[Music] ter sorry about that come mamed closer so as they're getting organized let's read the award that was given to them law fair 2024 Award presented to presented by the New Jersey State Bar Foundation to heren ler Elementary School Statewide winner second place sixth grade in recognition of Excellence ining understanding of the law and over and our justice system congratulations [Applause] so now principal wolf it's always good to go out on top and I know in year I won't give all the years but in your dedicated service to not only as being a student a resident but also an educator I know these moments are proud to you love your kids and talk about your babies I know this is going to be the part that you miss the most when you are in Florida or whever you may be that but I want to say under your leadership over the over the three years I've been here lot of great things have happened for you and your students it's a joy to be in your buildings that's in all the buildings but as you close out your career here we say thank you and there's many more accolades to come your way thank you for do [Music] [Applause] [Music] service come we are still missing a couple kids there was three more kids that we're supposed to be here but they're not here we'll phot [Music] [Applause] thank and parents I really hope you're proud and capture this moment because so often the news portrays our students in ways that AR the truth but we don't know who in this room may be next lawyer superintendent please encouraging them and superintendent and leaders come up with these crazy ideas let's read a book write a book you might be out left field at time but several years later here doing something different so thank [Applause] you as we continue celebrating schools now we'll bring up the principal from Ola Edwards Community School none other than our great principal DAV let's [Music] [Applause] go everyone so my thought was talk about data talk about this that then I decided you know what I'm just going to highlight some of the things that we've done in olola Edward this is my first school year there and when I say we've done a lot lot I couldn't even put it all there it would have been we would have been here for over an hour or so just looking at all the amazing things that we've done at Ola Edwards if it wasn't us actually having the event we were hosting an event for someone else um so there's been a lot of amazing things at Ed Works we've piloted a lot of new programs um that have done very well at our school um we have a lot of clubs just a lot of events that have happened and you know the kids are happy teachers are happy and I think that the climate at Ola Edwards is great I can't do it without my teachers I can't do it without my staff and I'm just so thankful that it has been an amazing year and so this video is just going to highlight some of the amazing things that have happened at Ola Edwards um this this school year and then I'll talk about some of the things that are going to come up next month so we piloted some programs shelter the English Sunshine tutoring um some of our clubs girls Ro science [Music] [Music] h [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] than [Music] am [Music] see h [Music] [Music] so I wanted to thank thank um the board members who have come out to Ola to support us we've had a lot of different events and a lot of you have shown up I want to thank superintendent Glover for always coming out and supporting us this in June we have uh a few events that are going to be coming up we have our honors uh Society induction on the 14th our juneth remembrance which is on the 18th and I want to invite all of the board members and anyone else that would like to join us we're going to do um what we've uh decided to call a freedom walk um where we're going to walk through the building collect every class um as we go through the building we have the band coming over they're going to play for us we're going to walk out we're going to have a speaker um some um Melle is gonna sing for us we would love to have superintendent Glover um speak as well and we're going to U raise our juneth flag on that day also we have ice cream that has that's being donated by the screen truck for our students that um afternoon so we plan to make that day a really um a real big celebration um we have our end of the year award ceremony which is going to be on the 24th and we have our Carnival which I want to bring up Miss Ross to talk about that is going to be on the 21st but again I want to say thank you so much to the board members the community um superintendent Glover because a lot of the things that we do at Ola Edwards and I that's not even half of the things that we've done um we can't do without the support and so we appreciate all of you guys and um you know we just had a great year this year and I'm super super happy about it so I want to have Miss Ross come up and talk about our Carnival [Applause] [Music] good evening everyone as you know some of you know we have excuse me an end of the year Carnival for children for all of our children that have done exceptionally well in their school work and then their mannerisms and all of those things and we invite you to that as well that's June the 21st and we always ask if you like to donate water or donate um chips to the students because they're out there they're playing games they we have bouncies we have um snow cones um not um popcorn and we just have a lot of fun and we get to say goodbye to the sixth grade they stay a little longer outside we serve them pizza and it's kind of like a farewell to them because they leave in elementary school and then going on to middle school so if you're available on June the 21st we start at 9:30 in the morning I'm there by 6:30 so I can get everything set up um and if you like more information just call me most of you know who I am and where I work so just come on out and see what it's about we would love to have you thank you thank [Music] you our Jun celebration will start at 9 o00 so if anyone can join us thank you [Music] [Applause] excellent job excellent job and so we've had the high school ER looker Ola Edwards what I can say to you community is that if our students don't come home to you and tell you that they're having fun you need to let us know what we what more we can do I want school to be a memorable space and time and it's the books are important learning to become a literate well-educated scholar is definitely important let's have fun while we're doing it yeah um the district highlights we can talk about that but there are some things I do want to just make sure we aw aware of because Community should know our security director has been working hard boots on the ground we will have an updated security plan by July 1 in addition to the many many security changes that have taken place over the past year from installation of new equipment protocols being assessed just making sure that our students and staff are in a safe environment increasing our College and career Pathways I'm excited about um sharing that with the community I was recently asked to speak at a national superintendent conference in the month of October and the top the theme of the conversation is going to be specifically around how we increase our Colley career Pathways and some of the work that is happening within our district to make sure that happens for our students it's important that you talk about health and being in a state a space where folks are well trained um we are opening up for CPR a first a training no cost to the staff members you never know when it may come in handy but it also can help you in your own personal life Amazon our partner of Amazon has been have meeting with them today we are expanding that and we have also been selected to go to the next round of working with Amazon scratch and collaborate collaborating with more in more educational District more districts across the country as we increase our understanding of coding for our students the data that came back today it was quite exciting to see where our students and our staff are at we have been invited to continue in year two of the threeyear process well as I said we're going to expand that as well Scholastic and our work with Scholastic will continue in our summer Academy lit Camp is a fun active way of reading that not only brings forth the students to engage in reading but also mentors and parent volunteers so parents when you see that communication come on to you about come and join us in our lip camp activities that is definitely meant for you just continue to share the emphasis on reading we do have an emphasis on math as we also have partnered with NN professional development for our teachers and our ESL adult classes have continued to grow and we will be continuing that this summer if the board votes in a couple few minutes in regards to contining that for our families who are continuing to expand their love and language of literacy Eng reminder June 10th of this month will be the state of the district presented by myself I want to close out tonight by making you smile a little bit as we reflect on a recent highlight of our district can you press play for me thank you [Music] [Music] magic in [Music] all [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] and board members this is just one last announcement didn't make into our agenda I was just informed this about two hours ago on June 8th a former teacher from Hillside will be turning 100 years old taught in the district and re and retired in 1991 wow so I would like to put forward to if the board will permit for my office to create a resolution that board member board president best and other board members can sign and we can present to the family as we acknowledge one of our own who does live in Union County but meeting turning 100 years old that's a great accomplishment retiring Governor Teacher of the Year just wanted to put that out there I apologize I just found out didn't make it to the agenda but if we could don't mind me ding resolution presenting on behalf of the Board of Education and that concludes my presentation for this evening thank you thank you Mr govern that was a wonderful wonderful report um it's just amazing to see all of the wonderful things that this distri continues to show each and every day um I want to give a big shout out to our media team because even though you may not be able to attend everything person you have a phone you have social media you're going to see this and I just want to give appuse we move on if I can just have the owner of the restaurant can you please come how are you [Applause] may I have a motion to go into public comments res sorry second residents are requested to State their names addresses and subject matter and the event appears the public comment portion of the meeting May exceed 15 minutes the presiding officer May limit each statement made by a participants a three minutes duration issues raised by members of the public may or may not be responded to by the board all comments will be considered and a response will be forthcoming if when appropriate the board asks that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals when speaking specifically comments regarding students and employees of the board are discouraged and will not be responded to by the board students and employees have specific legal rights supported by the law of the state of New Jersey the board there has no responsibility nor will it be liable for any comments made by members of the public members of the public should consider their in light of legal rights of those affected or identify in their comments and be aware that they are legally responsible and liable for their comments [Laughter] Angela la 54 herur Street first I'm would like to say um as the proud president of the hillside Education Association do we not have amazing teachers in Hillside tonight are key to the faculty and staff that work hard every single day to make these children accomplish such great things and I I know a lot a lot of turmoil has been around you know coming to hill side and getting teachers to come and getting people to work here we have great great teachers that work here and we just need to make sure we keep telling them that you do a great job every day thank you um I have a couple of questions uh on the labor agenda page 11 I see um motion number 12 I see this is for um sem coaching s co uh challenge coaching for the 23 24 school year I just want to know why why these things are being approved after the fact if this is for this current school year um we're in May did these teachers do the work back in September October November and they're just getting paid now I know you're not going to answer another question on page 13 motion 16 17 18 and 19 I don't know if it's a typo but it says um the mental health Grant project period two and it says December 2023 to December 2024 December 2023 okay okay December 2023 was a while ago so I'm just confused as to why things are being put on the agenda that are after the fact um and that's the case that's a total of $27,000 um I just want to know what was going on for all of the funding that came from this and I'm going to keep [Music] going on page 14 again after the fact we're at May 30th these things are happening motion 20 3 May 1st um motion 24 May 1st I always tell my members don't do things if it's not approved on an agenda I tell them all the time because there's no guarantee of payment so I understand that they need to be paid because they completed a service to be paid but it really should be put before the board to vote on prior to the event happening so I was just a little concerned about things being done after the fact um motion 25 I see we have two supervisors on the agenda to um I assume it's $5,000 each or is it 5,000 in total for the stiens and what is the job description for um the pre-apprentice supervisors for this dual enrollment sorry I'm and then motion on page 16 motion 4 normally during our summer programs we advertise and we put out there for our current staff to have an opportunity to get some funding over the summer um this person no longer works for the district I find it hard to believe there wasn't a language arts teacher anywhere that could have been asked to do this rather than pull somebody from outside the district that left our district for whatever reason that's their personal choice but it always should go to a hillside Education Association Member First prior to going to someone outside so I I just want to know why is it going to outside people instead of In-House people thank you Paul Skelton uh s Avenue traffic New Jersey I teach at the high school um a couple quick things um yesterday we took 78 uh Hillside students to the BR Zoo uh a great trip and again thank you for for a little bit of assistance with that um certainly help uh tomorrow we have missad delun and I are running our annual River cleanup um we are cleaning up the park across the street from the high school and then the river that runs through it um with as of right now 40 students or 39 students I believe uh We've also reached out and we're partnering with um some Hillside police officers who are High School alumni that have been either in this as my classrooms and some firemen as well that are going to come and and help us clean up a little bit so um if anybody want and we also work with the county they Supply us for some equipment so if anyone tomorrow morning between about 9: and noon wants to come over and get dirty and maybe get lime disase and leave come over get dirty and pick up some trash um I have plenty of bugs friend um anyone is welcome uh we will be over there if you happen to drive by and you see kids in the river they belong to us when go park I teach school um I see Hillside High School Clos for summer school you get it's on tonight's agenda will beware for for the students we did last year last parents had before summer school be like oh hey it's $200 my name is Bruce 611 ride Drive H side my wife and I have been here for 46 years and I come to compliment you on putting the Mental Health Association message on the board you had your students participate last year in the walk in noren par Helen mcneel was a and football coach as well and I put some handouts for you because we have a lot of services we can offer in the community the office is located at 673 Mars and you have to have so many services I have hand outs for you the thing I have though your walk conflicting with our walk this year June 15th we have that norican Park as well but your walk starts from 8:30 to 9:00 after 9:00 you come join us and Par can do that I want to thank you your fantastic last year and thank you for your support thank [Applause] you meres up and can you get information please Dr Mercedes is my director superent supports okay what time is your walk again it starts at 10 o' 10 o' yes we'll keep on walking then goad all right thank you very much for public comments I'm work backwards first of all thank you again for the communication in regards to sharing information about mental health we'll definitely communicate that Dr Mercedes will make sure that we put it on our website and we support because again this this is a time a lot of folks need consistent assistance and support thank you for sharing information we appreciate that um summer school so communication has been shared M correct some things on record publicly we didn't wait till we before left FKS had to pay $200 that's a different conversation I think what we're doing this year that is a little more unique for our students for summer school make sure I'm clear summery we have over 500 students that's up to elementary school and and a little bit of middle school high school are for those students who are in need of certain credits and We are continuing to use use our services with edmentum and those classrooms that we need to have adults in because a lot of this is going to be done online by the adenon teachers we're paying for that this year as we've already had enough money saved up from our PIV private previous contract with them so that's going to continue for the classrooms that we have consistent shortages such as chemistry physics math algebra one those classrooms we're taking care of the cost so that it's no cost for students and families due to the fact that we know this year there's just been a lot of turnover and staff in those hard to filled areas so we've been having ongoing conversations with principal W about the classes that will be offered by now based on what I've been told by my team that those students should be aware of what they need and communication as far as what staff members will be doing that will also be taking place but just clarify there's not there's not be any cost to parents this year for those hard to fill classes that were not covered and as far as adum we're covering that as well when it comes to Mr Skelton I appreciate you sharing about up we participate in that it does feel a little dirty a little it's going to be warm tomorrow so make sure you stay close and to your partner and away from the edge of the river be surprised would you pull out that River I remember my first year doing it some things come out of the um so there were quite a few things that I just want to clar clarify when we talk about items under labor 15 through 18 the the period date that you know is correct that is a grant from the New Jersey Department of Education it's a fiveyear grant $1.25 million and it's the dispersement time of when they approve it unfortunately it gets approved in the middle of the grant period so you cannot actually say oh we go in November and approve it because they very well say we'll pull the money back if you're not doing what you're supposed to so yes that is the correct date and that's why we're approving for that period of time the same thing is for I believe it was so 23 24 and 25 but 23 24 the reason why again you're seeing that date is initially we did not think we would need continue to need curriculum writers we have finished the majority of the writing that need to take place there are some last things that we knew we need to do in the area of mathematics remember math was already board approved for making some adjustments so we're bringing the folks back on that's why it's May 1 and that's why it goes through November next year and the same thing get it in talented we just got finished getting approved certain things we also have to gied in talented job description we have to get approved so although it says May 1st there are still some steps we need to have to take place before we can begin to actually pay out but this is also part of that writing so that's why those dates are there and this is part of our pre apprenticeship with Thomas Edison University we're required by as part of the grant that supervisor is leading it again it's when we get approved and it's also when the department Ed said the money is here so that's the timeline and that's why St um the S amount is what it is $5,000 $5,000 let me I'll be clar I going to speak but I do believe it is 5,000 each it's 5,000 each yes thank you very much and you asked me about one more I want to make sure 34 so every year we have we had a teacher we had two staff members the first year second year that individual the teacher of the district was unable this year we put it back out again and we we didn't have anyone we also have other teachers from dist other districts who have also applied and work I I understand teachers need a break so I I've always said I'm G to open it up because I want our kids to have teachers and this year I did not want to lose that partnership with RH on Sports K University in so that's why that individual and he has experience working with the students and you asked me about number 12 if I'm not mistaken number 12 it it is a matter of timing they did the East stem challenge there oversight that one was truly oversight on us but those great teachers stepped up these also award-winning teachers from previous year so we just wanted to continue that wasn't oversight on my part so I will have to accept that one but the rest of them the dates are in order did I miss anything thank I all right appreciate you motion to close public session fa now we will have our committee reports member CE can you please Finance [Music] [Music] good evening committee education committee met on Thursday and discuss it [Music] the policy committee on one thank you and member Parks can you please give our voice can you hear me yeah okay so um the labor committee met on Thursday May uh 23rd 2024 to go over items 1- 51 on the agenda thank you now may I have a motion to go into executive session motion be resolve pursuing to the open public meetings act that the Board of Education me in Clos executive session at this time to discuss matter relating to Personnel pending anticipated ation labor negotiations and contract negotiations the board will reconvene in public session at the conclusion of the close session the matter of discussed and the Clos session will be disclosed to the public as soon as the need for conf confidentiality no longer exist --------- uniceu to the open public meetings act notice of this meeting has been provided as follow having the time date and place of the meeting posted on the V and board in the administration Bill January 12 2024 by sending a copy the meeting notice to the star ler newspaper and the local Source on January 12 2024 filing a copy with Township of Hillside Hill Library January 1224 please present now would like to turn the mic over to board member par she has a special presentation for everyone this evening yes yes ma okay hi um thank you for coming tonight and taking the time to come out to this um tonight's board meeting of course my name is an Parks as you may know one of the board members here part of this amazing board so I have the pleasure of recognizing a very special person today Sylvia D Silva she's the owner of her's restaurant right in Hillside if you haven't been there go check it out um so on behalf of the board we would like to thank you for everything you have done and continue to do for our community her restaurant is right near by one of our own middle schools W okay so it's right on that corner all right and um she looks out for many students and also parents within the community she is also a parent uh of a student here writing H uh hiia H Jana Fernandez who attends Hillside innovation academy so parents are the gyms in everybody's life parents are superheroes and we want to thank you for everything you do and thank you for every parent in the district so I would like Dr Sila to come up and say a couple words good evening everyone thank you good evening board member superintendent that better good evening uh board member board president board members superintendent clever and Miss par thank you for the instruction so I just wanted to take a brief moment to um confirm what has been shared about Mr Silva Mr Silva has a student uh Adrian who I absolutely love but she's also the uh owner or family owned business of hers which is a restaurant here in Hillside so Hillside innovation academy along with our PTA would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to your familyowned business her ster for your support service and donations toward school and family events your contributions have truly had a positive impact on our school and the broer hillside community over the past 10 years we are particularly grateful for your generous support of our parent teacher Association and my efforts to celebrate and recognize our hardworking teachers during this year's teacher appreciation week which was held May 6th through May 10th the meals were enjoyed by all and helped create a memorable experience for our teachers and staff so we have this letter and we would like for you to hang it on the walls of your business as a reminder of Hillside innovation academy as a reminder of our teachers and all the wonderful work that they do and for all the support and camaraderie and wonderful meals that you provided for the township of Hillside over the last year so thank you again is she no okay well thank you for that presentation thank you for honoring one of our Community Partners within the within the district we um support and we encourage things like this now we will actually have our superintendent report PE evening dry good evening even I'm turn the air condition off and make this hot good evening even hope everyone is doing well on this beautiful day to our students welcome for coming out you know there's a special little surprise plan for you in a few minutes just before we begin can our students in the audience please stand so we can acknowledge them all of my students to all of our parents parents please stand you say why is this man doing parents please [Applause] stand reason why we do the work is because of you collectively we do not accomplish the things that we accomplish without having great students and great parents and and and once they come to us you have to have great Educators and to my Educators in the audience I say thank you also again to you and to the leaders as we do this work thank you because it does not move without you we have a full night tonight so I understand we want to get you our agenda however I'm not going to move fast as we try to celebrate some great folks in our audience we always leave with our mission and vision so whoever happens to see this video to our audience out there audience members we also say good evening to you as well but to whom ever may see this please recognize that we do operate under a mission and a vision of making sure that our students are successful and prepared for the world that they will encounter understanding that today's society is very different than the society that many of us in this room may have been educated in in fact I can almost guarantee you that we did not have artificial intelligence when we were in the classroom I can almost guarantee you that we did not embark on the use of Technology the way we do we did not use social media we did not have coding many of us probably did not even grow up in a space and age well we understood what differentiated instruction was but I do know that we had great Educators and great leaders trying to make sure we were successful and that is the goal of our district priority goals the launch and the footprint and the foundation of our district there are five key goals they are the five goals that have been in existence now since 2021 when I first Ste foot on this day and they will continue to drive our work through 2026 2026 one of the areas that we'll be highlighted tonight is creating multiple Pathways for success for our students you know as we're closing out the month of mental health awareness we are talking about what it means to make sure we are creating healthy folks healthy Minds healthy bodies Shameless plug please mark your calendar June 15th that is a Saturday at 8:30 in the morning you'll see this pop up again but I st it again Saturday June 15th at 8:30 in the morning as part of the superintendent's initiative to make sure that we stay healthy we're going to do a 5K walk now based on what I kind of mapped out that should take us about 30 to 45 minutes it goes in a little extra time to you know get the juices flowing we will have plenty of entertainment like music and green juice to get your joints in motion hopefully being in a state of mind that allows you to consider yourself healthy and well allows you also go to whether you work here in Hillside or to another engaged happy and doing what's right by the district that you work in our commitment to you whether you are employee whether you are a family member or Community partner is that we have infrastructure that allows you to engage with us in a healthy way and then continue to be partners in this work that's our priority goals and that's our expectation and that leads to our why that leads to our role our drive and hopefully at least a celebration of success in about 19 days I believe is principal Willer we will graduate the class of 2024 proud to say that under the leadership first year leadership of our current High School principal principal Terry Willard so many Great accomplishments have occurred for our students and will continue to occur so many of our students are prepared for that postsecondary life in College and Career we want to make sure that we have given them the right steps to be successful and hopefully we do this with happiness and joy every month we try to make sure that we are celebrating the various themes of the month the month of June pride month Caribbean Heritage Month Caribbean American heritage month juneth as well as graduation just a little special note on juneth last year we started something that was pretty pretty well received and we want to continue to do it again this year so we're going to do a little Spotlight from every school all seven of our schools on June 18th mark your calendar will happen during the course of the day our team will kind of make the its rounds from school to school and capture a beautiful arrangement of activities that are taking place in the school we will go live so everything you will see will be live that will allow our parents and our family members in the community not just have to leave work but they can log on and see what's happening in our schools as we celebrate juneth just to make a note we are closed on juneth this year the actual June 19th date I know the state celebrates it or acknowledges it on the 21st which is a Friday uh we do have the ability to celebrate on the 19th and we will do it on the 19th as I said at the last board meeting I will definitely bring you up to speed on where we at on our first grade goal I'm G look at my great principal from a Mars Elementary the month of June is your month to shine and let everyone know how our first grade babies did so principal Graham get ready your time to shine I I gave you about 30 days to get it right just mention our health and wellness event that will taking place on Saturday June 15 8:30 we should be done by 9 o' 9:15 those who walk a little faster maybe sooner and then you can head over to Ola Edwards for another one of our special fairs that'll be taking place at Ola ever community school before I do this Pres presentation I would like to acknowledge you know the theme of literacy has been permeating through our district and Hillside is in a good space as far as having so many great folks who have come from here tonight I want to recognize one of our own who's an author scholar graduate of Ruck University where this beautiful individual received their bachelor's degree in social work minor and creative writing has written a book and hopefully if things continue to grow we will be able to display that book here in our district for our students but tonight and if I say your last name on please forgive me I would like for us as a board as a district to recognize one of Hillside zones Mrs Felicia a now she speaks up so now everybody I was practicing and get [Applause] WR pull the microphone to the side camera can see you I want to block the vision of all our great board members on behalf of Hillside Public Schools Hillside Board of Education we would like to present you with this certificate to celebrate your accomplishments in the field of literature and to recognize your outstanding contribution as a hillside resident and a graduate of Hillside Public Schools this 30th day of May 2024 congratulations first of all it is an honor and a privilege to stand before each and every one of you and to be able to receive this award I do not take it lightly I accept it with gratitude and with honor and privilege on behalf of Hillside board all the board members parents Guardians my own mother who's here tonight I being from here has come a lot of stories a lot of ups and downs uh a lot of ups and downs a lot of child and tribulation but by the grace of God here I am still standing declare that I now have an honor award from my own District so [Applause] that and once again you know I see lot I see a lot a lot a lot a lot of our young faces here tonight some of you guys I think I may know but whether I know you or not I truly me standing here I want to take this as take take this as a moment to serve as an encouragement for you all that one day you all that one day each and every one of you you know can do something like this and once again it may not be writing a book it may be you know it may be having a podcast it could be so many other things but you all have you all have uh you all have it you all have the determination and the skills and the talent and the ability to be a to be able to stand here and to be able to do something work out and say you know what I did this yes so once again thank you and have a good [Music] evening you want see the title of your books I'll hold this for you and then that way you can just let them know what the title of your books are so this is the first book it's called Hillstone this is a novel that came out sometime around last year and once again I know some of you guys get on the title you can some of some people have kind of give a bit of a a bit of a um bit of a thought on what the book is about based on the title Hillstone well yes this book it um I plann for it to be a series so this is just the first book and a series of books of many more books to come and yes I did take inspiration from my own upbringing here in this community the UPS the Downs the trials um um of of being an African-American student the the the the ups and downs of that um my main character goes through and how she and how she kind of get entwined all in all of it and tends to cut out on top and this second book that I wrote this is called This is called the different one so this one actually started off as a project that I had many years ago as a child I actually end writing a short story for a teacher that I had who I believe is no longer in the district but yes but it was it was the assignment that I had for a teacher and I ended up writing this short story book for for his newborn for his newborn child and so once again this this book is once again even you know even all even all the students who are here tonight to to continue to encourage every every every child young or old that you are different in your own ways and your skills your race your background it doesn't matter because you are different in your own way you are different in your own way what makes you different is What Makes You Beautiful what makes you great so y [Applause] [Applause] congratulations congratulations Tok [Applause] congratulations mom on your accomplishments as well yes sir right as we move on now in the spirit of celebrating so we we celebrate a student former student a graduate of Hillside and now I want to bring forth and principal Willard let you do the honor of celebrating some more of our students who are graduated and also a challenge that you put out and one of our partners heard the call Sir so um good evening everyone um I would like to start by saying on Saturday we have our graduation of our leadership program 21st century leaders and Felicia will be our keynote speaker so she will be with us on Saturday uh so that is a program that was brought into the district by our superintendent uh where the young man came and taught our children a lot of different leadership skills uh and how to basically get a good job so that was very helpful um what uh superintendent Glover is speaking on we were not allowed to uh discuss until after the event occurred so each spring the State Board of Education honors students of student groups who have made significant contributions to their school communities or families the ex cutive County Superintendent selects the students student groups based on recommendations from the chief School administrators in their counties so we are of course in Union County uh we put in for the award along with the other uh districts in Union County and we [Applause] won our student team uh was our student council uh which is also national uh National recognized so we got our state recognition we raised thousands of dollars for cooperman Barnabas Medical Center breast cancer awareness uh money for the state charity hugs for Brady uh we produced um several different uh events and activities at the high school uh we did um went out and fed the homeless uh we went to the food pantries we did all of these different things and we were recognized in the uh County of Union as the number one school that has our children participating and working so that is a great honor and last week they went down to Trenton where they were given a breakfast and they were given uh certificates and plaques for the work that they have done awesome awesome in addition for the second year in a row our Jets engineering team is going to National W so uh Nationals is the teams who combined overall state level scores among the top nationally will be eligible to compete for teams best in the nation this is going to be taking place in Shingle Creek Orlando Florida so they'll be going down to Florida to represent our district this is our second year in a row going down to represent for the robotics team so we are truly proud of that um and finally I I believe you guys remember that I put out a challenge for everyone that I wanted all of I uh students that are graduating to graduate with their own little Library so they were all supposed to have five books each to graduate with um my friends family fraternity things of that nature were up to 450 books and so then uh superintendent Glover and Dr B got involved and said you know what this is a worthwhile project hey Terry let's talk to Scholastic Scholastic has adopted us and they are giving us the other 1500 books so that all [Applause] [Music] our we can make sure that they graduate and and continue to read and continue uh on their life in [Applause] [Music] education turn back to this slide folks right here and principal Graham and principal WTO if you allow me to use some biblical terms as well as Greek letters the Alpha and the Omega the alpha being the beginning where our students start their Foundation of learning why has it been so important as folks have thought I was crazy for putting this out here if our students walk out of first grade reading on grade level the chances of them reaching 12th grade still on grade level are much higher less interventions are needed and we can give more aades to all 200 plus students that continue to graduate every year in the form of scholarships in the form of awards and in the form of setting them for life in the right direction in the room tonight we have a hillside graduate who's a published author in the room tonight we have students who in a few minutes went and represented Us in law day and came in second place in the the state of New Jersey how many schools were 702 72 schools in the state of New Jersey we came in second that's because they were able to articulate principal thank you because you you're the one who said this is the challenge for my seniors Community Jump On It Dr bra and I had a conversation about making this happen so that we met your goal congratulations to you and your efforts of your your staff now my babies from Hur and look where all my students from heard and look please stand but principal wolf please come forward principal wolf will be retiring in about 17 days as she just reminded me a few minutes ago so I'm going to make this a little special for I'm not going to let her cry but I'm going to make this special for her allow her to introduce her babies who I know she loves every day and talk about get your list our students I'm always pushing for them to compete in competition this year students at her and L Elementary School sixth grade class your staff should join you you should do this alone I just told her come she sh last time I cried when I for what what it means to be a student who is well read AR and understands the law and in light of what's been happening in our country as recent as today a few hours ago hopefully some of you are future lawyers that can represent many of us who may need your assistance in days and years to come so principal will Michelle was yours well first off I want to say that this Action Project actually started as a new um thing that Mrs Tran uh just tried A New Concept you want to in embed something new into her head program so she filled out this application for mock trial she grabbed some students and they worked on a project where they had to write a trial version and try defend it so they submitted that and I want to say January February we heard back that we had received a second place in the state of New Jersey and they were invited all the students just this past month to go down to ruer Law Center and and then actually argue their case in front of everyone so the students here are the ones who were behind the fund the research and putting the paper together and the mck trial I should say together and then actually presenting it in front of judges at the buckers [Applause] law I did say to them that it was our first time there was a lot of questions that I did not know the answer to and right boys and girls uh and a lot of times they ask questions and I would be like yeah let's Google it uh I did have two lawyers uh speak to them and we did um answering questions they did get the the case first they read it and then there was a few things they told us to change here and there um I did not write a word on that paper that was submitted everything was done by them uh and I did tell them we're