001flag. Good evening. Welcome to the South Board of Education. meeting of Thursday, June 18, 2026, in compliance with the open public meeting act 231, laws of 1975 as revised by chapter 72, laws of 2025 of the state of New Jersey. Adequate notice of this meeting of the South Board of Education was provided in the following manner. On May 14th, 2026, the notice was delivered to the office of the South River Burough Clerk and posted at the Board of Education Administration building on May 14th, 2026. The notice was posted on the district's websitej.org and delivered to the Department of State. Notice has also been provided that as of March 1st, 2026, all future meeting advertisements are posted on the district's website, sriver riverj.org, and are no longer advertised in physical or online newspapers. >> Mr. Rosen,
002would you please hold the role? >> Mr. Basak has been excused. >> Mr. Budson, >> here. >> Mrs. Bush has been excused. >> Mrs. Loud >> here. >> Mr. Mr. Nielson >> here. >> Mr. Woodway >> here. Mrs. Saddowski >> here. >> Mrs. Young >> here. >> Mrs. Urban >> here. >> Sha Hussein. >> She is graduating. >> We have a >> Okay. Thank you very much. Um, so under our agenda, the first thing that we have on the meeting are the minutes. Mr. We have the May 18th pre meeting minutes and the May 21st regular meeting minutes. >> Thank you. Are there any additions or edits to these minutes? >> Members of the minutes. >> Move the reading of the minutes. >> Motion by Vice President Nielsen. >> Second by Mrs. Saddowski. All in
003favor? >> I. >> Minutes are accepted. Next item. So for the use of facilities we have revised number 1134 number 1174 number 1176 1183. >> Okay. Thank you. Are there any questions or comments on the use of facilities? >> Board members do pleasure on the use of facilities. approve the use of facilities in accordance with board policies. >> We have a motion by Vice President Nielsen. >> Second by Mrs. Saddowski. All in favor? >> I. >> Thank you. At this time, we will now go to our financial report. Mrs. Level. >> Thank you. They resolved that the board of education hereby certifies that it's in receipt of the financial report which indicates that no major account has been overextended and that sufficient funds are available to meet the district's financial obligations for the remainder of
004the school year. Finance committee recommends that the reports of the board secretary trees 2026 be approved >> and I thank you. We have a motion by Mrs. Low. Second. >> There is a second by Miss Young. Any questions or comments on the financial report? >> All in favor? >> Thank you. At this time, we're going to go a little bit off script for the agenda. We're going to go over to item number five under president of the board, which I'm just going to introduce. This is for the resolutions for some of our employees who um are retired. Long way to retire. So going to ask our superintendent to call the principles of the schools under who these retirees fall under and the retiree to come up to the stage please. >> Thank you. We will
005begin with Mrs. boiler and we're asking Mr. Paul to come up to the stage. Good evening. It is my pleasure to recognize Lynn Boiler to her remarkable 27 years of service to the students of South River School District. I have had the privilege of knowing Lynn, not only as an educator, but also as a parent and member of our community. Throughout her career, she served as a primary elementary and middle school health and PE teacher with energy, enthusiasm, and a genuine commitment to her students. She consistently embraced every responsibility placed before her and made a positive impact on countless young lives. Beyond her professional accomplishments, I have known Lane as a proud parent of two wonderful grown children and as a supportive, caring presence in our community. The same honesty, integrity, and dedication that defined
006her work in our schools have also been evident in her role as a parent and friend. Lynn's contributions to the South River School District have left a lasting legacy and her commitment to students and families will be remembered for years to come. On behalf of everyone whose lives she has touched. Thank you, Lynn, for years of service and dedication. We wish you all the best in your well-earned retirement. Congratulations. Next, we're going to ask Principal Canard to come up. And we'd like to honor Mr. Robert Dman. I think he's always bigger than me. Tonight we celebrate Rob Felman who has dedicated his talents to the students of South River High School from 2022 to 2026. Throughout his time with us, Robert has worn many hats. He didn't just teach, he fully immersed himself in our
007school community. And although he has served in several places before South, I am very happy to say he truly belongs here as part of our family. here. He served as a high school mathematics teacher and was a vital part and I mean vital part of the 21st century community learning center staff. He also lend his expertise to our skip team, the high school credit recovery staff, the alternative program staff, and he worked diligently as a curriculum writer on top of doing anything and everything I had ever asked of him. What truly stands out about Rob is his enthusiastic devotion to his profession. He never backed down from a challenge and accepted each and every responsibility assigned and asked of him. with grace. His service to our district has been a masterclass in honesty, integrity, and
008unwavering commitment. Rob, although the South Ever Board of Education recognizes your incredible impact, I am sad that I too have to honor that as well. And I will miss you very, very much. Congratulations, Rob. Next, I would like to call Miss Corey from I always say that wrong and I apologize. And Mr. Coleman back up to the stage. It is an honor to recognize Corey Praasini or as some of our students called her Papacino for her dedicated service to the students and families of South River School District from the year 2006 to 2025. Having had the pleasure of working with Corey, I can personally attest to her positive impact she made every day. As a middle school guidance counselor, member of the school improvement panel, and anti-bullying staff member, Corey was a strong and supportive
009presence for students and colleagues alike. No matter the challenge, she was always willing to step up, lend a helping hand, and accept any responsibility entrusted to her. What m many of us will remember most is Corey's warm smile and wonderful sense of humor. She had a unique ability to make people feel comfortable, supported, and understood. Her honesty, integrity, and a commitment to her profession earned the respect of everyone who had the opportunity to work with her. Beyond her professional accomplishments, Corey is a loving wife and mother of two grown children whose accomplishments she proudly shared with those around her. And of course, anyone who knows Corey knows her passion for the New York Rangers. She was always ready to celebrate a big win or discuss the late uh latest latest season. Cory's dedication and compassion
010have left a lasting mark on our school community. We thank her for the years of service and wish her happiness, health, and many exciting Ranger seasons in the years ahead. Congratulations, Cory's, and thank you for all you have done. >> We need her speech. One of the children having their speech. >> It's on my phone. Sorry. >> It's on her phone. >> I didn't pick a friend. >> Old eyes. I would never see your phone. >> Good evening and thank you so much for this recognition. It has been an incredible privilege to spend the last 25 years in education, including the past 20 years as a school counselor here at South River Middle School. Through my career, I have had the opportunity to work with amazing students, families, teachers, administrators, and colleagues who have made
011every day meaningful. While retirement is bittersweet, I leave with a heart full of gratitude and pride for the work that we've done together. I am deeply grateful for all the relationships I've built, the lessons I've learned, and the memories that I will carry with me. Thank you to the board of education and to the district for this honor. It has truly been a privilege to serve the South River community. Thank you. Thank you. Next, I would like to call Mrs. Kim Yuria to the stage. Okay. This is a hard one for me. Kim is um a colleague, a professional, but also my friend. Um so this is this is a hard one. I also wrote it in large print, Mr. Coleman. Um, all right, here we go. Today, I have the privilege of honoring Kimutia
012as she retires after an extraordinary 27 years of dedicated service to the students, families, and staff of the South River School District. Since joining the district in 1999, Kim has worn many hats serving as a teacher, mentor, presenter, curriculum writer, president of SRA, supervisor, and ultimately as director of special education. Throughout her career, she approached every role with enthusiasm, professionalism, and an unwavering commitment to ensuring that all students receive the supports and opportunities they deserve. Her work has touched countless lives and her influence can be seen in the programs she helped to build from the ground up, the educators she guided and the students she inspired to reach their fullest potential. Kim's legacy extends far beyond her impressive lists of accomplishments. She has been a model of honesty, integrity, compassion, and dedication, earning her the
013respect and admiration of colleagues throughout the school district. Her leadership, particularly in the area of special education and student services, has strengthened our schools and created a lasting impact that will continue to benefit future generations. As we celebrate her retirement, we express our deepest gratitude for her years of service and the countless contributions she has made to our school community. Kim, we thank you for your steadfast commitment, your caring heart, and your remarkable career. We wish you happiness, good health, and many rewarding adventures in the years ahead. Congratulations on a well-deserved retirement. I didn't prepare anything like Rory did, but I just wanted to say that I've enjoyed my entire career here. Going to cry. 27 years is a long time. I've had a lot of experiences and I've enjoyed every one of them and
014I want to thank the board for all of my time in the district and all my opportunities that I've had. Thank you. Today we do also want to honor the retirements of Maria Hunzel Roco Richio and we also want to honor our board shiz Hussein who could not be here this evening but we really appreciate all of their time with us here in the district all of their contributions and everything that they have done for the students and families of South River. Thank you everyone for joining us this evening for the special uh recognition and thank you. Congratulations to all the retirees. Uh we wish you a long and healthy retirement. Enjoy it. Uh my husband retired just last year and you could see it in his face. She can see it in his demeanor
015and I hope the same happens for you. It is a u wonderful time from what I've been told and I hope again that the same happens for you. You earned it. You worked hard for it and it's just so nice to hear that you did enjoy your time here and this was where you chose to retire from. Thank you. to continue with our meeting now. You're welcome to stay, but we will not be offended if you do this. Okay, great. Have a good evening. Um, we are now going to go back to the agenda to number three and that is our superintendent of schools and Dr. Zer, your monthly report, please. >> Yes, thank you. Before I begin the board, what I'd like to do is call the mic so that he can present student.
016>> Thank you. It's just pleasure to be in front of the board again. >> So, we're going to go over uh the student safety data system report that as Miss Dr. researcher actually just said between September 25th and December uh December 20 September 25th through December 31st 2025. It's a brief overall view of what's been going on and our numbers that we have. So as usual I have every school broken down into its own subsection and then also some of the programs that we're running to show you what's going on. So overall throughout the entire district we have hip training. So we have 19 that we did across the district in the side of that window. And we also had 25 programs that we ran. Sorry about that. So for the ELC no surprise um
017we have no uh incidents. That's a wonderful thing. um we had no other incidences as well as we had three of our trainings there and three of our programs running out of that particular facility. In the primary school, we also had no infractions, so zero on the incidents as well as zero of extra zero incidents. Um we had three programs running there and we had three trainings going there. elementary school. We did h have two incidents that we had, but that's a dip from nine in the prior year. Inside of this window, we had zero other instances, which is fantastic. We had two alleged HIPS, we had 10 trainings, I'm sorry, 10 trainings, and 11 HIV programs in total. For the middle school, we did have a slight bump of 12. Um, and I I
018would like to just make it clear that that doesn't necessarily mean hip, but in this case it would happen to be um a young persons who chose to try vaping. Um, also other incidences zero. Uh, we had no trainings in this particular quarter, but we did in the second, which I will show you next time I'm in front of you. And we had five programs running at the high school. We went from three to one uh incidences as well as we had uh 16 other incidences leading to removal. We had two alleged hips as well as three trainings and three hip programs. What are we doing to try and remedy these things? Well, we're continuing along with the mind tools of the mind which is a prek program which is really good to help kids
019try to get that idea of the social emotional learning. We have our MTSS and our INRS program. If you're not familiar with MTSS, it's because INRS has pretty much transformed. It's now multi-tered systems of support. So, that's one big thing. And then we're still continuing with the uh nurture heart or dreams program, which is also another social emotional program that we're doing. Um we continue to co do collaborate with two different organizations. We're working with effective school solutions. uh we have a full-time and a part-time clinician. Uh full-time clinician sees students with higher needs and we have a part-time clinician who is working doing the RCS program as well as in integrating into certain classrooms. Then we have Rockers behavioral um as of right now we have two different uh people working with us. We
020have one that is based in the middle school and the other is based at the primary school at this time. We also have um Care Solace which we have had for a while and it's a wonderful program. It allows people whether they have insurance or not to be able to find in-person services. We have the third the therapy program with the dogs which which everybody loves the dogs. And then Marble Health which is super exciting. Um, Marble Health is an organization that we've paired with that not only connects a person, but it gives them the opportunity to have virtual psychology as well as psychiatry visits. So, that's a major bump and especially in the modern world where it's so hard to get to some places, it is a really good way to go. Um, if
021you have any questions or concerns, I will happily field them at this time. Otherwise, I have placed my email up so you can give me a y. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. >> Do any board members have any questions for Mr. Crouch? >> Again, thank you. It was a pleasure to be in front of you again. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Mr. Crouch. And with that, I'll continue with my report. I'd like to begin um by just pointing out we had our senior awards night uh this this month and we were able to recognize the achievements of so many of our students through scholarships. A total of $62,587 um were was awarded to our uh recipients. Um we were able to award this to 67 deserving students and we really to community
022for their generous support, local organizations, families, um, and our community partners who helped us make this happen. So, congratulations to all of our students. Uh, we also had our districtwide day of service. We do this annually in June as well, and it's a day that we set aside for students in K through 12. Every single student in the district is engaged in some sort of activity or service. for community service and uh we find that the children love to participate in these activities. They really enjoy the opportunity to um to work together towards supporting uh members of the community and I have a list of the activities um by grade and school that I will be posting on the website. We have some great summer program opportunities. We've been posting those and they've been going
023into our emails. So, we encourage our parents to really take advantage of these opportunities. Our 21st century program will continue running through the summer. Um, and it will provide remediation, enrichment, and acceleration opportunities as well as ESL instruction for students in grades 3 to 12. So, we really encourage parents to get online um to our website and register for that program. We also have a learning acceleration program for high impact tutoring which will be offered virtually and in person um for rising third grade through the eighth grade. It is pending in advance for the work but we feel very confident um about this grant approval uh if we wanted to because it's a it's a tight window. We want to put the information out there. Feeling confident that we'll be able to offer this program
024and we've been producing information about this as well. We have a credit recovery for students in grades 9 through 12 to support students who uh need to continue to earn some credits towards graduation requirements. And we also have our extended school year which serves special needs students who are at risk uh of regression during the summer months. That is determined through uh I process for entry. So, a full listing of all our summer opportunities will be once again released in our email. Um, they have already I believe our email went out this evening at 6 p.m. So, it was probably just released as I announced it. And we have some summer projects of course coming up. Um, we take the opportunity when we send our students and teachers home to really do some of the
025work that um that's necessary in the summer months. The biggest one that I'd like to tell the community about is um parking lot, the elementary, middle, and high school parking lot. We'll be starting work in that parking lot on June 29th, and we will have to shut down that parking lot for um at least one month. So, we will um make some additional announcements about that in the coming weeks, but we are shutting down that parking lot and we're providing ultimate parking for our summer programs and direct um in the ELC parking lot, primary school parking lot. There is um street parking where is where it is allowable. Please be cognizant of parking only where you are peritted to some on the street. Um and um and we are uh hopeful we will have plenty
026of parking for the programs that we are running, but we definitely need to get that project done this summer. We're also installing some smartboards throughout the district. Um we have a teacher training center that we are building in our uh middle school media center. We have some HVAC controls that we are working on. The middle school gymnasium is getting a bit of a makeover, a much needed makeover as well. So, some great projects this summer, but again, it keeps us um safe and and it keeps our facilities updated and it's uh definitely needed. And with that, I will conclude my report for this evening. Thank you. >> Thank you very much, Dr. Zerger. Do any board members have any questions or comments regarding the superintendent's report? Okay. Thank you. At this time, the board is
027going to open the meeting up to the public so that the public may address agenda items only. There will be another public uh opening at the end of toward the end of the meeting where the public may address any matters of interest to the board of education. Right now, the public may address agenda items only. If you do come to the mic, please state your name and address and please keep your comments to a 3minut time limit. And this is on first call and on second call and on third call. Seeing none, we will close this public portion. And the next item on our agenda are our committee reports starting with our athletics and extracurricular. Mr. Hudson, >> there's nothing on the agenda for this month. >> Okay. Thank you. And on buildings and grounds,
028Vice President Nielsen. >> Thank you, Madam President. Mr. Johnson's report is in one month report. Hopefully everyone's looked at questions, you contact him researcher. And that's all I have for tonight. Madam President, >> thank you. our finance miss as well. >> We have a record amount of resolutions this evening. Um so the finance committee after reviewing all items on this month's agenda and upon recommendation of the superintendent recommends approval of items 8.1 through 850 with additional items 8.51 through 8.58 on the agenda as listed including routine items. >> Okay. Okay. Do any board members have any questions or comments on any of those 50 items? >> Seeing none, could you continue on with the instruction committee report? >> Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Uh the instruction committee after reviewing all items on this month's agenda
029and upon recommendation of superintendent recommends approval of the items 9.1 through 9.7 with no additional items on the agenda as listed including routine items. And again, any questions on any of the instruction items? Then let's move on. There are no items to report under negotiations. And Mr. on Mudway public policy and legislation. >> The policy and legislation committee has all of this agenda recommendation recommends approval of the items. No additional. >> Thank you. Any questions or comments from the board members? Seeing none, we're now going to go back to our vice president Nielsen for our human resources report. >> Nothing to report. I'm sorry the print out tonight. >> Thank you. without it. >> Human Resources Committee after reviewing all items on this month's agenda and upon recommendation of the superintendent recommends approval of the
030items 12.1 through 12.27 with additional items 12.28 and 12.29 on the agenda as listed including the routine items and that's all I have tonight. >> Thank you. Any questions on any of the human resource items? >> Mr. I do see Mr. This is the audience. Um, it is on the agenda this evening to be approved as our new ESL supervisor taking over. Say hello to >> meet you. >> Thank you. >> Welcome. >> Thank you. >> Do you have any comments to address to the board? >> I just wanted to say thank you and it's a pleasure to be here for service community. We welcome you and perhaps one day you'll be one of the retirees sitting in this audience like we have many of them tonight. Uh there is a saying that once you
031get into the South River school system, it's pretty much tough to leave. So, and you can ask Dr. Zer about this. So, all right, welcome. Uh seeing no other questions, we're now going to go to our safety and risk management committee. Mrs. >> Thank you. The safety and risk management committee after All items on this month's agenda and upon recommendation of the superintendent recommends approval of item 13.1 through 13.3. No additional items on the agenda as listed including items. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any comments or questions for safety and risk management? And to our residency committee, Miss Young. >> Thank you. The residency committee after reviewing all items on this month's agenda and Recommendation of the superintendent recommends approval of item 14.1 with no additional items on the agenda as listed including routine. Okay,
032thank you very much. At this time, we will be taking action on all of these items and that will be falling under our consent resolution. Mr. Rosa, are you ready? >> Yes. >> Thank you. the South River Board of Education by means of a consent resolution adopt various resolutions of routine and non-controversial nature at one time and whereas the below listed resolutions are hereby adopted by the said board of education in all as if the same were individually acted upon and those are the superintendent of schools 3.1 3.2 the president of the board 5.2 and 5.8 8 under finance 8.1 through 8.58 pages. Under instruction 9.1 to 9.7 under policy and legislation 11.1 through 11.8 under human resources 12.1 to 12.29 under safety and risk management 13.1 to 13.3 and under residency 14.1. Hey, thank
033you board members. What is your pleasure on the consent resolution? >> Move the consent resolution is read. >> We have a motion by Vice President Nielsen. >> Second. >> And there is a second by Mrs. Saddowski. All in favor? >> Thank you. The consent resolution passes as you all the items under it. We have a couple of more reports to go through and the first being our school board burough council leaison committee from vice president. >> I have nothing to report tonight but again Mr. Zim is in the audience as he can't when he's not at his own meetings. We email each other and text um I take things out of the monthly report that I feel big in the uh world can announce for us and Mr. Jaz is kind enough to disseminate them
034to his meetings. Thank you again, Hank. You're welcome. That's all I have. >> Did we meet with our band? >> Oh, yeah. That's right. >> A great turnout for that, right? Do you want to say a few words about that? >> You want to share? >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. So, um, being a band member here at the high school from in 19 graduated 1979. So we had all the marching band films from 1973 83 store I had them and they were on wheels had converted and then um put together the highlight and had the alumni show up along with the current and we watched it here in the auditorium. It was wonderful. Thank you for allowing us to be here and we'll do something we put on the website or
035something more. Thank you for that. >> Thank you. It was a great time. >> That would be nice. Uh Hank, did you say you were a member of the band? >> Yes. Uh >> what did you play? >> You do. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you very much. Uh our next committee report is our PTA liaison, Mrs. Sadi. >> Thank you. Um as the school year kind of winds down, I just wanted to thank all the PTAs, all the parents that volunteer their time to our activities. Eastern year for Senate. Thank you. >> Thank you. And our South River Public Library liaison on Mr. Buds. >> Tonight we're having a June 13th program at the library. Monday is having a gentle yoga. June 23rd is adopt the dinosaur. 24th is a phone party.
036June 30th is is adult puzzle night where they have contest who can do the puzzle. July 1st is meet Toby and friends. Toby is a micro hire cow and he's bring his lamb buddies with him. So you can watch them and they also have a summer reading program which you can go into the u web page and look it up. That's all I have. Thank you very much. And is there any old or new business to come before the board? >> No. Can I um mention something? Um >> Kevin has done this in the past. So, uh, my son's grandfather, uh, was, uh, Anthony Rosetta, and, uh, he had asked for us to do a list. And I would just like to say that I appreciate that every year the district puts together a list
037of where, um, our current graduates have as their proposed secondary goals. And it's nice that it's included in the agenda this evening. and it shows how many are going to a four-year school, a two-year school, into a trade, um into uh one of our armed forces. And it's it was nice that having him having asked that that last time that we have continued over the years uh since his pass. Just want to say thank you. >> Thank you. Okay. Is there uh any other old and new business to come before the board? Do we have an attorney's report? >> Just briefly, we will be starting negotiations with the SR in the coming months. Again, it's been five years already >> and uh we will have a brief executive session discussion tonight. >> Okay. Thank you.
038And our payment of bills, Mrs. Level. >> Thank you. The finance committee recommends that all bills presented having been certified by the school business administrator board secretary be paid as listed and I moved. >> We have a motion by Mrs. L. Is there a second? >> Second. Second by Mrs. Saddowski. All in favor? >> I. >> Motion carries. We will take bills. Thank you. So, uh you may have been waiting for this. This is the second public session that is being opened up to the audience. Uh at this time, the public may address any concern or comment that they have for the board. If you come to the mic, please state your name and address and please keep your comments to a threeminut time limit. There is any phone from the public wishing to speak
039at this time. And this is on first call, on second call, and on third call. Seeing none, we will close this public portion. The board is now going to go into an executive session. Be it resolved that pursuant to sections seven and eight of the open public meetings act the following subjects be discussed at a session of the board of education closed to the public and that is a private >> like orderly anticipated that the items be discussed in close session >> disclosed to the public when resolved. Is there a motion? Motion by Vice President Nielsen, there second by Mrs. Le. All in favor? >> Thank you. We are closed. Thank you for attending.