001Ready? Okay. Calling this meeting to order. In accordance with um the open public meetings NJSA uh 104-6, adequate notification of this meeting has been provided by advertising in the courier news and posting notice in the board of education administration building and district schools and filing notice with the burough clerk. I hereby call to order the regular public meeting Tuesday, November 18th, 2025 in the Lincoln Middle School Cafeterium, 400, sorry, 400 uh Denellan Avenue at 7 what is it? 703 7:03 p.m. This meeting is broadcast live. For details, check www.denellonsschools.org. Moving on to agenda item number two. Moving on to roll call. Mr. Pepe, can you please call the role? >> Mr. Mr. Anderson >> present. >> Mrs. Condit is not present. Miss Ibeck >> present. >> Dr. Gendrono >> present. >> Mrs. Howard >> present.
002>> Mr. Senoi is not present. [snorts] Uh Miss Shyf >> present. >> Mrs. Shep >> present. >> Mr. Walker is not present. We do have a quorum. >> Okay. Wonderful. Thank you so much. Moving on to item number three. Pledge of allegiance and moment of silence. The flag is over there 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 have made the ultimate sacrifice in the name of our United States of America. Thank you. Moving on to item number three, uh, sorry, item number four, uh, executive session.
003The Nell the Denellan board, excuse me, [clears throat] of education will now adjourn into executive session to discuss items that fall within specific exceptions to the open public meetings act CJSA 104-12B. The confidential matters discussed by the board during the executive session include items related to individual privacy, collective bargaining agreements as well as personnel. Anything else? Cool. 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 exist exists. All individuals who may be discussed in executive session have been adequately notified. action will take place after the conclusion of the executive session. May I have a motion to move to executive session, please? >> Move to go to exec. >> Second.
004>> All those in favor? >> I opposed. Okay. See you in about the 25. Um, moving on to item uh agenda item number five. Um, student recognition. Oh, wait, sorry. Um, may I have a motion, please, to come back to public? >> Move to go back to public. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I >> opposed. Okay, now we can move on to item number five. So, uh, that would be the student recognition. I'll turn this over to Mr. Ross. >> Great. Thank you, Dr. Jendano. Greetings, everyone. It's wonderful to see such a full house and, uh, such excitement for our student recognition for tonight. So, each month we recognize students at each of the schools who have demonstrated incredible character or academic success or community support and service. So, um, we're going
005to go school by school and we will start with Denellan High School and I'm proud to introduce uh DHS principal, Mr. Lynch. [applause] And while Mr. Lynch is uh is coming up, we're going to bring the um step and repeat up. So, parents, after all of the students from the particular school are uh notified, they're going to come up and they're going to stand in front of the step and repeat. We'll give you a minute. you can come out of your seats, take pictures, take your time, and then at the end of all of the recognitions, uh you'll be able to uh take pictures again for a couple minutes on either side. All right. So, without further ado, Mr. Lynch. All right. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. We're very excited to do our students of
006the month this year. uh for the month of November. I'm gonna do a little bit out of order and you'll see why at the end. Uh the first student of the month I would like to call up is 10th grader Joe Reyes Alvarado. [applause] Congratulations, [applause] Joe. Uh Joe's a heavily involved student here at the high school. He played football this past fall. He plays basketball during the winter and his best sport. Uh he excels. He was a starter last year on the baseball team. He's an exceptional young man. Uh great student. Teachers have great things to say about him and we're very honored to have him as our 10th grade student of the month. Chau Reyes Alvarado. [applause] Our 11th grade student of the month is Julio Mendoza. [applause] Congratulations, Julio. Another exceptional young
007man. Has worked very hard since he got to the high school. uh has done such a great job working with other students, especially a lot of our Spanish-sp speakaking students, helping translate, helping them work in their classes. Uh he really is a role model, exceptional artist as well, and a really all-around uh great guy. So, Julio Mendoz, our 11th grade student of the month, [applause] [applause] and our 9inth and 12th grade students of the month. I'm going to call them up together and I'll explain why. Our ninth grade student of the month, Michelle Evangelista, and our 12th grade student of the month, Carrington Horn. [applause] Thank you. >> Individually, they're both f fantastic individuals. Uh Michelle came over to the high school this year and really puts a has a smile on her face every
008single day. Uh she is in such a good mood. it. Even when I'm yelling at the students to get to school on time and she tells me not to yell and my thing is I want people to get there on time and she gets a little mad at me for doing it, but in a kind way. Uh, and she really is a sweetheart. She does such a great job in her classes and has made a lot of friends and we're so proud of her. Our 12th grade student of the month, Carrington Horn, is another exceptional student in honors and AP classes. Uh she was a cheerleader this past year, was a captain. She's vice president of her 12th grade class and has really done an exceptional job here at the high school. Last year she
009was in our leadership class and one of the things we did with our leadership class was we during the fizzed classes with the middle school, our leadership class went to Morcraft Park with the students. And the reason I brought them up together is Carrington and Michelle became really good friends last year and they referred to each other as their uh she referred to Carrington as her high school buddy. And with the program that we have, they all all the students really looked forward to being able to work with their high school buddies. And now that she's at the high school, it's nice to be able to see them together and in school together. So, it really was a great program we were able to do and it's nice to see the impact that they were
010able to have upon one another and the other students in the school. So, I really want to congratulate all of our students of the month for high school. [applause] Love you. Take pictures. Don't be shy. >> [applause] >> All >> [applause] >> right. Next, next from Lincoln Middle School, I'd like to invite assistant principal, Mrs. Cfield. [applause] Okay. Hi everyone. Good evening. I'm Mrs. Cfield, assistant principal at Lincoln. Uh, I'm going to start with our sixth grade student of the month. That is Jenny Gerus. If you'll come on up. [applause] The sixth grade team of teachers is honored to recognize Jenny as the student of the month. She's a dedicated learner and a kind classmate. She's always willing to participate and share her ideas in class discussions, and she's not afraid to explore new topics
011and dig deeper into those topics. She contributes thoughtful questions and insights. She's attentive and inquisitive and works hard on everything she does. Her curiosity inspires others to stay engaged and try their hardest, too. Not only is Jenny a leader in the classroom, but she's also a leader outside the classroom as she is part of our LMS student voice group. Um, which we just had a meeting today where she gave us some really, really good ideas moving forward. So, we're really excited to have Jenny here at LMS. Um, and if you would please join me in congratulating Jenny. I'm proud of you. [applause] Next up, we have our seventh grade student of the month, R.J. So [applause] R.J. is known at LMS for being a very friendly and supportive classmate. He helps to create a well
012welcoming and warm environment and brighten the day of others. He's a very conscientious student and puts in genuine effort in each and every one of his classes. He's a very strong critical thinker and asks meaningful questions and again is not afraid to dig deeper into topics in all of his subjects in all of his classes. In group work, R.J. shines as a real leader and collaborates seamlessly with others and shows patience and respect and is really able to help those around him. Um, we thank him for being such a strong example to all of his classmates and we're very proud of all your hard work and leadership at LMS. Congrats, R.J. [applause] We have our eighth grade student of the month, Carter Inyang. [applause] [applause] Stay right there. Carter brings positivity, curiosity, and leadership into
013every classroom he enters. He is an outstanding and truly a student who truly brightens all of our days. He's polite and always welcomes everyone with a smile. and he really sets a power example of what it means to be a good friend and a good citizen. He's a great eighth grade student to have as a role model for all of our younger students in the classroom. He's an active learner um and is fully engaged in all class discussions. He works extremely well with all his peers because he listens and encourages others and helps create a supportive learning environment. Outside of academics, Carter shares another wonderful strength, which is his great trumpet playing. His musical talent brings energy and spirit to our school, and we thank him for all his enthusiasm, kindness, and leadership. Congratulations, Carter.
014[applause] Congratulations. Congratulations. Thank you. All >> [applause] >> right. And last, I'd like to bring up Mr. Tenant from Faber Elementary School. [applause] Good evening everyone. Thanks for coming out tonight for Faber and PreK. We have Noah Adaptante. Where's Noah? [applause] There he is. >> Come to the front, Noah. Congrats, buddy. >> Come right here. >> Put you right there. And you're going to hold that up nice and high. There you go. Excellent. >> Noah has chosen to be student of the month because he's so helpful in class. Always wants to share his toys with the younger students and helps them show how how to play with them as well. He is a very sweet kid and eager to learn and participate in class. Congratulations, Noah. Clap it up for Noah. [cheering] [applause] Kindergarten, we
015have Dara Franco. come on up. [applause] >> Darra is a student who was chosen for student month because she's reliable and a trustworthy. She always gives her best efforts and is such a kind friend. Her positive spirits lights up the room and encourages her peers just to work hard. Great job, Darra. Clap it up. [applause] First grade, Sophia Ventura Flores. She was in the back there. There she is. [applause] Congrats, Sophia. Well done. >> Sophia was chosen for student of the month because of her hard. She's a hardworking student that always has a positive attitude in school. She is very kind and respectful to her teachers and friends and sets a great example for her classmates. She tries her best in everything she does. And she loves to be in school. So do I. Good
016job. Well done. [applause] Second grade, we have two. First up is Joseph Lopez Parata. Where is he? [applause] Joseph bring it in every day. Well done, Joseph. That's what I'm talking about. Joseph is kind, helpful student. He's always participating in discussions in class. He has improved tremendously through the past year and has been an amazing student for for Miss Posi. She's very proud of him and has just done an amazing job in growing and learning. Great job, Joseph. Clap it up for Joseph. [applause] We also have Katcha Toyana. Where's K gotcha [applause] talking about? Katchcha is incredible example of dedication and perseverance. She consistently gives an effort in everything she does and approaches every challenge with a positive attitude. No matter how difficult the task, she never complains and never gives up. Her hard work
017and determination truly sets her apart and is a role model for others. Good job, Katcha. Well done. [applause] Third grade, Yosen Guerrera Delid. [applause] Uh, she's always lending a helping hand to everyone. She is quick to follow directions and try her best in every challenge. She is kind and a considerate friend and does an amazing job in Miss Jacobson's class. Great job, [applause] Fourth grade, Amelia Vzero Torres. Amelia [applause] Aay is polite, respectful, and kind to everyone. She is organized and responsible. She always participates and goes above and beyond the classroom to help others. Awesome work. Great job. [applause] Fifth grade, Kaden Thorp. Brrizzy, clap it up. [applause] Mr. Bur writes, "I am very proud, enthusiastically recognized Kaden Thorp as a class student of the month. It is always an easy choice for Kaden as
018he's been got another page to go.exemplary Exemplary of his expectations of the classroom, his attitude, his effort, everything is top-notch. On the first day of school, Kane has been a role model in respect and in word. He listens and follows directions when asked without hesitation. He accepts and adopts constructive criticism when necessary and handles consequence rewards with grace and humility. Great job, Kaden. Clap it up for Kaden. [applause] Well earned. Well earned. Special areas. Isabella Garcia Roas. Isabella. [applause] This month's special area student of month is someone who truly stands for her positive attitude and steady presence. They they are always willing to lend a helping hand in classmates and teachers showing kindness and cooperation everything they do. Even when challenge arises, this student remains calm and focused and truly is an example of being
019Denellan strong. In addition to her character, she is exemplary across all aspects of art, music, media, PE, technology, and her approach to every special area class. Well done. Well done, Isabella. Well done. [applause] You can clap it up up here for favor student of the month. >> [crying] [crying] >> Well done [applause] guys. All right, so Oh, it's all good. All right, so parents, uh, first of all, let's get a big round of applause for all of the students of the month. [applause] All right, and we're going to take we're going to take about a fivem minute break or so right now. This is double-sided. There's there's a a logo on the other side. So, feel free to take a individual pictures or whatever you'd like. Congratulations everyone. Thank you for being here. Congratulations students.
020And I hope you have a wonderful evening. [applause] There are copies of the agenda on the table if you haven't grabbed one already. Um, but we're going to go right down the line. So, moving on to item number six, president's remarks. Just a few words to say. First, uh, good evening everyone, and I'd like to reiterate how proud we are of our students who we just recognized and celebrated. Congratulations to all of them on their great accomplishments. Wanted to note uh fall play was this past weekend. The Denellan High School Drama Club presented Hamlet. Congratulations to all of the cast and crew for their hard work in making this production a tremendous success. A special thanks uh to Miss Clemens, uh Mr. Royel, Mr. Shimco, the DHS art club, Mr. Ross, Miss Caulfield, Mr. Tobin,
021Mr. Lynch, Miss Powell, the PTO and parents of the drama club, Mr. Pettinger, Mr. Ferrer, Mr. Morales, Mr. Haynes and the custodial staff, the building and grounds team, and anyone who I might have missed in this list. I'm sorry if I did. And thank you to the parents and the community for supporting our kids and schools. Kudos, kudos, kudos. Um we also uh there was a um well changing gears in October uh Mr. Ross in addition to myself, Miss Shimp, Mr. Senoi, Miss Miss Condit, and Mr. Pepe uh were the contingent representing uh Denellan school district at the New Jersey school board's association workshop convention in Atlantic City. We participated in a number of sessions and met with a number of groups closely tied to our school board work. It was a tremendous learning experience
022and we will look we will look to apply our learnings uh from all those sessions to ongoing and future discussions. As always, healthy kids means healthy schools which means a healthy community. Bottom line, we encourage you to take the common sense proven precautions like washing hands well, covering up when sneezing, keeping sick kids home, keeping current with vaccinations to minimize the spread of bacteria and viruses that can really impact our school year. Um, as I do on um on recent at all these board meetings, I've mentioned monthly celebrations. November is heritage month for Native American and Alaskan native her native Alaskan Native heritage month. Um December uh universal human rights month. December 2nd is international day for the abolition of slaves. December 3rd is international day of persons with disabilities and 18 December 18th international
023migration day and 20th of December will be international human solidarity day. I mention these recognitions to underscore how important diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging are to our lives and the world around us. With diversity, we are able to welcome and appreciate different views and perspectives and how that makes our lives richer and stronger. Equity is important so we are all playing on the same field by the same rules. Inclusion is key so there is a equal access to opportunities and resources for everyone. And with belonging, you feel you are part of something, a group, a community where you are accepted, valued, and comfortable. You fit in and are an important part of the whole. These things have an unbelievable impact on our community, especially our kids. Open, honest, and genuine communication that is respectful, positive,
024supportive, fair, and most of all, kind goes a long way in strengthening a community. Thank you everyone for your time and listening. Moving on to the superintendent report. Uh Mr. Ross. >> Thank you, Dr. Dendrono. Um I'm going to begin the superintendent report with um by passing it over to Queen Emil who will provide the student representatives report. Good evening everyone. I just wanted to give a quick update on our fall and winter sports and how our teams have been doing so far. Starting with girls soccer, the team had a really strong season. One of the many highlights was beating Timothy Christian for the first time in a few years, which was a he a huge deal for them. Even though they didn't win their last game, the season overall was definitely a su a
025success, and the girls should be really proud. For boys soccer, they had an amazing run this year. The team made it to state and even pushed all the way to the semifinals, which is one of the best seasons they've had in a long time. They put in a lot of work and it really showed. Next up is winter cheer. Tryyouts are happening over the next few days and the team is looking to build the perfect cheer squad for basketball season. This is actually really exciting for Denellan because we haven't had a winter basketball cheer team before. So, everyone's looking forward to seeing that. Our upcoming winter sports include basketball, wrestling, and cheer. Right now, basketball players are participating in open gyms and official tryyous start next Monday. The energy around the team is already high
026and we're expecting a good season. Lastly, wrestling hasn't officially started yet, but the team has been training hard in the weight room and preparing for the season. Their practices begin next week, and they've already showed a lot of discipline, and commitment. Overall, we're heading into winter sports with a lot of excitement, hard work, and confidence. It's looking like a great season ahead for Denellan. Thank you. >> Thank you, Queen. Um, all right, moving on. We're going to go to the SSDS report uh for period two of last school year. So I'll bring up Mr. Altmire, our director of accountability. Thank you. Good evening everyone. So tonight I am here to report on the student safety data system that is the collection of violence, vandalism, weapons, substance abuse and harassment, intimidation and bullying as well as
027HIV trainings and programs. Keep in mind once again this is the report period number two which means it's from last year last school year January 1st through June 30th of 2025. On this next slide, it shows it breaks down. This is also on the website as well. information. So, under incidents, violence, vandalism, substances, weapons, and HIV confirmed. Again, for period 2, for the high school, there were 18. For Lincoln Middle School, there was one. Faber Elementary School, there was two. Other incidents leading to removal DHS 2, LMS 5 and Faber zero. HIB trainings for DHS there was seven. For LMS there was seven and for Faber there was three. And finally, HIV programs, DHS 16, LMS 16, and HIV. For FABER, there was 23. Districtwide, there was HIV trainings of four for period 2 and
028HIV program zero. This slide here, you see a list of items. I'm not going to read all of them only because pretty much all of them were um ongoing and they were done during the report period for number one which was the beginning of the school year. The one thing I will point out is the last one, New Jersey Student Support Services, NJ4S. Continued slide again. Once again, Middle Sex County Student Support Services, NJ4S, grades 6 through 12. And I'll get a little deeper into that as we go. This is the school district incidents and as you see this is data collected for the last 11 years dating back to 2014 all the way up to 202425. It breaks it down. Violence for example in 2425 there were seven incidents. Vandalism there was two. Weapons
029one. Substance abuse 17 and HIV there were three school district incidents. Now this time they grouped them together. Violence, vandalism, substance and weapons. For 2425, there were 27. And again, this is throughout the district. Other incidents leading to removal, there were seven. and HIV. There were three. This next slide has to do with HIV investigations. Once again, this is period 2 only. Investigations. At Faber, there were one and there is one HIB confirmed. At Lincoln Middle School, there was nine investigations and there was two HIV confirmed. And at DHS there was eight investigations and zero were confirmed for a total of three HIVs in the district. This slide has to deal with districtwide trainings and programs. Once again, I'm going to slide all the way to the bottom because all the other ones were ongoing
030throughout the rest of the school year from the beginning. But Middle Sex County Student Support Services, NJ4s, played a major role in the second part of the year. Now, we're going to get into the individual schools, starting with Faber. This first slide, again, ongoing things that were reported in the fall of last year. On this slide, these were things focused on during the second part of the school year. Wellness Clinician counseling, principles of hiphop, peace, love, unity, and having fun together, random act of kindness week, lunch bunch groups, safety ambassador presentations, NJ civil courts visit assembly, civil rights movement assembly, color run celebration of leadership, healthiness, and individuality. This is Lincoln Middle School for trainings legal one anti-bullying specialist Middle Sex County NJ4S. This is the program I was talking about in the trainings earlier.
031So what we did was we had uh NJ4S come in and present to the students three different assemblies um in January and February of last year. And then they also did three uh evening webinars uh for the parents in the community as well. The first one was dealing with cyber bullying. The second was dealing with social media safety and the third interpersonal community relationships and anti-bullying bill of rights acts under programs battle of the classes Valentine's Day fundraiser spirit week empowerment group David flood assembly and like I mentioned mentioned the presentations and the assemblies for the kids, cyber bullying, social media safety, interpersonal and community relationships, urban assembly, seal project, being kind, not buying it program, bullying prevention, seventh grade students, school spirit and unity week, transition project, incoming sixth grade and parents. Moving on
032to DHS for trainings, school safety speaker, climate and culture improvement, say something implementation. Once again, the Middle Sex County NJ4S for cyber bullying, social media safety, interpersonal community relationships, and anti-bullying bill of rights acts for programs. peer pressures uh presentation by Wellspring, Young Men's Conference, and Women's Empowerment Conference. And wrapping up for DHS once again, they also had the cyber bullying, social media safety, interpersonal and community relationships uh assemblies for the students and then school spirit celebrate unity. And then they also had a staff first students volleyball session. Does anyone have any questions? >> Yes. Thank you for the report and it was very informative and [snorts] I just do have a couple questions. uh with your reports on the HIV uh reporting and and the the numbers that we have, do we have any
033association with uh outcomes and e efficacy on on how they would improve on the on the different u instances of HIV? Is there any kind of way to analyze that? Make an association with the program and any kind of, you know, benefit. Uh to be honest with you being that this is my first year with this program um I couldn't provide any data for you with regards to that >> but all I do know is the programs I was there presently uh for the programs and the assemblies and um they really did a nice job and it's truly beneficial for these kids to hear the type of things that these uh presenters are coming and speaking about in the assemblies and they reach all grades from 6th through 12th both middle school and high Okay,
034thank you. Uh, the second question I have is with the growth of AI and and people, not only kids but also adults interacting with it as another way to socialize in an environment, but sometimes it has a negative impact on that. Is there a way to to to see if there's any interaction or any control with AI and the kids and what they're doing in their mental health? >> Yeah. So, that is something that we can look into. We already have been in contact with NJ4S. We are going to have them back again this year. >> Um, and I know cyber bullying is part of the presentation that we've already talked about of them bringing to the table. So, that is something we'll explore. >> All right. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Yeah, I
035did uh also have a question or two. Could we go back to the slides where we're looking at the number of incidents? I don't remember which slide it was. Um, >> just let me know which one. >> Keep going. This one. >> It was the one that had like I noticed that it was over over Yeah, that's the one. >> This one. >> Yes. So, looking at this looking at this like there seems to be an upward tick for 2425. I'm looking at those numbers. The last time we saw something like that was back in 2017 18 and there was I guess a bit of a decrease and now seems a bit of an increase. just wondering is there something happening like that that 17 substance of you say stands out to me you know
036across all the different years what so what's changing or any thoughts on what's changing >> uh to be honest with you I don't have a whole lot of information on that only because of again stepping into this position for the first time but also just based on my experience in the middle school I really didn't have to do this or deal with this as a middle school principal it's more geared toward unfortunately the high school that I can say. >> I see. Okay. Yeah. It just seems like those stand out are out outliers, but are they is it an outlier? Is it a trend? So, thank you. Thank you for taking the question. >> You're welcome. >> Okay. Thank you. That's for real. Yeah. Yeah, it's really doing that. >> All right. Thank you, Mr.
037Almire. Really appreciate that. Um, I'll just speak to a couple things as well. Just with regard to the questions, I think that part of the the uptick that that we see and and we'll we'll see if this year kind of bears this out, but with the increase in the number of HIVs that were reported, I think that's a reporting side change um just in terms of the vigilance of the team with two counselors now um who are addressing this at the middle school. there's there are more incidents being reported for the the the purpose of identifying concerning issues potentially and then trying to identify ways to to sort of curb those behaviors. Substance abuse last year I think was definitely an issue. Um we had you know some board hearings where we had to you
038know speak with students and and their families. Um but again I actually do think that that might also be a reporting side um issue. Again, we'll see what happens this year, but there is a uh there's a with the rise of vaping, right, there is uh there seems to be an increased tendency of kids to believe that they can get uh away with things. Um and so there's a an element of, you know, that type of behavior where kids are in the bathroom or whatever it might be. Teachers are, I think the staff is more attuned to student behaviors. And so when there are students that are presenting as possibly under under the influence, we're very concerned um about their safety from a liability perspective and ensuring you know that that they're going to be
039okay if they have to travel home or to a game or something like that. So we we we do tend to uh you know er on the side of caution and send kids out for testing and send kids out for for for that um just to ensure student safety. So again, we'll see what the numbers bear out this year. Um, but those are th those are my feelings about those questions. [snorts] So, uh, just to follow up again, uh, thank you, Mr. Altmire. The presentation is now available on the website, um, for anyone who's interested in exploring that further. Um, and I will, um, get into the rest of my superintendent report. So, the first thing that I'm going to do is is just preface this. Uh, there's a lot of information. And there's a
040lot of things that I want to talk about, but before I speak about them, I want to um just introduce the uh sort of a new feature to the board meetings, which is going to be a construction update. So, as you know, last year we accepted a grant from the Department of Education for uh uh preschool facilities expansion grant. The state provided us with $3.6 million on about a $6 million project that we had submitted. and we awarded the bid at a special meeting on October 28th uh just a couple weeks ago for Nor Eastern which is the the contractor that will be leading this work. So there's a lot of work that's going to be undertaken. There's a lot of information to share with staff and with the public. Um so what I've decided
041to do and I I spoke with Mr. Pepe about it and he's he's excited to do this because he's really in the in the weeds of this project is each board meeting Mr. Preppy's going to provide a really detailed construction update. Um I didn't have the opportunity to do this for this meeting, but in the future, these updates will be part of the committee meeting agendas. They'll also be shared with staff um uh the week before the board meeting so that staff members understand, you know, what's going to be spoken about. Um and then I'll make myself available to staff members as well uh with Mr. Pepe and Mr. Haynes for any questions that they might have. um just so that everyone's aware of the progress that we're making and there are no sort of
042surprises and everyone understands what the implications are. So without further ado, I'll I'll pass the uh I'll pass this over to Mr. Pepe. I'm so excited I just can't hide it. So I've uh put together a little template for the reports. Um there's five parts to this. Uh the first is a project background. And what I'm going to do is pretty much read the same paragraph. if I might tweak it as we go on, but it's going to be the same information every time. This is a way for people who have not heard the message before to kind of enter the conversation and understand the background. So, the project background is as such. The Denellan Board of Education has embarked on a journey to provide free fullday preschool to all Denellan families. The first step
043in this journey was submitting an application for preschool education aid or pea funding from the New Jersey Department of Education. The district was approved for this funding in the fall of 2022 and began operating pea funded preschool in January of 2023. In June of 2024, the district applied for the preschool facilities expansion grant. This grant in the amount of $3,463,300 is being used to offset the cost of the current preschool expansion project. The second part of my report is a recap of the last update. And since this is my first update, there is nothing to recap. The third part is going to be a timeline. I'm just going to share with you some things that have happened since the last time I reported out or since we started the project. So on October 28th of
0442025, the Denellan Board of Ed held a special meeting to award the preK classroom additions and interior alterations at Faber Elementary School construction project to Northeastern Interior Services LLC of Little Falls, New Jersey. 2 days later on October 30th, 2025, Greyhawk, the district construction management company, sent a notice to proceed letter to Northeastern informing them that they had been awarded the contract and instructing them to prepare a project timeline. A week together to meet in person to discuss a preliminary timeline. Week after that on November 13, 2025, the district met virtually with the architect and construction manager to discuss concerns about the tenative project schedule. And four days later on November 17th, three meetings occurred. One was Northeastern came to visit the construction site along with all of their subcontractors to tour the site and
045address questions the subcontracts contractors may have had about the project. After that uh concluded, Northeastern stayed and met with um [clears throat] myself and um oh, I didn't write this in here. Um met with I wrote with the district, but it was with myself and Mr. s to discuss a tenative project schedule. Um we shared some of the concerns that we had met with previously and then third later in the day I met with Mr. Pello to discuss the impact of the project on the district before and afterare program. Um all of these meetings this is very preliminary. So right now we're at the very beginning stages. We haven't even actually started the project. So, we don't have answers to all the questions, but I wanted everyone to be aware of the conversations we're having
046because we anticipate um things that we're going to need to address as we move into the project. Uh a few general updates. This is section four of the report. Um one is food service during construction. Um in case you're not aware of the project itself, there will be a portion of time where the uh cafeteria in Faber Elementary School is not accessible. Um, so during that time, students will be eating in classrooms. And so the district is currently working with Mashios, our food service management company, on developing a plan to deliver meals to the classrooms during construction. Eating in classrooms will begin when staff and students return from winter break according to the current schedule and will most likely last through the end of this school year. Um there are many different aspects that we're
047working through talking with all the stakeholders, the principal, you know, administration of the building, the food service company, the construction manager, the contractor, the uh architect. We're all having conversations to make sure that when we come back in January, we're ready to go and we have a full meal service plan just relocated to classrooms. Um the second general update is construction management. So we are using the services of Greyhawk and the district used this company to help us um as we were coming to the conclusion of our prior construction projects. They were very very helpful in helping us address concerns we had with some of the work of the contractors and some of the processes and so we decided to bring them in from the beginning on this project. Um we are still working at
048the details as far as how many days they're going to be on site during the critical construction phases. And then the third general update is a project timeline. Uh as I mentioned earlier, we had some concerns about the preliminary timeline that the contractors presented. I will say we are very pleased with what they have presented so far in that um we really want this project to move through quickly and they've done a very good job of putting together a timeline that um is very aggressive and could get this project done in under a year. Um, we did find some things that actually may have been a little too aggressive and so we've been having conversations with the contractors to share our concerns and um, we should within the next um, two meetings we should be
049able to nail down a full timeline, a project timeline. Um, we do know that the first step of the project will be abatement of um, asbestous in the affected areas. We've already identified where this is. There's nothing that is currently present um or dangerous, but as they start demolition to remove certain, you know, walls and and ceilings and whatnot, they'll come across things that we all have already identified. So, they have to take care of that before they move into the actual construction phase. So, that will be the first part of the process. [snorts] And the last part of my um report will be change orders. And um if you're not familiar with construction projects, when you u bid a project, you have a bunch of specifications and a uh contractors, all the contractors put
050together their proposals. And those proposals have specific things they're going to do, specific materials they're going to use and timelines. And what happens in any construction project is at some point they come across something that wasn't anticipated. It could be something in the ground when they're digging. Could be something in the ceiling when they take the ceiling tiles down. It could be just something that um is a a kind of a change in direction as we talk through what's the best way to make this work. So when those things come up that requires a change order, which is a formal document that says we are changing from the original spec specifications of this project. We're going to change this to this. Um sometimes there are costs associated. Usually there are costs associated with that. The
051district does have a or in the bid we did include a $250,000 allowance which means that the first $250,000 of change orders will not actually change the total price of the construction project. If there are change orders that exceed $250,000 then they'll be need board approval so that we can find additional funding to pay for them. And right now, of course, since we haven't even started the project, we don't have any change orders to report. And that is my report. >> All right. Thank you, Mr. Pepe. Uh just one quick um adjustment. The project background pea actually started in uh we applied in 23. It started in 24. Um so January of 24 was when we started the preschool education aid funded um sort of push towards universal prek. Um, so with with all of
052that in mind, board members, I'll just provide you the opportunity if you have any questions right now um for Mr. Pepe. Um, we'll open up the floor to to all of you. >> Mr. Pepe, I would just ask you mentioned um the asbestous abatement. >> So there are areas that are you said already identified. How will that be managed with the um faculty and the students when they're in school? >> That's my question as well. >> So, our goal is to have the work completed as much as possible while they're not in school. So, over winter break, um if the work is not completed by the time they come back, the way that this will be set up is the actual very first step of the project is putting up barricades. We have a map.
053The contractor has a map of the areas that are affected. There will be barricades that are put up on either end. So, there'll be no access for staff or students or community members to that part of the building while they're doing um the asbestous abatement. Also, the asbestous um what's the word I'm looking for? The the kind that's not as dangerous. >> Fryable. >> Yes, it is not fryable. So the the process that they're going to be using um will be very isolated locally within that area between the barriers >> and yeah and so so to that point there are two types of asbestous abatements that can occur when there's friable asbestous the entire site has to be shut down. Um this asbestous work is um what's called wrap and cut and so it's basically
054everything is wrapped up first and then it's it's basically pipes that are covered in asbestous. So as long as the area in which the work is being done is um is isolated then there's no uh risk to any of the surrounding areas. >> Thank you. >> And by barriers sir you mean just like plastic put down because it's when it's in the air right? So like a wall barrier won't stop it or metal barrier wouldn't stop it. You'd have to how are we going to keep our staff and students safe? I can't answer that to the materials because I'm not knowledgeable about it. I can tell you that that's what we have our architect and our construction manager to make sure that the process they use is um appropriate and they've already reviewed what the
055proposal is and they're comfortable that the barriers they're intending to put up are going to be what we need to protect them. Is it okay to ask that when these areas are identified that the board can be notified as well as far as the plan? >> Yeah, I mean the area is the APR and so the the way that the barriers will be installed is essentially I don't know what the names of the doors are. It's the door A is the main office. If you go around to the right where um afterare the aftercare door or from the north side of the parking lot uh the barrier will be right there basically blocking that hallway. So to the end of that hallway and then on the other side it is by the main office um
056down that hallway that takes you to second grade and the nurse's office. So that entire section is going to be uh plast there's going to be you know wrapped essentially. So it'll be completely isolated from any traffic from students or or staff members or parents or anybody like that. >> So I'm just a little confused. You said that construction is going to start in January. >> That's so right now the the tentative timeline is that the asbestous abatement will occur over winter break. >> Okay. >> And then from there we'll have a sense of what happens timewise. >> Um as far as the eating in class, um I think I asked this last time. Are we going to have to hire new people because we don't have the numbers to observe all the kids? Or
057is maybe I'm confused in the elementary level. Do the teachers take their breaks at the same time as the kids? >> So if the teachers are on break and the kids are in the classrooms, who's watching the kids? >> Yep. So we're working on um plans for that. Um it will take either a substitute um teachers or new staff that we hire that have proper certification to be in the room with the students during their lunch. So yes, that's part of why we um told the construction company that even though we appreciated their aggressive timeline that we need them to hold off because we need to solve that problem. >> Also, you said you had conversations about afterare. Do you have any preliminary plans because the main space was the all-purpose room for afterare right
058classrooms and >> they they use that as a a place to come together >> and then they would break out into classrooms. So we have a couple of things that we have to address. One is like where are they coming into the building, >> right? >> Um and we have a couple of options that I shared with Mr. Apollo and we're going to make a decision shortly. Um there's also where are they going to be and they can go directly to classrooms. We can have um other areas such as the gym or the media center but we have to work around things like basketball. Right. Yeah. >> So these are the things that were like my I had the first meeting with Mr. Aello to just kind of identify what these issues are. >> Right.
059>> And we're we had some ideas but I don't want to speak to the ideas until we know what's going to work. And finally, >> I believe it's finally, sorry. >> Uh, these reports that you're going to give, will they be added to the website so we can revisit them? >> They'll be included in the minutes and they'll also be attached to the uh committee agendas. >> Thank you so much. >> One question. So, ballpark timeline. So, starting asbestousatement in over the winter break. Um roughly how long is the total time of the project ballpark? Is it a year? Year and a half. >> It's under a year. Um if all goes according to plan, they're looking at August, September as a um substantial completion with just a punch list. >> August of the same.
060>> Yeah. Yeah. It's a very aggressive timeline. So, we'll see what happens as we go through the project. But as of right now, they have a plan that would get us to um substantial completion somewhere end of August, middle of September. There'd still be work left to do for the punch list. There'll be, you know, there's always items that just need to be fixed or tweaked or whatever, but um we're we're looking at completely finished everything done by December, the end of December. Okay. >> Thank you, board members. Any other questions? Okay. >> I did have this one random random thought. Yeah. >> So, is that going to potentially impact graduation if as if there's a backup if favors a backup site? >> Graduation >> if if if it's raining in in Washington Park. >>
061Oh, high school, middle school graduation. >> Yeah. >> Is in the gym, >> right? So, would that be impacted? >> Probably not. >> Okay. Yeah. No effect on the gym. >> Okay. Yeah. All right. Um, so other items from uh from my report. Thank you, Mr. Pepe. Um, appreciate that. Um, and you know, just to to sort of echo some of those uh questions, right? We we've come up with most of the questions. Um, we don't have all the answers right now. Um, but we'll we'll certainly share the answers and we've got uh all of our teams of professionals working on these um items as well. So, um, so we have some grant visits, uh, that are coming up. Obviously, you know that grants has been, uh, have been a big part of what we're
062doing. Tomorrow, uh, Pete Mazagatti, who from the office of educator effectiveness, will be, uh, visiting with regard to the teacher climate and culture grant. So, he'll be meeting with our, uh, learning experience leaders at, uh, the three buildings, uh, for a session on how we're using those grant funds. Next week, we're very excited as part of the climate change um and resilience grant, we have Tammy Murphy uh coming to walk around with one of our elementary classes. So, that's uh that's exciting and that will certainly bring some some good press and positive pictures and things like that to Faber and to the district. Um grant funded positions we have in personnel items 14 through 19. These are all positions that are part of parts of the grants that we are running. We have two um
063climate change coordinator positions. One K2 climate change educator, which is Megan Higgins, our K5 math instructional coach. Kristen Gunther, our gifted and talented teacher, will be the climate change coordinator. Um we have the coach grant, which is a our K12 literacy coach. Um, we're still looking for uh the coaching sort of process here, but we're looking at Carrie Johnson, who was just recently hired in the district to move into that position and provide K12 literacy uh support. Um, [snorts] we have the impact grant, which is related to the adoption of highquality instructional materials um and professional development in grades 9 through 12. So there will be a literacy leadership team uh that uh Carrie Johnson will lead and we also have um high school teachers Miss Kaminsky, Mr. Kupak, Mr. Loenberg, Miss Labiscoco and Mr.
064Zukowski um serving on that team. The Lyft grant is a a $40,000 grant for family engagement um for families of student of children who are zero to three years of age. And we have a project lead and that person will be Beatric Gimenez who is our district CPIS uh community parent involvement specialist um who just put on an incredible event um that was taking place in the cafeteria just uh shortly shortly ago. And then lastly, we have a school school health NJ empower Somerset uh grant for whole school, whole community, whole child. Um and Ava D Olivea, who is one of our two school-based wellness specialists, will be overseeing that grant. So, a lot of really cool things happening. Um very proud of our staff members who are taking these leadership opportunities and I'm very
065excited to see what what comes of them. Um just a matter of uh sort of public interest. Um there's been some conversations about the removal of trees and other items uh around some of the buildings for safety purposes. Um we are we've we've been sort of replenishing that and we will be uh doing a shrub planting at the high school. Uh Matt Olivy, our director of grounds will be leading this work um along with support from uh Miss Piano and the environmental club who will be helping out as well. Uh the PTO is doing a food drive. Uh they're partnering with Fish Incorporated in Denellan to host a uh a food drive throughout November and December. Um there are dropboxes in each uh of the school lobbies for canned goods, box goods, uh stable shelf
066milk, baby food, breads and grains, proteins, um uh canned proteins, snack foods for kids, um and other items as well as non-food donations, uh personal care and hygiene items, uh cleaning supplies, can openers, etc., etc. So uh families who are need who are need can directly can collect food directly from fish incorporated and details on the hours uh for that organization are at fishdenellan area.org um and those families can just say that the denellan PTO has sort of sent them and they'll be able to access those um those items. Our work with the NJA labor management collaborative is moving forward. We met with uh the team today. Uh it was uh I was in the meeting along with uh Miss Laguna Morell who is the DEA president and um Felicia Moody who is the DAA
067president. Um so it's a very collaborative group um and we are looking at moving forward with a meeting in December um to kind of work on school culture and climate related items um and uh and we'll continue to provide updates on that. Um, we had field testing for NJSLA and NJGPA which will occur in the spring of 2026. That's all done now. There were no significant issues with the testing. Um, but I know that everybody is glad that there won't be testing for for a while, including Mrs. Howard. Um, our NJGPA fall results came out uh in uh ELA. This is for 12th grade students who did not pass the assessment in 11th grade. Uh we had 17 students take the uh the ELA assessment. 10 of those 17 did pass. So that's great. We
068had 32 students who did not uh meet graduation readiness in math. Only seven of those students passed uh through the NJGPA fall assessment and that means that those remaining students will have to complete a portfolio appeals process which is uh facilitated by teachers at Denalon High School. We also received our ESSA accountability profiles. This is the federal accountability profiles that come out each year um for uh school districts across the uh country and they measure readiness um by subgroup and overall district on a wide variety of metrics. Um, one of the I'm going to get into more details on this when I provide a state of the schools address later this spring, but uh, one really notable piece here is that Faber Elementary had um, incredibly uh, strong growth. Uh, the technical term here is
069that they had an MSGP of 70 um, for ELA and of 66 for math. Um, and what that basically means is that the uh the students who tested in fourth and fifth grade in ELA and in math showed more growth as compared to their uh their peers from the third grade or fourth grade assessments than uh 70% of students who took test who took the test across the state. So, and this is schoolwide, right? So, it's not just that one class of students did well or one grade level or whatever. it's that all of the fourth and fifth grade students when bundled together their median growth was higher than 70% of all other schools median growth for fourth and fifth grade. So it's a remarkable accomplishment. I'm uh very very proud of Mr. Mr. Tennant
070and Miss Moody um for leading the work and of course our incredible teachers who uh in ELA they adopted a new um core resource last year Wit and Wisdom um really you know overcame a bunch of challenges with that are doing a wonderful job this year but uh just the performance in in in those classes the willingness and the openness to new ideas and structuring their uh instructional blocks in a a a really focused way with small groupoup instruction um has just been amazing. Um truly a model of of excellent um instruction. So uh we will you know we'll share more information about that. Overall the district did show good improvement in ELA. Uh math performance is still lagging in grades 6 through 12. So certainly an area that we know that we need to
071focus on. The uh Denelan High School is uh starting its transition to become a schoolwide title one program. Um that process has already been completed uh last year uh two years ago for Faber and last year for the Lincoln Middle School. What that means basically is uh that all of the title one funds that are uh allocated to Denellan High School are accessible for use for all of the students at the high school rather than those funds only being available in for targeted programming at the high school. Um so right now we operate two schoolwide uh programs, one at Faber obviously and one at the middle school. This would be the third of the three. And so for that to happen um there will be an application for transition which will appear on the December
072agenda and then we'll have uh schoolwide stakeholder committee meetings. Um I think there's a requirement of three or four throughout the year. The first one uh folks have been uh invited to 15 people including staff, parents, students, Dr. Jendano. Um, and the first meeting will be held December 2nd. Um, our work with the New Jersey Inclusion Project, which is the three-year support from the Department of Education on improving inclusive practices, has been going very well. Um, the middle school and Faber are the two schools that have full schoolwide support for three years. Um, the site visits have been held in October. They were held also last last week in November, and they're scheduled for January, March, and April. Um, staff members took a belief survey. um which is a survey basically gauging how staff feels
073about um the ability for all students to be successful and those types of questions. Um and um there have been coaching cycles that have occurred and mission statements are being developed at each of those schools. The favor mission statement has been completed. Middle school is working on theirs. Um but so far really high engagement from staff, really good work being done um in this area as well. the Nikil Badb Badlani Foundation, which we talked about um we've talked about in the past. Uh the first youth advisory board meeting uh training summit took place at the Hodelik Firehouse on October 24th. Um Denellan High School students are one of uh just I think it's about three or four districts across the state who are represented on the youth advisory board. Um and this is an organization
074that is dedicated to traffic safety and uh and education. So there were members of uh the state um there were members of state department of transportation there uh you know other other representatives as well keep keep middle sex moving uh has been very involved um and now in addition to the 12th grade students there are also six 11th grade students who are involved um and they are formalizing the safety spirit week project that they came up while working with uh keep middle sex moving they'll also be working with the municipal committee to uh and the denellan burough traffic and safety commission. So this is really uh it's really good work. Um one of the key things that the Bodlani Foundation is working on and students will be supporting is uh A1432 or Senate Bill 1469
075which authorizes the use of school bus monitoring system to enforce the state law governing passing a school bus. What that means is that um the the law basically will require that school buses have some sort of camera uh attached to um record people passing stopped school buses um which we know is sort of an endemic problem and an incredible um you know hazard for for students who are trying to cross the street uh or just others. Um and so uh this is a bill that's currently pending um and you know may be signed during the lame duck session. The college fair at the high school was held. I think it was the biggest college fair that that that we've seen. Um there were 25 maybe schools, universities, uh military groups, you know, uh other organizations
076that were represented there. Students were very engaged. Um, one of the very cool aspects for me is that uh the the ENL teachers and some of our bilingual staff members took our multilingual learners to the tables and helped facilitate conversations with each of the representatives there. The schools are also getting smarter. They're sending people who are bilingual um which has helped a lot in terms of the communication. but just to be able to kind of break the ice. Um, which you know it's hard even as adults it's hard to go up to a table of with a stranger and say, "Hi, can you share information?" Um, and so our staff really helped with that which was wonderful. Um, we have some policies and regulations on the agenda as well. I'll just talk about them now
077rather than. Um, in August the Department of Education uh published guidance with regard to the Freedom to Read Act um, which was passed recently. This requires districts to adopt policies and procedures that provide standards for the curation of library material. Um establish criteria for the removal of existing school library material and provide protection against attempts to censor school library material. So there are three uh policies and three regulations that are on uh tonight's agenda for first reading that uh relate to that and certainly we can talk about that when we get there. Finally, the enrollment port report. Uh currently we are at 1,332 students uh not including our private prek students and with those we have 1,415 total students being served by the district. Faber is at 610, middle school is at 314 and the
078high school is at 408. Um and so uh we are we're at a a pretty stable point uh a little bit above 1400 uh as of right now. And that is my report. >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Ross. >> Any questions, guys, before we move on? >> Okay. >> Real quick, uh question. Uh capac capacity with the growth rate that you're seeing right now over the past couple of years, what does it look like uh for projected capacity? So right now we are below where we anticipated we would be um at the end of last year and so uh you know we're [snorts] I I I I do think that we've leveled off quite a bit. We're pretty in line with the uh demographic survey uh results and you know that's a good thing. Um
079but you know part of this process of preschool expansion is that we want to provide more capacity where we can and so you know the facilities project adds eight classrooms eight full-size classrooms um ostensibly for the use of um of preschool classrooms. We also right now have two private providers and those private providers are getting very positive remarks uh you know feedback from parents that are using those services. So, we have this opportunity to potentially move everybody in house um and use those eight classrooms. This would not be until the 2829 school year. Um or we can use those classrooms for uh some for preschool, some for other things, you know, sort of as we see fit as allowable by the by the the terms of the grant. So right now uh you know Faber
080has uh has grown tremendously and you know there are there are so many new staff members there and there are so many new programs there. At the same time we've also we lost our autism program. Um we've lost uh additional um self-contained classrooms. Um and it would be great to be able to bring those back. Um we have students that uh we send to out of district placements because we don't have the capacity to serve their educational needs. Um and every district has students that they that they serve to you know send to to out of district placements. Um but in my mind uh and I think in the mind of Dr. Santaneloo, we have the opportunity to potentially bring some of those students back through the expansion of some of those um those programs.
081And so, you know, we will have more spaces um which are large new beautiful spaces with, you know, with bathrooms built into them. And so, uh you know, this is part of the conversation about growth and and sustainability. Um you know, we we want to not serve kind of the dimminimous population of the school district, but we want to serve as many kids in the district as we can inhouse. Um because we know that there are huge benefits for socialization. Um obviously the you know the benefits to parents to be able to drop your kid off at Faber rather than put them on a bus and they drive an hour north or somewhere like that. Um you know so these are these are some of the things that we're thinking about. But you know with
082regard to enrollment specifically we are we are pretty level right now. Um we did have we did anticipate getting more preschool students. Um, we know that our university, our universe is a little bit bigger. Um, but we had a number of of families who uh were offered universal free, you know, full day prek and they declined. And so I think, you know, it's some some of this is surprising to us, new learnings about people's preferences and those kinds of things. Um, you know, so so we shall see. >> All right. Thank you. >> Yeah. Any other questions? Okay. So, let's move along to uh item number eight, public comment on agenda action items only. So, uh the board invites public comment from members of our community in accordance with board policy 0167 on agenda on
083agenda action items to be voted on only. Public comment sections are intended to provide an opportunity for members of the public to express themselves on school matters of community interest. The board and administration will take notes sharing uh take notes during public comment but will not provide substantive responses to questions or concerns raised by individual speakers. If necessary, the superintendent may provide a brief response after the entire public comment period is completed. The board appreciates and welcomes feedback from the community, but it is not at liberty to engage in a back and forth dialogue with members of the public during this portion of the meeting. Prior to making your public comment, please state your name and municipality. Please note that all statements must be directed to the presiding officer. Please come to the microphone at
084this time if you'd like to make comments on agenda action items to be voted on only. And prior to beginning your comment, please state the action item to be voted on that you would like to comment on. Last call. Okay, moving along to item number nine, committee reports. So, um, just to note here, we, um, this is the first, uh, board meeting where we're kind of changing up the agenda a little bit to try to streamline, um, some of the things that we're doing here. So, in the following, um, uh, items that you'll see on the agenda, we'll be grouping, uh, all the committee reports together before they were read prior to each section, but we'll group them all together, hear about the reports, and then proceed uh, after the approval of minutes from previous
085meetings. um proceed to the actions that we would be taking um on those items in each of those committees. So, so let's give this a go. So, move moving on to item number nine, committee reports. I'm going to turn the um microphone or the floor over to Miss Howard U who is our education committee chair. >> Thank you. The education committee met on November 11th. Present were myself, Miss Ibach, Miss Shy, Dr. Jano, Miss Drapkin, and Mr. Ross. The education committee discussed a number of items including an update on the district's goal setting work for the 2526 school year, a wide range of professional development occurring throughout the district, information related to the grant-f funded work currently in operation across the three schools, details about the schoolwide title one work being completed at Faber and
086LMS, and the transition to schoolwide meetings that will be occurring this year at DHS. Updates on the NJSLA and NJGPA field testing that concluded last week. Policies and regulations related to the Freedom to Read Act, which are on tonight's agenda for first reading. Details about the preschool budget and operational plan, which are in the operations section for approval. Regulation 2464, Gifted and Talented, and Regulation 2440, honoring student achievement. the 2425 ESSA accountability profiles for the district and each school which is based on state testing, attendance, graduation rates, and other information and a variety of other items and confidential matters. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mrs. Howard. Moving on to uh 9B uh personnel. Um I'll I'll read the report there. So, the personnel committee met on November 11th. Um in attendance uh were myself, uh
087Mr. Anderson, Michep um Mr. Ross. Um during that meeting, a number of items were discussed, including uh staffing information for the current year, two sidebars with the DEA that are included on tonight's agenda for approval, regulation 3150, and the included staff discipline chart, grantf funded staff roles that have been created throughout the district, and a number of confidential terms. Moving on to 9C, operations committee report. Um, Mr. Walker, our chair, is not here this evening, so I'll go ahead and walk through those. Um, the operations committee met on November 11th, uh, in attendance where, uh, Mr. Walker, uh, Miss Condid, Mr. Senoi, myself, Mr. Pepe, and Mr. Ross. Um, during that meeting, we discussed a number of items, uh, including items on a number of items on tonight's agenda for approval. uh beautifification efforts at
088DHS, including uh the planting of about 40 new shrubs in the front of the building, updates related to the district's preschool facilities expansion grant, updates on the many internal construction projects occurring throughout the district, information about a possible submission of the NJ DOE securing our children's future bond act water infrastructure grant, security improvements, and actions that are ongoing in a variety of confidential matters. That concludes the operations report. Moving on to 9D, policy. I think we'll be talking about that later. Oh, no. Policy committee report. Um and then for 9E negotiations just to say um that they are they are going well with oh our negotiations with DAA are are going well and we'll have uh more information to share at the next meeting. Okay. Moving along to um item number 10 approval of minutes.
089At this time looking for the approval of 10 A and B. Um looking for a motion for that. And these are the minutes from our October October 14th meeting as well as our special ad hoc uh October 28th meeting. So looking for a motion. >> Motion to approve 10 A and B as >> second. >> Okay. Open for questions or comments. Last call. Okay. Mr. Pepe, can you please call the role? >> Mr. Anderson, >> yes. >> Uh, Miss Ibeck, >> yes. >> Dr. Gendrono, >> yes. >> Mrs. Howard, >> yes. >> Mr. Senoi, >> yes. >> Miss Shyf, >> yes. >> Mrs. Shep, >> yes. Motion passes. All right. Wonderful. Moving along to item 11A. Uh these are board action to the um board action items. Moving on to 11 uh 11A education. Looking
090for a motion to approve 11A 1 through 6 as a block. >> Motion to approve 11 A1. >> Oh, is it all of 11? Hold on. >> We're not going to go. Oh. >> Oh. Okay. So, um All right. So, Okay. So, motion there here is then looking for a motion for to approve 11 item 11 which includes uh board action items for education for personnel as well as operations. >> Move to approve action items for the board. >> So, can I I'm just going to clarify. So, item 11, this is again for those of you who are following at home, this is a new agenda format. So this is item 11 A 1- 6 B 1- 22 that includes the addendum right and C 1 through oh right 12 not D right >> yeah
091oh and D 1 through 3 right so that's so it's item 11 A through D including item uh B22 which is on the addendum Great. So, looking for a motion. >> Yeah. Move to approve um board action items as indicated. >> Second. >> Okay. Open for questions or comments. >> I would like to comment on A6. I am grateful uh for this um action to be taken to um you know enrich the the opportunity for the youth um and and staff to uh receive the opportunity for the therapy dog to visit at at Faber School. I think that's a wonderful move for u the social emotional environment. >> Any other questions, comments? Um, I'll just note a couple items. Just the the um grant funded items that I I spoke about are in uh 14
092through 19. We also have the addition uh in personnel which is uh B20 for the uh the sidebar to add the winter uh winter cheer um which Queen spoke about. And so folks have uh have that's been advertised. There's been conversation about that. Um we're very excited about that moving forward. And then um item 22 in personnel is a sidebar agreement for additional compensation for three members of the child study team um who have um done an incredible job uh covering um after the unfortunate uh departure of our leave replacement um case manager uh sort of unexpected in um earlier in October. So, I'm very thankful for the work that those three individuals have um have done and um you know, we're happy to have the the sidebar be able to approved in in in
093item uh 22. In addition to that, we have operations uh four and five uh which is uh C4 and C5 which relate to the 2627 preschool uh expansion um uh preschool project preschool program rather. So that is the program plan and then the enrollment. So you can look at the attachment if you're interested in the enrollment there um and sort of see how that that's working through. Um and then we also are approving uh in item 11 uh the services of a district residency officer. Um we had a residency officer for some time. We've been using our security folks from time to time for that u process, but in order to sort of keep them separate um we were able to identify a residency officer um who can provide some services as needed um for
094the remainder of the school year. So uh definitely looking forward to that. I do have a comment about uh the 11 that you just spoke to. Is the $60 an hour up to a certain amount or is it just $60 an hour forever? >> Yeah. So, it's $60 an hour. However, those hours are only when we call him to do work for us. So, there's not a limit uh built into the item. So, he won't work unless we call him in to work. >> Correct. >> I did have a question. I had I had to say something about the therapy dogs. I think it's really cool. Um I noticed that was primarily at Faber. Is there thought to expand that to middle school and high school? Yeah, I think right now our our district behaviorist
095Nancy Coer is primarily at Faber and so the goal is to kind of trial this um at each grade level at Faber and if it works out well, I know Miss Coaster is very interested in this. Also, Miss Drapkin has expressed a lot of interest in therapy dog programming and so um I think we're we're giving it a go at Faber to see how things are. Um and then we'll expand as you know as we can if needed. >> Okay. Okay. Or as desired. >> So, what could be considered success criteria if you're just um leveraging that to see as a trial how it works at Faber? >> It's a good question. I mean, I think a lot of it's just going to be anecdotal feedback um about student experience. Um and you know, the
096the the goal of a therapy dog sort of program is um to is is really about improving wellness overall. And so if there's a positive response from students and there's an excitement about this, um I mean this is a free program right now. Um and so uh anything that we can do to kind of improve the student experience and especially students who might feel uh perhaps like they're they they're they don't feel a part of the school community or they need maybe a little bit more connection. This might provide some of that benefit. Is there a way to also target it for self-help and to help students encourage leveraging the services that are already in the school? >> Yeah, I mean I think that there so the way that the the the way the program
097is being pushed out is really through sort of the behaviorist um but we also have school wellness you know uh specialist services at each of the buildings um plus our counseling services. So anything that we can tie into that I know will be tied into it. So I think that's that's sort of to your point I think that does make some sense. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. >> Any other questions or comments? Last call. Okay. Mr. Pepe, can you please call the role? >> Mr. Anderson. Uh, yes. Miss Ibeck. >> Yes. [snorts] >> Dr. Gendrono. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Howard. >> Yes. >> Mr. Senoi. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Excuse [clears throat] me. Uh, Miss Shyf. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Shep. >> Yes. But, uh, abstaining from a Three line four. >> Okay, thank you very
098much. And that concludes the voting. The motion passes. >> Wonderful. Thank you. So that uh catapults us far ahead to item number 12. >> That's the goal. >> Okay, that's different. All right. Um any old business? Anyone would like to come back to? Okay, moving on to item 13. Any new business? >> All right, so I have two items on there um just for the board's consideration. Obviously, these are not items for to be voted on. Uh we put together uh Mr. Mr. Pepe and I the board meeting schedule draft for 2026. This is an item that will appear on the reorganization uh agenda for approval, but I just wanted to put the dates out there in the cadence so that everyone had time to review. This draft um basically has two meetings in January
099and then really one meeting throughout each of the rest of the months. We placed the May 5th uh the March 17th and the May 5th meetings based on the statutory requirements for the budget approvals and the tentative budget presentation. May 5th is also uh it precedes the May 15th statutory date for non-tenured staff renewals. So it serves both of those purposes. In the past we have had two uh two April meetings. um if we can streamline them um and that makes sense then that would that's certainly you know feasible based on this structure. The the second thing we've also done at times based on the end of the school year is we've had an a late May board meeting where we've done some of the recognitions like retirees or teachers of the educators of the
100year and then we've done the rest in June. Um this draft schedule has all the recognitions in June. um which obviously would make it you know a longer meeting but that would be recognition of all of our retirees from the 2526 school year plus all of our educators of the year. So obviously this is you know [snorts] one more month of conversation and then one more month of discussion and and approval in in the beginning of January. So if you have any feedback or if there's any feedback that's gathered um you know from the schools uh certainly we can make adjustments as needed. Okay, any questions, guys? I have something for new business. I think this is new business. As far as our format, this change in format. Um, I did notice a couple of
101things when we started. Uh, the public wasn't here for our pledge of allegiance or as well as our moment of silence. I small town vibes is better to have it as a a community thing. I also want to point out that while we did save a few minutes with this new format, uh the amount of things that we passed all at once, um in the future, something may be overlooked by bunching it all together. And in the old format, uh, we were able to look at certain chunks a little bit closer. So, I just cautioned us sticking to this that things may be overlooked in the future. Thank you for the point, Mr. Any other um, comments or new business? Okay. All right. Then I'll move on to um item number 14. >> I'm sorry.
102So, so there is a second item for new business, but but I think I mean it would be >> we're we're all, >> you know, just experiencing this new format for the first time. So, um you know, Mr. Anderson has mentioned two things. The first obviously is the location of the pledge of allegiance and the momentum of silence, which could certainly very easily be moved. um it would probably be worthwhile. I would recommend that the board have some dialogue about this or at least think about it and we can discuss it again in December. So, I don't know if anyone has any initial reactions or responses to that particular item. Obviously, the second piece of it is the chunking of the of the um approvals. Um I will point out this the chunks are the
103same. Um they just happen to all be under 11. And so the the agenda is sent out Friday before the board meeting with an update on those items. Um but again, this is the board's meeting. So um it's important that board members, you feel empowered to have those conversations. You're certainly free to agree or disagree or have no opinion about it. Um but I just wanted to make sure that there was a pause there uh to to to honor sort of Mr. Anderson's um commentary. So guys, what do you think? What do you think of the new format? >> I'll say I feel like we need to give it a few goes to kind of figure out what the cadence is really going to feel like. >> Um, I can certainly appreciate Mr. Anderson's concern
104about everything being bulked together. But as Mr. Ross pointed out, I do think that that's kind of a burden that's on us >> in terms of we do receive the agenda in advance. So, we do have time to look over things, highlight things that we may have questions on, and then go ahead and be prepared to bring them up >> during that part portion of the meeting. >> Thank you, Miss Chef. Any other thoughts, guys? I would say I I agree with with the ship that I think we need maybe need to give this a couple more goes okay >> to get comfortable with it. >> Okay. And with regard to the pledge of allegiance. >> Yeah, I do second uh Mr. Anderson's comments, having the pledge of allegiance uh with the public would be
105a lot better. >> Any other thoughts? I mean again this is not you know we're not setting anything in stone. So if we move it for next meeting and we try it there and we can see how that goes. You know I I mean I I am not a an elected board member but I will say having everybody together saying the pledge of allegiance is you know is a pretty special thing. So >> um you know we can certainly discuss moving that piece of it. Um okay thank you. The uh the other piece of new business is I just wanted to bring up the district uh calendar for 2627. There's no draft of the calendar yet. Um I did share uh some information with uh Miss Laguna Morau who uh received some feedback from the
106DEA. Um Labor Day is uh as late as it can be. I believe it's September 6th um this year uh coming up and so uh in 2026 uh that means that uh there will be some schools that start very very late September 7th. There will be other schools that start like four weeks before Labor Day. Um some of the schools in Morris County that that you know traditionally start kind of like mid August. Um, we've tended to start with new staff orientation, uh, basically the last Monday in August. Um, which would be, uh, August 31st or something like that. I don't have it in front of me. Is that right? Yeah, I'm seeing some nodding. Um, and so then, you know, uh, there would still be a Labor Day weekend. Uh there could also be
107a start on August 24th uh which is the Monday before that. Um which is more around the date that we would start because usually Labor Day is around September 1st, 2nd, whatever it might be. In any case, this is going to be a conversation we're going to need to have. um the you know winter break time period is another piece of things because you know each day uh each calendar year um you know Christmas moves and New Year's Day moves and so when those are on a Wednesday what happens if they're on a Thursday what if there's on there's on you know something on a Monday so just take a look at next year uh you know as as you have some time I'll probably have some um some templates, some models um for for
108discussion um at our December meeting and then typically we've approved the calendar in the second January meeting uh the last bunch of years. So, I just want everyone to just to be aware uh of that and obviously um uh you know sort of just the the t the typical conversations that we have about the calendar and September starts and August starts and you know how much school should we have? It it is entirely possible and would would be somewhat normal given the amount of summer break that we have a full week of school before Labor Day. that might be something that kind of blows people's minds. Um, but that would also be uh, you know, very normal given, you know, where where August lies um, and how early we're getting out this year and those
109sorts of things. So that's one option. There are a lot of options. Um, so I just wanted to put that out there as a initial point of discussion just so that everyone can start wrapping their heads around that. So just to add to that, I I wanted like part of it is when not just when we'd start, but also when what that would mean as to when we would end. And part of that answer, I believe, is also part of what days would we have off in between potentially. And you know, there have been times some years when we've had like long droughts in the spring where kids have just been going five days a week. >> Yeah. >> And perhaps need a break or something like that. So some considerations, right? >> Yeah. And
110and Good Friday is in March. Uh so I mean it's like late it's sort of late March or something like that which means you know if we have spring break at the same time that Good Friday is which is often the case just for to minimize the number of days not for the religious holiday aspect of things um then you know we have all of April and May with no breaks right >> um which is a a long stretch right and that's that's all the testing and that's AP testing etc. Um, we also have the ability to, you know, play with days, you know, around, um, Columbus Day or we could have a November break, you know, in the first full week of November. I mean, there there are a thousand different ways that this
111can be sort of worked through. Um, so I would just say again, take a look at things in the committees. I'll share some drafts um so that everyone maybe has some some the ability to be prepared for some dialogue and then you know there's no pressure to approve anything immediately um but uh yeah but you know next year's calendar looks a little bit a little bit interesting. So, yes. I was going to say if we go uh two full months without a break, I think we may need uh we may need those therapy dogs. Maybe more more. Um any other thoughts? Any other new business? Okay. So, we got our homework for us uh for next time. Um so, president's remarks. I typically don't say much here. I just wanted to just note that looking
112at the um look ahead section, there are a number of events that are happening in the in the next few weeks. I'm going to do my best to to go to as many of them as I can to participate. If you can join, that would be awesome. But just to note that uh we are welcome to go uh stop in and uh support our our kids and our our groups there. So um and uh with that I'll move on to item number 15. Public comments on any issue, any topic. The board invites public comments um from members of our community in accordance with board policy 0167 on any issue or topic. Public comment sections are intended to provide an opportunity for members um public to express themselves on school matters of community interest. The board
113administration will take notes during public comment but will not provide substantive responses to questions or concerns raised by individual speakers. If necessary, superintendent may provide a brief response after the entire public comment period is completed. The board appreciates and welcomes feedback from the community, but is not at liberty to engage in a back and forth dialogue with members of the public during this portion of the meeting. Prior to making a public comment, please state your name and municipality. Please note that all statements must be directed to the presiding officer. Please come to the microphone at this time if you'd like to make comments on any issue or any topic. Good evening. >> Good evening. Um, my name is Trisha Campbell. I'm a >> Could you move the microphone or can we Yeah. So that's everybody
114can hear you also online as well. >> All right. Is that going? Uh, my name is Trisha Campbell and I'm uh from Denellan. Um, I've had five children in this school district since 1999. Um, and over the years I've seen dedication of the staff. Um, however, I need to talk to you about the students that are being left behind. Um, we urgently we urgently need an LLD classroom in both our middle school and high school. Um, one of my children struggled for years um, to get the right support and structure in this school district. And despite every effort from the caring teachers, it's become clear that the environment didn't accommodate what he needed. Um, and with that, we eventually made the difficult decision to terminate his enrollment in the Denal public school district. We now
115pay out of pocket for private schooling to make sure our child gets the specialized instruction that he needs. Um, it's a huge financial sacrifice for our family, but more than that, it's heartbreaking. Um, because we love this district. This is not an option for our youngest child who's soon approaching middle school and will face similar issues. My youngest son needs an LLD classroom in the middle school, a place where he can be with children like himself in a small learning groups with teachers that are trained and to instruct theu instruct the students who produce um who process language differently. a place that moves at the right place that provides structure and builds confidence instead of eroding it. Uh without that structure, um kids can get exhausted. They're not going to do well in school. They're
116unmotivated. They're labeled distracted. Um many of our children struggle with invisible disabilities and are often overlooked to social capabilities. I recently had an encounter with a staff member that told me because my child is social and would get along with other peers in general education, he would do do just fine. Um although he would be fine socially, um that's not the case academically. It's often assumed that just because someone is well spoken that capable, they're capable of learning at the same pace as others and vice versa. um how these children with invisible disabilities carry themselves should not be used as a measuring stick when determining what accommodations they need in an academic setting. I know Denellan is a small district, but that doesn't mean that we can't do big things. While this may be a
117financial issue, out of out of district placements can cost tens of thousands of dollars per year per student. But beyond the numbers, this is a moral issue. These are our kids and they deserve to learn in the same community where they live along with their peers in classrooms built for their success. Inclusively goes beyond what you look like and what language you speak. And I feel as though with learning disabilities, you're being heavily omitted. By implementing an LLD classroom for the middle and high school, you're shaping a future for every student, regardless of ability, stifling the silent cost of bias and a system meant to help. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Miss Campbell. Any other comments uh on any item, any topic? Last call. Okay. Okay. move along to at this point now
118moving on to item number uh 16 uh executive session. So the Denellan Board of Education will now adjourn into executive session to discuss items that fall within specific exceptions to the Open Public Meetings Act CJ SA104-12B. The confidential matters discussed by the board during the executive session include items related to individ individual privacy, collective bargaining agreements, pending or anticipated litigation, as well as personnel. Um, any discussion that does not need to maintain 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. Uh action will not take place after the conclusion of executive session. May I have a motion to go into executive session? >>
119Move to go to exec. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I >> opposed. Okay. So, we will uh leave it here and we will adjourn from our executive uh session uh when when that's completed. We will see you next time uh December 18th uh 7 pm right here. Thanks everyone and happy Thanksgiving.