001Mhm. >> All right, good evening everyone. >> Good evening. >> In accordance with the Open Public Meeting Act, N.J.S.A. 10:4-6, adequate notification of this meeting has been provided by Advertiser-News Record and the Herald News, posting notice in the Board of Education Administration Building, and filing notice with the City Clerk to ensure accessibility and interpreter services are available upon request. Please submit your written request at least 24 hours prior to the Board meeting to the School Business Administrator, Dr. Steven A. Lewis, at [email protected]. I hereby call to order the special meeting on Monday, May 18, 2026 in the Patanella Building at 6:16 p.m. 6:16 p.m. Ms. Agosta, please call >> roll call. Ms. Olsen-Vallejo? >> Present. >> Ms. Emma Hansa? >> Present. >> Mr. Carroll is absent. Ms. Gilmore? >> Here. >> Mr. Jones? >> Here.
002>> Ms. Pringle? >> Present. >> Mr. Stein? >> Here. >> Vice President Martin is absent. President Harris? >> Present. >> Do you have a quorum? >> Thank you. Please stand for the flag salute. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Please remain standing for a moment of silence, um, as we have recently just lost our athletic director this past Friday, Mr. Gordon White. >> Did you see that? Okay, so tonight is a special meeting, which means we're going to start with public comments first. After public comments, just so that the public understands, we will stop recording as we're going to go into executive session, and there is no action
003being taken after executive session, and we'll close the meeting right after that. Um so, here we go into public comments. Public participation shall be governed by the following rules. One, if in person, a participant must sign the sign-in sheet and be recognized by the presiding officer and must preface comments by the announcement of his or her name, municipal municipality of residence, and group affiliation if applicable. Two, each statement made by a participant shall be limited to a 3-minute duration during the public session. Three, all statements, questions, or inquiries shall be directed to the presiding officer, and any questions or inquiries directed by participant to another board member shall be redirected to the presiding officer, who shall determine if such statement, question, or inquiry shall be addressed by the presiding officer on behalf of the board
004or by the individual board member. And four, all board and or acting superintendent responses to questions or inquiries shall be held until the end of public participation. At this time, we open to the floor to anyone in person who would like to speak. If you'd like to speak, you just step forward to the and you can sit at the front. I see you, woman. >> Um parents of a few students in the in the school district. My question today is, why are we having so many meetings if you guys are claiming that we're in a budget deficit. I've had people in my inbox already ask me, "What's going on? Why are we having another special meeting when we already had one on the 6th? We had a meeting on the 13th. And now we're having
005a meeting today. There's a few meetings last month. And before that, with everything started since January in regards to the deficit. That's my main concern. Um we're still having currently solution in regards to special services. And parents are concerned, including myself, on what's going to happen next year and the class sizes of each student. And are they going to have a full-time para for IEP kids? That's including my son. Cuz he's going to be going to that department. And by my understanding, there's a lot of kids in that classroom. Not only for him, but also in other kindergarten class that they will need that second hand. >> First, I would like to speak. >> Yes, um my name is May. I more understand than I speak. But if I need help, I ask Cindy. Is
006that okay with you or me? Okay, my son, uh I have been I can somebody I have two kids. One is 3 years old. He's in the kindergarten program. And the other one is he's in high school in special education IT. So, like I just spoke with my son. He's crying because um I think next year he doesn't have electives. So, one of them got video show. And the other one got a musical ability. Well, two of them are that. So, I keep calling but I'm getting the offense. And I'm also getting two is I don't see any like change or anything like you know um he has been uh in a speech therapy three times a week. Now they cut once a week. And he really doesn't speak that much. And with our speech
007therapy, it helped him him a lot to improve. Um you know, special service is really important for him. And is the most fading now that he lose. He said he's in, you know, he's being in special education since he was 3 years old because he's a person with autism, and that's helped him a lot to improve. But, looks like that meeting is going to nowhere because, you know, he keep calling, but I don't see any results, so that's my my bigger concern. Thank you. >> Anyone else in person or would like to speak? >> No. >> All right, we're going to move on to online. >> Good evening. This is Bridget speaking. And I have been watching the last couple of meetings and special meetings. The question I have is why do we continue to
008have these special meetings when we're supposed to be on a budget management? This is a cost to the community that is a cost to the lawyer to pay him. And every time we have one, he's getting paid out of that budget. So, my thing here is why do we continue to have these meetings if you're going to talk about budget management when it comes to the financial uh situation. The second is to let the community know. If you want to look at finance records of board members, please open them. Go back. See how they voted. See who voted for what. Because when people come always seem to always um how could I say want to read something to make themselves feel good, the feel good is because they know how they actually voted in the
009past. There are multitude of them sitting on the board who've been here for a while. So, go back, open financial records. See how they voted and what they voted for. And then you might understand how we got here. Thank you. Have a nice evening. >> So, at this time for the comment section is now closed. Just so that the public is aware, yes, it's a special meeting, but as you can see, we do not have our attorney present, nor is our superintendent. There's a lot of people not here except for board members. Um we cannot discuss what it is that we are discussing in executive session. Um but it could be regarding personnel. Um it it's it's about personnel. That's all I can say. Um but that is the most that we can get into
010about that. Um other than that, um I do not have any answer to your special education question. As you can see, we don't have our staff here to answer that. So, by our June meeting, I hope that that answers your question. Um and that's pretty much it. All right, so we're going to move on into executive session. Be it resolved that the Hackensack Board of Education determines it necessary to meet in executive session on Monday, May 18th, 2026 to discuss legal, personnel, student-related matters, HIB reports, negotiations, and other confidential matters. And be it further resolved that these matters will be made public when the need for confidentiality no longer exists. Can I have a motion to go into executive, please? >> So moved. >> Motion by Trustee Sign, and a second? >> I'll second. >>
011Seconded by Trustee Jones. All those in favor say aye. >> Aye. >> Anyone opposed? Any abstentions? All right, thank you all, members of the public. Um as I said before, this meeting will be stopped recording and when we leave executive session, the meeting will be over. All right. Have a good night, everyone. >> Thank you very much.