e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e good evening ladies and gentlemen welcome to the May 21st business meeting of the Wall Township Board of Education please join me in saluting the flag thank you going to ask our board secretary Mr Smite to please read the sunshine statement and perform roll call thank you this is the Wall Township Board of Education meeting for which adequate notice under the open public meeting Act was provided with the notice of the co-star Asbury Park Press all Wall Township Schools Township clerk's office and in the board Administration office on January 4th 2024 I'll take a roll call Mr adio miss barbier here Mr buffer here Miss D Giovani here Mr malof here Mr Nasser here miss shimo here Mr wandra here miss Stites here thank you very much at this time may I please have a motion to go into executive session for the items listed on the agenda I'll move second Miss DJ Bonnie Mr Nasser all in favor the board will reconvene at 7:30 thank you yep 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 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 [Music] [Music] [Applause] oh e e good evening ladies and gentlemen at this time I'd like to reconvene the Board of Education uh Wall Township business meeting for May 21st 2024 at this time um our nncc Cadets had a commitment to their change of command ceremony and we're thrilled for them so tonight we will not be having Color Guard we will be saluting the flag here so please join me in the flag salute thank you at this [Music] [Music] [Music] the Hearts we [Music] were through still [Music] of thee and the hope of the [Applause] [Music] call first thank you so much it's fantastic to have our high school students um representing all their talents this evening uh we always enjoy uh when you join us so thank you for everything at this time Mr smiple you please perform roll call yes Mr Adia here miss barbier here Mr buffer here m d Giovani here Mr Mr Mali here Mr Nasser here miss shimko here Mr wandra here miss STS here thank you at this time I'm going to be turning the floor over to Dr handerhan to introduce a wonderful student showcase well first of all um I am just in awe of the talent that that I am experiencing here this evening uh the the strings the chorus uh enjoying the visual art that uh we've been projecting and also uh the U display boards in the hallway there are the talent in in this school district is amazing and I am so incredibly grateful that we have our fine students here to to Really um share it with us tonight so I am so incredibly grateful um and as you can probably guess by all the talent that we that has been on display thus far our students they're they earned some they earned some medal this year they U have really earned some very very um competitive very desirable um accolades in their respective areas of talent and focus so uh to begin this portion of the student highlight I would like to welcome Miss Jill Alexander one of our art teachers amazing art teachers at the high [Applause] school I just want to say thank you Dr handerhan and thank you to the board of ed for having us here tonight it's a really great honor it's really nice to share all of the wonderful things that go on in our classroom year round and we do have so many things to be proud of so uh I'm going to get started here this presentation that I have to give is really just the highlights there's so many things if you came a little early we were running a slide show that had all of the artwork that left the building this year so all of the artwork that went on to compete in all different ways through the many shows that we do throughout the year so right here though these are the highlighted winners winners that were selected by uh different judges various people outside of the school district so I'm going to start with the Congressional Art competition Okay so we had a really wonderful night at the Congressional Art competition we had a Best in Show which was Monica kersen bomb her artwork actually will go on to hang in Washington DC uh in our nation's capital for a period of one year will it where it will be seen by nearly a million people over the course of that year so that's Monica there on the left uh we have Abby beer she is our first first prize winner first place winner and and then we have Hannah bran she's our second place winner Marissa Amer is our fourth place winner and then ABY Lee had an honorable mention thank you okay so here are their beautiful artworks some of these are in the hall outside really having a hard time with this there's Abby Lee okay so are youth art month winners this year so these artworks went on to State and these students were honored at the grounds for sculpture it was a really beautiful ceremony and we have Isabelle MCT tager and Marissa amti and their artworks have rustic daisies this is actually wood burning so she actually burned this into the surface of a piece of wood oh there we go and oh I'm so sorry um and this is Isabelle and this is a beautiful Ceramics piece this is a scfo bowl so for the teen Arts Festival we have several winners so with the state teen Arts winners we don't know what will happen with them quite yet because on June 6th we actually attend a field trip uh up at uh Mercer County College where we will find out whether they've uh received scholarships or whether they'll become part of artistic uh traveling shows and our winners here uh that have proceeded on to states are Finn Force jow and Chris [Applause] Martin oh oh okay another wonderful part of the Teen Arts another wonderful part of teen Arts Mama teen Arts is that there is a wonderful show that they do at the Freehold Raceway Mall every year and this is also some of the best of the best so these students their artwork goes on to be shown there at the Freehold Raceway Mall for a period of about a month there is an opening reception where actually uh Dr comms from the music department his uh guitar Ensemble and his guitar Club were also asked to uh come and perform at that opening reception it was really very nice A little mix of the Performing and visual arts and we have Ellie Harts we have Abby Abby Weiss and we have Monica kersen bomb uh in that for that show as [Applause] well okay and for that particular field trip that we take to teen Arts which is at Brookdale Community College they have this wonderful program that they hand out to all the students the parents and anybody else that would basically come to this event and it has in it all of the different various Workshops the students can take and all of the other wonderful things going on in Mammoth County in the Arts so we had the inside program cover design winner which is Isabella pesi and our runner up our Runners up for this were Maddie FY Clarissa Herrera and Joseph [Applause] young and these are their works so sorry okay Joseph we really like yours so we want to keep it on the screen okay oh that was it geez apparently that was it okay so I'm so sorry so what I would like to do is just briefly give these wonderful students who are here their certificates oh thank you okay so we have Isabelle mctaggert who was not able to be here tonight we have Isabelle peni see Joseph young come on up yeah okay okay we have is Clarissa Herrera here okay not here tonight okay is Ellie hartts here Abby Weiss [Applause] Abby we have Monica kersen bomb Monica has had numerous Awards this year Monica's had a great year congratulations and we have Abby beler she's here and Hannah Brian Hannah okay actually I think that might be it let just Marissa Amer Abby Lee okay that's it that's it that's it that's right they are getting a shout out said it congratulations to all the students thank you guys thanks for making such an awesome year Ana Shane so that was a joke for you know the older older than 50 crowd including myself with of a man who needs no introduction Mr Les Hollander thank you very much uh we're really proud of our students and their musical achievements this year um between the band The Orchestra and the choir we had about 35 students selected to All Shore this year which is really amazing and a thank you to Dr handerhan and the board of education for inviting us this evening to celebrate the achievements of our students um firstly uh I'd like to introduce the students and their accomplishments um all of the students uh had uh participated in auditions so they were selected by auditions uh with three um with three teachers from other districts uh evaluating their applying and sometimes as many as nine teachers features depending on the instrument so um making allshore band Central Jersey uh Region 2 band that's the six counties in Central Jersey and New Jersey All State band uh Jared [Applause] mcin next we have Zachary Nissen and he was selected to the allshore symphonic band the allshore chorus all Central Jersey Region 2 Orchestra and all Central Jersey Region 2 wind next we have Michael Stites Central Jersey Region 2 symphonic band allore symphonic band [Applause] Alana saajan cjmea honors concert band and allshore symphonic band Charles Clark and aan Nelson allshore jazz onong next grouping of students are from allshore Orchestra uh you heard them perform uh at the beginning James Smith on VI Kelly PUO on violin joette Feliz on violin Lauren Trembley on violin Charlie fer on viola Mia L manowitz on cello McKenzie Cavalier on cello Nathaniel little on cello and John Lutz on base okay the next uh grouping are students who made all Shore symphonic b a mammoth and ocean counties so we're really proud of this because you know there's more than 40 high schools between two counties they pick a band of about 96 and we had 20 of them so it's um really a lot to be said for our students Skyla Bier on [Applause] flute Isabella Nev on OBO Tucker Jones Tucker's not here this evening McKenzie Riley on clarette Maddie mcginness on clarinet Rebecca Gerard on clarinet Olive Stockton base clarinet Sophia white Alto Sachs Alexa Yol Lunes on alto sax [Music] Shane Harold on tenor sax he's not here this evening I believe um Nathaniel Schuman on trumpet not here this evening Christian gerardi on trumpet tenor Griffin on trone he could not be here this evening and Zack vogle on French horn okay next I'll have Mrs Hollander introduce her vocal students thank you um so the first uh Ava manol soprano Leah Yates soprano Avery fues on soprano Karina manol Alto Nikki vitello and Alto and this young man man who's gotten so many um acknowledgements is the only base at wall high school right now Zach [Applause] zien thank you so much all right we really need to sco to get a good picture what do you think Miss weiner that's probably a good idea probably a good idea okay do you see the talent congratulations everyone [Applause] after [Music] so we thank them from the con okay folks I'm so happy that we had the opportunity to enjoy um our choir uh our Orchestra and our uh Visual Arts um I also want to point out that I'd also like to point out oh my goodness sorry about that everybody also want to point out that we will be um putting the art display online so in the event you didn't have an opportunity to enjoy each piece to its fullest um please go to the website uh it's unbelievable what the art uh the art that these students have produced is pretty mind-blowing I'm not even able to really do stick figures so we're in tough shape there all right at this time I'm going to be opening the floor for public comment I would like to remind our folks coming to the podium so please be kind and if you would like to speak on uh any school related issues the podiums are on at the bottom and the top do we have anyone for public comment you want to maybe shut the door up there or something thank you I think people are just congregating at the visual arts um so the door will be shut in just a moment there we go please proceed Betsy cross I live in Wall Township oh that was great that you did that tonight I don't think I ever remember it being done before uh so that was great um wanted to go over I've sent in um some information to the banking insurance insurance department um and it's regarding a payment that was made to Jenny De Carlo and it looks like the check was sent to Jenny De Carlo over two weeks before the board approved it so um I did talk to the controller's office today they were escalating it CU they can't understand it either like how before you approved it are we mailing at a check so I know we have an attorney on the board Kathleen djovani um is our attorney here tonight no so if you could go over Dr handran why would we mail out checks to people for settlements before the board approves them I don't understand it um if you don't know the answer tonight I'd like you to get back to me tomorrow um because it did go to the attorney general and the controller's office um and I don't even know if the if the com diploma GIF is in business they don't answer the phone uh I do know the diploma middle sex mutual fund got taken over they had a $27 million deficit uh and Barbara Murphy the same person that's running this uh slush fund or I don't know what you want to call that I don't even know briyan SMI is a trustee um Athena Cornell's Law Firm is the law firm for us and for them it doesn't even make any sense can you turn that microphone down can you stop the clock please um I'd also like to know what is going on with Transportation uh are we able to fit all the buses all the Vans all the cars do you have a separate area for cars what happens if a car gets broken into uh is there security there are there cameras um was this the only location you were looking at um I see we're paying 35% of the taxes boy they got a sweetheart deal they paid $2 million for 60 acre six for a lot of acre I I don't know it's it just doesn't seem like a lot of money so why are we pay chipping in there's no contract here so you really can't approve it I know when we were doing that 10-year contract it was attached and we got to go over it there's nothing here who is the board attorney you're hiring for next year there's nothing here who's the auditor you're hiring there's nothing here um sloppy sloppy sloppy Brian J a SMI uh and Tracy handerhan you're the people that put this agenda together Christine SES it's a mess um so without a contract attached you really can't approve something for the buzz compound um payroll there's no amount this month is it a blank check we just mail out payroll don't approve that because there's nothing attached or you need to say the amount of the check thank you Mrs cross you can approve it so if you can answer those questions questions would appreciate it do we have anyone else for public comment at this time seeing none I'll close the floor for public comment at this time I'm going to direct the floor to Megan Cappy and Mason Adam our student representatives from the high school the floor is yours thank you the school year is coming to an end quick and all the Juniors just finished their njsla testing for science AP testing has recently ended and the next step for students is to take their final exams both baseball and lacrosse start their state playoffs towards the end of this week baseball plays rums and Fair Haven on Thursday and Lacrosse plays Jackson Liberty tomorrow Oliver langal and Matt rosowski both broke the previous School record for the two mile run in track the track team is currently competing at the Twilight night of Miles hoping to set some more records tonight last week the Unified sports kickball event at the Field of Dreams was rained out but we had a wonderful game in the south South gym instead all the athletes and Spectators had a great time and we are looking forward to the May 28th makeup where we will travel to Tom's River to play at the Field of Dreams again Wednesday June F 5th is the athletic night of insight at wall high school at 6 p.m. in the wall High School auditorium students and parents invited to join to learn more about the wall Crimson night Athletics the junior class of 25 had their prom on April 26th a great time was had by all Friday the 31st is the senior prom wishing all of our seniors a wonderful evening thank you you guys did a great job we appreciate everything that you've done for us over the course of the past school year almost there almost there just a couple more weeks so if you guys would like to be excused at this time you may stay you may go whatever works for your schedule thanks a lot you all right Dr hram will you please introduce the special presentations with pleasure thank you so much Miss Stites it truly is my pleasure to introduce to you our high school principal Mr Kevin Davis and our director of School counseling Miss Katie Misa to present this evening on two really exciting initiatives for the uh 2024 2025 school year so if you for those of us that are in the front of the de we may want to um head out into the wings so we can benefit from the presentation Mr Davis miss m I'm handing it over to you all right thank you Dr hhan and on behalf of myself and uh Mrs Misa we would like to say thank you to the board and to Dr hhan for the opportunity to present tonight on these exciting updates as Dr anderan just said um before that too I would like to just acknowledge our art and music students again and thank you again to the board and to to Dr andrean for having them here tonight um I'll Echo what was said earlier um I think by Mrs tis that uh year after year um we have that kind of success in our art music program This Is Not Unusual those number of students that you saw and the art and the winners um that you saw celebrated tonight so we're incredibly proud of them uh hopefully on your way in you got a chance to see some of their artwork out in the hallway uh you got to hear them play this evening um and it's I've said this before uh when you compare it to a sports program sometimes there's some rebuilding years and you've got some up years and down years I feel like every single year at wall High School we've got outstanding achievement in the Arts of music and we're very happy to celebrate that tonight so thank you um so tonight we have a couple of exciting topics that we're going to talk about and I'm going to attempt to use the clicker point it this way all right so what we're going to talk to you about these two two exciting updates one is our uh new master bell schedule um we're going to talk a little bit about I'm going to talk about how we got there the rationale for the schedule change um what's changing and what looks the same um and then Mrs Mis is going to talk to you about dual enrollment dual credit opportunities basically opportunities for students to earn college credit while they're at wall high school so why change the schedule for next year uh this is something that we actually started looking at two years ago our belief after researching and visiting other schools is that the optimal instructional class time is about 60 minutes and this new schedule allows for approximately 60-minute blocks the blocks are shorter they meet more frequently than our current schedule and we do believe that is what's best for all of our high school students what stays the same uh and what's changing so what stays the same students still register for eight classes all students have the same lunch period in the middle of the day for 42 minutes just like they do currently and the total minutes of instruction per class Remains the Same at 168 minutes over a 4-day period we'll look at the schedule and if you grabb the hand out on the way in you can see that um on the back there and then what changes uh students attend six classes per day instead of four it's what they attend currently blocks are 56 minutes long on our new schedule instead of the current 84 minutes each class meets for 3 days and then drops for one day and does not meet class meeting times rotate in the morning and afternoon so what that means is classes do not always meet at the same time each day and that is something that's new as well so this is what on what you're looking at here the top is our current schedule our AB block with 84 minute blocks of instruction and on the bottom is our schedule for next year the rotation drop AB b c and dday and at first glance it might look confusing um but we colorcoded it so that you can see the pattern um and and what I'm talking about when I say the classes meet for three days so um the rotation drop ABCD if you look at the bottom uh the blocks which are listed to the left block one two and three unit lunch blocks four five and six each block is 56 minutes long um and if you look at period one just to paint this example in the reddish color you see period one starts on day a first block it moves block two for day B it moves to block three for day C and then it drops so that's what we're talking about in terms of class meets for three days in a row and drops and then the cycle repeats after dday we would go back to an a day um and if you look at the color coding you can see how each class moves throughout uh classes rotate in the morning and they rotate in the afternoon the other difference that I'll point out um when you look at our current ab and I think I mentioned this before our aday classes meet if you look at an A 1 a 2 a 3 a 4 a and then they essentially all drop so there's a gap in instruction um so classes only meet every other day with this new schedule classes get to meet three days in a row before they drop so there's no Gap in instruction and teachers can build on instruction and learning from day to day to day and then a break and they meet again for three straight days so the transition to the new schedule um we do believe the transition will be smooth for teachers and students teachers will adjust lessons for the 56 minute block and instructional activities um and daily schedules will be printed for students so they'll receive what their ab and CD day schedules look like where they're reporting to each of those days and parents and students will be able to view that in the portal as well um so there should be no confusion as to where to go I'm sure there will be a learning curve on the first week or two of school um but we were told by all the schools we visited that students picked up on this schedule rather quickly and knew where to be so we're really excited about it um I'm going to turn this over to Mrs Misa who's going to talk to us about uh opportunities for students to earn college credit next year click click thank you thank you Mr Davis as I'm up here tonight you'll hear me talk about dual enrollment and dual credit sorry let me just Mr Davis was trying to trick me you'll hear me talk about dual enrollment and dual credit and those terms will be used interchangeably tonight simply because colleges universities have different titles for these programs and a dual enrollment or dual credit program is simply an opportunity for students to earn college credit while they're in high school there are many benefits to these programs students will learn the skills they need to be successful at the Collegiate level they'll learn problem solving skills critical thinking skills they'll also develop time management skills because they'll have to develop the they'll have to Bal balance the rigor of their college level classes as well as their high school schedule their Sports their act extracurricular activities and possibly a part-time job and also the best benefit since I'm a parent that pays College tuition is the cost savings to families and how great would it be if your son or daughter could start college with some credits under their belt and for parents if you have the possibility to get get your child out of college one semester early that's an incredible savings we currently offer opportunities for our students to earn college credit and we will continue to do so next year we'll continue with our robust AP program we also have a dual enrollment program with Brookdale Community College which we will continue that program is for seniors only students must qualify and they were able to leave the high school midday and attend Brookdale any of brookdale's campuses and students must take two courses in the fall and two courses in the spring skip the best slide okay we're really excited that next year we're partnering with Stockton University and we will be offering a dual Credit Opportunity for students this opportunity will afford students in grades 10 11 and 12 to earn college credits while they're still at wall high school we have pre-approved courses up on that red table there's a list here of the pre-approved courses so you can see what's already been approved and on the bottom you can see that courses that are pending approval and we hope to add to this list over the next couple of years the great thing about this is that the students do not have to leave the high school these classes are taught by our wall High School teachers they've already been approved through Stockton and Stockton university has already approved our wall High School curriculum at the end of the school year the students will receive a grade from wall high school that will translate over to Stockton University and our students will receive an official Stockton University transcript students do not need to attend Stockton in order to earn the credits these credits are easily transferable to many colleges and universities when you are a student in 10th 11th even the beginning of 12th grade you don't necessarily know where you want to go to college the beauty of that this is when you start your college search you can go on school's website look up their transferability often times schools have a transferability chart you could plug in what course at Stockton would be the equivalent at this school and you can find out what's transferable but most of the time many of these courses are easily transferable okay so how does a student enroll in a dual credit course the first thing they need to do is be enrolled in one of these courses at wall high school in the fall of 2024 the students will be asked to complete a dual credit application on the Stockton University website it is free of charge they will have to create an account and that's where all of the correspondence with Stockton University will take place this is the best part how much does a dual credit course cost stock charges $400 for a four credit course you can see up here when they are charging students for a four credit course on the campus it's over $2,000 so it's already a savings to families of over $2,000 per class the best piece about this is for our free and reduced lunch students these courses are free so what are the next steps for students and parents if you are interested in any of these courses you can reach out to your school counselor they can adjust your course requests for next school year and for parents whose children will be in these classes you'll receive information at back to school night in the fall and there will also be a representative from Stockton there to answer any of your questions thank you thank you so much um I I cannot wait to see uh these programs in action um I'd like to thank Mr Davis Miss Misa for coming out presenting tonight and as just as they're leaving the orchestra area I'd like to welcome I would like to welcome Miss Tiffany Steiner and Miss kin gilver for I believe the uh the last mindset of the of the school year and I don't want to steal their Thunder with the sharing but if you were on our website you already know what it is so um and and we always find when we present on the mindsets and kayn I'm sure you'll agree with me is that when we come down here we have a moment right before we come down here where it all comes together and tonight the performances also the high school schedule is such a testament to this last mindset of the time is now um see okay so like usual I've put up our classroom integration vocabulary and the terms that we've been teaching children with this mindset the time is now mindset teaches the power of the moment and how we can harness the power of the moment to take purposeful action the four tenants or instructional pieces underneath the time is now is embracing every moment which is like we saw this evening being Mindful and present getting in the zone which is also being mindful in the way that we regulate and get in the zone to be able to problem solve and persevere allowing ourselves to be vulnerable which is about taking risks and facing um disappointments with Grace and finally acting with p with purpose and making these choices in our life that move us forward to the ultimate life that we would like wish to have I'm going to turn it over to miss gvar so she can highlight some of our extension activities thank you thank you so much thank you for having us back we appreciate it um oh God there's a lot of tech up here get nervous um we realized going through this this year that one of the best ways to show you how these mindsets work is through the pictures of what the schools have done so I want to take you again on a little journey through W Township uh school district and show you what each school has kind of prepared for and accomplished during this mindset which has been amazing and first and foremost the high school students that credit it blows my mind at the availability of what we're doing to help our students and that's what seven mindsets is all about giving kids opportunity to have college credits um to act and sing and play and be in the moment that's everything we're talking about giving them extra activities to participate in it just blows my mind so I'm just I was floored by that um the entire district has celebrated mental health awareness month and I don't have to get into the importance of mental health awareness we all know and have been affected by mental health awareness but the high school specifically um with the middle school has decided to wear green on Mondays it's the official color of mental health awareness so we all as you can see the high school staff is represented up there it is something visual it is something to make sure we reduce the stigma and really put our self forward I don't know where to stand um I'm just going to keep going part of that is also experiencing getting in the zone being able to know how to channel your energy your inner peace your ability to be one with what you have to do um Mrs SMI does the yoga Club at the high school but she's also done chair yoga um this month and it's been amazing and you can see some of those pictures we even have students in the middle school and in the elementary schools Who start every day with a breathing activity did we really think this was going to take off like this I didn't so these are again lessons outside of the seven mindsets actual lessons and this is happening in the building on their own free will which is amazing um let's talk about mental health I love it it's something we've worked through with the high school I'm not sure if the Middle School stole it or the high school stole it but we did it in both buildings um they chocked the the sidewalks with positive messages which are just such a visual and we told them nobody had a we didn't have to give them any um examples on what to write they knew what they were writing they knew what people need to hear um I just think that's amazing that we go get to that point you know we celebrated our teachers in the middle school we again wear our green on Mondays as you can see with our staff we took it one step further and not only painted our chalk our sidewalks with chalk but we painted rocks our guidance Department took that on and it was one of our Wellness Wednesday activities um those are all direct correlations to acting with purpose and getting in the zone Mr Ryan provided yoga for any staff or students who wanted to participate after school um we really are showing with our actions how to live a mindful life um and during the day in our school environment is which we want to look at look at that all right right um we're also I feel like my back is you guys I'm sorry we're also doing acting with purpose we want them to understand that giving back this circles back to other mindsets that we've already talked about but when we act with purpose we hosted carwashes to help brain tumor Association we teamed up for volley for autism and they raised the most amount of money they've ever raised in all the years they've done um it's just been amazing what when you give the kids an idea they have run with it we just kind of sit back and and just make sure we're supervising so they've done amazing things our eighth graders also read to some of the primary pups which I thought was so cute um to embrace every moment to get them to realize that they have opportunity and those little kids idolize those guys coming down so it's so cute to watch look at me go there we go now in the elementary schools alanwood um Mrs um excuse me Mrs SMI does an amazing job with her lessons so when she goes in and does seven mindset lessons she does an amazing job reaching these kids she talks about being vulnerable she talks about acting with purpose but there was another way they even um threw volley for autism and through their own project which was called the keychain project they actually made keychains that's the pattern of it down there and that some of the kids making it they sold it at volley for autism but they raised over $500 off of these homemade made beaded keychains that were adorable but to give back they didn't keep any of that money so again we're teaching authenticity we're teaching respect we're teaching giving back um and these kids are running with it oh God okay West Belmar um their heart challenge for the American Heart Association jump and jump and jump and jump and jump and they love it and they do it every year but again this is something these kids really get behind and they know why are doing this um the lead picnic which I know what that stands for um Ashley told me what it stands for law enforcement against drugs it's the old it's the old dare program but our officers have come in talk about getting our community involved right so we've had poak involved we had American Heart Association involved we have our police involved teaching and showing and demonstrating what it is to have healthy learning and um life environments around us and the importance of that I know I'm talking along I'm sorry I'm going keep going Old Mill they're amazing they brought back the signature project we did that here at the middle school in the beginning of the year when we were all connected but Old Mill and Allenwood both got to view this be part sign that um huge project that Patrick dunnan is doing and they really got to see the importance of even one signature makes a difference in the whole world and that goes back into when you act with purpose you can make a difference um we even had you know Master Parks black belt come again think of all of these communities that are coming with into our school community and showing and learning and teaching and growing together and that's what social emotional learning is it's not just learning from a book it's learning how to do this and build skills together Central this probably was one of the coolest things I've ever seen Mr ranga's class actually did this this creative optical illusion and they used handprints but they used this by exploring artwork of the indigenous people and then through that they were able to really see sorry how their handprint and how those colors create a finger create a print on the world and what that looks like and how that serves as a masterpiece and it was just so interesting to see how the kids really took that on oh God I think I did it backwards nope um but they continued again with helmet safety talk about Community again we're back to hackin sack Meridian Hospital on helmet safety and bike safety penny wars were're at the mammoth County SPCA raising over what was it 3,800 portions of all this stuff to go help our animals they're part of our community they also got ice cream for that for their from their wonderful um PTO the cape organization to show them that there's also reward in what you do that you can reward yourself and you can enjoy that activity um Mrs CPO does an amazing job also in her lessons and a lot of the lessons also went full circle so we went back to live to give we went back to we are connected so that's what we are hoping to see at the very end of this year sorry that can connection that all of it made sense now I'm going to be quiet and thank you so much I just wanted to conclude with just a couple more um thoughts in in where we're going and where we're moving ahead um we have finished the mindsets this year we are in Phase One there's three courses to the mindset so this is our first course obviously a lot of the activities that we have done have gained some recognition so we have been invited to Florida to present on behalf of the district um We are continuing some of our initiatives that we did last year for example we're going to have the eth to 9th graders as they transition to the high school their gift from the high school is a seven mindsets book um and we're going to ask that to be the S the summer read the mandatory summer read and then we'll have some really cool projects aligned to begin September um we will have an end of the year Showcase Video that will be available on the district website for all of our parents and we do have some things activities planned for this summer we are going to have a community family night we're writing curriculum for the ninth grade transition we have our summer nights Academy which will have lessons for the seven mindsets and then there's lots of things to look forward to in 2425 which I'm just giving you little I'm teasing you we're going to be having a mindset mentors Wellness webinars our goal for next year this year was to learn this year was to apply you can see the application all over these the slides that we present but next year is to develop student leadership abilities so now they're going to teach they're going to teach the younger students how to apply and that really is such a testament to what a district can do when we Embrace something and use it to change a culture so I thank you again for all of your support and um we look forward to next year sharing again [Applause] thank you both for the presentation not only tonight but at all of our board meetings um I think it's been tremendously valuable for our community to see what these initiatives have done education um is more than math science language art Arts uh building confidence building self-awareness building resiliency uh all incredibly important to shaping well-rounded human beings who live in our community so I'm tremendously proud of this program and I am really grateful that you have taken the time each board meeting to share with us and to share with our community um you're doing tremendous tremendous work it is moving beyond the walls of our schools out into our entire Community um and we will all benefit because of that I'm excited to see where we're going I'd also like to thank um Miss Misa and Mr Davis um also really exciting to see on the academic fronts um the amount of work that is being put into um moving the needle and pushing forward and doing great things for our students um I'm going to be really excited to see the kids um adjust to the schedule I'm glad it's not me I'd probably be a little bit lost but I know they're a lot faster than I am um and I look forward to seeing where we're able to take them educationally moving forward with these ideas and I think everybody I know there was a lot of hard work that went into researching the schedules going out into other communities seeing what's best for kids sometimes it's comfortable to stay where we are and it's a lot of work to change but I think that all of your hard work is going to pay off for our students and I think our staff as well because I think they'll be pleased with the advances that they see so so many great things happening um in Wall Township Schools and I'm thrilled that we were able to share them so thank you for your presentations this evening which segs Segways me into my president's report for this evening um at this time the board would like to take a moment of Silence to reflect on the loss of Leila or Julia a wall Intermediate School student who passed away unexpectedly last week the board and the entire District are deeply saddened for those who loved and cared for Leila we are keeping her family in mind and will continue to pray for them as they navigate unimaginable heartache we recognize the impact this tragedy has had on so many students and School staff who will miss Lea's friendship her unique gifts her smile and her presence in our classrooms we offer our condolences to our community especially our West bmar and W Intermediate School families who have special neighborhood ties to Lea and her family I would encourage anyone who feels they may benefit from additional support to reach out to your school administrator ERS or access the district website for resources to help in the healing process the board is grateful to our superintendent Dr handerhan Mrs Steiner and miss galary and all of the many administrators teachers and support staff who had led the district in the early days of loss and will continue to lead as there will surely be difficult days ahead our crisis response plan does include a variety of options for support please reach out the board must stress no one should suffer alone one of the many beautiful aspects of being part of the wall school district and the community is participating in the celebrations of the people we care about over the past month we have seen lovely teacher appreciation festivities at each of our schools clearly demonstrating how much our staff are respected and loved the board would like to give recognition to the incredible parent teacher organizations and booster clubs who work all year to create memor memorable events that add so much to our staff and students experiences we know the month ahead will be filled with picnics Banquets award nights and graduations and we could not be more proud of all the hard work our families commit to making these celebrations memorable so thank you I would like to also now recognize our certificated students of the month for April 2024 for grade nine student of the month is Jesus Chavez espa grade 10 Jack baldasar grade 11 Aaron Farrell and grade 12 TIY Connors our Knights of the week for the week of April 12th yoan salano cabero the week of April 19th Sam Elliott who was also our Junior Prom King for for the week of April 26 Connor Barrett and for the week of April 26 Braden O'Neal I'm in conclusion for my president's report i' just like to share that over the course of my role um as the president of the board used to take a tremendous amount of time trying to scour different websites and newsletters and and present to you in my report all the amazing things that were happen happening them all awards that were won um championships that were won kids who have excelled teachers who have excelled I am thrilled to encourage people to go to the district website because it has gotten to the point that I could talk for hours and hours and hours about all the accomplishments that are happening in this district and I don't want to forget anyone um and over the past year year and a a half our website has grown tremendously um and the things that are presented here are also on the website you can also take a look at the s'mores newsletters I think what I'm trying to say is there are so many great things happening it's difficult to boil them down to a president's report um but tremendous tremendous strides forward in our schools I could not be more proud of what our staff and our students are accomplishing so I wish everybody a Wonder ful Memorial Day and that is the conclusion of my report for now and I'm going to turn it over to Dr handerhan thank you Miss ties I would like to thank the student representatives to the Board of Education Mason Adam and Megan Cappy for joining us this evening I do wish to Echo Miss stites's sentiments in extending our heartfelt condolences to Leela's family and friends I'm extremely grateful to the wonderful staff members at the Intermediate School school and at well West Balmar school I am also grateful for our Wellness leadership and staff these staff members are pillars of support for so many of our students thank you Miss Stites for reminding everyone of the support resources available on our website and for reiterating that the schools are here to support our families I extremely proud of our wtps community I hope tonight's highlights from wall High School's visual Performing Arts programs underscore why I feel the way I do great things happen each and every day in our schools and I'm so grateful for the guidance and support our faculty provides to our students thank you to miss Alexander Mr Miss Hollander and our student artists thank you so much for coming out this evening uh you've shared so much and uh we appreciate it Friday night our nncc celebrated a great year at their annual Navy ball at the water view Pavilion special thanks to Colonel Jax and the anchor club for all of their continual support I think it's fair to say that a great time was had by all last night I had the pleasure of attending the wall High School business and finance Academy commencement exercises it was such an engaging evening that highlighted the entrepreneurial Spirit grit and perseverance um our alumni speaker was fantastic and um truly is an inspiration for our students thank you Miss MSA and Mr McCarthy for providing such a great program for our business-minded students and their families I would like to thank Mr Davis and Miss Misa for sharing some exciting updates for wall high school with us this evening 2024 2025 promises to be outstanding year I just can't wait um and especially so what will complement the academic um changes is certainly the social emotional um uh support and programming that we saw here this evening from Miss Steiner and Miss gilbery um you know it's next year it's seven mindset 2.0 as we move into the next phase and I am so excited with the um the tastes and teasers that um that were shared with us this evening each year schools are charged with reviewing harassment intimidation and bullying or Hib data and programming using the categories and metrics provided by the New Jersey Department of Education schools can receive up to 78 total raw points with 78 being the highest score that can be achieved the full breakdown for each category for each school is available on the district's website and it is in this meeting's agenda packet the overall score score for each of the district schools for the 2022 2023 school year is as follows the district overall grade was a 77 High School grade 76 Intermediate School 76 Allenwood 78 Central 77 Old Mill 78 West Belmore 78 and primary 78 on this evening's agenda there are two administrative positions I would like to thank all of the members of the respective interview committees it truly takes a great deal of time to vet and interview candidates I am excited to share that two experienced administrators have been selected through our process our first Dr Christine Kennedy is our candidate for the supervisor of instruction Dr Kennedy currently serves as the science stem supervisor grades as a science stem supervisor covering grades 5- 12 and the second candidate is Mr Chris Alworth for the director of Technology integration Mr Alworth has been in similar roles in two different school districts throughout the last 13 years I know that I am not alone in sharing my enthusiasm for their respective experience and expertise in their fields and I look forward to them joining the wtps team this summer it is hard to believe that there are less than four weeks remaining in the school year from this point to graduation on June 14th it is go time the end of the school year is nothing short of magical across Wall Township Public Schools there are so many Student Activities and opportunities for Wall Township to come together the parental familial community and Municipal sport support truly sets this community apart just a reminder school is not in session this Friday May 24th as I extend my wishes for a wonderful ful Memorial Day weekend I do encourage you to contemplate the significance of Memorial Day our Liberty and freedom are not to be taken for granted remember our fallen heroes and please go out of your way to thank a veteran for his or her service I would like to remind everyone that the annual Memorial Day service at the wall Municipal complex will take place on Memorial Day at 10: a.m. I hope to see you there thank you miss stes all right at this time we're going to do a board report and I have an update the board has continued to for perform our duties most notably the completion of the CSA evaluation process we will have our report completed and submitted by the qack deadline and would like to congratulate Dr handerhan on another outstanding year of growth on behalf of our district Dr handerhan has continued to identify areas for development and Improvement within our district and we are grateful for her leadership and vision Guided by expectations of our stakeholders she continues to accomplish goals set forth by our strategic plan and she continues to identify new areas and opportunities for achievement for our students in ongoing efforts to establish increased Community confidence in the board we have reached out to the acting controller of the state of New Jersey requesting certification from the that office stating that the board and the school district are in good standing with the com controller's office we do recognize that is often suggested that District business manners are managed improperly unethically or illegally and felt it was important to demonstrate our commitment to the community that we are happy to partner with that office and ascertain that we are in good standing furthermore the board has requested that the office also reconsiders supporting Bill s 2930 which revamps Oprah law the district welcomes communication with that office to demonstrate the far-reaching negative impact that occurs when the current Oprah law is weaponized against any entity the board looks forward to communicating the response of the com controller's office when it is received the letter sent will be posted on the district website I must reiterate that the letter was sent to help dispel concerns community members May Harbor due to repeated allegations of impropriety and also to Garner support of the updated Oprah bill passed by the New Jersey legislature this week hopefully we will be able to lay stakeholder concerns to rest in the near future and also move our district out from the burden of responding to continuous Oprah requests that may be repetitive um the focus of this board and the administrators we employ must primarily be the education of our students that is my portion of the board report does any member of the board have anything to add to the board report at this time Mr Nasser do you have an update on referendum information I do thank you uh there are five items on the agenda having to do with referendum work um there is a resolution to reject and rebid project 22 k129 B which is HVAC at the Intermediate School in central uh we would look to rebid that towards September uh there's another agenda for or excuse me another item 22k 129a a HVAC project at Allenwood Old Mill and West belmare uh the committee is recommending be awarded there are some long lead electrical items that we need to order in advance um that involves service upgrades to the buildings so in order to keep that on schedule for not this summer but the following summer uh we would need to get that approved now uh the other three items have to do with the asbest abatement over at Old Mill there is a resolution for the soft cost related to the architectural work that needs to get done um drawings and the the calculations on lighting Etc uh as well as the actual abatement work and the ceiling and grid replacement uh those are all on the agenda and will fall under the referendum thank you thank you does anyone else have anything for the board report this evening okay seeing none we'll be moving into um committee reports committee minutes have been published do any committee chairs have any comments regarding committee reports or minutes okay seeing none we are going to be moving into public comment on agenda items if anyone would like to speak we've got podiums at the bottom and at the top of the stairs please do so Betsy cross I live in wall Betsy cross I live in wall I just gave Mr SMI a copy of that check that went to Jenny de corlo 15 days before the board approved it so that would be a great item for the controller's office to look at because they're wondering why you mailed it too if if we could have a list of the items that you're having the controller's office look at I mean to just say oh can we have a a sign off from the controller's office you have to give the items health insurance Brown and Brown Dominic selli the other guy that works on this that work for Horizon everything is redacted when I go to another town hell who also I think it's hell that also has Brown and Brown Nothing is redacted it's only redacted here with Brian SMI if you're saying Self insurance is cheaper prove it there's no proof cuz every item you give nothing matches up the numbers are different in this report they're different in this report they're different in this report so that's another thing you can say to the controller's office um bus compound you can't approve anything you got nothing that's showing what what is going on with this contract we're handing over 5,500 a month we're paying 35% of the bill but what else what if there's land contamination that was the problem you had the last time you need a contract um who is the attorney for 2425 nothing is there how much was payroll there's no amount it this agenda is a mess tonight so maybe because Brian Smite is finally wondering um maybe maybe things will get caught um I know you go to court for mediation for the central School trailer case and it would be nice we have no idea what Mr Smite sends in his emails nothing makes sense we know dearra uh who was on the board at the time was deposed we know that Ted Hopkins was deposed we know Ted Hopkins said he never even was in Princeton we know Ted Hopkins said he never even looked at trailers in Princeton because he was never even there so um I we'll we'll see what happens but o over this whole trailer thing like I've said all along Brian Smite should lose his job um I feel like he's like Michael Cohen right now uh we get one story after the next he doesn't answer questions it's disgusting and Despicable that he put children in trailers and pushed the purchase of moldy filthy disgusting trailers that nobody saw what they look like it's it's disgusting I don't know how you sleep at night but we know hell is forever answer uh questions on the bus compound uh the questions that I asked you before who was Judy White over there was Michael diamond or did Brian Smite just do this on his own like he normally does thank you I'd like answers to my questions and if you don't know them right now can thank do we have anyone else for a public comment seeing none I will close the floor pleas for public [Music] comment at this time may I have a motion please to approve the consent agenda I'll make a motion Mr Buffa second Miss GG Bonnie Mr smite Mr an yet yes but I'm going to abstain from the HR report um number let's see guess number one I think and number two HR professional staff attachment one and also attachment number two and then number two a Roman Roman numeral 2A and then Roman numeral 7 uh 101 for family member noted Miss barbier yes Mr Buffett yes Mr djani yes Mr Mali yes but I will abstain on human resources report 16a Roman numeral 10 noted Mr Nasser yes M Simco yes Mr wandra yes Miss stes yes but I will be abstaining from 13A and 16b noted thank you ladies and gentlemen that is going to um conclude our meeting for tonight I do hope that folks will join us at the Memorial Day celebration in Wall Township at the municipal complex I know that we will have some of our n andcc Cadets um as well as some of our performers um there and as well as likely our own veteran Mr wandra who we thank for his service um and we thank all of our military personnel um who serve and their families of people who have given the ultimate sacrifice at this time may I please have a motion to adjourn Madame President yes Mr w i object to anybody passing that podium and coming over to this table that didn't happen so we have to put the barriers up again thank you that is wrong it should not happen thank you thank you may I have a motion for adjournment Mr Buffa okay Mr adio and second Mr Buffa all in favor thank you thank you all for coming out this evening have a great night e