001[music] This is a public meeting of the board of education of Clark Public Schools. Adequate notice of this meeting has been given in accordance with PL 1975 chapter 231 and a special notice was made in conformance with section 13 of the act. You want to rise for the pledge of >> please. I pledge of allegiance to the flag of [clears throat] the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> I will now read the results from the November 4, 2025 school election. Uh, Lorraine Akal Akalonus received 3,667 [clears throat] votes. Congratulations, Miss Akalonus is top vote getter. [applause] >> Thank you. >> Christine Hickman received 3,502. Uh, Allison Melnik received 3,626. Liam, [applause] 1744, Megan Decker, 1950, and Katherine
002Nanjo, 1742. And there were actually 49 writing votes. Uh will the new elected members please rise to for this morning statement? >> All right, you guys ready? I >> do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution United States and the Constitution of the State of the State of New Jersey faith and allegiance to the same and to the government established in the United States. and the state under the authority of the people. So help me God. Iman do solely swear that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law for the office of a member of the board of education and that I am not disqualified as a voter pursuant to RS194-1 nor disqualified due to conviction of a crime or offense listed in NJSA 12-1 and that I will faithfully and partially and justly perform
003all the duties at the office to the best of my abilities. So help me God. >> Congratulations, LADY. [applause] [applause] >> Could you please sign it and just pass it pass it over to me, please? >> Okay, I will take roll call. Miss Aonus >> here. >> Mr. Mr. Bessinga >> here. >> Mr. Breedy >> here. >> Miss McCarrick >> here. >> Miss Harrison >> here. >> Miss Hickman >> here. >> Mr. May >> present. >> Mr. Mel um Miss Melnik >> here. >> Mr. Smurl >> here >> and Mr. Dunc having 10 board members. We have a quorum >> motion motion going to exec Mr. Breedy by Harrison. >> All in favor? >> I take five take pictures. >> Yes. Okay. Can we have a motion return to public session, please? Mr. Swirl. Second,
004Miss Aonus. Thank you. All in favor? I >> I this is a public meeting of the board of education of Clark public schools. Adequate notice of this meeting has been given accordance with PL 1975 chapter 231 and that a special notice was made in conformance with section 13 of the act. Uh pledge to the flag please. I pledge allegiance to the flag of United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> We'll now take roll call. Miss Aonz >> here. >> Mr. Spinga >> here. >> Mr. Breedy >> here. >> Miss McCarrick >> here. >> Miss Harrison >> here. >> Miss Hickman >> here. [clears throat] >> Mr. May. >> Miss Melnik >> here. >> Mrs. Smorl >> here. >>
005And Mr. Dunkerloop >> here. Having 10 board members, we have a quorum. We'll now take a nomination and election of the president. Have a nomination, please. Um, I'd like to nominate Mr. Steven Dunkeruth for president. >> Have a motion. Thank you. >> There we have two motions. All right. All right. So, the board accepts the nom. Can we have a motion to close the nomination for office of president, Miss Aalonus and Miss Sman? Thank you. We'll now take a roll call on the president of Miss Aclonis. >> Yes. >> Mr. Bena. >> Yes. >> Mr. Breedy. >> Yes. >> Miss McCarrick. >> Yes. >> Miss Harrison. >> Yes. >> Miss Hickman. >> Yes. >> Mr. May. >> Yes. >> Miss Melick. >> Yes. [clears throat] >> Mr. Smurl. >> Yes. >> And Mr. Dung Su
006be resolved by the board of education township of Clark that Steve Duncan is hereby elected president of the Clark of Board of Clark Board of Education. Congratulations. [applause] We'll now accept a motion for nomination office of vice president. >> I would like to nominate Lorena Clonis for vice president. >> Have a second, please. >> Second, >> Mr. Duncan Thank you. Um, a motion to close nominations. Thank you. We'll >> now take roll call. >> Miss Akalonus. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Mr. Ben Cingo. >> Yes. >> Mr. Breedy. >> Yes. >> Mr. McCarrick. >> Yes. >> Miss Harrison. >> Yes. >> Miss Hickman. >> Yes. >> Mr. May. >> Yes. >> Miss Maldnik. >> Yes. >> Mr. Smurl. >> Yes. >> And Mr. Duncan. >> Yes. >> Motion carry. be resolved by the board of
007education township of Clark. The Lorraine Akalonius is everybody elected vice president of the Clark Board of Education. Congratulations. [applause] And lastly, um have a motion to accept board of education member code of ethics. Mr. Steve Dunloo second. Thank you. All in favor? >> I. >> Thank you, Mr. Mr. President, it's all yours. >> Thank you. Uh, at this time, we're going to hand it over to Andrew for the presentation of the 2425 schooler budget audit. >> Oh, and before you I'm sorry, before you start, you can come up, but before we start, and thank you, Mr. Small, I just wanted to welcome back Miss Aalonus and Miss Hickman. And then welcome Miss Melnik to the board of education. We're excited that the two of you have been reelected. And Miss Melnik, happy to have you
008on the board and looking forward to good things. >> [applause] >> And then and then just one more point. Uh we now have and Tracy, I'm sorry I forget your last name. McGawan. >> McCarron. Uh she will be our new Garwood rep. Uh so we welcome you to the Clark Board of Education and uh we're looking forward to uh our continuing relationship with Garwood. So with that, [applause] thank you Andrew. Thank you again. Again, my name is Andrew Pari um with Lurch Fitzy and Bliss. We have completed your audit for the year ending June 30th, 2025. You all should have received uh two reports. The large report is the annual comprehensive financial report and then the smaller report would be the auditor's management report. Included in the management report would be any findings and recommendations
009if any. Um as far as the annual comprehensive financial reports concerned, it's primarily made up of four sections. Uh the first section would be the introductory section which is a very brief description of the district. The second section would be the management discussion and analysis which is your financial statements in a narrative form. The third section would be your financial section which would include an auditor's opinion uh various financial statements and footnotes to those financial statements. And then the last section of the report would be the statistical section which is miscellaneous statistics of both the township and the school district. Uh, as I indicated, there's an auditor's opinion attached to your financial statements for the year ending June 30th, 2025. That opinion is an unmodified opinion. Uh, that's a clean opinion. That means that your
010financial statements are fairly stated and free of material misstatement. Like I said, that's a clean opinion. That's the opinion you want to obtain on an annual basis. Uh, what I would like to briefly discuss now would be the district's fund balance at June 30th, 2025. Um, the district ended the year with approximately $10 million in fund balance. That fund balance is reserved or or restricted for several purposes, and I'll get into those at this point. Uh, the first designation or reservation is what's referred to as excess surplus in the amount of $3.3 million. That's fund balance that was used to offset taxes in your or it's going to be used to offset taxes in your 2627 budget. The second the next piece of of your fund balance at June 30th would be excess surplus designated
011for subsequent year's expenditures in the amount of approximately 2.9 million. That was fund balance that was used as a revenue revenue source to offset taxes in the 2526 budget. That's the budget we're in right now. The district has also set aside a capital reserve in the amount of approximately 800,000. There is a maintenance reserve in the amount of 957,000. The district had u what is referred to as incumbrances which are uh contracts that were entered into prior to June 30th but were not paid in the amount of 600,000. And the main incumbrance there were uh restroom alterations at ALJ. Um and then the last piece of your fund balance would be your unassigned fund balance in the amount of 1.1 million. Um, as far as uh findings or recommendations go, um, there was one, but
012before I get into that, um, I just want to indicate there's three types of findings or recommendations. The the most severe would be what is referred to as a material weakness. Uh, the next severe would be what what is referred to as a significant deficiency. And then the the last type of recommendation is is a what is called a general comment. Um the recommendation that we have here is in the category of general comment. Um it was in the area of purchasing related to uh national co-op and state approved purchasing agreements and the recommendation was that contracts awarded through national cooperative purchasing agreements be advertised and lowcost savings analysis be completed. In addition, the amounts reported on the vendor invoices be verified to supporting co-op contract documentation. Um, if there's any questions, I'd be glad
013to address those at this point. While [snorts] we are right now, Right. Thank you. Thank you. >> All right. So, at this time, we'll open the floor to the public for agenda items only. So, if there's anything on the agenda that someone would like to discuss, now would be the time. At the end of the meeting, we'll open up for non-aggenda items. So, seeing none comments for agenda items, we'll move on to personnel. We have uh personnel items 1 through 10. Can I get a motion? I have Mr. S'moral and then Miss Alonus. Any questions or comments? A roll call, please? >> We have the minutes first. >> Okay. Want to back up? We'll go to the minutes. It's my first day on the job. I I'm sorry. Um so before we go to personnel,
014we'll go to the approval of minutes. Um if we can get a motion for the approval minutes from last month, Miss Akalonus, followed by Mr. Breedy. Any questions or comments on those? Roll call on those, please. >> Miss Akalonus. Yes, >> Mr. Benovinga. >> Abstain, >> Miss McCarrick. >> Abstain, >> Miss Harrison. >> Yes, >> Mr. Sakeman. >> Yes, >> Mr. May. >> Abstain. >> Miss Melik, >> abstain. >> Mr. Smurl, >> yes. >> Mr. Dunker, >> yes. >> Mr. Fizuzo, I uh >> motion. You >> You missed me, but I I I'm a yes. >> Mr. Breed, I'm sorry. >> But you know, he was here because >> No, you abstained. surprised to see me. No, no, I'm I'm a yes. I was here. >> Sorry. >> I'm a yes. >> You're a yes.
015Okay. Thank you. In that case, motion carried. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. So, now we'll move on to personnel. So, I believe I have a motion from Mr. Smarl and a motion by Miss Akalonus. Any questions or comments? Roll call, please. >> Yes. >> Mr. Benvinga, >> yes. >> Mr. McCarrick, >> abstain from items 1 through five and eight. Yes. To the others. >> Excuse me. One through five. >> One through five. >> Eight. Thank you. >> M. Harrison. >> Yes. >> Miss Hickman. >> Yes. >> Mr. May. >> Yes. >> Miss. Melnik. >> Yes. >> Mr. Smurl. >> Yes. >> And Mr. Duncan? >> Yes. >> Motion carried. >> All right. Now we have curriculum items 11 and 12. Can I get a motion? I see m Miss Akalonus by Miss Harrison.
016Any questions or comments on those? >> Roll call, please. >> Aonus. >> Yes. Mr. Svinga, >> yes. Mr. >> Breedy, >> yes. >> Mr. McCarrick, >> yes. >> Miss Harrison, >> yes. >> Miss Hickman, >> yes. >> Mr. May, >> yes. >> M Miss Melnik, >> yes. >> Mr. Small, >> yes. >> And Mr. Duncan, >> yes. >> Carried. >> Thank you. And now board governance. We have items 13 to 17. Can I get a motion? >> Mr. Breedy, followed by Mr. Bena. >> Roll call, please. >> Echelon. >> Yes. >> Mr. Bena. Yes, Mr. >> Grey. [clears throat] >> Yes, Mr. >> McCarrick. >> Abstain from 15 through 17. Yes to the others. >> Thank you, Miss Harrison. >> Yes, Mr. >> Hickman. >> Yes, >> Mr. May. >> Yes, >> Mr. Melnik. >>
017Yes, >> Mr. Smurl. >> Yes. >> And Mr. Duncan? >> Yes. >> Motion carried. >> And now on finance, we have items 18 to 24. And we also have agenda number one. And agenda number one reads, "Approval is hereby given to accept a proposal from Legacy Construction Management to provide construction management services in support of the referendum based roof renovations at ALJ, CHK, Henley, and VRS and the classroom addition at Henley. The proposal is on file on the board. So with that, can I get a motion on items 18 to 24 and agenda number one, Mr. Small and Mr. May? Questions or comments?" Roll call, please. Macalonis. >> Yes. >> Minga. >> Yes. >> Breidy. >> Yes. >> Miss McCarrick. >> Abstain from 18. Yes. To the others. >> Thank you. >> Miss Harrison. >>
018Yes. >> Sickman. >> Yes. >> Mr. May. >> Yes. >> Miss Melnik. >> Yes. >> Mr. Samurro. >> Yes. >> And Mr. Duncan? >> Yes. >> Motion carried. >> Thank you. All right. At this time, we'll hand it over to Mr. Grandandy for the report of the superintendent. >> Thank you, Mr. Donursuit. Good evening, everyone, and happy new year. Congratulations to President Donursuit and Vice President Mr. Alanis. Many congratulations to Miss Alanis and Mrs. Hickman on the re-election and Mrs. Melnik on her election. And I know that we're looking forward to working with all of you in the new year. And welcome Mrs. McCarrick and we're equally looking forward to working with you as a new Garwood rep. As you just heard, we accepted our 2425 audit and a huge thanks to Mr. Vizuzo, the
019finance committee led by Mr. Smoral with Mr. Breed and Mr. May's members and the entire board for their guidance. On this evening's agenda, we're approving Mrs. Clark as the acting principal of Carl Hcom Middle School and Mrs. Lubies Hot Maker as our acting assistant principal. Again, many congratulations and we're looking forward to your strong leadership. >> [applause] >> We're also approving the return of Camp Invention to run July 20th through 24th, the full week, at a cost of $315 per student entering grades 1 to six in September. I know Mrs. Trello is already hard at work at making this a quality SEM program and a summer extension for our students. The beginning of the new calendar year brings planning for next school year already, believe it or not. for example, with the budgeting process that
020Mr. Vizuza is leading once again with guidance from the finance committee and input from our administrative team and staff. And you'll also see that the ALJ program of studies, which is really our curriculum guide for the high school, those revisions were approved this evening. And the ALJ admin and school counseling teams led by Mrs. Oliver and Mr. Amandola did a lot of good hard work to make that um most current document for us. Thank you and have a good rest of your evening and we're looking forward to the rest of this um calendar year and this this new calendar year I should say in this the this new calendar year that will bring us to the end of this school year. Thank you. >> Thank you Mr. Grandandy. At this time do we have any
021report of the committees? Seeing none any unfinished or new business to be discussed? All right. So we'll move on to Maddie for our student member update. >> All right. So, I'm here to report on what the schools did um last in um December and into January. So, to start off with the preschool to close out 2025, the students enjoyed Polar Express themed activities. Students are continuing their restaurant 3 learning unit which began last month focusing on the roles of people who work in and visit restaurants. As a part of this unit and to strengthen home and school connections, families are participating in a project by sharing a favorite recipe which will be compiled into a class cookbook. At Henley, students and staff embraced the holiday season throughout December with a variety of festive activities. The
022month included decorating trees, meeting Santa, and shopping at the annual holiday boutique, and vets concluded with the winter concert and the popular hot cocoa pajama day and movie event. Santa's helpers from the PTA served hot chocolate while Santa greeted students. Valley Road School had an active and festive December highlighted by many PTA sponsored events. Students participated in the holiday shop, allowing them to purchase gifts for family members, while staff enjoyed a holiday party and a PTA sponsored lunchon. Additional highlights included a food advisory meeting with student feedback to Machios, the winter concert at ALJ, a game show assembly, kindergarten gingerbread house activities with parent involvement, class holiday parties, and a special holiday character visit. The office staff and school counseling office also organized a 12 days before break activity to further enhance school spirit. Looking
023ahead, Valley Road School will host a glow night in January. Cuff Middle School celebrated student achievements in both the arts and academics. The corral and instrumental winter concerts were held in December and were well attended, showcasing the hard work of students under direction of Mrs. Pollock. Additionally, the Comp Science Olympiad team competed in a recent competition and the team is eagerly awaiting the results. Finally, at ALJ High School, we had a very busy winter season. Highlights included the winter concert, pictures with Santa for pre-K through grades 5, a Toys for Tot food bank donation drive, and a cultural field trip to the New York City for the Italian classes. The school also hosted the Harlem Wizards basketball game through project graduation, welcomed a child smart internet safety assembly, and enjoyed a special visit from drummer
024Lucy Ritter. Upcoming events include a pep rally and the seal of biiteracy testing with over 30 students who are registered to participate. Thank you. >> Great job. >> Thank you, Maddie. Mr. moral. >> Yeah. Um on on behalf of the uh board of education and the athletic committee, um for those of you that may or may not know, we've we've had great success this past fall with our athletic programs and um we had a large number of student athletes that were recognized uh and received postseason recognition. um so many that it'd be a while for me to read the whole list. But in terms of our field hockey program, our football programs, and our girls and boys soccer programs, we had numerous athletes that um received all conference um all county and all group two
025recognitions. So just on behalf of the board of education want to congratulate all those athletes. I think it's a great accomplishment to be recognized. Um, and I also want to just uh recognize coach Gus Kicas who stepped in this year to help out our football program in light of some difficult circumstances. And he was honored this year as the um silver division coach of the year. So, congratulations to coach Kicas on on that uh recognition. Um we're really proud of what he did this year, what he did for the football program. Very thankful. And so, uh, again, congratulations and we look forward to successful winter seasons, which all seem to be getting off to a really good start. >> Thank you, Mr. Small. Any other business? All right. So, at this time, we'll open up
026the floor to the public for non-aggenda items. So, if there's anything you'd like to discuss that's not on the agenda, please come to the podium, state your name, your address, and you have three minutes per topic. >> Hello. Uh, John Gre, 30 Parkway Drive from Clark. Uh, one quick just like technical thing on the website. If you just put in clarkschools.org, it often will just give you an error because you have to put in www. There's like a small redirect you could do so that it's easy for people to get to. It's just a minor thing, but I' i've run into it a few times. I'm sure others have and just a technical thing. But the thing I really wanted to come up here and discuss was just um I last month uh just before
027the holidays, there was a social media post that just I was a little concerned about. It mentioned some situations over at Henley. Um, to be fair, you know, some of the comments that were in response to it were sort of mixed and, you know, it was just hard to necessarily nail down what was going on. I'm just going to read some brief parts of it and I never saw like an official response and I don't know if you guys saw it on Clark Neighbors, but it was something that, you know, I I felt worried about because it's about children in elementary school and I felt that um, you know, it's it's really important to make sure that they're able to be children. but it said something to the effect of, "My child's been saying that
028they aren't allowed to talk really during lunch and they can't run around and play tag at recess." She also mentioned that there's assigned seating for class and they can't interact with other classes while eating. She said they're not allowed to use toys, balls, if not approved, hula hoops, jump ropes, or chalk, and their scheduled days of the week for the jungle gym, which feels a bit concerning to me. Um, I'm just trying to understand what children are allowed to do during recess if the options are so limited. And my child's also felt that some of the staff supervising them seem very strict, stare and yell at them, and particularly hone in on particular groups of children. There's a little more, but that's the the meat of it. Um, I just want to see what's going
029on there. That I realized, like I said, like there was some sort of mixed comments. Some people said, "Yeah, that's kind of how it is. I've seen it." And some people are saying, you know, it's not so bad. But, um, I'm a little worried about it, you know. So, I just wanted to see if you guys could address that. Um, I sincerely apologize, but I'm late to pick up my son, so I do have to run, but I did want to make sure that um I brought that up because I I do worry. All right. Thank you. Thanks. >> Any other comments from the public? >> Ed, Mr. Granny, do you want to have a response to that or do you want to see if Mr. Greavves? >> Yep. And then you can go. Awesome.
030So, we were aware of a social media post and u Mrs. Bergen immediately prepared a response that went into the Henley hot topics um that went out I think Monday evening and some of the comments that were made were I want to say exaggerations. Um for example, students are allowed to talk in the cafeteria. However, they're asked to be, and I'm glad you're shaking your head, they're asked to be silent at times of transition. For example, when they're either entering or exiting the lunchroom or when they're getting called up by class to get their food. Um, another example is that the students are allowed to play in the areas where we as the school administrators deem it to be safe. Um, some of the areas that were mentioned in the post have trees with roots
031that would be problematic if a student played there and fell. Um, I'm just giving some highlights, but u, Mrs. Bergen had a lengthy response in the um, and hot topics like I said before and anyone from the public who would like a copy of that either reach out to Mrs. Bergen or myself and we'll be happy to get that to you and um, our doors, our phones or emails, they're open to you. Thank you. >> And Mr. Grande, if I could just add on that, we did have a year or so ago, maybe a little bit more, some concerned parents coming up about the um the jungle gym, the playground, right? I mean, so it's a known it's a known issue that we are correcting with the referendum. So to it's been a problem took
032longer than any of us would have liked to address it for sure, but that is obviously being addressed with the referendum. Thank you, Mrs. Clark. >> Hello, Amanda Clark, newly appointed acting principal of K Middle School. Um, I just want to take a second to thank the board of ed and Mr. Grande for giving me the opportunity to become the acting principal of a school that I hold near and dear to my heart. So, thank you very much. >> Thank you. [applause] Right. So, at this time, uh, are there any other comments from the public on non-aggenda items? Okay. So, with that, we will, uh, close the meeting. Can I get a motion to adjurnn, Miss Hickman, Mr. Small? Everybody in favor? I. >> All in favor? I. >> Thank you. [music] >> [music] [music]