##VIDEO ID:s8otZ4Oxo9A## you um going to call the meeting to order please rise for the flag 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 okay rud of egress 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 interests is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the helden Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published in the north Jersey Record haral 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 filed with the clerk in the municipality of hailen roll call please Mr Abasi Mr Keta Miss cadr here Mr Guzman Mr Martinez here Mr moxo here Mr Ramadan here Dr here and Mrs Isa here okay um can I have a motion to move correspondence and I'm just going to ask since I'm remote today uh board members please if you move if you motion or second just call out your name so I know who's motioning and who's seconding uh so can I have a motion to move correspondence okay Carlos okay so moved by Mr Martinez and seconded by Mr mow roll call please miss CAD yes Mr Martinez yes Mr Moo yes Mr Ramadan yes Dr web yes yes okay can I have a motion to approve PRI minutes moo Martinez moved by Mr Matco seconded by Mr Martinez roll call please M yes Mr Martinez yes Mr moel yes Mr Ramadan Dr web yes Mrs yes okay can I have a motion to open the floor to Citizens on agenda items only web quad okay so moved by m Dr Webb seconded by miss quadr all in favor okay the floor is open to Citizens on agenda items only is is there anybody Mr Miller okay can I have a motion to close MO okay moved by Mr MCO seconded by Dr Webb all in favor okay uh moving on to committee reports uh I will begin good evening everyone uh I needed to attend tonight's board meeting remotely as I'm away from home um I also want to mention that Schoolboard member Mr Gman had previously notified that he would not be present at tonight's meeting as he is celebrating his wedding anniversary but he sends his heartfelt thoughts to the community so I want to begin by expressing my deepest condolences to the family friends and teachers of gelle winter whom the HPS family tragically lost this weekend when something like this happens it affects the entire Community the sadness and heartache take a long time to heal I hope that this terrible occasion can help us all come together in love and support of each other on those closest to jaelle I ask now for a moment moment of silence um say a prayer send out a positive or healing thought or just have a quiet moment whatever you feel comfortable with but if we could just please observe a moment of silence thank you uh next I want to also send condolences to the family of Emilio Toronto a former member of hbs's custodial staff Emilio retired just this past spring after being a part of the HPS family for 15 years I would often run into ailio at the school in the evening when I was here on PTA or Schoolboard business and he was always helpful and kind he served our school with dedication professionalism care and kindness and he will not be forgotten moving on I want to thank Miss baragan for her service anded dedication to the students of Helen public school for the past eight years on behalf of the hen Board of Education we wish her the best in her future endeavors and lastly as Thanksgiving is upon us I want to express my gratitude for the opportunity to have served another year on the haen board of education which is a real privilege I thank CSA Waka and BSA ba Augustine for their partnership in this endeavor their expertise professionalism and dedication make my job easy and make our board look good I thank my fellow board members for being a part of this team and for caring I thank our teachers who give so much of themselves to help our children learn and grow in a positive and nurtur nurturing environment I thank our Administration and staff who keep our school running in top form providing a healthy safe and productive environment for our kids to thrive and I thank our parents and families for making helden public school what it is a diverse close-knit and supportive Community I'm very grateful for all of you uh and with that I will turn it over to um Chief School administrator Mr Waka thank you Miss ea uh and thanks for coming to us tonight from all the way in Colorado we appreciate that um this past weekend we experienced a tragedy in that one of our eighth grade students passed away this loss resonated with students students and staff and the entire School Community this specific situation is a matter of of confidential student information so we don't want to get into anything specific uh but I do want to let the board know certain pieces of information uh we learned about this tragedy on Saturday evening uh and our team mobilized started planning uh for entry into the building this morning uh Mr pado did a great job following all the protocols uh within our school security plan and organize brief counseling services to be available this entire week for both students and staff um these Services uh were explained uh and reviewed uh last night at a zoom meeting and I want to thank Mayor Johnson for giving opening remarks I want to thank uh Chief Danielle Danielle for also being part of that meeting and officer clavo uh and and a myriad of other Helen police officers so I really appreciate that support from such an important part of the community uh the meeting was also attended by the administrative team the the CST our guidance and Leadership uh from our haa Association um today 106 different students and staff members elected to utilize the service and talk to the professional counselors about their grief we thank the pade county grief counseling services uh and I also want to thank pcti uh who kindly sent us the assistance of their Student Assistance counselor um you know they didn't have to do that and but they asked they volunteered and we were happy to accept that kind and it helped because we had 106 students you know want to take advantage of it so it means that they needed it uh tomorrow we expect the number of students and staff that will receive these services will be slightly less um we're grateful to know that they'll be here the remainder of the week uh yesterday afternoon uh all members of the school Community were informed of this loss and they were also given a copy of the script that we use uh to address this sort of loss in our student population uh this is part like I said this is part of our school safety model and it's the same sort of verbiage we used in 2019 when we tragically lost a a second Raider to an asthma attack uh and shortly afterwards we lost curado to an automobile accident I'm very proud of the collective efforts and attitudes of both our staff and our student body U I think they've done as good a job as possible as could possibly be expected having to navigate through the difficult of of not only grief but but of sudden lust um so that's the heavy part of my my my report tonight I also do want to let the board know that we were able to have parent teacher conferences today we'll have them again tomorrow uh and then we'll have one last uh early dismissal day on Wednesday uh for the Thanksgiving getaway um on December 18th we will have our ribbon cutting ceremony it'll be right on the second floor area of the new addition is so we'll do that 6:30 um Phil from North j.com is coming so it's be nice to that's impress you know give some exposure to all the great efforts that were made in this this expansion um and to Mr to Torino Toronto Amia was was a really good man he worked in the mornings at Woodland Park School District and then he'd work here in the evenings his kindness and his work ethic were his defining characteristics he be missed Miss garant is a great teacher we're going to miss her uh some sometimes you lose staff to to other school districts this is the first time I've ever lost a staff member because she's so good at her job she's become an educational digital consultant for a major company so she'll see she I'm sure she'll do very well in that Arena but we're we're really grateful for the the service I think she was maybe maybe one of the first teachers that was hired after I became the principal so that you know that was always special for me so that's my report tonight thank you thank you Mr Waka um moving on to business administrator Miss Augustin thank you madam president my report tonight um consists of um information regarding our QC facility walk that is conducted on November 21st everything went well the County VA commended the district um the class sizes is suggested minimal changes such as posting the capacity um number of indiv that like the gymnasium other than that the classroom were in great shape the teachers worked with the maintenance team and the custodial staff to get everything ready for the um walk through and we'll get a final report from the County VA shortly after she review all of our required documents um the district we Al and the superintendent and I and our um facility manager met with our architect to update our long range facility plan that plan is where we sit down look at the projects that we've done we also look at some future projects for the district some of the projects that were discussed is the ongoing um project to do um do the security Festival in front of the um interest right here right by the parking lot we also discussed possible um security features out there we also discuss um what rooms or classrooms needing additional HVAC and heating upgrades and we talked about the the parking lot side the Le side um putting a sidewalk on that area that is still in discussion we looked at did a walk through and and looked at the student bathrooms and see if there's some upgrades there and we will also talk about some Field improvements other than that um the meeting went well we're going to um wait for the architect to give us some numbers to see which um um projects are prioritized and what we will possibly do in the 252 school school year um the agenda items on the agenda today we have our financial reports that are on the agenda monthly we have um a revision of our June Financial reports we also have um change orders from our architect which is final the final items for our project we have our budget development calendar which we will begin to start talking about the budget for the 2526 school year very soon and we have our Carri over grants for Ida and the Essa grants that are in process of approval by the state and that is my report Madam president thank you Miss Augustin uh do any board members have any questions for Miss Augustin okay then let's move on to our committee meetings uh personnel and management uh Mr Martinez nothing to report uh we do have agenda items I believe uh you want them to move ready to move no no just say agenda items agenda items only then okay thank you uh curriculum and Technology Dr web items only okay uh policy and public relations Mr Martinez and items only uh security and safety Mr Ramadan agenda items only okay Community engagement Mr Matco uh agenda items only please okay and finance and physical plant Mr mosow yes uh we met went over building discussed the budget and other than that agenda items please okay thank you okay for St State and County um we do have a county meeting coming up on Monday December 9th um it's going to be a hybrid so you can attend person or online it's 7 to 8:30 is the meeting portion of of the Gathering um and the topic is harnessing the power of public relations social media and Tech so it sounds like a very robust topic a good topic if anyone is interested I I recommend you um and I encourage you to attend attend um some additional programming um njsba has some webinars coming up a fall legislative update on November 27th um a webinar these are all webinars uh bridging language gaps in New Jersey education on December 2nd um and then there's some uh live virtual mandated training so if anyone is in need of getting their mandated training done and they want to do it virtually um there are some dates coming up in January and I think they just posted the January dates so uh Lois just forwarded a meeting uh today for from I'm sorry forwarded an email today with some of those um events posted so if you need the registration link or anything like that just check your email from today from Lois um and then just moving on uh Mr Marino any report nothing to report okay thank you all right so let's go back now uh personnel and management Mr Martinez let move 7.1 through 7.8 please okay okay so moved by Mr Martinez seconded by Dr web roll call please M yeah Mr Martinez yes Mr maxel yes yes drb yes M uh yeah I just did have one question about 7.5 the winter ball I wanted to know what grade that was for I'll f is this the certified Angels or is this the or dance I it sounds like a dance yeah let me let me let me I'll the board that information I I believe it's the middle school but I don't want to say anything for certain uh but I'll email the board that tomorrow okay great thank you okay and then I vote Yes okay so curriculum and Technology uh Dr Webb yes I have a question on 8.3 it looks like there are we're projecting 90 students for the next school year um does that include all the students that would potentially so that's a great question so we have to tell the state what we're wanting it but we haven't had anyone advance or tell us we don't even know how many you know four years are going to be next year so 90s are our placeholder that we're putting in um if if when we open this up in in February right and then we get you know all in February the community has to indicate their desire for a preschool when we get to March if we see that the numbers are are much higher than we we we expect then we can always make an amendment and look to have another 15 students on there uh but this is more just a placeholder than anything right okay question so what was it last year uh last year I believe we started the year with uh 75 and then we ended up moving to 90 because I think November we opened up that last section um you know now that the construction's done if it's nice to know that every four-year-old in in hen got a spot this year that that that hasn't happened right um so I think the board should be real proud of that and if we'll continue to monitor the trends but that's kindergarten and preschool the toughest to predict because we don't know for sure how many's coming in in a given year uh just on my behalf I like to say thank you for all the work that we've done as a board towards it you guys are yeah definitely proud of this moment so um I'd like to move 8.1 through 8.4 second MOX okay so moved by Dr Webb and seconded by MCO roll call please Mr yes Mr Martinez yes Mr moel yes Mr robon yes Dr web yes Mr yes okay now um going down to 10 10 security and safety did we have that committee meeting or yeah I'll I'll talk about that the uh the committee wasn't able to meet um but the only thing that's changed is in far as far as what the board voted to approve last year and this year is you know we we have a new assistant principal so that name but two new assistant principles so those names change um but everything fundamentally was kept the same and having a school security plan that you know is used like we saw this weekend that that's it's a valuable resource the house okay yeah I agree so I think we can we can vote on this um so um let's see uh Mr Ramadan can you move motion to move 10.1 we okay so moved by Mr Ramadan and seconded by Dr Webb roll call please Mr V yes Mr Martinez yes Mr moxo yes Mr Ramadan yes Dr web yes Mrs yes okay okay uh jumping down to finance and physical plant Mr MCO like to move 12.1 to 12.28 Martinez it's my birthday okay so moved by Mr MCO and seconded by Mr Martinez roll call please m c um I like tostain from 12.3 expediture 71180 and 1223 PO for disorder 5431 thank you Mr Martinez yes oh otherwise yes oh um Mr maxel yes Mr Ramadan yes Dr web yes and Mrs yes okay okay so do we have any new or old business I just have one thing missa yep and that's just to inform the board now that the construction is is finally done and the library is now a library media center again uh we're going to look to hold the the December board meeting and then subsequent board meetings back into the library okay that sounds great and you know that space is um a little more um it's it's closer it's a little more intimate so you know I think that's a nice space and I'm glad that we'll be back there yeah and I think it'll help too for the viewers from home like the audio is going to be a lot better down there so I think the overall service would be better down there yeah agree okay great uh anything else okay then can I have a motion to open the floor to Citizens on the operation of schools Martinez okay so moved by Mr martinz and seconded by Mr Matco all in favor okay the board the floor is open to Citizens um please if you speak state your name your address and you'll have three minutes um I can't see if there's anybody there but if there's anybody there that would like to speak first and if not anybody online hi John Coello 70 Church Street going John hi Mr coell go ahead I just wanted to stop by and um show our support for the held and public school community [Music] um on behalf of the board president of Manchester Regional High School District who send condolences from overseas but on behalf of the entire School Community U there's nothing worse than than losing a child and U Know That U you know we are also deeply affected many of our students know the student siblings is at our school and so we've mobilized as well and uh we support all of you here at the hen Community um last thing I to say is that we have supports and Personnel available as well the need arises so Mr Walker if you any additional Personnel power we uh we certainly spare folks tomorrow the rest of the weekend sorry for your loss thank you for all that you do thank you so much Mr Coello um just a reminder for anybody online who would like to speak please ra use the hand feature to raise your hand so that you can be unmuted um is there anybody else there either in person or online I don't see anybody okay so there's nobody okay all right then can I have a motion to close the floor Mo I think I heard Mr moved by Mr Martinez and seconded by Mr MCO all in favor okay before we adjourn I just want to um wish everyone a safe uh and you know good Thanksgiving spend time with your family and uh friends and uh we will see you back next week um um be well everyone thank you for coming tonight motion good night a motion to close I'm sorry can I have a motion to close Martinez MOX moved by Mr Martinez seconded by Mr Matco um L do I have to do roll call or all in favor all in favor okay meeting adjourned thank you