offerings um it's quite amazing and um our faculty especially our newer faculty uh has these opportunities to tap into these experts and to their um multifaceted interests um this is really this is one of those proud moments you know to see 16d on the list and thank you to all the people who support it all the people who make it happen especially the organizing and scheduling the stuff that happens in the background but January 29th looks like going to be a fantastic day for our our Educators thank you Mr G I think Dr dor wanted to add something on that yeah I just wanted to take a moment U on the heels of the last meeting I know we spoke about a lot uh about what we can do to continue to build the district one of the topics was professional development for our teachers and this speaks to those conversations um years back we talked about giving the teachers an opportunity to learn from Specialists from within but also have choice and voice in those professional development offerings so this is the product of having a number of of teachers who have skill sets that they would like to share with their colleagues and then have the the staff as a whole look at what they're doing within their classroom what they feel they're doing well and then also more importantly say what do I need to build my proficiency on and then they can choose where they go to build that profic proficiency from within so um again I just wanted to speak to that but I'm glad that you brought up it's a Monumental task to organize so I do definitely want to take a moment to thank Dr bino and her team in putting together a schedule that supports over 300 staff members um across the district Tamala superpower Nobel Prize Nobel Prize superpower um yes thank you very much for um elaborating on that further uh any other board member remarks I think it's going to be a lively group in 2024 Ben what do you think I know you can't all right so let's move on to new business at this point uh let's take a to G I need a motion on the floor Mr kisari second by Mr Gallow all right Mr bler Mr copin abstain Mr a yes Mr dilva yes Mr Denise yes Mr Galla Yes except on 16a I will be abstaining from check 11437 Mr Hughes yes Mr kisari yes Miss Jansen abstain and Dr morthy yes all right now let's move on to new business Personnel uh let's take our retirement separately 17A uh the retirement of Sharon Tio um I actually know Miss Tio well she she lives few houses down for me so uh anyway congratulations to her thank you for your service uh in our district uh and uh good luck and enjoy being a grand there there seems to be a grandmother thing right you know it's a thing they become grandmothers and Miss they they enjoy it enjoy retirement travel and uh being a grandmother um so Mr bleer roll call please 7 I need a motion thank you uh Mr Gallow second by Mr Hughes motion now 17 Mr copin yes Mr Aero yes Mr dilva yes Mr Denise yes Mr Gallow yes and congratulations Mr Hughes yes Mr Gorski yes Miss Jansen yes and Dr morthy yes all right let's take 17 B now through just B B and C B and C I'm having trouble reading my letters this evening it seems okay B and C um motion Mr Denise second by Mr kmari Mr Blaker Mr copin St Mr Deano yes Mr dilva yes Mr Denise yes Mr Gallow yes Mr Hughes yes Mr kis marski yes Miss Jansen abstain and Dr morthy yes all right let's move on to public questions or comment public participation board meetings is in accordance with bylaw 0167 at this time members of the public may ask questions or make a comment on educational issues or School matters of community interest it's a matter of fairness you are asked to limit your questions to no more than one and your remarks to no longer than 3 minutes if you're here representing a group please identify yourself the group and your position in the group if you're here as an individual please give us your name and address this section of public participation will be limited to 15 minutes I need a motion to open the meeting to the public Mr dilva second by Mr Gallow we are officially open to the public good evening happy New Year um at the last board meeting I um thanked all the board members for um volunteering their time and I want to congratulate and thank the new board members um for the same thing thank you um at the last board meeting in your prepared um remarks Dr morthy you mentioned the hyper partisanship of the last election I was wondering if you were referring to anything in particular or was just a general uh um speech uh I I think I refer to the politicization yes correct yes right to be to be if we want to be clear um I I the Board of Ed elections are supposed to be nonar uh as our Town Council as well I mean so we are a nonpartisan Town um I think that there's just been more more um interest in development and things have become a little more politicized on either on both sides uh where there's more endorsements now those those were not happening before uh and such so that was kind of my uh piece is that just to remember um that it's supposed to be nonpartisan that we're kind of all in it together as they say um working for the best interests of uh you know the children in this town uh and we're all here as volunteers so it was just more I think some of the things that we all saw as these elections have continued over the years I mean I've been doing this many years Mr dilva uh Mr Gallow um it just seems that they've gotten a bit more bitter over the years and more partisan saking uh and that's really not what this whole you know Board of Education was intended to be so that was my personal opinion uh and I did speak to it I I may have had views um you know during the election Mr theodoro but I make very clear and I think all of us as board members make very clear that I make those views as a citizen uh and so I do have views at a citizen those are our kind of First Amendment rights but I just feel that for our positions on the board um over the years it's not it was not that way when I first ran I'll be very very clear uh and it's just become a little more politicized that was my opinion see you just a point ofation you mentioned the endorsements um is it appropriate um according to the ethics of the the board to accept an endorsement from political party for a candidate to accept endorsement from political party in your view I I again in my view in my personal view well according to the board of to the ethics of the board you know um there is a School ethics commission which um is something that um you know is a body that governs what we do I mean we have our own board of Ethics um it's a little slippery slope I would say Mr Theodore I don't think there's um I don't know that there's any cases in case law where there have been issues with people being endorsed um necessarily um there have been for example things in case law where a particular person um slander somebody or put something out against somebody but um again I'm not the expert I'm not a lawyer um I think our attorney Keeps Us AB breast of those things as needed but no on this board and this particular board and over the years I don't think we've had any um ethics violations um on this board I think we're um quite above board um but so I don't think there's anything you know ethically wrong with it I just uh think the bitterness and some of that is what I was more speaking to appreciate it Happy New Year thank you for letting me clarify thank you Mr Theodor any other remarks okay I see no further remarks motion to close the meeting to the public Mr coplin second by Miss Jansen all right we do have a short executive session uh this evening and then we will adjourn from there thank you everybody for coming out hope to see you back it was a great turnout this evening thank you good night