001I'd like to call this comments. working together as a community. Our mission is to welcome all and provide opportunities for our students in safe and accepting learning environment to become creative, empathetic, resilient, and choose to make an impact. United States indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Good evening. While we do not have any presentations tonight, I would like to read a few words about Mr. maker and after the reading of some of his amazing accomplishments that we um offer a moment of silence. It is with deep respect that we acknowledge the passing of Mr. Stanley Lmaker a lifelong resident of do and a dedicated educator who served the public do public schools for an extraordinary 42 years. Mr. Aker passed away on July 4th, 2025 at the age of 94. He was a proud
002graduate of Dober High School's class of 1949 and a veteran of the Korean War. Mr. Spoonaker held multiple roles in our district as a teacher, counselor, guidance director, and assistant to the superintendent. His unwavering commitment to education and the do community continued well his retirement through his involvement in local historical and civic organizations. He co-authored Images of America Doer. He helped establish the Dober High School Hall of Fame and he was honored as a Morris County living treasure for his service to the community. His legacy also lives on through the naming of the North Dover Elementary School Media Center in his honor. We extend our heartfelt condolences to his children Beth and William, his daughter-in-law, Lisa, and his grandchildren, Matthew and Caitlyn. Mr. Schoolmaker's impact on the do community and its schools is enduring, and
003we are grateful for his lifelong service and leadership. At this time, I would ask that we um take a moment of silence. Thank you. At this time, I'd like to open the first public uh portion for comment. The board recognizes the value of public comment and on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school matters. To ensure fair and orderly expression of such comment, each statement shall be held to a time of three minutes. Public comments limited uh to agenda to items on this agenda shall be entertained for approximately 30 minutes upon the discretion of the presiding officer. Please understand that public comment portions of our agenda agenda are not structured as question and answer sessions but rather as they are they are offered as opportunities to
004share your thoughts with the board. The board may or may not respond to public comments. However, all comments are considered and will be investigated and addressed as appropriate. Please be courteous and mindful of the rights of others when providing comments. Comments may not be abusive, obscene, threatening, or irrelevant. Please understand that students and employees have specific legal and privacy protections. The board is not permitted to respond in public to comments about students or employees. Please be advised that you are commenting at your own risk. Any public comments that are directed at a particular individual or individuals could subject you to legal liab liability for defamation. Is there anyone from the public that wishes to be heard? Please step up to the podium. Uh seeing no one, I will close this portion of the minute of
005the meeting uh and ask for a motion for the approval of minutes. Point of order. Mr. President, didn't we did we take a roll call to come back into We do not need to take a roll call since we did it uh in the previous uh open session prior to the executive session. Gotcha. Thank you. Do we have a motion? I'll make the motion. Do we have a second? Second. Roll call, please. Any questions? MO. Um, no to June 24th, 2025 minutes. Yes to the rest. I was not here. Abstain. And yes to the others, right? Um, everything else is everything. Okay. Thank you, Miss D. I will abstain from the June 24 uh June 24th as I was not here and approve the other ones. Yes. Thank you. Mr. Mar, abstain from June 24th.
006Regular and executive. Yes. On July 7th, Miss Phillips. Yes. Miss Penelis, yes. Dr. Ser, yes. On June 24th, abstain on July 7th. Miss Shower. Yes. Miss Son, he's not here. Mr. Miller, yes. Okay. Help me out, but I don't think we have whole board communications. No, I don't. Okay. And our student rep is off for the summer. Uh, so I will give my report. Uh so good evening to everyone. Uh I hope everyone is enjoying uh a safe and restful summer. While school may be out, the important work of the Dober Board of Education continues. Summer offers us a valuable opportunity to reflect, refocus, and plan strategically for the upcoming school year. On July 7th, we held our annual board of education retreat. I had the pleasure of co-f facilitating this the this session alongside
007Miss Phillips and our New Jersey school boards association representative Charlene Peterson. Together we engaged in a productive and collaborative retreat that focused on board development and strategic alignment. We began by reviewing self evaluation which provided meaningful insights into how we function as a governance team and where we can grow. We participated in a team building exercise entitled, "What defines the ideal do student experience?" And during this discussion, each board member shared their vision for the kind of experience we want every Dober student to have. At the heart of our conversation was a shared belief that all means all. In Dover, our ideal Dover experience is one in which every child, regardless of background, is challenged to achieve, supported to grow, and se celebrated for who are they be who they are becoming. That is how
008we bring our district's mission and vision to life. That is the promise we make to every student and family who entrust us with their education. These reflections are guiding our development of new board goals which are designed to support and advance the district goals and priorities. We participate adopting we anticipate adopting these goals at our August public meeting. I am also proud to share that the Dober Board of Education has achieved board certification through the New Jersey School Boards Association, a first for our district and the recognition continuous improve Hold on. This recognition reflects a collective commitment to effective governance, ethical leadership, and continuous improvement. Certification requires extensive board training in areas such as ethics, goal setting, policy development, finance, communications, student achievement, and community engagement. It is a true testament to our board's dedication
009and professionalism. We will receive recognition as a board at the November Mars County School Board's meeting. Lastly, uh, Miss Phillips and I had a very positive and productive meeting with Minehill uh, school board president Diane Mars and Vice President Katie Bartnick. We discussed ways to strengthen our ongoing partnership and continue collaborating and service of both of our communities. These shared efforts ensure that we provide students in both districts with enriched highquality educational experiences. Uh thank you as always for your support and trust and I look forward to continuing this important work together as we prepare for the new school year. Administrative reports. Good evening. On behalf of Mr. H. Um, I'd like to share some updates. Yes, the summer is a very busy time. Back to school night dates have been set for um all
010of our schools and these dates will be posted on our website. North do their back to school night will be Thursday, September 18th. There will be two sessions. The times are to be determined. Uh the middle school will have their back to school night on Thursday, September 25th at 6:30. East Elementary will have their back to school night on Tuesday, September 9th at 6 PM. Academy Street Elementary will have theirs on Thursday, September 11th at 6 p.m. The high school will have their back to school night on Wednesday, September 17th at 6 PM. Del will also be that same evening, September 17th, 6 PM. And Delk 2, Wednesday, September 10th at 6 o'clock. Uh, as Mr. Miller shared, the summer is actually a very busy time for us. Um, I'd like to commend all of
011the administrators, our team of supervisors, directors, principles, and assistant principles, our superintendent, uh, who attended our professional development on July 2nd with Dr. Tracy Severs on effective leadership. It was a great all day workshop. Um, I think we all gleaned a lot from that. So, it was very enjoyable. Um, Mr. Haime has scheduled his first parent forum for the 2526 year. Please mark your calendars for August 21st at 6 PM for the DMS ED media center. The theme for the first parent forum will be a place to belong, welcome, communication, and district vision. and the focus areas that will be shared that evening will there will be a welcome from the superintendent and overall of the district goals for the year. Um a review of communication channels and how families can stay informed and provide
012input. There will also be um conversation on equity and belonging ensuring all families feel seen heard and valued and of course an open question and answer. Also within the last week uh Mr. Mr. Hime sent out correspondence on the upcoming staggering times. Um, and he shared this important change for the 2526 school year regarding the staggered arrival and dismissal times and the fact that this adjustment these adjustments across the district are being implemented for financial responsibility. Uh by adjusting our school schedules, we are able to maximize our current transportation resources, resulting in cost savings for the district as well as improved bus efficiency where the new schedule creates a wider window for our buses to run multiple routes, tearing our bus routing system while also helping to reduce traffic congestion. And we certainly understand and
013recognize that changes to school times may require adjustments for families and we are certainly committed to supporting families, our staff and our students um as we work through this transition and certainly we thank you for your continued partnership uh as we work together to enhance our efficiency and student services across DO public schools. And that's all I have. Thank you very much. Are there any questions? Okay. Good evening. I'll be talking about uh three finance items. Item eight, the state increased the bit threshold from $44,000 to $53,000 which raises the code threshold to $7,950. Therefore, any purchases between $7,950 and $53,000 require at least two competitive codes, while purchases exceeding $53,000 must be beat out. Item nine, we received our ID grant allocation for the 2526 school year, which is $15,197, less than last year's
014amount. Uh, this is not a significant difference. These funds will be used for tuition payments for out of district students. Item 11, lunch prices will remain the same as 2425 school year with no increase for the 25 26 school year. This concludes my report. Any questions from the board? Okay, moving on. There is no Morris County Educational Services Commission meeting for July. So that we'll start up again in August. Dr. Sainer, do you have anything? Yes, the legislature is quite busy. Um, so I'm just going to hit the highlights of things that um were signed into law by the governor. Um, but I there is a whole document in the legislative report folder with much more information um on each of the ones that I'm going to talk about as well as things that are
015still waiting on the governor's desk. Um, public notice reform permanently updates the requirements for the publication of required legal notices. This law requires beginning March 2026 a public entity to publish or advertise legal notices on its own website. Extending pause on SGOs's extendes extends the statutory pause on the collection of student growth objective data initiated um prior and adds a pause on the collection of administrator goals data. Filtered drinking water stations requires the commissioner of education to establish a program to provide grants for the purchase and installation of filtered bottle filling stations and filtered faucets in public schools. School supervisor mentorship pilot program establishes a three-year school supervisor mentorship pilot program to strengthen the school leadership pipeline in schools throughout the state by supporting and developing novice supervisors through a one-year mentoring cycle. expanding early
016child education or the New Jersey Universal Preschool and Kindergarten Act would make various updates to preschool funding and set new kindergarten requirements. Um the legislature also passed two other bills and combined these three bills bolster early childhood education in New Jersey, building on a multi-year administrationwide effort to expand access to free highquality preschool and full day kindergarten pro programs. Together, these bills will help ensure children in New Jersey can enjoy a strong foundation upon which to build their educational careers. Um, and then, uh, the I'll just tell you the names of items on the governor's desk. Pension boost for extracurriculars, school counselor certification, mental health resources on ID cards, school audit delay, TPAF reenrollment changes, IEP meeting guidelines and working group, chronic absenteeism task force, Latino and Hispanic American history instruction, preschool service contracts, school
017meal nutrition standards, and labor movement instruction. Those are all the last group are all sitting on the governor's desk waiting for his signature. That concludes my report. Great. Any questions for anyone? It's not really a question. It's com I can't You have to probably move it closer. Okay. Yeah. Is that better? Too close. Um, so I I'm very pleased to see that the governor is continuing to support universal preschool, preschool expansion. Even more pleased that we are still receiving our preschool expansion grant. Um, and the governor in his in his press releases continues to use the word free preschool. And um, I know that Mr. Subulu realizes I have exception to that word free because for the do taxpayer it is not free because we are subsidizing the program with transportation costs. So, I'm just
018wondering if the board had ever before I was on the board again considered addressing that with the governor's office by means of a letter, a proclamation, anything to say the impact. Um, it it's not fair fairly weighted with other towns that are busing towns and that are still getting the preschool expansion grant. Um, and then it is truly free preschool to the taxpayers. For Dover, it's not because we do supplement with transportation cost. And I know we're trying to do everything humanly possible ourselves to um lower that cost as much as we can with the new Route 46 building where we're going to um bring together all of our preschools so that there's not so many buses needed to to pick up and deliver students. But I just think that the board has a responsibility
019to not just our students in the preschool um but also our taxpayers to make the governor's office aware that there is still some of us that are not busing districts and this is a large impact to our taxpayers. Let's bring it up in the finance committee meeting with everyone and have the discussion there. Thank you. Okay, Miss Don says, "Do we have anything for New Jersey school boards?" Yes. Or Mars County School Board. Good evening. Good evening. The Morris County School Boards Association does not have regular meetings until the fall. The MCSBA Executive Committee, which includes our fellow board member, Mr. McCort, will meet soon, if they have not already, to discuss topics and locations for meetings for the 202526 school year. New Jersey School Boards Association will be hosting workshop in Atlantic City on
020October 23 20th to 23rd. This year's theme is your ticket to big ideas and bright futures. Workshop is basically a convention for school officials and education leaders. I have taken an excerpt from the NJSBA site. It is the duty of educators, school officials, and education leaders to help students feel as though anything is possible. Through hard work, determination, and the power of a great education, New Jersey students can accomplish anything they set their minds to. This year's workshop theme, I'm sorry, highlights our focus on encouraging students to think big and chase their dreams, no matter how distant they may seem. The training and best practices you'll get at workshop will inspire you and your district team to think of new ways to support and champion the diverse needs of all students. This concludes my report.
021Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Um could I have a motion to approve administrative u have administrative approval for number one? So move. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. Sedo, yes. Miss Towns, yes. Mr. Mor, yes. Miss Phillips, yes. Miss Penellis, yes. Dr. Ser, yes. Miss Shower, yes. Mr. Miller, yes. Miss Asdo, can you please move personnel? Uh, that includes the hand carry action on recisions. Okay. So, it's 1 through 16 and then a hand carry 1 through 15. 17 1 through 15 with 16 being the approval. Oh, I thought you couldn't add it to this. No, okay. Yeah. So, one through 15 whatever the an extra one. Yes. So, there would be 15 total. It's 15. So I ask that we um approve items one through 15 under personnel
022second. Second question. Um with the hand carry, don't we need to read that into the record? Yeah, you need to read it. Yeah. Do you have the wording that you I do. Okay. Okay. So the uh hand carry uh recommended it action is resolved that the board of education approves the following decision effective immediately. Um and the person's name is Francisco Arenas. So we have a motion and a second. Any other comments? Can we please have a roll call? Mr. Sea. Yes. Miss DS. Yes. Mr. Makor, yes. Miss Phillips, yes. Miss Finales, yes. Dr. Ser, yes. Miss Shower, yes. Mr. Miller, yes. Okay. I don't believe we have anything for negotiations. No, I don't think so right now. Nothing. Nothing to do. Anyway, uh governance, Miss DS. Yes. One moment. The governance committee did not
023meet in June. The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, July 22nd, 2025. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Yes. Uh, student achievement and curriculum. Dr. Sainer. The student achievement and curriculum committee has not met. I would move that the board approve items one and two, please. Second. Any questions? Can we have a roll call, please? Mr. Yes. Miss DS? Yes. Mr. Mort? Yes. Miss Phillips? Yes. Miss Penales? Yes. Dr. S? Yes. Miss Shower? Yes. Mr. Miller? Yes. Community relations. Mr. McCort. The community relations committee has not met. Um, our next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, August 5th, uh, where we will consider the applications uh, for the new term of the Citizens Advisory Committee. Um, and I would just like to take this time to remind the public that that application is open. You can find
024uh the link to it on the Dover School's website as well as uh, I believe all of our social media platforms. Um that application is open until the end of July. Um and I would also u just ask the board members as well to feel free to share that with your circles um so that we can cast as wide a net as possible for applicants. Um it's the it's the committee's uh intention to uh present the new appointees at the August 12th board meeting. And that concludes my report. Thank you. Any questions? Okay. Policy. Miss Panales. Good afternoon. The policy committee is in the process of rescheduling our next meeting. Okay. Finance and FA facilities. Miss Shower. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Miller. Um the finance and facilities committee is actually on the calendar for next
025week for Tuesday the 22nd. And I'm just wondering um if we don't have a need for that meeting. Mr. Sabakulu, do you have anything that you need to discuss with us that's urgent? I mean, there's nothing urgent, but if you like to meet, I'm ready for it. Would Would we be the only committee meeting for the rest of I mean, I can send an email to the committee so we can get the feedback. How does the rest of the committee feel about that? Mr. Asdo, Mr. or if you wanted to start right now. If there's no pressing business, Dr. Sam, I if there's no sorry, we got all the microphone this this month. Um, if there's no pressing business, we did miss the June meeting, however, so if it makes more sense to postpone until
026August. I'm not sure that the finance and facilities committee should go three months without a committee meeting. But Mr. Savahulu would know better if July or August is better in terms of the amount of um things that might need to be discussed as well as I know that August is kind of crazy um with getting school ready. Uh if you want to I can send you a report next week. Uh just summarize a couple of stuff. Uh then we could go from there. Okay. If you could send it to me and then we could perhaps decide if we needed to do a virtual meeting, could we do that instead? Okay. Yeah, we could. Sounds good. Thank you. And I'm sorry I switched Miss S, Dr. S with Miss Ao, policy and facilities and finance. Sorry
027about that. Okay. Um, moving on to the report. We have items 1 through or 1 through 12 actually. And I did want to Mr. Sabul mentioned it, but I did want to say it out loud again because it always it always feels good to say that that there was no increase in school lunch cost. U which is very nice. Should we have a second? Um and then second or are you given a report? I was just I was just I didn't know if you were Okay. I didn't I didn't get to that point yet. Okay. Um I just wanted to say that. So I'll I'll ask to move this now. Yes, please. Oh, I thought you were moving it before. Yeah. Okay. I wasn't sure. Second. Okay. I did. She moved it now. No, but
028I didn't know if you wanted to discuss more what was in there. No, that was it. Oh, okay. All right. Does anyone else have anything? Any questions for Roll call, please? Mr. Esto? Yes. Miss Downs? Yes. Mr. Mar? Yes. Miss Phillips? Um, I will recuse myself for payment to vendor 1950 and yes to everything else. Miss Penelis, yes. Dr. Ser, I've recuseed myself for payments to employee 9009685. Yes to the rest. Miss Shower. Yes, Mr. Miller. Yes. Okay. Uh, our next meeting is I'm sorry. I I had wanted to um One moment here. I had noticed that we had a donation from American Publishing. Um, I'm sorry I didn't bring it up during discussion. Um, I wanted to thank them for the donation of the t-shirts and um, how are they going to be distributed
029throughout our district? Do do we know what number was that? Number one. Number one. It's under district scholarship account. We will certainly That's a great question and we will research that answer and get back to you on that. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Uh, our next meeting August 12th, uh, September 16th, and October 14th. Um, do we have any old business to bring up? Any new business? May I? Um, this is regarding Mr. Maker. One moment, please. Um, my sincere condolences to the maker family on the passing of Mr. Maker. He was an accomplished gentleman and truly an active member of the Dober community. One of my recent memories was when he gifted my mother-in-law and her friend birdouses that he had decorated for Halloween. She proudly has it on display
030every October. Thank you. I have about 14 birdhouses at my house and uh you know remember have a lot of very fond memories especially working at the historical society. Uh him uh selling his uh famous clam chowder and uh the publishing of the Dober history book which was phenomenal. Um and so many people have seen that. But the the one thing that he did was he really went uh around to all the schools and had students all the time talking to them about the history of Dover, which was was amazing to be able to pass that on. So he's definitely going to be missed. So thank you Okay, we're moving on to the second um public portion. Uh the board recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members
031of the public to express themselves on school matters to ensure fair and orderly expression of such comment. Each statement shall be held to a time period of three minutes. Public comments not restricted to items on this agenda shall be entertained for approximately 30 minutes upon the discretion of the presiding officer. For those who wish to provide public comment remotely, a Google form was posted on the district website at 6:30. Remote comments will be read by a member of the board of education. The board of education will alternate between in-person and online comments. Please understand that the public comment portions of our agenda are not structured as question and answer sessions, but rather they are offered as opportunities to share your thoughts with the board. The board may or may not respond to public comments. However,
032all comments are considered and will be investigated and addressed as appropriate. Please be courteous and mindful of the rights of others when providing comments. Comments may not be abusive, obscene, threatening, or irrelevant. Please understand that students and employees have specific legal and privacy protections. The board is not permitted to respond in public to comments about students or employees. Please be advised that you are com commenting at your own risk. Any public comments that are directed at a particular individual or individuals could subject you to legal liability for defamation. Is there anybody from the public that would wish to come up and speak? or one public person. Okay. I'd like to close this portion of the meeting online. Was there anyone? Is anyone online? Yeah. Okay. At this time, I entertain a motion to adjourn. Excuse
033me. I'm so sorry. Oh, once again, um I I had this separate from my other notes. So, can I just mention something? It could be under like new business or something. Sure. Go ahead. That's all right. Um with the um the school board election deadline coming up for you know petitions. Um I was wondering and I don't recall seeing it on our website if we have a link to the um Morris County Board of Elections that would provide them with information. Um if we don't have that, is that something that we can add in the future? I don't know. Is that something we Are you speaking about for the Morris County school boards for that particular for those? No, I think in order um I don't know Mr. McCort might be able to help me
034with this. Um I'm I I think what Miss DS may be referring to is is um a po typically the uh potential candidates are directed to the board administrator for petitions. Um, and maybe just a post on the the school's website saying, "Hey, by the way, elections are up up this year. There's three, you know, three seats. Here's the deadline." And link to the county clerk's office um which has a link to the petition. Um, I think we've done that in the past. Excuse me. I I think that um what we did la what I saw last year I should say um on the school website was the link from New Jersey school boards because that's where Mars County Board of Elections takes you to. So there's a link for new board member candidate kit
035on New Jersey school boards. So I think if we shared that that they can download the form, print out the form and then deliver it to um when is the deadline? July 20. I was going to say I knew it was closed. So it should be under It's under New Jersey school board. No, no. The link on our our site would be news and announcements, I'm assuming. That's what I was and it's been there before. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Anybody else have anything? Uh do we have a motion to adjurnn? I'll make a motion. Second. All those in favor? I. All right. Have a good night. Thank you.