001Welcome everybody. Um we are going to Should we just >> We'll do the flag. >> We're okay. So let's begin with the >> flag to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> We have reason to go into executive session tonight. Do I have a motion? >> I'm sorry. >> It's okay. I'm shook. >> We're excited. We're excited. Go ahead. >> Okay. Welcome everyone to the Thursday, February 19th, 2026 uh board of education meeting in accordance with the requirements of the open public meetings act. I wish to announce that the New Jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meeting of
002bodies at which any business affecting their interests is discussed or acted upon. Notices announcing the date, time, and place for this meeting were sent to all concerned individuals, associations, and sent to Union County Local Source in accordance with chapter 231 of Law 1975. For the role, President Co here, Vice President Kelly >> here, Mr. Chow >> here, >> Mr. Gunson >> here, >> Mr. Hanley, >> Miss Justice >> here, >> Mr. Elijah >> here. >> Thank you very much. And now we have a reason to go to executive session tonight. Do I have a motion? >> So move. I'm going to read something from the executive session if you like. >> Okay. So due to the fact we're going to executive session whereas pursuant to NJSA 10 col 4-12B the board of education may exclude
003the public from that portion of the meeting wherein the board discusses any matters set forth at NJSA 10- colon-4-12 v 1-9. Now therefore be resolved that in accordance with the provisions of the open public meeting act, the board shall conduct a closed session pursuant to the provisions of NJSA 10 colon 4-12B for the purpose of discussing the following matters. Personnel >> thank you very much. We have a motion. >> So moved second for the role. Matcha here. >> Mr. Justice here. Oh, Mr. Justice, sorry. Mr. Haley >> Mr. Gunderson >> here >> Mr. Chow >> yes >> Vice President Kelly >> yes >> President Co. >> Yes. >> So let's executive session. >> Thank you so much for it. >> And here's We are reconvening after executive session. Can I have a motion to reconvene?
004So move >> second. Mr. >> Yes. >> Vice President. >> Yes. >> Mr. Ma >> here. >> M. Justice >> here. >> Mr. Gunderson. >> Yes. Mr. Joe >> here. >> President Cole. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Thank you very much. First up tonight, we are very excited to have a presentation of our National ME merit scholars um and their acknowledgement of the teachers that meant something special to them. So, I'm going to hand it over to you. photos. Welcome, welcome. I'm Scott Huff, superintendent of Summit Public Schools. And wow, this what a presence here tonight. One of the most favorite things we do is to get to celebrate the accolades and successes of our children. You're the product of all our work. Thank your teachers. We have such a wonderful teaching staff that support
005you throughout your K12 experience. Thank your administrators um again for creating that environment. And I thank the board as well for constantly supporting us with resources and our vision and initiatives so that we can take advantage of celebrating moments like this. So thank you all for being here. This is outstanding. I'm going to turn it over now to Mr. Brian Morton. I thank by the way thank the high school administration of course principal Miss Vermaldi vice principal Brian Morton and uh Elizabeth she's not here with us tonight. So Mr. Martan welcome you up to the Thank you. Good evening everybody. Welcome. Tonight we celebrate our Southern High School seniors that were recognized by the National Merit Scholarship Program. Earning a spot in this program requires a qualifying score on the PSAT that places these students
006among the top academic performers in the nation. It's a prestigious milestone that opens doors to significant scholarship opportunities and collegiate recognition. Beyond academic excellence, tonight is about gratitude. In a cherished summit tradition, our scholars will pay tribute to a district staff member who has played a profound impact in their lives. Each student will present an honored guest with a book featuring a personal inscription of thanks. Mr. Grimaldi and I read some of these this afternoon and they are super super touching. Congratulations scholars and to their families on this remarkable achievement and to our educators who helped them guide them there. Thank you as always for your support. We are going to start off with Gabriel Ain recognizing Miss Ain with the book Never Enough by Jennifer Brady Wallace. supposed. Araban recognizing Miss Connect with the
007Lightning Thief by Rick Reer. Zachary Bastella recognizing Miss Bender with Eagles taking it to the limit by Ben Fon Torres. Alita Coransza recognizing Mr. Magdalinsky with the House of Mirth by Edith Wley. Lauren Clark recognizing Miss Encarnos with Winnie the Pooh by a Grace Hickeyi recognizing Mr. Welsh with Tequila Mockingbird by Harper Lee. ALLISON KIM recognizing Mrs. Wanith with Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. Hooks LeBlanc recognizing Mr. Baragona with golf by the numbers by Ronald. Stella Lmcow recognizing Miss Guinea with familiar quotations by John Barton. Ben Lov recognizing Miss Lair with How the Other Half Lives by Jacob Reese. Alexis Molly recognizing Miss Wright with ninth street women by Mary Gabriel. Connor Moon recognizing Mr. Pascal with the boys in the boat by Daniel James Brown. Patina Pangaan recognizing Miss Bartlett with 100 Years of
008Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Abraham Pearlman. Recognizing Miss Donut with the director by Daniel Kelman. Katherine Ryan recognizing Miss Adair with Joe Turner's Come and Gone by August. Anna Smorgis recognizing Mskanakos with Lad Girl by Hope Char. Nicholas Solis Negron recognizing Mr. Odow who unfortunately could not make it tonight with the disappearing spoon. Sam Kee Boston song recognizing Mr. Mormon with What If? by Randall Monroe. Benjamin Strauss recognizing Mr. Ramstead with Lafayette in the somewhat United States by Sarah V. Declan Vargas recognizing Mr. Daer with the boys in the moment by Daniel James Brown. Anna Whitley recognizing Miss Rose with Belle Kanto by Ann Patchet. and Jennifer Sao, who unfortunately could not be here tonight, recognizing Miss Travi with quantum biology, a glimpse into the future of medicine by Jeffrey You GOT one more Maris
009Scholar who couldn't make it tonight. He is field tripping through Colombia right now with a group of students and staff of Coleman Sable. Wanted to recognize Mr. Mr. Morman as well. Uh Mr. Morman, he will be issuing his book to you at a later date. But if everybody could please join me in one more time congratulating you on the national Thank you, Mr. B. Well done. Um at this time, um I'm going to take a little recess here. If all the merit scholars and their teachers can join outside in the uh hallway for a picture, you're welcome to return. Our next presentation is a budget draft review. It's not >> Oh, thank you. terrible. Go ahead. Hi. How's it going? >> Good. Body for senior year, right? Long hard road. You know what? Thank you.
010I promise you that one of those books that you guys read. Yes. >> Okay. So, we are going to um have the board move to the audience so we can see the budget presentation. Okay, good evening. Uh, pleased to be here this evening to share an update on the budget development this week. Uh, before I start, I really want to thank a bunch of people. I want to thank the administration who I really put to the task this year um to develop a responsible budget that continues to deliver the excellence that we expect. I want to thank the cabinet who has been in many conversations with me for many months over how the budget is developing. And I certainly want to thank the board of education, specifically the members of the operations committee. They've put
011countless countless hours into the work so far. Um, and as we near the finish of a final budget, I want to share that we're pretty proud of where we are this year at this point in time. And you're going to see um see that see that work tonight. And then I plan on spending uh some time in the March meeting to go over the final budget when we ask for attendant approval. And as I always do, I like to start by just giving a little brief um overview of who we are because the budget's not a standalone process. The budget is tied to what we do. It was tied to our strategic plan. It's tied to our board goals and it's tied to us being able to provide the experience that we do. We're always
012a highly ranked school district. When you take a look at those publications, which there are many now there used to be one or two. There's many publications and they all consistently put Summit Public Schools at the top of the state. We pride ourselves in attracting and retaining that highly qualified staff. People want to work in Summit. We have an excellent educational environment. So, that's something that's very important to us. You'll hear me talk about that later as I talked about the strategic plan as well and our commit commitment to excellence. That just goes without saying. Um everything that we do and you saw it here tonight with the merit scholars, we we're so proud of the accomplishments and we're committed to that excellence and our budget supports those those efforts. And this goes without saying
013as well. I mean, our strengths, who are we as a as a school district, our AP courses, you saw the National Merit Scholars, not every school district celebrates that many each year. um our curriculum and our outcome our steam initiative very innovative offer that our co-curriculars our athletics 90% or so of our students take advantage of those opportunities including the arts which we're renowned for as far as our plays or our musicals and that goes into the middle school level as well. It's not just here at the high school. So over the last year, we developed a strategic youth plan, a five-year plan. One of our goals is f facilities and finances. And in that process, we developed from community members, which included teachers, parents, administrators, board members, the values underneath our facilities and finance
014goal. You can see them here. I'm going to take a minute to read that. I'll draw your attention to the top right. There needs to be a thorough and transparent budget allocation process and analysis with fiscal responsibility that came from strategic planning. And to be honest, I feel like that's one of the strongest things that guided our work with the board of education administration this year. So, we had to do our homework and our homework assignment was uh difficult this year. They get more difficult each year. Um, so I'm going to draw your attention to some of the the the hurdles, so to speak, that or the barriers that we really have to digest and break down and look when developing our budget. Um, and I want to also say that this isn't unique to
015Summit. It's you probably see it here and elsewhere, school districts, the climate has changed out there as far as developing budgets and and how we're going to uh finalize a draft. Health benefits, we talked about this already in the previous meeting. Health benefits is up 19%. That's something that we just can't ignore. That's goes into our budget and that's out of our control. Similarly with property and casualty, but we're constantly working with our brokers to take a look and see, can we get a better rate for health insurance? Can we get better rates for our our property and casualty insurance? Same thing with energy costs. You know, we make these efforts to reach out what kind of energy plans can we get into that'll maybe save us in the long haul. So, we're not just
016pat the increases. We actively seek ways to constantly get better um percentage increases in these areas that are out of our control. Salaries, salaries and benefits is a large portion of our budget. I believe it's about 85% of our budget. Um and that's that's mainly out of control. You see the benefits piece on the left side though. Um but through responsible budgeting, we're able to realize efficiencies. For example, as staff move on from retirement or moving on to a different school district, we take an evaluation to see, do we need to replace that in next year's budget? Can we consolidate um positions? Can we take a look at doing that realize efficiencies? And this year, we were able to do some of that. And I'm pretty happy to say that, you know, where we are
017today with this proposed budget, I don't foresee us having to consider cutting additional staff or cutting any staff because these staff weren't cut. They're through attrition. So, that's something that's districts are grappling with when we're starting to to approve a budget. You know, it's such a large portion of our budget. Do we have to look at cutting staff? And I'm proud to say with this proposal, we don't. Continuing to do our homework, we really did a a strong audit on our resources and supplies this year to make sure we're not just ordering duplicates, right? That's important. Um, our special education services, that's something that's a big driver in our budget, out of our control. We talk about additive district placements. Um that that's a a fluid fluid line item in our budget because kids move
018in, kids move out, but we're also looking at ways to save money by creating programs inhouse that we don't have to spend four or five times as much to go out of district. And of course, our facilities here, we pride ourselves on our facilities. We have this beautiful media center. Our buildings are over 100 years old and they're in top-notch shape. That's also an important uh goal for our strategy plan. I'm going to turn it over to Assistant Business Administrator Kathy S. >> So, as it currently stands, our current draft fiscal year 27 tax levy increase is 5.17. Um, we still have developments um coming along. Our current key assumptions include our projected state uh state aid. Right now, we're projecting a state aid decrease of 5%. And that's not based off of anything other
019than we're pairing on the side of let's let's put in a 5% worst case scenario and um and go from there. We don't have word from our county or state representatives with respect to what that looks like. There's no clue at the current moment if it will increase, stay flat. Um but at the moment, we're placing that in as a placeholder so we can prepare um for for what's to come next. Um, state aid represents $5.1 million. Um, which is, you know, not as big portion of our budget revenue-wise, but it's significant. Every dollar counts in our budget for every every dollar counts to service our our students. Um, another big key driver represents healthcare. As Mr. Huff mentioned, our projected healthc care benefit premiums increase is 19% as it stands. That's where we're quoted
020at at the moment. that can change between now and our tenative budget. So, um you know, that's kind of a worst case scenario. We don't anticipate it going up. However, it could go down, but we don't know between now and then. So, we have that as our placeholder. It seems large. That's probably a sticker shock for some people, but that's the way of the world at the moment. our um state health benefits um not our state health benefits but the state health benefits provided by the state of New Jersey for school districts is at 30%. Um 90% isn't bad actually. Other districts are facing 35% increases whether they're self-insured, whether they're pulled with another uh joint insurance fund um or they're just going private. There is that 19% is not as bad um from what
021we're seeing in other districts and other codes. So a little bit more on that one 5.1% uh 5.17% um like I mentioned before healthcare is a large portion portion of it. 3% um is the increase from um 3% represents the increase of the healthcare rising costs. Um the other percentage 2.17 uh represents salaries, benefits, other insurance, energy, utilities, special ed, transportation, other operating needs. That kind of captures everything else, but as you can see, that's a large portion of health healthcare. So it's, you know, a really big big area in this budget. a little bit about the history of state since we mentioned that's a unknown at the moment. Um like like it's predict um presented here the 26 27 state is unknown we question mark but last year it represented 5.1 million. Um although
022it seems like it's increasing over the past couple of years, we did experience a decrease last fiscal budget and um we don't like I mentioned we don't know but it's something to keep in mind is that although it seems like it's rising over the years, we lost state aid completely um years back and so we're trying to regroup and regain and make up for that loss revenue. Um just a couple years ago we finally made whole from what we lost years ago. So, you know, it's it's not looking great, but you know, that's that's the projection in the history of health benefits cost. Again, another factor that we um speak about being a large um contribution to our budget. It represents approximately 16 million to 17 million of our budget. And as you can see,
023it is um increasing. It's increasing exponentially in the past past year into. So those are projections for those last two bar graphs. Just you know 26 we're still in it. So we don't know where we're going to finalize that, but it's it's pretty close to what we're anticipating based on bills that we're seeing. And then like we mentioned 19% we'll see that spike there. Some things to note in dispute 21, chapter 44 was implemented. So that is a factor in our health benefit clause. What chapter 44 represents is legislation that basically required us to do certain things like um how their our employees are going to be contributing to their health insurance, how uh the types of plans that we are required to offer such as the educator health plan. So these kinds of things
024actually unfortunately are not as advantageous to our district. We are experiencing um a loss of employee revenues um employee contributions over the years because the calculation represents a minimal amount coming back to the district. Um, and uh, the EHP plan, although those premiums seem great, because of that whole recalculation of the employee contributions, every time someone jumps from our traditional plans to the EHP plan, we're we're losing out as well. So, chapter 44, not so great for us, but required. Um, and in fiscal year 23, we just wanted to point out that we joined the shift. Prior to that, we were not part of a poolled insurance um, fund. And with that we are in a consortium consolidated um joint fund in which we share with over 100 districts in which um our experiences and
025other districts experiences are pulled together to help minimize risks. So we don't see such large fluctuations with respect to um increases even though it seems like it's a large um increase 19%. That's pretty much what our other districts are may be seeing give or take um their own claim experience but we won't see a large deviation from other districts who are in the shift. So this slide represents our fiscal year 27 tax levy allowable adjusted cap. A lot of times the thought is that there's a 2% cap on our um ability to raise taxes from one year to the next within our budget. So there's always an asterisk. It's an adjusted 2% cap. And that asterisk represents the following. So for this fiscal year uh in our current budget it's the standard tax levy tax
026increase plus the fiscal year 27 healthcare adjustment represents 5.17. So that represents 2% standard plus allowable adjustments given by the state. We have this state software that we plug in our budget and they say hey compared to the state health benefits plan and what's going on in the market we're allowing you to go above that. That's standard. They um they tell us what that percent is. So percentage is 5.1 um 7% and in addition to that after that we have eligible bank cap and so bank is the authority to spend the past 3 years any accumulation of additional um of unused allowable adjustments that we didn't go beyond the 2% cap is is calculated in that. So our number is 287,000 and that represents 0.38% of of the tax. So at the end of the
027day 5.55% is what we can go up what's allowable and what we're eligible for. >> I'll check out. Thank you for signing up. And in the budgeting, I'd like just to highlight, you know, this budget supports all of the success that we're used to having and expect to have. And as you can see, we're we're still thriving with our AP courses and our student outcomes, our merit scholars, state recognition, our standardized test scores. So, I'm confident, I'm proud, and I'm pleased to say that this budget will support our standard of excellence moving forward for the next school year. Before I take any questions from the board, if there are any, um, it's important to note with the new state administration of governor, they put out a, uh, budget calendar and it's very specific that we
028have to stick to those dates. That is in limbo right now because the state aid numbers are going to be released later. So, we don't have the dates of our next presentation. We don't have the dates of tenative approval or getting into the county. We should have them soon. As soon as we do have them, we will put them out to the board as well as the public. And if you're paying attention to last month, I'm putting out an infographic about the presentation where we are at the budget update and I will include in our next one that we'll send out next week the information about the dates if I have it. If not, explaining to the public why we don't have the dates and we'll share them as soon as we get them. And
029with that, the last thing I'll say is Miss Sarno pointed out there, that state aid number and the healthcare number, they are not finished. So if they break in our favor, we can expect to lower that 5.17% and that would be fantastic. Any questions from the board? My thank you. And that concludes our presentations for this board meeting. Good evening everybody. The National Merit Scholar Recognition that we did earlier tonight is one of my favorite celebrations of the year. So, I just want to congratulate all of our scholars and I want to thank the scholars for choosing to lift up teachers who matter to you. Tonight's celebration makes me think of a teacher in my own life, Mrs. Engelrect, who taught literature and coach drama at my rural high school in Missouri. Um, she put
030books in my hands that opened the world to me and because of her I started to dream about a life here in the New York, New Jersey region. And her impact has reached beyond me. One day when I was in high school, she told me about debate, a program that my school didn't even offer. And she described it as sparring with words with a focus on research and ideas. And I remember thinking, I wish I could do that. Years later, when my son was in middle school, I learned about the debate program here at Summit High School. Um, and that memory of Mrs. Engelre snapped back into my mind and I told him, "Go to a meeting, just one meeting." and that one small nudge turned into something that's been a very important part of
031his own life even today as a senior in college. So to me that's the thing about great teachers. Their impact travels. Sometimes you can trace it clearly. Sometimes it moves in ways that you don't see until much later. Either way, it reaches much further than the moment when it started in the classroom. It can reach across generations. And the Summit School District is full of great teachers who create those door opening moments on purpose in classrooms, in clubs, on fields, on stages, and in hallways. And we saw some of those tonight. So they live our mission here at the district, preparing all of our students to thrive in an evolving world. Our students succeed because so many people in this district take that mission seriously and take our kids seriously. In a lot of ways,
032great teachers don't just teach subjects. They set a tone. how we treat each other and how we show up for one another in celebration and in support. And that's reflected in our schools this month. In a few minutes, superintendent health is going to share some of the Black History Month learning activities that we're doing in the district. And this year, the school district is also celebrating kindness month, an effort being amplified citywide by the city of Summit. And that's thanks to the m to the efforts of Mayor Vegan and the Summit Common Council. Kindness shows up in the small stuff. Holding the door, helping with a heavy load, greeting a neighbor like you need it, a bit of warmth on a cold day. And our schools have been busy turning these ideas into action. At
033Brigham and Lincoln Hubard, students have taken on the Great Kindness Challenge and random acts of kindness week through spirit days and mystery kindness missions. At Washington, the focus is honoring dignity. Students are designing classroom door displays around the idea that dignity is a fundamental right. And on February 9th, we welcomed dignity expert Summer Snyder to speak with staff and parents thanks to a grant from the Summit Educational Foundation. At Franklin, the kindness crew has been leading changemaker projects and creating Valentines for the Children's Hospital in Morristown. And the whole school is doing a one book, one school read of growing home, focusing on empathy and belonging. At Shverson, we're in the middle of random acts of kindness week with daily challenges designed to make someone's heart happy. Whether kindness bingo boards, team building, or thank
034you notes, students have been quietly spreading kindness and appreciation throughout the building. And at our primary centers, our youngest learners are building compliments and sharing daily kindness hearts, proving that you're never too young to make someone's day better. So whether you're a student, a parent, or a staff member, thank you for the kindness you spread every day. And know this, the reach of what you do is bigger than you can see. None of us will ever fully know the reach of one great teacher or one act of kindness. Thank you and congratulations again to all our scholars. >> Thank you, President. Well, for my report, February has been a very meaningful month across our schools with a strong focus on black history, cultural awareness, and opportunities for students to learn from history while celebrating the
035contributions of diverse communities. Throughout our elementary school, students are engaged in Black History Month through classroom lessons, schoolwide activities, and daily announcements highlighting influential black leaders, innovators, artists, and activists. The Summit High School Black Student Union is hosting a district-wide studentled exhibition titled African-Americans in Arts, featuring student artwork supporting charitable causes, including Makeovers Foundation of New Jersey. Another important learning experience this month has been the Holocaust education and remembrance. All of our elementary schools hosted a powerful presentation for fifth grade students led by a member of our own staff love who have shared her grandmother's story as a Holocaust survivor. These presentations emphasize resiliency, empathy, and the importance of remembering history through personal narratives. Our primary centers, our primary centers held their annual glow runs with tremendous family support. Raven welcomed in new student principal,
036Miss Mary Jane Kusky, and celebrated student performances at Braen's Got Talent while Franklin students participated in digital citizenship lessons with local law enforcement. Jefferson students applied their economics lessons during a trip to Bistown and Lincoln Humber recognized National School Council. While celebrating the 100th day of school, Washington staff engaged in professional learning focused on dignity and is preparing for an upcoming international night to celebrate cultural diversity. At LCJ, SMS, students are building school spirit through a Winter Olympics themed competition and partner in the Summit High School. Students through the annual speakers bureau program focused on inclusion and learning differences. At Summit High School, students are participating in international travel and focusing on course selection for next year. In the arts, programs continue to thrive with visiting artists working with orchestra students. Preparations are also underway
037for the district arts festival and the high school musical Bigfish opening next week. And in the world of athletics, girls varsity ice hockey will be playing Trinity Hall final game today at Cody Arena 4:30. I wonder how he did. Audrey Carrian proudly represented Southern High School at the National Women and Girls Sports Day last weekend at Ruckers University. The event sponsored by NJSIA honored outstanding female athletes during halftime of the Ruckers home basketball game. And that concludes my report for this month. So with that, um, agenda item 7 A and B were the, um, review and recommendation of suspensions and hip investigations. Do I hear a motion? Is that moved? Second. Any discussion? So the ro that President Kelly um Miss Justice >> yes >> Mr. May >> yes >> Mr. Hanley >> yes >>
038Mr. Gunderson >> yes >> Mr. Ch >> yes >> President Con >> yes motions carry. >> Next on our agenda is the student board representative report. >> Hi I'm Kathy Taylor one of high school's um voter guide representatives. So, White Mountains student council will really focus on our media on our media fundraising. Um, one of the main events we're fundraising for is the nine and 10th grade dance which is in March. Um, we along with past councils have been working really hard to plan it and to raise money to decorate and we can't wait for a fun night. So, one of the ways fundraising is through the sale of pep rallian shirts. So, we have different colors representing each grade's box color with a pillow topic on it. We were selling those during lunch and
039it's been really successful. We also have one for teachers which they really enjoyed. We're also planning a bake sale for St. Patrick's Day and a flower sale later in the spring which is exciting. Um last week we had a spirit week leading into Valentine's Day which was a lot of fun. Everyone had a great time. We also were helping the freshman class make and sell candy jams throughout the week for Valentine's Day. Um, and then on that same theme, the sophomore class council is working on a chocolate fundraiser which will raise money for the dance and for future events like prom next year. It's been a really busy start of the semester for everyone including us. But now that winter sports are winding down incredible swing music that'll be next week. We can say that
040we're off to a great start and can't wait to keep this momentum going for the second half of the year. Thank you so much for your time and have a great rest of your week. >> Thank you so much. Um, and if you you're excused if you'd like to leave. Next up is additions and revisions to the agenda. Here we go. There's a few tonight. Um, under curriculum instruction and program item F, approval of an overnight field trip submitted by Nicholas Padron, club adviser for the six summit high school FBLA club members and two chap roads to attend the future business leaders of America state leadership conference in Atlantic City, New Jersey from March 9th through 11th, 2026 at a cost of $4656 per student. under finance. Item DBE, approval of joint transportation agreement for
041school related activities with Bootland County Board of Education to share transportation costs during the 2526 school year. Item FF, approval of annual commercial package insurance as prepared by Willis of New Jersey, Inc. to include the following additional line of coverage bond uh coverage bond carrier selective effective February 2nd, 2026 at a cost of $1,50. Item GG, approval to award bid for roof replacement at Lton C. Johnson Summit Middle School to Matt Group LLC, 82 Midland Avenue, Sweet D, Saddlebrook, New Jersey 07663 in the amount of 3,785,758 inclusive of contingency allowance and alternate MS-1 note contingent upon attorney review. Item HH, approval to award bid for roof replacement at Braden Elementary School, Jefferson Elementary School, and Senate High School to Arco Construction, Inc. 15 Fairfield Place, West Caldwell, New Jersey 070006 in the amount of 4,256,941
042inclusive of a contingency allowance and alternate JES-1 note contingent upon material review. Item I I, approval of change order allowance request number A-04 from GPC, Inc. 20 East Willow Street, Milbour, New Jersey 07041 for the renovations at Tatlock Fieldhouse project in the total amount of 17,120 as follows. CO number 13 replacing the leaking sprinkler valve for 4550. CO number 16, structural steel adjustments for $12,570. Item JJ, approval of change order allowance request number A-05 from GPC, Inc. 20 East Willis Street, Milbour, New Jersey 07041 for the renovations at Taplo Fieldhouse project in the amount of $23 23,39467 as follows. CO number 18, sanitary line repairs for $23,39467. Under personnel item U, the board of education during any period which the business administrator is absent or otherwise unable to fulfill the obligations of the office hereby
043designates the assistant business administrator to assume and discharge all duties, responsibilities and authority of the business administrator. Item B, approval for employee number 9973 to be placed on paid leave effective February 4th, 2026 through March 17th, 2026 pending receipt of medical documentation. Thank you very much. On our agenda, item 10, committee reports, beginning with the Education and Student Activities Services Committee. Thank you, President Cton. The Education and Student Activities and Services Committee met on February 9th at 12:00 noon for 30 minutes. The committee members and attendance superintendent Scott, director, curriculum, Roco, board members, Lena Justice, and myself. First item to discuss were the I Ready and Aadius midyear reports. The midyear I Ready assessments for ELA and math for grades K through 8 were held in January. Parents and guardians received results last week. Administration
044and staff are reviewing the results of my classroom and students to assess possible impact on curriculum and student learning plans. KDS is a new reading assessment program for K through five which was also conducted in January. K is an assessment program recommended recommended by the state that means these candidates for K through K through third grade as a universal screener. Results are now available in Genesis and letters explaining the assessment and results will go out to parents. Second item with the Summit High School summer program. Principal Galdi and Summit High School staff are planning for the remediation and advancement courses to be offered at the high school this summer. The summer program for summer high school was not offered last year. For advancement purposes, geometry will be offered in the summer. And for remediation purposes,
045more courses will be available. English 1 2 3 and four. Algebra 1 and two, geometry, world history, and US history 1 and two. Principal Gamali and staff will determine the staffing needs and the associated tuition pricing required and notify the soul high school community once the plans are finalized and approved. ABA expansion. ABA is the applied behavior analysis program. Currently, there are four kids in the middle school are in the ABA program. It will all be in ninth grade this fall. So, the plan would be for the ABA program to expand to the high school to keep the students in the district, then avoid the expense associated with sending them to an out of district program. There are incoming kids from the primary school who move up to the existing AV program in the middle
046school. The last time discussion is screen time. The administration has been meeting with the building principles and supervisors to assess how screen time is currently used for curriculum purposes across the district and screen time referring to the criminals. Once the assessment is complete, admin administration will determine if changes are needed or guidelines are issued so there is a balance and assess as to how much screen time is a component of curriculum and teaching in the classroom and for home assignments. There are no items for the board action and the next meeting of the education student activities committee is March 12th at 12 members. Any questions? >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Operations Committee. >> Thank you, Madam President. Uh the operations committee met twice in the past month. first on Wednesday, February 4th at noon for
047an hour and again on Tuesday, February 17th, again at noon for 1 hour and 45 minutes. Uh committee members attending both meetings included superintendent Huff, uh assistant business administrator Kathy Chara, board members Carlos Maria, Eileen Kelly, and myself. In addition, in addition, the district facilities manager Chris Beck attended the February 17th meeting. The items that discussed at the meeting uh included the following. First, the committee received an update from the superintendent of the business office on the roof projects with the most recent news being a positive development for the district. Bids were submitted for the four roof projects and while the original estimated project was 12 million, the bids have come in closer to 8.1 million. The possible reasons for the significant differential were explained as follows. Number one, our bidding process beat the peak
048period with our bidding being conducted in January, well ahead of the spring and summer rush. So, it's possible we have better pricing. Number two, demand for roof projects may be slower as many other districts are so financially constrained, they are postponing similar capital intensive projects this year. Number three, our bid strategy on these projects was a menu pricing approach that is less common and we believe provided advantages in this situation. And finally, we do believe that materials pricing has recently shifted with slightly higher input prices pushing higher the price of synthetic roofs versus the price of slate which has come down during the same time frame. As a result of this specific pricing dynamic on the materials, combined with the fact that the overall project has come down more than 30% of estimated costs, the
049district has revisited the overall cost effectiveness of returning to an all slate roof at the middle school. Given the incremental dollar cost of the slate roof now stands at 138,000 to the district and that slate carries significantly longerterm warranties. And considering the significant overall lower rate of bids coming in, the operations committee has unanimously approved the use of slate for the roof and recommends the full board approve the administration's request for slate at the middle school. Next topic. The committee also received an update on the tenant lock field project and we unfortunately do not have as good a news here. We do not have access to one working and functioning locker room within the facility at the start of the spring lacrosse season in early March as we had hoped. As with any residential renovation
050project on an old building, we too opened some walls in the Tatlock facilities to find plumbing and beams that were not where or what we had hoped. What we found and the primary cause of our hopes were being dashed were one, the sewer piping and plumbing were much further below grade and expected the severe winter uh weather has inhibited our ability to get at those issues and move forward in a timely way. Secondly, we opened the walls and ceiling. We found the necessary support for our structural plans were lacking. Therefore, we had to work with architects to revise and add additional structural support to achieve our objectives for the HVAC systems that would go on the roof. Whether two here has played a factor because we cannot just put one HVAC unit on the roof.
051We need to use a crane. We need to schedule to put all four on at the same time. And we've been unable to do so. And as a result, we will not get a CO permit anytime soon. We are looking to get this done as quickly as possible, but we are the district had uh developed a temporary locker room plan that we were hoping not to utilize for the temporary restrooms and structure, but we are going to fall back to that plan to start the season. Uh next topic, the VA's office and operations committee finalized the details for the budget proposal which you heard a presentation on and will not go deeper. Uh but the increase proposed currently at 5.17% does still hold two plug figures. The health of insurance premiums up 19% state aid
052declining 5%. More on that to be discussed later. Next, the current and potentially revised budget calendar was discussed in detail and considered potential revisions to the schedule of meetings with the community were considered given the new uncertainty of the state's uh scheduled releases of aid information. Uh so we talked about that. I won't go into the details. We are still kind of pending if you will on the March 5th meeting which is currently uh still on the calendar as the next meeting. Uh next uh in the committee meeting each committee member was invited to ask a limited number of random questions on a select few budget line items to conduct proper spot supervision of the overall budget. The purpose of this brief detailed Q&A session was to one stress test and audit just a few
053line items of the budget on a random basis to understand the superintendent and administration's logic and the strategy of thinking regarding the spending trends and the initiatives. The goal is to ensure the annual budget designed by the superintendent supports and ties closely to the broader initiatives and strategies that have been defined and communicated by the superintendent and his team to the community throughout the year and defined by regular community inputs. It has also ensured that the budget closely correlates to the various initiatives, programs, and facilities that are discussed throughout the year. It keeps the district committing resources and investing in the areas of greatest priority and importance while regularly encouraging the superintendent and his team to prune areas that may become less of a focus or simply reflect a declining impact on the student outcomes
054in our good candidates for redirecting those resources to more fruitful areas. Uh we continue to compliment the committee feels very strongly uh as we stress tested this budget that the superintendent and his team achieved the objectives uh throughout uh the entire process and through this specific stress testing. Uh lastly the committ committee spent significant time reviewing the marketing materials and the communication materials the superintendent was to use to communicate this budget uh and its initiatives. Uh finally the committee recommends the following. Number one, we voted unanimously to approve and recommend that the full board approve the contracts to move forward on all roofing rods projects on the agenda. And number two, the committee voted unanimously to approve and recommend the full board approve the incremental expense of $138,000 to utilize slate rather than synthetic from
055the LCJ SMS approved materials. The next meeting of committee will be held is currently to be held at noon on Wednesday, March 11th. Any uh thing I've left out, please, anyone in the committee, throw it on in uh jump on in or open it up for any questions. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Hanley. Policy committee. >> Uh thank you, Madam President. Policy committee met on Monday, February 9th for 45 minutes. Committee members in attendance, Superintendent Huff, Robert Cardella, and Kathleen Murphy. And board members in attendance um were Mark Anderson. Actually, I saved that back. Mark Anderson was absent. Rick Hanley and myself were in attendance. Policy and regulation 1552, sexual harassment staff mandatory new. This new policy and regulation were developed to update and clarify responsibilities under both title 12 and title 9 as
056they pertain to sexual harassment staff. These updates replace policy and regulation guides 3362 and 4352 by combining their contents into one policy and regulation. There are no substantive changes to our practices as a result of this new policy and regulation. Policy statuto curricular requirements mandatory. This policy revision includes a title change from comprehensive health and physical education to statutory curricular requirements as well as an expansion of requirements beyond just health and PE. Changes are based on the New Jersey student learning standards and need to be in place for QSAC compliance policy and regulation 3362. Sexual harassment mandatory accomplished and sexual harassment on teaching staff members complaint procedure abolished. It is recommended that policy and regulation 3362 be abolished as it is no longer needed based on our recommended policy and regulation 1352. Policy and regulation
0574352 sexual harassment mandatory abolished and sexual harassment of support staff members complaint procedure abolished. It is recommended that policy and regulation 4352 be abolished as it is no longer needed based on our recommended policy and regulation 1552. Policy 511 eligibility of resident non-resident students mandatory um policy 511 is a mandatory policy that requires language changes to better align with codes and create greater consistency. Regulation 7230, gifts, grants, and donations. Internal revisions. Discussion on potential internal revisions to this policy and regulation took place. Committee recommendations. First reading of policy and regulations 1552, 3362, and 4352, and policies 2422, and 511. There are no second readings. And our next meeting will be Wednesday, March 11th at 9:30. Does any board member have questions? Thank you. Thank you, Miss Justice. Communications Committee. >> Thank you, Madam President. The
058Communications Committee met on February 10th for 58 minutes. Committee members in attendance were Mark Gunderson, Eileen Kelly, Superintendent Scott Huff, cabinet member Lorine Dickinson, and myself. Coffee and conversation. The next parent coffee and conversation session is scheduled for Tuesday, March 10th at 7:00 p.m. in the summer high school cafeteria. Evening timing was chosen to better accommodate working parents and guardians. There was a graphic distributed to all PTO presidents for promotion, including in the January newsletter to provide annual advanced notice for scheduling with the aim to increase attendance and engagement. The budget process communication as we saw tonight Superintendent Huff delivered the budget update. The operations committee is actively refining budget details. Recent budgeting and information updates have received positive feedback from parents, the administrative team, and others. Operations Committee members Rick Hanley and myself, met
059with city treasurer Tammy Baldwin and resident Jim Bennett to review budget communication opportunities to bridge school levy details into the municipality's budget narrative, keeping everything seamless for the public. Additional discussions are planned. Curriculum communication in response to parent feedback requesting deeper insights into curriculum beyond classroom highlights. A new curriculum corner section was introduced in the monthly newsletter focusing on specific curriculum topics. In addition, director of curriculum instruction, Miss Heather Rockco, presented on curriculum development standards, budget approval, and state requirements at a recent PTO president meeting that was wellreceived. The committee will continue to actively consider the best methods to emphasize curriculum information resources, including opt out information for parents and guardians. Student well-being resources. In support of our strategic plan goal for student safety and wellness, a survey to capture preferred communication preferences of student
060well-being resources had a strong turnout with 311 responses. The survey was broken down by school level and top topics and capture preferred methods such as in person, day, evening, recorded videos, PTO meetings, etc. The information is being assessed to identify the most effective and efficient methods for awareness. The committee has no recommendations at this time. The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, March 10th at 12 p.m. Are there any questions? >> Thank you, Mr. Um, the negotiations and personnel committee met twice um since the last board meeting. One was February 3rd at 2:30 with Superintendent Huff, Mr. Hanley, Vice President Kelly, and myself. The second was on February 9th at 3:30. Superintendent Huff, Vice President Kelly, Miss Justice acting as alternate and myself um both times to discuss confidential personnel matters. Are there any reports?
061>> Yes. One item to note, uh the SCF sprint for excellence is coming up March 14th. That is the primary fundraising event for SCF. So the tickets are available on the one side. >> Um Miss Seno, could you introduce public comment? >> Absolutely. >> Public comment rules. Anyone wishing to speak shall first seek recognition by the presiding officer. Please come to the microphone and state your name and address in a clear audible tone for the record. Please direct all comments to the board president and not an individual member of the board. Please remember to conduct yourself with decorum and respect when speaking and addressing your board. Unless additional time is granted by the board president, please be respectful and keep your comments to 3 minutes or less. In addition, please note that this portion of
062the meeting is for public comment and not meant to be back and forth. Upon closure of public comment, information that is available to answer questions will be provided. If information is not readily available, the question will be answered by the superintendent or his designate as soon as the information is readily available. Thank you. Beginning with public comment on items on the agenda. >> Good evening, uh, board members and staff. I'm Jim Bennett, BNE TT, 38 Fairview Avenue. Not sure whether this is on the agenda at all, but uh it probably doesn't make much difference. I'd like to address the board on the ways in which operations chair Rick Hanley and uh operations chair tie prom uh are working to make the budget more visible to summit residents. And uh this effort is important because uh
063the school budget, as you know, is over 50% of the property tax bill. And uh yet the school budget meetings typically draw only staff and parents of students in the school system um whose uh bias is to uh spend money in order for the uh for for their children and uh I don't mean in any way to suggest that uh we should not have the best school system possible. So clarifying the budget to residents matters. uh because it avoids surprises and leads to pressure for an elected school board. Summit board meetings are singularly free of grandstanding and posturing that elected school board would bring. And Mr. Haley also recently noted to me that the seven school districts in New Jersey with appointed boards tend to have lower per pupil costs than those with elected boards.
064Now, uh, the city, uh, and I'd like to thank Mr. Hanley and, uh, Mr. Maha for, uh, uh, joining me in the meeting with Miss Baldwin, uh, because the city whose budget is only 20% of the property tax bill does an excellent job of clarifying the budget to summon residents and it sets a model that the school district could uh, very well know. Um, in December, uh, the city holds a capital budget workshop. And I suggest that this is a step that the school district could also, uh, emulate. And in early March, she sends out a four-page easy to follow budget snapshot, which uh, I would also commend to the board of ed uh, education. have a couple of uh two further suggested improvements. Uh and that would be to have a tenative budget ready
065for a meeting such as this uh this time next year uh so that the public will have an opportunity to uh a view with budget even though it's temporary and it's tenative. I think that would make a difference uh in terms of uh getting the information out to the public. In this case, uh the uh board has to get out some bad news and uh it bad news it never gets better the longer you wait. Um and uh the other uh suggestion I would have is to submit a uh capital budget workshop designed along the same formats as the uh city capital uh I'm sorry, the budget snapshot designed along the same lines as the city budget snapshot. So, uh, there you have it. I submit those, uh, uh, suggestions for your consideration. Thank you.
066>> Thank you. >> Any public comments for items not on the agenda? Hi. Uh, my name is, uh, Monica Cer, uh, 35th Street, Summit, New Jersey. Um, I actually wrote in the mail in response to the, uh, jo statement that was released, uh, by the superintendent and Mayor David and the chief of police. Um, I haven't received a response yet, so I would like to read the email here and hopefully get a response. Um, I'm writing as a summit parent in response to the recent joint statement on immigration enforcement. Summit is a wealthy community with resources, influence, and diversity. It is also a community with affordable housing, immigrant families, multi-racial households, and children whose safety cannot be assumed because of the zip code that they live in. Wealth and proximity to power do not protect
067people who are not right, nor do they protect vulnerable community members. Pretending otherwise is part of the harm, especially to our children. I appreciate the intent to re reassure the community. However, reassurance without action is not enough for the moment we are in. This moment calls for leadership that understands power, race, fear, and history and responds accordingly. ICE is not a generic crisis. It is a weaponized system that is currently terrorizing families across our country and especially our state at the moment. And children are absorbing the reality whether adults name it or not. Our kids see everything. They hear everything. What we choose to say and what we avoid saying models for them what courage, empathy, and justice look like. Silence and vague assurances teach compliance, transparency, and clear action. I'm sorry. and clear action
068teach our kids that the adults in power care. Families deserve more than generalities. And so I have a couple of questions that I I'd love a response to at some point. What are the concrete plans if and what are the discussions for plans if I activity when ICE activity occurs near school? How are staff trained to protect students and families, especially those most vulnerable? What happens when a parent or caregiver is detained during the school day? Who are the local legal aid organizers and mutual aid partners? And how are families connected to them? How will this information be shared clearly, proactively, and publicly? Summit has the resources, influence, and moral responsibility to lead. This is an opportunity to model what real advocacy looks like and to help usher in a culture of justice that protects
069all children, not the most insulated. I am asking our leaders to meet this moment with attention, empathy, and accountability. Our children are watching and welcome each other. Thank you. No other public comments being heard. Do I have a motion to close public comments? >> Second. >> Mr. Hley. >> Discussion. Sorry. >> Mr. Hley. >> Yes. >> Vice President Kelly. >> Yes. >> M. >> Yes. >> M. Justice. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gunderson. >> Yes. Mr. Chow, >> yes. >> President Cole, >> yes. Motion carries, >> Miss Cer, in accordance with what we said at the beginning of public comment, you will may have some answers to your questions. Thank you for your comments. >> Next on the agenda, approval of the board minutes. >> Do I have a motion? So move. >> Second. Any discussion
070>> for the role? Mr. Hley, >> yes. >> Vice President Kelly, >> yes. >> Mr. Ma, >> yes. >> Miss Justice, >> yes. >> Mr. Gunderson, >> yes. >> Mr. Chub, >> yes. >> President Cohen, >> yes. >> Motion cars. >> Item 13, curriculum instruction program items A through F. Do I hear a motion? >> Second. Any discussion >> for the role? Miss Justice, >> yes. >> Vice President Kelly, >> yes. >> Mr. Maha, >> yes. >> Mr. Hanley, >> stay. >> Mr. Gunderson, >> yes. >> Mr. Cho, >> yes. >> President Co. >> Yes. >> Motion carry. Item 14 on the agenda, finance items A through JJ. Do I hear a motion? >> Second. Any discussion? So the RO just one question for clarification. Item aa it's architectural services for the generated middle school.
071Just get some background if that's adequate to be investing in our future work or is this something um is that to complete that project or is this ad to investing in our future work? Item a >> this is not related. This is just a facilities matter. We have a generator in the middle school that we're spending lots of money preparing. So we're looking at the anticipated future um necessity to have to replace it. >> Okay. So this is but this is um just to assess if we have to replace it. Is that better? >> Yes. >> Any other questions >> for the role? Mr. Mitcha. >> Yes. >> Miss. >> Yes. >> Mr. Hanley. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gunderson. >> Yes. >> Mr. show. >> Yes. >> Vice President Kelly. >> Yes. >> President Cohen.
072>> Yes. >> Motion's carried. >> Item 15, school board operation. >> Do I hear a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion for the role? Mr. Cho, >> yes. >> Mr. Maja, >> yes. >> Miss Justice, >> yes. >> Mr. Hanley, >> yes. >> Mr. Yes. >> Vice President Kelly. >> Yes. >> President Con? >> Yes. Motion's carried. >> Item 16, personnel A through B. >> Do I have a motion? >> So move. >> Second. >> Any discussion for the role? Mr. Hanley? >> Yes. >> Vice President Kelly? >> Yes. >> Mr. Machan? >> Yes. >> Miss Justice? Yes, >> Mr. Benson. >> Yes, >> Mr. Chow. >> Yes, >> President. >> Yes. >> Item 17, policies and regulations. First reading as noted in the policy committee readout. Do I have a motion?
073>> Second. >> Any discussion >> for the role? Miss Justice? >> Yes. >> Vice President Kelly? Yes, >> Mr. Maja. >> Yes, >> Mr. Haley. >> Yes, >> Mr. Gunderson. >> Yes, >> Mr. Cho. >> Yes, >> President Con. >> Yes. Motion carries. Um, we do have need for an executive session tonight, Miss S. Whereas pursuant to NJSA 10 col4-12B, the board of education may exclude from the public from that portion of a public meeting where the or discussing any matters set forth at NJSA 10 col 4-12B 1- Now therefore be it resolved that in accordance with the provisions of the open public meeting act, the board shall conduct a close session pursuant to the provisions of NJSA 10 col4-12B for the purpose of discussing the following matters. Personnel have a motion. >> Second. >>
074Um any discussions? All in favor? >> Any abstensions? Any opposed? Okay. Close session at um 7:28.