001e all right good evening everyone good even uh please stand for the flag salute I pledge to the plag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all please stay standing for a moment of silence you may be seated in accordance with the open public meeting Act njsa 10 Poland 4-6 adquate 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 I hereby call to order the regular public meeting on Wednesday February 26 2025 in the hackin SEC high school media center at 616 616 PM Miss sing can you do a roll call please yes miss Amir Hamza here Mr
002Carol presid Miss C Alon is absent Miss Gilmore here Mr March here miss springle present Miss Harris present Mr Stein here we have a quorum Perfect all right so at this time uh we're going to administer the oath of office to our newly appointed board member Melanie Austin baluta please come up I Melanie Austin Bal I Melanie Austin baluta do solemnly swear or affirm do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true F faith and Allegiance to the same and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the governments established in the
003United States and this state and to the governments established in the United States and this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people so help me God so help me God I Melanie Alon balra I Melanie Alon balap Putra do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I possess the qualifications prescribed the law for the office of member of the Board of Education that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law for the office of member of a board of education and that I am not disqualified as a voter and that I am not disqualified as a voter pursuant to rs19 4-1 pursuant to rs19 4-1 nor disqualified due to conviction of a crime nor disqualified due to conviction of a crime or offense listed in njs 1881 12-1 or offense listed
004in njs 1881 12-1 and that I will faithfully and that I will faithfully impartially impartially and justly perform and justly perform all the duties of that office all the duties of that office according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me God so help me God and subscrib before me sworn and subscrib before me this 26th day of February 2025 this 26th day of February 2025 congratulations congratul okay so at this time we don't have a student special presentations but no not the presentation we have the student report yes our student report so our student report is from Shena Thomas good evening my name is my name is sha Thomas and I'll be doing the student report so for March here are academic Deon results we are
005pleased to announce that our academic declathon team team or Regional champions We qualify oh we qualified for the state champ competition on March 1st and are currently ranked second in the state with the hopes of attending the national competition again in Des Moes Iowa in total we earned 81 medals 33 of which were gold six of our players were the top scorers in the entire competition those students were Varsity level siia or bronze aen Sage gold Scholastic level Gabrielle Bennett bronze Alyssa cavalo silver Camila Rodriguez gold and honor level shuy sangam car gold our upcoming events are February 26th we're having a Black History Month presentation by Aaron Taylor's black Studies classes during the school day and in the auditorium on March 4th is the National Honor Society induction at 6: PM in the auditorium
006also on March 4th is the Bergen County unsung hero cere ceremony at Bergen Community College on March 20th 21st and 22nd is the spring musical your Goodman Charlie R in the auditorium and on March 27th we have our teacher talent show at 6 PM in the auditorium thank you thank you okay be it resolved that the hakak Board of Education determines it necessary to meet an executive session on Wednesday February 26 2025 to discuss legal Personnel student related matters Hib reports negotiations and other confidential matters and be a further resolved that these matters will be made public when the need for confidentiality no longer exists can I have a motion to go to Executive session a motion motion by trusty Pringle second second by trusty Gilmore all those in favor say I anyone oppos perfect
007okay so we will see everyone back around 7:30 thank you e I got all right so let's have a motion to come back into public session so move okay um motion by trusty Stein can I have a second a second second by trusty Pringle all those in favor say I I anyone opposed perfect so now we are back in public uh be it resolved we are actually on page two of our agenda those of you who are following along at the top where it says approved minutes be it resolved that the hacka Board of Education approves the regular meeting minutes and executive session minutes of January 22nd 2025 and the special meeting minutes of February 5th 2025 and special meeting minutes of February 11th 2025 can I have a motion to approve the minutes a
008motion than motion by trusty Pringle a second by trusty Gilmore um Miss sing can you do a roll call please yes approved yes yes yes you skipped me oh Gil yes okay yes passes perfect thank you all right so on to superintendent report Dr M good evening everyone even I hope everyone is well let me start off by saying happy Black History Month uh we are excited to celebrate all the achievements of black Americans in this country our schools have been putting on some phenomenal presentations highlighting again the invaluable contributions and achievements of black Americans in this country so I'm excited to see what we have happening tomorrow we'll be having our districtwide black history program here at the high school in the auditorium from 6:m to 8:30 p.m. so we are inviting all of
009our families to come out all of our schools are presenting their um programs that they've done to to highlight and celebrate so we're asking you to come out and celebrate those there'll be food and celebration for all that is black so we are happy about that I want to give a special shout out to the high school today I was invited to attend the black studies uh showcase where they presented three times today with the focus around HBCU our Scholars performed uh they talked about the college life they provided information about historically black colleges and universities they did their research um they talked about the the significant impact of those individuals who went to HBCU uh in an attempt to make sure that students are thinking about college and more specifically the options that they
010have specifically with HBCU so great job Mr Taylor uh for facilitating this and allowing me to a few minutes to speak to our Scholars about my journey at Morehouse one of the HBCU um tomorrow of Friday we're kicking off our Are My Brother's Keeper and My Sister's Keeper mentoring program uh the young men will be here at the high school and the young ladies will be at the Middle School uh so it's our introductory meeting with them and again it's alignment with black history month but also the idea of social emotional learning and providing mentorship for our students of color another shout out to Mrs Gilmore Miss Gilmore uh she who was uh sharing her story to our classes around uh the impact of the focus around heart health and uh and very inspiring inspired
011our students as well as our staff members so amazing job thank you for coming to share with us your story um want to highlight our boys and girls basketball team who qualify for the njsiaa state tournament that they're actually playing tomorrow evening as well I think it starts at 8 uh I believe as well so we are wishing them luck so that we make it to the championship uh so good luck to the team I want to highlight fair amount they received the grant for Outdoor Classroom Grant so we are looking forward to that so great job to all those individuals who were a part of writing that Grant and getting that Grant so great job Fairmount um want to talk about a quick safety update at the high school uh we know that uh
012safety has been a priority for some time and we uh about a couple of months back we talked about specific initiatives that we put in place to ensure that we are creating the most safe environment for our Scholars uh and so now we are looking to make sure that we are developing a plan we have a very big campus and open campus and so with the support of the board we are looking to figure out ways to ensure that there are various means to ensure safety uh one being through the metal detectors we'll be doing random metal detectors so just want to make sure that we're clear about there'll be random screenings from time to time keyword is random uh we are transitioning from our previous uh security support through Allied and we're looking to
013bring on some members of the community or members who are affiliated with our Scholars with the additional monitors being provided to the school um as well as an updated safety plan for our high school specifically Middle School I have not forgot about you uh I'll talk to the board about that later uh because they asked about it so I want to make sure that they are aware so Dr whing I heard you I said it publicly okay uh next uh we have a meeting with the HPD around the immigration policies and protocols there are quite a few members so we had our board members Mr Martin Mr Amir Hamza I can't speak today uh we had our uh Mr Ruiz who is our safety coordinator as well along with our cabinet members to discuss uh
014what we need to make sure the information is being provided to our families and our staff but Mak sure we're clear about the protocols to ensure safety of all of our Scholars and our families and so at this time I'd like to show a quick presentation from my team uh so my team please come each uh there was when I did the presentation last month or the month before there was a checklist that they asked the school to develop a plan as to how you would address all of those specific items and so we have done so collectively um Miss parchment Miss Marx Mrs excuse me Mrs parchment Mrs Marx and Mrs Bo how so I that's the that's the second NE the other one please Chris NOP there we go so we'll start off
015with Miss buo Howell so good evening board trustees Dr McBride and fellow community members um the cabinet had the um pleasure of putting the immigration and support protocols together um we collaboratively came together brainstorm thought this through and here we are presenting so the introduction is we are committed to creating and maintaining safe and inclusive schools for all students these protocols provide clear guidelines for immigration related situations ensuring student and family protection Equitable access and legal compliance these protocols establish procedures to ensure student rights and privacy are protected equitable access to resources is maintained and legal risks are minimized protecting our students is Paramount so some of the protocols for supporting undocumented students I'm not going to read through all of them because it's a lot and we don't have a lot of time but
016hackin Public Schools is a safe haven for all students and regardless of citizenship status every student has the right to attend school regardless of the immigration status of the child or the child's family members so the protocols and some of the supporting um uh facts that you see on the screen are some of the things that we came up with for an example provide students with tools to cope with immigration related trauma Student Records should be updated to remove personal identifying data um offer students flexibility with deadlines and extending school hours for support and so on and so on so we identify also identify barriers to connect the students to resources assist students in creating individualized plans so those are just some of the things that we kind of came up with to help protect
017our students uh good evening everyone so here on this slide you'll see the physical access um permission by our immigra immigration agents um right out of the guidelines uh School must honor valid uh judicial warrants and court orders uh but should be consulted uh with legal counsel before responding to any uh immigration official um including the Ice uh teams that are out there if an immigration agent comes to the school uh grounds staff administrators must immediately contact the superintendent of schools uh as a States and the guidelines that were provided uh they obtained the information they obtained that the documentations that they have um from the legal agent uh and they inform the agent that access requires uh direction from the administration absent of exent circumstances or judicial warrant you know the administrators are not
018required to Grant access even in under the Urgent circumstances the administrators should be notified immediately schools are not required to provide student information or access without legal consultation so these are the things that we move on so the in regards to the district training uh we've been as you see in these bullet points uh I've been visiting all the schools and we've been reviewing with administrative staff the current District policies communicating uh with what the a agents in the ice would uh be looking for review with all staffs again uh the building access visitor policy student emergency contact and school pickup information is up to date so in the event that something were to happen uh in the schools were able to communicate with our parents uh We've me we've met uh collaboratively with the
019superintendent in the city of Hackensack police chief and their Command Staff uh we've talked about the departmental policies the procedures and the roles of our school resource officers as agreed in our memorandum of agreement on how they'll support us again with the the building access training we the districts had policies in place 5890 uh not to go through all of it speaks on the ice agents uh before this mandate was provided and as you see there this is uh the information from that policy and again it goes back to requesting uh a Judicial warrant the uh record and request along with the names badge ID of the officer we're fortunate in hackin saac we have a school res officers in our sleo 3s as we spoke to the chief we're all in agreement that that
020there're are our source of information they will go out speak with these agencies that they understand and they will obtain this information that you see highlighted so that we can move swiftly to provide that to the superintended of schools share resources yeah regarding shared resources these resources have been shared with the our teams across the district District including oural counselors and social workers as well as our building administrators and um as you could see there just to highlight them um the NJ dooe trauma informed uh s uh trauma sensitive and Trauma informed practices from there through supporting immigrant families and students and the tlpi initiative which is trauma and learning policy initiative so all these resources already in the hands of um our staff to also share obviously with our parents we can move on
021so we know that multilingual students are one of the most vulnerable populations in our district um at this time the challenges that come with immigrating to a new country including facing a new culture learning environment and a new language have now been compounded by the new federal immigration policies and the everpresent fear of deportation of loved ones as a district we are well poised to support our multilingual students and families during this difficult time we will sponsor a districtwide know your right session to provide parents with information about what their constitutional rights are in the event they're questioned by um immigration Customs informant enforcement emergency planning in case of Detention of deportation of parents it's important that PL parents have an action plan if um such a thing occurs to them and establishing a power
022of Eternity for children in case of detention or deportation of parents um in order and in super assistant superintendent Marx mentioned in order to address the social emotional needs of our multilingual Learners we are doing Outreach to schools to assess specific needs at each School we're providing counselors with training on culturally competent trauma-informed practices as has been mentioned providing teachers with information on creating safe spaces to support our students with coping with uncertainty and anxiety in developmentally appropriate ways thank you and moving on to give you a more concrete visual we have SE te members at each school it looks like some um formatting from formatting there superimposes and shifted however um this has the names at of each SEAL team member at each school for direct contact easily accessible to parents in addition I'd
023like to highlight the care Solace and New Jersey children's system of care information and again it's to put these other Community Resources in the hands of our parents and this is just information where parents so that they know who to contact if they have questions about anything concerning their child suggestions for families affected by deportation it's a family preparedness plan and as you can see the bulleted items how they will prepare this plan in case of an emergency additional resources for families affected by deportation you see a lot of links so so legal rights access to legal support how to talk to your children about deportation and separation and then finally uh we are all required all schools are required to have security School Safety and Security plans however we have taken an initiative to
024update those plans with an addendum um and its information for the schools um all hackin public schools and early childhood ecdc have individual safety plans and now we have added uh information and response to the current state of affairs for immigration and training has been provided to all the office staff who will come in direct contact and then training will be continued for teach and other building staff uh and it's being conducted by um Mr R that's it thank you thank you and my final bit of information or uh before I actually get to the enrollment report uh the superintendent report is uh we were asked during our previous board meeting to give clarification around our nurses how they provide support and so we want to make sure that we are providing that that information
025um as requested so Sor I'm sorry haris yes question no no I didn't know there was another thing it's a short one it's a short one we promise short yes so to highlight our nurses are on duty during all lunch periods when they go to L they only go to lunch after the critical times of the lunch periods are covered given that there is a need for them contractual and we all need to eat they when they go to lunch we have CPR and AED EpiPen trained staff team members in each building our team members are designated to different parts of the building where you will find when you go through there what you see an AED team members are in that area and they it they're positioned strategically to be easily accessible for Med
026they respond to Medical emergencies food allergies and they are part of what we consider our emergency and code blue teams code blue is a universally accepted term um that means we respond in a life-threatening situation next our code blue procedures are listed before you I will not read them to you know that the purpose of these procedures is to ensure that we have an immediate response in case of an emergency coverage for nurses beyond that our nurses record their absences like all staff members do in addition to that when we know of an anticipated absence professional development personal days etc those absences actually get recorded in addition to our normal absence Frontline recording system in a spreadsheet handled by the office of special services and out of that office we coordinate to ensure that our
027district hired substitute nurses can cover those days or those absences although we try to have those those are our primary go-to most of the time that they may not be available in all cases and when an absence is entered for the next day for example calls are actually made via cell to try to get our district nurses to cover those school nurse um needs um at the middle school and at the high school we may we because we are in a very good position where we have two certificated School nurses at times we will have an RN who fulfills The Substitute role thankfully we have four IND District sub nurses and then beyond that we have nursing Services provided by priority and inter from nursing services to ensure coverage in our buildings at all times
028that's it thank you sorry so I'll read to the last part um enrollment we currently have 5,323 Scholars and our attendance rate is 93.8% as it relates to our residency report we have uh five cases that were received in January 21 to date two were verified in January 9 to date there were three inhome visits unverified in January 13 to date uh parent provided update in District approve of resid there was one in January seven total zero students were withdrawn as a result of a resid residency investigation and one for the year um for our harassment intimidation bullying report completed between January 18 2025 through February 21 February 21st 2025 we had a total of there were four that were found there were nine that were unfounded there were 13 total there are four pending
029and seven with a preliminary determination of not HIV and that concludes the superintendent report excellent thank you so much Dr M Fred all right so um being that we're in our full public portion I wanted wanted to once again congratulate our newest board member uh trusty Melanie Alon Bas welcome welcome um you had a whole team with you earlier I wish they were still here with us but I know they're here with us in Spirit uh I wanted to reiterate again uh the Black History Month event that is happening tomorrow even though our district has been phenomenal in having so many events uh I know that trustees were able to attend um tomorrow definitely is our big highlight for the evening to kind of yes and Jackson is having their showcase tomorrow along with fa
030Mount correct tomorrow's well so if you can attend definitely go and Park Friday and just to bring things a little bit closer to home uh I just wanted everyone to just take a look around at our deas right what once was the minority is now the majority and I think that we need to celebrate that and be very proud of having majority women and having uh just the majority of what was what was what used to be the minority is no longer it um and it just represents our community and it's very nice and I'm very proud to to be a part of that uh so for the past three weeks our board trustees our central office staff we have been super super busy I wanted to just let uh the public know if you
031weren't aware we had a meeting in the beginning of February where we um interviewed for a board vacancy um which is where now we have um trusty Austin baluta uh we also did an interview a separate meeting for our new board attorneys and I also wanted to welcome our new board attorney from dtas Fitzpatrick Cole and Giblin is that correct thank you um and our new Council Jason nunamaker we can just SK um along with committee meetings which were extremely informative all trustees and chairs all left with a good wealth of knowledge um enough of information where they can make an informed decision so that's um so that way we can make a proper decision for tonight mandated trainings now board members also receive man mandated trainings in these past three weeks uh the New
032Jersey state law requires new board new school board members and Charter School trustees to attend trainings within 90 days of taking office the New Jersey School Board Association offers members numerous formats to fulfill this requirement including live virtual training self-paced online courses and in-person training um and those people who have currently attended were uh trusty ammer hemza trusty Gilmore and myself uh moving into March March the New Jersey school board is also hosting a women's leadership conference for uh for school boards and I am proud to say that all the women on our board will be attending to that conference very excited you will be there mark get put on a wig I need one and so also just to clarify uh there have been some word about uh City Council meetings so I just
033wanted to be clear in terms of what has been going on so the current board trustees right we have not been included in the meetings between the city council and the district okay uh in fact not until this month we have been notified of that there are some standing meetings uh that have been happening um however it is still unclear as to when former trustees were meeting with the city council on February 13th we requested that the city council accommodate our schedules to make sure that the joint board City committee um members which is some of the trustees here and myself as the president are available to attend this this meeting there can't be any discussions on the needs of our district without representation from from the Board of Education um and that's what's being
034requested at the moment what's being requested is that we are at these meetings uh as a newly reorganized board with new leadership uh we still remain committed in working with the city council so our hope is that they respond to our emails and find a time which we have all communicated our availability and that we can find a day to meet as soon as possible okay and with that being said I just wanted to throw out the message that has been communicated in various events that I have been to which is stay focused okay stay focused in a time where we're being torn to hate each other in a time where we're being thrown to focus on other things we need to remain focused on our students on our district and why we are here
035so just wanted to throw that out there to stay focused with that being said we are now going to move into the public comments portion of our meeting I will be reading policy 0167 which is on public participation in board meetings the Board of Education recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school matters of community interest in order to permit the fair and orderly expression of such comment the board shall set aside a portion of every board meeting the length of the portion to be determined by the board for public comment on any school or District issue that a member of the public feels may be of concern to the residents of the school district public participation shall be governed
036by the following rules one our participant must be recognized by the presiding officer and might and must I keep getting this word wrong must um preface preface what PR preface I don't know why I keep getting that word wrong 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 directed to the presiding officer and any questions or inquiries directed by a participant to another board member shall be directed 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 four all board
037Andor superintendent responses to questions or inquiries shall be held until the end of public participation five the presiding officer May a interrupt Warn and or terminate a participant statement question or inquiry when it is too lengthy be B interrupt and or warn a participant when the statement question or inquiry is abusive obscene or may be defamatory C request any person to leave the meeting when that person does not observe reasonable decorum D request that the assistance of law enforcement officers in the removal of a disorderly person when that person prevents or disrupts a meeting with an act that obstructs or interferes with the meeting e call for a recess or an adjournment to another time when the lack of public decorum interferes with the orderly conduct of the meeting and F wave these rules when
038necessary for the protection of privacy or to maintain an orderly operation of the board at this time public comments are now open um when you come to speak please sign in and state your first and last name please good evening everyone good evening good evening Reverend Carolyn Davis um all I want to say tonight is I am so happy um my heart is filled with joy I have a lot of Hope um for what this board is doing is going to do um you bring a lot of diversity and a lot to look forward to so I'm proud of all of you Melanie I've known since she was this big and I know she's going to be a great support for the rest of you um I'm going to see repeat what our president just
039said stay focused don't let minutia get in the way stay focused the important thing is working together working for the students working for the faculty working for this community and if you stay focused and do that put God first you'll be all right than you thank you for signing in stay focused stay focused here anybody else from the public okay anybody online nobody online anybody else inside okay so at this time public comments is now closed we are going to move on to our committee reports um and we will begin with personnel with trusty emmer Hema thank you Madame President um before I begin I would like to make a motion to table item uh I number one um pending additional information that's still okay so we have a motion from trusty emmer hemza to
040table I number one and we have a second from trusty Carol I'm missing do a wrong call roll call please yes to table yes yes yes to table M Harris yes to table Mr Stein yes okay so I is stable excellent okay so now moving mov on to yes U moving on to the rest of the Personnel agenda um I would like to offer for your consideration items uh A1A through AA with the exception of I number one perfect so we have a motion from trusty Emer Hema can I have a second a second second from trusty Pringle missing a ro misson B cusher yes Miss Hamza yes Mr yes Miss Gilmore yes Mr Martin yes Miss springle yes Miss Harris yes Mr Stein yes personal A1 to AA passes except for I which is
041stable perfect so thank you okay we're going to move on to policy trusty Pringle um policy I believe this is the second read right that we're doing for this or no uh B1 is the first read okay so the first Fe B1 uh be it resolved the hackensac Board of Education upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools approves the first reading of the following policy um policy PF 5460 High School graduation Revis uh p551 to harassment intimidation or bullying revised um B2 be it resolved the hackensac Board of Education upon recommendation of the superintendent of schools approves the second reading of the follow following policy 0164 conduct of board meeting 0167 public participation in board meetings excellent okay so we have a motion from trusty Pringle can I have a second second second by
042trusty Carol um missing do a roll call please um Miss Aon B same missir hamson yes Mr Carol yes Mr dero Alton absent oh she's absent Sorry Miss Gilmore yes Mr Martin yes springle yes Miss Harris yes Mr Stein yes motion passes excellent okay on to curriculum with trust Pringle okay so moving on with curriculum I would like to highlight uh C9 um I hereby hereby approves and ratifies the submission of the Bergen County resource development application for fiscal year 2025 26 uh to Bergen's promise to support youth who are experiencing emotional behavioral and or ID Health needs and their families in the ID Health oh sorry in the amount of 67,69 um Bergen's promise is the designated care management organization for Bergen County by the New Jersey children's of care um I also would
043like to highlight C10 um hereby approves the submission of the army educational outreach program mini grant for the summer 2025 in collaboration with the p ptin ptin pitini Arsenal stem office so support and encourage local stem education and Outreach and increase awareness at local stem and aeop um this is targeting our Outreach targeting Outreach will ensure students in interest in I'm sorry ensure students interested in science Technology and Engineering having access to engaging and relevant educational U experiences um the curriculum is also structured to accommodate all students providing language translation and adaptive learning materials to support and inclusive learning environment um I also my notes I also wanted to highlight uh C1 um this has to do with the haac uh school-based mental health Grant um the school-based mental health Grant aims to help districts
044expand the pipeline of Mental Health provid ERS and increase the diversity of high quality trained providers while addressing addressing the shortages of mental health professionals in schools through this grant we have entered into partnership with Ramapo and records for placing social workers interns in our schools and have been able to add three full-time seal social workers to our staff this grant has also funded After School counseling and summeral programs and thank you thank you all right so we have a motion from trustee Pringle can I have a second I'll second okay second by trusty Stein missing do a roll call please miss Alon Baler yes Miss Emir hza yes Mr Carol yes Miss gelmore yes Mr Martin yes Miss springle yes M Harris yes Mr Stein yes motion pass excellent so now we're moving on
045um just so that everyone is uh aware we are on page 11 of our agenda on item D which is finance okay so on to finance which is truste sign uh I'd like to offer D1 through d11 and I'd like to highlight a few um d10 is the uh for the prom of June 10th of 2026 to be held at Westmore West Mount Country Club that's happened to be the place I had my prom too um we all did um d11 um d11 is very important um it has to do with a shared service contract uh where for people who are not aware with a shared service it's a number of um school districts that come together that can use their strength to get better pricing for goods and services um in this case we're
046uh in we are working with Educational Services Commission of moris County so again I'm offering D1 through d11 excellent so we have a motion from trusty Stein can I have a second a second I'll put trusty Gilmore in there trusty Gilmore uh missing a roll call please yes Miss Austin Baler AB miss Amir Hamza yes Mr Carol yes Miss Gilmore yes Mr Martin yes Miss Pringle yes M yes okay you did say yes right yes Mr answer for me too no she yes motion passes okay uh we're on page 14 moving to buildings and grounds trusty Martin please yes um build and grounds safety um most of mine are pretty much standard but um I would like to um just touch on two three items one we looking to upgrade the uh sound system in
047the boy gym which is well needed and um we're also looking to upgrade the uh uh Press Box that's all being looked into so um I think that's necessary and one good thing about that um um Mr um Pablo um he um also uh we talked about that he's going to um include our coaches and athletic director in that Press Box so that um we could get true information on what that uh Press Box should look like also um I would like to uh take um uh take an opportunity to um take my hat off to uh Pablo and and the um maintenance crew and the custodians Department as chair of the uh facilities and security from um January to now I have learned a lot about our maintenance and custodian Department after hearing of
048Mr Felix Pablo report that uh heing his report they had saved the dis over close to a half a million dollars from January to now and I'm looking for big things from them also our custodians I want to thank them for all that they do they keep our building uh clean they keep the uh help keep the snow off the ground when our students report to the building and staff keep the parking lot clean saled keep the building safe there's a lot that goes behind the scene that is not metion about these two uh departments and um I'm very impressed with them um especially um uh Mr Pablo uh keeping his crew together uh job well done uh keep up the good work we all love you we appreciate you and um we're here for
049you if anything that you need thank you and uh that's it on that all right thank you uh so that's a motion from trusty Stein can I have a second a second okay trusty Pringle um um Miss sing roll call please yes Miss a baluta yes miss Amir Hamel yes Mr Carol yes Miss Gilmore yes Mr Martin yes Miss springle yes Miss Harris yes Mr Stein yes motion passes okay moving on to community relations which is Trusty Gilmore hi good evening um I'm happy to report that last night we had our first uh community relations committee meeting and it was um a success uh we had uh eight community members some Administration and a ton of Amazing Ideas that um I think that we could execute on some of them being the fact that um
050we um have about three months left I'm going to send out a survey to see what the top two um ideas are that we can plan and successfully execute before the end of the school year um so this is a bunch of people from diverse backgrounds um Educators community members former students that really want um to see Hackensack come together as a community and I think that we can do great things um so I'm excited and looking forward to it thank you thank you we're all excited that it's back up and running thank you uh so other committees we have none new business new business okay uh this time this will be our second public comment portion individuals may address the board on agenda and school matters of community interest for one minute is there
051anybody in the public that would like to speak please State your first and last [Laughter] name Carolyn Davis again um I just have a question do we still have um Project Graduation do we still do Project Graduation is that okay I'm just wondering I think it was a great thing years ago we had Project Graduation um but my year and Mark and I in the same year 1966 but uh it was a great thing for thanks thanks um but it was a great thing for the seniors I mean the parents help will help um we went um uh when my son's class went on right Cru they went to cruise on graduation night after graduation they went in a cruise there's a dance tonight before it made graduation year just so special and I know
052there's a lot not the funds nowadays for school trips like we used to have but I like I think that's a great idea if we could ever get back to that Project Graduation I was just wondering if we still because I don't hear anything about it so I guess we can look into it right okay right thank you is there anybody else in the public lock gradation anybody online yes we do okay for one minute oh hi can you guys hear me hi can every can everybody hear me yes okay hi my name is Christine Katona um I am a parent of two children at Nelly K Parker and I actually a substitute nurse so I'm going to speak quickly on the nurse issue and actually grounds issues um it was mentioned before that critical
053times are covered by nurses but critical situations don't only happen on scheduled time and it's completely unsafe not to have those times uh covered an emergency can happen as everybody knows at any time my child personally has been sent back to gym class which more injuries happen in gym then during lunch because the nurse's office door was shut with a head injury and my other child came home with blood in his ear after being smacked by a child and never even seen by the nurse cuz she was not there um there's been kids in my daughter's class that have been sent back to class throwing up during um virus season because no one is there seizures aren't scheduled um and I want to know are these other staff trained if someone's oxygen drops do they
054know how to put on a non-rebreather mask do they even know how to turn the oygen tank on a ands are aeds are great but those are not thank you anybody else it's okay thank you anybody else inside okay so our second public comment portion is closed um I I do feel we we do need to address this um nurse um situation I know that we had the presentation um but if if this is an issue that's specifically to Parker School it seems like come sure so our code blue teams are trained to respond to emergencies for full disclosure they are not EMTs and in those emergencies the first call is a 911 call like in any other emergency I'd like to remind the board um some of you were here when we had a
055student in 2010 who right here went into cardiac arrest and that child was actually saved they said by the code blue responders who were located on this floor and were here and provided immediate response even prior to the nurses getting here so um in terms of school coverage we are very lucky that in our district we actually have a school certificated nurse in each building rather than just available on our campus with RNs who report to a school nurse which some districts follow so the blessing of having our School nurses is we do have School nurses available the majority of the time we absolutely understand emergencies are not scheduled however thankfully due to our lead nurse and the wonderful District nurses we have who are part and parcel of ensuring that an AED trained staff
056EpiPen trained staff and code blue staff members are all trained and it is the School nurses responsibility to ensure and we have a list of Staff members per building as a matter of fact a shout out to our lead nurse lamparelli who actually sends us recommendations to ensure that on a rotating basis when that CPR training expires when your card expires we have them trained immediately so yes emergencies are not scheduled and we understand that the district makes every good faith effort to respond and to ensure that we have trained staff available to respond throughout the school day barring the fact that our first response when there's a critical emergency is 911 and just to to add I'll just really briefly given the amazing staff we do have I'm I'm very confident that in the
057event of emergency if someone is on lunch they will be more than I'm more than likely believing that they will come and support they won't say that I'm on on lunch right now so because we have such amazing staff members who are always going above and beyond um we are blessed to have that thank you U just um I'm listening to our resident and I'm with to mention about the CPR the start with that I was the officer that was here uh and made the save I was looking at board members I'm sorry you were SRO officer Martin at the time I was also part of that birth of the CL myself and Wendy lamparelli we both put the C blue together for not only this district for the state as well but I think
058what our resident is asking she understand the cold blue part I think she's speaking more on the first aid uh emergency um first aid if as she mentioned if a kid gets hit spray in the ankle or whatever there's no nurse here how would that student ankle be stabilized that's a concern I think that if I'm pretty sure that's what she's referring to so we have a nurse out of course the uh SRO or or the officer will respond to that uh the co blue team can respond but can they be able to stabilize a sprain ankle or or whatever so I think that's the king she's asking how we going to work that part out of Bic face Aid so again dep if there is a severity of sprain that requires a 911 where
059the child is in tremendous pain then that would be called otherwise that child is at that point um either held in the nurse's office with coverage available until the nurse returns um our nurses have well in terms of other emergencies they are kept safe much like EP pens but by following ATB pen guidelines State guidelines they're in safe spaces that are unlocked to be readily available our ice packs are readily available our uh first aid kits are readily available and again there are other staff in the building no they are not nurses however we do everything we can to provide for that holdover and like Dr McBride said thankfully we have such amazing staff you were witness here yourself to have people available and that's I think that's what she asking how the how yes
060I use the ankle part as an example only but there's other uh uh incidence that happen not only in gym but outside of this Etc you know how how would the staff or someone be able to stabilize that patient until the ambulance get here and thank God we only down the street yeah you know but you know the ambulance doesn't always respond from the hospital they on patrol the point is well taken and given the fact that Miss Katona is actually one of our substitute nurses I'm going to uh request that our lead nurse meet with all the nurses to ensure we have procedures in place that make that clear and we'll come back to you but that will be coming from our lead nurses and nursing team and I know that Wendy lamparelli also
061much like when you went around the state and you presented at school boards with the code blue we look to see what other districts are doing so the ask will be specifically what are districts doing and to ensure that our procedures and our guidelines are clear and again supportive to ensure the safety um at maximum levels and I hope that answer your question uh the resent I hope that answer your question hope it help out you have any other let us know yep thank you thank you thank you uh let me see where was I okay so uh we are done with public comments and on to board comment ments so we will start with our newly elected trustee truste Austin baluta thank you for welcoming such a warm welcome I just hope to serve
062in a capacity that serves the community and the children of this community and um make sure that I stay in my lane and and and and serve in a way that um I don't take it lightly the response ibility of serving in an office that I was not elected by the people there comes an additional responsibility that that comes with additional responsibility and I don't take that lightly so I thank you for the warm up thank you all right trusty Gilmore um I just want to say um thank you to um uh um Miss Medina and um I forget the other um health teacher for inviting me and my son um to their classes is for heart month to share um our story um to to get the children to understand the importance of learning
063um CPR uh because you know the community needs a community full of Lifesavers because as it was mentioned um emergencies are not planned and also I'm excited again uh for the community relations committee uh because I think people are genuinely excited to to want to bring the community together and um you know showcase our schools and what Hackensack has to offer so I'm really looking forward to the work uh we will do thank you excellent trusty Pringle um so real quick I wanted to before Black History Month in um on Friday February 7th myself and um a couple of our board members went to go see the hack aack High School dance team team um celebrating Black History Month Through The Art of Dance Volume 3 and when I tell you amazing amazing is an
064understatement like I don't even have a word to describe what it is that I saw what it is that I felt what it is that I dreamt about after seeing that show but I tell you amazing very professional I'm so proud so very happy and thank you um the dance team for the invite it is amazing I'm looking forward to another one next year and um other than that that's it for me tonight thank you have a good night get home safe thank you trusty Carol got me got you're not first yeah right you know know I'm gonna be honest I'm thinking about the the the the the show the dance show I amazing is a perfect word for it I would pay money that should be on Broadway somewhere it was it was just
065so fantastic it was um you could feel the emotion and the passion that was put into these dances and uh they just got me through me it was very uplifting very uplifting that they did a um powerful performance um I'd like to welcome uh trusty Austin balra all right right and um also Mr Jason nunamaker welcome to the team I look forward to working with you guys um the academic de uh da kathon team congratulations uh Regional Champions second in the state 81 gold medals that sounds like a lot to me that sounds like I know I wasn't on the team but s 81 sounds like a lot um and boys and girls basketball good luck in their tournaments um tomorrow and [Music] um Dr McBride you and your team thank you for putting out
066that information um for the protocols for immigration that was good very informative and um that's it that's it it's Black History Month I like to pay homage to those who paved the way um through history and who continue to pave the way and thank you good night thank you trusty Martin uh first ID like to uh welcome our new truste thank you thank you for uh jumping on board I'm looking forward working with you and your expertise is very important to this board that you will bring and uh this going to we're going to have a good year and uh so we're looking forward to being with you and to our attorney we're looking for your guidance uh and your expertise and uh want both All Above everything you can give one of the other
067everything you could give us and um um I'm sure that um you're gonna guide us in the right way and and and be transparent and give us all the information that we need um Miss Gilmore also um you're amazing you and your son um I drawing read down every day on roof for West and um I get a bunch of horns tooting at me because I have to slow down the one two boys with your picture I'm waiting for them simultaneously come up at the same time it's every every day on my way to the gym so keep up the good work and again like we spoke before give me and me assistance I'm here for you you I'll find the time yes that I'm here you don't have to worry and uh I guess
068the uh word for the rest of the year is stay FOC and that we will be thank you madam president thank you for your service thank you for all that you do it's hard to juggle being a president being a mom being a uh working working and all the other things you do uh like you said look around we have some amazing people on this board and um to the residents you're going to see a lot accomplished you're going to be surprised to the U employees and to the students things is going to happen and just give us time there's a lot of work to be done again stay focused have a good evening and go home safe thank you trusty amema um I really just want to reiterate a lot of the things that
069have already been said first and foremost congratulations trustee uh really looking forward to working together and doing great things for the district and it was so wonderful to see your sea of red supporters during the swearing in just really wonderful um and I I also just really want to thank Dr McBride and your team um for your ongoing commitment to ensuring that we have a safe and inclusive community for our students for our Educators administrators for our entire staff especially at these during these challenging times um I I really want to commend everyone that put together the protocol assistant superintendent uh parchment marks uh miss monoa Mr Ruiz the entire team um and the Swift response um to safety issues as they arise we know things can come up but um I've been very impressed
070with with how quickly uh Dr m bride and all of our administrators across the district have really you know jumped into action um and I do want to encourage and remind all of our students that we have those wonderful resources posted right you know prominently on the district website uh resources for our immigrant Families Our multilanguage Learners and their families as well as members of the lgbtq community um there are wonderful resources there that are available um uh from our Partners at Garden State equality so I encourage everyone to take a look at those resources um I do also you know there are so many wonderful things to celebrate um across the district and uh this month especially you know we really are celebrating our diversity as a district we are celebrating black history our
071Black Culture um and I just want to thank all of our staff our our um administrators and our students for all of their wonderful events and activities um and so I look forward to the events that are coming up still to come um at Fairmount at Jackson uh tomorrow evening here at the high school um and for all of the wonderful events that have already happened um and I know that folks are also looking forward to the first uh Tricky Tray that will be coming up at Nelly K Parker on Friday um and uh we have a wonderful youth art show uh next next week um we have the National Honor Society induction next week um Bergen County unsung heroes so lots of good wonderful things to celebrate and also you know just celebrating the
072wonderful information from The Amazing Story of of trusty Gilmore and her son I mean that is is just wonderful that you're able to share that what was such a a a a potential tragedy and turning that into information for our communi so thank you for that um and uh I also just want to thank the public um for their comments and I hope uh and I do want to thank Dr McBride and his team for um trying to address the issues as they come up um getting the information so that we can present it to you um if not that night then you know at at a a meeting coming up um and I just hope that um more folks will come out to our meetings it's really important to get as many people as
073possible to come out and provide your input and all input is welcome not only from you know parents and members of the community but also from our staff and our administrators um our Educators we want to hear all of your feedback all of your feedback is welcome we especially love hearing the wonderful things um so please feel free to share those things um and uh lastly um congratulations to all of our comments on their amazing achievements and good luck to our comets who are continuing to compete um uh just wonderful to hear about those gold medals and victories um so thank you all so very much and have a great night thank you uh vice president Stein oh thank you um first of all I'd like to thank Dr McBride and his administration I couldn't
074believe the anxiety that the community as a whole is going through our students our families never knowing if a knock is going to come on your door um and I think the fact that we have taken that you have taken the time to address this to protect our students number one and to give the families basically a direction of what they need to know to be able to follow the laws that are put in place in the state of New Jersey [Music] um as trusty Pringle said um I two attended the February 7th the only way I can describe that is to put the energy that the students went through to perform is almost like training for being on a an athletic field they were just a amazing um they had me going there too
075for a while but um I want to thank them and last but not least on I believe it's March 6 yes it is at 6:30 um is our youth art epic uh Exhibition at uh Johnson Public Library I have to tell you that a former teacher of mine so we're looking at we're looking at time um a former teacher of mine and a former superintendent of schools uh Mr Anthony marcelia will be honored that night at the art exhibition so uh again it's a time to come out and see what our students not only do academically but what they do in the form of art uh whether it be visual whether it be uh Performing Arts you will have a crosssection because I've attended these for many years you'll have a cross-section of how talented
076our students are and with that I wish you all have a safe trip home stay warm because it's going to get colder it's only February thank you thank you all right I won't uh repeat what everyone said because obviously we all agree uh but I am excited for a few things I'm excited that the program for my brother's keeper and My Sister's Keeper will be starting tomorrow you said oh Friday um very excited for that to be being launched um again Dr McBride thank you and the administrative team central office for taking the appropriate measures and keeping our schools and our students safe um a lot has happened um these past few weeks um but we have been proactive in taking appropriate measures and keeping us all informed of what's going on so thank you
077uh I also want to thank all the schools for inviting us to all these wonderful events um we have been in constant communication and just making sure that at least one representative from the board is able to attend uh you know unfortunately depending on personal schedules and depending on Our obligation here as a board we're not always able to attend to everything but we will try our best as you can see there's multiple events happening in one day um for example tomorrow some of us will be at the um event at the high school some might be at the game some might be there's something else going on I can't recall um but we will try but we will try our best um to make it and thank you always invite us because you never
078know we might be able to go uh yeah don't don't ever think that we don't want to go we always want to go uh we also I forgot to mention we do have our board retreat on Monday March 3D so I am very excited for the board to be um filled with knowledge with inspiration and to continue to move forward with positive things for our district um thank you to uh Mrs Marx for clarifying on the nurse information and for us to um respond to the parent I'm excited for the community Relations Committee for the the kickoff yesterday um and last but not least I also wanted to thank our interim attorney um M Miss Hicks uh thank you for stepping in um in the last minute uh situation and Welcome to our new um
079board attorney Mr Jason nunamaker um and that is all I have for tonight I want to thank everyone for your time I hope everyone gets home safe we do um we are going to go back into Clos session however it is um no action will be taken at this time it's just for informational purposes for us but you guys are all free to leave so at this time I just need a motion to go into close motion by trusty emmer hemza second by trusty Martin all those in favor say I I anyone oppos all right good evening everyone and have a good night e e e for I'm ready to Jour all right I have a motion to adjourn our meeting second okay so we have a motion from trusty Stein and a second from
080trusty Carol all those in favor say I I anyone oppose no okay have a good night everyone thank you it is 10 o'clock on the dot thank you have a good night