##VIDEO ID:QiVGVEKbF3I## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e we're going to go ahead and get started welcome to the kinan Board of Education regular meeting for December 10th 2024 the New Jersey open excuse me the New Jersey open public meeting law was established to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of the act the kinan board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published in the Suburban Trends on January January 21st 2024 posted in the public library and filed with the burrow clerk Miss Francisco we call the board Please Mr eisener Mrs Leonard here Mrs my Mr Meyers here Mrs Pella here Mrs Portman Mr Petrelli here Mrs Donaldson here there'll be no clust closed session needed today please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance IED of ALG to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liy and justice for all routine matters we have approval of the minutes for November 19th 2024 regular meeting to approve second any discussion on the minutes okay seeing none Miss Francisco you pull the board please Mrs Leonard yes Mr Myers yes Mrs Pella yes Mr Petrelli yes Mrs Donaldson yes student representative Salone hi all for anyone that doesn't know me my name is sonon I'm a junior here at kelan High School so i' just like to share some accomplishments of the students from the Halls from kinan public schools so to start off from K Cisco we kicked off our toy drive benefiting local families on November 26 we we received an amazing response and are so glad to be able to bring cheer to so many families during this holiday season thank you to an entire School Community for your contributions also we held our annual holiday shop on December 4th 5th and 6th many thanks to our Kesha parents and volunteers for making this incredible shopping experience possible for our pre prek through 2 grade students we are very excited to kick off our holiday Winter concert series beginning with kindergarten tomorrow at 10: a.m. first grade is scheduled for Thursday second grade is scheduled for Friday and preschool will be held on Monday 12:16 we are also looking forward to a holiday card making activity for all K2 students during their launch and recess periods on December 17th that will be facilitated by KHS student students and their adviser Dr Floria congratulations to our Kil Cisco Governor's educator of the Year Mrs Casey pillock Mrs pillock's hard work and D dedication to our students never goes unnoticed thank you for all that you do on behalf of ke Cisco school we wish our students staff and families a wonderful holiday season and happy New Year in 2025 next we'll move on to Stonybrook so our third grade students in miss sobs and miss tenant's classes learn about the the history of the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade and held a par parade of their own for Stony Brook students to watch they did a Wonder wonderful job on December 6th Stony Brook hosted PE Jam which was organized by Mr paa and a colleague in a neighboring District 90 physical education teachers from around the state of New Jersey came to model lessons learn from one another and share ideas thank you to Mr Paca for a wonderful day and to our fifth grade students who participated in this day of learning also our Kesha sponsored holiday shop was held on December 9th and 10th it was so much fun watching our students shop for gifts for their families thank you Kesha Stonybrook student council is holding both a food drive and a toy drive thank you to our families for your generosity next the kindness crew has been collecting cereal boxes for a local food pantry almost 250 boxes have been collected so far a domino cereal challenge will be held on December 13th for all students to wash thank you to all of our families who have donated cereal next our holiday winter concerts will be held on December 17th and 19th for our families we invite you to join us to hear our amazing choir and fifth grade band students also Stonybrook is so excited to announce our Governor's teacher of the year Mrs Susan Hill and our Governor's educational service provider of the Year Mrs Joy Tanga we are so proud of both of you thank you to your hard work and dedication to our students and Families Stony Brook School wishes our staff students and families a wonderful holiday we hope that you take time to relax and spend time with family and friends we will see you on January 2nd 2025 moving on to PRM our social Outreach club members visited ke school on Wednesday November 20th for the annual Thanksgiving feast our students enjoyed spending time with the younger students and participating in Thanksgiving themed activities we thank Dr medler our s so adviser Mrs oy and the staff at Keel for making this wonderful event happen the tre's marketplace took place on December 3rd the young entrepreneurs in the traps program did an outstanding job of creating marketing and selling their products we thank our tr's advisor Mrs setowski and all the ad uh volunteers from KHS and the HSA for the invaluable support they provided to facilitate this outstanding program also thank you to everyone who donated to the sixth grade class committee toy drive all donations will go to children in need to help brighten their holiday season and lastly the holiday winter concerts for PRM will be next week we invite you to join our talented student musicians perform on Monday at 700 p.m. for the choir concert and Wednesday at 7 p.m. for the band concert and lastly moving on to KHS KHS proudly selected Mrs Danielle ellia as Governor's teacher of the year and Mrs Stephanie Coba as Governor's educ Educational Services professional of the year on November 26th kilon high school held Shadow day a day when eighth graders from PRM shadowed KS students in their afternoon classes it was a great day of handon learning and new friendships next the KHS student council hosted a powderpuff football game at the Spyro Sports Center the kinan high school football players served as coaches and assisted each team throughout the week with their practices and at the game and lastly the KHS trust Club trust Club will be hosting a winter wonderland event for students in grades K to 8 on December 12th from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. in the old cafeteria at the high school there will be games crafts photos and lots of fun please join us and that's all thanks Salone Mr mango all right thank you Mrs president thank you salani welcome everyone and so typically welcome I um I have a separate slide of just updates I think if I know most of you here tonight are not here for uh basic updates of the district and there really isn't that much board business but uh one big item I will share that's out in our community I shared it three weeks ago revolves around our new gym here in the high school and um you know obviously the first level of concern for Miss witor as the athletic director and myself as a superintendent and therefore for the board is to always look to air on the side of caution so we did that because we definitely have some issues in the new gym um but we took some steps in a different direction we brought in our architect a record to confirm you know what is the level of concern are we you know could we be a little bit on a smidge airing too much our architector record did come in this past uh Monday yesterday in the rainstorm and did followup today she will follow up in writing which I've relayed to the board that she doesn't believe right now that it's as big a tripping Hazard as we thought so for next week's home openers for the high school boys and girls teams they will be back in the new gym however I will say the district reserves the right to always reverse any call based on water intake the floor movement because again our concern is for not only our students who were there every day in our staff but now incoming students so I wanted to put that out there and if you wanted to look at a positive um the letter that is up on the website that Miss witw put together which was an excellent job clearly shows that unlike a majority of other school districts we can pivot and we can manage we have space in our facilities um almost makes you wish you could do a a place stop and go back in time in Co and change some scheduling on the daily basis and um we would have at home on-site games regardless but I will promise everybody in this room that our facility is going into the next budget 25 26 and Beyond as they've already been will continue to be a major area um of focus for us because our facilities are in dire need and unfortunately there are some major issues underneath that gym floor but that's not why you're here I wanted to put that out there to anybody here for basketball that was going to wait till after we were over we have what we have we are where we are so um with that I'd like to move on because tonight is a very special night outside of why our folks are here and I will say one more thing we're trying three times a year we recognize our Sports okay a PRM in the high school and what we're finding not only just from recognizing our sports but then from recognizing our student recognition as last month's meeting is that when we have the banner behind us and folks come up I understand we all have lives and then we take pictures and then people leave and then by the time we get more to the tail end our Auditorium is like empty um and we know it's time consuming so we want to try something different tonight so when we go through our a board presentation we're going to call up Miss witw who's going to then call up the coaches um who'll come up say a few words recognize our students but we're going to ask that you then go back to your seats and then when we recess the banner is outside Mrs trombetta will take pictures for the district and the website families are free to take pictures and you could take as much time as you like because sometimes folks are here for too long and sometimes they rush out we're trying to be fair to everybody so if you could just kind of bear with us tonight I really appreciate that so special tonight is our very own Mr Michael Petrelli our vice president of the board um I have to say that it's not every day that board of education members run consistently a lot of times in my travels and it's I've been dealing with Boards of Ed for 20 years so take that for what that's worth um they might be a onetime run and step off they might be two they might run for a year and then be removed or removed themselves or a year and a half honestly folks I've seen it all and I thought it was important to share a lot here tonight and present about Mr petracelli and what he's done because everything he's done here in this community for the last 12 years has impacted everybody in this room and everybody outside of this room to the positive um I knew that about Mr petracelli once I moved here my family relocated at around Christmas time in 2017 and although granted I had my own District to run at the time and operate I always listened I always observed obviously during covid and we had Zoom meetings what felt for like two and a half years here uh Mike was at the head of that for a majority of it had the good pleasure of watching it and then when things happened you know we became very close with each other um he's not your typical Board of Education member our community has been fortunate to have him and you could see it from here that outside of his consecutive terms and his sustainability and any type of aggravation or stress trust me and I see Mrs Petrelli here tonight and her her family and trust me it goes back into their homes so when you hear me say here in many of our public meetings over the last two years that this board works and it's day and night and I know that I'm invading space when I'm calling them at home on Saturday and Sundays or emails and texts or a random Wednesday night it's an interruptor and Mike did that for 12 years from January of 2013 to this coming new year so if you think about that block of time think about where we all were in this room in 2013 and how life was or for some of us who might have younger ones that you know now they're in high school and they were little at the time or you may have mixed now whatever that may be that's a long run and that's a lot of aggravation that's a lot of decision making and Boards of Ed and Board of Ed members can only make decisions based on the knowledge they know so the more time they give the less time they have for their family at home and the more they're giving back to their Community which Mike it's it's absolutely commendable and I did ask you I want to say at least four times in this whole year to stay and to reconsider but I certainly respect and understand why um but some more accolades that that Mike has you know he was the Board of Ed president for two consecutive years at some of the worst times there ever was to be a board president during Co right um he was the vice president two different times two terms or actually five terms from 1122 till now was three consecutive terms and prior to covid he was part of two boards of Ed that received board certification in 2017 and 24 and for anyone here that doesn't know what that is that's all their coursework it's everything they're required to do as elected officials and then some and a lot of times Boards of Ed don't want to do that they want to be elected for a purpose or a reason or might they might run on a stick right they might run for a one-trick pony I have to tell you being with Mike for 26 months he is far from a one-trick pony he would tell you what he thinks he'll be honest with you as a superintendent he never sucker punched me never gave me a sideswipe here in public he has no problem telling you what he thinks and being honest and that I embrace because I'm the same way but he always does his business respectfully and as a community we were lucky to have him and uh last year he was nominated for the Irene lefar excellence and boardmy award so um I know I'm going to call up Mrs Donaldson next as a board president I know she has a few words and Mike I know you're gonna want the mic later and this isn't typically your style but it's my pleasure to honor you it's been my pleasure to work with you and we'll still continue on in a community together so thank [Applause] you okay Proclamation whereas Michael petrielli did faithfully and conscious conscientiously serve the kenalan school district as a member of the kenalan Board of Education representing kenalan and whereas Michael Petrelli has served as a member of the kenalan Board of Education from January 3rd 2013 to December 31st 2024 and whereas Michael Petrelli has performed his duties as a member of the kenalan Board of Education and the best interest of the students and citizens of the kinan school district and whereas a result as a result of his dedication as a member of the kenalan Board of Education Michael petracelli has earned the highest respect and the deepest appreciation of the kenalan school district its students staff community and administration now therefore be it resolved as follows the kinan school district publicly acknowledges the dedication with which Michael petracelli did faithfully and conscientiously perform his duties as members of the kenalan Board of Education the Board of Education which is to commend and thank Michael petracelli for his 12 years of D dedicated service to the school district its students and staff extend their serious best wishes and his future endeavors that the resolution shall become a permanent part of the minutes of the kinan School District Board of Education of Morris County that the secretary be directed to cause a copy of this resolution to be appropriately reproduced and delivered to Mr Michael petracelli thank you very much Mike [Applause] from the district this is actually from the board members add uh I've been working with Mr petracelli for four years and I recognize uh um there just it's it's just been awesome to have him his 12 years that he's served and his um knowledge and experience that he's given to the board and also his demeanor and just his even tempered steadiness that I really felt especially during covid was really instrumental for me as a new board member and he was like he was a mentor to me and a guide and I have his phone number so will definitely be reaching out to him whenever I have any questions or any concerns and there are things that come up that we sometimes face in a unique situation and having him as on my speed dial has been really I will keep that um so I can keep asking him um and then there is one more thing I did want to um recognize one more person is his wife Jenifer petracelli I know without her support of him and I he had four kids that were going through school school he's you know the twins the boys are graduating this year um but it must have been a lot for them for all 12 years for him to be so involved so Mrs petracelli Jennifer will you come up we have some flowers for you sorry Dr Peter Hughes I don't I totally spaced your name I'm so sorry I want also want to recognize you and the audience and all the help that you are to me as a new board member too and thank you for coming really appreciate it Mike the floor is yours well thank you that was embarrassing but just a few words of thanks because I know everybody here wants to get to the uh to the recognition so just wanted to say thank you especially to my family my wife and my son who are here tonight and my daughters for you know kind of putting up with the last 12 years or so so thank you for all the meetings and school events and all that kind of thing thank you to all the teachers and administrators um you know I try to say this a lot at meetings but I can't thank you guys enough for everything that you do I mean I think you have an appreciation for it when you're a parent but you have such so much more of an appreciation of it when you become a board member and you see all that work behind the scenes that happens not just with the teachers but with the administrators and everybody so thank you for that um thank you to my fellow board members uh this board and and the past boards um it's been you know a rough 12 years at times the the way Mr mango said it but you know all the um selfless time and devotion that everybody puts into it um I appreciate that and you know all the you know good conversations and arguments and discussions that we've had so I appreciate that and um thank you to all the community members who elected me four times don't know what you were thinking but um thank you for electing me and and and thank you for all your support over the years thank you very much this time I want to call up miss whitwer our athletic director for our full Sports recognition Miss whitwer floor is yours thank you Mr mango I first want to thank everyone for coming tonight thank the coaches for the job they do the board for honoring our student athletes the way that they do um we're not going to waste a lot of time we're going to get right to it there's no one better to talk about their teams than their coaches they know them best we're going to start with pearl Miller um we're going to start with Ben contella who's the cross country coach and David Jones yeah just stand right how's it going everybody first off I'd like to uh thank Mr mango on the board for putting this together uh this is a a special thing for kids to be recognized you know for doing things outside of school and and Athletics um you know these are the things that I think they'll remember as they get older and you know one of the things that when we talk about sports and not many middle schools have sports so I think when they do certain things like this it builds a certain Bond and something that they could carry on to the high school I'd like to thank uh Mrs chegwidden for all her help all the time when I have to ask her questions coaches at the high school i' like to thank miss whitward here she got thrown into the fire pretty quick uh when she came here in August and all a sudden she's got to deal with my Texas and emails um i' like to thank Mr mongan and Miss ysas for all their support in the building and this handsome gentleman next to me Mr Jones He volunteered his time uh this year helping out with cross country team we had about 50 kids on the team I know a lot of them had some things going on tonight but uh I'm so glad a lot of them came here we had a a pretty successful season uh the girls were three and three overall but I think one of the highlights of the year for them was uh going against Villa Walsh Villa Walsh is a pretty good program we lost to him the first time around and then second time around we wound up beating them uh the boys were undefeated in the season six and0 and one of the big things was beating Mount Olive because Mount Olive is a big school so little kelan went up there and we we we took it to Mount Olive which was which was a nice thing and um you know when we had the uh counties we uh we placed the girls Place fourth overall out of 12 and the boys placed fifth when we did our grade races and I had to pull up a card for this usually I don't have a card but you know you get older you got to all these things out um for the grade races uh sixth grade girls we had Cali Ferguson take 18th out of 117 girls we had Julie sun in the seventh grade take 29th out of 128 we had Emily veter take 8th grade uh the eighth grade girls 31 out of 114 for the boys Joseph deck sixth grade was 17th out of 128 uh Tomas Mata was fifth out of 152 kids Jacob Gareth was here was 26 out of 168 so that's a pretty big accomplishment the whole County comes in a lot of kids and uh we performed very well with that um Jacob and Michaela were definitely leaders of the team uh this year they led me through you know they were my captains and whenever I needed to lean on people those two are definitely two I can lean on I just look forward to the future hopefully a lot of them go up and run for Miss chewin up at the high school and um looking forward to bigger and better things every year thank you very much thank you to our cross country team and Mr contella next we'd like to bring up the girl soccer team coach Steven Gemma all right uh thank you guys thank you to the board Mr mango Mr whitler uh for having us here to speak about our season a little bit um I promised there was more than just me I appreciate me for coming tonight um Not only was she the only one to come tonight she was also the only sixth grader on the team so that's a testament to who she is as a person and her hard work so uh just to recap our season uh briefly um we had a very competitive season going up against schools like m Olive West tics which obviously bigger schools a lot of competition and we were in very competitive games uh we went into the county tournament as the six seed and probably the highlight of our season uh upsetting Long Valley in penalty kicks to go on to the semi-finals so very exciting I know the girls were really excited about that that accomplishment uh eventually though losing the semi-finals to pan who ended up winning the entire County tournament but we went into that second half tied one to one really giving them a good fight the whole way um so just as Mr canella said said I'm really hopeful for the future looking forward to all that and to all the girls that are going up to KHS this next year that they continue their soccer season and can do big things up there thank you thank you coach next we'd like to bring up our boy soccer coach Matt Goff [Applause] so I'll have my guys come up real quick okay one good first of all thank you everybody thank you to the board Mr mango Miss whitler um Mr mongan basically everybody um I'm kind of the Ted lasso of the soccer program this is my first year ever coaching soccer but I tell you right now I love it and if there's ever an opportunity I would love to keep doing it um this group of guys was great um I didn't know much about the past I know that John I think told me the first game that they never haven't won in the last two years so the bar wasn't that high for me which is good but um uh they they really fought and we ended up with three wins this year so that's that's a huge [Applause] win um there there's Spirit their dedication to the game their enthusiasm maybe sometimes too much enthusiasm right Logan um was inspirational to me like I said it was fresh it was new and I think I think I fed a lot off of their energy as well um we I mean we really grew they grew as players as a team and I know that you know coach Rogers who was kind of like my mentor um they're going to get a lot of good eighth graders coming up and then seventh graders and uh you know really supplying the the high school with with um some good weapons for next year um let's see what else so real quick while you're here we have Alex Alex was one of our leading scorers and one of this was one of those kids that I don't know how I don't know how they run as much as they do in soccer I'll tell you that man but he was in and he never wanted to come out and and and I'm really proud of of what he did Logan my little Spitfire over here only got one one yellow card so I guess that's that's that's that's a win for us but um seventh grader and really going to be a contribution to the team next year was more of a Winger then we have John we had like six John's on a team so he was nicknamed JJ um defensive midfielder but all his knowledge of the game um I could really rely on him to be the leader on the defense and then lastly the two the two Crazy Ones the goalies who I would I would never ever want to be goalie because all the the pressure that's put on him they shared the the goal and they did a great job um they always kept their their head up high and they really became the leaders of the team so I just want to say thank you again and thank you guys for what a a very memorable year thank you thank you coach next we're going to move on to some of the Kinnelon Athletics uh High School athletics we're going to bring up our girls tennis coach Mark lanard just before I start speechifying about tennis I just want to let you not guys know in my spare time I I helped Jim Souls out with the uh bowling and for the first time in the history of the program we beat Moni tonight and we rolled a record score we had the highest score that we've ever scored which was 3,27 PS so good job cable right hello board members students and family members to our full recognition night my name is Mark Lancer and I'm the kinan tennis coach last year we reached the state sectional final for the sixth year in a row with a senior Laden team this year we returned only two of varc starters our captains Sarah gar and Sophie Camp they did a great job over a difficult season leading the team through practices and matches kinon girls t always plays hard and we always play fair I would like to recognize the four seniors from this year's team Sarah and Sophie both received all League recognition for the NJ Liberty division at first singles and second singles in addition to our two captains I would like to recognize Julia and Lexi Haynes they stepped up for this year to play first doubles for us including a win for us in the state sectional tournament Julia and Lexi also received n Jack Liberty division all League honors thank you for giving me the opportunity to share successes this year at the board meeting thank you coach next I'd like to bring up our girls volleyball coach coach Stephanie [Applause] thinkink hi everybody just like everybody else I would like to thank the board thank Miss Witwer and everybody that came to join us tonight you would wouldn't know it but we do have 35 girls in the volleyball program uh thankfully we had Salone here tonight to join us it is Tuesday and Thursday is a big club night which we push kids to play Club so that's where I would say 80% of them are tonight um but they are missing what is a a great night to recognize our student athletes this year uh fortunately we were able to fundraise the money to have a freshman team so we were able to keep all 35 girls that try out uh we had 10 freshman players in the program uh that were there and had a great season and they're able to push through and get tons of playing time and tons of experience to move on to the JV and varsity levels next year we had a full squad on JV with an experienced uh we call her coach Michelle who is here who is kind of the mother that leads them and teaches them skills but off off the court stuff too how to be a team player and then we have them ready for the Varsity program um struggled a little bit this year we did have a big win over Jefferson who ended up going on to win the state championship so it was there the skills were there the players were there we just needed one more year to get there but we have sonone who is a returning Varsity player for us um along with some other players that I'm hoping that next year is going to turn it around a little bit and bring home a state championship so thank you thank you Coach Frank next I'd like to bring up our Cross Country Coach coach Laura ching and Jacobs and any of her staff that is here as well I know sorry I'm on a two- minute thing I got the stopwatch right Matt so all right I'll be uh brief I know I'm usually not but but um one thank you again to the board and um everybody that is here to recognize the athletes tonight from The Fall season um I want to uh I can't talk sorry you're good you're good sorry it's the pressure of the two minutes kid sorry a minute 30 sorry I want to thank coach R and we also have Coach Angelina this year who did her internship with us um they obviously keep me sane and tell me when to to cut it out with my Antics but um honestly we had a really great season uh as I say every year I'm really blessed to get to coach these group of guys and the girls um unfortunately again uh everybody's busy with their winter seasons and commitments so luckily we were able to have these four gentlemen come to represent our team tonight and none of the um ladies were able to make it but overall um our conference our boys tied for the championship and went four in one and our girls um I would say our performance our record doesn't reflect our performance we didn't have a lot of numbers so there were some we just didn't have seven girls on the line depending on injuries but they ended up finishing one uh one and five um we had a couple invitationals where our boys took home first place at the Garrett Mountain Invitational and also down at dream park all right that was a special uh road trip we took kot and the dream park for one of our seniors that wanted to head down there we've never raced at that course so they won and our girls actually placed third there so we had a really nice performance down there uh our n Jack Championship meet so all the small schools in the conference we were uh the boys were third overall and then ninth in the county and girls were 18th in the county at our state sectional meet um boys took third not by much we we honestly just the from first to third place it was probably a total of 11 points so we were right there again just as we always are in the sectional championships and our girls took fourth so both teams moved on the stage which has become um an expectation at this point in time for our program we we expect that we are going to go to sectionals and we are going to move on to States both programs and they came through on that and I we were really super happy and excited for them and then um overall at the state group meet the boys finished six and the girls finished 15th so we had a really solid season overall and some Honors that we had um postseason are all conference winners uh first team was Will Portman second team was Jaden her Henry Manon and um Kieran Fitzgerald hope serenes honorable mention Matt baldino and Miranda drace and Henry Manon also um got all group group one third team so that's the whole state and the whole group um so that was quite an accomplishment um super excited for next year we're going to miss we have a big group of seniors leaving and we've had a lot of seniors over the past few years that were really inum instrumental in our success but we have a lot a great class staying and I know Mr canella you know telling me about the eighth graders coming up super excited to get them to come up to the program and on the boys and girls side and continue our success and I wish everybody a happy holiday season and best luck with the winter seasons thank you thank you coach and the cross country team next we'd like to bring out uh our football coach coach Dustin Grande any of his players or coaches that would like to join him thanks to admin to the administration again this is an awesome um to honor all these student athletes in the programs um I'd like to thank uh my coaching staff uh coach Cabella is here he's like my right-hand man here um but we have eight coaches other coaches to make a 10 person staff and we couldn't uh do anything without that football's a very intricate sport where you need kind of specialization at each of the positions and you know applaud my coaches for what we become and what we've been able to accomplish um we set the bar we've raised the bar the last couple years in the program and we felt about this year in the middle of the year a lot of disappointment because we set the bar high with a lot of goals and we didn't hit those goals initially and you know it was a little bit of a setback for us and and one of the great things about sports and one of the reasons why I coach and I know all the other coaches are probably the same way it's not what happens when you know times are tough that's what makes you know you the person you are how you reflect and how you get through that and our team you know I applaud them they came back down the stretch winning uh three of the last four games to finish five and five and that is the 19th time out of 62 times uh 62 years of Kennon football that we've had at least five wins and the first time in school history that we've won five or more games three years in a row so we didn't accomplish all our goals we finished third in the division but you know we we raised the bar and very proud of these guys of how they competed and what they did as a team um a lot of honors um we've received 10 guys on All Conference teams and the uh first one on it was a three-time All Conference Award winner Andrew Stickley on the offensive line as well as a two-time Mars County um all offense um player um also saurin PDA was a two-time wide receiver first team All Conference um here tonight step up Zack uh Zachary Grande he was a two-time first team All Conference he had 14400 yards this year and 22 touchdowns um first team allconference defense Karen Kel Step Up Kieran had 45 tackles he's a defensive lineman that's a lot of tackles he had eight tackles for a loss and seven sacks to make first team All Conference um first team All Conference unfortunately Alex hurt his knee during the season he battled through to finish the last two games and then in basketball he hurt the same knee so we're hoping a quick recovery for Alex but um he finished on the field very proud of him 53 tackles and nine tackles for losses this season um also we had SE uh second team offense uh Matt cisano um second team defense uh Chase Murphy Landon Smith and Wyatt Cisco and we had honorable mention Henry Evans so really proud of these guys and all the commitment they put in and all the effort thank you [Applause] guys thank you coach Grande and our football team next we'd like to bring up our boy soccer coach and players coach Rich Rick Rogers good evening everyone uh for those who don't know me I'm Rick Rogers the new head coach for the boys varsity soccer team this past season before we honor the efforts of our players I wanted to take a moment to express my appreciation to the administration at the High School Mr mango and the board for the opportunity to lead this program kennel and soccer is where I want to be my goal is to develop this program into a consistent winner while at the same time more importantly uh develop my players into strong and successful young men the boy shvy season was highlighted by the growth and development of the players under coach jez Thomas as the season progressed freshman Lucas D Lorenzo and sophomore Fitz Hill Warner both earned mid-seat and call-ups to to The Varsity squad during their time with the varsity team both players earned valuable playing time and played well Lucas who's here tonight juw fou in the Box against H Hanover Park and hammered home his penalty shot for his first career Varsity goal the JB boys Notch impressive wins against walkill Valley and Butler sophomore Robert marchus but sure his name sorry uh Robert M scored the team's lone hattrick of the season the varsity team started the season slow but came un STW in the second half of the Year finishing with a 7 n and three record and the nine seed in the state sectional tournament the varsity team handed previously undefeated wo Valley their first loss with an impressive 5-0 final score Jason Osman played an important role in the team success with 148 saves seven shutouts and earning second Team all conference 1D Team all County and North two All State honors javel king sorry javel Kang led the team team in scoring with 16 goals and earned first team All Conference second Team all County and North two All State honors Joseph meny earned First Team all conference and all count honorable mention recognition Junior and returning Captain David Loa earned second Team all conference and all count honorable mention honors Leo Demitri Cal was recognized as all all conference honorable mention as a sophomore in in addition to these honors there are a number of players who had great seasons and contributed in a variety of ways senior Tommy Ike had a heck of his second half of the Season while playing at multiple different positions and doing a great job of filling in where we needed him Harrison cornette had a solid and consistent season starting at Center back and was an exemplary teammate Matt wble was another exemplary teammate and someone who helped guide his teammates with the transition from the previous coaching staff to this year's Ben Clinger Jack Dodie and Matt Wagner were also other seniors who had solid Seasons as well and finally the Colts look to build upon this year's progress moving forward into next season behind a strong core of Leo Demitri Cal returning Junior captain or to be senior Captain David Loza Alex stepnowski Michael leco Fitz H Warner Lucas D Lorenzo Dylan castalano Smith and Matt Weiss thank you all and have a great holiday season [Applause] thank you coach Rogers and our boy soccer team finally we'd like to bring up our girls soccer coaching staff coach Steven Racine his staff and players that are here tonight good evening um like to thank the administration of the district the Board of Education our new athletic director uh the school administration uh for having the opportunity to come back for my third time as uh the head girl soccer coach at Kon I can assure you there will not be a fourth time because I will be dead so uh so this is this is the last go around I'd like to thank my uh assistant coaches danis ceri um Dana played at panic and like to send me pictures of when she used to score goals against kinon so we kept her anyway and uh Griffin Hall who's uh been a member of the coaching staff and was uh helped us in the transition uh tremendously uh I'd also like to uh thank coach Rogers and Coach Grande uh when you have three teams that all want to use the same field and it all works every time these guys were awesome uh in terms of sharing the facility so thank you very much it made uh everything work well and smoothly we had a good year um with limited numbers we had 21 players in the program two who had never played soccer before um so it was a bit of a challenge at times we ended up 155 and one and won the conference Championship for the first time in 10 years uh with a 90 And1 Conference record and we kind of ran out of gas and healthy bodies at the end of the year um but I think the that we the team went as far as they could um we had some good um accomplishments individually we had two um young women set school records Taylor mulch sophomore established a new sophore class record with 25 goals and 18 assists and also tied the uh single season sophomore uh record for assists in a game with four senior Alesia cerulo um set a new record uh for the girls soccer team for career goals at 91 um set a single record season record for unassisted goals with 15 and tied an single season assist record of five assists in one game which uh she shares with my daughter so um we had uh several players earn postseason recognition uh one of our captains Kelly Donaldson is here um and she earned honorable mention all conference we had three uh freshman make second Team all conference Olivia keki Warren Mortimer and Grace oena that's obviously very good for the future and we had three players make first team All Conference Alesia culo Taylor Mulch and Abby talbet uh and the Morris County girls soccer coaches association Kelly Donaldson and Abby tabot were honorable mention uh second team was Taylor Mulch and first team was Rulo and in the New Jersey Girls state soccer coaches association uh we had uh two players selected to some level of the All State team we we don't find out until the banquet in January so leius culo and Taylor mulch um were selected to the All State team uh it was a good season and uh transition season and I'm looking forward to next year we lose one uh starting player and everybody else is back and hopefully some of the eighth graders thank you coach for the good Scouting Report uh hopefully they'll be with us next year as well thank you all thank you coach Racine in our girl soccer program at this time any student athletes coaches uh parents players would like to take pictures Mr trombetto will be in the hallway um the banner is just outside the hallway you can take pictures with your team out in the hallway I'm going to pass this back over to Mr mango for the next part of the presentation we'll be taking a 10-minute recess e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e go ahead and get started okay our next uh update is on the district absenteeism presentation okay good evening welcome I am here to talk about chronic absenteeism so tonight um during the board meeting the board you will be approving corrective action plans for chronic absenteeism so I just wanted to give a little context behind it and highlight some things for parents that are watching we will make this available on our website just to give everybody some more information so what is chronic absenteeism so we had to create as I just mentioned action plans because our chronic absenteeism rate is 10% or more in each of our buildings so chronic absenteeism is when a student is considered chronically absent if the student misses 10% or more of school days in session for which the student was enrolled obviously this contributes to low academic achievement which I'm going to share some data with you in the next couple slides so you'll see how that is directly impacting our students and attending school every day increases the chances of success in school and in life makes sense so how is chronic absenteeism calculated in New Jersey um this these are the two formulas so for a student it's the number of days absent divided by the number of days Pres present plus the number of days absent if this number is equal to or greater than 10% then that student is considered chronically absent now the school chronically absentee rate it's the number of chronically absent students divided by the number of students enrolled and that's how the state comes up with those numbers so here's our district data in 2223 we were well over 10% in each of the buildings last school year 23 24 still above 10% Stony Brook was a little bit lower um nonetheless I still had Mrs utel create an action plan because it's still important that we remain consistent districtwide and being at 88.7% we're still high so best practice to create an action plan which we will review at the end of this school year to determine whether we need to continue with our action plan or not or if the absentee rate has has gotten better so here are some of the impacts out of the 206 students identified as being chronically absent 47% of them were identified on state assessments as not graduation ready on the NJ GPA or did not meet expectations on the njsla um or had at least one failing grade so it definitely impacts academics it definitely impacts school performance oh so this this is why I wanted to highlight some of these things because I think we need to get information out to parents and have parents understand the importance of consistent daily attendance because it definitely is impacting the students learning 25% of those same group of students now when I look into this year's attendance rates when I checked in November 25% of those students already are receiving attendance warnings which means they've already hit at at least the 5ed day out of school Mark so that is pretty alarming so we're still you know just couple months in and this was November just a couple weeks ago already hitting that five absentee Mark so how is this data used um this is used in a couple different ways the state collects this information the federal government collects this information so this is included in our Essa accountability system this is an indicator of school quality you remember that we also went through the qac review so qac is your quality assurance for the district um and that's used in an indicator as well so they do check chronic absenteeism rates and that does get marked against the school district chronically absentee rates report at the district school and student group level and the annual school performance reports which those are published online every year and the NJ dooe is required to report it attendance data to the US Department of Education so as I said it goes to the state it also goes to the federal um government and this all impacts we receive grants we receive state grants we receive federal grants so these things could potentially impact the amount of grant money we could receive in the future so I think information for parents to know out there there are State excused absences so there are abs es that are considered completely excused in terms of the state so if your child is absent for any one of these seven reasons then it doesn't count towards their attendance rate it doesn't count towards the school's chronic absenteeism rate either so it's a religious observance College visits for juniors and seniors up to three a year take our children to work day participation in observance of Veterans Day participation in District Board of Ed membership activities closure of a busing District that prevents the transportation from getting the child to school and participation of one Civic event this is for students in grades six to TW through 12 this is a recent addition to the list of state excuses so we also have locally excused absences so aside from the seven State excused absences you didn't see sickness on there so obviously kids get sick kids can't come to school when they're sick so we locally excuse that so what we're doing and what we also are approving tonight is regulation 5200 which deals directly with attendance so if you look parents at home if you look on our policies and you look up the attendance policy you'll see definitions of what an unexcused absence means what an excused absence means but if you look at 5200 is the regulation we are adopting we made some revision to it um we are placing in their student absent or you know student illness or injury with a doctor's note and we ask that that doctor's note comes within 72 hours of the absence so which means a student if they're sick throughout the year and you go to the doctor we do need that note right away it can't be a matter of where the student is absent in excessive amount of time during the school year and then in June you're going to try to go to the doctor and get notes it doesn't work like that we need those notes right after the student returns to school obviously a death within the family we will excuse and then high school specific we know a lot of students go on the day of their birthday for their DMV exam for their license exam so we will excuse that with proper documentation and then if the student has a required attendance in court so these are locally excused absences meaning we won't hold a student to it we will not prevent the student from moving along retention we will not the student will not lose credit if they are excused under our guidelines for a locally excused absence because these are the things that make sense these are realistic and obviously if a student is out and they're not feeling well most important thing is for the parents to just communicate with the school and share with us why the student is out if they're out for an extended period of time again the most important thing is to communicate with the school to let the principal know let the nurse know on the on the real time information system if you're noting it that way please just communicate the reason for your students absence uh this is just citing the Mandate so this is just stating that we must develop the action plan because our numbers are 10% or greater in each of our school buildings so I won't read that whole thing to you I did release a parent survey so part of our action plan was to include parent responses so I sent out a parent survey I want to thank all the parents who took the time to respond to the survey the information was very helpful in putting this together so we had about 457 responses um and the top reason of why parents believe students are chronically absent was illness um which yes makes sense a lot of parents responded I left um long answers so parents can clarify even further and yes obviously if a child is sick it's best for them to stay home but please keep an eye on you know really what is holding the student back from school if they're fever free if they're not getting sick to their stomach if they're able if they're not contagious then yes you can send them to school um the second reason though which was pretty alarming was vacation so in a lot of the parent responses parents were very forthcoming and very vocal about wanting to take vacation during the school year because rates are lower at off times so you know that's just for that being one of the second you know the second highest reason I think that's pretty concerning so I think as a district we can do much better I think that if we just really be mindful of our vacation times get our kids keep our kids in school when they should be in school yes obviously things come up but I do think we can do better because seeing over 20% at our elementary buildings chronic absenteeism I think is again very concerning and you saw the statistics it really does impact performance and it really does impact academics um so again here are some of the other reasons doctors and dentist appointments yes we all struggle with that I think you know I'm seeing a lot too even with my own children sometimes doctor's offices don't stay open late sometimes they're not there in the weekend so we understand it but also keep in mind if you do have have to go to a doctor or dentist appointment you know maybe try to do that first thing or last thing part of the day because it's important as long as they're in school for most of the day then that's great the more that they're in school the better um so the quicker you can get them back um parents also cite mental health just giving their kids a Break um this was an answer parents do not care if students miss school maybe that's a perception out there that maybe at certain levels parents say okay it's it's you know it's just a day it's not a big deal and maybe um maybe that's just the perception um and also a lot of parents mention extracurricular activities if you're away at tournaments for sports or any other extracurricular activity that impacts attendance as well so steps we will take um and this is pretty much summarized in each of the action plans that the schools wrote I didn't pull up each action plan the board has it in in your attachment for approval um because they all pretty much say the same thing what we will do is we're going to provide information to parents we are generating letters in our real-time system so when a student misses an excessive amount of school days they will receive notification so it's just a reminder and parents will receive those at the 5 day 10day 15 and 18-day Mark so it's just letting you know your child has missed this many days these are unexcused absences is please keep that in mind um we will um we have made the notification system easier so I know a lot of parents can note it right in real time I think this is especially true at the upper levels um at the elementary level like I said it's just very important to just communicate if your child is homesick they're they don't seem to be getting better they need to stay out longer again just communicate with the school because those absences even if a child is homesick let's say with a stomach virus some times you're not going to go to the doctor for every little thing and we understand that but again just let the school know and just keep us informed so we know the reason why the the student is out of school but they do still count towards the overall chronic absenteeism rate um and that's why illness is not part of the state excused absence because illness still does count in our chronic absenteeism rate so it's just something to be mindful of and keep a watch on um we will as I said provide attendance information on our website this will be posted so parents can view this for information um and we will continue to create action plans should we need to if our numbers do not fall below that 10% we will continue to take a look at our action plans within each school with the principles revise our action plans as needed and make any adjustments from that point forward so hopefully um like I said getting this information out there I'm hoping to see a positive change because when I again when I see the correlation between our days out and our chronic absenteeism rates and then how those specific students are fairing in school and are struggling and not doing well and not performing and not meeting those expectations that's alarming to me so again I think we can all do better I think we could try a lot harder pay attention to the days our students are out of school and I think we'll be in a much better position hopefully at the end of the school year when review our numbers and I think that was it any questions no John on an action plan so that's a good question are students individually put on an action plan so this is part of it as we're tracking student attendance we should come up with action plans for students so if we already have a student who is nearing you know the 10 10day Mark out of school that's a good idea for our teams within our building so we have our I've talked so much about RTI I'm the RTI lady so our RTI teams can have a discussion with the parents parents should be brought in after their notified and yes an action plan can be created for that student based on attendance because it could be a motivation thing it could be maybe the student had a rough go with a couple illnesses and now from being out of school I know with my kids when they're out one day of school they get very overwhelmed because just in one day you can miss a lot especially at the high school level you can miss a whole lot in one day so it could be a matter of students are feeling overwhelmed and you feel like sometimes when you're out you can't catch up and they can so we're keeping an eye on it and we can have a meeting and we could create an action plan for the students so that we could say hey it's okay we're don't worry you're going to be fine we're going to catch you up and here are the supports we're going to put in place for you so I think there's a lot we could do on that end John you had a question yeah did you have any did you have any data for um like prior to covid how the absentee rates were no I'll have to look back at the the school performance reports but I think across the board and that was from the state report too citing yes we know that since covid there has been a shift Statewide so and what they told us in our County meeting was this is a big problem in New Jersey 70% of the school districts in New Jersey were in the same boat as us so 70% of school districts in in our state are 10% or higher chronic absenteeism so and think about it I remember when schools reopen you know the following year after covid I know where Mr mango and I were we were in session we were in person and it still was a very tricky time so we were still contact tracing students were out for 10 14 days at a clipse so that definitely impacted and now I think parents I mean this is just my assumption my perception I think parents just are much more cautious you know when a student has a stuffy nose and they're congested and they're not feeling right you always parents always air on the side of caution so and I do recognize that a lot of parents mentioned that in the survey as well we areir on the side of caution I keep my kid home at the start of cold I know when they're getting sick and I keep them away so that they don't infect others so I appreciate that too that that was those were a lot of responses on the survey so we appreciate that too and we all understand that which is why again the most important thing is communication if you're communicating with the building and we know the situation we know what's going on then we can work with you basically but yeah there there's definitely a shift since Co but I can pull those numbers for sure good all right thank you thanks Lauren okay moving on to committee reports Finance facilities and security Carl yep all right so first up uh we did discuss the high school gym floor which Mr mango already updated um as part of the ongoing uh District goals and Mr Mango's initiatives um you know we discussed some ongoing potentially obsolete systems within the the districtwide uh areas um nothing nothing officially yet but they are collecting top three recommendations um which are potentially on the budget for next year so that's all being sort of worked out now um on the agenda is uh accepting of a donation for the KHS baseball field so this is Herz Landscaping to can donate ground Improvement time and material just for those improvements um we discussed a number of uh upgraded security things such as um some things at Cisco uh some surveillance upgrades at all uh Stony Brook heel and PRM some upgrades to lens uh 3M films those kinds of things so a number of different just general uh security updates uh were discussed as well um where is the other one on here um also on the on the uh agena for um approval is uh light path Education Services which is an internet thing um for a three-year agreement with them um and let's see I'm jumping around my own notes here to kind of consolidate them um and I believe that is it yeah so we did meet on the 5th thanks Carl Personnel negotiations Mike I I think Dave made it easy on me from my last meeting because uh there there wasn't a lot for a Personnel but uh um for the for the items that didn't go across all the Committees we talked about some new job descriptions which I think was actually on all the Committees we talked about the K5 uh Lead Teacher recommendations which I I think went very well all the choices of that went well um and then the other minor thing was some changing hourly rates that we talked to that are on the agenda as well so was an easy meeting for personnel thanks Mike um Kelly education sure so the education Student Activities Committee met on December 5th um so miss whitward and our new baseball coach his name is Mr dagio believe it or not so I feel like we're destined for good things with our baseball um they they walk the fields they're trying to get ready for the season they talked they met with H Landscaping who is very generous and is getting the field ready for the boys to be able to play um so that was an exciting uh update we also had a presentation from Mrs mlan who's one of the counselors and the principal from PRM um we this has happened multiple times but we always say how much we like it when there are problems in District for the staff to come to us with Solutions um and we have had trending you know and uptick in our hip numbers which is happen happening consistently in all towns it's not just our town but it is trending um and so Mrs mlan had a presentation for us that she wants to share with all of the students at PRM moving forward um it basically talks about what is a hip you know because a lot of the students um if a Hib comes up they have a lot of questions afterwards and we feel like you know we could just get in front of this and be a little bit more preventative with it and just share listen this is a gift to you this is what's expected of you as a student you can this is how you need to behave when you're at school and nothing will happen and hopefully our Hib numbers will go down because of it um the videos were they were made by a teacher in another District but miss mlan is able to kind of individualize it and make it work for our district but they were really great videos developmentally appropriate for the ages that they were at it was really cool because um there were a lot of celebrities that said you know I was bullied it was a part of my life and I went on to have a wonderful life despite it so I think that's a really important message too for kids at that age to heal to hear so um that was exciting and we're we're really looking forward to that getting rolled out um they're going to be talking more about it at the PRM Forum that's going to be in January so we also have somebody in town that wants to be our sore presenter which we're really excited about her name is mar Maria Palmer and she's a mom with two daughters in District and she just had a really exciting wonderful life that she wound up writing a book about um and it just really personifies overcoming unexpected difficulties showing resilience um and it's I I think it's really great when we have somebody from town that we're able to Showcase with that so we're excited um we approved a PRM Health textbook we approved a AP European textbook we have a social studies pilot class in grade four over over at Stonybrook um the teachers are really excited about this because the curriculum was designed by teachers and it aligns perfectly to the standards um it also provides a lot of cross-curricular learning opportunities which is great um you know social studies is a great subject to be able to do that um we are still working on our KHS robotics Club so more news on that hopefully in the future um and we we have really exciting news about um our lead teachers we have some teachers at each grade level that wanted to step up um take on more responsibility take on a leadership position be a liaison to Administration Mentor their fellow teachers share resources tips tricks uh with class management and lesson plans and just be the the go-to person in their grade to provide um answers to questions and so we have most I think almost everybody's here tonight um at the kindergarten level we have Miss Melissa Madre um at the first grade level we have Joan mle at the second grade level we have mallerie oconnell at the third grade level we have Laura ganat um at the fourth grade level we have Susan Giuliano and at the fifth grade level we have Lori Bruce so that's really exciting and I know that your counterparts and your peers are very excited about you stepping into this role so best of luck and thank you so much um we also talked about 2025 meeting dates um and we talked about about merging the citizens advisory and the community relations um we just had a conversation about that I know more information will be following but we talked about the pros and the cons of doing that and I think a lot of people were in favor um we just talked about just uh districtwide realignment potential and possibilities thanks Kelly policy John yeah I have a confession to make I actually went to um the high school concert so Jen's gonna do it yeah I heard it was good it's good okay um for policy we've been looking at a couple different policies relating to attendance uh early dismissal late arrival and then regulations that go along with those and then any changes that might need to be reflected in the handbook paying attention that we want to have consistency between the policy the regulation and the handbook and and however it's carried out um so we were looking at policy 5230 5200 and 5514 you'll see the um changes proposed in today's agenda for first reading just um thank you don't take me yet okay uh we also talked about advaned placement exams we've been talking about this we continued the conversation we're talking about um possibly doing some type of reimbursement for families who are of students who are taking multiple AP exams and um giving some type of incentive of a score of three maybe four we were that was a discussion that we were having and how many exams to uh reimburse over the course of the student's career and then we were discussing the um impact it would have financially on the district and so we were asking for um a little bit better numbers on what that impact might be so that we can prepare budget wise to be able to do something along those lines but also be fiscally responsible so there's more coming with that uh let's see what else we came up with a consistent um time for four hours for student to be in school to be considered uh to be able to have attended school and then be able to be part of activities later in the school uh day this can affect Athletics or or school dances or um any other kind of like activities we just wanted to be consistent with that and then we uh continued our conversation with any of the lunch privileges for underclassmen and um we wanted wanted our again our policies and regulations to reflect that we feel that the lunch privilege is a privilege for seniors and it should continue see uh we talked about the The Chronic absenteeism like M Thomas was explaining and the um different plans for that we reviewed a parent observation form and a policy 9241 for any parent that's interested in observing in the classroom just to have consistent um rules to to protect everyone involved and and keep it a positive event we went over the board future board of aded meeting dates again talked about community relations citizens advisory and then uh again in the future potential for district realignment to be able to use space better to be able to use funds better and again just a discussion to see what is on the horizon you so the the changes to the handbook which I saw were in yellow right that was just aligning the times the four hours because I know there were two different yeah because there was some like that had three some okay all right okay right uh everything's for first reading first reading right well the the handbooks not for first reading is it revised okay all right um delegates do we have anything from school boards Jersey school boards school boards just quiet M Morris County they meet today okay um anything from the legislature like quiet um yesterday the governor signed the freedom to read act in the library in Hamilton I think um so in one year the Department of Education is going to pass policies down that we then have to implement a policy affix School libraries and books um also last week the US Department of Education issued um a big recommendation to school districts all over the country so this is not a mandate it's just the US Department of Education kind of saying what we've been saying for over a year to say you should have a policy or multiple policies about students and cell phone use um so one of them is a big recommendation to say no cell phones in school so that's coming from the US um we're already ahead of that um but then also um one of the recommendations had to do with really helping children and the families that they're a part of to wrestle through um digital citizenship and we're already moving in that direction as well um so that's not new for us except to say that in the environment that we're in a legislative like they're all catching up and they're all saying yeah we're going the right way so okay thanks Jonathan um Mor Morris County Educational Services Commission January right okay um so community relations and K do you want to speak about that J so um we're still working on what this is going to look like but the general consensus is to um combine the community relations with citizens advisory so that it's a better use of people's time and it's kind of like more of a One-Stop shop to be able to have discussions um to be able to learn about whatever's going on in the district uh rather than having like repetitive um various nights of different information um we still need to uh the community relations committee needs to just meet to kind of really hammer down what that looks like so that we can have some s some type of plan you know to move forward and then Jean I I'm imagining that it makes sense to then initiate that with the new year because right you know that's when we and actually I that actually might make sense in that uh board retreat thing that I had talked about because there was ideas with communicating with the the community and getting more information out to people that maybe all of that comes together at once because everybody had a lot of points in our self- evaluation um that I think maybe we can um as a board kind of fine-tune those and then bring them to that committee and then redo that in the new year I think that's a great idea um so thanks for for that Jen okay um anything else K cares any nothing and KF we're still have no real movement on that all right petitions and hearings of citizens on agenda items anybody has anything for agenda items NOP okay anything no okay so for agenda items a through D I'd like a motion for a roll call on a block vote for agenda items a through D motion for a through D second okay uh discussion anybody have anything on any of these yeah it's policy D1 okay okay yeah that's possible we couldn't hear you on this side she she wants to uh the hi D1 she wants to abstain from anybody have anything else okay all right so M Francisco we pull the board Please Mr Eis manger yes Mrs Leonard yes my not Mr Meyers yes Mrs Pella yes Mrs Portman yes Mr pet silly yes M Donaldson yes okay for item e on the agenda Committee of the whole don't have anything unfinished business anybody have any unfinished business retreat on 20th meeting the 20th yeah I I need to resend that out okay I actually have something I forgot I forgot about that was on my calendar so Friday yeah yeah I didn't actually get a lot of replies and so it and then I forgot and booked something so so um and Mike actually said he wouldn't mind coming back after reorg to help us out so I think we're going to take him up on that one last meeting and just um I do have his note well he did write stuff down so I mean I don't know who it was but he had um it's there are notes in there so just remember that our reorg is um the 7th the 7th January 7th Tuesday the 7th over the the holiday break I'll send some notes just about you know some dates because we're going to come out of the break in the New Year swinging and at the January 28th public meeting Mrs Thomas is going to present the um elective surveys to our students grade 6 to 11 that'll steer us on one end going towards the budget um and the position control roster and then also we'll continue on with facilities I do think we're going to probably this year more than the last two years need solo breakout committee meetings like just a night of Education Student Activities a night of ffs um a night of personnel negotiations there's a lot happening so um yeah I just want to get that out there now the seventh is reorg the 28th is the public in the middle we're going to have it could be multiple committee meetings so um and let's hope that there's no snow well the school calendar as well the the draft school calendar Mr suffen I'll have that to your end for January at some point after a roll through committee um for next year as well and we also have uh we were going to do a cell phone survey rate yes that's going to go out that's going to go up for the break or in January right at the right as soon as we come back okay okay no you're right you're right you're right that's true okay um anybody any other unfinished business okay the new business we have uh next year's board meeting dates so we all looked at the those already any comments correspondents do we have anything online Jay do we have any letters or anything Barbara no okay petitions and hearing citizens not agenda items here wanted to um congratulate our new uh team leaders to say um we're happy for you in this position and to thank the board for your support um in making that happen I think it's a vital role and they're going to be great advocates for their grade levels um second I just wanted to wish all of you a wonderful holiday season on behalf of the Kaa it's been a lot of hard work in uh 2024 and we're looking forward to a great many things to come in 2025 and lastly uh thank you to Mr Petrelli it feels like an end of an era and uh should you write a book it will be a bestseller of all the things that you've experienced on the board um it's it's been a wonderful ride with you and and we appreciate your support and you advocating for teachers and this great district and all of you all the things you've done along the way and uh it's been fun watching from from our side and um you have big shoes to fill for sure and we thank you all and again have a wonderful holiday season with your families may your celebrations be joyful and healthy and uh it's a great new year ahead thank you thank you thanks Tina okay uh board member comments want go first sure um just echoing some of that in the holiday season you know U thank you to everybody for all the hard work in the first couple months and um you know this stage doesn't get a lot of talk you know we talk a lot about the gym floor over there but the floor up here has a lot of action especially you know this month you know so last week there were a couple concerts here um this coming for next week on this stage um with a lot of young people I mean you put those groups together and you have hundreds of kids that uh all come together at a place in a Time bigger than any one team that you know comes out to get celebrated um so a lot of hard work's gone into that and and really showcasing our kids so um thank you for for that to the parents and the teachers and the everybody that's involved and um didn't want to didn't want to spend so much time because I know Mike is you know like a private person but what I was going to say was um you know a lot like a keel of a boat you know it's underneath the boat and you never see it but it's one of the most important pieces of the boat because without the Keel it's not going to move and it's not going to move in a straight line um and you know for the wisdom and the experience that you've had um and that you shared with me personally you know I just want to thank you for keeping us you know moving in ways that a lot of people never get to see or experience um and you've had it you know your your influence has pointed us in a direction and kept us moving and I just wanted to thank you for that thank you I appreciate that Kelly um I definitely uh need to recognize Mr petrielli Mike I had the the blessing of sitting next to you at my first meeting where I felt like a deer in headlights and you just really took me in and just in a very kind and genuine way explained things and told me what to do and got me through it and um you just have a wonderful way of knowing so very much about so very many things and just explaining it thoroughly and with just wonderful humility and respect and um I really enjoyed working with you um even when we didn't agree I feel like we were always very respectful and um I've just enoy enjy the time learning from you and thank you so much for the time that you gave to us and um best of luck in all the time you're going to have now and all the wonderful things that you and your wife can do together with all this extra time um I think it's wonderful that we recognize uh the students and tonight it was great to see all the athletes and just hear how well our wonderful small little town is doing um our students do great things so that's amazing and I'm glad that we recognize it um I want to say congratulations to our lead teachers I have to say I I just love all the the people that stepped up and you guys have um touched my family personally just by being amazing teachers and you've done wonderful things in this community so thank you so much and I know you're going to go on to you know as Tina said provide you're going to be great advocates for your peers so thank you so much um I also wanted to say this holiday season whatever it is that you holiday whatever it is that you celebrate this holiday I just hope that everybody has peace joy and happiness and our lives are very very busy so take some time to just be with your families and make memories and be together have a good night everybody thanks H Jen um I'm not gonna be able to say it as well as Jonathan and Kelly but um thank you Mike for all of your service the I mean 12 years I can't even imagine um but you have done it so so well you um just like they said you know really are just the epitome of professional uh respectful intelligent and you've been a great mentor and um somebody that I feel very comfortable you know just asking a question or whatever it is without judgment or or any even kind of pressure to think a certain way or anything like that and I think our district has really benefited from the time that you have served so thank you and thank you Jen for um the sacrifice it takes it is a lot um of time given and to do it well you have to give a lot of time so 12 years I just is um outstanding thank you and thank you to our new lead teachers um I think that's going to be a great uh extra influence in in our elementary I know some of them are really good Educators so uh I know they all are but I know some of them personally because my children had them and um they're great and um thank you to the Herz family for doing that donation of their time to improve the baseball field I think that'll be great and congratulations to the athletes and excited to see what they do in the winter thank you Dana oh um you know not to to repeat what everyone has said uh I I'll keep it brief I I wish everyone the best over the holidays and time with their families and their loved ones um and thank you Mike for all of your dedication over the years and um you know it's a long time and it's it's it's I think it's been some challenging times so uh you have led very well um you know for the best interest of parents students teachers the community that you obviously love so thank you so much and I just I I'll keep it brief but thank you and I I do Echo what everyone has said so Carl um first of all always great to see uh recognition of the students it's I think it's always a great especially it's a nice memory for them as they're kind of going through their their classes and such um I'll wish everyone a Merry Christmas and happy New Year um Mike it's been great working with you the past couple years um I I'm a big believer in longevity within a position right so you can't really I really think that you can't really uh improve something unless you fully know it really right and so having done it for 12 years and um you know definitely left it better than when you started I'm assuming because all the people here have said such wonderful things about you so um it's been great to work with you and uh wish all the best thank you appreciate Dave you want to say anything uh yeah I mean kind of like three weeks ago I'll say it again just thank the good Lord that we're all here together and um that we have a lot on the road in front of us and Mike I I shared everything that I had said before very candidly and uh most importantly since I'm somebody who lives for the fight um I appreciate that anytime you ever had to say anything to me you said it man command in closed door and um that's always the way it was and that's what I respect and that's what I respect most about you that you're a man of your word and that you're honest and straightforward so I appreciate that uh hope we find that going forward in the new year because we have quite a bit uh in front of us and um you know to everybody that's here it seems that you're always the last one standing but uh and to all our staff here in our community no matter what you call the Holiday enjoy it have a good time be healthy be safe there's a lot of people out there that aren't so safe and don't think before they act or get into a car um or say what they say so just enjoy the time and I'm looking forward to the new year would you like to go last Mike sure okay so um then I'll just uh Echo everybody else's um thanking all of I'm I'm excited for the lead teachers I I love that um our staff brings ideas and they kind of they don't just bring problems they bring Solutions and then they tell us why that they have brought this solution so it's like way ahead of it it's it's really like Tara McLean did with something she was noticing and the idea with the lead teachers and how we went from like kind of Supervisors to department heads a lot of that was came from the staff and their ideas and I really appreciate how um you guys are really thinking outside the box and trying to do the best that you can um and I'm really excited to have that opportunity to work with our staff and administration to continue that in the future um as far as Mike goes I don't know I feel like it's been like 10 years in some ways when we started in during covid and there were some really interesting meetings that we've been through and some challenging situations that we've had to navigate and like I said when I spoke earlier you you were kind of like the rock for me I mean you were always there if I needed something and there were you just had so much information and I really really appreciate it and I also have your number Jen in case I can't reach him anyway I really wish you guys like a lot of time together that you've missed and enjoying your kids in as they're going into adulthood and your son's graduating and we'll see you on the field for graduation for sure and um yeah I just I I really appreciate everything that you've taught me and you will be missed um I wish everybody a happy holiday okay I get to go last wow well thank you to the lead teachers for Ste up as I'm stepping down so that's a that's a that's a comfort as I'm doing that but just I'll just add one thing that I wanted to add to my comments um and thanking the teachers and the staff and and the administrators is you know thank you for taking care of my children in in all the years of you know them growing up through the system you know I've had four most of you know not everybody maybe but have four kids who who've grown up through the system and um one went to Columbia and she's out on her own now and she's got a job and she's and she's working so that's great and I have a you know one in school and two about to graduate this year and and getting ready to start the school and just thank you on behalf of of myself and my wife for you know taking such good care of my children and taking good care good care of all the children of kenalan so thank you it's been great to thank you Tina for your kind words and it's been great working with the Kaa over the years that's you know one thing that I've you know kind of enjoyed is you know kind of working with that as well but thank you for taking care of my children thank you for taking care of all the children and thank you for everything that you do so and thank you guys for all your kind words it was really nice thank you okay well motion to adjourn motion to ajour all in favor I