##VIDEO ID:xUVhVBDMNKs## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e public portion of the meeting begins the time is 7:00 the New Jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the rights of of people to have the public to have advanced notice of and to attend meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with provisions of this act the business administrator board secretary has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof posted on the bulletin board of the municipal building communicated to the Herold news the record and filed with the clerk of the buau of Hawthorne roll call please Mr cor here Mr clo here Mr Doyle here M arout here miss m cson here Mr Po here Mr is mrso here Mrs go here please stand and join me in the flag so I pled algi to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God meeting regulations during each regular meeting two opportunities are provided for citizens to ask questions and to make comments during the first opportunity early on the agenda the meeting is open to the public for the purpose of addressing items listed for approval on this agenda only the second opportunity occurs just prior to adjournment when citizens May address any subject matter that is pertinent to and or directly related to the operation of the school district persons wishing to speak must upon being recognized rise State their name address and subject matter comments and question shall be addressed to the board president or the presiding officer and shall be limited to five minutes per person the board may or may not respond to issues raised by members of the public at the time they are raised but will provide a response if and when appropriate the board ask that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals when speaking please note the board will not respond to comments regarding students or board employees in light of the Privacy rights held by by those individuals moreover the board discourages comments about such individuals and will not be responsible for such comments members of the public who choose to speak during the public session should carefully consider these comments since they can be held personally liable for any statements they make finally please note that an importance with District policy the board will not officially comment or respond to any matter mentioned unless it can confirm the matter has first been brought to the attention of the appropriate School Personnel in an attempt to resolve the issue at this time publicly heard agenda items only no one approval of minutes August 13th both public and private I'll entertain a motion motion second motion by Mr clo seconded by Mr totaro any discussion roll call please Mr car yes Mr clo yes Mr Doyle yes M Aaron trout yes SMY Colson yes Mr Flo yes Mr T yes Mrs G yes correspondence the only correspondence that I received was the email chain from the mayor's office which everyone else was on and I did confirm receipt of that email to both the sender and to the mayor himself um reports Dr sco okay so I am going to be sharing our student representative report as well as my own report so I will start with our student representative report uh William gof unfortunately William couldn't be here with us tonight he's at ENT school so we have our bear in his place but I want to just say that the bear is uh compliments of Gwen Rob just like former former Gwen Rob former uh employee in the district uh for those who don't know she's very fond of created these types of bears for our leadership camp and that's created one now for the board office so thank you Gwen but in regards to our uh student rep reports I'm just going to read Will's report says good evening everyone I hope you're all having an excellent September so far my name is William goof it is my honor to have been chosen to represent horor High School this year as the Board of Education representative I plan to keep you all extremely well informed on the everyday ongoings of the Horn high school so without further Ado I will begin this month's report Sports after training in the attent Heat this summer the Bears have finally begun their full seasons we'd like to congratulate coach Angelo grer for being named head coach of our boys football team coach fatme mimini our new girls so head soccer coach coach Olivia Wagner our girls cheerleading coach coach grai has been named the new offensive coordinator of the boys football team as well we would like to also welcome coach Wells and Coach Aliva who are helping coach the boys football team student council has promoted pediatric cancer with gold ribbons and Beads the football team has put gold ribbons on their helmets and nine and 927 at the football game all the golden ribbons and bees will be worn all proceeds go to tackle kids cancer senior nights senior night for the boys soccer is September 24th football cheerleading and band senior night is September 27th girls soccer senior night is October 8th girls volleyball senior night is October 10th and the winter sport uh parent night is October 7th at 6:30 p.m. right here at orn High School in regard to clubs the high school club Fair takes place September 27th students will be allowed to walk around the Courtyard at lunch and learn more about each prospective Club clubs at the high school are beginning to meet each year uh respective class cabinets uh was tasked with creating signs and posters for the pep rally for class Spirit additionally class cabinets are beginning to pick the hallway decoration themes and that's for our homecoming week uh for hallway decorated the senior class of 2025 class cabinet has met to design their senior shirts as begun brainstorming for their hallway design competition the horth high school Spanish club is officially kicked off by holding its first meeting on September 10th in the high school gym in 2024 2025 the high school Spanish club is committed to realizing the motto friendship diversity Community I like that very nice uh the high school Spanish club and the Spanish Honor Society will be hosting tables that include face face painting and pumpkin painting stations and a variety of cooked food options for purchase at the hathorne Hispanic heritage celebration which is on Saturday October 5th between 1 and 5:00 pm at the burough Bandshell Mr Duran who is the head of the Spanish club uh Mr Duran States we look forward to working with Community organizations including the Board of Education this year to serve the community please don't hesitate to reach out when any of our members can be of service to the hor Community thank you for your anticipated support and enthusiasm the art Club will meet on September 26th to work on their watercolor project the share Club is beginning a candy sale in order to Aid forther High School's new Comfort closet this closet aims to help underprivileged students receive such items as clothing socks underwear uh Sanitary products and more uh the junior class cabinet is hosting a popcorn sale as their upcoming fundraiser uh School event senior activities are beginning the class of 2025 signed the den on Thursday September 5th and are having class cabinet meeting playing their final senior year fundraising ideas the pep rally on September 6 was a blast for school staff and students alike celebrating our football soccer tennis and volleyball players cheerleaders and our marching band on October 25th the football homecoming game will take place which includes a tailgate before the game spirit week is October 21st through 25th uh October 17th is a fall event which is our now going to be the homecoming dance which will be the first time since 2015 um okay some other academic uh items the amount of students who received threes and fours on our AP test has almost doubled from last year PSAT is O PSAT day which is students take PSAT is on October 9th and auditions for this year's play Peter and the star catcher begin the week of the 16th High School open house is scheduled for October 3rd at 6:30 p.m. and is open to any perspective uh future high school students from the from this community from our community um in the horor high school library freshman orientation freshman Library orientation included uh introduced all freshman to the structure function and resources of the library media center through an engaging scavenger hunt they are also acknowledging Suicide Prevention awareness month with the library has featur both fiction and non-fiction books on this important subject along with resources for further information National Hispanic Heritage Month begins September September 15th the library media center has prepared classroom teacher resources and the library displays as well as daily announcements to promote the diverse contributions of Latino and Hispanic people and culture the library highlighted National voter registration day on September 15th by offering information and registration forms for all eligible students freedom to read week September 22nd through 28th is highlighted in the library with a large display of books each labeled with an explanation of why the book has been banned or challenged during library card sign up month the high school library continues in strong collaboration with the horth public library by offering our students the public library card and application uh and quick personal delivery of the card all high school teachers were given the library menu outlining all services available through theor Library here at the high school for takeout sit down and delivery copy of the menu can be found on the library media Center's website addition all new teachers were invited to the library for a tour and orientation so thank you to will for his report this month look forward to having will here in person next month um okay in regard to my report a number of items to share and I'll share some actual Flyers with you as well so I want to welcome will unfortunately he wasn't here tonight but I do want to welcome him it's always nice having a student voice on our at our board meetings to share all the things that are happening at hor high school and know will is going to do a great job as our student rep so look forward to uh welcoming will officially next month uh this year's off to a great start I want to take a moment to commend all of our staff throughout the district starting with our maintenance and custodial staff uh and our administrative assistants who work so hard over the summer to prepare our schools to welcome our staff and students in late August early September they do such a good job they work really hard and I just appreciate all that they do over the summer you know people don't don't realize all the things that happen over the summer and and they uh you know it's because of them and because of their hard work that schools look as good as they do and everything is ready to go for our kids so appreciate all of our custodial maintenance staff and our administrative assistance the other thing I'll mention you know it's been it's been challenging over the last few years due to all the construction that's been happening and this year was no different here at the high school custodians actually had to vacate the building you know in July this year uh because of the asbest removal so they had double duty in August to get the building ready to go and I just again appreciate all that they do to make sure that the building is ready um I want to thank our teachers for working hard to get their classrooms ready in late August early September to welcome their students obviously we want the buildings and the classrooms to be welcoming for when the kids arrive so we appreciate all that our teachers do on those opening days um and I want to commend our students for making a great transition to the new school year uh you know we we're like I said we're off to a great start wood and we just hope our students will continue to work hard and set a good example for their for their peers uh quick referendum update um I want to just share that you know when we since we passed the referendum in 2019 we finished our final project this summer as I just referenced this July since September of 2019 since we passed the referendum and started that work that summer of the summer of 2020 we've completed 21 classroom renovations seven science labs five media centers five art rooms two music and band rooms and the stem lab and coloring room here at the high school uh We've installed new windows at all schools new interior doors and hardware at all schools we've upgraded the elevator here at the high school as you can tell added air conditioning here in the High School auditorium uh We've replaced numerous hallway ceilings here at the high school we installed new fire alarm systems and new generators at all five of our schools we installed boilers at Roosevelt and Lincoln Middle School we installed Wall Graphics at all schools we expanded our security cameras at all schools we completed roof Replacements at Washington Jefferson Lincoln Roosevelt and the high school and finally we've implemented a one to1 Chromebook Initiative for our students and staff at in our middle school and high school so as you can tell there's been a ton of work that's happened over the last five five years I'm really proud of all the work that we've been able to accomplish it will benefit our students and staff not just today but for years to come um it's a tribute to this board who works so hard to get the referend the past and everybody who was uh you know inconvenience you know you forget that with all this work sometimes things aren't ready we had to deal with delays and teachers were flexible and I thank them on opening day just I appreciated all their flexibility and willingness to kind of adjust when schools open uh but like I said this work will benefit our kids for years to come so I'm just really proud of all that we've accomplished along those lines talking about projects I'm happy to share that uh some great news that we received uh the 2024 cops Grant which is a grant that we applied for this is the second year in a row that we applied for it um we were very fortunate to receive the Grant I can tell you we got some information about the Grant and it says that there were um 1,08 applications submitted there were only 203 Grants awarded and we were one of those 203 so we are I'm happy to share that we received $500,000 we'll be offsetting that uh with 200,000 of our own money that we budgeted out of capital reserve and what that will do is it allow us to replace all of our PA systems in all five of our buildings our public address systems within the buildings to improve our communication and it will also allow us to upgrade all of our radios all of our handheld radios for our administrators our security guards um and anyone who has radios throughout the district our bus drivers as well I should include that I can tell you that we are working closely with the police department that we can coordinate the radios that we purchase they'll be able to in an emergency communicate with the schools in an emergency so that'll be an additional benefit that we don't have right now so I'm really happy about this grant um like I said it's just another positive addition to to enhance our security measures both internally and outside you know in partnership with the police department so excited about to share that news uh you know obviously we we just got we were just notified uh we actually just got this notification this email last Thursday so uh we're going to work as quickly as we can to to do what we need to do to get this money in District and then get started on these projects just an update our on our strategic plan uh you know 2022 we upgraded our strategic plan uh to begin in 2023 It's A Five-Year Plan uh in terms of goals for the district and I want to just share we're going to talk more about this at next month's meeting as part of our testing report but I did want to share that we created a document which is an update um on the accomplishments that we the things that we accomplished last school year in regard you know related to our strategic plan or our goals so we it's on our District web page if you go to our District web page uh there's a strategic plan tab if you click on that tab there's a document that says strategic plan accomplishments from the 2023 2024 school year um and we'll do that each year to show the things that we've accomplished related to that strategic plan the goals that we worked on and accomplished in that year um so again it's on our website it's available for people to view next month at our October board meeting we'll be presenting our testing report we're going to talk Dr Tron is's going to be talking more about that particular document of our accomplishments as well uh back to school nights I just want to mention we got three very successful back to school nights uh that have already been completed uh we have our high school and middle school this coming week Lincoln Middle Schools is tomorrow night and the high school is Thursday night so we encourage you to you know parents to attend those back to school nights um and we also have our High School open house as will mentioned on Thursday October 3rd so any students uh within Hawthorne whether it be St Anthony students students at linol Middle School are all welcome to attend that open house on Thursday October 3rd just a couple things about our staff and recognizing some of our staff members I want to First welcome our 26 new staff members um including our new administrator although not new to the district new to that role Mrs pizaro have a new administrative assistant in our office um and we have a number of teachers CST members and Par professionals and we're happy to welcome all of them we did welome welcome them at our opening day convocation event we had a chance to welcome all of our new staff uh with all of our teachers here um I also want to recognize there were s excuse me six staff members who were recognized on opening day for achieving 25 years of service to the district and after talking about things that occurred 25 years ago uh we actually shared uh we we congratulated the following six staff members uh for serving the children of this district for the last 25 years I just want to recognize them at this meeting so they were Scott KMEL works here at the high school science teacher Chris Warner also works here at the high school two of our Roosevelt teachers Liz farcus and Kelly Gordon and two Lincoln Middle School teachers John bazaro and Renee snug I just want to thank them for 25 years of dedicated service to our community and our schools and our students in their respective schools uh we look forward to uh their continued service to our district but again I just want to congratulate them and thank them for all that they have done over the last 25 years okay last couple of items uh standards based report card meeting just want to uh encourage parents uh there's a flyer that's available to you our K5 parents there are three nights uh where our Dr trabon and some of our staff will be talking about the new standards based report cards which will be implemented in our elementary schools uh we encourage you to attend either on October 2nd at Washington October uh 8th at Roosevelt or the 10th at Jefferson the October you can go to any of the nights it doesn't matter what school your children are in they're open to all parents if if one night doesn't work for you you can pick whatever night you'd like I would like to share that the October 2nd night will be bilingual there will be be in English and Spanish on October 2nd but again you you're welcome to attend any of those nights regardless of the school your child attends and we do encourage parents in the elementary schools to attend those nights um they've been in the weekly reports uh sent by the principles uh but please take it take some time out visit uh attend one of those meetings to learn more about these new Spanish based rep cards and what they will look like and how it will how you'll read them uh when your student comes home with them your child comes home with them okay hor High School is proud to announce that they were officially accepted as you know we were part of no place for hate for a number of years but we were just notified that we were accepted into the no place for hate ambassador program so we are now ambassadors for no place for hate um this is no place for hate is a nationwide initiative by the Anti-Defamation League into promoting an inclusive respectful and Bully free environment from our work over the past two years the no PL for ha staff has hand selected schools to serve as Ambassador schools to support um the larger no place for hate Community uh so by participating as an ambassador School of horor high school will support new schools in the program they will engage in larger no place for hate discussion boards uh no place for hate will Feature hathor's work throughout the year in newsletters and promotional materials and we will intend the downstate uh New York New Jersey end of year Banner ceremony on May 20th 2025 and showcase our no place for hate work there so it's a it's a testament to the work that's being done here at the high school that we were selected as an ambassador school going forward so I'm really happy for them and finally I want to congratulate our high school marching band also known as the marching bears for taking first place at their divisional in their division at the northern Valley ultan band competition this past weekend they were scored on three categories sound intonation and creativity and they took first prize in their respective category and that concludes so awesome thank you Dr spro um just a quick question about the Strategic plan more of a a comment question there were a a very devoted group of about 50 people um who came to those three sessions and I know that their name is integral it's part of the actual plan yes um could we let them know that we will be talking about at next meeting or invite them to come or alert them to the update that we're going to just give them some the time to yeah I could I'd have to look we have their I have their names I'd have to look up their contacts we could look them up in real time because when you update something on the website like they're not going to know it's been updated right so just because they took so much time that group of people and really it was a pretty consistent 50 people each time um if we have any of their info I think that they really would appreciate coming and hearing about and they deserve to know they really it was a lot of time that they spent thank you for your update that P lots of exciting things going on um curriculum instruction Miss Arro thank you president pursuant to the recommendation of the superintendent of schools the committee on curriculum and instruction recommends the following resolutions ci1 and ci2 on page three which continues through Page four through ci5 which continues through page five which includes ci6 through CI 12 and then CI 13 and CI 14 on page on behalf of the committee I still move second move by Miss Aaron trout seconded by Mr P any discussion I question um for ci3 what does excuse me what does this act what does this grant actually mean so it's basically a are we allowed to use the money for anything we feel would be inclusive is there limits on it I'm sure it's a program and and miss er's going to talk about it in her report because it was part of our cni yeah I remember you guys talking about it but yeah so it's basically they'll provide and it kind of talks about here well let me just read what we have here so I understand it's like something it's helping fer inclusivity but like yeah it's basically training and support they provide for the okay that's what I meant like yeah they're going to help they're going to support um they're going to come and support it's only at Roosevelt because you can only pick one school and that's what we felt most of our inclusive classrooms are are housed that answers my questions okay thank you no no problem and I think that was it uh president thank you okay any other discussion oh yes right finish I interrupted I'm sorry um I CI 9 through 11 are these students in District or students out of District coming into hwo are these new students is that what you're asking so SE seven eight seven and eight are students coming in these placement from I know I'm just saying just to show you the difference right so those are students who we're paying tuition to us to come to our programs okay that's the difference between these These are added District placements 9 10 and 11 got it so seven and eight are coming to us correct and 9 10 and 11 are going out from hofor they're out of District placements yes okay um because like the one says previously approved that was just because they added a esy one to one oh okay okay that's why it changed okay thank you so the tuition and the esy was previously approved now they added a one to one I see okay that makes sense thank you yeah I'm ci4 could you talk about what that partnership is like TC yes NJ 4S right yes please yes so NJ 4S is another it's a free service you know we're taking advantage of all these all these grants and free services right so NJ fors is a group that they provide I'll tell you they provide a ton of services uh Mr Sarah actually met with them to talk to them but there's I could share these flyers with the port so they they talk about um they they provide programs for students famili staff uh you know they there's a whole like literally a menu of services for students at different grade levels right these are all six through 12 this these tier one services are for students K through 12 the tier twos are for students in 6 through 12 but it's all free services um and I know it talks about even in the in the resolution it talks about how they'll mobilize one or more prevention Specialists and licensed clinicians who provide onsite mental health counseling and or nonclinical services for students including workshops assemblies presentations like there's a whole host and menu of services they provide and it's all free I mean Steve Steve went to the training or to the you know information session and he kept waiting for the catch like where where's the catch with this thing you know so uh because it's all free services and and it's really you can kind of pick the services you want and how it will benefit your what you need in your district and how it can benefit us so we jumped in on this and uh that's why we're approving this resolution tonight um and we'll see we'll see how it goes It's new we have used it before but why not right give it a shot see see what services they can how they can support us here I'm glad to know that Mr sah made a connection with them njcdc is a longstanding uh nonprofit besides all the work that they do in patters and they have other programs outside of patter they're actually in town for you know over a decade now they have the uh there's a u building for Molly handicap over at Mohawk Avenue so they have that program and they also have youth programs outside of patter I think they partnered up at some point with PV bake Valley High School okay and they had an after school high school program like a club for them so you know maybe there's more opportunities yeah it's all new to us so we're just kind of we literally just learned about this recently so fig let's let's approve it Mr Sarah to work with them to see what they can do to support us here and how you know how we benefit our kids fantastic and also good to see the C7 and CIA bring kids into the bar yeah it's it's wonderful we're I met the Pompton student he's great has great great addition to our bar cave so it's nice to have him is the GL students still part of our yes he's still there as well good yes awesome thank you you're welcome as Dr spro mentioned I will report more on ci2 and ci3 in our curriculum report okay roll call please Mr CIO yes Mr Doyle yes M yes m m Coulson yes Mr Poo yes Mr Taro yes Mr car yes Mrs do yes Personnel back to you Miss Aron trout thank you president go the following resolutions are pursuant to the recommendation of the superintendent of schools P1 through p7 on page six p8 through p8 on page seven P9 p8 through p8 on page 7 p19 through p24 on page8 which continues on page 9 through p29 P30 through P35 on page 10 P36 through p41 on page 11 p42 through p45 on page 12 which continues on to page 13 and includes p46 through p48 on behalf of the committee I so Mo second moveed by Miss Aaron Shout seconded by Mr totaro any discussion have a comment just want to thank the administration for their ongoing work with the Staffing um as you can see there's a lot of pages in addition to what was done over the summer so that's an ongoing effort so thank you for that I am disappointed to see the res resignations of course um and to see that we already are losing a CO assistant football coach I guess but um it is nice to see The Hires um I don't know if this has ever been done in the past but I feel like we see so many names on these pages I lose track um is is did you guys used to have the higher date or no was that never a thing no not while I was here not person because Personnel right what do you mean higher date I'm sorry it it only says like um when there when it's a resignation when they will be leaving but not when they started when they when when they were board approved so you want us to include when they were board approved if if that was an option and what but I'm not sure if it why would you need that well to see our turnaround oh so like longevity yeah I I don't know just a thought just keep in mind the only thing I'll say to that is you know people leave for different reasons like I just as an example right so if you look at the first P2 right Kate Les ja we just hired her literally that's this summer right she's leaving because she's got a full-time job right this was only6 position right so I know mean you talk about longevity it's just it's going to vary like one person's leaving because they family situation you know like so I I don't know I guess I know certain positions are hard to fill too like langu um Spanish teachers Italian teach AG so hard to fill so I just thought it's I don't know is it helpful maybe it's not was just an idea and I didn't know if it was like a personel thing that we couldn't that's why I no it's not that we couldn't I just don't know is there a my question is there benefit to knowing when I mean look the way things are right now with with the teacher St is the way it is I mean I'm honestly I'm just happy that we have everything filled yeah okay I mean even to the point where you're going to see in a few minutes on the agenda for the Spanish teacher we already we're already partnering with we're partnering with language learning Network again because we all candidates so we already reached out to them we're approving tonight A New You know a new contract with them to have a teacher start right away so okay I me that's kind kind of where we are at this point I know not just us a lot of districts but um and the um new dance teacher that will be going out is that was a full-time position just teaching dance correct yes because it was like history of dance and actually it was a whole curriculum I should say is the right word yes so are was that hard to find the hard to fill it was hard to find I'm sure it will be hard to fill you haven't filled it yet right no no I it just until December I think okay um oh that's we have some heads up yeah we're going to try and we'll do our best obviously that would be the goal if we can't is there a way to open it up to like staff part-time staff or staff that we have now that may be to do as like an elective or it has to be a full day thing yeah we're going to post it we'll see what we can get and you know again maybe there's an opportunity to partner with somebody we right yeah we're going to see what we can do we'll do our best to fill course okay um I do appreciate the like when you guys write to fill the vacancy caused by BL yeah that was kind trying to get to wasn't getting to and then p45 is part um I just want to say that's amazing to have all these um student teachers or people doing their field experience coming in I think this is like the biggest list I've ever seen well as you know it's wonderful yeah it's it's fantastic I agree and we're I could tell you we have a really good partnership with Ramapo right now you know we started that last year um we only had we actually just added one because they had a student teacher in another district and it wasn't working out they reached out to us immediately and said can you take that it was a high school science person and we said absolutely we'll make it work so we have a good partnership with them right now and obviously there's other District you know other colleges Felician and Monmouth and other places but uh but the Ropo partnership right now is really really strong and so you know we you know it's a great it's a benefit for both right Winn because they had a great experience last year which is why they continue to send students here and and it it becomes like a little bit of a theater program for us right and opportunities for us to get to know these kids and if there's openings then you know we're able to kind of slide them right into our spots where yeah you know I I think it's I I don't know my first September on the board but I've never seen you guys have a list like this list and like you said it's a win-win agree um helps them and it helps us and the kids benefit so yeah um and then I just want to say lastly congratulations to the three employees who are uh who have received their masters or Masters plus 15 or Masters plus 60 and Mrs Toon's Cas um that is no easy feat and so I'm always happy to see Educators continuing to educ to get educated thank you M Andra a few comments almost to piggyback on on what's been said but although there were many resonations there are a lot of new hires on the agenda so welcoming the new hires to our district as well as those 13 students doing their field experience here as as we talked about that's great and another comment I wanted to make I love seeing some of the newer clubs I know that was something newer since I've been on the board unlimited clubs and just an example for the public to to know like p14 we have a community connections club and we we have an advisor that was on the agenda for that and then P6 the high school robotics Club so it's just amazing all the opportunities and the clubs that we have for our students and that concludes my comments you I do think it's important to note Dr spro did talk about the teacher shortage I don't think we even fully uh have witnessed the extent to which we will witness it in the coming years when the older crowd does retire um it has been shared with us and I think it's important to share publicly that about half of the number of teachers were certificated this year than normally are it's normally 5,000 in the state of New Jersey this year it was 2500 of those 2500 only seven were language teachers so the the shortage is really clear when you look at those numbers and and I think it was like 11 were something like 13 11 special ed yes we're special ed and then those higher level math and sciences were also in the in the very low double digits or single digits as well so it is no wonder it actually is a wonder that we it's just amazing that we're still able to to to get candidates and I'm I'm very thankful it's a we know it's a wonder place to be um but it is like the wild west out there as we have heard before in free agency you can go and get more money somewhere else the teacher guides no long they still apply but you can jump steps now it's just I think it's about to be unprecedented what we're about to see and I just think it's important to continue to remind the public that Hawthorne is not alone in that fight but we the administration does a wonderful job continuing to look and be welcoming to the and the hawor community does a wonderful job of welcoming teachers and staff and it is a wonderful place to be but we simply cannot compete with those DWI numbers and and the the salary guides doing what they're doing in other places it's just it's actually scary in any event um roll call please Mr Doyle yes M AR trout yes M mili cson yes Mr Poo yes Mr Taro yes Mr car yes Mr CIO yes Mrs G yes Mr clo finance and administration thank you madam president Finance Administration there's some donations that we want to acknowledge uh a acceptance of a donation of a whisk B7 valued at $1,587 from eor to be used for special programs I Googled it and that's an intelligence scale I'm not mistaken it's an IQ test what it's the IQ test that they use for classification purposes thank you to uh thank you to her uh B acceptance of a donation of dictionaries to each third grade student in the hofen public school district from the hofen Rotary Club at a value of $865 thank you for the Rotary Club for this long-standing tradition it's very much appreciated by the kids I've had an opportunity to sit in on one of those presentations and it's it's a lot of fun see acceptance of a donation of $3,500 from Mr Robert Pasqual of New Era converting machine to the High School robotics club for first robotics team competition this donation has been processed with the haon high school internal account thank you for uh thank Mr P for continuous generous donations action items pursuing to the recommendations of the superintendent of schools the committee on finance and administration recommends the following resolutions on page 14 F1 through A1 on behalf of the committee I still move second moved by Mr by Miss Aon trout any discussion I got a comment sure I just want to bring to our awareness that the lack of you know that the shortage of teachers that's happening you know Statewide Countrywide not only affects the uh you know the uh the flux within the buildings but it's also costlier if you look at F9 language learning Network it's $992,000 uh versus you know what a teacher will be making which is going to be chances are the teacher in that position is making about $60,000 yeah so so it's a hit to the budget on uh you know $32,000 so it's something to be mindful of that it has different impacts you know not just uh quality of life that's it um I just wanted to go back to uh donation a for a second um as this is what I do for a living uh and the Whisk is a very valued uh diagnostic tool for the child study team and just to give some perspective Eve Thor is a relative of the um late Dr Thor who was a case manager here in HW for many years in a school psychologist who was beloved by many um and his family is still obviously committed to the district and is is still handing things you know in his name to the district which is which is absolutely amazing so we thank that family that in his legacy they will have the most updated version of the list which I don't even think is out yet um so that is absolutely amazing and we thank the family the other donors as well but I just want to get the context of who that is roll call please miss Aaron TR yes m m Colton yes Mr Poo yes Mr zaro yes Mr car yes Mr cavio yes Mr Doyle yes Mrs G yes claims Miss Mo Colson in accordance with NJ C 6A 23211 bc3 n C4 C l-1 approval of September 2024 Bill list it is recomended that the board approve the bill list for the month of September 2024 second move by Miss mon Coulson seconded by Mr any discussion roll call please M mil Colson yes Mr Poo yes Mr Taro yes Mr car yes Mr clo yes Mr Doyle yes M AAR trout yes Mrs go yes buildings and grounds Mr Taro thank you madam president OPP to recommendations of superintendent schools the committee on buildings and grounds recommends the following resolutions on page 15 bg1 continued on page 16 bg2 and finally on page 17 bg3 through BG5 on behalf of committee I shall move second move by Mr shotaro seconded by Mr clavo any discussion no all call please Mr Poo yes Mr short oh he's absent sorry Mr Toro yes Mr car yes Mr Cordo yes Mr Doyle yes M Aaron trout yes M Moi Colson yes Mrs G yes Mr joyle overie for policy action items pursuant to the recommendation of the superintendent of schools the committee on policy recommends the following resolutions p-1 on behalf of the committee I so move second move by Mr D seconded by Mr Carr any discussion roll call please Mr Taro yes Mr car yes Mr clavo yes Mr Doyle yes Miss Aron trout yes Miss M Colson yes Mr Poo yes Mrs go yes committee and Le on reports Mr Carr legislative thank you madam president on September 4th Governor Phil Murphy signed the law s28 2837 a484 which gives school districts without a board School estimate additional flexibility submit to to submit to the voters of the district at a special school election a separate proposal or proposals for permission to raise additional funds for the subsequent school budget year Beyond The District's authorized tax levy for that year prior law permitted the school district to submit to the voters at the annual school election a separate question or proposal for permission to raise additional funds for the budget year Beyond The District's authorized tax levy this new law allows districts to submit proposals to voters at a special school election to raise such additional f funds for the subsequent school year school budget year Special School elections may occur in January March September and December the separate proposal or proposals may only be submitted on a date of a special election once during a school year submissions to the voters are a question for the approval of capital projects on the same special election date as the submission of a separate proposal for additional funds will be permitted on Thursday September 12th Governor Murphy's act on uh a218 s3000 legislation intended to ease the schol school bus driver shortage in New Jersey the bill would have created a new type S School Bus certificate to be issued to the New Jersey M to be issued by the New Jersey motor vle commission the certificate would have authorized a person to operate Type S school bus to transport children to and from school without obtaining a commercial driver's license passenger endorsement or School Bus endorsement typ best buses are smaller vehicles that can transport up to nine passengers excluding the driver the Jersey School Board Association Along with several other education groups strongly supported the bill in his veto statement the governor apped the bill sponsors for exploring ways to ensure school districts to meet their transportation needs he added however his concern that the manner in which the bill proposes to increase the pool of drivers has the potential to compromise the safety of our students in support of that goal he said several concerns in his explanation for not signing the bill in summary the governor stated that the bill proposes to allow students to be transported a vehicle that would not be subject to any specific safety and inspection requirements fail to ensure proper oversight of the driving privileges of a type as certificate uh holder and pivotally fail to to ensure that these drivers are properly trained qualified and eligible to transport our most vulnerable passengers school children that could report Mr car I have a question the first um bill that you brought up the special elections one exists very similar to that does it say what differs from it does not okay I'll look into that I'm pretty sure almost an identical s 2837 a484 okay I I will look and report back uh Mr clo finance and administration thank you madam president the finance committee met on September 10th Mr who attend this was kind of enough to take notes uh the items for discussion included the year at closeout which is in process once the uh year end figures are sorted out they will be communicated uh the audit is uh already begun the reports are being were sent or being sent out to the auditor auditor and the and spot testing has already started uh negotiations with the HD are ongoing we're waiting on a uh meeting date with them uh also Ro grants this uh these grants give us back 40% uh Lincoln roof is complete submission for the from SDA is pending Roosevelt as Welling from from Mr the New Jersey clean energy energy Grant submission for final payment is pending this was for ventilation units in the gym at Jeff and L also the cops Grant which uh Dr SC reported on just want to thank the Dr SC his office for pursuing that Grant and uh it's great to uh have finally received it this year that concludes my report thank you Mr quo Mr Joy anything on policy not at this time Miss Aaron TR both Council yison and cni thank you president regarding the council and some updates on events that are happening in town a reminder that this Saturday is the 15th annual haor day bear with me there's going to be a few more presents to share on October 2nd the domestic violence response team has their annual visual at the municipal building on October 3D the fire academy begins with our hawor fire department highly recommend I I went through it myself um on October 5th we have the Hispanic Heritage Month celebration at the municipal building that's a Saturday we have the taste of Hawthorn event at maloos on October 8th the Hawthorne environmental commission and green team is having a celebration of hathor's expanded Community Gardens on October 6th they also have their fall birdwalk on October 16th at the ray mansion and a reminder that theor farmers market continuing through Sunday October 27th so some updates from the town and then regarding cni as mentioned before we have re re the dreams Grant from the NJ doe and it it basically it's a partnership with njdcf and NJ dooe it focuses on providing trauma informed and healing centered supports that assist staff and students in building positive relationships and emotional self-regulation our hope is that the program provides our staff with strategies to better support students going through difficult situations and emotional difficulties while also partnering pathor with other districts receiving this Grant and I I do believe there'll be teams formed and we'll be meeting monthly uh throughout the district right and then the nji grant that's the New Jersey inclusion project K through 12 uh Roosevelt was selected as mentioned as a participant of this grant offered through the New Jersey inclusion project it's a multi-year grant where a team is assigned to hathorne to our teachers and staff with the design imple and implementation of inclusive instruction and placement opportunities for students in our special education program uh we also reviewed the professional development in the beginning the first few days of the school year and Dr jabon and Dr spro assured us that everything went really well um we wanted to note our 2000 our school Year's hiring Trends this has come up several times over the years I know since I've been on the board and we're happy to report that it's one of our most diverse hiring years this year as Dr Freeda welcom our 26 new instructional professionals 12 of them are bilingual and some of them are actually multilingual which is great for our student population and we've been working with njri which is a um basically group of public school districts prioritizing diverse educator candidates for teaching New Jersey students we also discussed the dual enrollment courses being offered at the high school we're offering more options now with connections at Pate County Community College Fairley Dickinson University Sean Hall and Ropo so we also have the Partnerships with the student teachers at Rano and St Peter School nurses so we're continuing to build Upon Our relationships with universities to basically create more opportunities for our students and teachers and also I think this is mentioned already but uh we did Dro mentioned we did include a section of our district accomplishments based on our strategic plan on our website so that concludes the cni report thank you Miss Aaron TR for njsba uh I just would like to congratulate our very own Alex guo who has been approved by the Legislative committee as an alternate on the legislative committee for legislative district 40 so that is very exciting for him and for us as well so God speed to you on that Journey thank you um and PCs Miss mon Colson uh yes so thefe County Board is meeting tomorrow at yes tomorrow at Mariel's restaurant but it's also hybrid um the topic is effective planning and financing referendum to maximize impacts impact on the tax levy I will be there uh also um that's it okay sorry it's NJ I guess the conventions coming up the end of October yes the or we will have another meeting before then yes right that's the 22nd to the 24th yeah so that's it thank you uh Mr Poo Hef CPAC and P thank you president G um as of now the PTO CPAC and he are in full force and as always they could use some volunteers so if anybody willing to help out please reach out to your schools PTO um there's been a few give backs that are delayed because they already happened um but going forward we're going to try to get these dates out a little bit sooner uh for the give back nights um also the PTO are preparing their their fall festivals throughout the their respective schools please try to attend um parents families attend it's always a good event they have a lot of uh fun events and things for again that's four festivals that year schools and uh Roosevelt this Sunday has a movie day um doors open at 9:30 and the movies start at 10: you can reach out on their Facebook page I think there's a link um there again that's this Sunday September 29th and also uh Roosevelt is having uh it started already on September 16th it's going through October 6 uh 16th and if you have any uh new or gently uh worn shoes please consider donating them um it benefits the schools and it also benefits those in need in Haiti so again that's a good opportunity to clean out your closet and uh Lincoln Middle School is having a um double good popcorn event 50% of the purchases go to the the U PTO that is um a limited window so again go on to I believe your Facebook page it starts at 10 p.m. on September 30th and it goes through October 3rd so it's only a few days to order your various different kinds of popcorn but again 50% will go back to LMS PTO uh CPAC they are having their next meeting on September 25th at 7M it's virtual go online and register in advance please uh they're also U promoting a SI workshop at Joey uh Joey Center at the Valley hospital um that is located at 140 East Ridgewood AV pamis on the fourth floor and it's for siblings of special needs from the ages of 6 to 12 um you know it's an opportunity for young kids to go and share privately without having you know to share their thoughts um my daughter did it a long time ago and she thought it was a really good event again she was a little kid at that point she's now 19 in college uh but you know again I think it's still a great opportunity for siblings to um share and talk about their um you know brothers and sisters that have uh special needs and um hawthor day as mentioned uh I I like what they're doing this year because all the ppos are going to have one table so it's an opportunity for them to join forces and everyone to stop by and you know support all the PTO in town because their work um you know is Tire tireless and endless uh we can always use more volunteers so please stop by and say hello at the Hawthorn day Hawthorn day is going to be a great event going to be a lots of bands and music and a Shameless plug at 6:30 the night BL band goes on so that's two haor graduates but that concludes my report thank you Mr last but certainly not least Mr jaro thank you president go building grounds committee met on Tuesday September 10th and the following are updates on various items taking place throughout the district as mentioned by Mr Poo Lincoln's uh new roof is almost complete the new roof is on and watertight and the flashing was ordered and will be installed when delivered if not done so already um also PSC and removed the old Transformer from the high school uh they will be coming back to and replace the ashol as well uh we repaired a minor leak in the new board office on the roof uh we are which was above the garage area and we are securing quotes to replace the entire roof most likely during the summer of 2025 also we are preparing for the motor mount uh at Lincoln's cafeteria AC rooftop unit the mount had a crack in it and uh means excuse me it's being welded and then also at the main office AC rooftop is getting a new compressor installed as well over the summer we removed old ceramic water fountains at the Lincoln Middle School in Washington uh the walls have been patched and some locations will have bottle uh fill stations to replace the old ceramic water fountains as well and lastly we are going out to bid for the roosevel uh roof project which went uh what happen on uh September the 13th pre bid walk through uh to place and bit openings are scheduled for 108 I believe and that concludes my report thank you Mr to at this time public be heard seeing as no one's willing to approach we will go to General comments new business and old business please just let us know which of those that you are willing to to or wanting to speak about Erica we'll start with you any anything at all um tell us where it absolutely oh uh so this would be new business I think Mr Poo mentioned one though so um I just wanted to say I think he said this but LMS Fall Festival is October 4th 6 to9 and I plan on volunteering I really also agree that I love that the pto's are coming together to do a table at hawthor dat but I was disappointed hawthor High School wasn't involved I don't know why um maybe they're going yeah there was one school that was missing maybe it was just on the flyer it was the high school but they're going there that makes me really happy because I said why wouldn't they also be included but I think it was the way it was announced okay um the hathorne boys lacrosse for the younger crew um they're starting their Clinic uh in October lots of things going on in October that's k through eight and a wonderful program uh you can find it on basically all the PTO Pages have it and also uh be spirit wear is always going on and then there's a hockey meeting 9:24 at Lakeland High School at 6:30 if anyone's interested in joining that team um so as far as comments I just wanted to um I just lost my train of thought I just want to welcome everyone back and I know it's been super busy with back to school nights and everything going on but um it looks like we had a great start and I hope it continues and we're all very busy oh that's what it was I was just wondering if maybe we could all be on the um PTO pages and also the email so now that I don't have a child in elementary school for the first time ever I'm not receiving the weekly emails that I love from Mr pisak and so I feel out of the loop and I think me and Mr Aon trout were talking about at the cnii meeting that it would be really helpful to get on that as a board member not everyone if they don't want to but I know I would like to um so I guess I could reach out or maybe Dr spro could ask the principal tell which ones you want I would like all of them every school yes do they all do more there you well I know the elementary schools are now using sore actually the high school is too um uh I don't you could just dump them in I'm already on Lincoln in high school personally because I have children there I could put I realize who graduated and Mr pisak stopped so he does have an active list he's now taking you know he takes the kids who graduate off of right or right which makes sense but I would like it's not that he takes them off what happens in real time is it it just it just generates it generates based on the kids that are unassigned to that school so maybe it could be our Board of Ed email so that like it doesn't list if you want to get them I can Mr CIO asked me I think the high school last year we put you on we can add you just tell me which one you want okay so uh Roosevelt all the schools I want all the schools please okay um I'm on all the PTO pages except for Jefferson um so it just helps to stay to be able to go to these events and show support and you know volunteer like I think you said something about use clothing I didn't know that was happening I think she wants she want the weekly school report for the principal okay I'm sorry I just want that's not a big deal I would love to be added to that and then you know so we can stay in touch yeah okay thank you you're welcome that's it Mr car I'm good thank you Mr D okay Mr uh two things one of them is the um there's an article that was shared in regards to the new addition that PCP is having um Center that they put together not sure if the building or not but nevertheless according to the tap two article it's uh it looks to fill an additional 800 students what the what was the cost of that couple shs 24 miling stru right up by the uh Public Safety right next to so just uh you know just 800 seats that are going to need to be filled so I believe we're at 220 to something somewhere in that neighborhood uh the other one is I had the opportunity to sit in on the U assembly for the back to school um the staff of the back of school assembly and just the not sure how other districts do it but doctor burrito and uh you know his office they go above and beyond with their presentation it's uh the presenter the uh the spirit that's part of it the uh camaraderie uh you walk out of there almost feeling like you want to be a teacher almost you do a phenomenal job and I think the staff and everybody that's part of the uh those presentations certainly do appreciate that thank you that's it go ahead thank you Mr chotara thank you uh just general comments uh just wishing everybody a great school year ahead uh it was great to go to back to school night at Jefferson and I got to say uh it's my first year as an LMS parent and uh going to PTO meeting you guys did a great and phenomenal job it was so exciting uh I felt a sense of energy there that really uh was something that I haven't seen before it was a standing room only PTO meeting which was really really exciting and um you know I don't know I just I it's it's a really good feeling going into this school year that I'm just very excited about for my children and all the kids of the district so uh that along with sports I am definitely a glorified Uber driver now for my children uh and uh it's been phenomenal to start the year off though and seeing all theery throughout the town so very excited thank you thank you Miss thank you so three comments for me first I want to thank Toby Murphy for who's here in the crowd uh for the information you provided for us last last meeting it's nice we're always giving information I was nice to receive some that so thank you Toby um second congratulations as Abby mentioned to Alex um to be the legislative Committee Member for our district very very exciting that you'll be representing us and third sometimes it's a bit of the elephant in the room and I know decisions will be made regarding the hockey rank and program um I wanted to comment I do watch the council meetings and it always makes me even more proud of our board how serious we take this and our professionalism it's nice to know that we have that so that concludes my comments thank you missel Mr BL point will takeen uh congratulations Alex as well welcome back uh to everyone with the school year hopefully it's going to be you know another great year and of course I get my opportunity to be on my Soap Box because Alex brought up the the figure of another 800 students which is wonderful for those 800 students but for the rest of the county K through 12 um it's just another tax so I believe the county is still only giving us seven M giving or contributing $7 million towards the pcti budget but if you just take a round number I'm not counting busing or anything a round number of 800 new students times $112,000 and it's $9.6 million that will come out of the Pake County local school budgets and go up there which again is um the prover proverbial toilet drain going down because you keep sucking more and more funds out of local districts um yeah it's a wonderful facility it's it's a great opportunity but it it's you know again it's not really collaborating with school districts to help those that are in need it's it's um you know a competition to to take kids that um you know could be educated in their own districts again if it's a special program you know that that's wonderful but there's got to be something and a better discussion which I've been talking about it for years Luke turkle talk about it before me everybody on this board agrees um you know it we can't keep taking taking this kind of money from all the local districts and expect the education to continue to improve locally um I don't have the answers but I know um it's going to become more and more dire as the um money and funds keep getting sucked out of our districts so what do we do about it I don't know but we can't just sit back and allow it to continue to happen um eminent domain is from something I hear which I don't know if it's true so do not quote me on this but if you continue to take more and more land and get more and more funding then it takes more and more money out of your local school district and it's a high school which means your kindergarten your third grader your fifth grader I've said it before in the past they are suffering throughout their entire career because money's coming out of the entire District it's not just coming from the high schools and going up there enough said Thank you familiar name building too yeah it was did he s thank you Mr pelo you know I will attend any meeting of the minds that you okay can identify because I I now know more than ever um what the inside looks like and it's about access all of our children deserve the same level of Sparkle and shiny new things and you're absolutely right we we can't provide what they can provide we never would be able to and that's not fair it's it's a fairness issue and we all agree on that um I have six very quick things um number one uh because I am the person who has to avert my eyes when I see somebody who's canning for money because I never have cash I just would like to pre-warn you that on October 5th um High School Haw and high school's Project Graduation will be canning um on the the major Corners where they usually are the four corners and I'm not sure where the other ones are but the the usual locations from about I believe they said 8 to maybe 7 to 10 um in the morning again for those who may not know what Project Graduation is it is a tremendously amazing experience that is fully funded by the PTO for the graduating class of of whatever year and it keeps them safe uh uh after graduation location where they are provided with fun things to do and again safe um so that is a wonderful thing and the PTO is is leading that charge uh and Project Graduation is is wonderful so get your cash for October 5th when you're driving around town um I want to piggy back off of the Comfort closet that I believe Dr spro mentioned it was mentioned at the high school P meeting uh they do have a closet in Mr fister's uh office area there is a discreet closet location which has in it uh not only clothing uh supplies it also has school supplies so if you have any extra anything that you would like to donate if you get it to me I can get it to the Comfort closet uh binders notebooks and he does he did say Mr fer that children are taking advantage of it so I would be happy to drop off anything um if anybody has anything to get to me next the band dinner uh one of their largest if not their their largest and only fundraiser for our band they are small but they are Mighty as we heard they they won their their division uh the band pasta dinner is October 9th at the high school is being catered by short ways Barn um it believe it's from 5: to 8 um and the band uh members serve so if you can do carry out but you can also do uh eat in where you can eat and the band members will graciously serve you uh also there's been some chatter I posted the original picture so I feel somewhat responsible but I was very happy to see you in started selling the Bear swag and it caused some confusion on the page about how it was taking away from okay they do give back to the schools they are giving 7% of the funds to they originally said the middle school and the high school that the item safe Bears on them either way when you wear Bear swag you're supporting the Bears I know that we're very uh committed to financially supporting the bears but I I thought it was super cool that they were doing it many other towns do it so you can get they just refresh their swag stuff um go ahead how do they get the 7% back I don't know but they said several times that they donate 7% back to check oh did she clarify someone did ask I didn't go back and check who does it go to I'm just curious because it's and it's a corporation is it someone from Walgreens has been commenting on the posts have we received that anything said goes back to the high school on I would assume if it goes back to the high school internal funds account like they may just get a check like a check with a check we're getting some confirmation and head shaking okay um it's cute it's like a hat and a poncho and socks and like if you need something quick and not everybody has access like people who don't have school kids in the schools can go there and and pick up some Bear swag which I think is really great um I just want to REM mention I know it's been mentioned in both Will's report and Dr spr's report but I would also like to for a third time drive home the open house that will take place here on October 3rd for all prospective high school students that doesn't have to mean just eighth graders it can be seventh graders fifth graders private school students even Elementary School students Dr Fister is committing to getting younger and younger students in here to see the amazing things that are going on I was here last year with my ath grade daughter the vibe that that everyone had coming out of this building was amazing so getting them in is is the is the secret sauce I think think um I will plead to the community not the people sitting here but the televised Community because I know these people um last year none of the students who were on a certain sports team came and it it was unfortunate it was planned on a Thursday night and I understand how important those those practices are however um not coming to the building I I do think put them at a disadvantage and there is only one a year I really I I did suggest to Dr F that he Reach Out directly to the sports associations okay uh and Mr maaka the same thing um just to to bridge the gap and provide them with the information and I hope that this year they will be able to come because that is so exciting sorry but walking into that gym with like so excit sixth grader whatever and everyone's like jumping en joying our team come on over but that was like the best part for some of them so what Miss monke is describing is not only is it a tour of the buildings and they have various stakeholders they have teachers here and students and supervisors and and obviously that do the normal um walkth through but the gym is full of clubs and sporting sports teams then they have Representatives at tables and they have candy to give out and there was very little um that that entered the room last year so it was it was it was upsetting um and then lastly I just wanted to point out that our next meeting uh because we are on the road now this is us on the road remember our next meeting will be here again um on the 15th of October at 7 p.m. so while we are on the road we are going to try and tell you a month in advance where our next location is so that we you guys aren't guessing as to where we are we all good did I miss anything okay with that being said um we are be it resolv that the hawthor Board of Education convenes an executive session to discuss matters pertaining to uh pending legal agreements um be it further resolved that is anticipated the executive session will be about 45 minutes in duration the public action may or may not be taken be it further further resolved that M the minutes of the executive session will be made available upon the determination by the board that the disclosure of these minutes will not detrimentally affect any right or interest of the board and that the need for confidentiality no long exists I'll entertain a motion motion second motion by Mr clo seconded by Miss Aaron trout any discussion roll call please Mr Zoro yes Mr cor yes Mr CIO yes Mr Doyle yes TR yes m m Coulson yes Mr Poo yes Mr uh Mrs G yes thank you guys for coming