October 15, 2025 Board Meeting

001That sounded good. I >> Good evening everyone. >> Good evening. >> Please stand please stand for the flag salute. >> I aliance 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 be seated. In accordance with the Open Public Meeting Act, NJSA 10 col4-6, adequate notification of this meeting has been provided by advertising in the record and posting notice in the board of education administration building and filing notice with the city clerk. To ensure accessibility, interpreter ser interpreter services are available upon request. Please submit your written request at least 24 hours prior notice to the board meeting to the acting school business administrator, Linda Agastra, at l aostastra hackinackschools.org. I hereby call to order the regular

002public meeting on Wednesday, October 15th, 2025 in the Hackinack High School Media Center at 6:16. >> At 6:16 p.m. Miss Aostra, can you please do a roll call? >> Miss Olsen Baluch, >> present. >> Miss Emza, >> present. Mr. Carol, >> present. >> Miss Gilmore, >> here. >> Mr. Jones, >> here. >> Mr. Martin, >> present. Miss Springle >> present. >> Miss Harris >> present. >> Mr. Stein >> here. >> We have a quorum. >> Thank you. Right. So, uh, at this moment we don't have a student special presentation, but we do have our new student representative, which is Zoe Gonzalez. Welcome. And she will now give her student report. >> Good evening. Our school is off to a flying start with our clubs, activities, sports, and academics in full swing. Earlier this month, the

003high school hosted a student activity club fair during lunch periods. Students were able to learn more about our clubs and activities during a barbecue style lunch on our football field. The event also included bounce houses, games, and other fun activities. On October 17th, all grade 10 and 11 students will be taking the practice SAT during school. This will be a delayed opening for students who are not testing. On October 30th, our HHS guidance department will host our college and career fair with over 100 colleges represented. It will take place in the main gym 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. and all families are welcome. Our drop in center continues to host welcome back events for our students. Events include mindfulness activities, meet and greets, and pumpkin patches. Coming soon, November 20th at 6 PM, grade 8

004open house. This is an event that showcases our high school to all eighth grade families. We will highlight our academics, extra extracurricular activities, and sport offerings. >> All right. Thank you so much. At this time, be it resolved that the Hackinackag Board of Education determs it necessary to meet an in executive session on Wednesday, October 15th, 2025 to discuss legal, personnel, student related matters, HIV reports, negotiations, and other confidential matters. And be it further resolved that these matters will be made public when the need for confidential confidentiality no longer exists. Can I have a motion to go into executive motion by trustee Gilmore? I'll second. Second by trustee Yammer Hemsza. All those in favor say I. I. >> Oh my god, I can't talk today. Um, anyone opposed? Okay, so it is what time is

005it? 6:19. So I would say a little bit before 8:00 we shall be back. Okay. Thank you. All right. Good evening. We are back. >> Can I have a motion to reopen to the public session? >> Motion by Trustee Carol. Can I have a second? >> Second by Trustee Jones. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Anyone opposed? All right, we are back to the public. It is 8.6. Okay. Approval of the minutes. Be it resolved that the Hackinack Board of Education approves the board retreat minutes of August 27th, 2025 and the regular and executive session meeting minutes of September 24, 2025. Can I have a motion to approve the minutes? >> I'll Okay. Motion by Trustee Mahmsa. >> Second by Trustee Martin. All those in favor say I. I. >> Anyone opposed?

006Any abstensions? I Yeah. >> Okay. We have an abstension from Trusty Stein for both or is it for both? >> Both. >> For both. And who else abstained? And Demetri uh Trusty Carol abstained on >> um the August 27th, I believe. >> Into the mic. >> August 27th. Okay, moving on to our presentation business report and our first one is our anti-bullying bill of rights school self- assessment report by Miss Nicole Adams and Miss Heather White Coleman. >> Thank you. Good evening, President Harris, for trustees. >> Superintendent Parchment. So, Miss Kman, I are here tonight just to review um the self- assessment data that we have to report as a district. It is required. So, each school does their own individual analysis um of the HIPP reporting requirements. It's eight core areas that we report

007in that includes training um our reporting procedures um any instances that we have to report um are all a part of the self assessment. So our district average is based on each individual school submission and that's how we get our district average. The state requires a minimum of 54 points in order to meet the mandated regulation. Our scores are 71. The maximum score allotment is 78 points. So as you can see as a district we are doing well in this area. Um, it's also consistent with our uh district average from last year as well. I think it's like a onepoint differential. Miss Coleman, would you like to add anything? >> Any questions for us? >> Okay, thank you. >> Thank you so much. >> I feel like usually those are a little longer. >> Ah,

008okay. So it's coming. Hey, so our next presentation is our NJSLA data presentation by our assistant superintendent, Miss Rosemary Marks. >> Good evening all >> and I apologize in advance. There are a few more slides to this month's presentation that there were than there were last month, but I'm going to I'm here to share the data with you and give you some highlights. So you will see our NJSLA district analysis, the school analysis, demographics, DLM results as well as the interventions that we are have in place in response to this data. some noticeable noticings we call them at the elementary level in ELA and math proficiency rates have increased 7.7% and 4.7% respectively from the previous school year. Uh a lot to celebrate at both Fanny Hills and Jackson Avenue with more than 50% of

009students showing proficiency in mathematics at grade four level. more than 50% of Hillers in grade three proficient in ELA. 12% at Parker uh in third grade exceeded expectations in ELA and seven uh they were seven points above the district's elementary. Only 6% of Fairmont's fourth grade did not meet expectations in mathematics. And in sixth grade, ELA has increased by 15%, more than twice the rate of the state since 2223. In science, um scores in all three grades tested increased since 22 through 23 uh the 22 23 school year. So these are some highlights of our overall district data. We start off with our participation rate um as you could see there from grades three through grades 11. So participation rate is high across the grades and kudos to seventh grade with 100% in both ELA

010and math. At the elementary level, English language arts proficiency over time shows from 22 to 23 on your left on the left side of the screen, 23 24 in the middle to 2425 um on the right. And here as you could as aligned with some of the noticings I just pointed out, our met expectations and exceeds expectations um was 38.3 and 5.5% putting us at over 43%. For middle school, ELA performance over time, as you can see, meets and exceeds expectations for the 2425 school year. also has a slight increase over last year. And still with the LA, we are now at the high school level performance over time with last year showing a slight decrease in um in those green categories towards the right. And I will you will see the state again in

011a different chart. So here you have it and this is our ELA proficiency rate by grade again over the last three years with the change on the right side for the district and the state. I'm not going to read these to you, but just they're there for you. And moving on, we are now at math and we start at the elementary level performance over time from 2223 through the 2425 school year. And again in the 2425 school year the meet expect met expectations and exceeded expectations is at 41% which is the highest in the last 3 years. Moving on to the middle school math performance. You'll also notice that the 2425 scores in meeting expectations and exceeding expectations categories is um the highest in the last three years. and moving on to high school. And

012there was a slight dip with the other categories showing some minor change. And that data here showing district and state comparisons over the last three years with the change and I'd like to highlight in grade three we showed an increase of over 10.1% versus the state change of 2%. There was a dip for us in grade four and then we were up again in grade five with a 9.3% increase as well as in grade six with a 6.2% increase and grades um seven and eight also showed slight increases. This is our math subject for those students taking algebra 1, algebra 2, and geometry. And this is proficiency over time comparing the same years. And this is definitely an area of um attention that we are paying extra attention to. Moving into science. We test science

013in grades five, 8, and 11. And so this is for middle school. And our proficiency and advanced proficiency categories uh are the highest in 2425 as compared to the previous two school years. And this is our high school science proficiency again over time with the proficient and advanced proficient categories being the highest in 2425 as compared to the previous years. And this is that same data in a different chart. And the change on the right hand all the way to the right in the last column to the right shows the district proficiency was up 3.2% as compared to 3.3 with the state and we're pretty on par in grades eight and nine with the change showing increases at all three grade levels. We would like those increases to continue and grow and that's what we

014are looking forward to. the school analysis and this is required by this by NJ DOE. And so on this slide you'll see our elementary ELA scores for grade three starting on the left with Fairmont School moving to the right to Parker then Hillers and then Jackson. And the um the green the light green and the dark green columns show um the growth um across um the elementary schools and a lot to celebrate um at Pillars and at Jackson as well as Fairmont and um Parker for grade four. This is that jump we saw at Hillers with 52% in the light green and meeting expectations and 5%. So that's that 57% that met or exceeded expectations and at Jackson the 34 and 11 putting them at uh 45% Parker at 44% and Fairmont right there at

01542%. So, making gains and we can we look forward to continued growth. Our middle school ELA scores by grade starting on the left with fifth grade, moving to the right, sixth, seventh, and eth. and our high school ELA scores. And now moving on back to elementary and math. This is our elementary schools grade three mathematics scores. And again really celebrating seeing the meeting and exceeding expectation columns growing at Jackson Avenue School the meeting and exceeding at 52%. at Hillers at 50%, Parker at 43% and Fairmont at 35 for grade four mathematics. Again seeing consistency at Jackson with 47% of grade four students meeting or exceeding expectations and the other schools a little bit behind but almost there. Middle school scores. Again, moving from left to right, fifth, 6th, 7th, and eighth grade. And you will

016see us speak to the interventions responding to these scores in just a few slides. Here you see the middle school mathematics subject scores and these are our algebra 1 and geometry students. These are students who are taking um these courses as honors courses at the middle school. A lot to celebrate here meeting and exceeding expectations in algebra 1. Proficiency obviously very high at 94%. And geometry as well at just under 90%. High school mathematics scores from left to right you see algebra 1, algebra 2, and geometry. And now we're moving to the middle school science by grade. And again, we test science in fifth grade and in eighth grade at the middle school level. And our science high school scores for the science taken in grade 11. And now we're moving on to our demographic

017analysis which shows our comparison between demographic groups. You will see in cases where we have fewer than 10 students, there's just nothing there because we cannot um the state does not allow us to report on any uh groups less than 10. So these are our score distribution um charts by race from left to right. And the two categories that we don't have we have fewer than 10 students uh American Indian Alaskan Native and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander. Moving forward to mathematics score by race. Again, the two subgroups remain fewer than 10 as in the previous slide. And you see proficiency meeting expectations and exceeding in the light green and dark green columns. This is science distribution by race. And this does include all grade levels. So fifth, 8th, and 11th grade science scores, ELA

018by program. This is where we look at scores according to the program students are enrolled in. On the left, multilingual learners. Moving to special education in the middle we have 504 plans and to the right free and reduced lunch program and general education. This is now mathematics by program. and science by program. DM. These are for those students who take an alternate proficiency assessment based on IEPs and our proficiency rate over time. For ELA as well as math for science, we did not have um enough students participate. So, science scores uh are not provided. We don't have data because uh we did not have a subgroup uh more than 10 students. And now the real work that we have to do is our response to this data and we are implementing a comprehensive data informed

019approach. It is designed to meet the needs of all learners. It is based on NJSLA as well as our MAP data and we do this paired with ongoing progress monitoring where students receive targeted supports through a variety of interventions. Before I get into the interventions, I will uh highlight that you will be seeing some patterns with the interventions K4, 5 through 8, and at the high school level where we focus on tier one instruction for all students, per personalized learning, some reading specialist support, as well as tutorials and afterchool support. So for strengthening tier one instruction, we are focusing on standards align aligned small groupoup instruction using our curricular materials for multilingual learners. They will continue to receive rigorous standardsbased ESL instruction and the goal for them is increased English language proficiency. All subgroups will

020have the benefit of using adaptive literacy platforms and reading and they will also get reading specialist support across our elementary schools that either use a pull out or a pushin model to support um decoding fluency and comprehension skills. Students will identified stu students will receive afterchool literacy tutorials. All students have um dedicated blocks of time built into the school day where teachers deliver targeted literacy interventions as well as enrichment and retaching opportunities and progress monitoring consisting of regular assessments and data reviews to inform instruction. Sorry, too fast. Intervention strategies at the elementary level for math. Again, tier one instruction after school tutorials, the dedicated block of time within the school day for tiered intervention support as well as ongoing progress monitoring. Moving on to the middle school 5 through tier one instruction will continue there

021as well to focus on standards aligned small groupoup instruction differentiation and multilingual learners will receive rigorous standardsbased ESL instruction and again the goal is increased English proficiency. At the middle school, our students have opportunities to participate in reading labs which provide for targeted researchbased literacy intervention supports and teachers um deliver structured data informed instruction um to help students move along the grade level proficiency continuum as well as reading intervention. Afterchool tutorials will also be offered there as extended day sessions. Personalized digital learning opportunities with adaptive literacy platforms and flexible curriculum pacing which allows adjusting curriculum pacing to allocate time more thoughtfully. um where teachers have an opportunity to ensure they can take time to retach or go deeper um to help students um move forward with their targets. At the middle school, we also have

022an ELA coach that collaborates with teachers and supports teachers in delivering um targeted instructional strategies. They support professional learning with our teachers as well as datadriven decision- making. They also provide uh we also have multilingual instructional coaches providing strategies uh for teachers to scaffold language instruction to make content um more linguistically accessible to our ML learners. And um we also have student conferences available where students receive personalized feedback and have opportunities to um meet one-on-one with teachers to review their progress, celebrate growth, and set meaningful targets to move forward. in math. Again, the patterns you see the tier one inter in instruction interactive digital platforms as well as integrating delta math and core alignment into the math lab for all subgroups at the middle school level. Flexible curriculum uh is also offered there. Again, meant

023to allow educators to change their pacing to support the learning teachers believe is needed at that time for their students and tutorials offered as extended day sessions. 9 through 12 intervention strategies. Reading lab at the high school provides students with focus support in essential literacy skills. Some students may use read 180 code to receive personalized adaptive um literacy skill learning. and they also have opportunities um to uh practice um specific tasks for state assessments. We also offer adaptive literacy platforms at the high school. We also have an ELA coach that collaborates with teachers at the high school and also use student conferences again to have students meeting with teachers for personalized feedback and one-on-one conversations. Math at the high school also includes tier one instruction, the interactive digital platforms and a math coach that supports

024um teachers with enhanced instructional strategies, professional learning and datadriven datainformed decision-making. Oh, go back one for science at the elementary level. Mystery Science is used to supplement instruction with amplify science units in grades 5 through 12. The focus is on tier one instruction with open sED which it provides for standards alignment in biology, chemistry and physics and opens resource materials created with the universal design of learning UDL that supports scaffolds for multilingual learners. Activate science and insight assessments are also used to support middle school um science instruction and these also provide for two-way language um translation services. So overall an ELA math and science intervention strategies. This is meant to provide a continuum that provides for consistency and coherence at the 5 through eight level. Interdisciplinary units taught by both science and social studies teachers

025to support and extend learning and integrating content. Building time. This is a dedicated period at the end of the school day. uh both offered um at the middle school and high school where students are encouraged to visit teachers to receive extra help and targeted intervention. And we continue with ongoing ongoing progress monitoring which is really meant um for regular assessments and data reviews to ensure interventions are working and we are being responsive and equitable. Um, and that's what we have for you with our NJSLA data and response to intervention. >> Thank you, Miss Marks. Uh, are there any questions from the board or any comments? Is my mic? Um just wondering um in for um it definitely you know good to see where there were a lot of improvements especially across um our elementary schools.

026Um and just wondering if there is are some efforts to do some peer collaboration across the elementary schools for example where you might see a marked um improvement in in pillars for example over some of the other schools if if that's happening to help. So our um administrators are coming together and we have plans for professional learning for teachers to be able to collaborate. Yes. And just kudos to both uh our acting superintendent, Mrs. Parchment, and somewhere is Jen Lenooki, our >> director of curriculum, who's really done just a yman's job focusing on on building that professional learning plan for this year to support just that. >> Thank you very much. We really appreciate that. >> I do have a question regarding the DM students that that take the DM. Um, there are a lot

027of our students that are out of district. Do we count any of those students who take the DM out of district in our numbers or do we get those scores at all? >> That's a great question. And do >> we have to Yeah, >> they're technically still our students. Yes. You know, >> I'm sorry. Miss Lyneski, can you come up? Thank you. >> Hold on. >> Make it to the mic. Thank you. >> Eager to answer. Okay. So, um, so technically, yes, what you were saying, Miss Harris, is that is that they should they are our students, so it should be reflected in our our reporting. However, I would like to give you um a more secure answer and I would like to confirm that to just be sure. So, I'll just make sure that

028we re-examine the data and just make sure that's how it was reported to us. So, I will have an answer for you next meeting. Perfect. 100%. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> My question was related this >> one. Don't you don't have the answer probably the same in your in your re first of all I would like to say to the team >> superintendent parchment >> to superintendent marks director like everybody this is a great >> this is a team really contributed to the presentation thank you and the data analysis thank you very much and the data team >> Andrew and Marcela >> everybody it was clear concise straightforward um one I would like to So, does the data contain students who are not educated at these particular schools? So, if

029they're out of district at any grade level, are there are there scores included? Again, what students weren't educated in our schools? That's number one. related to that. Um I would like to see the data if there's a way to analyze the data to minimize the student mobility rate. Meaning that we're looking at students in five, six, seven, and eight to scrub out the students that were only here for six months to look at students who were truly educated by >> our staff in grades five, six, like had that that articulated education with us. Yeah. To see if the the picture is a little bit different. Um, another thing I would like to see would be, and this for future announcements, not necessarily to this one, >> raw numbers and not just percentages, because a school,

030especially comparing the elementary school, they're different sizes. >> So 53% of the fourth grade at Parker versus 42% of the fourth grade at Hillers might be the same number of kids. Mhm. >> And because we have some special programming where we send students or how students in different elementary schools, >> how does that impact what the third grade scores at Jackson versus the third grade scores at Fairmont look like if that if Jackson's identified the house students of this particular special program versus what's going on at Fairmont. So, I just wanted to do as much apples to apples comparison when we're comparing schools to each other. Um, but my big concern is which schools where we have kids out of district, which schools do we own? Which scores do we own? Like for example, at

031my school, I don't own my score. >> My scores. So, if they're hacking students that go to my school, >> those their scores will be included in the high school. Yes. >> Data, but they weren't educated by the high school. Mhm. >> Um, I just wanted to see how we kind of filter that out to to give you just what our schools and our staff are are are producing. Those are those are some of the things I'd like to see in future analysis. But um, and the DM also is particularly as a parent. I'm interested to know was my son included or not included in the analysis that you >> All right. Thank you. >> But thank you. I think you guys did a wonderful job. >> Sure. I mean, I can I can speak

032to I can speak to now thinking about it as I'm sitting here and I have an opportunity to process both questions. So, when we're looking at our data on the back end of things, when we're all done with testing and we have to clean it up and we're looking at students who are out of district or who have transferred in or are placed in our district, we that does follow the students. So like what I'm saying is is like if we have a student who comes to us and is placed in our school district that comes from another district even though they're educated by us the other school district owns their scores. So vice versa. So what you're saying is that that data does include our students who are educated elsewhere not of district placement

033but they are Hackinack students so they are included in that. >> Yep. It has to that's the data. Yeah. Follows the student that way. Yep. >> Um I just have a quick question. Um uh great presentation. Um you know the scores are are the scores and I see that there's a lot of uh preventative or actionable um things that the district is doing to try to increase the scores. But my question is are the students um using it? Are are they are they going to the extra help? are they um using the the measures that we put in place to to help increase the scores? >> I mean, that's stuff that we can follow up on. Those are all topics that we can track over the course of the year. I think it makes sense

034to do that because whenever we're putting an intervention in place, we have to make sure that it is working, right? >> Um so that's part of that accountability factor. So everything that you saw presented tonight are things that are happening in our buildings across the district. So we do have meetings about that. we are really focused on data. Um we're also focused on the intervention landscape in a sense of what assessments are we giving, how are we tracking progress over time. So you'll hear more and more of that um over the next few years, but in particularly this year as we really start to build that process and start to craft the framework of what that looks like. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. I just want to add at the middle school they

035reinstituted uh afterchool tutorials and they have a plan to track how many students attend uh each day each month and they will be giving a report monthly uh to me. So they've started there. >> Thank you. >> And I just >> Yes. my faux pa just a special thank you because uh appreciate the comments on the way the presentation was created and it would not have happened without our data analyst Andrew Jenkins Miss Monloa please stand and Miss Lenuski as well. So just when we say a team effort it really is a team effort. >> Amazing. Thank you. >> Helpful presentation. Thank you. Um, up next we have a presentation for our middle school athletics and that is with Mr. Gordon Whiting. >> Good evening. >> Thank you for having me here tonight. Uh, first

036I want to start off with I want to thank Mrs. Canistrino, our super confident and hardworking administrative assistant for putting together uh this PowerPoint. We started middle school sports a few years ago to enhance the development of our middle school student athletes in order to bring out the best in their abilities. And hopefully one day with the right development these young people will be part of Hackinack High School and future commerce. That's the number one reason why we started this program. I want to thank the board uh for starting it and supporting us in this program. We have three seasons. We have a fall season, we have a winter season, and we have a spring season. We start off in the fall with uh boys and girls volleyball. As you can see on this screenshot

037under girls, you'll see that we have a competitive schedule during the fall season and we have two coaches assigned to that team. The reason why we have a competitive schedule, we have uh 40 plus girls signed up for volleyball. So, we actually compete um against other schools. anybody who wants access to a schedule. Our girls are very good. Our eighth grade team is one of the best eighth grade teams in Bergen County and we play our games at Hackin Sack Middle School after school and we travel on the road and we play other teams in Bergen County um due to the interest in the sport and the amount of um young ladies that we have. Our boys team also they they participate in the spring. We have two coaches, but we consider this a clinic,

038a clinic clinic type atmosphere because we don't have the amount of boys participating in volleyball to have a fifth grade team, sixth grade team, a seventh grade team, and eighth grade team. We actually don't have enough boys to have uh one travel team. So, what the head coach decided because the head coach is Boris um Harris Burkovich. Harris is the head coach for our boys team, the head coach for our girls team at the high school. So, what I do, I meet with the head coaches and we decide how we're going to uh move the program forward. And we we decided to move the program forward in this manner. So, he he uh he actually comes down and volunteers, but we have two coaches for the boys and two coaches for the girls. and our

039entire high school staff comes down and they help out with the boys and girls team. So, I think you guys should come out and actually see our girls team play. You'll be very excited about that. So, same thing with cross country. What we did with cross country, we have a co-ed uh group and it's another clinic situation, but there is no co there is no cross country league in Bergen County. So we have we have two coaches assigned and what they do they practice two or three times a week and at the end of the fall season we have a meet inhouse here at the high school and they get a chance to run on the track and we give out medals and the winner the top three finishers get a hackin sack cross country

040jacket provided by coach Levitzki our head uh track coach that's what we do for cross country and we have approximately 25 to 30 uh young people. Swimming is also co-ed. Uh it's a clinic type situation. Most of the kids who are involved in swimming is their first time in the pool. So our head coach, high school coach is the coach along with coach uh Mr. Columbo. They coach the team and they teach the kids the basics of swimming. So, we have an um right now we have 21 21 kids signed up for swimming. We're trying to um enhance our high school swim program, but right now, if you don't know, we are we co-op at the high school level with Tina. So, that's what we did with our swimming program. And they also have two

041coaches. We have boys and girls soccer. Uh both are run in a clinic style. uh of wave I met with the head coaches and the head coaches wanted to run clinics because they wanted to teach the k the kids the basic fundamentals of the sport and that's why we're in a clinic type situation. A lot of our young people, girls and boys have have not played uh soccer. So they just teach them the basics and like we assigned two boys coaches and two girls coaches. They practice at the middle school on the turf field. And also the middle school um principal designed a schedule, a practice schedule where kids can sign up for more than one sport. We don't want to pigeon hole the kids and keep them in one sport. So you can play

042more than one sport because the schedules are set up for you to be able to sign up for soccer and swimming or cross country and another sport. I think that helps us because it exposes the young people to different sports. Basketball um during basketball season, if you if you notice on boys basketball is during the winter and it's competitive schedule, girls basketball is in the spring and it's a clinic type situation. um our our head coach Destiny Hall and her entire staff, they coach the girls basketball in the spring. So, they go down there and they teach them everything the high school team would learn. And the reason why we don't have a competitive schedule is I spoke with I met with Destiny and we only had 15 girls signed up last year and seven

043to 10 were there on a regular basis. So, Coach Hall and I decided this is what we're going to do. We're going to try to get to develop the girls, develop the program, and provide them with um outstanding coaching as the four coaches on the girls side. All played college basketball. And they are actually our actual high school coaching staff. So, the girls get a chance to meet and work with our high school coaches. On the boys side, we normally have 60 to 70 kids that that try out for the team. We have a fifth grade team, a sixth grade team, a seventh grade team, and an eighth grade team. And we also they also have four coaches and they are on work on a competitive schedule. And the kids who don't make that team,

044our coaches continue to work with them in a clinic type situation. So, that's how we handle um boys and girls basketball. Next up, we have one cheerleading squad. Um our high school head coach, Mia Mitchell, is the head coach of the cheerleading squad. And she is a Hackers High School graduate and she actually is coaching two teams at one time. She coaches the high school team and she coaches the middle school team. and our middle school cheerleading squad. They cheer at volleyball and they'll cheer at basketball uh games. And Mia Mitchell runs that and they also have another coach that works with her. Um during the uh spring, we don't actually have a softball team or a baseball team. Our high school softball coach, head coach, he runs clinics with one of his assistants. So,

045the young ladies are developed in the fundamentals of the game for for softball. Our high school assistant coaches, two of them run spring baseball and they teach the kids the fundamentals of baseball. We don't have an actual team, but we do have uh clinics in the spring for softball and baseball. Uh we also have co-ed tennis. We offer that um in the spring. We have two coaches. We're trying to uh develop some tennis players to increase the numbers of our high school team. So, the young people come here, they use the tennis court and our head coach of boys and our head coach of the girls work together on the fundamentals of the game. We don't have we don't actually have a football team for the boys. We do the foot the head football coach

046um comes down along with two other coaches and they work with our young men um on u football fundamentals, drills, skills. Uh girls flag football had become really big. Uh last year we had one of the the better teams in Bergen County and we're going to have a spring season for them. um our head coach at the high school will be one of the coaches and she will have an assistant and we'll have a girls flag football uh in the spring. Outdoor track is the same as cross country. We uh we do it co-ed. Um they practice at the middle school. At the end of the year, we have a meet here at the high school amongst themselves with our two coaches and our high school coaches, and we give out medals and jackets at

047the end of end end of the uh outdoor track season. Those those are the programs that we have. Um, I really want to thank the board of ed for supporting these programs because without these programs, we were not on the same playing field as the teams that we're competing against against at the high school level. The teams that we're competing against all have middle school programs that have been in their schools for decades. So, this is for us. This is something new. This is like a year three or year four for us starting this program. I just want to thank you guys for supporting that. I think it's going to make a difference and how we uh do in high school and how we perform and the kids can learn the basics of the game

048and the fundamentals and then when they get to high school, we can really be uh competitive. We just want to be competitive and try to do give our kids the best chance to have success at the high school level. And this program, thanks to you guys, is being supported. I want to thank you from the kids and the parents. >> Any questions for me? I can answer them. >> I do have a question. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Thank you for the presentation and thank you for coming >> um kind of on short notice. No problem. >> You know um because we did have um >> a student come up who's actually here in the audience today and I thank you for coming today tonight. Um, and so the question that some of us did

049have that came up was, what are we doing to recruit students or to promote these sports to our students in the middle school grades? Because it sounds like we don't have enough to create an actual team or to be a part of um a league, I guess, a league. So, what are we doing in the on the middle school level? our high school head coach, Destiny Hall. She's going to um meet with the parents and she's going to meet with the young the young ladies and find out how many students are interested, who wants to play and um and she she'd like to have a travel team. So, she's gonna meet with them and talk to them and we're gonna try to bring some people in, maybe speak to the young ladies about the importance

050of sports. K >> if we can. Yes, sir. >> I'm sorry. Yes. >> Um Mr. Whiting. Um great presentation and by you and um Michelle. Um >> to kind of follow up, how does um the uh wreck program affect the middle school program? That's a good question. We're we're now I met with uh Mr. Savage >> and we're going to try to work with them to try to develop uh programs. We're actually um in the process of starting a third and fourth grade girls basketball team. our former um head coach has volunteered to start a third and fourth grade basketball program. And we're going to use uh with Mr. Parchman's permission, we're going to use this is not it's not a secret, but it hasn't been proved yet, but I want to tell you. Okay.

051We're going to use Parker School, Fairmont School, Jackson AB, and Hillers. What we'll do, we'll rotate. One practice will be at Fair Mount, next practice will be at Parker, next practice be at Hillers, next practice will be at Jackson to try to get as many young ladies to come out, >> right? >> Um for for for all sports, right? >> Not just basketball, for all sports. >> But now, but does wreck take away from >> the kids that would sign up in the middle school or >> In a way, in a way it does, but we're free, >> right? >> Recreation is cost, >> right? So, but we're our all our programs are free >> to promote that >> kids don't have to pay. So, we tell them that they know that in school that

052it's free, >> but that takes away from >> it takes away from it may take away from their program. So, that's why we're trying to work together. >> Right. This that's my point. >> Yeah. So, that we're not taking away from them >> and they're not taking away from us. So, we're going to try to work together. And I met with M. Like I said, >> but that would affect the numbers too. >> Yeah. it kind of would affect the numbers, but we this is this is an historical problem. We're going to talk honestly. Our female athletes, we've always had low numbers and female sports for a long time. So, what we're going to try to do is raise those numbers somehow someway. Come up with some new programs, buy some nice uniforms, you know,

053um offer them things that they may like. Like maybe we'll go I don't know. It's just some things we have to do have to talk about. But our historically our numbers have been low. Anybody that's been hackinac knows that and we have to get the girls out somehow some way. I have we have some dynamic head coaches who are working extremely hard in their programs to make the programs better, >> make the programs bigger. Yes, Mr. Stein, I'm sorry. >> Um, with respect to three sports. >> Yes, sir. >> Specifically, uh, baseball, softball, and football. >> Yes. The city has junior programs. >> Yes. >> Are we competing with the city? And if we are, could our resources be used elsewhere to promote other sports? We're we actually aren't competing because we we practice at

0543 3:00. We go from 3 to 4:30. So, recreation normally starts at 6 with their programs on the weekdays. So, we're not competing with them actually because we start a little bit earlier. So, we're not competing with them. Um, so I as far as moving our resources to other sports, we could, but I don't I don't even know what other sports we could we have at the high school. We have bowling that we don't have in the middle school. We have that's about and golf. Golf. >> Those are two things we don't have at the middle school. >> We have tennis. We have track. >> We have everything. Well, crew is not it's not a sport. It's an activity. >> Yes. >> Um, is there an opportunity to um I don't know. I'm just thinking

055back of, you know, when Caitlyn Clark came into the league, all the excitement, all the little girls wanting to play basketball. Is there any opportunity to, I don't know, just get them excited? um maybe have a field a field trip to a WNBA game or something so they they can see what they they can become if they practice or I mean US Open is here, you know? I mean, there's there's I I think things that we can expose them to that might maybe get them excited about playing sports. Um, I know, you know, I grew up in Hackasac, was part of, you know, wreck sports all my life and, you know, it feels good driving around seeing all of the fields being used, play, you know, different sports. So, I think, um, we should collectively

056try to come up with a way to get our students involved in sports because we know when they're involved in sports, they don't get in trouble and, you know, they stay active, healthy, and, you know, all that other good stuff. >> That's a great idea. We're we're in communication with Fairley Dickinson and they are willing to uh collaborate with us, >> right, >> on a lot of different areas. Even like allowing us to play a game there, having their people come over here. >> Um they've they've used our gym to practice. >> Yeah. >> We've used their gym to practice. >> So, I mean, we're in collaboration with them. >> Yeah. >> Their uh girls basketball team is willing to come over. Nice. >> Spoke to AD. Just a few things that we're trying, >>

057right? We just got to we got to get it get it up and going, >> right? >> Because I witnessed the excitement that the band kids even felt when we um watched Morehouse practice, they were like fans, they were excited. And um you know, when the Morehouse kids came over to talk to them, you know, it was just organically good, you know, and I think if they're exposed to that more and more that it will just, you know, catch on. I think >> that's a classic example, the Morehouse band. Mhm. >> That was something that that happened that just happened for us, >> you know. >> No, it was great. >> So, >> that was great. >> There's things like that we can do. We're trying to do things. >> Okay. >> Um it just

058takes a little bit of time. >> Let us know how we can help. >> Yeah. You guys are always supportive. I'm never worried about that. We're always supportive and it just takes a little bit of time. It's gate work. Yes. Uh, one of the one of the things that experiences I treasured as a high school student, I didn't at the time, but I do now, was as a Hackinack High School cheerleader volunteering with junior cheerleing with the wreck. That part of my obligation and responsibility was to work with third, fourth, fifth, sixth graders to help them build certain skills. I think creating more opportunities for not just our coaching staff but for our students to pour into students who are younger than them. I think there's an opportunity there if you know assurance and all

059the logistics notwithstanding. Um the other thing that I noticed in the presentation that um if our boys basketball program is winter and has four grades worth of students and our girls basketball program is spring but then our flag football program is growing at the rate that it is and that's also spring. I think in terms of sometimes scheduling outside of the season makes the coaches more available to work with the students, but then how do we get we have so much in the spring for the girls to do. You're going to >> well you can you can actually play multiple sports, >> right? >> But there's a reason why girls basketball's in the spring >> is due to court and >> not the court. The court's fine. We share we share the court. Okay, that's

060not a problem. It's the how can I say it's the level of coaches that are available in the spring compared to the level of coach that are available in the winter. >> The head coach and her entire staff >> coach the girls in the spring. >> They want to have their hands on the girls. That will be future comments. Now the availability of the people who will coach the girls in the winter is not of the same caliber as the availability of our high school coaching staff entire staff in the spring. >> Right. >> So that's why a decision that I put on me I made along with the head coach was the level is not the level of coaching is not the same. >> Could you have middle school girls fly football in the

061winter so that your coaching staff is available? Well, there's no place for them in no place for them. It's cold. >> Yeah, you can't you can't do it. It's >> cold and I don't want to be outside doing mean. So, it's cold. So, the young ladies >> that play flag, our flag football team practices in the morning at the high school. >> They practice at 6:00 a.m. >> And then our girls middle school team will practice at 3. So the coach who coaches the girls in the morning >> is available to go in the afternoon and now when she says they're going to line up in red 34X the girls the middle school know red 34X and the high school girls know red 34X right >> so now they're learning the same terminology. Mhm. >>

062So now when we go to basketball and Coach Hall says, "I want you to front the post to a sixth grader, when that sixth grader becomes a ninth grader, >> she knows what the the coach is talking about because it's it's the same language. >> It's the same it's the same. It's language. Every sports have a different language and there's fundamentals and she is trying to have a successful program. So she doesn't want somebody. It's not it's her program. It's our program, but it's her program at the end of the day. But she's the one responsible for the wins and the losses and trying to get these girls to school. So, she doesn't want to have to repeat herself and teach everything new in high school when she can get some of it, not all

063of it, because some of it sophisticated to the middle school girls, >> right? >> And that's what we're gonna that's what we're trying to do. We're not trying to hurt anybody, not trying to leave anybody out. It's just that we I think we could be really good in girls basketball. I think we could. >> Um, Director Whiting, I just want to first of all, thank you for really kind of thinking outside of the box to try and help to promote our middle school sports and hopefully for everybody who's listening um that you spread the word to families and students um that there are so many wonderful opportunities to play a variety of sports uh at the middle school. Um, and I also want to commend you and Mr. Savage for thinking about ways for the

064schools and the city's program, the rec program to to really partner together. I think that's a great example of how we can really collaborate. Um, and Mr. Savage did mention at our community relations committee meeting uh last week that he was meeting with you and um and it just sounds like there's some really exciting opportunities. you know, we also talked about ways to try and bring in some WNBA players to to really try and get some of our girls excited about uh basketball. So, um really just wanted to thank you u and also to our student who raised um this really important need. Uh it's it's really important that we hear from our students and their families. So, so thank you for that as well. Madam President, if I may, um, we might be a

065little out of order, but can we hear uh from our student? She may have questions and, uh, while Mr. Whiting's here, he might be able to answer since she been here all night and have school tomorrow, give her that opportunity. >> Only only if if you wanted to speak. >> Thank you. Thank you for having me. >> Thank you. We appreciate it. You You don't have to. >> No. No. That's what I say. I'm not >> Thank you so much. >> Did you Did you want to speak? >> Yeah. Come on. No. Absolutely. Um, so my question is why is it only a clinic and not very like why is it just a clinic and not competitive I guess >> or what what sport in particular? >> Basketball. >> For basketball. >> Yeah. after speaking

066with uh coach Hall and after her observing what we the girls that tried out for the team, she we just didn't feel like we had enough girls developed to have a travel team. That was the reason behind it being not a travel team as of right now. Now, her ultimate her goal is in this if we have enough girls that we develop, we can have a travel team. We'll have a team and play over the summer together. And after she works with them and I think I think she can do it. I just have a lot of confidence in her. And I believe in what she's saying. So, we need the numbers to increase. She's going to work on the numbers increasing. Once we increase the numbers and she she gets them developed and we

067get a chance to develop our young ladies and get them out. That's why we we don't have a travel team because we don't have the numbers. >> Once we get the numbers >> the numbers, do you need a certain numbers for a grade? Yes. >> Or can at least two grades be combined as one team? You can combine teams, but we need we need seven girls, seven young ladies, >> eight to have a team cuz, you know, someone gets sick, someone gets hurt, >> foul out. There's a lot to it. We'd love to have a travel team. I'd love I'd love to have a travel team. I have a problem. Yeah, I'd love to have a travel team. We uh like with the boys, we have like we have 60 plus kids. We just need

068to develop a few more young ladies so we can have at least 10 players. We need to spread the word, too. >> People go on vacation. >> Well, Destiny's going to go to the middle school. >> She's going to go to the cafeteria. She's around. She works out. I think No, I'm not going to say out loud, but she has workouts for the girls. They work out. They They work out all year round. And that's the point we're at now. That's why we don't have a travel. The reason we don't have a travel team is we need to develop our young ladies, have a few more people so that we're, you know, 7 8 n 10 deep. somebody goes on vacation, someone gets sick and take it from there. We'll have a travel. >> Thank

069you. Yes, sir. Thank you for the presentation. Um, >> for flag football, how long has that program been going in the middle school? >> Oh, we just we just started flag football last year >> because I was about to say my daughter played in >> fifth and sixth grade and there's a Bergen County league that's packed with kids from Hackinack. >> Yes, we just started. Okay. So, that's great to see because there like we filled out all these squads and >> that's going to be competitive soon. >> We started a high school flag football team >> uh two years ago. >> Okay. And the New York Jets, thank you to the New York Jets provided us with everything free. Everything. I mean, we got all kind of things free. So we were we our team

070the first year was coached by me. We didn't have a coach at the time and the girls were great. I mean we beat we won some games. The girls loved it and they just got into it. So last year we hired two coaches to coach the team. Um we made the playoffs last year. We're we're we're building up. We're actually at We're actually at I think we have 40 plus girls on the team. >> Yeah, we have 40 plus girls on the team. >> So, and this year they're coming back with the same coaches and a even better team. >> So, so we're going to have start middle school and the head coach of the flag football team high school is going to coach the middle school team. >> That's great. >> Yeah. >> All

071of a sudden my daughter want to watch football on Sunday. >> I just have one last question. >> Yes. >> I'm sorry, Miss Gilmore. Give me one second. Um, at this time we we really do need to make a motion to extend our meeting past 10 o'clock since it's part of our bylaw. So, can I have a motion to extend our meeting? >> Motion. >> Okay. Motion by Trustee Carol. Can I have a second? >> A second. >> Second by Trustee Jones. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Anyone opposed? Anyone abstains? >> Thank you. I apologize. I think I jinxed myself, but go. >> No, I just had one question. Yes. I know we, you know, we say we don't have the numbers. We don't know why. Have we asked the girls

072why they don't want to play sports? Have we just asked like why don't you want to play? Have we just asked >> at the high school level? Yes. >> at the middle school the coaches go down there like volleyball. We got 40 plus girls. >> You know, it's just we have to really dig in deeper. Right. >> Right. and and and have a parent meeting, >> have a parents only meeting, have a student only meeting, and let's find out what's going on. >> But but like right now, we're getting ready for the our high school coach is getting ready for the high school season >> and she's going to go to the middle school. >> She's going to dig in with the kids and talk to them and sit down with them at the cafeteria

073and find out who wants to play and why don't she want to play. >> That's right. because she what she does now at the high school. She comes to the high school, she sees somebody in the hallway. You want to play basketball? You want to play basketball? >> Right. >> You want to play basketball? >> So that's what that's what we need to do. >> So Mr. Whiting, if you could just borrow you for one more second. So I understand that they have one more question. >> Yes. >> Mom, you were going to help out. Okay. Yes. Just one more question. So just stay up here so we can answer it. >> Let me see. >> Um, hi everybody. I know it's late, so I'm going to make this quick. Um, I just wanted to

074read Dallas's email that she sent for those of you that didn't see it or whoever's online listening. I don't know if everybody heard it. So, I'm going to read on her behalf because she's a little nervous. Um, so she wrote it, she addressed it to Mrs. Parchment and uh the members of Hackinack Board of Education. She said, "My name is Dallas Pwe and I'm an eighth grade student in the Hackinac Middle School. I attended the board of education meeting on Wednesday, September 24th regarding a concern I have with girls sports at Hackinac Middle School. I would like to take this opportunity to share my thoughts and what your actions will be moving forward. I am writing this email to you all because yes, it's important to me, but also I am speaking up for others

075who might be afraid or timid to do for themselves. I've always loved the game of basketball. It always was there when people weren't. Yes, I've played on various AAOU teams throughout Bergen County and I've succeeded. But something was missing. The hype of school basketball. I have girlfriends that play basketball from all over New Jersey, specifically Bergen County, mostly through AAOU and just mutual friends. They have all expressed their love for the basketball season, their school basketball season. It hurt that I couldn't experience it myself. I've heard amazing things. This past seventh grade year made me want it even more. This past seventh grade year, I played at Hackinack Middle School 7th grade boys basketball team. Yes, it was an amazing experience, and I appreciate the coaches for seeing the talent I have and making a

076special accommodation. It just didn't feel right in a sense. The way I felt when I was playing didn't feel the same as when I was playing with girls. I guess I was just used to being the star player and having similarities with my teammates that I didn't really get with the boys. Something that stood out to me is that Hackinack Middle School has four boys basketball teams for each grade and the girls have none. So, I am formally introducing my idea for a girls BTBL team at Hackinac Middle School. If you could please email me back regarding any updates, that would be amazing and greatly appreciated. Have an amazing rest of your week. And if I don't get an email back during that time span, so the reason I read her letter was because Dallas

077loves basketball like a lot of the girls, and I appreciate Mr. Whiting with this presentation. um because he and I have had conversations. Um but on the other side of that, Dallas played for Wreck basketball last season and she was on three teams. She was on a boys team at the Wreck. They created an all girls team at the Wreck that had 10 young ladies from the middle school and she played on a co-ed team for the Wreck. She was there on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3:30 in the afternoon to 9:00 at night because all three teams had practices on the same day. Her girls team, it was the first time those girls, a lot of them ever played. They weren't just playing clinics. They were playing against Payic, Patterson, T-C. Those girls were rocking

078out playing. And as a mom, it is not acceptable that a presentation is made that there's only clinics for girls. It's not fair. It's not right. And I hope that there is a change for these girls in the fall because now there's a flyer out for the wreck to have a basketball team. Mr. Savage sent it out yesterday to the families and I encouraged him to reach out to the middle school to see if they can share the flyer on the middle school social media and on Parent Square. He said, "Okay, Melissa, we'll work on it." Right? So, if there is no sense of urgency for these girls to partake in sports as a team and not a clinic, they're not going to show up. I thank you for your time. Um, and that's all

079I'll say. >> Thank you. >> Have a good night. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. >> Okay. Thank you so much. All right. So, we're moving on to our superintendence report. >> Uh, good evening everyone. Good evening. >> I would like to share uh the enrollment report. Uh we have a total of 5,14 students enrolled. You can see the breakdown by each school and I'm happy to report that our attendance is almost at 100. It's 98.86% for this period. Um on to harassment, intimidation, and bullying report. Uh we had five completed investigations. One was founded, four unfounded, three are pending and we have a preliminary determination of not HIV for three. I also want to uh thank our students, our teachers, and all of our staff and administrators for celebrating um Hispanic Heritage Month uh last

080night uh which was held at Hackinack High School. We had a great time enjoying our talented students and they performed with visual and performing arts. It was wonderful and especially our MC's. Uh we also recognize Indigenous People Day on Monday. And now we continue the rest of October acknowledging Italian Heritage Month and next Monday Dewali. I wanted to thank also assistant superintendent Markx for the student performance presentation um and also all those who helped to um who added to that presentation especially uh our uh Rosa Muhammed and Rich. Uh thank you for the interventions uh that were presented tonight. We want to thank Mr. writing for the presentation uh for the middle school sports presentation and to principal Adams and Mrs. Coleman for the anti-bullying bill of rights school self assessment report and that's pretty

081much all that I have. I do want to make a comment about the girls sports. We recognize the passion um especially for basketball, me being all state, all county, but >> to me as well. >> I wanted to I wanted to talk uh uh to Dallas before she left. Um, but we understand that and I I truly believe that this year that we were we're going to get a team and that we are collaborating more with the city so we can have those discussions. Thank you. Have a good night everyone. >> Thank you. >> Uh, oh, and I wanted to say one more thing. all three presentations tonight. We we are we have been so busy with doing many things and I just want to thank the administrators and all the people who were able

082to get these reports together in a limited amount of time and it was done well. So I really appreciate that. Have a good evening. >> Thank you. All right. On to 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 an announcement of his or her name, municipality of residents, and group affiliation if applicable. Two, each statement made by a participant shall be limited to three minutes duration during the public session. Three, all statements, questions or inquiries shall be redirected to the presiding officer and any questions or inquiries directed by a participant to another board member shall be redirected to the presiding officer who shall determine if such statement, question or

083inquiry shall be addressed by the presiding officer on behalf of the board or 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, public comment is open to anybody here in person. See that there are none. Anybody online? Sure. Let's go ahead. >> Hello. >> Yes. >> Hi, good evening. Uh my name is Randy Conbury. Uh it's my first time attending a Hackinack Board of Education meeting. My son started preK3 last week. So um I'm excited to just learn more about the district. I was once on the other side of the table as a board of education member in Perth Amboy. And I just want to thank everybody for the time and commitment that it takes

084to be on the board, especially at this uh this hour of the night with these with these later meetings. Uh and thank you to the staff. So I just wanted to uh again just briefly introduce myself and offer my support as a from a parent perspective now um in any way that I can whether volunteering um joining a committee. So um if I can share my contact with anyone uh please feel free to reach out. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Okay. At this time, public comments is uh public comment section is closed. We're going to move on to our committee reports and resolutions. So, we're going to start with personnel, which um our chair for personnel is trustee Amraza. >> Thank you, Madame President. Um before I begin, I would like

085to make a motion to table personnel items S3 and S4. Um if we could have a vote on that motion. >> Sure. Sure. Um, so we have a motion from Trusty Armor Hems. Can I have a second? >> A second. >> Second by Trustee Pringle. Miss Aasha, can you please do a roll call? This is the table item S3 and four. >> Yes. >> Miss Alustin Balutra. >> Yes. >> Miss Amza. >> Yes. >> Mr. Carol. >> Yes. >> Miss Gilmore. >> Yes. >> Mr. Jones. >> Yes. >> Mr. Martin. >> Yes. >> Miss Pringle. >> Yes. >> Miss Harris. Yes, Mr. Stein. >> Yes. >> Motion passes. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. And uh before I go ahead and offer the personnel resolutions for consideration, I do have the following two revisions. Um

086please note that for personnel item B5, um that should be adjusted to um step to be determined. That's for personnel uh item B5. And the second revision um is for personnel item T. Uh and in the parentheses, it should read subject to her retirement date um of November 1st, 2025. And with those two revisions, I would like to offer for consideration personnel items A1 A through X with the exception of tabled items S3 and S4. Okay. Thank you. So I have a motion from trustee Emrazza. Can I have a second? >> Second by Trustee Jones. Miss Aostra, can you please do a roll call? Miss Alustin Balucha. >> Yes to all except for B5. Miss Emra Hamza. Yes to all. Mr. Carol. >> Um, yes to all. I recuse myself from E6. >> Miss Gilmore.

087>> Yes to all. >> Mr. Jones. >> Yes to all. I recuse myself from M9. >> Mr. Martins. >> Yes to all. >> Miss Pringle. Yes to all. >> Miss Harris. >> Yes. >> Mr. Stein. >> Yes. >> Motion passes. >> Okay. Thank you. Moving on to policy. And the chair for policy is Trusty Pringle. Sorry. I'm sorry. >> Okay. So policy I would like to motion um for the first read um P0173 duties of duties of public school accountant revised P0143 board member election and appointment revised P1636.01 01 notification of promotion, new job and transfer opportunities. P 2422 statutory uh curricular requirements revised P5339.0 Z student sum protection new um P6620 penny um and that's all the highlight for I believe we have um just to look at B2 it says it approves the

088first read first reading it should say none right Well, let's just say second reading, >> you know, stuff like that. >> Okay. >> Just to to note for the future. Okay. Thank you. Um, okay. So, we have a motion by Trusty Pringle. Can I have a second? >> I'll first. >> Okay. Second by Trustee Amra Hemsa. Miss Aasha, can you please do a roll call? >> Miss Alustin Balutra, >> yes. >> Miss Emma, >> yes. >> Mr. Carol, >> yes. Miss Gilmore, >> yes. >> Mr. Jones, >> yes. >> Mr. Martin, >> yes. >> Miss Springle, >> yes. >> Miss Harris, >> yes. >> Mr. Stein, >> yes. >> Motion passes. Okay. Thank you. Moving on to curriculum. And the chair for curriculum is Trusty Pringle. >> Um, I would like to um highlight C

08917. Um I would actually like to explain um C17 because this is actually um some good news. Um, we are proud to announce that Hackes Public Schools have been awarded two competitive grants from the New Jersey Department of Education that will significantly enhance literacy and learning opportunity for years. First, HTack has received 200,000 through the impact grant instructional materials for professional advancement and coherent teaching grants. This funding will help to strengthen K through5 tier one literacy instructions by providing access to highquality researchbased instructional materials and professional learning to empower our teachers. This grant supports district-wide K5 instructional alignment and capacity building ultimately contributing to positive outcomes to in student literacy achievement. In addition, our district has been awarded 60,000 through the Lyft grant literacy initiative families and thriving communities grant. This grant will help us

090encourage families and caregivers in meaningful literacy practices, expand access to literacy resources for young children, and build strong homeschool partnerships by collaborating with the Johnson Public Library. the Bergen County Council for Young Children BYC. We will create sustainable family family centered literacy eos ecosystems with within Hackinas. We are honored to be recognized by the New Jersey Department of Education for our commitment in instructional excellence, literacy, and community engagement. These grants build on our ongoing efforts to support educators, students, and families, ensuring continued success for every child. >> Thank you. >> Can I get a motion? >> Yes, exactly. All right. Um, so we have motion from Trusty Pringle. Can I have a second? >> A second. >> Second by Trustee Gilmore. Miss Aashra, please do a roll call. Miss Alustin Balabucha, >> yes. >> Miss

091Emmerhems, >> yes. >> Mr. Carol, >> yes. >> Miss Gilmore, >> yes. >> Mr. Jones, >> yes. >> Mr. Martin, >> yes. >> Miss Spring, >> yes. >> Miss Harris, I need to recuse on C15 and yes to all. >> Mr. Stein, >> yes. >> Motion passes. Okay, thank you. on to finance and our chair for finance is vice president Mark Stein. >> Okay. Under finance, I'm offering uh D1 through D16. I'd like to uh direct the board's attention to D7. um this for a democratic uh democratic study uh in the amount of $13,500 to Ross Heb Heber and the account will be facilities professional services. Okay. So, we have a motion from Trusty Stein. Can I have a second? >> A second. >> Second by Trustee Fringle. Uh, Mr. Gasher, can you please roll

092call? >> Miss Alustin Balutra. >> Yes to all except abstain from D2. >> Miss Amrazza. Yes to all. Mr. Carol, >> yes. >> Miss Gilmore, >> yes. >> Mr. Jones. >> Yes to all. >> Mr. Martin, >> yes to all. >> Miss Pringle, >> yes to all. >> Miss Harris, >> yes. >> And Mr. Stein, >> yes. >> Motion passes. >> Okay. Thank you. On to school facilities. Our chair uh for facilities is Trusty Stein. >> Oh, I'm so sorry, Trusty Martin. I'm looking at you. >> Trusty Martin. It's late. >> How late? Um, I'd like to motion E1 through E3. This is pretty easy. I'll make this department is doing such a good job that uh they ran out of work. >> So, uh, E13 E3. I like the motion. >> Second. >> All

093right. So, we have a second from Trusty Carol. Miss Aasha, please do a roll call. Miss Alustin Balaputra. >> Yes. >> Miss Emmerza. >> Yes. >> Mr. Carol, >> yes. >> Miss Gilmore, >> yes. >> Mr. Jones, >> yes. >> Mr. Martin, >> yes. >> Miss Pringle, >> yes. >> Miss Harris, >> yes. >> Mr. Stein, >> yes. >> Motion passes. Okay. Thank you. On to community relations and chair for community relations is Trusty Gilmore. >> Hi, good evening. Um the community relations committee met last Thursday, but I did not attend. I was out sick. Um but trustee Amrahanza um ran the meeting for me and um I'm told that they made um some good progress towards a mission and vision statement for the community relations committee. Um we definitely want to have the right

094mindset on how we want to support the community. So um a way in which we do that is have a mission statement so that we um know that we are on the right path to what we're trying to um bring to our community and um we are still planning um for our upcoming um community health fair. So no new developments there but as soon as we have some I will share. That's it. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. um other committees. Uh just an update, our joint board and city meeting will actually be meeting tomorrow. So we'll give you an update at November's meeting in terms of um any outcomes. On to new business. >> New business. I'm glad you brought that up, Madam President. Um, as I'm sure the board is aware, uh,

095within our budget lines, we spend close to $8 million to send hacks students to charter schools. This is something that was placed upon us as a board by the state legislature. I think they owe us the money back since they're paying they have extended to our taxpayers to pay for charter schools. Um I do not offer this as a as a resolution at this time. What I'm asking the board right now is to think about this. Think how we can implement it. How we can say to the state, you created this. It's your responsibility to reimburse the Hackinack taxpayers to close to Amy $8 million. and I leave it now in the board's hands to discuss by yourself and then we will have a further discussion as a total board. I will offer if anybody

096wants to give any comments in regards to it any discussion at this point? None. Okay. So, we will discuss it again. >> Yes, you will hear from me again. I know we will. Okay. Any other new business? Okay. I see that there are none. Moving on to our second public comment comment section. Individuals may address the board on agenda and school matters of community interest for one minute. Is there anybody in person that would like to speak? I see that there are none. Is there anybody online? Okay, let's go to the online participants. Good evening. Uh, this is West. I just had a quick question. Um, no, more of a comment and then a question. >> I'm sorry. I don't think we heard your name. >> Donna West. I'm sorry. I'm homesick. So, sorry. >>

097Perfect. Um, our I have to preface by saying that our male custodians do an amazing job and you know doing things around the school, but I was wondering if we could possibly entertain the idea of like female floating or floaters only because I think that they would give that extra touch to the bathrooms if you know what I mean, the women sitting up there on on the deas. Um, and so I was just wondering if that's something that we could actually consider um having female floaters perhaps that would clean um the bathrooms just a little bit more um in our schools. Thank you. >> Thank you. Anybody else online? Okay, public comment is now closed. Moving on to board comments. Okay. Um we're going to change it up. Um, Trusty Gilmore can go ahead. >>

098Okay. Um, good evening. Um, first I want to thank um all of the presentations um done. They were amazing. Um, to Miss Markx, uh, acting uh, superintendent um, Miss Parchment, Mr. Whiting, um, and to the young lady, I don't know her name. Um I'm sorry the student >> Dallas Pway. Um thank you for your courage and your passion for you know bringing to our attention um the lack of girls sports. I know the importance of um sports. It is much more about winning. I mean it's not just about winning. It's about developing um so many aspects of your life. Um being a team player uh for one. So, I'm I'm excited that the district is going to um do something about this and um I'm I'm looking forward to um the lady comments coming back.

099Thank you. >> Thank you. All right, Trusty Hamsa. Uh, first I wanted to begin uh just by uh thanking all of our uh schools across the district for the excellent um Hispanic Heritage Month celebration last night at the high school as well as all of the activities that have been happening um in the last few weeks. Um and I do want to wish uh an upcoming uh happy Dwali um to all of our students and families that celebrate. Um, I do want to again just congratulate and welcome our new uh student representative, Miss Gonzalez. Um, who I know is long gone and and very happy to be home. Um, I also want to um uh thank all of our um our staff um who uh as as Trusty Gilmore said, put so much time and

100effort in giving us these excellent detailed presentations. Um, and again, thank you to Dallas uh and her mom um for really raising the issue of of um really wanting to promote and and increase recruitment for our middle school sports, especially our our girls basketball, but really across all sports. So, please help us to spread the word um across the district. Um, and again, thank you to Assistant Superintendent Markx, uh, Miss Laneski, and to all of our administrative team who helped put together, um, those very detailed presentations. It's extremely helpful for us, and and it's good to see some improvements and we obviously know, um, that everyone is working hard, our teachers, our administrators are working hard um, to continue um, making strides um, and improvements across the district. and we greatly appreciate all of that

101work. Um, I do also want to congratulate our new business administrator, uh, Dr. Steven Lewis, uh, who still hung in for for this evening. So, welcome. >> Uh, we definitely look forward to working together. We know we will have a lot to keep you very busy. Um and I would also like to once again just recognize um our amazing acting business administrator uh Linda Gastra. Um she has just gone above and beyond and really doing double duty as our acting BA and assistant BA. Um and so we really really greatly appreciate all of your hard work. um it has not gone unnoticed. Um and lastly, I do want to just um continue to acknowledge the hard work of our acting superintendent um Andrea Parchman. Thank you so very much for your continued dedication and hard

102work. um also around the clock um and the team at central office, assistant superintendent Markx um all of our administrators um and really all of our staff across the district, our secretaries, our custodians, our teachers, um your commitment for everything that you do um for our students because we we know that that's really um what all of this is all about. Um, and lastly, a huge thank you to our board president uh for all of your leadership and to all of my fellow trustees. We we've had a lot of work. Um, but it's really good to have such a collaborative spirit with everybody. So, thank you all. >> Thank you. Uh, Trusty Pringle. >> There's a method to my >> um Okay. So y'all know how I do. Echoing to everything uh a lot of

103the things that uh my fellow trustees said because I don't want to be too repetitive. Um I just wanted to make sure that I do highlight the highlights um of celebrations and awareness of this month. Um, as mentioned, Indigenous Day that has passed, um, Hispanic Heritage Month, Italian heritage month, Diwali coming up, heart health month, breast cancer awareness month, and cancer awareness month. Um, I wanted to bring that. Um, I wanted to also say that the, um, Hispanic Heritage performance that went on yesterday was amazing. from EC DC all the way to the high school. It was phenomenal. Um and yeah, so it's late. Everybody have a blessed night. Get home safe. Thank you. >> Thank you, Trusty Martin. >> Yes. Um first almost I'd like to uh wish our president a belated happy birthday.

104Now look at that big smile. She woke up, huh? >> She uh I'm going to tell her age. She's turned 32 uh a couple weeks ago. And uh Oh, no. No. Okay. Um first, um I'm going to just um mention Miss West. you uh asked about powerwashing the building uh two meetings ago and I missed uh to let you know what what the outcome was last month and the outcome is that our custodians are looking into that uh because of the weather uh they hope to uh look into that uh during the spring. So, um we'll keep our eye open and uh and keep you informed on uh during the spring when the weather get better. Hopefully, uh something like that can happen. Um also, you asked about the um female floaters. Um we'll look

105into that at our next um building and grounds committee and bring that to their attention and I'll come back with um your findings on what they say. Um to our student uh Dallas and a mother uh again thank you for coming um and coming to the mic every uh meeting we always ask for our um residents students to come to the mic and give us your concerns. You have done that. Uh you even stayed late and waited and uh we do appreciate that. Um Mr. uh hope uh Mr. Whiting's uh presentation was um very helpful to you. Uh trust me uh knowing Mr. Whiting a long time. Uh he will get the job done and do all his best to uh make uh things happen. Um to um Dallas mother continue on uh communicating with

106Mr. writing and um and uh we'll we'll be monitoring this and to make sure that you know to see to it and help whatever we can to uh get this uh moving. Um what else? Yeah, that's that's it. Good. I'm checking my notes. Oh, I know I'm not good. I do want to uh thank uh Leita for your outstanding work. I mean uh the our residents and students and staff really don't know behind the scenes that the work that she have done working Saturday, Sundays, overtime, undertime I mean it's just unbelievable and always have that smile. If you could see in the cameras you could turn to the camera just look at that smile that she has. She has that smile regardless how tough the work is. And we do appreciate you and thank you

107for your service. uh to our uh public here to the uh public um and the same with uh Miss Parchment. Uh I think I've known you for a while and uh and the work that you have done is is is just amazing and and uh your heart is always into our district and and and into our uh student and staff. Um yeah, keep up the good work and uh whatever we can do to support you, please let us know. And to our um new uh BA um Mr. Lewis, Dr. Lewis, um we are looking forward to working with you. We know you we you have good ideas and um the things that uh you had told us that uh you are uh looking to get into and and going to continue on being visible and

108being visible is very important. Not too many BAS do get out there to be visible to the public and to our sports and I'm sure you're a man of your word. You'll be out there and we're looking forward to uh working with you again. So, uh, good luck in your new position and whatever you need, we're there for you. Also, thank you everyone and have a good evening. >> Thank you. All right, Trusty Austin Balaputra. >> Hi, everybody. Um, I echo the sentiments about the presentations tonight, Hispanic Heritage, amazing Hispanic Heritage Month presentation and program. And welcome to Dr. Lewis. We're glad to have you. Um, also happy birthday to our board president. We also have another October birthday. We have a couple. More than 30% of Americans are born in October, but so we

109got a lot. But Linda's birthday is Friday. >> And we kick off the month of October with Superintendent Marsh birthday. >> So >> still celebrating. >> I know. >> Yes. >> Birthday month. Um, I also would like to give a shout out to Mael and Hagasack alum Kira Gotrell. Uh, Trusty Gilmore. >> Gilmore. Yes. And I like >> Trusty Gil. It's late. Trusty Gilmore and I had the pleasure of experiencing the christristening of the Hackinack rowing programs. I know it's an activity, not a sport, but the program's new boat at the at Overpack Park. I think the boat is actually named Mer and Kiier >> and the the rowing program extends to the middle school students as well. Um I did had no idea this existed. I'm so excited. I'm sitting in my kid. He's

110going. Um, so I just am just amazing the work that they're doing in the a support that is um underrepresented by minority students and the the growth in that area and I'd like to see us do more to support them and to grow sports underrepresented sports like fencing and crew and that sort of thing. So I was really excited about that. Um, yeah, I think that's it for me in interest of time. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. and Trusty Carol. >> Yeah. Oh, yeah. >> That's you. A >> lot of echoing. I want to echo everybody. Everybody said it all pretty much. But, um, I'd like to welcome Zoe, our stu uh, student representative. Um, our new BA, Dr. Lewis. Welcome. Look forward to working with you. Um, the presentations, the data presentation,

111um, was very informative. showed like our our progress and also what we still need to work on, but it also showed the hard work that um the team put in to put together the presentation. Um again, central office from um acting superintendent parchment and um Miss Marks um everyone doing a phenomenal job. Indida, all the hard work you guys do. Um, in uh Mr. Whiting's presentation, what I did I just wanted to comment what I did like was that his high school staff is involved with the um the middle school and like seems to be like that we're trying to get a feeder program. So, these kids know from the middle school the terminology of uh what plays are called and um what they're going to do when they get to high school. And um

112happy Diwali that's coming up Hispanic Heritage Month, the performances. I I have to say I was I was going in. I was I I know um I was making fun of our president. We was telling her um yo, you got to get up and dance. But I was tapping my feet. I'm clapping. I'm like, yo, I'm about to get up. But it was it was very it was very good. Very good. And um again, I want to acknowledge Italian Heritage Month as well. And that's about it. Good night. >> Hey, Trusty Jones. >> Being lead off to Hold on. So again, again, echoing u I'd like to welcome Dr. Lewis. Thank you for hanging out with us a little bit later than we usually go. Uh but all all the presentations um uh all the

113presentations that were done uh were excellent. All the work that went into it. U again we've heard the names over and over and I don't don't want to uh you know go into that but especially the the the the younger uh members that came up today, Miss Gonzalez and uh especially Dallas and her mother. uh I think it was three meetings ago when she was here and mentioned that she had a a fear of speaking in public and I don't see that. So, uh, you know, I think that's so important and and I think that, um, you could tell how much passion she had and you could tell, uh, I mean, she's putting in six hours a day playing basketball just to get that experience. And, and she's frustrated and and she's, I think that's

114important that she has an outlet to come and say that to us. And, and I think it's on everybody's radar. There's something we're trying to trying to do. And I think it's super important. I think it's even more important that she came up and said it. So, I'm proud of her for that. And uh that's pretty much it. >> All right. Thank you. All right. Vice President Stein. >> Oh, >> uh first I want to u tell our staff, our administrators, you did a wonderful job tonight. Um has to do about numbers. Yes. Percentages. Yes. Coming from a finance background, I know those numbers. But you could tell tonight from the passion of our administrators that number one are our students and that's where it should be. We heard about sports tonight. Um there are

115a lot of people out there um who say, "Oh, another thing about sports." Well, I have to tell you, I was a multi-sport athlete here at Hackinack High School, and the traits I learned from my coaches helped me to be a better person in later life in business. So, to everybody who spoke tonight, again, Mr. Lewis, welcome. Uh, you and I are going to get to know each other real well. Um, we look forward to working with you. Um, I wish everybody have a safe trip home tonight. The hour is late. And thank you very much, Madame President. It's up to you. Thank you. Okay, I'll be brief. Uh, so again, echoing a lot what my uh colleagues have said. Um, welcome, Miss Dr. Lewis. Um, I have a feeling you're going to fit in

116just just right. Even though you're from Tene, we we'll take you in. All right, we'll take you in. Um, we want to welcome also our student rep, Zoe. Um, and that is how she pronounced her name, just in case you're wondering. She said Zoe Gonzalez. Um, shout out to everyone who put together the assembly for the Hispanic Heritage Month. It was amazing. Um, even though we were kind of caught off guard. We were marching in. We were like, "What? We're doing this?" Um, but it was a lot of fun. Um, again, a lot of culture, a lot of history. I loved how they talked about, um, how some of these uh, rhythms came into play. How did it start? And then you had the performance from the students of all grades um and all elementary

117schools which was amazing. Uh also the presentations that we saw tonight were very valuable, very important to see. Um I I know that sometimes we do tend to run a little late but please understand that it is um we are very busy. We are doing as much as we can in the limited time that that we do have. So um it is a very productive meeting that that we have behind closed doors. Um especially you know thank you to again Mr. Whiting and his and his presentation. um we saw the need and it's been something that has been brought up actually more than once and from the community and to have the student Miss Pedway come and and be really concerned and be very upset and you know that she has the passion but she's

118also playing with students who are not at that level that where she's at is a very huge disadvantage for her and she has nowhere else to go but to play with um boys and you know and And I I'm glad that she expressed her concerns about yes, she wants to play, but she also wants to play with people of the same gender, right? She wants to play with girls and have that camaraderie. So, I I completely understand that. Um and just a quick thing that's going on in the community. Um before our next meeting on November 1st, the NAACP of Bergen County will be honoring two of our educators at a gala. So if you have the opportunity to go um I highly recommend to go. Hackasack is going to be shining bright that evening

119and a lot of the board members will be present at this gala. And next week uh the board of education along with a lot of central office staff administrators will also be attending the New Jersey school boards association convention. So we will see you all there. And that is the end of my comment. Can I have a motion to Oh, I'm so sorry. And again, happy birthday to Miss Linda Gastra. you are amazing. I hope you have a wonderful birthday. >> Uh, and I did forget to mention our amazing board attorney who sometimes just goes a little unnoticed because he's in the corner and he's he thinks that he doesn't do anything. He does a lot for us and I just want to thank him for also his time and energy that he puts to

120the board. >> Thank you. >> All right. Chuching. Chuching. No. >> Okay. just want to drink the next. >> All right. Can I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? Motion by Trusty Pringle. Can I have a second? >> Second by Trustee Stein. All those in favor say I. I. >> Anyone opposed? >> All right. Thank you. Have a good night. Get home safe. It is 10:41. Yeah.