e e e e e we be convening uh the minute of our meeting at the moment I would like to uh take a moment to speak about Miss Gail and sarelli it is with great sadness that we announced the passing of Miss sarelli former kindergarten teacher and mother of Nicole signorelli Secretary of Jefferson School y taught in Union for 37 years primarily at Washington school I had the pleasure of meeting her uh during that time as a kindergarten teacher she was the consumate kindergarten teacher warm fun and caring for the rest of her life Gail was continually loving remembered by by all of her former students she ran ran around into town in town Gail retired from teaching in 2014 to take on her favorite role as a grandma she loved her grandchildren immensely they were the true Joy of her life she happily spoiled them enthusiastically rooted for them and constantly bragged about them G was many things to many people Beyond wife mother grandmother and sister she will be well remembered as a beloved teacher a dedicated Girl Scout leader and CCD teacher enthusiastic softball coach local Avon lady and accomplished tutor trusted colleague and a loyal friend I pass the microphone over to Mr thank you m president uh I would also like to um share with you P you but another former teacher here Union uh this Karen L people uh she passed away last week funeral well funeral was yesterday she was a long time teacher school teacher I I believe she near 55 more years uh at Liv for school and called school she just with sheti to become a grandmother uh and she also loved her grandchildren her community was invol with the uh Church of Bool eating program so distributions she shed that that uh Community for years and her husband people former commun Comm and also um mayor of Union at one point actually he was the first last mayor of Union so families been involved Union and Bo off many many years c will Beed by church family and number two she was a uh what I remember an outstanding teacher and just a great human being so one M of thank you so I'd like to take this moment and just think about and honoring our women this uh National Women's thank you so much so next we have our Communications that are reflected on the Personnel agenda than thank you so much may we have a motion to approve the following minutes second second uh moved by Miss Kimberly Scott Hayden and seconded by Miss Mani uh roll call please miss cap M caranel yes Mr Coan yes Mrs con Macky yes Mr McDow yes Mrs V yes Mr NASA yes Mrs scoten yes Mrs Williams yes Miss Santana yes thank you so much next now we have our Communications that are reflected on the uh agenda for personnel we move on to comments from the public on resolutions and all other matters there we go okay thank you uh Jill Hall 509 white grow um couple of things and been waiting since last week and it actually came up again tonight um if the board could possibly consider when there are students being honored for any reason perhaps doing that honoring prior to Executive session it's a school night we have young kids and families waiting and I think it would be a you know kind of appreciative appreciated by the families to do that I wanted to thank um Mrs M for pointing out policy 5111 last week um about regarding whether teachers in the district would be permitted to bring their children to school here and I'm going to again voice my deep concerns that that not be readmitted policy uh for reason the minutes to speak I wanted to really thank Miss God Hayden for pointing out 0164 policy which um says that we can only speak before meeting last week we sat the away 50-minute budget presentation and then we're not permitted to speak about it and often uh resolutions are walked on to the agenda during the meeting and then if we're not allowed to speak after we can't address anything that might come up during the meeting so i' ask that the board um look at that um for the power of language I just wanted to point out last week we talked a little bit about parents that choose to send their children to different schools for high school and about um you know making the programs better so the kids will stay here um I do it says the same thing but it says it a different way let's make those programs better for the kids that are over to here uh they deserve that attention and then lastly I'm not a math person um but I'm looking at the budget Bernette has 951 students and three Vice principls kwami has 724 students and one vice principal and the high school has 2347 students and four Vice principls um um not a map person but that map isn't not Mak any sense to me and um I don't know what the solution to that is but I like maybe for some consideration we could use some help up here um our educational leaders have precious little time to lead educationally because there's so much discipline going on um and I don't have an easy answer and I wish I could squeeze the money tree because there's a lot of places I'd like to put the money and I don't know if that's the right place um but we have some a lot of things to talk about that are very difficult so I appreciate your time and I want to congratulate the kids that are here being honored especially our B and our soua who I've had the pleasure to know over these past four years they and their families are just extraordinary and I'm happy to see tonight recogn thank you David armino 1032 Woodland Avenue uh just some items that are coming up soon uh the Rotary Club of Union is holding a speech contest right here in the library for Union High School students on May 22nd and the top three finishers will be getting uh scholarships to secondary education uh at their eloquence on June 5th and uh they're substantial scholarships uh and the contest the essay cont the speech contest is magnificent if you've never been to it you're in for treated go uh and last week the Rotary Club honored two students from our elementary schools in the herb sing uh award uh to honor students who represent the qualities of a rotarian u and they received an award and a certificate and we're doing each school as the year goes on just in you didn't know the taste of Union is uh being held April 18th and the money that's raised is going to of graduate from Union High School and kuami and uh desperately a me the fup that's the friend Union Public Library just had a fundraiser and I'd like to thank the schools that sent their kids to get ice cream uh it was a rousing success of and all the funds from this fundraiser go for the summer reading program which is our kids and uh the township of Union Education Foundation is having a fundraiser at Habit Burger on April 17 and the money that they raise goes to our teachers um and the Chamber of Commerce is having a data on then second honoring individuals and businesses and Union who help support our students with the scholarship program that's uh if you checked out the scholarship that they give to our students pretty substantial and I guess that's it thank you so 340 will drive um I I had two things to talk about uh with regard to uh uh student special special need Student um I don't know what seems to be that disconnected uh but every time we go look at the Genesis uh like the most current I is not uploaded I was trying to like access mine for both of K it wasn't I email special services I know they um Cas manager uh she was she was like as a parent I'm not able to see it however the kid manager see it so I don't know if something could could be do about that um also I wanted to kind of like talk about um senior option for um the seniors I know I think it's going to be changed to senior dismiss um I know when they they met the requirement they can have that really like senior option um but I feel like this also about um budget and probably also about the school being overed uh some children really want to prob stay after that options they don't to the programs but there were there was not enough program for everyone so maybe it's something we proba want to look at for next SCH year not everyone even though the reement want to do [Music] the I think that's for now thank you you have a minute I'll wait for you thank you so much any comments from the public seeing none we will move on to the superintendent's report thank you madam president welcome everyone thank you uh there's a lot of exciting things tonight um i' love highlighting our students and our staff so uh thank you everyone for coming so this month um I chose uh not to recognize a single staff member but I wanted to just say thank you to all of our toil Union Public School staff members um as the students know March is a long month uh we get to the point where I think everyone's uh ready for spring break to get a a little bit of time to relax rest a little bit um and um you know our teachers take us there um they're with the students every day they're the ones that are are um reaching out lending that hand when uh there's something going on um so I just wanted to say publicly thank you to all our Educators all our staff members I know it's a long month I know this time of the year flies uh but but just really thank you because uh I really do believe our district is is one of the top districts in the state not everything might show it right now but we have some incredible staff members and Educators in this district and um and without them our students wouldn't learn so just thank you so I'm really excited about this uh um a couple months ago we uh put out to our community I I'm really a a strong belief in making sure your district is known uh in companies that's called branding I want to Brand our district so what better part of starting that is with the the students and we have creative students so um these are uh and there was over our Miss Watson could correct me I think over 700 people voting on it but we had over close to 100 I would say people submit that in itself is incredible that close to 100 students wanted to submit something to be the next bumper sticker so and and I'll tell you it was very challenging narrowing it down I had a student committee help me um and then we put it out for vote uh the the top ones so these are our top ones um I would like the students that are here to come on up we have and I apologize if I say it wrong uh Ian nen we have Ellie we have Luna and nobody knows who you Sophia and Anna anyone here tonight come on up I would like to say is here uh we invited everyone they'll they'll find out tomorrow uh thank thank you for coming um the other thing is I do have plans in the future uh because some of them as you see these were some of the top ones selected um there's some really great um creative uh bumper stickers that I would like to see on our cars on on anything around our district um on top of it I have to say uh the top five came from two teachers two gifted and talented teachers uh one is here tonight miss no and then um the other one s between kuami and Bernette um and I'm going blank I apologize Peter yeah Mr petus so congratulations to those two um obviously uh you know it it says a lot about five of the finalists being in in those classes and I have to say the the winner Miss um Watson will reveal it um but everyone I want to say everyone did an amazing job so Miss Watson like so the the winner is really everyone's a winner remember that to show you guys first show us so this is the uh the one that was voted with the top votes and it's Anna uh eom eus as the winner but Sophia thank you for coming we we are going to try to highlight all that points in time so I I really can't say enough about the top five you did a great job thank [Applause] you so next up I would like to call um uh there's a lot of people here miss Fisk Mr ier miss boser Mr rdy um any of the teachers or guidance counselors here for these students is uh uh our Valance s here tonight yeah all right so where are they s how do you say s and Abigail come on up Abigail I have to say look I'm like be presenting but it's not me it's it's I get the privilege of presenting but it's the Educators it's the administrators it's the students are the ones that get us here so I want everyone to come and join me Miss B's coming um I have to say I read a lot about YouTube and so many of the qualities many different teachers have we're saying the same kind of thing leadership Smiles what kind of per the person you are not just academics I mean we know and if you look at the gpas um uh 5 point this is the closest I think I've ever seen in the 2 years I've been here how close the valance Al one amazing like I can't believe to have 5.0 or above is amazing yeah but to be hundreds of a or thousands of a born off is amazing uh which shows a lot about who you are as a student and and you know obviously I know what you do academically but I really love reading about what type of people you are because I know in the end you're going to do brilliant things academically but what you're going to give back to society which is so important which I think is embedded in education community service and this and and and uh I can't again I can't share enough I put some things up there uh and it radiant genuine smiling uh eager to learn uh will come uh and do amazing things continueing a journey exceptional intelligence uh unwavering work ethic um absolute uh model of an outstanding student um I think everybody and there was kindergarten teachers and prek people that are in our district that put comments so you impacted people throughout your time with us and people remember that so you T just like it's nice when student leaves knowing their life was touched by a teacher and made a difference I think you guys do it without knowing to a lot of our Educators so um I would just like Miss bosard High School principal if you want to say a couple words about them it tricked me I didn't know I had to do this it's okay um we are all extremely proud of both of you um it is an incredible feat that you've accomplished you are doing everything that we want all the students to do which is focus on their education which is why they're at school to begin with so we are all very proud of you for everything that you've done and we look forward to honoring you both at graduation and I think um you're going to have to speak as well at graduation Abigail so so you're both going to have to say something at graduation this year and like I said we're all extremely extremely proud of all that you've done and all your accomplishments so I met with both of the students the other day and I asked them what drove them academically and I think the biggest standout here is that they both said every day they just want to do their best it wasn't to be the best it wasn't to be the top it wasn't with this goal in mind it was just every single day wanting to do their very best and pushing themselves further and how amazing what an accomplishment um and they're both waiting uh they shared that they're waiting for the ivys to come in and for some scholarships to come in and before they make their decision and what an awesome thing to be waiting for so we're very proud of both of them congratulations at this time I would like the families to come up administrator stay um Madam president vice president please come and join us and we'll just take a photo together can you get all of us congratulations again so I would just like to share it'll uh go out tomorrow but the students did another amazing job uh with the student farmer Frontline what's up with tubs uh there's a lot of great articles in there please um you know take a take a moment and read what the students are writing about uh I would just like to say again highlighting a little bit that goes on in our district I call it a small glimpse um Franklin Elementary School doing some amazing things uh they call it Franklin's beyond the bell after school program and you can see the best part about the the pictures as you really kind of see what's going on and you could really tell but engagement I love that one on the right seeing that how exciting uh the children are um and it's more of that uh here that Active Learning uh there was a Elementary stem fair recently um you know where at the high school um where the elementary stem fair um it showcased the young Talent innovation of our school district as our students proudly displayed an impressive array of projects spaning from uh Steam team disciplines uh demonstrating their creativity and problem solving skills to an Enthusiast enthusiastic audience of their peers parents and Educators and there is a link if you uh when Miss Capell puts up the uh superintendent report you could click on it and see some some great things switching over to another small glimpse uh student highlights um we had some amazing finishes to our winter sports uh this is just some but I would like to highlight uh some of our student athletes and again Mr Zer um come on up Administration as well um and Mr D bolognia is uh mura here all right so I I'll still share she couldn't be with us tonight she's a junior member of the Union High School track team uh this season she competed in the 55 meter the 400 meter the 4x400 mola won the North Jersey Section 2 group four sectional championship in the 55 meter with a personal record of 7.34 seconds and then the second place in the 400 meter with a personal record of 59. 37 seconds that's amazing so congratulations um I would like uh Gabe to come up Gabe harrove one of our outstanding wrestlers uh I have the pleasure of seeing Gabe this year and wrestle um you know it's one thing we host a lot of wrestling events and it's awesome because people are coming here and and this year Mr D Balia uh you should be coming up to as the head coach um it it is not easy um we were at a point and I had conversations with Mr D Balia where the wrestling program was down to like maybe 20 kids what was you remember the lowest number 2030 for a whole program um it is not easy to bring back a a wrestling program uh but Mr D Balia I know did some amazing things to keep K encouraging kids to come out um you know grabbing anyone he can to help our our our team our school district um your assistant too right come on up Bob um so uh so I want to highlight that it's not an easy sport a lot of students today are free to I think go on a map by themselves um but I I have to say we had an impressive male and female showing this year at the end of the season to make it to the states in itself is amazing nobody really realizes it but it's a huge accomplishment to get down to the top 32 in Atlantic City so uh Gabe harrove he wrestled 126 right uh junior uh so he'll be back next year which is awesome uh finished his season with a 36 and seven record he finished third place in the region for qualified for the state wrestling championship in Atlantic City he finished in the top 32 of 325 126 Pounders in the state he was also Al the champion of the do Holiday Tournament and Gary Vero tournament in par Hills so congratulations Mr D you want to say a couple words about Gabe as a person wrestler gab did Gabe did an excellent job this year um as Dr benaquista alluded to uh we had a good group this year uh they all supported each other um we have a lot of kids returning next year and we hope to to just build off of that and Gabe will be the the center of that certainly thank you Mr J come on over M dad come over for a picture Adam president vice president see you tomorrow do your homework I got it Gabe congratulations again next up I would like to call Christine Pierre Lise as as some people may know um girls wrestling is really exploding we are very lucky to have many uh good wrestlers we're highlighting two tonight that um had incredible Seasons uh Christine it was a senior wrestler uh she finished her season 17 and8 she won the Union County championship at 185 PBS and placed third in the North Region 2 she qualified for the New Jersey state wrestling championship in Atlantic City and finished in the top 16 female wrestlers in the state at her weight class congratulations Christine you want to say anything and many don't might not know but do know you also oversee the the girl girls hopefully one day we'll have more girls wrestling at Union High School there are a lot of communities that have a very large number of of girls that are participating wrestling but the two young ladies actually three and I want to point out that nilas uh was also uh part of our girls program uh this year and we all practiced in the same room uh but maybe one day we'll have a lot of girls and we'll have to think about logistical at that point uh Christine second year with us and did a great job and she's a a good student good [Applause] leader Mom and Dad here come on up anyone here no all right thank I for the record I no but now you can't see Dixie heing congratulations again Christine and then uh I would like to call up Lisa Alisa Lisa sorry so and and then uh I didn't mention them earlier but um the person that oversees all our Athletics as well as some other things RTC nursing all the phet and Health Mr Cesar has uh done a tremendous job transitioning from our our it's our second year and um already could say he has Champions under him uh it's not an easy thing as an athletic director some go their whole career with none of this um so I know Mr zesar as a a teacher as a coach and I love seeing him as our athletic director empowering coaches and kids to to just do great things so thank you [Applause] Mr um Alisa uh was another wrestler um she uh is a senior this year uh 27 in one wow that's amazing she was the Union County champion and was the north 2 Regional champion at 215 PBS Al Lisa qualified for the New Jersey state wrestling championship in Atlantic City and finished in second place in the state of New Jersey Alisa plays first in the Bluefield girls tournament uh the Elizabeth lady Minutemen tournament and the Bergen County girls Invitational Tournament Alisa was the unique County girls wrestler of the Year voted by new jersey.com congratulations every I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the time that coach Mone Bobby put in with these young ladies and Coach CIO who couldn't be here tonight he's a young father with a an infant at home and really didn't get a lot of time to be with that baby cuz he also coaches fresh football so it's a little bit of a a needed break for him uh but Bob and Nick put in a lot of time with with the girls going most of the girls tournaments were on Sundays um so Alisa was around those two coaches quite a bit uh and Alisa did an excellent job not you have to understand she played sixth in the state last year that's a state medal and this year this the njsia brought all the girls to Atlantic City if you qualified in your region and rightly so so the girls tournament ran simultaneous with the boys tournament and Alisa made us proud and went all the way to the finals I know it wasn't the uh ending she wanted uh she had fac that girl earlier in the year and beat that young lady but wrestling is a unique sport it's not always easy to get your hand raised uh so she represented Juden very well 27 in1 record uh outstanding contribution to our and and want to family want to come Madam president vice president congratulations again and uh Mr Cesar just uh finish us off in this segment on something about Mr D Balia as a coach voted by his coaches yeah this season uh coach D Balia was voted by the nj.com as the Union County wrestling coach of the year and and also March manness the other day uh the Union Township teachers and faculty beat DPW the police and the fire I just wanted to say sorry GRE we're not that sorry and that's the second year in a row I think right Mr um so next real quick um I mentioned it uh before about the Community Partnerships it it we're we are doing more today working together as a community than all the years i' I've been here that I know about but I just want to let you know that thanks to the community and and the township allowing their staff members to support us to get send out a lot of positive messages uh we're starting uh well not starting but we're we're doing some great things with around the youu highlighting and I just want to say there was there was something that's going to he in 34 soon but always highlighting student staff and programs so that thank you to the township and and everyone working together um you know south from tv34 is the one that really is given a lot of his his additional time and then I did mention um the township the Chamber of Commerce in our in my in our district working together to create this job board it is online you could go under the CH Chambers uh uh website there's a link there that'll be put up but allowing access now for our students to see jobs in our community posted uh jobs and internships paid and unpaid and as more businesses put up more so you got to go back and check regularly it allows another whole Avenue for our students to to now be in the community and learn so this is a great thing um colleges today are looking for a lot of that other stuff be besides the the test scores and the grades of if you're looking to Appliance to say an accounting School and you have experience volunteering or paid or unpaid on the internships I do think once you show yourself as maybe starting off unpaid and you're a valuable asset to that company they might shift it you know because they don't want to lose you to be a paid person so it could turn into a summer job but um some are posting already salary jobs please check it out it's a great thing for our students and it could gain experience to to know if you want to enter that field um this month and again that link under women's History Month there was so many things posted I highlighted some of the things that throughout our district that were were happening um but all focused around women um and it it was projects teachers were having them complete projects of influential women uh students were researching and presenting projects um you know booklets for presentation um following a history lesson the students were creating artwork um by Elma thomon Thomas teachers will will share different quotes of the day from amazing women artists poets athletes Visionaries uh and the students will learn uh how they impacted uh these women how how they impacted history so um there was other lessons on on social change uh and female africanamerican artist Elma woodsy Thomas uh students were created self-portraits in the style of her work so just there was there's several pages of all the stuff great things our educators are doing in the buildings uh and each month they're they're making sure they're including lessons of of what's being highlighted um that month as I have to do harassment intimidation bullying we're affirming from the 13th to the 20th we had seven founded none unfounded and one in inclusive uh these are the locations where those cases were and then we have to report from the 27th to the 19th there was 11 founded one unfounded seven inconclusive and again these they're the locations of of those cases something some stuff to look forward to um we we did get the vote in on teacher of the year I'm going to add it to the a April board meeting we'll be highlighting those teachers I want to just mention because it's now you see it in the news a little bit April 8th uh the solar eclipse um the reason I want to mention is Mr zesar is going to help me overseeing nursing but when we leave it's uh I think it's around 12:30 to 3: uh we're not in direct line of a full eclipse but just to remind people it's never safe to look at the sun without proper eyewear um we did reach out to our school doctor to just make sure we're looking at everything and we want to just send out something so just make sure every child because they might be interested and they might look up and then it could end up what what they say is it possibly could impact your retina so we're going to put something out but there was questions about closing early or canceling school I don't think we're going to be doing that I think it's important for the kids to be in school learning uh but but we could be smart about impact tutoring update we want to give you that as well as an EIP update on on solar coming up so uh next up we did do a present presentation of our budget uh last week because we had to meet a deadline but miss Coon's going to give a a a more brief update um again so the community uh knows about our our budget okay good evening good evening um like Dr B said you got it the clicker ready on the spot um uh last week we had a deadline of uh March 20th um to turn in the budget into the county uh this is the proposed and preliminary so there's still um a couple of weeks that uh we have uh just in case there are some changes uh that um we are deciding to make okay so ultimately our proposed budget for All funds all funds um being from 10 uh 20 30 40 are 183,000 uh 681 um for all uh funds that is an increase of roughly uh 12.8 million equivalent to as you can see 7.5 uh% increase okay um the budget process pretty much starts with the enrollment um during the October 15th deadline and that is what uh the state uses for the U funding formula uh in December and January time frame uh we send out a packet to all uh stakeholders departments and principles for them to fill out their projected enrollment um and their budget of what they uh anticipate in programs that they plan to have in the following year uh most of our uh cost drivers are the big ticket items as we see here um the increase in Insurance um our contractual obligations from all of our uh collective bargaining units we have a new one that's added now which is utta which is transportation unit um our outside contractor Services uh transport ation and our challenges uh continue with the related services and how we uh expect to think outside the boot to help um reduce uh some of our costs this was just a snapshot of some um statistical information we have as you can see 1 191 contracted Services I mean contracted employees 183.2 million for all funds 7,694 students enrolled at that particular time uh 465 students enrolled in our prek Aid um program uh with five providers and we're continuing to expand um 2290 uh students in need of daily Transportation um that includes Aiden Lou uh outside contractors as well as the district uh approximately 5,096 bills serve the day between breakfast and lunch and 12 buildings um so next we are showing you by school for a particular snapshot time and place and October uh of the enrollment per school and as we can see um the increase over the last four years and here's a tutorial picture showing um our schools and how they are increasing next we have our Charter Schools Charter Schools took a dip um at least for the beginning of uh will be for the beginning of fiscal uh 25 uh you can see 62 dropped to 51 we expect it to go back up by December right here we have this slide basically indicates our Revenue sources for General operating and that's 169 million 9296 and as you can see reason that pie chart did not come through not sure why the par did not come through but our main Revenue sources are our local and miscellaneous fund balance you have your extraordinary Aid you have your semi and your state um Aid and their percentages the bulk of our percentages is the local and miscellaneous of 63% state aid is 34% and uh fun balance is 2.4 extraordinary Aid is 1% here it is in number of sources as as far as state aid um this year we received over close to 26% increase the largest I believe this District ever seen of 11. um8 million increase and you can see by uh category the increases in state not sure why the paragraphs are not showing but they are um uploaded the district website as well as board members also have um access to it this is the appropriation side of the coin um as you can see balance at 169 million and we break those categories into various different uh uh percentages so you have the salaries employee benefits Professional Services facilities uh supplies equipment as such here them by category and you can see the percentage increase um with a total of roughly 7.49% overall for J carry that balance over we also have our prek from 20 of 88 uh we're going to have like I said 465 um students in that program and then you have all other entitlements and grants of4 million and our debt service that we paid from the EIP programs and prior bonds for a total of again 183.2 um roughly uh 7.5% increase over last year's budget next we have our TX Levy you can see the first line um that's a roughly um we took advantage of waivers and adjustments that we are allowed to uh without going out to taxpayers for a vote um so that uh equates to roughly 106 million um and then we have our Debt Service uh from when we refunded some of our bonds for payments for a net of 4.23% and I believe that's it the district will continue to look for cost saing measures um we definitely need to try to um uh think outside the box to increase Revenue uh so that we can continue to build and uh contribute to our reserves so that said unless they have any questions um this is also upload on the district website and you can definitely ask any questions or come to the office if uh there's none are you asking if the public has questions do you want to go Ard I I actually had a question about one of your comments did you guys rig my microphone not to work cuz I I know how to talk loud now so you made a comment I just wanted to make sure that I understood it correctly so the amount of Aid that we received that's the largest amount that we've ever received you said yeah the largest increase in 20 we normally only get like two or three um million dollars this is 11 million 25% High I mean we still have a lot to go because there's still our costs are just Rising um but yes it is the largest in one Lum Sun okay I just wanted to make sure and we thank all the biggest percent increases in Union County yeah so you know it's very you know having that collaborative everyone working to improve our district I think I think it does make a difference yes um and we got to keep going right and I do think it this is this is a very special time and place when you have the community the board and administration all line together I think it's paramont and I think there's a lot of things that we should be able to do all together really do thank you any other questions on the board oh yes yes go ahead I'm a rule breaker yes um I would like to ask because I'm very impressed by the wrestling program and presentation that the focus should be less on professional service contracts so that the students can have the greater advantage of having better programs academic and sports programs thank you thank you thank you for your com and now if I can ask Nissa to come out and and Nissa was one of our great wrestlers like uh Mr D galon said she does a lot she's in r2c on the West Point um and has been part of this process Heria um helping our board as Bly aison um so she's always busy I can tell you that um good afternoon everyone today we're going to be looking at a glimpse of the winter sports there were 280 student athletes this year here the boys basketball team won seven games and had 15 losses the girls basketball team had seven wi seven wins and 17 losses bowling three wins 12 losses wrestling 18 wins nine losses swimming five wins 12 losses and in FAL honors Michaela may qualified for the girls individual state tournament M Cara Pon Won 55 meter sectional championship and finished 12 in the 400 meter Academy of Champions Alyssa Alor finished second the state in the world in the girls wrestling and was nj.com un County female wrestler of the Year coach deep coach the bolognia nj.com Union wrestler County wrestling Coach of the Year Christine Pierre Lewis won the girls Union County wrestling tournament Alisa Alor won the girls Union County wrestling tournament for the spring Sports this year there are 390 athletes in at un high school and 185 at the middle school and this year we also have a new girls flag football team thank you thank you and and I love that she mentioned how many athletes are involved because I I do believe in extracurricular Sports the more you're involved the better you're going to be focused and and do better in your classes so that's great so I just want to say thank you uh Madame President this is going to conclude my report have a a happy well-deserved healthy Spring Break um and remember it's starting uh this Friday and we get back on April 8th I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again and I just want to say thank you to Miss Watson to help me get a lot of this stuff that I present prepared it it is a team here collaborative without everyone helping each other we wouldn't get to where we need to get so Madame President thank you that concludes my report next we will have the education student discipline committee chair Mr Cohan to present the res resolutions to be voted on tonight thank you madam president before I present the resolutions for adoption I'd like to U call The public's attention board and the Public's attention to the fact that resolution E1 which affirmed the superintendent and chairman of HIV for February 13th to 24th and resolution e1a which affirmed the superintendent's Hib from February 21 to March 19th were both adopted last week at our work session additionally resolutions e14 which affirmed Hib Jefferson number four resolution E15 which rejected the findings of uh Union High School HIV number 33 and E6 which is the reinstatement of student ID 26811 9 were all also adopted last week at the work session uh so now based on the Su the recommendation of the superintendent of schools the education student discipline committee presents the following resolutions for the board's consideration E11 to affirm the superintendent's determin ter determination of HIV for the period of February 21 through March 24th resolution e11a to uh affirm the superintendent adopt I'm sorry this is a a a resolution for reporting purposes only uh does not require a vote resolution E2 is to approve the donation of books for the various schools listed on the agenda resolution E3 is to approve the participation in the New Jersey school climate Improvement platform survey for the 2425 School Year resolution E4 is to approve Title One Summer Program locations in accordance with the the locations listed on the agenda resolution E5 is to approve the submission of the esa and annual School plan Amendment resolution E6 to is to approve the New Jersey Department of Education identification identification of schools in need of comprehensive or targeted support for the 2324 School Year resolution E7 is to approve the change in status for the 2425 school year this is actually a very happy resolution uh because Jefferson School and Franklin Elementary School have each met the criteria to be eligible to exit comprehensive support Improvement for the next school Year resolution E8 is to approve the submission of Title 1 SI sustainability plan resolution E9 is to approve the submission of the teacher climate and culture Innovation Grant resolution E10 is to approve the AC acceptance of funds for mental health screening in school [Music] program resolution E11 is to approve Frasier's mathematics Solutions hybrid assembly resolution E12 is to approve the acceptance of funds for school-based mental health Grant year 2 resolution e13 is to approve the girls on the run program for Franklin Elementary School and resolution E17 is to improve approve employee 12412 to administer the access test in the home the residence of student 26679 second may I have a motion um um for the agenda items that's mran and second um any discussion yes Madam president I'm just very excited to see that um we're devoting some TLC to mathematics um this is in reference to E11 um I know that um throughout the state most students are struggling with mathematics um and Co certainly did not assist students in staying in the trajectory so I'm glad that we are partnering with um frous mathematics to make that happen also um I was very excited to I really had to look it up e13 girls on the run I was curious if the girls were going to be running Mr Dr vanista but um I see that it's a very nice program for young ladies to develop their communication collaboration and Leadership skills so kudos to those that are running this program at Franklin any other discussion yes yes um I was very also uh also very happy to see uh the change in status for uh the Frank uh Franklin Elementary School and Jefferson Elementary School um uh to meet the criteria to be eligible to exit ex the comprehensive uh support that had been going on there for years so they are making progress I'm very happy about that uh it's it's a it's a bright uh moment for the district I think when when we are elevating uh our schools this way so and uh I think that Mrs deato and um Mrs Dr basille are doing great jobs they and along more so with their teachers I think they're inspiring the teachers uh uh they're all working very hard because they they know uh I guess where they were and uh I'm sure they're happy to be moving forward making some progress um many years ago yes U miss carbonel Mr Cohan yes Mrs K Macky yes Mr McDowell yes yes Mrs Mani yes Mr nasta yes Mrs Scott heeden yes Mrs Williams yes Miss antenna yes thank you next we will have fiscal and planning committee chair Miss carbonel to present the resolutions to be voted um before I do that I do want to thank Dr benaquista and Miss for um working to make sure that we are fiscally responsible I know it's a delicate balance between the things that we want to do in the district but also keeping in mind um that we also serve the community so thank you both and I think we're you know um taking the right steps to make certain things happen not only in the district but also for our community um and in addition to that I just want to give a a shout out to all the students that were here tonight that excites me so much to see students um exercise ing leadership and um being role models for other students um and very very impressive with two young ladies with a was it a five point something so kudos to Abigail and S SN I want to make sure I said it correctly um congratulations every student if you're listening can do this um no one in in the world has special abilities what we have is passion and drive um to follow what we care about so everyone has the opportunity to make something happen um now to the fiscal side of things um Madame President um F7 was approved at the last meeting as well as F12 through F18 and F9 19 is for informational purposes only therefore I'm going to read the other resolutions for tonight um upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools the fiscal and planning committee presents a following resolution to the for the board's consideration F1 treasurer's report F2 secretary's report F3 certified treasurers and secretary's report F4 approve appropriation of transfers F5 approv list of contracts and purchase orders F6 approve districtwide travel and related expenses f7a approv district-wise student field trips f8 approve list of 2023 24 State contract approv vendors f9a approve list of contracts and purchases from the Student Activity um accounts um f9b approve fundraisers F f9c accept donations F10 approved 2023 24 out of District student placement list and f11 approved Center approved Center for developmental psychiatric evaluations and last but not least F20 approv Early Childhood preschool budget for the 2024 2 school year second any discussion um I do have a question at nf20 is that 8 m um fully Grant funded yes yes okay I thought I saw that but I wanted to double check the font was very small Miss thank you any other discussion wonderful the motion has been properly moved by Miss carbonel and seconded by Miss Marilyn Williams can I have a roll call please miss Capo Miss carbonel yes Mr Cohan yes Mrs con Mackey yes Mr McDow yes Mrs Mani yes Mr nasta yes Mrs Scott heeden yes Mrs Williams yes Miss Santana yes thank you so much Miss Capo so upon recommendation of the superintendent of schools the legal committee presents the following resolutions for the board's consideration we have L1 approved settlement agreement and we have L2 that is a walk-on from um our executive session um I making the motion is there a second second any discussion the motion has been properly moved by Miss Santana and seconded by Miss uh Mani can I have a roll call please miss capol yes Miss carbonel yes Mr Cohan yes Mrs con Mackey yes Mr McDowell yes Mrs Mani yes Mr nasta yes Mrs Scott heeden yes Mrs Williams abstain Miss Santana yes next we will have the operation Mrs Scott ha the operations chair Miss Scott Hayden to present the resolutions to be voted on tonight good evening upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools the operation committee presents the following resolution for the board's consideration 01 approve security drill bus evacuation reports 02 approve acceptance of funds emerging and capital maintenance need sprs 03 approv request from Brandon Thompson for UHS and 04 approv renewal of membership for njsig second thank you any discussion I would just like to add that I'm very proud of 03 um our Union High School graduate coming back and just uh um gracing our halls with all the talent that He has and I hope that all these students come back and well I I actually want them to say stay in the town selfishly but if they don't to just come back and show where their Foundation was um excited to see the video and excited to see everything that he brings to the table um soent Madam president before you call for the vote I'd like to uh point out that I am conflicted on resolution 04 so I will recuse myself thank you any other discussion I just want to echo on all three those lyrics were beautiful so I'm so happy to have him come back and do that video here and we'll share the final product yes excellent excellent so any more discussion this motion has been properly moved by Kimber Miss Kimberly Scott Hayden and seconded by Miss Mani yes thank you can I have a roll call please miss capol yes Miss carbonel yes Mr Cohan yes on res on resolutions 01 02 and 03 and abstain on 04 Mrs K Mackey yes Mr McDowell yes Mrs Mani yes Mr nasta yes Mrs Scott heeden yes Mrs Williams yes Miss Santana yes next we will have the Personnel committee chair Mrs Mani to present the following resolutions okay I just like to um to point out that we've added um P5 and P6 to our agenda so um with that I'm the uh resolutions upon recommendation of the superintendent of schools the Personnel committee presents the following resolution for the board's consideration p1a Personnel actions new hires p1b personel actions extra pay p1c personel actions transfers uh P2 um approve the substitute list p3a accept letters of resignation and retirement p3b approve leaves P4 approve professional development discovering the power of the creative curriculum Cloud we added P5 to approve termination of employee 12917 and employee 12471 and P6 to approve um withholding of an increment for employee 13199 is there a second any discussion seeing none this motion has properly been moved by Miss mani and seconded by Miss Kimberly Scott Hayden can I have a roll call please Mrs capol Miss carbonel yes Mr Coan yes Mrs K macki yes Mr McDowell yes Mrs Beni yes Mr nasta yes Mrs Scott heden yes Mrs Williams yes to everything abstain from P5 P6 yes to everything else Miss Santana yes thank you so much so there's no policy to vote on tonight uh for the policy committee these policies will uh go back to the policy committee for further review is there anything you'd like to say uh Miss Marilyn Williams no other than I'll have to be following up with thank you so much Miss Marilyn William so moving along Mrs Mani will have the following residency uh resolutions okay so again um through executive session we added R2 um to uh our um agenda so upon recommendation of the superintendent schools The Residency committee presents the following resolution for the board's consideration R1 report of students voluntar voluntarily transferred to District uh out of District residents um this is no vote required on this and R2 remove student uh number 35188 for discussion in our executive session second thank you uh any discussion the motion has been properly moved by Miss mani and seconded by Kimberly Scott Hayden can I have a roll call please Mrs Capo M caranel yes Mr Cohan yes Mrs K macki yes Mr McDowell yes Mrs Mani yes Mr nasta yes Mrs Scott heeden yes Mrs Williams abstain Miss Santana yes for the technology committee this month there are there are not any uh technology resolutions to present uh Mr MCD would you like to say something reference to the um technology committee yes just few things uh uh we met the other week and uh just a couple of things that that's going on in technology uh two weeks I guess two weeks AG they had the the uh State Testing and that's all uh uh using the instruction technology everything is done online uh and I think I'm sorry to see Mr armenio go because he was uh one of the people responsible for getting the oneone the one 121 uh computers from our children here uh in the district so uh uh we are kind of I guess moved into the 21st century uh and what else um we also investigating uh vaccine over the internet provider and that a training is going on in the district now for the business office Personnel uh the Via telephone systems uh have been installed in the classrooms prek through four schools and uh they're working on configuring to call out of the district but presently they can call 911 they can call the Main office uh classroom to classroom and any other offices within the district uh the network audit is take uh took place on uh March thir I'm sorry March 13th and March 14th and I believe that Mr Paul will uh share report on that at our next committee meeting and the last last thing is uh the application for eate funding to renew District internet access uh and and uh uh why the area network at access for Jefferson School and that's going to be that's that has been submitted for bidding and again that's through the eate any discussion thank you so much Mr McDow you are welcome may I have a motion to approve the bills so moved is there a second second any discussion the motion has been properly moved by Miss mani and seconded by Miss LC KY macki can I have a roll call please Mrs Capo M caranel yes Mr Cohan yes on everything except check number 37396 on which I abstain Mrs con Macky yes Mr McDowell yes Mrs Mani yes Mr nasta yes Mrs Scott Heen yes Mrs Williams yes Miss Santana yes thank you Mrs capol is there any unfinished business moving on to new business yeah I'm sorry yes no new business yes okay so I just wanted to say since we are in women's history month and this is our last board meeting for the month of March I had the privilege today to be on a small panel in Kenworth School District speaking to young women of various shades of beautiful colors um and I would be remissed if I didn't make sure that I uplifted our young women in our community and us as women as a whole so I would just like to say to every young lady young woman and women here in this space those who are watching on uh Facebook live or whatever stream method of streaming you're watching um I just wanted to leave you with one quote that I spoke to today and it was called I choose I choose to live by choice not by chance to be motivated and not manipulated to be useful and not use to make changes and not excuses to Excel and not to compete I choose self-esteem not self-pity I choose to listen to my inner voice and not the random opinion of others I choose to be me so I hope that inspired some of our young ladies who Walk The Halls of our very school buildings who may need a word of encouragement I want you to know that we as board members we see you we uplift you we encourage you and we most of all hope to inspire you thank you any other new yes Madam president um so I wanted to just bring some information to light I sit on the Union County Service Commission um and at our last meeting um you know we adopted a budget and one of the things that I learned from that Transportation everyone knows that that is my um biggest one of my biggest um things that I do Champion for an advocate for is the safety of our children with disabilities and transportation um and what I learned at that meeting was that all of our kids um All Buses Transportation are mandated to have cameras on board and I don't think that a lot of parents know about that um especially those of us that have children that are nonverbal and cannot tell us anything brings a great um comfort they can't hear you at home oh let me moved the mic up sorry thank you my apologies um so just to run back um sitting on this County Commission board um one I did learn the astronomical amounts of fund fing that goes into Transportation um so it's definitely something for us to really look into but more so parents with kids with disabilities like myself whose children cannot tell us what's going on on the bus and cannot really give us details if anything is actually happening and safety is kind of the biggest concern Dr benacquista and Madam president Madam vice president um bottom line is we send our children out on a wing in a prayer and hope that they're being safe um one of the things in the discussion that opened up all districts talking about is what do we do internally within our community with our districts to ensure that we're following the Mandate are these buses equipped do we know is there something in place and can we better educate our parents to at least know that this is available because having that gives some peace of mind knowing that there's something to protect the kids who cannot defend themselves and or tell us um so I Circle back to the both of you um just to G some insight on that and really make sure that our community of kids our special kids um and family members and caregivers are educated and at least aware that this exists thank you thank you madam president yes Mr Armenia was here this evening he mentioned a lot of things that are going on in town so I just wanted to mention that there's a fundraiser for the um Memorial Day Parade committee it's on April 21st it's called the Dueling Pianos um it's going to be held at the senior center it's in the afternoon 3: to 6 um and it's to raise money to for the veterans Alliance for the U Memorial Day Parade so if um anyone is interested they can reach out to um uh Mrs tza over at the senior center if they're interested in tickets Madam president yes Mr Coan so I have two items the first is that in recognition of women's History Month I'd like to uh make certain the public knows that our president is going to be on a panel tomorrow night of accomplished women from the community uh sharing her experiences in in leadership and her path to uh community service I'm looking forward to that panel discussion thank you I'd also like to uh share something that I read in the Star Ledger yesterday uh and to acknowledge a comment made by uh one of our neighbors from the public related to the budget um this was a letter to the editor written by oh now I lost the author's name U but she's a resident of the town of Bordentown and she was talking about reductions in uh budget cuts to The Bard and town board of education's budget she works in human resources and she talked about her experience with applicants and employees and she pointed out that uh cuts to to uh School budgets could affect students for the rest of their lives student without access to youth programs becomes an employee who struggles with teamwork a student without access to a music program becomes an employee who lacks critical thinking skills a student without access to a drama program becomes an employee who has difficulty speaking in front of a group a student without access to language programs becomes an employee who struggles with communication so I'd just like to uh acknowledge that we're doing our best to bring all the resources to Bear to make certain we provide the best educational program for the students of this community and we Bear all of those issues in mind as we make uh have our deliberations and make our decisions thank you madam president thank you any other discussion um so yes I just want to let everyone know that the topic is uh her story is our story um I'm excited to be there tomorrow and I invite everyone that can come I think that it it there's like a pre-registration yeah it's 600 to9 at Galloping Hill I think it's pre-registration I think it's closed out but yeah you know say You Know Me Maybe you get in I don't know but if you go I'll see what I can do um but I did want to let everyone know also that um our fear leader over here Dr benaquista we have our is this the first one oh okay so this was the mar is it from from our children it's just exciting it has a lot uh our kids our Township our our superintendent the teacher great um information about all that's going on uh it's student farmer Frontline what's up with tups uh I invite everyone to try to somehow um oh yeah it's getting pushed out tomorrow yay uh so looking forward to read it see the beautiful pictures I'm a visual so when you see people especially people that you know you have that familiar connection uh so excited to to read about it do we have any other new business yes say that it's really impressive with her quickly um the registration closed people um you know wanted to be a part of that because the women that are on the panel are all amazing it's nice and I'm very proud of our today oh thank you um as one of the panelists oh thank you so much thank you thank you madam president I just have one quick thing it's kind of could be old but it's kind of new to to this audience I want to just thank Miss Hall uh we started diving into our mission statement with her her student group and we're next step is going to merge the group of students that handle the newspaper as well as her group together to take it down to the next step and so we we are again moving forward on really hearing the students voice on making sure the mission statement fits them so it you know we're going to continue to of this year to hopefully again be able to present a new mission statement for the upcoming year yeah I uh I remember so president one of the first things I said to Jerry I said Jerry we have to do something with the mission statement but what I wanted to say is that I'd like to make it ours the boards the students every body uh and kind of something that we're we're proud to speak on or or speak to every single board meeting I know that in the past there's been comments like oh we don't live up to this mission statement or I don't I don't even believe in it um well I do and and I what I am going to do is anything that we bring on to be the new mission statement is something that everybody will be proud of everybody will live up to and um I'm I'm happy that that was one of the uh that you're working on that I love I'm going to love to see the outcome and then have our board's um input on it and see where we go from there Madam president if you perit me yes of course I just want to say between the newsletter the decals the students doing their thing um the mission statement I am so optimistic and so happy that we are rebranding ourselves one more time to exemplify what everybody thinks of Union Township Union Township Schools so thank you for to everyone that worked together including the teachers um for making that happen that's exciting we're in an exciting time very very very any other comments move to a journ oh second Miss Capo I have a motion from Mr caran and seconded by Miss Mary Ln Williams roll call please Miss carbonel yes Mr Cohan yes Mrs K macki yes Mr McDowell yes Mrs Mani yes Mr nasta Mrs Scott Hayden yes Mrs Williams yes Miss Santana yes yes