CorpusRecord 132689

Board Meeting 8/20/2025

A searchable transcript preserved as part of the Discourse Corpus. Passage numbers provide stable references within this record; verify quotations against the original recording when available.

Source
YouTube / Hackensack Public Schools
Date
2025-08-21
Location
Bergen County, NJ
Material
Transcript
Extent
10,560 words · about 59 min
Collected
2026-06-19

Transcript

Verbatim source text

001Okay, good evening everyone. Please stand for the flag salute to the flag of the United States of America and to the republicy one 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 admin the board of education admin administration building and filing notice with the city clerk. I hereby call to order the regular public meeting on Wednesday, August 20th, 2025 in the Hackinase High School Media Center at 6:16 >> 6:16 p.m. Miss Aashra, can you please do a roll call? >> Miss Alustin Balaputra, >> present. >> Miss Amar Hamza, >> present. >> Mr. Carol, >> present. >> Miss Gilmore, >> here. >> Mr. Jones,

002>> here. >> Mr. Martin, >> present. >> Miss Pringle, >> present. >> Miss Harris, >> present. Mr. Stein >> present. >> We have a quorum. Excellent. Okay. So, for today, we don't have uh student special presentation. There isn't a student report. We're going to move on to executive session. Be it resolved that the Hackinack Board of Education determs it necessary to meet in executive session on Wednesday, August 20th, 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 confidentiality no longer exists. Can I have a motion to go into closed? >> Motion will approve. >> Okay. Motion by Trustee Carol. Can I have a second? >> I'll second. >> Second by Trustee Amraza. All

003those in favor say I. >> I. >> Anyone opposed? Okay. Just so the public is aware, we shall return by no later than 7:45. Hey, good evening. Can I have a motion to reopen to the public? >> Motion. >> Okay. Motion by Trusty Pringle. Can I have a second? >> Second by Trustee Jones. All those in favor say I. I. >> Anyone opposed? Excellent. Okay. So, we're going to move on to the approval of the minutes. Be it resolved that the Hackac Board of Education approves the regular and executive meeting minutes on July 23rd, 2025 and the special meeting minutes of August 11th, 2025. >> Can I have a motion to approve the minutes? I'll offer. >> Okay. Motion by Trustee Emma Hemsa. Can I have a second? >> A second. >> Second by Trustee

004Gilmore. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Anyone opposed? Any abstensions? Okay, I see that there are none. Okay, moving on to our presentation and business reports. We have an access report by Marcela Monloa who is our director of multilingual and world language education. Thank you. Good evening everyone. [Music] Mr. Ki, am I clicking? >> Okay. Thank you. So, it's my pleasure to present uh to you to the board and the public our 2024 2025 access for ELLL's state test reports this evening. So, I want to share some background information about the test. Access for ELLs is a statemandated tech test administered annually in March to all multilingual. We get the results in June. Four domains are tested and scores fall in one of the six WEDA proficiency levels. Students become eligible

005to exit multilingual status with a cut score of 4.5 and that's our goal for multilingual learners. Next year the test will officially be called Access. So this is the last year of access for ELLLs and it will be the first year that it will be aligned to the 2020 WEDA standards. Who are our multilingual learners? Mrs. Parchman wanted us to reflect on the profile of a multilingual learner so that we can put a face to the children we serve. Firstly, multilingual learners are identified by a home language survey, a review of records, and a subsequent language screener. Depending on the results of the screener, a student can qualify for multilingual status. Of those students whose parents accept our language uh programs, 32% have been in our program for one year. 27% have been in our

006program for two years. Close to 30% have been in our program for three or more years. Almost 28% of our multilingual students in our programs were born in the United States with the majority of them born right here in Hackinack, New Jersey. 75% of students uh who are multilingual whose parents have refused um services were born in New Jersey. Again, most of them right here in Hackinac. And the majority of our multilingual learners are immigrants born outside of the United States. They come to us mostly from urban areas in Latin America, not notably Ecuador, the Caribbean, and Central America. And we also have a smattering of students from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Our multilingual are bringing a beautiful linguistic diversity to our district, something to celebrate. Spanish is the highest frequency language, but

007as you can see, we have a nice array uh of many of the world's languages represented. This list, as you can imagine, is very dynamic throughout the year. This is like the current uh languages as of last week. It's probably different this this week. >> Once students are identified as multilingual learners, we place them in one or more of these language instruction educational programs or as the state also calls them LIEPS. So, we can have a full-time bilingual program which is offered uh at Fanny Meyer Hillers this coming year from kindergarten all the way to third grade. We're so happy that the bilingual program is growing there. Uh Jackson Avenue offers K to4 bilingual. Nelly K. Parker, HMS, and HHS all have full full-time bilingual programs. Sheltered instruction is a language uh is a leap

008um that in which students are placed in general education with teacher training daily in the ESL class and that's offered at all the schools at the high school. We have also offer something that is called highintensity ESL in which two daily periods of ESL are offered to uh most of our high school um multilingual learners. And if a parent so chooses, they do not have to accept any language services. So those students are placed in general education with no English language services. As of uh last year, preschool students are mandated to be identified per state guidelines. Teachers receive training on strategies to support multilingual learners. We also use grant funding to support um preschool multilingual learners with uh resources. Who is tested? All identified multilingual students are tested no matter what placement they're in. Even

009those students whose parents have refused any LIP program as long as they come into our district 2 weeks before the close of the testing window. So this is important to note about how the scores are computed. Although there are four domains tested, reading and writing are weighed more than listening and speaking, placing a greater emphasis emphasis on literate literacy instruction for our students. So reading and writing combined account for 70% of that score while listening and speaking account for 30% of the score. the student score that stu uh that the parents receive translates into a WEDA proficiency level. So, I'd like to show you a little bit uh about the six uh WEDA proficiency levels. As you can see, they attempt to encapsulate Weda's interpretation of how second language is acquired from words to phrases

010to short sentences leading to more expanded language. So, we can think about it like this. A multilingual learner comes to us with a level of proficiency in their native language. Sometimes they come to us with proficiency in more than one language. At the entering level, they embark on this language journey to add English to their linguistic repertoire. Hence, New Jersey calls them multilingual, which is an assetbased term for which we are very grateful. At the emerging level, they begin to navigate more of their communication. The developing level, they begin to acquire language that is English becomes they start taking ownership of English. That's that's what we call language acquisition. And at the expanding level, they attain a level of development that eventually allows them to gain native language proficiency right close to their English uh

011US-born peers and monolingual peers. How do we use this data and how does the state expect us to use the data? Uh we use the data very intentionally to inform the programs we offer at at um multilingual students. We definitely it informs our staffing, the number of staff we need, uh needs, want, wish list, the curricular resources we create or purchase and the professional learning sessions we design for our faculty. We also use it to place each student in a language instruction educational program. Right? We strive to be fully compliant with NJ DOE guidelines. So, let's take a look at how many there are. This is current as of maybe Monday night. Yeah, Monday night, Tuesday morning. Um, this is a current snapshot for of our multilingual enrollment. Notice that three of the four elementary

012schools are neck andneck in multilingual numbers. Although the percentage in relation to the overall enrollment differs significantly with Jackson Avenue having the highest percentage of MLS in the district. Our high school has the highest number of MLS. So that's a a critical um uh critical mass of our students, right, that we have to always be aware of and support. So, let's get to the access data. I hope you feel as I do that it's important to know the full context of multilingualism in our district and at the state before we look at this data. This is our access participation rate. Our participation rate this year was very high which includes all the students who took any of the domains of the test this year. Our school test administrators which are the assistant principles at the

013middle school and the elementarymentaries and the supervisor supervisor of guidance at the high school. Really I I can't thank them enough. They took great pains to ensure that all students that could possibly be tested were tested barring a couple of cases of chronic absenteeism as you could see from the high participation rate. So this is uh the distribution by achievement level with the grade bands. It's a bird's eye view of how our multilingual did this year in our district. You can see our newcomer enrollment in the significant numbers of students at the entering level. Those are the yellow bars. Those are the entering levels or level one. There are healthy numbers in each grade band at the developing level. That's that light lime green bar. And of course, our goal is to move students to

014the expanding level. That's the darker green bar. We're always aiming to increase those dark green bars as the students progress um in their time in our district. And this slide has the same information as the previous slide, but in table form. It also gives you information about the number of students tested at each grade band level. So you see that elementary testing 524 students has the bulk of the students being tested this past year and usually the case. So in order to get a full picture of our access data um our ML enrollment trend is important to look at. It helps us better analyze this year's data and our longitudinal data. It really is a critical part of the story of the numbers that you're about to see. So, let's note that the ML enrollment

015as well as the rate of growth had been increasing up until January of this year. You can see there's currently a decrease in the enrollment as compared to last school year. At this time, we attribute this to the success of many students who exited ML status this past school year, as well as geopolitical factors that are currently affecting our students. The 1050 the 1056 figure will probably be higher by opening day because we continue to screen students. We're screening them this this week and we add to this list as we get those results and we screen them as they come in throughout the year. Although to be sure, the summer influx was significantly decreased as compared to last summer's numbers. Based on this data, um please know that MLS right now comprise 20% of our

016current HPS enrollment. So clearly our work to ensure the success of this subgroup continues to be critical to our district's overall success. Let's look at the distribution of achievement level uh by year and looking at K to 5 uh over three-year period to see the three-year trends. Right? This some longitudinal data past three years of access testing. And right now we're going to look at the K5 three-year trend. The entering levels match the growth in the newcomer enrollment that you saw um in the past three years while the developing and expanding levels remain at healthy percentages. So my kudos to elementary multilingual teachers. You could see their work there. Looking at the six to eight three-year trend, also reflected in this data is the large number of newcomers that are enrolling um in the past

017three years. Uh we continue to see healthy levels of students at the developing level, which we like. And although we see slight gains in the expanding levels from one year to the next, we do see that this data reveals we have to pay closer attention to moving students from developing to expanding. Right? That's the sweet spot expanding and um that's what we have to u look more closely at at the 9 through 12 three-year trend. Uh similar to the 6 to8 data, we see lots of newcomers again healthy levels of students at the developing level with some concerns that students are not moving uh from developing to expanding at the rate that we would like. Right? Those aren't newcomers, right? That's work that needs to be done by us. So, looking at this data allows

018us to make critical decisions about where our focus will be in instruction and assessment. So, uh we're going to just discuss some data on some subgroups. This slide is uh data for Hispanic, Latino, and white subgroups. The other subgroups have proficiency bands within the subgroup that correspond to less than 10 students. So we won't be showing you that data. If it contains less than 10 students, we we do not um publicize that data. Please note that uh two the two subgroups of Hispanic, Latino, and white overlap a lot as most lat Hispanic Latinos self-identify as white on Genesis. So that's why they're almost identical those those two graphs. It's almost the same cohort. Here's a data for free and reduced lunch and students with disabilities. Uh let's note here that one-third of our students with

019disabilities are at the developing level. That's great to see. Um my kudos to our special education teachers who work with multilingual students. Uh and they reach out to our coaches for support and we truly um are thankful for their dedication. On the next set of slides, uh, we'll show you some individual school data. So, we're going to cut across, do a cross-section of the four schools, elementary schools at the kindergarten level. This slide shows data for kindergarten across the four elementary schools. You could see that 60 to 75% of students are at the entering level with a handful of students emerging, developing or expanding. That's the kindergarten snapshot. But look how nice that moves to to grade one. It's a nice uh transition. This slide is um the grade one and you see the numbers

020you see increases in from entering goes down and emerging and developing start coming up. So that's nice to see. In grade two, that trend continues with more students at developing than in the previous grades with more than 50% at Fair Mount and Parker. So, highlight um shout out to them for grade two. Grade three, we see similar trends to grade two with more students at developing. However, we do see more students in entering. In grade three, entering starts um coming up again at Jackson Avenue and at Nelly K Parker. In grade four, there's a marked increase in students at the expanding level. That's a really nice um slide to show you. Um this is wonderful progress for our students. So that's nice to see the grade four across the district individually. Here's fair amount and

021we wanted to sort of show each school as compared to the district. Um look at the number of students that were tested at Fairmont. 22 students were sorry 77 students were tested at Fairmont. We're not showing the data values here because some correspond to students that are less than because the n is less than 10. So we won't show you the data. Um but you could see the percentages on on the on the side on the y- axis. Fairmont is on par with the district with some o outperformance in students at the developing level. This school year we'll be looking closely at that developing cohort that you see there. We want to move those to the expanding um during this school year. Here's Fanny Meyer Hiller School where 103 students were tested. Their achievement results

022were on par with the district with a dip in the developing level as compared to the district and but comparably strong showing at the expanding level. comparatively strong showing at the expanding level. Here's Jackson Avenue, the school where most students were tested, 145. We have a high number of newcomers and healthy levels of students at emerging and developing levels. And Jackson also outperforms a district at the expanding level. So, that's nice. Here's Nelly K. Parker, the school where we saw the most exits as a result of access testing this year. Students at entering or below the district levels, which is a notable achievement. We also want to highlight that the school outperforms the district in developing, expanding, and reaching. They had two perfect scores. Six is a perfect score. So, they came from Nelly K.

023Kudos to all the elementary bilingual ESL and sheltered instruction teachers for all their hard work in developing the English proficiency of our multilingual learners. And here's the middle school, right? We we we're comparing it to itself, right? Because we only have that one middle school. The slide shows us um that in grade five 30% of students are either entering or emerging with significant number of students also developing and expanding. In grade six we see the improvement with 9% fewer students at entering and 10 and 9% increase in emerging and expanding respectively. The similar trend holds in grade seven with even more students at developing. However, in grade 8, the largest category is entering at 45%. However, 37% of students still score at developing or above. So, that's a significant amount of students at a high

024level of proficiency. So, kudos to multilingual and sheltered instruction teachers at the middle school. Here is the high school where we see entering um remaining the most common proficiency level sitting around 40% for all grades from 9 to 12. If I recall we had students enter throughout the summer and throughout the year. So yes, they had a a high number of newcomers and you could see that in the data. All grades see a similar trend of 30 to 35% students at emerging, 15 to 25% at developing and only a handful of students in the higher proficiency levels, right? Which is expanding um and bridging. Uh we were asked to provide information about how our district is doing in relation to the state. We're almost at the finish line. While this year's state access data is

025not yet available, we do want to show you how we did last year compared to the state. We don't know from the state when it will be available. So, uh we did want to show you some comparison to what we're how we were with the state. So, here's the elementary K4 comparison. Again, we're not showing data values in this slide because some grade bands correspond to numbers of students less than 10. At the elementary level, we were on par with the state entering, developing, bridging, and reaching. We trail the state with percentages of students at emerging. And it's great to see that we outperformed the state at the expanding levels, which is the level at which students can exit multilingual status. So again, this is last year's data, but we're still going to use it.

026Um, here's the middle school 5 to8 comparison. Although we're not on par with the state levels last year, this year we have shown significant improvement in our results. So, we're eager to see an improvement when this year's state uh scores come in. And the last data slide is the high school comparison to the state for the 23 24 school year. As I recall, we had 116 newcomers. I didn't recall. I looked it up, but I'm going to say as I recall, we had 116 newcomers arrive at the high school throughout the year. That's a significant amount of newcomers. Uh, and that speaks to the high number of students you see there at the entering and emergency emergent levels. Regrettably, we underperformed in comparison to the state in developing and expanding. Again, that's us. That's where

027we need to look right at at what we're doing. This is important data which urges us to focus our as a our attention on students at the developing level and support them into moving into that that dark green bar. Um because at the high school it's critical it giving them that English language proficiency opens up their overall academic success. It gives them access to higher level classes. So we know that the work is critical um in that movement from developing to expanding. So at this time we want to celebrate the hard work and success of nurturing and dedicated multilingual shelter and instruction teachers throughout our district, our multilingual coaches and our administrators that I can't say enough about how hardworking they are. Miss Angelina Martinez, our coaches, Miss Mcgab and Mr. Mebrano, our assistant um

028admin assistant, Mrs. Valencia Salas, who don't take lunches, who work really hard because we service uh all our students, in particular our multilingual students, our building administrators, our content supervisors and directors who partner with us in this work. All of them play a role. It's the village, right? We want to celebrate the village, but the students themselves and their families have the biggest impetus behind any success we've garnered this past school year. They deserve our full um congratulations. And here's the most um the notable achievements of this year. Our three-year trend data shows that despite increased newcomer enrollment, we are continuing to show movement of students from developing to expanding. The three-year data shows that our number of middle school students at entering achievement levels have decreased, which is a good thing. Our elementary multilingual

029learners show growth in achievement levels as they move up the grades, culminating in significant growth in developing and expanding levels in fourth grade, notably in Hillers and Parker schools. Our multilingual learners with disabilities achievement overperform the general education population. Our middle school multilingual learners are well represented in the developing level. And during the school year, which this data in the state doesn't know about, 93 of our multilingual learners exited the program via the WE via the WEDA model tests with the bulk of that number coming from middle and high school. 49% of our MLS went up at least one proficiency level from 2024 to 2025 school years, marking a 36% increase in that number from last year. And so here's what we're thinking about this data and what we're going to do and continue to

030do as a result of this data. Uh we've worked really hard this summer doing an overhaul K to2 of our summer curriculum and introducing new curricular um materials for K to 12 ESL teachers. We're going to continue because it has had high dividends as you can imagine our benchmark assessments and progress monitoring uh with the collection regular collection of data and an analysis of that data. So we can now get to domain level data that we haven't shared with you modeling and coaching reading and writing instruction for level one and level two because that's so right there's a lot of inertia in level one in this in this district. We need to move like le level ones to level twos right. Um, we know that's a a a weak area for us at this time.

031Coaching and consulting and sheltered instruction classrooms to maintain growth at the developing and expanding levels. We're doing okay. Uh, and we want to maintain that okayess and get even better. uh using grant funds to provide afterchool programming to increase standardsbased English proficiency, but with a focus on reading and writing. And now you all know why the focus is on reading and writing. Um and we just got the grant funds. So we're thankful for that. We're going to put them to good use. Uh we do have a lot of professional development. Um but that is going to be targeted. So, we're going to have a full year roll out roll out of our new K12 ESL curriculum. I want to take this time to thank the board because you approved that curriculum. You approved purchase of

032the curriculum that was vetted that we took a long time to vet and you approved curriculum writing this summer. So, I thank you for that support. Uh we're going to continue the district-wide initiative to deliver training to sheltered instruction uh teachers and also teachers of multilingual learners with disabilities and the bilingual education teachers. um we're going to bring them into the PD fold to participate in professional learning sessions to address language allocation model of introducing more English language development in their bilingual classrooms. Um as you can see uh from our access data those efforts are having high dividends for us particularly at the middle school. So we congratulate those middle school bilingual teachers for this work at the secondary level. our department, all our department meetings and early dismissal times will be focused on benchmark

033data analysis and planning for targeted instruction to meet individualized instructional goals. Um, and it's our intention to continue to build partnerships with building administrators, right? We we are a village, right? These children belong to all of us in monitoring student performance and also in supporting teachers by delivering high quality feedback to them. Um if these are the sources where we got this data from um for your reference and I I want to just thank Mr. Andrew Jenkins for his invaluable assistance in representing and providing this data insights about the data you see here today. Um, and I've thanked everybody and thank you Superintendent Parchment and Assistant Superintendent Marks for your invaluable support and feedback. Thank >> Thank you. >> Are there any questions? Yes, >> M. Um, at what point the data is wonderful here.

034At what point is it determined that um these multi-learners are mainstreamed? So, two things have to happen before they lose ML status. one, they have to score 4.5 or higher on the access test, but they also need a teacher's recommendation to be exited and mainstreamed. However, there are the state allows us to say this student has reached a level of proficiency of let's say is nearing expanding. We're going to pull him out of a bilingual program and put him in a sheltered instruction program where he they're still going to get ESL, but they're going to get more exposure to English. So, we have transitional language instruction, educational programs, but officially officially they can exit with a 4.5 cut score in addition to a teacher recommendation. So those WEDA model tests that we did and we

035exited 93, many more students got a 4.5 and they didn't get the teacher recommendation. So they stayed in the program because without the state says without the teacher kind of like you know approving that they exit, they don't exit. I don't exit students. Nobody but a the ESL teacher and the and the gened or home room teacher exits the students and uh after they achieve the 4.5 cut score. >> Very good. >> Okay. I have a question. I'm just curious what what do you think is contributing to the drop off in in the eighth grade? Um and the chart that you showed, >> we would have to look at the newcomer. uh but also the older and and it's not just eighth grade, right? You see there's inertia at the high school as well. >>

036So a couple of things happen in second language acquisition. The older you get, the harder it is to acquire a language. So there is going to be more inertia at the at at the entering levels. It's also an instructional, right? There's it's also an instructional piece that when you go into classrooms, you're going to see teachers teaching in English, assigning English, and working hard with a a group and then the rest of students immediately go to teach to talk in Spanish, right? We have parent meetings. We had parent meetings this summer and parents come and the first question I ask is tell me what your what YouTube what language is your child listening to to um in YouTube songs. It's all still Spanish, right? I'm using Spanish because that's the predominant language. Our other languages

037actually learn English faster because there is no community out there that makes it even harder to immerse yourself in English. So it's second language acquisition and how it plays out differently at different ages. It's um the the atmosphere, right? The immersion, but it's also instruction, right? There's only we have to also look inward. There's also work that we do. That's why I'm so thankful to our coaches because they're in classrooms and I'm in classrooms and our supervisors going, "Wow, you're doing the teaching and this group is speaking English, but your four other groups are doing the assignment in Spanish, right?" And they're Google Translate. So, that's where our coaching and our language allocation models come in. So, it's not a one answer, but certainly we're we're part of the the solution. >> This is less

038of a question, more of a a recommendation or suggestion. I would like to see us do more data analysis around the exited students because I believe a lot of the good details of the story come from once you exit them and the success stories, the success that's had there. They're not taking the weeder. You can't compare apples to apples, but tracking the success and the achievement of the students right after they're exited could be telling and help us better prepare students to exit because I think there's a lot of of good stories to tell with that data. >> That's great. That's exactly what Miss Freshman said to me earlier today. But um it's it's it it is great. I get a lot of calls from parents refusing services. They don't refuse totally. They refuse the

039bilingual services and they say um because we want more English, our child isn't moving, right? So, it's it's layered, right? Our bilingual classes have to have more English. Our our gened, you know, teachers have to know how to facilitate English, right? Because you're a science teacher, you're still a language teacher that's to that particular child. So, it's a multi-layered. But, um Thank you. I'll do that. Yes. and I just had uh more so of a comment, but first of all, just a really um impressive comprehensive presentation. I think it's really important for us as a board and for the community to see what a diverse district we have. Um I I heard at one of our um schoolboard associations trainings this year um that Hackinack actually is one of the districts with the greatest number

040of languages spoken in it in comparison to to other districts. Um and obviously it's important to see that with 20% of our district population falling in that MLL category um that that actually is a huge um demand on our resources on the work that our um MLL and world language staff do. Um so really also a huge you know thank you to you and and your team um you know just for really providing so much care and instruction to our MLL uh population especially right now given the sensitivities that are required in the current environment. So thank you very much you know for your dedication and for looking for ways that you can provide additional support for that for that population. >> Thank you. And I would just like to add to that um what

041I liked about the presentation was you showed us where we are currently, what accomplishments our students have done, which is great to see that 93 of our multilingual students have passed and moved up in proficient proficiency level. That's huge, right? Because some students it takes them two school years, maybe three school years to move up in proficiency. Um and we had 36% increase on that in our students. Um, and to add to the languages, according to the data, it says 28 languages we offer or that we have here currently in Hackinack. And that again speaks to the volume and the culture and the diversity that we bring um in Hackinack. So, thank you so much for your presentation. >> Thank you. >> All right. All right. So, now we are going to move on to

042our superintendence report. So, go ahead, Miss Andrea O Parchment. Good evening. >> Good evening. >> As you see, our enrollment is at 5,92 students and you see the breakdown by school 100% attendance because we're not in school. U we have um no residency report and no HIV harassment, intimidation, and bullying report. I also want to uh thank Miss Monla for the very comprehensive access student performance data report and also for our teachers and for their efforts throughout the years. Uh wanted to note that um during this month since our since we last met our athletes have been preparing for a successful season. I have seen them running down Summit Avenue, playing on the tennis courts, in the gym, practicing volleyball and on the football field getting ready. Those are the things that I've witnessed. I

043know we have more sports, but they are constantly constantly preparing. Uh our buildings and grounds and custodians, they're working to make our schools look wonderful. I know you see the floors, they're sparkling that you walk in here tonight, you see that everything is shining. So, we want to thank them. >> The technology uh department, they have been making improvements, a lot of improvements to make our systems work better. Uh, our administrators and our teachers are preparing for a new year. And our human resources department, they are working, I left one still there, I think at six o'clock, to onboard our new teachers. And we're pleased to greet our new teachers this coming Monday, August 25th, for the 4-day new teacher orientation. It's being held here in this media center. Um, we look forward to to

044our police academy graduation next Friday, uh, August 29th, sponsored by our police department. Uh, the YMCA wants to make sure I remind parents that they have sent out a notice to sign up for the afterchool superstars program at the elementary schools and middle school. Uh we are having our opening day convocation at Hackin Sack High School for all staff and that is Tuesday. I'm very excited. September 2nd with breakfast beginning at 8:00 a.m. I want to uh give a special thanks to all of our administrators because during this time, this is like crunch time. Uh some are on vacation, but I'm sure they're working on vacation. Um, and a special shout out to our business office staff who are making sure that our POS are processed to make sure that our have what they need

045for a smooth opening. And I would say the theme this summer has been teamwork. Everyone everyone has been contributing whether it is his or her job or not to pitch in and fill in wherever is needed. And I really truly truly appreciate our staff. Although this statement may be a little cliche, but we always say unity and teamwork make the dream work. Um and most importantly, we look forward to serving our clients, our students, and our families. Um our staff is ready to serve. And to our teachers, our para educators and other staff members who are in the classrooms every day. We wish you a renewed spirit. Um we know you don't want to hear that school is beginning to open. You do. It's like bittersweet. You want to extend this summer and this cold

046weather is not helping. But um we're looking forward to a a great school year and I wish all of our staff um a great 2025 2026 school year and we uh are thanking you in advance for your service and commitment. We know it's not always easy, but the work is important because our staff, our doctors, lawyers, business owners, they went through teachers. Teaching and education is the most important the most important position. That's my opinion. We all had good teachers who helped us and I wish everyone a continued safe summer and a great start to a new school year. So, happy new year. >> Okay. Uh so before we move on to our public comment section, I just wanted to make the public aware that about wait maybe less than two weeks ago on August

04711th, we had a special meeting to approve the district calendar. So if you did not know that um there is a new district calendar out, it is on our district website. Um the change to the district calendar was that there is now a fixed date for graduation for the high school graduation which is now on June 23rd. So for graduating seniors and families to please note graduation day will be on June 23rd. Uh last but not least, we are having our board retreat which is the continuation of our last one where we will be discussing our board and district goals and we should be finalizing it and then approving it at the September meeting. So that meeting will be on August 27th at 3:30. All right. So at this time public comments public participation shall

048be governed by the following 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 residence, and group affiliation if applicable. Two, each statement made by a participant shall be limited to 3 minutes 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 a 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 or by the individual board member. and four. All board and/or acting superintendent responses to questions or inquiries shall be held until the

049end of public participation. At this time, public comments is now open to the public here in person. Um, just make sure you come up to the microphone. Just make sure you sign in. State your name and last name, please. Yes. Good evening. My name is uh Sean Danny, a resident of Hackinack. >> Good evening board members. >> Good evening public. >> Um unfortunately my uh my reason for being here is not related to education, but I'll try to be quick. Um, I'd like to bring to attention a bridges u matter that reflects a pattern of negligence um towards public safety operations uh by the school district. Um this has culminated in a loss of tremendous natural beauty um significant property damage and unwarranted and avoidable waste of taxpayer dollars. Um, I believe that the BOE

050is conflating the legal ramifications of this with public accountability in an effort to suppress public scrutiny. Uh, I will elaborate further. Um, I'll walk you through the incident uh the pattern of negligences I was uh referring to and my expectations and actions. Uh last Tuesday on uh Parker Avenue, the school district um won Phelis I believe uh director of buildings. He um initiated a tree clearing exercise at the back of the Fanny Hiller school um which resulted in trespassing to private property, my neighbor's property at 285 Parker. Um resulted in a 100 plus year old tree being decimated. Um that tree provided a tremendous shade and accessibility to my yard and that's why I'm here. Um this is not to discuss like a civil lawsuit. Um now in regards to the pattern of negligence um

051over the past several years during public uh operations that are inherent with inherent public safety list. Um the school district has employed contractors that have lifted giant trees over residents buildings without prior warnings. Um, I actually called the police to investigate that on site in real time. Uh, there have been noise complaints. There have been municipal uh ordinances that are being violated. Contractors driving heavy machinery beyond 10 p.m. on the weekends. Have to call the police again. Um, but this I mean this has taken the cake. This is this is I I am still at loss. I have voiced my concerns to the president and the vice president who, you know, appointed me to their attorney. I'm sorry you didn't really say what capacity you're acting but again this is public accountability. Um I believe

052that you know looking at the uh financial resolutions here especially like D17 I see Juan Feliz is probably being promoted here. So I don't think that any action will I don't think an investigation was planned as to his negligence of like my time is almost up but I dealt personally with him during the incident and his he was very lagging in terms of um being able to handle the emergency situation. He couldn't control um if if I may have a few more minutes to hopefully >> No, I'm sorry. It's three minutes. >> Okay. Um next ladies and gentlemen I'm sorry if you want I'm going to yield my time to him actually I'm Sandy Ber I'm a resident of Pakist >> and you're shaking your head but I think it's public forum and I can

053do so >> hold on sir I'm sorry the uh she can't yield your time her time to she can make she has three minutes if she would like to speak. She c she she she can't yield her time to you. This isn't Congress. >> Uh members of the board, if you can grant me an exemption so I can I >> unfortunately is the board president who who runs these meetings and she's deferred the issue to me. Your your wife certainly can speak for three minutes, but you can't keep speaking. I'm sorry. >> Okay. Um well I did ask you a question so I expect a response. Can you ask I highlighted these the new priest raised these questions and see if they're related to the matter that >> hey um my name is Sandy Wramm.

054I'm the president of um Hackinack and this is in regards to what my husband just spoke about the felling of the tree by commission by the uh VO BOE department. Um so >> I'm sorry. Yeah, >> we really can't hear you on the mic. We haven't heard the word you said. >> I thought maybe. Yeah. Okay. Good start. Yes, you can start over. Thank you. >> Okay, I'll just get to the point. Um, the time started. Thank you. >> Sorry. Thank you. Um, just just wanted to say that um the felling of the tree was something illegal on our property on our neighbors property. Um, it has caused a lot of distrust with us with this community that things can be done without telling us about it. There was no report that something of this

055major that was going to happen in our backyard. We were away from our home. The owner of the tree was away from our home. And I'm surprised that my husband has been trying his very best, even though he's not the owner of the tree, to help his neighbor to ascertain as to why this happened. Every year we see the school clearing trees, not giving any notices at all. We're seeing that they're hovering big trees over neighbors houses with no notices. There has to be accountability by this department. There has to be some warning, some notice or something telling us what you are doing in our neighborhood. I I'm not really sure, Sean, about this insurance thing. I'm not really going to talk about it, but um belongs. >> All right. So, D19 he's referring to

056on your um here >> if this is um if the insurance coverage from the New Jersey school insurance group is something that's that's going to be um >> is that going to be related to the incent? I'm not sure. end of the meeting. It's a long >> That's the problem. We didn't get enough time to really talk about this. So, I I'm not I'm not going to talk about it anymore. This is a civil lawsuit between the our neighbor and our the BOE. For me personally as a resident I am I'm sad because I felling of that tree made the area where I lived and love behind the school, the wildlife, the peace of mind. We can hear the kids every day when they're in school. It's just the the the it was just beautiful

057to be in the backyard to hear the kids laughing and and screaming and you're hearing the birds and it's it's really sad to have seen something like this just happen. The day that I saw that tree was gone, I cried. So there has to be accountability at some point. I'm not very good at this public forum speaking but I I just wanted to tell you from how I'm feeling about such a situation and there needs to be um more I'm not sure um as I said accountability for these things and more oversight from the department that handles such work for you guys. So um that's it. Thank you. >> Thank you. Anyone else from the public? >> Anyone else from the public that would like to speak? >> Yes. Go ahead. >> Thank you. I

058have a statement from HASSA President Nicole Adams. Um Marcela Monla speaking on behalf of the HASA negotiations team membership. We would like to formally thank President Harris, Trustee Martin, Trustee Amir Hamza, acting superintendent Oats Parchment, Assistant Superintendent Marx, and board attorney Mr. Nunmarker, and the entire board for supporting the process of the collective bargaining agreement. This negotiation was never contentious. Although there were issues where there was a difference of opinion, it was always collaborative and solution focused. We want to convey our sincere appreciation uh for how the district leadership has chosen to engage with HASSA not only in the negotiations process but also in goal setting, problem solving and strategizing to move the district forward through a shared vision that privileges all voices. We are grateful for your partnership and hope that the transparency and

059communication continues as we accomplished more when we work together. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Anybody else from the public? Okay, seeing that there are none, we're going to move on to online. Anyone online? Sure. Let's go ahead. >> Good evening. Oh, you can hear me. Oh, sorry. Hi, it's Donna West. How are you from, uh, work work in the district, Hackinack, uh, resident as well. Just a couple of questions. Um, and Miss Parchman, I was just wondering why the enrollment numbers would be 100% when no students are present. It just didn't seem mathematically right to me. I'm not sure. Um, the ESL funding, um, I was wonder I I like the PowerPoint um, a lot, Miss Monlo. Um, as one of those sheltered instruction teachers, I'm wondering because we did lose an ESL teacher

060this year, what that looks like. Um, specifically at Parker School, but just in the district overall, how that's going to affect some of us that may have lost our ESL teachers this year. I was wondering, uh, board overall, could we possibly powerwash our schools just to give them a like a nice coat and a new shine? Some of them look a little dull. Um, we did receive our schedules and I am wondering why the elementary math block was shortened by 10 minutes when it already takes a little over an hour to get through the math program. Um, I'm also wondering how much longer we're going to do this ECDC lease. It just seems like it's it's just crazy that we're still there this long. And this is something I said at the city council meeting.

061So, I would like to share this with all of you that I would like to see us work with the city council to get a new school and some more green space for our children. Thank you so much for your time. >> Thank you. Anyone else online? Okay. [Music] But cross breeding is not how this guy came about. So this is a bear cat. >> Hello. I have a question regarding um Hi, >> I'm sorry we got cut off. Can you please state your name and your uh residence, please? >> My name is Kina Brown. My residence is Hackinack. I'm currently trying to find out um what programs that you have available for behavioral um students with the IEP >> and who would um who would we be able to speak to about that or

062how does that process go? >> Okay. Do you have any other questions or concerns? >> Um not at the moment. >> Okay. Your name again? I'm sorry. Colleina Brown. >> Colleen. >> Yes, Colleina Brown. >> Colleina Brown. Thank you. >> No problem. >> Okay. Um, so if you don't have any questions, we're going to wait until the end of public comments and then we'll address the questions if we can. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. Hello. >> Yes. >> Hi, this is Mrs. Cruz. I'm speaking in my capacity as a teacher and PTA president. Um, I had the pleasure of attending the new teacher the new student orientation on Monday and I just want to commend the staff and parents that came out. Um, especially the staff though who volunteered their time to make

063the event and it success. Um, in addition to Dr. G, you had several teachers and uh, office administrative staff. It's the middle of the summer, but they still showed up and stayed to help clean up after. And as a PTA president, it was nice to be surrounded by some of those teachers and to see just how amazing they really are and how much they come out for the students even in the middle of summer. So, I just wanted to give them credit for that. Thank you. Anyone else? That's it. All right. Okay. Is there anybody else present that would like to speak? Okay. So, um let's try to answer some of these questions if possible. Um or attorney if you would like to just address the first about Mr. and Mrs. Dai. Denai. Is it

064Donnie? I'm sorry. >> Um I I can't speak about as to what hap happened in the past. So I I apologize for that. Um I can't I I can't speak up to whether generally notices have been given out or not. Um that's something the board can certainly look into. Um as to this specific incident. Um I believe it happened as you said on August 12th. Um the matter was referred to our insurance company and the matter is being investigated. Um, we're very sympathetic as as to what you've of what you said and uh as anybody would be if it happened to their yard. Um, there are there is however a process in place to to deal with a situation like what happened just like if there was a car accident. We refer to the insurance

065company. The insurance company will do an investigation and whatever whatever however that turns out that will turn out. That's really all we can speak to about that at the time. I I I can say the the the resolution you referenced D17 has nothing to do with with what happened last week. >> Nothing. >> I'll reach out for comments. I mean, you pretty much filled my tongue. Thank you for doing that. Um but I mean we'll have a followup conversation with this. >> Well, my question is >> I'm sorry sir. This is not a a back and forth. This is just us responding. So we can talk about this at the next meeting or we can be in touch at an email. >> You're asking my original question was what was the office of your email

066and you told me to direct off communication. What capacity were you? That was my >> sir. I'm the board of attorneys. I understand you you're you were contacting many sta many many of the staff staff employees who couldn't give you an answer. So, I I I I reached out to you to say if if you want any information regarding the incident, you can reach out and contact me. You did call me yesterday. I apologize. I didn't get a chance to return your phone call yet. If I had if I had returned your phone call, I would have told you what I just told you. We're everyone here is sympathetic as to what happened. It's being investigated. The insurance company has been contacted. They're doing an investigation. And when we have answers, we we will let

067the the owner of the tree know. Correct. >> The inefficiencies that >> I I I I'm sure if you want more answers, the board will be happy to give them to you once we find out more. >> Okay. Again, that's been legal ramifications with public. That was the whole thesis of my argument. >> I understand, sir. Well, this incident just happened eight days ago. As I said, it's being investigated. We're all very sympathetic as to what happened, but this can't be a continuing debate right now. The the board president asked me to respond to to your questions and that's what I'm doing, but we can't we it it can't be a debate right now. >> Thank you. >> Okay. So, there was another question by Mrs. West regarding the ESL funding. I'm not sure, Miss

068Barton, if you would like to answer that now or if you want to answer it at our next board meeting. Um the question was also asked about the elementary school um math blocks how they why they were shortened. >> We we'll answer at the next meeting. I don't want to give the wrong information. Our curriculum director handled the math block, but I will state that it's probably related to the new mandates uh for K through K through three literacy and the things that have to take place. So some time may have been taken away from the math and I know that math is a concern but literacy is directly tied into math performance as well. Uh but I will get specific information. Um I I heard the loss of a ESL teacher. We we will

069um get back to Mrs. West on that. Mhm. >> And then the other question was from the parent regarding programs that are available for our IEP students. >> Uh she asked who could she speak to and that would be Mr. Darius Pimbertton and he is the director of special services and he would be able to provide more details about that. We may call his office um Monday, August 25th when he returns. Okay, excellent. Thank you so much. Was there anything that was it? >> Okay. >> And D19. Sure. Go ahead. >> For G19, um, this is the New Jersey School Insurance Group total premium for the full year for July to June. It has nothing to do with the tree. >> It's for the full school year. So, our school year starts July 1st and

070it ends uh June 30th. No. Okay, thank you so much. All right, so we're going to move on to our committee reports and resolutions. We are going to start with personnel and the chair of personnel is Trusty Amrahamsa. Thank you so very much. Um the personnel committee met and we have to offer for consideration um personnel items A1 A through Y. Okay. So, we have a motion by Trustee Amrahamsa. Can I have a second? >> Second by Trustee Martin. Miss Agasha, can you please do a roll call? >> Miss Alustin Balutra. >> Yes. >> Miss Amrahams. >> Yes. Paul. >> Mr. Carol. Not sorry. Miss Gilmore. >> Oh, she said that. >> Okay. Mr. Jones. >> Yes, but I have to abstain from J20, J21, P1, and R2. >> J20, J21, and R2. >> P1,

071R2. >> Thank you, Mr. Martin. >> Yes to all. >> Miss Pringle, >> yes to all. >> Miss Harris, >> yes to all. >> Mr. Stein, >> yes. >> Motion passes. Thank you, >> Miss Brist. >> Uh before we continue, uh I just want to congratulate uh a few people listed on the agendas, beginning with uh Nicole Adams, who has now been appointed as principal of Fairmont School. Uh She has uh served our community well for several several years and is a dedicated and respected school leader and I want to thank the interview committee for their services. Um also um we have and it that's just does me well. I'm so excited. uh three people on this agenda I have worked with side by side very closely and that is Tea Allen, Rosina Ponuchio and

072Muhammad Assan. Um we're losing some very valuable coaches. They're all of our coaches, but we welcome them to the new team of administrators. And uh they too have uh just worked uh around the clock above and beyond always willing to serve. You can also call them at any time most of the time but they have just been very helpful and they have earned um this promotion and I want to thank them. Uh, and finally, I'm glad to announce our student our school safety coordinator. Um, we're happy to have him. And I'm just going to ask them to stand. Although Nicole Adams is not here. She's away, but uh, I would like them to stand. >> You can believe Mr. Hassan is uh, still away, but thank you. and um we're just very very happy. >>

073Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So, we are moving on to policy and the chair of policy is Trusty Fringle. >> Good evening everyone. >> Okay. Okay. So um policies I would like to highlight um P 0174 P0177 and the policy and regulations 1570. Um all are being updated to incorporate recent revisions to code. Um also P1620 and 6111 are also being updated per administrative code updates and these required these are required to be QAC compliant. Um one second also with uh P6 um that's basically the budget preparation is being revised. Um the revision to this policy and regulations provide guidance and procedures for the district budget development process. Policy guide 6220 is mandated by QAC compliance and that's it for policies today. Okay. Excellent. So we have a motion by trusty Pringle. Can

074I have a second? >> I'll second. >> Second by trustee Emma Hemsa. Mr. Gstra, can you please do a roll call? >> Miss Alustin Balaputra. >> Yes. >> Miss Amar Hamson. >> Yes. >> Mr. Carol is stepped out. Miss Gilmore. >> Yes. Mr. Martin, >> yes. >> Miss Pringle, >> yes. >> Mr. Jones, >> yes. >> Miss Harris, >> yes. >> Mr. Stein, >> yes. >> Motion passes. Okay, great. Um, now we are moving on to need to make sure we fix that part on the agenda. It's missing the word curriculum. >> That's it. Uh so we are moving on to curriculum and the chair for curriculum is trusty Pringle. >> Okay. So um curriculum I want to highlight first uh C19. I would like to say that we are happy to continue our partnership

075with Bergen County Technical Schools uh to offer our middle school students afterchool enrichment activities on the campus of Bergen Countyies. Um I also would like to highlight um C and 26. Um also provide our high school students with STEM activities at local universities. Um and that's it for our curriculum report this month as well. Okay. So we have a motion from Trusty Pringle. Can I have a second? >> Second by Trustee Jones. Miss Astra, can you please do a roll call? >> Miss Alustin Balakutra, >> yes to all, but I must abstain from C19. >> Miss Emra Hamza, >> yes to all. >> Miss Gilmore, >> yes to all. >> Mr. Martin, >> yes to all. >> Miss Gringle, >> yes to all. >> Mr. Jones, >> yes to all. >> Miss Harris, >> yes.

076>> Mr. SC, >> yes. Motion passes. >> Okay. Thank you. Moving on to finance and our chair for finance is Trusty Stein. Um I'd like to vote for B14. [Music] Um the list is quite extensive and um those who are here that have a copy can look at the items that are on that list. So I'm all for D124. >> Excellent. So we have a motion from Trusty Stein. Can I have a second? >> Second by Trusty Armsta. >> Mr. Gri, if we still roll Balaputra, >> yes, but I need to abstain from D2 and D20. >> Miss Emmer, >> yes to all. Mr. Carol is is not here yet. Miss Gilmore, >> yes to all. >> Mr. Martin, >> yes to all. >> Miss Springle, >> yes to all. >> Mr. Jones, >> yes

077to all. >> Miss Harris, I need to recuse from D20. And yes to everything else. >> Mr. Stein, >> yes. >> Motion passes. Great. Moving on to facilities and chair for facilities is Mr. Martin. Yes, I'd like to motion I like to motion a one through 50 and it's pretty much standard. That's it. >> Okay. So, we have a motion from Trusty Martin. Can I have a second? >> Also, no. >> Second by Trustee Stein. Miss Aashra. Roll call, please. >> Miss Alustin Butra. >> Yes to all. Miss Ammer Hamza, >> yes to all. >> Miss Gilmore, >> yes to all. >> Mr. Martin, >> yes to all. >> Miss Pringle, >> yes to all. >> Mr. Jones, >> yes to all. >> Miss Harris, >> yes. >> Mr. Stein, >> yes. >> Motion passes.

078>> Excellent. Moving on to community relations and that is Trusty Gilmore. >> Hi, good evening. Um, first of all, I want to say that um at National Night Out, we had um a great time meeting the community and advertising that we are planning uh to have a community health fair on November 1st at the middle school. Um the the sentiment was so positive. The community is really looking forward um to this event. Um, we had our kickoff planning meeting on the 7th of August and we're going to focus on services, resources, and screenings. Uh, while we'll have some entertainment, that's going to be the main focus because that's what um people have asked for and I believe is what people will come out um to the health fair for. Um, so we're really looking forward

079to doing that. Um and uh our next meeting is going to be on September 11th. So um again, we're in full planning mode and we are looking forward to servicing our community with valuable information, resources, and screenings for preventative health care. That's it. Thank you. >> Excellent. Looking forward to it. Community health fair. All right. So other committees, we have none at the moment. New business We have none. Uh, moving on to public comments. At this time, 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? Okay, see that there are none. Anyone online? Yes. Hi, can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Hi, my name is Sophia. I'm actually an intensive and community clinicians and um I work

080with a lot of families in crisis. Um, I have a couple of people that um are residents of Hackinack and we I was trying to assist the family in school registration. However, um um the forms were kind of a little bit complicated. So, um you know, so in terms of that um who would be the person to contact for assistance in school registration? I'm sorry, Cynthia. You're Is Sophia or Cynthia? >> Sophia, I'm sorry. >> Yes. So, I'm a social worker from perform care. >> Okay. And your residence? >> Um my my residence is not Hackinack, but um I do work with families that reside in Hackinack. >> Okay. Um we still need your residence. I'm sorry. That's >> Sure. Oh, sure. Bagota. >> Bagota. Perfect. Okay. Um, so Sophia, I'm not sure uh our

081acting superintendent just stepped out, but I will let her know and um Rosemary, are you able to answer the question? >> Oh, yeah. >> Thank you. >> Sure. Um, so the registration forms are online and usually you work with the school of your residence. So depending on the school of residence that you belong to um unless the child is middle school or high school age then you should be able to direct um the parent and yourself um you are welcome to attend with the parent but the parent needs to be there to go to the registration at the high school would be the guidance office and the middle school would also be the guidance office. >> Perfect. >> Otherwise it would be one of the elementary schools or ECDC. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Perfect.

082So perfect. So the parents would just um go to the school itself and do the registration. >> Yes, that's correct. >> Okay, perfect. Thank you so much. >> Okay, you're welcome. Anybody else online? >> Hi, Donna West again. I could not let this evening end without congratulating Nicole Adams and Tequa. I'm so excited to have Miss Allen, I'm sorry, to have her come to Parker School. I'm very, very excited and I can't wait to work with you in another capacity. She was such an excellent math coach. So, I'm excited that she will be our new assistant principal and I couldn't let the evening end without saying congratulations. Thank you, interview committee. I'm sure you did a wonderful, wonderful job with all of the candidates. Yay. Thank you. Anybody else online? Yes. Okay. >> This is

083Mrs. Cruz again. I just had a quick question. I've been reading up on the new adaptive version of the NJA uh the NJSLA that's going to be coming up and that there's a possible optional pilot in the fall. Do we know if Hackinack will be participating? That's my only question. Thank you. >> We are still discussing it there. Not controversy, but there's still some things to be considered. Um, so we will get back to you about that. >> Thank you. Anybody else online? Yes. Okay, let's go. >> Good evening. >> Hello, my name is Nicole Adams, newly appointed Fair Mount Principal. My apologies for not being there in person due to a previously planned vacation, but I would like to thank the board of education, active superintendent parchment, assistant superintendent Marks, and the entire Fair

084Mount community for their support and warm welcome. It has truly been a privilege and honor to serve. As I engaged in the interview process, I asked the committee and the leadership team inclusive of the assistant principal, admin assistants, teacher leaders, and the lead custodian what was needed from the principal at Fairmount School. I believe they were gracious enough with me to be honest and discuss collaboration, fairness, a willingness to listen, leading through shared goals and objectives. Their responses to my questions align with my administrative philosophy, and I'm grateful for their trust and partnership. Mr. service has been a tremendous resource and I could not have asked for a more engaged collaborative partner. Thank you so much for all you have done for me in this smooth transition as the leader of Fair Mount School. To

085my forever principal, Mr. Montasano, it has been a great benefit to work under your leadership. I will always be thankful for your distributive approach to school-based initiatives. Never allow our ego to get in the way of our team progress. So to the entire administrative team, directors, assistant principles, supervisors, school monitors along with the teachers, counselors, child study team, drop in staff, par educators, admin assistants, and those who keep us moving through our custodial staff. You have my sincere gratitude. I would also like to thank the students, families, teachers, and staff at HMS where I first started as an administrator in the district. To my critical friends that challenged me as a leader, PASA president and colleagues, this is inclusive of our HA president, Mayor Gains, Donna West, and my instructional colleagues and administrative friends. Your

086thoughtful engagement with me has been critical to my growth. So, I want to acknowledge your trust and investment in me. I'm looking forward to a wonderful school year and thank you again for the opportunity. I apologize for any echo. I am calling you from outside of the country, but I am so very excited and grateful. Thank you. >> Anybody else online? No. All right. Great way to end it. Okay, so uh public comments is now closed. We are moving on to board comments. Mr. Jones, are you ready? >> Just trusty Jones, go right ahead. >> So, I have a lot of stuff coming at me at once. Um, I just like to thank everybody for the uh kind of walking me through everything. It's a lot to learn and uh but it is it's a

087it's just coming in with outside eyes. It's nice to see kind of like a cohesive group and there's a lot of positivity and even like the phone calls that come in and it just seems a lot of good energy and obviously the um unfortunate situation with the neighbors tree notwithstanding but um it's just a u it's it's a learning experience. There's a lot to learn but I feel that I've learned so much in the last month and a half month already. So I just appreciate you guys and thank you so much for your patience. >> All right, Trusty Martin. Um again I like to always continue everyone to continue to come to the mic. We uh do want to hear from what you have to say. Um it's very important to us and we do

088take what you say it uh very seriously and we will get back to you one way or the other with um any information that um we have that you requested. Unfortunately, uh again too with the uh incident, we do apologize and uh we'll do our best to rectify that problem. Um um again to uh Mr. Jones, uh we are happy that you on our board. We uh looking forward to having a good working relationship with you and um continue on. We are here to uh support you and you support us and >> and whatever you need just uh reach out to us. >> Appreciate it. Thank you. >> Uh the summer's coming to an end. Um we have um good things coming up for the uh school year. So look for us again uh at

089our September meeting. We have a lot of new things that we would like to introduce to the public. So keep your ears open and uh try to come to the meeting and uh get some uh good information from us. Uh to Miss West as a chair of the uh building and grounds uh at our next committee meeting, we will look into the uh possible or how that can work with the uh power washing of the buildings and um come back with uh some information for you. Other than that, everyone uh get home safe, finish out your summer, and have a um a great uh end of the summer. Thank you. >> Thank you, Trusty Amra. >> Thank you uh to everyone for uh coming out tonight despite the uh awful weather. Um and thank you

090to everyone for your comments, your questions. Um I want to uh echo uh Superintendent Parchman's comments. Uh congratulatory remarks. Um, and you know, as the chairperson of the personnel committee, it is really, um, uh, it's such an honor. Um, we're so very fortunate as a district to have such a deep bench of, of talent, um, and dedication, um, within our district. Um, and a welcome and congratulations to um, all of our new staff as well um, including our newly appointed uh, school safety coordinator, Mr. Dana. Um and uh just want to uh finally say uh again welcome to everyone. Uh wishing you all um a wonderful uh school year. Um and again um a huge thank you um to the folks that actually make everything possible. of course, our acting superintendent, assistant superintendent, um our

091business administrator, uh and everyone uh in business office, central office, all of our administrators, um our custodial team, IT department, secretaries, um of course our teachers, our paras, um everyone who supports um our district, and of course um wishing all of our students and their families a very happy uh and and healthy new school year. Um, so again, I couldn't have said it any better than Miss Parchment. You know, teamwork does make the dream work. So, I think that's been a great theme for tonight. So, thank you all. >> Excellent. Go ahead. Uh, Trusty Austin Balaputra. >> Good evening everyone. Just a couple of things. One, I'm looking forward to all of these school events and on the calendar. So, I hope that all of the various PTAs and building principles send them. I know

092that central office and Miss Parchman's team has made new um additional efforts to make sure our calendars are updated so that we can make as many events as we can and participate and support and so that our community can support our schools and our school events. So, we're looking forward to that. Um I want to commend Superintendent Parchment and her team for a herculean effort of getting us staffed up there. I mean, we asked her to to move mountains and she did and her team moved mountains and um our vacancies are minimum going into the school year given where we were in June to now. Um and she addressed all the all the people in her pipeline that have done and pitched in, but I don't think the public really understands just how large the

093task was. Um, my heart is especially happy because there's several educators on the list that I've known for a long time and I'm aware of their talent. Some of whom I've known outside of Hackinack long before they came to Hackinack. So, I was excited they came to Hackinack and then now that um, and then someone like Mr. sign who I've worked with for a really long time. It's always a good sign when the contributions and the talent of internal candidates recognized. I think Hackinack staff has an abundance of talent within our ranks and to see some of those people rise to the next stage in their careers is incredibly encouraging. So that is really exciting to me. um to Miss MLOA and her team and the pipeline. The presentation was well done. Um a lot

094of good news there, but I think that's only the tip of the iceberg. I think there's that we have only begun to yet measure the benefits of what your department is doing for our students and I look forward to seeing um how we can present that more so people really see the depth of what exactly is going on for our multilingual multilingual learners as a parent of a multilingual learner who's also disabled this is this is personally um encouraging for me so I want to thank you and everybody from from the gened teachers to the bilingual teachers, SCAP teachers, everybody in your pipeline. I really appreciate that as well. Um, oh, and shout out to because I was particularly hungry today. Shout out to Miss Story, the food services people, and to Sonia McFaden who

095really blessed my spirit. You know, this the food that we have sustains us to get through these meetings is important. This snack. So, thank you so much. That's it. Thank you, Trusty Gilmore. >> Good evening. Um, first I would like to apologize for missing the vote for our newly um hired um administrators. Welcome. Um, if I was here, I would have voted yes. So, I I don't know you, but I look forward to um getting to know you. And um I just want to say, Miss Monola, your presentation was um impeccable. And I just want want you to know after attending um the the world language um the biiteracy um session where the students achieved uh biiteracy. Um it really inspired me and I'm happy to say I have a 61day dualingo streak uh which

096I take very seriously. Um, I just came back from vacation and I I was using my my Spanish in Honduras and Mexico. So, it is working. Um, so shout out to you and all of your um multil- language um teaching staff um for doing such a great job um getting children to be um bilingual, which is very impressive and needed in in today's world. And um lastly, I'm super excited for um the health fair. I think it's going to be something to bring the community together and I always say health is wealth. Um, so thank you all and have a good night. >> You >> and as a Spanish teacher, Miss Gilmore, you know that dual lingo is the fact that you used it away from school or home is a plus. That's great. That

097means it's working. >> Trusty Pringle. Um I know we saying a lot about this presentation today but it just shows um our growth and coming together and the reflection of what our uh teachers um have been doing. Um, Miss Monola, that is the first um, presentation of the students performance that I've seen and will feel good walking away from tonight opposed to feeling sad and down about. Um, it was amazing. I just want to say thank you so much. Um, I want to say also too, um, oh, to give an update, the girls for the for cheerleader, the ones that did attend, they did arrive to Pennsylvania safely. My daughter was with them there. So, they start off there for cheer camp. They'll be back on Saturday at 3. Um, so I hope they're having

098an amazing time. Um, yeah. So, we're ending the end of the the summer. Um, I want to thank my trustee members. I think that every single one of you are amazing. Um, Jennifer, I think that you're doing an amazing job. As um our president, Mark, you're doing all right, >> you know. >> All right. It's better than negative. >> That's true. Mark, he knows I love him. So, Mark, you're doing an amazing job. Everyone at this table, Lendita, my hat down to you, girl. You are amazing. Um, Andrea, everybody knows that. I mean, I'm sorry, Superintendent Oats Bart, you are amazing. Um, everybody's doing an amazing job. I just can't say how this summer went um smoothly with our with our meetings. We didn't always agree on everything, but we it made everything work and

099um yeah, I couldn't ask for anything better. So, looking forward to September's meeting. Um, everyone enjoy the rest of your summer and bless everyone for the starting of the new year. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. Uh, Vice President Stein. >> Yeah, this one was messing up, too. >> Yeah, him. >> I think they did that on purpose to keep me short. Um, first of all, I'd like to congratulate um Nicole Adams. Uh, I've known her for quite a few years here at the high school as a an assistant principal. She is going to do a fantastic job at Fairmount. >> Yes. >> To uh Miss Monloa, what an excellent presentation tonight. I learned a lot. and for me at my age and to the staff. Um, unfortunately the summer is coming to an

100end and uh I I sure I'm sure I speak for the entire board, but we wish you a very successful and productive year with your students. Um, we hope to hear great things about what's going on in schools. Thank you. >> Excellent. Um, so just very quickly, there's a lot to celebrate. I am very happy to know a lot of our staff have been promoted within house. We have new staff. Um, just like some of our uh trustees had mentioned, we had so many vacancies at one point in June where we didn't think we had enough time to fill it in. and our essential staff. Again, kudos to Miss Parchman and her team in making that really happen um to make sure that the most crucial positions were filled just in time for our students.

101Uh thank you again to Miss Monloa. Like I had mentioned um earlier, you know, you had mentioned it best. You said that there is an array of many languages that are used in Hackinack. And as it was mentioned also in a workshop that was attended not for Hackinack, they shouted us out as being a very diverse and culturally um with a lot of languages being used like 28 languages. That is phenomenal as something to celebrate. Um as we go into these last two weeks, unfortunately it is two weeks left until school starts. Um, I know there's still work to be done. And I want to give recognition and a shout out to our IT folks who are making sure our students are coming in with their Chromebooks and everything all ready to go. Our teachers

102with their smartboards or just making sure that Wi-Fi is working in the buildings, which is very important. Our custodians who make sure and everyone has the furniture that they need, that everything is up to par for our students. our secretaries making sure taking phone calls daily which I'm sure is not easy taking in new students probably the day of the first day of school um our buildings and grounds for prepping our buildings and I'm sorry Miss West we didn't powerwash our buildings um this time around but we'll add that to the list of um things that that we can do. Uh, so thank you so much for preparing our buildings for our students and for our staff, which I know takes literally from June all the way till the very first day of school. And

103last but not least, I hope everyone enjoys the last two weeks of of summer, right? Because it's still summer >> and that you have a successful first day of school for our students and our staff. and we look forward to seeing you all at the next event, back to school nights, >> which are which is going to come very quickly. Um, and with that, we are going to adjourn the meeting. Can I have a motion to adjourn? >> Motion move. >> Motion by Trustee Gilmore. Can I have a second? >> I'll second. >> Second by Trustee Stein. All those in favor say I. I. >> Anyone opposed? Excellent. Have a good night everyone. Thank you for joining us.

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