##VIDEO ID:JKWvRhQ0bGk## okay can everybody please rise for the flag salute oh I'm sorry I call the meeting to order and I will I salute I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all 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 meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act The Hil board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published in the north Jersey Herald News 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 fil filed with the clerk in the municipality of hailton roll call please Mr Abasi Mr kada pres Miss Mr D Mr Guzman here Mr Martinez here Mr moel here Mr vadon here Dr web here Mr okay can I have a motion to accept correspondence second moved by Mr Ramadan seconded by Mr moow roll call please Mr yes Mr D yes Mr yes Mr Martinez yes Mr Mo yes Mr Ramadan yes Dr GL yes Mrs yes and I have a motion to accept prior minutes Mo moved by Mr Ramadan seed by Mr Martinez roll call please Mr Cola yes Mr yes mran yes Mr marz Mr Mo yes Mr Ramadan yes Dr yes Mr yes okay can I have a motion to open the floor to Citizens on agenda items only so by Mr Gman seconded by Mr MCO roll call please all in oh all in favor I okay the floor is open to the public on agenda items only we'll start with anybody in who's here present and then if anybody on online would like to address the board on agenda items only please uh raise your use your hand raising icon in the uh in the anybody anybody Mr Miller motion to close moved by m moved by Mr Kad seconded by Mr Martinez all in favor okay so moving on to committee reports um um so I will start good evening everyone and welcome back um I want to begin with school security with the tragic shooting school shooting in Georgia that senselessly took four lives the shooting at a high school in our own backyard and the increase in threats to schools via social media platforms I'm aware that security is on every person's mind I want to assure parents families and the community that our district always keeps School Safety and Security as an absolute top priority however in the light of recent events the board and the security and Safety Committee along with Mr Waka have been reviewing our secur security policies and procedures and discussing if any updates or changes are needed at this time um I and I want to note that at public events at this school held and police officers are always present um I also want to remind reminds the community that the district employs an armed security director a school resource off officer from the haen police department and a front desk security officer all of whom follow strict protocol and are hyper Vigilant when it comes to School Safety and Security we also have the finest Police Department that makes it their priority to keep not just our town but our school see and it goes without saying that our Administration teachers and staff are all keeping watch eyes on our students and on their own surrounding areas these can be troubling times but I have confidence that our security team our police department and our school staff are doing everything possible to keep our children safe and our buildings secured and for that I thank you most sincerely next I want to I want to thank Mr Waka Miss Augustin and especially staff for dealing efficiently with the pipe that burst in the cafeteria just one week into the new school year while dor of facilities Jermaine man and our custodial staff do a good job of maintaining our building and proactively addressing areas of concern things like this um can happen as parts of the school age we're grateful that the problem was fixed as quickly as possible and without too much disruption to the student body and we also thank our teachers and students who were affected for ensuring that the temporary change in routine went as smoothly as possible until the situation was remedied it's hard to start off the school year year with a snag like that but their cooperation was very much appreciated on a positive note I'm happy to welcome our new parently liaison Miss Alexandra Sahar to the district Miss sarig will be filling an important and unique role in providing information and resources to parents and Guardians so that they can help their child succeed academically and socially and so that they can become more involved in their child's education as well as the school Community the parent aison will also serve as a bridge between parents and Guardians and teachers and administrators helping to build communication Rapport trust and collaboration I hope parents will take advantage of the opportunities offered through this new position which is focused specifically on assisting informing and educating them on topics and issues that are relevant and meaningful to their child's all around well-being and just to note that the position is fully funded through Title One Fund funding so there's no cost to the district I stoi to see Mrs Sahara got back to school night and she had a whole line of parents who were waiting to talk to her and she was really welcoming she was really professional um and I think she's going to be a really valuable resource to HBS families um so she's also running a series of um virtual workshops this fall and information has gone out to all parents so um you know look out for that info I think the first one is tomorrow evening and and don't miss out um last lastly I want to thank Miss Gracie and Mr savastano uh for their years of dedication and service to the students of helden public school and we wish them the best in their future endeavors so we've had a couple of bumps to the start but I am confident that this is going to be a great school year and here we go so with that I'm going to turn it over to our chief School administrator Mr Walker so it has been a good a good school year um I want to kind of go off track a little bit and comments on your point about working with haen police to to procure officers for events things like that so I've been um I've been here at haen for for quite a while now and there's never been a time we haven't asked Chief U or or or deputy chief uh to request for officers in event we've never had them say no like they've only ever said yes uh which is which is highly appreciated um and in I'm I'm a board member in a town where we don't get that same level of of of service so it it's something that I I know I appreciate that we're grateful for um I'll start my report by talking about the matter that has been the impetus uh for the emails I sent to school Community the past two days uh we had received a screenshot of a social media post uh the post was reviewed by us and uh we're fortunate to have a a full-time SRO agreement so we shared with the S SRO and it was investigated by both Pon police and and by ourselves uh I'm not going to speak much towards the post uh since it was vulgar and and I also need to be mindful that uh both student and both student and staff confidentiality even though the post was determined to be a non-credible threat um we're lucky to have the kind of relationship we have with the HP um and we we appreciate Chief being willing to send extra units you know on campus or nearby campus on Friday just as a precautionary measure uh we have not identified who created the post it's often very difficult and usually takes a whole lot of time before it comes to light who might have made it an online Anonymous post we're able to identify who made the post and we'll take appropriate action uh at that time I imagine that some people would would like to talk about that post and I understand that uh but due to the fact that there are student and and staff confidentiality issues here surrounding this post I'm not going to go further into details regarding this non-credible threat but I do want to thank that help and to miss uh Isa board president is's comment about the pipe that first in in the cafeteria like that could have been a major thing if that had happened on like a Sunday afternoon and the water just had the whole day to to to populate the school that would have been really bad news um it could have also happened in the summertime and we wouldn't have lost a cat for kids so that would have been good news but you know to your point we do have an older building and there's two main water lines that supplied water to the building building uh a couple years ago one of them broke and then this year the the other one broke um so it looks like they're both fixed now um but when you have a thousand kids in only one cafeteria when you lose part of the cafeteria that becomes a huge deal um but the assistant principes the teachers they they it wasn't a big deal for them because they're they're just that good and they they really are um I do have some good news and that is that thus far this year alone we've trained 90 different staff members in in CPR and that is something the health office the administrative team thought would be a great thing to to boost that aspect of our overall school safety uh we still have about 30 more teachers signed up and waiting to get this we're we're really excited of the enthusiasm they showed and their training scheduled for February uh but I do want to thank Miss Carr miss peggins and miss Pano for their efforts in this because that's something we we that's a great goal that you know we should strive towards and it does help everybody my third is I know that Miss Isa had mentioned uh this last meeting and and I want to elaborate further uh we we kind of stemmed on this we we started this at the the board retreat we had uh a couple months back but we the idea of using board meetings as as an opportunity to present just how the operations works or issues pertinent to what we're doing here so I'm looking forward to delivering the detailed stepbystep process of our hiring process at the next board meeting um I'll talk about how we do it what our challenges are and what's been different than it was past um and at that same meeting I'm also going to present as required or or state test scores from the last test we took in in last spring so we'll we'll get the presentations for next four meting item four the the playground is back open and that's a very good thing um it's a lot better to have kids go out there and have time to run around I encourage the board to visit the area sometime and you'll notice uh the new inclusive structures that are part of the the playground you'll also notice that we Three Trees from that area the reason we did that was because the tree roots were one of the causes that the old matting had worn down uh in order to keep the surface usable for as long as possible we we decided to remove those trees uh the other main reason uh that the rubber had worn down was because our school truck would go across the playground in order to get to the field and that truck the weight of the truck wasn't good for that rubber uh in order to fix that we decided to create a concrete pathway from the playground to the field uh so we think that'll help protect the Rubber and that's why the front of the playground still looks like it's kind of in in progress mode it's because it still is um our main Expansion Project is set to be completed the one that's going on on that side of the building uh within the next month once we get an exact we'll get the exact date very soon and I'll work with the board president and the L to set up a dedication BR ging type event uh we will move into these spases the first week of November and this is exciting because once we open this area um our preschool our final preschool classroom section size will go to 105 uh and that's a huge bit of progress when I was first principal here by first year we had 30 total preschool seats uh for us for this board to get to 105 it shows your commitment towards you know early childhood learning and and and helping out those parents in the community so we're very proud of that um and the last project I'm working on I I I didn't want to jump into this while two other fairly major construction projects are going on uh but once these two projects wrap up and that's going to be soon we're we're going to look to redesign the front entrance and we I'll talk about that more the future board meetings uh but we're going to look to make it where there's you can walk in one door but to get to the next set of doors that that's where we we kind of have our a roadblock on that provided you pass all the security settings so that's something we're going to look to work on and you know it's going to be great when we get that so that's my report tonight thank you Mr W just board members do you have any questions for Mr waa okay thank you um Miss Augustine business administrator thank you madam president um my report is mainly um the resolutions that are on the finance team I just want to highlight some of them but before I start just wanted to remind everyone who is attending the um conference is October 21st and 24th if there's any last minute changes please let me know this is I think I have up until Friday to make any last minut changes so please make me aware of anything that needs to be and also remember that uh October meeting is October 9th instead of the 24th we did have to uh reschedule that because of their commission um on the agenda in the Personnel section even though this is not directly under Finance I just wanted to make note that there was a revised um uh grant that was granted to M um Mr kyl for the S teacher for non Public School it was originally $122,000 and the state um sent us back an increase unless they did this final application so that we're just revising or re approving this um stem grant that we approved from a previous agenda we also have our shared service technology agreement we that we need to approve this year this is mainly the to have a shared service with Manchester regarding any technical services including supplies time special products uh the finance section we have 12.4 and 12.5 these are some items that are related to the new construction we have surveillance cameras and also speakers for the new addition that we will be finalizing the technology portion of from resolutions 12.6 to 12.8 we have Northern um Eastern this is our construction company and the payment application along with some change orders for un foreing um um construction items needed to be approved and I believe the 124 12 15 we have our threshold affidavit increase usually we um when we send out our purchase orders vendors will have to sign off on vouchers over a certain limit we just wanted to establish the bid threshold that aligns up with the state so we have 50% of our PPA amount of 44,000 that we can approve without a vendor signature so that will be a change that we on the bills especially those who signed off on the bills anything that's over 6,600 will require a um a vend of signature so that uh we're changing that and I'll make you guys more aware of that in fut okay up okay and that's all I have if there's any questions specifically questions MERS thank you okay so let's move on to personnel and management Mr Gman thank you madam president good evening everyone agenda uh forment technology Dr web evening everyone agenda agenda item okay uh policy and public relations Mr Martinez agenda items okay security and safety Mr Gman uh we had a uh security of safety committee meeting prior to this meeting uh it was a very productive meeting unfortunately share will be discussed because most of it's confidential but in light of everything that's been going on I want to thank our chief police my boss Angela Danielle for me in here and that being Saida I have thank you uh Community engagement um Mr mzo agenda items only okay and finance and physical plant Mr mat uh good evening everyone I'd like to apologize for my delay lateness I like to pass it over to commissioner Mr Ramadan who was at the meeting today good evening everybody um we met tonight discuss some of the bills about with the agenda items thank you thank you uh for state and County there are a few updates um I think I mentioned one of these in last meeting um the NJ sba's fall labor Summit um is taking place on October 1st if anybody is interested in attending um it's in person it's in Trenton they're going to be going over things like governmental relations um a legislative update a legal update um labor negotiating negotiating updates and public relations surrounding uh Labor Relations so um there's an email that email goes out regularly if anybody wants to register for that that's three um board Academy credits um there's also there is um NJ SBA is hosting an in-person Regional candidates briefing to address the structure and responsibilities of local school boards in New Jersey so candidates running for their local school boards in November in the November election um can attend this free program and that's on October 16th from 7 to 8:30 at Elmwood Park Memorial High School um and there's Thea's fall um School law forum and that's going to be taking place that's actually going to be taking place during Workshop in Atlanta City but you have to register separately for that one so if anybody wants to attend that one you have to uh register separately from That's from the workshop and that's going to be on Thursday October 24th from 9: to 4: um so that's all for that's all I have for state and County any questions okay and then I will pass Mr Merino okay all right so let's go back to personnel and management Mr Gman yes Madam president I would like to move item 7.1 through 7.3 second so moved by Mr Guzman seconded by Mr musco roll call please Mr yes Mr P yes I do have a question um if we can follow this is the first time I seen two people from the same Department resign at the same time um can we look into Mr Walk see if there something's going on because there's two separate Math teachers that resigned at the same time and I haven't seen that yeah this both could say this they they both got promotions uh you know upward Mobility something that you know we proud of for for our staff so you know good for them we wish them the best report did you vote Mr Mr yes Mr Martinez yes Mr Moo yes Mr Ramadan yes Dr Leb yes I just have one question regarding that how are we looking with the the staff so right now we're fully staffed um we were able to replace 7.3 um for 7.2 we're still work it's a very specialized degree so it's going to be we're still working on um I'm going to get a report Friday my director special services with the plan um where we're at um but that's what we're at yes thanks Mrs yes okay curriculum and Technology Dr web maximum of 8.1 through 8.7 second moved by m Dr web seconded by Mr Moo roll call please Mr um uh yes but I do I do just want to point out that um for the removal of 8.3 if that comes up again can we if if this gets reintroduced um I'd like more information on that program before we put it up for vote that's a it's a great comment commissioner Basi that was something that uh there was some questions about that that were asked of me that I didn't have the answer to at the time uh so that's why it was pulled and based on I guess my initial analysis of what the answer is I'll I'll determine whether I still want to put that on an agenda but right now it's still TBD okay I guess like my one question was going to be uh is there a need for it um I know part of it was was about healthy relationships and avoiding high-risk behaviors but is is that something that's not already accounted for in the curriculum for health especially for like the the middle schoolers and the like seventh and eighth graders yeah to your point uh the answer is yes um but I just I kind of want to go through a whole bunch of questions with that to see if this is something we want to you know look to provide our students or look to all right but uh thank you for removing it um because I was going to have some serious questions on it um without get have more information but otherwise uh yes Mr Keta yes Mr D yes Mr bman yes M Martinez yes Mr MOX yes Mr Ramadan yes Dr web yes Mr um abstain on 8.7 and yes for the rest okay uh policy and public relations Mr Martinez like to move 9.1 and 9.2 please T moved by Mr Martinez seconded by Dr web roll call please Mr AI uh yes and I if there's just if anybody has any additional feedback on 9.2 uh you know please let us know at the policy committee if if everyone's in favor of it I think we um you know just I I highlighted everything in bold blue that was new uh based on the discussion we had in the last meeting um and we've you know stried out a couple of small sections just as we rewarded certain things but you know if everybody's okay with this i' I'd assume this would um be in effect January 1 for the next calendar year and we did um get um some just in terms of which what the bylaw number would be that was kind of cleared with stress out as well um as other districts have have similar board similar policies and it's kind of it's going to basically almost be a standardized section of the bylaw um so just putting that out there um yes for me on both 9.1 and 9.2 over Mr Cola yes Mr thr yes Mr Guzman yes Mr Martinez yes Mr moo yes Mr Ramadan yes Dr web yes and Mr s yes thank you excellent and I do want to thank the policy committee and especially Mr aasi for working on that that new policy great job yeah okay uh so nothing here um so finance and physical plant Mr M I'd like to pass it to Mr Ramadan motion to move 12 point 1 to 128 mov by Mr Ramadan seconded by Mr Matco Ro call please Mr um I'm sorry I do have a couple questions and it's probably something you covered with me before I got here because you usually do that uh two quick qu I guess two quick questions for 124 and 125 those are not part of the construction budget correct that's that's sep it is it's part of the capital budget that was already budgeted for um anticipation of purchasing these things it was it was in the budget for last year okay but it wasn't it's not part of that the budget that's reflected in 129 specific for the addition project it's in the technology capital budget okay budgeted for okay and then this the second question was on 12.9 um so C cumulative today we're at about four five um um and then so there's there's only a little bit of room left there are we on track to be within budget for that addition project yes okay and 1210 that hip hop school assembly for like kids up to fourth grade uh can I come it sounds cool sounds pretty cool if do you know how to do hip-hop dances no I no I want to observe I don't want to participate well January 6 man uh you want to come hang out we're we're happy have um yes on everything Mr K yes I just had a question with respect to 125 I don't really understand he just I asked Mr Walker he said best ask you these are speakers for the new addition so that um um can hear announcements and other things about the um School you said 12.5 right I'm sorry 12:15 the signed after the threshold for signed affidavit sign yeah that was right no yeah yeah okay sorry 12:15 so when we do our purchase orders we require the vendors to sign off on a certain amount um so that they can verify that they agree with the price of the purchase order usually since I've started it has been $150 or more statutorily we have up to $6,600 that we can um require to process a payment without a vendor signature so we're following the statutory um recommendation of the 6,600 and because I'm a qpa we are allowed to go up that I just understand thank you yes mr8 like to from purchase 5431 and yes for everything yes no I got um Mr Gman my vot is yes Mr Martinez yes Mr MOX yes Mr Ramadan yes Dr WB yes Mrs uh obain on 12 uh 11 and yes on the rest thank you okay do we have any new or old business okay and I have a motion to open the floor to Citizens on operation so move so moved by Mr Gman seconded by Mr quado roll call please or let say all in favor all in favor I okay I so the floor is open I'm going to ask um if there's anybody in the public who wants to I'm sorry anybody online who wants to speak please use the hand raising feature uh to indicate that you would like to speak state your name your address uh you'll have three minutes to speak um and I think that's it is there anybody no nobody oh yeah Chief please first police department give you a little background just attorney I've been here for 28 years um Hill is like my second home but when I became in charge of the department especially as chief of police our number one um was the schools number one was the schools between H public in Manchester we brought back the sro's one here at H public and one at Manchester our SRO is actually sitting here to my right detective Zeda is up at Manchester High School um school safety has always been our priority folks the first thing that we attacked was the school safety I am aware of the incident that had happened um as far as the social media posting we've dealt with this before in the past it's been kill public the School Manchester uh speaking to detective said on the case speaking to the prosecutor's office today about this and the prosecutor's office said to this is probably the fifth or sixth one that we've got in the past two or three days so it continuously happens all over the world all over the state uh you know people children that are on social media sites and they're basically commenting on committing acts of terrorism or threats or anything like that but I assure you we are absolutely on top of it unfortunately we can't say much to the public you know confidential um you know with the case of the Jeopardy if we post or comment on social media because yeah everybody reads it somebody might comment somebody some evidence might be covered up and uh but I can assure you our detectives are we're going I have six detectives active detectives two of them are J detectives and they both working on it ask so hopefully we can find out who it is once we get the uh information back and uh we can bring the person of justice and obviously if they're a student here at school you know we'll handle it with also Mr as far as in house as well too but this is nothing new to us folks you know we dealt with this plun of times uh Snapchats Instagram Facebook you right now it doesn't credal at all you know most of the time people all watch the news before uh or seen things happen in the world they're never announced nobody's going to go on social media say I'm GNA Rob the TV bank on Friday and two o'cl yeah they just don't out the bank person SCH shooting so most of the time it's unannounced so with that said that's why we're always ready you we're ready for prepare for the worst and we hope for the best so I can assure you we are absolutely on top of it deputy chief Gman contact me immediately when this post came out as well as my detectives and uh stop that our tracks we hand that immediately because we have zero tolerance for that we were actually arrested several people throughout the years at Manchester High School bom threats um Snapchats with gun State guns um and you know we brought them to justice so we have zero tolerance for that stuff we want to make sure everybody comes to school safe everybody goes home whether it's the kids students the staff everything like that so uh yeah if anybody ever needs anything you know how to get myself Chief we're here for you folks so anybody has any questions for chief I I just want to say number one you know thank you not only for you know for all the your Department's done but I think it was a really good Civic service for you to come here tonight and and just say what you said because we have a lot of people on on Zoom you know that are watching this and that that reinforcement of that message I think is important for everyone to hear and it's it's been an absolute pleasure working with your department in every single way we work together so thank you you know by us catching the person um like I'll give you an example we had a bomb scare up at Manchester about two or three years ago and you know traced the phone and found out how it was um I they make an example the person but we arrested them and uh you know they were charged accordingly and we got no bom threats after that because they see that we're not playing around it's not a game you know so we'll see exactly who it is sometimes it could be as somebody as a as a fifth GR could be an eighth grader who knows could be a teacher could be a parent we don't know until we uh get more information back apprciate yeah we thank you folks thank you thank you thank you Chief I just Echo what Mr Waka said thanks for coming and for your officers for coming because it um I think you know of course parents are worried they're concerned um and it it it it uh puts our minds at Le to know that you know the hell in PD is right there on top of things so and working with the school we appreciate it thank you yes Mna go ahead um I think the concern is communication EMA to parents I think the communication ref I've said before needs to improve times 100 I email BL back at 4:00 I didn't get any response until 12:30 today this doesn't make the parents feel better that we are not getting a response especially since we have a parent I don't know if we sent out the first email but the date was WR which was pointed out we need to do better with communication we need to do better with our safety for our children and we need to do better for our teach as well and we also need to keep in mind that what the parents are feeling is because of what was issed out it's not because all isn't doing their job we're not saying that what we're saying is communication between e and the parents it's not fail it's not landing and it makes us in a risk to bring our kids to school we just had a shooting in t which is up the lack it's reasonable for parents to be upset or concerned or have anxiety send their kids to school there was a someone at Kennedy last year with a G so therefore it's not like oh we're hailed DIN and it's not going to happen there's guns all over the place we're trying to keep our safe we're trying to get our kids educated we need to do better communication anybody else before we close the floor Mr Mill anybody else oh how you doing my name is TE Chavo I'm um part of the investigative unit in the hel Police Department unfortunately detective Lieutenant Timothy Liber couldn't be here today this is detective Omar day as you guys as the chief said just want to PE you back a little bit off of what the chief said again it's not a matter of us not trying to be transparent with our investigation it's just there's certain things right now that is still in the early stages of us trying to figure things out and the reason here is because I want to make sure that obviously all the parents that are online are listening to this you know just because we're in the early stages of our investigation doesn't mean that any other information that you guys can provide us um we're not going to listen to so if you guys have anything out there kids are telling you anything you guys want to provide it to our Police Department please give us a call um obviously our phone number is 973 79044 44 just ask for anybody in the investigative Division and they'll forward it up to us and obviously they provide you with our email addresses and that's pretty much all I have to say like I said it's you know it's not that we're not trying to be transparent just certain things we have to just to make sure the integ investigation hi everybody I know some of you guys I had um when I actually went to hel public school and graduated in 2010 just to reiterate it again I'm detective z um I'm the school resource officer out that Manchester and I also graduated from Manchester in 2014 and I've actually been a h resident for almost 25 years now so I say this just to try and uh I want to give some sort of assurance to the parents out there that we take this person I was actually just speaking with the chief and he was describing How He Loves working and it doesn't even feel like a job for him that sort of tone radiates throughout our department I'm here detective Sergeant CL is here and officers that are sitting out there are there because we truly enjoy our job and take it personally and want to do the best job that we can so as much as I would like to dulge you know exactly the resources we have on our disposal and we're using to investigate this matter to put you guys at ease I can't do that guyses the Integrity of Investigation but again what I can tell you I'm trying to share now is how much we feel with you guys me myself being uh a resident and a former student here and what that means to us and how hard that makes us work so just know since this threat has come up we haven't stopped working on it it's been our main concern and we're doing everything possible and we're very confident based on our training experience and investigation so far that we're going to come to a conclusion and that we're even though we're deeming it uh not necessarily that credible due to the circumstances we're still treating it as a credible threat with height in security and extra personnel and extra attention public school that's what I have to say I appreciate you guys thank Youk you officers thank you so much anybody else okay um hello please state your name and your address you have three minutes hello can you hear me yes yes we can hi my name is iy um my kids go to your school I live on Aberdine Court I think a lot of the parents are really hung up on the communication when these things happen and although it is important I understand why there's a level of discretion because you don't want everybody to go into panic mode I think the issue is just my opinion because I think you all guys are all doing a great job especially you Mr Waka we're really proud to have you as our principle I think the big issue is the ongoing protocol like I think the front door in the morning is an issue it's wide open there's one person standing there uh parents go all the way to the top because I I dropped my kid off and I stand at the door and I I watch her go up and there's parents up there you know the other day um my my kid ran out of the house with her Crocs and I was running late to the office so I sent my mother to take her her sneakers and she said she literally walked up nobody asked her for ID and when my daughter saw her she literally walked halfway into the Hall to greet my daughter because my daughter was running to her I think every the everyday protocol what are we doing to keep the kids not only when threats come up but every day like there should should be someone in the front an officer in the front door in the morning because I see them after school but in the morning throughout the day I think if once you cross the front door you should be there only for business to pick up your kid at the nurse or to take him out of the school early and like parents are all up there like you you don't really know what people are going through if they're going through uh divorces or custody custody issues and you know they're they're in their emotions and they're trying to have grab their kid who knows it could be anything you know so that's my biggest concern that every day I see a lot of parents like today yesterday I went to pick up my daughter and I tried to close the door be before the guy behind me tried to get by me but he got by me like who's at the front door the security person who's there who sees somebody come through has to stop people uh the guy in the front who just checks people in like you can't let people walk through a lot of bad stuff is happening right now and and you know the communication has been the topic of this whole thing but I think a everyday protocol for me personally please forgive me I'm not trying to say you guys are not doing a good job because I know you guys work hard it's a big school to manage but the everyday protocol has a lot of holes and you know when I leave my daughter and I see some guy at the top of the steps and I'm like what is he doing up there why hasn't nobody stopped them and when my mother can walk in and nobody asks her for an ID like that's not good that's how people get into school that's how bad stuff happens that's really all I wanted to say thank you thank you Miss s we're going to take all comments and then we will close the floor and we can address anything is there anybody else I'm sorry Mr okay go ahead Mr Ramadan go ahead Mr Ramadan shows M oh can you unmute yourself can you hear me or now we can hear you good evening everybody um Mohammad Ramadan count president for the bur of helden I just want to say on behalf of Mayor Johnson and the entire governing body uh the bur of hen remains committed to ensuring and providing all the resources possible to ensure that all students are safe uh whether HPS or Manchester uh the SRO program is probably one of the best programs we uh instituted within the two schools and the haen police department remains committed to ensuring the safety of everybody I do encourage all of our residents to sign up for our nixo alerts uh that's key to getting the proper information but also at the same time to also remain patient as things are happening um as a former board member I can understand that once information is coming in you have to filter it out to ensure that it's the proper information getting out to the parents uh Sergeant Keta would understand that from a law enforcement perspective and so would deputy chief gouth um when things are coming in the top priority of of a district is to ensure that the students are safe and remain safe at all times and then get their information out in a in a timely manner um that's the top priority always and and fortunately given the time given the the stuff that's happened across the country uh The Hil and police department remains committed to ensuring that our burrow and all both schools remain safe at all times and like I said the mayor and governing body is here uh for the entire for both districts to ensure that the safety remains a top priority thank you Mr rdan um thanks those words um is there anybody else Mr Miller no more more okay oh I just saw one go up so uh so you can speak but please state your name and your address Whoever has their hand raised you're you're listed as L speak you can speak they're muted if you can unmute one more time we we'll give you one more chance if you who L you have your hand raised go ahead and unmute yourself and and speak okay I think we're just going to move on um is there anybody oh did they unmute no they took their hand down okay um is there anybody else Mr Miller okay so could I have a motion to close the floor second moved by Mr Martinez seconded by Mr MCO uh we can do all in favor all in favor okay so before anybody anybody else addresses I would like to address a couple of the the comments so regarding communication um specifically for this matter there was nothing lacking we found out this Administration was alerted in the morning and they did followed proper protocol to make to find out do initial investigation before any information was misinformation was sent out and then by 1:45 before dismissal an email had gone out that's the proper Channel if parents didn't receive it if it went to their spam mail or whatever the case may be the email went out uh and it was pretty detailed um you know individual parents emailing Mr wer or whoever you know that's gonna he's not necess he's not going to be able to reply to every single parent immediately so but and and even you know I would say that you know you have to be careful with individual responses this is a matter that's still under investigation you know that the email that went out to everybody was the email was the information that was that he was you know able to share um in general I think the communication between the school and the community is very good I think that's a strength I I I hear i' I'm hearing I heard in a couple of comments that that's not the case um but there are numerous venues that are used numerous channels there's email there's Rob calls there's text messages there's F social media um you know and social media is you know it's a great tool it's a great resource but it's not the you know it's not always the proper channel for communicating certain things um but in any case we hear you know we hear your comments about communication we take that into consideration that's always important and I do think that you know the role of the parently liaison will help with that um with security as far as doing better I'll just read I'll just reiterate we have an armed security director we have a school resource officer from the helden police department we have a front desk security we have an excellent relationship with the police department we do pretty well we cover that area pretty well you know there's there and Mr W mentions you know I know misso mentioned the front door that something that will be addressed in the future you know having um that front door access be limited so that if they come through the front door they still can't get through the door that goes into the school that is something that's going to be addressed um and we're always looking to work on security but it's pretty good here it's we have better security than many other schools so I just want to remind the community of that you know we we have um a good system in place and there's always room for improvement nobody's perfect and nothing is perfect but we have a pretty good system in place regarding Communications and regarding security so um that's what I wanted to say do any other board members want to add anything mad president yes Mr Gman and I promised that I wasn't GNA say but I just want to say something real quick um as far as I'm concerned you know the B held we family you know the presidents the police the elected officials you know our students the clergy we all have to coexist and we all have to work together we're not all going to like each other we're not all going to agree but we all have to continue to work together because Public Safety is a shared responsibility all right if you see something you have to say something you know the police can't solve everything it takes a partnership it takes all of us to come together protect our community protect our school protect our streets it's very important um as the helden police department we have several officers that have students that attend helden public school I'm G say something to everybody I have a child that comes to the school too he was here today we have other officers that have their kids come to the school they were here today okay we have a bested interest in school too rest assured that if the hen Police Department would have had any type of credible threat he would have immediately locked down the school all parents would have been notified I just want to make that very clear what we're investigating here is not a possible shooter on Friday that has been the non-credible that has been Le to be a hoax what we are investigating is who committed this hoax we're going to take every measure that we possibly can from the county to the state to to Federal authorities to identify who responsible the chief of police is an executive board member of the county Chiefs of Police Association he sits with members of the office of Homeland Security the Department of Homeland Security National level the FBI okay we're on this unfortunately we cannot reveal our investigative strategies and we cannot reveal any information about an ongoing investigation I just want to make that very clear that we are doing the best we can and this school our community means everything each officer we have a couple officers here when I saw I said please I don't want to see no more officers show up they all want to come because they care they're here as a show of solidarity to the community that they care more more we coming no that's it please because we care we have done so much much to increase our our capabilities from ammunition the list goes on I can't reveal it because it's confidential but we are prepared and we are big on training and we follow the pillars of 21st century Poli put the trust and legitimacy community policing officer Wellness leveraging technology so on and so forth so let's continue to stay together uh stick together let's continue to remain United and if you see something please say something thank you thank you Mr gizman anybody else any other board members thank the chief again for being thank you to all the officers and to to the public you know online and here uh in person we thank you for for being here and if we can address that spam issue because Mr wer did sent out the email yesterday to all parents in the school community and I did have parents reach out to me that they didn't receive and they check their spam and understand so they perhaps have to update on their end right but whatever we can do on our end to help them we definitely need to look into that because it's important that they and make sure that the school has updated information like a a current email address we'll talk we'll talk Mr CL um to address the one comment about the front door um if you go back that's what Mr Walker was talking about with the other uh project that we've been discussing since I've been on the board um goes that far back that we're trying to get that done um obviously it's not done now currently because of all the other projects um I do tend to disagree with my fellow board members on a lot of topics but the one that we really don't argue over is the safety um I've been a police officer for 18 years the school does have one of the better safety uh setups than many other schools it is definitely not perfect but there is no perfect system um like they said uh I have family members that are students that attend here um they were in school today too um it's hard when you want to know the information and certain information that wasn't addressed also is because the topics have other people's names in it they can only speak to certain things without the threat of lawsuits from the students families and the other individuals who are named in the post itself as well so it's important to know that uh it is while you want more information sometimes they can't um and the safety the school is one of the safest schools so there there's not really much else that can be done at this point Thank you Mr else I want to just thank Theo because I appreciate coming here and giving us actual you know um points at specific things that we can do better and just being part of the solution not the problem really appreciate I really thanks to everyone who attendance here um and you know we as board members we understand and you know I think all of us have kids here or uh you know we know somebody we know children students in the school and we get it it's scary this is really scary you know but I I I want the community to know that it's being handled you know in the best best way possible um you know they they should we should feel confident that um our whole team putting the police department putting our security you know that they're they're keeping on top of things and they're Vigilant they're hyper Vigilant so Madam president one more thing um somebody spoke about the shooting at Tech shooting like that folks no matter how many security measures you have can happen anyway you have to look at what tech did well in that situation you know what they did well they caught the suspect did it immediately they recovered the anger and the person responsible was immediately brought to Justice and that's the type of rapid response we look for here in h we have put measures place to have that type of response here as well I just want to point that out just to chime on that um and everything that happened at Tech happened in the parking lot it's like over 50 feet away from the building so it was okay anything Madam president yes can I just so just to to Mrs sto's remarks um this has come up before in board meetings where people have mentioned they were able to just come into the school um I don't know how busy it is maybe it's a little bit of a different Dynamic um in the morning when all the kids are coming in um I've never actually been there at that time but just reiterating every time I've probably been to the school two dozen times and every time I've gone in um I've had to go to that security desk I couldn't get into the school without funneling through that portion and getting my ID taken and you know the getting the sticker with the ID I would just say whenever you hear or if you ever see a situation where somebody's able to gain access to the school without having having had to check in with the security guard you know alert the school immediately you know send them message to the administration to Mr Waka um and you know we'll always try to continuously improve that process and it'll definitely be improved as Mike mentioned to uh as commissioner Keta mentioned to alluded to with the construction project that will follow our school addition with the security vestibule in the front over thanks Mr aasi Madam president that's a great Point by Mr AAS just this board has actually gotten rid of our security companies in the past because it was brought to our attention that a specific security guard uh wasn't doing the job properly Mr Walk and his team investigated it that's what that security officer was D we take this very serious but if we don't know about it we can't do anything about it so it's important that you bring these concerns forward Mr wat and his team will do an internal investigation and is deemed that the security person at the front desk is that up the par it would be addressed right you know so we have to take that into consideration as well absolutely just um just just want to say that I'm I'm grateful that these things happen although they're not the best use to kind of talk about because it does keep us on our toes yes right and it also opens up uh different scenarios so that we can work on getting better when things like this don't happen or are not talked about it's out of sight out of mind so although obviously we don't want shootouts obviously we don't want any of that but the fact that we had some type of spectacle or something going on that's bringing the attention of everybody uh instead of uh just saying hey what they did wrong we don't know nothing was done wrong because nothing has happened so let's let's take a a look at the bigger picture right obviously the things have been taken care of so that nothing happens to our kid pres let have one last Miss yet I want to express to the community if the community feels that we need another security guard at the front or even if we need another school resource officer at the school that's what the we work for the people that's what the people want and it's not oh so and so told me you know true fact if the people want another security guard at the FR Des or perhaps even another SRO that could be considered by the board we can look at our budget you know we can look at how we impact taxes and if we have to make that call then that's something we can't consider so please if that's something that the community is advocating for for another security guard and or another school resource officer you know please come forward and we can consider that sure thank you um so there was the the the person who was trying to uh speak before apparently they could not unmute themselves but they messaged their question so I'm going to read it um I wanted to know what is the protocol for getting metal detectors put in so I don't know that that's on the table but I don't know does um Mr WKA has has any thought into that I mean that's not really I don't believe that's on the table it's it's an option that this District could look to pursue in a future budget um but it it's something that we we want to do and I'd have to see real good reason why it would be the best thing for us um I can see why people might say maybe we should do this um but I'm not I don't have any data that would suggest it would solve any any specific problem um it would be something we'd have to budget for I'm sure it be Staffing and materials uh so right now it's it's not something that's being considered the short-term yeah and I would add too that that's something that the board would definitely want to weigh in on you know I don't know that as Mr Waka said that it's that there's any evidence that we should have that and and there's a lot of other implications so you know that would have to be something that would be discussed you know by the board as well um if that came up as a recommendation at some point uh but thank you and I hope that answers your question um okay so board members anything else okay so can I have a motion to adjourn so so move by Mr MCO seconded by Mr Martinez all in favor hi uh thank you so much for uh coming out and have a good night everyone