good evening everyone and welcome to the Tuesday December 19th 2023 Board of Education business meeting for Wall Township please join me we're going to rise and say the flag salute flag United States am stands naice thank you at this time I'm going to ask our board secretary Mr SMI to please read the sunshine announcement and perform roll call this is the Wall Township Board of Education meeting for which adequate notice under the open public meeting Act was provided by notice to the co-star Asbury Park Press all Wall Township Public Schools Township clerk's office and the board Administration office on January 5th 2023 I'll take a roll call Mr adio here Mr buffer here Miss D Giovani here miss hodnet here Mr Mali here Mr Nasser here Mr San Filippo here Mr wandra here miss stes here thank you at this time may I please have a motion for the board to go into executive session for the items mentioned on the agenda I'll make that motion Mr s Filippo I'll second Miss hotnet thank you all in favor okay the board anticipates resuming um for our regular board meeting at 7:30 e good evening at this time we're going to reconvene the business meeting of the Walltown chor of education for December 19th 2023 this time I would like to welcome the wall High School nncc Color Guard in presenting the colors and the flag [Music] Sol go United States of America the rep for it stands one nation God indivisible withy and justice for [Music] all right wheel Mar thank you thank you to our Cadets they always do a great job for us you guys have a great break okay this time I ask the board secretary to please perform roll call take a roll call Mr anesia here Mr buffer here Mr D Giovani here miss hodnet here Mr malof here Mr Nasser here Mr San philippo here Mr wandra here Mr Mason Adam here Mr Miss Megan Cappy here Mr Michael southa here and Miss tis here thank you this time I'm going to turn the floor over to Dr handerhan to introduce his student showcase good evening everyone uh the the student showcase this evening will be brought to us through video and it is a highlight from Allan wood school and I know that Dr oconnell is incredibly proud of her students and her staff in putting this video together so I hope you'll enjoy it thank you it truly is the most wonderful time of your at Allenwood made even better by our musicians special thanks to our incredible teachers Mrs mlin and Mrs Co enjoy the green and white band The Mighty Dragon band and the fourth and fifth grade [Music] [Music] chorus only got one here we only got one r never ever let it [Music] it man who worked for SCB CR it was his [Music] [Music] me [Music] he [Music] la [Music] nah [Music] [Music] looks like it's great to be a dragon in the month of December Miss ties I don't know agreed thank you so much to um our Allenwood dragons for sharing all your holiday spirit with us um and I'd like to just extend a thank you to their uh music department um they start them pretty young here in wall and uh the next thing you know these fourth and fifth graders are going to be um you know in the high school and then some of them off to college pursuing um their music so that's certainly a strength in the district and it's fun to see um the kids all enjoying themselves so we thank them and we thank them for all their spirit that they have there okay at this time I'm going to be opening the floor for public comment um I would like to just reiterate that this is an opportunity now for members of the public to come forth um and share any questions or concerns that you have but please recognize that the board will not be engaging in a back and forth this is an opportunity for us to hear you um and then uh express your con concerns um and then we will hopefully either be addressing your your concerns later in the meeting um or through Communications at a later date so this time if anyone like to come forward please we've got the podiums up here and up top hi I'm Dr Raj Gupta um I'm not quite sure if this is the right Forum but I I come uh asking for consideration for my daughter Abigail uh the Gupta family have been residents here in Wall Township for over 17 years uh Abigail and her older sister both were dragons at Allenwood Elementary School her older sister Asha graduated from Wall Township uh high school and now is in college in University of Tampa uh recently we sold our home uh we were residents first on West Hurley Pond and now Campbell Road uh and we just recently sold our home uh and we're in between homes so if you know anything about the market uh it's very difficult to find inventory so while we continue to look and want to stay in our hometown of Wall Township uh we are currently without a home so I am requesting uh consideration for Abby who is still in high school she's a junior here in Wall Township um I understand that there is a non uh resident fee uh for keeping your child in Wall Township Schools um and I'm I'm just requesting some consideration while we continue to look for our home in Wall Township uh again I don't know if this is the Forum uh I just happen to see we have been out of our home now for a month um and still looking we're even considering purchasing a town home in Quail Ridge just so we can keep her in school so um anyway uh again I don't know if this is the form but I just wanted to go ahead and request consideration uh for that fee uh or wave waving that fee or just postponing that fee uh until we can find a home thank you thank you do we have anyone else for public comment Betsy cross I live in Wall Township I'm going to wish that gentleman luck because I've had lots of problems trying to get uh consideration for things for my son when they're done for other people so I hope this guy really gets uh your undivided attention cuz I did not um I do see looking at some budget projection reports we do pay the Manasquan School District $ 68,4 48,000 and uh I think you're going to recall when Ralph Adano was uh the board president and a letter was sented to Tracy handerhan for my son to go to manisan it was denied so um it seems we like some children we don't like others um my son was heavily into the Arts I think you're all aware of that and uh it was really a disgrace I think you should really be ashamed of yourself Dr hand to hand and Mr ad please direct your comments to the chair M they're going to Misses thank you um confidential matters you should say what they are instead of for the items mentioned on an agenda it's ridiculous um I uh hoping that the board is going to get Mr smite's deposition when he when he does have it um and I hope the whole Board gets to see it and anybody else that's toos because we've been waiting four long years four and a half years to get to the truth on the trailers uh and Athena Cornell has done a horrible job in in getting us the truth and so did Michael Gross and so did Ralph anonio Miss Stites and you're now the president um so many disturbing things that you know I've been following for four years now and you know one that's really odd is you know you know on May 17th you're going to spend $339,000 for trailers but you budget in your lease agreement like you're spending 624 and you take out a loan for that and you put all your payments in water and sewer and I remember Adam Nasser telling me Oh that's where the board doe told us to put them it's ridiculous uh we can go back don't worry Mr Ness we can go back to that video um but all these things are coming to light and um when Mr uh Brian SMI has deposed I hope we see it on his calendar uh that would be nice um and you've really got a lot of problems the the board's all involved you've been all complicit we got an attorney here Kathleen djovani I hope you see the your comments to the chair Miss cross please it apprciate it um law enforcement we got Ken wander here retired so um the settlement agreement was postponed um but we don't know why um and I think the dollar amount just keeps going up and up and up based upon all the information that we've had this whole time thank you Mrs crush your time is up so thank you can you answer if you if you have seen the deposition your time is up thank you answer do we have anyone else for public comment at this time whoops it's good okay uh Kelly rosma I live in W Township I just wanted to say thank you to all the members of the board excuse me especially those of you who this might be your last meeting I appreciate all of your time I think you guys have done a great job and I wish you all the best for the holiday season and new year [Music] thanks thank you do we have anyone else for public comment okay seeing none we're going to be closing the floor for public comment at this time I would like to welcome our student Representatives um and we are thrilled to hear your report the floor is yours this week in school it is holiday spirit week each day is a new fun theme today was dressed as a holiday character day to wrap up this fun week W high school will be holding a first ever winter pep rally this Friday now we will have a fall winter and spring pep rally to honor all the sports the entire school is so excited pep rallies are so fun and get the whole school involved it is the perfect way to head into our winter break our winter sports have also just kicked off freshman Donovan Klein is off to a blazing start for the boys bowling team and he's currently a top 10 bowler in the state boys and girls basketball both picked up their first wins of the year as well in the pool the boys and girls swimming team just won their first meet to wrap it up up track team completed their Ocean Breeze tournament in States Island and won the distance medley relay their Captain Matt rovski also just announced his commitment to run at Westchester University the rest of the track team has their first meet today the times of re Rubble it's also both a hectic hectic and rewarding time for the class of 2024 who are currently receiving many of the college application decisions we wish the seniors the best of luck with these decisions and can't wait to see where they all end up at so true so our student Representatives this evening are Michael southwell Megan Cappy and Mason Adam Adam um they've all done a great job for us on this first half of the school year um we've got other members that are not here this evening but we always appreciate you guys keeping us up to date I know things are getting a little wild um uh but Christmas break holiday break is right around the corner so hang in there um if you guys would like to stay for the meeting you're always welcome if you've got other commitments we totally understand but thank thank you and I hope you guys have a great break at this point in time I'm going to turn the floor over to Dr handam we've got a couple couple of uh special presentations that she's going to introduce if the board would like to go around and watch from the front they certainly may it's my pleasure to start at this portion of our evening with um The Rise program overview so it is my pleasure to welcome Miss Kelly Bond Dr Nancy Samaha and Miss Sue Moren it's weird my face that way okay I'm going to go this way okay um so thank you very much for the opportunity to present this evening and to share some really important information with you so part of my responsibilities as a director are to look at referral data the reasons why students are coming to us in special education and then to look at our current programs and determine if we're meeting the needs of all students so something that we are noticing that is increasing in our student population is mental health challenges and we are looking to create a program that will support this so we're looking to create a program that will be restorative in nature it will teach children the restorative practices that are necessary to support them in a very individualized um program so each child will have a very individualized program that will meet their needs we're looking to do so in a very small Comm and supportive environment and we're also looking to provide them access to wall High School the academics and the extracurricular activities that wall high school has to offer so while this slide is up here and you have the opportunity to look at the core values Behind The Rise program I'm going to give the microphone to Susan Boren who's going to share some um information with us I think I'm just going to talk is that okay you can hear me Gail can you hear me no all right sorry okay so while you're looking at this I want to have to put my papers down sorry while you're looking at this I want to tell you a little bit about the type of student that this program would serve so why do we need this program over and above what we already have at wall high school so to do that I'm going to ask you to please think of a time when you've experienced anxiety like think of the instance and I'm not just talking about like I was up at 3:00 a.m. thinking about what I was saying saying today this morning that's normal anxiety I'm talking about real anxiety maybe even panic when someone pose that to me what I thought of was when my children were about three I have twins and when I would go shopping with them alone I always put them in a cart because there's two of them one of me and on one occasion was going shopping and my mother was coming with me we're going to Kohl's all right we don't have to put him in a cart let's give him a little bit of Freedom this is great so they would travel kind of back and forth between my mother and I well as my mother and I got further and further apart in the store I look down and there's no Luke and I look around and I don't see him so then I look around I see my mom I go over to her mom where's Luke she's like I don't know so then of course we get a little frantic we're looking in the rack separating the clothes is he inside is he hiding nothing okay he must be back by the toys let's go back by the toys get back there search around no Luke so now my heart's racing now the anxiety is really up right so I grab the first person I can find that works there tell them what's going on they got on the walkie-talkie they notify the other employees like we got the missing little boy we're all looking for him now couple minutes go by getting more and more anxious then they call people out of the back rooms I see doors opening more employees are coming out looking for him no Luke feels like hours sure it was just minutes and then I hear the store manager say to another employee I think it's time to call code Adam lock the doors and call the police now I'm not just anxious now it's Panic now I'm like frozen my heart's not racing anymore I'm frozen and I feel this like way wave come over me like I could throw up or pass out we have students that experience that same level of panic when they walk in the school building this program will support them this program will give a place for them in their home school in their District school with their peers so they don't have to travel out of District now that explains to you the level of anxiety but I'd like to if you'll indulge me tell you in a student's own words when they were asked this is a student who experiences School avoidance probably the worst year was over 100 absences what do you want your teachers to know what do you want your peers to know know what do you want people to know about what you experience why you're not in school so I'm going to read to you some of the statements from this youngster High School age she absolutely wanted to be in school she said having a body full of the effects of adrenaline is not fun she didn't feel safe in school and she clarified this was absolutely not the fault of the school I know it wasn't logical but it was very real and impossible to override at times she was terrified of feeling trapped at school with waves of panic and anxiety too difficult to manage she needed to know she could leave and she needed to know that she could make that decision she had control over it she was desperately worried that she would be negatively judged by her teachers and her peers her anxiety usually came out of nowhere she had no control over it she was not trying to get out of anything or trying to get attention when she was stricken with panic she felt like she was going to die and it sounds dramatic but I can tell you that day in Kohl's when they said lock the doors and call the police I felt like I was going to die at that moment her inability to function she want you to know is not due to laziness procrastination or a lack of willpower now on this slide I won't read to you but I would like to address two bullet points the first and the last the first talks about the types of therapy that would be provided in this therapeutic learning environment that would would be different than what the high school already has so if you talk about cognitive behavioral therapy dialectal behavioral therapy these are two types of therapy that could be provided in this program depending on the students needs that they wouldn't get if they went to guidance or to a child study team member and then the last bullet point the fact that the program extends outside of school with family supports is very important as you can imagine School avoidance to the likes of 70 to 100 absences per year affects not only that student but it affects the family as well so I'd like to read for you a statement from a parent of a student who experiences emotionally based School avoidance this parents talking about their son in high school and they State my 15-year-old son has been struggling with school avoidance since he started high school he's diagnosed with general anxiety disorder and a sleep wake disorder every day is a battle it has created issues in my ability to work my family relationships and with my friends I've lost a lot of friends because they just don't get it just like my family doesn't get it I feel so isolated and hopeless please tell me there's hope I love my son and seeing him this way breaks my heart and lastly I'll read to you a very short statement from a sibling The Sibling States I did all of the extracurricular activities that I possibly could I didn't like being at home because of all the tension so I hope that gives you some insight into the type of student and the need for this program are you next hello I would like to provide you with some more details about the Rise program so I'm going to start off with who is the program intended for so we are looking at students between the grades of nine and 12 who have an IEP uh that is due to emotional difficulties which might include anxiety depression or other emotional regulation difficulties and often these um challenges are associated with school phobia School avoidance so the students that will be considered for the program they may currently attend wall high school and these are students who may have chronic absenteeism they may really struggle with meeting the demands of a typical school day uh they may be currently on home instruction because the problem has become so acute the students May attend uh currently attend an out of District program but we feel that with the proper supports in the program that we're putting together that um they will experience success in this Rise program so what exactly is the Rise program it's an individualized school-based program that has both a therapeutic and an academic Focus so we think these are both very extremely important components the academic and the therapeutic it's going to be help at wall high school we plan to open it this coming fall of 2024 and why is there a need for this program it's because the um students all over are experiencing um an increase in the number of mental health challenges uh we also believe that students should be educated in the least restrictive environment so that means attending their home school because that um that's their home school and that's where they have um just so many many social opportunities but um just wall High School just has so much to offer and they should have the opportunity to have access to the diverse academic classes that wall high school offers as well as the many athletic and uh different kinds of clubs that they would benefit from as well so I'm going to give you some details about how we're going to support our students in this program um first we'll have an abbreviated school day for them because they simply are not ready for full school day and we hope that they will be in time um they'll have we'll have an adjusted arrival and dismissal time because being in crowded hallways is difficult and stressful for many students um especially this particular group of students and also the location will be different we have a classroom selected that is close um to a uh side door and students can come and go from that door uh there will be um individualized student schedules so their schedules will will depend on their own interests their abilities and also their level of functioning at that time and schedules may be fluid and they may start out spending um all of their academic classes in that Rise program that will be taught by a special educator who is certified to teach all academic areas um but hopefully they will come out in time to spend um some time in general education classes and ideally in all general education classes eventually um we're going to integrate mindfulness approaches into the program and so that might include yoga it might include meditation the seven mindsets which is the district initiative we are going to incorporate that into the instruction I feel that most importantly we are going to have a licensed clinician that's dedicated to this program and this will be someone uh we're currently um looking to contract with V with an agency and there are various agencies that do provide this service so we will contract we'll select one of those agencies and contract with them where they will provide us with a clinician and that clinician will have specific skills that will benefit this um population um most importantly they'll be able to do home visits and um in these visits um hopefully they will be able to address the absenteeism and increased student attendance this clinician will provide both individual and group counseling to the students also family counseling um they will be able to conduct U parent support groups and also um professional development for staff they'll provide daily check-ins with the students and um there will be uh weekly team meetings with the staff um of the high school that will also be supporting this program and in these meetings we'll review each student's progress and we'll look at the data that pertains to both their academic functioning and also their overall um level of um of fun functioning and looking at their behavioral and their anxiety levels I'm going to pass this back now to Miss Bond um something else that's really important about this clinician is that um like Sue was talking about earlier the way the family is impacted this is not just something that the child feels the entire family feels it and this clinician will be able to support us by um really providing supports for the entire family so we talked to you a bit about our why um why are we doing this and I just want to elaborate a little bit to explain why now um s34 34 was a bill that was put into place after covid that allowed for 21-year-old special education students who remained with us till they were 21 to be allowed the opportunity to have an additional year till they were 22 that um bill is sunsetting this June which is going to allow additional funds in next year's budget um um to support this very worthy program and um lastly this um perfectly aligns with our district strategic plan I'm going to start with Wellness um you've heard a lot about how this will support student wellness academics and the Wall Township Public School experience when a child is removed and goes out of District they lose the opportunity to be a part of our academics and our our Public School experience Communications we are very hopeful that this opens up the line of communication between ourselves and families who are really struggling and lastly financially it is certainly a benefit to have students educated in their home schools and participating in our high school so we thank you very much for um listening to us this evening and um more importantly the continued support that I feel from this board and the community for uh the special education programs and the department so thank you very much and we're happy to answer any questions if you have them thank you so much Miss Moren Dr Samaha Miss Bond U I just want to applaud all of their hard work on this um the the na the nation there's some unique challenges uh that the nation has been facing um especially with uh the Adolescent populations with um mental health and um you know it's it's so easy to sit and talk about the challenges but it's another thing to um you know roll up your sleeves and be pioneers and start addressing the challenges and um I'm incredibly proud of this work and I know that this uh program will make um a difference to the lives of our students our students families and um you know more to come on this and uh just thank you for all your hard work um while we're talking about the um special services department I thought I saw um Miss Samantha Roberts but and I always mess up your married name so bager Roa how did I do did I do okay um welcome I know uh you know you're you're here obviously to support your colleagues and um you know there's some some good things uh that are going to be an outcome of this meeting too so it's wonderful to see you it's been a while so congratulations again okay um our next presentation is um is part of an ongoing series and uh Miss Bond actually and Dr Saha mentioned the seven mindsets and U it's my pleasure to uh to introduce Miss Tiffany Steiner as our next installment for um our districtwide initiative so uh we look forward to the latest mindset so miss Steiner thank you Dr handerhan and thank you for having me again I um I have to say I I definitely have an attitude of gratitude this evening and um I'm very fortunate to work in such a wonderful environment where mental health is always the number one priority so um in watching this evening's presentation as well I think it's important to say how this fits into the spectrum of how we're serving our students and we do things to prevent and we're proactive and this is one of our proactive approaches and then we do things to respond to what we have and The Rise program just sounds like such an excellent response to some of those mental health needs so we are focused on this month's mindset which is attitude of gratitude um if you can recall our seven mindsets program is our student wellness program is offered to all it's research-based and the outcomes of this program show that there's an increase in resilience grit and academic performance when this is incorporated into a curriculum and done with Fidelity it also shows demonstrates that there's a reduce in discipline referrals and absences so we really get a good result from this program we are on our second mindset our second mindset is attitude of gratitude we focused on attitude of gratitude over two months so that's why if it feels like we've been there for a while we have November and December we have put in all different types of activities that really reinforce this mindset I want to familiarize you a bit with it by um with the glass the glass half full or is the glass half to empty right is always the um conundrum that we face in life and those who see the fullness and leave less time to be distracted by the empty are really those are the type of dispositions that we're looking to build in children with this attitude of gratitude ude and it really is a four-part process where we teach children to treasure themselves and to love themselves and be aware of who they are we teach children to be more grateful and that really has to do with passing it forward and thanking others and building on those relationships and showing appreciation and social awareness we talk about thanking It Forward which are the actions that build solid relationships and then we also talk about elevating your perspective which um has to do with more of your growth mindset and building resilience so it's looking at situations and saying what good can I see in this situation and how can I use this setback as an opportunity for growth with every mindset we have um classroom instructional materials we have parent newsletters we take our media centers and we align our our media centers with books related to the topic we do morning announcements um I wanted to show some of the vocabulary that's aligned to attitude of gratitude and you can see by grade span some of the words that we use to reinforce the four-part process of attitude of gratitude and then we also have school and District extension activities I wanted to focus on one activity that was done at the high school level which is a great interest um and the focus was our new school family liaison counselor Miss baracus took an opportunity and she met with the English department and they planned an activity where they looked at research from University of Pennsylvania and said do you know what the practice of gratitude if done on a daily basis and it really is equivalent to about five minutes a day is shown to increase longev longevity of Life by seven years so this simple practice is shown um to also decrease depression anxiety and things of that nature so we took our English classes 9 to 12 and we showed them the relevance of the study and that's how we introduced the activity and then what we did is we shared with them an electronic journal and we asked that children journal in their English class for five minutes every day across the week on the back ends of that journal we looked at some of the responses and what we had asked children to kind of focus on was um you know share first we asked them to be mindful and you know to have a focus on what was good about their day so far and then we asked them if they would share some words of kindness what were some words of kindness they either heard throughout the day or that they would like to share to somebody else after the week we took those words of kindness and we also got words of kindness from teachers and we created Post-it notes and these Post-it notes were put on 12 classroom doors as you can see um we have some of them featured up there and what we did is we extended the activity and we said you know now that we're wrapping it all up we want to take your words of kindness and kind of thank it forward and pay it forward and give you the opportunity that as you come and go from class each day if you need a word of encouragement to take one of those Post-its and to keep it for yourself we also had some extra Post-its that we distributed to the teachers and as they saw a student who may have done something commendable or may have been in a need of a positive word those were also distributed throughout the week so this was the starting point and at the end of the week there were many Post-its that were removed from the door so it really shows that um the kids do they take take what they need but also it shows the class that they offered something that really helped somebody else so um we thought it was a wonderful activity we were really impressed with it I know the teachers loved it um you know this will be available online if you want to kind of get up close and see some of the posters and some of the comments but one of the posters is from a teacher who says you know I just love being your teacher so um we were really proud of that activity some other activities that happened across the last two months of attitude of gratitude is we did some activities for World kindness day where we did some letters for the military at the intermediate school they decorated some coffee cups and now this week the week before a holiday um they are delivering coffee to teachers you know in the decorated cups to just show a little bit of gratitude we had spirit days we had um our national junior art Honor Society created some buttons as you can see to kind of give some more momentum to our program we had a community mental health meet and greet where we brought in community providers and it kind of tied it into that elevating our perspective and knowing that you know setting the stage if there are mental health needs and how we can take those needs and create a positive um situation by engaging the right professionals and then we also have our Wellness in the works volume two where we had our School nurses contribute to the newsletter with giving some healthy habits and um we had a series of workshops also over the last two months which we thank the wtea for supplying um a grant where we were able to Target different populations and teach them about either technology and the use of Genesis in the district and also seven mindsets so we've been busy and we are ready to move on after two months in attitude of gratit itude um we are appreciative that we are entering in the new year a new mindset and that mindset will be everything is possible so there is more to come and I thank you for having me this [Applause] evening thank you so much Miss Steiner for that great presentation um I I I just want to also thank Miss baracas because the amount of time that it must have taken to um to put the messaging on each post it and I have to tell you that they are so neatly displayed in perfect rows and columns I was mighty impressed and uh just it just shows to the level of commitment um of our staff members so I thank you so much for sharing that particular image because I was taken aback when I saw it live so thank you so much um at this time if the Board of Education members would return to the deis that would be terrific while there are many many positive things to share with everyone this even evening I would be fibbing if I said that there are some things on tonight's agenda that are bittersweet that were not bitter that well it's a tough meeting it's December specifically tonight we say farewell to two of our Board of Education members Mr Christopher San Filippo and Miss Kristen hodnet our Board of Education president has some words that she wishes to share Miss ties Kristen hodnet join joined the Board of Education in 2021 and has graced the board with a wealth of information from her experience as an educator her expertise in special education and her experience as a clinical professor professor of special education has provided invaluable insight into current trends best practices and curriculum evaluation development and implementation for both the general and special education population Miss hodnet has shared her unique perspective as an education Insider with the board in many circumstances as chair of curriculum and instruction she has helped translate and guide the board uh as we've navigated proposed new math and reading programs considered teacher evaluation platforms and developed leadership positions all with the goals of optimizing student learning and staff development Miss hodnet has always been a proponent of evolving mental health initiatives and has been a steadfast supporter of student emotional Wellness and overall character development she's been an outstanding member of our policy committee and has been a student centered advocate in all of her conduct as a board member Miss hodnet has been a great communicator with fellow board members she has been straightforward and strong in her convictions and Wall Township Schools have been fortified by her contributions speaking for the board she will be greatly missed and we wish her all the best Chris S Filippo joined the Board of Education in 20 8 and successfully sought reelection in 2021 he has served the board as vice president acted as a board leaon to the town has served on and chaired several negotiation committees for both the wtea and WTC contracts and has served on various board committees including curriculum and instruction and Personnel during his tenure Mr sppo chaired the successful search for a new superintendent and has been an integral part of supporting the restructuring of our District Administrative chain of command to help our district create a strong stable Foundation to support our District staff he has participated in several District strategic planning Endeavors and has contributed his knowledge as a business owner and lifelong resident of Wall Township to identifying and accomplishing the best interests of our district he has been a constant positive advocate for students focusing on what's good for kids as a central principal for his decisionmaking Mr San Filippo is a committed volunteer within our community he is unfailingly optimistic and has served our district with pride and integrity our sadness at his departure is to measure it with the depth of the dedication with which he has served well it's hard for me not to chime in because uh especially when comes to Mr San Filippo miss hodnet when wall was looking for its new superintendent I got to know Mr Chris San Filippo quite well because as Miss St said he was the chair of the superintendent search committee every interaction and there had been many that I had had with him was so incredibly positive it was abundantly clear that this man loved his community his blood was definitely crimson red he Ador adored his family and he would pretty much do whatever it takes to support the children and staff of Wall Township Public Schools so after an exhaustive superintendent search that soldiered on even during the pandemic lockdown when Mr San Filippo offered me this position how could I have possibly say no to this guy I even said yes to wearing the wall baseball cap in my introduction video yeah Mr s Filippo has been an amazing board member through thick and thin and it is really hard for me to believe that his time has come to an end Miss Kristen hodnet joined the board in 20121 and her willingness to do so demonstrated to me that she was a force arguably she joined the most difficult and joined during the most difficult and challenging time in public education while board members across the country were running away from the de she ran towards it and what I have learned after getting to know her is of course she did it's just who she is fortunately for this board and for this community Miss hod Net's educational knowledge professionalism resolve and commitment to students came across loud and clear to anyone that was privileged to spend time with her tonight we wish Mr Sam Filippo and Miss hodnet well on their next Endeavors and on behalf of our school Community I wish to extend our heartfelt gratitude for their service and for DED the dedication to the Wall Township Public Schools on a personal note thank you so much for all of your hard work your encouragement for continually challenging us to consider multiple perspectives you will both be missed dearly Mr s Filippo Miss hodnet Miss Stites would you care to join me in the front of the Das you the board of education has a small token for both of you I believe I have the Mr s filippos on the left thank you and Miss Stites if you would like to present this to miss hodman thank you CH thank you thank you you're going to be especially looking at the lights around your neck Mr s Filippo and I would wear the hat for you over and over [Laughter] [Applause] again okay um at this time I'm going to go ahead and start with the president's report and we're going to start by recognizing our high school students of the month and nights of the week um for grade nine our student of the month is Justin Cannon grade 10 Elena Greco grade 11 Georgia calado and grade 12 Elvis Cordo our nights of the week for the week of November 6th our sophomore Christa Melendez the week of November 13th we have senior Linda Osborne week of uh November 20th we have Junior Emily Gil and the week of November 27th we have Hobie Peterson a sophomore um um I know you've done great stuff for the school we're super proud of you and I'm sure your families are thrilled um and should be very proud of you as well um so at this point in time I would just like to um say um that we are tremendously proud of our students and our staff for everything that they've done um in this uh you know half of the Year we're looking forward to January um and then the rest of the school year for our parents and our community and our pto's who have done so much to support our students and our staff um in very difficult times and also great times we thank everyone who comes together um on behalf of our students and our staff and make the W School District uh what it is I would like to also thank my fellow board members uh for everything that you've accomplished over the past year um the amount of time that you each take preparing for every week uh you know being up to date for your participation on your committees um many of you serve on to um in addition to what we do for the board um the amount of time away from your families um is very significant and um your hard work is truly appreciated um by me it has been an honor to serve our community this past year and for me to act as the president of this board I'm tremendously proud of the work that the board has done and that we have accomplished in part parip with our Administration for our students and our staff thank you for trusting me with the position the board would like to wish everyone a peaceful and happy holiday season we hope you're blessed with the gift of time spent with your family and friends there really is no greater gift um and we're all looking forward to an incredible 2024 we will see everyone um at the January 2nd reorganization meeting um and that is going to conclude my president's report Dr handam thank you Miss Stites I'm I think I'm going to go Full Throttle with the attitude of gratitude in my superintendent report and start off by thanking the wall High School color guard and our student representatives to the Board of Education Mason Adam Megan Cappy and Michael southwell for joining us this evening of special thanks to Dr oconnell and our Alan wood musicians for sharing their talents with us this evening uh this month I had the privilege of joining our district principles in announcing in announcing the educators of the year the Board of Education will formally recognize these Educators at the January business meeting to hold us over till then though I wish to extend congratulations to M Kathleen Boland and Miss Beth Damiano from wall Primary School Miss Kristen Bernie Bernie and Miss Janet Caden from Allenwood School Mr Joseph ranga and Miss Maria boulderman from Central School Miss Kelly buckle and Miss Rosemary lavara from Old Mill School Miss Shannon faari and Miss Bonnie Farley from West Belmore School Mr Michael Ryan and Miss Carrie Penn from wall Intermediate School Mr Jared mof and Mr Michael nastasi from wall High School I would also like to recognize one of our teachers for an amazing academic and professional accomplishment please join me in congratulating wall Intermediate School language arts teacher Miss Laura brienza for realizing her dream and having her screenplay meet me under the mistletoe become a real reality meet me under the mistletoe Premiere took place on December 9th on Great American family stay tuned for more information through our website and social media channels thank you Miss brienza for being such a wonderful role model for our students as you persevered and realized your dream this month Mr Davis and I had the pleasure of witnessing our n ndcc make a difference in so many lives by being active participants in the wreaths Across America program which ensures our veterans and gold star Families Are Never Ever forgotten these Cadets even fought the elements on a rainy rainy weekend to ensure the remembrance of our veterans then thank you just doesn't seem to cut it I would also like to thank the special services department social club and volunteers for their efforts in providing our second annual Polar Express night it is my understanding that it was a fantastic and amaz an amazing evening I wish to give a shout out to West Belmar teacher Miss Ashley Thompson for conceiving the idea to provide a series of Parental evening programs to meet the specific needs of some of our wall families these special programs were sponsored by the wtea and are the result of a true team effort special thanks to Miss Ashley Thompson Miss kin gilvary Miss Anna noon miss Karen mcgaan Miss gaale Mah Miss Jam Lin Campbell Miss Tiffany Steiner Mr estrados monopus Mr John hyim Mr Anthony AEL Miss Allison eons Miss Caitlyn Williamson Miss Dana hanin Miss Courtney matth and members of our wall High School National Honor Society December is a magical month in the Wall Township Schools so so much musical Talent as you got to see earlier in this SE this evening's meeting I hope that you had took the opportunity to attend one of our holiday concerts if you haven't it is not too late wall High School will perform its holiday concert this Thursday at 700 p.m. hope to see you there I am happy to announce that kinder kindgarten registration for the 2024 2025 school year will open on February 1st 2024 and preschool registration opens on February 15 2024 I wish to extend happy holidays to the entire wtps family and I look forward to a fantastic 2024 Miss tites thank you Dr handran this point we're going to be going into the Board of Education updates Mr s Filippo I'm supposed to do the thing sure okay hi um I'm gonna organize myself for a moment because I um I just want to say thank you um uh to Chris and Dr handerhan for the um wonderful words words um and thank you thank you so much um so I was talking to my cousin today and um I actually uh he was watching listening to a podcast about um artificial intelligence and so um I had a lot of fun today and um I asked chat GPT to write my um sort of speech this afternoon um but it didn't really go exactly as what I thought so um but I did get a song from chat GPT and I'll share with you one of the choruses there's actually multiple songs so just in case you know like you can put it in there and keep asking for I literally said make me a song about the Wall Township Board of Education and then I kept going and doing it again and it got like all these different songs so was awesome so anyways um the chorus that I wanted to share with you from one of the songs from chat from chat GPT is oh wallboard of wisdom your surface so bright a canvas for learning in the soft classroom light equations and words a dance on your face you're the heartbeat of progress in the sacred place so that's that's what uh artificial intelligence um uh song and it's actually asked the chords the chords are uh GC a minor f um just in case you want to play it at home um so I did actually write a couple things down and um um just because I kind of wanted to organize some um some thoughts so um uh first of all it's it's it's just been an honor and a privilege um to work on the board of education um for these last six years um I told people that was like an eighth of My Life um and then it was like actually an eighth of my life and maybe a little bit more so um but during that time frame I've had the pleasure to uh serve with 19 other board members um and I thank each one of them for their time um and everybody on this board that I've served with has been committed to this board um it's been a wonderful pleasure to work collaborate uh and move this District forward um and I thank each and every one of you um and and this this board here I know we've sort of been together for a couple years now it's got had a special place in in my heart as well um and I can tell you um uh plain and simple that everybody here um has uh commitment to this District to our kids and to creating a path for this District to flourish uh for our kids to have the best opportunities you know once they walk out of the doors and into the real world um I'd like to um thank um Allison Robin um and especially Ralph and Christine who've been board presidents that I've worked with um during this time period um being a board president is some job um not for the faint of heart um and they've stood there in the heat um and I mean at certain times it was like being in the heart of a volcano um and I want to specifically thank thank you both for for th those jobs because it's a tough tough job um so people ask me all the time um you know and there was actually a news article um on this that a bunch of people um sent me like text messages and it said is the wall Township Board of Education the worst job in New Jersey um and you can look that up and I think looking from the outside sometimes people can say Yes um sometimes looking from the inside you could say yes and no I'm just joking but um honestly um working at the wallboard of that has given me such great Insight um it taught me a whole bunch about the inner workings of the school district Civics in general and it also provided me with an opportunity to give something back to the community and town that I love um anyone who knows me knows that I I love this town um I'm committed to this town um and whether that's you know coaching on football or baseball fields or um working on the board of education or just in general walking around um you know I'm I'm very proud of of this place um I'm very excited where we are right now um I know uh when Joe um uh gave sort of his little speech last year um he was um very excited about where we were and and where we're going um and I think that that direction keeps going um I I have just the utmost confidence in Dr handerhan and her vision and her entire staff and Dawn and and and Kim and and Mike and guys up there thank thank you so much and Brian um you guys have been wonderful um for six years and reminded me of all the things that I didn't do multiple multiple times um and told me my password over and over and over again that I needed to get so thank you so so much um I like to like to farm um some people know that and um so I I can't help but think that we've you know planted a bunch of seeds here as a board and I I think that that we got some plants and some trees and some saplings growing and they're all kind of growing at different intervals and um and I think that um everyone is really going to be able to see um you know the fruits of of all of that labor in the coming couple years and you know especially with the passing of the referendum that was a massive um awesome thing for this district and it's exciting and I think um over the course of the next couple years you're going to see some of those um building projects and things like that to come to fruition and it's going to be amazing um I'd like to thank um the teachers and the administrators and the administrators and the teachers and the staff and um and everybody here who works in the district um I've had a chance to work as a custodian right in this building um for a day I had a chance to work in the cafeteria here um for a day um it was the same day um but it was it was fun every body was shocked that I was like handing out pizzas and stuff like that um but it it was amazing and you you don't you don't get to do that you know like um you know all that often and but you can so you know come out and volunteer to do that kind of stuff so it's exciting um but um you guys um are the real deal and your commitment and Spirit uh works wonders in these kids and it's unsurpassed um I have three kids and I've seen this firsthand um you create a positive environment for these kids and you balance so many things in the process um it's no secret that balancing professional and personal lives is no easy feat um especially these days and I know that you guys sacrifice a lot and you're always willing to put yourselves out there and from the bottom of my heart I thank you for that um and then so for um the town um I guess and everybody in the town um so I wrote down my most treasured Wall Township community um for for those of you that come here to our board meetings and are a constant um you know uh uh force and true Force for positivity and good thank you so much um and for all of those out there in streaming land um I think during covid they said that they were playing the waltan CH boort of Education drinking game for a little while while we were streaming which was kind of funny right so um but um I would say this um to everybody um is um I would invite you to ignite an even larger passion of positivity for this District uh for the overwhelming majority of parents they're thrilled with their children's education the moms and dads who tear up when their kids sing in the choir or play instruments in the bands and orchestras um for the parents and grandparents that love going to see their kids compete out on the sporting fields in courts for the parents who see their kids earn medal of honor and for the parents who love and treasure all of the artwork that we hang on the fridge and there we've got kids that have artwork hanging up in the white house right now um uh share that love and that Joy um that is watching your kids grow up and flourish in the Wall Township school system uh these are the memories that are most precious and they will be the basis of conversation for a lifetime uh there are things and um uh there there are times when folks in the community are quick you know to render some horse judgment and criticism here that's that's no secret um so but I would I would challenge you to understand that um you know the members of the Board of Education um you know sometimes feel the way you do too um I beg you to have Prudence to match your passion and patience towards your purpose um and thank you and [Applause] Miss hodnet it's very hard to follow a chat GPT song um I did not use chat GPT because I discourage my students from using chat gbt um I just will be brief um when you join the board you don't really know what you're signing up for and it's an uphill climb um you have to learn in the moment at a meeting while you're being sworn in with a bunch of strangers initially and it's because of the intensity it can have in that moment where you have to learn because you have a job to do that people elected you to do you form relationships with people um and that's the current board um and that's other board members that are no longer with us but you know answered so many questions that I had as I was learning to do this job so I just want to say thank you to everyone I share the day us with now but also the people that came before this year in this term and thank you to Ralph and Christine for being our board presidents it's an enormous job um that you know Bears all the responsibility of the board the you know everything gets directed to them and I will thank Dr Hanahan and um Christine for their kind words I was I feel like I'm kind of on my head still from hearing them and I just appreciate them so much and I want to thank everybody who um works with the board and organizes us and shares documents with us and reminds us what our passwords are and to sign things and to go to trainings um because without you we would all struggle more than we do learning this um and to our community I would just say you know get involved um in a town that doesn't have a downtown the schools are the center of everything and we want our schools to be a place where people want to gather and um you know join your schools PTA or come out for the board or show up for sporting events or music events because that is where we all gather um and I think the one thing that you know I've always noticed in the board members that I've worked with is we all care about the kids first um no matter how different we are and we are very different we believe in different things we have different lives outside of these meetings um but we all always rolled up our sleeves and thought about what do the students need in this situation and how can we get them that um and I I don't think there's a person that sits here that I wouldn't say that about so thank you very much for everything um and I really will miss you know the work and it's it's surprising to say that after the turn my bad so thank you thank you Mr Nasser do you have a referendum update for us please good evening I will make this very quick because those were two phenomenal speeches thank you very much to both of you it was an honor serving with you I'll miss you both definitely um so this is our Slow Time of the Year a lot of bids coming in uh bids going out design work there's a lot of things going on behind the scenes so there's not a lot of tangible um things to report last Thursday our Roofing bids came back we're going to review them in our next fnf meeting uh Allenwood is still in progress I know they're pouring the stairs and uh there's some concrete still ongoing and the high school roof is being closed out um aside from that there are some quick mentions about a schedule uh in our this month's facilities report as soon as we have that we'll be sharing it on our website so that everybody can see what's going on that's it happy holidays everybody thank you does anyone on the board have anything else for the board report okay moving on uh committee reports are published minutes are published um on the website um do we have any committee chairs that need to update okay all right seeing none at this time I'm going to be opening up the floor for the second public comment this public comment time is for agenda action items so um please feel free to either use the podium at the top or the bottom and again these comments are um meant to be received by the board not necessarily have a discussion at this time um and I do just request that um people recognize um that this is a Board of Education [Music] meeting ma'am do we have anyone else for public [Music] comment Betsy cross I live in wall and I'm I'm just going to hold up some pictures while I'm up here um in the role regarding the Central School trailers so um I will switch them out looking at the agenda I'm very sorry to see that uh Susan panacek is now leaving very sad uh great teacher so I I am you know so happy that she is getting ready to retire en Joy enjoy her retirement cuz she was a fabulous teacher for my son uh Mrs Buckle was teacher of the year at Old Mill she's fabulous glad to see that too it's another picture of the trailer raw sewage that didn't get that report this for action item only Mrs cross thank you so much thank you um I am waiting for some OAS back so we keep paying the attorney so that would be an agenda item which action item are you ref $8,000 this month on opras and I have uh seven growth and development minutes to do with the trailers that I'd like back by the end of the week action items are you referring to ma'am your your paycheck your paycheck $188,000 on the agenda all these hanging wires never should have passed why did which item are you referring to ma'am on the agenda um referendum info there's barely anything here all I notice is we're spaying spitzel again 131,000 that's under your referendum Updates this is all the garbage under the trailer so hopefully on the thank you action items please health insurance holy cow what the hell is going on do not approve the stop loss I've sent it into everybody imaginable um this is crazy we're paying $3600 a month for the highest health insurance plan you you got to do some you got to do some work before you renew that for another year um I see Dominic selli was in I see you I had like six people in God knows what they're doing for 55 grand um it's a no for that stoploss you got to get the controller's office in here and the Attorney General because something is seriously wrong um another photo all these hanging wires that were so dangerous for the children in the trailers pleas identify which action item that you're referring to on the agenda holy cow we got we're up $5 million in just the past uh few years 5 million from 1819 um this is this document that shows that Mr SMI was budgeting a million for lease agreement excuse me which action item are you referring to on the agenda M cross attorney bills well that's not my attorney bills so which action item are you referring to in the that is an action item the agenda um so can you can you answer tonight have you seen Mr smites um deposition if he has had it can you answer that tonight you're going to get back to me tomorrow and I'd like i' like all those do we have anyone else for public comment at this time it's unfortunate um that Miss cross appears to be attempting to weave an Area 51 level tapestry of conspiracy that the board will not participate in thank you okay do we have anyone else for public comment at this time seeing none I'm going to be closing the floor for public comment at this point in time I'm going to ask for a motion to approve the for approval of the consent agenda I'll make that motion Mr Sanol lippo thank you I'll second it Mrs hotnet thank you Mr Smite Mr Ania yes Mr buffer yes yes with the exception of item 17g which I will abstain noted Miss dgani yes Miss hnet yes with the exception of item 13 c as I wasn't present Mr Mali yes Mr Nasser yes Mr s Flippo yes Mr wandra yes M stes yes thank you all right so that will be concluding our last meeting for 2023 I thank everyone for coming out again I wish everyone the best as we go into these uh hopefully season of celebration for folks um and again we'll miss our outgoing board members we look forward to welcoming our new board members may I please have a motion for adjournment I'll make that motion Mr San Filippo may I have a second I'll second Miss snet I appreciate that all in favor all right good night everyone