001Good evening. Welcome to the Camden City School District Board of Education May 26, 2026 Advisory Board meeting. It is 5:31 p.m. The meeting is now called to order. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. The New Jersey Open Public Meetings Act was enacted to ensure the public's right to receive advanced notice of and to attend meetings of public bodies where any business affecting their interests is discussed or act upon. In accordance with the New Jersey Open Public Meetings Act, adequate notice of this meeting has been published in the courier posted on the district's website at www.camdenscityschools.org displayed at the administrative offices filed with the city of Camden clerk and mailed to all individuals who requested notice in accordance with the law. Please be advised that this meeting is being recorded and will be broadcast
002on the district's YouTube channel at a future date. Roll call, please. Janette Alvarez, >> Gabriel Kamacho, >> present. >> Derek Galashaw, Wanda Garcia, >> present. >> Cameron Hudson, Danielle Jackson, Karen Merik, Namdi Nelson, >> present. Maria Perez >> present >> and one two three four okay hold on we will now have our student rep um okay are you east side okay east side hi and are you Elijah Okay. Elijah Vargas from East Side High. >> Good evening everyone. Um, my name is Elijah Vargas. I'm a senior at East Side and I just want to say that we had a successful prom. We want to thank Miss uh, Principal Vega, Mr. Shanklin, class advisors, and East Side supporters for having that successful prom. um facilities is working with the install installation of the air conditioning system.
003And I just want to bring up the uh the boys bathroom and the trailer and the building been out of uh out of service for for a while now and we need support in fixing those. And I also want to bring up um our graduation. They had said, I believe it was the district that said if it rains that we will graduate at Kinder High. And I just want to say that if we in our school, if I could get a survey out, ask people if we could graduate like somewhere else than Kinder High cuz a couple people was upset about it. And I just want to bring that up for tonight. Any board members have any responses to our student rep? So, I just want to say uh thank you Elijah for continuing to
004share. um you know I know the superintendent will look into those things and uh also follow up so that we can we can work together to find the best solution. Thank you. >> At this time I turn it over to the superintendent. >> Thank you. At this time we will begin our special presentations. Uh this month we have our mental health awareness month and this evening we're going to focus on a few different topic topics. So our May focus areas will be summer programs with Dr. Thompson NJ student learning assessment. Dr. Thompson will present that as well. Then we will review high school scheduling process and procedures uh with Dr. Dali. and then I will go over the CCSD education framework and uh proposed high school time change for next year, district highlights and then
005retirements. So, as we do with all of our board meetings, we're going to focus on these key topics and we're also going to share some amazing district highlights. Next slide. Oh, okay. We're we'll be with the slides in a moment. So, we'll continue. The presentation will be posted online so we have it available for everyone to see. We're having some technical difficulties as usually what happens with technology. Sometimes it doesn't work the way you expect it to work. Uh, so Dr. Thompson, I'll turn it over to you for summer school information. >> Don't press it. Okay. Good evening, everyone. Good evening. Um, as superintendent shared with you, I will be giving you some information about summer school programming. Um, I am very proud to share with you that we have several summer school programs that
006will be for our CCS uh D scholars. And I'll start with the first one. It's called extended school year program. It is a program that will run from July 6 through July 30th. Uh the days for programming will be Monday through Thursday and the time for the students will be 8:30 to 12:30 p.m. The locations for these for this program will be Octavius V Cattle Family School and they will serve preschool support preschool through 6th grade and the HB Wilson family school will do K through 12th grade with v with various programs. The point of contact person for this program is Deputy Landy. And just to give you a little bit of information about the program, each year we offer a comprehensive program to serve our students with disabilities. It's a great way to prevent
007the summer slide and ensure that our students maintain the skills they have throughout the school year and for the upcoming school year. All case managers will and should be at this point in communication with families regarding the extended school year program. Once again, the point of contact is Deputy Landy. The second program that the district offers is multilingual bilingual summer enrichment program. I'll say it again, multilingual bilingual summer enrichment program. Once again, the specifics for that is that it occurs July 6th through July 30th. The days are Monday through Thursday, but the time for the students starts at 8:30 and it ends at 12:30 p.m. The location for this program is at Dudley Family School, and it's for grades K to 5. This 4-week summer program will provide engaging standards, aligned instruction, and enrichment that
008both that promotes both language acquisition and content learning. The focus or the theme for this year is all about prehistoric pioneers. Students will dig, discover, and explore while building academic vocabulary, strengthening speaking and listening skills, improving reading comprehension, and developing writing skills. Third program that will be offered this summer is summer visual and performing arts. It's a smart studios program which means it's going to focus on integrating disciplines with core con core academic content and learning through creativity and performance. It is uh for students third through 8th grade. Third through 8th grade. It will also be at Dudley Family School. will be Monday through Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Once again, summer visual and performing arts through Smart Studios. We will also this year, as we've had before, a summer bridge program. It is
009a ninth grade orientation program and it is mandatory. I said mandatory for all 9th graders. It will be August 3rd through August 7th. Monday through Thursday and it will be 9 to 1:00 p.m. It will be held at both high schools, East Side High School as well as Camden High School. The summer bridge program for 9th grade students will consist of intensive transition sessions designed to help incoming freshman. As we know, it's a little challenging coming from a eighth grade setting to the ninth grade with such different expectations. Once again, it is to help incoming freshman's navigate the academic, social, and emotional challenges of high school. The program will provide foundation coursework, a lot of team building exercises, campus familiarization to boost confidence as well as engagement. Once again, mandatory. We also have credit recovery
010program. I am confident that we all share the belief that every child deserves a second chance and that's precisely what we are offering here at CCSD. We strongly advocate for middle and high school credit recovery programs. We recognize and recognizing them as essential lifelines for students encounter encountering academic obstacles through our personalized assistance and adaptable learning to for the need to fit the needs of our students. Our summit credit our summer credit programs enables us and our students to regain miss credits and a maximum of two classes. I'll say it again. Two classes. We're going to maintain their path to graduation and pave the way for promising futures. Information regarding credit recovery will be shared with parents by their school counselors, students, and it will be shared with students as well beginning in early June.
011Any questions or comments, please make sure you reach out to your child's school counselor. And I want to share with you also which is different. transportation is not offered for credit recovery. All right, transitioning over to um what our students have been doing for the last month and I want to give them a woohoo and a clap and you should too. They've been taking the New Jersey State Student Learning Assessment, which is called NGSLA, for the last four weeks. It's a lot of testing, a lot of commitment from our students to coming to school as well as our teachers. Um during the month of April and May from grades 3 to nine, I want to share with you that over 2,000 of our students, 2400 were taking the NJSLA. That's a lot of students. It's
012a lot of testing, a lot of monitoring. Uh for the grades of fifth, 8th, and 11th, it was over a thousand students taking the NJSLA. But this is the final week. So when you see your student, a scholar, Kansas City School District, please give them a woohoo, a thank you because testing is not easy, but it is required and mandatory. So without further ado, I'll pass it over to Dr. Dali to talk about high school scheduling. Good evening everyone. So there's been a lot of misinformation about scheduling and the process that we go about to get our students scheduled for high school courses. Um so it's a very tedious process. So once one school year starts, we are already preparing for the next school year and going through different processes to make sure that we're
013aligned with any new grad requirements or anything else that the DOE puts out. Um so if you can go to the next slide. This is just a basic understanding of what would happen as we go through the scheduling process. So meetings are held. We talk with the curriculum team, CTE teams. We have to either review, revise, remove or add courses each year. Course selection sheets are updated and remove um any outdated courses or any information. We also add new courses. Uh the course description guide um is revised to reflect all courses and program updates. Meetings are conducted with school counselors to review all the new courses, any program changes, and so they can have access to the new course selection sheets. The school counselors then meet with teaching staff to discuss any course recommendations and
014identify any students needing remedial courses. The school counselors also meet with the students to discuss their course selections for the upcoming school year. They review programs of study and they support any post-secary planning goals during that time. Our school counselors will also contact parents and guardians as needed to discuss school placement decisions or answer any questions regarding course selections. Um once the course selections are finalized, uh the school counselors then have to take all that information and upload it into Genesis, which is our student information system. Um once that's done and all the course selections are finalized, school counselors are then able to uh give the students a Genesis printout of the courses that they selected. So the students have a record right from the system of the classes that they selected or were recommended
015for. Uh the students will uh you know usually get those in early June, usually the first or second week. Um once that's all done and all the requests are in, that's how I build the master schedules and I build five master schedules because each high school needs its own. So that is all the children's and everybody you know their course requests all go into how I actually build a master schedule based off of how many sections we need. Um we have to take important consideration for special ed students because I actually have to schedule them first um because of all the legal components and how they have uh inclusion teachers and how I have to have co-e models in that situation any outlier courses which are our AP courses that we offer for our students
016and then pretty much the rest gets built back in after those things are done. Um if uh anything changes in the summer, a our school counselors will have to reach out because we'll find out if any students attended credit recovery or not. If they did and passed, then we move them on to a different course or change their course request uh based off of what that summer outcome is. And then uh students and parents are able to view their child's uh completed schedule, usually the last two weeks in August in the Genesis portal. And then schedules can be revised if necessary um prior to the first day of school. We do get some students uh and families that'll call in because the students change their mind on something. Um and then students receive uh any
017new students will receive a schedule um when they enter the district after sharing um some of their uh previous school information including report cards and transcripts. Next slide. These are the NJDOE graduate graduation requirements for New Jersey students. Our students need 20 credits or four years of English. They need three years or 15 credits of math. Algebra 1, geometry. Most of our students take algebra 2, but they can take additional courses that build upon algebra 1 and geometry. Social studies, they need three years or 15 credits. So, typically it's five credits in world history, fi five credits in US one, and five credits in US2. All of our students have to take personal financial literacy, which is a 2.5 credit or a semester course. Students need 15 credits over four years of health and PE.
0183.75 credits per year is what we typically do. Um, we do a 2.5 PE and a 2.5 health. Um, sometimes you'll see a 3.75 PE and a 1.25 25 health because it depends if it's marking period or seme semester based. So fully year courses are five, semester courses are 2.5 credits and um a marking period would be considered 1.25 credits in New Jersey. Uh our visual and performing arts, they have to take five credits or one year, one year of a world language, one year of a 21st century or CTE program. And then technology is uh mandated to be integrated throughout all courses in New Jersey. Next slide, please. These are some of the programs of study for each of the five high schools so everyone can get an idea of what is offered. So
019what you're seeing right now is uh BRIM. So BRIM's program of study uh they have three courses. They have a freshman course called dynamics of healthcare. In 10th grade, they take two semester courses, medical terminology and nutrition and well wellness. And then in 11th grade, they take anatomy and fizz. 12th grade, those programs listed below are optional. Students have to apply and be accepted into those programs. Currently, about 39% of the BRIM students are in those programs. So you could see this is the actual courses for BRIM that makes it specific to that school. So these are the three mandated courses. Um just so everyone knows dynamics of healthcare is a CTE course which is career technical ed. It falls under allied health pathways under New Jersey department of ed. Once the students take that
020one course they've met that 21st century career. the other courses they take um within that all become elective credits. Next here is Camden High School. As you can see, they have um multiple offerings of career and technical ed. So, we have uh construction trades, engineering, Cisco, esports, entrepreneurship, TV production, cosmetology, and JOTC. And as you can see, there are multiple years and a student can follow the pathway completely through. Um, again, in their first year, uh, as freshmen, you see a lot of the 2.5. It's because we're trying to expose the students to the different pathways because you're not always exposed and the students don't always know what they want to pick. So, this is some of the things that they can choose. They get to take two of those courses and figure out if
021that's the pathway that they'd like to continue with for the rest of high school. So, again, because it's a CTE, the first five credits counts towards the grad requirement. Everything else is an elective. Next, this is for big picture. Um, they offer an advisory seminar class each year that meets during home room. Well, will meet during home room next year. And then on Wednesdays, they do school to work um internships. So, they do that for each year. Um, and senior year they also take an intro to entrepreneurship course. Um, and again, the school to work internship and the advisory stuff will all count towards a CTE. And then after that, all the other courses are considered elective credit. Next, please. Oh, creative. Here is Creative Arts High School. These are the courses that they offer.
022Um, so a student would get into one of their pathways. Um, you'll see in their offerings, there's a combination of fine, visual, and performing arts and CTE programs. So, you can see how each um area builds over each year and how they can complete the pathway if they take the fine. Let's use I don't know we'll use um design fundamentals that is an falls under an art class. So that would meet the art requirement that five credit or one year and once they have that all other courses in that pathway are elective credit. Okay. Next here is Eastides. Um East Side also just like Hampton High has a large offering of CTE programs. Um they also have a mixture of uh fine visual and performing arts. Same situation. Um they're allowed their freshman year to
023take two courses that are each a semester based. So they can um have some exposure to their pathway. Um cosmetology and intro to teaching professions and JOTC um all tend to be fullyear. So the students if they're in that pathway they are supposed to maintain in that pathway um to get uh so we can have more completers in our CTE programs. Okay. Next we lose it. It's not up there but it's over here. Okay. So this would be a lot easier if you could see it. There we go. So what I did was I made an example of student schedules for the Camden High campus. So this one uh that was up in the upper leftand corner is a ninth grade student from Brim as an example. So an incoming ninth grader um would have
024a day and bday and we'd have uh home room and then first through fourth period blocks. Uh the highlighted course is the mandatory course for brim for freshmen which was the dynamic of healthcare. So it's highlighted it's gone. Um you can also see that uh we will be um allowing students to take classes throughout the campus. This is not new. We actually did this last school year in the 2425 school year and students uh really enjoyed taking classes and having access to the full course guide that we offer in the district. So it really made it much more helpful for students. they were able to get um more of their requirements that they needed and they could take a variety of courses. Um underneath that ninth grade one was a 10th grade uh creative arts
025student uh example and again a day, bday um that student is in the uh visual art track. So they would have their graphics course which would be their main course and then all the other grad requirement courses um that you'll see listed. So all your English, your math, your science, your social studies. Same thing uh with the BPLA student that would have been in the upper right hand corner uh for 11th grade. You will see that their uh school to work internship would be highlighted for Wednesdays and that they'd have advisory and seminar each day during home room. Um, but it also showed all the different courses they could take, whether it's part of their school or if it's an elective course with one of the other schools on the campus. And same thing for
026a example of a Camden High senior. Um, same variety of courses. Uh, that student to say they were in the cosmetology pathway that they had been in at all that was their fourth year. they would be a program completer and they would be in the the double block of that and then they could take additional courses because usually by senior year many of our students have met the bulk of their graduation requirements and begin taking um more electivebased or higher level AP uh courses to help uh look better on their transcript for college. Um some of our students will utilize option two and they'll go out to the workbased learning or things like that. Um there was also discussion to add back uh early senior release. So for our students who are working was there
027for a second. Thank you Sheena. Um and then the last thing is just the high school information. Um part of the misinformation is that uh everybody has a different curriculum uh in the high schools. That is not true. Uh all of our high school core classes utilize the same exact curriculum and our curriculum is aligned to the New Jersey student learning standards. Each individual school may have an extra pathway like we have with uh BRIM for example with the dynamics of healthcare but now students would also be able to choose that as an elective course but it would still maintain as the same exact curriculum. Uh, another thing most people don't realize is the difference between CTE courses that um the DOE recognizes as pathways um versus the fine visual and performing arts. So, our
028CTE pathways in the district are allied health which would fall under the courses offered at BRIM and some offered at Eastside, automotive, business entrepreneurship, Cisco and esports, CAD, construction trades, cosmetology, dance, engineering, fashion design, JOTC, teaching pathways, um theater has a little asterk because it actually falls under both categories. um TV and radio production and then the Rowan Early College, which is when our juniors and seniors actually go over to the Rowan uh campus in Camden at the Camden Academic Building and they take uh courses there. So, they're getting dual enrollment. They're enrolled with us and with Rowan and it's a free program and they get uh their courses that they take at Rowan um count not only five credits for us towards grad requirements, but they also get a three credit uh course on
029that transcript at Rowan. And since Rowan is a state public university, all those credits are transferable throughout New Jersey and most other colleges. Our students are earning upwards of 24 credits doing that program over two years and I know Mr. Levy and Miss Pratty have been working very hard uh to increase those courses and our students seem to really enjoy the program. Um, our fine visual and performing arts are our music classes, which includes band, instrumental, strings, vocal and any kind of music theory, performing art, which would be also theater like it is with CTE, and then visual arts is art history, ceramics, design fundamentals, drawing and painting, graphics, photography, and portfolio. So, those are the two areas I think that get confused easily when people are discussing courses. Um, but that is what I
030have for you. Um, hope that clears up some of the misinformation and some of the, uh, confusion surrounding scheduling. Um, and if anybody has any questions, uh, my email address can be found on just about every page of our website because I'm the district anti-bullying coordinator. So, if you have any questions, please email me. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Thompson and Dr. Dali. Next, we're going to talk about the high school start time for next year. Uh we conducted a survey uh of our community, and we want to just present some of the information for you this evening. The district received a total of 824 responses from students, parents, staff members, and community stakeholders. The majority of respondents were parents, guardians, followed by students and staff members, giving us a broad range of perspectives
031from across the school community. Overall, 54.1% of respondents supported moving the current high school start time from 9 to 8 a.m., while 36% opposed the change and 9.8% indicated they were undecided. Respondents identified several potential benefits associated with the proposed adjustment. Most common themes include better alignment with after school activities and athletics, improved consistency across school schedules, stronger coordination for families, earlier dismissal times for students. At the same time, the survey also highlighted important concerns that the district must also continue to address through planning and implementation. The most frequently uh raised concerns uh include the impact on student work schedules, transportation, logistics, and the need for additional information and communication and attendance or punctuality considerations. Now, one of the things that we are going to be bringing back next year is the ability for students
032to co-op uh in their 12th grade year. if they've been able to uh attain um enough credits uh to provide for an early release in their 12th grade year uh they will be afforded that option which then allows the students to go to work or do their after school activities at an earlier time. So we will be bringing co-op back as part of the process of listening to the concerns that were brought up. Uh we also reviewed both the support and concerns raised through the survey you know with our peer groups. Overall, based on the feedback we received, there's operational considerations and ongoing and planning discussions. The district will move forward with this change moving from 9:00 to 8:00 a.m. starting for the 26 27th school year. We will be sharing additional communication regarding transportation
033scheduling and implementation. Details will continue to be shared with families, students, and staff as we move forward with this transition. Next slide. Uh next I would like to provide you with an overview of the Camden City School District education framework. Uh this framework is also found on our school district website uh if you would like to review it in a different format, but this presentation will also be available. Next slide. Over the last several weeks, the district has gone through significant organizational changes which the community has been made aware of. Those changes were not made simply to restructure positions. They were made to build a more cohesive, aligned and accountable student focused system. Tonight I will walk you through the framework guiding that work moving forward. Next slide. This graphic here is also on our
034website. This kind of outlines the district's education framework in a very easyto read format. There are uh multiple aligned systems, five of them to be exact. It's powered by resources that come through our business office. It's driven by leadership and it's executed through systems that we will continue to develop. Next slide. The first department that we look at is the superintendent's office, which is the driving force behind alignment, innovation, and acceleration for the school district. The core responsibility for the superintendent in my office is system alignment. Building a unified system that supports schools at the core. Every department is designed to support the student, the teacher, the school leader, par professionals with a school student mindset. It's designed, this design is uh intended to eliminate silos. Often when we have departments that are in different
035areas of the city, they don't often work well together because they are working on their comp, you know, their specific uh tasks, their their their responsibilities. The new education framework connects every department directly to schools and to provide school support. every department it's going to be critical that they understand their roles their responsibilities and at the core it's about accelerating student success and achievement. Next slide. The driving force alignment innovation acceleration but it's all through building accountab accountability through data. We have to go from checking boxes to really monitoring what we are expecting to happen in our schools. We're going to be building systems that focus on execution, follow through, and measurable impact. Uh school stat is a process where school leaders come together to talk about key performance indicators. Chronic absenteeism, attendance, overall uh
036student discipline, staff attendance, many areas that we need to pay attention to on a daily basis, including grades and scores on standardized assessments. We are going to be looking at that on a monthly basis at the school leader level and also through the departments on a weekly cycle. Our responsibility is to remove barriers that get in the way of the work that slows our staff down from helping our students from succeeding. Acceleration and external leadership. Strong systems require urgency, discipline, and clear expectations. The new design provides those. It's moving planning into execution and outlining the measurable results that we are looking for so we can see if we are attaining what we are planning. This work will also require alignment beyond central office family staff community members advisory board will play a central role in
037supporting students building trust maintaining clear transparency will continue to move those priorities forward. Next slide. The bottom line is that this office is going to be focused on ensuring the system is not only designed well, but that it performs at a high level every single day. It's about execution, consistency, and continuous improvement across the district. Next slide. We have our five drivers, the five core systems, instruction and school performance, data accountability and enrollment, family and community engagement, special special services, student support and wellness, and finance and operations, the resource engine. Next slide to go over instruction and school performance, which is the academic engine of the school district. Instruction remains the core of our work. The system is responsible for strengthening teacher and school leader learning and professional development. We're going to focus on our
038instructional priorities, school leadership support and academic performance. Strong school systems require strong instructional leaders and leadership and consistent expectations across all campuses. Our goal is to improve instructional consistency and academic outcomes districtwide. Next slide. Data accountability and enrollment department. Strong decision- making requires data and strong data systems. We have to work on enrollment strategy, forecasting, reporting, accountability, and performance monitoring. Leaders need accurate and timely information to make strategic decisions. This new department will be providing that information directly to our school leaders. The district has strengthened operational transparency and accountability systems. The data should drive action, improvement, and resource alignment across our schools. Next slide. The talent department, recruitment, evaluation, and professional learning. Strong schools are built through strong people systems. This system focuses on recruitment, developing, supporting, and retaining highquality staff. Professional learning and leadership
039development are critical to improve instruction. professional learning and that development will live within the talent and recruitment department. We're working to build a sustainable workforce with clear accountability and support structures. Every school deserves strong leadership and strong instructional staff. The talent recruitment, evaluation, and professional learning department will take the lead on that charge. Family and community engagement. It's not separate from student success. It's directly connected to it by working with our families and our community. We're focusing on family trust, communication, outreach, and access to district services. The welcome center will serve and continue to serve as a key support system for families who are in transition or intern or navigating the district. Community partnerships and outreach efforts are going to help strengthen enrollment efforts, attendance, and engagement. How students perform when they're in the classroom.
040Our our goal is to make sure the families feel supported, informed, and connected to their schools. Next slide. Finance and operations. The business office supports instruction, data, and talent. Finance and operations exist to support the district priorities and school success. There this work includes staffing, instructional resources, operational systems, and strategic plan and supports. The resources have to align to the district's academic and organizational priorities. Finance does not operate separately from instruction, enrollment or staffing needs. Operational systems help our schools function more effectively and efficiently. So the purpose here is to have to ensure our schools have the support that they need to focus on students and instruction. Next slide. Operational systems also directly impact families and student well-being. This includes transportation facilities, counseling support, translation services, and district access systems. These systems help remove barriers
041to families so that we can improve attendance engagement and student success. Family access and student support have to be connected to the operational planning of the district. The goal is to ensure that schools and families receive coordinated and sustained responsive support. Next slide. So a key shift in finance and operations. This is one of the most important shifts in the framework. Traditionally finance focuses on budgets, compliance, operational management. While those responsibilities are very important, the role also needs to become more strategic. Finance operations will help drive district operations, priorities, execution, and student outcomes. Resources should be deployed intentionally to accelerate performance and support schools effectively. The work is no is no longer just about managing a budget. It's also about strategically deploying the resources that we have access to to improve outcomes for students. It's
042with the student in mind that we will continue to work. How the systems work together. This slide shows how the entire framework operates as one connected system. The superintendent's office provides direction, alignment, accountability. The five core systems execute the work that impacts schools and students. Finance and operations provides the resources necessary to support the implementation. When these systems operate together, schools receive coordinated support, clear expectations, and real-time feedback. Next slide. One system, one vision, one standard of excellence. The framework is about creating one unified school district. Every department, every school, and every initiative must align to the shared vision and shared expectations. We're trying to connect every component of the system to be more cohesive and aligned with the vision. My office is responsible for maintaining that alignment, accountability, and execution across our organization. The
043five aligned systems ensure schools receive that coordinated support. The ultimate goal is to improve student outcomes through stronger organizational coherence. Next slide. Powered by finance and operations. Finance and operations serves as that resource engine that you heard about supporting the entire framework. Resources, staff, and infrastructure. Operational systems must align to district priorities. Every department should understand how operational support connects to student success. This work is intended to create stronger alignment, accountability, and support across the district. And most importantly, every decision must remain centered on students and their success. That was an overview of the framework. Um, we're going to continue to unpack all the layers that are associated with this. It's an interconnected ecosystem supporting all schools, but always keeping the student in mind as the driver of all of our efforts. Uh so now
044we're going to switch into the district highlights which is always is always a highlight for me. Uh this month we have some great highlights for you to enjoy. Uh congratulations to Dr. Charles Era Medical Arts High School teacher uh Miss Oasi for being selected as one of Camden Education Fund's 2026 RISE award winners. It was a great way to end teacher appreciation week by acknowledging one of our dedicated educators. Congratulations. One of the most really incredible um things that happened that day is as the teacher was receiving her award, the students actually started and continued the lesson because they were they understood what was happening in the room and that was the expectation that was set. They continued to work together. I was honored to participate in the state of East Camden event and speak
045about the continued progress and investment taking place throughout the East Camden community. During my remarks, I shared updates on the future East Side High School project, including the completion of demolition, the ongoing design process, and our district's commitment to building a modern learning environment that will serve students for generations to come. A major part of this work has been making sure the community has a voice through the planning process, which leads into the next slide, highlighting the results of the East Side High School exterior design survey. I want to thank everyone who participated in the East Side High School exterior design survey. More than 600 students, families, staff, alumni, board members, community members shared their feedback throughout the oneweek survey process. Based on the results, option one received the majority preference across all across all
046stakeholder groups and will now move forward to the next phase of development with the New Jersey School Development Authority and the design team. I appreciate the continued engagement and support as we work toward uh together toward the future home of East Side High School anticipated to open September 2029. Commencement dates. Uh we have a very busy end of June coming up. Creative Arts High School will graduate at 9:30 a.m. at Camden High. Big Picture Learn Academy 11:30. Camden High School auditorium. East Side High School. Hopefully no rain. It'll be at the East Side Field. And if there is the rain location is listed as Camden High. I know that was brought up by Elijah earlier. We'll see what we can plan around, but we need to make sure we have a safe space for all
047of our parents and community members to enjoy the East Side High graduation. Brim Medical Arts 400 p.m. Camden High Auditorium and Camden High School will be in the field as well. Uh, but their rain location will be the gym at Camden High. Hopefully again, no rain. Next slide. At this time, we celebrate our Camden City School District retirees. I will ask board member Gabriel Hamacho to share the names of our retirees. >> All right. Good evening everyone. Uh, one thing that always amazes me is how many years when you add it together on this particular one, we have almost 100 years of service uh, to the district. Starting off with Centron Coleman, custodian, 20 years and five months. We have Kelly Lynch, teacher, elementary, 20 years. We have Annabelle Rosario, custodian C, 20 years and
048two months. Jeremy Webs, security officer, 28 years and four months. Cynthia Zimmerman, nurse prek, 10 years and six months. Let's congratulate all them for their great retirement. We will now turn the meeting over to our board solicitor for public comment session. Good evening everyone. The Camden City School District welcomes the attendance and comments from all members of the public at its meetings. The public comment period is your time to present your comments to the board and the state district superintendent. Each person who signed up to comment will have three minutes. You'll be notified when your three minutes are up and you cannot yield your time to another person. When it's your turn to speak, please state your name and address for the record. Please state uh please address your comments to the state superintendent or
049interim board solicitor. Please be courteous to your fellow community members and keep your comments within the time allotted so that everyone has the opportunity to speak. At the end of the three minutes, the microphone will be silenced and your comments will have concluded. Please conduct yourself in a respectful manner. The first amendment is not absolute and the board can prohibit language that is inappropriate in accordance with board policy 1121. We may interrupt, warn, or terminate your statement, question, or inquiry when it is too lengthy. If a member of the public speaks about a staff member, interruption may be necessary to to caution the speaker of the dangerous slander. For anyone whose comments or actions harass, intimidate, or threaten the safety of another person, we'll provide you with a warning or immediately end your comment time.
050We may request any person to leave the meeting when that person does not observe reasonable decorum. We may request the assistance of law enforcement officers in the removal of a disorderly person when that person prevents or disrupts a meeting with an act that obstructs or interferes with the meeting. We may call for a recess or an adjournment to another time when the lack of public decorum interferes with the orderly conduct of the meeting. Finally, we may wave any of the rules when necessary for the protection of privacy or to maintain an orderly operation of the board meeting. After the public comment period is closed, the state district superintendent or his designate may address your questions to the extent provided by law. First for public comment is Mr. Delgado. Good afternoon everyone. Uh Dr. Yano, how
051you doing? Uh I applaud uh I looked at the internet the website and I applaud your efforts to redefine and reorganize the administrative offices and clarify authority and responsibilities. It's evident that considerable thought, time, and energy has gone into assembling a team hopefully in the future anyway that reflects your vision for addressing the district's challenges and uh I would like to talk about four titles. Uh the first one is director of school performance. I want to acknowledge that this is a long there may have been other people doing this but I'm glad that there's one person who is going to be doing this because principles need direct support and uh constructive uh direction or feedback. The second one is supervisor of datadriven instruction. I'm not sure this title is the best fit. Um after reading
052the job description, I believe the title does not accurately reflect the scope and the role uh uh of this person and does justice to the work that this person will be expected to perform. I think the title is misleading. Uh the third one is director of multi- multilingual learners bilingual education. Thank you for reinstating this title. It is an important first step to rebuild services for multilingual students. However, I believe the title should be changed as soon as possible. It makes no sense uh as would be a title. I'll give you an example of another title. Director of gifted and talented students slashgifted and talented program or director of special education students special education programs. So you can see uh what I'm trying to get at. I hope I recommend that uh restoring the old
053title director of bilingual biculture education. If I had more time I can explain why that would be important. The other thing I sent you two emails about events that that appears to contradict your announcement that the Canon High School campus merger would be placed on hold until a stakeholder task force was in could be uh could study the matter. One email summarized the problems of Brin's students that I when I met with them that they experienced course selection problems. What they described did not align with your promise that the integrity of the magnet schools would be respected and um I think that uh enrollment in those magnet schools will be affected. Can you explain um why this is happening after you put out a very clear directive and also when will you create the task
054force? Before you were appointed, I sent you an assessment of the serious shortcomings of this district's efforts to provide multilingual learners with a thorough and efficient education. I have not received response to that evaluation. I also included a companion document outlining both a short-term and long-term process for addressing the issue. When do you think we can establish a task force to work on the matter? Uh superintendent, I admire your tenacity and direct approach. I hope your promise to engage with community members without the restrictive threeminut time limit as you can see. Thank you very much. >> All right. Next is Karen Belli Luke followed by Terresa Atwood. Good evening Karen Belli Luke uh B Medical Arts. I am speaking tonight because there continues to be confusion about the superintendent's decision to respect the identity of
055the four schools on the Camden High School campus. The superintendent publicly announced that there would be there would not be a merger. However, the actions currently taking place inside our schools are telling a very different story. Students are now being strongly encouraged to take classes across campuses rather than within their own magnet schools. During course selection, students are not even seeing teachers names attached to course anymore, only course codes. The forms themselves do not identify the magnet schools by name. Instead, they simply reference Camden High with generalized pathways listed underneath. Parent signatures are being ignored. Summerbridge has always been for every high school taught by their ninth grade teachers. So every ninth grader familiarizes themselves with their team of teachers, the school's vision and and vision mission, expectations, clumping together as one is another example
056of dismantling. And by the way, team building and challenges is part of the nth grade PE curriculum. So to the students and the parents and staff and to the community, this does not feel like preserving magnet schools. It feels like quietly erasing their identities. Our students intentionally chose one of the three magnet schools because they have a unique mission, culture, focus, and family atmosphere. Brim students chose a medical arts environment. Creative arts students chose an arts centered ed education. Big picture students chose personalized learning model. Those identities matter. An undercurrent of resentment and hurt feelings is being fueled by suggestions that magnet school students and staff believe that they are better than Camden High School or that Camden High students are incapable of succeeding in magnet level coursework. That is not true. This is not
057about one group of students being better than one another. is not about staff competing against one another. Camden is Camden and I don't know anyone that is against Superintendent Yano identifying issues at any of our four schools as the Camden High School campus. In fact, we welcome and need his help in to strengthen the academic and social culture at all all our schools. But the answer will not be found by tampering with course registration process. The answer lies in fostering an atmosphere of mutual respect. This is why the stakeholder task force is so important. Trust is built through transparency. Right now, what students and teachers are experiencing is not squaring with the superintendent's promise to respect the magnet schools. Stop removing magnet school identities from forms. Stop pushing cross campus scheduling as the norm. Stop
058creating systems that blur the lines between our district schools. We should be fixing problems. Our students, our families, our staff deserve honesty, transparency, and a real voice in decisions that impact the future and their schools. And finally, I volunteer my voice, my service, and my 42 years in education, and my 22 years at BRIM, a magnet school, to be part of the solution to help recruit, strengthen, and promote all of our traditional public schools. >> All right, next is Terresa Atwood, followed by Alice Comr. Good evening everyone. My name is Teresa Atwood. I live at 1220 Princess Avenue, Camden, New Jersey. And I'm here because I'm concerned about the uh farmers market program that I understand may not continue anymore because Miss Althia Brown has been fired. So most of us know that Camden is
059the poorest city in New Jersey. We have a poverty rate of that exceeds 28% according to the research that I've done. Camden is also a food desert. We don't have any full service grocery stores. So we have high utility bills where our rate increased 16% in 2025. I have one bill that was $436 even though my thermostat was on 68 degrees. So we the seniors here in Camden, we the poor people of Camden, we desperately need the farmers market. We need to have access to fresh fruits and vegetables. And I would like to know if the program is going to continue. And if so, will we still have the same director who initiated the program? That's an excellent program and it is used by thousands of Camden residents and we need a break somewhere along
060the line. Everything is too expensive and we don't really have a lot of access to fresh fruits and vegetables. And this program is excellent. It's excellent and it's used, as I said, by thousands of people, all races, all economic groups. Everybody needs to have access to good food. Thank you. >> Next is Alice Comr, followed by Kevin Waters. Good evening, members of the board, Superintendent Yano, and the broader Camden community. My name is Alice Comr. I'm a freshman at Brim Medical Arts School. Tonight, I stand here demanding basic transparency because despite the value our magnet schools bring to Camden, the student bodies of all magnet schools are being treated as if our education and voices do not matter. The administration continues to hide the operational mechanics of this not merger. Major structural decisions are clearly
061being made behind closed doors while while a superficial show of student agency is performed for us. We demand to know the true intent behind this forced mixing of classes feels like a quick fix. honestly an attempt to borrow the high attendance rate, strong test scores, and higher and hardearned prestige of creative big picture and brim to temporarily patch over systemic issues at Camden High rather than doing the actual work. Furthermore, rumors have circulated claiming faculty at the magnet schools have called Camden High students monsters. Let's be clear, there's no documented evidence of this. It is reckless to weaponize unverified rumors. This forced integration has caused total chaos with scheduling. Our guidance counselors are entirely unequipped to give us answers that we need. They cannot tell us who our teachers will be or where our classes
062will physically meet. Dr. Dali framed scheduling as a complex yet streamlined and highly monitored task. But when the counselors themselves don't have correct information, that is a systematic failure. This instability damages our futures. Brim has also cycled through four guidance counselors in just three years. How can we build relationships when our support system is a revolving door? Another grievance is the clear manipulation regarding the Rowan Early College Program. Students are pressured to enroll and falsely told credits transfer anywhere. Yet they are kept in the dark. They're kept in the dark about hidden costs like paying out of pocket for every single send of the transcript. The district also hides the data comparing comparing Rowan students to those on campus because they don't want the public to see the truth. Here's the truth. Not a single
063student who left for Rome broken a thousand on the SATs while multiple students who remained at Brim scored 1,200 or higher. SATs determine college readiness reliably and very well, but the central office seems to prefer fudge data that they can show to the state over actual student readiness. And when we try to use our voices to voice these concerns, we face intimidation. When we walked out to request the direct interview with Superintendent Yano, administrators threatened us with suspension. When students who went to Trenton to demand local control, the central office retaliated by threatening families with absences. Instead of having a mature conversation, the administration dangled a carrot, offering us water ices and pretzels in exchange for a survey. You claim this crisis is financial, but look at how resources are managed. While cuts have devastated
064our maintenance infrastructure, our basic facilities rot. Inside Brim, the disabled stall in one girl's bathroom's lock is gone. In the other, the disabled stall's toilet has no seat. We regularly have no soap and most sinks do not function. I am asking the board to finally be honest, clear up this confusion, and fundamentally reconsider what you are doing to our campus. This is a profound betrayal of magnet school students and all we stand for. Thank you for your time. Next is Kevin Waters final followed by Tariq Wilson. Good evening everyone. Kevin Waters, 322 Sienna Drive. I want to start by resting on why this district is here. In 2013, Chris Christie used a low performing narrative that this district was failing its students. He proposed a plan for the state to take over. The narrative surmised
065that the district low performance in the state was like other low performing urban districts. The state decided to bumrush those black and brown districts playing lord and master but did not improve their academic outcomes. Christy's plantation like mindset also believe he knows what's best for Camden. In fact, he got other melanated black and brown folk to support the takeover. On that note, I believe there is another politician who moves as lord and master for Camden with the support of black and brown folk here as well. We all know who he is. The other misinformed the narrative about Camden was that fewer than one in five students could pass a state test in math and language arts. It was further said that only half of the students in Camden graduated from high school. Even worse, the
066adult residents in Camden hold fewer high school diplomas. How did they come up with that figure? Was everyone who they referenced indigenous to Camden? Lots of folk in Camden ain't from Camden. We can use numbers to make all kinds of inferences, but 20 years in Newark, Patterson, and Jersey City did not make substantial improvements. What about those numbers? Recognizing a state takeover did not work in similar cities, state school board member Ronald Butcher reluctantly endorsed Christiey's plan for a state takeover. He knew he knew a couple of the district school board members at the time wanted to challenge the state takeover, but finally caved and gave their full endorsement. Are we better off today for it? It is power that lies urban city's challenges to compete with surrounding suburban school district numbers, which is looking
067for proximity to whiteness. as far as I'm concerned to validate academic success that is disrespectful of the intellectual abilities our students possess. So, a few questions. When will this district start to fight for local control as has happened in Newark? How will the district make sure the new east side high school is free from political attempts to corrupt it with a charter portion? How will the district reach out to former graduates who now are college graduates, entrepreneurs, trades people, healthcare employees to challenge the narrative of poorly prepared academically for futures in various careers? What acknowledgement, this is going to take some courage, is the district willing to courageously say may have been overthinking around implementing magnet schools. And I say that to do this. There are no magnet schools listed within the Cherry Hill public
068school district. The district's official school listings and magnet school directories show only traditional public schools, including elementary, middle, and high schools with no magnet designation. I say that to say that in this district, we never needed a magnet school. We never needed a magnet school and we surely don't need charter schools because what they did in Cherry Hill was look out and said all of our students are capable in Camden. all of our students are capable of doing everything that the separation and the real real separation is a monstrosity in terms of how it plays itself out. So I would hope that the courageousness that I would look for in this district happens in the way of being, you know, honest. We never really needed a magnet school and we definitely did not need charter
069schools. and please make sure that the East Side High School transition is free of any political nonsense. Thank you. Finally, we have Tariq Wilson. That concludes the public comment section. I'll now turn the meeting back over to the board president. Are there any questions or comments from the board? Board member Kamacho. Yeah, just as far as a comment, I just wanted to to thank the superintendent and also his staff uh with their presentations. Uh as far as the things that are going on in the district, um talked about Brim with the medical arts and preparing for college. We talked about the CT ecourses which I I truly highlight that you know that should be highlighted. One of the things that I just want to add is um that I think we're I would like to
070recommend is doing a better job as far as promoting it out in the you know into the community. I think there's amazing things going on in a school district but to be honest as we can see we probably have 30 people here and out of 30 people probably 10 are residents and and the other are probably staff. So now the question becomes who are really talking to? Uh we're doing amazing things but we're almost speaking to ourselves. So I would just stress there's amazing things that our students are doing. There's amazing our teachers are doing that staff is doing. Um I just recommend that we need to also look at how are we promoting ourselves out to the community. Um just to speak realistically. Um if we don't promote ourselves, no one else is. We're
071going to be sitting here. Um, it's a shame that we don't have the same amount of people we had two months ago and one month ago when going through the budget, but just as as as I think it was mentioned by one of the uh one of the staff here saying that they don't start the curriculum in September, they start now. Well, that's how we have to be thinking about our budget as far as how are we going to promote to have to, you know, to gain more students. I think it's important because at the end of the day, we're competing with these charter schools. We're competing with these resonance schools. So until we find a way to promote ourselves and let the teachers uh express what they're saying to the community, to our parents,
072and to our students, one, not to lose any more kids, and of course, obviously to gain more students. So I just want to highlight that there's amazing things going on within the district. I just feel sometimes that it's kind of kept almost as if it's a secret when I think if we have something good going on we need to promote it because on the other hand if we don't promote it it's just going to unfortunately add to a year from now when we might be going through the same discussions over the budget. I'm not saying it's going to answer overnight but we also have to look at it what are we doing now to minimize having those type of meetings every year. >> Thank you board member Kamacho. Any other board members? Another uh couple
073quick things um in response to uh Miss Atwood. Uh to my knowledge um we aren't losing a farmers market. So if the superintendent at some point could give some uh clarity um that would be appreciated. Um, also, uh, superintendent, um, I know you, uh, are just coming in, but what else do we need to do, um, to get local control in the areas of QAC that we're passing? Um, so if we got further conversation, um, you know, to my knowledge, if we, uh, maintain for two years a certain, um, score, um, then, you know, we get local control back and, um, I know we've maintained. Um, so if we have further conversation around that, that would be appreciated. Um, and then I don't have any objections with uh the budget. Just uh you know, we've
074had this conversation. Um, I've mentioned these things to you. If we could um just get some clarity um just in in a couple areas, just a little further description. Um 2627-18 home health aid staffing, which is about 500,000. Um 2425-52 um behavioral therapy uh which is 450,000. um 8.25 multi-temp units. I just want to know if if that 81,000 covers the 14 units. Um I know that was in there, but I was uncertain if that um covered uh fixing all 14 units. Um the Camden High School repairs from the fire. Um I believe the 582,000 just wanted to know exactly what that covered. And then also um 8.37 health benefits 5,855,951. Just wanted to know the difference um from last year to this year as I know uh you know numbers have increased. So again
075no objections just wanted a little further clarity um in those areas. Uh thank you. If there's no other further questions from any other board members um at this time, uh like to turn it back over. Um this evening's agenda includes approval of uh board actions for the month of May which include um the district calendar for fisc fiscal year 2027 as well as a revision of the current year calendar financial reports for the month of April. A list of bill payments for the month of May grant applications and acceptance and amendments. uh appointment of professional service providers for fiscal year 27, service and tuition contracts for the current year and fiscal year 27. Uh various field trips, fundraisers, and travel requests and a resolution authorizing the sale of some uh districtowned property that is not
076being used. Um some capital projects including the Camden High School uh fire repairs Davis air air conditioning installations and veterans uh public address system and uh Department of Talent and Labor report of personnel actions. I present uh the May board agenda items to you for approval. >> Thank you. In accordance with powers vested in me as a state district superintendent according to NJSA18A7835, I hereby approve the May 2026 board agenda items. If nothing more, interim board secretary, please call for a motion to adjurnn. >> Is there a motion to adjurnn? >> Motion >> and a second. >> Second. >> All in favor? Any opposed? >> Any obstessions? Abstensions. Uh, this meeting is adjourned at 6:40