June 9, 2025 Pequannock Twp. School District Board of Education Meeting

001[Music] Mr. Gibbs, please read the statement of compliance. In compliance with the Open Public Meeting Act, public law 1975, chapter 231, notice of this meeting has been properly advertised in the daily record in suburban trends. Its agenda has been posted at the appropriate locations and a copy has been filed with the McQuanic Township Clerk. Thank you. Please call the role. Mr. Bloomer here. Mr. Sesi here. Mr. Espazito here. Mr. Gayton here. Uh MOO here. Mr. Mcmey here. Mr. Pompeo here. Mr. Syninn here. And Mrs. Shen here. We have a quorum. Thank you. Will everyone please stand for the flag salute? All right. Good evening everyone. Welcome to our June 9th workshop meeting. The end of the school year is here and it seems like it comes quicker every year. Tonight, the board will honor achievements

002from our students for both academic and athletic endeavors. Our students have achieved success on multiple levels, but tonight we will focus on the middle school and the high school. First, we will honor our PTHS valictorian, Ivana Van Wingeran, and our PTHs saludiatoran, Kate Dunham. I had the privilege to attend a dinner honoring these two young ladies last week, and it was great to meet their parents and to see them receive recognition for these substantial achievements. The board is very proud of you both and we wish you luck next year in college. Congratulations. Next, the board will honor track and field champions from both PTHs and PV and discus and shotput. I threw discus in high school and I was very impressed by the distances that our students put up. Uh, well done and the board

003congratulates you as well. Switching gears to our wonderful teachers and staff. Tonight, the board will honor our staff members that are retiring after many years of dedicated service to our district. I hear it said that being a teacher is a calling, and that is certainly true for this group. On behalf of the board, I want to say thank you for your tireless efforts and extraordinary service. Congratulations and best of luck on your well-deserved retirement. Few more items. Uh, senior awards took place last week at PTHs and once again I was floored by the achievement of our students. Over 90 kids received awards and look great doing it. These events are great to honor the success of our students, but it just fills me with with so much joy to see the excitement on these kids'

004faces and their smiles are always ear when they get their uh scholarships. So, it was a great event and congratulations to them. Also yesterday, Miss Ao and I attended the Eagle Scout ceremony for Matthew Syinski. We presented Matt with a certification on behalf of the board, and I want to again say congratulations to him. It's almost like the Eagle Scouts are building an army in Pquanic, which I guess that's a good thing. Uh and last, I want to acknowledge our student representatives that served uh this school year, Liliana, Caitlyn, and Emily. Thank you for your service to the board of education and to our school district. You did an outstanding job. In appreciation, the board will vote and approve a proclamation as an official business item honoring you all during our PMC action items. However,

005there's a lot to cover between now and then, and I don't want to keep you guys waiting. So, therefore, I'm going to read the proclamation now, and then Miss Espazino and I will present it to you. So, this is the proclamation. It's a resolution by the board of education honoring student representatives Lilyanna Fazloo, Caitlyn Zgler, and Emily Zgler for service to the Bquanic Township School District Board of Education. Whereas Lyanna Fazloo, Caitlyn Zgler, and Emily Zgler have served with distinction on Bquanic Township School District Board of Education. And whereas through their leadership, the Puquanic Township School District Board of Education has gained fresh insights into student concerns, student priorities, and what is on the mind of young people in the community. And whereas they have further contributed to the community by serving as a valuable

006spokesperson, sharing the student perspective at board meetings. And whereas Liliana Fazloo, Caitlyn Zgler, and Emily Zgler have maintained a professional decorum at board meetings, showing respect to board members, and strived to learn the proper etiquette of serving on a school board. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Puquanic Township School District Board of Education recognizes Liliana Fazloo, Caitlyn Zeglar, and Emily Zaggar's dedication and commitment to advancing educational opportunity and open communication between the board, district administrators, and the student body. It being further resolved that the members of the Puquanic Township School District Board of Education extend their sincere appreciation to Liliana Fazloo, Caitlyn Zglar, and Emily Zglar for their dedicated service to the Puquanic Township School District Board of Education. And be it further resolved that the members of the Township School District Board of

007Education extend their best wishes to Liliana, Caitlyn, and Emily in all their future endeavors. So, congratulations to you both. All right, end of the year is here and I just want to wish everybody a great last week and a half of school and a long restful summer. I'll see you all back here in September. And now I'm going to pass the mic over to Dr. Poris. Thank you, Mr. Senic. Sounds like one of the critics has spoken about me. Understandable. Um we're going to mix it up a little bit with um what's ostensibly superintendent report. First we're going to have our distinguished student representatives provide their reports and then we're going to recognize the um student honores um so that we can get them out for the senior sunrise. You might not be able to

008see it, but you'll feel it. Um when we're done with the students, I'll give a brief report which will also include um a presentation from two of our current juniors who are working on a promotional video for the district. Uh and then we will proceed with our recognitions of our retirees. So with that, I'm going to pass it over to Caitlyn and Emily. Good evening everyone. So glad to see you all again. Can't believe it's already June and it's our last report of the school year. Spring sports have officially drawn to a close. Congratulations to all our sports teams in the Athens on an amazing spring season. Congratulations to the girls lacrosse team for winning their conference and to the boys golf team who are co-ch champs of their conference. Girls lacrosse had more milestones.

009Congratulations to Caitlyn Ziggler who reached 100 plus career goals. Emily Ziggler who reached 100 plus career goals and 200 plus draw controls. Dominique Daigos who reached 100 plus draw controls. Grace Viser who broke the school record for forced turnovers. and Jake Marie Roby who achieved 100 plus career saves. Congratulations to Derek Seiel who placed second in the group one at the boys golf tournament of champions. Congratulations to Henry Stribble who won the sectional championship in the discus for the third time and then won state championship in for group one in the same event. Congratulations to Sophia Bicardo for being recognized as the NJSIAA scholar athlete award recipient for PTHs. Congratulations to Nicole Chavez and Henry Stubel who were recognized as the Morris County Scholar athlete recipients for PTHS. Congratulations to Grace Fischer and Luke White

010who were recognized as the Njack Scholar athletes for PTHS. Student council positions were elected and the students were ready to make a great school year. The juniors are starting to meet with Mr. Hazler, the senior adviserss, and the seniors this year to start planning for the next school year. Prom held at the Grove in Cedar Grove was a success and the seniors had a great night full of music and dancing. Two weeks ago, we had this uh screenfree day where a bunch of outdoor activities, indoor indoor activities during lunch that students could participate in and win raffle tickets to enter different raffles. The idea was to spend time away from screens and get back to social socializing with each other. Thank you to Mr. Picoli for organizing the day and for all the teachers who

011helped out. Emily will finish the rest. The Allied Health Students STEM Academy and Aviation Academy seniors presented their capstone projects last week, which ended their academic experience or academy experience. This past Wednesday, PTHs hosted their annual awards and scholarship night. Thank you to all our donors, many from Bquanic community, who donated over $106,000 to our seniors. Congratulations to all the seniors. Your hard work has not gone unnoticed. The seniors have their senior sunset tonight where they will spend time together enjoying the sunset to start their final full week at PTHs. Congratulations to PTHS marching band who performed the national anthem at Yankee Stadium on Thursday. Friday, the Allied Health Academy full-time and Sharetime students had their completion ceremony at Ruckers University. Congrats to everyone. The music department is hosting a chamber night on Wednesday at

012700 p.m. in the auditorium. Students will be performing solos in group numbers as the ending performance of the year. Justin Grinskin and Angelo Condiff are representing Bquanic at the East West All-Star Football Classic game tomorrow night at 700 p.m. at Robson Field. Good luck to all the students who are in finals this week and next week. Next week is graduation. The PD promotion will take place on Tuesday at 6 p.m. on the stadium field and the high school high school graduation will take place on Wednesday at 6:00 p.m. as well. Congratulations to all our graduates. On behalf of PTS students, we like to recognize the retirees for their dedication to helping us succeed. We wish you the best in your retirement. Thank you for your time tonight. We hope you everyone enjoys the last few

013days of the school and have a relaxing summer. See you next school year. All right. Well done. And I trust you will not be joining us at the June 23rd meeting. You'll be in summer mode. Good decision. Thank you very much, Carl. And with that, we're going to have Mr. Hazler come up to the microphone and he will provide the recognition for our validictorian and saludiatoran. Good evening and thank you very much for honoring our students. Uh Lily Lily couldn't be here tonight. I think she's at her fifth prom. Um so she is uh she's been a busy lady, but we really appreciate her time. I know she's a senior and this was her final uh time on the board. So thank you for for the opportunity for her. PTHs is proud to honor our

014class of 2025 saludiatoran Kate Dunham. While being an academic scholar, Katie has been an active member of several clubs and activities throughout her time at PTHS, including FBLA, Interact Club, Habitat for Humanity, Chemistry League, National Honor Society, and she is a seal of bioliteracy recipient. At the senior awards, she was the principal's award recipient for English, which just shows how well-rounded she is. Outside of school, she's also a competitive cheerleader. Her favorite class of PTHs was AP chemistry and as such she'll be majoring in chemistry this fall at UCLA with a future goal of being a pharmaceutical chemist. Ladies and gentlemen, the saludiatoran Kate Dunham. Got to stay up here for a picture though. I know you love the spotlight. This year's valadictorian of the class of 2025 is Avana von Wingardan. Avana is the

015president of the senior class and the student council executive board. She is a member of the National Honor Society, vice president of the Spanish Honor Society, the prom committee, and my go-to person when something needs to get done. Academically, Ivana has challenged herself with a rigorous schedule, taking nine AP courses throughout her high school career. Her favorite class was also AP chemistry. She's the principal awards winner in business and mathematics and is a puquanic scholar recipient. She is pursuing a degree in accounting and business analytics at the college of New Jersey this fall with the hopes of building on her experience working in her family business, but her long-term goal is to eventually become a business owner. Ladies and gentlemen, the valadictorian, Ivana von Wingard. right into it. Hello and thank you Dr. Portoris and

016the board of education for allowing me to take part in tonight's board of education meeting. Tonight we are here to celebrate outstanding athletic achievements that took place at both PV and the high school in the sport of track and field. First, I'd like to recognize an outstanding athlete that put the perfect finishing touches on a stellar athletic career at PTHS. Henry Strubal became the first male outdoor athlete to win a state championship in school history. Please welcome Coach Michella as he talks about Henry. Is that a good spot? Yeah, it works. All right. Um, it's nice to talk about a kid so many times. I no longer have to prepare anything. Um, I've coached Henry for four years in two different sports, eight seasons, and this year alone, I've talked to about him at conferences,

017on two different podcasts, and at banquetss. Um, in football, Henry's a four-year varsity starter on the offensive line and was the Super Football Conference's young man of the year. Uh, the Super Football Conference 112 teams. It's a a major award, huge honor. He got to go to the Super Bowl because of that. But really for track, um, is what we're here to talk about now. So, Henry's been a a four-year star on the track team. He finishes his career as a three-time sectional champion, a three-time conference champion, a one-time Morris County champion, and now the group one discus champion, and will continue his academic and athletic career at RPI next year. So, incredibly proud of Henry and uh really happy to present this award to him. One, two, three. Perfect. Congratulations, Henry. Next, I'd like

018to recognize three outstanding student athletes at PV that won their respective events at the middle school county championship. I'd like to call up Coach Zumo at this time to talk about these amazing accomplishments and present a certificate. Uh, good evening. Uh, I just first want to actually talk about Henry for a few more seconds. Um, Henry, I want to give you a shout out. You still got the PB record. Um, but what you might not know is that we have two more discus champions sitting here tonight. And a lot of that has to do with Henry. Uh, a few years ago, Henry's throwing in the throwing pit and our kids are just watching at this, you know, larger than life human throwing ridiculously far and they're just like, "Wow, like that's really far." And they

019were brave enough. So, I give the people credit to ask him, you know, for some techniques and he could have just been like, "Get out of here, kid. I'm working." And no, he took time and actually went through mechanics and how to throw. Um, you know, and it's something that you may not think it's a big deal, but it really is because it helped our kids get better and improve. Um, so thank you for that. Shows what kind of person you are. Our first starter tonight is John Bertelli. Uh John is a student athlete who worked incredibly hard to get to this point. John is now a twotime county champion in discus and to be quite honest, it wasn't even close either time. Uh only two throwers reached over 100 ft this year and both

020were from Bquanic. Uh John heard his hip flexor running the 100 meter right before he threw at counties and was still able to throw 122 feet and 10 in. John's PR this year was 142 feet and seven inches. I mean, he completely dominated. Uh they would see people like they would see our second place thrower throw and they're like, "Wow, we're not winning today." And we'd be like, "Yeah, he's not even our best." And then John would throw and they'd be like, "All right, um so I just want to say congratulations to John. He completely dominated for the last two years in the county." John Balo. picture doing individually. You're talking all three. Yeah. All right. Our next thrower also in discus, Elizabeth Cook. Lizzie also accomplished the tremendous feat of becoming a back-to-back county

021champion in discus. She comfortably won with her throw of 72 feet 8 in with no other thrower even coming close to 70 feet. It's really cool to see our athletes throw and have all other schools around us gas or motor or just say I guess I'll try for second place. Um Lizz's PR this season was 79'4 in. Uh Lizzie is a winner having been part of last year's track county championship team, this year's soccer and basketball championship teams as well. Uh, I'm so proud of Lizzie and once again being a county champion. Last we have Elena Demo. Elena, sorry. Elena may go down as the most decorated athlete in PB history. She has led the track team, soccer team, and basketball team to county championships wins, as well as bringing the volleyball team to the

022county championship finals as well. Lizzy, too. Um, on top of that, Elena set five school records for track this season, including shot put. Elena moved to shotput this season to try uh to put her throwing over the top at counties. That's exactly what Lizzie and her did by both winning their events. Elena beat the previous school record of 30 feet and 5 in multiple times this season, but it was at counties that she solidified the school record with a throw of 33 feet 11 in. That's ridiculous. Uh Elena comfortably took home the shot put county championship. Congratulations, Elena. [Music] Thank you to our coaches and athletes for your commitment to your programs and your desire to be great. athletes from PV. We look forward to you working hard at the high school level and representing

023Golden Panther Pride and we wish Henry all the best in college and beyond. Thank you again to the Board of Education for your continued support of all of our athletic programs. Thank you and have a good night. Thank you. It's great to be able to recognize our student athletes for the remarkable achievements whether at the high school level or a middle school level. I'm excited too that apparently our track meets we can introduce ourselves and ask who's going for second place. So it's pretty exciting. So um I'm going to do a quick superintendent report which includes um some discussion from two of our students Sophia Teresi and Isabella Karuchi um who actually you can probably join us at the table in a moment. uh and we do have a presentation that that they generated um

024regarding their their project and they also have Mr. Hornik here who's supporting them through the marketing and business program. So just quick rundown from my report. Some of it is a touch redundant. Uh last week we had just a fantastic week with a lot of really great celebrations. The B uh valadictorian saludiatoran dinner was Tuesday night. Uh so proud of of our students as well as students from the county for their accomplishments. We had our senior awards night on Wednesday right in this room. And somebody already made a made a reference to it, but to have $16,000, I think it was actually a little more uh in in scholarships for our students was absolutely tremendous. Uh during the week last week, we also had the Allied Health Capstone presentations. I I was really impressed by

025what our students focused on. I'll admit I didn't understand an awful lot of what they were talking about, but they said it really intelligently, so it sounded great. but they took on some very ambitious projects uh and and did so brilliantly. We also the previous week had our STEM and aviation capstone event and that was it was a lot of fun to listen to students talk about how much they embraced uh a mentality of trial and error. Later on this week we'll have our North Boulevard grade 5 recognition that takes place on Thursday the 12th followed by Hillview's grade five recognition on Friday the 13th. As I say that out loud I just realized that sounds ominous. Uh SJG rounds out the grade five recognitions on Monday the 16th. And then PV has their grade

026eight promotion ceremony uh right on the football field here on Tuesday the 17th at 6:00 and the high school graduation takes place on Wednesday the 18th. As far as other community events just from last week alone, our students performed once again at Yankee Stadium and did a tremendous job. I was so impressed by just how calm they were and then outstanding level of performance. uh the leadership under Mr. Striker, the parental support, it was just all of it was really fantastic. And then Friday, we had our torch run. Um the humidity was nothing short of barbaric, but the energy and enthusiasm of our students is really great. I can tell you as somebody who wasn't running particularly well that day, it was really helpful to have kids out there cheering us on. I was also

027last week able to check out kindergarten orientations at both SJG and Hillview. And I'm really enthusiastic for um the energy that the parents brought um as well as the students. And you can see right now that the students that were coming in have definitely benefited from more consistent prek experiences when they were working in the in the breakout rooms on different projects. Um you could definitely tell there was a level of focus and preparation I think is going to really benefit everybody uh come September as we welcome the class of 2038. And I realized in my update that I sent out on Friday, I referred to them as class of 2028, but they're actually class of 2038. Um, and then as far as the promo video, we have two students, Sophia Teresi and Isabella Karuchi,

028uh, who approached me back in April about generating a promotional video for our district. This is a student initiated project. Their plan sounded, in my exact words here, unmistakably awesome. So, I definitely gave my approval for it and asked if they could share their goals with you and our viewing public. Aldo, if you want to uh put it put the presentation up on the screen, girls, why don't we have you come on over to the the table? I see you brought some backup. So, if you want to just give a just a quick overview and then you can take us through the slides. Um, and Ala will give you the clicker. So, you right now have awesome power in your hands. Hi, I'm Bella Kruchi. I'm Sophia Teresi. And first, we would like to thank

029you for giving us this opportunity to speak about our project. Um, we've been working on creating, as Mr. report has said um a promotional township video and we've created a presentation to provide some information about it. I don't know it's going to go. Oh, okay. So, the goal of this project is to spread the story of what it's like to go through Pquonic schools and basically promote our school district and what it's like to be a Panther. So what we need from our community to succeed with our idea? Um as we are a small group, we can only divide and conquer so much. This means that we will need members of the home, the parents association and education staff to submit video clips to us via a shared Google Drive so we can collect as

030many videos as possible. So, in the fall of this past year, we created a promotional video for the high school. So, we just wanted to show you guys cuz this is kind of what the video would be like, but including all the school districts. Panic Township High School, a place that feels like home, a place for opportunity, where passion meets purpose. From the moment you step on campus, an incredible sense of school spirit greets you. Whether it's the thrill of our sporting events with the loud student sections or the excitement of pep rallies, it was the unique energy that brings us all together. Our sports teams aren't just about winning, they're about resilience, and growth. Each challenge faced builds friendship and character. Beyond athletics, our activities and classrooms ignite creativity, collaboration, and challenge. Students explore

031their interests, develop skills, and make lasting connections. The supportive spirit amongst our students, staff, and parents truly makes it a place to remember for past, present, and future students. PTHs is not just a home. It's a family. Together, we support one another, celebrating achievements and pushing boundaries. At PTHs, it's not just what you know, it's who you become. Are you ready to be part of something bigger? Let's go, Panthers. So, how to help? Um, whoever is submitting video clips to our share Google Drive, we just have some little requirements and tips to make sure that they're to the best quality that we would be looking for. So, those are some bullet points. Um, the big one is to not zoom in excessively and move closer to your subject. And we're looking for maximum 30 seconds.

032And our goal is to collect as many videos as possible, but we are going to be clipping them and editing them for time and content. So, however we may need. Exactly. Um, so our next steps for or our future timeline. So for the end of 2025 school year, we want to finalize the scripts. So that means we sent out um scripts to each school and we're having each principal from each school add to the script so that they can include their special part that they want included. And they're going to be doing voiceovers. So, we're going to want to record those by the end of the year and collect most of the clips we can by the end of this year. And then for the start of the 2026 school year, we really only want

033to go from September to October. So, we want to collect the start of school videos. And that's why we really want to emphasize end of the year events and clips so we can get the most done because we only have two months in the start of the school year. And then we need to check the do not record list with our principles. Add the music, edit, and then post post it and promote it as best as possible. That's all. Thank you for your time. So, but before before they head back and keep getting ready for finals, I just want to give an opportunity for any of the board members to ask questions. And I'm sure from this you can see why I'm so excited about this. And I was coming fresh off a conference where

034a challenge that was issued to superintendents was to be able to find what makes your district unique and better than what's around. And so to meet with two very very motivated students who really want to demonstrate that and demonstrate that in a very public way, I'm beyond excited about it. So I I'm I'm completely behind this. I want to support you as much as I can. And for the record, too, if you see a man flying a drone, taking footage around any of the schools before school in the morning, that's Mr. Honig. Please do not call the police on him. These are not UFOs. Um he's he's helping them with the video. But I just want to check if any board members want to just weigh in before we make segue to the retirement recognition.

035Yeah, just just one question. Do you um does it matter the resolution of the video? 1080p, 4K? Um the resolution doesn't really matter. We kind of just want it like if you have an iPhone or any type of phone really, just hold it sideways so horizontally. Yeah. Outstanding presentation. The video had me all jacked up. You guys did a great job speaking in front of everybody, too. So, great job all around. Thank you. Yeah, girls. I agree. This is fantastic. Dr. Poris, maybe we can ask each building principal to include a blurb in their weekly newsletter to help collect extra videos. Yes, please. I think that'll be just an easy way to get them in. Just want to echo great job with the presentation. Uh it is not often that we get little leave behinds

036when someone's doing the presentation. So that is very much appreciated as well. And then if we could reach out to our our media partners on social media as well to maybe get this presentation out there in in a forum that would be excellent. And any help you all need from us, please let us know. Thank you. Absolutely. And quick thing before the before the end of the week, get me a little blurb that I can put in the newsletters. I'll I'll tweak it, but we just need to have the instructions and then the email address or the Gmail account we're going to use for the repository for the videos. But awesome job. Very impressive. Y Now, now we're going to return to our recognitions. Uh, at this point we're going to recognize our retirees. Um,

037I'm scheduled to speak first, but I know Mr. Riner has an event to get to. Would you like to go first, Mr. Riner? Outstanding. So, we're broke sequence just for you, fell. All right. Good evening, everyone. It is a great pleasure to be here to honor Mrs. Karen Shipple as she retires from the Vquanic School District after 28 years of dedication and service to our students. I could stand here and rehash what I wrote about Karen when she was teacher of the year for the 23 24 school year and what I shared for her 20 for when she completed 25 years of service. But instead, I want to tell you what Karen has meant to SJ to students. Karen's the teacher that they will always have fond memories of. Of course, of course. She has

038taught all 560 plus students their academics through great instructional techniques such as using small groups and reaching students through the way that they learn best. But I believe what the students will remember most is how she made them feel. Karen has always gone the extra mile for students from pro from providing guidance for students who may be struggling or dealing with something that may not have anything to do with learning to showing up at every outside event including sports, dance recital, plays, runs, and any other activity a student was proud to be part of. She has always kept students on their toes as she's dressed up to enhance a lesson or brought in treats to reward students. most recently bringing in Tootsie Rolls because her students were rolling through state testing. Karen has always taught

039the whole child to ensure that her students are getting a well- balanced education and that has led to them being kind, intelligent young adults. To parents, Karen is the teacher they want for their children. They love her teaching style while also appreciating that she goes that extra mile for each student. Each year I receive emails from parents requesting her as a teacher for their children. I think something that parents truly value are the conversations that she has with them about their children to ensure they are working together to get them to reach their full potential. I recently had a parent contact me and she said, "Is it true that Mrs. Shiffle is retiring? Do you think that you can talk her out of it?" Although I responded that I couldn't talk her out of it,

040I do kind of wonder Karen. At her retirement party, she had uh colleagues who had made speeches and the theme from them was simple. Karen always shows up. When you need someone, she is the person you can count on. Whether is to help with planning, to help in a time of crisis, to lend a sympathetic ear, or to do whatever it takes to make the school run smoothly. Karen always tells me each morning, "Remember, I have second period if you need me." Although most times I don't need the coverage, it is comforting to know that I have someone I can count on. Continuing the theme of always showing up, I think I can count on one hand how many times Karen has actually not been at school. Even in her retirement year, SJG has only

041been Karenless for three days. That is a testament to her love of teaching, her students, and her friends. Her friends at SJG will miss her immensely. Karen, I will always miss talking about our children, sports, and just life in general. I will miss showing up at 7:00 a.m. and saying out loud to myself in my car, "How does she always beat me here?" I know that you will greatly miss your home away from home, but remember that you can always visit. And don't forget that you told me that you might want to sub. Enjoying your time with Pete. Enjoy your time with Pete. managing all the time you get to spend together now that you are both retired and visiting Jennifer as she completes her senior year at Fairfield University. Before you know it, she

042will be graduating and working and then you will really have to find things to do. Remember that you said you would sub. Kidding aside, I hope that you truly embrace retirement and finally get to spend some time on the things that you love to do. I am sure that we will see you jogging around the neighborhood and at future Bquinonic events, but remember you are always welcome at SJ. Have a wonderful retirement and thank you for all you've done for the students, families, and staff at SJG. Everyone is carrying and congratulations to Mr. Riner for turning a retirement speech into a recruiting pitch. Well done. I have the honor of speaking about my friend and colleague Beth Sheridan. I first got to know Beth Sheridan about a decade ago when she was our supervisor for

043social studies, world languages, business, and ESL when I was the Hillview principal. From time to time when I was away from the building, she recovered for the day, which I thoroughly appreciated as principles are notorious for having wicked separation anxiety. The only issue that I endured, however, was that her presence started to give me a complex. She got along great with the office staff as well as the teachers and support staff and seemed to genuinely have a wonderful time with the kids, but nothing of consequence ever seemed to go wrong ever. Over several years, all I got were glowing reports of uneventful days. What was she doing that I hadn't figured out? All that can make a guy feel kind of insecure. But in all of her visits, which were very wellreceived, she left behind

044one note that ended up in my bulletin board for a long time and with good reason. She wrote, "You have the best job." Those five simple words served as an ongoing reminder for me to keep perspective and realize just how lucky I was and how lucky we are to be able to work with kids and educators and families and really cool colleagues. And that still sticks with me to this day, the power of perspective. and that was provided by Beth. I still have that note. That impression of Beth as a really cool colleague continued into my next role as well as hers as she became our director of curriculum instruction. Her timing of moving into the position aligned with some of the darkest days of the pandemic response. So, I thoroughly appreciate the energy that

045bre Beth brought to her role and to our board office dynamic. As a true lifelong learner, Beth brings to any conversation an inherent interest in everything and a willingness to try new approaches. As I threw seemingly a million new things at her, she maintained the same response, which which was to ask questions, dig deep into the topic, try to figure out how to make the most sense of it, even with grants and other state and federal programs that seemed to defy any possibility of sensemaking. I appreciated how wonderfully patient Beth was with moving at the speed of Poris with initiatives as well as being very patient with my intercom system in the office, which involves me shouting, "Hey, Beth," whenever I felt I had a good idea. She contributed so much to our district and

046on a personal level, I thoroughly enjoyed the conversations on topics ranging from Tom Brady, greatest quarterback ever, to the arrangement of landmarks in DC. If you ever want to check out the slideshow she presented on that, it's fascinating to pedigogy to podcasts to my kids activities and interests to books some of which I still need to return. And by the way, I still have your John Adams DVD series and we'll return it shortly after I binge watch it to travel tips and I also have the Charleston book and I'll return that after Nancy and I go there in the spring. Nevertheless, she shared so many interests and she's generally an interesting person which brought so much to the workplace and to our shared existence. I consider our district and myself fortunate for having had the

047opportunity to have Beth Sheridan be a part of our working environment. We're better as a consequence of her contributions and the day of Beth which exists as a much more enjoyable day during the admin retreat in stark contrast to the day of Mike which is much less fun. But those days will continue to live on as part of our tradition. When we welcome in our new staff for orientation in August, they won't know that their experiences will be outstanding as a result of your hard work in revamping the program. They'll just know it'll be really good. And that's quite a legacy to leave. Thank you for being awesome, and I hope that your retirement will continue to be not only fun, but wicked fun. Congratulations, Pat. And now I turn the microphone over to Mr.

048Hast. Just for the record, the day at Beth is more fun. Good evening, Dr. Poris and members of the board of education. It's hard to believe that we are here at the final board meeting of the year. Thank you for your continued support of the administration, teachers, and students. One of the many highlights throughout the year is the opportunity to recognize our students and staff on nights such as this one. As we honor tonight's RI retirees, it is always a bittersweet moment for me. Saying goodbye is never easy. But if one thing is for certain, the immense gratitude that we all feel to have had the opportunity to work with these educators is one that is also felt by our students, parents, and our entire Puana community. Tonight, PTHs is proud to honor our retiree,

049Mrs. Galina Crocco. I remember it like it was yesterday. The year was 2008, and as the vice principal of academic affairs, I was part of the interview committee for the new for a new math teacher. We needed to find someone who could take on our AP calculus class. In walkalked Mrs. Croco, confident, enthusiastic, and most importantly, passionate about mathematics and instruction. And if I learned anything about Miss Crocco in that interview is that she loved and wanted to teach calculus. Did I say that right? Okay. All right. Good. And for the past 17 years, there were no truer words spoken in our mathematics department. Miss Kroco, born and raised in the Soviet Union, knew one thing since she was three years old. She wanted to be a math teacher. Her mother was a math teacher.

050And growing up, she quickly learned that if she was going to be successful, it would be following in her mother's footsteps. In the Soviet Union, if you wanted to be a teacher, you had to go to a very specific school that put you through teacher training. So, Mrs. Kroco attended Zidori E Franco State Pedagogical Institute in the Soviet Union. She earned her bachelor's degree in math and what I didn't know, one in physics. And I wish I did for these 17 years. She also went on, she was hiding that from me. I know she was. She also went on for a masters in mathematics teaching. Again, it was necessary. And as Miss Kroco put it, there was no other way. She began teaching at Ukraine High School in 1981, teaching all levels of mathematics. In

0511988, she applied to the Soviet Union embassy for teaching math at at uh at specialized high schools in different countries. And after a rigorous process, she was selected to teach at the Mongolia Russian Embassy High School on a three-year contract with a promise to return to Ukraine High School. She completed her three-year requirement in Mongolia and then returned to Ukraine High School until 1995 when she moved to the United States. As a side note, her sister also taught mathematics in the Ukraine for 45 years in her mother's math position, retiring just a few years ago. When she arrived in the United States, she started tutoring in mathematics and attended Pace University to take classes in learning the English language. In 2004, she started as an adjunct professor at Montlair State University and Felician College and

052was doing that until she began looking for high school teaching jobs. Knowing that she wanted to teach calculus, Pquanic Township High School sparked her interest. When she found out that the schedule included AP Calc, she was excited for the opportunity. Since she started in 2008, she has taught just about every subject in the department, but definitely preferred and loves her algebra 2 honors, pre-calculus, and AP calculus classes. When she first began teaching high school in the US, she was expecting the students to be dressed like they did in the Ukraine. Shirts and ties, dresses, and she was surprised when students didn't stand up when the teacher entered the room. She couldn't understand what a hall pass was because students didn't leave class in the Ukraine to go to the bathroom. I remember her coming into

053my office in October and she was wondering if she should stay. We are certainly glad she did. She quickly found her way and has become one of the top AP calculus teachers in the state of New Jersey. Throughout her career, she averaged over a 4.7 in her 17 years and in 2013 had a perfect score of a 5.0. She earned PTHs teacher of the year in 2014 and was nominated for the distinguished Princeton University Teacher Award. When you walk into Miss Kroco's classroom, it is one that is focused and intense, but also one where there is a common understanding that learning through struggle is worth it. Mrs. Kroco will challenge you to go beyond what you think you can do and then keep going. Yes, sometimes that means 4,000 AP calculus problems in a single

054year or homework on the weekend. In observing her classes formally and informally, I'll always walk out of the room realizing that there are 20 people in that room way smarter than me when it comes to mathematics. The proof is not only in her AP calculus scores, but in the long list of students who come to visit, and say that they are getting A's in their college math courses, ranging from calculus to calculus 3, because they were prepared by Mrs. Croco, whether they took her for algebra 2, pre-calc, or AP. If you stop by her classroom, you will see years of murals representing the names of her students that survived and thrived in her courses. But more importantly, when you stop by her classroom, you will see a community of learners, a community of scholars, and

055a community who loves Mrs. Kroco very much. What will she remember most about her time at PTHs? She will remember all of her students. She'll remember her math department colleagues, many of which are here tonight. and they will remember her as she walked into the office and saying happy Monday or whatever day it is. The support from the administration and being named faculty homecoming queen many times throughout the course of her career. So much so that she's she's often referred to as the queen. She will miss the atmosphere of her classroom and the fact that her students always came ready to work. However, what she will remember most will be, according to her, a beautiful 17 years. In retirement, Mrs. Craco will continue being an AP reader, and she said, "I'm not going to sit

056on the couch and do nothing." She's going to go back to being an adjunct professor and tutoring students. She won't have to get up at 5:00 a.m. anymore, though. And in October, she'll be cruising the Caribbean with her husband and enjoying life. It is certainly welld deserved. Congratulations, Mrs. Crocco, on your retirement. I will now uh invite Mr. Saraski. Good evening everyone and congratulations to all of our retirees and best wishes in all that you do. I would like to begin by recognizing Mrs. Patty Walker, social studies teacher at Puquanic Valley School. Patty retired from PV in October of 2024 after 28 years of service to the Puquanic Township School District. Patty's story is not your traditional one though. When we last spoke, she said to me, "I have certainly taken the road less traveled."

057And Patty, to paraphrase and finish the thought from Robert Frost, please know that you have made all the difference in the lives of your students and colleagues. Patty started in Puquanic as a volunteer in the PV library. She was married to her husband, Greg, and they started their family together, and she liked the flexibility of giving her time to others. Soon she started to work as a substitute in the district and she subbed at all five schools and enjoyed the different experiences each grade level brought. She was not only a substitute teacher though. Subbing responsibilities included uh included working as an instructional aid and secretary in some of the schools and even the athletic department for a time until she applied for and became a full-time social studies teacher at PV where she was for

058the last 22 years. During her time as a sub and aid, Patty started working on her bachelor's degree at William Patterson while fulfilling her most important job, and that was being a mom to her three children. She continued her education and received her master's degree from Mary Grove College while teaching. She said that the time she spent working in the different schools in the district helped to build her confidence, realizing not only was she able to do this, but also that she was meant to do this. But to her, PV has always felt like a second home. She said her journey was challenging for sure, but she knew that she had the love and support of her husband and children, so she always knew she would reach her goal of becoming a teacher. And it's

059easy to see why Patty was successful in her career. She has always demonstrated the desire to work hard and provide her students with everything they need to be successful, not only in her classroom, but also throughout their time in middle school. As Patty puts it, "The kids are my heart." In addition to studying history and improving their writing, she always stressed to her students to think independently for yourself and you will change the world. One of the greatest compliments I can give Patty is that she has always believed there is success for every student and she made sure that each of her students knew that during their time with her. As students enter sixth grade, it can be a scary time with a lot of worry and nervousness. Patty always received her students in September

060with kindness and respect. And they knew that although middle school has challenges, her classroom is a safe space with an individual who cares about them. And to anyone who spent time in education, that really is the trick. Letting students know that you care about them and are here to help them in any way that you can. And once that sentiment is made clear to students and demonstrated on a regular basis, the rest falls into place. And that is exactly what Patty did. I know that I was always appreci that that I always appreciated having that calming presence in the sixth grade wing. Patty was always ready to help and always had a kind word to share. When asked what she has missed in the last in the last few months since she has retired, she

061said working with the kids and being with her colleagues. Something she always enjoyed doing and continues to do today is walking with fellow PB teacher Christina Marx. And I'm happy to share those walks continue to this day. So, she still remains in the loop at PV. Right now, though, she is enjoying retired living and spending time with her husband, children, and grandchildren. And she looks forward to traveling. And in fact, she and her husband, Greg, are planning an anniversary trip in September. Patty, we wish you well on your retirement. Please know that you always have a second home at PB. And we hope that you come back and visit us from time to time. Congratulations and best wishes in all that you do. And now I would like to recognize Mr. Greg Slath, math teacher

062at Puquanic Valley School. Thank you, Greg, for being not just a PV Panther, but a Pquanic Township Panther. Your love and dedication to this district and town will never be doubted. has always been appreciated and will continue to be present even when you retire. First time I met Greg was in July of 2014 and I was on the job for about a week. We talked for a few minutes getting to know each other. He told me he was a Cincinnati Bengals fan which made me question his judgment right away. But who might question anything with the last decade of Giants football? All of us know Greg as a math teacher, but people do not realize that prior to teaching, Greg worked in construction. He worked teaching apprentice apprentices for Union Glazers for three years. During

063that time, he realized he liked teaching more. So, he went alternate route and sent a few resumes to different districts. He applied to be a high school chemistry teacher at Pquanic Township High School. But another teacher was not able to fill fulfill a math position. So, Greg accepted that one, which he liked very much and changed his direction from science to math. Shortly after that, there was an opening at PV and PTHs. He applied to both. Though he was offered both positions, he took the job at PV where he has remained for the last 27 years. I asked him what kept him here so long and he said initially his wife Nancy was a little unsure of him moving to the teaching profession, but she saw his passion for teaching and knew this is what

064he wanted. And he shared that her support to him has been unwavering, and I know that he's grateful for that. He also liked the idea of being close by to watch his two sons, Andrew and Gary, play sports and go through school themselves. Greg has always felt a great sense of loyalty to the community because, as he has said, it's just a nice place to work with really good people. PV has always felt like home to him. He enjoys the camaraderie amongst his colleagues and I know that I have enjoyed my conversations with him over the years as they are so much more than our jobs and education. Greg brings a great deal to our building and it will not be easy to replace. It was evident from from the first time I saw Greg

065in a classroom. He truly and thoroughly enjoys teaching. He believes in challenging his students in ways that will prepare them not only for future math courses, but also ways that will make them better overall thinkers when life presents a difficulty. He's a firm believer in students working regularly with logic problems as the thought and work put in there will lead to greater things in the future. Greg will always do whatever it takes to put his students in a position to best be successful. Not only does he guide them during class time, but he has been there over the years to provide extra help before school to give them that little bit of extra support that they needed. Greg's dedication reaches further than the classroom. He coached boys soccer at PV for 13 years, and in

066fact, there have only been four boys soccer coaches at Pave since 1968, and Greg is one of them. He has also coached golf at the high school for the past 15 years where his players have seen great individual and team success. Greg's guidance to student athletes cannot be understated. He always made it a point whether it was Rich Hazler and then me to come to the principal and ask if we wanted to talk to his team before the season. He's a proponent of the name on the front of the jersey being the most important thing and how our actions represent not only the team but all of the Puquanic Township School District. When he retires, one of the first things he plans on doing is vacationing at the Jersey Shore in September when it is

067a little less crowded. He's going to continue to play and coach golf here in Puquanic. As he has shared, he's going to miss the kids and the people because they are what has made his time here in Puquanic special. As you move to the next part of your life, Greg, we wish you nothing but health and happiness. Please be sure to stop by and visit Pee when you have some time. Congratulations and best wishes moving forward. And now, Mrs. Stagger from Pilgrim. It's an honor to be standing here tonight as we celebrate the career of Patricia Bellis. I have known Pat for quite some time. The Bellis family lived in Lincoln Park prior to moving to Pompton Plains and I had a little Tommy Bellis in my third grade class. Tommy is all grown up

068now and married. So Pat and I are probably nearing the the 20-year mark. So when I started as principal of Hillview in 2020, it was Pat that gave me a big hug and warm welcome, which made the transition so much easier. She also apologized for all the gray hair Tommy gave me, but he really wasn't that bad. What can I say about Pat? Honestly, there's not enough words or time tonight to appropriately pay tribute to the unwavering dedication she has demonstrated throughout her career and 21 years in the district. She's the anchor of Hillview, takes the lead on everything fifth grade, whether she likes it or not, and is just that go-to person when you have questions. In the early days of my tenure, if I needed to know how something worked or the history

069behind it, the only logical thing to do was go ask Pat Bellis. Pat has devoted herself to Hillview the same way she devotes herself to her incredible family. Husband Tom, daughter Melissa, son-in-law Mike, grandson Kyle, and her son Tommy, and his wife Morgan. We feel lucky to have been able to share Pat with you all these years. Teachers are not made like Pat anymore. She is truly unique and a one-of-a-kind educator that poured more of herself than she really needed to into her work. But teaching is not work for Pat. It's not a job. It's not even a career. It's a calling. She was called to be a teacher to positively influence the lives of countless students and families and has done that with the utmost levels of integrity and professionalism. In fact, I think

070I begged her to take a couple days off this year, but she still tells me exactly where she is and what she's doing every time she's absent because it's just easier to come to work, which is true. I'm sure at times also the time she spent at Hillview came at the sacrifice of missing some important milestones for her own children. That's what teachers do. Well, no, I actually need to retract that. It's not what all teachers do. It's what Pat Bellis does. She cares so deeply about the academic growth and well-being of her students and demonstrates this with her unrelenting work ethic and commitment to her craft. She has left lasting impressions on her students over the years where they frequently mention Pat and lessons they learned that are carried forward forward with them through

071life. We hear Pat's name at high school graduation speeches almost every single year. That's pretty powerful if you think about it. To know that your students when they have children and grandchildren will tell them about how their fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Bellis, influenced their life and academic career. That's your legacy, Pat. Not the Pi Day celebrations, recognition ceremonies, countless late nights, grading papers, sending emails, making parent phone calls, and lesson planning. Your legacy is that you have set an example for your students and modeled hard work, perseverance, resilience, and compassion that they will take with them and hopefully pay it forward throughout their own lives. Teaching at Hillview has been very special for Pat. Not only has she been able to have a successful career, she's also met and made some of the best friends

072she'll have throughout life. When you work in one place for so long, especially in elementary school, your colleagues become your family. We are really going to feel your absence next year, Pat. But good news, Bellisurus families, you're getting her full time. Type A personalities sometimes have difficulty adjusting to retirement, so make sure you find things for her to do. Tom, you need to book some trips and new adventures. Melissa, don't be surprised when your mom shows up to babysit with a detailed lesson plan for Kyle, complete with differentiated activities tailored to meet his needs. She'll likely follow up with an email outlining everything they accomplished throughout the day and areas you need to work on. If he naps, she may number your Tupperware. And don't even think about putting the number two plastic container in

073the number three spot. That would ruin the whole system. Tommy, you may want to teach your mom some complicated recipes that require a couple days to prepare, maybe even with homegrown vegetables or lots of trips to specialty markets to secure ingredients. Pat, regardless of how you choose to spend your days in retirement, remember this is what you worked for. So enjoy every second of it and be grateful and that you can now ensure you spend all of your time in a climate controlled environment without bells, faculty meetings, and report cards. and hopefully surround yourself with people who wear deodorant because we all know that's not always a strong suit for fifth graders. There's a saying that everyone is replaceable. However, Pat, in this situation, it's simply not true. Yes, time will march on and Hillview

074will be okay. But remember, you have been part of so many today's soon to be yesterdays, and who knows, maybe Kyle will be part of the tomorrows. Pat, you are loved, deeply appreciated, and it's truly my pleasure to call you a colleague and friend. And to the Bellisur families, you are on notice. Seven days until we turn her loose to you. So, on behalf of the entire faculty and staff at Hillview, congratulations on a distinguished career. We wish you health, happiness, and hopefully a lot more grandb babies in your retirement. And uh now we'd like all their retirees to come up uh for a photo. So come right back. Oh god. See clearly walked around. I think he did. Funny though, I've never seen a person walk next jacket. Did no such thing. What a

075French. So I as a lot of people are getting ready for pictures. I will put it out there if anybody wants to stick around for the rest of the meeting. Uh we will we will continue with that. But thank you so much to students who are recognized and their families as well as the staff who are recognized and their families. Just just what just a a wonderful celebration of what we do in education. So, so thank you for making that special experience and also the board for allowing all this to happen and encouraging it. So that concludes the superintendent's report. Good luck following that, Mr. Gibbs. Good evening. On tonight's board agenda, you will find a board resolution for a grant from the community oriented policing services, also known as cops, for the reimbursement of

076security items that is budgeted for the 2025 2026 school year in the amount of $69,000. The security items to be purchased will help maintain compliance with the Alyssa's law. On May 28th, the board approved the submission of an application for an SDA grant in the amount of $11,314. The grant was for reimbursement of a specist removal from the Hillview school. The funds were received on June 4th. Also on June 4th, the owner of 494 Newark Pompton turnpikes sent over a letter of intent accepting the appraised value of the building in the amount of $575,000. To tonight, the board will be discussing the possibility of purchasing the facility for the new board office and possibly additional classroom offices. On June 5th, I intended I attended the New Jersey Association of School Business Officials or Hasbbo conference

077in Atlantic City. One workshop I attended was called dream teamwork makes dreamwork which explained how the Franklin Township School District transformed empty commercial buildings into educational and community facilities. The transformation helped solve their lack of preschool classrooms and help the township establish a community center. Finally, this is just a reminder for those board members planning on not attending the New Jersey School Board's conference in Atlantic City in October to please let me know as soon as possible as everyone is booked to attend and will be staying at the Hard Rock Cafe. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Gibbs. I'll now open the meeting to public comment on agenda items only. Members of the public may speak once for a maximum period of 5 minutes by the clock during this portion of the meeting. And if the

078public wants to speak, they can speak on any agenda item only. If you do want to speak, please direct your questions to the board president, state your name, and sign in before we begin. Good evening everyone. Ann Marie Finnen, uh, elementary music teacher and president of the Pquanic Township Education Association. Um, first of all, I wanted to thank you for recognizing the retirees. Um, this is quite a bunch uh that we're losing this year. um each one of them really has had a tremendous career and it's always inspiring um for for us to to work with them and then to know as was so eloquently described the legacy that they've all had. Um this particular group also was very instrumental in our association work through the years. So just a big loss for our district,

079but I'm I'm happy for them and thank you again for recognizing them. Um uh we just to um update the board. I I know um we're approaching the end of of the negotiations hopefully uh process um and uh hopefully we'll officially be able to thank you for the work and and um for the agreement. U just to update you, we did have a ratification meeting today. We were able to answer a lot of questions from our members. Um per our bylaws, we are voting on the tentative agreement on Thursday. So, I'm hoping that our chief negotiator, Mr. Slaf, will be able to reach out to Ms. Margazy um with good news um because if not, someone else has to be our chief negotiator since he's retiring. But, uh all kidding aside, I'm I'm I'm hopeful,

080uh that everything is going to go very well. Um, and then lastly, I would like to take off, please, my union hat, um, and speak to you as, uh, just a resident and and an employee um, about um, a resolution that is up for discussion tonight on the approval of the new rates for subs um, substitutes. Uh I'm sorry I don't have the resolution number in front of me but um I just wanted to uh give you my thoughts if I may. Um specifically about the daily uh pardon me the building sub rates. I understand that the daily sub and the building sub rates um the recommendation or that you're discussing is to lower those rates um specifically the building sub from 165 to 150 um next year. Um, and I understand that um, our

081rates are are currently I I I you would probably say com, you know, very competitive. Um, they're higher, I know, than a lot of neighboring districts. I I think that hopefully helps us to attract really and and maintain really good people. I also understand your fiduciary responsibility and and why you would be looking at um, bringing those rates to a number that makes the most sense, you know, for your budget. Um, but I wanted to just speak specifically about the building subs and the thought that they would uh be experiencing a bit of a c a pay cut um with this with these new rates. Um, the building subs are extremely um valuable in in our buildings. In the in the two buildings that I work at, I can say that they are integral parts

082of our of our faculty um as as staff members. um they are on the front lines as you know with our students um because they are in the building every day. They are able to do much more than a daily sub can do. Um they really continue instruction. Even as a music teacher, I know that if one of the building subs is covering my classes, my classes are continuing rehearsing or with the instruction that I would have done. that is not the case when you have a just a daily sub. Um the consistency that a building sub provides is is really invaluable. Um uh you know even you know because they are established and um consistent in the building you know they will text you and communicate with you and just have a very different

083level of engagement with the students and with the staff. um their impact is very huge and I just felt upset on their behalf to think that you know they will experience this pay cut and because they work every day it's something they're going to feel you know going forward because they do they they're not working in other districts they're not you know they are doing this every single day and so um as I said I respect your budgeting process and um would never suggest that I you know know how much you should pay them, but I wanted you to know how valuable they are and that um you know perhaps that $15 cut every day that they'd be working. Um it's going to be felt by them and I would hate to have to lose

084them for that. And I don't know if that's, you know, possible. I don't know. They probably love coming here. The Puquanic does that to us, right? Many people stay in Puquanic um for for less money than perhaps they could make elsewhere. But I just um would hate to lose them um if there was any way to um mitigate that cut for that particular position. Just my thoughts and thank you very much. Thank you. Sorry. And just to be very clear because I wasn't I do not represent those personnel. They are not my members and that's why I took the hat off. You got that. Thank you. All right. Uh, we'll now move on to the approval of action items. Seeing that there's no one else in the crowd, uh, I'm going to ask Miss Shent

085to please move the items under PMC. Sure. I'd like to move PMC 251-25 through PMC 267-25. Second. Any questions or discussion? Mr. Gibbs, please call the RO. Bloomer. Yes. Mr. Mr. Reesi, yes. Mr. Gil, yes. MOO, yes. Sweeney, yes. Mr. Pompeo, yes. Mr. Chanton, yes. Mrs. Espazito, yes. And Mr. Senic, yes. Motion carries. Okay. Uh, Mrs. Espazito, would you please move the item under CIS? I'd like to move CIS 92-25. Second. Any question or discussion? Mr. Gibbs, please call the RO. Mr. Bloomer. Yes. Mr. Yes. Mr. Gon, yes. Mrs. Zo, yes. Mr. Mcweeny, yes. Mr. Pompeo, yes. M. Shen, yes. Mrs. Espazito, yes. And Mr. Senic, yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Mr. Bloomer, would you please move the items under FFA? Yes. I'd like to make a motion move FFA 189-25 through FFA 192-25. Second.

086Question or discussion? Mr. Gibbs, please call to the role. Mr. Bloomer, yes. Mr. Sesi, yes. Mr. Gon, yes. MO, yes to FFA 18925 through FFA 19125. I need to recuse myself from FFA 19225 as it pertains to my district where I work. Mr. Mcweeny, yes. Mr. Pompeo, yes. Mrs. Chanton, yes. Mrs. Espazito, yes. And Mr. Senic, yes. Motion carries. Okay. Mr. Giten, would you please move the item under other? I'd like to make a motion move other 0-12-25. Second. Question or discussion? Mr. Gibbs, please call the role. Mr. Bloomberg, yes. Mr. Sesi, yes. Mr. Gon, yes. Miss Ao, yes. Mr. Mcweeny, yes. Mr. Pompeo, yes. Mrs. Shenton, yes. Mrs. Espazito, yes. And Mr. Senic, yes. Motion carries. All right, that brings us into our workshop. First up is PMC with two updates, a staffing update

087and a district culture committee update. All right. Thank you, Mr. Senic. Uh first up, as far as a staffing update, um something that we've uh been doing as a as a practice is we continue to post salary ranges for open positions. And what we're finding is that this is helpful for people who are applying to be able to see that this is the range um that we're looking for and the rates vary by uh marketplace factors. There are certain positions that are much harder to fill that we're going to have to afford more flexibility. Um and also budget allocations. Um, we're being very mindful of trying to prevent ourselves from having what's called negative breakage in the hiring, which is where you hire somebody at a higher rate than um, the person that they're replacing.

088So, we're noticing a deeper pool of applicants um, than we've seen certainly for the past 5 years. Um, there have been quite a few districts throughout New Jersey that have experienced some budget shortcomings and um, the the marketplace is reflecting that as there are more people available. We've been very impressed with uh the candidates with whom we've met. Um several of whom are were appointed earlier tonight. And as far as quick update, the elementary team uh this the three principles are collaborating on interviews for both general education and special education openings. U Spanish, we have one more to fill. Uh from what I understand, Mr. Hazler, Dr. O'Keefe, you're going to be sending me a candidate before the end of the week. And then uh socialized candidates are wrapping up. This is also at the

089high school. um this week and uh they also have somebody in place to be a leave replacement for PV Music. She's already in place right now and from what I can gather doing quite well. So right now the outlook is good for staffing. We realize that things tend to be somewhat fluid um as you get closer to the summer and even into the summer, but um what we're seeing is good interview process and um things are things are working well. Any questions in general? I know Mr. Vans, you've sat in on a number of the interviews. You seem your feedback you've given me pretty happy with with what you're seeing. I just got a double thumbs up. Very impressed with all the candidates that um we have had the opportunity that I've had the opportunity

090to interview. Though I'm not in on every single one out there, but definitely a lot of them. So, it's been great. All right. Then the the second item is the district culture committee which I've been referring to as the culture club. Interestingly, we actually have three representatives from the group currently in the room. Um we have a board member as part of the group which is Mr. Mweeny. We have a member from each school. Um Mrs. Finn happens to be the representative from SJG. We also have someone child study team. Um we have a principal and Dr. Shiri as well as a supervisor and Miss Bellerino. And obviously I'm I'm part of it as superintendent as well. And um we we pushed out a survey last week to the high school and middle school and

091then it's going to be um shared tomorrow at the elementary faculty meetings uh in which we're trying to get feedback from staff members. It's simple two questions but just for ideas about how this committee can work to help to create a better environment um improve morale. Um and we provide the mission which is uh that it consists of one staff member from each school, CST rep, administrators, board member and superintendent group meets monthly to generate ideas and work on implementing actions that could enhance the overall experience of being a part of our district school community. Our focus is on collaboration, support, and fun while celebrating the Quanic Township School District experience. And I don't know, Mr. Mcween, if you want to speak about what you've experienced thus far working with this group. Yeah, it's uh

092it's been a lot of fun. I think we've had three meetings so far. We have one coming up uh next week near the end of this month. Um and uh the ideas that the staff and the the participants are bringing are pretty cool. Uh can we talk about some of these ideas yet or? Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay, cool. So, I don't know. Um, so kind of I mean there's been a lot of ideas in there, but some of the ones that have kind of uh risen to the top, uh, bringing child to work day, bringing your your child to work day, uh, it seems to be working well in a lot of other districts. I know there was a survey that would went out to some of the other districts and they asked a lot of

093the neighboring towns what they do and most of them have some sort of program. Um it's really cool when some of our um maybe high school aged kids can go down to the elementary schools from staff members uh see what's going on there. It's cool to trail your your parent around the school for the day, find out what's going on. The idea though is to put more of a plan around it, some uh kind of goals that they have or a formal program around so it's not you have additional kids in school that day. it's actually that they're doing something meaningful, um providing value and learning something while they're there and having fun too. Um so I can just speak to we do do bring your child to work day at my in my district

094and it's phenomenal. We have a set kind of schedule where like Olivia came and she went to other classes while I had meetings and worked in centers with kids with other students in other grade levels. And um not only do your own children love it, but the students love seeing your children probably more than your kids love being there. So it it is a really super fun day. So just just to add my two cents. That's a lot of the feedback we got too from other teachers and parents that their kids really loved loved it and they love like being seen with the older kids. Olivia is 16 and still wants to go. So that's saying something. Yeah. Um, another idea was uh is um students who inspire teachers. Um kind of a reverse. Usually

095we're talk students talk about the teachers that inspired them but now it's stu teachers coming coming back especially when our students are graduating coming back and saying hey you know 10 years ago or six years ago you inspired me to be a better teacher and here's how. um whether it's just a letter to that student, we're talking about maybe maybe a video uh kind of testimonial uh something that we can also promote on social media to say, hey, this is the culture in this town. This is this is what happens in our district and this is how teachers are being rewarded here and also how the students are being rewarded as well. I thought that was a pretty cool idea as well. Yeah. Um, and then the there was there was another one, but the

096the other one that stood out was um we we do um the clapouts for our fifth graders when they when they grad when they move up. But one of the ideas was to bring our high school students back to the elementary schools and have them clapped out by the teacher. They can actually see some of their teachers from seven, eight years ago, talk to them, catch up with them, um, and do that. I think is that something that's been in the works now or is that for next year? Yeah, logistically I don't think we could pull it off for this year. It would definitely feel rushed. Yeah, it would be. But it's kind of cool to to do to do that as well for our graduating seniors to to bring them down to the elementary

097schools one last time. Anything else? There's there's other stuff there. We could go there's probably 10 other ideas that we're just considering. Yeah, there's definitely no shortage of ideas with the group. It's it's it's really exciting and and I'm glad that things that um you're talking about, Greg, are that we're trying to get at the core of the overall experience here. Um and like even something with take your child to work day, I've been very insistent it has to be something that's very structured. It can't add work for administrators. It can't be take your kid to work and leave him in the gym for three hours. It has to be something very structured. And the ideas that people are are generating are are really impressive. Um, and I've been looking through the responses so far

098from PTHs and PV. So far, we've gotten 54 responses to the survey. Um, coffee seems to be very popular. I I feel like we could ply our staff off with coffee and everything would be great. Um, but um, people people very thoughtful in their responses, too. People talked about if there are ways you can find to create time for people because I know time is is such a valuable asset. It's so hard to to find. Um there were requests about different themed dress days or themed activities, uh group activities, um going on a hike or or having teachers do their own thing for spirit week. But a lot of really good ideas. Um, one that I I wanted to push out is uh encourage, bless you, encourage people when they go to different places to

099to rock the Knock and uh as they post pictures to Facebook or to X or to Instagram to use the hashtag Rock the Knock and be pretty cool to see all the different places where Pquonic gear ends up throughout throughout the country, maybe even throughout the globe. Um, and even sharing some of our swag with with other people. um from other districts and you know maybe get some exchanges going there as well. Um but I'm excited for this. I feel like our our our morale is is anytime in in June it's tough in a school district, but I feel like it is overall strong. Um we have a wonderful supportive community, but let's build on that strength. And and Emry, while you're here, I'm not going to try to put you on the spot. I

100don't if there's anything you want to add in that we didn't hit yet, but Yeah. And and I have to say I called it the uh it was like an all-star team of nice people. Like the the meetings are just they're fun and and just there's such a great great level of support. So, this is something we're going to look to to grow and uh yeah, we're going to have a meeting either late this week or early next week and then um we'll we'll take a break until we reconvene in August. And one of the things we're looking at too is trying to make the opening the opening days experience that much more fun. Um and I'm getting some pressure about staff shirts too, which which could be a pretty cool thing to do. Yep.

101Yep. Yeah. there. Um the state is hosting a conference in July and they encourage school districts to send teams and I know we have I think four people so far as part of our team. Um they're going to be heading down to Trenton to participate in a conference looking at um collaborating on ways to improve school culture and really experiences for educators as well as for anybody else that's part of a school community. That's our keep call the culture club which I know is a boy George reference but that's our group. It's a good name. Thanks. All right. Up next is CIS. And there's two items under CIS. The focus grant and summer curriculum writing. Thank you. Um I did want to say congratulations to all the retirees and all the students and best of

102luck to everyone um on that the focus grant. Um so there's an item on um the action that we approved. Um the focus grant is for the universal screening that every school district has to do starting in September. Um this grant in particular um we applied for $5,870 and we already got the approval. So it's the fastest grant. It came in within 3 days. Um, so while we have the application on the agenda, we've also approved and we're going to get the money. So, um, basically every district has to now have the has to use a universal screener as Miss Bellerino presented in her presentation to a couple board meetings ago for um, phonics, funological awareness, all those early foundational reading skills. We're already set up with um, everything that they want out of the

103districts to do. We already had started that process this year, so we're good. Where as in terms of what we need to get done, um we're going to use most of the money for training for our staff on um three of the half days in October, December, and February. Um part of the process is that districts have to now provide parent reports on these screenings that will be done on the students. Um, so part of the training is, um, understanding the reports, being able to have conversations with parents about the reports. Um, we're going to also offer, um, I believe in September have, um, our reading specialists and Miss Beradino do a training or a presentation for parents on the reports so that we can open up that communication and dialogue and let them know.

104Um, we'll be sending out the reports at least twice in the year, if not three times, because we do the benchmarks three times a year. So, we're excited. Got the money. Good to go. Any questions on focus, but I think that Mr. Gibbs said he got the SDA grant for the asbestous uh thing like also. So, I don't know what's going on with the grants with you guys, but like you're turning them around like weeks, which is outstanding. I I think we we have to thank Natalie Frany at the department bed for how fast she got back on that. Like she's just amazing. Um and then summer curriculum writing. I just wanted to make a note. Um basically coming into a district in the first year, a lot of the time is spent just understanding

105how the curriculum process is done in a new district. Um what are people used to? What is the um form the platform we use? um and just kind of getting a handle on uh what's coming up in terms of our five-year cycle. Um but also what is the state mandating we have to get done usually by the next September. So through that process um working with the supervisor team took a little bit of time this year just to kind of we hit some of the um high priority things. We had some science ones. Um we have right now computer science and cyber security. There's a couple out there that are going to um finishing up eighth grade science, but we need to get math done over for September. Um and the way I've generally worked

106with curriculum is that um I like to have the people come in and we work together and I get the teachers to share with uh with us uh the most important things in their lives, which is the learning objectives, the learning activities, helping us form the units and the pacing and scope and sequence. Other than that, a lot of the wraparound that goes along with curriculum, the supervisor team can help support. So, we're we want to make it um more enjoyable for the teachers who are helping us with the curriculum writing process. So, we're looking to bring in a bunch of people um over the next few weeks. Um hopefully getting as much as that work done by July 10th. Um I have a Google form out there right now requesting teachers to apply for

107uh the different grade levels and topics. We're doing math. Um, math pretty much K to 12. We have different courses, math K to 12. Um, writing grades three to eight. And social studies, we have a new program we'll be bringing into the district, first grade to fifth grade. So, um, I'm hopeful, um, I have quite a few teachers who have applied, which is great. So, I'm hopeful to get some more. And, um, we'll get that process started right away. So, you will expect to see quite a few curriculum come across your desks to, uh, approve in the summer. you still going to go through the same approval process where you're going to upload them to the Google folder and share it with us as they become available, not all at like one time. Yeah, I

108think really the only difference here is that I'm not just saying here go write it, have fun, and come back and then we'll touch base. This is more a collaborative effort where we're all together um for a few days at like the high school media center so we can collaborate and um I think that eases some stress when teachers have questions. were right there to answer the questions and to help them um through the process. So, it's mo a bit more collaborative um for me um and I get to ask questions as they're talking about things and um why is the scope and sequence or why is our pacing guide um why what are those days in pacing? We have to be mindful of take your child to work day. Not sure that would be

109a day that would be a normal um scheduled lesson. So planning those things out in advance really really helps the teachers to um get ready for their year. So with with that thought in mind, Dr. Pores, do we have homework are we staying with the same homework free weekends next year as we did this school year? Yeah, those would stay the same. Okay. So possibly when working on the pacing that that could just be something as well. the homework free weekends which are on Thanksgiving Day weekend and Memorial Day weekend. Yeah. So, normally during pacing I don't really hit homework as much as just the um the span of all the different lessons and topics and concepts, but I'm sure that um as we get that those calendars out for the year, teachers will be

110mindful of that. Thank you. All right, moving on to FFA. Sorry, I'm sorry to interrupt real quick. We will be having a curriculum meeting we said in August right before the school year starts just to review. Yes. And um committee members just Yes. And hopefully I will have a bunch of these done before then. So ready to go at that meeting just for us to recap. Okay. Awesome. Thank you so much. All right. Moving on to FFA. Three items. The purchase of the property at 494 Newton Turnpike Capital Reserve Maintenance Reserve. Sure. You can take it. Uh well, as you know, the board has received a copy of the appraisal of 494 Newark Pompton Turnpike. Um it came in at $575,000. Uh the board will be voting on whether to purchase it or not at

111the next board meeting. What I anticipating getting from our architect is a brief description as to what we're going to be doing and how much it's going to anticipate it to cost. They're not going to get the actual cost until we get into the nitty-gritty, which I don't want to get into that until the board says, "Yes, I definitely definitely want to do this because it's going to cost a lot of money to get that information." So, uh, but at least it'll give an idea as to what it would cost to to buy the building and to fit it up. Can they also give you a time frame as far as how long they think it'll take them to generate their documents, get approval, permits, things like that? And yeah, I can push for that

112information as well. Absolutely. Any other questions? Is there a possibility that we may not have this completed by the date that we're supposed to be out of the post office by? Well, there's always that possibility, but given that we're coming into or we would be going into the winter months and most of this work will be interior work, I don't think it would be a problem. And it's not a lot of work, but it's it's it's enough to keep them busy. Yeah. Thank you. Any other questions? um inspection of the property. Is that going to be I mean has that been completed yet or when at what stage will that happen before we Well, the board has to make a decision as to whether they're looking to buy it or not. Um once they make

113that decision, the the architects will be going out with the inspectors to make sure that everything is okay. We're not going to be closing if the board elects to purchase it, not until like later in July. So, a lot of things can happen between, as you probably are aware, when you buy a house, a lot of things can happen between the time you say, "Yeah, I want to buy it." And the time you actually close on the building. So, there will be some things that will be done. I'll be working with the attorneys. Obviously, Jackie's aware. Um, so those things are moving along. Okay, cool. Thanks. So, it might help Gordon if I speak a little bit to the process. Sure. Um, so the board has to take action to authorize the entry of a

114contract for sale. that contract for sale will have an attorney review period. It will have an inspection period the same way when you buy a house. So the authorization that you are engaging in is to allow the board of education to engage in this contractual process there. That process once it goes through will have a closing date and then once that closing date takes place it's there's an exchange of information, there's a turning over of title and all of that process that goes along with it. So then there's still some steps that have to take place prior to following the action of the board of education. Thank you. So the only question I had on this is looking at the um looking at the letter uh that we got for the purchase, we have to

115make a deposit, right? And if we do enter into uh you know, like we're buying a house, we go through the inspection. Is there going to be language in there that says if there's some reason in there that we have to back out of that deal that we can get our deposit back? Yes. Okay. Any other questions? Yes. No. Okay. The next item I had was uh capital reserve. And I just wanted to go over briefly as to where we are with capital reserve because obviously there were some changes this year. The current balance is $5.9 million. We just received 101,000 for reimbursement uh for the asbestous removal. So that'll be going over $6 million. It'll be increasing another about $800,000 once we sell the property over at the post office where the board is

116currently residing. And we have about 300,000 we're going to be spending on different items for the schools for next year, which leaves, you know, quite a bit of money, almost $6 million to do what we're going to do as far as buying a board office or or whatever we're going to do in that respect. So, I just wanted to give make you aware of it. Okay. Any questions on that? No. Okay. Maintenance reserve. Right now, the current balance is 1.3 million. uh the M1 expenditures for next year. Um and these are not actual expenditures. These are items that could take place. You have to budget them in. And the M1 was board approved back in October of 2024. That's 954,000, which would leave a possible balance of $412,000. Um the likelihood of we spending out

1179 954,000 is very unlikely, but maybe a couple hundred thousand out of that. But I just want to make sure the board was aware of that. Yeah. Any questions on it? No. Okay. Thank you. Right. Thank you. Up next is policy and there's two items. The AI policy uh plan and timeline and policy 2240 controversial topics. Yeah. Uh so I'll take item one. Um, so in terms of the AI plan and policy, um, we have sent some correspondents about this, but I think it's good for the public to know it as well that we're planning to have Mr. Sheay speak at the June 23rd meeting about, um, where we are in terms of the committee's findings, the discussions, where we're looking to go. uh the AI plan should be completed as well as the um

118actual policy and ready to go for a first reading for the July 21st meeting which means the second reading and approval would take place at the August 18th meeting. This is very strategic so that we have everything in place in time to influence not only the student handbooks but also the the opening of the school year. Um and then throughout the process, we're going to continue to revisit the policy and plan um to determine if where there are blind spots. We know that there are things that we couldn't possibly imagine that are going to come up. We're going to look to determine if we have any limitations and what we have as well as what are the strengths. Um and so this is going to be very much an iterative process where we're going to

119be looking to continue to refine this. Um and we won't just be making updates to the plan without notifying the board and the public, but it is going to be a living document. So we'll we'll ensure that there's an effective communication process for any revisions there. Um and we're also working right now on building our own network of other districts um and looking to be as collaborative as possible. Um right now Mr. Sheay has really become a leader not just at the local level but also um some state committees and looking at AI and um we also have a group of students at our school who've been really involved in the AI um development process. I did a podcast with them in which I was reduced more or less being a fanboy because they knew

120a lot and I really didn't. And uh I'm excited about what they can bring. I'm going to offer it out to my association which is Mars County Superintendent that if they'd like to have either Mr. Sheay or our students or a combination of the two speak at one of our meetings, I will make them available. And I think that that's really important to try to put as many um networking opportunities out there so that we can collaborate with with some of our neighbors. This is going to be um a huge undertaking moving forward and it's incredibly important. And then as we did with the uh schedule changes at PV in the high school, we're going to look to survey staff and students as we get into the year to get more of a sense of

121the AI implementation as well as things we should be aware of and things we can do to make our students educational experiences as well as our staff's professional experiences that much better. There's a lot and I'll bounce it over to you, Greg, for the second one. Sure. Uh, yeah. So, um, came up that, uh, Dr. Poris draw drew my attention to it. Uh, policy 2440, controversial topics. We haven't updated it since 2010 or looked at it since 2010. It doesn't need mean it needs to be revised, but uh, it's always good to look at these things every once in a while. Uh, so I went out and I looked at a couple of other districts, probably about 10 districts total. Um, some of them, Mars Hills Regionals District, where Joe Bloomer and I went to

122school, they haven't updated their policy since 1971, so I think we're a little bit ahead of the game. Uh, Berkeley Heights didn't even have a policy on it. Uh, and then I looked at a few others as well. Glenn Ridge, um, Mountain Lakes, Kennelon, uh, some other districts. Interestingly, I looked I looked at Montville and I clicked on it. I didn't even look, but I was actually clicking on Montville Township, Connecticut. Um, but their policy is actually pretty good. Um, it's really it's in-depth. It's long. They they probably went a little too far in their policy. They tried to actually list the controversial topics that um should that fell under this policy. I thought that was a bit much because those could change dayto-day. Um, but they did have some really good points in there

123that uh are worth consideration. some of the things that I thought um we could could think about for this policy. Um one point that that popped up in a lot of other districts is that the topic uh or the the controversial topic that's being discussed should be approached in an age appropriate manner. Uh we don't have that in our in our policy anywhere. Um so you know some things you teach in high school you don't teach in elementary school and it's still fine to teach it in high school. Um other points that I saw that were good. Um and you can see these these are all in backup of the other policies from the other towns. Um one of the policies says that the principles should be making the initial decisions about the controversial topics

124rather than going directly to the CSA. Um which would save Dr. Portoris some sanity and some work. And I think the principles are much closer to the discussion. They're closer to their teachers. Um, and of course they would refer anything up to Dr. Portoris and saying, "Hey, this is what happened or this is what we're going to be teaching." Um, uh, that's that's something I think we should consider as well. Um, and Monfell had a good policy in in their policy was pretty lengthy. Um, that they had, uh, some statements about supporting and um, the teachers when these controversial topics come up and when they're teaching them. uh how principles should support them uh as long as they're teaching within the guidelines and it's it's a controversial topic that has already gone through the process.

125Um that would protect our teachers from outside influences or pressure. Um they would have they would have their principles there working side by side with them. Um that's it. I mean, it's uh beside our policy has some, you know, has some weird wording and punctuation and pupils instead of students, you know, wording things we can fix, but some other things we should consider in a in a new policy. Yeah, I think it's a great topic to talk about. Uh I I was reading that Mville policy and I'm like, "Wow, these people really dig deep." And then I'm thinking to myself, we got to step our game up. Like this town's right next door. I'm like, "Oh, no. This is Connecticut." Yeah. Cuz it was like 10 pages. Um, the one thing I found in that

126policy that I was surprised at, they had regulations for the parents. Oh, yeah. As far as what they're supposed to do, and I'm reading this and I'm like, this is a little much, I think. But, um, yeah, I think it's a great idea, Greg. And, uh, something that needs to be looked at and updated. That's right. The Monfield policy, Montville, Connecticut had the, uh, responsibilities for administrators, teachers, students, and parents in there. Yeah. And Mville, Connecticut did have something about a process too for bringing forth concerns about a controversial topic. Um, which I think is is important to have embedded in ours. And from what from what everybody's discussing too, I think it's really important to note that the that this is meant to protect um our staff members as well as as well as

127our students and to a degree the the district's interests by by giving some type of an idea. And I think it's important for us to provide support for our staff through training about how to manage um teaching with controversial issues. I used to teach an American studies class that was for it was an honors level senior course and and we would touch on a lot of topics and you wanted to make sure that um students felt supported and that you were coming at things from the middle. And one of the things that I remember as a teacher I used to like is if you come at things from the middle um you have the I guess the flexibility and the fluidity to be able to move left and right um through through the discussion. Um,

128and it's there was something I really liked too in the believe it was also in the Montville, Connecticut about modeling for students about the type of discourse that allows them to have that safe opportunity to talk about things and and figure figure them out um in a protected environment. So, um I think with with this one, uh Greg and I can work on on the wording and and pull from the different sources and tidy it up and present something back in time for the start of next school year. a good point about protecting students. A couple of the policies actually had wording in there um that uh a student's opinion when a student forms an opinion on a controversial topic during the discussion in class, it would not adversely affect their grades or understanding in

129class. It it might be opposed to whatever the people think, but it it should not hurt them academically. Anybody else on that? All right, it's now time for the second opportunity for public comment. This time, the public may speak once for a maximum period of 5 minutes by the clock on anything they wish. And if they do raise a question, directed to the board president, state your name and sign in before we begin. Okay, I'll close that public session and we'll move on to unfinished business. Does any board member have any unfinished business? Yeah, I I just I just want to speak something from the point that uh Mrs. Finn brought up earlier. Um and I appreciate her comments about recognizing the retirees. I agree it was a great thing. I was going to address

130it in FFA and I realized the discussion about the sub rates was in PMC, but it is something that it's it is an ongoing conversation. Um full disclosure, we thought we were going to be losing the the building subs um when we were working on constructing the budget for this year. So, we were happy to be able to add something in there. Um, but in terms of looking at it, obviously we will. I think you and I have had conversations and this you're not representing this as an association member, but um can always go up, you can't go down. So, um when something's in place, but we'll continue to look at the implications for budget purposes and uh have any honest conversations with the board about that. Any unfinished business? any new business? I don't

131know that it really falls under the new business, but uh as we were doing the pledge of allegiance, I noticed that our eagle is damaged on the top. Two and a half years. Been like that for two and a half years. Yeah, more than that. Probably like five years. I'd like to see if we can maybe since so much happens in this town that we salute the flag in this room. Maybe we could uh just maybe we can get a donation for a flag with an eagle on the top. Just the eagle. All right. Any uh board member announcements? I have announcements. So, um I went to the senior awards night the other night and I was extremely impressed. Um I I think I went a couple years ago, but this time I had no

132choice but to go. And um it really was it was it was a very cool night. It is crazy how many or how much money and how many scholarships the people around here donate. Uh and I think that's a testament to the town and the surrounding areas. Um but it was it was really impressive. It was it was a great night. I was really excited and happy that I went. Also, um, on a lighter note, um, back when I was growing up and I was the four of, uh, four children, a spring break was take your child to work week and, um, since my dad was an art teacher and, my mom was a special ed teacher, we spent more time in the art room. Uh, but yeah, that was spring break got spent in

133in Woodcliff Lake. It was great time. So, I think that um the fact that we're looking to do something like that with plans and ideas and stuff behind it, I think it it really is because although I joke about it, it was it's very memorable for me to remember uh you know, and I got to go for a couple years because for some reason Woodco Flake spring break was different than Puquanics every year. Um so anyway, that's all I got. I uh I did have an announcement. Uh on June 3rd, I attended the Capstone Symposium, Allied Health. Um and I have to tell you, it was uh my second time. I wasn't able to make it last year, but I was there the year before. Uh every year I'm just super impressed. Uh the symposium

134is I I work in the medical field. I attend symposiums. I'm going to was at one last week. I'll be at one at the end of this week. It shocks me how similar uh the presentations are, how well and professional they're done. Uh some of them covered the link between scoliosis and mitro rec relapse um artificial valves and this year one of my favorites was the mapping of EMT calls in Pquanic Township. Uh really really well done and then stripping down the data to say hey what what is the biggest call? What are the biggest needs? and then pres the student is going to present to his EMT chief what he's learned, what train further training he thinks they need, not only for the EMTs, but for the police in town. Um, and how they

135can address calls better uh to keep those patients safer. Um, I I was just super super impressed by that. Uh, I think it only helps the town, the students. Uh, really really impressive stuff. Loved it. Uh so kudos to the teachers, staff, and to the students themselves. Um so I attended um the PTHs National Honor Society. I don't know if that was before or after this last board meeting. Um which was a beautiful ceremony as always. I attended um the senior awards and scholarship um night at PTHs. It was absolutely amazing. Um I think Mr. Hazer said there was 90 students receiving scholarships or awards. Um but what really impressed me was um how humble a lot of our students are and all of our students were. They were just um especially the ones who

136kept winning awards. I mean that's what makes them leaders. Um they were fantastic. Really impressed with the amount of scholarships that were given out. Um it was just it was an awesome night. Um, I also attended the Yankee game with our band. So, um, that was just phenomenal. I got to be on the field with the band, which was incredibly amazing. Um, they were phenomenal as always. Well, just so well behaved and respectful. Um, they're just, um, one of a kind. Um, it was Thank you to Mr. Strafford uh I'm sorry, Cypher for including us. Um thank you to our um to the gentleman who puts it all together every year. He um he's he was amazing. He was so generous with the kids. Very much appreciated. Um thank you to the Yankees. Uh just

137awesome. So cool. Um yeah, one announcement. I attended the uh STEM and aviation capstone on May 28th. I think that was after our last meeting. Um really I mean I was very impressed by not only the the types of projects that they came up with um but I was also impressed with their poise and um how they just got up there and addressed a room of adults I'd never seen before and just went through their project and told about how their how they their ideation of it, how they went through it, how they came up with the solution and how they built it. Um it was it was very impressive then to see the the different ideas that they came up with. um for on the on the STEM side. It was it was pretty

138cool. All the aviation students did did the same glider so they could test against each other. Um that was pretty cool as well and how and how they approached and the different designs that they had for their gliders. It was pretty cool. Yeah, I attended the uh STEM aviation capstone as well with Mr. McWeeny and uh when you question these kids about their projects, they have an answer to everything and they take you through the iteration of how they start with the idea, go through, test it, sometimes have to change it, fail, succeed, and then they end at that ultimate uh end result and they're so informed about it. They can they can talk about it. They're they're excited about it. They look you in the eye. They they speak well about it. It's very

139very impressive. Um, so I I love going to that one every year. It's great because it's also at night, so I'm able to go. So, um, very well done. I just briefly wanted to say congratulations to the, uh, seniors and, uh, good luck in your future endeavors. All right. Uh, we do have consideration to go into executive session. We will discuss student matters. No action will be taken and we will adjourn from there. Our next meeting will be June 23rd here at the high school. And uh once again, I hope everyone has a great and exciting summer. We will see you back here in September. Is there a motion to go into executive session? Motion to go into executive session. Is there a second? All in favor? Any opposed? All right. Good night, everyone.