001Let's go ahead and get started. So, moving on to item one of our agenda call to order. In accordance with the open public meetings NJSA 104-6, adequate notification of this meeting has been provided by advertising in the courier news and posting notice in the board of education, administrative building, and district schools and filing notice with the burough clerk. I hereby call to order the regular public meeting Tuesday, July 15, 2025 in Lincoln Middle School Cafetum, 400 Denellan Avenue at 7 p.m. This meeting is broadcast live. For details, check www.denellonschools.org. Moving on to item number two of our agenda. Uh, roll call. Mr. Pepe, could you please call the role? >> Mr. Anderson, >> Mrs. Condit, >> here. Miss Ibeck is not here. Dr. Gendrono >> present. >> Mrs. Howard >> present. >> Mr. Sinoi >>
002present. Miss Shimp is not here. Mrs. Shep >> present. >> And Mr. Walker >> here. >> Okay, we have a quorum. >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Pepe. Moving on to item number three, executive session. Uh the Denellan Board of Education will now adjourn into executive session uh to discuss items that fall within pu uh within specific exceptions to the Open Public Meetings Act CJSA 104-12B. The confidential matters discussed by the board during this executive session include items related to individual privacy, collective bargaining agreements, and 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
003will take place after the conclusion of the executive session. Uh may I have a motion to move into executive session. Please move to go to exec. >> Second. >> All those in favor? I >> opposed. >> Okay. We'll be back by around 7:30ish. 7:40ish 239. Okay, we are back. Moving on. Oh, first of all, um uh may I have a motion, please, to um come back into public? Move to go back to public. >> Second. >> All those in favor? I >> opposed. Okay, moving on to item number four. Moving on to item number five, approval of minutes. Looking for a motion to approve minutes from our June Open for questions or comments. Mr. Anderson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Condit, >> yes. >> Dr. Gano, >> yes. >> Mrs. Howard, >> yes. >> Mr. Yes.
004>> Mrs. Shep, >> yes. >> Mr. Walker, >> yes. >> Motion passes. >> Fantastic. Moving on to item number six, president's remarks. I do not have any prepared remarks tonight. Surprise, surprise. Um, I just want to say uh happy summer. Hope everyone's okay with the two storm two storms that we've had recently. So, hope you guys are okay. Um, we have even though it's the summer time, we have a bunch of things going on and um looking forward to starting up school. So, I'll just uh leave it there and keep it short. So, moving on to item number seven, superintendent report. Turn it over to Mr. Ross. >> Thank you, Dr. Jendano. We'll start the superintendent report with um our report out of the spring 2025 uh NJPA and uh we have Mr. Lynch with
005us to prepare that report. So, we could have the screen Good evening. I'm gonna speak today about the NJPA scores for our just finished junior class or class of 2026 and we'll kind of go through the scores on the ELA and math and progress that has been made in those classes. So just a little general information for what the NJ GPA is. It's kind of that next step from NJSLA that the students take in the earlier They've got the ELA component and then the math component. There are two sections of ELA, 90 minutes each, and then math 90 minutes each that as well. Again, as you can see here, students need to hit a minimum passing score, which the state has determined as 725. And if they do not meet that, then there are other
006assessments that we can give for the students. as far as a graduation is concerned. And then if they don't meet that, there's a portfolio assessment that is done in school for those students which every year there's a number of students that we do this with. We send them into the county offices of the state and they get approved from there. So for our NJGPA math scores from our 2025, so this is our class of 2026. Uh you can see here that this year we moved ahead of the state as far as the graduation ready number is concerned. So and then we have the breakdown as far as male female ethnicity. As you can see at the bottom there's a the little it just means that there's fewer than 10 students in that group. Uh so
007the to the state you don't report that out as far as uh scores are concerned. I think one one thing to make note of on on this is the one at the bottom as far as the English language learner students as far as math proficiency. Uh we've got a good number of students that are graduation ready which is fantastic especially considering there is there is a lot of it's not just knowing the numbers there is a level of English knowledge in there as we will see it doesn't necessarily translate on the ELA side but on the math side students did very well uh the ELA scores as we can see here Again, uh as a as the high school, we are above the state average. 84% of the students passed. We've got the male female
008ethnicity breakdown. And as you can see down at the bottom, as far as the ELLL learners are concerned, only 27% of them passed. But again, you're talking about any student that's in the 11th grade unless they came to the school uh just that year have to take the assessment, which is quite challenging. And what we find is as they go through our program and are here a longer period of time, that number for the students does When we do the the retakes, the students are given the opportunity to do a retake. We have students right now in a summer program because there is a summer administration and then they will also retake it again in October, the start of their senior year. So when we do we just have a little chart here as far
009as the breakdown is concerned uh comparing the class of 2025 who just graduated the class of 2026. Uh you do see the increase as far as a comparison is concerned between our students from the class of 2025 and our class of 2026. a comparison to what students achieved when they took ninth grade NJSLA as far as numbers are concerned. Uh the ninth grade NJSLA math is a combination of our students who took algebra 1 and geometry and so that goes from 12 to 62% on the ELA side 45 to 84% in comparison between the three years in high school. So just to highlight some of the what you just saw. uh we are above the state and in the average score and the percentile ELA and math except for the average score uh proficiency in
010ELA went from 81 to 84% and the uh increase in from the last slide that we saw the increase from ELA to math from 9th grade to 11th grade. The things that we have been working on and continue to work on is uh PLC's uh professional learning communities for our teachers as far as working together setting goals uh similar to SGOs that teachers have setting these goals so that they identify standards that students need to work on and develop and going from there. uh teachers at the beginning of the year will look at the NJSLA scores and the evidence statements that we get from the state and go through those by departments and subject areas and work to identify those standards and areas for students to work on. Uh related assessments used for practices as
011I mentioned before the the summer program that's going on now. We have afterchool programs that do go on and the professional development for staff that we do have. Uh breaking it down as far as ELA and math. Uh one of the focuses that we continue to have is talking to the teachers about it's not in ELA, it's not just the English teachers who are working on these things. Much many of the readings that are going on in these assessments are in the areas of science and social studies. So contributions from those areas as well to give texts and readings for the students in those classes as well to support what's going on in the English classes and in the math classes. They've done a a huge focus with the book building thinking classrooms trying to
012get the increase the student engagement getting the students up out of their seat working together. In a lot of the math classes that we have there are whiteboards around the room so that the students are able to work together. In addition, this past school year, we bought desks where the students are able to write right on the desks and work out problems there in groups. And so it's more help to facilitate that student centered activity as opposed to just the teacher showing the students everything that they need to do. resources continue. We continue to look at those what teachers can use in the classroom and the Prism's VR headsets, the virtual reality headsets that we got last year that teachers continue to use to help students kind of understand some of these concepts that they've
013been going through. Questions, comments? He's got a question. >> Thank you, Mr. Lynch, for the presentation. I just wanted to ask one question if you can go back a couple of slides. And you're talking about the state average or us um was it 84 versus the 81 state average. I I just was wondering, do we know um that's for the state are there more um do we have percentages or comparisons with other like school districts or similar school districts? >> The for this year the state report cards have not come out. Okay. So all that information state does it later in the the school year as far as the school report card. Gotcha. >> So we don't have >> this year's information. >> Yeah. is going to see our our students a wide range of
014students across the state. So just wondering how we would you know how we would fare against a similar district or similar kinds of students. I would hope better traditionally those that are in our district factor group we are in that area of where other where other schools are. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. All right. [Applause] >> I just want to uh I want to just highlight two points that Mr. Lynch discussed which I think are are important for us to talk about and we will look at the the DFG information and the county information just to see how the district has fared. Um but first of all this presentation is available on the website. Um so you can take a look at it certainly at your leisure. Um but there are a couple
015of real quick things that I want to just point out uh as well. >> We should name the projector GDAU. >> Right. Waiting for GDAU. >> Yeah. >> There you go. Yeah, >> it is. Yeah, you just turned me off. >> Yeah, >> our students well um and the programming is strong. Um and so I want to thank Mr. Lynch obviously and his team for all of their efforts and the support that's been given. We're continuing to expand um as as Mr. Lynch outlined the supports for our 11th grade students. Um but I just wanted to leave you with those two pieces of additional info. So thank you. Thank you again. >> All right, you can turn it off, >> Mr. Ross. Yeah. >> Do we have the data from How long have we been
016given this assessment? >> So, we can't really tell if it's just a class or it's an actual trend, the growth yet, right? Until we have more data, >> right? We have three years of data, right? with a small class there's there's always going to be some variation. Um but yeah, I think so in the in the presentation from last year there would have been a year versus year comparison. So we we we certainly have all three years of data and we could look at that. >> It's great either way though that we have that's tremendous growth in uh mathematics. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Yeah. And then focusing on what you just highlighted because I was uh pondering the question is how can we leverage that to build more of the community to show that
017the contri the contributions both on you know um the school district side as well as the community side is helping these students to get better so that we can continue the momentum and build kind of that that spirit that you know we've made some progress. We don't want to >> take the foot off the gas pedal. so to speak. >> Yeah. >> And use that as a as a leverage point to help build more momentum in that. >> Yeah. The um you know, move academic outcomes is definitely a lagging indicator of of district improvement. So, it's always going to come after other improvements have been recognized internally, but um we have preliminary NJSLA data for the spring. It's very good um in especially in certain areas. Um, our NJDPA numbers are very good. And what
018we've tried to do, you know, we had the the slide that that I created that's on the district website now that's the notable achievements. Um, we want to be able to do something like that for academic growth as well and just continue to push that so that people can see it's not just that the schools are that they look better or that there's more programming, there's this or that or there's a cool thing here. It's that kids are also performing better, right? Their outputs are really improving. So, I had another item on there. Um, >> yeah, I'll get back to that. >> Okay, while Mr. So is thinking, I did have a one follow-up question and um, thank you, Mr. Anderson, for pointing that out. So, just uh, the numbers I was spec speaking of.
019So, it's great that they were beating the state average in in in, you know, then changing, you know, from 2024 to 2025, but I thought it was that's a 20 something 20some point jump, right? Is there what's I mean, but it was about a three-point jump, I think, for um for ELA. I'm happy for the jumps, but just curious, you know, is there something specific that we can maybe leverage from the math the the math side to the side? I mean, so yeah, Mr. Lynch mentioned the um building thinking classrooms approach, >> right? >> And just sort of the the short version of that for everyone is um you know, you think of a traditional high school math class as a teacher standing in front of the room talking and kids sort of taking notes,
020sitting in rows. The the the flip of that is that students are really up and engaged in their learning. We've had all of the teachers really involved in this and one teacher in particular has really taken the lead on this. Um, and it is certainly not perfect by any means, but the idea is that when you engage >> in in mathematics and when you engage in learning, >> you're going to do better. Um, and we certainly know that at the elementary level, middle school and high school tends to be a little bit more traditional in terms of instructional practices, but that's changing. Um, and it's clear that the thing that drives change among teachers is seeing positive outcomes, >> right? Whether it's you feel better in class, whether there's fewer behavioral issues, whether kids are
021using their phones less, whether you actually have state assessment data to show you, when you see outcomes like that, that's the type of thing that drives continued behavior in the positive direction. So, that's what we're going to continue to work on. Um, we'll continue to leverage the staff that's been really successful. Gotcha. Thank you. >> Y >> So that did partially answer the the question that I had because we made a significant investment in both professional development as well as some of the facilities improvements and and other devices. So highlighting on that and strengthening on the investment to show where we reap the best benefits and just kind of encourage that uh for our for our staff and teachers. >> Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. And I mean, we're we're very committed to teacher leadership and
022this year's um efforts uh this coming year's efforts are very much just centered on that kind of staff leadership. Obviously, um we've got our two two new instructional coaches at the elementary level. We have a new interventionist at the middle school. Um we have our instructional coach at the high school. We'll continue all of the coaching that we've been doing through contracted um service providers. And um we're doing a train the trainer model. uh for staff members at the elementary school on foundations which is delivered prek to probably grade four or through grade four um really by most by most classroom teachers. Um and then we're doing the learning experience leaders program which is going to help strengthen PLC's in the district. PLC's are really the central conversation point for data discussion among teachers and
023district improvement. And so there's a there's a lot that is is really pushing towards that. So the goal is to to have that result in something tangible um like improved test scores, improved climate scores, um improved teacher satisfaction rates, those types of things. So thank you. Thank you all. Mr. Lynch, have a wonderful evening. Thanks. All right. So, uh, the, um, I'll continue with my report. Uh, just highlight there are four agenda changes from when the agenda was originally sent out. The staff list was updated, um, with one additional new hire, which is Mr. Tobin, who is being recommended to become the next middle school principal. Um, there is a sidebar with the Denellan Administrators Association to create um, the salary for Mr. Mr. Tobin for next year given that the contract um with the
024DEA DAA has expired. Um our evaluation frameworks were added for next school year. And then there was also a submission there's actually two agenda items related to a submission for the water infrastructure improvement grant um which is uh related to remediation of um facilities from drinking water contamination um through infrastructure improvements. So, those are the last two agenda additions that are on the operations um section. And board members, I sent out the agenda this uh early this afternoon with those changes. Um but I just wanted to make sure the public was aware as well. So, on the new hires uh front, we have as you if you look at the staff list, we have a wide range of new hires. We have obviously Mr. Tobin. We're very excited to bring him on as uh the
025LMS principal. Um, we have uh a new interventionist at at uh Lincoln Middle School, Mary Joan Padavano. A new Spanish teacher at Denellan High School and the middle school, Ingred Doagowski. Uh, bilingual school counsel counselor, Scarlett Torres. Um, two elementary uh staff members who are actually uh with the district as long-term leave replacements last year, Michelle Budro and Emma Ericson. K5 instructional coach for math, Megan Higgins. a new art teacher at Faber, Sophia Broton's, a new music teacher, uh, Nicole Ferguson. A new kindergarten teacher, Coral Hines, uh, preschool teacher, Kiana Inoa, and then we have three new central office staff members that we're adding. Uh, a new accounts payable coordinator, Diana D. Carvalo, who begins next week. a new payroll and health benefits coordinator, Amabel Ramos, who started last week, and a new district security
026guard, Antoine Ferret, who will begin um with the teachers at the end of August. So, very excited for all these uh staff members. It's a great new um new new slew of folks that we're bringing into the district. Um Dr. Janjano mentioned the storms obviously the storm on the 3 um and then the one yesterday um pretty devastating to many areas of the town and obviously some of the the families um who've been significantly affected. Um I do want to just thank the community for uh for the the patience that was shown to the to the district for not being able to open Faber on Monday due to the power issues. Um, and I want to thank the PTO for their incredible support and the work that they've done. Um, you know, in in this
027in this instance and certainly in others. Um, and uh, we have two GoFundMe pages that were that were shared out by the uh by the PTO leadership for the Dosel and Fairchild families who were really significantly affected in the storm. Um, and I do want to thank u my facility staff and Ronnie Haynes uh especially for his leadership and just trying to get things back up and running. Um, Ronnie really he pulled out probably all of all of the the stops that he could have um in order for us to get our power back for Tuesday. Um, so I'm very grateful for him and the tireless effort of our team. Um, I was on the phone with William last night uh at about 11 PM as he was walking through the building just checking leaks
028and things like that. And that kind of dedication is just something that um is hard to come by. So, I appreciate that from our our our folks. Um we have summer programs that have um are are now in their second week. Um there are a wide range of programs um being overseen by Abby Franklin who is a middle school um ENL teacher. She's been doing a wonderful job. We've got a lot of teachers who are involved and a lot of students. Um I know today was probably a hard day to get in. Um but I but I uh I appreciate everyone who was able to make it in and and all the communication and contact that that we provided. I have two very cool items for special education that are worth sharing. Um, we have
029two of our schools were accepted into a three-year um, uh, staff coaching uh, program through the Department of Education called the New Jersey Inclusion Project. Um, and this is for K12 systemic change facilitation. So, it's three years of direct staff coaching. Um, and although the high school was not selected, they can participate in the professional learningmies which is great. Um we also were accepted into the dispute resolution partnership with the department of ed which is basically about trying to build systems that can be uh used to reduce the amount of formal dispute resolution. So trying to solve problems at the lowest level um when they might arise between a parent with a concern and um a child study team or the district or whatever that might be. So um that's very exciting and uh Dr.
030Santella has done great to lead those initiatives and we're excited to bring them on board. We have a lot of goal setting um that's being done this summer and we'll sort of talk about over the next couple of months. We will talk about the district goals um the proposed district goals but we've got our work continuing with stutter um where we will be working on dashboarding uh many of the efforts that we're looking at. Uh we also have um some priorities that we'll be discussing throughout the year. PLC implementation which I mentioned before um MTSS multi-tered systems of support implementation. Um looking at student attendance and chronic absenteeism. We have a lot of curriculum implementation that's going to be a little bit more systematized and we're going to be using um Atlas to uh to
031to to house and update our curriculum. We will continue with the rounding uh conversations with staff members which yielded a tremendous amount of really positive feedback last year and um instructional walkthroughs as well which um definitely needs some some updates from last year. We'll also be working with the labor management collaborative and I'm happy that um the DEA has just been a wonderful partner in this. So, we have two trainings that are coming up with the LMC on August 14th and August 21st, and we'll have a team of our administrators and staff members trained uh on that initiative. We have two updates at the middle school for facilities. We have a new art room and a new STEM room that are being built um and that will allow our art teacher and STEM teacher to
032have a full-time um art and STEM schedule uh respectively. It also frees up scheduling quite a bit um because there will be more periods available for elective courses. We've worked with Jason Erdra who has um has been a a great partner of ours for a couple of years in this area. And we have um uh furniture and machinery and materials and supplies and things like that that we will be purchasing. And the rooms, you know, when school starts, they'll probably be about 80% 85 90% done. um but certainly usable for instruction and safety training and that sort of thing. Um but it's very exciting. We're very excited to get some more instructional space out of this building. Um space is very tight, but the team has been really creative in in try in terms of
033trying to find solutions. Um we have a we have two bench donations uh that are on tonight's agenda and under operations. These benches are being donated by the Roberts family in honor of uh Gary Roberts who's the cla who's from the class of 1982. He played football and track and field and was a captain for both. Um he served as a substitute teacher and track coach for over 30 years in New Providence um where he won multiple state championships and he also coached in Greenberg uh Greenbrook, Bridgewwater and Hunter and Central. Passed away in January and uh 2018. uh and his wife started a the Gary Gary Roberts scholarship about five years ago um which is awarded to a Denellan High School graduating senior. So we're very grateful to the Roberts family for their donation.
034The benches are uh they're blue and they will be placed uh on the front walkway of the high school facing each other. They've got a nice little monogram um you know insignia uh in honor of uh of Mr. Roberts. On July 29th, uh district team is going to be presenting at the Department of Education's uh teacher climate and culture institute. Um I will be there along with uh Miss Drapkin, Christy Johnson from Faber and Patty Bodak from Don High School. Um we have over 600 attendees who will be in attendance for the event. So it's going to be great. Um and we're excited to share the work that we've been doing through the climate and culture grant. Um we have two grants that we are currently working on. The first is the expanding innovations in
035teacher climate and culture which is the second grant for uh for this this was a $61,250 grant. Um and we also have the AP course expansion grant which was a $50,000 grant. We have a summer AP boot camp that we're starting for the first time uh this year. And so we're very excited to bring that to students and give them some more opportunities for learning. Um we had uh just an update on the universal prek grant. We had a meeting today uh to talk about interior design of classrooms. Mr. Pepe was there uh and Mr. Tennant was able to provide his feedback as well. We are and still anticipating construction documents to be ready by the end of August and um we hope to have the bid opening still in September. And then the last
036item uh uh just briefly uh I know that politics is not something that we talk about a lot here. Um but politics is something that is affecting what we can do in the district and certainly across the country. Uh we have uh we are you know one of however many districts there are 6,000 districts in the country um who have not yet received our federal funds. Um this is $140 million in federal funds just for New Jersey. Um and um our projected total revenue from federal sources is um $58,000. Um we always have been, you know, uh school administrators are always told you've got to be conservative in your budgeting. You budget at 75 or 85%. So we've budgeted pretty much at 75 or 80% of last year's um allocation. Um but right now the
037money that we have not yet received that we are uh expected expecting to receive and that we've allocated include $164,000 in title one funds uh $26,000 in title two funds about $34,000 in title three funds and $11,000 in title four funds. Um, and that is in addition to about $270,000 in idea funds, which is um allocated for students with special needs and their special education placements. So, this is uh this is a really big problem in places where staff members are hired, full-time staff members are hired through the title grants. We don't do that um in this district um which is fortunate because we can tell everyone who we expect to come back that they still have a job. But we have a lot of programming. We have parent education programs. We've got afterchool programs.
038We've got summer programs that we are looking to support that we don't know whether we will be able to support them. So we're hopeful that all of this money will come through at some point uh or at least a large percentage of it. But um but that's where we're at right now. And so I think it's just important to kind of um share that with the public, share that with the board that we're looking about a half a million dollars right now in federal funds um that we're still waiting on. So with that, I'll just move briefly to district goals for 2526. And uh I shared these with you just for review. These are going to be uh I'm going to plan to recommend these for approval in August. Um, our four district goals, uh,
039I am recommending that we keep them the same. We have the first two goals, um, have been the same since I arrived in the district. Goal three modified a little bit last year, uh, last school year and goal four was new last school year. Um, but I think we've still got work to do uh, on all four of the goals. I've put the deliverables for June 2026 on there for your review. Um, and we can put this up as an attachment. Uh, Dave, let's put this up as an attachment. So, it's on the website also. I'll share it with you. Um, just so that members of the public can see it, but essentially goal one um is academic success and data use. Goal two is student wellness and school climate. Goal three is related to
040operational efficiency. Goal four is community engagement. And really the deliverable the deliverables have changed a little bit here and there because we implemented so much during last school year. We've got different outcomes that we're expecting for this school year but basically the same focuses. Um really not changing course on anything trying to simplify trying to focus and uh and so I leave these to you for your review and then in August we can talk about um formally adopting them. All right, board members. Any questions on any of those items? Okay. Thank you, Dr. Janjanna. >> Thank you, Mr. Ross. And I did have a one quick question. So, with that projected half a million shortfall, like how how late is it or or is it that we we're expecting it hasn't arrived or is it
041>> Yeah, the the funds are usually we we find out what our allocation is sometime in June. They're supposed to be released July 1 and so we haven't found out what our allocation is and we don't know if the money is going to be released. So, >> okay. And we have about a half a million that we were banking on for this. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. In the budget presentation from last year, there's uh it's I think it was 5 58,000 total. >> Um so that is what we are that is what we are anticipating receiving. Um, as time goes on, we'll see what happens with that and um, obviously we'll have to shift course uh, if we don't receive those funds or if those are significantly decreased. >> Understood. Okay. Okay. Okay. Moving
042on to item eight, public comments. Uh, agenda items only. So, the board invites public comment on agenda items only from members of our community in accordance with board policy 0167. 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 be taking notes during public comment, but will not provide substantive responses uh to questions or concerns raised by individual speakers. If necessary, the superintendent may provide a brief uh 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 your public comment, please state your
043name and municipality. Please note that all statements must be directed to the presiding officer. Please come to the microphone at this time. If you would like to make comments on agenda items only prior to beginning your comment, please state the agenda item you would like to comment on. Last call. Okay, moving on to item nine, educating education discussion items. Uh we'll um move um pass the baton over to uh Mrs. Howard, our chair of the education committee to uh take us through uh what was discussed in the committee education committee. >> Thank you. At this month's agend uh education committee was attended by myself, Miss Ibeck, Dr. Dendrono, Miss Dpkin, and Mr. Ross. The education committee met on July 7th and discussed a number of items including updates on the district's goal setting process for
044the 202526 school year. The approval of a student to DHS through the J1 visa process. A new grant-f funded initiative called the learning experience leaders that empowers educators to support their colleagues on PLC implementation, curriculum mapping, and artificial intelligence. the district's new partnership with the labor management collaborative, which is an NJAled initiative to help empower staff in decision-making, information about the district's ongoing summer programs, special education supports that have been awarded through the NJ DOE, and a variety of other items and confidential matters. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mrs. Howard. So, moving on to item number 10, education action items. Looking for a motion to approve 10 A through G as a block. >> Approve 10 A through G. >> Second. >> Open for questions or comments. Just want to note that item C is
045the J1 visa and I believe this was the uh Italian student. Be wonderful to uh have them join us in the fall. That would be fantastic. Last call. Questions, comments? Okay. Mr. Pepe, can you please call the role? >> Mr. Anderson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Condit, >> yes. >> Dr. Gendrono, >> yes. >> Mrs. Howard, >> yes. >> Mr. Senoi, >> yes. >> Mrs. Shep, >> yes. >> Mr. Walker, >> yes. >> Motion passes. >> Wonderful. Uh so moving on to um item number 12 uh personnel uh sorry item number 11 personnel discussion items uh personnel committee report. So I'm um I'm the chair of that committee and I will read the report. Uh present in the meeting um oh sorry the personnel committee met on July 7th and discussed uh a number of items.
046In attendance were myself, Mr. Anderson, Mr. Shep and Mr. Ross. Uh we discussed hiring resignations and staff renewal items, many of which are on tonight's agenda, updates regarding uh the LMS principal search process and a number of confidential items. So that is uh the personnel committee report. Moving on to 12 item number item number 12, personnel action items. Looking for a motion to approve 12 A through M as block. >> Move to approve 12 A through M as a block. >> Second. >> Okay. Open for questions or comments. >> I'll just uh just formally uh congratulate Mr. Tobin um who really did an excellent job during the middle school search process talking about his values and the incredible um work that he plans to do at the middle school. We're very excited to have him.
047Um we're excited to get um a different energy in the building and I know that he he has already proven himself very well so far. Um and very much excited to see how he does in the future. >> Thank you, Mr. Ross and definitely excited for that as well and thank you know I'd like to also thank him for his time you know stepping into the interim role um up until this point any other questions comments okay um Mr. Pepe can you please call the role >> Mr. Anderson >> yes >> Mrs. Condit >> yes >> Dr. Gingerano >> yes >> Mrs. Howard, >> yes. >> Mr. Sanoi, >> yes. >> Mrs. Shep, >> yes. >> And Mr. Walker, >> yes. >> Motion passes. >> Wonderful. Moving on to item number 13, uh, operations discussion
048items. I'll turn it over to excuse me, Mr. Walker, uh, to um to to give us an update. >> Thank you, Dr. Gendrono. The operations committee did not meet in July, but an agenda was sent out with a variety of updates, including acceptance of the AP expansion grant to the NJ DOE in the amount of $50,000, the donation of two benches that will be placed near the main entrance of DHS in honor of Gary Roberts, DHS class of 1982, administrative appointments due to staffing changes, an update regarding the district's preschool facilities expansion grant and construction project, information about current facilities projects and other construction work being completed in the district and a variety of confidential matters. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Walker. Okay, moving on to item number 14, operations action items. Looking for
049a motion to approve 14 A through U as a block. >> Move to approve items A through U as a block. >> Second. >> Open for questions or comments. I'll just point out item number Q is the the bench that Mr. Ross had mentioned earlier and Mr. Walker had mentioned in the committee report last call okay Mr. Pepe can you please call the role >> Mr. Anderson >> yes >> Mrs. Condit >> yes >> Dr. Gingano >> yes >> Mrs. Howard, >> yes. >> Mr. Senoi, >> yes. >> Mrs. Shep, >> yes. >> And Mr. Walker, >> yes. >> Motion passes. Wonderful. Moving on to item number uh 15, old business. Um, anyone with old business that they would like to bring back up? Okay. Um I will just make my uh my plug for
050uh school board's workshop in October. Hope to see everybody there or who was able to join even if it's for a day. It's u most definitely worth it to see what other um educators administrators are doing around the state and to learn about what is uh what is cutting edge and what is new. So uh I would highly encourage to go. I'm myself at this time planning to go for several days. So um and it doesn't hurt that it's in Atlantic City. So, >> any other uh old business? >> Uh yeah, previously brought up looking at federal grants to work with OEM and emergency management. Um the last couple storms have indicated how our school district can play an essential role in in supporting operations with OEM. So, just wanted to see if Mr. Marinberg
051or anyone's looking into some of the grants or some coordination with the OEM. Yeah. So, um, so there's been a lot of coordination with OEM because we've been talking about reunification. Um, and that is a, uh, county sheriff, OEM, DPD, county police, um, initiative. So, there's there there have been a lot of those types of conversations. Uh, what I would say is that with the creation of the school safety plan and reunification plan, um, Mr. Marenburgg has been a little stretched then, but with Mr. Ferret coming on board, um we anticipate that some of those more uh administrative security tasks are going to be uh accelerated. Um so I think that that's probably where we're looking is into the into the fall. >> Thank you. I just want to keep it on the radar here.
052>> Absolutely. Yep. and it's on the uh it's on the ops committee agenda. So we won't move it off until we've gotten some traction on it. >> So >> thank you. >> Yeah, >> Mr. Ross, just following up on Mr. Senoi's uh um point there. Um with Mr. We just approved this evening um Mr. Ferret, Mr. Ferret for this and um I understand our SRO will also be beginning starting. Will we get an opportunity to meet them at convocation or sooner or >> Yeah, absolutely. So um yeah, they'll they will all be at convocation. Um we have to coordinate whether uh they will be there before convocation uh a day before or maybe starting with the first day of staff members um and then spending their day sort of acclimating. But we are working on
053uh completing the office space for the uh security guard and the SRO who will be housed together. Um and Mr. Marinberg will have an office here as well. Um Mr. Marinberg will primarily be at Faber. Um but if anybody needs to change locations, the reason that we now have three individuals is that we can have coverage at every building and certainly as well if someone is absent. We always have uh at least two individuals who will be on site. So everyone needs training. Everybody needs to go for professional development. People are also entitled to take vacations and sometimes people are sick. Um but having redundancy in that in the in the sense of of the number of personnel has been very important in this conversation. So they'll they'll definitely be introduced. Um I know that
054both Mr. Marinberg and Mr. Ferret will speak to the each of the staffs um during their first couple of days so that they can introduce themselves to the new staff members especially and then Mr. Ferrett to to all of the staff members um and everyone can get a sense of what their work will be. >> Awesome. And so would we also get a chance to meet them on this separately? >> Oh yeah, absolutely. Yeah, what we can do is um probably in thinking about months where there's not a lot of other presentations, something like November. Um you know, certainly if you attend convocation, and you're all welcome to attend convocation, you can meet meet those gentlemen. But certainly in November, we could do a security uh presentation as we did last year. um and just
055talk about kind of initial initial findings, some of the work that we're focusing on, what we anticipate as um as our work to you know for the year to accomplish. >> Okay. Yeah. Great. Thank you. >> Any any other old business? >> Okay. Moving on to item number uh 16, new business. Any new business anyone would like to bring up? I did have one question. Uh, of course I have a question. Um, um, do we have any uh are there any thoughts or any uh with for the new student representatives to the board? >> I need to speak with Mr. Lynch about it. I know that the is it the class elections occur in the fall. Um, so we don't yet have a senior class uh president. >> I see. So, >> and there was
056something about having two representatives. >> Yeah. So, Douglas was elected as the um I don't know what it's called, the >> executive council president. Thank you. Um and so we have to determine whether we'll stick with two and and whether whether and if we will be able to have uh Douglas back and then who the senior class uh president would be. >> Okay. So, we likely won't see them until Octoberish, I'm guessing. >> Yeah, probably October. Yeah. >> Okay, cool. Any other new business? Um, I did also just want to add, you know, if there are any since I was going to say that since uh it'll probably get busy, do we want to um see about any other NJSPA trainings since we're I know we did one earlier in the year. Are there is
057there potentially any interest in doing another one? >> What's that? >> Yeah, I'll send an email out, but I'll just put it out there uh uh after this meeting. see if there's an interest in >> Are you gonna include like a list of possible Yes. topics? >> Yeah. >> Yes. Abs like just like last time, I'll include what they what they can offer. Okay. All right. Um any last uh things of new business? Okay. Moving along to item 17, uh president's remarks. Um I did want to just follow up and and thank you for the reminders. Uh so with with the um you know with the tornado, let's just call it what it was, the tornadoes that came through as well as the water. I wanted to thank you know Mr. Ross and your administration
058staff for you know first of all with the tornadoes uh opening up the school for the residents. I understand I there were not any folks that did utilize, but the fact that we had that open and were able to open it for in in the event that there was I thought was was fantastic and that we were able to support the community in that way. And then um for us to be very well prepared um although we did miss a day or so with the with what's going on here with the flooding recently that we were able to um get back to business pretty quickly. Um, and that's that's incredibly impressive for us to be able to do that. The hard work that went into that is is certainly recognized. So, thank you to to
059you and your staff for that. Um, okay. Any uh Oh, sorry. Moving on to item number 18, public comments. Uh, so the board invites any uh sorry, the board invites public comment on any issue or topic from members of our community in accordance with board policy 0167. 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 be taking notes during the 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 is not at liberty to engage in a back and forth dialogue with members of
060the 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 to the please come to the microphone at this time if you would like to make comments on any issue or any topic. >> Let's make sure the mic's on. Yes. >> Oh, it's on. >> Great. Good evening, sir. >> Everyone, >> how you doing? My name is David Torres. Uh, thank you, Mr. Ross, for the opportunity. Thank you, Board of Ed, for your public service. Um, >> I don't know. Did you Did you all receive my email for my request? >> If if not, I'll just read it. >> You did? Okay. So, I in in the spring, my wife and I made
061the decision to homeschool our son. Uh we pulled him out of LMS. He's now going into the ninth grade, and we were we were in the process of enrolling him in Liberty University's uh homeschool program. Uh he's a student athlete and he really wants to play baseball for DHS. And we made we basically made the decision with thinking that he would be able to play for the public school system because our neighbor was attending a magnet school in Piscatoaway and was still able to play for Denellan High School. So we didn't think it would be a problem, but apparently there there is a policy in place that says homeschool specifically homeschooled students cannot play for their district. So, I'm just here uh to publicly, for the record, to to make a a request that the
062board of ed would revisit this policy and possibly change it so that my son David can be homeschooled. Uh possibly one or two years because we do want him to experience the the high school, right? We do want him to experience high school, but he's just not ready. And you know, I think that he has a a a pretty good future in sports and many other coaches have expressed that, but he's just not ready for the for the environment, you know. So, I'm just trying to do what's best for my son. If you guys would, I would really appreciate, you know, if you could revisit that policy that says that homeschool students cannot play for the public school system. That's all that's all I have. >> Thank you, Mr. stores. >> Thank you. >> Okay.
063Any other uh any other comments from the public? Last call. Okay. So, we'll move on to item number 19, executive session. 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, CJSA 10-412B. The confidential matters discussed by the board during this executive session include items related to uh individual privacy, collective bargaining agreements, and personnel. Um 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. Um, 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, at this time, um,
064we will uh we will adjourn, I guess, after Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, at this time I'd like to make a uh ask for a motion to um uh go to executive session. >> Move to executive session. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I opposed. Okay. So, we're going to move into executive session. After this is item 20, adjournment. We're going to adjourn from uh the executive session. We will be regrouping back here, same time, same channel um on August 26th. Um, until then, enjoy the summer. Thanks everyone.