001I call this meeting to order. This is the P for Board of Education's regular meeting on Wednesday, October 15, 2025. The video start at 6:46 7 p.m. at the early church center 27 street park New Jersey. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. court present. Mr. Anthony >> here. >> Miss Rebecca Lee >> present. >> Mr. Young Park >> here. >> Miss here. >> Mr. Adam >> here. >> Mr. Junior. >> Mr. Sergio Pay >> here. >> Mr. Carl Aleno >> here. >> Mr. Deandrea >> here. >> Busher >> here. and Tyler in a in compliance with the open public meeting act. I hereby restate the notice of this regular meeting has been provided
002to the public by a written notice dated January dated January 15, 2025. The meeting notice has been emailed to all STE members at the district school locations communicated to the record var with the B clock of Picide Park and posted on district website. Before we go on to discuss the agendas in working session, we need to conduct the interview to the vote vacancy. And um before that, I'd like to suggest and make a motion to over members to establish the rules of the process. >> So since this is just two or three months position that I'll try to keep it simple but keeping all the formality that is required by our policy and so but I like to limit some questions to very standard form one or two and um if any member like to
003add more questions and spend time questions Um let me know that um probably each of us can give one additional question or two and then once we have all candidates to be interviewed here in public and we need to go to the produce session not just for this question about this interview but also to further um discuss about other matters. that we need to discuss in our work session. If we are all agree on this or if there's any suggestions, any any objections, please share your opinion. >> I mean, I don't think we need I don't understand why you need to limit in such a way. I don't over. We have many agendas today to to deal with and discuss. We are expecting a long meeting to include two presentation by our superintendent and I
004I understand you asked requesting to keep it short. I understand that we understand the time limits but to say that we are limited to whatever I think we don't know in an interview it's you don't know what they're going to say. So it depends upon what the discussion becomes. You can't just predict what someone's going to say and say, "Okay, I'm not going to ask any questions about this matter or background." Um but this is property meeting and if the board members agree on certain stuff like for example process that we have but that was still we had we had the rules the previous step to go over to keep is into shape and in um to be effective and fair to everyone who's attending as a candidate also here to um to spend their
005time in this in the meeting that you don't want to know. I understand making a request to make their rule is I think individual and not appropriate. That was actually it was suggested by our work too. >> Yeah. So the board policy requires the board to do an interview with the public. Uh often boards will uh agree on a set of questions for each candidate so that it's fair and they get a chance to answer the same questions as the other one. There's no possible appearance of favoritism. There's a lot of followup questions. one and not another or some things of that nature. Um, and I suggested that there wasn't going to be unanimous consent on that making a motion to set the rules that chance to discuss it. >> It's fine if there's like
006a chance that someone ask questions, but basically besides a couple of us, no one asks them a question. I mean, let's come down to reality here. Um, >> but I think perhaps that's part of the issue is that by trying to address it beforehand, Sue makes make it so that she's not responsible for making that decision as to who's asked enough and when it's been too long and and have step in and that way some kind of uniformity among us that you know there's a set standard everyone expectations are and hopefully Why can't that made be made as a request and not as a rule? It is I think it's overreach and I don't understand why that would be necessary that it never gone super long or anything like that. So I the necessity of
007coming to this point I don't understand it and I I don't expect that this will take that long but I don't know why that's been anticipated. What you want is that you learn very >> I would like you to make maybe a request and it should be based upon past experience >> of where if it took over and something else I kind of understand it but >> if you're talking about the past we never done this before when the last person was out so that they could sit in 2022 there's no in process >> yeah because there were no other candidates but I don't think it should be a rule. I think it should be a request like both said because as per what the candidates what their replies are, there's other questions that may
008rise. So there are certain questions that >> none of us thought of until their reply. So it shouldn't just be like you're limited to and keep it short. You know, >> it's not that I'm limiting. I'm studying the the >> yeah you could just this into things um the rules >> so okay like if you like to give any questions or to receive to me then I recognize you to speak I'm noting your voice but I'm asking all members and agreements or their preference to um to have room to give our candidate more fairness for both of them. For example, if you give one candidate a question 500 question, you have to give it to another candidate as well too. And we may or may not each candidate to interviews in the public. We may
009ask one candidate to stay outside while the other is So those are kind of rule we need to set. So we kind of reviewed all like parliamentary rules and this kind of internal process as well. So I'm suggesting that that I believe by or Tony's advice as well to to it's effective for us to set the basic simple rule for this interview. So we have a motion to accept the review attorney fees on something like this. >> That's why I was asking that was actually my response is just make a request. Of course we'll follow request try to make it short. Don't ask too many questions. Don't elongate it. Please don't elongate it. Like >> that's what I asked you to right. My email clearly state to you and it was you respond to me
010that I >> you did not say it as a request. You said it as an order. >> No, it's not order. >> I ask you to give us any question. >> Okay. So clear I just suggest what I think that's the best way to go conduct the interview for this two three months position. So okay let let's just decide here may I have a motion to set the rule for interview if you don't make a motion that I can make a motion may I have a I'd like to make a motion to set the rule for this interview to create the B position for me I'll make a second Mr. Could you take a roller, please? Um, Mr. Trump, >> yes. >> Mr. Anthony, >> yes. >> Mr. Lee, >> no. Cuz I don't think
011it's necessary to make it a rule. >> Mr. Clark, >> yes. >> Mr. Binger, >> no. >> Mr. Aaron, >> no. >> Mr. Ser, >> yes. So the motion passed. So um my suggestion is just set a standard question such as why do you want to be a member of the school board in the district or why do you think you are qualified to be a school board member in Pak of education and you can certainly give them your questions if you wish but please make sure interview each candidate very >> that's yeah that's what I see done often makes sense to me because that way I guess it makes more sense if there's a set of questions but you know there's no advantage of going So number three rule is to I do want
012this I want this to be on defining the minutes because I do feel there's something important for speech. So >> so please make sure it's codified in the minutes. >> Oh please I think here we have our camera. This is the reserve, right? So it's a candidate will be introduced oneon one while the one person is here the other person in the other room and after all the interview session question answer is done then the board will go on the closing session for further personal matters and we will come back and the work will be in regular edition at the end of the discussion. Um, how many candidates um did they apply? We have two candidates >> are they all present here? >> Is Mr. Ray Park here? >> Thank you. So, who will ride
013the horse? >> Uh, Mr. Okay. Then stay outside then you Thank you. in front. Thank you for >> Can you speak louder? We can't hear you. >> What? >> Can you speak louder? >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Good evening, Mr. Thank you for applying for this position and we'll just give very simple questions as you discussed earlier and why do you want to be a member of this group in this district? >> Well, being a lifelong resident here in Palisad Park, uh having a long history here, I've dealt with many of the issues that you're dealing with in various ways. I've been a teacher, been an administrator, was a board member for a little while, and now as a uh property manager. I run monthly meetings with my uh board of directors along with
014residents. I'm well verssed in Robert's rules and how to run meetings at the board during meetings. Um, and frankly, I'd rather be on the board helping you uh rather than being more of an adversarial position sitting out here. I know that it's a temporary position. Um, so I figured in the next two or three months I can bring a lot of the experience that I have had not just sitting on your side of the table but also the experiences that many of your teachers go through and administrators go through because I've dealt with all of those type of things. So, what I'd like to do is I'd like to bring that experience to help you guys uh educate some of you in more of the ways that things should be done on the board. Uh
015things work out and uh see what happens maybe in the next election if I decide to run for a full position for that. >> Thank you. Why do why do you think you are qualified to be a school board member in our district? Uh well as mentioned uh I have been in education for most my career at this point of seven years in property management but I had over 10 plus years of education experience working in the classrooms as a high school social studies teacher or going into Lagod and being their director of curriculum and instruction which was basically the assistant superintendent. I was the uh the left hand of the superintendent whereas the right hand was more of the uh business administrator uh working very closely with teachers. Uh at that point uh we
016were going through a lot of changes uh especially with uh next generation science standards and new math standards and everything had to be updated there. Uh I successfully ack experience with pagod which had not been done for many years before that point. Um, with the abolishment of that position, I then worked at different districts, uh, Edgewater, uh, Richfield Park, helped them with their own QAC experiences as they moved forward. Um, and then decided to switch careers and move into, uh, property management, which, uh, you would not know, but a lot of those skills are sort of the same. Uh, empathy, responsibility, communication are the three things that I bring with me, and those are also good reasons why I think that I can be a good board member with you guys. Thank you. Young members,
017do you want to give Mr. any questions Mr. You see the way that this is a blocky? How would you um remove these method >> a little louder please? >> What are the methods you use to counteract some of that or do you feel like >> so I think that in some cases what I see is almost as if the communication isn't as strong as it should be ahead of meetings. Um, is it a possibility that maybe agendas aren't going out early enough that you have enough time to ask questions before the uh the meeting itself? Um, whether or not that there are certain ways of uh making sure that you know motion is brought up and who's allowed to ask questions when questions are allowed to ask. I know unfortunately sometimes I get a
018little frustrated. I might call out something during the meeting which I know I'm not allowed to do. But it's all in good faith trying to help you guys along with moving forward in the way that the agenda really should be moved forward with. Again, it's another reason why I would like to join you on the board and help with those type of things. Um, I would say more open communication prior to games might make the meeting run a little bit more smoothly. Um, again, you guys run the Q&A session the way that you would like to run it. I think that in some cases by answering questions after everyone has already asked their questions sometimes elongates the Q&A because what you're really you might have four or five people in the audience that have the
019same question that if they do answer them at the time of the question you might move it along a little bit quicker rather than have the five or six people ask the same question and then get one answer at the very end of it. um you know just those little things to try to make it really work mostly. >> Thank you. Any other board members? >> Any questions or comments on Mr. Speech? >> If not, thank you Mr. >> and close it. So, uh, again, I love this district. It wouldn't be still here if I didn't. You know, my, uh, great great grandparents immigrated here. It would live there our entire lives. My son is now in this district. And whereas I always took education seriously and I loved what I did. It takes on
020a bigger importance now that he's here. I don't want to leave this district. I don't want to try and find another place to go. I like being here. I like representing this town. That's why I'd like to get on the board and help you guys because the last couple years have been kind of scary. So, I'd like to help you guys in doing that. That's pretty much what I'd like to say in closing. I hope that I'm a good fit for you guys. If not, you'll still see me here representing myself and other people. Okay. Thank you guys. Um yeah. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> And I will My name is Thank you for coming tonight and applying for this position. So we have basic two questions on the board. They
021have additional demand. It's a viper. >> Oh, >> no. >> Why do you want to be a vamper at the school board in this district? >> Well, I'm a young parent, per se. Uh my oldest one is about two and a half right now and I have a six-month old. Um but I've been residing in Pal's Park for seven to eight years roughly. Um I see myself staying here and I do want to be a part of my kids' life one way or the other. Um but obviously education is very important um in my opinion at least. So I want to do what I can from the background you know be involved in community education and do what I can for my kids and the community at the end of the day. I think everyone
022has the same goal in mind their children and their best interest. My second question is why it's pretty relevant to the first one. Why do you think you are qualified to be a schoolboard member? >> Realistically, I'm sure there are many more people qualified than me. Um, but if I were to give my background as simply as possible, I am a math education major. Um, I'm not in the teaching field right now. I decided to go another career path, but you know, I always had a passion for teaching. I tutored on the side for probably probably 10 plus years. I've coached high school football for six years. So all in all, I genuinely do like kids and working with them, teaching them and being a role model, being successful I can. So yeah, again it's
023not it's not amazing. There's going to be way more qualified people, but that's what I can offer and I am green, but I am willing to take in the information. >> Thank you, M. Do you have any questions to Mr. Ra? >> Thank you Mr. and we were actually able to We have a motion to go closer session to discuss personnel matters. I have a motion. >> Second. [Music] All in favor? >> No objection. >> Thank you. All right. Um we'll be back in 15 minutes of talk um to discuss personnel matters not just about interview but other personal matters that we can discuss on the working session. Thank you for your day. [Music] Just kidding. Thank you for waiting. And before move on to the last session, I want to give Mr. Obama to
024recognize a person that um that he was going to do a supported report in regular session, but you don't need to let him wait until then. So, could you please go ahead? >> Absolutely. So, um it's an honor for me to um invite up um our athletic director, Mr. Elliopis, and uh is our rusty coach here? Coach Oh, there you are. Coach Daneiro. >> And um they're going to talk about a very very impressive young man who um has won a very prestigious award in in New Jersey athletics. and uh I got a chance to see uh him on the field last Friday at a very exciting homecoming game. But uh I think Dino and and and coach can really give you a lot better detail than than me. So please take it away. So
025um so uh Shane Armstrong uh received the uh athlete of the week award for uh North Jersey and uh it's a big deal with regards to their athletics. Um, in every high school you walk into, you'll see an athletic um, athlete of the week wall or commemorating all the athletes that received it. It's a big deal. So, in our school, we have the same uh, only 13 athletes in school history ever received it and he will be the 14th. Congratulations to him. Um, and five previous football player making him the sixth. Uh so just letting you know that that you know it's a special honor. Uh he'll be you know uh his his face will be up in the halls in Paly Park forever and that's a great thing. Um so you know I never
026got it but uh but uh I couldn't be prouder of him. Watching him on the field uh is is a joy. Um, you know, I I'll talk a little bit about last week's game. Um, you know, his performance on the field actually got him uh NGIC conference player of the week this week. He got defensive player of the week. Last week uh just tells you what kind of uh athlete he is. And he's even as great of an athlete as he is, he's even greater kid. Um, and so I couldn't be prouder of him. I see him in the hallways every day. I'm so happy for him. I congratulate him all the time. He's a leader on the on the field and it just shows. You can see it. Um you know I don't know
027if coach would like to add anything else. >> Yeah, he's just I mean Shane is exactly what you want when it comes to representing Pal's Park. I mean he's a tiger in every sense the word. You know we came in this year with the idea of building this new culture and he's been at the forefront of that. You know he's a leader. He leads the team. He leads the kids. He's somebody the coaches can rely on to get stuff done on and off the field and we're just so proud of him. I'm so proud that he can be immortalized in the halls of Cal Park and uh the future's bright for him. Um I'm happy to have him. I'm happy to have the opportunity to coach him and you know this is all for him.
028So congratulations buddy and I'm so proud on behalf of the board of education. We're proud of you. >> Good job. [Applause] [Music] May I have a motion to open our meeting for um working session? I made a motion. >> All in favor? >> Thank you. So the board where we discuss on agendas starts starting with the minutes in the regular session. We approve the minutes the regular business meeting of September 17, 2025 minutes and executive meeting minutes. Do you have any request for discussion of this meeting? If not, let's move to courts. for building and grow. Mr. Arbach, could you read the agendas? Okay, we have four items on the consent agenda for today. Uh, first item on the agenda is the PTA meeting schedule for the 2024 through the 2025 school year. Okay. Uh
029be it resolved that the Pis Park Board of Education upon the recommendation of the superintendent approves the following PTA meeting schedule for the 2025 to 2026 school year. Second Tuesday of every month, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Libert School Cafeteria. Second item on the agenda, uh, recreational multiple department use of a facility. Be resolved that the fate board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent approve the recreation department use school field and the high school gym for the following events trunk retreat basketball camp volleyball camp dodge ball basketball indoor soccer games and indoor soccer practices. Third item on the agenda, use of member school softball field lady nights. And the fourth item on the agenda is the use of school soft. >> Thank you. So, do you have any questions and discussion disability
030rounds or agendas? [Music] Right. >> What are what are the North Jersey fighters? >> Uh they are um a local team and um you know could probably speak a little bit more to it but but they they use our field. Uh there's no cost to the district. I think they've used it in the past and what what um I'm assured is that uh Palage Park Sports always has first preference and priority with the field or gym or any space. So, it's only when we're not using it and it is allowing them to use the field um when it's under use by the school. >> Is this different from our facilities in the school where we're supposed to be charging from private companies? Is this is it is this private company? >> So I I can
031I can add on to that. So yeah, uh the Vipers organization they they've been they've been using the field for the past several years. Now anytime they have clinics, it's open to all the palace park. Um it's it's sporadically too. They don't use the field very often anymore. They used to use it a little more often uh two three years ago. Um but they what they do is they've been using field. I'm affiliated with them. um they whenever they want to use the field um you know whenever they have a um a clinic of some kind all you know PAR students and high school students are allowed to participate. So, it's just a it in in my view the field the the softball field never gets used by any of our uh sports teams and
032any field that doesn't get used gets dilapidated and it kind of forces us to me really uh to maintain a field me and Dave uh uh Teranova maintain the field you know um and and before anyone could use the field it was full of weeds uh it was never turned over um not ever, but it had been many many many years before it ever got used. So we allow or I the board and prior have allowed us to use it uh just so we can have the field be used so we can actually start maintaining it because we don't none of the sports teams actually use it and it helps out with the the little league team because again we maintain the field they use it as well um when they have practices they don't
033ever have games there but they they do have practices there that we can um you know that that again if it's it it gets maintained it wouldn't get maintained otherwise so it's no cost because really it's me and Dave that that actually do any of the work there >> but you know I think the important point you you made was that our our student athletes >> are able to participate >> free free of charge free of charge >> so they're they're getting um you know skill development and and they're able to participate >> yeah we had some of the high school girls uh I think it was last here two years ago uh participate in the one clinic that they had they've had one clinic there. Um they have other they use other fields as
034well but you know sometimes they don't have a field to use um and it's not it's maybe I don't know a handful of times throughout the year that they'll use it. >> Well that engenders a few other questions why it >> that's a bigger question. I would love love to have a conversation. >> Yeah. Uh it's just not used because the the high school uses the county field, the county softball facility. Um it's it's it's half turf, half dirt field. Uh it's used all the time and maintained by the county. So they use uh that it's got um benches there that actually you could sit on uh that not up to your needs. Uh but it's also, you know, it's it they use they've been using the high school's been using the county facilities since
035it's open. And since then, our baseball field over there has never has not been used. Dave and I have uh fixed the mound uh to uh you know, ra the fields, watered it, done everything just to have some of the little league teams play on it as well. Uh that's so just to just to maintain minimal maintenance just to keep it up because if no one uses a field, it never gets never will never get um you uh maintained at all. >> But the North Jersey bikers are isn't private. >> They're they're a club team. Yeah, they're they're a club. >> I And I appreciate all your maintenance work and all of that, but with this the way we've been moving forward is to charge private companies for these grounds. So, this is why I
036brought this up. But >> I al I have sympathy for what's going on, but as a rule, if if we're doing these rule things, then we have to follow rules. Can I can I just add to that? Um I understand where you're coming from, Bo, but from what I from what I know that Lindberg Field is co-owned with the recreation as well as the school. So you could, you know, um get in touch with Mr. Tyteranova and get a better answer. But are you talking about the property ownership >> of food? >> No. >> The usage of the field from what I from what I know. >> Where did you get the idea from? >> Huh? >> Where did you get the idea from? >> That was discussed in the past as well as when
037I was on the recreation committee. That was what I was what we were informed. >> Right. But we have discussion on our school property issue for past year and actually we found out that the order knowledge of the municipality and even school the knowledge of the ownership of the rentable food was >> I didn't say the ownership I said >> so that time that is not probably correct so I just want to >> I said you could look into that like I don't want to argue here okay I'm not here to argue. I'm just saying I just I had a question. >> I had a question about the soft as well. But like >> I don't know what the issue is. I do not want to argue. I just wanted to inform you what I
038know. So maybe Mr. Albaniano could look into it. That's all I said. >> Yeah. Yeah. I'm not ready. I'm just giving you the information that >> that's why I said maybe Mr. Alana could look into it to give us a further answer, a better answer. That's what I said. >> Okay. >> So, can I ask a question that I wanted to ask about the Bergen Tech? Does the Mr. E, I'm sorry. Um, doesn't the Bergen Tech have their own field or is this like a backup? >> This is so their their in this in the fall their field is being used for soccer. >> Okay. So they um they asked if they have if they we had a field that's not being used and so they wanted to see if they can use it. Uh
039they usually use Little Fair's um rec facilities >> u but once in a while they can't and so we're just a backup to um to their you know to allow them to play. Yep. >> And again is because you know that field doesn't get used unfortunately. >> Thank you. I just want a clarification. So, do you do they pay little fairy and stuff or is it >> No, they don't pay. No. >> Yes. Uh I'm seeing here with the items number three and four from the list of it, it seems like the schedule they're just going to be conflicting. They're they're they're used. So, I keep I maintain the the the schedule for all the fields and the gyms. Um and so they don't um they use it so sparingly that it's just it's you
040know it it might they have or hasn't used had used it um once last summer um or this past summer and so they don't need the field very often and neither do the the the Viper organization. So it's just uh it's just when they need it. It's as as their as they might need it. So, it's not um there's no like schedule um games there as far as like you know uh they'll have all their games there or anything like that. It's just for uh mostly for practices. >> Thank you. >> Also, I have I'd like to just repeat that what we've discussed before with our former administrators for disagreeing and ground issues. I don't know if you recall that I have brought up multiple times questioning about whether we charge to the private use
041of our school and sometimes u definitely brought up to us to approve it without knowing much about the fee structures how much we charge and the schedule conflicts. So each time um so so far so I don't think our district has any set D structure about this renting out issue renting out to the private party outside of this district. Um so I spoke with Mr. And I think I want to use the key words that are the structure as well. But for now, my question is that whether we collected or them to pay for our security deposit that was stated in our policy as a it might be $250. that um >> I yeah I think to be consistent with the policy we ought to um ask them for a deposit in case there's damage
042or something like that we can hold that deposit at the end of the season if there's no issues then it can be returned if that's been our our practice but I I agree that I I think this is a bit of a more complex discussion as far as setting up a fee structure for local organizations nonprofit profit organizations, organizations that maybe, you know, invite our students in and our students can benefit from it. Um I I and I would welcome, you know, to have some input from the admin team and and I think, you know, with board members. Um I think we've come up and there's a lot of good models out there from other districts who do charge and bring in some revenue, but also are reasonable when uh the district's students can can
043benefit from these programs. Quick question on that aspect. >> If that were just happen, is there going to be some sort of like oversight, some sort of overseer for all these students that come in and out of the field like a security guard like checking or something? >> Good question. Typically that's not necessary. You know the oversight is the responsibility of the organization coming in and you know if if we find that their supervision is not adequate, we can always say no going forward but the district uh it's it's not typical that a district would provide security for things such as this. >> Thank you. Do you have any questions on this building and ground agenda? If not next education chairperson Mrs. We have seven field trips and two events to be presented today. You
044will see. Thank you. Do you have any questions and discussion on the education of Jacob? >> Yes, I have a question. Um, the destination for New Milair High School, it says group is athletes. Can you elaborate >> under I'm sorry. Under which ones? >> Under the field trips. It's the one, two, three, fourth field trip on the list. >> It's athletics. >> Yeah, it says athletes. It's very broad. >> You're here tonight. I know. Uh so, uh this is uh last year the NGIC, which is our governing body for our our the league that we're in, um held a sportsmanship summit. Uh they asked us to invite five athletes. I surveyed the the athletic department. They sent me names. I chose five um seniors um to to go. Uh the whole point is for them
045to relay what they learned at the sportsmanship summit to because there are seniors and there are leaders on their teams. Uh to relay that um what they learned at the summit to the to the sports teams that they play on. So, it's a um it's in New Milford. Uh believe from we're we're leaving at 8. We're going to be back by 12:31. >> Thank you. If it said sportsman should submit, it would have clarified. >> Okay. >> So, thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Just curious if that represent sports or >> every any any and all sports that we uh Yeah, it shows uh a myriad of uh student athletes, boys and girls as well. Thank you. Any other questions or discussion? If not, let's move on to finance. Number one, approval of submission of
046the GSA full year 2026 plan application. Number two, approval of submission of IDEA FYear 2026 grant application. Number three, staff member visitations and work stop workshops. A few of them. Number four, tuition reimbursement. And five, approval of bill list. Six, high school gym equip equipment inspection. Seven, approval of payroll for two, three, four, five, six, seven, seven periods. Eight, acceptance of donation to Lingley Elementary School, $100. Nine, approval of agreement with Omni TSACG. Number 10, Student Activities Accounts. 11, Brooklyn County Special Services, annual contracts, nonpublic idea Foundation. Number 12, agreement with school office. Oh, school office solutions. Okay. Treasurer of school monies and bill number 13 is with collection uh agreement with school accounting services retroactive payment calculation. It's the correction of the name of the um 14. Acceptance of donation to the Palisades Park
047Junior Senior High School Dance Team. Number 15, out of school district contracts 2025 to 26 school year. Members, any questions? >> I have a few questions. Um, can you explain what's the difference between title three and title three immigrant? not exactly sure the the the title three immigrant the money has to be earmarked for for students who um are English language learners and who are here and and in need of support but of course you know um this is not their first language and they're immigrated recently immigrated from another country I can't tell you how many years back we can go but that money must be used for for that specific purpose. So it's more specific and and also for the number 15 I understand the new bridge and ridgefield but we own that. Can
048you explain? Yeah, these are decided upon um by the committee on special education. So >> is a special education for Leona as well? >> Yes. Look, we we probably that program we don't have it here and we don't offer it at Palisades Park. It's a program that >> doesn't offer it either. >> Um that level of detail I don't know, but but that's the determination of the committee on special education. So if they're recommending Leonia that is the best placement for the child. >> Okay. As long as it's for special ed that you know you have answer my question. All right. Thank you. >> These are always number. >> All right. So any other questions or discussion this 15 agendas? I would bring a thank you to the team. I also want to in my
049present report, but I can do it now. I'd like to recognize the team Paris Park for our appreciation for your $2500 donation to our junior high school verse. Thank you. And chairperson, you got one, you should make it tonight. Um but previously team Pennite Park have conducted the art contest in our high school. It resulted in um awarding nearly $3,000 to our students in district. Thank you. Do you have any questions in finance? So next the personnel there agenda tonight for since the chairperson Mr. near our vice president as well. He couldn't make our meeting tonight. Um but so the committee member Muyo, would you mind to read the agenda? >> I can do it too. >> Sure. One, appointment of staff. Aldo Dino Simon Gonzalez Esther Lee. Two, request for leaves. Number three, amendment
050to teacher appointment. Number four, amendment to breakfast club and wait room supervisory siphon. Number five, amendment to cafeteria 8 hours. Six, appointment of anti-bullying specialists. Seven, approval of life team trip chaperones. Eight, approval of middle school girls basketball coach. Nine, approval of middle school boys basketball coach. Number 10, staff termination. >> Thank you. Any questions in personal matters? Actually for discussing closer [Music] um Oh, why are we upping the um hours for the cafeteria aid? >> This um this was an oversight. We originally I think over the summer they were appointed for three and a half, but in reality they we learned that they do work four hours a day. And I checked with Miss Braos, our our our principal, who confirmed that. So that that's the need to cover all of questions. If not,
051I will the committees that has no report tonight. May I have a motion to go enter into the regular session? All in favor? Thank you. So, we start with the board report from the board of presence. I like to just speak about the district 4. Um, but I didn't present it here because Mr. Arbano will do his superintendent superintendent board for this 2025 2026 after me. I just want to explain a board members that how this board came up and if you recall that a few months ago since then we've been discussing about the board of pes of education district board for 2025 2026 um based upon um we collected some um evidences that what would needed to improve in our school district And one of critic was that the um result of our former
052um superintendence evaluation as well too. So um the board came up the correct agendas for our goals and we previously discuss um that was communications and improve student performance outcomes and um develop and improve our social emotional learning opportunities for all and develop a fiscal accountability. And why our board school is somehow abstract and some of them might take a years not just can be um accomplish it in one year and so our board our superintendent superintendent Mr. about he he's worried he is the expert to make our code more more feasible and more executive and more effective and so he will um he will make a presentation of his on our boards out of our discussion and most of the board might be in align with the B score but not as again like
053some of our voters might not be achieved in one year. So he came up with a very concrete and constructive goal and it was pretty structured and then Mr. Arbano please go ahead with your superintendent report. >> Sure. Sure. For our guest um we're the screen unfortunately is in the background so you need to do a 180. And I I will try to project um I think I feel more comfortable near the screen as well. So if you could presentation There we go. Thank you. So, um, we basically have two presentations, goals, and then we're going to turn it over to our principles to, uh, do a review of last year's student performance statement. But, uh, the goals typically you see them adopted September and October. I did ask the board for a little patience
054because I I did arrive midsummer and I needed to try to understand the district. I had a lot of conversations and meetings and thank you all for so much of the feedback that you gave me. But one goal and in discussion with with our board is that we really think we there's room to improve with communications. Um, and and even right here with with our board meeting, I think we do a good job, but again, there there are things that I believe can help us. Uh, enhancing the website is a is a big one. Um, we think just make it more um easier to search things, maybe more more logical, a little more streamlined. Um there are software platforms for board of education agendas that are really helpful for the public to follow along and
055it also includes policies and and their search capacity that that is very strong and there it's a nominal expense but additionally internally um to be able to do a search you know on on board docs whether it's the the business office HR payroll our our administrators, our teachers uh internally to have a platform will really um help us be more efficient and more effective in our communications and um we are working on that. Grace Lee and I uh the board secretary um have already examined a few different platforms and we we think we can have an implementation but I'm I'm sorry I jumped right down to the third bullet. A basic one is it's funny we went from from one camera and now I think this evening we have four cameras going but um going
056forward just so everyone knows the district is committed to recording every board meeting and posting it. So certainly other community members are welcome to record as well but we will have an official recording and that's what will be posted for people to refer to. Um also again just looking at that website very carefully. Uh and then also a lot of training is involved once we implement whether it's board docs or diligent board. Um training people on on how to use it effectively. Uh that takes some effort but we think we can accomplish that by the winter. uh and then also uh work with our IT department um to look at the website functionality ensuring uh that it's uh there's uh compatibility when when you pull it up on on your your your smartphone accessibility and
057and easy to navigate. So again, I think there's room for improvement there and I know the community really relies on the website. Second big area uh is hiring. So, I think um anyone who's been following the Pal Park story knows that we had uh an unusually high number of vacancies this past summer. That that's no secret. Um we hired probably well over 25 teachers, central office administration staff and and administrators. We are just about fully staffed, but it was a very difficult time to run these searches and hiring. It's not ideal in the world of education. You want to be out there hiring in the spring before other districts. You don't want to follow other districts after they had their hiring season and then you're scrambling at the end of the summer. It's never a
058good position to be in. So, we want to be more proactive in doing this. We think that starts with getting a group together um internally to to look at how we hire currently and there are very strong processes and procedures in place. But again, I do think there is some room for improvement here. Um, having an official hiring protocol that everyone follows consistently, I do think is important. Making sure we're thorough, making sure that the the committees are are well informed about the dos and don'ts of how to question candidates, follow-up questions. You heard a little bit of that tonight with the board interviews. Um, also background checks, being thorough, doing reference checks, not just taking references that the candidate is, but going beyond that if you can. That's how you really make sure you're
059hiring quality people. So, that will be discussed. It'll be formalized in a document and presented, you know, to the board of education uh for for consideration in February. But um training, you know, um on the practice and and and the procedures and and just getting better at it. Also, on the flip side, recruiting. You know, I think there's room to to improve our recruiting efforts. Uh we have some good relationships with a lot of local universities. Uh but also we want to consider maybe advertising like casting a wider net and getting more, you know, larger and more diverse pools of candidates. Now, there's an expense attached to that. So, we will have to speak with the board, you know, are is the board willing to support an investment in some broader advertisement. And there are
060there are some platforms that that we we can take a look at and give you some estimated costs there. But again, if you have a larger pool, you just have a better chance of selecting highquality candidates. And then uh lastly, again, I there is I think there's eight or nine local universities with high quality teaching programs and administrative programs. And we have I know we have a lot of good relationships, but I'm new and I really don't know any of the deans of schools of education or the people in charge of student teacher placement. I've spoken to a few on the phone, but I want to increase those relationships and bring in student teachers as much as possible. and many of them if if they're they're standout young educators maybe eventually they they can you
061know become permanent teachers here at Pal Park. So I think just you know working on those recruitment efforts and getting out there early and and being consistent and another thing it seems simple but after people interview a thank you for interviewing letter even if you don't get the job because you never know sometimes people are not ready they're not experienced but three years down the road they would be a great fit for us. So, you know, you never leave people, you know, feeling like they're ghosted, which you've heard that line in in the, you know, the hiring world. Um, I think it's just respect when someone makes the time to interview that we follow up with them and and leave them leave a good impression. Now the main focus while we're all while everyone is
062here are the students and um that rate Christian I thought we fixed it to 96 but okay um we're going to adjust it when we posted on the website. So overall how carbs student attendance is actually pretty strong. So, we took a look at previous years. We're hovering in that 94 percentile and that number up there was that this was a previous version, but we're going to set it to bar of 96%. The national average is like 93%. Uh the state average is a little higher. It's like 94%. We were just above 94% last year, but we want to do better. And I think if the students are here and we really work to support our parents and encourage our students, um the more they are here, the more they're engaged, the more they're learning
063and and the better their performance will be. So um this is a a goal for us. Uh the admin team has been working on this from day one. Um we're going to be looking at trends. Uh those you know handful of students who are suffering from chronic absenteeism, what can we do? Do our counselors need to be involved? Is, you know, some kids are, you know, may maybe struggling with with getting to school. There's anxiety. There's all different things that that our young children are going through and we need to support that better. Um, also that's targeted interventions. Sometimes families are in need or have challenges and we have a a network of resources and we have people that are that are really really uh you know skilled in this area and knowledgeable and we
064will make sure we're connecting families and supporting them as well. Um also just promoting good attendance, incentives for our students, recognizing those who have have have strong attendance, supporting those who are struggling with attendance. Um and just PD for our teachers, administrators, we did hire a lot of new people. Make sure they understand that, you know, if if there is a pattern of of attendance, there's a whole team in place at each school that can help support and and and do outreach. doesn't fall solely on the shoulders of the teacher and we will support that. Finally, um the core of what we do I I really have to say is is literacy. So I I I think it's a you know for me in my first year here I I think it's an area that
065we need to focus on. I'm not going to take a lot of credit for this because the supervisors and the administrators and the teachers piloted a researchbased ELA program last year and that's amplified. Um you may know we were like almost every other school across the nation using um the the Columbia University teachers college balanced literacy program and there are many good elements in that program. But about 3 years ago, Lucy Caukins, the the the person who who created the Colombia program, walked back her her guidance that people followed for probably 25 or 30 years and that it wasn't researchbased. The science was not supporting it and that you needed more direct reading instruction, more phmic awareness and things such as that. So again, I'd like to take credit, but I can't. The the team
066here was proactive. They piloted this program last year and with the pilot cohorts saw tremendous results. So now it's being implemented for the entire elementary school and I thank the board for for supporting this. Um we approved it um couple maybe six weeks ago. Uh and now we have a lot of work to do. There's the implementation phase. there's PD lined up uh and supporting the teachers in this new program. But I will say that the teachers are very enthusiastic because when you see students make growth and and and you see those results and you see the responsiveness, it's exciting. And so our teachers are totally uh on board with this. The admin team is is there to support them. And I have no doubt that this is going to be successful. And if you
067improve your literacy skills, well, what will follow? Math has literacy, right? There are word problems. Science has literacy. Social studies certainly has literacy. So, I think in focusing on this right now first and foremost will have an impact on all the other subject areas and and will really help us with our student performance going forward. It won't happen overnight, but I do think you're going to see a steady trend of student performance going up. And and this is really the heart of it right here. So that's why it made it a main one. So with that, we're going to focus on many other things. It's not just these four things, but these we tried to get down to what are the most important things that we could do um to have an impact on the
068district in a positive way and and on the students. So with that, I will take questions if there are any. >> Yes, that's a question. I can tell you right now that the literacy is working cuz you have one right here that's definitely doing really well. It's funny to watch him do everything phonetically. >> I think >> you spell everything right, but he writes and when I read what he writes, you can actually see him try to spell it out the way he thinks it sounds right now as he learns the correct way to spell for me. It's super interesting. >> Thank you for that feedback. It's good to hear. Mados is going to Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Um, so just a little bit about our test scores. uh NJSLA uh NJGPA which
069Mr. Sabriana will address and access scores which are addressed in this uh presentation. So, Palace Park School District, uh, we have, of course, what I just talked about, NJSLA, NJGPA access. Uh, you may hear about DLM. It's a special education exam, but we did not have any students taking the DLM in 2025. So, you won't see anything in this specifically. This is focusing on Lindberg Elementary School, grades 1 to six. I tried to get one of the shots that had the cherry blossoms. I don't think you can see it that well. Um so a little bit about um our you know our population and uh you can see from 201819 the highlighted 2425 in yellow is the year that we're going to be looking at the test data for. These are just a little bit
070about our demographics. You can see um our Hispanic Asian population other population ML is multilingual learners. That's our ESL and IEP. Those are our students who have an our special education students who have an IEP. Currently, as of today, we have 723 students enrolled in Lindberg School. So this year, of those 723, 469 students are slated to take the NJSLA. And then you can see the breakdown further. Um, some students will be in multiple categories because you can have a student who obviously, you know, you can have a Hispanic, Asian, white, African-American student, um, who is also a multilingual learner and or an IEP learner as well. So, but that's your, you know, basically your breakdown and you can see your percentages there. Uh, the NJSLA, these are statewide assessments. All public schools in New
071Jersey must must have must take this these assessments and they assess students progress towards the standards the New Jersey student learning standards and they are tested in ELA English language arts mathematics and science. So this these are the levels that you'll see in ELA and math there are five levels. Levels one, two, and three the they're not meeting the standards yet. Uh did not meet did not yet meet partially met approached and then levels four and five have met and exceed andor exceeded the expectations. So that's where we really want to be. Level four is your benchmark. That's where we know the child has met the standards for that grade level. For science, there are only four levels. You can see here below proficient, near proficient, level three is proficient. That is the target. And
072level four is advanced proficiency. So that is science. Science is only tested in grades 5, 8, and 11. Uh so all eligible, all eligible students in grades three through six did participate. We did not have test refusals. Um, all of ex the only students that were exempt were our newly arrived MLS who arrived after June 1st of 2024 and they took the math and science but did not take the ELA portion yet. Uh, and that is as per the state. So, this shows you a little bit about 2024 2025. Few things just highlighted here. Um, this goes in hand with Mr. with with what Mr. Albano was just talking about. Grade four was our biggest gain where we had a 10% increase in our ELA scores. We think that is because our grade four pil
073fully implemented full grade level piloted um CKLA amplified. So, we're hoping that that is the case. It does seem that that is the trend because then predictably other grade levels will follow. Additionally, the grade that grade level as they all work together to implement amplify implement CKLA there was a lot of collaboration which did also extend among the other through and across the other academic subjects. So in math they also had it the um a great increase from 38 to 45%. And so we do take that back collaboration as well as increasing their literacy skills also helped to enhance their math skills. And we have to remember that that because even though they all were working in that program, it was a pilot for them too. So it was their first year really, you know,
074working with this program. Um, so then we can see here looking at our uh state versus Palace Park in 2025 and 2024 for for what where we're looking to address. I'm really looking at that yellow level because that's your approaching those are the students who we feel can really meet start to meet their goals. So, you know, of course, we want to see more students in the green, but we were we're really going to focus on where those students in yellow, our NJ uh SLA afterchool program, that academy is when that opens up, we're going to really be looking to target those students who we see are approaching because we feel that they can meet those standards um in across grade levels. So, we see that in grade three, in grade four. Again, it's in
0752025 in Palisades Park, it's about a quarter of our students and and we see the same in 2024. So, we're hoping that we can get those a quarter of our grade level there. That will really um show a lot of growth. Grade five similarly very close to that 25% and in grade six as well very close to that 25%. So we we really need and in the grade six we are also piloting the amplify program that is um not the KLA but it's amplified. So we're hoping that that that we'll see the progress there too and there's a lot of excitement built about that in our grade six um uh among our grade six faculty. So mathematics we see similarly um 34% there in in math is approaching. So if we can get those students
076to make the gains, we will be well over the 50% mark and that that would really enhance our math skills. You see similarly in grade four, grade five and finally grade six. So just a quick case science are we can see from 24 to 25 we levels three and four we know that we're trying to enhance bring those levels up. We do have our fifth and sixth grade uh math teachers working very closely with one another. They're looking at closely at the curriculum and ways to improve um their uh their instruction and uh looking at the curriculum to see ways to build up across the across their grade levels as well. So we looked at our NJSLA looking at ELA and mathematics. So you can see here grade three at grade three in ELA had
0775% that were fewer or not partially making uh not partially meeting 3% were fewer were meeting and 8% more were approaching. So we see an increase in those levels. In grade three math we had 1% greater was increase or meeting exceeding. This is from 24 to 25. Grade four that was our largest increase 10% increase meeting or exceeding. Grade four again in math we had 7% increasing needing or seating. In grade five ELA we had a 2% decrease and grade five math a 4% increase. Grade six we had our biggest decreases in ELA and math. So we tried to take a look and see why what what's happening at these grade levels. So as I said before grade four CKLA we went to full implementation. That was a great collaboration across the grade level and
078that also extended across subjects. In grade six, we looked yeartoear. We saw um that there was a a drop in for that grade that cohort of students. These were our students that were first graders during the COVID shutdown and second graders during the hybrid year. Also is a very large class. there were 136 students there in grade six versus our current grade level grade six which only has 111 students. So we know they were a very large group and we do feel that in first and second grade that was a that was difficult it was a difficult time. So we have our subgroups here our economically disadvantages disadvantaged students are multilingual learners and students with disabilities. So we had 20% meeting expectations uh for economically disadvantaged, 7% of our multilingual learners and 9% of our
079students with disabilities. So we know that we have definitely have work to do here in our subgroups. Grade four ELA similarly 38% that's pretty high for economically disadvantaged students. Our multilingual learners 12% and our students with disabilities at 14%. Grade 5 ELA 18% met expectations. Well, our MLS and student with disabilities we had 0%. So we know this is something we need to work on and we have been working on in grade five and in grade six. where 23% met um of our economically disadvantaged students met or exceeded the expectations versus students with disabilities. Math was a little bit higher. 30% of our students met or exceeded expectations, 24% of our MLS, and 9% of our students with disabilities exceeded the expectations. in grade four, even higher. 41% of our uh economically disadvantaged students, 32%
080of our MLS. And I should I do want to highlight this because our uh ESL teachers taught the CKLA program right alongside of our classroom teachers. So those third that 32% of our fourth grade students who passed they were in that they were receiving CKLA instruction and it was their year their first year. So that that's a pretty um significant number and 29% of our students with disabilities and those students as well um participated in this pilot program as the special education teachers also taught CKLA grade five math we had 24% of our students um who are economically disadvantaged meet or exceed expectations and 0% of our ML MLS and students with disabilities and grade 19% of our economically disadvantaged students and 6% of our students with disabilities met or exceeding the expectations. So this
081brings us to our WEDA standards for our access uh these are the levels for of proficiency. So the students take the access test in March. Our ESL students are the only student who takes their test. And these are the levels from entering all the way to reaching. That's we know where they definitely are out of the program. Typically at around bridging, the students will be at that level where they will test out of the program. And then um Mrs. Moon, our ESL um supervisor, provided this data for us. is students from K through 12 and um where they landed each of the levels. So you can see where they are in every level and there were 517 students um from student from K through 12 who did participate in the access um then some intervention
082strategies for multilingual learners of course we're going to continue uh there PLC's professional learning communities and the student those teachers are working with um the classroom teachers as we are implementing TK CKLA. Um, so we're collabor strengthening that collaboration. We are implementing a pushin as well as a pull out model for ESL this year. That's something new. We are using pull out in the upper grades uh if the student in grades three and four if the students are at a lower level of um language development and pushing in when they are at a higher level of language development. and excepting grades five and six because that's totally devontalized. That's so that's all full out. We have we're using our INRS protocol so that we can uh identify students who are at risk whether even if
083they have a any other like in ESL if they're in ESL as well. We are providing an afterchool program with an ESL component to those students who are close to testing out of our ESL program. We want to really try to help them to develop those skills and and help them get out of the program and into the a full day in the general education setting. Uh we're promoting a positive school climate. We're also addressing the chronic absenteeism which we hope will help. The more that students are in school, the better they're going to do academically. Also will help with any behavioral issues and continuing to support through our mental health team. So we're trying to help the whole child looking at their social socio economic uh social emotional skills, their academic needs and looking
084at any new any challenge that they may face especially our newcomers to the country. Um then looking at what we can do all across Lindberg school. We have as well full implementation of CKLA in grades 1 to 5 and the collaborative teaching approach with to support our MLS piloting amplified ELA for grade six. We're continuing the NJSLA after school academy for grades three to six and we're focusing on teaching skills and strategies to meet the FEA standards while addressing test taking obstacles and tips. So that after school program is going to have a uh it's going to have a greater focus. We're not just going, you know, we're keeping the kids, but it's really going to be much more focused on how we're going to look at those standards, look at those skills, and how
085we're going to address those needs. We're continuing that afterchool program for grades three to six to also support our MLS so they can expand their level of proficiency. We're providing greater support during the win period. That period was implemented last year and we're using additional support staff as well as progress monitoring and we're being more um more specialized with how we're progress monitoring. We're looking where the students are falling and seeing how frequently we need to actually progress monitor those students. We're supporting collaboration among the teachers by providing additional time to plan together. All of that time has been carved out for the teachers in the um in the school day. And we're encouraging support through peer observations. We take the pressure off. It's not only administrators going in allowing time for teachers to observe
086one another. We're also continuing professional development in CKLA and Conquer Mathematics. That partnership uh we're continuing with as well. Any questions? >> Yes. The NFL program that looks like it was very successful. You said it was a pilot program. So if it was successful, how come we couldn't adopt it? Was there a cost involved that you could >> Well, we last year we wanted to we were we wanted to try it. So what we did was we piloted two t two classes on each grade level except grade four because that was actually cost effective because of our word study program at that level. It's a little bit complicated but I'll save you the time. It um it enabled us to go full implementation in grade four. So on a pilot level thankfully the program was
087extremely wellreceived. We saw a great success in grade four and um this board was supportive of purchasing the program and I know Mr. Roana thank you but I have to personally thank you as well because supporting this I think is really going to help all of our students and I think we're going to see great gains. I don't know it's going to be year one. I hope I could stand up here and show you a lot more green. But >> so it says amplify ELA for grade six. >> Yes. >> So, but why aren't we doing it all throughout? Is it the cost that's >> Oh, no. It's Well, CKLA is what the program is called in 1 to five. Amplify is grade six. It CKLA only goes up to grade five, >> but it's
088all amplified. >> It's all amplified. >> Yes, it is. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Mhm. >> Any other questions? >> Like You want to be up here? [Music] You guys know a lot more. >> Good evening everyone. >> Okay. Uh tonight we're going to discuss the high school with uh NJSLA uh with mathematics ELA and science. uh Dino discussed in August about NJ GPA which is the high school graduation readiness u proficiency exam. I'm going to touch on that real quickly. I'll give you the cliffnote version since we did it in August. Uh and then we're going to discuss the advanced placement exam. Um as Laura explained, we do not have any dynamic learning maps. So we don't have anything to discuss tonight on that. Some demographics of the high school. Um we had currently uh
089not currently last year 740 students. This is the breakdown per grade level and the breakdown per ethnicity with um as it shows right now close to 72 uh% disadvantaged students. uh breakdown of 67 Hispanic, uh 23 Asian, um almost eight white, and almost three others. So that's the breakdown list here. Um this is our language arts ELA, uh grade seven, which shows um roughly 38% um have passed the test. As you were told before, your four and fives, which is the yellow and the green, is your passing. Um the darker yellow is the students that are on the cusp of not passing. Um so with seventh graders, we're at 38%. With uh grade 8, we're at uh 23%. And uh grade nine we're at 32% and at uh with all grades we're roughly I can't
090even read that um 34%. Um but if you look at the darker uh yellow those are the students not saying that we're not concentrating on those students but those are the students that we really want to uh look at. And I'll I'll explain later how we concentrate on those students that they're the board of students. And if you add up the scores that I added uh the two for each column, um our scores wouldn't uh really reflect what they show right now. Uh this is our math scores. Um once again, um we're roughly in the same uh range a as ELA with uh 27% in 7th grade um 12% uh in eighth grade uh our biggest one is algebra 1 uh which we did really well in at uh 74%. Um, and then algebra, the
091high school students, algebra 1, middle school, those are the eighth graders that that took it. Um, 10% in the high school and geometry at 43 uh with all grades uh at 20%. Once again, we're in the 20 percentile almost in every uh grade level uh except uh one grade level, which those are the students that um really could push us over the edge. When we looked at uh the breakdown for the past 3 years, um we did increase uh in a change from level three to four uh with a 3.4% 4% increase in grade 8. Uh and we did um increase uh in science 1.3 um from uh levels three to four. >> Wait, what are these levels? >> These are students that moved in levels in favor of of the scores. So there was
092a change in from levels three to four and the percentile of those changes are 3.4%. So if you look at through the years um from let me see if I can get from here to here um we changed 3.4% 4% throughout these years. Um, and then this is the percentage that we changed uh going from below proficiency to near proficiency. That's the change. >> Wait, who which students were in these left? >> This is eighth grade science. >> Okay. and uh 11th grade science. >> Can't see because it's cut off. The grade level is cut off on the left. >> Are you following me or no? >> I don't think I am. But it's >> okay. It's It's science SLA. Here's the grade level 8 and 11. >> Oh, I understand what grades they are.
093But what are these levels? What are they marking? like level of science. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> Okay. The this is where we really did increase. Um total APS we roughly have 19 APs running currently. Uh total AP students we went from 73 in 2024 to 85 students that took the AP test. um out of that uh number of of exams that we're giving out was 161. Uh in 2024 2025 we gave out uh 209 >> students that got a three or better we went from 51 students to 74 with the increase from 69.8 to uh 87%. So that's a nice increase uh more that that's a nice number of students that took the exams. Um and like I said, these are all exams on the left that we offer right now in
094top the overview. Uh the New Jersey graduation proficiency assessment shall be administered to all 11th grade pupils, 11th and 12th graders. um and they have to master this test before they graduate. GPA is designed to measure measure the extent to which the students are graduation ready in English um language arts and math. Graduation readiness is reported separately for each content component. The ELA component is aligned to the grade 10 standards and the mathematics component component is aligned to algebra one and geometry standards. Um students who take uh but do not meet the minimum required score of 725 on each component of the assessment. They have opportunities to re uh receive additional support um uh and the following steps uh of the components. Uh they could redo the assessment in the summer or fall. uh they
095can meet a designated cutter score from the menu of uh com test or they can complete a portfolio. Uh so we have several students we just gave um uh a follow-up test last week for students who have not passed it. Um, and we also have students that um have enrolled in um courses that they had to make up in the summer to catch up um in courses that they have failed. Okay. Currently, um so number of students tested in language arts in grade 11, we had 136. In math, 139. um you see a difference of three students because in language arts if students are not within the country um and uh don't speak the language and are not here in the country within uh a year's time they do not have to take the test.
096So that's why there's a discrepancy of three students. Um and uh we have 100 participation rate in in both Here's the two-year trend of uh graduation readiness in math um and language arts. Um we went 34.7% to 38 uh 65.6 to 60 uh in language arts. Okay. Uh these are ELA and math. um not yet graduation ready. Uh we went from 34 to 39 and in maths we went from 65 to 61. Uh graduation ready we went from 65 to 60 and 34 to 38 in math. Um and the change is uh min we went down to 5.3% in language arts. Uh however we did go up 3.4% in math. Our graduation rate has gone up each year but it went up uh 4% almost 4% from last year to this year. So we're at
09798% uh over 98% last year. Uh these are notable successes um that we have looked at for the past three years. Uh grade 8 uh 10.8% increase in meeting uh or exceeding in grade 8 ELA 5.6 decrease in not meeting meaning even those students are not yet meeting or exceeding are making progress. Grade 8 math 7.3 increase in meeting or exceeding uh GPA math 3.4% increase an increase in number of AP exams which I showed you before uh taken by 48 tests and an increase of 7.2 uh of students passing. This is more important interventions to increase. What are we doing to improve our scores? Um, of course, traditionally, uh, organized analysis of education achie achievement trends paired with continue horizontal and vertical curriculum articulation. What does that mean? We're going to look at our
098curriculum. We're going to make sure that our our teachers are teaching to the curriculum. Uh how are we doing that? Uh well this year I brought back lesson plans within the teachers. They were doing unit plans. I want to make sure that our teachers are teaching the New Jersey standards to the students and how can I do that by looking at lesson plans each week. Um, and I ask my supervisors to collect those lesson plans each week to make sure that uh not checking on the teachers but help helping the teachers and we have certainly new teachers that might need guidance to make sure that they they're teaching the standards to the students. Uh also um I ask my supervisors to go to classrooms routinely um to see that these standards are being met. I
099visit classrooms. I visit classrooms every day. Um I'm not in my office and it's nothing to check on teachers. There needs to be an interaction. I need to know what's going on in the classrooms. Students need to know that we where they're caring of what's going on. Um so not just teaching the curriculum but showing that care in how the curriculum is being taught. Uh purchase of new math and ELA resources. Um I I sat down when I came in with my math and uh ELA supervisor this year and I asked what resources are we using along with the curriculum. I didn't like what I heard. Um and I sat down with each department one by one asking the teachers themselves what resources do you need? what can I give you to make your job
100easier and bring that spark within your classroom again? And then I sat down with their supervisors and asked, is this a fair um uh offer or a fair uh item that they're asking for? Um, and we sat down and we had purchased some of it and some of it was far out there. Um and we had we had to tell them that it wasn't um something that was necessary. Uh PLC's um learning communities analyzing what's driving uh the curriculum and what instruction practices are going to be used uh districtwide focus on data analysis. Um, taking the data that we just showed you, that 26, your honor, I was going to discuss that yellow with those 26% in each category that was just on the cusp. Um, I've done this in the past in almost every
101district I've been in. We can't just say we're going to focus on the 26%. How are we going to focus on the 26%. those 26% we're looking at roughly 200 300 students. Um when you break it down to the teachers in each department comes down to 20 30 students. You actually take those students. The test is broken into clusters. Clusters they actually give you the score of that individual student. Clusters of parts of the test. they show you um the scores of each part for that individual student. So concentrating on each student and giving that information to that teacher so they know exactly where that student is struggling and concentrating with the individual student and not just on the whole test. Um uh ELA lab courses um we have ELA lab courses which is a
102class to concentrate on the basics for the students that are in that yellow. Um I just spoke to the math supervisor this year. I want to implement math labs also. We don't have math labs just the LA labs. So I want to implement the math labs also. And uh speaking to the scheduler we can do that starting March periods of two. um continue implementing and formalizing INRS protocols. We uh we just put out a posting thanks to uh Mr. Albano today um putting RS teams together uh not we do have our coordinator but actually putting members um in place. we just put the posting um and and concentrating on those students that need the resources. Uh peer tutoring opportunities providing through the honor society. Um what I sat down also I met with each class
103level the first week they started school. And just like I did with the teachers, I want to hear from the students what they want. Um, and believe me, kids don't lie. It's when you ask kids what they want, they tell you. And sometimes they tell you too much. Um, but they wanted structure. And I was surprised. They wanted structure. Um, they wanted bring back some school pride. They were telling me things, can we have this? Can we have that? Um, can we bring back this? Uh, I guess they heard things that we did when I was here many moons ago. Um, but they they were logical demands and what they wanted was they wanted peer groups. They didn't want teachers tutoring them. They wanted peer groups back. So, the honor society and we used to
104have big brother big sis sister um bringing that back. um when I say structures and when I tell you we're looking at each one of this when I first came in order to implement all this we need people to buy into it you can implement all of this but if people don't buy into it your scores are not going to change so the first thing I had to think about was I need to have the teachers buy into And by doing that I the teachers that know me I call it equity just like your house. Um they have to have equity in the school. They have to feel like they belong. So taking that pride back listening to what they want. Not giving them everything they want but listening what they want. They're the ones
105in the classroom. Um, many of them know I'm tough but fair. I did ask them dress code which they don't like. I'm a stickler with dress code because what you wear is how you conduct yourself. And as teachers do that, students do that. And if you walk in the building, you you're going to see different students down dressing nice, dressing with pride, and that's how they conduct themselves in the classroom. Discipline. This does not start if you don't have discipline in the building. I sat down with every single student. I'll give you the world, but you follow my rules. And if you don't follow the rules, A, B, and C are going to occur. Because now you know but you'll have everything you want. Right now we don't have many discipline problem while I was
106in our school. We had to correct them early on and we did and we sat down with those students and parents. We implement implemented Saturday detention which we didn't have. We had a lateness problem which we dropped 23% since last year. Teacher attendance improved 18% since last year because they they're buying into that. And I guarantee I guarantee your scores are going to change because the students and the staff have gained equity into the school. And that's what's going to change these scores along with this, but if they don't buy into it, this is not going to change. Any questions? >> You said you instituted an lesson plan, a weekly one, is it? >> Yes. >> Um, what is the advantage of having like a weekly lesson plan? Like isn't that just time consuming? No,
107because uh the lesson plan is like the holy grail of teaching. You have to have a plan um implemented some sort of what you're going to conduct. What they were doing were unit plans. A unit plan is for example example you doing a chapter. You write a unit for the whole chapter where you're going to teach that month. But that's not telling me how you're implementing each aspect and it's not telling me um the pacing of each aspect. So that's not telling me for example you spend 3 weeks on this part and 3 days on this part. So, I don't know if that 3-day part, which is more important than that 3-W weekek part, is not helping the kids. Now, I know how much time you're spending on each part of that chapter. And listen,
108some teachers, I really believe we got some good teachers. I really do. Some teachers just need that structure that hey, you know what? And and this is the conversations we have. It's not a conversation. Hey, you're doing this wrong. It's a conversation. Hey, you know, did you ever think about trying this different? Nine out of 10 times the approach is works 100 times better than pointing the finger. They turn around and say, "Hey, yeah, you know, I I didn't try that." I can't tell you how many times I already had teachers ask me to come visit their classrooms. It's it's it's it's a different environment now. But those lesson plans do make a difference. The teachers didn't like it in the beginning, but I think now they they stop talking about it and now they
109see change is tough. Anything else? >> Wow, I'm getting a lot of question. I want to watch the 9:00 news. Um I know you're from long time I know from S with my other son. Um now you come with this all this new thing that I feel that is I mean the shame. Um can you describe more about the dress code when you need the dress code? How can you um follow through that? Are you standing at how can you follow that? And what is the dress code for you? For example, if you jump or go with a tennis um short like skirt with a short on, are you considering that as a not a good dress? >> Just like when I met with the students, I told them I'm not going to treat them
110like boys and girls. I'm going to treat them like young men and women. when they're at a dress code, I have a conversation with them. Would you wear that if you're going out with your parents to a special party? Would you wear that um if you're going to a conservative part uh event? Nine out of 10 times they're like, "What's wrong with my outfit?" I listen I have a 30-year-old and I have a 28-year-old. I'm not embarrassed to tell someone you're showing too much skin or a boy who's wearing his pants down here. I don't need to see what what he what color underpants he's wearing. That's not appropriate. I don't have a problem explaining to them that's not how we dress or if they're wearing slippers to school. It's not a slumber party. you
111you have to be appropriately dressed. If there's an emergency and we have to evacuate the building, I can't have slippers on your feet, pants down to here, and you got to run out of the building. It's not safe. Um, so I have a conversation with them, a private conversation, and then I tell them, "Do you have something to change in?" No. Call your parents, bring some. I have secretaries that are better than me. They give them the t-shirt and then I'm like, "Why are they wearing our school t-shirt? Where did they get the t-shirt?" And they tell me, "I don't know." Meanwhile, I don't have t-shirts in the box anymore. Um, but the kids, the first three weeks, I could say it was tough, but now we don't have a problem anymore. I know, but
112my question was if that consider if you wear like those very like pennies or little short on is that considering not >> I mean now you're asking me something that's hypothetical. I don't know what it's going to look like. I mean if they have shorts underneath that's a different story. >> Thank you. >> You know I don't know if they have shorts underneath. I'm not going to look if they got children. I'm going to go to jail now. >> It's the policies. They have to follow the policies. >> I understand that. But is that correlated to any studies on how effective dress code is in making academics go up or is that >> it did when I was when I was principal 15 years ago? I don't know what the current studies are. Just curious.
113>> I'm old school. I'm sorry. >> I'm curious because it's hard to track if another person was likely to have another address for appropriate >> for a week if nobody checking and then the person get >> No, I check every day. I check and they know. The students know they're funny. I I could have the worst day in the world and I just go out of my office and talk to the students and my day is perfect again. Um I I literally pick five students off of Genesis and look at their grades every day >> and I find them in the school >> and I make it my point to find them and I say to them, "Wow, you got good grades. You're doing good." Or, "You got to pick up your grades." And then
114like what's the how do you know because I check and they're like we never had someone that do does that check on our grave and find us. Well now you do. So they think you know someone's watching but we all have to watch because they have to know somebody cares. >> So they know that I'm watching them all over the building. So you got to see them. They put their phones away and but I don't yell at them. I have a conversation with them. >> I love every day though. Every day is a great day. >> Any other questions? No, thank you. Thank you for the presentation Mr. Carabano and Mos and Mr. Um Mr. Monday. >> Next. I have a motion to approve the board minutes September 17, 2025. This is regular meeting. [Music]
115>> All in favor? >> I'm going to say I didn't have a chance. >> Okay. Thanks. Next building and ground we have four consent agenda items for approval. We have motion. >> All in favor to approve the to consent agenda and education. May I have a motion? >> All in favor? >> We have 15 finance agenda for approval tonight. I have a motion to approve by a 15% agenda under finance. >> Second. Yes. >> Yes. Yes. >> Yes. >> I'm sorry about the circus number nine. That's a volunteer position that being said. >> Thank you. May I have a motion to approve 10 consent agenda for custo? [Music] >> Yes, Mr. Sergio. >> Mr. Yes, >> mute. >> Yes, >> thank you. Let's go back to item number E to appoint the candidate to be
116for today. The clear for nomination for the position to be there are two candidate applying for this position. Mr. Chundo and Mr. Park nominations >> yes I nominate uh Ray Park to fill the uh the board vacance for next month. Thank you. Mr. W was nominating. Any other nominations? Can I please your work, please? Mr. Chair, >> yes. >> Mr. Serio. >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gil. >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. there. Congratulations. [Applause] Um, so we have [Music] Okay. Um after so as Mr. Bana projected our district 4 for 2025 and six may I have a motion to adopt superintendence district for 2025 2026. Second. >> All in favor? >> No extension. No objection. >> Thank you. And Mr. Carabana, would you like to recognize the um vice principal for
117our high school that will support tonight? >> Yes. Yes. I'd like to just briefly introduce Mr. Aldo Gadino, our new house. you know, um, has a history here. He was our high school history teacher for quite some time. He was varsity tennis coach, arts advisor, um, and also was on the PD committee for professional development for teachers. He left Pal Park to go on uh, to be a supervisor uh, in two different districts, High Point and and more recently Toto. uh his his references I I must say were outstanding. Um from uh superintendent and and principles who have worked with him uh they had nothing but the highest praise. Um he went through a a pretty competitive process. We we had a a good response to the vacancy. I want to thank Mr. Cypriana from
118from lead leading that. Uh there's a building committee, then there was a a central office admin team committee and then of course reference checks. Um and we really believe uh we we have a high quality person and um we have been waiting a long time um with with the vice principal position and I think it was worth the wait uh just to be a dino. So welcome to Palark and oh welcome back I gave the background on our our Lindberg vice principal last time. So, I'm not going to go through your background, Mr. Sarone, but uh it's nice to see you here. Uh Mr. Sarone's first day as Lindberg vice principal uh was today. Oh, second day. His second full day. And I know he's enjoying it. He put out a wonderful welcome message. And
119we're happy to have you uh with us as well, Mr. Thank you. Um congratulations Mr. And um before our meeting to the public that um can we do the new board member to be sworn >> back [Music] you in. Raise your hand and repeat after me. I state your name. >> Do so swear >> that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey. that I will support the I will support the Constitution that I will support the Constitution State of New Jersey >> and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same >> and to the governments established in the United States >> the government established in the United States >> and this
120state under the authority of the people >> and this state under the authority of the people. >> So help me God. >> And one more. I >> I >> do solemnly swear that I >> possess the qualifications prescribed by law for the office of member of the board of education >> possess the qualifications prescribed >> by law education >> and then I am not disqualified as a voter >> disqualified pursuant to statute 194-1 statute nor disqualified due to conviction of a crime or offense >> nor disqualified due to conviction of crime or >> listed in NJS >> 18A >> column 12-1 >> and that I will faithfully impartially and justly perform all the duties of that office >> I will faithfully and partially andfully perform all the duties of that office >> according to the
121best my abilities. So help me God. >> The best of my abilities. >> Congratulations. [Applause] >> Um you can uh join the board over there. Now I have a motion to open our meeting to the public. >> I second. All in favor? >> So now our meeting is open to public. Each speaker have three minutes and please state your name and address [Music] and on behalf of the PTA we want to thank you for the official camera. The community relies on it. We need it. I do have a question. Is that miked? because with the phones the community can't hear and that's why we're constantly asking you guys to please speak up speak up because when it's transmitted online it cannot uh second thing is normally we do this the PTA does this in writing
122and it gave us a little oversight but we are verbally requesting the use of the cafeteria at Edenburg for November 21st for the first school dance first fall dance November 21st between the hours of Thank you. >> Thank you. Any um I have a question regard now maybe answer me. Are we going to be able to have a sobo push for the um oncoming spring summer? I know we didn't have one yet like for those squirrel so um if we already have that I have about I know we have it welcome and also I have a question maybe some of the member who vote for the new um member uh In my opinion as a parent and a person who come here to every single meeting uh why they pick a person um like between
123uh the candidate rotundo nothing against you um that is more involve in the community. I have a previous experience and um board um um being at the board member um a teacher and a parent. Um I would like to know why. Um that was you know we just want to bring the best candidate of course um we got to trust anybody pick the best one to make it a better um point to go while we doing it and make it better. Um I would like to know and I would like to know um maybe Anthony Kenny was the one who appointed. Um maybe me as a parent. I really this is my first time that I know this um the the person you picked. So if you could give me a little brief more about
124why why in between. >> You address it to me please. >> Oh okay. You must be like a poor kid. So >> well this is the rule. This is rule and our question is for Anthony K. So I'm talking to him. >> I'm going to recognize him if he needs to answer but please address it to the presiding officer first. >> Okay. >> Cuz you don't single out any each board member. That's the policy. >> This is new. >> No, it's not new. It always has been like that because when I'm used to when I'm talking if I'm talking with you, I'm looking at you. If I'm talking to Anthony, I'm gonna look at him. >> Yeah, you can look at him, but don't give him direct question. >> I said they can answer. I
125never said I never said >> that they have to. I said if they can answer because they have the right to say no. I want to know as a parent what was the different uh because you know my first time seeing I want to know if we picked the right person to be part of the board member because this time we don't have the right to vote for because it was a different way to do it you could just be in a chair so we had the right to know thank you speaker >> I would just like to answer one of the questions regarding the softball situation. Um, after coach Klein resigned, assistant coach, uh, Mr. Santana took over and was voted in as the head coach in June. He took on another job at,
126um, Pasc Valley. He resigned uh, sometime in September officially and we have posted the position uh, for head and assistant softball coach and we're currently looking. So, that's the status at this moment. >> Yes. And no one's a bigger fan than me. Everyone and I will take the microphone question. So, uh, we did look at a more sophisticated system and and got some pricing on it. Uh, but then I learned that, um, we actually had a camera that the district already owned. Um, so the cost was zero. Um, and we're trying to do this in a costeffective way. However, sound is important. Um, so we're we're trying this out first because there's no expense to the district, but if the quality is not good, we certainly may consider adding microphones. And thank you. I I
127I think you make a very good point there. So, uh, but again, one of the goals is effective communication and of course hearing all of us is important as well as the audience. >> Yes. So, my name is Nadine. I live on Glenn Avenue. Um I have more of like my opinion I would say other than a question. I kind of agree with Daenerys on um voting. I just feel like nothing, you know, to be offensive, but we have seen Anthony Ratto here every meeting. Um, to me, I'm very upset cuz I feel like even watching the interviewing process, I feel like he gave more to the community. And as a mom in this community, I just feel like he was more equipped for the position. And I don't see how you all agreed on
128someone I've never seen before in this room. And that's all. [Applause] speaker all the Brook School. I just want to know where will the video be posted. >> Christian on the board. We can post it on on the website. >> It'll be on the website. >> A link a link underneath the board drop down. >> It'll be next to the agenda link. >> Thank you. Any other person in public? Would you like to speak? Any may I have a motion to close the public participation? >> Second. >> All in favor? >> So technical questions that we will cover, right? camera please. So to answer some questions regarding this vacancy position that basically um what again like we always try to make things transparent but always doesn't mean that always try always need to answer but
129I like to make some comments on it. So this is a there's some basic questions on interviewing public but for this meeting the board have shared all the materials that the country submitted to it includes the letter of the intent their legume and the board search on the media and and other information that they have in town regarding the test as well. So we we get through all the resources that we have and also Mr. Park is running for the three-year term this year into January election as well and since the election is uncontested it's highly it's likely that he will join us in in January as well too. So rather than just have a two month sit then I thought we thought that it's more effective to have the new board member work start
130early >> so they can be trained earlier >> but also looking term also >> so for the two months position >> the term ends December 20 December 31st 2020 25 and I wish Mr. Rumpy come next year 2026 too as if he wish that he really wants to get involved with our school district. May I have a motion to close our meeting? I I don't think that'll be an issue. We have a board meeting before the advance >> two days before. >> So we can give you an unofficial I as long as Miss Pado so as long as there's no conflict certainly we welcome the PTA holding dance plan and the board will approve it in the next week. >> Thank you. I will recommend the board. May >> I have a motion to close
131our regular meeting tonight? >> I'll make a motion. >> All in favor? >> Thank you. >> Have a good night. [Music]