001It's one of those. I'd like to call this meeting to order. The mission of the Freedell Township School District is to honor and support every learner every day on the journey to become curious and engaged members of a diverse global community. A notice listing the time, date, and place of this meeting was posted on the public bulletin board of all Freel Township schools on the entrance door to the administrative offices of the board of education on the district website at the office of the Freel Township Clerk, published in the Asbury Park Press on January 11th, 2025, and sent to the Star Ledger on January 8th, 2025. Please join me for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One
002nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Can I get a roll call? Mr. Dvita. Mrs. Brand. Dr. Casey here. Miss Crosby here. Mr. Gulo here. Miss Lambert. Mr. Spieler here. Mr. Williams here. Mrs. O Sullivan present. Mr. Maros here. Have a quarum. Thank you. Can I get a motion for the approval of the May 27th regular meeting minutes? You have a second. Second. All those in favor say I. Any opposed or abstensions? Is anybody absent? May. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's right. Yep. Okay. Can I get a motion for the approval of the May 27th executive session minutes? Second. All those in favor say I. Any opposed or abstensions? Can I get a motion for the approval of the June 3rd special meeting minutes? So move. Second. All those in favor say
003I. I. Jeff Jeff was out. You were out. And Ellen was out. Thank you. Okay. Does that give you five? Doesn't matter. It's not an official vote. It's formality. All right. Communications. Mr. Devito, uh, the only communication we have this evening is enrollment. April of 25, we had 3,420 students. Compare it to May of 25 where we had 3,416. And you compare it to the prior year, we had 3,493. That's all for this even. Thank you. President's remarks, I'll be brief because we have a lot on the agenda tonight. Welcome to everyone that's come out tonight. This is our last board meeting before the end of the school year. It's hard to believe actually. We've gotten a lot done since January. We still have a lot more to do, but time is flying. Um, so
004we look forward to seeing everyone at the graduations. I hope everyone is filling out their sign-in sheets and have already RSVPd so we know how to do seating. Um, and I look forward to seeing everyone um at those events. And with that, I will turn it over to Mr. Dix. Thank you. Good evening, everybody. Um for board members, I have the RSVPs here. I just want to take an opportunity before we leave for the evening just to go over your responses. Um our administrators do like to introduce you if you're present at the moving up ceremonies um and graduation uh program. So if before we leave every I could just touch base with everybody in review. Um you are also welcome to make changes. Just email me that morning uh and I will let the
005administrator know that you're going to be there. just because you responded no, if you suddenly become available, we encourage you to be there. I just if you can let me know via email, I can then let those administrators know so that they can give you the courtesy of introducing you at those ceremonies. So, if we could do that um before we leave tonight, that I'd appreciate that. You could just take a look. Um we have been in a hiring frenzy, as you know from our email communications regarding um uh requests for salary uh considerations. Um we spent 2:30 to 5:30 uh on yesterday backtoback every 30 minutes. Um because our goal is to have the the district staffed as soon as possible. Uh part of those changes I'd like to review with everybody our community
006who's listening this evening about exciting administrative changes that are upcoming. Only the schools impacted received a communication. So I thought it would be a good time to share the administrative changes coming for the new school year. Um as most of uh the community knows, Mrs. Gambino, the principal at Eisenhower Middle School, has resigned effective August 2nd. She is relocating to Florida with her family. Uh, and wish her well. Um, and good luck in her new house, new state, uh, and her children in her new schools. Um, I am will be dishonest if I tell you I didn't lose sleep over um, considering vacancies and and what would be best for that particular school. um having a new assistant principal who will be joining uh the leadership team there who's coming from a high school with
007uh a couple of years of administrative experience along with a new principal uh just we had to find the right person when the posting closed after 5 days we had 28 applicants as a compared to elementary principal we probably have up to a hundred um we were going to open for five more days however we uh had some conversations internally and that resulted in Tara Lectner who is the principal of West Freehold School. Uh she will be moving to Eisenhower Middle School to assume the principal ship at that school, joining Jimmy Ascalles, who you've already approved as the new assistant principal. So, it is somewhat reassuring that an existing principal who had experience prior to coming to us and now knows the district will be leading Eisenhower. After that happened, that left a vacancy at
008West Freehold School. So, in determining what would be best for all of our schools across the district, Kathleen Rosen, who is here this evening, who you approved to be the principal of Ericson School, uh we transitioned before she even started to be principal at Westfield School. Um and when we did our principal interviews for Ericson, our finalists, as typical internally, our two finalists were Mrs. Pella and Mrs. Rosen. We were excited on the this evening on the agenda is a recommendation for Danielle Pella to assume the principal role at Ericson school. That shift of Kathleen to West Freehold and Danielle at Ericson leaves one existing current administrator at each of those schools for familiarity for the community and the staff. And I believe at this point after those changes um that we have everybody in
009the right place um and every school is set up for outstanding leadership and success for the staff and students in those schools. Um on the agenda this evening, we also are approving a new supervisor for Laura Don who is here this evening and we are in the middle of a search uh kind of halfway through kind of not a search for the supervisor position at Ericson school and we hope to have uh that recommendation on the agenda for the last meeting in June. And those are really exciting administrative changes. I'm really excited to see uh with the shift uh what Tara can do and will do at uh Eisenhower and our two new principles in the district, the amazing things that they'll do in their schools. Oh, and I have the bullying report. Always fun.
010Uh since the last meeting, we've had five incidents of harassment, intimidation, and bullying. Out of those five, three were founded and two were unfounded. That's since the May 27th meeting, by the way, June Second, third was a non- business meeting. That's all I have. Do we have any other administrator? Okay. And this would be the first opportunity for public participation on anything on tonight's agenda. If anyone wishes to address the board, please write your name and address on the sign-in sheet and state your name for the record. Statements are limited to three minutes and should not be abusive, obscene, or defamatory in nature. Any takers? Okay, seeing none, then we will go on to personnel policy and communications. Um, Mrs. Spieler. Good evening everyone. Um, I do want to say thank you to Dr. Brethower
011and u, Mr. Dixon for working so hard and filling these positions at the end of the school year. It's got to be super hard. And I can't even imagine as these emails are flying through my head is spinning and I'm only reading an email and I apologize but thank you. Um so tonight um the committee meeting met and it was myself uh Dr. Casey uh Jeff Williams and um Dr. Brethower and Mr. Dixie and we reviewed the nepotism policy and the agenda for this evening. So I I'd like to move the following items. Um subject is the committee meeting as listed, resignations as listed. Number four, new employment as listed. Number five, leaves of absence as listed. Number six, contract renewals as listed. Number seven, change of assignments as listed. Number eight, change of assignments
012salary adjustments as listed. and number nine, salary adjustment. Number 10, stipen teacher assistance as listed. Number 11, unpaid days as listed. Number 12, district PBS coaches as listed. Number 13, PBS summer committees as listed. Number 14, ESY 2025 staff, excuse me, as listed. Number 15, ESY 2025 transportation staff as listed. Number 16, ESY volunteer as listed. Number 17, summer band volunteers as listed. Number 18, additional compensation as listed. Number 19, summer curriculum committee as listed. Number 20, summer kindergarten screening as listed. Number 21, summer clerical work as listed. Number 22, summer IEP meetings as listed. Number 23, summer ESL evaluations. Number 24, affirm the bullying investigation findings as listed. Number 25, student teacher practicum of observation placement as listed. Number 26, student teacher practicum observation placement update. Number 27, rescend substitute employment as listed. Number
01328, certified substitutes as listed. number 29 non-certified substitutes as listed. And that's it. I think I said that in one breath. Thank you. Thank you. Do we have a second? Okay. And do we have any questions, comments? No. Loriation. Any uh no questions? Okay. Seeing none, can I get a roll call? Mrs. Grant, yes. Dr. Casey, yes. Mrosby, yes. Mr. Roa, yes. Mrs. Spieler, yes. Mr. Williams, yes. Mrs. O. Sullivan, yes. Mr. Amarosa, yes. And congratulations to everyone who's here. Now it's official. Yes. Okay. Can we have a curriculum, Mrs. Brand? Hello and good evening everyone and uh thank you for Dr. Brethower and Mr. Dixine for all your work you did. Uh there was a meeting tonight and we had in attendance Emily Crosby, Lena O'Sullivan, Rebecca Montgomery, and Dr. Mr. Dixine stopped by
014as well as myself. We reviewed the committee meeting. We reviewed the agenda and in the committee meeting we discussed the focus grant update which has been approved. We discussed I ready end of year review which will be shared with the board at uh the June 24th meeting. We discussed regional instructional coaching consortium which was the first time held this year. Some exciting information from there and revolutionary uh New Jersey next year in the 25 26 year will be 250 years that America has been in existence and New Jersey in particular our district is involved with a lot of revolutionary events and it's going to be a very exciting year. So with that, I'd like to move the uh number two committee meeting as listed. Number three, course reimbursement as listed. And that's all. Very short
015and sweet. That's it. Do I have a second? Any questions for curriculum? I just want to share one thing um that I'm not going to steal Mrs. Montgomery's Thunder from sharing our specific data, but um I just want to share that we recently at our administrative meeting, Mrs. Montgomery established uh the opportunity for all of our administrators to be trained in endofear reporting and how to use that reporting um from Ready, I'm sorry, from I Ready. Um how to use that reporting and read the data and look at the year and review and plan for next year. Um and the we had the trainer you said she's a trainer and the manager for I Ready here and they shared with our administrators that they have not experienc they've not worked with a single district who
016has experienced the growth in I Ready from fall to spring diagnostic than they have in our district. And then they pointed out some other specifics that they saw that were anomalies for our district on a positive. Um, but I just felt like I wanted to share that hearing that from I mean we saw our data and it's very very impressive, but hearing it from representatives and a manager that work with that that platform with many districts over time. Them telling us that they have never seen results that our district has yielded is um is really complimentary of our administrators and teachers and our students doing that work in in the classrooms and the schools. I think I was on the committee when we rolled this out and I remember saying at that time this is
017going to be phenomenal for the district and I'm glad that I was right. Very exciting and but see also having you know students as well they're they're excited about it as well. Thank you. So we uh can I get all those uh in favor saying I? I. Any opposed? Okay. Awesome. Finance, facilities, and transportation. We'll go with Mr. Garulia today. Mrs. Lambert is not here. Good evening. We did meet tonight. uh in present was um Mike, myself and uh Bob Dvidita and like he said Michelle uh was not present. We uh reviewed certain items um for instance the facility use policy you know changes custodial rates annually we're going to look at surrounding areas if we're going to make any changes. Number two, we had a construction manager RF uh FP uh where we have
018several companies vying for the contract. Number three, a year-end motions to appear on June 24th agenda just to u you know make us aware of that. Number four, parent uh square pay portal which is 2.3 uh 9% plus 30 cents. parents use uh the the portal to pay for preschool or Chromebooks and we're going to be reviewing that. Other than that, we went into agenda items and I'd like to move the following items. Bills and claims as listed was 3,240,77412. Four, transfers as listed. Five, transfer ratify. Six, donation. Seven, contract with simp uh simplify uh chemical solutions inc. Eight, renewal of competitive contract for Sedesco update. Nine, contract with the HD Supply. Uh 10, out of school district contract as listed. 11 tuition contracts for received students as listed. 12 is where is that? Right
019here. Right here. Okay. Specialized evaluation. Specialized evaluation and services is listed. 13. Acceptance of focus grant as listed. 14. Approved co-op bid with CDW Government, Inc. for 2425 as listed. 15. Approve co-op bid with CDW Government Inc. for 2526 as listed. Approve co-op bid with CDW Government Inc. for 2526 is listed. YMCA memorandum of understanding 2526. That's it. Okay. Um, do we have a do we have a second? Second. Okay. Do we have any questions? Finance facilities. New Jersey Department of Education turn. We were here together in this room. I said I was applying for it and today it's been received. Nice. Yes. Great. Nice work. It's really the easiest. I wish they were all like that. Exactly. And the money came back. Wow. Excellent. I have two things. Yes. The sedial contract was that
020that was up again this year. No, we it's a competitive contract which you have to renew annually. So, what happened was we renewed it back in April, I believe it was. There was a rounding error into like the 10,000 place. Um, so the state is very particular. So, they said unless you change the motion, we were at three, they want 2. So, whatever. So, we fixed. That's all. No. Okay. So, it wasn't a thing where we had to send out the bid again. It was three. We were free. That's you get you get to do five five per minute. Yep. Okay. And then the other question is where are we with the lead testing in the sinks and faucets outside of the the um correspondents went out to the So the company's coming back out
021when we're closed on June 19th and they're going to come back and retest those sites. Yep. So that's where and then we've I guess we've we've had this happen in the past and it's more than likely the water that pipes it's more than likely the water sat in those pipes for four or five days since school had been down. So, so they'll be back on site uh that morning and they'll get the testing. As soon as they get the results back, we'll have them published because it definitely is the communication sparked a lot you Oh, sorry. The uh communication went out to parents definitely sparked a lot of conversation about this. So, we just want to make sure we got some answers to those parents who might be watching or here tonight. So, thank you.
022Okay. Any other questions for finance facilities? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Any abstensions. Okay. Seeing none old business. Do we have any old business? Yes. Um, two two quick things. Number one, um, for last week, I do apologize to anyone I that I was not at the, uh, retirement. So, I do wish all our retirees the best in their future endeavors. and also congratulate those students that were honored uh for their various achievements. Again, I do apologize for not being there, but the reason why I was at the I did attend American Young Voices, sorry, I did attend the American Young Voices concert at the provincial center. And basically what what that is is it's chorus groups from all over the entire state. They're basically set up at one
023end. It's it's literally like a concert. It's all the choruses are up in the bleaches and then they have a live band. It's an all day event. It's an awesome event. Um I talked to Diane during our committee meeting. Hopefully somehow someway we look at the calendar a little better. Get give all you guys an opportunity to check this out because it is a really awesome event. And um Mrs. Femiano over at Applegate does a spectacular job putting this together, getting them into this this concert. And it's a long day for the students. They leave 12:00 and that bus did not pull back into Applegate till about 10:30 at night. So this was an awesome awesome event for them. Uh so again regret being not being at the meeting but it was definitely for a
024great great reason. I also want to share um I should have said the administrative report um with a resignation of a music teacher last year at Barlo Middle School. We uh approached uh Jesse Ryan who was the chorus teacher at Eisenhower um and asked him to consider traveling between both schools to rebuild the music program particularly the vocal music program at Barcalo. Um this year he continued the work at Eisenhower and had another successful back in black and gold concert there. And um our expectation was start to build a program. When we attended the Barcelo program, it was a mini back and black. Um, not something that we expected. Um, the students were amazing um, in the performance. And, um, I just want to express my appreciation not only to Mr. Ryan in replicating in
025such a short time the quality of program that he was able to pull off at Barcelo, but also the amazing students who stepped up um, throughout the year. Students have been um we most of you are familiar with the study period. The lunch is 44 minutes, 22 minutes is study, 22 minutes is lunch. Students have been catching on to what's happening and some are familiar with what's hap what's happened for years at Eisenhower and they just started going to him at study. He doesn't have a study period. Um and he built one of the performances was just this group that kind of organically came together during study that he doesn't even teach during the day. Um, every performance was amazing, but replicating that that portion of Eisenhower that was back in black. Um, doing that
026on a smaller scale was really really um, amazing to see the students. I can't tell you how talented they were and I'm so glad they had the opportunity to do that. I'm excited to see our enrollment goes up next year for that program. Literally. Pleasure. So, do we have any other old business? That's it. All right, seeing none, we'll go to new business. I actually have a piece of new business. As Mr. Gulu mentioned in his report of our uh minutes for our committee meeting. Uh we are in the process of um RFPing for a construction management firm for our um referendum work that has to be done. And it turned out that there were eight companies that actually submitted and out of those Bob has whittleled the list down to about four that look
027viable. So, uh, what we decided was, um, the, uh, facilities committee and then one more board member would maybe zoom and interview maybe the last two or three viable firms before a decision is made. So, if anyone on this board is interested in joining the facilities committee, send me an email and tell me availability and whether or not you'd like to sit in on those Zooms and then we can have, you know, four of us, only four of us can be present because of quorum issues. So, if somebody's interested, just fire me an email and uh we'll let you know what's happening with that. Yeah, the goal is to get that done next week. We need to do it sooner than later because then we would then have someone on the agenda for June 24th
028and then the company would start July 1 because we're now the design window is from Speasel is already working on it but in conjunction with the construction managers from July 1 till about November 1st and then we have to submit those documents to the Department of Treasury and they get to sit on for 90 days and make comments about I don't know why because they're not construction people but then they comment and then we should be back out to bid in late January, early February. So, it's really starting to get moving now. Yes. And from experience, we know that this is an important decision because the quality of the work sometimes is in the hands of the construction management team. So, we really want to make a good decision, an informed decision, do our diligence
029to make sure we choose the most quality candidates. Um, I think that's it for new business on my end. Does anybody else have any new business? Did everyone get the form? Oh, I was going to do that in my president's remarks, but since you reminded me, I'll do it now. Um, yeah, we did send out the sign up form. I got back responses from Carmela, Emily, and Neil. So, there's five people that still have to respond. We're trying to narrow that down. Did you That's a common issue. Yeah, I put something in there. Maybe you didn't send comment. Okay. Well, we just pulled the report just to see how it was doing, but if we can all double check that. Um, so that would anyway lead into president's remarks and um like my fellow board
030members said, I do um wish us a good summer of interviewing. I know we have a lot going on in the curriculum department. A lot of exciting work going on and uh even though school is out, we still are a moving train and uh we look forward to a robust summer. Um so with that, I'm going to move into the second opportunity for public participation. Um this is on any topic related to the schools. If anyone wishes to address the board, please write your name and address on the sign-in sheet and state your name for the record. Statements are limited to three minutes and should not be abusive, obscene or defamatory in nature. Do we have anybody that would like to approach? Okay, very easy. Tonight, seeing none, then we are going to move into
031an executive session. Whereas pursuant to NGSA104-12B, the board of education may exclude the public from that portion of a public meeting at which the board discusses any of the matters described at NGSA 104-12B1-9. Now therefore, be it resolved that in accordance with the provisions of the open public meeting act, the board of education shall conduct a closed session pursuant to the personnel and legal exceptions prescribed by NJSA104-12 for the purpose of discussing the following matters. Superintendent evaluation. It is anticipated that the length of time of this executive session will be 30 minutes and that action will not be taken in public after the executive session. Be it further resolved that said discussion may be disclosed to the public when reasons for discussing and acting upon it in closed session no longer exist. Do I have
032a second? Second. All those in favor say I. I. No. No. Okay. Board event. I thought that was something. Nope. Thank you folks for coming out.