good evening this is the mouin Board of Education meeting for Tuesday May 28th 2024 would you all rise to the flag salute pleaseed States one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice thank you notice of meeting please I hereby make the statement to indicate compliance with the open public meetings act known as chapter 2 31 of the public laws of New Jersey 1975 which became effective 90 days after enactment January 19th 1976 notice that this meeting was given by providing the location time and date of this meeting and posting of the same on the front door of the Board of Education offices by delivering copies to the burrow Hall and the mouan public library the home news and Tribune The Star Ledger and by filing a copy the burough clerk as prescribed by this law thank you roll call please Mr bot yes Miss Cook here Mr derflinger here miss demang here Mr glasberg here Dr Johnson Marcus here Miss Colleen here Mr lifton here Dr spner oh Dr spner uh let me know she wasn't be able she won't be able to attend thank you Mr sass here okay Dr kuto I see we have some artwork here we do this is the uh Edgar middle school art display this evening with the pleasure of having the middle school art festival preview showcased each student who has art and Industrial Arts will have a piece of their work on display Mrs gum Miss Banner Mr Tay transform the Edgar gymnasium into an amazing showcase on display tonight it's a sampling of Fifth Sixth 7eventh and eighth grade artists showcasing a variety of mediums including fifth grade uh tempor paint and oil pastels sixth grade drip drawings sculpy clay and Tim Burton inspired self-portraits 7th grade ceramic food sculptures and neurographics and eighth grade micrography watercolors and Clay containers the industrial Arts projects produced by Sixth sth and eighth grade Woodworkers include napkin holders a shelf cutting boards and clocks thanks to the mouin Education Foundation students are able to utilize the glow Forge which is a 3D laser engraver they have the ability to monogram boards cut custom designs and laser cut intricate design into jewelry we invite everybody to join us Thursday June 6th so it's next Thursday from 7:00 to 9: in the Edgar gymnasium to see the full Edgar Middle School Arts Festival experience thank you Dr Caputo just wonderful I mean it's making me hungry pick one of these olives right off that that tray it was kind of a little bit mean actually to put this right here so um really is extraordinary when you give uh our students tools and and some some help some training what they can produce uh extraordinar extraordinarily beautiful pictures and lifelike sculptures when they're intended to be lifelike and if you know Tim Burton uh uh inspired um self-portraits perhaps not not so uh lifelike but uh just wonderful and I know everyone would will enjoy going on Jun June 6th you said uh yes June 6th Thursday June 6th 7 to 9:00 p.m. in the Edgar gymnasium thank you what's in that Dunkin Donuts box that's yeah I was eyding up that chocolate one but uh actually Dr Caputo kind of went for it when when Mr Harvey offered it we got cakes we got all types of things anyway just uh got an Oreo down here beautiful artwork from our uh middle school students so thank you um I've been asked to take a pause for a moment after that section is that right to allow the artwork to be collected yeah please no no no don't don't be shy don't be shy we're all on camera it's not a big deal thank you thank you for thank you for bringing this you for guiding them oh my gosh the best thank you are so cool so pretty that is something else isn't that amazing I did I don't like it in front of me but uh I like that in front of me amazing yes I didn't like the Yankee but I did like the Shakur TR it it was on my chair I found it I put it back on the thing that is it was tempting it isge I purchased those items very nice for sale thanks ni oh we get to keep they double cross me it really was [Laughter] real thank you for bringing them thank you thank you so much for bringing it yeah okay okay um we'll move on from that um we also have some uh some MHS sealed by literacy awardees we do I'm going to invite Mr PR up while I read the U the intro and I'm going to let him handle the rest of that so um matou in high school's proud to announce the following 42 students receive the New Jersey state seal of biliteracy in the following languages Chinese French German guari Hebrew H Hindi Japanese Polish Russian Serbian and Spanish new Jersey state seal of bi literacy was established to recognize high school graduates who obtained a high level Proficiency in speaking reading listening and writing in one or more World languages in addition to English to earn the New Jersey state seal of biliteracy students must meet graduation requirements for the ELA and earn a proficiency level of intermediate mid or higher on a state approved World language assessment students noted with an aster on our uh List have earned their Global seal of B literacy and I'll invite Mr parowski up uh to talk about our students today note that there's a couple students that are identified with two languages so in addition to English those students have earned the seal in in in multiple languages and there are also students who received as Juniors I believe their first seal by literacy uh and they're receiving another seal in their senior year Mr prasy thank you for uh coming tonight and thank you to the students uh some of them who couldn't be here tonight but really appreciate the ones that made the effort to come out and let us recognize them tonight thank you so much for your time and attention I'm excited to share the list of students who have received their uh New Jersey state seal of biliteracy biliteracy um obviously I'm still working on my first language um so this evening I'm going to just share the individuals you'll be able to read on the paperwork what languages they they receive their seal of biliteracy in um we're very proud of them all of their hard work and again they receive that seal upon on graduation meeting their graduation requirements uh our seniors are an Carlos Devin feineman Marina crin beans Alex patelski and Emma stall our Juniors Marina armore Ava barish tavisha bhata Rowan Brown anner chaplain Caitlyn Connors arohi Desai AA Desai Audrey Fang Dylan Festa Claire Flores Walker Samantha garciaa Elliot gearan Petra Hiatus Gian Hernandez Leah honig Caitlyn schwat Anushka Kenny shachi Kenny Anna Leon Jason ma Tisha maana lingan mang Hannah inler suhani Moda Aiden ogor Amal Omar Casper rusala Sophia Schuman ishanvi Singh Ethan shria Eva sap annaya tripathy Kylie Trello Ripley Wong and Julia Zaki congratulations to our individuals the least we could do tonight is to before you guys leave there may be some questions uh we also provideed the your students this evening with a certificate something in addition to the the seal that they'll get on really an amazing requirement I'm so proud of the students and you and Miss Jay and everybody for for pursuing the program that New Jersey offers and for these 42 students represented by five tonight just fantastic yeah just just a wonderful achievement and program that we follow here in the high school and although I'm it's a long time since I've been in high school one of my chief regrets is that I never learned a second language and the fact that you have and some of you have have learned a third uh will serve you very well nothing connects you more with the rest of the world than being able to speak the language and be immersed in the culture of of other places and other peoples and uh it's really something to be quite proud of so thank you for coming com and letting us honor you tonight thank you [Applause] congratulations okay um the um the meeting is now open to the public for comment for any item please come to the podium state your name and address and uh make your comment hi my name is is Toby sanado I live at 119 Main Street in matachin I'm also the CEO of magnolo art center and I'm going to use a little card and I'm setting a timer so I don't overstate uh let me put my glasses on see we are a 501c3 dance performance professional company we just performed in Greece and we're also an art center like I said located at 272 Lake AV and October will be in our fifth year as a 501c3 Madison is one of our interns and part of your board and we appreciate her tremendously and in the programming that I'm going to discuss today some of the key focuses in our Arts is getting all mediums to work together so we think that Arts sometimes are polarized you have a dancer and you have a musician and so uh we work on bringing programming like that in our art studio we are also the current home of Bollywood and ballet classes for children as well as adult theater is presented there our primary use is to give people an affordable space for artists who want to create works it is very hard to create works and not have a place to do your work and then have to spend a bunch of money to get that done my primary focus tonight is to talk about things that we can do for children um very briefly I just want to share why we're magnolo magnolo is not my maiden name my daughters were gymnast their whole lives including at Ruckers and when they were little my husband's brother Charlie asked them if they were nervous before a gymnastics meet and they said yes and he said in his big Italian voice you see this you have more talent in your pinky than anyone competing my daughter won that meet by the way many years later we were walking and and to uh go a little bit further we said for the rest of their lives remember the pinky which everyone has this unique pinky this fingerprint on your finger and everyone has that special something fast forward they wanted out have a dance company when they were older and they kept saying when they were probably in high school we can't call it remember the pinky and so they were like their dad is Italian and they said well what's m magnolo is Pinky in Italian unfortunately my husband's uh brother passed away of a massive heart attack in his 50s while he was dancing with his nine-year-old and he left behind children that were impacted by opiate addiction and that impact on children was why we became a 501c3 we wanted to help children and adults um you know have better experiences in the world we actually are the uh we produce pinky thinker press which is a play on pinky which is a quarterly magazine which all artists submit to the work their works and what's interesting about it that we didn't even think about till the other day is we don't have an age requirement so if you have art students that want to submit they can be published they can receive a payment a sipon and that's a really unique opportunity so the art there could be published in our book and it and it's a very low entry so we're very how we are actually funded by middle sex grants for Pinky thinker press I also want to talk about um we also have a film International screen dance Film Festival last year we had 125 submissions we would love to have film students submit to that as well um that would be an amazing thing to put on the resume for college applications but the reason I am here today is to talk about Arts against bullying it has come to my attention through various situations where unfortunately we've seen a child in Middle School commit suicide we've seen I've had a personal relationship with somebody that my daughter tutored for sat in this town that committed suicide and it's a really rampid thing and it became I became aware when Madison explained to me that the board was really looking for Community Assistance with bullying projects and to deal with that and so we created this program called Arts against bullying it will be fully funded by by magnolo Art Center we will provide it for free we will also pay the Professional Arts uh therapist to handle the programming we would like to do the programming and this summer is a great opportunity to start something where there's you know a empty space for kids on what are they going to do so we do have an art therapist teacher that is um certified providing her her time we will be paying her and we will be offering that programming this summer hope to start it in July uh Madison's been a great resource and we know that there's an opportunity to help you know students and hopefully maybe even having a parent group because my daughter's been bullied and I it's a lonely place when your kid texts you and says I can't do this anymore and I'm lucky that she didn't do anything but for my husband's brother who's no longer here anymore the impact to his children and other children in the world is is terrible my time's up but I just want to say that uh we want to help the kids we're here to assist the community and the school board if they so choose Thank you thank you for coming this evening um I'm a little bit familiar with your studio just you were timing I was timing um I would suggest that your proposal um you should forward it to Dr Caputo okay the administration and and he can look at it and see if he thinks it'll make sense for for the district and uh certainly it's uh wonderful to hear from members of the public who are so concerned about or all of our students in the in the district it it takes everyone uh and uh we certainly welcome your contribution so thank you thank you so much I really do think if you help one child you help the world thank you thank you okay other comments from the public seeing none uh we will move on we'll move to other presentations no presentations tonight okay the reports president's report I do not have a report this evening I have uh two items for please superintendent's report first just a review of again for the uh Folks at watching at home the last three days of school June 17th 18th and 19th those three days again June 17th 18th and 19th are half days for students um the Edgar promotion will be at the high school field on uh June 18th and then the high school graduation on the high school field of course um June 20th second item tonight um just a another amazing uh example of our community today um Mr Harvey and I had a meeting with um uh the niece of a former employee in District here um and she presented us with a a check for over $187,000 um it's the niece of Lillian Kovac um a teacher for 40 years who taught here in matachin and just absolutely loved her time in Campbell school um she asked her niece to share with us as part of the the estate uh that she wants it to see to go to students who are interested in education um and students who have needs so um so we will we will do their best we promised her today that after we thanked her over and over again uh we promised her that we would keep her up to date the niece um and we would um make proud lilan kak's Legacy uh and support students who want to and the enter the educational field so just an amazing um another Outreach by the community then and we'll take good hands with you know we'll take good charge of that we'll be talking with Mr uh Kowski and and M curtain about building that into the uh the scholarship program for the 2025 class just amazing amazing uh amazing person a teacher in our district for over 40 years and after everything she gave to this district and the community um in one of her final acts she decided to give even more and it certainly is incumbent upon us to to treat that gift with uh reverence and and carry out her wishes with it and the good news is that her wishes would be all of our wishes as well which is to support our students as best we can with with the fund so uh to her family and of course to to her and her memory it's uh uh we we can't thank her family and and her enough for for such a such a large and thoughtful gift as I said especially after all her other contributions throughout the years so just amazing okay um move on to committee reports um Miss Cook policy yes policy met on May 21st uh we had a few members of the district professional development committee there we got a good recap of their winter planning um great news hearing about the involvement of the Paris not just in the courses and workshops but also in the planning role so that was exciting and we get a preview of this past Friday's spring PD day which I can't wait to get more details about later cuz it's sounded very very exciting a lot of voice and choice for all of our staff um and then we discussed a couple topics that have been brought to the committee about um private tutoring or coaching um by staff members and after a good discussion uh we looked at our current policies and decided that at this time we're going to move forward with next steps in the coaches training program for the 2425 school year and revisit it as needed and we're actually not going to have an in-person meeting in June we're going to have an email meeting if needed because it was scheduled for the same night as the Edgar promotion so our next meeting is not until July the end of July okay thank you um Mr deringer curriculum thank you curriculum met on Tuesday May 21st um we first discussed curriculum writing updates which included um a little update on how curriculum writing will take place during staff development which happened last Friday um we also discussed the district's njss La testing status um it has been Ela and math has been completed at Campbell Edgar and mauchen high school currently working on makeups and science content um we looked over a proposal for an overnight field trip which will most likely be reviewed as well by extracurricular so Miss Colleen please look out for that um we then discussed a new honors calculus textbook renewal proposal um which we were in support of the last honors calculus textbook was ordered over 10 years ago it was time for a renewal um we discussed as part of the district's efforts to support students staff and families in providing um Suicide Prevention education the district's going to be looking into a program called the lifelines trilogy program um the proposal and the introduction was reviewed as well as a timeline for introducing and implementing the training to staff uh we met with some District staff members Mr Evan Robbins who leads the district's instructional Council shared an update with us about the F focus of the district committee um Lisa lvin and Brook kersner who are leaders of the social emotional Committee of the district provided us an update of activities organized by the secd committee um it was great hearing from both of the district committe IES and we look forward to hearing updates in the future as of now our June meeting is going to be cancelled if there are you know pending items we need to discuss we will do it through discourse on email for the time being thank you thank you uh Mr Glasper Construction Construction has not met as a group but uh it's still been a very busy time just a couple of updates they're all on our website matou and schools.org click on the referendum link um so that's been updated with some current status information uh such as at Moss the uh footing excavation taking place same thing at Edgar uh starting pouring concrete very shortly uh at Campbell the removal of the playgrounds coming up and the relocation of the gazebo at the high school uh some track work is expected to start in uh early June also starting to put up a couple of photos there I'll add more as they as they come in um but I made a spot for it anyway and there's three photos there to get us going our next meeting is June 10th and that meeting is open to the public um it's in the mouan High School uh library on June 10th at 7 p.m. and anybody is welcome to attend that it's a regularly scheduled meeting of the construction committee but open to the public thank you thank you yes Mr glasberg just a note you mentioned the photos so we're in the process creating a shared Drive um from all the four schools and we're going to include you on that so you have access to create the website so you don't have to ask us when you're ready for pictures they'll be there when you're ready to use them on the website so great thank you thank you um Dr Johnson Marcus uh anything from the human relations commission no report tonight thank you okay and um Dr spner is not here I know Equity met is there a report we did meet but she did not share the report so okay so we'll have to wait with DED BR we will I won't be able to sleep okay we we'll see if that report next meeting okay next is U Mr sus oh I'm sorry I I skipped Miss Killian Miss Killian extracurricular we did not well that was a buildup that was that was a buzz kill not all right uh Mr sus finance my microphone wasn't on we did not meet we also did not meet our next meeting is scheduled for June 10th although I may need to reschedule as I will be out of town so I will be reaching out to the committee meeting uh folks okay thank you are there any uh comments or questions about those committee reports thank you miss demang the student report I do sorry I do not have a student report tonight but I hope everyone had a good Memorial weekend thank you I think we all did um okay we'll move on uh is there any old business from the board seeing none is there any new business from the board seeing none I'd like to move the approval of the following um the minutes of the following Board of Education meetings May 14th 2024 special business meeting 1 May 14th special business meeting 2 May 14th 2024 board meeting is there a second Mr glassberg are there any comments or Corrections on those minutes seeing none W call please Mr bot yes m cook I abstain thank you Mr derflinger yes Mr glasberg yes Dr Johnson Marcus yes Miss cleen obain I thank you Mr lifton yes Mr SS yes motion carries thank you um we'll move to the recommendations of the superintendent of schools oftentimes it may appear to members of our audience that the Board of Education takes action with very very little comment and in many cases a unanimous vote before matter is placed on the agenda at a public meeting the Administration has thoroughly reviewed the matter with the superintendent of schools if the superintendent is satisfied that the matter is ready to be presented to the board of education is then referred to the appropriate board committee the members of the board committee work with the administration the superintendent to assure that the members fully understand the matter when the committee is satisfied with the matter is presented to the board of education for discussion before any final action is taken only then is it placed on the agenda for Action at a public meeting I'd like to move the Personnel items a one through 11 yes is there a second Dr Johnson Marcus are there any comments or questions on those items seeing none wel call please Mr bot yes Miss Cook yes Mr derflinger yes Mr glasberg yes Dr Johnson Marcus yes Miss Colleen yes Mr lton yes Mr sus abstain on seven yes to the rest thank you motion carries thank you Mr um lton before you go to finance if I might uh thank you the board in uh item uh a11 accepted the retirement of Karen Vander Castle business and AP economics teacher at matachin High School Mrs vand Castle is completing her 16th year of teaching with this being her seventh year as an educator at matachin High School Mrs Vanda Castle has taught AP microeconomics AP macroeconomics entrepreneurship financial literacy digital marketing and business Information Management she has an incredible amount of practical experience and uses her knowledge as well as her business connections to provide students with comprehensive learning experience Mrs vanic Castle prepared our students for the New Jersey consumer affairs Bowl during the school year the students were recognized as middle sex County Champions and advanced to the regional finals Mrs Vander castle co-developed and co-delivered instruction to staff on climate change education M vand Castle is a member of many committees including climate change committee principal's advisory and the district professional development committee outside of Metuchen and mouin High School Mrs vand Castle presented a climate change education program to the New Jersey Association of family consumer Sciences at Freehold High School this April Miss Vander Castle is a valued member of the school Community who elevated the caliber of the school and our business programming congratulations to miss van Castle on her upcoming retirement thank you um as always we whenever there's a retirement it's bittersweet uh we of course wish her uh a wonderful retirement and welld deserved and well earned um unfortunately our students will will not be able to uh Avail themselves of her teaching and her wisdom and her knowledge but um but we certainly wish her a very well-deserved retirement so thank you for everything uh you've done okay moving to finance Mr sus I'd like to move items B1 through B15 as listed on the agenda thank you is there a second Miss Cook are is are there any comments or questions on those items roll call please Mr bot yes Miss Cook yes Miss Mr derflinger yes Mr glasberg yes Dr Johnson Marcus yes Miss Colleen yes Mr lton yes Mr SS yes motion carries thank you we will move to policy Miss Cook yes I'd like to move items C1 through C3 is listed on the agenda thank you is there a second Mr sus are there any comments or questions on those items roll call please Mr bot yes Miss Cook yes Mr derflinger yes yes Mr glasberg yes Dr Johnson Marcus yes Miss Colleen yes Mr lton yes Mr sus yes motion carries thank you curriculum Mr derflinger thank you I'd like to make a motion to move items one [Music] through 10 as listed on the agenda please thank you is there a second Dr Johnson Marcus are there any comments or questions on those items sing non roll call please Mr Bach yes Miss Cook yes Mr derflinger yes Mr glasberg yes Dr Johnson Marcus yes Miss Colleen yes Mr lton yes Mr sus yes motion carries thank you the meeting is now open to the public for any topic seeing none we will move to announcements Mr bot sure uh thank you to again the construction committee for the update uh if you check out the website you'll see it says updated 528 which is today so it's outstanding the frequency uh for Moss just be mindful you have kindergarten field trips to Campbell on 63 and kindergarten student orientation on 65 giving teachers a day of respit on 64 uh for Edgar you have Camp Mason leaves tomorrow morning um eighth grade dance is this Friday uh the Edgar athletic dinner is June 11th uh we also heard about the last days of school and that final week for Campbell you have the third and fourth grade concert on the 30th and field day on Friday fingers crossed for good weather and then June 10th 11th uh the book fair and then for the high school we saw the Jazz uh the jazz concert here at the last board meeting uh we have MHS music dinner on June 1st and that concert is on 65 um thank you all thank you um at this point I'd like to make a motion to adjourn is there a second Dr Johnson Marcus all in favor thank you and good night