001Sorry. I pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Mr. Davis. Here. Mrs. Helmuth. Here. Mr. Allen. Here. Mr. Phillip. Here. Mr. Golden. Here. Mr. Leonel. Here. Mr. Ralph. Here. Miss Orienta. Here. All right. Can I have a motion and a second to approve the action meeting two minutes from the March 16th, 2026 meeting? Motion. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed or abstained? I abstain. I wasn't here. I abstain. All right. Mr. Lay, you are up. >> I'm up. Okay. Good evening, everyone. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome to your great crowd. I'd like to start with the Um so, typically, uh during this part of the meeting is when we
002do our um student of the month awards, but we have a special presentation for the board here this evening, where we are going to recognize our educational um support professionals of the year, and also our teachers of the year. So, before we even get into that, let's do a round of applause for how great THEY ALL ARE. WE HAD A WE HAD A LOT OF REALLY great uh choices. Unfortunately, each year we can only pick one person from each category uh from each school, uh but we're really looking forward to having uh this this um vote again next next school year to recognize more great people. All right, we are going to start with our award winners from the middle school, okay? So, here's what's going to happen. Just like I tell the kids when
003we do student awards, when I say your name and introduce you, come on up here and awkwardly stand next to me so that I can speak about you. Um and then once we do uh once we have both um people announced, then we'll go we'll take a picture together, okay? All right, first our support professional of the year, Ms. Borgstrom, come on up. HER NAME IS BROOKE. CONGRATULATIONS. MRS. BORGSTROM IS AN essential and deeply valued member of the DDE Middle School community, consistently going above and beyond to support students and staff alike. She creates a welcoming, safe space in the school library where every student feels seen, supported, and encouraged to learn. Known for her kindness and energy, she builds strong relationships with students, knows them by name, and takes the time to understand their
004interests, often recommending books they genuinely enjoy. She also uh listens to student input, ensuring the library reflects their voices, and even provides small but meaningful supports like snacks and flexible access to the space during lunch and recess. >> snacks, guys. That usually does the trick. Better than cash these days. Um in addition to her connection with students, Mrs. Borgstrom plays a vital role in the academic success of the school. She collaborates with teachers to integrate literacy skills across all subject areas and expertly teaches students how to conduct research and use databases effectively. Her versatility allows her to step into classrooms when needed and keep learning on track. She also supports students in earning service hours and remains actively involved in the broader school community, working with families and participating in committees and extracurriculars. Mrs. Borgstrom's
005dedication, compassion, and commitment to student success make her truly deserving of this recognition as our ESP OF THE YEAR. FIRST PERSON TO BE PRESENTED WITH THE Golden Apple Award, okay? And it has it has Mrs. Borgstrom's name on there. Now, pay attention if you're getting one of these tonight. These are separate. Okay? So, it might want to be a good idea to hold them separately, okay? Now, awkward. This is the awkward part. Okay. Our Teacher of the Year for 2026 for DDE Middle School is Mrs. MARY JO KOLESKI. MRS. KOLESKI IS ONE OF THE MOST dedicated and impactful educators at DDE Middle School. She consistently goes above and beyond to build meaningful relationships with her students, tailoring her instructions to meet their individual strengths while helping them grow in areas of need. Her commitment extends
006beyond the classroom as she plays an active role in both the school and the broader community through committees and extracurricular involvement. She is also a valued mentor to new teachers, helping guide them toward success and uphold the high standards of our district. What truly sets Mrs. Kleski apart is the difference she makes in the lives of her students. She brings energy, lots of energy. And enthusiasm each day, creating a positive environment that motivates students to learn and succeed. Her willingness to provide support, encouragement, and creative approaches to learning has helped students overcome challenges and improve academically. Above all, Mrs. Kleski's genuine care for her students is evident in everything she does, making her exceptionally deserving OF THIS RECOGNITION. NOW, WE HAVE TO GO GET A PICTURE. OKAY, moving on to our teacher and ESP of
007the year from JFK Elementary. Our ESP of the year is Ms. Erica Rosa. COME ON MS. ROSA HAS BEEN RECOGNIZED AS EDUCATIONAL Support Professional of the Year for the meaningful connection she builds with every child and the safe, joyful environment she helps to create. She supports both academic growth and emotional development through small group instruction, creative activities, and encouraging positive social interactions. Families consistently describe her as calm, welcoming, and genuinely caring, noting the warmth she brings to each school day. Her cheerful greetings each morning and thoughtful conversations with parents make everyone feel comfortable, understood, and valued. Students adore her kindness, patience, and creativity, and her gentle, yet firm approach that's very important, firm approach provides the healthy boundaries young children need. She is a constant and reliable support to the classroom teacher, always willing to
008assist with lessons, crafts, games, and daily routines. Parents share that her smile lights up the room and that her children are excited to see her each day. Miss Rose's dedication, enthusiasm, and unwavering support make her an essential part of the preschool program and truly deserving of this special recognition. CONGRATULATIONS. AND UH LAST, but certainly not least, our teacher of the year from JFK is MISS LINDSAY WANKO. THIS IS WANKO. YEAH. is an exceptional educator who consistently goes above and beyond for her students. She thoughtfully meets each child's academic and emotional needs, adjusting her approach with creativity and persistence whenever challenges arise, and that's often. Her classroom is described as a positive, encouraging environment where students feel supported, valued, and empowered to grow. She skillfully leads a unique and often challenging classroom with professionalism, compassion, and
009flexibility. Miss Wanko fosters clear expectations while guiding both students and staff towards success. Beyond instruction, she prioritizes the wellbeing of her classroom team, building trust, collaboration, and a strong sense of belonging. She's deeply committed to continuous improvement, actively seeking professional growth, and welcoming feedback. Her influence extends throughout the school community, where she promotes inclusion and positivity through initiatives like the recent bubble parade. Uh colleagues admire her kindness, generosity, and uplifting spirit, noting that she inspires others others to be better educators. Overall, her passion, dedication, and unwavering commitment make her truly deserving of teacher of the year recognition. SHE'S GOT SOME WEIGHT TO IT, YEAH. YEAH. DON'T PUT THAT anywhere near the kids. Um So, you know, how about one more round of applause for all FOUR OF THEM? SO, WE WE JUST JUST UH SOMETHING
010I I should have mentioned in the beginning, all of those um all of those comments all all those uh sentences that I that I read, that was a summary of all the comments that people left for all those professionals. Um so, whether it was students, uh other teachers, parents, administrators, um that was like a summary of of all those things. So, um and I and honestly, I could have gone on and on and on. I cut it down to two paragraphs at first, and so So, proud to be here working with you guys, and and looking forward to what we can do together in the future. ALL RIGHT. CONGRATULATIONS. SO, WE'RE GOING TO CONTINUE WITH THE MEETING. I'm going to give a presentation about discipline results from the first half of the year. You're more
011than welcome to stay. But, you But, you definitely don't have to. All right. So, this would be your opportunity to I drove 2 hours, so we might AS WELL STAY. FIVE MIGHT BE MORE EXCITING. Thank you for all the support, guys. Thank you. I was good. I mean, for a word. That was it. Okay. Ready? Bye-bye. Thank you. Have a good night. Um have a great night. All right. I'll see you over there. You want them to take their boxes or you leaving? Do you want to? Oh. Is that easier? Right? Probably. You can find a place to store them. We have a box for that. Yeah. That would be like a lot easier. Okay. You can say hi. I'll answer them later. I was going to I'm going to have to go give it
012to Like 1 week. I'm going to bring I'll bring my picture. Yeah. I got to tell them that I'm I'm going to I mean, I was I did a phone map. Yeah. What do you Congratulations. Yeah. Here. I got you. Make baby now. >> Thank you. Have a good night. Congratulations. Thank you guys. Thank you. Well deserved. All right guys, have a good night. Thank you. See you guys. See you. Have a great Okay. We want to I don't want to have to do that, right? Great planning. Um okay, so it's time for our semi-annual presentation of the SSDS results. So, this is for the period from September 1st to December 31st. I'm going to like I do each each time, I'm going to go through some of the categories here. Um so, student safety
013data system, right? This is what people refer to as violence and vandalism, right? So, these are all the things that we have to report out uh to the state and then in turn report out to you, the board and the public. Uh so, these are the different categories for violence, assault, fight, kidnapping, robbery, sexual assault, sexual contact, uh threat, uh criminal or just simple threat, and then vandalism, arson, computer trespass, damage to property, false public alarm, theft, and trespass. Um, we also have uh, weapons and substance abuse in this report. So, it goes everything from weapons possession, um, and it gives the state gives examples of what is classified as a weapon, and then also substance abuse. Uh, it is substance uh, possessed possession, sale, and distribution, um, and examples are everything from um, alcohol
014to drug paraphernalia, um, and they actually list out the different type of drugs here uh, for the city. And then the third thing in in the report for each school is going to be the the hidden offenses. So, the alleged and confirmed uh, cases, and then last is other incidents leading to removal, and that's a suspension for any reason whatsoever. So, it doesn't have to fall under one of those categories. We'll start with uh, JFK's numbers for the beginning of the school year here. Um, we have under violence statistics everything zeroed out until you get to uh, sexual Excuse me, sexual contact. Um, and then there was one um, incident of that, and then four uh, simple threats. So, one student threatened another student. And a note about sexual contact, too. When you see sexual
015contact, you think, "Oh, that's something like super serious." It It is serious, and we handle it as such, um, but it it's typically at this level, it's uh, inappropriate touch of, you know, from one elementary student to another. Um, no vandalism statistics in the beginning of the year at JFK. Uh, under weapons, no weapons uh, for the fall, and also no substance abuse uh, for the fall, as well. And then at JFK, we had in the fall, we had zero hip reports at JFK, which was good. And we had 13 other incidents leading to removal. So, that's 13 students suspended for just violating the the code of conduct. If you remember, we have a new code of conduct this year. It's a little bit more clear about what can and can't happen and what the
016consequences for those actions are. And so, there were 13 of those suspensions in the fall. On to the middle school. Middle school, under violence in the fall, everything was zeroed out. Vandalism, everything is zeroed out there as well. So, nothing that fell under those categories. Under weapons, all zeros. Substance abuse, we did have one substance possession at the middle school. It was possession of a vape, but that's considered substance possession as far as the state's concerned. So, that's the total substance number there, one. And then the hip statistics, we had two alleged hips in the fall. Neither one of them were confirmed. And then also in the fall, we had four students at the middle school who were who were suspended for any other incident other than So, it was actually a really good fall
017at the middle school. I can tell you that I expect these numbers to be a little bit higher the next time I report out to you all about the second semester of the year, but that's also guaranteed. Right, we know. Teachers change. Enough to lose their mind. We don't have to So, yes, beginning of the school year. Also, remember the middle school has right now a lot less students than than we have at JFK as well. So, we take that into consideration. Okay, and that's it. Any other questions for me? All right. On the agenda, the mission statement and the goals are listed there. Um at this point we'll do um public comments, open the meeting to the public for discussion of agenda items only. >> I I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Yeah. Regarding
018the goals, can I just say something? I never say anything about the goals. >> You don't? Um but I wanted to highlight that district goal number one, um we said that our chronic absenteeism rates were were way too high last school year and really for the last few years. I don't even know why I'm saying this. I should not go into it, but I I don't think it's going to get so bad that it's going to it's going to be way way worse than this, but last year JFK, our chronic absenteeism rate was 26.44% Currently, the chronic absenteeism rate at JFK is 17.18%. So, it's a huge drop and that's due to the efforts of the teachers, the principal, um some of it was the way the data was being input and changes that we
019made. Um and then at the middle school, it was 20.97% last year and currently at the middle school it's at 16%. So, drop of over four percentage points there as well. So, it's been a a heavy focus for us. I have a feeling it's going to continue to be heavy focus for us in subsequent years as well. Um but they they the kids are buying in and the and the parents are buying in, so it's good to see. Sorry, Mike. That's all right. All right. So, motion and second then to open the meeting to the public for the discussion of agenda items only. Motion. Second. All those in favor. All right. Opposed or abstain. That was on delay. All right. Nothing on this moment. I'll entertain a motion and second to close the public portion
020of the meeting um for agenda items only. Motion. Second. All those in favor. All right. Opposed or abstain. All right. Mr. Lee, you're back up. >> Hey, look, I'm still talking. Okay. Um first under the superintendent's report for A and B, we have the safety and security drills for both JFK and DDE that are documented there. Item C is the monthly reports uploaded to the portal for your review from the administrators. Item D is one report of uh harassment, intimidation, and bullying and it was uh at JFK and it was unfounded. Uh item E1 is um your affirmation of the two reports of HID that came through from uh from last month's meeting. Uh All the letters are are messed up. That should be F under discussion. Right. Um F F1 is uh two uh
021policy updates. The first one is regarding restraint and seclusion. Um it was just some changes that we had we had to make according to a special education like an audit that we had uh and we had to add the word seclusion because everything in the state now is about restraint and seclusion. And so we didn't really have to change anything in the policy, we just had to add the word seclusion so that our policy met that threshold. Uh this the regulation update for school events and class trips, we made a change in the regulation where we said the parents can drive to to field trips if necessary. So, the one stipulation in there basically just says that we need to make sure we have enough people for the bus, but if we already have enough
022people for the bus, we're okay with parents driving. Um and so that was a a change cuz it was like a hard no in our current policy and I wanted to make sure we allow for that if needed. Uh item three is to approve two guest speakers. Item four is to again approve the district calendar for next school year. We made an adjustment where the teachers are going to begin the following um the following Monday instead of previous the previous Thursday which is when they were going to start. So everything just kind of moved back a day in the calendar but it's not a not a big change. Uh item number five is to approve a ton of advanced approved parents. Must be field trip season. Uh yeah, right. Correct. Item six is a list
023of weeded books from the JFK library so we can start to thin out that collection a little bit. Item number seven is uh the board's approval for submission of the focus grant. The focus grant is a grant that we already benefited from this year and essentially if we receive that money again it allows us to purchase additional materials for universal screening. This year we used it to buy um AIMSweb uh for our kindergarten through second grade. Kindergarten through second. So we're hoping to get that again. Um our next item there, item number eight, is for a new grant. This is called the bridge grant which we've also applied for. Um if we receive this grant it would help us to pay for and support our efforts to increase tier one supports um in in the
024classroom. Meaning support the teachers in their work helping students before the students have to leave the classroom to go and see an RTI teacher. Right? So it's trying to kind of hit it on the on the the ground floor. So we're hopeful that we're going to get that one. Uh under F1 there we have uh one field trip. That's YMCA the Pines. Under personnel we have three new hires. Uh we also have uh two resignations. One of them is Miss Lang who is retiring after 25 years of of service. So been been doing it for a long time so we will miss her. Uh item number three is to approve a mentor for one of our newer teachers in the building. Item four is to approve a leave of absence. Uh, item five is to
025approve another teacher who is also going to be a volleyball club advisor from now until the the end of the semester here. Uh, item number six is to approve the submission of Ms. Sodders' contract to the county off of office of education for approval. Item seven is to approve the staff renewals as listed for next school year. And this that's what pretty much goes on and on and on and on here for about three and a half pages. And I'm done. Okay, to start, can I have a motion and a second to approve superintendent items A through G? I'll second it. Second. Does anyone have any questions? I just had one question with the um the field trip. Would you Will there be parents on the buses with the teachers or just teachers on the
026buses? Parents >> Parents on the bus with the teachers. >> Okay, how do you decide what parents have to go on the bus and which ones? So essentially the way it was written in the regulation was that once we had enough parents on the bus, if someone Normally we get maybe two to three parents who say, "Can I just meet you guys there?" Yeah. And we tell them it's okay. Or more common is we have um our older students. So let's say the eighth grade trip. >> Mhm. The students have sports that evening. And so the parents say, "Well, hey, I'll go and then I'll just take my child home from that area." So it's typically not very many people who ask to do that. Okay. So it's not like a lottery or selection process.
027If we need to adjust it after we see how it works for a year, we'll we'll do that. >> Okay. Good question. Any other questions? All right. Uh Mr. Golden? Yes. Ms. Allen? Yes. Mr. Phillips? Yes. >> Mr. Rowe? Yes. Ms. Selman? >> Yes. >> Ms. Giuliana? Yes. >> Ms. Soriano-Tang? >> Yes. >> And Mr. Davis? >> Yes. All right. I'm going to scroll through all these pages. All right. On to business and finance. Uh the financial report for March will be approved at our May meeting. It is done. So, when we meet in our finance committee, everything is up to date for March. I'm just waiting to get back to the the final treasurer's report from our treasurer. Um so, that March will be in May. Um which statutorily I have 60 days, so
028we are covered. Um A is to recommend some budget transfers. Um we have to move We aren't able to supply We weren't able to hire aides in district, so I'm moving money from those salary lines over to the Source for Teachers line because we're currently um getting staff through Source for Teachers. The second one is just to move from salaries to tuition. These were some unbudgeted uh contingency eligible tuitions. B is the um payment of the bills, which our finance committee reviewed and signed off on. Um C is to approve the March 2026 listing for Source for Teachers with the pay rates and the bill rates listed. Uh D is to approve the cafeteria disbursements for the month of March in the amount of $22,525.83. E is to approve our care disbursements for the month
029of March in the amount of $12,571.24. F is professional development for a couple of our staff members. G is to approve the submission of the preschool expansion aid budget workbook for the 2026-2027 school year. This has to match what's in the actual um budget that gets submitted as well. So, we did submit this. We just need those certified minutes to send over to the state as a formality. Um H is to approve the tuition contract between Berlin Township and Pine Hill for the 26-27 school year. You'll see the rates listed for our regular education students as well as our special education students that are going to um Overbrook as part of our send-receive um agreement with them. Um I is to approve a very large resolution. Essentially, this is saying um we no longer have
030to pay to post our advertisements in a newspaper. Um we have to post through December twice a month, I believe, telling people where they can go, saying we they go to our website um to find those those postings, and then moving forward, um we will just be posting them. Mr. Cunningham is actually working on a page for our website, so all of our public notices will kind of be there and easily accessible, um and we will no longer have to. Also, it helps with the time frame because if we're having a special meeting or something like that, a lot of times we'll try to send it to the paper, but they can't get it advertised quick enough for us to have that quick turnaround for an emergency meeting or things that nature. So, um this
031is a great thing. It's just been a bit of an undertaking getting it um getting it rolling. >> years too late. Mhm. Yeah. True story. True story. Um and then J is just to approve um to ratify and affirm the renewal of the NutriServe Food Management um contract. This is um it was the fourth year of a 5-year agreement, so um next year we'll have to go out to after next year. We'll have to go out um to bid. The management fee is $21,400, and they project an annual loss gain loss gain, sorry. Gain of $18,450.77. There is no guarantee for that, um and the cost of agreement is listed. Again, that is a self-supporting program. Um the money that they bring in the budget that the district does not fund any of that. That
032is all money that comes in from state reimbursements. Um, they use a lot of commodities, um, things of that nature. So, that program has pretty much, as long as I've been here, has run in it's positive. It's run itself, um, which is great. Um, when I get to my finance committee, I'll have a little bit of an update as far as some good things that are happening over there in the cafeteria. Um, so, at this point, I just need Let's look at that. Um, a motion and a second to approve business and finance items, um, A through J. Motion. Second. Any questions? All right. Um, Mr. Golden. Yes. Mrs. Allen. Yes. Mr. Phillips. Yes. Mrs. Rowell. Yes. Mrs. Hommel. Yes. Mrs. Giuliano. >> Yes. Mrs. Oriente. Yes. And Mr. Davis. >> Yes. All right, moving
033along. Um, I don't think we have any old business. Um, new business, uh, committee updates, negotiations. We're moving along with the BTEA negotiations. Um, we just met 2 weeks ago? Last week. >> Last week. Last week, um, and we're meeting again next week as well. So, we are making progress and hopefully we will continue to do so. Um, we did have a finance committee meeting. Right. Agenda, we have that before. Um, we reviewed the budget report, the revenue review report, um, some out of district um, special ed placements. Um, I just let everybody know that we're winding down in our fiscal year. Um, funds seem to be stable in some of those concerning areas from prior years, such as those related services and legal services. Um, but as I've said throughout the entire year, we'll
034have to move some money into those out of district placements for those um unbudgeted placements that came in or had to go out. So, we will have to move have some additional budget transfers this year, so you'll see that. Um preschool plan was approved from the state for 2026-2027 um for our grant, and then um I just made note that our school bus inspections were on March 18th. All of our buses passed. Our next inspection is September. Um the budget review is taking place at the county office. The county business administrator reviewed our budget for 2026-2027 and has passed it along to the county executive superintendent for final approval in preparation for our public hearing next Thursday here May 7th 7:00. 7:00. Um just a reminder to everybody that we do have another meeting next
035week for the public hearing. Oh my gosh, 2 weeks. Oh gosh, we just got out of here and I was like, oh we have to come out 2 nights next week, but it's not. It's 2 weeks from now. Let me make sure I have it. Just like the kids, I also stop working this time of year. My brain is done. My brain just did all the hardest work. My brain is done. Um tapping out. Um and just cafeteria monthly update, their year-to-date profits are up. Um there's a higher participation and better menu and meal offerings. Um the breakfast meal counts are up by breakfast count meals and lunch meals are up by over 2,400, um which is great. So, and then our CARE program, which is our before-and-after school program, they're doing they do summer
036care, so that's planning underway. All the trips have been scheduled. Um currently enrollment for summer care is around 40. The max we'll take is about 50. Um and we have some slight program fees increases for summer and next year. Again, that's a self-supporting program. We haven't raised any of our fees in probably 8 years or so. Um so, it was time. Um we do snacks, all this stuff, so all those prices are going up, and we've kind of remained a little stagnant. So, in order to keep that program self-sufficient, minor increases there. Um So, that was finance committee. Um Sorry guys, I'm like taking the seal on the show today. Um New Jersey school boards, I haven't seen anything from them. Ed services commission, nothing. Um Pine Hill, what you got? Hi. Um you're doing
037great. No, Pine Hill had their meeting. They had um uh winter sports update. I think I've been to two meetings actually because they didn't not the budget meeting, right? They had their winter sports update um and they went through basically all the accolades of all the winter sports. So, the winter sports actually did really good. Boys bowling, girls bowling, like bowling, basketball, wrestling, they all did really good um this winter. Um they too were working on the budget and they had that submitted. So, they're kind of in the same boat as us. Um they had a music extravaganza, which was really cool. It looks like they did like all all the schools music programs had one big concert. So, it was like singing, it was chorus bands, some of the um yeah, I heard that
038that's like a great idea. So, hopefully they'll keep doing that cuz that seems really cool. Um we have the superintendent evaluation coming up there and then just spring time before all the They're in trip mode in the schools as well. Trips and uh the prom and all the all the spring activities coming up. Spring sports in full swing in Overbrook, too. They're doing So far, so good, I think, also in spring sports. So, rocking. Their baseball field was completely uh redone this year. They put in new dugouts >> new dugouts and they redid all the the sod and everything. I was like, "Really awesome." >> Yeah, and I think they said they're doing the softball field then. One of the next things to do. They're redoing a lot. That's great. Getting a new roof, like
039there's a lot going on over there >> Yeah. In Pine Hill. But, all good. Bringing some of the trees in there again. >> Yeah. Yeah, stop going. them. Yeah, agreed. Um All right, and then Camden County School Boards, there is a meeting on May 7th. Um some Oh, you can now go to the disregard. OH, YEAH. SORRY, NEVER MIND. I don't know. You remind me when the public hearing is, please? Um that would be super helpful. All right, so at this point we're going to go into public comments. Your um candidates, right? Um Kyle and Lauren. Um these are our four candidates. So, what we're going to do is once we go into um the public comments, obviously we have the same questions for both of you. We'll ask one of you just to step
040out so no one hears repeat other questions. Um we will not make a actual decision tonight after we're done interviewing. Um we will go into executive executive session so they can discuss, and then you'll get an email from me um within the coming days because whoever is selected will need to go through the fingerprinting process and all of that stuff before um we would appoint to the board. So, no action will be taken afterwards. Um we'll do the interview and then we'll we'll dismiss ourselves, um and then you'll hear from me in within the coming days. Okay? Um so, I'm going to open up the meeting and then you guys we can decide who would like to go um first. So, can I have a motion and a second to open the meeting to the
041public for the discussion of um agenda or non-agenda item? Motion. Second. You guys are so much fun tonight. The Scott and Stacy show. 7:37 p.m. Um all those in favor? Aye. All right, opposed or abstain? All right. Who wants to go first? Doesn't matter. I don't care. Doesn't matter. I can go first. All right, I'll just walk you right out here a second. You got it. >> All right. All right. Lauren Camp easy is here with us. Hi. Thank you first of all for your interest. We have been searching for a little while now. Um Do you want to take the lead on questions? >> You want to ask the first question? >> if you just want to rotate or however you guys would like to proceed. I'm just I'm just here for the show.
042All right. Why don't we go go this way? Go that way? Yeah. We'll do questions. I'm Brian. Hi. President. Hi everyone. So, first question. Okay. Uh what do you want to Oh, sorry. Why do you want to be on the board here? Um I think I bring a lot to the table. Um so, I'm a teacher. I've been teaching for 20 years. Um third grade and then now I do first grade. Um I'm pretty active in my own like local union. I'm our treasurer. Um I'm pretty active here in the community. I love my Peace family. Um we go way back. Um I love volunteering. Um and I just think I have a lot to offer. Um I think I'm really driven um just in general um especially with doing things with my kids and
043school activities. And I think it would be a great opportunity. Okay. Great. Thank you. What specific skills would you bring to the board? Um well, first and foremost, I'm super organized. Um I feel like I have just an organized lifestyle in general as a teacher, um in my home life. I mean, my kids, you know, we have a routine. I'm big on the routine. Um I love learning. I love teaching. Um I think I'm pretty good at communicating with um the public, and I love um just being involved overall. I feel like I'm very involved with my own school, and I would love to kind of bring some of that into my community. I've lived here for 16 years. Um I have a child at DDA and one at JFK. Um so I don't know.
044I think it would be a great opportunity. Um again, I just building that sense of like community um between the school and our local community here. My next is Yep. Uh please give specific examples of your ability and or skills in working with a team or committee. Um I feel like I do that a lot. Uh I was peace president for a little bit of time um during the COVID years, which was a crazy time for everyone. Um it was just me and Tammy holding on, you know, barely by a thread trying to keep things together. Um and you know, we did what we could. Um we planned what we could. Um it was a very challenging time for sure um just to do that. Um wait, Matt, can you repeat your question? I'm sorry.
045Please give specific examples of your ability and or skills in working with a team or a committee. Um okay, so if I'm just talking about like my job at my school, um I'm on the literacy committee. We just did a huge night event. We had over 600 kids and adults, parents come. Um we planned a giant event. Um, a lot of staff are there. We had blow up tents. It was a space theme cuz everything's a theme. Um, we've done camping themes. We sure were space. We did a whole rodeo theme. Um, and we can't ever repeat a theme. So, once it's done, it's done. Um, luau theme coming up for uh we've been big like spring spectacular coming up in Clayton. Um, so that's a luau theme. Um, so I feel like I can
046work very well with a group of people. Um, I do a ton of work like that at my school. Um, I've done a lot with Tammy here at Peace even though I'm not on the board anymore. Um, you know, we'll still run ideas through each other and, you know, anything that I can help volunteer for, I'm here. The Santa event is a great thing that we worked really hard on. Um, I couldn't go to the bubble parade, but, you know, a lot of things a lot of good things that I just would like to be able to bring a lot of what I do at my school um, here. Just because I feel like once upon a time where I work, we didn't do a lot of community things and now we're like really trying
047to get the community involved. So. Um, what do you see as the role of a school board member? Um, not so much managing like the day-to-day. Like when I think of school board member, I think of like policy. I think of like being financially responsible with a budget. I think of community. I think of, you know, evaluating your superintendent. Sorry, Mr. Lee. Yeah, everybody gets evaluated. Yes, uh I'm done for the year, so, but, you know, not I don't know if you are, but I am. Um, so those are really like the things that I think of, not so much like the micromanaging and the little daily things that happen. Um, that's more of what I think of, just those kind of areas. I see. You've touched on this one a little bit already, but
048please describe your previous community or nonprofit experience. Um so definitely peace. Um like I said um as far as community, I mean I go to a lot of the community events. Um we had uh the tree lighting. I usually go to that. Um uh the thing that Oh, I can't think of it. There's a fall the Halloween. We've done that. Like I feel like I'm always, you know, lugging the kids somewhere. Like come on, we got to go. Um because they love it, too, you know, and I think them seeing, you know, teachers and different community members out just like blows their mind. Like if I run into one of my students somewhere, like like, "Oh my gosh, you don't live in our classroom." And I'm like, "No, I sure don't." Like I get out.
049Um I don't know. I think just building that connection where they can see, you know, that it's not just in these four walls of a school, you know. We can all come together. My daughter just volunteered with the mayor. Um they did their little trip to clean up and I heard all about that. And, you know, my daughter's super involved with NJHS and volunteering and, you know, anything that she can do to volunteer. So Um what areas would you like to strengthen in our district? Um hm I definitely would love to see just more of what we're doing, you know, like more you know, I know night events are hard, you know. Sometimes you don't have people wanting to come out at night. Teachers don't necessarily want to come back, but, you know, just doing
050the few events that I do at my school at night, the look on those kids' faces when they get to come out and see you in a different environment. We have staff dressing up like astronauts and who's doing, you know, a bounce house. Like, I think just those kinds of things, just building more community involvement, I would, you know, love that. We have, like I said, a huge spring spectacular, and I think almost every student and teacher group is setting up a table. So, just if kids can see you outside of school, um as hard as it is some days, like I do not feel like going back to work sometimes at night, but you know, just them coming in the next day and "I saw you last night." Or "That was so cool that,
051you know, you got to put tattoos all over your arms for whatever." You know, they they love that. So, I definitely think just more of what we're already doing would be amazing. Um I know we're working on the absenteeism. I'm even doing that with my own kids, you know, they get up in the morning, "Oh, I don't want to go." You know, and I'm like, "Come on, we got to, you know, we got to work together. We got to do it." Um And I think just getting as many more people involved as we can. Like, Peace already does so much. Like, I love that. Like, if we could work in more um even more just like town-centered events, I think that would be amazing. Okay. Awesome. All right. Are you aware of the time, training
052commitments, and ethics law disclosures required for school board membership? Um I am. I was reading up um a little bit on just, you know, kind of basics, requirements. Um so, I think that I am. I, you know, my schedule's pretty flexible. Um you know, as moms, I feel like we make it all work somehow between driving kids to sports and who's picking up, who's dropping off, you know. We make it work. I don't know how we make it work, but we do. Um so, so think, you know, I think it would be totally feasible to just add one more thing into my already overflowing plate because You know, the kids need something. I I was talking to my mom earlier and she's like, "Oh, what are you doing?" I'm like, "Oh, well, you know, there's
053a board opening." She's like, "Oh, you're doing it, aren't you?" I was like, "Well, I don't know. I'm going to go and see." And she's like, "Oh, that's just like you." You know, we needed a head cheer mom. I Do I know anything about cheer? No. Was I the team mom? Absolutely. Now I know. So, we make it work. Yeah. That's That's all our questions. Do you have any questions for us? Yeah, you have questions for us? Um, the only question I had is um, I wasn't sure how long the term was. Um, this one will just go through December 31st, but then it's going to go out for an unexpired um, 2-year term. Okay. So, we just have to fulfill this year for this year. So, in July, you would have to get the
054required signatures to be able to get onto the ballot for that unexpired term. So, yes. Yes, so that was really my only question. I just wasn't sure how long. >> on definitely till December 31st and then just have to Are there any ones expiring like at that time or just >> but we'll have that So, we'll have other We'll have a couple 3-year terms expiring, but they'll also be the 2-year This is going to be a 2-year unexpired term that we'll have to fill as well. Okay. Yeah, that was really my only question. All right. One more? Thank you so much. Thanks for taking the time. No problem. Okay, well, now do I go? Yes, you can go and sign your form here in a few days. I would say you started the other time.
055You want to add Uh, more question to the left. All right, well y'all know I don't I don't have a job. I don't want to talk about That was like an old I think I know all the superintendents and they were like, Yeah. I think the other like young guy in the front was the guy that was sitting in the interview for this. I was like, "He's way too young to be Oh, yeah. I thought No, that's uh, the auto guy. I thought that at first as well. >> guy looked like 20. I'm like, "No way." Nothing would surprise me. No, I know. Not at all. I was just like, "He's going to be my boss now." That's what I thought at first. Hello. Hi, everybody. How are you? Good, and how are you? You
056can sit down if you want, man. You don't You want to sit down? Yeah, be comfortable. Sounds good. Looks like you're interviewing us. So, I'm Brian, president and we're going to ask a couple questions for Sure. being a board member. So, my first question is, why do you want to become a board member? Uh, I want to be a board member, honestly, because uh, I view education as honestly, my highest priority. Um, I'm a school counselor. That is my day job. I work in a middle school. So, seeing the physical numbers and seeing how low they were is amazing. Um, but I I view education as as my priority. I think that every child, no matter where they live, whether that's Cherry Hill, Haddonfield, Princeton, or here in West Berlin, I think they all deserve
057a valuable education. Um, I also understand the barriers that come along with that. Um, and I think, you know, the job of being on the school board is to help overcome some of those barriers and the financial trouble that comes along with that, especially right now, um, with 2026, you know, the government budget and everything, um, and the challenges that we have to overcome with that, um, it's something that I am welcome to take on and I love taking on challenges head on. Try and do best for the students. All right, good. Thank you. Yeah. Um, what specific skills would you bring to the board? Um my specific skills um so specifically my knowledge within my day job, like I said I am a school counselor. So I do understand the barriers that uh you
058know come for our students. You know I understand that the major goal was chronic student absenteeism. Um so specifically my knowledge when it comes to that um it's something that I do daily in my job um as far as tracking students' chronic absenteeism, um tracking the data in terms of what is the barrier um when it comes to chronic absenteeism. Um we can't combat it without knowing what the reasons are. So in order to to you know best understand that uh being able to provide my knowledge I think is is useful. Please give specific examples of your ability and or skills in working with a team or committee. Sure, absolutely. Um so within my um district that I work in currently, um I have been on multiple different committees. Um I've been a part of
059the uh multi-tiered systems of support committee um where we have looked at um you know revamping MTSS as I understand you know West Berlin that's been going on as well. So I specific knowledge when it comes to that. Um I understand that there are certain barriers which we can implement things you know obviously I'm sure many of you sitting here have grander ideas as far as what we need to put in but there's a very realistic um view when it comes to the budget. Um so that's been something that I've worked on as far as my own ideas combating with other people's. Um I understand that everybody has different ideas as far as how we should implement things. Um however, I think that's that's what's important. Um I think having those those conversations are where
060we find the middle ground and also um have challenges against your own ideas to see through you know the the things that we're not seeing. So I think that that is important. Thank you. Thank you. Um what do you see as the role of a school board member? Uh a school board member like I said, I think that they're um you know, a a part of their role is helping overcome the barriers when it comes to education. Um you know, there is a budget that we have to adhere to. There are very real students that come into the building every single day, very real teachers, very real, you know, educational assistants that are have their own barriers, and I think that part of the school board is um you know, helping provide the the means
061to overcome those barriers. Um when it comes to the budgeting. Uh can you please describe some previous community or nonprofit experience? Yeah, absolutely. Uh so, I grew up in scouting. So, uh I'm an Eagle Scout myself. So, I had to um you know, create my own project, get community involvement. My project was at the AWA War Heroes. So, I had to work with the community. I had to work with the AWA directly uh to to figure out what it is that the projects that they were looking for. I couldn't just come in and say that I'm only going to do this. Uh you know, the community has very different ideas on what education should look like. Very different opinions across the board. Um so, I think that my knowledge when it comes to that and
062and and understanding is is useful. Um what areas would you like to strengthen in our district? Absolutely. I think that first and foremost, I think community is always important. I think that there um especially in 2026 when we're used to having screens in front of our face, um it is a very real challenge to create a strong impactful community and foster that and have that ongoing. Um I think that's uh a big solution to the chronic absenteeism is having a strong community. Um when parents trust the school, they're going to feel okay sending their child there. They're going to feel okay when there's a problem and the teacher needs to call home. They have a trust that they have in that teacher that, you know, their child's best interest in mind. So. Uh are you
063aware of the time, training commitments, and ethics law disclosures required for school board membership? Absolutely. You're all good then. I understand. >> any issues with the time constraints or anything? All right. Do you have any questions for us, really? I don't think so. You guys ready for the Flyers? We got to wait till Saturday. Are we ready for the Sixers? We'll see about that. Hey, hey. Well, if you don't have any questions for us, that's good. We're We're all right. No questions. Yeah. So, we're going to go into executive and have a brief discussion, and then I'll email you within the next coming days. Okay? Thank you very much. Thanks for coming out. Thank you. Have a good night. Have a good night. Hi, Tina. Hi, Tina. All right. Happy wet. We're going to close
064public comments um because now we don't have anybody here. So, um can I have a motion to second to close the public portion of the meeting? Motion. Second. All those in favor? Opposed or abstained? All right. Let me let Tom know that we're going to um I think we need to go into executive. Looks like he's working on the computer. I'm sure he is. He's listening to me. Big brother's listening. I know he's always listening. There he is. >> Mhm. >> Thank you. Thank you. You guys two are live. Uh-huh. Mic for sound, quiet for sound. You guys can keep talking if you want. We do. We do. Just so amazing. So thankful. I remember all those things in the review. Yeah, just save it for the review, guys. Save it. Which is soon. Yeah,
065I got my thing that I have to do it, right? Where did you get that at? No, I didn't get it I have something Maybe that might have been final then. I have to I have to finish filling out everything and go get it by next week. At some point next week you'll get it. Where the final? Next week? This is audio for 2025. These are all blending at this point. We're live. Thank you, Tom. All right. So, we didn't have any actions to be taken coming out of executive session. So, at this point we're going to do a motion and a second to adjourn the meeting. Motion. Second. All those in favor? Opposed or abstain? All right. Thank you all and I'll see you in 2 weeks. Or I'll see you on the 6th.
0666th and the 7th. And then I'll see all of you on the 7th. Yeah, the amount of times in a day also that you go when I do this with my hands and the kids are like, "Soo soo." I'm like, "I can't do it." Well, it's funny cuz my kids are at a point where they're like, "Mom, take me to It's what? They're like, "Girl, yeah." Well, the more I think