001Good evening. This is a public meeting of the Board of Education Clark Public Schools. Adequate notice of this meeting has been given in in accordance with PL 1975, chapter 231 that a special notice was made in conformance with section 13 of the act. Get a motion to return to public. Ms. Ms. Harrison. All in favor? Aye. We will just rise for the pledge. Rise for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. So, at this time we'll go to roll call. Ms. Aklonis. Here. Mr. Ben-Shimon. Here. Mr. Breedy. Ms. Calaguire. Here. Ms. Harrison. Here. Ms. Guerrero. Here. Ms. Hickman. Here. Mr. May. Present. Mr. Mr. Smarol. Here. And
002Mr. Dunkerley. >> Here. We have nine board members who have a quorum. All right. At this time we're going to welcome our new student board member, Madeleine Schmitburg. I, Madeleine Schmitburg, do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the state of New Jersey, and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, and to the government established in the United States and this state under the authority of the people. So, help me God. I, Madeleine Schmitburg, do solemnly swear that I possess the qualifications for the office of student member of Board of Education, and that I will faithfully, impartially, and justly perform all the duties that the office, according to the best of my ability. So, help me God. Welcome, Maddie. All right. So, at this time we're going to get
003approval minutes from last month. I see Mrs. Hickman, followed by Mrs. Guerrero. Any questions or comments? Roll call, please. Ms. Aklonis. Yes. Mr. Ben-Shimon. Yes. Ms. Calaguire. Abstain. Ms. Harrison. Abstain from the September 4th meeting and good for the 22nd. Ms. Guerrero. Yes. Ms. Hickman. Yes. Mr. May. Yes. Mr. Smarol. Yes. And Mr. Dunkerley. Yes. Motion carried. Uh so, at this time we'll open the floor to the public for agenda items only. So, if there's something on the agenda that you'd like to discuss, now would be the time to come up, state your name, address. At the end we'll address non-agenda items. So, seeing none, we'll move on to personnel items 1 through 19. Can I get a motion? Ms. Aklonis, followed by Mr. Ben-Shimon. Questions or comments on those? Roll call, please. Ms. Aklonis.
004Yes. Mr. Ben-Shimon. Yes. Ms. Calaguire. Yes. Ms. Harrison. Yes. Ms. Guerrero. Abstain on 2, 4, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14. Yes on the rest. Thank you. Ms. Hickman. Yes. Mr. May. Yes. Mr. Smarol. Yes. And Mr. Dunkerley. Yes. Motion carried. Now we have curriculum item number 20. Can I get a motion? I see Ms. Harrison, and followed by Ms. Calaguire. Questions or comments? And a roll call, please. Ms. Aklonis. Yes. Mr. Ben-Shimon. Yes. Ms. Calaguire. Yes. Ms. Harrison. Yes. Ms. Guerrero. Yes. Ms. Hickman. Yes. Mr. May. Yes. Mr. Smarol. Yes. And Mr. Dunkerley. Yes. Motion carried. We have now policy item 21. Motion. Just 21. Uh any questions or comments? Or I see Ms. Guerrero for a motion. And Mr. May has a second. Any questions or comments on that? Roll call, please.
005Ms. Aklonis. Yes. Mr. Ben-Shimon. Yes. Ms. Calaguire. Yes. Ms. Harrison. Yes. Ms. Guerrero. Yes. Ms. Hickman. Yes. Mr. May. Yes. Mr. Smarol. Yes. And Mr. Dunkerley. Yes. Motion carried. Now we have board governance items 22 to 25. A motion. Ms. Aklonis, Mr. Ben-Shimon. Questions, comments? Roll call, please. Ms. Aklonis. Yes. Mr. Ben-Shimon. Yes. Ms. Calaguire. Yes. Ms. Harrison. Yes. Ms. Guerrero. Yes. Ms. Hickman. Yes. Mr. May. Yes. Mr. Smarol. Yes. And Mr. Dunkerley. Yes. Motion carried. And then finally we have items 26 to 49 on finance. A motion, Mr. Smarol. Followed by Ms. Aklonis. Any questions or comments? Roll call on those, please. Ms. Aklonis. Yes. Mr. Ben-Shimon. Yes. Ms. Calaguire. Yes. Ms. Harrison. Yes. Ms. Guerrero. Abstain on 26, 27, 33, 34. Yes on the rest. Thank you. Ms. Hickman. Yes. Mr. May. Yes.
006Mr. Smarol. Yes. And Mr. Dunkerley. Yes. Motion carried. Usually I'd hand it over to Mr. Grande, but for just before I go on, I just want to re-welcome Ms. Calaguire to the to the Board of Ed. Uh Ms. Calaguire is filling the shoes of Mr. Lewis, who unfortunately passed back in August, and we appreciate Ms. Calaguire coming back, helping us out, and uh look forward to the next few months. Thank you, Ms. Thank you. Nice to be back for a short time. Thank you. Any other comments? All right. Mr. Grande. Good evening, and thank you, Mr. Dunkerley. Welcome, Madeleine. In the words of Mrs. Amboni, her school counselor, Madeleine is an ambitious senior who has pursued a rigorous academic path, including honors courses and 13 advanced placement classes with an emphasis on history. A member
007of four national honor societies, Madeleine demonstrates a strong commitment to excellence both in and beyond the classroom. Passionate about political science, she is actively running a campaign to promote voter registration and contributes to her community for her involvement with the Clark Lions Club in her role as a student advocate for drug and alcohol prevention. Madeleine's leadership skills are exceptional. She currently serves as Lieutenant Governor for her Key Club district, Vice President of her class, President of the National Honor Society, and captain of the varsity cheerleading team. Again, Madeleine, welcome, and we have every confidence you're going to do a great job this year. So excited to see you next year. This evening the Board of Education adopted our district goals for 25-26. Background, these goals are developed annually to help guide the district moving forward.
008They're based on the work of the Board of Education committees with input from administrators, staff, and parents. We use these goals to continually measure our progress towards meeting them throughout the course of the entire school year. And this year's four goals. To align our schools and students across the district in meaningful ways through, for example, student programming. To continue to engage in the recently passed bond referendum that will help us to upgrade our facilities. To continue to enhance our early childhood education program through our second year in the preschool education aid aid PEA process. And lastly, to continue to enhance our curriculum and instruction in order to improve student achievement. On this evening's agenda, we are also proving our QSAC results from last winter's New Jersey Department of Education monitoring. And they are as follows.
009Instruction and program, 86%. Fiscal management, 100%. Governance, 100%. Operations, 97%, and personnel, 100%. Many thanks to the Board of Education, administration, faculty and staff, students, parents and guardians, and our entire school community for these results. The New Jersey Department of Education created a tool for the purpose of schools self-assessing under the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act. The following values are the scores of our schools that were accepted this evening. These values are not to be confused with percentages, since they are not based out of 100. Instead, they are merely benchmark values for us to compare our past and future values to. Arthur L. Johnson High School, 73 out of 78. Carl H. Kumpf Middle School, 72 out of 78. Frank K. Hanley School, 74 out of 78. Valley Road School, 77 out of 78. And
010the preschool annex, 77 out of 78. And again, we're using these results to get even stronger in this year that lies ahead. As a friendly reminder, schools will be closed for students and staff in honor of Columbus Day next Monday, the 13th. And lastly, as our school rankings have been a recent topic of conversation, resulting in some confusion, I wanted to take this opportunity to focus on the metrics that we, as a school district, put the most weight into. These are the rankings issued by the New Jersey Department of Education. They're based on the student school performance reports and look at such factors as student achievement, student growth, and student attendance. Each of our score Each of our schools scored roughly in top third, if not higher, of the state. Only high schools were given
011ranks, and ALJ was ranked 120 out of 358. We are thrilled to be in the pack, so to speak, with some strong local high schools and even, in some cases, to have surpassed them. We have implemented of various educational initiatives from the Orton-Gillingham OG approach to reading and spelling instruction for our early learners to an honors academy through which students can earn a significant number of college credits while still being with us at ALJ. We are looking forward to continuing this good work and introducing additional initiatives with the goal of hopefully moving these ratings even further ahead. Thank you and have a great evening, everyone. Thank you, Mr. Grande. All right. So, moving on from that, we have the report of the committees. Ms. Cyclones? Yes. Um I would just like to make um mention
012of a few things for the benefit of the viewing public who do not have agendas in front of them. Uh the first one is under curriculum instruction. Uh we did approve a lot of professional development for staff for the purpose of having them uh further grow in their particular areas. Some of the areas that we did approve were teachers, new teacher instruction training, instructional coaches conference, visualizing and verbalizing training, and not but last uh not but last least, the IMSD district instructor for Orton-Gillingham. Another area that I just want to briefly address is that uh for the second reading, we've adopted 12 additional policies, and we have revised them, and they're being adopted tonight, and a couple of those um policies that I think would be interesting for you to know about would be legal
013services, professional services, the grading systems, student and sun protection, budget preparation and special education um Medicare initiatives. So, uh these are the policies that govern not only um the actions of the Clark public schools, but the Board of Education's as well. In addition, we adopted five regulations that are coordinated with the policies. So, that's just a point of information for the general public. Thank you, Ms. Cyclones. Mr. Small? Yeah. I just like to mention um I'm one of the members of the uh athletic committee, uh Board of Education athletic committee. Um it's a little bit outside of the um scope, but on October 16th, we are going to be having our second uh ALJ Athletic Hall of Fame dinner at the Gran Centurions in Clark. So, um for those of you that have any interest,
014you're certainly welcome to attend. If you're interested in tickets, I would recommend you reach out to Mr. Gus Kalikas. Um the tickets are $65 each. Um we think it's going to be a great night. It's the It's the second time we're doing it. We did it in 2023. It was a spectacular evening, and we expect uh this one to be um pretty much the same. So, again, October 16th, 6:00 at the Gran Centurions for the ALJ uh second group of inductees going in for the ALJ Athletic Hall of Fame. Thank you, Mr. Small. Any other reporter committees, unfinished or new business? Yes, Ms. Grande. I want to remind board members that Wednesday is the Union County Educational Services Excuse me. Union County um School Board Association meeting. It's in person at Garwood at the Westwood.
015Uh you can still um register for it. It's also being held virtually. The topic is artificial intelligence from the perspective of the students. There are four students who are going to be on the panel, and one of those students is from ALJ High School. Uh so, it's not too late. Uh the dinner starts at 6:00. The business meeting starts at 6:45. So, you can sign up on the New Jersey School Board Association website if you're available. And with that, I think a congratulations to Charlie Nemeth, I believe, is our representative there. Correct? Mhm. What's that? Charlie Nemeth is our representative. Yes. So, congratulations to him. All right. So, any other unfinished or new business? Okay. So, seeing none, we're going to hand it over to Maddie for her first update. Hi. This is the board
016update for September. So, at the preschool, the district health educator visited all the preschool classrooms to lead an engaging lesson on hand washing. Students participated in a read-aloud and sang a song emphasizing the importance of hygiene. To demonstrate how germs spread, glitter was placed on the students' palms, and they high-fived one another, visually reinforcing the concept. This In the classroom, the first educational unit began with a family theme. As part of this, students presented their all about me projects highlighting their family members and personal interests to help foster classroom connections. Hanley School began the academic year with an annual welcome back assembly, which included a moment of silence in remembrance for the heroes of 9/11. Parents and guardians attended back to school night to meet teachers and learn about classroom plans for the year. The
017PTA hosted its first family event, a fall fest, and room parents were introduced to teachers to coordinate classroom activities. Additionally, early year events included picture day and bus evacuation drills. Valley Road School opened the school year smoothly with only one reported building-related concern and several positive comments from families and staff about school operations. Back to school night was well attended and positively received. School photo day ran efficiently with photographers praised for the professionalism. The first PTA meeting of the year received strong support and favorable feedback, particularly from the kindergarten parents. The reading incentive program launched with an assembly organized by Mrs. Zarella, featuring teachers reading in disguise under a large cougar mask. Students enthusiastically guessed the identity of each masked reader, including a surprise appearance by Mr. Grande. Many students and staff dressed as literacy
018characters and participated in the costume showcase during the assembly. Kumpf Middle School is preparing for several key events. Eighth-grade students are scheduled to take the PSAT on October 22nd. The PTA will host a Halloween dance on the 24th of October. Tickets are $5, and only Kumpf students may attend. Costumes are allowed, but must be school-appropriate. An open house at Arthur L. Johnson High School will take place on October 28th for eighth-grade students and their families. Additionally, the Kumpf Unified Sports Team is set to participate in the annual Turkey Splash and Dash at Asbury Park on November 15th. Information regarding team registration and donation opportunities will be sent home shortly. ALJ is starting their school year off strong. GoUSA partnered with the SESA Club to visit Hanley, Valley, and Kumpf schools, delivering presentations focused on encouraging
019students to be their best selves. On September 30th, the high school hosted a highly successful college fair in collaboration with Westfield, Scotch Plains, and Cranford High Schools, drawing thousands of attendees and featuring over 150 representatives from colleges, career programs, and the military. ALJ continues to strengthen connections within the district with upcoming joint initiatives. During the week of respect, peer leaders will engage with students in grades 3 through 5 to emphasize that respect is not just a word, but an action. Additionally, the Tomorrow's Teachers class is partnering with ALJ preschool students to foster early learning experiences. The school is also beginning to celebrate senior nights during recent fall athletic events, highlighting the achievements of ALJ student athletes. Overall, our schools are great up to a great start for the 2025 to 2026 school year. Thank you.
020Thanks, Maddie. All right. So, at this time, if there's anybody in the public that wants to talk about uh non-agenda items, now would be the time. You can come up to the podium. You have 3 minutes. State your name and your address for the record. Oh. I think you can spin Yeah, I think it'll spin around. No, I think And then I think it's I think the green light is still lit, maybe on the on the microphone. Yep. Yep. It is. It's light. Awesome. Great. Thanks. Uh so, Megan Decker, Clark, New Jersey. Um so, I noticed that the the goals for the year have been adopted, which is awesome, and we're doing great in terms of progress toward the bond referendum. I was wondering if you could elaborate on some of the plans for the
021other objectives that the board and the district have sent out. Um specifically as it relates to the pre-K and the early education initiative. A couple of the parents have been asking about sort of what the vision for that looks like, and what the goal of the board is to progress that forward. So, just to clarify your question, you're asking about more specifics related to the goal around the preschool? Yep. Okay. Or any goal, but that's the one. Got So this year we're in year two of the five-year program through the state, at which point at the end of the five years will be fully servicing any three or four-year-old whose parents want their child to attend our free full-day preschool program. Right now we have the four additional classrooms up and running at ALJ. And
022we're looking to continue those and at the same time get ready to house additional preschool classrooms for any overflow partnered with the referendum and the expansion at the Henley School. In the meantime, while we get those classrooms up and running, those additional classrooms, we want to make the current program which we're thrilled we're off to a strong start. Um you know, Mrs. Donaldson with Mr. Tempany's help being, you know, housed in Mrs. Olivera and Mrs. Posky's building, we're thrilled we're off to a strong start. Um all the prayers worked out and now we're looking to get even stronger. We're looking to start a PTA to start a parent advisory group that meets um periodically throughout the course of the school year. Um providing our teachers not only with the essential professional development and tools of
023the mind so that they were able to start teaching on day one, but refining it and doing, let's say, early OG training so that when they go into kindergarten, they not that we want preschool to become pre-kindergarten because a lot of preschool is learning how to play and socialize, but you know, also strengthening the academic component of it while not creating a stressful environment for the children. So that's kind of the vision with the preschool. Thank you. That's wonderful. Thank you. Just happy to hear about the social emotional learning aspect of aspect of it. I saw that HIP grant was renewed for the high school as well through NJ NJEA. So that's really exciting to be able to pull that SEL learning into the the high school level. Yep. Thank you. Thank you. Uh Bill
024Draghi, 47 Post Road, Clark, New Jersey. And as usual, I'm speaking against Governor Murphy's executive order that said uh all all the schools in Jersey uh from I think a 1 through 12 have to teach on transgender and on abortion. Um as far as the transgender um almost every time I come here there is a shooting. Once a month, just about. And even the last shooting against Charlie Kirk it wasn't directly a transgender person that shot him, but the shooter was a boyfriend of a transgender girl. Really, a boy. Now, um uh and the last time I think I talked about the Maryland case or maybe the time before which is a similar they have a um state similar to Jersey um Democrat um uh legislature and they have the same sort of rules. They
025have to teach transgender also. And and it went to the Supreme Court there and uh the Supreme Court said they have to parents have to have the right to opt out of the opt out of these classes if it the class uh is against their religion. It's a a violation of religion. That's that's in the Constitution. Um Now, uh what what is what is the rule for opting out here? Do they have to give a reason? Does a child have to give a reason why they're opting out? No, his or her parent just submits a letter to the building principal and it can be an opt out for an entire unit or even a specific lesson, just asking to be opted out without any reason or justification required. Now, uh also part of the ruling
026was they have to actually describe the the curriculum very very um very well. That was that was the Supreme Court ruling for Maryland. Doesn't apply to Jersey but in a sense it does because it's it's the whole country. Um uh So, uh So therefore I I tried to look up the curriculum. You said it was kind of easy to find, but I spent two hours today looking up the curriculum uh and trying to find the transgender and the abortion curriculum. I couldn't find it at all. And then finally it just said my computer my uh computer uh there wasn't enough space. But I watch movies every night with with hundreds of millions of megabytes. Why do I have to have so much space to to load down your curriculum? Do you have any any other
027um parents um complaining about that? No, in fact I believe they're Google Docs that don't require a download, but Mr. Draghi, if you email me, I'll respond with the with the links that you can easily access. Uh how how can I how can I easily access it? If you email me, I'll respond to your email with the links. They're easily accessible through Google Docs that you that you can just with a web browser access. You won't need to download. I don't know. Yeah. Those are the versions that are on the website. That's why I'm confused why you're having difficulty, but I'm happy to assist. Yeah. But I was I was also thinking that if a teacher would like to bring in a book that's not on the curriculum cuz the whole thing that did that
028I had that affected this Maryland case was just a story book with two daddies and that would that's what brought the whole case in Maryland and went right to the Supreme Court. Um so I I guess even if it's not on the curriculum, any one of the teachers that might be in favor of this transgender stuff they could bring in a book uh they find in the library or something and it may not be on the curriculum and they could be uh teaching this. So it's it's very possible. So what I suggest to the parents is if they unless you you state that you will not obey um Governor Murphy's law or executive order that says you have to do this. I would say opt out. The parents should just opt out of these. Mr.
029Draghi, your your time is up, but I think I think we've been very transparent with parents and yourself about where we I want to I just want to say I think we've been very transparent with parents and yourself about our curriculum and how we stick to it and uh what's taught. So I think we have a very good relationship with our parents and you know, I think that's a good start. Thank you. Are there any other questions or comments from the public on non-agenda items? All right, so seeing none, we'll close out that portion of the meeting. And with that, can I get a motion to adjourn? Ms. Eglonas followed by Ms. Harrison. All in favor? Aye. Thank you. Have a good night.