e roll call please Mr mustell miss aosta Mr Bono Pres Mr foki here Mr medo here Mr Rivera here Mr sabran present Mr Silva Mr Holmes here Mrs C body absent thank you in compliance with New Jersey open public meeting law commonly referred to as the Sunshine Law the violent board of education has caused notice and posting for this meeting to be sent to the following announce ounc ing time place agenda Etc The Daily Journal SNJ today the Press of Atlantic City beasto Bueno the clerk for the city of viin and the administrative office public bulletin board please rise for flag salute Mr mustell is there a resolution for executive session there is not thank you public comment on agenda items or any other matter 3 minutes per person I have no sheets would everybody anybody like to speak thank you superintendent recommendations thank you uh before I begin I just like to note that uh Mrs kispa president kispa is not with us today she's on vacation and wanted to uh call in but we have two board members who are on the line Mr Rivera and Mrs aosta so Mrs kispa would not be joining us this morning she wanted to make sure I acknowledged her uh absence and also that you know she is excited that she's on vacation and we're here today uh at this board meeting so I would like to begin with a request and discussion and and approval of items 1.1 through 1.2 before we begin uh item 1.1 under transfers we had to remove employee number 7608 uh from the agenda we will reconsider at for future consideration at a future board meeting so 7608 is no longer on the agenda I want to make sure it was noted that that was pulled so requesting discussion and approval of items 1.1 and 1.2 as noted on our agenda questions or comments who is that again 7608 so if it's on your printed copy under transfers on the live copy it's been it has been removed any other questions or comments yeah I have another question or comment I don't see a recommendation for the high school principal the uh Aela building can I have an explanation why it's not on here yes we have requested a retired administrator Deb Quinn uh to serve as the interim principal it is noted on uh interm principal Personnel items to cover the building until we are able to conduct a followup search to conclude the process of naming a permanent successor to Devon High School School South ofela building uh at this time we had a recommendation to move forward but we were not able to secure the enough of support to move forward with the recommended candidate we did not put that person on the agenda knowing that the support was not there so we have to get the building ready having a solid presence and experienced administrator such as Deb Quinn to cover the building from July 1st at a minimum to December 30 first to assist with scheduling opening the building implementing our new discipline procedures updated updated attendance procedures it's critical that we have someone there on staff every single day moving forward so that's why the decision was made to go with an inim principle for at least the rest of the calendar year that all sounds real nice and of course the next thing will be some kind of a story about if you don't vote for this you're against Debbie Quinn and it'll get all twisted around but this is incompetence and this is unacceptable to me if uh the rest of the board members want to be made to look like fools some of you for the second time and don't say anything that's up to you but I'm not going to be made to look like a fool without saying something now we've had months at least three or four months to put in place a super a a principal okay the superintendent decided to do something he never did before and have a committee that he handpicked to interview now when you interview you come up with a list of candidates in order and if the first one doesn't get picked by the board when recommended you go on to the second one now this is two years in a row that the asela building does not have stable leadership in place Debbie Quinn's fine what I was told was that she was going to be there until we put someone in place in a month or two if it took that long but for my money this is unacceptable any other questions or comments Let It Be know for the record that Mr Silva has arrived at 9:05 a.m. I'll ask for a motion and can I have another question yes there are people on here being hired on steps well above starting salaries uh can we have an explanation on that I could use um can you be more specific there's multiple there are replacement hires there are promotions there are transfers by specific someone's being hired on step nine an elementary teacher on Step 13 another one on step 14 that means they have how many years of experience as we continue to be competitive in searching for teachers to fill our positions Dr Rossi uh has been asked to be as aggressive and competitive as possible uh we often look at experience many teachers bring experience over from their prior districts which places on places them on the salary guide in certain locations if it's a highly sought after position such as a CTE or highly specialized special education teacher with high school math certification to be competitive and get these positions filled uh the the board has directed The Personnel Department to fill all positions this is something that we have put into practice since the last two years we work with the association we've had agreements in place to make sure that we are not violating any rights of anyone and we are also taking care of our classrooms making sure students are in place excuse me making sure teachers are in place for the opening the school so that's the priority that's why you'll see some folks who are on a higher step quite often it's because of Prior experience in a district we are receiving many applicants from neighboring communities and school districts because violent is a very desirable place to work all right so all of these uh steps are in line with the agreement that was made when the vaa filed the grievance there is no grievance that has been resolved that was from last year 23 24 this is 24 25 hires well did they file a grievance a about this that we were hiring people on too high to step a year ago yes they did and the a grievance was filed and we worked through a process a collaborative process with the association to come to a solution and that was uh reviewed by the board approved by the board and we moved forward with the solution the the the required um resolution to that matter and it's been resolved I believe the business office is working with the association to finalize what that resolution is is it is in writing it is agreed upon so yes that grievance was filed but it did not go through the grievance process it actually was collaboratively resolved between the association and administration on behalf of the board thank you any other questions or comments Motion in second so moved roll call Mr mustell Mr Costa yes Mr Bono yes Mr fi yes Mr medo are we voting on 1.2 we're voting on 1.1 and 1.2 abstain on step medo yes on the rest to yes thank you Mr Rivera Mr sabran yes Mr Silva yes Mr Holmes yes motion carries I'd like to uh recognize a few of our promotions uh uh we have some new members of the team which is very exciting time for us uh so I'd like to begin just very quickly by acknowledging uh Stephanie Armstrong I believe she's here why don't you come up for a moment she will be joining Durant elementary school as assistant principal and I see Mr greo here as well at the podium please I would just like like to thank the board for this opportunity in my um education career and I promise not to let you down thank you thank you Miss Armstrong next I'd like to bring up uh one of our instructional coaches who's now moving up to supervisor of secondary Ela Jen Lannon I see her in the back there welcome Jen hi thank you so much for this opportunity I cannot wait to get started thank you thank you so [Applause] much for our supervisor of Early Childhood Stephanie stepher [Applause] good morning and thank you for this opportunity I look forward to serving our youngest Learners thank you outstanding thank you next uh the former principal of pill Middle School ish Bermudez serving as director of special projects and operations all right so I did prepare a few words so I'm going to be a little bit longer if you guys don't don't mind so I do want to sincerely thank uh Mr Yano members of a central office and the board of education for this opportunity to continue to serve the district where I'm a resident and I was a former student uh I can't help but feel nostalgic in this building uh because not only was I able to be here as a student fun fact my wife and I were actually students here together at Landis um I served here also as a science teacher and now to join central office is really just an absolute dream and I'm I'm I'm really honored for the opportunity I want to thank um and just say uh thank you to all of my pill family as well um we had a chance to open that building six years ago and I'm beyond pillow proud of what we were able to accomplish there um certainly want to thank family and friends uh but any of you who know uh the size and scope of my family we'd be here way too long if I thank them all individually but a big shout out to my parents ishma and Blanca and as well as my uh parents uh John ananya Brown as well um and then to anyone who's a parent here I think they can relate to our children being being one of our biggest motivators so thank you to my motivations Max Anda two best kids on the planet right there um and then uh I can't you know last but certainly least my wonderful wife Elena uh thank you for your support uh you know thank you for your confidence in me um I'm lucky to be by your side and uh with that being said um excited about this opportunity and I look forward to the work ahead thank you well done thank you Mr Bermudez and last but not least Mr Deo all the way in the back over here welcome he'll be serving as a director of uh our executive director of Human Resources Mr Deo I can't talk as much as Mr Bermudez can talk um but I I am very humbled by the trust that you have bestowed upon me by giving me this responsibility I'm very much looking forward to working with our students and our teachers and our administrative team to work together to make sure that we have a very good human resource department to continue forward with it um my wife is here I'm very grateful for my wife and my mom and dad are both here also so my dad went to school here many many years ago so thank you very much excellent thank you next I would like to request approval of discussion and approval of Finance items 2.1 through 2.2 2.3 excuse me Finance items 2.1 through 2.3 questions or comments Motion in second so moved roll call Mr Costa yes Mr brono yes Mr fi yes Mr medo yes Mr Rivera yes Mr Mr Brana yes Mr Silva yes Mr Holmes yes motion carries thank you board member remarks we will start with uh those that are on the phone Mr Rivera first please and i' just like to wish everyone continued great see you all in August thank you thank you Mr Costa thank you Mr sabran congratulations to our newly elevated staff folks Mr Duo I've known you a real long time almost as long as I've been here um I'm sure you're going to do a fantastic job um and Mr Rossy will give you the best possible assistance he can in the short time till things are getting started Mr Bermudas you know I've been a fan for a while and um it's exciting a new position so you get a chance to help shape it um that's a challenge also an opportunity that you can point out some of the things that that perhaps we aren't doing in a the best possible way and improve that and and also learn from it um I'm sure you'll eventually get back to your roots but it's always great to see someone you know work their way up through the ranks I'm a I'm a huge fan of that um and M Armstrong congratulations to you too and our coaches it's um it's really nice to see our people moving up thank you Mr Sila yes like to congratulate all of our newly hired uh promotions uh Mr du boy congratul ation I know you'll do a great job uh Mr Bermudez huge fan um I know that this job is what you're built for um you have that patience you have the grit you have the dot the eyes cross the te so I'm looking forward to everything you're going to be doing in this job M Armstrong congratulations uh newly hired assistant principal um I know you do a really good job and Mr FY congratulations also I know your husband we work together um but besides that thank you thank you Mr medo congratulations all of our new hires and one other thing I want access to all the material involving the search for the principal at the 1112 building and I also want access to all the people who were involved in that committee I understand they filed they signed a non-disclosure agreement and I'm sure that that doesn't apply to board members thank you Mr Bono like to congratulate Mr the boys good luck in the HR department um big big District but you know we're very confident and wish you the best of luck uh Mr Bermudas congratulations to you and your entire family um very happy for you good luck in your new position I know you're going to do great and Mrs Armstrong Stephanie uh good job congratulations keep up the good work that you do for our district we appreciate it um we're here if you need us uh to all the hires congratulations that's about it thank you guys thank you superintendent Yana yes uh I would like to thank uh Melissa has uh has excuse me uh for Their donation to Van High School $3,000 worth of uh equipment and supplies for our music program an electric guitar an electric bass and acoustic electric guitar so thank you to the h family uh for providing some great support to our music program at VHS I also would like to clarify uh some of the comments that I've heard this evening in regarding the high school search uh number one the teachers who were invited to be part of the committee were not handpicked by me they are established members of the school's leadership team ASP development team that existed prior to my arrival here there are new members that come on to that committee has never been something that the superintendent's involved in picking those folks it's just they are the established group of leaders so I don't want to um leave it as if they were handpicked by the superintendent because that is false they are instructional leaders as I call them Heavy Hitters at ven High School in terms of the academic the CTE programs the social emotional supports for students they volunteered their time to be part of a process a comprehensive process where multiple candidates were reviewed they are super motivated to see a leader come into the high school and unfortunately we were not able to do that at this time there is a candidate that they agreed on and offered as a recommended person for the high school I will go back to policy and personnel and with their approval we'll put that person on the agenda and vote it up or down at the board meeting in the future because we do want a consistent leader at the high school and there is a candidate that the committee was very excited about so I'm glad to hear that there's interest in moving forward in that fashion uh and if POS if it's possible we'll make that happen uh I also would like to be very um clear that the high school team that's in play right now VHS South with Deb Quinn VHS North and Mr Adams they're putting the work together to look at the schedule they're spending a lot of time with their staff to make sure everything's in order uh we were working with the high school secondary team and secondary team to develop a new and revised discipline code of conduct to kind of improve some of our procedures and looking at the point system and eliminating some things that have not shown us any positive outcomes we're also working with Elementary leaders this summer to revise the code of conduct which will all be ready uh for our second August meeting for approval so that we can move forward and open the school year in a positive fashion there's quite a bit of activity around um summer planning between scheduling unifying Elementary schedules unifying middle school schedules working with our team it's been a very exciting start to the summer and it's going to be a great continuing uh productive and collaborative summer season so I thank all our administrators who I see here today you know new we newly promoted uh newly brought into the team and team members who are going to just put everything in to make it an amazing school year I also want to thank our board for being uh here today and and committed to moving this process forward in August we also look forward to approving you know fingers cross our director of security and having our security team in play so we can move forward with some of the security updates and procedures that we intend to bring in to secure all of our schools uh so news will be coming on that topic soon and uh hope hopefully at the August 7th meeting we'll have a name on our agenda and moving forward from there thank you thank you superintendent Yano congratulations to Mr B uh you were my science teacher and you didn't fail me so you're here today uh congratulations Mr Deo as well I've known for a long time in this District congratulations Miss Armstrong who I've known since barcy days when I was at barcy congratulations on your promotion everyone else that was promoted also want to congratulate and thank Miss Debbie Quinn uh who was a retired principal who has uh decided to come back and help us out at violent High School I was a part of one interview process for vient high with the advisory committee on a Saturday morning and those professionals are some of the best that we have in the district so I want to thank them for the work that they did uh to make sure this was a great process and a smooth process and as superintendent Yano has stated we will bring it back up for vote um in the future anything else motion for adjournment second all in favor I thank you