##VIDEO ID:rk5FaIMT81A## spends enough time here good evening everyone the executive session of the Wayne Board of Education regular meeting of September 26 2024 was convened in the conference room of the Wayne Port of Education 50 Nellis Drive Wayne statement of compliance setting forth date time and location was read in accordance with the requirements of the open public meeting act a roll call was taken the meeting was recessed and now being reconvened Mr Moffet roll call oh I'm sorry please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance followed by a Moment of Silence I PL ALG to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you everyone please be seated Mr B Roll call Mr Bell yeah Mr Faber here Mr gardano here Mrs lry here Mr Paul here Mr pavlac here and Mrs regalo here Dr toak okay I just have a few quick announcements first of all I wanted to take a moment to thank our parents and also our staff members for creating a wonderful environment for for back to school night attendance at each event has been amazing parental support is an important part of every school district success and we appreciate so many parents coming out to learn more about what their children will be learning in school we have our last back to school night which is at Wayne Valley on October 1st a reminder to the community that a great Wayne tradition will play out on Saturday October 5th when Wayne Valley travels to Wayne Hills for their annual rivalry football game wear your orange shirts in support of Roco and his family also our Weekly Newsletter is a great way to stay connected to our schools and learn about the accomplishments of our students and staff our first new newsletter for this year will be distributed tomorrow and it's packed with great news about our school system and you can subscribe to receive the newsletter weekly by go logging on to our website uh just a quick update about after care at our last meeting a resident spoke about concerns about enrolling his child in the after Care Program which had reached its enrollment limit based on Staffing at the time of our last meeting there were 50 students who are on the waiting list for aftercare Happ to report that as of yesterday there were no students on the waiting list last but not least we're proud to recommend Dr Lauren kasmar to the board of ed to replace a valued longtime employee our assistant superintendent Donna Richman who will be retiring at the end of October Dr kasmar has a long and distinguished career as an educator and currently works as the Director of curriculum and grants for the hackin saac school district she served in this role for 9 years she started her career as a special education teacher a self-contained classroom in pram she went through a very rigorous interview process and emerged as our top candidate with board vet approval look forward to getting started with the transition plan that will help her enjoy a great start in the Wayne Township Public Schools and uh the last thing my Hib report I am reporting the following data related to harassment intimidation and bullying incidents in the Wayne Township Public School District there were two incidents of HIV investigated since my last report and neither of those cases were found to be actual HIV cases that concludes my report yes under T emergent human resources number four approval of appointment of District staff add to number six Lauren kasmar assistant superintendent there'll be a note that states subject to Employment contract approval by the state I'm Sorry by the pay County Executive County Superintendent moving on to number 10 approval of revised items will'll be removing item number 22 Kelly panita P Neda and lastly under X1 we are going to add an approval of settlement agreement and general relase that action reads as follows resolve that the Board of Education upon the recommendation of the superintendent hereby approves a settlement agreement and general release in the matter of civil action number 222-0114 s dw- JBC as attached by reference and further authorizes the board admin uh the board president and secretary to execute same on behalf of the board the business administrator and superintendent are authorized to take all further steps required by the terms of the settlement to further Implement same and that concludes the changes to tonight's agenda agenda items only residents are asked to State their names address and subject matter comments may be lied to 3 minutes per person members of the public who are discouraged from speaking negatively about an employee or a student the board Bears no responsibilities for comments made by the public comments regarding employees or students cannot be legally responded to tonight by the board other comments may be responded to tonight or at a subsequent meeting under old business do I have a mover move Mr Gano Mrs regoso anyone from the public wishing to speak on an agenda item seeing no one approach move to close Mr feber Mrs leandry committee reports Mr Jud danam okay today the transportation and Facilities committee met it was myself Mr Bill Mr pavlac uh Mr rain Mr skitzki and Mr maet um transportation reported in about the beginning of school first they working on agreements uh for transportation with Sussex Regional who uses coach buses for some of their trips um the state of the uh School openings went smoothly there were no vehicle related issues uh some students were late but this is an adjustment to the schedules at the beginning of the year there's always uh little snafus in getting things started so we are improving on those other than that it was a very safe opening which is extraordinarily important um by the end of October state inspections will be uh once again initiated on our buses but we've passing them recently we keep very good care of our buses um bus evacuations are scheduled for the month these are State regulated and state mandated um over on the facilities end we have the electrical upgrade for the day Center is just about done waiting on PSC and G um right before uh school we had an issue with Lafayette with the sewage system uh we wanted to mention that because our facilities people um really worked very hard to make sure that that uh material was a b um there was as best as that be abated there was a number of different issues um with the sewage system you know what we're talking about there um it is now was done just before the opening of school and everything is functioning there so tip of the hat to our maintenance department for doing that uh solar panel Agreements are in legal review our state uh drills for school are moving along you have to have them uh the first three weeks of school you have to have a certain amount of drills to kind of uh get the kids back into it running with it um pness we're working this week uh continuing or almost just by finish with the uh Roofing and skin on uh pness right now uh James fance restroom has been completed the rod Grant project for Wayne Hills High School's chimneys is starting soon the Ryerson security vestibule is completed other than a couple of punch list items we're very happy about that we have no news on the prek SDA Grant at this point and um we're getting a redistricting analysis uh somewhere around October 10th for the incoming issues with people uh with new students coming in or anticipated in the next few years and that is the facilities and transportation meeting any other committees reports all right do I have a mover for the agenda I'd like to move the entire agenda in one Mr Jano Mr batter show any comments discussion see roll call Mr Paul yes Mrs regalo yes Mr Bill yes Mr Faber yes Mr gardano yes Mrs leandry yes and Mr pavlac yes motion carries this portion of the meeting is open for Citizens for commment on any topic residents are asked to State their name address and subject matter comments may be limited to 5 minutes per person members of the public are discouraged from speaking negatively about an employee or a student board Bears no responsibility for comments made by the public comments regarding employees or students cannot be legally responded to by the board other comments may be responded to tonight or at a subsequent meeting under old business do I have a mover move second Mr J God bless you Mrs Regal thank you thanks CH I don't think that on ah thank you am I on now terrific thank you uh Jim freeswick 1212 summerh Hill Road um I moved to Wayne when I was 10 years old with my parents from the city of Clifton and I went through the Wayne Public School System Pines Lake school scholar kfax Wayne High School and then they built Wayne Hills and I went to Wayne Hills as a junior and a senior where I was the first president of the student council and a member of the first graduating class the class of 68 and I was on the 50th Anniversary uh committee to celebrate 50 years of Wayne Hills High School back in 2016 and uh they invited me to participate in the uh graduation ceremony that year year in 2017 which I did and I it was a wonderful ceremony and I've I've been in the habit of attending Wayne Hills graduation ceremonies over the last few years uh I I just tend to enjoy watching them and and listening to the speeches and seeing all the students graduate and I did attend the last one in June of this year and as usual I was impressed by by the graduation ceremon I thought it was a wonderful graduation ceremony I did notice that some students uh apparently Palestinian Arab student graduates at Wayne Hills were displaying Palestinian Flags I had no problem with that uh those students certainly have a right to freedom of speech no action was taken against them thank heaven that would have been ludicrous to to try to discipline those students for exercising their rights to free speech uh it wasn't done I'm glad it wasn't done and uh I noticed that at the um August uh Board of Education meeting there were some comments by some members of the public that were against the demonstrations of freedom of speech by the Palestinian Arabs uh students and I think the president president p said you were going to take some action the board was going to take some type of action formal action concerning graduation ceremonies uh I was just wondering when when you intend to do that and and what type of action you intend to take I did notice that policy 5460 was introduced at the August 22nd meeting and it was approved at the September 12th meeting and I read it and I did notice in that new revised policy uh that um a diploma will be mailed by the principal within two business days after the graduation ceremony to any student who has met all the state and local requirements for high school graduation and who does not have any outstanding obligations to the school district or any violations of behavioral behavioral expectations or the district's code of conduct policies up to and throughout the conclusion of the high school graduation ceremony so I was just curious as to whether or not the board was intending to adopt codes of conduct for students at graduation ceremonies because under this policy if they're violated H the board would not be sending them their High School School diplomas and I I would hope that any code of conduct would not include an abridgement or a denial of the student's freedom of speech at a graduation ceremony uh but I am curious to see what type of policy you're going to come up with and when you're going to come up with it because I think that was promised back at the uh August 22nd board meeting and finally I would like to um thank thank uh assistant superintendent rman for her service her long service to this this school district 21 years uh I'm appreciative I'm sure the public is appreciative of all of her hard work and dedication thank you sir anyone else from the public wishing to speak seeing no one approach move to close paper Mr J Dano um Mr Judo you have a retirement yes I do uh this one is for uh Miss Angela Carris M Angela Caris joined the Wayne Township Public Schools in January of 2015 as a long-term replacement school psychologist on the child study team after completing another long long-term assignment she made Wayne Township her permanent home throughout her time here she has been integral part of the George Washington Middle School Wayne Hills High School Wayne Valley high school and several summer child study teams Miss Caris has built a strong trusting relationships with her students and their families serving as a dedicated Advocate who consistently goes above and beyond to ensure students confidence and Success Through to graduation her colleagues including other school psychologists and child study team members have often turned to her for advice and resources as she embarks on her well-deserved retirement who wish her the best in her next chapter know will continue to involve helping others while she'd be greatly missed we are deeply grateful for the lasting impact she has made on the students of Wayne thank you Dr Tobak any comments um just in response to Mr fick's whatever yep very quickly you got the four okay so um so the policy revision that um Mr feswick referenced really is an opportunity for the board to evaluate any situation that might emerge during any of the graduation ceremonies so um what it would allow would be time for review and to then go ahead with you know taking whatever action if any that would be appropriate under the circumstances so the board already does have a policy and there are a set of rules that are provided to students regarding behavior during graduation um but again it would be hard to make a decision in the moment and so this allows the administration to ultimately take a step back make a determination about what would be an appropriate course of action depending on what occurs during a graduation ceremony or not thank you I would like to on behalf of the board welcome Mary Ferrari she'll be our new vice principal at Wayne Hills welcome and Lauren kasmar will be our new assistant superintendent welcome to Wayne coming to great place great administrative team and we're always looking for a new set eyes to look at everything a little bit different and see what we can do better thank you any old business new business motion to adjourn motion second Dano Mrs regoso good night everyone thank you