[Music] [Music] e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e is it working yes I call this Mee to order could you please stand and salute the flag United States of America to theu one nation under God indivisible with liy and jusice [Applause] all in accordance with the open public meeting act chapter 231 adequate notice of this meeting has has been provided as follows on January 10th 2024 notice was sent to the home News Tribune the tapinto Lindon Star Ledger Union County local source and the clerk of the municipality by state law there is no smoking permitted in this building at any time in addition to the listing listed items in this agenda this board of education may discuss and act upon other items not specifically referred to hearing as is allowed at the regularly scheduled monthly meeting under the sunshine low R call Mr Dela Cruz present Miss Peno pres Mr rosada kada present Miss Thomas president miss uliss pres Miss Armstead pres Miss cillo Miss Centron pres and Dr beram pres there's a lot going on this evening so we're going to be making a brief modif ification to our agenda bear with us we're going to go through everything but there's a lot going on and we as board members some of our board members have to go to different events because we want to recognize our students so we are trying to change things up tonight so um we would like to approve the minutes motion to approve um minutes of work session February 27th and the regular meeting held on February 29th secondly ask for a second second second second roll call Mr Dela Cruz yes Miss Pino yes Mr rosada quesada yes Miss Thomas yes to the 27th abstain from the 29th Miss uliss yes Miss Armstead yes Miss Centron yes and Dr berghammer yes this is a section of the meeting that I really like to hear because I like to hear from the public so we're going to get with comments from the public members of the public Desiring to make a public comment may come forward at this time for those watching online if you wish to make a comment or ask a question please utilize to raise your hand Feit you on the online meeting platform please begin your comments by stating your name and address individuals are invited to speak on one Topic at a time and no individual will speak more than once until all individuals so Desiring have spoken once the public is reminded that to ensure the efficient and orderly operation of the meeting members of the public would be limited to speak on agenda items for 3 minutes for any member of the public who wants to come up and speak you will notice that we have a clock here and it will start when you at 3 minutes and it will count down we ask that when the the clock isn't zero you wrap wrap up your comment because we we don't want the meeting to go on longer than it should don't get me wrong every comment is important we just asking if you could keep it to the 3 minutes thank you great Craig how 120 Donaldson Place uh it's really doesn't have the agenda but I'd like to point out that the Halloween parade will be October 27th of this year that uh paperwork will be following uh shortly now my comments about the agenda item in the education report it's two item so I'm not sure if I can talk about both of them uh the first one refers to items 1830 and 36 which is the role Workshop that different staff members are going to the role of school climate teams I was just wondering what or how this will benefit the students and can I get a copy of any information used at this Workshop uh the second item if I'm allowed uh has to do with item number 12 Title One carryover funds for use family engagement supplies if this money left over from last year should this have been returned to the taxpayers thank you for your comment very interesting questions thank you very much we would come we will um review this information and we will get back to you Mrs Perkins yes one thing is for the climate and uh culture um PD each School must have a climate and culture committee that consist of ass worker a teacher and a parent and a student and so the professional development that they're attending is in alignment with State regulation to bring back into the school to ensure that students and staff are um voices are heard in a safe and um supportive environment and this state mandate yes climate and culture committee teams are in every building in every school yes okay thank you and then the the title one on funds um this is this is um Grant this is Federal grant Federal grant funding and so um when they say the carryover funds it it depends on like the date I don't know the yeah but this wouldn't be money that could go back to the taxpayers this is money that we got from the federal government so it has to go towards our programming so to clarify no this does not go back to the taxpayers this is Federal grant funding and um what I was seeking Clarity on was that we find out at this time of the year what funding is left over and which allows us to now still embedded into the schools and so that's why you see it here that um it's still being applied for this school year okay thank you very much you're welcome hi donor Hernandez 133 Princeton Road as I brought up last month about the um State Testing with prom being on the same day um I saw that the date for the because our snow day we had one left so it was moved to June 24th with our students having that as their last day um talking to you know students and parents it's not fair that our seniors have to go back the next day for graduation um and I know State Testing was moved off of that Thursday and Friday but it still wasn't recommended to give that Friday of Labor Day weekend off the day after prom um students go away for the weekend you know you're not going to have a lot of students probably in school you know teachers who have a lot of students missing in class they're not going to start a new lesson or start um reviews for I guess you know finals so I just wanted to bring that up to you thank you thank you Miss Hernandez um the snow day buyback was board approved last April and on the calendar it stated that the first snow buyback day would be the last day of school so for this school year um and I know in the past that snow buyback days did fall on Memorial Day Friday but for this calendar that was board approved last year this time it did indicate so the changing of the State Testing um because it did fall on Prom was not um because didn't have anything to do with the snow buyback day this was what was approved from last year for that Friday maybe it's something to look into because the last several years um as long as I've been at the high school prom's been on that Thursday of Memorial weekend yes correct so maybe when you do the calendar next year that's something to look into thank you thank you we have a very quiet crowd anyone else have any comments All right so at this time we're going to make some of the changes to our board meetings because some of our board members may have to leave so here goes the board president's um report on behalf of the Lyndon Board of Education I want to welcome students guest and community members to the Lyndon Board of Education March 24th meeting 25th March 21st meeting we are 8 months into our 2024 school year and a lot has happened but our students are resilient they are strong and regardless of what is going on in the world or students stay the course we adults can learn so much from this generation if we only take the time to listen in the moment of listening I would like all the students because this is something that really interests me I would like all the the the graduates who graduated in June the seniors graduating in June could you stand here in this room [Applause] now I'm going to ask you a question young lady I want to ask you a question how many of you have both of you young ladies have you gotten any scholarships for college yet you got a scholarship could you come to the mic I want to hear you yeah I'm sure everybody want to hear you yes minutes yeah we yes yes um I was recently accepted into the Naval Academy and I also received the space force rooc scholarship to any school of my choosing as well as receiving scholarships at rensler um poly Technic Institute and receiving a spot in Rochester Institute of Technology's accelerated Masters and bachelor's program woo [Applause] okay what about the next young lady did you get any scholarships yet you want to come up so we could hear [Applause] you how yes what about you uh I'm going to go to Winer University in PA and play for their program speaking a mic we can't you I'm going to Winer University in PA and I'm going to play for their soccer program oh you go [Applause] good right yes thank you very much then you yes okay thank you [Applause] yes the reason why I am doing this is not to put any student under the spot it is a it's it's a passion of this board that every student that graduate from lynen high get a scholarship to go to college so what the principls have been saying Mr Coons and different people have been saying is that we are reaching out to you guys often asking you to start applying for scholarships we want you to start applying it doesn't matter if you're in the ninth grade the 10th grade the 11th grade start applying get engaged nobody want to graduate from college with 40 $50,000 in student loans if they could graduate with zero loans MH right all right so as I will continue as we prepare for graduation and moving up ceremonies we have a lot to celebrate School violence is under decline or students continue to adjust to the different initiatives that are being introduced and that is amazing however in the midst of our celebration many of us had to stop and grieve because we lost one of lyndon's well-loved superintendent Dr tomasic Rocky to his friends Rocky has worked to the L has worked in the lynon school district for many years he has left and he returned but this time is his final depart here as I reflect on the on a life well lived I think about how fragile life is one moment you are here and the other moment you are gone a short while ago Rocky was sitting next to me making decisions for the lynon school district and today he is with his maker I could only imagine what his family is going through right now Dr tomasic was an amazing human being he was genuine and honest he knew exactly where where you stood with him he was controlled and got straight to the point and spoke the truth even when the truth was difficult to hear some of us act like tomorrow is Promised but this loss was a reminder to me that we must live in the moment speak the truth even when the truth may be un popular respect each other and be kind to each other because the present will always be a gift thank you I know asked Brianna Armstead she would like to say something as well um yes I had a few things to say because I have to leave early because my little sister Abigail Armstead is starring in the lead role at uh High School's Mama Mia so I have to go support my baby sister I'm very excited so I apologize to everybody for my early departure I will be leaving within the next 5 minutes um and I also want to announce that the TV and Film Production class we have a fundraiser going on I'm not saying it's to brag but I'm very excited about it and I myself personally have raised $1,600 $1,690 the class as a whole has raised $4,220 if you guys are interested in donating you can contact me at my board of education email at be Armstead at Linden ps.org any and everything will help even if you don't have anything to contribute sharing it is enough support is free please support our kids we they have a really fantastic opportunity to go to a workshop in Disney to really learn about the television and film process and how to become how to get immersed into that industry that's an industry that I have a background in and I think it's really it will be really be something that will be instrumental for our students so please if you can donate that would be greatly appreciated I would not feel okay if did not get a chance to speak about Dr tazik because he meant a lot to our family today I'm speaking with a heavy heart as I acknowledge the life of one of the kindest people I've ever met I don't know if it's possible to not have loved him because he was such a genuine person I have been battling with feelings of regret upon hearing the news of his passing wishing that I could have asked for one more piece of advice or sat down and picked his brain a little bit longer because for every ounce of kindness in him it was matched with intelligence I admire how witty he was and how quick he was on his feet nothing got pass him and instead of using his knowledge as a weapon he used it as a tool for anyone that was around him he was more than a colleague he was basically family and I will never forget how you were there for my family or how he dared to be the voice of reason against Injustice I remember the very first story that my dad told me about him when was was when he first served as superintendent for our district I remember him saying how that Dr tasik wanted to hire a qualified African-American assistant superintendent because he believed that an Administration should be reflective of its population and how he was ran out of his position for doing what was right he will never be forgotten Dr T touched the lives of so many he will forever be in my heart my family's heart and the entire Board of education's heart you are a mentor a friend and a confidant and I hope that everything that I'm doing now makes you proud as you watch down above us we love you Dr T and we thank your beautiful family for sharing you with us thank you thank you all hey Miss Armstead would you believe I went out looking to raise money for Disney I ain't reached 1,600 yet but guys I actually raised $500 so far and I'm going after your ,600 okay well make sure you donate with my link because I don't like to lose so we're on arms everybody okay bye guys yes anything else before we all right so our next um our next report is our superintendent report report anyone else is leaving all right okay so continue was anybody I guess to see nothing right so continue good evening everyone um my superintendence report um starts off with acknowledging our members who have passed on and as um Dr B ber hammer and um Miss Armstead stated it is a great loss for um losing Dr Roco gazic he was hired in the Lynden Board of Education in 1996 as a njrc naval instructor he served in that position for seven well he was in our district for 17 years and he taught the naval science excuse me at Lyndon high school and then he became a vice principal and then the assistant superintendent from 2002 to 2008 January of 20 2009 he became the superintendent of schools until 2013 Dr tazik returned back to our district as the interim superintendent in October of 2022 through June of 2023 Dr tazac was um he passed on March 9th also we have Charlotte gesler she was hired by the Lynden Board of Education in 1960 as a special education teacher she taught second grade students at school number four for 13 years in 1973 she was appointed as a learning disability teaching consultant until her retirement until 2001 Miss Gessler passed on March 9th as well may peace and love and memories Comfort the families of Roco and Charlotte during this difficult time may they both rest in peace they are our dear uh retired colleagues and they will always hold a special place in our hearts we have a retirement for this evening Melody Olen she started her teaching career in 1991 for the last 32 years Melody serves as a prek teacher at school number nine she plans to retire in June of this year on the agenda you see that our lean susco is listed however um we are going to be pulling that retirement on this month's agenda and um more will come in the future so congratulations to miss Olen on her her retirement her passion and dedication to our district on behalf of all of the educators of the Lynden Board of Education we wish her the best retirement has to offer with peace health and just joyful life experiences our staff attendance patterns for the um month of March while today is the 21st we're pretty consistent with what it was from last year this year year um we have 36% of absences last year it was 40% overall of our absences we've been consistent for the last four months 62% of those absences needed a substitute as I stated earlier our snow day buyback is on this agenda it will be um adjusting the last day of school for students which will now on June 24th and the Lyon High School graduation will be held at Tiger Stadium on June 25th also on the agenda please take note of the end of the year school calendar where it indicates when half days will begin um Elementary moving up ceremonies testing and more importantly I did just say the end of the year school calendar so um to all of our staff and our students please keep on pushing forward and um let's get through this last trimester last few months strong we need you abely there's talk and we are aware that the solar eclipse is coming Upon Us on April 8th that is the day that we do return back from school um from spring break spring break begins on March 28th and students return on April 8th so for the solar eclipse we are looking at purchasing protective glasses for our students and staff for anyone who plans to um look up at the solar eclipse so we will remind our students we'll speak to our science supervisor also of how this can be an amazing learning experience for everyone but safety first um so um I like to acknowledge our student representative to the board Miss aori Rainey is homesick right now she had her mom reach out to express that she is um saddened that she couldn't be here this evening but she wanted everyone to know that if she could she would so please keep her in your thoughts so before we um transition into two presentations I'm excited um as I stated that spring break is upon us so I would like to wish each and every one of you um for those celebrating the holiday Easter a wonderful Easter I'm told that the city is going to be continuing with the Easter Bunny is going to be traveling around town soon so that um notification flyer has gone out to All Families today and and um it's just a time to just relax and have a great time so happy spring break to everyone get excited right there get excited I see that all right that's it spring break is coming okay and so now um we are going to transition because we have a few Sports recognition and I'm going to call up Mr Firestone to the podium we could go help good evening thank you again for having us it is truly a pleasure to be here tonight to recognize some of our students athletic achievements so far this school year this I would first like to thank superintendent Mrs Perkins the entire Board of Education board president Dr Berg Hammer assistant superintendent of support Mrs Lewis Mr Sarah piglia and Mr Co I cannot tell you how grateful I am for all of your support I would also like to thank our coaches and parents we can only do so much without the help of all of you and the rest of our community at this time I would like to have the JV boy basketball team please come [Applause] up see because thank you I would like to congratulate our JV boys basketball team for winning the JV Union County championships versus [Applause] Playfield this is the first time we won the tournament since our coach Mike Campo was a member of the team which was over 10 years [Applause] ago [Music] members of the team Raheem [Applause] Tate Derek [Applause] stash muhamed sis Jaan [Music] [Applause] gas Alexander [Applause] Austine Isaiah [Applause] Morrison musan herd Jacob Alamo Adrien [Applause] sergot youf [Music] [Applause] Armstead Xavier [Applause] lagon jayen excellent [Applause] and Abraham Des Rosier congratulations again to our JV boys basketball team and Coach Mikey [Applause] [Music] Campo let's take that picture all right everybody [Applause] the probably going go back up right okay last but certainly not least I would like to say a few words about our female wrestlers before I speak with the entire girls wrestling program please come [Applause] up members of the team were senior Captain Leila [Applause] Soo Captain Becky [Applause] troso jash jashira BZ [Applause] janisa [Applause] barahona Johanna [Applause] Jones Erica Martinez [Music] [Applause] Maya Austin Adriana [Applause] Fernandez jayen Aras Heaven [Applause] Rivera sah Edwards morah manager Allison Gomez manager Zoe MOA and of course coach Alvaro [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Fernandez wow am I proud of this team [Applause] [Music] [Applause] some highlights for our girls team team this is the first year ever with a full girls wrestling schedule the program has grown from two girls last season to 11 girls this season on December 22nd they defeated Elizabeth 36 to 24 in their first girls dual meet ever at home [Applause] W Elizabeth has had a team for over 5 years at the Union County girls Championship we had two Champions and two runner UPS they finished eighth out of 38 teams in the region we had two girls qualify for the state tournament in Atlantic City and finished 27th at of 85 [Applause] schools some individual honors Adriana Fernandez freshman Union County champion at 114 [Applause] lbs first girl in Union County History to be crowned UCC girls champion first match ever won at girls County tournament ever she won a total of 23 matches this season Becky troso [Applause] junor she plays second at the uni County championships third place at regions at 152 she was a New Jersey state quality qualifier and placed top 12 in New Jersey at her weight she also won a total of 16 matches this season Leila Soto senior Union County champion at 138 lbs first at regions at 138 lbs New Jersey state qualifier fourth place in the entire state of New Jersey at [Applause] [Music] 138 she finished her senior year with an incredible record of 33 and four let's give our girls and coaches a round of [Applause] applause thank you all so very much for recognizing our teams tonight be on TV great job you are truly inspiration keep it going keep it up one more time for all of our [Applause] we are now going to transition into our it takes a village recognition and this is always a phenomenal moment where we get to reiterate how important it is for our Community Partnerships when we refer to Our Community Partnerships it's bigger than inside of these uh the building we have all of our schools where we spoke earlier about climate and culture you establish a community within the buildings then we have Community just across every school in a sense where administrators teachers we all come together to build upon One Vision and that's to meet the needs of our students and to serve them we then and Branch off to our community to our staff members to our support in and out of the classrooms within the buildings and we are pleased to acknowledge and recognize that our first award will be going to staff members in a building who show up each and every day to do what's best for children and that is to feed them first so I am going to turn it over to our assistant superintendent Miss Lewis who would like to acknowledge our first recipients good evening we are really excited to have the opportunity to acknowledge members of Our Food Service Company pomptonian feeding our students breakfast and lunch is a critical component of their school day unfortunately Miss Rodriguez was not able to be here this evening however she did share with me some sentiments that she would like me to share with the school Community amidst the laughter and chatter of energetic children at school number 8 there exists a group of three beautiful unsung heroes who play a vital role in the well-being of our Young Learners these ladies are our friendly hardworking and dedicated cafeteria workers whose commitment to ensuring the children's needs are met goes beyond the Daily Grind of meal preparation when the students step into the school cafeteria they are greeted with warm smiles and cheerful greetings from the cafeteria staff these friendly faces create an inviting atmosphere for the children turning the cafeteria into a space where not only hunger is satisfied but where bonds are formed especially with our special education students the cafeteria workers go out of their way to know the names and preferences of each child making every meal time a personalized and enjoyable experience early mornings you'll find them chopping vegetables cooking up meals and ensuring that each dish is delicious with their extra special touch there their hardw hardworking ethic ensures that the children receive well-balanced meals that contribute to their overall health their friendly hardworking dedicated cafeteria workers at school number8 are the unsung heroes who play a pivotal role in adding the growth and well-being of our Young Learners their warmth work ethic and dedication to putting kids first make them an integral part of school number 8 and it takes a village to raise children and as we celebrate these three remarkable young ladies we would also like to recognize and appreciate the significant impact they have on the lives of our children daily lady Teresa and yachi we here at school number8 want to commend you for all of your hard work and dedication and let you know how much we truly appreciate all that you do please join [Applause] us congratulations thank [Music] you how you doing congratulations thank you [Applause] thank you thank you next I'd like to transition to recognizing our staff member again as we build Upon Our Community excuse me as we build Upon Our Community we we um we cannot forget about the hard work and dedication that the staff put into making sure that the building is uh supported to make sure that papers plans phone calls um and anything that's needed to support the administration is being carried out with Excellence I am excited for the next staff member to come on up but first i'm going to call Mr Firestone to also Al um help with recognizing the staff member Kelly coio Kelly what more can I say about Kelly cozy come on up Kelly what more can I say about Kelly coal that Lyndon doesn't already know Kelly has worked in an athletic department for over 20 years and has always been very involved within the community Kelly has taken a lead role in the links wathon and Halloween parade I can honestly say that this department would not run without her I probably thank her at least once a day for everything that she has done for myself our students and the rest of the department in fact if I'm not thanking her I could be seen contributing to her caffeine addiction by buying her coffee to show my appreciation this award is just another feather in her cap I'm truly grateful to her and I'm very thankful that the district is recognizing her tonight thank you so much [Applause] Kelly and last but not least we are here because of the students and now we get to recognize a student who has been making phenomenal strides in and out of the classroom and I'd like to call call up uh principal C who will join in and acknowledge the [Applause] student good evening thank you superintendent berkins tonight we'd like to honor a very special young lady that is passionate and committed to Bringing awareness to Black Culture in the African-American experience uh she works with the black American Culture Club and during Black History Month she was very instrumental and diligent in organizing the black cultural Festival which highlighted many achievements of uh Black American poets academics writers uh inventors and so forth and so on it was a wonderful wonderful event at Linton high school she's also a very Savvy and Brilliant entrepreneur as she worked diligently uh to Market merchandise to generate funding as well as deliver a positive and strong message to our community this is the the joyous part of the job for me in honoring our students and and recognizing all the wonderful work that they do uh she is a very very brilliant student uh very passionate about all of the work that she does so tonight we'd like to honor Miss saon [Applause] Johnson in addition in addition to all of uh savon's extracurricular activities I'd like to speak briefly to the academic student that Savon is she's a member of our cane Scholar Academy meaning while at Lynden high school she's also dually enrolled at cane University and taking college level classes might I add she has maintained an agpa in her college and high school courses for ninth and 10th grade year okay she's in high school and college at the same time earning Straight A's and involved in all the other extracurricular activities [Applause] congrats four years she never [Music] brought [Applause] [Music] huh but she has to one of them person I know don't happen [Applause] and that will conclude my superintendent report thank [Applause] you [Applause] at this time we'll have the uh attorney's report thank you um two items on my report tonight one the first one is one we discussed in uh on Tuesday night during the work session um we need to retain an outside firm to come in and do an investigation for us so this will be taken care of that and then item number two is we went out for bid for an HVAC product and there were some issues with our specifications that popped up uh after the bids were submitted so um our Architects would like to revise those specifications that initially went out so I'm asking that uh that all of the bids received there were two bids right John two that both bids be rejected um so that we can substantially revise the specifications um and also that you authorize John to go back out for bid for that project okay um so with that said I'll I'll present items one and two uh to the board for approval second roll call please you say both of them going to be rejected or yeah first things first um after I answer your question we do need a motion I'm not on the board I can't make a motion to move it so we need somebody else to make a motion in a second and then John call the role to answer your question yes we're going to we're going to reject both of the bids um if you have specific questions on that we're going to have to go into close I can't because it's attorney client advice as to why we're doing I motion to approve the attorney's report second roll call Mr Dela Cruz yes Miss Pino yes Miss Thomas yes Miss ulis yes and Dr beram yes moving on to to the education report yes education Committee of part recommendation of superintendent of schools and the assistant superintendent presents the following motions of the lyen Board of Education I approve item one through Page 21 because you missed page 18 so it's now it's 21 pages I respect the ask for a second second for items 1 through 22 21 because I they miss a page so we have is 21 page now item 21 okay it's yeah it's items 1 through 21 yeah 21 cuz it missed page 18 there a resolution resolution number 18 is missing missing there's no 18 okay all right so one through 17 and then 19 through 21 I respect you has for a second thank you second here for call 22 that you have item 22 on the agenda oh yeah there's a 22 I think there's 22 items on the education report that's what I was asking John so it should it should be items 1 through 17 and then 192 yeah 19 through 22 so can we get a motion and second on that motion motion do we have a second second second you're the motion second all right okay roll call Mr Del Cruz yes Miss Peno yes Miss Thomas yes Miss jiss yes Dr ber Hammer yes thank you now we're moving on to the Personnel report um as Mrs Perkins mentioned earlier we are removing item two for number three so the Personnel committee upon a recommendation of the superintendent of schools presents the following motions to the Lyon board of education for approval all appointments and reappointments are contingent upon may be modified based on student participation and the district's receipt of sufficient state school aid and other Revenue funding I'd like to ask for a second to approve items 1 through 30 second roll call Mr Del Cruz yes Miss Peno yes Miss Thomas yes Miss jiss yes Dr Burg C yes thank you now we're moving on to buildings grounds and securities the finance report next I'm sorry Finance somebody take my finance report oh here it is Dr you didn't take it okay well Finance person is here the finance committee upon a recommendation of the superintendent of schools and the business administrator board secretary present the following motions to the Linda board of education for approval items 1 through3 suly ask for a second second second roll call right I just wanted the the board to note that we did add a resolution since the last meeting would be the highlighted resolution number 30 yes9 yes yeah I wanted um to briefly could we discuss resolutions um 30 what your why what's going on here yes um we can we actually uh anticipated there's you know there might be some questions on that so we asked our chief technology officer um to attend tonight's meeting um so any of the questions uh just so that you understand this is a resolution for both hardware and software for our network uh specifically servers uh that have come to the their uh end of life um but I'll I could leave it up to our chief technology officer to answer any of the specific questions uh that the Board of Education may have I have a thank you Mr Carter Mr Carter a question I need to ask is regarding testing we had a very important testing that was supposed to take place recently and we of it was 400 students supposed to test right how many students no but I know that he had problems I want to know if this had anything to do this is something different this is something completely different you know it's like my my only concern is that if it's not about testing I have another question the question I want to ask is that we are the board is now expected to pay a whole lot of money for this services and we I think we didn't have enough time for us to actually get a lot more companies to to bid put it out for bid so we could get a lot more companies because the deadline is in to this um well then we need infrastructure expires May 31st so we have May 31st now and get it in we are in the m ending of March we have to make a over a half a million dollar purchase before the deadline why is this coming to the board now and not before uh we didn't know about it until December when the Cisco announced that the our current Hardware is coming to end a life but if you did know about it in December why didn't you bring it to the superintendent and assistant superintendent um um bring it to the attention sooner so we possibly could have still had time to do some bid Z I brought a I got a quote for February would you be able to um provide us what what this purchase entails uh entails replacing an existing uh appliance that has five servers and that's running 69 virtual servers thank you so you said five servers that will be covering our entire School District I'm not technology person I'm just a a logical thinker so my question is is that the company that you selected and we have to spend over half a million dollars how long would this um maybe I do not know if the question make any sense a year purchase is it yeah is it an annual purchase or is it a license for a certain length of time it's a 5 years you seem like you're not sure is it or is it not uh I'm not sure of the details but uh the hardware normally lasts like six to seven years and then there's also licensing involved for the software so this amount is for five years or each year is a different amount or it's the same for the five years okay maybe I rearrange it do you have to pay do we have to pay more money within the five years or no this is the amount right here uh we we're going to have to pay more for other services involved with the installing other services I'm sorry for cutting you off other services like what uh installation and maintenance okay so what is this in detail being are we paying this much money what is that in detail that we paying this much money for I thought with this large amount of money everything would be included it's not no no so what is included the actual hardware and uh licensing for 5 years so this is the actual setup fee and then we'll be paying for an addition um monthly or yearly maintenancing no we sure um the the we had asked these questions um about 300 to 350,000 of it is for uh the hardware the actual servers that are going to be going um onto our property 200 you know I I want to say 250 275 only because there's we coded a little bit differently than than so it is um for I believe it's a three-year um uh I want to say service plan but you know providing for uh all of that what Bo was also speaking about was that there are going to be additional cost for migration of the um software that we have on our current servers over to um to the new ones in regards to going out to bid we had asked that as well we are a Cisco District um you know many of our our programs are running off of Cisco so we wouldn't necessarily be able to go with a different um software you know and I'm sure you guys know with the technology um it's you know we're if we are going to eventually look at going away from Cisco it would be something that would have to be you know planned for like five years from now because we would have certain systems that need to come off the hardware should last we spoke about this from any you know 7 years to 10 years so um that portion of it should not uh be an issue we did speak about the possibility of you know I think it's I think it was three years and then what we had done previously which was I think Renew on a year-to-year basis um you know uh for for this uh like I said for this software piece thank you thank you very much sir we really I we just wanted to to get a better understanding I do apologize if we put you on the spot like this but technology I'm sure all of us technology is um something that I'm sure most of us are still learning about but but wait I just have one little concern that um and I am sorry if you are put on the spot but when you have the responsibility that you have I do expect for us to get a more time if you found something out like this in December I know there's a course Associated this should be coming up sooner than later because now we're put up against the wall to make a decision that we have to not take lightly and we have to make a decision because now we're in urgency and I hate being an urgency I would like the respect to be put if it h if you knew something was happening in December tell the people that you have to tell the people what's going on so we can be better informed and we can be better prepared to make a better decision I don't like to be put on the wall and make a decision last minute thank you I just want to know how how how the process will take place in the sense that would it be done during spring break or or would it be done because if you changing hardware and software then students canot work yeah so how how how would it TR how would the replacement take place so we we um uh spoke with them today and we informed them that it will have to be done after school hours so there's no disruption to any components of our server it's not just um it's all of our Hardware so it's our telephones it's it's anything that's um connected to a digital world so um in a nutshell the hardware is expiring and needs to be replaced and so um we we want to make sure that it's all up and running as the deadline is March um I'm sorry May 31st but we do have State Testing so um starting May 1st so the goal is to make sure everything is in place prior to May 1st will we have assistance from The Cisco Tex as well that's yes that's what we're in communication with thank you any other questions on the finance report I'm just we absolutely need this correct yes right we absolutely need this so I know understand we got kids that's testing would this interfere with them being tested because being that everything you know it's not going to work right away so will this work for them to do what they have to do we uh again we had spoken about this the the testing is internet based um so what we're talking about here is really our Network our system and it's not you know not the connectivity rather the the programs that we have running on our Network as as uh Mrs Perkin spoke about you know the things like the phone and and and uh things like that so we won't I guess the key is is that this is not going to affect internet access which is what um which is how the testing is done now it's just basically logging in there's nothing that we're downloading onto our system and then being shared out that way okay no problem thank you okay but if that was the case then why did we have trouble trouble with testing that would be a different issue yeah any other discussion on finance um I just have a suggestion regarding Finance I I I have um you know you I want to thank you for the amazing report you gave us on Tuesday regarding our preliminary budget and for the people of Lyndon I am um even if it's a preliminary budget I want to say that it looks like our our real estate taxes situation looks pretty good and I'm happy about that but my only concern is is that we When I Look to the budget as I mentioned earlier is that we do not have um any grants and and I I I know that the city has a comp that they use in order to write grants so I would really like us to use assured services so we could start doing some grant writing with the city another thing that um that that so please look at see if we could look at the city and see if we could have shared services so we could get focus and getting more grants for districts the more grants we get is the more services we could provide for student another issue that really is a pet PE of mine you know I have worked all my life in for-profit so I still cannot process not for profit because most of my career has been in for-profit and I look at companies like apple Cisco all those big companies out there that we of the that they take a lot of money from the district and they're not giving back I think that these companies this is my opinion okay that we should find a way to get a good scholarship fund going again you know scholarships is my baby right we should have a good scholarship fund going where all these vendors that we are spending money with should be giving money back to our school system so we could have a robust scholarship um a a scholarship program where we could be getting good money for students to help with scholarships I agree do you got what what are your thoughts on that I agree I agree you know I I Envision um we have all these schools and you drive by Lyndon um high school and the the the it's it's empty in the walls I I Envision we have a big te television donated by Apple that we could use on the walls itself you know have you go to some of those schools and they have big screens on the wall just as big as the Tiger Stadium and they use it for advertising and different things we need to find ways to raise money when the board have to go out and like board members have to go out and try to ask businesses for or different people to contribute to to a an event at Disney World where it help our students and we have all these vendors out there to me I think that we need to do a better job raising money for our students not only for scholarships but for different activities another thing I would like to see happen is I would like us to have a better partnership with lynon local businesses where we could literally have have opportunities to reach out to some of our our our local companies in the city to see if we could also help with providing grants or investing in our students future for scholarships and different events if stuff like that is possible is Mr Mr Garcia I know that is it possible for us to be doing stuff like that is it legal well you can ask people to donate to fundraising causes just like you could ask anybody else what you can't do is condition um a contract on them get giving to your charitable cause um you you know you there cannot be an expectation that in order for them to to get business with the this the board or because they have business with the board that they should also be giving um donations I mean I think the vendors would would tell you that they provide us you do pay them right if you know any vendor that we use we pay money but they also provide a service to you um so again you can you can ask them to contribute certainly nothing wrong with that just be careful of saying that they should or that there's any sort of expectation that they're going to do anything um just because they have a contract with the board that that I think would would be something that I would strongly advise you against and and I don't think you're saying that but I just I just want to be clear because sometimes people people who people who have an agenda could twist things and take it out of context um so I just wanted to be clear on that yeah but in a situation like that is it done through a 501c3 or could it be done just through regular fundraising I don't I have to have a better idea as to what exactly you want to do so we could talk about it offline yes okay and uh and we can make sure that we that we you know we give you the proper advice you can set the proper structure to do that okay so we need to look at ways to raise money for students or students could be involved in more extracurricular activities that will you know we have to take a holistic approach to develop in our students okay that's all I have to say thank you um rooll call Mr Dela Cruz yes Miss Peno yes Miss Thomas yes Miss uliss yes Dr berghammer yes now we move to uh buildings grounds and securities the buildings grounds and security committee app recommendation of the superintendent of schools and The Business administrative board secretary present the following motions to the Lyon board of education for approval Mo um motions one through number eight looking for second second roll call well any discussion one last discussion I saw you mentioned today about the graduation all right the graduation is going to be held again right in Tiger stadium right um and of course course we going to have to have a what is it called if it rains weather plan yes inclin weather God I hope it doesn't we all believe that too you have any question any other questions no no roll call Mr Del Cruz yes Miss Peno yes Miss Thomas yes Miss uliss yes Dr Burham yes moving on to planning and policy the planning and policy committee upon a recommendation of the superintendent of schools presents the following motion to the Lyon board of education for approval items one and two I respectfully ask for a second second no I if I may say something regarding the opioid situation um with the with the first reading are we going to make the revision in the first reading to include additional people within the building to be trained on and and well that's what it says in the regulation so then so the policy um will allow us to now explore getting more people all right so we would be able to like train principles yes and other people to be able to help okay good any other [Applause] questions should we wait for Sam since we only have four now yeah you have to okay yes do we have to wait one moment please or you could start it we can just roll call Miss Pino few seconds Miss Thomas yes Miss youis yes Dr berghammer yes and here he comes and apologize now that better come on at this time we're going to move on to comments from the public members of the public Desiring to make a public comment may come forward at this time for those watching online if you wish to make a comment or ask a question please utilize the raise your hand feature on the online meeting platform please begin your comments by stating your name and address individuals are invited to speak on one Topic at a time and no individual will speak more than once until all individuals so Desiring have spoken once the public is reminded that to ensure the efficient and orderly operations of the meeting members of the public will be limited to speaking on items for 3 minutes Craig H 120 Donaldson place first of all i' like to donate a set of books children's s books to the school that's number one number two last month I talked to different people about the wonderful women on our board and I know the staff they must have dresses that are sitting in closets not being used it might be a great idea to take some of these unused gowns or dresses out of their closets and donate them so that people that cannot afford prom dresses to use these nice dresses for de PR I believe that's all I have at this point but I'd like to bring up the set of books thank you thank you thank you thank you very much hi Donna Hernandez 133 Princeton Road um just a question um the Personnel it was asked to approve items 1 through 30 but there's 29 on here was something [Applause] added oh 1 through [Music] 29 what was removed wasn't a um a number it was just removed from item three so there wasn't anything additional just one through 29 um as you you know as we're talking about graduation um if we have to do it indoors I know everybody's been working on trying to find an indoor facility um but if it is in our high school and I think I brought this up last year we've had um cops there and we've had our security and when it was time for the students to walk up to get their diplomas I don't know if you've noticed but the parents got up and started standing in front of everybody that were sitting on the bleachers and they were blocking their way of seeing their child um it was asked for them to move and these parents just looked at them with nasty looks um they were blocking the way to the students going to the restroom and students W they weren't letting the students go back to their seats um I was sitting at the End by the you know and I was asking people can you please let these students go back to sit in their seats they looked rolled their eyes and continued to not let them go so if we're paying people to be there for security can we maybe ask them to remove these people and have them sit down um I know it does get very crowded in there you know we you know maybe people are standing but not try not to block the way um cuz I mean it was very rude to the students and to the parents that you know sitting on the bottom bleacher they had no they couldn't see anything you know so that's just something I wanted to bring up again thank you thank you let's just hope we don't have that situation next year and we could do it in the Tiger Stadium but we will have it good sorry I can't just too short I keep trying to grow and it's not happening good evening Claudia Dolan 1309 Thomas AB lynon Education Association vice president and instructional mathematics coach at schools 5 and 10 just wanted to take a moment to say happy Ramadan um and acknowledge all of those that celebrate as we look ahead to the end of Ramadan Eid in the middle of April just want to talk about how honored I am to be a a staff member in a district that um acknowledges religions and make sure that we embed that into the calendar and I look forward to what's to come for upcoming years I also want to take a moment to acknowledge teachers and support staff members who have been working tirelessly to create a safe space for their students during this time especially those students that are fasting um I know that that is not always easy to make those accommodations and I appreciate those that are doing that I actually had the opportunity to learn a lot about Ramadan while we were virtual and a student of mine was actively fasting and he said that the best part of being virtual was that he had the chance to log off and go pray with his family um and I thought that that was really special so I I keep that in mind throughout these days that as these students are actively fasting maybe they're losing out on some of their prayer time in their prayer space and how secred that is to them and so I just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge that have a great night thank you good evening my name is Sheree Holmes and I'm a youth um Ministry leader at Morning Star Community Christian Center at 109 Chandler Avenue and being here tonight was um important to me because I wanted to know what you guys had going on with the um Youth and what we could do to contribute to the um School District as a youth ministry and one of the things we do offer is a financial literacy program and we do um have a scholarship program so if there's anything that we can do to help you all get these scholarships get your kids prepared um to apply for scholarships we are more than willing to do that so reach out to us and we will definitely help you and I will be back next month with the young man that is running our um financial literacy program so he can give you some more details in depth okay so let us know if there's something that we can do okay thank you you see we got a partner already right thank you for wanting to partnership with this lynon board of education we appreciate you anyone else someone's online someone someone's online one moment please br good evening everybody rob Mel 18 Trinity Place Monclair New Jersey uh LHS social studies teacher proud Lea president uh as spring has snuck up on us I wanted to take a moment to highlight some of the wonderful things that our members across the district have been putting on for our students right we're talking about building Partnerships and building relationships but what I I don't want us to lose sight of is the fact that the strongest partnership that a school district can have is with its staff members right right we offer so many different types of programs these programs the programs that I'm about to speak on were predominantly funded by njaa Grant funds owered by lyen EA member effort they help to build our students in an incredibly holistic way right the goal is to help build well-rounded students at school's 89 one of our members established a monthly book club at the Middle School's a financial literacy program help to teach our students the value of their money next week at the high school some of our staff are holding a cultural celebration we're calling the Rice Festival to honor all of the different cultures at our school that use rice in their diets every day culture and food are such a big deal these programs help to broaden our students Horizons and help them explore parts of the world that they might not otherwise learn about to Dr Berg Hammer's goal of building a scholarship archive and a scholarship um knowledge base for our students and families at at the high school just last night our counseling department held a scholarship night for seniors a college application process night for all other LHS families these types of programs demonstrate the Ingenuity and thoughtfulness and care that our members are bringing to help grow our students every single day if we want to help our students become as well-rounded as possible I need to urge us not to lose sight of the relationship of the partnership between the school district and its staff we only have to tap the resource that is our dedicated staff the folks who are showing up day in and day out who have spent months years decades committed to our students don't forget about that partnership too thank you thank you thank you someone's online right yes can we have the personal evening can you hear me yes my name is C Hawkins Reed I reside at 730 Jackson Avenue um I would like a bit of assistance for uh one of my children who was a sophmore she's been sitting in a Spanish class that has not had um a teacher that can teach the content for quite some time during this markting period I understand the teacher is out ill and the sub is not providing any work but before I go any further let me commend the principal for getting back to me as soon as I emailed vice principal Riva the principal called me the very next day and then had Miss migueles I'm I hope I'm saying her name correct had her contact me and basically what they both explained to me was that the body in the room is not trained to teach the content I understand how subs work because I've been an educator for over 20 years myself however I take issue with the fact that my daughter's been sitting in a class which is one of her strongest subjects in which she's an a student and all she will be offered is a p for passing now we are on a structured plan of having our goal met of attending college and we don't want a p i find that unacceptable when this is one of her strongest subjects so miss Miguel's uh situ um reason was um I'm sorry the way she explained it was that they will put the sub in touch with the other Spanish teacher to hopefully teach some content but it's almost the end of the markting period so as a board how can you help my daughter and me as a parent ensure that my daughter is learning every day in Spanish class instead of sitting in a study hall thank you for providing that information um what we've done um to help mitigate the teacher shortage is um we're looking at qualified substitutes and we have teachers who will um Step Up and provide the lesson plans for the substitutes to ensure that instruction is being carried out so I will be connecting with um Miss migelis who is one of our supervisors who you spoke with as well as Mr Co um to learn a little bit more about that to ensure that that takes place in the classroom okay and also I have a set of twins so the other daughter well both of them are in a SAT prep class where the math teacher has been out and has um been assigning assign given assignments from Khan Academy but not giving any strategies on how to uh effectively take the SAT uh text language arts yes math no so what can be done about that also that that's going to have the same type of um strategy we have our math supervisor that I'll be speaking with um and that's how we we have to we have to have the the building administrator and the supervisor of the content area um we come together to establish a plan and to learn more and then um finally is uh get a solution to the problem thank you I I look forward to your attention in this matter you're welcome thank you there anyone else online Mrs is there any any way I know that us we don't have is there any any other options we could use so that we could get more qualified teachers I know we we we doing so much as it is we have changed our advertising we have gone to all the different um job fears that reflect the demographic of or population um we are doing so much what else can we do in order to get more teachers in our classroom do you guys Mrs Miss Miss flis do you have any suggestion I know we were thinking about going if we had to go out of the country to get teachers but the question is if they're not certified what are they if they're certified in another country could they actually come to America and teach they can't right can't come here to teach well um that is correct so a few additional things that we are exploring how to again at the teacher shortage is looking at several models um and yes there are some models out there where um districts Across the Nation are partnering with out of the country districts and organizations to bring in certified Educators into their um their system so uh we are beginning that process we're also looking at um looking at our current staff I think one of the best things that we have about our Lyon district is we um encourage growth and to build up our teacher capacity through our support staff our AIDS and our Paras to um to to join on to the teacher Force so we are excited that a lot of um our hires are coming from that pool but we we do want to increase that as well um we had a a meeting with an organization today to address um the programming that they offer to ensure that we can cover a course that we have on our books um because right now again back to the teacher shortage and and specialization for certifications so we're in the we're exploring it in in the midst of as you stated what we're doing increasing our presence at job fairs increasing our presence on online platforms um and and the Word of Mouth from our staff and our community um so we're actively pursuing this charge because this is um a a concern Across the Nation and and we all know that um everything's competitive right now so we're also looking at that thank you thank you very much any other comments sure signing bonuses for teachers going to colleges and things like that well yes we have we have tried every in other states as well everything okay you see this problem is not just local this problem is Nationwide wide where almost every district is suffering the same problem we have with teacher shortage and we are actually you know when the parents spoke just now we here we know it and we as I said we were even thinking of if we could get teachers from out of the country we have been trying everything to see if we could you know okay thank you make it work but we thank you very much for your concern and your recommendation but if you have anything that you think that you could share I would welcome you to call the superintendent and and talk with her about your suggestions to to get us more teachers in the classrooms certified teachers yes there aren't any other comments we're going to move on to new and unfinished business don't have anything I think we've talked about a lot of the new and unfinished business the shared service with the city for the grant writer raising money for student Partnerships um and donating dresses to students so I think we're good everyone okay now we're going to move on to board member comments would any board member like to make a comment let me mine is going to be quick and short today my condolences goes out to the families of Miss Charlotte gusler even though I didn't know her I do thank you for your service and thank you for the lifetime that you address over here at Lyon for being dedicated teacher thank you and sorry to the fam and Mr Dr tomasic the short time that I got to know him was a very good short time that he gave a lasting memory cuz he did turn this around mhm when he came aboard he started turning this around and we felt that change immediately and that is a man that he left us he looked good and he never showed if he was suffering y That's a lasting memory also cuz he's always putting himself before anybody else and to know how quickly when he left us went to Freehold and how quickly he just turned for the worsest even when he was talking to us still after he left he didn't show that he was hurting so he was a strong man and that type of leadership was something that is lasting here in Lyon I got to thank him thank him for his short time with us but long time with us and Miss Perkins filled those shoes up pretty quick also cuz that was a lot to fill up and the leadership I think he left he left the lasting impression on M Perkins also so moving forward there's things that even though we lost him he will always be here he will always be here because we will probably always talk about him for the next few years that we're still here and they will probably still speak about him after we leave because as long as Miss Perkins is in the home she's always going to have a piece of Rocco there and the staff that work with Roo they'll always have a peace and good memories that they'll have to speak about him so may he rest in peace and may his family find the peace and all the good that he did for all of us thank you thank you I concur with you Sam and Dr B so thank you both for your comments this evening at this time I'd like to make a motion to adjourn tonight's meeting second second roll call Mr Dela Cruz yes Miss Pino yes Miss Thomas yes Miss uliss yes and Dr Burham yes thank you have a good night everyone everyone good night [Music] [Music]