001Um, okay guys, we're going to get started. Okay, you ready? We're going to get started. Um, okay. I'd like to call to order uh for the meeting of the board of education, April 23rd, 2025 at 6:30 p.m. in the boardroom of the administration building at 70 Conover Road, Coleneck, New Jersey. Can I get a roll call? Thank you, Mrs. Cameron. here. Mrs. Horowitz here. Mr. Rico here. Mrs. Ramirez here. No, she is. She is here. Mrs. Ramirez, hold on. Trying to communicate with us participating remotely. Mrs. Ramirez. Yes. Can you hear me? Yes. Yes. Yes, present. You are present. Mr. Scales here. Mr. Scarpa here. Mrs. Vulpi here. Mr. Walsh here. I'm here. I forgot Mr. Rana. I apologize. Dave is here as well. Hi. Great. Thank you. Uh, pursuant to the open public meetings
002act Act chapter 231, this meeting has been duly advertised in the Asbury Park Press in a scheduled of meetings dated January 16, 2025 and March 4th, 2025. Notice of which has been filed with the deputy clerk for Colnik Township and the requirements of posting of notices have been met. If we can have um, Mr. Ragnetta, would you read the mission statement, please? Sure. Thank you. The mission of Colt Colts Township Schools is to empower and inspire students to be confident, creative, self-sufficient learners who maximize their strengths and talents and contribute to responsible participants in their everexpanding world. Great. Thank you. Um I am going to have uh Dr. Gabay uh introduce uh some very special guests we have this evening. Um thank you so much. Um, in honor uh special uh in honor uh of
003April as the military uh month of the military child, excuse me. Um we're continuing our new tradition which is having the Matthews family lead us this evening in our pledge of allegiance. The Colts Township Board of Education extends its sincerest appreciation and gratitude to the Matthews family, Mastered Arms First Class Matthews, um, who has served 11 years in the military, his wife Katie, and their three beautiful children, Gabe, Zoe, and Magnolia. If you would please join us at the front of the room to lead us in a flag salute. Please remain standing at the end for the singing of our national anthem. To the flag of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Great. Thank you very much. Okay. Oh, you're welcome.
004Okay. At this time we are going to move uh towards uh to our uh presentations uh from the student liaison. Um if uh Dr. Yar you want to start to present them? Sure. Good evening. As we're continuing with our 2025 student representatives to the board, I see Alex, Sophia, and Kira are here this evening. um if they would like to each speak to the microphone or give a report or a comment, a concern, share something if you'd like. When you go to the DA, just remember to hold the button down as the instructions say to turn it green and that means you're live. So, if anyone like to go first or go together, whatever you'd like to do. Um before we start um I know I noticed that you seem to have to leave so
005please feel free you do not have to stay. I saw that you wanted to get up but then Kira had taken the podium so please feel free at any time. Okay. Thank thank you. Thank you for coming. Yeah. See you later. Hello. I am Kira Harland. Dr. Dr. Rigby and I have talked about some of my ideas that current and incoming students can enjoy. One idea that I really like is giving the eighth graders an opportunity to leave their mark. What I mean by this is that each year the entire eighth grade class would create a mural by decorating a section of a designated hallway with a fingerprint or a handprint with their name on it. Another variation of this idea is that each year every student in the eighth grade class could decorate a
006rock with their name on it to be added to the peace garden. Either of these ideas would allow the eighth grade students to be to be remembered and as I mentioned before to leave their mark on their middle school. Great. Thank you very much. [Applause] Sophia. Hello, I'm Sophia Bucher and I had an initial meeting with Dr. Riby about how we can enhance the lunch experience by maybe adding more food options for vegetarians and people who are lactose intolerant. Great. Thank you very much. [Applause] Oh, that's okay. This is very high. Hello. Hello. Okay. Um, I didn't really prepare a speech, but I did love that idea about them being able to leave their mark. And I also love the idea about maybe some sort of painting rocks because I actually did create my own
007um kindness rock garden in the Colts snack library as part of a Girl Scouts project to earn my bronze award. So I do love that idea and I had so much fun when I made my rock garden. So I feel like other people would really enjoy that and it was just a fun way for everybody to spread their ideas. Um, do any board members have any questions um for the liaison? Anybody want to ask them any questions? Sophie, on the lunches, um, how are the portion sizes? Oh, the portion sizes are are they're pretty good portion sizes, I would say. Okay. So, they're they're enough to feed you for lunch and you'd be full for the rest of the day. Yes. Okay, great. Do you think it's a cost effective? The prices are worth what
008you're getting? Yeah, I think. Yes. Okay. All right. Great. Thank you for your input. Thank you. Anybody else have any questions? The leazison? No. Okay. Great. Yes. Go ahead. For for the rocks, were you guys thinking of like having them engraved with your guys names on them? Is that you thinking of like a rock that's engraved or a rock with just like magic marker with your names on it or like painted with your names on it? What were you guys thinking? Okay. Okay. So, paint with coating on it. Okay. All right. Mrs. Cameron. Okay. Um, so, uh, Kira, right? Um, with the rock collection. I love that idea. I love the idea of eighth graders leaving their mark. Um, so are you looking for the board to provide the rocks? I just want to make
009sure we know what what we can do to help um get this idea flowing. Um so it sounds like probably could be done in our class and so is is that is that um you know the direction you'd like the board to go to so we could figure out a way to make sure there's rocks for all the eighth graders. Okay. I think I feel like that's something we can we can certainly we can definitely hopefully get that accomplished. Yeah, I know that um they met with Dr. and they're starting to get some brainstorming ideas of how to acquire the rocks and not every student like has art in eighth grade, right? So, it'll be a case where we want to make sure we have opportunities or experiences for them to do that. So, it's
010in the very beginning phases. So, I'm sure they'll be coming back to give their proposal, you know, of what they've kind of worked out with the details and what their needs are from us. Great. One more question. Did you guys have like a particular spot there that you wanted that would be a good idea? Sure. The peace. Did you have like an um a particular spot in the peace garden? Not yet. Okay. Great. Well, I just want to thank you. These are fantastic preliminary ideas that you brought. I know it's only, I believe, your second meeting. Um and I know the program is new to you. So, I definitely expect as you get more acquainted with the program, you guys are going to bring fantastic ideas to this board. and I'm so proud and happy
011that you're participating in the liaison program. So, thank all of you. Thank you very much. Yes. And thank you to the parents for your commitment to bringing the children to the meetings. We certainly appreciate it. Um once again, at this time, you're welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting if you like. If not, you're welcome, you know, to leave as well. Thank you. Good night. Oh, that's okay. Bye. Okay. Um, okay. Uh, we have no communications listed here, so I'm going to run right into my president's report. Uh, good evening everybody. I want to welcome every back from, uh, everybody back from spring break and extend a a happy belated Easter to all those who celebrated. Prior to the break, uh, Mrs. Ramirez and I attended the Purple Up Day breakfast on April
01211th. Uh it was wellreceived and I was proud to be there to support the military families of Naval Weapons Station Earl. Over 80 children attended along with their families and it was my honor to be there to celebrate the importance of all the military children. We'd like to recognize all the challenges these children face. We are so proud of them and grateful that they are part of our Colts neck community. The sacrifices of these families do not go unnoticed. Our district will always prioritize our military families and make sure they receive all the support they need. I want to thank the administration, teachers, and support staff for all their hard work they put into organizing this event. I also want to thank Mrs. Ida Jones, who's here tonight, for her time and dedication that she
013gives to all of our military families and her for her continued partnership with our district. So, thank you very much for all that you do. On April 16th, uh the planning board chair um of our town, Mr. John Tobia, held the first subcommittee meeting on affordable housing at 6 PM at town hall. The appointed liaison, Mr. Robert Scales and Mr. Kevin Walsh, both attended attended the meetings and uh I believe tonight they will be reporting uh back with a brief um you know uh report on what went on. I want to thank them both for their time and accepting the position um in doing that. Uh just a reminder, the district will be starting the NJSLA testing on May 6th. I'm sure all of uh the parents received their emails. Uh they have gone out
014with specific dates along with the subjects that will be tested. Please encourage your children to rest and be prepared so they can achieve the best possible scores. Good luck to all the students of our district. Our second newsletter, the Cooseneck Chronicles, was released today. The first edition was wellreceived. I'm proud and grateful for the all the hard work Mrs. Camera has de devoted to this project. She puts in long hours and research to make sure all important events are highlighted along with spotlighting our students phenomenal achievements. This newsletter also helps maintain great communication with the entire Colts community. Our finance committee has been diligently working with our administration to make sure that we meet our commitment of a zero tax increase to the public. I'm looking forward to the budget presentation in early May and
015its final approval. Uh tomorrow, April 24th, is bring your child to work day. This is a fantastic opportunity for your children to spend the day with you and experience your day at work. Although they may miss this day of school, this opportunity brings them a unique learning experience that will be remembered for years to come. I want to wish everybody participating a fun day filled with endless learning opportunities. Also, April 24th is our big Cedar Drive Middle School's 60th anniversary. We will be celebrating at Cedar Drive from 6:00 to 8. Dr. Garay and Dr. Riby along with the entire Cedar Drive Middle School staff and students have a great program set up. So, please join us to support our school district and celebrate all the wonderful things Cedar Drive has brought to our community for
01660 years. I'm looking forward to seeing everybody. And this concludes my president's report for the evening. All right. At this time, we are going to moves move forward uh to the board liaison reports. Um Mrs. Haritz, if you'd like to start with the parent advisory committee. So, we're still deciding on a date for the May meeting, but we'll send that out as soon as we confirm. We're waiting on you to Yes. I I'm sorry that I haven't got back to you. I'm having a lot of uh conflicts with my schedule. So, I'm going to try to get back to you by tomorrow. Okay. Sorry about that. Okay. Um I didn't realize how busy I was. You only sent it out a few hours ago, so cut me some slack then. All right. Co PTO. Um,
017so a couple things. The PTO provided their final numbers from the gala, which uh, as everybody knows was a tremendous success. Thanks to a strong showing in sponsorships, advertising, and raffle sales, they made a 50,000 a $57,000 profit. Um, which is amazing. Yeah. So, these funds will go to support next year's mini grant program as well as grade level events. Uh, the latest PTO newsletter was released today. uh it included key information about the up uh sorry eighth grade uh activities. There's quite a few so make sure that you're looking at that. Additionally, families of eighth graders will receive a detailed letter outlining events and opportunities. Um some other upcoming events include the final elementary school store will take place Thursday, May 15th and Friday, May 16th uh during lunch. Teacher appreciation week is scheduled
018for May 5th through the 9th with more details to follow. uh volunteer of the year nominations are now open. Please submit your nominations to coltsnackpto.org. And lastly, the PTO has a few open positions on their board. Anyone interested in joining, they should reach out to Kim Kaufman, who's the president. Um and her email is presidentto.org. Great. Uh thank you, Mrs. Harwitz. Moving on to the Cold Neck Township School newsletter. Mrs. camera. Okay. Uh Brian and I are excited to share that our latest board of education newsletter officially went out to the community today via email. It has also been shared across social media platforms to help keep everyone informed and engaged. Printed copies will be distributed at the next township committee meeting. and Kevin, if you're able to reach out to the seniors again if
019they would like printed copies or email, however they would like. Um, and just a big thank you to Angelique for her kind and thoughtful words. So, your support means a lot to us. Yeah. Well, thank you. You're doing all the work. It's amazing that only one purse is just I I know you guys won't be able to see, but here's a copy of it. And the amount of work that goes into this newsletter is astounding. I mean, I don't know if anybody realizes the time it takes to document all these events, highlight these children doing phenomenal things in our district spotlighting our uh you know, one of our board members each quarter. Uh this quarter will be uh Vinnie Ragnetta. So, it was nice to see him in there. Um Diego's in there, our student
020liaison. So, you know, I hope everybody takes a moment to read all the fantastic things that are happening in our district. We're very proud of it. So, thank you, Phyllis. Um, okay, moving uh to Mr. Ragnetta on the extracurriculars. All right, first I just like to thank uh Phyllis and Brian for featuring me in this uh month's uh newsletter. Thank you so much. I've already gotten um positive feedback about it, so thank you so much. It was a great um great write up with me. Thank you so much. Um we have soccer triyouts coming up. Uh the boys soccer triyouts uh will be Wednesday uh May 7th and the girls soccer triyouts will be uh Thursday May 8th and it be taking place at Five Points uh field. Uh for age group, uh if you're
021born 2016 to 2018, uh will be 5:00 pm to 6:15 p.m. If you were born 2013 to 2015, it'll be 6:30 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. And if uh you were born 2012 or older, please email um Colleen Wilcox at uh Colleen Marie 16yahoo.com. and uh girls uh they can uh parents can email Alberto Morelbertofcm.com. Uh and if you're coming, please arrive 15 minutes prior to check-in. Uh just so you can check in. Again, it's at five points field on May 7th and May 8th. May 7th for the boys, May 8th for the girls. Um and then we also have uh spring basketball clinics uh coming up which will take place at Conover Elementary. Uh it'll be $150 for nine sessions and it'll be taking place on Monday and Friday Friday evenings um between May and
022June uh for grades uh second grade through 8ighth grade and be coached by the Colts High School uh boys basketball state champions staff and players. And you can register through team snap or you can email Stephen Russell at sr usllsd.com. And also I would like to congratulate the Cedar Drive Middle School chorus. They performed at the Holocaust Remembrance Day at Brookdale Community College yesterday and I was able to watch uh their performance on Facebook and they did a great job uh performing uh light one candle candle. And also I was asked to um let everyone know that this weekend at the Colts Neck Library there's going to be a book buyback on Friday and Saturday. Uh f Friday is I'm sorry, Saturday and Sunday. Saturday and Sunday. Uh uh Saturday the 26th will be from
02310 pm 10 am to 4 pm and Sunday the 27th will be from 10 am to 3 pm. Thank you. Great. Thank you Mr. Retta. Um moving on to the Colts Township Committee. We'll start with Phyllis and Brian. Um we are going to add tonight although um I forgot to add it to the agenda um the planning board subcommittee that was just started. Um uh Mr. Scales and Kevin may have some remarks uh included in that township committee. Sure. Um, so on Saturday, April 19th, the Colts Neck Recreation and Parks Department together with the Colts Neck Fire Company hosted their annual Easter egg hunt. Families enjoyed a festive day filled with candy, laughter, and colorful eggs. So, a big thank you to all the volunteers who made this special tradition possible. Um, don't miss the
024Environmental Commission sapling giveaway this Saturday, April 26, at the Buck Mills Community Center. This year's theme is plant a tree for Arbor Day and it's a great chance to grab a free sapling and help make Colts neck even greener. Uh the next township committee meeting will take place on Wednesday, April 30th at 7 p.m. Community members are encouraged to attend in person or tune in via liveream so we could all stay informed and engage with local matters. And um last but not least, Rob and Kevin, now you can give um provide the community with an update on the subcommittee of the planning board. Great. Go first. Excellent. Um so yeah, just wanted to thank Mr. Tabia for setting this up because the, you know, we had one meeting. I did it from the comfort of
025Florida, which was great. Thanks for traveling in Kevin, to be there in person. Um but it was great. Um and it was eye opening to say the least. So um essentially we established like three main goals for the board of education um which we all knew we've discussed you know over the last couple months we've all been together but we essentially I presented that to um the subcommittee. So what I had mentioned was, you know, goal number one um is to identify the tax revenue. And I think I might have said it probably five or six times during the meeting, but the subcommittee um agreed to report back to the the township to maybe look into another study for us. I know we're going into um a study. we're looking because we had incorrect numbers
026previously on what the impact would be, but I was able to create more awareness to the one pager that um I had created for everyone. So, we at least have a foundational um blueprint for everyone to see. Right? So, I had mentioned how we talked about, you know, just reconfiguring the schools and looking and being proactive about that and the subcommittee agreed as well. The subcommittee is comprised of fire department, police, ambulatory services, and the the town planning committee, and then the the uh the tax assessors as well. So, having that forum, we're able to then present to them what we actually need to accomplish. So, um water safety, um I don't know how we would do this, but I have a strong recommendation I recommended to the town. So, I'm I I like to
027fish. My little one likes um he asked me to bring him to the town pond all the time. Um last two times I've been there, there's a number of dead fish in the pond. So what happens is usually when a fish dies, it's because of lack of oxygen. How you get lack of oxygen in the water is if there's pesticides, if there's runoff from soil, or if there's any runoff from any construction materials or anything along those lines. So Yellow Brook feeds into the ponds at Town Hall. So the runoff from the actual construction is going directly into Yellowbrook and then that runoff is coming directly, you can see the sediment starting to to fill in there. So I made a recommendation to the town so hopefully they could test the water, but I'd recommend
028to the board as well is for us if there's any way for us to test our own water out of the water fountains, out of the bathrooms. I don't we don't have to go into any elaborate thing or anything along those lines. there's test strips that we can get, but I feel like we need to if if the town's not going to do it, then someone from our maintenance department or something, we should do it at least once a month. I don't know what the state guidelines are, but we have to protect our children. So, I don't know how it's going to work. I certainly would feel that the township committee should be responsible for that, but uh I appreciate, you know, your um your mission to, you know, move forward with it. If we
029have to do it, we certainly will because the yellow The yellow brook feeds into the mammoth reservoir, right? So obviously we get our water from well, right? So what happens is not necessarily because of the contamination in the ponds will that directly impact the school, but the leeching gets into the aquifers that we get our water from from our wells. So it's going to be there would be a lag. I don't know the science behind it. I didn't get into into too into the depth, but it could be months. it could be a year from that lag of the leeching from the construction into the actual water system. So we have to look into it at some point. So I don't know whatever we could do we can discuss later or if you have some
030comments on it but I do yeah we do test water. I can provide the board um we can link in the update and work with Mora to find out what the the schedule the testing contents. It's actually there's a mandatory lead testing that takes place and whatever that so I'll get that information and we'll go work with Mask and we'll compile it and share it with the board. Okay. And then third was um it just just to avo you know our strong opinion that we you know as a board we're we're not against um affordable housing. We're not against developments. What we're against is just the the overdevelopment, right? So we wanted to reiterate that to the subcommittee because unfortunately we're in an election year. So there's going to be a lot from both sides
031of the people who are running for town council and who's on town council. There's going to be a lot that's going back and forth, right? But what my goal is is to bring the information from that committee. As Kevin can attest, I thought the meeting was phenomenal. I I'll add to our comments, Rob. Um, it's on. I think they gained a a uh great perspective from our board, our subcommittee speaking about the impact of our students and our school system generally our tax um ramifications for uh our affordable housing obligations. One question came up, how many students we have in the grant which is under our obligation number one and two affordable housing and there was over 240 students. So magnify that with round three and four obligations. We're talking again uh guess best would
032be a aside from our professional studies two to 300 students potentially. That's a 30% increase in the student population within two years. Looking at ways we can mitigate that. Um, our input to the planning board were were to focus on senior citizen housing, veterans that need special needs, disabled veterans, and trying to mitigate the influx of students long term and save our taxpayer millions of dollars. So, it was a great meeting, very professional, and everybody had some great comments and I think it was wellreceived that we gave a perspective on the board of education that night. Yep. And I think these updates will be important because again, the meeting was fantastic. There's some influx between members of that subcommittee that have been public. Um but then you see the next day, you know, comments being
033already posted on Facebook and the community page about he said this, she said that. Um fact of the matter is is that it's it was a great meeting. I we didn't see any contention from either sides. So I'm I think it was just a little bit of, you know, some grandstanding. But again, the goal that we had said, um, Beth McManis, who's a part of, um, the affordable housing here in town, gave a great report on sort of what the obligations would be. And then that's where our comments were. We're we're again not against affordable housing to make that clear to everyone. It's just we want to avoid what's called inclusionary development. Inclusionary development means that's that five to six to one ratio. So what'll happen is is that if we don't satisfy the units
034that we have as a town, then a developer comes in and what happened with Levana Square is that we were sued and we were sued for that that developer to come in and say, "Well, you have an obligation. We're going to fulfill that obligation and that's where we had to put up a $2 million bond as a town." So it cost us dramatic amounts of money. So the biggest takeaway from that is Lavana Square could have been avoided if a subcommittee was prepared ahead of time, right? It could have been avoided if members of the board of education were on a subcommittee. So we're able to again take that information from Miss McManis and what she had said is um we've seen this reported out before. Yeah. Yep. Is that the third so the third
035round um we're completely satisfied with those units from the third round. Right. So what Kevin and I focused on is the impact from Levana Square. So what you've seen in our one pager is the impact of that third round. We were granted what's called a durational adjustment. That durational adjust adjustment satisfies all of the remaining units that were due. So once Lavana Square goes up, that completely handles our third round. So when you saw a post online about people getting a little bit over excited about 1,200 units potentially being um produced and then there was another comment made by another township committee said that that's not true. Fact of the matter is they're both true. Right? So what happens is is if we don't do inclusion if we do inclusionary development and someone sues us
036and we come in for that 5 to1 ratio our fourth round obligation right now is 101 units. So if you times that by five or six, that's where you get to 500 to 600. So is it 1,200? Not necessarily. Is it zero? Absolutely not. So right in the middle, if we can factor in there's other percentages where 30% of the units can be for seniors, 25% must be rentals, and half of that 25% must be for families, 13% must be for very low income units. and then up to 25% can be what's called a bonus credit. So we have to constantly work with the town to find out what those percentages are because then that one pager the one pager that I created will help us adjust that as we go as the town works
037with it. So granted could we do one for one? We can do it but it's going to take a lot of work and I think that's why we're in the boat that we're in because no one wanted to do that hard work and now unfortunately we're going to see an impact as a school district. So, um, that's the conclusion of the meeting and we're going to have another one, um, I think on the 28th was it 29th. So, then we'll report back to the next meeting what we see there. But, um, again, we're we've made our voices heard. I think the missing part component of this planning board uh was our board of education input. Um, just telling them about the impact of their schools and taxes on our citizens. So, it was a positive
038meeting and a great dialogue and I look forward to meeting with the township officials going forward. Great. Thank you. I'm glad it was productive. Yep. I'm glad it was productive. Great. Um, uh, Mr. Scarper, did you want to add anything to for the township committee? No. No, you're okay. All right. Um, moving on to the, uh, seniors. Mr. Kevin Walsh. My seniors are in Longwood Gardens. I think they're just getting back. Great trip. Uh they have their next meeting May 7th at the Cole Sack in 11:00 a.m. They are going to Kate May Zoo on May 15th. Um conversations with the president um other senior citizens. were working hard to achieve a zero tax increase, an impact on the taxes for the seniors. So, uh that's pretty much it for the seniors. Oh, tomorrow night
039we sent out invitations for the 60th anniversary and hoping to get a good good turnout by the seniors. Great. Thank you, uh Mr. Walsh. Um moving on to Naval Weapons Station Earl, Mrs. Ramirez and Mr. Scarpa. Sure, I'll go. Um, uh, one actually three points. One, we're going to encourage the formation of a field trip, uh, preferably in the fall. We did speak about this on prior meetings for the students to appreciate the base and dynamics. So, I would like to uh aggressively push towards that opportunity to get a field trip on the schedule for a variety of the of the um schools so that they can uh integrate with the population at the base. Number two, we're looking to establish a special devotional along the lines of what was spoken about earlier today in
040an effort to leave uh to leave a mark behind perhaps something more personal in nature for the base students uh that highlights their contributions. Again, they are here for a shorter period of time, two to two and a half years, maybe three years. Uh so they sometimes they don't cut across all all schools. So I think it's important that if they do attend the school that do they do leave a mark on the school that they attended, chances are not going to hit all three all three schools and thus will not be part of the and the cedar drive devotional. So keep that in mind more of an individual base rec individual student recognition for students at the base. Strongly encourage to put that together. Uh we have resources to do that. I'd like to
041continue that conversation with our base personnel. Uh number three uh we have the newly established newsletter. Uh Mrs. Chimera put a tremendous amount of time into this. It's a fantastic resource. It's brand new to our board of ed. It's a great portal of communication and outreach. It's also a great means of record that shows of the success profile of this board and continuing programs. Uh we are offering up that platform uh for the base students to use uh to highlight individual pieces of success or if they h are happen to leave our our schools that we highlighted at that point. So it's an open resource. It's been established. We we are thinking about establishing a a unique corner specifically called out but obviously we defer to the participation in the base. So but by all
042means please reach out to us. We're excited to expand that opportunity for our base personnel. Great. U Mrs. Ramirez, would you like to add anything to that? Yes. Um, so I just wanted to I know you touched on this already during your president's report, but um I just wanted to Oops. Did we lose Oh, I'm sorry. I muted. There I am. Sorry about that. Um, so I just wanted to um reiterate some of the sentiment that you shared. Um, you know, I had the honor of attending uh the purple update breakfast alongside of board president Angelie Bulpe. Um, it was just a really special event. um where we could recognize our our military families and in the Colts community. Um and uh it was great to see the students, the staff, all the families coming
043together. Um you know, which is show the heart and dedication of our military families. Um and thank you for allowing me the opportunity to be able to address the school community and the military families. And I just want to express um a continued while it's still uh the month of April. I just wanted to extend the board's deep appreciation for all of those military families who serve and sacrifice alongside their loved ones in in uniform. Um it's events like this that really remind I think our school community about the uniqueness of this community because we have Naval Weapons Station all here um in our district. And so um thank you to everyone that made that possible. Um and again to our military families for their continued service uh support and strength. Um so again thank
044you. It was a privilege to be part of that. Great. Uh thank you Mrs. Ramirez and thank you. You did a excellent job and conveying those sentiments uh the day of the breakfast. I appreciate you speaking for the board. Thank you. Um and thank you Mr. Scarpa for your report. Moving on to the state and county school boards. I have a couple things. Uh the uh New Jersey school boards is hosting its first AI conference uh preparing for today and tomorrow. That will be on Friday, June 6th at Mercer County College. Um this seminar will cover how AI is used in the classroom to improve to improve student learning, how administration uh is using it, and what board members should know about it and any legal ramifications that could come with it. Uh, the New
045Jersey school boards is also helping schools meet staffing challenges with its brand new job listed listing marketing service. Schools can now tap uh their online reach to find candidates for hard to fill positions. Did you see that? Yeah. Yeah, you used it already. Okay, great. It's working already. That's fantastic news. Okay. And lastly, uh May 30th is our virtual is their virtual spring conference. Uh that is 9:00 a.m. to 3:30. The cost is $99. If anybody wants to register, you just search your emails. That was in there uh recently. And that concludes the uh state and county school boards. We'll move right into Dr. Garbay's superintendent report at this time. Thank you, Mrs. Walp. I just want to once again just uh give a very special shout out to the Matthews family who joined us
046this evening for our flag salute. They're a special family here and uh thank them and and uh we just adore having them here as part of our community. Um as Mrs. Vulpi said mentioned in her report, I feel like we have a lot of we shared a brain when we were developing our reports. Uh bring your child to work day is a national day that gives children in the United States a glimpse into the working world. Um according to the US Department of the Interior, the theme of for the 2025 bring your child to work day is uh for a new generation. This theme aims to inspire children by connecting them with role models in various fields and providing experiences that meet f make future career goals feel achievable and exciting. And for all parents
047who are wondering, it is actually a New Jersey Department of Education excused absence. So we encourage our families to embrace it and then uh we welcome our uh kiddos here tomorrow who come to see their fam uh their parents teacher be as teachers you know for the day which is fun as well. Yep. And again, sharing the same sentiments, tomorrow night is our uh CDMS 60th birthday celebration and uh we're really looking forward to I know that the planning committee at Cedar Drive has worked really hard for a nice uh the last count we had we had about 180 or to 200 RSVPs. Um, just so you know, the night starts with sort of like a museum walk through Cedar Drive, which uh with a through the years type of uh event from 6:00 to
0487, which is at your with student le uh tours, conversations, highlights of the building and experiences that for kids and then from um 7 to 8 is more formal program. So, we hope everyone will come out and enjoy um Cedar Drive as much as we have through the years and beyond. And there might be some guest appearances and videos from some uh Cedar Drive alumni uh who have been highlighted and featured in video in a video presentation. So uh we're very excited about all the work that's gone into this. So it should be a beautiful night. Should be a beautiful night. Um I also want to give a to see you when you're young youth. [Laughter] I also want to give uh a huge huge shout out. Uh the week before spring recess was Annie
049Kids uh which was the um spring musical at Connor Road Elementary School. The talent both in on the stage behind the scenes uh was just phenomenal and I really want to thank um Miss Santiserio uh Mrs. Alleta and Mrs. Hannon who worked so closely with the kids. If you recall that was the program we had over almost a hundred kids come up to sign up for. Uh we couldn't take all of them, but it sure showed the enthusiasm for the arts and it was spectacular. Every year it just I keep saying that was the best one. That was the best one. It just keeps getting better and better. So kudos to the staff and the students and the families who are committed to getting them for practices there for practices and whatnot. So it was
050a great great performance. Uh Tuesday, April 29th, as was mentioned in the newsletter, is the uh CDMS spring course concert, which is always fantastic. Uh May 1st uh we kick off our uh mental health awareness uh month. Uh we encourage everyone to wear a green and it's about creating awareness and creating opportunities for resources and helping support in our age appropriate way letting everybody know and and ways to feel uh confident, connected, and part of a school community. Uh and I I would be remiss if I didn't also reference that NJ it's NJSLA season uh throughout the state actually uh with ELA testing uh for grades 3 through 8th May 6th and 7th mathematics May 12th 13th and 14th and uh algebra 7th and eighth grade or geometry May 12th and 13th and then uh
051fifth grade and eighth grade science May 19th and 20 and we had conversations you know during the um the fall uh presentation ation of our results and you know with with complete uh student participation in NJSLA testing is a whole community effort. Uh when parents support their children in this effort as Dr. Reynolds mentioned in uh the letter the children demonstrate the knowledge they have acquired through our standardsbased curricula. Teachers and administrators then take the results of these assessments and utilize them to improve curricula teaching and learning for all students. Additionally, student participation rates in um in the NJSLA play a crucial role in our school and district standing within the New Jersey school performance reports. The New Jersey Department of Education actually requires schools to achieve a minimum participation rate of 95% for all
052student groups. Uh if a school falls below this threshold, it can negatively impact its overall performance rating regardless of student achievement levels. So thus in turn uh that might refle reflect negatively upon our schools which we know we we want to always provide a great output for what what the community sees and and expects from our schools. So with complete respect to everyone's choices, sign up to you know and and let your kids show off what they've learned through the year and let let us learn from what they are able to demonstrate. Um some great tips, get them there rested, food fed, all the things. It is uh certainly something that we are, you know, proud of and we're always eager to get the results back and get them there on time. Get them there
053on a big one. Yeah. Get them there on time. Absolutely. Um May 7th, as you were talking about is the public hearing. uh May the May 21st something new that you'll see in the update this week will be uh my state of the district presentation and that basically gives and provides an update on our goals where we're standing with our strategic plan and where we are in the at this point in time as we're going forward in uh almost preparing a month later to close out the 2425 school year. Um also uh our NJSBA policy manual as we referenced last uh uh on May 8th uh it actually the digital format is completely uploaded uh and uh was shared with Mr. Scales prior to uh this meeting uh we're already starting the review process. Yes,
054exactly. Okay. So, we're we're we're in there. Um uh and we're we're going through the administration is also working through um transferring and and really just want to make that sure that we have that thorough review that goes on prior to an adoption. And from the board point of view as well, uh we as we mentioned by May 7th, we will have a tenative Mr. Skills and I will have a tenative action plan that we'll put together uh for adoption, community review, you know, um excuse me, board review, community review, invitation. Um, and then hopefully every have everything in place by July 1st. And then along those lines too, we'll get to a certain point in the review because remember we're going to the online uh format of board docs which will be our online
055uh platform for that. So, okay. And then um la ohup dayd we've mentioned a few times but I also want to uh say thank you to all the the planning and preparation our school counselors administration teacher that goes into that. Thank you to the CNTA who sponsored the event. Um, and last but not least, under personnel item number one, we have two retirements uh that uh Mrs. Patricia uh Strayman who has spent 21 years with us here and is retiring June 30th uh as a special teacher special education students um at Cedar Drive Middle School. Uh and then Mrs. Carla Walters who by this June will have spent 30 years as a kindergarten teacher here in Colts Neck Township School. We wish them the very best as always. Uh two people who will be very
056very sorely missed and we of course wish them the very best in health, relaxation and happiness in their retirement. We wish them to extend the congratulations on behalf of the entire district. Thank them and know that they will be missed terribly. And that concludes my superintendent report. Great. Thank you very much for all of that and we uh this board wishes them a fantastic uh retirement. Thank you all uh for your incredible service to the district. Okay, moving on uh to our information items. Uh if everybody wants to take note of information items number one and two, one and two. All right. And then we are going to move on to uh comments. We're going to open the floor comments uh from intending constituents. If you'd like to get up to the podium, state your
057name and address for the record. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Allison Denoya and I live at 4 Westminster Drive. Um, couple of items just for the district and the communities information. The Colts Community Band will be performing at the high school on May 8th at 7:30 p.m. We have a wide variety of music that we play and it's always fun to see the particularly the middle school kids come and see us play. Um it's various ages. We do even have people in their 20s that are in this band, but we also have seniors and they're all really professional musicians and they're amazing and I can't recommend it enough. It's always a good time. Um May 3rd, the Colts Neck Lions Club is having their annual Kentucky Derby fundraiser. The funds that we raise
058go towards creating Braille Trails um in the Mammoth County Parks as well as uh we are supporting a Beep Baseball tournament this year. Not sure if you're familiar with beep baseball, but it is baseball for visually impaired folks. It's a very cool thing to to see. You have to be quiet to participate and it's just a really cool thing. So, that's where the funds are going. It's $60 a person. Um, we are not it it is um an event that does have um alcohol. It is a wine tasting event. Um so, we don't encourage children. There will be children there and kids will have you will have to pay for the food for the children, but $60 for adults. Um, so those are my housekeeping items, but um, I just I had some comments. Um,
059and I just thought I'd come and share them. So, here we go. Um, in our district, we proudly stand by a mission that Mr. Ragnetta read this evening. Empowering and inspiring students to be confident, creative, self-sufficient learners who maximize their strengths and talents and contribute as responsible participants in their everexpanding world. To achieve that, we hold our students to a clear code of conduct. We ask our staff and administrators to model the behavior we hope to see in our children. We expect professionalism, compassion, and integrity. The school board elected to serve the community abides by a formal code of ethics. These expectations aren't arbitrary. They're this foundation. They are the foundation of trust between the district and the families served. And yet in the age of social media, that foundation is being tested. When you're
060a private citizen, you are absolutely entitled to speak your mind. But when you are elected to serve, and especially when you are the president of the school board, your words carry extra weight. You don't just speak for yourself anymore. You speak for the board. You speak to the public. and you speak on behalf of our students and families, many of whom come from diverse backgrounds, faiths, identities, and beliefs. Yes, the First Amendment protects the freedom of speech, but it doesn't shield a schoolboard president from the consequences of speech that alienates, divides, or offends, the very people you're sworn to represent. That standard isn't about censorship. It's about leadership. As Pope Francis wisely reminds us, a good leader must know how to listen to let himself be challenged and not be afraid of the truth or
061of the people who speak it. Leadership means embracing accountability, not avoiding it. It means creating spaces for all voices, especially the ones that challenge us. That's how trust is built. That's how communities grow stronger. So, here's the question. What about free? What about the free speech of our Jewish community or our LGBTQ plus community, our families? What about parents who feel silenced not by policy but by fear? Fear that speaking up will lead to retaliation. When leaders speak in ways that undermine trust or exclude voices, they don't just express a personal opinion. They send a message about whose voices matter and whose don't. If you continue to speak, so will we. And if others choose silence, understand this. Silence, too, is a choice. It sends a message of complicity. This district belongs to all of
062us, and every voice, not just the boards, deserves to be heard. Thank you. Great. Thank you for your comments, Mrs. Denoa. Anybody else? Anybody else like to come up? No. Okay. Uh we are going to close public comment at this time. Uh we are going to move into action items. Uh let's see here. Can I get a motion to move action items one through uh is it one, two, three? Motion. Agenda. Anybody second? Motion. Yes. Second. Any questions or comments? All right. Uh, I'm sorry. Did you have some? No. Okay. All right. If I could have a roll call. Mr. Morasa. Yes. Superintendent action items one through three. Mrs. Cameron. Yes. Mrs. Horowitz. Yes. Mr. Ero. Yes. Mrs. Ramirez. Yes. Thank you. Mr. Reignetta. Yes, Mr. Scales. Yes, Mr. Scarpa. Yes, Mrs. Vulpi. Yes, Mr.
063Walsh. Yes. Thank you. The motion carried. Great. Uh, thank you. Uh, I need a motion to move items uh one through Hold on a minute. Oh, I'm sorry. Just one. One under curriculum. I'm sorry. If I could get a motion to move the one item under curriculum. Second. Great. And a roll call, please. Yes. Uh, Mrs. Cameron, yes. Mrs. Horowitz, yes. Mr. Or, yes. Mrs. Ramirez, yes. Mr. Reignit, yes. Mr. Scales, yes. Mr. Scarpa, yes. Mrs. Walpy, yes. Mr. Walsh, yes. The motion passed unanimously. Great. Thank you. Um, we're moving on to finance. If I could get a motion to move items 1 through 11. 1 through 11. Motion. Second. Uh, any questions or comments on this area? Questions or comments? All right. Uh, roll call, please. On finance items 1 through 11. Mrs. Cameron.
064Yes. Mrs. Harowitz, yes. Mr. Ro, yes. Mrs. Ramirez, yes. Mr. Reignetta, yes. Mr. Scales, yes. Mr. Scarpa, yes. Mrs. Valpy, yes. Mr. Walsh, yes. The motion did carry unanimously. Great. Thank you. Uh, I need a motion to move the one item under policy. Motion. Second. Okay. Okay. Can I get a roll call? Yes. On the one policy item, Mrs. Cameron? Yes. Mrs. Harowitz? Yes. Mr. Ro? Yes. Mrs. Ramirez? Yes. Mr. Regetta? Yes. Mr. Scales? Yes. Mr. Scarpa? Yes. Mrs. Vulpi? Yes. Mr. Walsh? Yes. Motion carried. Great. Thank you. Uh, we have nothing under negotiations at this time. Nothing under transportation. Moving right into personnel. Uh, can we get a motion to move? I'm looking for that little box. Items 1 through 16 under personnel motion. Second. Uh, this is pretty uh lengthy. Um, if anybody
065would like uh any questions or comments addressed. Okay, then a roll call. Uh, a roll call, please. Who wants Yeah, I'm sorry. Go ahead, Jessica. I'm sorry. I didn't see Thank you to the two retirements that are on our personnel. Whenever we see that we have 21 years with the district and 30 years with the district, that's just a testament to how long is. So um thank you to Patricia and Carla Walter for your dedication and your time in this district. Um I I know I can speak on behalf of the families that whose lives you have impacted with your time in the district. So thank you. Great. Uh, thank you, Mrs. Ramirez. Um, okay. A roll call for those. I'm sorry. Oh, okay. We missed one. We had Okay. I'm sorry. We're going to
066correct that. 1 through 17. First and secondass. Got it. Sorry about that. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Roll. Yeah. Okay. No, it's it's okay. You could poke me with your personel items. Clarify 1 through 17. Mrs. Cameron, yes. Mrs. Harowitz, yes. Mr. Oro, yes. Mrs. Ramirez, yes. Mr. Regetta, uh, due to my employment with New Jersey State disability and family leave, I'm not the recuse for numbers two through five, but uh, yes to the rest. Thank you. Uh, Mr. Scales, yes. Mr. Scarpa, yes. Mrs. Vulpi, yes. Mr. Walsh, yes. Thank you. The motion carried. Okay, great. Uh, thank you, Mr. Rascer. We're going to move into our second comment section of the evening. Uh, if anybody once again would like to come up to the podium, you can do so. State your name and address for
067the record. Okay, seeing none at this time, we will close uh public comment. Um, wow, we moved we moved along so nicely. Um, we are going to go right into new business. I've got two uh two items for this evening. Going to pass this around. Um recommendation for um an official memo. Um the subject is the certification of compliance with title six legal obligations. Um you get past that. You'll see that we got an email from the um NJSBA that had mentioned that the the state association is not going to comply um with the department of education, the federal department of education. They had requested um a formal signatory to explain that the state would comply with these legal obligations. They have chosen not to and they have chosen that a previous statute from a
068few years ago would be sufficient enough. the Department of Education is asking for compliance with um the penalty being uh that federal aid to the state or your district could be removed. So, it's with my recommendation that this memo that I have drafted that we all read this um over the next couple of weeks here um and then see if we have any questions or any changes to this memo. But what I would like to do is to certify to the federal government that we are in compliance and we will comply with uh title six and that we're not going to be part of any sort of political strongarming from the state of New Jersey. Um so if you'll read in the memo that we're under compliance already. We're simply just completing what the federal
069government is asking for. And this will ensure this memo that our federal funds cannot be removed or rescended or anything along those lines if the state chooses not to comply with federal compliance. So, if you have any other questions on that, happy to to help you um with anything you need. But there's an email in your inbox as well from the uh schoolboard association that lists the uh actual memo from the federal government and then the actual state's response. This is essentially combining both of those together and just asserting our affirmation that we are in compliance. So this will protect that percentage of folks. And Mr. I printed out all of the um the documentation from um the the form, you know, what came through the broadcast, the actual February 14th memo, and I'll link
070all of that on in the update this week. So, there's one source of reference for everything. Uh yes, we're going to recognize Mrs. Ramirez as a question for you. Uh are you there? Yes. I just want to Yes. I just want to see if um if once the board gets a look at this memo if we can also have it sent over to um our legal team to review um you know since it does have to do with us being in compliance and you know when we're dealing with state funding and whatnot I think it's wise that we have um our legal team look at so that would just be my request um whether it's you know when it's sent out to the full board or maybe it's sent out to the full board with
071the legal opinion attached to it however you want to go about doing it but again I just think it's wise that we legal look at that to make sure that whatever we are stating um is accurate legally um and that um you know we're not compromising any kind of state funding or anything like that especially given times right now. Uh great. Thank you for your input uh Mrs. Ramirez. Um anything else? Yep. Uh second order. Um what I'd like to propose is the start of the review of a parental bill of rights. Um so essentially kind of in tandem with what we're doing um with the change of our policy holders um there's going to be a lot of questions um we've had a lot of questions from families. We've had a lot of questions
072from um just concerned citizens that they don't know what their rights are. Um granted policy is difficult and you have to sort of essentially you know surf all of our uh policies in order to find something and that becomes a detriment to um teachers or administrators as well too. Takes some time to review things. Um what this parental bill of rights will do is it will measure the federal laws that are in play from the school board associations. It will measure the state laws and combine the both and essentially put them in a bill of bill of rights. If you're familiar with our United States Bill of Rights, it'll be very similar um in context where any of the amendments that we have made as a district or any of the statutes that we have
073from the state or any federal agencies over the years that essentially put this in more digestible terms for everyone. And there'll be essentially eight sections that will highlight all of the rights that the parents have in our district. And then once we review as a board, then we can vote on this and we can institute this into our policies and our resolutions essentially as a as you know how the bill of rights is a preamble to the constitution. It'll work the same exact way. So picture our policy being a mini constitution. That's what this parental bill of rights will do. Um we would need to list it on our website for the parents to to uh access it and then essentially we would put it in the newsletter and then a reiteration every year we
074would put forth this bill of rights parental bill of rights so then the parents have an easy digestible format before they need to dive into anything. So um what I'll do is I'll present that to the board as well. There'll be eight sections that I've identified that we need to list legally. Um and then if we have any questions that's what we'll do during the cow. We'll we'll kind of we'll go through it. I'll put it each section on the agenda for all of us to digest and and go through and then if anyone has any questions, we'll take actions together as a board to make sure that we fulfill this need for all of our parents in the district. So, great. Thank you so much for taking the initiative. I appreciate this. I know
075this is going to be a lengthy process and uh I know you're certainly up for the task, Rob. We appreciate uh you always defending our um uh parental rights here in this district and I support you 100%. Thank you. Um, okay. Anybody else for new business? Anybody have any comments? Okay. I think this is the shortest meeting we have ever had. An hour and uh tw uh 10 minutes, 11 minutes. Um, okay. Can I have a motion to adjourn? Kevin Walsh and Vinnie Retis. Great. Thank you very much. Yeah. Great. Great. Thank you everybody. Yep. Thank you.