e e e e e mic's working all right we're calling this meeting to order I apologize we waiting for a couple people that were stuck in traffic yes we're all ready and so I call a meeting to order the flag salute I PL to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all and please remain standing for a moment of silence for all those In Harm's Way and all of our um military overseas thank you the notice uh requirements of the open public meetings Act of the state of New Jersey have been satisfied by the inclusion of the date time and place of this meeting in the notice of regular meetings adopted by this board on January 8th 2024 such schedule and notice of meetings is posted at the municipal building the Mount Olive Public Library the board of education office and the six schools it was submitted to the Daily Record for publication on January 9th 2024 and was filed with the clerk of Mount Olive Township on January 9th 2024 I direct that this announcement be entered into the minutes of this meeting Mrs Aquino here Mrs Fenton here Mrs fera here Mrs fitgerald here Mrs mendz here Mrs O'Neal here Mr orillo here Mr stachi here Mrs naris I'm here and can I have um M men Menendez um move the approval of the minutes 2 2.1 through 2.2 I present a motion uh for approval of the minutes 2.1 to 2.2 second you ready for R Mrs Melendez yes Mrs O'Neal yes Mr orilla yes Mr stachi yes Mrs aino yes Mrs Fenton yes Mrs fera yes Mrs fitgerald yes Mrs naris yes and do we have any student liaison reports and then we'll move on to our presentations I'm breaking everything sorry okay good evening um a lot has gone on these past month at the high school to start off with our seniors our cap and gown orders are due this Thursday I can't believe it's almost here that's crazy um a reminder email has been sent out to our seniors and their parents um as well as obviously graduation right before that prom is coming up on March on May 23rd prom contracts have been made available in Miss Shaw's office and they're going on sale April 8th 9th 11th and 12th during lunch as well as after school on the 11th outside guests have their own contract which are in yellow um every guest is um every guest attending must fill out a contact as well as the $95 tickets per person um and checks are made out to the Board of Education um some thank yous would like to give um for our district science fair on March 16th all the district school um organizations that volunteered as judges and were part of the whole exhibit um really helped the program go very smoothly um when it came to our Rising curriculum Fair on March 12 March 20th around 300 people with Rising freshmen and their parents um what a great night um part of the transition program that was founded for the Middle School to the high school um it's a little scary for them so we like to like give them a little see preview um in April eighth graders will be coming over to the high school actually themselves doing a little tour around the school and more information will be given to them um we' like to thank our Junior ROTC program for presenting the colors our Chorus for signaling the national anthem and our ASL for signing the um star spangle Banner um crazy month to start off with our Rock of Ages musical I mean amazing like I went to go see that show Blown Away you really forget you're at a high school show um when it comes to sound lighting music dancing acting singing those kids did it all I mean a great night um and we would like to congratulate our seniors um even though they have taken their last bow at the high school theyve definitely left their mark on the mountain ol theater program um when it comes to robotics um they hosted the robotics District competition and headed out to Warren Hills to compete um did a great job when it comes to our nahs hosted its annual Invitational on March 12th uh with two dozen schools participating sorry there's a back I just forgot um when it comes to our when it came to our um Na HS annual Invitational um one of our own students um llo um had won first place which was great job um our district participate in a chorus uh choose to include spirit week which highlights inclusion in our school district and spreading the inclusion through the town um this was held by our best buddies and UniFi program um our GA J GAA Women's Summit in the library this past Friday um really highlighted the important women and their contribution to different parts of uh the society throughout history yeah great job by a lot of clubs okay and now for some important information pertaining to our sophomores and juniors information was recently sent out through email to all sophomore students regarding class rings so sophomore parents should definitely be on the lookout for these emails from their students if they hope to purchase one as for the junior class A save the date was sent out through email again about our up coming share the keys event on May 2nd this is a mandatory program for all Rising seniors if they hope to enter the parking Lottery next year and attendance is mandatory from both students and their parents or Guardians um more details about this will come out in a l after spring break now on to some more exciting news coming up as we speak the annual Key Club Easter egg hunt is being held at the high school this welcomes Mount kids up to age 10 for games crafts and of course a classic egg hunt looking forward a couple weeks we are hosting our annual community awareness night on April 17th from 6:30 to 8:30 this is the event where seniors who have been working over the quarter in their health classes to create projects with their peers are able to present them to their parents and other students and um these projects touch on different topics and spread awareness to the community the very next evening the World Language Honor Society as well as the international student organization are holding their International Extravaganza which is a great event members of the community can come out to attend this fun event and then stay at the school later that night for the rock and roll Academy concert in regards to sports all of our winter sports have officially been concluded with all of our teams ending on great notes and just like that spring sports are all underway some even nearing their first competitions we recently hosted our first ever flag football jambur with our girls winning the entire event it was really great performance another first our school started up their very own boys volleyball team which has had a lot of people come out and try out for and they've had a handful of scrimmages already so that's another really great thing in our Sports Community We wish all our spring athletes good luck in their upcoming competitions and we really hope to see parents and board members come out and support now I know our students have heard a lot about this um reunification drill coming up and obviously you guys know about as well but for any parents listening um this is something that involves not only the students but our parents have to get involved as well so our reunification drill will be taking place at Roxbury high school right now we have 83 students signed up which is a great number um definitely want more though the more the better um this will be taking uh place on April 9th from 12: to 2:40 so students can get back if their athletes get back to their Sports and after school clubs um the UN reunification drill is a planned exercise design designed to simulate the process of reuniting students with their families following an emergency event it is essential for both parents and students to understand the procedure involved in order to ensure a smooth and efficient reunification process during the high stress situations so the rockbury high school has actually done this at our school um but now we're going to them so this is helping not only our district and Roxbury prepare for this situation but we have other schools coming in to actually watch which is just amazing I mean to be able to watch it live and really prepare is not only helping our parents cuz you know we can only pray for the best but have to prepare for the worst um so I think the more students that can sign up for this will definitely help our district and our community um at this time any questions any have any questions great job as always thank you thank you thank you move it over to our superintendent report at this time I'd like to invite Miss Colleen sule our athletic director for some um recognitions of our winter sports as well as an opportunity for our raid athletic Council to speak awesome thank you so much um certainly appreciate the opportunity to come to the board of education and uh offer the opportunity to provide information and showcase some of the great things that the athletic program has accomplished um special thanks to Gabby um she's so mature right like even in Her speech she said those kids like the Rock of Ages are like those kids did so great but uh even speaking of the Rock of Ages right I barely know Jody Bosch but after I went over and gave her the biggest hug I was so moved it was incredible so this has just been an awesome real weekend for Mount Olive right and I'm glad that we have the opportunity here to celebrate tonight um for some of our winter sports and to uh offer some information of things that we're doing the athletic program so first thing what I'd like to do is we're going to uh highlight the girls winter track team now one of the one of the some of our programs right we not on campus so we've got to get on the bus we've got to travel uh the girls track team this winter did an incredible job as a matter of fact they did so much traveling the majority of their travel is actually in New York right so these kids are coming home uh they're the best of the best the better you do the more you get to do so their season is really really long and sometimes they're not not pulling into their driveway at home until 11 11:30 at night and then turning around living up to the standard of a Marauder athlete and getting to school the next day so I've always given them so much credit for the extra effort that they do and I'm just so impressed with their backto back to backto back success um this year they are backto back group uh one uh North one group three champions last year they're backto back County Champion so the coaching staff is doing an incredible job our head coach coach uh saraj zad he is a alumni of Mount Olive so he's extra proud and and and amazing at what he does and he's just created a tradition of Excellence at Mount oliv we're super proud of him um he's been here for 14 years so we're going to bring coach up to introduce his his athletes in his program good evening everyone I'm thankful that you're having us here tonight um as you mentioned it's my 14th year here I'm also manav alumni I do want to uh mention our coaching staff um I want to thank them first uh for everything the time that they put in she mentioned 11:00 11:30 um our sectional Championship we actually didn't get back until 2:30 a.m. because it was a late night um there was a delay in the earlier meets and you know because of the weather so you know we do travel a lot and she mentioned that but our coaching staff um Kevin pson he's our head boys coach I'm the head girls coach officially but we also have CID Alon who's monol alumnus um we have Kathleen cizo we have uh Coach Joe Hayne who actually is here as well and also Maris Smallwood who's also alumnist uh so we have three Mo alumni on our staff we thank for to bring people back um but before I get into the details of our of our season I do want to acknowledge that we have an upand cominging Rising group that does acknowledge needs to be acknowledged as well um so I want to talk just briefly about our freshman salt and for sophomores at Frost soft relays um our freshman boys took first overall for the county our sophomore boys took first overall for the county and then our combined group the girls are more combined for frost soft uh because of enrollment and um the amount of numbers but they took first overall and frost soft relays as well um then when we got the freshman sophomore championships our freshman took um fifth overall but our sophomore boys took second overall those are the individual championships and they add those points up and I'm sorry there's our girls our freshman girls and our freshman boys um respectively um freshman girl sophomore girls respectively our boys overall took um second for freshman and our and uh first and for the sophomore boys so you know I do want to acknowledge that our group is up still up and coming and we do have don't get enough acknowledgement for what they do but they do well amongst their own age group um I do want to take a moment to um acknowledge the fact that we did have some kids make it all the way to meita Champs we had two girls make it to New Jersey state meita champs which is held in Staten Island in Ocean Breeze and also uh two and five girls make it to the Met Champs and also five kids make it for National so we drove up to Boston a few weekends ago where uh three of our Varsity kids competed in Championship events multiple events for a few of them and two of our freshman qualified in their categories for freshman as well at Nationals in Boston it was a great trip we had a great experience and they all had fun from what I could tell and we look forward to doing that often more often but um without further Ado I do want to acknowledge our boys that has some accomplishments here first um I'm speaking on behalf of Coach person he couldn't be here tonight he had a newborn about a little over a week ago so I'm happy to represent for him okay hold that okay the first boy that I'd like to acknowledge is a senior um he broke our pole vault indoor School recorded with a height of 126 and also qualified for the media Champions that young man is Christian [Applause] artori he has an outdoor season and we look forward to more records coming our next is only a junior and he managed to break a very old 600 meter indoor School record um and that is Divia naroua and also he's also a junior captain on the team as well our third boy has been a captain and has multiple school records that he had taken this year um the 300 meter School record uh he had broken and he played second in Morris County um and also the 400 meter indoor School record he plays second in group three overall that's the entire group three in the state and place third at the state sectional and also qualified at fre one of the qualifiers for Nationals in the 60 meter and the 200 meter Sprints Michael del gofo I'll ask the boys to stay up here and I hope you can all take a group picture with the girls when we have to re announce them I'd like to take a moment to uh acknowledge our girls uh we ask some of varsity girls and we had quite a few here show up today um I'll start and when they come up you just get your Awards girls and stay up here um senior Captain Sydney Dugan senior Michaela [Applause] een sophomore Emily vulpi senior Captain Ava [Applause] Welsh senior Captain Cala [Applause] Williams soft a freshman faith dressle faith is one of faith is one of our 400 meter freshmen that qualify for Nationals sophomore who also placed in our at our sectional championship in the 3200 meter Nicole malter sophomore Jayla [Applause] Roberts and a future leader for our program key jar [Applause] Jarvis I'll take a a moment there's two girls that I didn't mention because they have quite a few accomplishments that I do want to acknowledge at the end here so everyone could appla hold the Applause one couldn't make it but she's absolutely worth noteworthy of mentioning tonight unfortunately she couldn't make it here the first is Morgan Ryerson um she broke the not only the school record but also the Morris County 55 meter record which was which was a time of 802 and she was New Jersey ranked number two in the state obviously and she uh ended up being ranked us number 133 in that event she won the eastern states championships she also won the Morris County championships State sectional Championship was second in group three and also qualified for the me the Champions but at that also at that same sectional that the girls won she also won high jump which makes her a well-rounded athlete and she was a 60 meters um National qualifier at Nationals she qualified and she placed she ranked 23rd in the nation in the 60 meter hurdles um she couldn't make it tonight but she's is definitely noteworthy of mentioning Morgan Ryerson and the last and definitely not least is um our senior Captain as well Morgan WS as well Natasha Redmond Natasha holds records in multiple events five to be exact in our school she holds the 55 meter record where she plays second in group three she's a state sectional Champion she has the state sectional meat record which was held by our Olympian Couture orgy she broke that record which is nice um she has the indoor School record which was ranked number six in New Jersey this year and also was a Morris County Championship record as well with her 55 meter run in the 300 meter she has the school record and she was also a um she also broke Couture orgy's previous record and the 200 met she has not only the indoor School record but she has a 200 meter County Morris County record of a time of 2455 she also has our school 400 meter record which she was a state sectional champion in that event she was second in group three in that event and placed third in the state in that event as well and she also is our 500 meter record qualifier and qualified for Nationals up in Boston at New Balance Nationals in the 60 meter and 200 meter record the senior Captain Natasha Redmond very thankful to have uh many of these athletes here U Natasha is actually attending Cornell in the fall and Morgan Ryerson is attending George Mason and another girl that we could that could make it tonight Morgan Summer She's attending momth all on track scholarship and athletic money as well so we have a lot of athletes here as well we have more that are selecting their schools kamala's chosing to go to Ramapo and she hopes to run W there as well Michael del goo is going to be choosing his school and Christian artor is going to be competing in track and field at Salisbury University next year so we're excited for all our track and field athletes and their accomplishments if you guys can give them a round of [Applause] applause thank you very much that's impressive could you imagine running the four feet right just four feet could you imagine running and then and then throwing and tol you saw my athletic prace pretty sure that was amazing I did Mrs wil's here and uh she just got back from Physical Therapy DayDay I was the appointment before her so yeah oh really super impressive um so many school records Mrs Jones we're goingon to have to get some new record boards sorry so good problem to have put in the PO put it y good problem to have all right so the second the second thing I'd like to do is um share with you a new program that we've started a new club uh program not sure I like to call it more of a program than a club because um it's really super intentional um Dr bji and I had many conversations stemming even from last year as a new athletic director this is my um two and a half years now we really recognize the need for uh established systemic intentional culture building and part of that process was really about getting in with the athletes having a conversation vulnerable um intentional conversations with them figuring out the things that would make Mount Olive better and make the athletic program really thrive in ways that um you know are are are excelling excelling Beyond and um I'm very My Philosophy really in education is I'm not I'm not a cookie cutter um we we designed a program based on a national program and then we took it in ourselves and made it our own it's called raid and the kids will tell you a little bit more about it but it really is about connecting with athletes who are connecting with the community who are ready recognizing things that we can be doing in order to better evolve and develop our student athletes and you know we kind of piloted this year and I have to say that these student athletes took the ball and and they ran with it they were awesome and to be a part of it again part of some of the things that I believe is I'm not I understand that there's a time and a place for resume building right but but they're not a part of that and I made it a little more difficult for them to be a part of something because I really wanted people to be around me that were invested in the community and I have a group of student athletes that really Rose to the top they did exceptional exceptionable uh extra things to be a part of this as a matter of fact not only a pretty lengthy application process but they also had to take a class right they had to take a class to be a part of this and they'll tell you a little more about that um I'm so proud of them we meet we lately we've been meeting once a week in my office and they're burning up their lunch and their tag time so they're awesome I'm so proud of them and the things that they've done dyes is here too he's back in in the back row with his track he's going to come up um I'd like to introduce um three student athletes um Micah Jones who today was just honored as the njsia student athlete of the year and gave him that information today so Micah Jones come on up Izzy Kus who is um the only actual person in the history of Mount Olive that has played football in two seasons so Izzy come on up same and then of course we know Natasha Redmond who is um just an incredible student slath um she's an incredible human being and um she's just made our program just take off so Natasha Redmond going to present to you a little bit of things that they've been doing for the last two or three months thank you thank you Miss suly for the warm welcome I'm Izzy this is Natasha and Micah so basically sack is a national student organization where a student athlete advisory committee and it's Bridging the Gap between athletes uh parents coaches and schools and we kind of took that big idea of this National Organization and kind of like made it smaller into our little own monol community and we created raid which is revitalizing athletes in our District it's kind of a play cuz we're Marauders and Pirates raed so oh I like it clever um just a quick who we are we're student athletes who are committed uh to community enrichment and we aspire to enhance M ol high school and really just leave a lasting positive impact in all that we do so we wanted to go into a little bit more detail about what exactly we do um so we're made up of a pretty small group of people it's 9 pleas nine people plus Miss sule um and so we try to have our meetings weekly with our executive board in order to just be more productive our main goal is to build leadership skills so as sule was talking about earlier there's a few things that we had to do in order to get on this executive board uh so we had to get their certification from the nfhs and so that was like a like an hour and a half two hour class that we took that uh just went over different leadership topics and it had different perspectives of student athletes and coaches and parents and they just detailed us more about um more of the details on leadership and we also during one of our executive board weekly meetings we had a reading and Analysis of one of the chapters in a book about leadership um so just kind of building this groundwork for a sense of leadership before we're going out and trying to spread this amongst our own um Sports and then so we also really want to acknowledge areas where we can improve our school and our community specifically from the athletic standpoint and a really important thing that we thought of was recognizing student athletes and like the significance of their accomplishments because oftenly they are downplayed or we only hear them in the morning during our announcements so definitely um we've put some things in place that you guys will see later in our slideshow uh that shows some of our progress so our raid program is really founded upon four pillars uh first visibility and spirit just like trying to get more people involved and grow school spirit in our school um Community inclusion you'll see a little bit later on through uh the different ways that we participated in our community events service again a couple things we've done to really help Outreach to the community and then finally as NASA just said before one of the most important parts celebrating our athletes in community in all their accomplishments um so over the next couple slides we'll just see a couple of examples of things we've accomplished so far uh so Micah and I recently just finished creating these schedules to put in our school hallways it was definitely a learning process trying to use Miss su's uh special graphic design tool but we figured it out eventually so basically what we're trying to do is represent every single spring Sports um all even the new ones boys JB volleyball we got flag football boys lacrosse girls lacrosse softball baseball all of them and even our Unified sports as well so we hung them up in the Athletics hallway so everyone passes it I think mostly everyone passes through that hallway eventually at one point or another in the day so we're just increasing knowledge about home away games as well as tournaments that we may be participating in and we're hoping to increase attendance at games but also just like to make the hallways a little prettier make people smile maybe if they pass by and just to get that school community so this is focusing on our visibility and spirit pillars so this is one of the things we've recently did last week um we went to tents and we read a book um and it was from K to fifth grade and so uh the 12 of us there that you can see we were all split up and we went into classrooms and we read our books and a big part of it was after we asked if anyone had questions um so I know from my experience in my fourth grade class they kept bombarding me with questions until the bus was about to leave um so definitely a lot of questions about the school but also a lot about sports because they know I'm coming here from an association that's about Athletics so I'm detailing them information about track and stuff that I know about the other sports so definitely trying to unify this aspect of athletes and our elementary schools you know and try to help encourage these aspects of athleticism even when they're young um so that was this last week and that's for our community pillar so one big event that we held all the way back in December seems like ages ago but in our Marauder Dome we hosted the NJ sportsmanship Summit to focus on our service pillar and we've noticed that after covid there's been an increase in red cards ejections and like just bad of sportsmanship overall and this was like a long-standing program before Co but then it stopped because everything was shut down so we missu and a couple of other teachers in our uh District worked to bring it back and we were the hosts for it this year so our raid members kind of just did like team building tasks and led other students throughout other schools their leaders that they were chosen they came here and we were like just breaking the ice making everyone smile laugh and then to end off the day we had a motivational speaker Mr Cornell Thomas who just told us about like the importance of mindset and positivity and how we could take that back to our individual sports so this occurred last Wednesday on March 20th we had our Rising freshman night and so um I believe Gabby was talking about it earlier where the eighth graders were coming up to the high school and there was different stands and so we had one for our um group raid and so we were talking to the rising freshman about our a atic program um I believe there's studies about like I think about like 50% of the people in our school does some sort of sport um so definitely spreading knowledge about the sta statistics we have about sports participation and definitely encouraging freshman to join and make sure that we're keeping up the numbers for our participation in sports um then one of our final projects so far that falls under the celebrate pillar of celebrating athletes um we have created several posters to hang up in our hallways as well to really highlight a couple athletes that had really exceptional years one of them is Natasha ran who's right here who has the school record in almost every sprinting event and then also up here we have Tyler Hinson who is a state championship a state champion in wrestling at 113 pounds so we really just want to honor and celebrate them so these posters will be going up in our hallway soon so we just just to wrap it up like we're just this group of students just Bridging the Gap between like coaches our school our community and we just want to promote like this sense of community in our school but also in our town and just show that like we're normal students too like we like we're just putting ourselves out there and we want to be included with everyone and just making our town a little bit better so does anyone have any questions for us sure board members do you have any questions that was Miss's Edition are we gonna you know have a race Nasha here no who am I speaking to who wants to race Natasha anyone I put my head down like this I I have a question so maybe it's a um on your list for next year but one have you considered a reach down right and pullup program to Mentor the middle school athletes oh I think that's a great idea I mean we're all seniors but uh we can definitely yeah we could pass the torch along to our underclassman and work with them I think that's also important as like building the transition between middle school and high school and just know that they're like they should be comfortable with us and we could be role models for them we lose so many right you already are you are yeah yeah and then I also have a question have you I know we celebrate the accomplishments but have you looked at how to lead from the bench or lead when you're injured or you know assisting your athletes that you know are injured and suffering through a season how do you you know help them this question um yeah so part of what we're trying to do is like we're promoting athleticism but also recovery um so part of our plan to help update the hallways was to help um update the hallway next to the school trainer um so definitely that's a aspect of it so just bringing more awareness because there's so many times people are like Natasha where's the school trainer and I'm like you don't know where it is so definitely just spreading more awareness of um the availability of being able to go to our school trainers um I know like within each of our programs we have different Awards um like there's the um the the unsunk hero award sorry um for track and you know a lot of times that does go out to somebody who's injured and who going above and beyond to like to show up to meets and practices even when they're not expected to um so I definitely think there's things in place right now within each sport but that's definitely something um that we're going to continue to work on I'll take my coach hat off now and I just want to chime in I had an opportunity you to you know have a great conversation with Miss sule about this wonderful organization is as she pointed out this is really their pilot year right so they are really trying to get their feet wet to get exposed so the community around not only at the high school but the elementary knows who they are and certainly these ideas they're just looking to expand and certainly continue that Outreach is really what that Cod is the focus here and I can't thank enough um these young adults you know I certainly had an opportunity to have conversations with each of them and really that you know as Miss sule pointed out they're not only athletes they're also students who Happ play sports and that's really what this organization all about to really identify our students who have a voice voice and have that voice heard beyond the high school so I can't thank you enough for your leadership I can't thank you enough for your community service and most of all thank you for looking out for the larger Community you have done tremendous work so thank you thank you so thank you very much for the opportunity to allow us to share with you some of the great things that the district is doing and um you know I'm certainly proud of the direction that the athletic program is going and thank you to Dr Bia for the opportunity to um establish some great parameters and um we've got a great group but to Mrs nar's questions you know th th those are important and um you know to your point you know there's a great book called the captain class and some of the greatest captains in the world have been the guys or the girls who have carried the water so leading From the Bench is super important everybody knows role and um so thank you for that comment thank you for a fantastic night I'm heading off to the uh boys wrestling banquet and I'm I am fairly confident that as soon as you put a pause on the track team's going to be out the door so and I guaranteed Natasha is probably going to be the first right great so thank you very much thank you so much thank you yes yeah yeah I think they can they're fine they're fine we'll never end up coming back all right we'll give them just a minute to clear out all right I think that's that's about everybody okay I don't think we have much but we will move on to committee reports do we have um Mr quino anything from Personnel no report and from Miss Fenton for uh CN no report and then from Miss fitgerald for finance and operations no report and from Miss Melendez anything from policy and governance no report okay do we have um any subcommittees or parent teacher associations leaon any reports I have sanure oh okay uh Sor readathon brought in about over $8,000 Spring Book Fair totals going to be about $99,500 uh the girls and boys dance is uh up up coming in April the fifth grade dance just celebrated um assemblies they had a theatrical performance based on a book for grades K through three and they have a BMX bike thing coming in April in the parking lot which should be pretty cool and the shsp will be giving one free book to every child in the school this week with their Scholastic bucks and they're also continuing efforts into a monthly newsletter as well as birthday gifts for all sanure staff which has been very well received that's it any questions from the no none do we have any other subcommittee or apparently is on I do oh there we go um I was at the planning board meeting Thursday March 14 and their basic uh discussion was habitat for humanity is going to start their building um so we were getting a few more houses it is only seven in total there's one four bedroom four three-bedroom and um two two bedroom so seven in total um but the most important thing is they are looking for volunteers um and it's a great way for students to come out get their hours in for whatever they would need their hours they also um said that they would love for them to either help build anybody 18 and older can build on their own under 18 if they have a parent with them they could come build and they can sign their hours they also need help in their stores so if someone doesn't want to come out and do the manual labor they can do a little bit of volunteering in their store so I'm going to leave you with the woman's name she would be happy to uh give our kids some hours for this wonderful project I'm sorry it was 16 or older need a parent 16 to 18 it can't be under 16 no sorry any questions from the board I will say the Habitat for Humanity program is actually really um more than just building a house the individuals um who actually end up living in those homes have to qualify for certain um you know income level but they are actually there side by side working on the houses in order to gain a house from habitat you do have to have a um a specific income but they actually have to go through the building and help building and they have to learn how to maintain if they want to purchase one of their homes so it's actually a really good learning experience and it it keeps our community um in in upward Direction thank you anyone else the reports the high school um in the high school I was in the meeting uh the parents meeting they mentioned that uh all of them are returning back next year for continuation uh of the work that they are doing so they volunteer for next year again and that's very nice because they have like a plan two years plan uh to continue next year uh they mention also like the student uh Gabby mentioned April April 18 they have the international Extravaganza and he going they're inviting the middle school also to join the high school and it's going to be uh 5: to 8:00 p.m. ER the parents already are working in the scholarship uh for the students they put together the committee uh working uh on the scholarship and also they are working in Grants uh for teachers uh see what else they mention June 14 as graduation date and June 7 for the senior picnic that's it anyone else any questions no all right seeing none we'll move on to board president report um for my report today I want to actually turn everyone's attention to we've been making um an effort here um Dr Bia and the board to make sure the community has information with actually regards to how the board operates the policies and procedures of the board um as well as interacting whether it be with the board members or where to go for questions um there was an email that went out to the entire District um this morning around 8 o' so one of the things I wanted to highlight is up on the website is an entire section called chain of communications so what does that mean it means if you have a question about your child where do you go if depending on what it um the questions with regards to if it's homework we're going to direct you back to your teacher if it's with regards to relationships with their peers emotional support we're going to direct them back out to either their teacher their school counselor if that doesn't you know work there's an entire chart that explains where do you go do you go then to you would go to the principal do you go to their counselor then at what point do you reach out to the superintendent because I will say if you're reaching out to us board members our job is to direct you back to the district so it should go back to Dr Bia who would then distribute the appropriate you know individuals the appropriate building um we want to just make sure that you guys have the tools as the public and as parents so that one there isn't a delay in getting the answers and your questions resolved but also transparency of what our role is as well as making sure that your students are taken care of so that if they need to be seen you know with regards to guidance whether it needs to be you know handled by the the principal it's being handled more timely not coming and getting delayed at all so I just want to you know make sure that we're highlighting all of the tools that we're you know providing for the district we have any questions from can you just um say again where that will be on the website so when you go on to the website it'll it says Board of Education it's a drop down under the board of education site so if you come um to where you find the board members information or the board meeting information at the very bottom there's an entire section about the board there's a section with um FAQ and we're housing it on that page um with reference to the chain of command or communication rather it's also under about there's a whole subsection that's called chain of communication and certainly you know thank you for that it's really about us making sure that families know who to go to that's really we are getting larger by the day here and with that volume comes with a lot of responsibility we want to make sure our families know who to go to and with that we'll move on to public comments on action items and on action items only and we gonna have Mr gerer actually assist with this uh motion he's gonna let us know about what the public policy is for some of our discussions sure just a reminder for the public and the audience that the board does operate under a board policy 167 called public participation in board meetings I just wanted to highlight a couple quick points on that uh the Board of Education recognizes the value of public in comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school matters of community interest in doing that there are a couple points one public participation shall be permitted at the discretion of the presiding officer in addition all statements shall be directed to the presiding officer no participant May address or question board members individually the presiding officer also is tasked with several obligations and they may interrupt warn or terminate a participant's statement when the statement is too lengthy personally directed abusive obscene or irrelevant so just want to remind the audience that we do have obligations in conducting a public meeting in addition uh the board president May request any individual to leave the meeting when that person does not observe reasonable decorum and they may request the assistance of law enforcement officers in the removal of a disorderly person when the person's conduct interferes with the orderly progress of the meeting now obviously the board hopes that that never has to occur but I do as board attorney just want to remind the audience that we do have some op ation and requirements that we have to proceed under thank you at this point we'll open it up to public comment on action items so any member of the public May comment on any action item prior to board discussion please state your name and address for the record and all comments must be respectfully presented Abus of them comments will not be tolerated the mic is open for anyone who would like to comment on action items action items only Martin Wells Miller West Avenue butd Lake New Jersey I saw we made a large contribution to the pension um this cycle I guess this month for over $2 million is our pension fully funded for Mount ol for all our employees or we underfunded this is a mandate for every school district in New Jersey this is not separate to Mount Olive no but the question is are we fully funded for all the our staff that've committed themselves to mount all all of our participants contribute to the pension system okay so that was the participants portion not the district's portion the district has to contribute every District in the state of New Jersey has to contribute to the pur pension system okay I understand that now some districts are not fully funded some are underfunded my question is where does Mount Olive stand with the pension system it's a state pension system it's it's the state pension system it's all the same everybody's calculation every school district's calculation is based on the same percentage rate that the that the state of New Jersey strikes I'm hoping that and it's B and it's based on our staff members in the pension system the calculation that they tell you to budget for is to take your second quarter of your IRA which is your uh quarterly contribution to the state of New Jersey which is the everybody's pension what they've contributed for that quarter and it gets submitted to the state then they they give you an estimated rate to base your excuse me your contribution for the subsequent year okay all right thank you now the other question I have I see that we're paying a reimbursing someone for legal fees um it was on page one two of the bill payment I don't recall anywhere seeing that voted upon or approved by the board to pay legal fees for ex-board members so I'd like to find out when that was approved by who and when was that made aware to the public and if that's happened to any other ex board members I i' like to find out if that can be someone could shoot me an email saying when was this authorized by who we will not be commenting on legal matters well no it's public record it says reimbursement on the invoices so it doesn't matter legal matters it's public record document now if it wasn't it would have been coted or classified differently on the bills so the question is when was it authorized by the full board to pay the legal fees all right cuz I attend 99% of all the meetings and I've never seen it mentioned that they're covering legal fees for board members we won't be commenting on legal I would like to get a copy then I will oppr request a copy of the bill and I'd like to find out when it was approved you're very much welcome to over all right thank you anyone else from the public who would like to comment on action items being none we'll move on to approval of the monthly expenditures do I have a motion from uh Miss feral yes uh I'd like to move the approval of action items 6.1 through 6.8 second and a roll call please Mrs Fitzgerald yes Mrs Melendez I have a question um regarding the tuition reimbursement the amounts that are there are fully funded and is part of the 75% which number she she's referring to the 75% is that under the cap what's paid out on this bills list tonight is fully funded of the contractual obligation for the board to the emo okay yes Mrs O'Neal yes Mr orillo yes Mr stachi whatever the name Jody Bosch appears I abstain yes and everything else Mrs Aquino yes Mrs Fenton yes Mrs fera yes Mrs naris yes and Personnel action items Mrs Aquino upon the recommendation of the superintendent I'd like to move action items 7.1 through 7.16 we have any uh questions no we'll take a roll call then please Mrs Aquino yes Mrs Fenton yes Mrs fera yes Mrs Fitzgerald yes Mrs Mendez yes Mrs O'Neal yes Mr orilla yes Mr stachi yes Mrs naris yes and curriculum in technology Mrs fent on the recommendation of the superintendent I'd like to moove curriculum technology action items 8.1 to 8.5 second I have any questions and then we'll take a roll call Mrs Fenton yes Mrs fera yes Mrs Fitzgerald yes Mrs Melendez yes Mrs O'Neal yes Mr orillo yes Mr stachi yes Mrs Aquino yes Mrs Nores yes and uh we'll move to the finance and operations Mrs f uh upon the recommendation of the superintendent I move for the approval of action items 9.1 through 9.2 second we have any questions on finance and operations no seeing none M Jones we take a roll call please Mrs Fitzgerald yes Mrs Melendez yes Mrs O'Neal yes Mr orillo yes Mr stachi yes Mrs Aquino yes Mrs Fenton yes Mrs fera yes Mrs NIS yes and we will move on to administrative action items um M Melendez open recommendation of the superintendent I present the motion to approve administrative action items 10.1 through 10.17 second any questions from the board see none take a roll call please Mrs Melendez yes Mrs O'Neal yes Mr orillo yes Mr stachi yes Mrs Aquino yes Mrs Fenton yes Mrs fera yes Mrs Fitzgerald yes Mrs noris yes and we'll move on to Old business do we have any old business from the board no do we have any new business from the board no with that we will move to public comments students parents employees and community members May comment on any item of is interest pertaining to the Mount Olive School District please state your name and address for the record all comments must be respectfully presented abusive or obscene comments will not be tolerated and the one other piece I wanted to remind everyone is please understand that while it's an open Forum the board is not structured for Q&A session therefore you can address your questions to the board all statements should be directed to the presiding officer but we may not have conversation back and forth and again we ask that all comments be made in a civil and respectful Manner and abusive and obscene language and comments will not be tolerated anyone who would like to come to the mic sorry just one question um Miss Fenton you talked about the house for Humanity um I was wondering if I can get more information on that to share with other students and report back to student council about that absolutely see me you going to be here afterwards yes all right I will give you the information thank you you're welcome thank you Gabby do we have any other members from the public good evening Madame President members of the board and councel my name is Gita Vogel I even brought my badge but I didn't wear it and I am the certified field representative from New Jersey principales and supervisors organization proudly representing and Advising moisa I live at 4 Jun grass way Panther Valley in Alami I just had to say Alami several years ago when I was principal of a high school I encountered on occasion staff members who weren't sure they were still meant to be in their positions any longer before I go on much of this is philosophical but there's a message in the content which you will hear they were mainly teachers but others in support positions felt the same way with their permission and awareness I set up mock interviews for their reigning positions and asked them to reapply I reassured them that this was simply to determine what if anything could be done in view of their tentativeness about their current function or change anything that could result in a more sustained positive outlook we were open and honest and accountable to each other the process proc though more detailed than what I am covering tonight went well all returned with renewed Vigor and support from myself at all times I believe that's what happened to you Mr stachi no matter the circumstances surrounding your brief departure from the Mount Olive board you reapplied to return did you want a position a question I asked members of my staff who participated in this renewal process you did in fact buy for your position successfully you rejoined and repg your oath with obvious Vigor intensity and and honesty given the man of stature that you represent nothing short of that would do you were missed sir however you are back where you belong together with a community who is grateful so too are the future Giants of Mount Olive we call them students and you saw representation tonight Mount Olive has a dynamic staff of leaders and Educators committed to Bringing about the best education possible this should be everyone's promise regardless of politics differences or affiliations to conclude perhaps perhaps if we as if we could look at all Boards of Education in a more convivial way such as teams differences will result in an Embrace of uniqueness seemingly a less defensive sounding word than differences thank you Mr stachi and thank you too to all the members who sit with you for welcoming back this extraordinary gentleman to an extraordinary District thank you thank [Applause] you good evening president naris and members of the board Dr Bania and members of the public welcome back Tony I was unable to attend the March 11th meeting as I was Comales so I first want to thank the Dr KS I know we all know you oh I'm sorry anine 13 Tall Oaks Lane completely forgot thank you so I want to I want to thank the uh the ladies who uh were kind enough to send me well wishes some soup and some wonderful sweet bread as I convalesced at home missing the meeting but I did see the video replay and it was brutal so I understand the reason for finally enforcing some rules so I I will try to follow those rules so that uh I don't get the wrap it up gabble but since I was not here on March 11th I would like to uh just reiterate I sent a a letter to Miss Jones I don't know if it was read into the record or if it was shared with the board but because I'm here now I just want to read this first and it just States dear m members of the Mount Olive Board of Education as the only named defendants in the lawsuit involving Dr Robert zwicki we believe we have the right to participate in any deliberations regarding this matter consequently please inform us of any closed session deliberations related to the lawsuit so that we can express our views on the topics to be discussed including any settlement offers which we strongly oppose and it's signed by myself the Robinson Dr jodano Chris AER and Anthony stachi I also want to share very briefly that it's I know it's it's difficult when you're facing the Public's vitriol especially when you're being lambasted for things that sometimes you don't even have control over but I didn't get to speak on your actions regarding the attorney which don't get me wrong it's your right to do as the board attorney I'm just concerned that it didn't seem to be done with any justification and without public comment before the board took its vote and I know that there's some some frustration from some board members about the process which is why Mr shalach did what he did so my message is for the board members who may feel exacerbated and exhausted by the current state of affairs to that I'm going to say to you Antoine Bill and Liz remember that Mantra remember a few short years ago when we had the courage to call out the wasteful spending on guest speakers over $2 million in learning platforms that weren't always all used mechanical hobby horses highend central office furniture and rumors about children receiving benefits that they weren't entitled to parking passes and fees being paid one year I voted no on using Bank cap in the budget so did Liz but on social media Antoine Bill and Liz were living on an island of delusion wrote One social media personality not realizing that bill actually voted for the budget but it they were so used to saying Anan Bill and Liz as long as we called out the shenanigans the acolytes were ready to pounce to chill our voice in in an attempt to make us fall in line in 2023 buddy Lake appeared came into existence and began sending information to our employers that did not deter me or Bill or Liz and I'm going to say don't let that Det you I encourage you to be the Antoine Bill and Liz of today continue to call out all of the misdeeds that you can without violating your oath of office but don't be afraid of an Ethics charge or being aligned on social media but continue to support True North leadership principles and finally to the residents who are listening at home and here in the audience what happened regarding that vote could not be a more eye-opening example of the importance of researching candidates and making a conscientious choice in who our Board of Education officials are and I hope that many of us won't forget what took place in just the first 36 days of this new board's tenure and you don't forget that when elections come up because as you saw tonight our children deserve better and so do we thank you do we have anyone else from the public who would like to come up and speak no is quiet tonight no okay seeing none we will move on to board and administration comments and we'll just start over here Mrs O'Neal no comments Mrs F darl I just want to say um a big thank you the past two weeks have been a lot of events in the district a lot of events we have the folks here have seen a lot of each other but also a huge thank you they're from science fairs to Rock of Ages to Awards to ceremonies just a huge thank you to all the entire Community all of the volunteers all of the organizations who are doing all of this on top of their day jobs um just it took every single one of those organizations I'm sure countless hours and so really appreciative of all of the time and effort that goes into every one of those events uh we retired just from attending those I can't imagine how tired all of you are just from actually putting them on so just uh really appreciative of all of that time and effort and Mrs Manda go well I Echo Miss f a lot of activities and thank you uh to all the students and all the staff but also to the community that support our students and go to those functions that they prepare with so much love and effort for all of you um thank you also to the community to attend the Strategic plan it was a well attended event and thank you so much because that's what we need we need your voices we need your ideas uh to put together a very good strategic plan for our Beloved School District um uh we also went to the unson heroes a couple of us I have the privilege uh to be with our student Jonathan Yu um at that event at CCM it was really nice and and we're so proud of all the students here had also another thing um a robotics competition has it was in Wen Hills this weekend I couldn't attent but I heard high of them both teams uh they made the alliances the the final alliances so that's really good uh they did the best uh science fair was huge um very nice um well attended the parents the projects the students it's unbelievable how much talent do we have in our district a Rock of Ages uh we tune we sing it was really nice and final but not least M jambori was fantastic please um support our girls flag football team they are amazing and the next home game so for all of you at home and here to attend is April 18 and will be as against uh Essex Tech so all of you are invited uh usually we do it we have it at the Dome orless they decided to to do in another place but yes say Mrs aquo uh two quick things I want to give a shout out and a big thank you to our two unsung heroes Jim Caprice and James reeney who our who are our district carpenters and for putting together that magnificent set um for the play this weekend it was outstanding um and we'll look forward to more beautiful things from them until uh Mr stachi decides to donate um the new digital curtain digital curtain um and also I just want to thank our uh board president and our superintendent for the placement of the podium thank you for doing that that's it you Mr Mrs f um I don't think I could say any more than uh the three you ladies did so I'm just going to say ditto and like we are amazing thank you and we'll Circle over here Mr uh same thing the Rock of Ages blew me away so that was awesome and I want to thank the community members who came out to the strategic planning thank you and Mr B I share a lot of the same sent sentiments that many have mentioned already but I wanted to thank and commend the student athletes who were here this evening um thank the community they came to strategic planning it was nice to see such a good turnout and hopefully everybody fills out their Google form to further that uh discussion um it's been a busy couple weeks with the science fair the anung heroes the Rock of Ages which you know if you have I'm sure you've heard how incredible that was and the uh Harlem Wizards game yesterday was a lot of fun a lot of family fun watching yes thank you um first of all I'd like to thank Mrs Vogal you're very very kind but just remind everybody I'm I'm one of nine up here and that's it second of all I'd like to thank Mr stanbury for coming back for the first time to the second watch the play for the second time that's how good the play was right play was it was awesome terrific the first time he's done that um I'd like to thank our superintendent uh she has really involved our community uh that's just a very big plus for us she he started the citizens advisory committee we had the the strategic planning uh event last week and I want to thank you for getting for all you're doing with the community because it's very vital for us to be involed with the community thank you you just to Echo the sentiments about strategic plan thank you for those who attended the kickoff meeting last Tuesday we had over 70 participants um our the gazon that we're working with TMI Madison group was very impressed with the feedback and the honest conversation and certainly um the next point of emphasis is our core planning team so for those who are interested in participating that in that we sent out a Google form last week um if you did not receive it or you like to pass on more information just simply go to our district website there'll be a popup window with all the information we request that you submit your interest by tomorrow because we are limited about to 25 to 30 people to be involved in that process but once again I'm echoing U Mr st's um point of emphasis this is really about building Community consensus on the goals that they foresee for the next five years so certainly the more people we involved the better the plan's going to be but certainly if you can't join our corg planning team we will be sending out surveys by the end of the week so thank you you and I'll close it out um I mean everybody said same thing it has been every year we go into spring it is busy there's so many activities just wrapped up our winter sports I'm so excited to hear that we have a boys volleyball team um rock of you know Rock of Ages always always this amazing job not not just from the singers and actors but like Mrs queena said the stage crew building the set the pit band the lighting the sound there's so much that goes into those Productions behind the scenes everybody is working hard they're a big family um please also the students like we heard please sign your students up for the reunification drill um we it's a very big planning undertaking and there's community members from across the state actually coming to watch and take notes science fair was amazing um I love to see you know all of our student athletes but to go beyond to recognize that they are so much more than just an athlete the things that they take away from being on their Court being on a field being on a track they are amazing human beings and the one other you know point is please sign up for the strategic planning um we want everyone's input we want a you know a diverse you know cut of the community coming forth helping actually plan the strategic planning from the the district it's not just you know oh you're going to do this and we're not going to take action it's actually the planning of what direction we want our school to go in the district the community has a major in input and voice that we want to hear um from that I have a motion to go into confidential close session so moved and we have a second we have a second yeah okay so be resolved that the board will meet in confidential session for the purpose of discussing um Personnel matters of attorney client privilege pending or anticipated litigation people people matters and I think that's all we have do I have a roll call on that Mrs aquo yes Mrs Fenton yes Mrs fera yes Mrs fitgerald yes Mrs Melendez yes Mrs O'Neal yes Mr orillo yes Mr stachi yes Mrs naris yes and we will go into confidential close session be a further resolve that matters discussed in confidential session be disclosed to the public when the reason for confidentiality no longer exist action may be taken e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e time oh my God I don't go to bed at 10 I go to bed at night and I will call the meeting back to order can we have a roll call please Mrs Aquino here Mrs Fenton here Mrs fera here Mrs Fitzgerald here here Mrs Melendez here Mrs O'Neal here Mr orillo here Mr stach here Mrs lares here and I'd like to read a resolution and then we'll take a vote on it um it will be resolution 10 uh action item 10.18 and it is to authorize the business administrator to proceed with the preparation of an RFP for specifications and advertisements for special education legal council can uh do we have an a motion so moved second second is there any discussion no we'll take a roll call Miss Jones Mrs Aquino yes Mrs Fenton yes Mrs fera yes Mrs Fitzgerald yes Mrs Melendez yes Mrs O'Neal yes Mr orillo yes Mr stachi yes Mrs yes did you I go back sorry um Mrs Jones um Mrs O'Neal would like to abstain yes thank you sorry can anyone else nope okay so the item passes and can I then have a um motion to close out this meeting and go home so moved second