okay uh to order please rise for the flag salute I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America the repics one nation God liy and justice for R ESS in the event of an emergency all people may exit right or left from this room and proceed to an exit door all doors will open from the inside the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the me meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interests is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the Helen board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published in the north Jersey Record News heral the board's official newspaper on January 10th 2024 notices of this meeting indicating date time and place were posted publicly on the door of the main entrance to the school and filed with the clerk in the municipality of haen roll call please Mr Abasi Mr K Pres Mrs here Mr Martinez here Mr moel here radan here Mr Webb yes and Mrs Z here okay can I have a motion to accept correspondent so move second moved by Mr MCO seconded by Mr Martinez roll call please Mr Keta yes Mr Martinez Mr matu yes Mr Ramadan yes m c yes Mr web yes and yes can I have a motion to accept prior minutes so second moved by Mr Martinez seconded by Mr MCO roll call please Mr T yes M yes but I do have a a question or a comment um in the when you had the Open Floor somebody in the public had mentioned talking to somean about the parking situation and the tick uh ticking starting April 1 I I just wanted like a suggestion maybe um have you thought about like maybe stickers for the people that need to park out there to identify those Vehicles as part of HPS and they won't get KCK it is yes so during new and old business if you could ask that I'll be more than happy to answer because that very question did come up and I think it's a great question okay yes Mr Martinez yes Mr Moo yes Mr Ramadan yes Mr web yes and Mr Z yes okay can I have a motion to open the floor to Citizens on agenda items only yeah second moved by Mr Martinez seconded by Mr MCO roll call please Mr K Mr kala yes sorry it wasn't unmuting yes Miss C yes Mr Martinez yes Mr moel yes Mr Ramadan yes Mr web yes Mrs yes okay so the floor is open to the public on agenda items only do we have anybody no we have a raised Hand by Rex maybe oh okay can't get to my gallery view okay um go ahead Miss CNA hello yes is there a question uh yeah about the agenda um I saw that the second reading for the policies are there and um I just I after speaking to Lois I did um get more of a Clarity on what the changes are for um I see that their state laws and they go way above U Mr waa so therefore it's going to going to be mandatory for every school to change all over uh change over the the wording on it um however uh I think that you guys have a decision making as far as removing his and her she and him and just adding Etc or they or them whatever it is that you guys want to use um so therefore I wouldn't take out something I would just add to it um another thing um I wanted to uh uh this is about communication because um when I looked at the the agenda yesterday there wasn't uh I think it was 7.10 that was not there and now it's there so I'm going to just say congratulations to Jennifer poano I know she really wants to BEP position so um uh seeing it from Wes day to the next when it's supposed to be come on I think it was two days before the meeting so that we can uh read through it and then being a change through it um from one day to the next it's kind of deceiving uh I feel like it's just a communication thing and if we did work better with the communicating I think things would go a little bit smoother I'll address that in my superintendent report by certain uh do we have any other comments okay can I have a motion to close the floor second moved by Mr Martinez seconded by Mr web roll call please Mr Keta yes Mr D yes Mr Martinez yes Mr M yes Mr Ramadan yes Mr web yes Mr yes um I'll just mention briefly that um the policy committee submitted suggested revisions to um the policies that are um inclusive they um meaning his her and there um but we can discuss that further when we vote on um policy and also regarding the um the agenda so it's inevitable it happens all the time it's just the nature of a school there are things happening constantly and um you know it used to be an a an addendum that we would get the board members would get but now it's being put and it would be put into the agenda now it's put into the agenda with asterisks but you know that's just the nature of being in a school and things changing and and things happening uh just you know from hour to hour um so that's um I don't know that there's much that you know could be changed about that and especially when we have so our meetings are every month or sometimes twice a month and we need to get things you know in we need to get the business taken care of before the next meeting so that's that's all I'll say about that um thank you Al righty let's see um all righty so let's go to committee reports and I will begin um so thanks everyone for joining us tonight first um I'd like to acknowledge our longstanding vice principal Beth Barnhill who will be retiring at the end of the school year um Miss Barnhill has been with HPS for about 20 years and has contributed to the professional development of our teachers and staff as well as the success of our students uh over the years she has also broke down broken down state testing data for staff and board members I think we've all been here when Miss barel has presented the you know State um testing data um and she's worked towards helping to improve student performance in that area among other things so we sincerely thank Miss Barnhill for her service and dedication to haen public school and we wish her the best in her retirement um I want to give a shout out to the hen PTA for yet another successful Tricky Tray uh thanks to the PTA board and all the volunteers who helped plan shop set up sell tickets and in general make it a great event uh several of our board members were in attendance uh along with teachers staff Administration and family and friends it was really nice to to see everybody out and you know supporting the PTA and ultimately our school because this the PTA is there for our school um and lastly I just want to wish everyone who celebrates a very happy Easter this Sunday um and since Eid will likely take place before our next board meeting I also want to wish everyone who celebrates a happy Eve and I wish our entire School Community a safe and restful spring break and when we come back it's going to be um you know the the last stretch the home stretch so um looking forward to the rest and then you know the exciting things that happen at the end of school year uh and will turn it over to our chief School administrator Mr WKA sure thank you board president Isa um I want to start with the most obvious one which is uh Miss Barnhill I think Miss we would all agree that Miss Barnhill is part of the fabric of haon public school she's been here for decades uh she she's seen Generations worth of our children uh and she's made a tremendous impact on our kids we're we're going to keep seeing the influence uh that she's had in our students students and our staff and our operations for years to come that's for sure and I wish her the very very best u i mean this from the bottom of my heart she is a tremendous human being and she possesses a tremendously large heart everyone that knows her will agree with that and I'm I'm glad I've been given the opportunity to work with her these past seven years I've learned a whole lot from Miss Barnhill uh she was a critical part of our organization when we needed her the most which was during Co and she the key reasons we were able to offer our students as much as we did during those difficult times Miss barill will be missed She'll always be remembered and we're we're all better off than having had the opportunity to work with Miss Barnhill she she's a wild cat for life um the second point and there's nothing deceitful about this here's what it is although we're losing a tremendous vice principal the fact of the matter is that the school still needs an acting elementary school vice principal I think we'd all agree that it's a very important position that's just the way the world works when I arrived at school on Monday morning this week I already knew that Miss Barnhill was going to be retiring and I kept that a secret uh but I had zero idea that she would need to leave as early as tomorrow Thursday um I'd been under the impression that we would be able to have had her work with us until the 30th of June but when I learned that that was just not going to be the case uh two days ago I set up a meeting with our attorney the very next day and the purpose of this meeting was to ascertain what options I as a superintendent had uh to fill this spot as quickly as possible considering that we had a board meeting less than 48 hours away uh during this meeting Mr Marina reminded me that I have the authority to appoint an acting assistant principal from now until June 30th if needed and I want to make it clear to the board that it is fully expected that Miss Barnhill will need to be out till the end of the year will not return ideally we would have liked to have given all inter in Cates a chance to interview for the position but the fact of the matter is that the vice principal position is incredibly important and we had a board meeting leing I didn't want to wait till the next board meeting to leave this position vacant fortunately we had just completed a vice principal search this past August the candidate that we hired we hired one candidate Mr Sado but the candidate that was the runner up for this position did a fantastic job therefore it seemed perfectly logical for me to appoint that candidate Miss Pano to be our elementary school acting vice principal I am confident in her ability and her passion and her dedication to the organization and her dedication the children and I know she will do a fantastic job therefore I want to congratulate M poano on this promotion and I also want to thank miss mcneel our former our former interim vice principal for her willingness to come in a few times a week to help Mentor Miss Pano so that she acclimates as quickly as possible to the support position of course I will need to open up this position to a search within the next month or two and it's very likely I'll look to create a search that specifies that we're looking for in-house candidates once that happens depending on the number of candidates that apply I will determine how to structure that particular search with that said my main priority right now is to do what I can to help Miss poo acclimate to this new position so that I could put her in the best possible likelihood of success um I wanted my next item is I want to thank uh board president Isa she came visit h public last Friday and we got to see the the playground we got to see the lunches um sometimes boring is good and it was a it was a it's was a rather mundane traditional lunchtime recess time thing uh the kids acted like kids um but I I I I do appreciate you coming and if any board member wants to come as long as you make an appointment with me I'm more than happy to to schedule time to show you what really goes on um and like I said a lot of times it's boring but that's good uh I also want to Echo Miss's thoughts about the tricky trade that was a whole lot of fun not just my mom won the grand prize uh but super grand prize but after all the money she makes donating on uh all the previous years I think she'd probably do but uh she still hasn't paid me back from my ticket uh but she did win the grand prize so that was a lot of fun but thank you for everyone that came to support lastly um you know we have spring break coming up which seems crazy it seems like the school year just started our boys a baseball Our Girls Softball they set the beginning know they're making their Final Cuts uh Team preparations tomorrow uh another good news and this this is actually more important than people think it's it's nice to see The Playground open for kids after school right it it's good to see that the kids have somewhere positive to go after school just to run around there be kids uh I want to thank Mr cusac and then and uh I'm T Mello for their their efforts in in monitoring after school but I like seeing kids be kids um if you walk by our campus you're see the construction starting to really take form right now um it it looks like you know the we're almost done with all the steel once we get confirmation that all the Steel's been done and the the company's told to M myself that they're going to work on making that pathway over by um I forget the name of is your Granite Street I think it is uh so it' be a little easier commute um but listen the the staff and the parents and the kids they've been really really really awesome during this entire process I think M cartin called it like the necessary burden we know the benefit of what's going to happen once we get these extra classrooms but it's been a little rough time but we just want to everyone and other than that that's that's my report thank you and I do thank you for reminding me about that visit these past couple of weeks feel like they've been blur but it was so I'm sorry I didn't include that in my report but it was a good visit um you know I was there during recess during lunch and um yeah I mean every it's what you would expect at a school you know the kids are running around they're you know they're being active and um you know sometimes they're being silly they're being noisy but you know that's all stuff that you expected nothing um you know nothing that was of concern so and it was just nice to at actually get to talk to some of the kids I you know had like little conversations with some of the students and it was it was really nice so thank you for reminding me does anybody any board members have any questions Mr wat uh okay then I will turn it over to our board uh I'm sorry our business administrator miss a thank you madam president um I just want to remind the board again if there's any members that need to do their disclosure forms those are due on April 30th please if you need us to send you the pen information I think there was some instructions that were sent out previously and it did include a pen in order for you to log on to the system and to um complete your form if you need that information sent to you or if you have any questions about the questions on the form just give us a call or reach out to myself or lower so we can send that over to anyone that needs it um the other thing is I just want to make sure I don't have a list in front of me if there's any mandatory training that you need this year please look into that to make sure that we are on top of that the end of the year comes around really quick and then we just don't want to be rushing at the last minute to complete any training that's um due if you're not sure what your status is with your training again reach out to us in the board office and I will be able to help you um in addition if there is an attendance um concerned about coming to the board meeting because we're always trying to figure out who's actually um going to be here for the most part everyone is here every week but we want to make sure that we always have a quum or whether you're going to be virtual or not coming at um unable to make it just let us know ahead of time so we can be sure of what the status is before we kind of sit down here at and last one thing to lastly U make sure that everyone is aware um which we try to let you guys know if there's a conflict on the agenda so get we just encourage everyone to read it especially the bills list if there's something on there that may be pertaining to you just look it over I try to get that information to everyone or Lois does a great job doing that and but if you have any questions or if you're not sure just reach out to us we're trying to clear it up before the board meeting and just want everyone to know that the budget was submitted um it's in review status right now I have received some communication from the county so we're working through all those things and our next our budget hearing meeting our public meeting is APR 29th we're not having a meeting on April 22nd everyone knows we pushed it to April 29th so that the review process has F to kind of go through uh as far as the agenda tonight we have Matthew's um financial statements on the agenda 12. 12.1 um I just want to make sure that everybody understands that we every month there is a financial state statement submitted the company let us know where our current salary is and then they also let let us know what the year-to DAT financials are um we are going up for Renewal we've been with nastos for about five um five years every five years the food service company has to go into another um kind of like a b process so we're due for that this year we have our schedule vendor walkth through on May 15 so anyone that's interested in um coming in to um looking to putting in a proposal those vendors will have um the opportunity to do that on May 15th and board members if you're interested in coming to see what that process is it's at 9:30 so um let just let me know so that we don't have everyone here at one time but if you're interested you know a few of you guys and other thing has to be less than five less than I would say less than no more than okay just the case and then um The Proposal opening scheduled date will be May 22nd um for the actual um vendors that are interested in putting in a proposal so those are the upcoming dates for um the Food Service program and we also have our construction application on the agenda tonight as as well as our semi action plan and our monthly Financial so if anyone has any questions when the have can okay thank you thank you Miss okay so let's start going um for personnel and management U Mr Martinez agenda items only okay curriculum and Technology Mr web J okay uh policy and public relations Mr Martinez agenda a security and safety Mr GL nothing P okay Community engage engagement um Mr moow agenda items uh finance and physical plant Mr Moo uh we met discussed bilding um and agenda items um for the state and County um so on April 12th there is uh it's the last of that leadership series of three different themes one Focus so the this one is on Communications um um and I believe those are hybrid um but part of it you have to be there in person um for a certain group it's 9:30 to 245 at in Randolph of County College of Morris in Randolph if anyone's interested in that you can register um and there are um to miss augustin's point there are some mandated trainings and other webinars coming up in April so if anybody when I spoke to our W in January when I was asking her about like our whole board certification and then I asked about um you know one of the things was that your members have to be up to date in their mandated training at that point everybody was up to date that was just January you know so um we just had gotten our new board members but um if yeah if you know if you're not sure ask Miss Augustin and if if if you are missing any there some coming up in April so just check your check your email uh from njsba uh so again the um that prequel to the workshop in on May 10th they're they're having many different uh sessions so you know just check your email there's there's ones on Communications there's ones on security there's like all different topics so it's like a little mini Workshop mini you know Workshop that they do in October so if you're interested check those out and then again I'll just mention this up until you know we have the last County meeting that's on May 29th and that's a hybrid um meeting and that will be the in person will will be in Riverdale and that's basically like um Awards and ceremonies and I understand that one of our board members will be getting a cert certifi certified board member award at that one so uh that'll be a good one to go to um and that that's it for state and County um so miss Osborne is here um as our attorney um for this evening's meeting do you have anything to report I do not no report tonight okay thank you you all righty so let's start going down um Personnel Mr Martinez we're g to move 7.1 through 7.10 second okay so moved by Mr Martinez second did by Mr mozell roll call please Mr colada yes Miss cadr yes Mr Martinez yes Mr moel yes Mr ramadon yes Mr Webb yes and Mr yes okay curriculum and Technology Mr Webb i' I'd like to move 8.1 through 8.4 second move by Mr web seconded by Mr mosco roll call please Mr colada um Madame President I have a question on 8.1 for some of the training if I could um I see two individuals are being requested to go to uh hold on I'm switching screens here National Conference at a total of $2,700 a piece uh neither person is mandated to go to these uh after review of the contract for both individuals it says that it is up to the board whereas Mr wakas is dictated that he is entitled to two conferences per year the other contracts do not have that stipulation as we're raising uh taxes with this budget I think it would be fiscally irresponsible to spend five uh over $5,000 to send two people to a non-mandatory conference so I would like to see if we could have some discussion on that prior to voting see if anybody else feels the same way well I okay I I'll put my two cents in um you know I I think there's well maybe Miss Augustin can confirm that there's money allocated for professional development so that we have every year it doesn't you know it doesn't make us go over budget or anything is that the case yes so we do have professional development um allocated for every year that we do um approve dur the budget cycle that is one of the resolutions in addition just so everyone's aware this is the first step of this approval this still has to go past the county review so it's not something that we just do um you know aitar this has to be vetted by the county so this will go to a second step of the county looking to make sure everyone is eligible to vote on these conferen that we know it is I mean it is it's pricey but um one of the things that we discussed when we did our um last year we discussed professional development of the of the staff and we we all agreed that that was something that was important now um you know because this involves travel and it's you know it's it's it's pricey um but and I did ask about this as well um during a committee meeting and um it the areas that are going the individuals that are going it makes sense for them to go um Mr Waka you noted that Miss Molina is going for ESL which is you know she represents ESL and that's a growing population in our school so it it makes sense to me I'm okay with it does anybody else have any thoughts um I just uh I just if I remember correctly when we were hiring Mr WKA to be the superintendent and the principal I think was one of the requirements that we requested that he get more um certifications and stuff like that was that part I I negotiated down that I I want to save the board money on that my my here here's number one I I respect Mr ceta's opinion 100% I totally see where he where where he's advocating from 100% um the reason that I I picked these two particular individuals uh the first is that uh we have one assistant principal Mr spado who's been on the job for five months uh less than five months uh we just hired a new acting assistant principle it's possible that you know if we we could hire that spot becomes crimin you know if it's that person or someone else it's going to be someone with no experience my third assistant principal um has been an assistant principal for about four years so I currently have more experiences an assistant principle than all of them do combined as an assistant principal and that doesn't even factor in my my principal ship or my my superintendency um but there's always a chance that I could get run over by a taxi cab or I I could get seriously ill and you know we we don't have a very experienced administrative strap right now we we we don't you know it's uh it is what it is we're still functioning well but it's just the reality of it and I want to make sure that I get I put this District in a position where case something unexpected or awful happens to be that we have people that are trained to do what they're going to do what they need to do and as far as our uh you know the the ESL teacher that group our english's second language group keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger every year um and when I went to this conference uh the first year I went to this particular conference was in Chicago and the best part about that was we were just coming off Co and I've met a group of principles that from States schools didn't shut down so I I I got a lot of good advice and tips about how to keep the school open um and then uh last year when I went to the one of Washington DC um I noticed there's a lot of good ESL stuff and don't to me man I really gotta get one of these ESL teachers here to to to get this knowledge or to get these these ideas so that's why I put these two on Mr Keta but I definitely I'm going to respect whatever the board decides of course any other thoughts before we vote why is there a price discrepancy between three different did they get a nicer bed than I did to be fair they got the king siiz bed and I got the queen anything else okay uh well then let's let's put it to a vote um okay so actually we were at you Mr Keta so um what did okay actually uh it's four right we're on um curriculum so it's it's four items okay so as I said for me I just think it's fiscally irresponsible if we're going to ask people to raise their taxes to send people to a stay away conference that's not mandatory so I'm going to be no on 8.1 and yes on the remainder 8.2 8.3 and 8.4 respectfully okay Miss cadle yes Mr Martinez yes Mr moel yes Mr Ramadan yes Mr web yes Mrs yes okay uh policy Mr Martinez move 9.1 please second okay moved by Mr Martinez seconded by Mr Matco roll call please hold on if I may uh this is also new and revised so this is it's it's a second reading of this the second time we go over it so if if everybody read it and everybody's good then this reflects what your group right it's a second reading with the revisions that we discussed at the last meeting yeah yeah we did I say who voted okay yes Mr Keta yes with the revised changing from the uh committee yes Mr yes Mr Martinez yes Mr M yes Mr Ramadan yes Mr web yes Mrs um so I reviewed all the suggested revisions that were submitted by the policy committee and um the revisions do not exclude any student so I vote Yes um okay so let's go down now to uh finance and physical clant Mr MOS yes like to move 12.1 through 12.9 second move by Mr MCO seconded by Mr web roll call please Mr colada yes Miss CAD yes Mr Martinez yes Mr moel yes Mr Ramadan yes Mr Webb yes and Mrs Z yes okay so uh new and old business um I know that Miss pado had uh the one issue you wanted to bring up about the parking yes I just had basically like a suggestion like if we were looking for accommodations for The Parkers the teachers parking out there maybe having like a permit sticker or a heal and public school kind of permit sticker out there so that they're not yeah I think that's a great idea I know you don't mind me I believe that you brought we do so we're we're just you know if the police are going to tell us that the parking tags are a good enough indicator um then that'll be a a good sign I don't know who gives a ticket whether it's a police officer or like a a city employee I don't know how that part of you might know I don't know but I know that Hobart on Hobart and and and harbor like the cor right where I live hobart's always empty all day long just saying and it's only on Tuesdays actually it's only on Mondays from 8 to noon that they have to move the cars on the right side so just saying other idea is that that block is always empty on the Barber Street side actually street cleaning starts again in in April 1 I I'm but I'm just saying parking sides of Chief danieli um Danielle or Danielle Dani Daniel I'll reach out to Chief and to Captain Guzman um and if they direct me to the this burough Hall luckily I have mayor Johnson's phone numbers on our real time so I I'll see if we can get some kind of Clara of answer unless of course you know Diana am man to get it first but I think it's a very logical idea thank you um anybody else new or old this and then um I just want to make sure that the Kathleen Hela got us the the report for the so if if if the board members all had it then there one thing if not we could just put that on the agenda for next week whatever you want to do with that yeah honestly we just got it yesterday and I have not had a chance to through it we that next next meeting um okay okay so so I think now we open up the floor to can I have a motion to open up the floor to the public so move second moved by Mr MCO seconded by m quad roll call please okay all in favor I okay so the floor is open and we will start with anyone who is here miss CA do you no okay anybody on online I see a hand up for roxan okay and please just state your name and address and minutes go ahead Miss CA Rox CNA 440 outside I have a followup question uh did you ever ask um Gabby from Malian that's it about the parking yes okay all right let's take any other comments and then we can address um anybody else is there anybody Delvin no okay so can I have a motion to close yes okay uh all in favor I okay um so I think the the suggestion was to ask if the we could have some parking for the teachers if if it were to I think it's a really good idea that um you know that M brought up and I I basically if we get bad news from either the the chief or the buau um you know Gabby was nice enough to to read to our kid she's been very good to our school um but I could ask and then if she says yes that would be a really nice gesture on her part um but hopefully we don't have to even do that you know so there are business hours I believe her during the day so there might be a little bit of a conflict you know if because that's if she needs the parking spot for her business but you know if she says no yeah right can ask we got we got a full weeks break to to work on that and hopefully uh and this this is would be like in September right only if the the um well so I think that if we get word it helps a lot now that knock on wood we're probably not going to get any more snowstorms right that changes the whole Paradigm of everything as far as parking so we're it's a lot easier to walk an extra block or two if you don't have to walk through ice and snow and sleep um so I think the the the scope of the problem has been minimized because of that but at the same time um it'd be nice if if if if this particular is own to be willing to that's great but like I said we we can only ask and that's it okay thank you uh okay so we do have an executive session tonight so um it let's say 10 10 between 10 and 15 minutes um and no action will be taken correct this is this I think it's going to be pretty cut dry so no action yes okay okay so um can I have a motion to go into executive session second uh and we we need to do roll call okay so U moved by Mr MCO second I'm sorry moved by Mr Martinez seconded by Mr MCO roll call please Mr Peta yes Miss Miss CAD yes Mr Martinez yes Mr Moo yes Ramadan yes Mr web yes and Mrs yes okay so we'll be about 10 15 minutes we're ready to go okay um can I have a motion to adjourn someone moved by Mr Martinez seconded by Mr MCO uh all in favor I I meeting ised thank you so much and have a safe spring break everyone