001Mhm. >> Cool. Uh, going to the agenda and just see if you know, if you needed a copy of the agenda, there are copies on the table. I think there are a few more left. So, moving on to item one of the agenda, call to order. So, in accordance with the Open Public Meetings N.J.S.A. 10 uh 4-6 and N.J.S.A. 35:3-2, adequate notification of this meeting has been posted on the district's website in the Board of Education Administration Building and district schools and with the Borough Clerk. I hereby call to order the special public meeting Monday, May 18th, 2026 Excuse me. In the Lincoln Middle School Cafetorium 400 Denellen Ave at 7:34 p.m. This meeting is broadcast live. For details, check www.denellenschools.org. And you can also um access the agendas on our website as well under
002the Board of Education if you're listening in at home. So, moving on to item number two, roll call. Mr. Pepe, could you please call the roll? Mr. Anderson? Present. Mrs. Condit? Present. Ms. Ibach? Present. Dr. Gendrano? Present. Mr. Mitchell? Present. Mrs. Moore? Present. Mr. Satanoy? Present. Ms. Schimpf is not here and Mrs. Schumpf? Present. We have a quorum. Fantastic. Moving on to item number three, uh Pledge of Allegiance. The flag is over here. Please please stand. 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. Will you all please remain standing for a moment of reflection and respect for our troops serving throughout the world our troops who have served and our troops who
003have made the ultimate sacrifice in the name of our United States of America. Thank you. Moving along to item number four, president's remarks. I'll keep this brief uh so we can get going. Just good evening, everyone. I'd like to thank you all for joining us this evening. Um to the folks in the room, to the folks online, thank you. Thank you for joining us. We will be um joined today by Mr. Mr. Camagno and Dr. Falkenstein, and I'll be introducing them in just a second. But um just to say that you know this the meeting here is in for us to be able to talk about it, to hear about hear about it, and to talk about um the process moving forward with our superintendent search that you are aware of at this time. So
004I'll like as I said, I'll keep this short, and let's just move on to item number five, our presentation for the superintendent search. Mr. Camagno, I'll turn it over to you, sir. I want to move forward. Thank you, Mr. President. Good evening. My second lieutenant who's home for the summer would be thrilled with how we began our meeting. Uh what a what a wonderful way to begin our meeting. Uh my name is John Camagno. To the members of the public, my colleague Dr. Rick Falkenstein is here also. Going to violate one of our usual rules with presentations and move the podium a little bit uh because the the presentation tonight is for it's for the board, but it is in many ways more importantly for the community. So I want to make sure that I
005see the community and talk with the community. We're going to talk about what is this board's greatest responsibility and greatest opportunity? And that is searching for, recruiting, hiring, engaging a new instructional leader for this school district. So we're going to talk about that. Uh my name again is John Camagno. I am a school attorney. Camagno Law Group, our firm represents about 100 districts throughout the region. I also serve as uh adjunct law faculty at two law schools and several graduate schools of education. Uh in the consulting firm, I serve as our president. The consulting firm does executive search, it does instructional analysis and audits, it does strategic planning, all sorts of wonderful things supporting best practices in public education. Uh my dear friend and colleague Dr. Rick Falkenstein, who is here, is the current sitting
006president of the New Jersey Association of School Administrators. Uh that is the association for superintendents and administrators. He is also a sitting superintendent in two counties in Hunterdon County. Our third consultant, uh Dr. Sarah Baldi, is also an officer with NJASA. She's in another meeting tonight. She's not here. She sends her regards. She would have loved the treats. They're over there. I encourage you to uh to enjoy. Our firm has been engaged by this board to bring professional assistance in the superintendent search process. Rather than posting an ad, casting a net, and seeing who applies. Uh this board, after soliciting proposals and interviewing several firms, engaged our firm to assist in a data-driven search process, which includes, importantly, your voice. Through surveys, through virtual meetings, through in-person meetings. So, we're going to talk about that
007tonight. This process is the district's most extraordinary opportunity. It is this board's most important role. These seasoned board members would tell you, if you ask them, how many employees do you have? They have one employee. And that's the superintendent of schools. And their most important job is to find Do we start over? You don't have to start over, but at home they're having a hard time with Okay. I've got to speak more closely. That's nice. Any requests? I was talking about songs, Peppy. He'll get me the song requests later. The most extraordinary opportunity for the district and the board. Is that better, fellas? All right. And welcome everyone at home, the thousands of Dunellen residents who have tuned in at home. We appreciate you tuning in and we welcome your virtual participation uh tonight. This
008process is the board's most important role and task and most extraordinary opportunity because of the tenor, the vision, the principal responsibility of the superintendent in assisting the board in discerning your goals as members of the community, in determining what those goals specifically are and then achieving those goals. This process is fundamental. I mentioned our firm is multi-disciplinary. We've got expertise in all of these varied areas. The board is investing in us and in our work to ensure that this process uh is sound, to ensure that this process is data-driven, to ensure that this process again at the end of the day, most importantly, as the board has told us, elevates your voice. And listens to you as to what is important in your next instructional leader. And we're going to talk about what that looks
009like. Our process has a number of phases. Presenting the process. We are here tonight at phase one, and that is to provide a public presentation of the purpose and what our process is. We identify stakeholders. We have already begun identifying stakeholders. Obviously, our board is stakeholders. All of our staff, all employees of the district, are stakeholders. Our students are stakeholders. Our parents are stakeholders. Other community members who may not have students currently in the school district are stakeholders. Other members of the community, business owners, etc., all have a stake in this process. We are working towards identifying these various groups, and as you will hear tonight, you're going to have varied opportunities to come out. I congratulate you, those of you who've come out. This is a large group. We often present to one, two,
010three, five. This is fabulous. We applaud you taking a beautiful, feels like mid-August night uh to come out, come away from your families, and all the other things that you could be doing to hear about this process, and to provide some feedback. But, we identify stakeholders to make sure that we can identify voice, and to make sure that as we collect data through in-person stakeholder sessions, through surveys, through virtual meetings, that we're meeting with folks who want to be heard. You're going to receive more flyers. You already received one for tonight. You're going to be receiving more. They will be announcing in-person meetings and virtual meetings. They'll also be providing links to surveys. Phase two will be to collect that stakeholder input. Again, through surveys, through in-person meetings, and also via Zoom. Our surveys cast
011a broad but targeted net. We want to hear what you think are the best parts of Dunellen Public Schools. We want to hear what you think is highly effective. We want to hear from you about what you think is not highly effective. We want to hear from you what your vision is for the school district. We want to hear from you. This board wants to hear from you about how you define great leadership. What traits you think the next leader will need to have to be successful. And our surveys, in addition to our in-person and Zoom meetings, will be drilling down. We will, as we've already begun working with your elected officials, we will assist you in assisting us in determining the vision for your next leader. Stay the course. Status quo. We like what
012we have. We like what we have had. We like what we used to have. Or do we want to change the status quo? And why? And if we are changing the status quo, we don't change just for the sake of change. We change meaningfully. These elected officials will tell you that. Why? What's different if different is sought? Do we want experience matching our district? Do we want a leader who has been a leader somewhere else leading schools that look like ours? That has experience communicating with the community like ours. Or are we not so about experience? Are we concerned more about those inherent skills that match our vision that will assist us in achieving our goals. Is our vision now for this district district different than it was? What is our vision for the district?
013Because that impacts this process. What are our strengths? What are our needs? What are the critical skills? What's the most important experience? Example and the board will be looking at data within a month. We'll be holding stakeholder sessions over the upcoming 2 or 3 weeks. Again, you'll get flyers, you'll get emails, you'll get all sorts of wonderful communication about how to participate. We'll We'll be collecting answers to these questions. This is an example from a prior search. What qualities do you think are most important in a new superintendent? You can see that community good communication skills were more important than some of the other items that were listed. Qualities that are identified by the board, qualities that are identified by you. Instructional experience. This is direct survey data. The importance of instructional experience. Here, you
014can see very important over 40%. Central office experience important I find this interesting. I often also say you don't want to hear what the attorney thinks is interesting. Just like you don't want to hear what your doctor thinks is interesting. But, I find this very interesting. This community when polled about the importance of central office experience, being a superintendent, being an assistant superintendent, being a director, being central office, not considered to be very important, just important. We'll be asking you the questions like this. Again, prior experience as a superintendent in Not here, this these are just examples of prior surveys, only somewhat important. We will analyze data and report back your thoughts, your wants, what you feel is critically necessary, what might not be to the board as the board crafts with us a leadership
015profile that will guide our recruitment process. Again, examples from a prior search discussing. So, we take all that data, we analyze it, and then working with the board, working with your elected officials, we develop a district leadership profile defining the traits of the right fit leader. Not the right fit leader from a 30,000 foot, but the right fit leader for Den Elan. Based on board input, staff input, community input to make sure that there's the right fit, to make sure that we're recruiting the way we ought to be recruiting, to make sure that we are placing advertisements in the right places, to make sure that we're sifting through what we receive to match up those qualities that the community and the board feels are important. The profile drives our process in an easily understandable narrative
016with priorities and themes guiding the recruitment plan. An example of a leadership profile that was developed and I can share this because it became part of the advertisement. Uh this was used in Wayne schools uh in a recent search. Compelling leader, listens, reflects, incorporates feedback. Visionary educator will develop and implement a clear compelling vision. Master communicator, collaborative partner, strategic resource manager, community builder. Again, all qualities that that community, that board felt were important. Our process here will take your input, your feedback and crunch it to develop a leadership profile to guide our process. We then post. We then directly recruit with our various networks. 50% of the time we're directly recruiting. That becomes the final candidate. The other 50% of the time it's somebody who applied. We already have great interest in this search, which
017is wonderful news and not a surprise. We screen all candidates first to make sure that we are addressing the issues that have been raised. We then bring an entire pool to the board. They see all applications. They also get feedback from us on who we recommend bringing in. We're always asking this question. How are district future goals aligned with the candidate? We assist the board in its interviews. Those interviews are done in executive session uh under law because this is a personnel process, confidentiality is important. And also, please note, folks, cuz we often get this question. Some communities want to meet a pool of candidates. They want to participate in the interviewing process. Oftentimes, these leaders are leaders elsewhere. And until they become a finalist, they can't disclose to their current employers. Uh, so that
018confidentiality is important. It's not that this board wants to exclude you from the process in any way. In fact, quite to the contrary, this board is doing everything that it can to make sure that you're included in this process. But, interviews happen just as other employment interviews happen confidentially. We will assist the board in interviews. We create questions which drive towards and are consistent with the data that we have collected. We create rubrics highlighting key traits and stakeholder pri- priorities. We also make sure that there's a level field. 10 candidates will not receive 10 different questions. Same questions, the same rubric, the same process to ensure that there is a level field, that there's parity, that there's fairness in this process will be employed. And this board will be, as it has already begun, asking
019itself, "Do we see our next leader in this process?" Phase six, we assist with the communication plan and we get to announce the final selection. That is a 30,000-ft uh, of the very important work that this board and our firm is going to be engaged in over the next several months. Are there questions from the board or any feedback from the board? Mr. President, may I poll the community? Are there any questions from the community? Or is there any feedback? Yeah, so that the question is how long is this going to take? And in part this board is motivated to move well, this board is motivated to move quickly. Uh, which is why we're here tonight. We're going to be meeting with the board a little bit later to begin our data collection. And then
020you will see over the next as I mentioned two or three weeks, we'll be hosting data collection sessions. Uh, within probably less than a month, we will be posting advertisement and beginning direct recruitment. And then probably a month after that the interviewing process uh, will take place. So, from start to finish could be two months, could be three months. Uh, we can't put a specific time on this. Uh, cuz there's a lot of balls in the air as far as contractual responsibilities of candidates, notice that they have to give and and also to speak candidly folks this board wants to make sure it gets it right. So, if it takes a little bit more time by way of more direct recruitment that could take some additional time. Yeah, in the back. I love it. I
021would typically be very flippant and answer humorously, but this is way too important. Uh, and thank you for coming. We're glad you're here. Uh, we're talking about the search for our next superintendent of schools. So, this is uh, recruitment I'm sorry. Oh, okay. It's for the whole district. Yeah, this is this is your your next CEO. This is your superintendent over the entire school district. No, they are not replaced. Uh we're we're just recruiting for your superintendent. You want to handle that? Yeah, I think there was a concern about communication from the superintendent to the principal. I just need to I don't think that this is the point of this presentation, but I do want to have a conversation cuz I clearly you need some response to that. Like I understand your question, but the
022purpose of this is really talking about the process for the superintendent search. The The process is what we're talking about. It's all of the Right, right. >> [clears throat] >> This is not related to the superintendent search. >> [clears throat] >> So Yeah. So First of all, thank you for this feedback. All right? Our questions uh right now are about the the superin- Ma'am, please. I'm I I didn't interrupt you, ma'am. Yeah. There's going to be an opportunity for public comment This is not it. This is not the appropriate time for this conversation. This So, I'm just bringing things to your attention. Somebody's in the channels is miscommunicating because I have a recording of Mr. Tanner confirming that it was because he was black and I owed $900 and his well-being, his mental um mental
023health, psychological health, well-being was not being addressed because I owed some money and he had to pick his kids up at 2:15 I was Okay. >> Everybody have a great day. Okay, thank you. Thank you for your comment. >> was I think there was a hand over here. I'm I'm the president of the board, so Uh you could you could send me an email and I can respond to that. Okay. That's Thank you. Sorry, we could >> There was another hand. Yes, sir, please. >> [clears throat] >> Please, sir. The floor is yours. So, let me let me take it. Thank you for your question. Let me take it in reverse order. When you say spectrum, give me please define that for me. Right. Yeah, you know, I'll yeah, okay, that's fine. Yeah. Yeah, I'll
024I'll I'll I'll repeat it. Yeah. Thank you, Rich. Thank you for your question. Very informed question. So, the the question got to qualifications, whether or not we're narrowing to just [snorts] sitting supers, whether or not we're narrowing to folks who are currently supers, have superintendent experience, have central office experience. I shared some data in a prior search, because that's always an important consideration. Uh, we've got 600 school districts in in New Jersey. We don't have 600 superintendents, and they're all they're all not looking. So, that question of what experience is important is actually a question that we're going to be drilling down to in our process. At this point, the board hasn't said to us we've made a decision, we only want someone with superintendent experience. We only want someone with central office experience. We
025only we we haven't gotten to that part of this process. That is a question we will be asking, all right? Uh, it as far as how many we want to be broad with our advertisement and our recruitment. So, we don't limit we're only going to consider 10 applicants, 20 applicants, 30 applicants. We don't limit, we don't put an artificial number out there. Uh, we want to see what the yield is when we go through our usual process of posting advertisements and directly recruiting. I would anticipate and and this is speculation. We'll receive between 20 and 40 applications naturally. Um, but the the the market will bear that. Does that answer your questions? Thank you. Other questions or feedback? Yes, please. Um, the people at home cannot hear any of the questions, and um, so I'm
026wondering if there's a way we can like have a microphone so people can ask questions. Yeah, I don't know if there are any more questions. Did they just hear me repeat that question? Oh, if you repeat the question, absolutely they got that. Yeah, I just repeated that question. Were there were there other questions before that that we might have missed? Are you hearing any feedback from home that they missed a question? Yeah, I know I appreciate it. Which question did they miss? I mean anything from this side of the room. Yeah. No, it's it's okay. I just wanted like if we're going to keep going on and on. >> Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, I just repeated his question, but I don't know if in response to the the other question was about timing. So, anybody
027who was listening from home, when we talked about the timeline, that was a question about timing. Yeah, please. Come on up. Come on up. Come on up. Come on up. I'm not going to repeat it. What's your name? Uh Jeff Williams. This is my new friend Jeff. Our folks at home, he's going to ask a question. I'm going to answer it. Uh just had another question subsequently. Um uh where is the uh the radius of your your search? Is it just in state or is it also going to be uh out of state um looking for candidates uh in certain communities or other communities? Just understanding more um like what what is the uh the radius of of of that search? Yeah, thank you. Thank you for that question. And similarly, we don't limit the
028scope. We'll receive applicants nationally. Uh we also do not limit the search within the state. One of the things that we talked about uh as far as drilling down into what are important qualities and attributes uh is it important to the community and to the board that we've got candidates who have led similar districts, who have worked in similar communities. We're going to hear that from you. We're going to hear that from the board. And that may play a role in this process as we move forward. All right, any other questions? Yes, come on up. Hi. Uh so, I'm just curious >> Come on up right here. Okay. >> Make yourself comfortable. I'm comfortable. Um I'm curious to know more about the mechanisms for getting the feedback from the community. I think you'll probably hear
029that that will be a continuing theme. Um and so, is it going to be surveys or like, you know, directed questions? Is there going to be, you know, an opportunity to provide open-ended feedback? Will it be town halls, meetings, or like, just information presented to the community? You know, like I I think that two-way communication is pretty important and it's something that I think a lot of people in the room are certainly looking for. So, um I'm curious to hear a little bit more about the precise structure of all of that. Thanks. So, thanks for that question. Let me step back. Phase two of our process. We will be issuing surveys. Those surveys will be both open-ended uh as well as uh providing specific um examples to choose between. Those surveys will be available to
030the entire community. Community members will be asked to identify, are you a current parent, are you a parent of an alum, are you not a parent, are you a community member, are you a staff member, etc. Uh but that will be direct feedback. Number one, by survey. Number two, there will be town hall like sessions in person as well as virtual. They will be similar. So, you don't have to come to both, but you can come to both. And you will be given an opportunity similarly with the survey to provide open-ended answers and feedback in broad feedback and responses to both targeted questions and and open broad questions. And that'll be both virtual and and in person. And we anticipate that all of that will be occurring over the next two to three weeks. And
031again, you'll receive flyers with dates. Other questions? Got to come up. You got to you got to come up. Got to come up. Um will the data that you get from these surveys be shared with the community so that like we know what the community voted on like or what they thought was very important. This way people can't be like, well, that's not what I wanted. Well, they want to see it as a whole cuz I know communication obviously has been lacking. Um so, will the community get to see the data or just the board? Thank you. The The community will not see raw data, but the community likely the board will make available certain summary information uh that is through our district leadership profile. We talked about how that data is crunched and analyzed
032to create certain important qualities, traits, experience. Uh and that will be shared with the community. Thank you. Um so, I have a question about these meetings that are going to be in person, right? It's okay. I'll use my tippy toes. We're good. Um so, will these meetings be during the work day, after hours, and will they be available in multiple languages? We have a robust community who speaks multiple languages, which is an asset. Um, and so I just want to make sure that we are getting feedback from all stakeholders regardless of what, um, their work situation is, the language that they speak because a parent is a parent is a parent. Well put. The meetings will be after the work day uh to ensure that folks can attend. Uh, and will be again both both
033virtual and in-person. So, if there's a conflict on a specific night, we want to make sure that there is an opportunity. Uh, when uh, links are shared for the virtual meeting, we actually ask if interpretation uh services, translation services are needed so that we can provide live interpretation. Uh, that was something that was important to the board uh and a service that we provide. Uh, we typically don't provide that live, but we're certainly open to that and similarly we'll provide that by way of registration. So, if folks when they are signing up, they indicate a need, we'll accommodate it. Voice is important. It's all about elevating voice. I feel like we've already learned that You got to talk into the mic. >> Coming into the mic. Uh, Rick Falkenstein, that we've already learned a lot
034about what this community wants and I'm leaving here tonight with communication being one of the most critical elements of what we need to do. Uh, there's a process that we will follow, but ensuring that communication and engagement of the community is is running parallel with that process will be something that when we move into executive session, we will recommend to the board that we keep that at our top priority because it is evident from tonight already that we have some work to do in doing this search to ensure that we engage the community and find the right superintendent, but your voice being part of that process through that communication is what I'm already taking from this uh first phase of a meeting. Great. I was going to say we need at least one more question
035because he went to a lot of work to get another mic set up here. >> [laughter] >> No, it's a special mic just for you. It's just for you. Let's let's try it. Is it working? Oh, Dave. Obviously. >> [laughter] >> Thank you. So, we heard thank you a lot about the engagement of the community and we want to I want to personally thank you and thank all of you because thanks for listening and hearing us. Um this is great. I already feel very heard, so thank you. Um so, you're heard. We all want this open dialogue. Uh I love the idea of the town hall, but now my question is we heard a lot about the community. What about the staff? I want you to know that the one of the strength of this
036small school district is the staff and especially staff members who have been here for many many many years. We have many um teachers, many administrators who spent their entire career here. They're the ones who truly understand what our students need. So, what about them? Will they be served? Will there be town halls for them? They are the voices that you truly want to hear because I want you to know they're the ones that truly know what every student needs. So, I really hope that there's the same opportunity for staff members. Thank you. Beautifully put. A- and the answer is yes. The same communication medium will be provided to staff. We're working on dates Uh already. And those sessions will be similarly in person as well as virtual as well as survey. And every staff member
037that wants to participate, just as every community member that wants to participate, may participate. Thank you. Anyone else? We got a special microphone for you. It's Dave's pocket microphone. It's very special. I have one over here. Turn around. One of the board members. >> [laughter] >> You would also mention students getting input from students. How will you be getting the input from the students as well? >> you. And that is uh We always enjoy interfacing with students. We talked a little bit about this in our interviewing process with regard to um strategic planning. So, the role of students will be a conversation that we have with the board and administration. Uh and obviously needs to be um consented to by parents and needs to be developmentally appropriate. So, we will work together on that. Uh
038maybe as simple as surveys uh or maybe a uh you know, a focus group of certain select students with parent uh awareness and and obviously uh sign off. Thank you. Anything else? What a productive night. Uh Mr. President, thank you. I want to thank the board for the opportunity. And again, I want to thank all the members of the community that came out. And I want to thank the community members that tuned in from home also. Please come out to our sessions. Please. Uh and please participate in the surveys. And we look forward to talking further with some specifics as this process continues. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Kameko. Thank you, Dr. Falkenstein. So, uh we we did go into uh item five presentation. Um we kind of already went into public comments. So, if
039but if there are any other comments that anyone would like to make, please come up. Uh let us know. Oh, please go ahead. Just want to start off by saying uh thank the board for for allowing this this meeting tonight. It's very informative, um very transparent. Um we definitely appreciate the the the way that we're moving forward uh with the search. Um I just wanted to briefly just say, you know, I believe in in a lot of equity and inclusion. Um I also believe in looking out for people who might not um have the most attention, but there are a lot of things that we know that we've got some pain points in the district um that we're looking to address. And I'm just uh hopeful I'm grateful that everyone is is paying attention to
040this as much as uh everyone we should. I just want to say our district needs a superintendent that is experienced in working with the Title 1 school, can get the district out of debt while coming up with a budget that doesn't leave the school having us to lose out on experienced teachers, curriculum, and resources the school continues to need. Specifically, I I believe Lincoln suffered greatly from honors classes being dismantled. Overcrowded classes with not enough teachers. No qualified substitutes to fill in. Little to limited resources to help high-achieving students and students that have potential to become high-achieving, special needs students, behavioral challenge students, and non-speaking English students. We need a superintendent that is open to talking and working with community to meet the needs of our children and not just work independently on their own
041agenda. So, I think that's something that is uh going to be very important. But once again, I think we believe in all the kids here in the district. Everyone is advocating for their children. Um I think we have to find someone who's going to be innovative in these times. We've seen some of the other districts suffer from other issues, whether it be, you know, up north uh up in Bergen County or you know, up in Essex County. We've seen the challenges that have come um with budgets, etc. Um but we need a superintendent who's going to be completely innovative and committed to this this uh mission. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Wiggins. Any other comments? Any other things you'd like to add? Last call. Anyone? Anyone else? Okay. So, moving on to the agenda uh
042item number seven, old business. Are there any other pieces of old business we'd like to come back to? Okay. Moving on to item number eight, new business. So, uh discussion for the superintendent search process. Board members, uh questions. Let's This This is an open forum. Uh let's discuss. Anything who wants to start? I heard you mention uh Sarah about getting student data. Um I think we have to step on the gas pedal on that one quickly as we are about to lose our students for the summer. And we want to get as much input from them as we can before they disperse and hopefully we get a lot of data before next September. I think teachers for that, too, actually. Cuz they don't like to be bothered over the summer. Thank you, Mr. Anderson. And
043I And I think that's why we as a as a group pushed to have this kick off as soon as possible to be able to have some time before we, you know, we'll we'll lose um uh the ability for folks to participate. Other question Oh, is that a I would I like to add that I appreciate that we've had this meeting tonight. I appreciate the turnout and I appreciate, you know, all the stakeholders voicing their opinions and being a part of this process and I look forward to, you know, seeing the how the process unfolds and elevates everyone's voice in this process. So, thank you. Thank you, Ms. Havard. One of the things that we've been talking about as we've been planning for this meeting has been about even just our initial communication. Um I
044think that, you know, we're trying to get a lot done in a short amount of time before school gets out and nobody wants to be bothered. Um but I do think that we as a board have a responsibility to ensure that as soon as we make those decisions and that the process leading up to making those decisions is handled appropriately, whether that be identifying some of us that take on ensuring that messaging is getting out, working with Kome No to ensure that messaging is getting out, coordinating with the the teachers and the administrators unions to make sure that our timing works for them so that we can get the most feedback as possible will be important for us. Well said. I'd like to build on that. We're talking about communications and is there a way
045to I don't know this is a suggestion build a portal or or something so that we can really centralize a communication, make it much more easily accessible to our community? Not just for the you're saying not just for the search process, but for just in general, correct? It well, for the search process so that people know what the updates are, when the events are going out, what the surveys are, links are all available all in one place. I think we can in terms of building, I think we we'd have to take that back and look, but I think we can certainly post, yes. We can do it? We can do something. Yes. Yes, I mean as I'm listening and I'm trying to envision what that might look like on our website, but there's there's definitely
046something that can be done in along that line and we'll talk more about that. And I'll talk with the you know, technology staff about it. Yeah, thank you. Other comments? Anything else you guys want to bring up during this public discussion? Okay. So, we will move on then to item number nine. And president's remarks again, I do want to say thank you to Mr. Commegno, to Dr. Falkenstein, to members of the public both online and in the room for participating in this evening's event. Again, this is the kickoff. This is starting getting us set up to be able to collect data and then to move to move forward in the search process. Um So, wanted to thank you everyone for for joining and for participating in this and this is this is just the beginning.
047This is just getting us started. Um so, moving on to item number 10. So, in accordance with policy 0167, the Board of Education recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school matters of community interest. At this time, the board invites again more public comment. Before we were commenting specifically on um superintendent search, but now you know, there's any school related issue or topic, please bring it up. The board and administration will take notes during public comment, but are not going to provide substantive responses to questions or concerns raised by individuals. If necessary, the providing officer may provide a brief dis response after the entire public comment period is completed. So, we do appreciate and welcome feedback from the community, but
048we're not at liberty to have up and uh back and forth dialogue with members of the public during this portion of the meeting. So, prior to making your public comment, please state your name and municipality, and please note that all statements must be directed to the presiding officer. So, please come to the microphone now if you have anything you'd like to make comments on at this time on any school-related issues or topic. Last call? Okay. So, I'm adding an item to the agenda. So, before we go to adjournment, so I'm going to add an executive session here. So, where is that here? So, um the Dunellen Board of Education the Dunellen Board of Education will now adjourn into executive session to discuss items that fall within specific exceptions to the Open Public Meetings Act C.N.J.S.A.
04910:4-12b. The confidential matters discussed by the board during the executive session include items related to personnel. Any discussion that does not need to remain confidential will be made public as soon as it is practical. Minutes of the executive session will not be disclosed until the need for confidentiality no longer exists. All individuals who may be discussed in executive session have been adequately notified. Action will not take place after the conclusion of the executive session. So, after we go into executive session, we're going to be adjourning from there, so you don't necessarily have to stick around to to wait for us to come back into session. We won't be taking any action. But, um We have a motion, please, to go into executive session. Move to go to exec. Seconded. All those in favor? Aye. >>
050Aye. Opposed? Thank you, everyone. So, next full board meeting is a June 9th, but you're going to be hearing from us sooner than that for data gathering. >> the laundry.