001So tonight we have a special presentation. The Lake View School staff and students are presenting on No Screenathon and riding the waves of the learning experience with positivity. Thank you all for for coming out. We're looking forward to the presentation. Dr. Forte, you want to um welcome everyone up? Well, welcome everybody. Let's have uh Miss Sardinopoly come up with her team and uh introduce the program. >> All right. Hello everybody. So, good evening. Um, at Lake View, we believe our job is not just to teach children what to learn, but how to learn and how to navigate the world they're growing up in with balance, purpose, and positivity. Our book study surrounding Anxious Generation sparks such meaningful collaboration conversation, so much of which we as a team reflect on often. So, tonight, I'm incredibly proud
002to share the voices of our students as they tell the story of how our Lake View community is riding the waves of technology. I know we all wish we were on the beach right now. Their message reflects the intentional work happening in our classrooms every day and is a testament to the leadership our students are developing along the way. I'm honored to turn it over to our Lake View students, our very professional Lake View Lions. Um, and we are so proud to have this group represent our student population as well as our Lake View community. So, let's go Lake View. Let's go third, fourth, and fifth graders. Good evening members of the board of education, administrators, teachers, and families. We are students from Lakefield Elementary. Our names are Sienna, Michael, Deon, >> Kayla, >> Isaac,
003Chelsea, Jacob, >> Morgan, >> this year, our school has this has our school theme has been riding the waves of the learning experience with positivity. We'd like to share how we are riding the waves of technology at Lake View in positive, balanced, and responsible ways. Technology is a big part of our lives at school and at home. At Lake View, we just don't use technology. We learn how to use it responsibly, when to use it, and when it is better to put it away. There are times, for example, when it's helpful to to it really helps us learn. When we're doing a handson game with our classmates, our teachers do a great job differentiating not just what we learn, but the way in which we learn it. Technology is very helpful with that. That's why
004our students have focused on balance. balance dig digital citizenship and making healthy choices with screens. One way we learned about healthy technology used was through the screen ages project. Screeners help us understand the way our the way screens affect our brain, sleep, focus, and emotions. It also helped us learn that screens aren't good or bad. It's about how we use them. Some important takeaways we learned were screens can help us learn, but too much can make it harder to focus. Talking breaks from screens helps our brains reset. Talking with adults about technology helps us make better choices. Screeners helped us feel more aware and more in control of our screen habits. At Lake, we believe in balance. We use technology for research, writing, creativity, and collaboration. But we also do hands-on learning every day. We
005build, experiment, read real books, work in groups, and learn by doing, not just by staring at screen. Balance helps us stay engaged and excited about learning. It helps us work together, problem solve, and be creative. Technology is one of our tools, but it's not the only way we learn. This year we are doing our first ever no screenathon. During this time we are trying new activities like playing outside, reading, drawing or spending time with family. It is helping us realize how much we can enjoy learning and having fun without screens. We also know this will help us come to school each day even more available available for learning because we got better sleeps and our mind could be that much more focused. I'm doing gold 28 days of the screenathon because I think when you're
006off a screen, you engage with family and friends more. We also learned about digital citizenship. That means being respectful online, staying safe, thinking before you post, and and using technology responsibly. We are learning that how we act online matters just as much as how we act in person. Recently, we explored how social media can be used for positive purposes. We created a video inspired by a trend where students shared what they are grateful for. It reminded us that social media can be used to spread kindness, motivation, learning, and inspiration, not just negativity. what they're saying. >> Okay. Uh next up in our special presentations, we have the uh 2026 2027 preliminary budget presentation and uh Mr. Kim is going to take a majority of that and then I'll just take the the last board goal.
007>> Thank you, Dr. Moore. Um the 2025 2026 board goals. Uh just wanted to give everyone an update with regards to where we are. Um, Dr. Moore, are you controlling the slides or are the slides being controlled uh by that uh laptop? >> Okay. >> Hello. want to just hit the slide the next slide. Yeah. Okay. >> Okay. uh goal number one which was to strengthen the onboarding boarding tools available for new board members. Uh Mrs. Astrino uh took point on the document itself. Um did you want to say a few words about the document Mrs. Astino? Um, basically just as far as the document, it's a matter of compiling a lot of information that's both personal to the district but also general so that if you're coming on to the board and you've never
008been through the process before, it highlights everything from your initial processes, meeting with the superintendent all the way through your yearly trainings, what's required, um, how you can attend certain things. So, it's basically just like a go-to. >> Great. Thank you. Yeah, that document is going to be an ever evolving document. uh it is available to all the board members to take a look if they wish to make a comment. Uh we hope to have this finalized by either the March or April meeting so that we can sort of have this for any new board members that come aboard. Um you know I did also take a course down in Atlantic City and I made a few notes as well. So again it will be an ever evolving document but I do want to uh
009thank Mrs. Astrino for taking point and getting that done. Um num goal number two, the next slide please, was to formalize the process of setting board and district goals. Uh in the past, um I I do recall a few conversations with uh different board members about how we uh as a uh as board goals would often talk about it very late. uh and so uh instead of passing around emails uh middle of the year we decided that we want to maybe formalize the process uh and we talked to during governance committee we also talked to the administration about including that with the district goals. So the first one that uh the first um individual goal that I had was to have quarterly communications with regard to the updates of the goals. So this is our
010uh semiannual update. Uh last meeting the administration gave us uh updates on their district goals. So I want to thank them uh on their update that they provided. Um having this uh appear as a quarterly uh update really keeps us um on our toes and making sure that we are touching upon these goals. Um so my hope is that we take these steps and we formalize it. The next part of the goal is to maybe discuss in June or July the next year's goals. Um something that we can maybe have an informal discussion with regards to what we might want to accomplish for the next year. So um Dr. Forte uh Dr. Cullis did bring up some interesting points. for example, um often we would have our uh presentation with New Jersey school boards in
011July, which doesn't really give us much time for conversation. So, Dr. Forte suggested that we try to bring up our meeting with school boards uh back in early June. And uh Dr. Forte, it looks like uh you were able to have our board self evaluation review with school boards earlier in June. Is that correct? Yeah, I looked last year we did it at the same meeting. So we did it in June 9th. This year it'll be June 8th. I did have confirmation from Dr. Panero from school boards and he'll be here that night. >> Awesome. Thank you very much. Uh I'd like to propose that we have it as a retreat um for June 8th so that we can have uh a very uh extended session um and then also maybe have conversation of upcoming
012goals. So I would like to request that the board members have some ideas and thoughts for that meeting so that if we want to have any district or board goals, we have that conversation early on and then we can uh uh maybe formalize it during that meeting. Uh my hope is that we can again uh document this process, maybe make this into a policy and uh and keep this process uh as a more formal structured um organized way of uh accomplishing first setting the goals and then uh trying to meet those board goals by the end of the year. So any questions or comments? Awesome. So that was the update on goal number three. Uh goal number I'm sorry, goal number two. Uh next slide please. Goal number three is advocacy for the district needs
013at all levels of the government. Um the first thing I do want to bring up is that New Jersey school boards is uh having their next delegate assembly in what was it? May I believe uh it's in the notes of our governance committee. So, uh, May 16th is the next delegate assembly. Um, they need to have resolutions, board approved resolutions by March 5th. So, uh, Mrs. Aalis, Mrs. A Dallas and I spoke, uh, that we might try to have something finance related or healthcare related uh, for our next meeting uh, this month. So we are trying to prepare a new resolution uh for the board to approve and then we would like to have it um at the next delegate assembly on May 16th. So any resolutions uh the deadline is March 5th. If there's
014any other board member that wishes to have uh a resolution uh presented at delegate assembly, please uh email myself or Mrs. Dallas and we can see if we can get that resolution on the February meeting as well. We'll let uh Miss Grosski know of those um those resolutions. Uh in terms of the uh there is a semianual I'm sorry there is a new um all counties legislative committee that is going to be held by school boards uh that Morris County is spearheading. So, uh, there's going to be a meeting upcoming, and I don't have the date, uh, right now, but I'll let all the board members know, but we will be looking at discussing, uh, state level issues, uh, that districts are having as part of an ongoing conversation with politicians and with, uh, legislators.
015So that is sort of our goal number three there is to continue to advocate for Denver's interests at the state level um and local level. So any questions with regards to that? And Dr. Moore, did you want to take number four? Goal number four. >> Sure. If we could advance to goal four. >> Excellent. >> Yeah. So goal four uh we're we're handling in IMP uh to advance a safe and supportive and respectful school environment by reviewing board policies on uh student code of conduct. So and that's been sort of uh broken down into into two parts. There's the code of conduct revisions and part of that is to rewrite the code of conduct to reflect the uh character education curriculum. Um, item number two is to create a a a distinct bullying and student
016conflict section of the code of conduct that differentiates it from the HIB. The focus being on on remediation as opposed to investigation and verdict. And thirdly, the code of conduct policy that reflects an emphasis not only on on stopping behaviors but increasing respect and resiliency and coping strategies for all students involved. Second part of that is to develop a review policy of the code of conduct or a review process of the code on code code of conduct policy. Um kind of using the code of conduct checklist as a model that's um uh circulated around a little bit and I can um if anyone's interested I can get that to them. Um and basically what we're looking to do is establish a means of assessing the effectiveness of the interventions. Um and some of the things
017we've talked about regarding that is um you know having follow-ups with uh with with the children involved um in terms of finding out uh how they feel about the uh the res the status of the resolution, how safe they feel and uh potentially developing some kind of procedure for all parties to rate the effectiveness of the strategies employed and their overall experience. In terms of status of that um in in March, Dr. Cullis will be providing the committee with a draft of the code of conduct regulation with incorporated restorative justice language and practices. Uh this is a draft administration flowchart with examples of what restor when a restorative justice is appropriate, a list of restorative justice practices and when appropriate and a sample of restorative justice scripts. Um, and then around April, we'll look at
018drafting possibly the the separate uh bullying and student conflict section after the uh restoration justice uh staff training has been implemented. And uh as far as the review process goes in, uh in March's IMP meeting, uh we'll begin to discuss what that might look like and how to collect that data. Are there any questions about that? All right. Well, that would uh sum up the uh presentation for the uh board goals. Um upcoming presentations, we have the new date of March 16th for the uh preliminary budget presentation and uh Mr. Kim has already referenced the uh the June 8th uh goal recap, goal setting um and the board self evaluation review um in retreat style. Um are there any questions regarding those presentations or comments? >> I'll make a comment. Very well done. And uh
019number four, which we've had uh some involved lengthy discussions on interpreting what is bullying, what's not bullying, and uh this disciplinary actions. This is really uh going to up our game and doing it better than we have. Not to say it's been bad, but uh this is really a fine-tuning it and getting it up another level. Good job, All right. Well, we'll move on to uh superintendent's comments. >> Um I don't have any comments tonight. So, I'm going to pass it over to uh Dr. Collis. >> This Saturday, we I would I had the fortune good fortune to go to the Valley View Boys Basketball Championship and our boys did win the county championship. was a very exciting game. I know Mrs. Adelis was there as well and it was uh going into this we
020were undefeated but we knew it was going to be a tough game and before half we were down I think by 12 but third quarter they were able to bring it back and then it went kind of back and forth the whole game came down to the last 10 seconds and we shot we missed but the same shooter rebounded and made the basket with just a couple seconds left. Um and then it kind of went out the last two seconds sort of played out back and forth and uh they end up winning. So it was very exciting game. Um we'll invite them over for you know at one of the later board meetings but it was really exciting uh game to go to. Did you want to add anything Mrs. Day Delis? >> It was
021very stressful. Uh, you know, they the whole season was um they I think they they were an excellent team. There's 15 boys on that team. Um, seventh and eighth graders. They all tried their hardest. They all went out there and really gave it all they got all season long. Um, they they love to win and they really wanted this. So, you can tell how they played on Saturday. Um, and our best player actually got shut out and we were still able to come back. the rest of the team held it down and they did a really great job and it was all the parents and the uh kudos to all the parents. We we didn't bum rush the uh the court, but um they did a really great job and we're really proud of them.
022So um if you can go to any of these games, I promise you you will be entertained. It's exciting stuff. >> Just some updates on our kindergarten registration. So currently, I probably stopped saying these numbers, but our current kindergarten that are seated now, Lake View, we now have 81, Riverview 92 with a total of 173. We have now started kindergarten registration for 2627. And for those that have not registered, the link is open. It's on our web website at denville.org or you can go to any of the Friday folders. Currently we have 130 students and that's compared to 97 at this time last year. Uh that does not include the prek that I know we have 30. So essentially I know we have 160 at least. Um so we'll just keep watching it and Dino
023and I have been kind of following it that looking at the data for the last four years and trying to come up with patterns or anything. So we're watching But we I think it may be a big This is the first time I've said that. I think this actually will be a big class. U Kogat's second and fifth grades February 23rd through 27th. Those parents have already received their letters. So that's coming up. And this concludes assistant superintendent report. >> Okay. Any questions or comments? All right. That brings us to uh business administrators comments. >> Uh I have a few comments. Uh last board meeting, one of the uh board prior former board members brought up a um a concern about power conservation and we brought it back to the schools and they took the
024idea and run with it. All three schools uh put together a list of laminated in purple, a list of uh check items that they should be turning off at the end of the day and they post it next to the door before uh so the teachers can see it before they go home. So they are implementing this and running with it and doing really well. The other comment is uh typically uh the governor do the speech for uh the budget presentation on the fourth uh Tuesday of February. This year has been delayed for approximately two weeks. Uh it is expected to be on March 10th and the stated numbers will be released 48 hours after. I'm mentioning this because the board meeting to approve the preliminary budget was originally it's scheduled for March 9th uh
025with a submission to the county by March 20th. We will need to reschedu that board meeting to March 16 to accommodate the delay in the state and with the budget uh speech. If anybody uh has a conflict with March 16, uh please email me and um I will have to advertise to reschedule that meeting. And lastly, but not least, uh the ethic commission disclosure form is available. Um if you cannot find that, email, email me and I'll resend it to you and uh we can get that going. Thank you. any uh questions, comments? Uh I just want to uh thank uh everyone involved in in uh kind of running with uh that uh comment that was made last board meeting about the electronics being left on. I mean, I think that's kind of a wonderful
026example of of how the the district responds to things. someone presents a problem and it's kind of swiftly uh dealt with with apparently enthusiasm. So, thank you for that. So, this is the uh portion of the meeting that is open to any individuals for the purpose of addressing resolutions on this agenda or matters that they find is important to the board of education and is governed by board policy 0167. and we will open it at 8:08. Seeing that no one's online and uh no one is here in person, we will also close at 8:08. And on to old business. No action to be taken. Uh at the uh next meeting, I'd like to move for approval the following resolutions under old business. Uh under item A is the reports for January 2026, treasurer of school
027monies and board secretary. Item B is the education reports, the report of student enrollment, report of the health office. And item C is the minutes uh for the organization meeting on January 5th, the work session and executive session meetings also on January 5th, and the regular session and executive session meetings one and two on January 26th. Can I have a roll call? >> No. Okay. Under new business, we have uh personnel. Mr. Capello, could you take us through that? >> I'd be happy to. Uh if there are no objections under personnel I would like to move items one through seven as a block. Uh items uh item one uh includes uh new hires resignations, retirements, employee leaves, extra pay, salary adjustments. Uh number two is an FMLA uh retroactive approval of leave. Number two is
028rescending our action of 12626 uh A1F. Uh four is to retroactively approve the termination of an employee for cause. Number five is approve the attach revised job description for the assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction. Number six is to approve the master staff list tabs one and 14 only. And finally number seven is to approve the revised substitute list for the 2526 school year. >> I'll second Roll call. >> Ellis. >> Yes. >> Miss Asterino. >> Yes. >> Mr. Cass. >> Yes. >> Mr. Anderson. >> Yes. >> Mr. Capello? >> Yes. >> Mr. Kim? >> Yes. >> Dr. Moore? >> Yes. And under instruction and program, uh, Mrs. Eststerino, would you take us through that? >> Sure. If there are no objections, I'd like to move items 1 through three. Starting with title three consortium
029purchases. Um A through G. You have school supplies uh through Riverdale, Rockaway Burrow, and Longill Township. And then also, um the attached list of field trips for the 2526 school year, as well as the following students to observe during the 2526 school year, um both at Lake View and Riverview. >> I'll second. Roll call. >> Mr. Delis. >> Yes. Miss Asterino. >> Yes. >> Mr. Cass? >> Yes. >> Mr. Anderson? >> Yes. >> Mr. Capello? >> Yes. >> Mr. Kim? >> Yes. >> Dr. Moore? >> Yes. Uh, seeing there's nothing under governance, we'll move to finance. Mr. Anderson, can you take us through that? >> Sure. If there are no objections, I'd like to move under def finance. Item number, excuse me, item number one, which is for the board to approve, Summit Speech School
030to provide interant uh teacher of the death stu services for an individual student for the remainder of the 25262 school year not to exceed $1,375. And then item number two is a resolution for member participation in the Payic County uh cooperation pricing system ID number 38PCCP. Second. >> Go ahead, Mr. Kim. Um Mrs. Gowski, the co-op for Pose County, uh this is it. Will this be in addition to any other co-ops that we're part of like Morris County co-op? >> Yes, it is. It will be in addition to We have a few vendors who do business through this co-op and if we participate, we can exceed the bit the bid threshold with those vendors. >> Um, does it make sense to maybe then participate with other county co-ops just in case like Bergen County Co-op
031or, you know, Sussex County Co-op? I mean, are we already part of those counties? We are already part of Mos's uh co-op. >> Great. Thank you. >> Roll call. >> Miss Ellis. >> Yes. >> Miss Asterino. >> Yes. >> Mr. Cass. >> Yes. >> Mr. Anderson. >> Yes. >> Mr. Capello. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kim. >> Yes. >> Dr. Moore. >> Yes. Yes. Uh, next is operations. Mr. Cass, can you take us through that? >> Under operations, we have one item under transportation. I'm asking the board to approve the attached resolution regarding the joint transportation agreement with the Sussex County Regional Transportation Cooperative for the 2026 2027 school year. Second roll call. >> Mr. Delos, >> yes. >> Miss Asterino, >> yes. >> Mr. Cass, >> yes. >> Mr. Anderson, >> yes. >> Mr. Capello,
032>> yes. >> Mr. Kim, >> yes. >> Dr. Moore, >> yes. And next, we'll move to new business. No action to be taken. Under personnel, Mr. Capello, could you take us through that? >> U, I'd be happy to. Um, at the next meeting, I or someone else will be moving items under personnel. Uh, items one will include new hires, resignations, retirements, employee leaves, extra pay, and salary adjustments, of which there are none currently. Uh, number two will include the updated master staff list, tabs 1, 12, 13, and 14 for the 2526 school year. And, uh, number three is the revised substitute list for the 2526 school year. A second. >> Forgive me. >> Under instruction and program, uh, Mrs. Astrino, can you take us through that? >> Yes. I, um, at the next meeting, I
033or someone else will move for the following workshops with expenses. As of right now, there are none listed. And then once again, the field trips. And under governance, Mr. Kim, can you take us through that? >> Sure. Uh during the next meeting, uh I or someone else will be moving the policy section for first reading. The list of policies that we will be uh approving for first reading is listed in the agenda. And a lot of them uh some of them are new, some of them are revised and two will be abolished and replaced with new ones. Okay. And uh under finance, Mr. Anderson, can you take us through that? >> Sure. At the next meeting, myself or someone else will move uh under finance our checklist um as well as probably any other items
034that are added, but uh right now just has the checklist on the agenda. >> And that leaves uh operations, Mr. cast. At the next meeting, there's an item under building of grounds for the board to approve the following building facilities usage for the summer of 2026. We have pro sports experience football camp at Riverview. Denver recreation summer camp at Valley View, Denver Schools ESY program, TBA status, Denver schools enrichment program, also TBA status. Okay, that brings us to the good of the cause. Um, are there any uh committee reports? Okay, we can move on to uh board meeting highlights. I have the Lake View kids and the and the uh goals update. >> Okay. Any other discussion items? I'll just mention one thing about the um merger of school districts that is gaining a little
035bit of momentum down in Trenton with the legislature and right now it's school districts 500 or less students are being targeted. So no details um how those districts are doing financially and how those districts are doing academically etc. So but uh there you know they they did do it once before it um it was more of an optional voluntary thing for school districts to do it on their own. So there have been some self-initiated. So that's uh be interesting to see how that goes along and if they increase the uh the size of the schools, you know, to a larger school district to to merge them. And it sounds like it's more forceful than volunteer the direction they're heading. Um, I just wanted to mention, uh, in light of the awesome presentation that was given
036tonight by the students at Lake View, Riverview is having their second, uh, recess after dark as part of their post, um, anxious generation initiative. The first one was a parents night out. So, um, staff and parents volunteered to stay with the kids and it was a no screens evening and this time it's being encouraged. It's Friday, February 20th. if anybody wants to go. But it's a family night in, so everything will be geared towards dancing, crafts, board games, no screens, no electronics. So yeah. Okay. If there's no other uh discussion items, we'll move on to the uh portion of the meeting that is open to any individuals for the purpose of addressing resolutions on this agenda or matters that they find is important to the board of education and is governed by board policy 0167.
037And we'll open that at 8:20. Again, seeing no one online and uh no one here in person, we will close at 8:20 and there's no need for >> Dr. Moore, I would um request we do executive session. No action needed, but a brief one. I just wanted to bring up something that recently came up. >> All right. So, um we'll have a executive session. Um, I move to convene an executive session in accordance with section 8 of the open public meetings act. The purpose of this closed session will be to discuss negotiations, legal, security, and personnel issues. Minutes of this session will be made available to the public when the need for confidentiality no longer exists. I'll >> second. >> Yay. >> Yes. >> Nays. Abstensions.