001Okay, here we go. Here we go. Here we go. So, in accordance with the open public meetings NJSA10 uh 4-6 uh 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, May 6th, 2025 in the Lincoln Middle School Cafetum, 400 Denellan Avenue at 7 02 p.m. or 7 p.m. This meeting is broadcast live. Uh for details, check www.denellonsschools.org. Uh Mr. Pepe. Oh, moving on to item number number two. Mr. Pepe, can you please call the role? Mr. Anderson is present. Mrs. Condit present. Ms. Ibeck present. Dr. Gendrono present. Mrs. Howard present. Mr. Sanoi present. Miss Shyf present. Mrs. Shep present. And
002Mr. Walker here. All board members present. Okay. Wonderful. Thank you. So item moving on to item number three on our agenda. Executive session. The Denalen Board of Education will now adjourn into executive session to discuss items that fall within the specific exceptions to the PO 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, pending or anticipated litigation, 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 um until the need for confidentiality no longer 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.
003At this time, I'm looking for I will I'm looking for a motion to move to executive session. Move to go to exec. Second. All those in favor I opposed. Okay, we'll be back about 7:30ish. I need tea. Tea. Thought there might have been some tea over there. No, just water. I should have brought my tea back. Yeah. And I was That would be good for the allergies for sure. I have um honey citroron ginger tea. When's your last day? Okay, we are back. Hello everyone. Hello. Hello. So, um, we are back. At this time, I'm looking for a motion. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Will you all please remain
004standing 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 five, approval of minutes. I'm looking for a motion uh to approve uh the Denellan Board of Education uh meeting minutes from April 8th, 2025. Approve 5A. Second. Open for questions or comments. Last call. Okay. Mr. Pepe, could you please call the role? Mr. Anderson? Yes. Mrs. Condit? Yes. Miss Zybeck, yes. Dr. Gingerano, yes. Mrs. Howard, yes. Mr. Senoi, yes. Miss Shy, yes. Mrs. Shep, yes. And Mr. Walker, yes. Motion passes. Fantastic. Moving on to item number six, student recognition. I'll turn this over to Mr. Ross. Great. Thank you, Dr. Jeno.
005Parents, it's very nice to see you all here. We're very excited to have our students of the month recognition for the month of Okay. A good photo. Um, and then when all of the schools are done, we're going to take about a fivem minute break. And then if you want to come up and grab a picture with uh with your child or with your family, feel free to do so. And we'll we'll let you uh we'll give you the time to be able to do that. All right. So, we're going to start today with the uh Denellan High School. And I'd like to call up uh Principal Paul Lynch. [Applause] Breathe a little bit. Just a little bit. We'll just wait my while my assistants get this done. All right. Good evening everyone. We're very
006happy to have everyone here for our student of the month recognition. As I look out, I think two of our high school students are here, but I will still speak about all four of them. Our first student of the month is our 12th grade student. Her name is Liliana Cruz. She couldn't be here this evening. She was great and responsible and emailed me right beforehand that they had a family situation that they had to deal with. But Lily's been a great addition to our school this year. Uh she had lived in Dell. people that we have uh in the school. She's happy all the time, which for a high school student, you don't always see. And so, our 12th grade student of the month is Liliana Cruz. Our 11th grade student of the month, Kyle
007Denis, come on up. Kyle, another one of the fantastic students that we have here at the high school. It worked out that we had rain today because he's our number one singles tennis player and a lot of times he'll be out there on the tennis courts. Uh he's he's a fantastic student in multiple AP classes, works very hard. He's in our early morning band, so he's got to get up early every day and get to school by seven o'clock. A fantastic young man, uh, sister who graduated last year and finished her finishing her first year of college and, uh, excited to come back. But our 11th grade student of the month, Kyle Denis, our 10th grade student of the month, Michael Ferrer. Michael, another straight A student that we have here at the high school.
008He's only in 10th grade, but already taking his first advanced placement class, so I'm sure he'll be getting ready for that AP exam next week for computer science principles. Uh he's a very hardworking young man. Uh he has a fantastic brother who also works in the district and does a lot of computer work for us. So our 10th grade student of the month, Michael Ferrer. And our ninth grade student of the month is Cello Martinez Krispy. Uh she is a young lady that I met when met when she was in the middle school. We have high school buddies that work with some of the middle school students. She's always happy. She was so looking forward to coming to the high school and she's been a huge addition uh to the high school. Uh it's great
009because whenever I go down to the lunchroom, she always asks me to sit down and talk with her and sit with her at lunch, which I'm more than happy to do and just a fantastic person. So, our ninth grade student of the month is Siella Martinez. Stand up. Yeah. [Applause] All right, next up, Lincoln Middle School, and we have our assistant principal, Miss Caulfield. [Applause] Great. Good evening all. Um, I'm going to start with our sixth grade student of the month. And I just want to lead by saying our students were also recognized this morning at the honoral ceremony. For some of them, this is a double award day. So, we're starting with our sixth grade student, Pria Gautra. The sixth grade teachers are proud to recognize Priya as the May student of the month.
010Priya works tirelessly and demonstrates outstanding academic performance. Throughout her days, she exudes a positive attitude both in and outside of the classroom. Pria's enthusiasm and learning allows her to excel and serve as a role model to other students in each of her classes. We look forward to all that Pria will accomplish at LMS next year as a seventh grader. as her first year here comes to a close. [Applause] Congratulations. Our next student is in seventh grade, Samantha Ooler. This month, we proudly recognize Samantha as the seventh grade student of the month. Dedicated to her schoolwork and also gives her best effort, going above and beyond on every assignment. The quality of her work is excellent, and she clearly takes pride in everything she does in class. Samantha is a pleasure to have. Her teachers describe
011her as always respectful, friendly, and kind to all. She participates often and helps make our classroom a great place to learn. Samantha gets along well with her peers and is always ready to lend a helping hand. We're so lucky to have such a hardworking, positive student in our classes. Congratulations, Samantha. Last but not least, we have Emily Parlo Panites in eighth grade. [Applause] Emily is an eighth grade student um for our eighth grade student of the month for May. She's responsible and a conscientious student who actively participates in classroom discussions and consistently puts forth her best effort in all of her assignments. She demonstrates strong organizational skills and positive work habits on a daily basis. Emily has achieved high honor role earning all A's for all three marking periods so far this year reflecting her
012dedication to her academic excellence as that's no easy feat. We are so proud of Emily and the meaningful contribution she makes here at LMS. We know she will be successful at high school next year. Congratulations Emily. Thank you. That's for you picture. All right, let's give it up for Lincoln Middle School. Last, but certainly not least, I'd like to invite Mr. Tennant up for our Faber Elementary School students of the month. What's going on everybody? How we doing? You guys here for student of the month? Very excited. Very, very excited. First up for Faber PreK, we have Ya Khan. Ya, come on up. Clap it up. A happy sparkly is bright, happy, and a sweet girl. Aa enjoys being a leader in the classroom, assisting classmates with their work, and helping the newest students with
013daily tasks. Ya is not only respectful, and caring with her classmates, she's also respectful to her teachers. Clap it up for Ya, please. Kindergarten, we have Stella Sturio. Stella, come on [Applause] up. Stella is such an incredible friend and role model to her kindergarten classmates. Stella always goes out of her way to make classmates feel special. She's a great friend, always sharing, helping, and showing kindness to others. With a big heart and positive attitude, she approaches every day with a smile and willingness to learn. Clap it up for Stella, please. Our next up is first grade. We have siblings coming up here. Ian Khan, come on up. Ian is participating more in class every single day, answering questions with more confidence. His excitement for learning has grown and he is always eager to help others.
014Now he's becoming a leader in the classroom, setting a great example for his friends and showing them how to be kind and helpful. Great job. Clap it up. In second grade, we have that Beetle Maniac back there. Loves music. Come on up, Leon Kramer. Lyanna is a well-rounded young man. And Leon is kind, caring, and extremely empathetic. He's a friend to all and always kind always has kind words for his peers. As a bully ambassador, he positively contributed to the classroom community and has demonstrated how positivity it works for responding to conflict. Leon loves music, especially the who? The Beatles. The Beatles and can often think of songs related to any topic by studying. He is eager to learn. Great job, Leon. Clap it up. Third grade, Lucia Diaz Cabrera. Where is she, Lucia? Is
015she here? There she is. She's incredibly kind to everybody and works hard and always tries her best with a positive attitude, working every challenge and every problem in the classroom. Clap it up for Liza, please. Fourth grade. Yan Garcia. [Applause] Yoan. Yoan is kind, friendly, and gets along well with everyone in class. He consistently completes his work and is always willing to be a partner to everyone, showcasing his collaborative spirit. Since joining the class, he has seamlessly fit in and made a positive impact with his peers. Great job. Clap it up. Fifth grade, we have two. First up from Miss Ball's class, Joshua Menddees Gutierrez. [Applause] Joshua. Joshua always strives to try his best and he's a good friend. He has shown more confidence every day in the classroom. and has impressive growth with his
016work. He is a pleasure to have in class. Clap it up for Joshua, please. Next up for fifth grade, we have Gabriel Sodto. [Applause] Gabriel, Mrs. Man, there she is right there. Wave there, Mrs. Man. Mrs. man had a unique opportunity to teach him for two years in a row and during that time he has consistently demonstrated growth, resilience and a strong sense of character. Gabe stands out not only his academic effort but also being kind and respectful role model in the classroom. Watching him grow over the past two years has been an absolute joy and I'm so so proud to celebrate this well-deserved recognition. Keep on shining, Gabe. Clap it up for Gabe, please. And our special area is Janeri Calderon Castillo. Come on up. The special area teachers are honored to award Janeri
017Calderon Castillo with a student of the month award. Janeri truly embodies a spirit of kindness, helpfulness, and friendship. She is someone who makes our school a better place just being in it. Please clap it up for Janer, please. And this is the amazing students of the month at Faber. Clap it up people. [Applause] All [Applause] right, let's just give one big big round of applause for all of our students of the month. All right, so again, parents, thank you so much for being here. Uh we're going to take about a fivem minute break. This is two-sided, so feel free to use either side. Grab a picture, take your time, and then uh we're going to continue with our meeting. So again, wonderful to see you. Have an incredible evening. Thank you. I know. Sorry. He's
018in third. Yeah. I know. Yeah. One and done. I'm an only child. Me, too. Yeah. And my son, too. Okay. Y turned out okay. Yeah. I don't know about you, but I turned out we turned out okay. I turned out great, too. How many do you have? Just Just two. Just two. Two. Two boys. Seventh and ninth grade. Amazing. This is our blink of an eye, right? Well, this happened. Last time was 26. No. Honestly, like I'm like just he graduated 2017. My freshman got we picked this up this weekend. Wow, that's awesome. My son got his varsity test this year. So, we ordered it and it takes 12 weeks, but it came in a month early on Saturday, but it was like 90 degrees. Nothing says leather and wool like and he wore it,
019but he was so hot. Oh, that's so Well, yeah. You can't not put it on. You're not taking that off for the next year. That's Isn't that what you get it for? Isn't that what you get it for? That's fine. It's got my knee. Oh yeah, it's nice that you're so proud. I know. That's the thing makes to see them be success, you know, have such great growth. She's been No, they know sometimes bring it back to us. That's why it'll come in time. That works. right now. Okay. You're doing a board recording direct. Okay. So, you can add whatever if I want like reverb or something like that. All right, we're going to uh we're going to move now to the budget hearing. Um and so I'm going to we'll get the Dave, we'll
020get the screen going. Budget hearing, budget presentation. Got to celebrate that. Hallelujah. All right. So uh tonight is the uh 202526 budget hearing presentation. This is also known as the final budget uh hearing. And uh the information that's shared as part of this presentation is very similar to the tenative budget presentation which was done in March um which has been on the website for a couple months as well. This is going to be a shorter presentation just because that information is already up there. We do have an appendix section at the end of this. So if you're interested, if you haven't gotten the opportunity to review the numbers more closely, you will have the opportunity to do so um in this presentation. But this presentation is really just about four quick things. First is reviewing
021the budget process and timeline. The second is our key priorities. The third is a quick outline of revenues and appropriations. And then the fourth is our tax impact. So in terms of the budget process and timeline, we are now at the last phase of uh creating the 2526 budget, we've gone through basically six months of development starting in November when the budget manual was distributed to budget managers and then a number of collaborative steps which culminated in the March presentation which was the approval of the tenative budget and the submission of the budget to the county office. So when we talk about 2526 obviously we are centering all of our work on our three pillars building relationships, creativity and innovation and small town vibes and our core mission which is the uh mission statement for
022the district which obviously drives uh the pillars and all the rest of the work that we do with goal setting. Our district goals this year uh are likely to be our district goals for next year. They're similar to our district goals in the past. Um, obviously with community engagement as the fourth goal that was added. The district goals when we think about the goal setting that we do and the the the way that we allocate funding, our district goals are always at the center of that uh conversation and those discussions are really looking at how can we improve in each of the areas that are outlined. So we use a cyclical uh process um based on our core mission, right? What are the core beliefs that we have? So when we talk about something like
023uh facilities, right? What are our core beliefs in the area of facilities? What is the foundation of our work? What are our non-negotiables? And we think about let's say in facilities a safe and clean uh learning environment um that's suitable for you know all students to be successful. Our desired outcomes are you know we look at the goals. What does success look like and what's achievable? We want to have obviously uh rigorous goals but achievable goals. We look at actions in data collection and one of the things we've really focused on this year is always behaviors. So when we think about uh any position or any process, what is it that staff members should be doing uh in order to really get success out of their their role? um and what what behaviors can we
024identify and then what behaviors can we train for and what behaviors can we hold accountable. So uh this is a this has been a really nice addition to our work because folks are doing uh much more focused work really in every part of the organization. Fourth is monitoring and adjusting. So we take sort of formative assessments of the things that we're doing, what's working, what's not, and then we really try to adjust our processes or adjust our our timelines and tracking progress to change course if needed. We then go back and just start the whole thing again. And so this process has been very helpful. You know that we've been working with stutter on some very specific district level goals. We'll be using uh stutter to talk about school level and department level goals much
025more closely next year. Um and that always behaviors piece of it is a really critical aspect. In terms of the key priorities for 2526, these are really the same ideas that were shared as part of the tenative budget process. We have a lot of new resources that are being piloted from K8. Now we will have a uh systematized set of uh programming core resources for ELA. We're looking at new resources for 612 for uh science social studies. Uh the resource adoption is not going to take place next year but we will be looking at new resources to support uh a new uh sequence of courses and new uh attributes in terms of the courses uh the learning progressions and what we want to see in in instruction. In terms of math, we've been working on
026the building thinking classrooms work. We'll also continue with the Prism's VR work. The goal of thinking classrooms is to get students out of their seat and engaged and in a dialogue and a conversation about their learning as opposed to sort of sitting passively and and taking in information. Our teachers have been great. Uh they've been really wonderful with this and this is actually work that's happening starting in third grade uh going all the way up to to 12th grade. So really really fantastic engagement work. In terms of staff support, we're looking at uh ways to empower staff members to be able to provide support for their peers. So we're looking for uh creating expert facilitators in Wilson reading uh for fund foundations which is our uh phmic awareness program that is uh in K really
027K5 K4 um and then also used with multilingual learners. Uh and we have a lot of coaching that we've been doing with outside groups up the bar um who's been working on supporting multilingual learners. We've been using Danna Opataski for ELA implementation and she's going to be working in the middle school and then we've been doing uh support of PLC work throughout the district multi-tered system of supports and then a number of other items. So all of that work will continue. That's really the core that's the good work. Uh in terms of special education, we have a a very strong focus next year on in-class resource. Um, we have applied for three grants, three school-based grants for uh, three-year support in each school for in-class resource um, technical assistance and direct coaching. So, we're we're
028excited about that. We hope that we get all three grants. We're hope, you know, hopeful that at least one of those will come through uh, at a minimum. We're also looking at adding registered behavioral therapists support. These are uh highly trained par profofessionals who have um they are paraprofessionals but they have uh some ABA training and applied behavioral analysis so they can work with students who have more significant needs in the classroom. And then we have core and supplemental uh curriculum updates as well. We are looking at full-time staff members uh about five or six new positions. Uh instructional coaching is something that we posted for this year but we were not really able to find a suitable candidate. We think that putting these postings out in the spring, we're likely to get a much
029better pool of candidates for for those those positions. We are considering additional interventionist positions, but I think that we probably have a the right number at this point, but intervention is going to be an area where we're going to continue to support. We have special education teaching needs. We have additional speech and OT needs. Uh we're looking at bilingual counseling support. We have a as as you all know we have over 60% of our students are Hispanic. We've added a number of uh English as a new language teachers throughout the district. And so from an instructional perspective we're in good shape. We have our community parent involvement specialist who is bilingual. So we have parent support. And the one area that we seem to be missing a little bit or where we could use some
030more support is direct support for students who are dealing with uh trauma and who are dealing with significant needs from the situations that that brought them to this country. Um and really having someone to to speak to. This would be more students in general education um because students with special needs and IEPs have that support built into their program. Students in general education don't necessarily have that. And so we have our uh school wellness uh coordinators, but we don't necessarily have the the all of the support that we could have. So that's really what we're looking at. Otherwise, we'll be maintaining all of the staff that we have uh in terms of sectioning, all of the support staff that we have. Um and we'll won't be making any reductions in any area uh in in
031those in in staffing. Mr. Pepe So, for the budget hearing, we kind of skip all of the little details, but they're all in the appendices. So, if anyone um at home or any of the board members wanted to review any of the details, they are in the presentation that will be posted on the website. Um but this is a uh a summary of our revenues. Um very high level in our general fund. you can see what we had last year or in the current year which is 20 2425 and what we're projecting out for next year and just see overall how we've um our revenues are increasing or decreasing and so in this case our general fund which is the vast majority of of our work we are increasing by 12.3% um some of that
032has to do with facilities projects that are um part of money that comes out of capital reserve and so That's not um that's not a de an increase based on tax levy. That's an increase based on all of our revenues including our our withdrawals from reserves and things like that. Special revenue fund, those are our grants that fluctuates every year. Um we're actually pretty lucky to see it increasing this year because this current year was the end of the ESSER grants. in September was September 30th was the final ending date of um ARP which was the third round of Esser grants and so there's a decrease from that but we've increased with other revenues we've got an increase in our um preschool education aid a significant increase there we have other grants that we're applying
033for so um we're pretty happy to see an increase there our debt service fund is pretty level this is the funds that we are paying back from prior your bonds. And so this is just the um scheduled increase that was laid out when the bonds were originally sold. And so appropriations. So that was our revenues, the money coming in. This is the money that we're anticipating spending. And just a a sense of where the money is going. And and what we're happy about here is that the administrative and the other are your decreases. and the general ed, special ed, and facilities, which are really important, are all increasing. Now, facilities is a um it's showing a 70% increase. That has to do with facilities projects that are coming out of capital reserves. So, that's a
034little misleading to say it's 70. It is a 70% increase, but um that's why it's we're not raising taxes to pay for that. That's coming out of our reserve. Um employee benefits is always going to be increasing. that's not only health benefits but other benefits that are paid out to our employees. So, you know, seeing an increase for general ed uh and a significant increase for special ed, those are are key to being able to say we are trying to do the best we can to provide the best education we can and keeping our administrative costs and other costs down. Whoops, I went too far. I really went too far. All right, that's it. We're all Okay, appropriations. And this is the slide that everyone's waiting for. My favorite slide because it tells you everything
035and it tells you nothing. This slide is here just to show you that the amount of money we're anticipating bringing in our revenues is exactly equal to the amount of money that we are budgeting to spend. And this is the goal when we sit down to do a budget is to say we've got to figure out how to keep our appropriations within the available revenues. And we have done that yet again. So, yay. And as always um for the public, people need to know how is this impacting me? And so this slide shows you the tax impact. Um using the information I get from the bureau, the average home assessment for this year is $461,000 six or 461,64. And so a increase of about $193 for that home if you are the resident who has
036that exact home. But for everyone else who doesn't have that exact rate, if you want to kind of get a nice a sense for every $100,000 of assessed value, um your taxes would increase about $40, which is listed at the bottom. So, if you had a $500,000 house, you would be 5 time 41, which is a little over 200, $26 would be your increase. And I think Dan, did you want to Thank you, Mr. Pepe. So, this budget represents obviously as as we've discussed, sustained support, continued commitment to supporting all students. Much of the increases over the last three years have been for students who really have shown the highest need and we are committed to ensuring that all of those students feel supported. Um sustained support for the development and improvement of all staff.
037We have really focused a tremendous amount of our our funding and attention and energy on staff development. Um and this is an area where we will continue to invest our staff. Uh really are the the sort of the heart of all of the work that we do for students. Um and when staff are well supported and well trained, we know that that's the thing that will give us better outcomes for our students. Um a commitment to parent and family uh community engagement, right? We're maintaining our CPIS position, our community parent involvement specialist. We also are uh as Mr. Pepe mentioned, we're also uh at universal prek uh levels where about 90% of uh prek seats will be available for next year. That means 90% of eligible or potentially eligible three and four-year-olds in the community
038of Denellan will have a an opportunity for free universal prek full day. Um and that type of engagement with all the support that comes with it I think is a really phenomenal thing for the the community. Uh and then funding and planning for facilities related needs. We know that uh we our our population continues to grow. We are bursting at the seams um in this building and uh in the high school and we need to create more space. So we were successful in applying for the preschool expansion facilities aid uh grant which uh gave us a little over $3.5 million in funding for the state from the state for a $6 million project. And so th that project is is you know shortly going to be underway and that'll be in the bidding process and
039we'll talk more about that as we go. Overall, this has been a very inclusive project. Uh pro uh the administrative team and uh many folks have been involved in the development of the budget. This does balance the short-term and long-term needs. As we've discussed and as I shared at the last um budget presentation, we had a number of adjustments that we were eligible to take. Um we have some adjustments that are that will expire by us not taking them. We are committed to uh trying to keep taxes at around 2% if it means that we can have a healthy budget. Next year we have about $850,000 in uh taxable uh taxable monies that we can uh ask from the community. Um and it will expire if we don't if we don't take those adjustments. But
040if the district continues to receive increased state funding, then um we'll obviously not take advantage of those um unless really ultimately necessary. If we do see a decrease, we have that cushion where we can um raise additional taxes um from, you know, as part of what the state uh determines to be our our local fair share. And then the final budget, obviously we have uh we have maintained all of our existing programs and staff um and will continue to provide additional enhancements. Before we get to questions, I'll just show you that the appendix is here. These are the slides that were in the tentative budget presentation pretty much unchanged. our general fund revenues, our special run special revenue fund revenues, debt service revenues, and then our appropriations slides uh by type, by category, um special
041revenues and then debt service as well. So those are available as well. This presentation is online, Ryan, it will shortly be online. It is online. So or it will shortly be online. So it'll be in the budget section. It will also be in the board agenda section. So there are multiple opportunities to review it. The video of this presentation or at least the audio depending on technical uh issues will be posted as well on the website for anyone to take a look at if needed. So with that I am happy to answer any questions uh or take any comments from the board members. Thank you to both of you. Um I'll just add I think that um we should be very proud of the work being done in our district with preK and thank you
042to you and Miss Drakin and Miss Van Ross for all the leadership in that. I think it's something really um that we can really be proud of as a district. um when many districts are struggling with this this opportunity from the state, we really went out there and made it happen. So um you know kind of many of us are here on the board aren't taking advant um sort of as the hallmark of our district and we should we should we should brag about that every chance we can get. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Absolutely. Thank you. And I and I'll just take a moment to to thank uh you know when I came to the district in 2223 we had a a lot of conversations about applying for preschool expansion and we just didn't have
043the right um the right uh group of folks to be able to do that. When I brought Miss Drapkin into the district, she had experience with preschool expansion in her prior district and she really did take the lead on it. So we're we're extremely extremely thankful for her work. Um, and Miss Van Ross has taken over the helm this year as the supervisor of early childhood and she's done a great job. So, very very thankful for for both of them. Okay. Well, thank you all. Um, I think we have a public comment section on the budget, right? So, I'm going to sit down. You're going to come back and then we'll open it up. Okay. So, following that uh are the public comments section. So, the board invites public comments on uh the budget uh
044only at this time from members of our community. Um, in accordance with board policy 0167, public comments sections are intended to provide an opportunity for members of the public to express themselves on matters in this case specific to the um to the budget. Uh, the board administration will be taking notes during public comment, but will not provide substantive responses to questions or concerns raised by individual speakers. But if necessary, a superintendent may provide a brief response after the entire public comment period is completed. board does appreciate and welcome 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 name and municipality. Please note that all statements must be
045directed to the presiding officer. So, please come forward to the microphone at this time. if you'd like to make comments on the budget presentation which you just heard. Last call. Okay. Excellent. Uh moving on to item uh 7 C. Uh looking for uh a motion to approve 7 C which is approve 7 C. Yes. Second. Okay. Open for questions, comments. Last call. Okay. Mr. Pepe, could you please call the role? Uh, Mr. Anderson, yes. Mrs. Condit, yes. Miss Ibeck, yes. Dr. Mr. Gendrono, yes. Mrs. Howard, yes. Mr. Sahanoi, yes. Miss Shyf, yes. Mrs. Shep, yes. And Mr. Walker, yes. We have a budget. [Applause] Woohoo. Let's go. Bring it on. 2526. Okay, moving on to item number eight, president's remarks. Um, since I since I missed last time, I I added a couple paragraphs just
046to uh to catch up. Think I'm kidding. Nope. So, um, so, uh, first of all, wanted to again to take a moment to congratulate all of our students who were recognized this evening. We are proud of your accomplishments. So, keep up the great work. Um, since we uh since I was here last or since we spoke last, um, I had the opportunity to say a few words at the mayor's town hall this past 23rd of April, speaking on behalf of the mayor's cannabis task force. Um, and um, this is my third year on that task force and convey and can convey that after reviewing all available data to date, we're reaffirm reaffirmed the recommendation to council that Denellan should continue to opt out of cannabis businesses in Denellan. So, I just wanted to bring that
047back uh to the to the board because that was something we presented uh I think it was last week or the week before. Um I had the pleasure of attending the uh DHS honoral ceremony on the 2nd of May honoring our high school students and their tremendous achieve academic achievements. I was quite proud to see the great number of students being recognized who made honor role or high honor role. Congratulations to all of our honoral students. um tricky tray. This past Saturday, May 3rd, uh we had Tricky Tray and as I understand it, it was another successful event. So, congratulations to PTO and all of those who helped to make it such a great success. We will uh look forward to hearing what the the final numbers are. I know Nicole's there somewhere. Um there's
048there somewhere. But, uh as I understood, it was a great success. My my my son came back really really tired. So if that's any measure, uh he was beat tired. Um and moving along. So I wanted to also take um a me a moment to mention uh teacher appreciation week. I believe is this week um the 5th to the 9th of May. Thank you to all of our teachers for the great work that you do. And coming up uh this weekend is Mother's Day on the 11th of May. So thank you to all the mothers for shaping the world. uh behind all of our own stories is are our mother's stories because it's in her story where ours begins. So, thank you moms. As the weather changes again and again and again and the temperatures
049jump like a yo-yo, it is important to reiterate and underscore that healthy kids means healthy schools means a healthy community. And at at the end of the day or the bottom line is we encourage you to take the common sense precautions to minimize the spread of infectious diseases that can really impact our school year. Moving on to um uh monthly celebrations which I like to note every meeting. Uh May there are a number of monthly celebrations. May has Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. It has Jewish American Heritage Month. It has mental health mental health awareness month as well as national children's mental health awareness day on May 7th. Um for those that might not be aware, this is to highlight the significance of children's mental health and promote positive mental health well-being for young
050people. There's also the International Day Against Homophobia, transphobia, and biophobia day. That's the 17th of May. And on this day, we reflect upon the violence and discrimination lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and interex persons worldwide suffer and recommmit ourselves to opposing these acts. This year, like every year, we state unequivocally, LGBTQI plus persons deserve recognition of their universal human rights and human dignity. And then on Memorial Day, we have on the 26th of May, and this commemorates all men and women who have died in military service for the United States. Now, I I mention all of this to underscore how important diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging are to our lives and the world around us. So, with diversity, we're able to welcome and appreciate different views and perspectives and how that makes our lives richer
051and stronger. Equity is important so we are all playing on the same field by the same rules. Inclusion is key so there is equal access to opportunities and resources for everyone. And with belonging, you feel you're being part of something. You're 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. Open, honest, and genuine communication that is respectful, positive, supportive, fair, and most of all kind goes a long way in strengthening a community. Lastly, we are about six weeks away from wrapping up another great year. As we participate in the many events this month and next, please take a moment to appreciate all the little moments from this year that added up to something
052truly significant. Let's celebrate all of our students as they make their push into the home stretch of the year. Thank you everyone for your time and listening. Moving on to Superintendent Ross' uh support uh report. Thank you, Dr. Jano. So, I'm going to start the superintendent report with the student report. So, I'm going to turn it over to Jazara. Uh, good evening. So, I have a brief student uh report that I want to present to everyone. So, on April 22nd, the National Honor Society went on a field trip to an escape room center in Brooklyn, New York. Uh, students were placed into teams and challenged to complete tasks in order to escape being sprayed with slime, foam, or paint. It was a fun and engaging experience for all involved. On May 1st, we held our
053honoral assembly recognizing students for their outstanding academic achievements during the third marking period. Last Friday, May 2nd, we hosted our spring pep rally, our final one for the class of 2025. Students participated in several exciting games and activities, including red light green light, a 4x 100 meter relay, a water balloon toss, and the schoolwide favorite, the tugof-war. Tomorrow, May 7th, students enrolled in AP Literature and AP Computer Science A will be taking their respective advanced placement exams. AP testing for other subjects will continue throughout the next few weeks. Also, tomorrow evening from 6:00 to 8:30 p.m., our spring band and choir concert will take place at DHS. On Friday, May 9th, the DHS drama club will host the Denellis from 7 to 9:00 p.m. An exciting event celebrating our student performers. Next Friday, May 16th,
054the class of 2025 will head out on their senior field trip to the Pocono Valley Resort. Tomorrow, May 7th, the safety ambassadors will hold their last presentation, and that was actually today. So, safety ambassadors held their last presentation today, and it was at Favor Elementary. The high school ambassadors have educated the students on topics of wheeled safety, pedestrian safety, falls prevention, healthy eating, and safety in and around cars. Finally, on May 22nd, DHS will host their prom at the Imperia in Somerset. Transitioning into spring sports for baseball, our varsity boys baseball team currently holds a record of 10 wins and six losses. The team is currently waiting to receive their opponent for their first match of the GMC tournament. On May 14th, the boys will play their senior net against Piscatoaway Magnet. Um, our blip
055for softball has been prepared by coach Carrie Johnson. So this season, the softball team's on the younger side. One senior, two juniors, seven sophomores, and five freshman. Despite being on the younger side, uh the team is eight and six overall, and eight-2 in their division, putting them in second place. Their schedule's on the tougher side outside of their division, playing teams that are two to three divisions ahead. Our pitching, or their pitching, sorry, is being led by Savannah McCain, Katie Garcia, and Casey Mana. Their batting is led by Alexa Devesa, Rose, Chickala, Kyla Fuso, and Kylie Teague. They're looking forward to their GMC tournament game coming up next week in hopes of having a home game. They're also celebrating their lone senior Annadelai Bago Fitzgerald on Friday, May 9th against South Amboy at 400 p.m.
056For track and field, as of right now, our track team has not won a dual meet. However, they're a very young team and they end every meet with plenty of first place finishers in various events. Today, the team competed at the GMC's. As for boys tennis, the team holds a record of 1, one, and seven. They're a small but tight-knit team with only two seniors, and they're hoping to turn their season around. Thank you. Thank you, Jazara. So, uh, number of items for the superintendent's report. Um, the first, as uh, Dr. and Jonno mentioned is that this is teacher appreciation week. And so this is the week first and foremost that we um do some special recognitions of all of our teaching staff members. These are our folks K12 who work with students on a
057daily basis in their classrooms. This is the educational core of our of our of our district. Um this is where we spend the most money. This is where we focus the most attention and this is where we get the best rewards. We have wonderful staff members, wonderful teachers in our our district um really who have been engaged in the incredible work that we've been doing. Um, I obviously am very thankful for my relationship with Asella Laguna Morau who um is the uh tried and trueue president of the DEA and um we have a lot of discussions about um what's working and what can be improved and there's always things that can be improved. Um but our teachers and our staff I think are feeling very supported at the moment and I think we're we're moving
058in the right direction. So congratulations to all of our teachers. Thank you for teacher appreciation week. Uh especially as well to our PTO um and Miss Moore who has spearheaded uh three days of incredible food and eating and enjoyment for our staff members at each of the buildings. Um there is uh snacks today, lunch tomorrow, dessert on Thursday, and then also some very cool giveaways that the PTO is running. um PTO has been an amazing partner um with the district and also in support of our teachers. So huge thank you to you and to your team for for that work. Uh we in in continuing to celebrate our staff members on Friday, we also recognized our educators of the year and for this year uh the Denellan High School teacher of the year educator of
059the year was Tammy Del Rosario. For Lincoln Middle School, it was Stephanie Debzi and for Faber Elementary School, it was Sheri Krauss. We also have one educational specialist uh for the district who was recognized this year and it was it is Lisa Liowitz. So those folks will be recognized at the June 10th board meeting. Bless you. Um allergies have been really bad this season. That's the ne the next item on my update. Um but congratulations to those four incredible staff members. The educators of the year are selected through a uh a very sort of formal process of ranking, reviewing and you know rating uh folks who have really done uh great work in their classrooms, supporting staff members, supporting teachers, supporting the the school community. Um and these are really four of the best that
060we have. So congratulations to those those educators. We also will be recognizing our retirees at an upcoming meeting. This is actually the meeting on May 20th, which is in two weeks. We have four retirees that we that we have uh uh information about. At this point, we have Deb Casabona who serves as our accounts payable coordinator. We have uh Dan Hmel who is a PE teacher at the high school middle school. We have Miss Andy Hoy who is our director of accountability. And we have Kelly Veter who has served as an art teacher at Faber. These four individuals will all be recognized by their administrators. there's going to be a really nice speech and you know sort of a whole process uh for those folks. Uh that's two weeks from today. That's May 20th for
061the retirees. We also have renewals uh coming up and this is part of this agenda and then our also our June agenda. We have our non-tenured staff members who are being renewed. So congratulations to everybody who's on the list. This is a very large group of non-tenured staff members. We've done a lot of hiring. We've done a lot of filling new positions. We've done a lot of creating new positions and this is a really really great group of of staff members. We're very excited to have them back next year. We have among that group we have four non-tenured administrators who are being renewed. Uh Miss Lauren Caulfield who uh is a tenure teacher but who is finishing up her first year as an assistant principal. Uh Melissa Van Ross who is also a tenure teacher
062um and serving her first year as an administrator. and then uh Megan Drakin who's our director of curriculum and Dr. Tara Santelloo who is our director of special services. So those four those four administrators are being renewed on tonight's agenda. We certainly congratulate them and thank them for the work that they do. Uh we do have a number of staff members who are going to earn tenure uh when they return next year. So we will celebrate those folks when we return next year and they've actually uh served the day and uh and earned the tenure. Um, as we look to fill these positions, we've also been involved in some recruitment efforts. We've uh went on May 1st to um the NJCore Education Career Fair at Ridge High School where we met with about 20 or
06325 potential applicants for various positions. And then on May 22nd, a a a team from the district is going to the NJTOLI recruitment effort. This is the state conference for um English language learners. uh for ESL teachers, ENL teachers, multilingual learners, um these sorts of principles, and it's a it's a large conference. I think it's a very good ground to find bilingual staff members, bilingual educators, uh ESL teachers, etc. So, we'll be there uh recruiting for the district. Um, with all of the new staff, with all of the work that we've been doing, we've also been focusing on trying to find new ways to build a collaborative relationship between the administration, uh, at the building level and staff members and also between the district members, um, and staff. And last week uh I had the
064pleasure of going with uh Miss Laguna Morau to the labor management collaborative which is run uh through NJA uh NEA and the labor management collaborative group. And it is a uh sort of a a just a a principled understanding of how administrators and teachers can work in um ongoing discussion to solve problems. Um, it's the idea that when you build strong relationships with people in the decision-making side of things, you have sort of fewer problems or fewer misconceptions on the back end. And um, we had a really great time at the event. We had a very good set of conversations about the work that was being done in Cherry Hill, which was kind of the host district. and uh I've made the decision to move forward with sending a team of administrators and staff members
065forward to the second convening which is in two weeks in Clifton. So uh if you've looked at professional development approval we have uh a large number of teachers and our administrators who are going to be going including our principles and directors and um teachers from each of the buildings. So I think this is something that really could pay benefits um for the district. We have a lot of really positive conversations, but they're not necessarily systematized in the way that they could be. And so, um, we have some key individuals who will be attending who I think will will serve the district well and and ensure that communication is as as positive and productive as it possibly can be when we're looking at challenging issues or just working on kind of day-to-day operational things. We have
066uh a couple other things that I'll that I'll discuss. We have the Faber band and choir concert tomorrow which is being held at the high school. Uh we had two great honoral uh ceremonies as as uh these folks have mentioned. The middle school held its its first one with a new structure today which was that students would be recognized individually and go on the stage and receive a certificate um and a handshake and really have a a a much more sort of formalized ceremony. Um and it was great. Um, so the high school uh did its second one last week in this structure and the the middle school had its first one today. So I'm very thankful to Beatric Gimenez who helped uh organize and work with Mr. Altmire and Miss Caulfield um to plan
067this event. She's been great uh in terms of these events. Spring testing is well underway. Um we have NJSLA testing started uh at the end of uh April at the high school. Middle school testing starts tomorrow. Fab Faber testing starts next week. We're also in the first of two weeks for AP testing. Um with AP bio being the first exam yesterday. So a lot of assessment happening throughout the month of May. Um professional development. We have one professional development day left in the district. It's the Friday before Memorial Day. We have a keynote speaker who'll be talking about some of the challenges uh faced by uh immigrant students and sort of the district's responsibilities and staff member responsibilities in supporting those uh students. We have vertical articulation um for different content areas planned. Some principal
068meetings in the afternoon way that we've done this PD is really sort of heavy focus in the morning on teaching and learning and then much more relaxed in the afternoon. um much more sort of sealbased. So, we will be doing activities. Um we have the puppies coming in for puppy yoga. Um we're also doing kickball. We're also going to be hosting a blood drive um which I think is a really very very cool initiative. Um and then some other activities as well. So, that's the Friday before uh the very long weekend of Memorial Day. We have a number of other PD initiatives that we've been working on. Um as well as uh uh continuing with instructional coaching. Um I'm not going to go through them all, but I will also mention that we are in
069the process of applying to for two new grants. Um one of which already appears on the agenda and one of which we're going to read into the record. The first is part two of the teacher climate and culture grant. Um if you'll recall, we received this grant last year. It was $125,000 to support climate and culture uh efforts throughout the district. The second part of the grant just came out and it is due on Thursday. Uh it is only eligible uh or available to districts who did receive the grant in the first round. It is $61,250. Um so I think we are very likely to receive that grant. There's a an AP course expansion grant which is um designed to increase access for um students from under underprivileged uh backgrounds to be able to take
070and be successful in AP classes. So, it's really about course expansion, staff member support, and uh new courses and those types of things. That is a $50,000 grant for a district our size. Um and that is due next week. So, we're we're very excited about those two grants. Um, and then uh I'll do the enrollment update and then I have two uh two other items. So, the enrollment update, we are uh I think at a new record in the district. Um we hit 1,382 students um just in our facilities and that is a slight uptick at Faber Middle School and the high school. and we have 1,425 students if we include our private prek uh providers. So, we're up um we're up eight students from the end of last year. We're up 28 students from
071the beginning of the school year. Um and I I I do believe this is the highest that the district's enrollment has ever been. Uh and I'm just going to uh finish with uh two passings of note. Um so, the first is uh Dr. Dr. Jerry Stfansky. So Dr. Jerry Stfansky uh passed away I believe it was last week. Um and uh Dr. Stfansky began his career as a teacher in Seville in 1962. Uh held administrative positions in Kingsburg in Sarville and at Denellan High School where he was both assistant principal and principal. Um and then he became superintendent in 1974. Um he served as superintendent for 22 years um until his retirement in 1996. He received his doctorate degree from uh Rutgers in education administration and supervision. Um I don't know that we have any
072superintendents this day and age who serve for 22 years. So really quite a remarkable um history in the district and also having served as an AP and a principal as well prior to that. Um Dr. Stfansky was also an active member of the Denellan Greenbrook Rotary Club where he served as a a board of directors. Uh he was a the president for a time and he was the vocational service director for a time. He also served on the Denellan public library board of trustees. So, uh, in addition to those incredible, um, accolades, he was very proud of his Polish heritage and, uh, he was a talented accordion player who as a young adult played in the South Jersey Pocus Circuit in a band called the Melody Makers. So, uh, really amazing things that you never
073kind of know about people. Um, and, uh, and obviously we recognize him, we honor him, um, for his extraordinary extraordinary service to the district. um serving as as superintendent for 22 years. Um in recognition of his service, the district has um planted a grove of three trees in his honor. Um and you know, we've written a nice note to the family um regarding his passing and obviously we wish them the best um in what's obviously a challenging time for them. Um and then the second passing of note is uh we found out today uh yesterday that Ronnie Haynes uh mother passed away. Um, we all know Ronnie. Ronnie is our director of facilities. Ronnie is one of the most loved people in the district. His mother was 71 years old. Um, and uh it's obviously
074it's very tragic and very challenging for for their family. The visitation for uh for the family is actually tomorrow from 4:00 to 8 at Shenan Funeral Home. Um and then the mass is Thursday at St. John's um at 11:00 a.m. So um I'm sure that there are going to be a lot of people from the district who go out and and support Ronnie in this challenging time. Obviously our heart goes out to him and his entire family um for the for his tragic loss. And with that, that is the superintendent report. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Ross. So um at this time moving on to item number 10 on the agenda. Public comments on agenda items only. So the board invites public comment on agenda items only from members of our community in accordance with board
075policy 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 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 does appreciate and welcome 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 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 would like to make comments
076on agenda items only. Last [Music] call. Okay. Moving on to item number 11, education uh discussion items. First, we will move to the education committee report and I will ask the chair uh Mrs. Howard to walk us through the uh the notes. Thank you. Hang just changing. Okay. All right. The education committee met on April 30th and discussed a number of items including the district's ongoing goal setting with setting work with stutter information about the final budget hearing and budget items related to teaching and learning. Um, spring state testing and AP testing occurring throughout the district in late April and May. Policies and regulations that are being recommended for second reading and adoption at tonight's meeting. A wide range of updates from Miss Drapkin on professional development, grants committees, curriculum resources, and other items, updates
077regarding next year's preschool expansion plans, and a variety of confidential matters. Thank you, Mrs. Howard. So, moving on to item number 12, um, education action items. Looking for a motion to move, um, items 12 A to D, A through D as a block. Move 12 A through D. Second. Open for questions, comments. And just to note under item D, these are the second readings in adoption for uh board policies and regulations. Student smoking, high school graduation, harassment and bullying, e academic integrity as well as student grievance. Last call. Questions, comments? Okay. Mr. Pepe, can you please call the role? Mr. Mr. Henderson. Yes. Mrs. Condit. Yes. That was Yes. Ms. Ibeck. Yes. Dr. Gendrono. Yes. Mrs. Howard. Yes. Mr. Senoi. Yes. Miss Shyf. Yes. Mrs. Shep. Yes. Mr. Walker. Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Moving
078on to item number 13, personnel discussion items and the personnel committee report. So the uh personnel committee uh met on April 30th in attendance were myself as chair uh Mr. Anderson uh Mr. Shep and Mr. Ross. Uh during that committee meeting, we discussed a number of items including uh budget information for the 2025 2026 school year related to personnel and staffing. We discussed open positions and proposed staffing for the 2025 2026 school year. We discussed information about the evaluation process for the 2024 2025 school year. Um we also discussed minor changes recommended to business office job desript job descriptions, excuse me, and a number of uh confidential items. And uh so that was that was our committee report uh from uh our last meeting. So, moving on to item number 14, personnel action items. Looking
079for a motion uh to move um item sorry 14 A through Q as a block. Yeah. And we will need to make an adjustment on Q which would be to add item number 20 uh to the list which would be um participant Allison Egan uh to go to the labor management collaborative learning hub in Clifton, New Jersey on the 19th of May 2025. Um not grant funded and cost uh mileage. So looking for a motion to move um 14 A through Q with the uh additional with with the addition. Motion to move 14 A through Q. Second. Open for questions or comments. Last call. Okay. Mr. Pepe, can you please call the role? Mr. Anderson, yes. Mrs. Condit, yes. Ms. Ibeck, yes. Dr. Gendrono, yes. Mrs. Howard, yes. Mr. Satanoi, yes. Miss Shyf, yes. Mrs.
080Shep, yes. And Mr. Walker, yes. Motion passes. Thank you so much. And it is great to see all the uh nice long list of PD. Okay, moving on to item number 15, operations discussion items. I'll turn this over to um Mr. Walker, who is the committee chair for the operations committee. Mr. Walker, thank you. The operations committee met on April 30th, 2025, excuse me, and discussed a number of items, including information about the final budget hearing and operations related items, policies and regulations that are being recommended for second reading and adoption at tonight's meeting, grant updates, an update about the district's preschool facilities expansion grant construction project, safety and security initiatives are being undertaken throughout the district, a wide range of facilities updates, and a variety of confidential matters. That's it. Thank you. Thank you,
081Mr. Walker. So, looking uh to looking for a motion to move items 16 A through Q um as a block. So, there is a resolution to add. So, there was a um an addition. Sorry. Yeah. No. So, item Q is uh related to the grant that I spoke about. And so the resolution for Q that I'd like to add is upon the recommendation of the superintendent, Denelon Board of Education approves the application for funding through the New Jersey Department of Education advanced placement and international balorate course expansion grant in the amount of $50,000. So again, the resolution is the uh approves the district's um proposal to apply for the NJDOE uh AP expansion grant to the tune of $50,000. Move to approve items A through Q, which includes the inclusion. Second. Open for questions or
082comments. for item L. Um, can you just review what like what caused the increase? Okay. So, when we first endeavored to do the universal preschool uh grant, we had a plan of how where we were going to do the um expansion, where we were going to be building and it was a very quick turnaround for the grant application and then a long wait for the DOE to approve it. When we finally got the approval from the DOE, we started looking into the actual like detailed plans and found an issue. We had to change um our plan. So now the project itself is in a different location than it was originally going to be and there's additional work that has to be done by the architect to prepare um new submitts to the DOE to get
083reapproved with the new modified project. So, this is the um cost that they're um asking us to pay them for their additional time that's beyond what was originally foreseen with the original project. Other questions, comments? I did want to add just two things. One is the uh item F is the you know the uh uh accepting the uh the preschool expansion grant in the amount of 3.4 4 mill which is wonderful. And item O which are uh second readings and adoption uh for uh board policies and regulations uh related to electronic surveillance in school buildings and on school grounds, food services, spectator code of conduct for intercolastic events as well as cooperation with law enforcement agencies. So any uh last questions or comments? Okay. Mr. Pepe, can you please call the role? Mr. Anderson, yes.
084Mrs. Condit, yes. Miss Ibeck, yes. Dr. Gendrono, yes. Mrs. Howard, yes. Mr. Senoi, yes. Miss Shyf, yes. Mrs. Shep. Yes. And Mr. Walker. Yes. And we have 10 yes votes because the water fountain has also voted yes. I I I thought the water fountain abstained. I'm sorry. So, we're moving on to item number um 17, old business. Is there any old business that we want to uh bring back? I don't think we had anything tabled from last time. No. Okay. Okay, moving on to new business. Is there any new business that anyone would like to discuss? I just want to take a moment uh first of all to congratulate Mr. Pepe for his uh renewal on the uh personnel section. So, congratulations and thank you for the work that you do. Um, and I also
085just want to also thank uh the folks from Deote who um provided a very generous donation of $3,000 um for backpacks for incoming preschool students. So that that grant was actually um spearheaded by Miss Van Ross and a parent in the community who works for Deote who uh is an incoming pre preK parent. So it's really wonderful to not just be able to bring students in but also bring families into the district early. So, uh, we're very thankful for their work. So, so any other new business? I will make the plug. Yeah. For NJSBA workshop coming up in October. The dates are 20 to 23 of October. I believe that's a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, I think. Um so uh if you are able to join it is a wonderful event uh to to come
086and um learn from other board members, other administrators. Um there are a number of great uh presentations that happen over that period. Um we learn lots and it's a fun time. You get to also uh meet and um learn about your other uh board members. It's time to to interact. Um so I just want to mention I believe Mr. Pepe, correct me if I'm wrong. Are we We're registered for for that. Yes, we are registered and we have hotel rooms reserved. So, um anyone who wants to go, there is a way to get you there. Just got to let me know and we'll work out the details and um yes, we are registered. Awesome. So, we have the registration and we have a place to stay. So, uh please let us know if you're talk
087to Mr. Pepe and myself, you're going to be able to go. Um it is like I said even if it's for a day or an afternoon we we pay the registration so so come come join us uh and um uh learn lots there a lot of great presentations Mr. Ross are you going to present it again this year you think we'll see it's not time to we put in three proposals that we have not yet heard one way or the other so Oh it's too early too early I guess. Okay. Can I Dr. I'm not going to just Yeah, I just want to add for the public that um you understand that there is a group rate for the registration. So when I say that we are all registered, it's one rate for as long
088as as long as four of us go, we make out better than the individual rate. So I didn't pay for 11 people and some of them may not go. I just want to make sure that's clear. Oh yeah, that's an important point. So yes. Yes. So as long as we have the it is four, right? The threshold is four people. Oh yeah. So, okay, definitely. Okay, cool. Um, I can say that I've gone last, I don't know, three years, four years. I I I lost count. I know the others have as well. And I um I think it's a a fantastic experience. And we got to see um I'll just mention um real quick before I don't want to, you know, prolong this, but I was so excited first of all to see John Kenyon,
089who was one of the keynote speakers. Remember that guy? Yeah. From what would you do? He was a one of the presenters uh keynote speakers on the first day. But I would have to also say that my favorite presenter from last year was um and I forget her name but it was Maria from Sesame Street. So I grew up you know watching PBS and Sesame Street and to see Maria you know talk to us was was like was was awesome. So I I I just wanted to mention that because I think it's really you there's a lot of cool stuff that happens. I'm just gonna I'm just going to say I presented in October, so I I do take a little bit of offense to that, but uh but I understand. I mean, you're not
090Maria, man. I'm sorry. No, your presentations were awesome though, sir. As usual. So, um anyway, I'll I'll get off the soap box, but if you can attend, please try um make time for it if you're able to. would love to see you there. Okay, moving along to item number uh 19, president's remarks. I think I said enough earlier. Um and moving on to item number 20, public comment. So, at this time, the board invites public comment on any issue, any topic for members of our community. In accordance with board policy 0167, public comment sections are intended to provide an opportunity for members of the board, excuse me, 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
091substantive responses to questions or concerns uh 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 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 this time if you'd like to make comments on any issue or any topic. Last [Music] call. Okay, moving on to item number 21, executive session. So the exe uh the Denellan board of education will now adjourn into executive session to discuss items that fall within specific exceptions to
092the 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 bar agreements, pending or anticipated litigation and personnel. Uh any discussion that does not need to me uh remain oh sorry any discussion that does not need to remain confidential will be made public as soon as it is practical. Uh minutes of the executive session will not be disclosed until the need for confidentiality no longer exists. All individuals who may be discussed in executive session have been adequately notified. Action will not take place after the conclusion of the executive session. So, uh, may I have a motion to go into executive session, please? All those in favor? I opposed. Okay, we're out. And just to note, um, there is that schedule change.
093So instead of um March 27th, we are meeting again here on May, sorry, instead of May 27th, we are meeting on May 20th right here in the cafeterium. So see you in about uh two weeks. Two weeks.