##VIDEO ID:tlBde83q4uA## meeting of the MAA board of education is open to members of the public to be physically present members of the public that attend will be asked to follow the same procedures as all other visitors to our schools those procedures can be found on the agenda page of our website Additionally the board meeting will be live streamed for viewing purposes only anyone wishing to view the meeting May do so via Zoom the webinar ID for this meeting is 883 7923 4330 and the required password is 539 416 all right I call this meeting to order uh roll call please Mr GL Mr kisari here M Jansen here Mr copin here M davero here Mr cila here Mr Denise here Mr Gallow here Mr use here Dr Moran here adequate notice of agenda of this meeting has been provided to the Ridgewood news and the record stating that the m board of education will meet on November 13th 202 four in the administrative offices 60 Ridge Road MAA New Jersey copy was filed with the Township Clerk salute to the flag Mr Gallow would you leave us please to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liti for um okay we are going to move up item 10 our student representative report because we do have quite a lengthy um executive session in the beginning this evening so if you'd like the floor our student representative then you don't have to wait for us to return okay thank you um so all of our sports are officially over everybody had a funing good season boys end record of 13 and S boys football had a record of 3 and five girls soccer had a record of 137 and one and girls volleyball was six and 17 the fall play Get Smart run by Mr n and the drama club will be previewed for the senior citizens on Wednesday November 20th at 400 p.m. Thursday November 21st at 7:30 Friday uh the 22nd at 7:30 and Saturday the 23rd at 2 and 7:30 play was designed by the design Collective you can buy your tickets at t. ti.com also on their website and then the SGA installation ceremony will be on Wednesday November 27th to induct all SGA members and last week students in Miss Bo's AP government and politics class helped run the polls on Election Day um we just finished the first academic marking period and started the second one on Monday Habitat for Humanity goes to the elementary school and helps students with their homework every Tuesday for a homework club and also habitat volunteered with ma R youth volleyball and access for all to help R volleyball night and finally students from band Qui participate in a commemoration on Veterans Day great thank you very much all right now I need a motion to recess to Executive session Mr DVA second by Mr Copan uh and we will be back shortly about 20 minutes um or so my notes policy oh did you get them I saw the email see the hyperlink in there things I still can't get no um we Secret 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 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 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 e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e your position in the group if you're here as an individual please give us your name and address this section of public participation will be limited to 15 minutes all right I need a motion to open the meeting to the public Mr Gallow second by Mr karski we are open to the public come on Linda seeing no one coming forth motion to close the meeting to the public Mr kisari second by Mr Hughes thank you all right we have had our MAA student representative report on earlier so Dr Doro the floor is yours our superintendent report this evening I'm I'm worried because I don't want Mr Dila to miss any of the great things I'm about to say um let's start off with yet again a reminder about the Strategic plan um I know there was a little bit of a snafu last week with the date it has been corrected and I apologize for the uh mistake it is definitely Monday December 16th it'll take place at Joyce Kilmer school from 6:00 to 7: we we will be sending out reminders with the correct date uh to the community um in the coming in the coming days um this is something that we spoke about at the El the at the elementary level just as a reminder um thank you to Mr Gallow for connecting us to Violet and Nea which is MAA environmental volunteer organization who has um a farm up on campg um and they're a great great group of individuals that do wonderful work with our community and even outside of our community so our elementary students uh had the opportunity to go there on a field trip um our third graders from across all the different schools the great part about it was it was a cross School field trip that multiple schools went together which is a nice opportunity for them to socialize and learn together uh another um opportunity and I'm sorry I didn't start this way Violet partnered with us to get a $100,000 Grant um and part of the grant was education for our elementary students and the second part of our grant which is a multiple year Grant was for them to partner with the high school and give eight students an internship experience over the summer that internship experience would allow the students to not just maintain the school Gardens but to learn the farming system inside side and out the obviously the agricultural side but also the business side of of U of farming so we're very excited Mr uh Pascal and his team already have their feelers out to the students to see if there's interest and it's it's our hope that next year in the fall we'll be welcoming Violet and her team um to the celebration of all the organizations that support our internship and externship program so I'll have more information to come back to all of you and hopefully tell that we filled all of the spots and we have a waiting list for our internships and externships so quick question is there you know maybe the possibility of a partnership to revitalize our the Dome behind the high school that's a great question right now at this point we're doing the elementary um the elementary Gardens and connect to the curriculum but we did talk to her about the greenhouse so it's our hope that phase two which is next year they'll start working on the greenhouse that's at the high school so but yes that was definitely a talking point when we spoke to her about the opportunity that that it creates for our students and also what where the current status of it is even in the me extra's it for what you do yeah it's a great get it going and they've connected with pump ton as well so that the guard provide pump ton so I we're still in the beginning stages of it but those ideas are definitely things that we we will bring to them um Violet's open to any and all ideas the challenge that we have that she has is the staff the lack of she doesn't have a huge staff and then they have obligations there but everything that we say she's like let me see what I can do and she always comes back with ideas so we'll definitely POS those ideas to heart um our next slide um as we all know there was a very important day on Monday which is uh which is that oh this is the musical I'm sorry I'm sorry um the it was very important day on Monday which was Veterans Day um it was uh celebrated more importantly honored by a number of the different schools I'm happy to report that our high school um marching band and choir performed at the township Veterans Day celebration so I just want to thank both of those organizations they are constantly uh doing everything they can to get get their skills and adjust their ability out into the community um and and even Beyond so we are very blessed to see um or experience and enjoy the performers that we have in Mawa so thank you very much for all of them to take part in such an important um event Betsy Ross a Jobo Betsy Ross does a really nice job for flag day as well that they if anyone has not I know that we sent you guys the events if you have not taken part in Betsy Ross Flag Day it's a really beautiful ceremony that they invite veterans and the students do different performances and probably the coolest part is when the students go up and they salute the veterans and shake their hands it's I mean they've had veterans back from World War II and um it's it's a really special special day okay as we continue with our performers our County Chorus results eight ma high school students audition for County courts and six were accepted there are SE uh there are seniors Michael burow Colin mman sophomores Daniel Fernandez Siri Lee and aani sing and freshman Alina Galina special recognition goes to Colin Mossman who placed second among the low base in the county five M High School singers in uh Mrs morning um class group organization also traveled to Atlantic City for 3 Days of an Allstate Chorus rehearsal culminating in a concert at Boardwalk Hall so congratulations to all of our singers and they repeat that concert I think this Sunday at NJ that is correct I like this like a team thing I like this this is nice last but not least I don't want to go into too much detail because our stud representative did such a wonderful job is uh yet again our performing Arch is absolutely Stellar here in MAA I urge all of you if you can to attend one if not all of the performances at MAA High School get smart um which will be taking place November 21st to the 23rd and that is all oh my last thing it's a right in it's a right in we don't have a picture for it we should have we did take pictures but it's on the ma high school it's it is on Instagram so a little plug for our social media accounts um Dr fair and I uh were fortunate enough to be invited over to Deca preparation so on January 14th our Deca Club will be competing at rabo college now as a Deca novice or civilian if you will um I I learned so much about what this experience really entails and the challenge that it poses to our students and M Torino and M Ferguson do a wonderful job preparing the students I was just told we have over 90 students in the DECA club uh we uh we worked with all 90 students that they came in they did their pitch for us and it was so great to hear what they were able to do so if anyone doesn't know about Deca they're given a challenge they have 10 minutes to prepare and then they have to pitch it on the fly on the fly to to to whoever is there to evaluate them which God bless them they do such a wonderful job and it was great to see our kids be able to tackle this Challenge and present with such Poise but more importantly um Miss Ferguson and Miss Torino asked us to give them really honest feedback which we did and they were very receptive and appreciative of the feedback that we gave so I I'm really I'm really excited about how they're going to do on January 14th needless to say of the results what a wonderful experience and skill for them to be able to have um not only here at the high school but to take with them after they leave us so um best of luck to our Deca team and thank you so much to miss Torino and Miss Ferguson for all they do to prepare over 90 students for that competition all right thank you Dr Doro um let's see do we have a um business administrator report this evening Mr lamb just uh I've been in uh communication with uh Mr Gallow our finance and Facilities chair about meetings with our engineer land Associates and our auditoria to go over our facilities report our financial audit bu next year so we'll have those dates finalized within the next couple of days great thank you very much much um Dr Fair your report this evening with with pictures I'm assuming or videos yes here we are so uh we have some great sports highlights from Mawa High School uh our girl soccer soccer team were County and state tournaments uh quarterfinalists our boys soccer team earn uh state tournament quarterfinalist and the sportsmanship award prci for the Patriot division and our girls tennis um Team participated um and in the state tournament and were semifinals also uh congratulations to uh Preston Duffy who was selected as the super Football Conference young man of the year team recipient and um coach Schmidt who was honored in The Patriot division as girls tennis coach of the year congratulations um to both of our under there Joyce Kilmer you'll see 17 smiling faces on the screen um last week each class at JK identified based on teacher recommendation students of the month based on the school's three Rs which are uh protect respect self respect others and respect environment so congratulations to the 17 students honored this month is everyone here uh familiar with grateful G at GW no okay all right well uh you'll hear more about uh I know I wish I could show the video um Grace bulgary is a turkey character who visits GW periodically and encourages students and staff to express their appreciation grateful Gary has been encouraging students to express being than through turkey grams uh over the last week turkey grams are special messages written to peers and staff explaining why they're grateful for them um turkey gram messages are read throughout school days by grateful Gary himself over the school loudspeaker and shared by Mr Hagopian during uh his morning meetings and to start off the month grateful Gary himself wrote his first turkey gr to the students of GW I'm not going to use the I can't I can't even replicate it you'll see it on the GW Instagram page soon enough dear GW students I'm thankful for you because you make our school a special place by being kind working hard and helping each other I feel extra grateful to be a part of your school family so um welcome grateful Gary to the district let PE Meadows uh Spirit Squad is back um but the Spirit Squad was actually once the kindness crew so I'll give you a little history lesson here um so three years ago the kindness C made its appearance with the kindness crew uh the kindness crew has transformed into what L pimos refers to now as the Spirit Squad so the Spirit Squad is made up of third graders where every third grade class rotates for their opportunity to be the Spirit Squad as the oldest students in the building every so just last week the Spirit Squad welcomed staff and students as they entered the building on Spirit day the Spirit Squad visited classrooms with their kindest C throughout the building to give out treats and trinkets to staff and students the Spirit Squad welcomed all staff and students to the monthly Spirit assembly and the Spirit Squad handed out all kindness awards at their schoolwide Spirit assembly so um as you can see the the kids are really excited and um something really special in building uh the climate and the culture over in a great school building ma High School the college application process uh has begun uh with early action and early decision dates upon us we wanted to give a huge thank you and shout out to our guidance counselor team at the high school where they just celebrated the accomplishment of having 142 of our current seniors who have submitted a total of 1,6 11 application uh applications by the November 1st deadline um this is approximately 70% of our senior class so best of luck to our seniors during this application cycle and as we hear good news we'll find time to share with our board along the way what those highlights are yes that's the thing I know a lot of students are applying for 15 are they all Comm or no most are Comm yeah most are the girl who did 28 I don't think we're all common thearts most schools only accept like four or five kids into that program so she's just trying to C wait till you get to graduate school uh and lastly uh this upcoming Monday evening we have our first tber talk Roundtable of the school year um the the tber talk series was originally created as a result of our team looking to find new opportunities to provide information to our community about dist happenings and to hear from our stakeholders particularly from our strategic plans Community connections frame so we sent several email Communications out to our families so that all will be able to provide their perspective and to share information about their experience in District uh please just complete the RSVP uh so that we are aware of how to set up for Monday I don't know uh trist table have we no brick the answer is no we have not but we have a few days to figure it out this even thank you are you okay okay all right my report this evening um thank you Dr Fair excellent um I'm GNA just really step either I'm I'm G to find things to talk about because now seems like there's very little and and I'm to come with like media I'm stepping up my game we're going to have to do this all right um although the vote count um Mr lamb tells me remains unofficial why do we have to do you know because mail and ballots continue to be counted but we can congratulate our uh three incumbent board members uh who will be returning since it was an uncontested year um in January so um congratulations to there's some subtlety to the results Trista I'm just going by alphabetical order Trista daviero Michael Gallow and Ben his Meri so congratulations uh on your three-year terms uh that will resume in January and thank you thank you for coming back to serve uh on our board do appreciate it um I also offer congratulations to Jim Waki who was reelected as mayor um and uh and George irvan Michelle P and Dave May who are returning uh council members so again um yes uh I I think uh and I also just wanted to say happy Veterans Day and thank you to all um those who have served our country continue to serve our country uh and uh you know we definitely appreciate it and I know that um it it Mike was telling me the things that are that happen on veter it's nice that our kids um Mr Hughes have that Civic sense right absolutely so um it's good it's good to see the are that we participate in those activities in town all right uh Board of committee reports do we have any this evening Mr M daviero you need water now that I'm not choking on okay for the deeper talk on Monday I know that we kind of it took turns last year who was able to go who was not able to go um to avoid having a quum there I'd like those who have not been able to attend yet to be able to attend um I would like to be there but if there are other members of the board who did not get to go last year be able to experience it um please reach out and let me know so that you can have first it so to speak um and then if we have spots left over that it's open to anyone else who wants to go and just to differentiate between the two um so I know that we have theic and um Grand people's coming up also those are very specific right so we want the entire Community to come um it's a public Action meeting and we want to be able to discuss building the next next strategic plan so it's very specific topics that will be spoken about whereas for cheaper talks it's just as we continue to be transparent and open our doors and invite the community in it's just the opportunity to come in as community members as parents as business owners you do not have to have students in the district to be able to come we actually prefer those are people that we don't get to speak to at meetings like this or at strategic planings Etc um so we would like members of the community to just join us and have the opportunity to have oneon-one time with the central office team um with the board members who are there without you know all 13 of us staring at you at a board meeting um and I think it's it's really nice if you weren't able to attend last year it's just very casual um it's very laidback it's very you can come and talk about anything that's on your mind um I think at the beginning of the school year it's kind of nice as we're all kind of hitting our group now um to be able to come and um have that audience so please reach out and let me know if you definitely want to come um especially if you were not able to go last year and then from there I can kind of send out how many other spots are left for board members um and we will build the list from there and also please just spread the word there's a lot of information that comes out from the district especially this time of year I've had a lot of people approach me about strategic planning they definitely want to be there in December um we just want to make sure that we're taking the opportunity to utilize all the open round tables that we have and invite the community members in next week as well thank you very much make sure and be in attention I'm not sure do you have an idea of who hadn't gone okay so maybe you could speak to them as well um all right any other board committee reports Mr kizar the Board of Ed leads on to the Town Council oh thank you very much the township administrator um I happy report that the Town Council at where are we last week's meeting I don't even know where we are on the calendar anymore um passed a resolution regard to the shared service for school security finally retroactive to September 1st so I'm sure uh Mr lamb and I our official capacities will be discussing you know payments and whatnot so have we report that after a while it took a while to you know go through the council process as well as the attorney process so here we are that's thank you very much and that's a very positive report so thank you very much um Mr Mr Denise okay all right uh board member remarks Mr K Mari I'll go first I'd like to thank the voters of MAA um obviously there were a lot of choices for the three of us which again I you know is is great to run that way but you know as we've seen in the past democracy's best when more people participate and more voices are heard but the fact that they weren't this year is okay by me as well with that being said I would like to to congratulate Mike Gallow and sorry and Trista D Aro for their successful runs as well and I'm glad we're back together back together for another three years even if I was the low vote getter is that confirm so that's not confir it's confirmed unless I can find a whole bunch of ballots that s down to the to which you can't do election but no honestly it's great to be back for another three years I'm excited there's still a lot of work to do and I'm happy to be back here with Krist and my you so looking forward to it thank you thank you Mr kisari Mr DVA I just want to Echo those sentiments in in town we had uh nine people step up be on the on the ballot between you know our Board of Ed our mayor and counsel um you know congratulations to all nine for you know running some you know pretty pretty good um campaigns and just for throwing their names out there being part of the process um I'm glad to see that you know that Mike and Trista and Ben are back obviously and just so you know Dr morthy and I did consider not being here so that you to read the results we think about but that's at the next meeting when we get the official vote count we'll let you we we'll give you those honors Dr and I might have a thing that congratulations to the three of you guys and thank you for back out and being a part of the process and and doing what we're what we're all here for so thanks thank you um good all right uh let's move on to I'm sorry did did did someone else want to say something Mr Gallow I I just want to thank um the community for supporting the three of us again this year um it's it's I think that it is I mean thousands of people voted for us even though they didn't really have to which was quite nice them but it's also a sign I think that there's real trust in the community and support in the community for our school district it's welld deserved and as pointed out there is still work to do and I think that's the reason why the three of us continue to to want to serve um so I I'm very appreciative of all the support the community gave us and all the support the community gives to the school district and I look forward to another three years of uh figuring out who really won the election thank you thank you Mr Gall oh and a shout out to Prima for her polework activity oh yeah wow I didn't realize that so I didn't realize that that got shout out but thank you very much I I will tell a quick story and Mr kmari witnessed my pwork I showed up I was there at 6:15 in the morning and guess who was there on time well you were there 5:45 I was there at 5 anyway so I walked in the door after standing in line for 45 minutes already at 6:15 in the morning normally I'm in it out in 3 minutes 2 minutes and I will I I reached the door and then I see Prim sitting there next to an iPad and I was like oh this is what's wrong and it only got worse from there because District 3 didn't end up finishing up till I think 11:00 that night but but I will say and I said this to the coun me I was very proud to see people standing in line I don't like to see them standing in line you want it to be three minutes in and out but people got on the line at 7:59 they cut off the line and those people stayed there forever we were not getting off that line was counted it was great and I think other districts where Prima wasn't working also experienced some longer [Music] time somehow it comes back to me with the longer T I had nothing to do with the longer time but our location was consistently 2 hours plus it started from the first from from the beginning of people were in line I think at 5:30 yeah turn was like 68% yeah it was it was less than the last election even though the last election obviously was V by but again it was even 68% should be no lines there's no lines ever now there are the new voting process well they need more Mach they need a lot more machines they need you know Ian I I can do a whole and just to cover Prima thank you Mr G I heard from her super board worker that she was a Sterling pole worker oh thank you Bryson it was Bryson mcor yes was my super po who was also the super of super pole workers he oh is he he's the super of super brother he and uh and V actually graduated the same year yes it was look it was well run and and it's off the road can we also give a shout out to all the high school students more importantly was awesome to see we were company for a bunch of high school kids there it was great to see engaged we just for the record we would have had pictures we weren't allowed to take pictures they were there they were super engaged the whole you know for the hour and a half I waited they were there and they they were very very engaged it was awesome I worked with four Ramsey students over in Ramsey the Ramsey students did an okay job okay okay that should not be on the let's move on all right let's take 17 a the minutes from October 30th 2024 um all right I need a I need a motion on the floor Mr Hugh second by Miss Ting Janson Mr J can we have a roll call please sure Mr Kari M Jansen yes Mr copin yes M saero yes Mr DVA yes Mr Denise yes Mr G yes Mr yes Dr Mor yes let's take uh 18 new business a to Q do have a motion on the floor Mr kmari second by Mr Copan Mr lamb roll call please Mr karski yes M Jansen yes Mr copin yes M davano yes Mr vilva yes Mr Denise yes Mr Gallow Yes except on EA I'll be abstaining from check 117729 Mr use yes Dr yes all right let's take new business now Personnel 19 we have a to p uh Mr kmari second by Mr D Silva Mr lamb roll call please Mr kmari yes M Janson yes Mr cin yes and thank you to all the parent Vol Mr the Silva I want to call out 19 F that we're adding a assistent coach the wrestling team as a a alumni of the MAA wrestling program I'm glad to see that that program is is growing including I believe we have 14 girls came out well done this year yeah so we had you guys remember a couple weeks ago yeah a couple weeks ago we had a few of the the ladies on the wrestling team come to speak with us um and they've done a really good job recruiting and growing their ranks and uh I'm thrilled to see I'm glad to see that we're able to support them with another assistant that's fantastic so Zing yes thank you Mr Denise yes Mr Gallow yes Mr use yes Dr yes all right public questions or comment public participation at board meetings is in accordance with bylaw 0167 at this time members of the public may ask questions or make a comment on educational issues or school matters of community interest as a matter of fairness we asked to limit your questions to no more than one and your remarks to no longer than 3 minutes if you are here representing a group please identify yourself the group and your position in the group if you're here as an individual please give us your name and address um all right I need a motion to open the meeting to the public Mr dilva second by Mr Hugh all right we are officially open to the public seeing no one coming fourth at this time a motion to close the meeting to the public Mr Copan second by Miss Ting Jansen all right we do not require an executive session at the end so I need a motion to adjourn Mr Gallow and second by Mr Denise we are officially adjourned thank you very much thank you