001All right. >> Uhhuh. Just walked in front row right behind >> dad. >> Maybe with his own dad. Can't imagine anybody else. Are we ready? She's going to be I don't know. I mean, I might get to use the gavl. Ready? Yeah. Okay, good. Good evening everyone. Thank you for coming. In accordance with the requirements of the Open Public Meetings Act, chapter 231 PL1975, I wish to announce that the New Jersey Open Public Meetings Law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon. In accordance with the provisions of this act, the school district of the Cadams Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by
002having the date, time, and place thereof posted in the board administrative offices sent to the clerks of Chattamboroough and Chattam Township, the Library of the Cadams, the Chattam Courier, the Daily Record, and the TAP online news. Mr. Dquilla, >> sure. Ms. Ross >> here. >> Ms. Allen. Mr. Delandro. Miss Peek >> here. >> Mr. Ryan, >> here. >> Mr. Mr. Smith, Miss Weber, Dr. Zang >> here, >> M Sharelli >> here, >> five president accounted for. You have a quorum. We can have our meeting. >> Perfect. Please stand and join us for the uh pledge of allegiance if you're able. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands nation. >> I don't have any further comments at this time. I'm going to pass this
003along to the administrative reports. Dr. Sortino. First, I'm going to start with recognizing all of our phenomenal staff members that are here tonight as the recipients of the Cadam Staff Recognition Award. So, this award honors faculty members who have consistently gone above and beyond in their service to students, colleagues, schools, and the overall community. You all have demonstrated an unwavering commitment to excellence through leadership, innovation, collaboration, and your willingness to contribute far beyond the expectations of the daily responsibilities that you do every single day throughout the entire year. Tonight, we recognize one outstanding staff member from each school as well as the Department of Special Services who exemplifies the very best of what it means to be an educator in the school district of the Cadams. Please join me in congratulating our 2026 Chattam STE
004staff recognition award recipients. So Renee Kolivita is not here tonight, but she's a preschool teacher for the CHIP program. Kathy Gomeber is a special education and ESL teacher at Washington. Adam McGree is the teacher of social studies at CHS. Um Kelly Nidajiger is here as our teacher of health and PE at CMS. Kelly, if you'd like to stand up. Thank you very much. [applause] Chris Nigro is a fourth grade teacher at Lafayette. Thank you very much, Chris Nigro. [applause] >> Shannon Moran is a kindergarten teacher at SPS. Congratulations, Shannon. [applause] And finally from the Department of Special Services, Alyssa Nent. She's a school psychologist at Southern. Congratulations, Alyssa. [applause] We are tremendously fortunate to have all of you in the district. You are part of what makes this district special. So, thank you all so
005much. And principles, thank you so much for coming tonight to present the award. Feel free to leave because I anticipate it will be a long meeting. Um, so thank you. >> Congratulations everyone and thank you for all that you do for the district. [applause] >> Okay. So, I'd like to cong congratulate all of the TEDex participants that that night occurred on June 10th and the presentations were phenomenal. Lucy Wulmer is here tonight as one of the presenters. The students did a phenomenal job and it was our largest crowd since the beginning of TEDex. So, congratulations to everyone that participated in that event and a special thank you to Dr. Mary Lee Cwley as well as Mrs. Develin and Mr. Bazadona. Okay. Um, the kindergarten celebrations, kinds were a huge success throughout the district. So were
006the grade level picnics, the senior picnic, the bell awards at CHS, senior awards at CHS. As all of you know, graduation is on June 16th, tomorrow. Uh for our parent survey, we've had over 600 responses so far and the survey still remains open. So if you have not filled it out, please feel free. We look to analyze that data over the summer. Field days were a tremendous success. The senior internship program had 150 participants throughout the district and local communities where seniors began to trial um some type of career interest that they might pursue in a post-secondary world. Thank you to Mike Gagano for running that. The district art show had thousands of attendees and was a tremendous success as well. And the Lafayette time capsule was um a wonderful event where they went back
007and opened a time capsule that had been buried many years ago. They found a school uniform, coin, flag, and Mrs. Russo did a phenomenal job of showing it to all of the students as a community building event. So, thank you to everyone who participated with that. Um, finally, I'd like to acknowledge the heartbreaking loss that we had this past week in the district. Um, Callum McGuckin passed away and our thoughts remain with the family and all of those who loved and cared for him. I also want to express my sincere gratitude to our counselors, teachers, administrators, support staff, and all the community partners who work tirelessly to help support our student, staff, and families during this incredibly difficult time. Um, I feel very fortunate to work in a community that cares for everyone um, so
008deeply and profoundly where when things like this happen, everyone immediately just tries to drop everything to help. So, our thoughts are with the McGooken family and thank you to everyone who helped in our outreach. Um, finally, we have the discipline report. So, uh, if I can ask the board to go to the proud. Hi, good evening everyone. Thank you for being here. I'm Dr. Blair Rosenthal and I'm the assistant superintendent for student support services. I'm joined by Mr. Henderson, Dr. Dunes, and Mrs. Russo. and we're going to present this evening's discipline report in regards to the data um from the district this year. The purpose of this is to review all the data and look at trends um in order for us to spend time as administrators debriefing and reflecting on the school year to
009make plans in terms of the educations, any changes or adjustments to procedures and any trainings that we think are necessary either within one particular building or across the district. So, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Henderson who's going to start with a report for Chattam High School. >> Good evening. I'm Connor Henderson, assistant principal at Chattam High School. Um, I'll be sharing key trends and data in terms of conduct and discipline at the high school this year. U, the first key trend is that our HIV incidents and suspensions, our most significant infractions remained low. Uh, this of course is a positive thing. I do want to recognize since the high school is going first in this presentation uh that we do get to see students towards their end of the time in the
010district and they've had that time for growth and and maturity. So, you know, this is not just a reflection of the high school, but really a testament to the work done in grades K to 8 u and some of the lessons learned along the way. Okay. And you'll even see u and the data shows that there's a lot of growth that happens between 9th and 10th at 12th grade when our students are leaving the district. U another trend we saw an increase in disruptive behavior whether that's in the classroom in the hallway or during lunch uh particularly with the nth grade students. So that was an area of focus this year. And then finally just in the age of AI something that we continue to look at our documented cheating incidents u continued to decrease.
011I can say that our teachers uh put a tremendous amount of effort to ensure the integrity and the authenticity of the work that the students are completing whether that's using a lockdown browser or monitoring any writing done in class. U and there definitely was a shift to handwritten notes, handwritten assessments uh in the classroom and I think that's been a positive shift. These are just some sample infractions on the left side with a uh the potential discipline uh action that would be assigned. You can see that in high school that ranges from a warning maybe in a meeting within the administration, a parent meeting uh to after school detention, Saturday detention or out of school suspension for uh our most severe infractions. We have two different categories for incident types. So the discipline type incidents
012tend to be more behavioral that may be disruptive or inappropriate behavior. Um not reporting to class or not reporting to class within the first 30 minutes. Uh leaving the campus without permission or inappropriate cell phone use which this year you know continued with students placing their phones in the wall holders as soon as they entered the classroom and not having access to their cell phone during instructional time. And then file type incidents being more procedural, either arriving late to school, uh late to class, not following signout procedures or signing into study hall, uh as well as cheating infractions because those come with an academic a grade penalty um not a typical school consequence. In terms of our file type incidents, lateness to school just continues to be an area of focus, the most common infraction.
013We thankfully do not have any issue with our students arriving to class on time once they're in the building. Our hallways are clear once the bell rings. Um, you know, but we still have students who struggle in the mornings and and getting to school on time. Uh, most of these tardy infractions are within the first 5 to 10 minutes of the school day. Our efforts to address attendance, whether that's chronic absenteeism or excessive tardiness, um, is, you know, parent communication. There are automated letters that get generated in the parent portal. U consequences eventually leading to uh the potential of loss of credit for chronic absenteeism or tardiness in a single course. Um there's a lot of collaboration with the student, the family, administration, and counseling along the way. So these are the the this is
014the four-year trend of our discipline type infractions. You can see the numbers relatively remain the same year-over-year. This year with an enrollment of 1,166 students, we had 209 total incidents. So, um a slight increase over the three-year trend. Still a relatively no low number when you consider the number of incidents per student. of our 209 discipline type incidents as I noted at the beginning uh disruptive or inappropriate behavior was a common infraction and an area of focus this year 62 of those infractions came from the nth grade. So just in talking about maturity the the growth in in development uh we definitely saw that that was an area of improvement for you know the youngest students within the high school and for we had 14 students who were uh repeat offenders all of them were
015in the ninth grade. The approach that we took was really setting the expectations for appropriate behavior in the high school building rapport with those students uh communicating with parents who were overwhelmingly supportive. Um and it was very nice to have that partnership with parents along the way. Uh progressive discipline for each infraction. This year we did implement uh we've had this policy for many years. We did implement the first few steps of the disruptive student policy. So if a student continues to disrupt the learning environment. Uh eventually they could be removed from the course and required to take it at a later date. Thankfully, uh, we did not have to resort to that and and have not during my time as an administrator. Here's a breakdown of percentage of offenders either by gender and then
016by grade. So, just starting with gender, you'll see that uh male students uh commit a large percentage of the infractions, although we had a slight decrease this year. Um, you know, the the overall trend remains the same. And just tying back to maturity, our ninth grade committed 47. So almost half of the infractions were from our ninth graders. When you look at the 11th and 12th graders and the students we would expect to set an example within the building, um, you know, combined, they committed 28% of the infractions. And I'll just note because I think it is interesting to look at the four-year trend. So in 22 23 those ninth graders with 30 32% of the infractions in the school they are now the seniors who are graduating tomorrow who committed a very small percent
017of the infractions. Um and that represents the growth. The 10th the 9th graders in 23 24 at 36% is currently our junior class with 12% of the infraction. So they're making the appropriate uh you know steps and maturity that we would expect and they really have been great leaders within our building. Our discipline type infractions in terms of uh multiple infractions we had 87 students commit one infraction. We had 23 students commit two infractions. 11 students committed between three and four incidents. And then seven students with five or more. So you can see this is a very small number of students. Roughly 90% of our students uh went the entire year without any discipline type infraction. And the students with re multiple infractions I'll just highlight um do receive a lot of support counseling support
018along the way. U in addition to consequences progressive consequences. This year we had 14 suspensions which remains in line with the four-year trend. SSD incidents which are uh school safety incidents that get reported to the state. We had three confirmed HIV incidents, nine alleged investigations or nine allegations that led to investigations. We had one instance of substance use and two instances of a fight or assault. our HIV data, our principles determination, um, which is a checklist that we use when we receive a report. We assume that all of the information in the initial report is true, we compare it against the four prongs. And if uh the incident very clearly doesn't meet the prongs, we will make a determination to not investigate, but to try to work with the student to resolve whatever issue uh
019may exist. And it may still be a code of conduct violation, but not lead to an HIV investigation. We conducted nine HIV investigations with three confirmed HIV incidents. And two of the students who committed HIV incidents um had previously uh committed an HIV infraction in the district. A breakdown of where the HIV reports came from. Five reports were filed by parents that led to two confirmed investigations. Three reports filed by students that led to one confirmation and one report from a staff member uh that did not lead to a confirmed hit. All right. And finally, just these are the steps that we take throughout the year to build a positive school culture. Um, our links peer mentor program, which consists of about 45 juniors and seniors who go through uh an arduous application process. We
020have over a hundred students apply for this program each year and they represent our peer leaders, our peer mentors um who work with the ninth graders. They gave them tours. Actually, our current eighth graders received tours uh just last week. They'll meet with them on the first day of school and then continue to do lessons with them throughout their PE and health classes throughout their entire 9th grade year. And they really serve as uh role models within the building. Uh our connections club lunch table uh which just bring brings together diverse students uh and students of all abilities together during lunch. We have our week of respect events. are start with hello which is a a community building ninth grade health program in which our counselors push into health classes and really talk about building
021community and and building respect for each other. Our play unified and learn unified sports programs and activities have been incredibly successful. Uh we review the HIV law with students in the fall and the spring at the high school level. We feel it's really important for them to understand the law and the expectation. uh continuing with our cell phone policy of removing cell phones within the classroom, building a positive school culture with our school spirit initiatives, and then just uh continuing to uh include you topics of inclusion and um respect for each other in all of our classes across the curriculum. Okay, I will pass it off to Danielle Dunes for the CMS report. All right. Thank you. So, I will follow a similar format. Um, throughout the presentation, I'll be talking about these different key
022trends. Um, one of the things that I know we were discussing or that we were wondering as we were taking a look at this presentation last year is as we were going to be gaining fifth grade at Chattam Middle School, what was our our discipline or our HIV numbers going to take a like going to look like? So, we're happy to say that we have relatively similar number of HIV investigations as we did last year, even though we had an additional um you know, bunch of students in our school this year. Um we also had a lower number of suspensionable infractions this year. Last year there was a rise um and I'll talk a little bit about that in the next couple of slides. Something that I know that we've been talking about as a
023district and that we've been noticing um is that race, origin, and religion um have continued to present as a motivating factor in multiple confirmed HIVs and/or disciplinary incidents. I'll talk about that in a little bit and I know um that uh Dr. Rosenzall will do the same when we're talking about this as a district. Another thing that we've been doing and that we've been focusing on this year and actually we started last year was really taking a look at some of the different initiatives or some of the different things that we offer at CMS. So, um we continued to refine our opening week schedule. We really wanted to try to help our students, especially our fifth and sixth graders who are new to CMS to acclimate to our building. Um, we continue to refine our
024week of respect, and I'll talk about that in a little bit, as well as our assemblies, taking a look at feedback we've received, lessons learned from previous years. Um, and something that we did that was new this year was we added some monthly advisory style lessons as well as our cougar crew u mentoring program. So, that was an opportunity for our eighth grade students to act as mentors for our fifth grade students this year. and we used those monthly advisory style um times in order for us to engage in that. And the whole purpose of the work that we were doing this year was really to try to um a focus on our student needs, but also make sure that we can work on fostering a stronger sense of belonging and community at CMS. So,
025similar to what Mr. Henderson showed, these are some of our common infractions as well as actions at CMS. You will notice I did highlight in yellow that disruptive and inappropriate behavior which was also the highest at CHS tends to be the highest at CMS. So you'll see that in the right column it's showing what some of our typical disciplinary actions um tend to be. They range anywhere from warnings and conferences with administrators or counselors to detentions and suspensions as needed. So again, we did gain another grade. So our enrollment has gone up. Um our total number of incidents um have still kind of stayed the same. If you take a look at it at the total number of incidents per student, but obviously as we gained some more students um we expected that total number
026of incidents to rise. Um, so these incidents are refer referring to the discipline type incidents and the SSDs incidents that Mr. Henderson did a really nice job of explaining. I will talk a little bit about the file type incidents as well in the coming slides. So similar to what CHS is seeing, um, 88% of our student population did not commit any disciplinary infractions. um and students. So, 86 students um had only one incident and did not commit any other incidents. You'll see that we had 20 students that did have two disciplinary um infractions throughout the year. Again, if you're comparing that, if you take a look, that's 1.9% of the total student body. And then similarly if you take a look here these are the total number of students who have had three to four
027incidents which were 15 this year which was on par with last year and uh four students with five or more. Um so the the 19 students that are on here actually accounted for 75 or 39% of our total number of disciplinary incidents. Similar to what we do at CHS, we do the same thing at CMS. those students are getting a lot of support either from administrators, counselors, and we work with families as well to develop some tailored plans to help support these students. Um, also the students who um had five or more incidents happened to be almost all eighth graders with the exception of one. So, if we take a look at the SSDS incidents, um, we did happen to have 16 confirmed HIVs. um two were um alleged were not confirmed. So the total
028number of HIV confirmed is the pretty much the same as it was. It's not showing on here, but in the 2022 to 2023 school year, um no substance use, no fighter assaults, no threat, um and one weapon incident suspension. So this is one thing I did want to highlight that I highlighted in one of the previous slides. So you're going to see that last year um we definitely had a rise in the total number of students with one suspension. Uh one of the reasons for this when I was taking a look at everything is the total number of incidents themselves actually didn't change. It was just the incidents happened to have last year quite a few um students involved in each of the incidents. So if you take a look, we obviously went back down
029to a number that was more similar to the 2023 2024 school year. So, um, eight students at the time of me creating this presentation were suspended. Um, and only one student had, um, been suspended, uh, more than once. For some of the normal reasons for situations like a suspension could be some HIV confirmed, disruptive inappropriate behavior, misuse of school property, uh, bus disturbances, or any sort of combination of the above. I also did want to break this down as well so you can take a look at it by grade as well as by male and female. So, similar to CHS, you're going to see that we did have a little bit of a rise in the total um percentage of females that um were offenders this year in our disciplinary incidents. Um so, a little
030bit of a dip for our male students, but the males tend to be the ones who are engaging in um the disruptive behavior. Uh 16.8% of the offenses this year were from our fifth graders. Um 17.6% sixth grade, 26.4% 7th grade, and 39.2% this year were um from our eighth graders. So I do want to talk a little bit about the file type incidents. So this is very similar to what Mr. Henderson mentioned at CHS. So we had 19 file type incidents. um at C CMS this year. Um this actually is much lower than it has been. Um so 15 um happened to be focused on excessive or lateness to school. Um and so we actually did a major overhaul over the past two years trying to really uh we are the earliest starting building.
031Um, I know when we do our opening presentation to parents and students, so for our rising fifth and our rising sixth graders this year, um, and we talk about the start time, the students are always moaning and groaning. So, we know that there's some work that we need to do in order to help our students get ready for CHS. So, um, we've revamped the letters that we send home. We started automating things on the Genesis parent portal last year. Um, we also do require that if students hit a total number of uh late to school that both the parent has to come in as well as the student and meet with administration and the counselors. We have them engage in counseling groups. Um, and we really work on creating any sort of tailored or intervention
032plans with our students. So, I do think that it's important to note that this went down from 14 students last year that we had issues with uh down to four students. And so I think that it's proof that the work that we've been putting in has really helped to support the students in this area. So this is what I had mentioned earlier. So if we're taking a look at our numbers uh pertaining to HIVs, we had 25 HIV investigations. Um 17 were confirmed at the time that I had created this presentation. We didn't have any students who had reaffended uh throughout the year. So even if you think about the fact that we did add a whole another grade, our numbers are kind of relatively stable um in this area. And if we break this
033down um as well, taking a look at it, we had six reports from parents. Uh we had four from students. We had 15 from staff members. And if we take a look at that um you know 10 of those staff member reports were confirmed, three of those student uh uh reports were confirmed and two of those parent reports were confirmed. As I had mentioned earlier, um if we take a look at these uh identifying characteristics, we had eight of them uh were focused around race or ethnicity. Um so that's 50% of our HIVs. Um three were focused on sexual orientation, four on weight, and two on other distinguishing characteristics. Uh one of the incidents did happen to involve more than one of these identifying characteristics. So race does continue to be a motivating factor um
034in the HIVs at Chadam Middle School. So, um, taking a look at the principal's determination, just as Mr. Henderson had mentioned, what we do is we take a look at any reports that we receive. Um, and there is a report to fill out to see whether or not it, you know, a cursory review hits the different prongs of the HIV law. Um, so we did use it 11 times this year. Um, and the rationale every single time was one of these two different reasons. it was either lack of a s a substantial disruption or a lack of a distinguishing characteristic. It is important to note that just because it might not go the HIV investigation route, these matters are addressed as possible code of conduct violations and disciplinary um consequences are issued. And I just
035want to quickly talk about some of the ways that we have been and will continue to proactively address HIV um at Chattam Middle School. So, we engage in schoolwide efforts centered around HIV education. Um, we have some mandatory remedial measures for students who are involved in HIV offenses. We have a lot of curricular tie-ins. I know our counseling department has started to lead lessons um at their grade level focused on some of these topics including character education, diversity, and respect. We've had some staff workg groupoups, faculty meetings centered around student connections and support as well as teacher wellness. Um continued spirit weeks, our CMS cup and service learning experiences have been ways that we've really been trying to focus on wellness um and school spirit. And as I had mentioned earlier, the extended home room
036experiences that our advisory style lessons and experiences um were something that were new this year that we started implementing monthly. Um so this is just one example of our week of respect. Um every single day of the week was focused on something different. We've really teamed up with our PTO who've been really supportive. The service learning opportunity was fantastic this year. We couldn't have done it without them. um as well as they also helped us with our random acts of kindness on uh for Monday. I had mentioned this earlier so I won't go too deeply into this but here are some of the other topics in the extended home room. Um we did hit uh red ribbon week uh talking about healthy habits, drug prevention. Uh this is that example of that service learning that
037we teamed up with the PTO for uh socks for shelters, meals on wheels and winter warm-up. We engaged in an organizational reset in January because they can always use that. Um we had a wonderful assembly um that I believe we did in March and we did some continuation activities in a debrief. Um and we also leverage some of this time to do some unplugged or technologyfree activities with our students. I also had mentioned the Cougar Crew 8th and fifth grade mentoring program. Um they did a lot of fun activities, meaningful conversations, and our whole goal, and we're definitely going to be continuing this year, uh for next year actually, is a way for our eighth grade students to serve as role models, guide, encourage, and build relationships with our youngest learners in the building. Um
038we also were able to bring in Mikey Fowlin again. He did some great presentations for our students that I know they're still talking about. Um we did two different presentations, one for our seventh and eighth graders and one for our fifth and sixth graders. We continue um you know to focus on the hidden children of World War II uh Holocaust survivor story and experiences at ground zero with our eighth grade students and just some upcoming initiatives. So we want to continue to collaboratively um strengthen student accountability and foster a positive school environment. So, I know that we have um we're bringing together a summer school culture discipline committee with a a group of teachers to work on a new tiered behavioral system that we're going to be launching for the upcoming school year. We're also
039going to be engaging in a school climate assessment and improvement process that's kind of tied in with with some district work. Um trying to work with some experts in the field of school culture and climate to be able to continue to work to strengthen that at CMS. Um, and kind of starting off at some point earlier on in the school year, we will be working with the county prosecutor's office to offer a student bias presentation to our students. >> All right. And I will turn it over to Miss Russo so she can talk about Lafayette. >> Sorry, hold on. Um, good evening everyone. Uh, tonight I will be talking about the DISL report for Lafayette school. So, my name is Cheryl Russo. Um, so this year several behavioral trends emerged emerged across the school setting.
040Um, the buses seemed to be um my most common concerns this year which was um more surprising than normal. There was um brought to my attention a lot of cursing, students jumping seats, other rowdy behaviors such as yelling or throwing objects. Uh we also continued to address inappropriate comments related to appearance including race and body image. Um additional investigations and trends that we saw involved recess conflicts connected to competition and physical play, uh relational aggression such as exclusion and rumors and incidents of bathroom vandalism. Um, while many of these behaviors we realize are developmentally rooted in peer conflict and emotional regulation, they continue to require consistent intervention and student support. Um, at Lafayette, these are sort of most of the infractions and actions that came up. Um most of the consequences were either um timeout
041conversations with parents, conversations with students, um sometimes detentions, working with the counselor. Our goal obviously remains not to only address inappropriate behavior at this young age, but also to teach students the social emotional skills necessary to make better choices moving forward. Um although our enrollment decreased from 556 to 518 students, the reduction in discipline incidents um outpaced the enrollment change. So enrollment declined by approximately 7% um while our discipline incidents decreased by over 42%. Um we did see um not too many situations where we had students repeat most of our um incidents reported was just one student which shows that our interventions and counseling are working. A lot of times I also try to give um my detentions are mostly centered around literature where I tried to have the students make connections to what they
042did uh through literature. We only had um seven students that um were repeat and then two in each category of three or four or more incidents. um similar to CHS and CMS the um demographic breakdown of discipline referrals um trend towards the male students I believe for at Lafayette at least this has to do with a lot of competitive behavior on the playground um which we are continuing to address um additionally this year's data reflected a significant increase in third grade incidents I know I never had third grade but they seemed to um be a significant amount of our discipline um which will help guide our planning and target supports at each grade level. The suspensions remain relatively low and consistent overall. This year, five students were suspended representing only um.9% of the student body.
043Suspensions are reserved for serious infractions involving safety concerns, physical aggressions, or repeated significant misconduct. This year, I added the bus suspens suspension note because I did see a rise in bus suspensions, um, which I do categorize differently than suspensions from school. Oop, sorry. The student safety data, um, as Connor and Danielle said, tracks more serious reportable events. Um this year we had four confirmed HIV cases, 21 were alleged. We had three physical fights that resulted in suspension and two threat related incidents. Um we had no incidents involving substance or weapons when this data was compiled. Um just like I said, Lafayette conducted um 21 HIV investigations with four incidents confirmed. There were no repeat offenders among the students involved in the confirmed HIV cases this year. Our reports filed were 16 reports were filed by
044parents, eight by staff, eight by students and three by the staff. Um the percentage of confirmed HIV cases remain relatively low overall demonstrating the importance of careful investigation and adherence to the state HIV criteria. um the identifying characteristics um involved in the confirmed cases related uh primarily to race and ethnicity. Additional concerns invol involved body image and other distinguishing characteristics. These findings reinforce the importance of continued diversity awareness, empathy building and inclus inclusion initiatives throughout the school community. Several investigations did not meet the legal criteria for HIV following administrative review. Um, examples of the principles determination were reciprocal conflicts during games. Um, inappropriate comments lacking distinguishing characteristics and peer disagreements that were better characterized as conflict rather than harassment, intimidation, or bullying. Um, as Connor and Danielle said, it's important that um We use the
045principal's determination to ensure all reports are thoroughly investigated as well as be aware at this young age of what is appropriately developmental. Um and either these either resulted in second chances, phone calls home or counseling. So to continue to address the school culture at Lafayette, um we're going to continue our week of respect, our international week during week of respect. We're always modifying it a little bit so more kids can be exposed to the parents that come in and celebrate their culture. So we're going to uh make it more of like a museum um style presentation next year. Um this year we had students showcase their um their traditions, their culture on Lafayette Live. So we hope to increase that. The silver sneaker and golden broom program was a success. The kids really looked forward
046to it. That was for my lunch recess. Uh we also implemented hallway awards halfway through the year which the kids were really excited about as well. Um, next year I'm looking to build a bus reward program with criteria for the ride to and from school as well as lineup in the gym. We'll continue to um are building our field trip to Jeff Lake to get every all the kids to know each other. Um, have team building activities and work together with new classmates. Um, students throughout the year created Lafayette live public service announcements. Some were Tuesday tips or Monday mantras. Uh we are also going to reimagine com cougars um to include more cardiovascular movement and mindfulness. And then we'll continue to incorporate more theme days such as career. Um we did a few seal
047days and also um focusing on mental health. So I'm going to finish and just talk oops briefly about the K to2 data. And so for the three uh K to2 buildings um I just wanted to highlight um a low amount of reports were filed in terms of doing the investigation um and a small amount were founded but there is a pattern that we're still seeing in regards to what the distinguishing characteristics are. So we know as a district that's work that we need to do. We're seeing that thread throughout. Uh and in terms of suspensions they are quite low. um students are young um so it's not often something that is used as a consequence um but I did want to present that information just for reference of comparison so there were three suspensions in
048total across all three K to2 buildings this year the HIB grades were also submitted um through the NJ department of ed home room which we're required to do every year and all schools were graded meeting all criteria through that process you do a retroactive look back Um, so that was submitted in the fall regarding the year prior. So again, I think you've heard a common thread through the presentation and I'm so appreciative to the three of them for joining me. There is ongoing conversations within the buildings about patterns and then those patterns across the district at the middle school. Uh, Dr. Dunes referenced that there's going to be the culture and climate initiative with St. Elizabeth's which is a three-year process of collaborating with staff and administration. Um, and then we also have to look
049at our building goals for next year and look at professional development by building where those needs are. There's common threads, but that there's certain unique needs. For example, Miss Russo said the boss at her building that there's unique needs that need to be targeted to make sure that we are supporting all staff and students within those needs. Um, I just wanted to say gracious thank you to Mr. Henderson, Dr. Dunes, and M. Russo for being here late in a long day the night before the last day of school. And that concludes our presentation. So thank you for listening to all our data. Sorry, I'm short. >> Yes. Thank you. >> We're just saying in case anyone has any specific questions that they want to ask any of the four of us. >> Yeah, I have
050a question. Anyone else want to go before me? >> No. >> Uh for Dr. Donis, did I read that correctly that you did the the middle school seems to have that when you look at the incidents by grade level, it seems to have a lower incident uh by grade level and then it escalates. Is that correct? >> Yes. So >> we would expect it to be the opposite. >> Yes. I mean, one of the things High School has it the opposite way. >> Yes. As the students continue to mature, that's one of the things that we're constantly working on with our students. Um I know when I call parents, I always talk about how the fact that middle school, unfortunately, I think we all can kind of remember is a time where um we kind
051of make mistakes and our hope is that we learn from those mistakes. Um we are noticing and are very cognizant of the fact um and I know a lot of us including our teachers were kind of talking about as students kind of kind of move through our building they start to get a little bit um you know they can get a little rowdier. Um but we do work with them and counseling and and try to make sure that we can work on different ways. One of the things you will notice though um is that for the most part the total number of students who are reoffending is very low. That was one of the things. Um, but unfortunately as students kind of work their way through our building, they're going to make some slip ups
052as they go along the way. Sometimes that's as they try to kind of show up to their friends. I know Miss Russo was kind of talking about how a lot of that's happening with recess and stuff. We did start reinstituting recess across all grades, not just in fifth grade. So we tend to see a lot of things being very handsy on the uh on hos field and things to that effect which tends to happen a little bit more in the older grades with our boys. But yes, you are correct with that data. That is some of the stuff that we've been working on and that we're going to be talking about as part of that disciplinary conversation with teachers this year so we can figure out ways to hopefully kind of get that to come
053down and mimic more of what we're seeing at the high school. >> Yeah. May maybe it's adolescence, you know, to eighth grade, right? But 16 16% in fifth grade and 38% in the eighth grade. You would expect that number to be much different. >> Yes, we do. And and this is our first year of having some fifth grade data in our building. Um so when we had looked at it in the previous years, I know that sixth grade used to hover around 30 something percent, but just now that we do have fifth grade, um you know, we're starting to see those numbers stretch a little bit. But yes, you are correct. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah, >> I have a quick Can you hear me? >> A quick question for Dr. Rosenthal. >> Um
054I think the trends uh you did a nice job uh on the last slide to uh highlight uh again that a lot of the hibs that we have been um you know exposed to this year dealing with race and if I think it's important if you can just discuss again um the partnership that you're going to have with St. Elizabeth and maybe I think there was a meeting a first meeting since the last uh curriculum meeting that we had as a as a board if you can give us any more information on what to expect from that uh cooperation over the next three years. >> Yes. So um I'm going to answer your first part of your question and then I'm going to defer to Dr. Donahghue because she actually was in attendance of the
055meeting and I was not. Um I think it's a it's a recognition recognition of the culmination of the patterns that we're seeing. Um, and one of the things that I think was so attractive about that organization was that it's a multi-year involvement because this is something that needs time for education, partnership, training, planning, and coordination um, across the building. So I I know that that was one thing that was um exceptionally um motivating to the district was that this was an ongoing conversation and not something that was just to be taken lightly as a one visit to one presentation and then turn to action. I am going to defer to Dr. Donahghue though to talk about the specifics since she was present >> please. >> So another nice thing about working with St. Elizabeth and
056their initiative is that we are partnered with one person who will be our point person across the three years. Um the CMS staff in particular will meet with this representative during our opening days in August. The goals and objectives for year one are first and foremost to form a school climate um team composed of staff and students. Then we'll be establishing a vision for the school's transformation. We're going to be obtaining the commitment and buyin from all of our stakeholders, making sure that they're aware of what the goals and objectives are as we go through the process. We will, of course, conduct an initial school climate survey so we can gather baseline data. We'll identify the strengths and opportunities that exist within the building to set the basis for our work moving forward. Um, and
057that will be the theme for developing the school improvement plan, which will get us to year two. >> Thanks. I have one more. Sorry for Mr. Henderson. >> Hey. Hey, Conor. >> Uh, seven students with five or more incidents. That seems like a lot. Are these are these kids all in a pack? Are they related incidents? Are they clicks? Do we you don't have to answer if you don't know right now, but if you can look into that and dig into it and make sure we don't have some kind of I Yeah, I I just I want to be thoughtful about my response because it is such a small number of students. I don't want to u single any particular students out. Um, but it all was related to kind of that trend of disruptive
058behavior, very impulsive behavior within our ninth grade, either classroom disruptions, hallway disruptions, or um, lunch disruptions. So, as I mentioned, we did implement the disruptive student policy. That was the first time that we took that measure uh, in my five years as an administrator. But the progressive discipline uh eventually if students become a distraction to the the learning environment uh they're removed from class for a short period of time then eventually leading to them being rem removed from the course. Um so yes the small number of students was a large focus for me and a lot a lot of time spent with them. Thankfully it didn't result in them being removed from uh any particular course. Um but yes to to your point that is a large number of infractions five or more and we
059expect to we expect students teenagers to make mistakes but we expect them to learn from them and and want to make those corrections. >> Yeah. I I just want to you know be aware if if there's any kind of um I'm going to bring up a bad term right. We don't want a transcode mafia emerging in Tatum High School. These infractions were not uh severe like suspendable infractions or HIV infractions. These were all uh most of them infractions that would uh give a student an afterchool detention or a Saturday detention. There's no safety threat. It was more of uh impulsivity and general disruption. >> Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? >> Any other questions? >> Okay. >> Thank you all for your thoughtful presentation and detailed uh information as well. We really appreciate it. >>
060Thank you, >> Dr. Sino. You're complete. Okay. Okay. I'm going to move on to the um business administrator's report. Mr. Dquilla, >> it's that time of year again uh that nom nominating petitions are being accepted by the county office uh for board member elections in November of 2026. The the burrow has the two incumbents uh that will be up for reelection, Miss Joe Weber and Mr. Michael Ryan. The township has one spot which the incumbent is Mr. Bradley Smith on the construction update. I continue to work with the uh architects John Catalo and Dr. Sortino on trying to determine uh projects for the board to consider for the uh potential referendum. That's it. And as of Wednesday, we hope to get started on all of our summer work. >> Okay, perfect. Amazing. Thank you. Um
061I'm going to pass this on to our student liaison, Avery. >> Hi everyone. Um, happy almost end of the school year. Very exciting graduation tomorrow. Um, we wrapped up the end of the year with a few more award ceremonies like NHS and the Bell Awards. So, congrats to all of those award recipients. Um, at the beginning of this week, we had our eighth graders or now known as I guess our rising freshmen um, come in to tour the high school with the Lynx Leaders. So, it's a very exciting time for them and I wish them all a very smooth transition into CHS. We're also coming to an end on our spring sports. So, huge congrats to all those athletes that participated. They had a great season. Definitely some fun games to go out and watch.
062Um, our seniors also had one of their last class events with their senior picnic at Noi. I heard very good things. So, thank you to all those that helped organize that. And then like we said before, our TEDex event was a huge hit this year. Great turnout and huge congrats to all those students. Um, and then lastly, our district art show was I think beginning of last week as well. So, congrats to all of those students that's art was featured. It all looked phenomenal. So, thank you Awesome. Thanks so much, Avery. Um, committee reports for personnel. We have not met since our last meeting, and our next meeting is scheduled for September 9th at this point. [snorts] Curriculum, Miss Ross, >> uh, we met on June 3rd. It was just a little bit more an
063in-depth conversation to discuss the summer curriculum work that's going to be happening specifically for the middle school in Lafayette. And our next meeting is going to be September 9th. Okay. For finance and facilities, Mr. Ryan, >> finance and facilities has not met. Next meeting is uh August 19th. >> Okay. And policy and planning also. >> Same same day. >> Perfect. >> Amazing. Does anybody have any liazison reports? >> I do not. >> Nothing. >> Okay. Good. Um, I'd like to make a motion to move the minutes from the May 11th public session and the June 3rd executive session special meeting. [snorts] >> May Mr. Ryan just needs to I'm sorry, Mr. Ryan needs to abstain on the May minutes. All five can vote on the executive June 3rd minutes. >> Okay. >> Waiting a second.
064I'll second it. >> All right. The May 5th and then June 3rd minutes. Miss Ross for May 3rd. Miss Ross from May 11th. >> Yes. >> Miss Ross. May June 3rd. >> Yes. >> Miss Peek for June for May 11th. >> Yes. >> Miss Peek, June 3rd. >> Yes. >> Mr. Ryan for May 11th. >> For June 3rd. >> Yes. >> Dr. Zang for May 11th. >> Yes. >> Dr. Zang for June 3rd. >> Yes. >> And Miss Chikarelli for May 11th. >> Yes. >> And for June 3rd. >> Yes. >> June May 11th passes 401. June 3rd pass 5. >> Perfect. Thank you. Um Okay. I'm going to open up our first public commentary section. Um notice of public comment. Hearing of the citizens during the public commentary section of the agenda is an
065opportunity for any member of the public to be heard about issues which are or are not topics discussed for the current meeting. To help facilitate an orderly meeting and to permit all to be heard, speakers will be asked to limit their comments to a reasonable length of time. And if you could please sign in on the podium and state your name and um whether you are Chattamboroough or Chattam Township, that would be great. [snorts] >> Hello, I am uh Chadam Burough. Good evening board members, superintendent, and fellow residents. >> Excuse me. You do need to state your name. >> I'm Ellen Hanley. >> I was just saying that I'm Ellen Hanley. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. I was just greeting you first. I lived in Chattam Burough for over 20 years and my children
066are graduates of this district. This is the first time I've ever addressed the board. I'm here tonight about a legal policy matter. It deals with the district policy 5145.7 on gender identity and expression and how the Supreme Court's recent decision affects it. After reviewing it, it's clear the district's current policy directly conflicts with the US Supreme Court's March decision in Marbelli versus Bont. The ruling is straightforward. It states, "Schools cannot withhold information about a student's gender identity or a school transition from parents, and the district cannot facilitate name or pronoun changes without parental consent." The court ruled parents, not the school district, have the primary right to direct their children's upbringing and education. Our policy, as it currently stands, does the opposite. It requires the district to accept a student's asserted gender identity regardless of
067parental consent or involvement. It allows counselors to meet privately with students and decide how much, if at all, to involve parents. It also directs staff to use chosen names and pronouns while keeping birth names confidential. My only concern, our current policy puts the district out of compliance with new federal law. I remember the last major lawsuit over the seventh grade curriculum about a decade ago. It could have been avoided with simple dialogue and if the former superintendent had agreed to meet with the parents, but instead it dragged on for years, costing taxpayers millions and deeply divided our community and the school district voluntarily changed the curriculum anyway. If the district does not amend its current policy, a new lawsuit could be filed which would be even more expensive than the last one. In the Mirabelli
068case alone, the prevailing side was awarded more than $4.5 million in attorneys fees. Once again, Chadam taxpayers could be left footing the bill. This policy isn't about personal views on transgender issues. This is about whether the school district of the Cadams is in compliance with federal law. I respectfully urge the board to immediately review and revise policy 5145.7 to bring into compliance with the Supreme Court's ruling. Doing so now will protect our tax dollars, prevent another costly legal battle, and allow us to keep our focus on educating our children. Thank you. Good evening. I'm Samuel Cely. I am a lifelong resident of Chadam. I live at 23 Edgewood Road. I I don't know if you want to say I'm borrower Township because the line goes right through my property. I am an active amter radio
069operator, general class. my calls KC2OSR and I'm the activities chair chair of New Providence Amateur Radio Club. We I'm hearing you talk about diversity. The amateur radio community is extremely diverse both na within the US and internationally. This afternoon I talked to a friend of mine in Switzerland followed by uh we're both trying to contact someone in Sri Lanka without success. Uh the educational opportunities within amateur radio for students is broad. Uh in STEM, particularly STEM, uh there are all kinds of opportunities. We do uh the American radio relay league offers a teachers institute in wireless communications. The ITE is doing more which is uh making up radio easy. uh that may continue that that's up for grant renewal. I also geography there are all kinds of things that we're a communications multi-purpose tool and
070I would like to see it brought into the schools. Uh I have flyers here for our upcoming field day which will be June 27th and 28th at Governor Livingston High School. And if any of you have questions for me, I'll be happy to talk to you after the meeting. Thank you very much for your time. Paul Cesco of Whippid. Uh I'm a father of two daughters and I would like to talk about the transgender policy 5145.7. Uh I believe that the board ed is an extension of the parents in town, not superior to them. uh all groups or classes of people deserve to have their constitutional rights and privileges to be heard and respected. How fair is it disregard to disregard one's beliefs or religious belief for special privileges of another and to keep secrets
071from parents? Where's all the talk about the bulimic children that have a higher rate of suicide than the transgender community? And the transgender suicide rate is found to go up by 40% after starting hormone treatment and organ removal or altering. This is exactly why parents need to be included in all facets of their children's upbringing. A famous Supreme Court ruling in 1925 called Pierce versus Society of Sisters unanimously decided 9 to0 the child is not the mere creature of the state and established without a doubt ensuring that the parents have the primary right to choose their children's educational and religious upbringing in respect to religious beliefs. Take for instance the town of Lakewood and the Jewish community there. The school district in Lakewood and the Jewish community spends millions of extra dollars to honor their
072religious beliefs by having separate buses for each gender. Millions. So if the Jewish community is willing to spend millions for separate buses for gender reasons, your school district has options that would cost much not wouldn't cost much at all. You can make bathrooms unisex just like restaurants and establishments been doing for a long time. the tiny percent of the school population that could use a nurse's bathroom. Also, I think that would just make some feel special anyway. Um, and they [clears throat] still have plenty of time to socialize with the rest of the community 99.9% of the time. just not in private space of uh I just believe that uh you know they everyone can get along and uh and be friendly with each other but just not in the private space of a bathroom
073with biologically different children. Again, I'm a father of two daughters. How is it fair to take away one's beliefs or religious beliefs for special privileges to another group? Sovereign individual rights and freedoms that are for everyone. Every parent in the school district deserves to have their beliefs honored just like just like religious exemption. When the KDA Board of Education in Hanover Township rescended the transgender policy that is not mandatory, they as a caring and very capable board of ed believed in themselves to be not meant to be able to handle any situation on a case-byase manner. Some of the examples on how that board has shown to be exemplary is after the loss of hearing loss of learning from COVID. They were they were as far as I know the first board of ed to
074begin tutoring reading after a >> finish up please. Your three minutes is up. You need to wrap it up if you could please. >> Okay. Sure. Just a little bit. Thank you. Appreciate it. Um and also uh they were told by the previous board that they couldn't do anything else for the dixia community and they ignored that and found other tools and now they have teachers being trained on how to handle them. I personally come across two families in town that were uh really had problems with that and uh so the board's doing great things. They were able to handle things. They're a great board. you guys sound like you really care about your kids the HIV and bringing people to talk, you know, about about, you know, being, you know, how I'm different and
075stuff like that. That's a good thing. But I just ask you to um to respectfully resend this uh policy and uh if you could talk about it in executive session, I I think it's worth talking about. Um we have to be fair to everybody's rights. Thank you very much. Good evening board members. My name is Wendy Pearson. I'm a lifelong resident of Chattam Burough. I want to begin by acknowledging something we all agree on. Every child deserves dignity, compassion, safety, and support. Policy 5145.7 raises the question, are children best supported when schools include parents or when schools replace parents? Policy 514745.7 repeatedly places school officials in the position of making decisions that I believe belong to parents. The policy states that when a student requests a different name, pronoun, or gender identity, a school counsel
076counselor will meet with the student and assess the parents knowledge of that request. It states that if a student does not want a parent informed, the district will accept the students asserted gender identity regardless of parental consent or involvement. How can a school claim to value parental partnership while implementing a policy that expressly allows major decisions to proceed without parents? How can parents fulfill their legal and moral responsibilities if they are denied information about significant developments in their child's life? The policy requires school personnel to use a student's chosen name and pronouns and update educational records accordingly, even if no legal change has occurred. The policy further states that a student's birth name should be kept confidential and shared only with selected staff after consultation with the student. How can such sensitive information be shared
077with teachers, counselors, administrators, substitute teachers, athletic staff, and other school personnel, but not necessarily with parents? What message does that send to families and children? Does it teach children that schools and parents should work together? Or does it teach children that schools may keep secrets from their families? The recent Supreme Court Mirabella decision recognized that parents have a fundamental right to receive important information regarding their children and teachers should not be compelled to conceal that information. It recognizes that schools should not become barriers between children and parents. Yet, policy 5145.7 asks school staff to walk directly into that role. What happens when a teacher is asked a direct question by a parent? Should that teacher tell the truth or withhold information? Teachers entered into this profession to educate children not to manage secrets between children
078and their parents. How does keeping parents in the dark help a child build trust? How does creating two separate realities, one at school and one at home, improve a child's emotional well-being? You need to finish up, please. Up. >> What happens when parents eventually learn that significant information was withheld? Will trust be strengthened or will trust be broken? Will families be brought together or pushed farther apart? The overwhelming majority of parents would do anything for their children and or people who stay awake at night struggling to help their children. They cannot do any of those things if they are deliberately excluded. A policy that treats parents as potential obstacles instead of essential partners does not strengthen families, it weakens them. A policy that encourages secrecy, does not build trust, it erodess it. >> You need
079to finish up, please. >> Okay, >> I'll be done. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Okay, I'm going to elect to close this section of the p public commentary. There will be another opportunity later in the meeting. Um, in response to the comments this evening, the board of education is required to adhere to state and federal law. The United States Supreme Court decision Mirabelli is not binding on public school districts in New Jersey. It addressed an injunction pertaining to a California school district policy and did not make any substantive findings, but simply indicated whether the plaintiffs in that case had a likelihood of success on certain claims. What is binding on the school district of the Cadams is the New Jersey law against discrimination. Also binding are the Commissioner of Education regulations that require equitable access
080to school facilities. Also binding our New Jersey Department of Education guidance. Should the board choose to disregard or violate state law or commissioner of education guidance, it would be subject to costly litigation, fines, and penalties, and it could also risk the loss of state funding, all of which would reduce resources available to all students within the school district, affecting the resources that could go into student programming and services instead. The board of education will therefore utilize its resources responsibly and comply with the law. It should also be known that all students may request accommodations to facilities should they feel uncomfortable. There are also unisex restrooms in the schools. If at any time a student has questions regarding the facilities that may be accessed or whether accommodations could be made for them, they are encouraged to
081reach out to their teacher, guidance counselor, or principal for that assistance. [snorts] I'd like to move on to our regular agenda and the action items for uh personnel. I'd like to move agenda items A1 to A44 on the regular agenda and A2 6 10 11 34 45 46 47 48 and 49 on the addendum. Second [snorts] Agenda items A1 through 44 and the addendum items of A2 610 1134 and 45249 inclusive Miss Ross >> yes >> Ms. Peek >> yes >> Mr. Ryan >> yes >> Dr. Zang. >> Yes. >> And Miss Chigarelli. >> Yes. >> Items pass 5 Z. >> Um, finance and facilities. Mr. Ryan. >> Uh, yeah. Before moving the items, uh, like acknowledge some donations. Um, we have a $30,000 incredible uh, donation from Chattam High School PTO. >> Wow. >>
082Uh, to be used for sun shade and miscellaneous items, magnet board, display monitors. outdoor tables, etc. Uh, a donation from the Chattam High School football team parents of uh $2,49 for a mobility shoot. I don't know what that is, but sounds nice. Also, um, a donation, another donation from the football team parents, $384.99 for group spot. Uh, let's see. donation of $1,000 from the American Red Cross for the American Red Cross scholarship fund at Chattam High School. We have another donation for $445 from the field hockey parents uh to offset the max field hockey high school initiative fee uh invitational fee, excuse me, and a donation from Fidelity uh the Ruth family charitable fund of $100 for the performing arts program. Having said that, I'd like to move B1 through B20. >> I'll second it.
083>> Agenda items B1 through B20. Miss Ross, >> yes. >> Miss Peek, >> yes. >> Mr. Ryan, >> yes. >> Dr. Zang, >> yes. >> And Miss Cherelli, >> yes. Agenda items pass 5. Go ahead. Before we move to um the next round, I just want to acknowledge um two shifts for supervisors. One for Kathy Steggy who's going to take on the student health and wellness position. She's had a successful first year as a supervisor and we appreciate her taking on that role. The second congratulations is to Mrs. is Alyssa Nan who's here with us tonight who was honored earlier this evening um for her outstanding work as a school psychologist and we're excited for her to move along and to become um the new supervisor of student support services and to grow in her
084career and join us in that capacity. So I wanted to wish her congratulations on her new appointment and a very special board meeting for her tonight for both honors. Okay, sorry. Um, I just wanted to uh say a special thanks to Dr. Rosenthal, Dr. Sortino, um, Miss Latzky for, you know, this opportunity. I also want to give a special thanks to my mentors, um, Marco Frier, the principal of my school district or school, Southern Boulevard School, and then, um, Aaron Yamamoto. They both mentored me through my administrator certification program. So, um, you know, I'm really looking forward to this opportunity. This was my first district that I got my first job in, so I'm excited to grow and continue to contribute to the district that gave me so much in my career. So, thank you.
085>> Congratulations. >> Thank you. [applause] >> Okay. Amazing. Moving on to curriculum, Miss Ross. >> Yes. Um before I move the agenda items, I just want to note on um C4 um we are approving a K to3 Spanish curriculum. Um as you may recall the district underwent a QAC review process which is conducted every three years by the New Jersey Department of Education. Um to close out the review the district needs to approve curriculums for all content areas including elementary Spanish even if that program is not currently being offered in the K2 building. So that's why that is on there. Um, with that, I would uh like to move action items C1 to C6. >> Second. >> I'm sorry. >> No, it's correct. >> 6. >> Yeah, you're good. Okay. Just need a second. >>
086Agenda item C1 through C6. Miss Ross. >> Yes. >> Miss Peek. >> Yes. >> Mr. Ryan. Yes, >> Dr. Zang. >> Yes. >> And Miss Chigelli. >> Yes. >> Agenda items pass 5 Z. >> Perfect. Thank you. Um policy. I see we have nothing. Um board business. Just a reminder of our board of education retreat on June 22nd. Everyone hope to see you there. Um anything else? >> No. Anybody else have anything else? I think I just bring up we we didn't have any any policy um items on the agenda, but we do have all the policy committee has received all the new policies that we're adopting from the Strauss SMA um legal firm. So, we'll be reviewing those including the one that's in question tonight. >> Okay, perfect. Thank you. Um that's it for
087board business. This is now our second chance for public commentary. If anybody else would like to speak, please feel free. And if you would please just sign in again and state your name and where you are from, that would be great. Uh good evening, Bill Heap. Uh Hillside Avenue in the burrow. First thing, I went to the TED talk last Wednesday night and it was astounding. Uh it is the best thing the district offers. It's great entertainment at a bargain price and all the kids were fabulous. Uh second, I two weeks ago I went to my 50th college reunion and I had a blast. Uh and I am just well I'm grateful that I'm still standing to attend one of those things and I envy the kids that are graduating tomorrow evening. Uh they're on
088a new adventure. The possibilities, the potential is endless. Uh for all we know, we could be graduating a future president of the United States. Uh the next George Washington, the next Abe Lincoln, the next Mother Teresa, the next Dickens Toltoy. The possibilities are endless and I wish them well. And then the last thing, I was astonished but not surprised by the outpouring of sympathy for the Mcookans. This is as brutal as it gets. And there are questions to which there are no good answers. And that's why I go to mass on Sunday to think about it. Uh but they deserve all of our sympathy. Thanks. Okay. So I'm going to close the second uh public comment section. We are not going to executive session. Correct. Okay. Perfect. I would like to adjourn the meeting. Thank
089you everyone for coming and everybody get home safe, please.