##VIDEO ID:rToFNFlNdDk## e e e e e e call the meeting to order good evening everyone welcome to the October 10th hamton Board of Education meeting I'll read the open public meetings statement the New Jersey open public meetings law was en acted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend any meetings of public bodies at which their interest may be discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the hammilton board of education has caused notice this meeting to be published by having the date time purpose and place thereof published in The hamton Gazette and the pr atantic City and posted on authorized premises we'll have a roll call Mr R tenasi is excused M bernado Mrs Burns is also excused Mr Kya here Mrs donio here Mrs Fallon here Mr fedala here Mrs Hunter here Mr paa here Mr shipon here Mr Thomas here Mr Lions here I don't have the flag [Music] Sal I to the of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands Nation God indivisible for all okay first up this evening we'll have uh Mrs laori shilia our assistant superintendent on the spring 2024 New Jersey SLA results good evening I'm here to um give you the njsla results for spring 2024 Administrations NJ njsla stands for New Jersey student learning assessments students were tested in grades 3 through n in ela and math Algebra 1 geometry and Algebra 2 the scores that meet Proficiency in ela and math are meeting and exceeding expectations uh in science students were tested in grades 5 8 and 11 students scoring proficient and advanced proficient in science meet the target score indiv ual student reports from mailed home during the month of September NJ njsla performance levels we have five performance levels five is exceeding grade level expectations whereas one is not meeting grade level expectations two partially meeting grade level expectations three is approaching and four is meeting grade level expectations this is for spring 2023 2024 Ela um it shows grades three 4 5 6 7 8 and nine and then the last set of bar graphs show Ela for all the grades I'm going to compare it now to the 2223 grees 3 through n and meeting expectations is higher on all the bar graphs in both 2223 and 2324 this is the subgroups for Eli for race and ethnicity and this is a subgroup population program participation that includes free and reduced lunch Section 504 English language Learners special education and general education and on these bar graphs not meeting as higher in certain areas of the subgroups teachers are working very hard to bring up and supervisors to bring up the not meeting to meeting and approaching this is overall the ELA averages um it's the district compared to the state comparison for for ELA GRS 3 through 9 now this is the math distribution by achievement and this includes grades three four five 6 78 and then we go to Algebra 1 middle school algebra 1 high school and geometry high school and if you see algebra one middle school geometry High School the meeting expectations are higher than the other ones this is njsla math compared now we're going to compare it to 2022 2023 this is subgroup population that it includes Asian black Hispanic multiple and white and this is a subgroup population for math for free reduced lunch Section 504 English language Learners special education and general education this is the overall math averages for grades 3 through 8 Algebra 1 and geometry and and the uh darker blue is the district the lighter blue is the state average so we are a little bit below in some areas a little bit above uh some areas we stay the same as the SE okay this is our science scores science is measured in grades five eight and 11 and then the last set of bar graphs is the overall science scores this is a distribution by achievement for science for 22 23 so it's similar to the 23 24 achievement levels and then this is the subgroup population and this is a subgroup population for program participation this is the overall science average compared District we compared the district to the state comparison and some interventions we have so we were in the process of revising the curriculum based on the cess Central updated standards we have summer school programs after school programs we use Universal screening and multi-tier system of support we have benchmarks link it for Eli and math and EXL assessments are utilized to differentiate instruction in grades 2 through five we use the Wilson Intervention Program we have an irns Committee in every building that develops goals and interventions for atrisk students and we have plc's in grades K through 12 that analyze individual student data to focus on targeted skills D Dynamic learning Maps dlm assessments are for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities for whom General State assessments are not appropriate even with accommodations students who take DL dlm assessments are instructed and assess on Essential Elements essential essential elements are grade specific expectations about what students with the most significant cognitive Disability should know and be able to do the Essential Elements relate to College and Career Readiness standards for students in the general population and due to the limited number of students who participate in this assessment um the results cannot be shared that's it thank you thank you I have a question sure um do we ever look at how our district compares to other districts of our size and similar makeup in terms of like I know it Compares like the science numbers versus the state but do we ever look at how we measure up in our County and with other schools like in a similar SI size you know so right now the county averages are not out yet um they're usually out end of October and when they come out I usually um see the percentage where we fall in our County and then I distribute it at meetings so everyone can see the principles can see where we fall according to the other schools in our County and how I don't I don't know the answer to this but how long have we done the njla is this something that we can look at compare our numbers now to pre-co because like I look at some of those science numbers you had up there and they're a little low and so it worries me so preo we did Park assessments okay so it's a different assessment can't really compare you really can't compare it because it's a different assessment than park right so how much of this is still Co effects right so this would be um we're we're working on for next year for science doing different things to kind of try to get our numbers a little higher and with the interventions that we have in place we're really focusing on trying the get the numbers higher to come to County average and when when will you get those County averages you know I could go back the county average on oh for the she said the county averages don't come out till end of October October oh oh for for the all the schools in the county I won't be able to see that usually that comes out on the State website end of October okay thank you you're welcome Lori Mrs shab I'm sorry um you may not know this or um why in certain subgroups like in science why wasn't the Asian Community included in that I could hear I'm sorry you know how it had Asian black mhm in science why wasn't the Asian subculture in there I didn't think I saw that cuz they were always they were listed for I mean it's not important I'm just curious maybe it was when I missed it go to the science maybe it was there I apologize but right that's science that science so maybe in those grades see there's no asan I'm just wondering why that's there was no Asian population in 5ifth 8th and 11th because science is only taken in three different grade levels okay thank you not enough students thank you that's I'm just curious thank you all right next we'll have Mr Ramsay with the 2023 2004 School self assessment for determining grades under the anti-bullying Bill of Rights thank you Mr Lions the New Jersey Department of Education under the anti-bullying Bill of Rights requires all school districts throughout New Jersey to present their 2023 2024 School self assessment scores the school safety team from each School utilizes the provided self- evaluation rubric to rate the efforts being put forth to ensure a positive School climate and to effectively investigate allegations of HIIT harassment intimidation and bullying ratings are assigned for Hib prevention programs training curriculum anti-bullying Personnel procedures for reporting and the actual hip investigations the maximum score on the rubric is a 78 scores for the 2023 2024 school year are as follows for the early childhood education center a score of 74 for the war e soy junor Elementary School a score of 75 for Hamington Middle School 75 and for Hamington High School a 76 schools must also identify hi prevention programs and positive School climate efforts in Hamington training for our students and staff is provided annually and each building implements programs that promote a positive School climate for example at the early childhood education center they utilize a program called Super Friends the war soy Junior Elementary School uses the research based OAS bullying prevention program in addition to their very successful Renaissance program and at both Hamington High School and Hamington Middle School they also use the research based alveus bullying prevention program but we also have positive behavior supports in schools in those buildings as well this report is being shared publicly and approved by our Board of Education prior to the certification submission to the New Jersey Department of Education thank you thank you any questions for Mr Ramsey okay next we're going to have I stand there's some representatives from the Hamilton High School student council here tonight so why don't you come up to the microphone and talk to us while about why you're here uh good evening everyone I am Andrew Hoover I am the is service Student Council secretary alongside me is JD he is an excellent helper in the school store he does an amazing job he helps fold the shirts and helps sell them including the one I wearing today and many of you uh uh the student council and the school store helped collaborate together and we designed these shirts to support the Hamilton Cancer Foundation in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month in just a few days we raised $1,000 and now we would like to present this check of $1,000 to coach moriel president of the Hampton Cancer Foundation to support our community and Neighbors of the ham oh I'm sorry go ahead sorry Dave I'm just saying if you guys want to come up and take some photos you can go do that now come on come on up don't take him from the audience Dave Dave why don't you take a picture with the two gentlemen Sean you're on why don't you get in there yep in the uh everybody get in perfect good stand up J on behalf of the ham to Cancer Foundation I just like to say a few words uh you know I'm looking around and many of you I've either known as a professionally a colleague uh some of you I've taught uh so I've been around a while and I'm thankful for all of you and what you do um so just to share with you we've we've done a lot of things through the years we've been doing it for 18 years we've raised over $500,000 in that time so you know by my accounts we've been able to help you know probably in excess of about 500 people uh in the last couple years we've really gone up in our fundraising we've expanded out not only in the South Jersey cancer fund which is Atlantic County we we've now expanded out into Camden County teamed up with Virtua South Jersey breast cancer Coalition a group called toast pink another group called inspiring life together um it's been remarkable um but what I want to share most with you is that we're having a dinner in a couple weeks and every group that we've donated to has called and asked for tickets they all want to come and they want to see what and how we do things and they want to emulate what we do and because they don't have near the amount of success that we have with the fundraising efforts and I tell them that you're never going to be able to achieve that level of fundraising because you're not hamton right uh and I know that's you know cliche but that's the real deal this community is amazing this school Community is amazing there support for one another and people going through hard times you can't match so thank you to the school board and all you've done to help us and the many members that have supported our group thank you thank you thank you all right so next we're going to go to board member committee reports actually we'll we'll invert it a little bit um and then we'll do principal reports but we're going to invert it a little bit I'm actually going to go first I normally go last so first I'll um acknowledge uh the the I be I was remiss last month of not mentioning the passing of former principal and superintendent Charles DeSoto uh who has led this district for many years and passed away recently so we certainly keep him and his and his family in our prayers and thoughts uh as we go forward another thing I want to mention is again this time of year we've had four really successful back to school nights at high school middle school elementary school and at the ECC and I've had the opportunity to be out with Mr Ramsey on his community tour uh in his first year superintendent visiting with several of our Civic groups and organizations across the community and the response is fantastic you know I really it's great as a board member to just watch uh the community engage with our staff and engage with the leadership here in the district and ask thoughtful questions and share their positive experiences and talk about what the school district and the school community means to them and it really does feel good to hear a lot of the positive things out there uh and the great work being done by our teachers and our staff in the classrooms every day last thing I'll talk about is as you can see we've broken dress code tonight uh just for this evening uh most of us are several of us around the table are wearing elements of pink uh as Mr Morel from the Cancer Foundation and representatives from the student council spoke about students got together October being a month traditionally where we recognized the battle against cancer uh got together and sold shirts very quickly and raised a tremendous amount of money in a really short period of time and it speaks to both the Ingenuity and the dedication that our student body and our staff have if you've gone to a Blue Devil sporting event in the last couple weeks uh you'll see football players and volleyball players and soccer players and field hockey players uh on the field uh and Runners and other folks on the field of play with pink accents on their uh uniforms and in the students in the grand stand cheering with uh pink shirts and signs really acknowledging the the difficulty that cancer brings to people's lives and so you know seeing that for me I I really felt like the board should take an opportunity to just acknowledge both visually and through a you know donations to the group uh just how hard it is for a lot of people you know in a time in this particular time of the year and in and in recent time there's a lot of divisiveness in in the world a lot of divisiveness and a lot of different communities and I think when you're reminded of just how terrible the fight against cancer can be for anyone let alone one of our students uh especially our very young students it really does put things into into perspective and it gives us all an opportunity to take a breath and and really assess what matters and what really should be argued argued about or what should be worried about versus what should not be so I I'll thank the board members for making those contributions and for joining with me tonight uh acknowledging the fight that continues against cancer and again I know over the years here and even to this very moment there are many of us that are living the fight with family members and have lived it individually over the years so again we're certainly in it together and working through it um but again I appreciate the work of the hamy Cancer Foundation and their continued effort in the community that completes my report for tonight I will go to Mr Coya to my left all right thank you Mr Lions good evening everyone I have a few quick little updates from the buildings grounds transportation and Safety Committee uh first I I'd like to let everybody know that the C EC roof project is now also complete which will allow us to finish restoring our grounds and making sure that all of our surfaces are suitable for students to play on safely uh we will be replacing all door number signs on every exterior door districtwide the existing numbers are fading and even falling off in some locations these numbers are used for several safety measures and or First Responders uh we will we'll also be having Elite Landscaping along with some students we'll be removing some of the items uh in the current Garden which is located at the main entrance here at the hamton high school it will we will donate whatever plants they can and then the area will be restored back to its original state of grass we also hope that we can dress up our flag pole during this little project I'm also pleased to share that all of our have passed a state inspection which was conducted recently I want to point out one of the items on the addendum uh which is zero eyes which is another layer of security basically artificial intelligence that is infused into our current camera system this will be districtwide all four buildings security Specialists law enforcement and emergency responders all recommend a layered approach to securing campuses which is what we strive to do with safety being our top priority uh lastly I would like to share that during next meeting we will be approving Stadium lights for our tarf field we've been working on this for several months now uh unfortunately the uh final details that just came in late today and we couldn't get it on this agenda but we do look forward to doing that next meeting this project is about a 6mon lead time from the time that this board approves it until we can actually play on a lighted field so that's something excited to look forward to and the near future uh that's all I have to report this evening thank you and have a great night all right thank you Mr Coya okay I'll start to my right with Mr Fida our student representative good evening everybody um I only have a couple of updates for uh our student council um a couple weeks ago we had our first general student council meeting which was a huge success we had uh give or take 80 90 students attending uh which is always great to see uh the output we get from that um our uh homecoming dance this year is October 26th so we are beginning to prepare for that every grade is doing their um hallway decorating so we've had several pain parties um this past weekend and the upcoming weekends uh and we are getting some pretty good turnout for that too um we have our uh trick or treat or sorry Trunk or Treat for the elementary school kids on the 25th of October um and we have our uh spirit week so we also have so tomorrow we have our uh schoolwide Pink out but separate from that the week of the 21st we are having our uh homecoming spirit week which will uh conclude with our pep rally uh that Friday um that's all I have the report thank you for that detailed report mran I'll acknowledge I I I caught you in the student section at the football game recently leading from the front I can certainly I appreciate that level of dedication certainly uh Mrs donio over to you um I don't have any committee reports I do have a two questions about the agenda you want me to bring them up now uh yeah okay so the first question I have and this might be a question for will um I appreciate that we have a new um organizational chart exhibit m in the um agenda and I I have a question about in the previous meeting we approved the assistant superintendant and we now have like a more concrete example of what the responsibilities are for each of those to assistant superintendent do we now have to go back and approve a different job description for each one of those considering that um when we approved it when we approved the job description I mean moving forward isn't that something we should do just to have the all the job positions correct well I don't I don't have the job descriptions in front of me so it's hard for me to give you an offthe cuff answer my anticipation however is that they probably have uh a a catchall provision or elasticity clause which would allow them and any other such assignments as deemed appropriate by the superintendent of schools in which case I don't think you probably need to change the description to fit the organizational chart however that's something that maybe we could look at or just them on file that's all I'm or or also just you know check to make sure that the contractual language which ultimately gets approved by the executive County Superintendent aligns with that so we can look from a perspective basis I don't think you have to look retrospective okay well just because I think I think it's really helpful and I think um it's good for people to understand what those two roles do and in a in a positive way because you know we did add a second person into this role so I just want to make sure that people understand why we're doing that because they there's a need for that do you see what I'm saying so it's not it's not a criticism I don't want anyone to think this is a criticism it's just more like oh this is great this is happening I'd like to see it just more clearly identified in the job description we'll look at it yeah okay um and then the second thing I I would just like to um this afternoon at 4:00 is when we got the addendum and I realize that we've talked about this in other meetings but I would just like to request that the whole board if we could agree to a time maybe 24 hours ahead of time that we get the addendum because I think that if like for example I was at work until 4 and um um again it's not a criticism I think I know things come up but there's nothing on this addendum that couldn't have been set out ahead of time and in fact there is $1.8 million on number 65 of purchase order lists from August and September and so I just think again we all talk about transparency and when I get seven pages to review at 4:00 and I'm still at work and then I come home and change and all of that again nothing on this addendum is last minute in in my opinion so I'm not sure why we can't just all agree if it doesn't if it's not on the addendum by 24 hours ahead of time then it should not go on the addendum well miss donio the one item that's on the addendum you were in the meeting that we discussed it correct and it could have been put on the agenda on Tuesday but if you recall the original addendum was out prior to that meeting so it have to be an addendum the original no we got the addendum at 4:00 the the original agenda agenda was was already given to us before the meeting right but we shouldn't ever have an addendum that is sent out before or after what I'm saying is 10:00 on the day of the meeting I don't think that's unreasonable because none of this is stuff that was last minute do you see what I'm saying like I understand in some situations when we're trying to hire a last minute teacher where we have an opening and you're doing interviews like those yeah that's a rare circumstance what I'm trying to say is when I get an addendum at 4:00 that I could have had at 10:00 in the morning I think that's just cutting it too close and I don't think it's unreasonable to say either 10:00 that morning or or the night before do you see what I'm saying yes I see what you're saying I will go back to the I'll talk work with the staff and try to get well because we know whatever's on the agenda we get sent out by Tuesday so I know I have Tuesday and Wednesday to review the agenda ask questions before Thursday that's all I'm asking yeah yeah we'll work on it we'll work on it I mean the it's a feed of we'll work on it getting the agenda I mean it it took some work to get to a place to get the agenda out earlier that's not easy either but we'll you know you're but I mean this bill list was August and September so why it's a purchase order list not a L exactly it's a purch I'm just saying it's not yeah that's all I'm saying cuz I like to be prepared and if I don't have the time to do it then that's not helping me okay it's not helping anybody if we don't have the time to to review it and ask questions yep other than the number 65 we were told 66 would be on the agenda that we knew it I'm assuming 65 might have just been like just like a left off by accident because it's a standard thing that's on our agendas every month I'm assuming number 65 was just a like a left off by accident kind of5 is the standard Bill L it's also eight pages long and when I have five minutes to review it I apologize but I'd like more time to review the agenda I think everybody's I got it I got it I think the direction is right we can that shouldn't be this isn't heavy LIF we can get it figured out thank you no problem okay Mr chipo over to you thank you I'm going to start off with uh Sports our field hockey team clinched the cape Atlantic League American division with a 4-2 win over Ocean City our girls volleyball team will host the third annual Invitational Tournament on Saturday October 12th the first match begins at 8:30 a.m. the four teams in the tournament are Hamilton Bishop Eustace Sterling and Highland the Atlanta County cross country Championship will be held at Hamington Lake Park on October 17th at 400 p.m. uh parking will be right across directly across the street at massarelli's uh the board would like to thank the massarelli family uh for providing parking for this event and again it's uh directly across the street from the park congratulations to our September 2020 24 athletes of the month Gabrielle Childs for field hockey and Jackson Miller for soccer Jackson scored five goals and four assists while gab scored nine goals and seven assists the winter registration portal closes on November 1st all registrations must be completed before then please contact uh the athletic department with any questions as it was mentioned earlier the district um oh I'm sorry wrong page uh superintendent Ramsay continued his Town tour to promote our schools and and introduce himself uh they stopped at the Lions Club which donated uh $1,000 to the HHS Devil's Pantry so we'd like to thank them for that uh visited the Rotary Club the mother of Cabrini the sons of Italy on the 7th and the Hamington home and School Association on the 9th uh we will be working with real time to make sure that all the robo calls that we receive will be coming from a local number um as Luke mentioned earlier that all the doors are now going to have large visible numbers that will be reflective at night uh wanted to congratulate our band which is on fire yes uh winning two more competitions I believe and it's it's looking like this year's band uh could be having one of the best years ever and uh our school's had some great bands in the past okay we will be I got three Pages here I going to go through now we're g to I believe are we going to be showing a video we're going to be viewing a very special video uh honoring Mr Robert kaery for all his uh hard work and continued generosity to our schools so we're going to show that and that will complete my report thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] andest is there the blue stands for the vience and the for that protect the dear school and back the RS through four long years of high school the we love so work for and support with our when the of us stand our are the days of high school the blue and the so a little bit of a little bit of additional context there Mr capair was visiting us in the Performing Arts Center taking in a show and and observed that some of our technology at approaching 22 years old needed to be upgraded and promptly funded the replacement of the speakers the mixing panel and several pieces of equipment in there uh the the microphones a number of other things to get us back up to tip toop shape and as you see from our students performing the amam moer it's fantastic so we're really excited absolutely okay Mrs Hunter uh no Waterford report our next meeting is actually Wednesday the 18th so we didn't have one okay all good just f i I'll jump on a couple things with Mr cairy that it's upcoming here at the school many people have seen there's a portable bathroom outside of one of the gyms that's not the permanent location for us but Mr caair bought the bathroom for the district completely repainted our district colors and is working with us uh the goal is by Spring to have a bathroom in the vicinity of the tennis field hockey soccer fields and then another one near the softball baseball fields again donated by Mr caair uh uh many people have seen all the construction along the White Horse Pike um we've been doing some much needed maintenance on our retention Basin and you know we picked up the phone and the next day Mr cairy had a bunch of equipment there and a bunch of guys and that was a huge job everything you know very large job very very big job um you know and and no hesitation when we were in the gymnasium going over the sound system with him he looked at a couple other things he said just get him you know just just get him I mean where would we be without him I don't know we can't thank him enough Bobby you know he keeps on every time I call he's you know he doesn't say what now he said what could we do so thank you very much Bob that's all I could say and that will be my report all right over to Mrs bernado hi thank you um let's see in the I don't have a really long report in the high school we are going to initiate a math competition team which um should be very exciting something I would never be a part of but with my MTH feels but I'm glad there were people out there that that do that um just wanted to add to the field hockey tonight uh the field hockey team beat ma uh two to one two to zero and so that put us we are 121 and one and in the cape Atlantic League we are top we are seven and seven wins and one tie so uh we should get a good seating in the uh playoffs for the K Barbara and they're ranked in the state fairly High I believe they're in a top five five in the state of New Jersey that's that's great I said this before but I'll say it again this is a team that has been together since I think they were like N9 years old that's great you know and uh it shows but tonight it was really difficult when we were on Turf we beat this nothing against the team but we beat the team 6-0 MH we struggled on grass tonight struggled um and did end up two to zero so it makes a big difference um also I'm happy to announce that we do have two uh teachers who will do the unified coaching I talked about that last time that we'll give the opportunity for some students to play in sports that they uh may not be able to play that are um in our schools right now we have um swim team coaches that are going to share the uh stiens so that our students can go ahead uh with that um I wanted to also uh thank the town if you notice the tower it's all clean around there looks so much better it looks really really really nice and um I did attend the um home school meeting last night we have a very small group of parents who uh run that organization who help so much you know with fundraising helping teachers helping projects within the school um if you are available to volunteer to be in that group they would greatly appreciate it I've asked them if they could to come here and maybe tell of maybe a they're thinking of bringing back the talent show and uh other things that they want to do maybe if they come here and and explain what they're doing you know people may reach out and want to be uh involved in that also not just um The Blue Diamond Club the sports booster club as you know when you volunteer your kids probably are already in school well we have a group of people that are still in those particular clubs but they're students of graduate they need help so if you're willing to you know be a part of those groups I'm sure they would be greatly appreciated too the Blue Diamond Club does a lot of things a lot of fundraisers so that um the baseball players can go on a trip if possible uh helps with the cost of that uh the sports boosters if you uh go to any football game you see the same people in the stands uh I mean sorry in the uh like refreshment stand they're always looking for vol volunteers um and it's a big business that's that on the night of a football game that is like constant Conant it's like a restaurant yes and the food they have there I mean you get a cheese steak pepper and sausage you know whatever uh hamon is unique hamon is unique Chick-fil-A Chick-fil-A sandwich at a reporter wrote about it in the news or something how good the food was it is it really is but if these people sorry cookies no not in the stand the C no those are just Kelly's house have fried Oreos oh and cake fries see cake fries uh but if these particular people that are in these organizations leave there's a might be a slight problem if people don't come and volunteer and it it helps our students it helps our athletes and uh so I'm just asking you out there if you can spare the time um to come and volunteer that's all I have all right this s um no report from negotiations um but I I do want to thank Mr cairy for his continued support of all of our students especially our musicians here which brings me to number 24 one of the saddest things that we're going to report is Mr ano's upcoming retirement this spring and um I I can go on and on and I will at some point but but but I just wanted to say how you know he's it's been 40 about 40 years I would say he's been here so it's it's we all knew it was coming one day but um I just want to just take a moment that the last few years um you know it's he didn't just kind of fade off into the sunset he has been vigorously working and doing and helping our students and creating programs and just in the last few years he's expanded and developed and expanded a blossoming Strings program and um I know that we as a board are going to be thoughtful about his position in the future and he's given us just such a gift I think as a board to see what our young children are capable of musically and um I just want to make sure and we know we will because we've discussed it but we're going to continue his legacy because it's just our eyes I just think have all been opened as to what our kids are capable of and it's really beautiful to see and we thank him so much but we in the spring we'll say our tearful goodbyes I'm sure but and he looks like he could teach another 30 years what's that he looks like he could teach another I know he's amazing just amazing yeah so no it's been you know Mrs delonzo last year leaving you know it's our our young people and our music program but we you know we have you know it but it gives us a lot of I think what they've done they've done so much and they've just showed us what our kids are capable of so it really gives us a lot of Hope for the future and we thank them both and it's going to take three individuals to probably so we're well aware of that saying I don't know if you mentioned it um the girls volleyball team is the top seed uh you know that's a team that came along too dude I don't remember if we started that as a club team or if it was a v you know VAR right away four years ago wasn't long ago long yeah it's not that long that it's I think um my granddaughter was a senior um but you know congratulations to them and good luck cuz they're the top seat just briefly on that Mrs bernado makes a great point I took in my first uh Hamilton girls volleyball game last night and it is something if you haven't gone go they're great it's a great program it's great to watch it's really intense and exciting uh you know they've done really well yeah and I'm really proud of the work they do there um Mr Thomas I don't have anything to report but I would like to thank U Tom Ramsey for informing rather quickly of an unfortunate bus incident with a fon bus um he actually beat uh the several parents of calling me and I appreciate that and I also appreciate Mr Kya reaching out following up and making sure we were okay and we didn't need anything um it means a lot to our small District that you took the time to to beat the parents for me in particular um because it was quite early in the morning and the phone started ringing two minutes after you called me and we had good information and uh I can't thank this District enough for what they do for our kids thank you MRK all right next next we'll have our billing principles let's start with Mr matina come on down hello good evening um on your agenda tonight there's two things I'm excited about one is our math club we discussed already and um and the other one's Morgan's message both these ideas are from our students which makes it really exciting the first one the math club Justin vivadelli reached out to me about an assessment he learned about when he was applying to colleges and he said this is something we can participate in so we took that idea and we're forming it into a club now also will be more assessments and more competitions so for our academic students it's it's really exciting the second one is Morgan's message so Morgan's message is an organization that strives to support our student athletes mental health so it's kind of like an area of the school that we really need to focus on with mental health that kind of gets lost the after school activities which is gigantic especially here at Hamington Emma Longo presented this idea to our Teacher of the Year Tracy angelosi who said absolutely so she's going to volunteer and she's going to run it and there'll be activities throughout the year for our student athletes um some of the things you'll see that'll be kind of cool an example would be like when the basketball team comes out this year for layup drills before one of their games they might be wearing a Hamington shirt that says mental health matters right so that's going to be a great thing for all of our students um it's a great thing for our student athletes PSA we have going on October 22nd our guidance counselors and our assistant principles have worked hard in the schedule to test over 700 students we'll do it on the morning of the 22nd and I'm sure it's going to go great spirit week and homecoming as youan let us know is starting the week of the 21st culminates with the dance on the 26th spirit week is something I'm pretty excited about when I was here as a guidance counselor it was amazing when you walk into the building on that Monday the hallways look completely different um those kids come over the weekends with teachers to volunteer on Saturdays and Sundays and decorate this place and it's amazing and I've been in a few different districts and Nobody Does it as well as Hamilton I can guarantee you on that and the other thing is dual enrollment we're partnering you a partnership with Stockton University which we're increasing what dual enrollment is it's courses we offer here at Stockton we we offer here at Hamington we get approved at Stockton um we have to go through a process where they audit our teachers resumés they audit their um if they their master degrees they audit our curriculum and then if they approve it students at the end of the year can get credit at Stockton University meaning when they leave here they can already have a transcript waiting for them at a university and that transcript can be sent to other colleges right now we offer one my goal is to get to about 14 or 15 um yesterday and the committee that's working on it is myself Lori shilia and Mike Ryan yesterday we submitted 17 courses to Stockton they already got back approved two of them and we're in works for a bunch more um the biggest thing about it is for free and reduced students lunch students there's no application charge at all it's free so means these students that are financially strugg struggling can leave this high school with uh credits already at a university so those are some of the exciting things going on at the high school all right thank you thank thank you all right Dr reesi come on up first I want to thank everyone for rocking the pink tonight um as a survivor of 14 years I mean I want to acknowledge and thank you um for promoting breast cancer awareness um it's important to spread the word and remind people um to get regular checkups I mean I know firsthand so thank you president Lions and the entire board of education for supporting this worthy cause um um so other news um our first dance was held um was a success it was our welcome back to school dance it was very well attended our students were singing dancing and mostly eating snacks the whole night um as everyone knows October the week of respect we have uh social emotional lessons going on beginning in our sixth grade um we also have another mural planned to add to our front lobby near the beway it's another beind mural and all of our students again are going to be involved by putting their thumb prints on the wall so we're excited about that it's a great show of unity um as you know our clubs and sports are in full swing our fantasy football league is taken off with the excitement of the Season our coffee cart is brewing up a lot of uh excitement and our kindness Club is busy spreading Good Vibes our fall Sports are being well looked over by uh Mr Tower he's doing a great job our girls soccer and field hockey have winning records and they remain unbeaten in the cow so we're very proud of them our boys soccer team also has a winning record and our cross country team is doing a great job as well so we're very proud of our of of our fall Sports repres the way they're representing our Middle School um we have a fall Cabaret coming up on October I'm me get the right date I can't read here Wednesday October 30th so we're excited about that our students are going to Showcase their talents and also in October I just want to give a shout out to our custodial staff uh Barbie Evelyn John and Harley they do a great job um they keep our floor shining and our old school looking beautiful thank you thank you thank you I just want to say I was out today we had a a cross country meet with three or I think there was four other schools there was a soccer game going on I mean our facilities are look so amazing it's it's it's almost like our middle school kids get to play on like a college facility it's it's really amazing yeah all right so Dr T come on on good evening like to highlight a few things that are happening at the El Elementary School uh this week we recognize the week of respect and Fire Prevention Week teachers focus on kindness empathy understanding uh in our school Community engage in different activities to create a positive environment where everyone feels valued and addition to classroom activities Miss Schmidt our guidance counselor has been popping into classrooms and teaching uh friendship lessons with students teaching them different ways they can be a good friend like being loyal and honest and kind uh in recognition of Fire Prevention Week students participated in a fire safety uh program provided by our local fire department where students learned about fire safety and preparedness second grade teacher Miss Durham eagerly dressed in firefighter apparel and third grade teachers Mr Madia Miss Filipina volunteered to go up in the bucket lift and wave to students far below now our assistant principal Mr Morell was next to go up into the uh lift but was spared this time du to a SL slight mechanical issue but he will be up for us next year and just a a shout out to Mr moral he's doing a great job uh just energizing the teachers and the staff and interacting with our students uh his pre-administration career of the hamton high school uh PE department and as a varsity coach uh prepared him well to just step right in and be a positive role model for our kids uh we want to offer a quick thank you to Mr Cora for completing our West curb appeal project ja the fencing across the front now continues on both sides of our building keeping students safe from any moving traffic so thank you again uh and I'd like to acknowledge just as Miss Fallon did an item on the agenda tonight Mr anuko music teacher at West will be retiring this year he spent the last 40 years in Hamilton and 43 total in public education his dedication and passion for music has made a tremendous impact on our young students and we want to thank him for inspiring the many young musicians and creating a love for music that will last a lifetime um and finally Halloween festivities will commence on October 31st the high school NHS students will perform a Halloween safety play ECC and West students will celebrate with costumes and a parade uh all have the option to come in costume wear black and orange or wear regular School attire the parade will start at: 145 and I hope to see you there thank you thank you all right last not least Dr slle come on up I always thought it hello everyone some updates from the ecec sorry about the redundancies but we team up a lot with West so a lot of our activities um over lap we had our back to school night on September 25th and this was the first time that all of us were Under One Roof prek through first so it was nice to have everyone in the same building very well attended and we thank all of our parents and everyone who came out to support us this week is the week of respect so we have the various activities going on dressing up and different things to promote kindness and empathy and also it is fire prevention week so we had the hon fire department on Tuesday to present some fire safety education for our students I wanted to acknowledge our teachers who dressed up in firefighter gear and our brave teachers and staff members who went up in the bucket for our younger students firefighter gear can be a little bit scary um and intimidating so seeing their teachers dress up is a great way to make them more comfortable um and just the whole concept of the firefighter being you know being more um you know more comfortable with it if there were ever an emergency so we thank teachers and also the Hamington fire department for always doing a wonderful job with this program we also had uh what is now become our annual Hispanic Italian and German Heritage Wellness walk last Friday October 4th kindergarten and first grade students walk along a path outside they March out in front of the west building and they stop at various points along the way where we have signs with information and pictures of famous individuals who have made a positive impact in the world so special thanks to miss Rosado and Miss scardilli for their work with this event and during that walk our preschoolers were busy at their annual teddy bear picnic so it was a beautiful day at the ecec coming up the week of the 21st we have kindness week and we also have our kindergarten first grade trip to Duff Fields And as Dr T said we'll have information coming home soon for our Halloween events and then I just wanted to give a shout out to Mr Kya um our dismissal staff had um recently expressed that they would like radios that would be on a different frequency than our office radios and Mr Coya showed up with 20 radios unpackaged them hooked them up for us um so it was a huge help to us and the staff has reported that it's been very helpful with dismissal thank you so much Mr COA for always being so handson and always checking and to make sure we have everything that we need thanks everyone thank you thank you all right next we'll go to public comment this is the first of two opportunities for the F for the public to be heard you step up to the microphone give us your address and speak to the board come on up hi hi good evening can you hear me okay okay yeah Melissa castone 672 Grape Street Hamington um I am a little brain dead from the Phillies game last night so what is our district policy on public comment time is it 3 minutes four minutes generally generally it's 3 minutes um but obviously if you're if you're coming in for a landing on a point um you know I'll a little bit longer but had a couple shout outs I wanted to give um but okay so I want to start my public comment tonight by saying that it has been a great start to the school year and give a special shout out to some faculty do not be mistaken this great start is not by chance it is by Design without the caring and support of Mrs silipo and Mrs galleta fifth grade teachers in the west building I wouldn't be able to stand here tonight and tell you what a great start to the school year this has been these two teachers took time out of their busy August schedule to sit with me and my husband and listen to concerns that we had had they didn't put us off they didn't ask for a principal or a counselor to be present and they absolutely could have other districts probably would have required it but they still met with us and genuinely listened and for that we were really grateful secondly um I have a request for the board during back to school night at the middle school other parents and I couldn't help but notice something we have children who are in special education resource classes for those who are unaware these are classes composed of students with IEPs because they have one or more disabling diagnoses that make it impossible or restrictive to learn in the traditional classroom setting as I and another parent sat in room B8 a and b8b we noticed that we could hardly hear the talk from our kids teachers that night because those rooms adjoin with each other with a 3/4s flimsy partition wall that shakes and is on Wheels as we tried to hear the teachers rules and expectations we could hardly hear because the adjoining rooms teacher was giving their classroom rules and expectations to their classes parents this begs the question how does this play out during the school day let me be clear these rooms are reserved for co-taught and resource room classes those classes have more special education students than any other classes in the building these students are the ones who are diagnosed with ADHD auditory processing disorders maybe even anxiety learning is already difficult for them complicate that with an adjoining room that has a teacher who is simultaneously teaching his or her class there is just no way that this can be considered best practice my son Liam has been in these classrooms for 3 years last year he told me how difficult it was for him to pay attention in class because movies were being played to the English language Learners class in the adjoining room a temporary solution was given and Liam's class was moved to the media center as a parent and a 21-year educator I figured this was probably just a scheduling issue and maybe this was just an off year sadly I've come to learn that this has not just been an issue for one or two years it's been an issue for at least 20 years 20 years that predates my time in Hamilton we need to do better don't get me wrong when I came to the last Boe meeting I was pleased to hear about the new ecec roof and the beautiful landscaping and I heard about it tonight as well and I'm proud for that but there's internal issues that need to be addressed here issues that affect our most vulnerable Learners vice president Coya I'm invoking your help in particular on this matter you one of the few board candidates that I have seen and heard run on the platform of helping all students and specifically mentioning children with special needs I don't know if it was on your web page or in a Facebook comment but you did you mentioned kids with special needs and it resonated with me in fact it was your sister Shannon who was pivotal in helping to get my son classified in the first grade I will never forget that and we owe her so much for her thoughtful guidance in the IEP process 7 years later I need this board this board to commit to fixing this issue with rooms B b8a and b8b in the Middle School even if it's too late for my eighth grader don't let this continue in the future please help the students who have learning disabilities and difficulties so that they are not learning in a restrictive environment but are given the same quality of undistracted Education as the enrichment level student students I thank you thank you any other public comment all right we'll CL we'll close the first public comment there'll be another opportunity to speak at the end of the meeting next we move to the agenda we're going to go to finance items 1 through 23 I'll take a motion so moved uh Mr shipon first so moved Mrs bernado second roll call Mrs bernado yes Mr COA yes Mrs donio yes Mrs Fallon yes Mr Mrs Hunter yes to Woodford items 1 through 11 thank you Mr Pia yes Mr chipon yes Mr Lions yes motion carried next I'll take a motion on Personnel items 24 through 51 so moved Mrs Bernard second Mr Coya roll call Mrs bernado yes Mr Coya yes Mrs donio yes Mrs Bon yes Mrs Hunter yes to Woodford items 32 through 51 Mr yes Mr chipon yes Mr Lions yes motion carried next we're going to go to program students miscellaneous items 52 through 64 I'll entertain a motion motion Mrs Hunter second Mr COA roll call Mrs bernado yes Mr COA yes Mrs donio yes Mrs Fallon yes Mrs Hunter yes to wford items 53 through 64 Mr paa yes Mr shipon yes Mr Lions yes now we'll go to the addendum I'll take a motion for finance items number 65 and 66 motion Mrs Fallon first second Mr Coya second roll call Mrs bernado yes Mr COA yes Mrs donio yes Mrs Fallon yes Mrs Hunter yes Mrs Mr paa yes Mr chipon yes Mr Lions yes motion carried finally we'll go to programs students of miscellaneous item number 67 I'll take a motion so mov second Rado Mr chap roll call Mrs berado yes Mr COA yes Mrs donio yes Mrs Fallon yes Mrs Hunter yes Mr plea yes Mr shiio yes Mr Lions yes motion carried that takes us to the end of the published agenda uh before we go to the last public comment just a quick note for the board members at the conclusion of the meeting if we could just wait a minute and take a quick photo together with the administrators and our you know our shirts here I think it' be nice so let's just don't run out when when I bang the gabble to end the meeting can't go watch the yeah yeah am okay um okay so this is the second public portion of the meeting uh public comment anybody wants to be heard step up to the microphone give your name and address and you can to be heard see none I'll entertain a motion to adjourn I just one comment for the board uh October 22nd 23rd and 24th of New Jersey school boards association meeting uh it's a great opportunity to meet fellow board members uh the public may not be aware there apparently 500 there approximately 566 municipalities in the state of New Jersey there are close to 600 school districts actually between the Regionals and what have you it's a great opportunity to collaborate uh I am speaking uh on two separate occasions Amy speaking on two separate occasions Casey speaking on two separate occasions we have a booth uh and there are a plenty of social events as well but it's a really good opportunity to just see what other school districts are doing other boards are doing and um and get the credits that you need for your board membership in your training it's the opportunity to get that as well so I just want to remind you of that all right anything else from anybody else okay I'll take a motion to adjourn motion Mrs Hunter second all in favor motion journ thank you okay uh where to for a picture what do you think right in the front right in the front right we kind of stand up e e e