001Good. Okay. You good? Yeah. Sorry. Okay. I'm going to assume they're all good. Everybody good? Yeah. Okay. Good. Good evening everyone. Thank you for joining us. Um, in accordance with the requirements of the Open Public Meetings Act, chapter 231 PL1975 announcement, 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 interests 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 having the date, time, and place thereof posted in the board administrative offices, sent to the clerks of Chattamboroough and Chattam Township, the library
002of the Cadams, the Cadam Courier, the Daily Record, and the TAP online news. Mr. Dquilla is getting the flag. Hold on one second. part of the superintendent's responsibility. That's correct. Sorry. That's okay. We're ready for you when you are here. Here Mr. Ryan here. Mr. Smith, Ms. Weber here, Dr. Zang here, and Mr. Cherelli here. Eight president accounted for. Excellent. Please join us if you're able for the pledge of allegiance. Flag is to my [Music] left. Okay. So, here we are at Dr. Lasusa's last board meeting. Isn't that fun? Um, I'm going to first pass it over to Miss Weber to make some statements and then if anybody else wants to say anything, I'll wrap it up at the end. Okay. Work for you. Thank you. You're welcome. Ann is being very kind. She's basically
003saying Jill's the oldest on the board and therefore I probably have known Mike the longest. Well, I definitely have on this particular board. But, uh, tonight definitely Mike marks the end of an error. I have some notes in front of me. So bear with me a little bit. Um, this is your final meeting before you begin your new role in Princeton. And since joining, Mike joined us in September of ' 01 911 if you recall. Um, and he's left an indelible mark on our entire community. He has been shaping policy, instruction, his leadership, and in culture in ways that will benefit our students for decades to come. Um, just a brief background, Mike began his career as a Spanish teacher in North Philadelphia and he joined Chadam as a Spanish and social studies teacher. He
004rose through the ranks very, very quickly. I recall, first as principal at the high school, then he was the assistant superintendent and then very quickly became superintendent in 2012. And I think I met Mike while he was still principal in fact at the high school. Um, but he has served as a superintendent for the last 13 years. I do recall he when he became principal, Mike, I think you said you wanted to still teach classes a little bit if you could if but he forgot to go to class one time. So that had to end that. I have too many stories, Mike. I won't share all of them because they're just not fit for print. But but Mike has been an extremely forwardthinking and very student centered for his entire time here. whether he was
005in a supervisory position or a teacher, he's he's helped us through a tremendous amount of growth in both directions and a tremendous amount of complexity, which most of us know where that's going to lead. Um, early in his leadership, Mike was little invited. He got rid of midterms and went with more um project-based assessments. So, that, you know, ruffled a few feathers. He was also instrumental in expanding our curriculum um including AP African-American history, public speaking, podcasting, piano course labs. He edited American Sign Language which is near and dear to my heart in our world language program. And he had a real passion and he built out our Holocaust and genocide studies. He's left us with um two fantastic libraries both at the high school and the middle school all on the Holocaust. Um he
006was also instrumental in bringing in the TEDex program which is again tomorrow night. Um so get your tickets for that. Several schools under his leadership received blue ribbon rewards and uh Chattam High School was ranked nationally in the state. But I do have to tell you Mike has said on about a hundred occasions rankings are meaningless. So he doesn't put a lot of stock in in rankings. Um he actually says they're garbage, but I did want to clean it up a little bit. Um he was also a very strong supporter in our visual and performing arts programs. In 2023, our high school chorus chorus team performed at the White House. So I mean that's just one testament to the to the performing arts here. He's also a strong believer in supporting the entire child, the
007whole child, not just one particular aspect. He prioritized mental health, all of our programs, especially during COVID. Um he's advocated for later start times at the high school. He's been trying to get that to happen for for 10 or so years. He expanded our special education services, and he also championed dual language programs, full day kindergarten, and enhanced preschool curriculum. Mike's mission has always been to ensure that every learner's needs are met at the earliest levels, at the earliest years. We also had some challenges during our time together, Mike. Um, most notably certainly COVID. Mike's leadership was steadfast. He ensured that he he led with a nice balance of of health and safety and he implemented uh remote learning and reopened the schools as soon as possible. He knew for a fact we need to
008get our kids back to school as soon as possible. And a lot of people would say this one's doing that and this one's doing this and this school's doing that and he's like I don't care. I'm going to do what's right. We're going to move forward. We're Chadam. That's what we're doing. Everybody else can either follow or not. Up to them. Um he was also an advocate at the state level. He didn't just worry about Chadam or Morris County. He advocated at the state level um for better education. He particularly since 2013, I think I recall is the first time I remember him saying it. He's been talking to Trenton about the crisis of the teacher shortage and what they should be doing. So Mike doesn't just get involved, he leads the challenge and people
009follow him in the in the education world. You've also helped us through countless ballots and referendums. Some failed, some didn't. Um, we had a lot of construction under your under your reign at the middle school, the high school. Really, every building, every single building had some construction under Mike's leadership. Um, we brought on campus security, which has been invaluable. Addition to um, we have full-time par professionals. um improvements to our athletic perform our athletic fields in at both our facilities and also our visual and performing arts programs including this very auditorium that we're sitting in which was is spectacular for those of you that didn't see it before this is a hu this is better than most Broadway plays and before there was some ugly yellow chairs that had like holes in every single seat
010um so Mike was instrumental in all that construction I can go on and on with his accomplishments but I have to I have to point Now remember Mike, I know you didn't do this alone and you had a but he was he hired pretty much all the staff that's that's here. He has he put together an amazing team of educators, amazing team of administrators who actually did the work. So he still gets the credit. Mike's leadership style is grounded in compassion, integrity, and a deep, deep, deep understanding of what truly matters in education. He ignores all of the noise and does what's right all the time. He reminds us every day, sorry, that schools are not just buildings. They're communities. And under his leadership, Chattam School District became a community where students thrive academically, socially,
011and emotionally. There's no crying in baseball. That's from a movie, folks. Thank you, An. Um, okay. So, Mike, you've led us through academic acclaim, structural innovation, enhanced security, cultural witness, and and such dynamic leadership. You've been shaping education in Chadam since 2001. And your influence will be long felt long before you move on. And again, you weren't doing it alone. You had a tremendous support system at home with your wife Jess who allowed you to be here sometimes round the clock, late nights, super early mornings on the phone at 4 in the morning, 3:00 in the morning. So, thank you to your family who I think is here. No, no, not yet. She's not here yet. Okay, I'll tell her later. That she pretty much made Mike the man he is today. Um, so Oh,
012yeah. Yeah, her too. I'll talk to her later. Um, so Mike, on behalf of myself, all of the current board members, and certainly the former B board members, thank you for your integrity, your leadership, your support, and most of all, your friendship. On behalf of the community, thank you for your vision, your values, and your voice. So, we just want to say congratulations on your next chapters. And now, get out of Emily's chair. But truly, Mike, thank you. Oh, yes. This is from the whole board. You don't have to open it now, but this is to commemorate your time here so you don't forget about us. I bet you Princeton's not going to give you a nice little plaque like that. Well, thank you, Miss Weber. That was perfectly said, and I'm glad it was
013you and not me. Anybody else want to mention anything now? Later, you'll have time. Up to you. If not, we can sure. Yeah, I I kind of don't want to mention it now because uh Miss Weber kind of stole everything that I was going to say. Um, but I will say that uh in addition to all the things Miss Weber talked about, I think about what was happening um throughout your time here, you know, we had the central office building, referendums, indoctrination lawsuits, special education lawsuits, nationwide school shootings uh that you help this community calm ourselves through and and push for armed armed uh officers in our building, which was controversial, really controversial. Uh protests, riots, crazy elections, mental health crisis, um all the student assistance council as we added, um the re-evaluation of our
014special education programming under the leadership of Dr. Sortino, the benefits for par professionals starting school before Labor Day, still controversial, but you did it right. um recognition of reconfiguration of the middle school, the Holocaust um libraries etc. All these things were were implemented but they were all implemented without any kind of political bias at all. Right? Given what was going on in the country throughout this period, it would have been really easy to ride one wave or another of some political interest group and and you know run your district according to those ideological values. Uh but you didn't do that and that's really important to remember. um you resisted that temptation and we as a board did as well and and that's that's really important. So and that leadership um quality that you have led
015you through the COVID crisis uh in a way that you know I think that influence that you had over over the way we governed during COVID um people in Trenton should be looking at that uh at the commissioner level in my opinion. So we congratulations on your appointment to Princeton, but we hope to see you in Trenton. Okay, amazing. Well, I just want to say I left it to Jill because I would have cried in the second in the second sentence, but um yeah, you know, I spoke about Mike this weekend. I was at a college reunion and um somebody said to me, "Are you crazy? You're still on the board of ed in that town. Like, your kids are out of school. What are you doing?" I said, "Well, you know what? You never
016worked with Mike Lassusa before." So, he makes it easy for all of us. And I just want to say that the community and most importantly the students are so lucky. You never met anyone who cared more about the kids ever. So Emily, you got big shoes to fill. We know you're going to be amazing. But um yeah, we've been really lucky and that's why we're still here. So thank you. That's why I'm here. Well, and for me because I made you, but So, with that, I say we turn it over to the superintendent's report and anything he wants to say. Thank you, Miss Chikarelli. Um, all of that was totally unnecessary and I didn't expect it. I think you told me that we were going to go out for an adult beverage after the meeting
017and that was the extent of the celebration tonight. So, we lost. Yeah. um didn't anticipate that but uh of course thank you all from the bottom of my heart and I mentioned back in January I think that that uh I was a kid when I started in the district. I think I was 38 when I began as superintendent. And just for the record, I was working at the high school and um we had had a great principal and she retired and then there was another great principal. And the truth was that they looked for a principal to replace that person and they didn't think that there were any good candidates and that's when they turned to me uh the superintendent at the time and Darren Gro and he said we can't you know the candidate
018pool's very very poor. we haven't interviewed anyone we like. Would you consider being co-principles? Uh and then half a dozen years later or so, that was when I was 32, I think. And when I was 38, um Governor Christie had had a whole policy uh suite that forced out a lot of superintendents. And I think Jill, you were on the board. You were the only one here on the board at that time where you called me in and said, "Yeah, we're not sure we can find anyone better. Would you consider being superintendent?" So the truth is I've just tumbled into these positions in with pure luck and I've been fortunate enough to have great people around me uh just like Dr. Donnu and Dr. Sortino and Miss Grant, Mr. Dquilla and the others that came
019before them. Um, and of course we've had just a phenomenal group of individuals willing to serve on the board. And I feel like in particular, um, right before COVID, maybe these last five, six years, we've just had such spectacular boards of education and folks that work together and and just try to move forward together. So, I want to thank every one of you and I feel like that's continued right to this day, even the last couple of weeks where um we've had a a deliberate process where Dr. Sortino is is taking over the reigns and I'm fading out um even doing that I think is purposeful and will lead to success. And it was a bunch of years ago, I think, during a certain um frenzied board meeting uh involving the litigation over indoctrination where
020some of you were saying things like, "Let Mike be Mike. Just let Mike be Mike." I just give you the same advice back. So, I I think a superintendent can only be as good as the board of education will allow the superintendent to be. And it's time to let Emily be Emily and let Emily make her calls and and um do what she thinks is right for the district. And uh the more the board is behind her and functioning as a team and supporting her vision, the better off the district will be in the long run. And I'm sure she's going to I feel like I've I'm leaving this place in a better condition than I found it. and I'm sure she's going to do the same uh regardless of however long she decides to
021or chooses to stay as superintendent. She'll leave it better than it is now. So, thank you all very very much. And now, in terms of the actual agenda, uh as we all know, TEDex is tomorrow night, so please come out. One of the great nights of the year. Graduation is this Friday. We're in the final week of school. We had the eighth grade celebration today, so there are exciting things to celebrate all around us. Um uh after the last meeting I know uh Dr. Sortino and Doc and Mr. Dquilla have have discussed and followed up with the demographer to look and line line up uh a refresh of the demographic report and you do all have copies of the calendars in your hand. If uh under board business you can give the green light for
022these or amend them in some way and just give some direction to Dr. Sortino and I then we can put in motion a survey out to parents this week. So we gather some feedback about which calendars are the preferred ones. And then uh the only real order of of business business here under my report is the annual discipline report that Connor Henderson and Danielle Dunas are on hand to give us. Uh this is a state requirement that we give a a presentation once per year about the disciplinary trends in the district and they're ready to go. So, if you are comfortable heading down to the seats, we can all go down there and listen to Danielle and Connor. Yes. And it's the 2627 calendar. 2526 is already adopted, posted on the website. All right. Good
023evening. I'm Connor Henderson, assistant principal at Chattam High School. Uh I'm going to review some of the data and key trends in discipline at the high school. Uh the the purpose of giving this presentation each year uh it allows us to reflect on some of the topics and areas that you know we want to educate students on uh evaluate procedures within our building and uh you know consider any training that we we may want to implement for the staff in the following school year. Some of the key trends for this year uh certainly a positive uh our HIV incidents and suspensions decreased from last year. Uh student student tardiness to school continues to be the most common infraction. And then cheating incidents and the unauthorized use of AI on assignments has been an area of
024focus for the faculty and students throughout the year and really for the past two years. Some of the key changes and and some of these were implemented last year but uh you know continue to be an area of focus for us is the academic integrity policy and really having students understand the appropriate use of AI within the classroom. Um every teacher reviewed with with each class their academic integrity policy and provided examples of academic integrity violations within their content area. Um, I reviewed our policy and the appropriate use of AI during the fall and winter class meetings. Our students signed at the academic integrity policy in their English class within the the first week of school. U and then our administration and and teachers implemented tools to better monitor stu student work. things like uh
025Google revision history, uh revision history extension securely classroom which allows them to monitor uh what students are doing during the class time and even limiting student writing uh to class time and not allowing students to access documents outside of the class for secure assessments or secure writing assessments. We had improved consistency from the staff with implementation of our cell phone policy. So at the high school, students are required to put their cell phones on our uh wall our wall holder u and the phones remain there throughout the entire class period. This was the second year that we implemented this policy um and had very great followth through from the staff and the students. And then finally, it was our first full year with three security personnel at the high school. We have two class three
026officers and then an additional security guard. Uh and having that security personnel really helped monitor uh monitor the hallways, monitor the bathrooms, and uh we saw in the data that it it really did lead to positive outcomes. These are some sample infractions, some of the more common infractions u and the typical discipline that may be assigned. You can see that things range from a warning that may be a conversation with an administrator to a 45 minute afterchool detention, a Saturday school uh which is a a 4hour session and then we have suspension out of school suspension uh for our seniors. They may lose uh their open campus privileges, their senior privileges uh based on certain infractions. So something like cutting class, whether that's coming to school, uh an hour or more late, unverified, that may
027be a a Saturday school, all the way up to something like an HIV or possession of drug and alcohol that would lead to a suspension. We have two different categories of incident types. The first is a discipline type incident and those are more behavioral. It could be disruptive behavior during the school day, u cutting class or inappropriate cell phone use. Our file type incidents are more procedural. So that would be lateness to class, failure to follow procedure. That may be signing out of the building, maybe signing into study hall, uh or a cheating infraction, which comes with an academic penalty, typically a zero on the assessment. File type incidents. So again, those procedural infractions, we had 458 total infractions. 263 of those were lateness to school. Thankfully, we really don't have an issue with lateness
028to class. Once school begins, our students go from class to class. Our hallways are very busy for four minutes of passing time and then once the bell rings, they clear out very quickly. Um, but really just a matter of getting into good routines. was about 160 stu total students who had at least one lateness to school infraction. So you know about 12 13% of the student population and then failure to follow procedure and the cheating incidents were the u other most common infractions. cheating incidents at 21. That continues to be a downward trend, which it is good to see uh from, you know, uh 40 50 cheating incidents we had in a single school year, you know, just a few years ago. Our discipline type infractions, we had 167 total incidents. You can compare that
029to our total student enrollment of uh 1,25. So that comes out to 0.13 incidents per student. So about one incident for every eight or nine students and that's a uh a downward trend from the previous year. We had 105 students commit at least one infraction. So you know less than 10% of our students. And you know, a big takeaway here is that 75 of those 105 committed only one infraction. So they, you know, they might have made a mistake, but they didn't reaffend. Uh, and we like to think, you know, that they they may have made an impulsive decision or or made a mistake, but they learned from that mistake and and didn't reaffend. We had 18 students with two incidents, nine students with three to four incidents, and three students with five or five
030or more. So for students with three or more incidents, that represents less than 1% of the student population. This next slide just breaks down the percentage of offenders uh into different categories. So uh continue with the the trend of of males committing the uh large majority of the infraction. These are discipline type incidents uh with 92% compared to 8% of the u offenders being female. Looking at the uh breakdown of grades this year was very consistent almost uh exact across all four grade levels. Very consistent. Uh we did feel like we had a a very smooth transition into the high school for our freshman class this year. They they assimilated nicely. Um and the percentage of infractions for our 9th graders was was much less than than previous years. I also think it's important to
031note that if you look back at the 22 23 school year and you see that 32% of the infractions came from 9th graders, well, those same kids are now juniors and they represented the the fewest number of infractions by grade level. So, they are taking the appropriate steps and uh you know maturing in the ways that that we hope. Most of our infractions, you know, are are impulsive or or a sign of immaturity, which is why we typically see uh the ninth graders committing the highest number of infractions year after year. Our total of num uh total number of suspensions decreased. We had nine students uh receive at least one day out of school suspension. And again, that represents fewer than 1% of the student population. our SSDs incidents. So these are uh incidents that
032need to be reported to the NJ DOE um school safety data system. Our number of uh alleged HIV incidents decreased and the number of confirmed HIV incidents significantly decreased especially from two years ago. We had a total of two confirmed HIV incidents. We had one incident uh incident of substance use down from 10 two years ago. Uh we had two incidents of fight or assault. U assault being just a one-way physical inter interaction and in this case it was you know very aggressive pushing or or smacking. Uh and then we had one incident of a verbal threat uh that was later unsubstantiated. our HIV data. Uh we use the principal's determination twice in in those cases. Uh that's we use the principal's checklist when we receive a report that very clearly doesn't meet the threshold
033of an HIV incident. We assume that it when we receive a report that if all of that information were to be true, um would it meet the HIV statute? And in those cases, it it did not. So we used the principal's determination or the principal's checklist. We conducted seven HIV investigations and had two confirmed incidents. Uh we had one student who reaffended uh not within this school year but from previous school years in the district. This is a breakdown of uh where the HIV report uh stemmed from. So we had two parents file reports, we had two students file reports and we had five staff members file reports. Our confirmed incidents uh one of them came from a student report and the other from a staff members report. And finally, these are just some of
034the the proactive measures that we take to uh really just try to build a positive school culture. Um, first, our lead our Lynx peer mentoring program. We just uh identified and selected 46 uh new Lynx leaders that will be juniors and seniors next year that will act as peer mentors to our uh incoming nth graders. and they really do a fantastic job of um talking about really important topics and and the way that we want to treat each other. I I believe it's a really positive program for our school and year after year we get positive feedback from from the ninth graders. Uh continuing our connections club lunch table, our week of respect events, uh the start with hello program which we implemented a few years ago into the nth grade health curriculum. um our
035counselors and myself push into three health lessons and really talk about building community um and especially our our school community. We had fall and winter uh class meetings uh specifically addressing the HIV law and what constitutes HIV, how to make an HIV report. U I believe our our cell phone policy has led to a more positive school culture and decreased the u HIV infractions. our school spirit initiatives. We had for the first time a uh class competition, one collecting data in spirit week participation, but also a competition amongst the classes. Uh that was really fun. We had all sorts of games and activities that the juniors and seniors competed uh against each other in and as well as the freshman and sophomores. Uh and then finally the continued inclusion of uh topics across the curriculum
036that address uh you know diversity and understanding and and creating a positive school culture. So next I will pass it off to Danielle Dunes who will address the middle school and then I will come back up to share the data from the Lafayette school. All right. Thank you. So as Connor said I'm Danielle Dunes. I am one of the assistant principles at Chattam Middle School. So I just want to start off with a couple of key trends and I'll expand upon them as we move forward in the presentation. Uh one of the things that you'll notice is honestly over the past three years we've kind of had some similar number of HIP investigations definitely as last year those have been on a decline. Um over the past couple of years we have sustained a lower
037percentage of confirmed HI infractions. So while the total number of investigations has stayed pretty similar, um we continue to see a lower number of them that actually are confirmed and last year we saw a rise in mutual social conflicts and we've had a similar number of those this year. One thing as I get into those slides uh later is that you will see that we've had a higher number of suspensionable infractions this year. There was definitely a dip last year. Um, and one of the things that we've seen this year is that there's been multiple students involved in like a specific incident or an infraction that has resulted in a higher number. Um, race presented as a motivating factor in multiple confirmed HIVs this year. And one of the things that we really have focused
038on was really um, you know, redesigning a lot of the different experiences that our students have at Chattam Middle School. So, some of the things that we embarked on along with our counselors this year was revising our opening week schedule. Um, doing some extended home rooms and really trying to get our students to, you know, form little communities um with some trusted adults this year. That went really well. We're looking forward to continuing that next year. We also revamped our week of respect and I'll talk about that in a little bit. Um, as well as we were taking a look at our student assemblies, making sure that those were aligning with our student needs and really trying to focus on fostering a sense of belonging and community at Chattam Middle School. Here are some of
039our common infractions um as well as some of the associated disciplinary actions. So, um, those normally range from warnings or conferences with administrators, counselors, and families, as well as detentions and suspensions. The one you see in yellow here, disruptive and inappropriate behavior, is our most common infraction at Chattam Middle School. All right. So, here we're taking a look at our incidents verse our total student enrollment. Um, these are related to, as Connor had mentioned, these are not file type, but these are our discipline type of incidents as well as our SSDs incidents. This number has been relatively consistent over the past three years. As you can see here, taking a look, same thing. uh our students with recorded disciplinary incidents. Um 85.6% of our student population did not commit any disciplinary infractions. Um most students
040who did commit an infraction, which you're seeing here, is a total number of 70 um committed one and did not reaffend. That's uh 8.4% of our student population. And we have and continue to see an increase over the past four years of students committing two offenses. I feel like I skipped a slide. There we go. Okay. So, um, as we take a look here, just as Connor had showed for the high school, these still continue to be low numbers. Um however these 17 students that are three to four or five plus incidents have accounted for 67 of those offenses that you saw on the previous slide. Um so that's about 58% of our total number of incidents um were by these 17 students that were up here. Um and those students that are there with
041the five plus those all happen to be sixth graders this year. And you'll see on some future slides, as Connor had mentioned, you know, our sixth grade group as they start to acclimate to Chattam Middle School, you know, they're a little impulsive. They make a couple of mistakes. So those are some of the things that we're noticing on here. When we take a look at the SSDS incident, so again, as Connor had mentioned, that's our student safety data system that represents any sort of infractions that deal with violence, vandalism, substance, weapons offenses, as well as HIV. As I mentioned prior, we sustained a lower percentage of confirmed HIV incidents at CMS. So, we had a total of nine and we had 12 um HIV alleged this year. So, our numbers are pretty much zero across
042the board for all the other ones. Um, we do have one weapons incident. Um, I just kind of wanted to highlight that this actually a lot of our students were starting to see that they have a lot of 3D printers at home. So, while we do take this very seriously, they we started with some 3D printing at home with some widgets and turned into something else. So, again, none of these even for the other two years was it ever anything that was being used to harm anybody. there were just some widgets that maybe were a little bit pointier that we didn't want any students to be bringing into school. So, just to kind of highlight what that is. All right. And as we get to suspensions, as I mentioned earlier, um we had a dip
043in suspensions last year, which you're seeing it was seven. Um the total number of students did rise this year. However, the total number of incidents did not rise themselves. we just had multiple students engaged in specific incidents this year. Um that could be five or more students. So that's why you're seeing a higher number here. Um a lot of these actually have to do with technology. So as we know our students are engaging more in social media. They're watching a lot of YouTube videos. So a lot of the things that our students kind of were engaging in this year when we were trying to learn a little bit more about what was going on, it was I saw this online. You guys were probably hearing in the news about Tik Tok challenges and things to
044that effect. So those are a lot of the things that we were seeing here at Chattam Middle School. So misuse of technology or you know engaging in any sort of things to that effect. All right. So our numbers here look very similar to what you saw for Chadam High School. Um so most of our offenses um are committed by our male students and as I had mentioned as well um our sixth graders accounted for uh 36.2% of our offenses this year. Um if you do take a look though some of the things that we were noticing is like last year right our seventh grade group they were the ones who were engaging in most of those kinds of things and you're seeing a pretty big dip. We had noticed when they came back this year
045as our eighth graders, they had matured a lot. They were learning a lot. Um, so we're proud of them this year. So our sixth grade and then like I said, seventh and eighth grade look pretty similar and I'm going to move into our file type incident. So this is similar to what Connor had mentioned. Um, so file type for us is primarily excessive lateness to school. We had 19 file type incidents at CMS. We had one late to class situation this year. Um, starting last year and we continue to build upon this. We've been engaging in some interventions for our students who are excessively late to school. Um, as we know, attendance, especially as they transition to high school, is very, very important and timely arrival to school. So, we've started to automate a lot
046of these processes in Genesis, which is similar to what they'll experience when they're at Chattam High School. So, we've been continually sending lenders home via the Genesis parent portal. We have set up um parent conferences with any student who has been excessively tardy to school once they hit a certain level. That's when um they actually are required to come in and meet with us. We have been engaging in both email and phone calls with parents to keep them up to date on what's going on. Um we instituted some counseling groups to help students um who are just having some time management issues. A lot of our students in middle school um especially as they transition from Lafayette are just getting used to an earlier start time um and just developing those good routines when they
047wake up in the morning um in order to get them to school on time. So we've actually seen a lot of success with those group counseling sessions for any students um who are excessively tardy to school. Most of those students once they engage in those counseling sessions actually don't really have any tardies moving forward which we've been really proud of. um if any student kind of continues or if they opt not to participate in the counseling groups central detentions um and as I had mentioned any student who reaches you know a higher level we'll have those parent conferences and we'll create some tailored intervention plans to make sure that our students can be successful so we've seen a lot of success in that area so just to delve a little bit more into the HAB
048data that we mentioned earlier our total number of investigations dropped um by 30% from our 2021 2022 numbers, which I know that you're not seeing on here. However, that has stayed pretty steady over the past three years. So, you're seeing we had 21 investigations in 2022, 2023, 20 last year, um, and back to 21. So, we've been pretty consistent. Um, 42.9% of those HIVs were confirmed and that has been also pretty consistent as well from year to year. So just a breakdown of these HIV reports, most of them actually come from our staff members. Um as well as most of the confirmed HIVs come from our staff members. And we had two from parents this year and one from students. As I had mentioned on that opening slide, um these are some of the key
049identifying characteristics that have, you know, we we've noticed as part of our HIV investigation. So five out of the nine have been focused on race or ethnicity, two on sexual orientation and two on distin other distinguishing characteristics. All right. Also, as Connor had mentioned, um, district regulation allows us in consultation with the principal um, and the ABS's to determine if a report falls within the scope of HID, assuming that all of the facts that have been presented are true. Um, so this year, um, we use the principal's determination checklist 10 times. Um, what that means is we're still handling this under the code of conduct. it just does not hit all of the um prongs of HIV. Um so like I mentioned, those were addressed through the code of conduct. Um and as you're seeing
050here, this is where those reports came from. Um and you know, more often than not, it's due to a a lack of distinguishing characteristic. All right. So I just want to end a little bit um with what we've been doing at Chattam Middle School. So, as I had mentioned, we've been enacting some schoolwide effort efforts that were centered around HIV education. We do a lot of those in the beginning of the year. And one of the things that we did this year that was actually very wellreceived were some counselor designed lessons that we actually did closer to March and April just um to again reinforce um some HIV education with our students. We also engage in some of this with our families at back to school night as well as with our staff at the
051beginning of the year. We also have our school safety team where we discuss a lot of these trends and we come up with different ideas. That's actually where a lot of our um starting the school year off on the right foot and redesigning the opening week of school as well as redesigning our week of respect as well as our assemblies. All of those we did all that work through our school safety team. As we kind of had mentioned, some mandatory remedial measures for students that were involved in HIV offenses that were implemented by our counseling team have been very very successful. We've engaged in um a lot of curricular tie-ins focused on the themes of character education, diversity, and respect primarily through our cycle, health, social studies, and ELA curriculum. We also have some student
052clubs and activities such as our acceptance alliance, our pop culture club. Um, so our acceptance alliance this year have done a lot of fundraising as well as engaging in some different community events and they were working to donate some money and donate some books to our library. Um, you know, focused on areas of diversity which was great. And our pop culture club has been doing a lot of community building. They're calling them movie afternoons so that our students can get together in you know a non-academic um, you know, situation and that's been very wellreceived. We have continued some of the work that we've done last year with our PLC's, our professional learning communities, our staff workg groupoups, both focused on student connections as one major area, as well as teacher wellness. And similar to what
053the high school has been doing, we've been doing a lot of wellness and school spirit initiatives. Today was actually our seventh grade victory day. So, um, our grades all kind of compete throughout the year. We're doing different community service types of activities and things to that effect. Um and then we did do a big schoolwide assembly where we did some minute to win it challenges and they get to compete against even our staff which is a lot of fun. So um they had their week of champions and today was their victory day. It was a little rainy but they enjoyed themselves. All right. And as I also had mentioned we did redesign our week of respect. So um what we did is we organized a various activities and discussions to raise raise awareness about respect,
054diversity, inclusion, the importance of preventing and standing up to bullying. So each day of the week had a different theme. So Monday was random acts of kindness. Tuesday power of connection. Wednesday inclusion and supporting others. Thursday was gratitude and they were writing thank you cards to people who have really made a difference in their lives. Um and then we engaged in some service learning experiences on Friday. Okay. So, it was very wellreceived. We did that throughout all of the core classes. Um, so we're proud of the work that we've been doing there. And lastly, we have been working very closely with our PTO to bring a lot of these initiatives together. Um, we also worked with MAC this year. Um, and they actually PTO and MAC were the ones who were sponsoring all of our
055assemblies. So, we really wanted to make sure that our assemblies really focused on promoting an environment of acceptance, respect, responsibility. So these were the different assemblies that we brought in this year. You know, um talking about proactive steps to curb bullying and cyber bullying. Um leveraging some teachable moments here. As I mentioned, um you know, technology has played a role in some of our HIVs as well as our suspensionable infractions. So really trying to get students to understand personal and legal consequences of things like this. We continue to bring in the hidden children of World War II, sharing a story of hope and courage and bravery with our sixth grade students and experiences at ground zero. Um focused on 911 with our eighth grade students. And lastly, we did bring in um a presenter to
056talk about an all-in mentality with our seventh and eighth grade students. Really getting them to think about some goal setting, work ethic, future planning. So, they had a lot of fun with all that. So, thank you. I'm gonna turn this back over to Connor so he can go through Lafayette's information. All right. Thank you. So on behalf of principal Cheryl Russo, I'm just going to quickly go through some of the trends and data from the Lafayette school. Uh so key trends, racially based reports were down. However, comments of appearance uh had increased for this school year. uh spoke with Miss Russo and she said that she saw an increase this year in selling items on school grounds. Uh makeup, 3D printed toys, candy, gum. Uh so I would expect to see an increased enrollment in
057our entrepreneurship class in about four or five years. Um then other investigations, conflicts at recess, name calling and bus incidents. Some of the typical infractions and actions are listed here. Bothering others, bus disturbance, uh disrespectful to student. You can see in the you fourth and fifth grade, many of the um you know discipline or consequences may be counseling or a conversation with a principal. Um but there are detentions and suspensions for students as well. Here are the total number of incidents, discipline type infractions. There were 76 incidents this year uh with an enrollment of 556. That is about uh one infraction for every seven students. Continuing with the trend from the high school and middle school, most students uh who commit an infraction commit one and and do not reaffend. So there were 36 students
058uh with one infraction, 10 students with two incidents, and then a total of six students with three or more incidents. Again, representing less than 1% of the student population. Percentage of offenders by grade and gender. Uh males committed a majority of the infractions with 80%. Uh, and then the breakdown by grade, 12% of the infractions came from third graders, 55% from fourth graders, and 32% from fifth graders. There were four suspensions this year. Uh, again, that represents less than 1% of the student body. There were 16 HIV allegations and half eight of those incidents were confirmed. These are the SSD incident SSDs incidents that get reported to the state. Zero incidents of substance use and two uh of a fight or assault. The HIV data, the principal's checklist was used twice. As I said, there
059were 16 investigations, eight confirmed incidents, and zero students who reaffended or had previously committed uh an HIV infraction. And those numbers are in line with the the three-year trend. Breakdown of where the HIP reports came from. 12 of the reports came from parents, six from students, and six from staff members. uh and it looks like there was about an equal number of confirmed hibs from each uh reporting group. The HIV identifying characteristics, one of race or ethnicity, one of sexual orientation, and then six were classified as an other distinguishing characteristic in the principal's determination that was used. uh both of them came from parents and the rationale was either a friendship conflict or no distinguishing characteristic provided and some of the proactive members that uh measures that Mrs. Russo is taking at the Lafayette school.
060Uh continuing international day for the week of respect. Uh student showcases on Lafayette live, the star student and caught being kind programs, educating parents and students on the HIP pos uh policy and process, team building activities at the field trip to Jeff Lake, and then finally student created uh PSAs on Lafayette Live, their morning show. Okay, and that wraps up our yearly discipline report. Uh, but we will definitely take any questions from from the board if you have them. I know you do. What is God? [Music] You can no I don't have any questions. No questions. But I mean we these are extremely low numbers extreme. I just want the community I mean you have a you know 25 slides but the important part these are extremely low numbers and what a wonderful world when
061our biggest problem is tardiness. right? Like think about it. Think about other districts. Think about what you're reading the paper. So, I just wanted to put it in perspective. I also wanted to add that we keep throwing hip h around, but that's kind of a legal term. And it really only means that the primary reason that it's a hip, it's a distinguishing character trait. Meaning I can punch Annne in the face and it's not a hip. But if I say I don't like your hair color, all of a sudden that's a hip. So the other things the punching in the facing which is not nice but those are code of conduct issues. Um so one question is is are we pretty steady on the code of conduct issues. Um and the only other question I
062have is on the cheating. I'm just curious um Connor how is that being executed? Is it plagiarism just copying the paper? Is it related related to AI? Is it you know piece of paper in the hand? I'm just curious because I mean right at 21 also a low number. Very very low number. And this is the time, right? This is the time to to make these mistakes. You're paying half price for it. You do that in college where Ann and I went to school. You do that once, you're kicked out. Um, so I'm just curious h in what manner is that being executed. And can we, you know, just make sure that kids know, yeah, okay, you can do it, but you know, the consequences are very severe if you do it outside of this
063environment. Yes. And uh to answer your first question, yes, code of conduct incident. So those are our discipline type infractions. Those were down thankfully. You know, as you said, we do not have students punching each other in the face. Um, and these are really, really low numbers. Um, which is a a reflection of our our student body. U in terms of of AI and cheating incidents. AI was involved in off the top of my head at least half of the cheating incidents this year. In most cases, I find that it's students taking shortcuts. It may not even be there with very few infractions on tests. Um, our teachers do a great job of securing their their tests. Um, but it's the classwork, homework, or maybe long-term assignments where students are capable of doing the work.
064They're just taking the the shortcut. Um, and either copying and pasting or not not putting things into their own words. Um, and that makes up a a majority of the infractions. Our teachers spend a lot of time uh talking with them about appropriate ways to use AI. Um, even Summer was telling me how helpful it can be as a studying tool and how it will create quizzes for you and you can, you know, quiz yourself. Um, so there are plenty of we know benefits to it, but it does present a lot of temptation to students. to just take that shortcut to have it write the few paragraphs for you and and submit it. And that's what we're really focusing on with the students. Okay. Gotcha. And I love when you guys break it down by
065gender. Having three sons, I love when you point out that, you know, 90% of the problems are coming from the boys, right? And still a small number of boys within the school, but yes, year after year, uh, it's about 90%. They're knuckleheads, but learning, right? This is the time to do it. That's absolutely Susan, you had a question. Yeah, I have a question on tardiness. Um, can you give us a little bit of insight if the later start time at the high school has improved it? Is it neutral or I don't know if you have a little data going further back to to let us know. Yes, it it has improved student tardiness. Um, and we really saw the biggest impact to that within the first few years. um our tardiness, most of those infractions
066are fewer than 10 minutes, but you know, I think it's more of just establishing routines and our 820 start time compared to the 740 start time has really helped. If we were to go back and look at student tardiness six, seven years ago, um our totals are lower this year. It just continues to be our most common infraction. Awesome. Thank you. Anybody else? I I think you already reiterated that. I don't want to beat a dead horse, but I I think it's going to be very important in the coming year or two to uh understand the benefits of AI and make sure that we don't turn kids away from it. I mean, in my particular job, I've I've it writes my emails for me. It tells me how to respond. It puts meetings in my
067calendar. it um it's quite frankly it's replaced people on my team already. So um I just want to make sure that we have we keep a very careful balance the next couple years and don't turn kids off from it. No, absolutely. And that's um that's been an ongoing discussion of finding the balance because students do need to learn to read and write on on their own and and craft those um emails or or thoughts and learn to think and that's a huge part of education. But we do uh we don't want them to to be scared to use AI because we know that it has a lot of benefits in in the workplace. Okay, perfect. Thank you both so much. Appreciate your time. Thank you. It is I guess it is truly, you know, I
068appreciate all of the support, guidance, leadership, friendship that he has provided. Um, it has been a pleasure working for him and I've definitely learned a lot from him that I will hopefully able to use to support Emily in the same way or even better than I supported Mike. So, thank you Mike and cheers and all the best and expect the text messages about football, baseball, and basketball. Perfect. Thank you so much. Um, and for our student liaison report, this is Summer, by the way. She's going to be the president of the senior class next year. Just letting you know. We're lucky to have her. But no open campus, right, Summer? Oh, no. Yeah. Hi, brother. Oh, yeah. Oh, sorry. Sorry. Sorry. So, obviously our year is coming to a close this week, so I just
069have some quick end of the year announcements. So for a stop for kind of like more school-based, we had our physics field trip on May 28th. So this is for any students that are in a physics course at Chattam High School. They were invited to go to Six Flags with their a couple of with the any students that chose to go and um given kind of a refresher on the material throughout the year that they learned in physics and kind of like a fun twist on physics itself and kind of enjoying roller coasters along the way as well. So I was there. I had a great time. It was a little rainy, but me and Mr. Henderson were on the same bus. We had a great time together and um yeah, it was a really
070fun time. Uh also we had our lynx retreat on June um 3rd. Mr. Henderson talked about this a little bit. Our links program at Chadam High School is basically where upper classmen like juniors and seniors help to kind of be welcoming and kind of help uh nth graders transition into the high school a little bit better. So this could include kind of uh these Lynx leaders going into their classes once every month, their health and gym classes once every month to kind of um just give them lessons on how to adjust better to the high school. So we had the Lynx retreat on June 3rd where Lynx leaders participated in a day full of bonding to to prepare for the following year. Um unfortunately I was out sick that day so I couldn't attend but
071from what I heard the leaders really enjoyed it and it helped them grow closer together for next year. Um, for sports, so our spring sports are obviously coming to an end with the year, but our boys and girls lacrosse are definitely still going strong. They play both play summit tomorrow in the sectional finals, funny enough. So, um, girls will be playing them at home at Hosfield at 4 p.m. and then boys are away at Summit at 4:30. So, please, whoever you choose to go to, go out and support. Um, and next for art, we had our district art show on May 19th and May 20th at the CMS gym. Um, this was a way for K through2 students to kind of showcase their art and get excited about their art and um, yeah, just have
072uh, get excited about all the different art forms and feel like really proud of themselves. So, it's awesome. Um, there also we held the torch run on Friday, June 6th. So, this was members of various different organizations throughout Chadam running a six mile route to we're raising awareness for Special Olympics New Jersey. Um they passed by nearly every school in the district and it included many CHS students and staff and obviously you know with the end of the year um comes you know all the senior end of the year activities including the senior picnic which h which happened on Thursday June 5th at Noi Pond seniors were invited to enjoy lunch games and fun with their fellow graduates and it's always a very sentimental moment for youth. This was held at Birchwood Manor and from
073what I heard, students definitely stayed a lot later than normal and they enjoyed good music and food. And um lastly, I just want just wanted to say a thank you to Dr. Lassusa. You were so helpful with me like taking on the role as leaison. Um you always kept kept me like very of you know waiting for your um Thank you, Madam President. Um okay, moving on to committee reports for personnel. Miss Weber, you know what? I'm going to pass that to Miss Allen because I was absent and Miss Allen attended in my place. Probably did way better job. May the 20th and we had four major topics of discussion. The first was the staffing around the open position for the supervisor of student support services. And with some uh reclassification, we were able we
074were able to make it to student support services supervisors rather than a director role um through um some changes in restructuring. And so the committee discussed that quite a bit as well as we had just conducted the panel interviews that day for uh the open position for the student support services. So, we will actually be voting on that this evening as a board. Uh, we also discussed the changes, potential changes to the supervisors, supervisor of student health and well-being. that position is opening due to retirement and so discussed potentially restructuring some duties uh reassigning new nursing supervision and then adding uh some supervision of counselors as well and 504 um oversight as well as retaining supervision of health and PE across K through 12 to the student health and well-being supervisor. Um, next we also
075discussed the open position for the supervisor of science. Um, we may be upgrading that classification and broadening the oversight area for that. Um, and making it the director of science and instructional technology. So, um, quite a bit of restructuring there. A lot of time was spent and continues to be a lot of time spent speaking about the CMS uh timeline for reorganization for moving the fifth grade to the middle school to make sure that we are optimizing everything on that end and discussing the um student schedule um student scheduling in Genesis for CMS students. And so I believe a email went out last week uh that we're we had the opportunity to make to streamline and make student scheduling a little bit easier. And then um the last topic of conversation was discontinuation of guest
076Wi-Fi in the district for security reasons which um will also present a bonus in that students will not have connectivity on their cell phone device but obviously are are connected through their uh Chromebooks. The next meeting for the personnel committee will be on September 10th. Thank you. Thank you. Perfect. Thank you so much. Um, curriculum, Miss Ross. Uh, the curriculum committee met last Wednesday, June 4th. Uh, following up on what Sally mentioned, we discussed the CMS schedule, and a letter did go out last week. So, I'll just give you some important highlights there. Uh, the middle school is going to be operating on a 4-day rotation schedule that closely resembles what currently exists. To make things a bit easier, study hall will be offered uh as an option for students in seventh and eighth grade.
077And a study skills course is going to be offered for all students in grades six through eight. Um the letter did go out to the parents last week and so students just in grades six to eight are going to be making um selections from a condensed list of electives and the final schedule will be completed and posted uh this summer. Uh we discussed also the addition of some new uh English language arts texts. Uh we met with the uh supervisor Katie Harms and we went through suggested titles that were going to be added to um an existing list of book club choices for seventh grade in the world in conflict course as well as proposed titles for the journey of heroes unit in ninth grade. Um, all these selections were carefully vetted, are age appropriate,
078and teach to the, uh, New Jersey learning standards for ELA. Um, if you remember at our April meeting, I mentioned legislation that requires us to adopt a universal dyslexia screener for grades K to three. In good news, we received an approval for a focus grant. Um, the grant's going to be able to cover the dyslexia screeners to be administered in the upcoming school year. Um it's early bird by imagine learning will be used for grades K to two and DBLES for third grade and training for these tools will take place on professional development days in August and then again in October. And uh two other items, the district hosted its first multilanguage learner parent night um for grades K to five. We had 16 families attend which was a great turnout for a first event
079and another is going to be planned for students and families in the upper grades for six through 12 sometime in the fall. And lastly, just a little recap on the number of optouts for the sexual health lessons that were taught this year. Um, as you may recall, those uh teachers, I'm sorry, uh the parents will receive an email to review the lessons and if they would like to opt out, they have that choice. and we continue to be successful with a really low average opt out of less than 2% across all the grades. I believe our next meeting is also in September, but I don't have it off the top of my head. Thanks. Any questions? I'm happy to take them. Is he busy? Perfect. Thank you so much. Uh finance and facilities, Mr. Smith
080finance facilities has not met and our next meeting is June 25th. Perfect. And policy and planning, Mr. Ryan. Same thing. So, personnel and curriculum wins. Policy has not met, right? Uh, next meeting tentative June 28th. Okie do. Okay, perfect. Thank you. Um, any liaison reports from anybody? I have a quick one for CES. if you can hear me. Um, the board is the UCF board has approved phase two of the Chattam Middle School library uh library center redesign, bringing the total grants awarded this year to $150,000. Um, if you want if you haven't popped in to see the first phase of the of the redesign, it's pretty impressive. So, we're excited for that. Um, and of course, it's not too late to get your ticket for tomorrow night. So, I hope a lot of the
081board will be going. I'll be there with my family. Um, and don't miss out on the TEDex talk. Thank you. annual grant is the largest by far that CF has ever because it usually runs between 100 and 110 a year. Great. Thanks, Sally. Wow. Wow. That's amazing. It's a big number. That is amazing. Big number. And just from the burrow, um, we have the pleasure of having our liaison, burough liaison here, Justin Strickland, and our mayor, Mayor Dempsey, here for Mike's last meeting. So, I don't have to give a leazison report because they're going to do it. Perfect. Amazing. Um, okay. Great. And now I'd like to uh motion to move the minutes from the May 12th public meeting. Second. Only abstensions need to be Ms. Peek, uh, Mr. Smith, and Dr. Zang. The May
08212 regular session minutes. Miss Ross, yes. Miss Allen, yes. Mr. Delandro, yes. MC. Mr. Ryan, yes. Mr. Smith, same. Miss Weber, yes. Dr. Zang, Miss Cherelli, pass 603. Perfect. Thank you. Um, okay. We're going to move on to our first public commentary section. Um, hearing of the citizens during the public commentary section of the agenda is an opportunity for any member of the public to be heard about issues which are or are not topics scheduled 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 would please just sign in and state your name and where you're from, that would be great. Um, hi everyone. I'm Emily Smith and I'm here on
083behalf of the ISL program again. Um, although I probably don't need to introduce myself at this point. Um, I came to the May meeting. Um, and unfortunately there was no opportunity to rebute. So I'm just going to read what I said um, in May again. Hello. Once again, I'm here tonight to advocate for the ISL program. I apologize for my attire. I had to leave dance class early to be there tonight. That was last month. After standing up here twice, it has become clear that the main threat to this program is sexual harassment. I think it is an unfortunate problem with consequences both for the student and the school. I mentioned having background checks on employees within the facilities, but that was argued against. I agree that the process is extensive, but I don't believe
084athletes should be punished or put at risk because we are unwilling to help. Even if the athlete doesn't get school credit for their sports, it doesn't mean that the sexual harassment will go away for the student. Let's take this opportunity to be a force for good. Let's start by educating the students. We are not formally taught in nth grade health about talking about sexual harassment and advocating ourselves when it comes from adults or authority figures in our lives. We should have a seminar or a video class that teaches students to watch out and advocate for themselves because even if you aren't responsible, it can still happen. Teachers watch a video every year about handling sexual harassment. So why can't the students and athletes? Also, how are we regulating Chadam coaches? How does a student go
085about advocating for themselves when victimized at our school? I recognize this isn't just a safety hazard, though, and you could be sued or charged for something happening not on school grounds, which is regrettable. If that's the thing that you are most worried about, contracts can be drawn to make the parents responsible. Just like internships, you educate, parents should protect, and students can advocate. We should make this happen. Personally, I think we made it work for other programs, so I shall be no exception. Also, I want to formally congratulate Dr. Lassusa on his final board of end meeting. And I know Princeton is so excited to have you. Um Princeton actually does have an option two program that functions much like our ISL did. Um saying quote, "We recognize that some peoples are engaged in athletic
086intercolastic or other programs of physical vigorous physical activity allowing for the achievement of the 2020 New Jersey student learning standards for comprehensive health and physical education. Pupils according to the rules of the state board of education may be excused from physical physical education class for the duration of their school year while still earning the past fail physical education credit on their 2024 2025 option 2 program overview. Um, thank you for your time and I hope Dr. Santino that changes can be made for the 2025 2026 school year. Howdy. Uh Justin Strickland, 44 Minton Avenue. Um we're here tonight uh to uh say a lot of positive words about Dr. Lusa. Um I'm going to start and I'm going to start with a story. Uh I'm the Chattam Burough Council uh liaison to the board of
087ed. I'm a member of the Chattamboroough Council and uh from the very beginning uh Dr. was very welcoming uh was was like like let's talk let's have a good relationship between uh uh the board of ed and the school district and the burrow. And uh he's a runner as everybody knows and he's an ultrar runner and he runs a lot a lot of miles and I'm a runner as well, but I usually keep mine between like 5k to 10k and I like to go fast and um he graciously said he'd run with me and we went running one time and that's where I learned that uh Dr. Lassusa he always overdelivers and I'm sure you guys all know this. He'll say he's going to do something and he always exceeds any expectation he set. And
088uh he did so in that run. Uh he he prepped me and he said, "Hey, I think we'll run maybe about five miles, maybe keep it about eight and a half minutes per mile." And uh we start the run and we keep running. We're going to talk and be social. We're talking and all of a sudden I I noticed that we're not going at a pace of 8 minutes per and 30 seconds per mile. We're at like 7 minutes and 30 seconds per mile. way faster than he had said, but the expectation is that we're still gonna talk. So, I'm having to run a little faster and talk with him. And then at the very end, we didn't run five miles, we ran six and a half miles. And so, um I just I walked
089away from him thinking, man, that is that is a guy who, you know, overdelivers and he just, you know, is awesome. So, um that that's something I'm always going to remember and uh I appreciate you running with me. And so with that, we we have a mayor's commendation. Hi, I'm Carolyn Dempsey. I'm the mayor of the burrow, by the way. Hi. And so we're going to read this together. Uh and it says, uh whereas the burough of Chattam acknowledged the significant contributions made by the superintendent of the school district of the Cadams to our community, state, and nation. And whereas the superintendent of the school district of the Chadams provides educational leadership, financial management, personnel administration, policy implementation and compliance, school and community relations and adviser to the board of education. And whereas a numerous
090whereas based on numerous independent studies, the school district of the Cadams and its schools are consistently ranked among the top in New Jersey. And whereas Dr. Dr. Michael Lassus served the school district of the Cadams for 24 years, positively impacting tens of thousands of students in his roles as a Spanish and social studies teacher, principal, assistant superintendent, and as superintendent for 13 years, always striving to improve the quality of education for our students while leading with compassion and imagination. And whereas Dr. Dr. Michael Lusa has held the position of president for the New Jersey Association of School Administrators, president of the Garden State Coalition of Schools, vice president of the board of education for Morris Union joint commission and president of the Morris County Association of School Administrators and was selected as the 2019 region
091one regional superintendent of the year. And whereas Dr. Michael Asusa developed programs to support me student mental health, expanded special education programs, successfully defended and strengthened history and social studies courses, implemented a Holocaust and genocides course and Chinese and sign language courses. And whereas Dr. Michael Asusa's leadership during the COVID pandemic ensured students had the opportunity to return to the classroom, thereby minimizing the negative impact of the pandemic. And whereas Dr. Dr. Michael Lassuso worked with the Cadam Board of Education to offer free full day kindergarten to all families in Chattamboroough. And whereas Dr. Michael Lassusa com committed was committed to collaboration with the Chattamboroough municipal government has been highly valued and has significantly contributed to numerous community activities and his dedication, vision, and commitment have significantly impacted the school district of the Chadams and
092the community. Now therefore, be it resolved that I, Carolyn Dempsey, mayor of the Burough of Chadam, New Jersey, on behalf of myself and the Chattamboroough Council, hereby give thanks, express gratitude, and celebrate Dr. Michael Lassusa for his dedication to education, outstanding leadership, commitment to students and their families, and the monumental positive impact he has had upon the community of Chadamborough over the past 24 years. And we wish him every success in his new end endeavors. So, thank you so much. Okay. And uh Justin got to speak first, so now I'm going to say a little more. Um that uh I I have had three kids go through the Cadam uh uh the school district of the Chadams, and I feel incredibly grateful that they got to go through school under your leadership. And um and
093kind of following the what you were saying Justin about um Dr. Lusa always overperforming and overd delivering. Um I remember we met because I used to be the the liaison to the to the burough council for uh the school district and we were meeting in January of 2020, late January 2020. And I think we were actually meeting about the uh there was going to be um an assembly for the then attorney general Gerber Gwall and we were meeting about that but then we got to chatting and and Dr. Lassusa said to me he said you know there's this um there's this virus that's in uh it's in Asia and and it's going to come here and we're going to have to close the schools. Like this was in January of 2020. Nobody was talking about
094this impacting the United States in that way. And I thought, "Wow, well, he's really prepared, but okay." And even you were saying that, "Yeah, you're preparing the the teachers to do online schooling." And and then it blew my mind that on March 13th of 2020, that's when the schools closed. And of course, we all thought it was going to be for just a little while. But all your preparation was, you know, I mean, it left me speechless that that you know, you saw what was happening before anybody else. And and another thing that I and so I tell that story all the time. And then another thing that I have admired about you um Dr. Lusa is that uh and this has been mentioned as well, how you have incredible focus and vision, always putting
095the student first and you are able to cut out the noise and all the detractors and uh and and the naysayers and and and you have such a clear vision of what is good for our students, which in the the greater picture is what is good for our society and so I thank you for that and I feel uh humbled and blessed that we have been able to have you in Chadam and as you said you're you're gonna leave Chadam better than you found it and and we look forward to Dr. Sortino uh and her taking over as well and and Princeton I hope they know how lucky they are um soon they're going to find out very soon. Um, so thank you so much for everything you've given us. And yes, we have a
096commemorative copy of this resolution for you. [Applause] Photo op. Oh, you want Mike in the photo? Make sure you get us, Bill. Well, that's tough to follow. Uh, good evening, Bill Heap. Um, Hillside Avenue. Uh, I've got a lot to say, so I've got to move uh pretty quickly. Uh, first TED talk. I will be attending the TED talk tomorrow evening. I've been attending for the last three or four years, and every time I think they can't possibly get better, they do. It's the best entertainment bargain in town, and I would urge everybody to attend. You won't regret it. Uh, next. Did somebody say Fishawak? The fish race is fast approaching uh this coming Saturday, June 14th at the train station. 9:00 a.m. for the family fun run, 9:30 for the more serious fourmile run.
097And this, ladies and gentlemen, is what the fashionforward Chadamite will be featuring in their spring wardrobe this season. Who doesn't want one of these? You can get yours by signing up for the race uh online or showing up on Saturday morning. All proceeds go back into town. And speaking of proceeds, our awards dinner, our 63rd annual distinguished service awards dinner will be held this coming Thursday, June 12th, from 7 to 9 at the Chattam Burough Fire Department uh in uh Firehouse Plaza. Uh this event is open to the public so all are invited and it is the highlight of the Chattam social season and it is where we distribute the loot from uh our Christmas tree sale and our fishawak race. We will be distributing uh close to $50,000 in grants to various civic and
098charitable organizations throughout the Chattams, including $10,000 uh for in scholarships for graduating high school seniors. Our distinguished service award will be presented to, drum roll please, Evan Skinner. Evan uh puts the rest of us to shame. She and her teammates have turned the Chattam Emergency Squad into the envy of Morris County and in fact the envy of the entire state. I hope people realize uh that we have something that nobody else has. Uh we have a free service of the highest standard. A short story to illustrate. I've had two rides in emergency squad vehicles in my life. The first about 20 years ago, I was out for a run trying to beat home a summer thunderstorm and I didn't make it. Lightning, thunder, wind, heavy rain greeted me as I rounded the corner into my
099driveway and got whacked in the head by a falling tree branch. Lots of blood, lots of stitches, but the ride to the hospital was free. About 20 years ago, excuse me, about a dozen years ago, I fell off my bike and I was out cold. I woke up in the Morristown emergency vehicle uh to a young cadet demanding to know who the president of the United States was and I thought it was a trick question. Mind you, I was only two blocks from Morristown Hospital when this occurred. They dropped me off at the emergency room and then dropped a bill in the mail to my insurance company for $1,250. Now, I'm not saying that anybody should get hurt in order to get a free ride, but we do have uh an emergency squad that is
100there for those in need. And Evan has put a lot more into this community than she takes out. Uh it is a volunteer town. She is a volunteer of the highest order and she is one of the reasons why everybody wants to move to Chadam. Last but not least, Dr. Lusa. I think I have been to well almost as many meetings as you have. So I have some perspective on this. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. There were some things we didn't agree on. Guns in schools, district offices, uh full day kindergarten. But so what? I don't agree with my wife on everything, but you have my eternal respect for keeping schools open during the plague. Many peer districts where I have family and friends, Newton, Massachusetts, the Wayne uh Rner district
101in Pennsylvania, Fairfax County in Virginia, they were all out of school for over a year. superintendent, administrators, and parents put their own welfare above the welfare of children. Making that decision in the face of uncertainty to keep schools open is what leadership is all about, and we should all be grateful for that. I wish you and your family well in your new adventure. Uh I hope you've noticed that Princeton's just passed a $90 million bond issue. As we like to say here in Jersey, that's a lot of skarole and enough to keep you in walking around money for a while. Come back and visit now and again and stay well. The residents of Chadam truly appreciate what you've done for us. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Heap. Apparently not. He's gonna wait till he gets
102to the bar. smart. Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna go ahead and close the public comment section for now. If anybody has any responses, Dr. Lassusa needs his mic on. Just very quickly, um, want to say thank you and I appreciate Miss Smith's comments again and her advocacy for uh, students who are logging lots of hours outside of of school. Um there are a lot of places that have different policies than we have. My own kids are varsity athletes in another school district nearby and uh even so still have to go to health and fizzed class every day and and don't have any kind of uh waiver from that. Um, so I just, you know, reiterate some of the points that uh that Miss Weber has shared in recent meetings that for this particular school district
103and what is involved and some of the concerns we have around liability and uh the administration of the program, I'm at least not intending in in my final days to make any change in uh recommendation for next year. Uh I have to say Mr. Heap um two things to your comments. Uh, first you must have had a stellar plastic surgeon because your head looks as good as it ever did in spite of the tree falling on top of it. And uh, I want to thank you for being such a a familiar face over the years and always offering insightful perspective. Uh, sometimes perspective that might have been different from my own, but um, we all appreciate all that you bring to the community in Cadam. And Evan Skinner was the first Cadam High School PTO
104president when I became uh principal back in 2006, uh, if I remember right. And she is an ace and there's no one more deserving of the award um than than she is. So, thank you for recognizing her. And of course, thank you everyone for the other uh very kind words. Yes, you can. Okay, great. Thank you. Uh, thanks Emily for coming out again. I appreciate that. Um, but ouch to the unwillingness to help comment, but it did get my attention and I have very thick skin, so don't worry about it. Um, but I just wanted to point out that our most important concern is not that that you pointed out sexual harassment. In fact, it's like threequarters of the way down my list. The our our most important concern is that it doesn't meet the
105curriculum, right? Private private for-profit programs simply are not designed to meet the state curriculum. and the state curriculum which again I'm not going to go beyond my limited knowledge because we have too many experts here but it goes way beyond the activity and the number of hours. So the biggest concern is meeting the requirement. Secondary to that is of course safe and safety and and all those other things I listed. So I didn't want you to think that we're just hanging our hat on uh you know what it could be unsafe. It doesn't meet the curriculum. That's the primary reason. Um and I don't care what Princeton does. But thank you for coming out and I look forward to seeing you at future board meetings and I'm going to keep my notes. Anybody else? We're
106good. Okay, now moving on to our regular agenda. Um, personnel. Miss Weber. Yes. Thank you. I would like to move action items A1 through A25 on the regular agenda. There's an addition of 26 on the addendum and there are some um updates at for one, two, and three on the addendum. I'll second that. And I just want to turn it over to Dr. Sortino for uh A9 uh which are the which is has to do with the appointment of the two supervisory positions that Miss Allen mentioned before. After a lengthy process led by Dr. Rosenthal, our new assistant superintendent for student support services, Dr. Bridget Vasto and Mrs. Katherine Stagy were chosen as the two new supervisors of student support services. Both of them have many years of experience in both public and clinical settings
107and we're very excited for them to begin in the district. So, if you'd both like to just step up to welcome yourselves, welcome to the district and we look forward to the great work you're going to have ahead of you. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Sertino, Dr. Rosenthal, Dr. Donahghue, and Dr. Lusa. Thank you so much for this wonderful opportunity. I'm very excited to join such a dedicated and passionate team. Um, I look forward to starting in Chattam. Thank you. Good evening. I'm Bridget Basto. I want to thank you for having me here tonight. I am honored and excited to be stepping into the role of supervisor student support services in this amazing community. I look forward to building relationships with staff, students, and families and to continue the excellent work that you've been doing to
108support our students. Thank you for this opportunity. Our meetings aren't usually this long. Sorry. Right. Welcome ladies. We're lucky to have both of you and uh looking forward to working with both of you as well. Peter Pen with that we're going to move. Oh. Uhhuh. Did we vote person? No. We did not. Okay. No. Thought somebody else is going to talk. Agenda items A1 to 25 with the addendum of uh A1, A2, A3, and A26. Miss Ross, yes. Miss Allen, yes. Mr. Delandro, yes. Miss Peek, yes. Mr. Ryan, yes. Mr. Smith, yes. Miss Weber, yes. Dr. Zang, yes. Miss Cherelli, yes. Agenda items pass 90. Awesome. Thank you. Um, for finance and facilities, Mr. Smith, yes. I'd like to move B1 to B20 uh on the regular agenda and B21 on the addendum. Um there's
109a number of donations on there we always like to highlight. Um there's a donation from the Chattam Education Foundation which Miss Ross mentioned uh $58,000 to be used towards phase two of the CMS media center. There's a donation of $95,000 from the Milton Avenue PTO to be used to purchase new playground equipment. Uh, the Chattam High School PTO has donated nearly $20,000 towards the purchase of outdoor benches, library furniture, signage, and staff professional development day. Uh, there's a donation from the CMS acceptance alliance club to be used towards the purchase of books for the media center, a donation from Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter uh for a JV girls lacrosse clock operator and a donation from the Chattam Performing Arts boosters uh towards the purchase of new musical instruments for the district. So, thank you everyone.
110I'll second PTO's and CF and wanted to thank those folks for their hard work this year because those are really big numbers and um a lot of people were involved to raise that kind of money. You know what there's another one too that I think I did not mention which is a donation from Sam Tickor to be used towards trees planted at Cougar Field. So there's another donation. And who applied for the focus grant? What is that? That's for dyslexia. Okay. Agenda items B1 to 20 and agenda item B21. M. Ross. Yes. M. Allen. Yes. Mr. Dellesandro. Yes, Miss Peek. Yes, Mr. Ryan. Yes, Mr. Smith. Yes, Miss Weber. Yes, Dr. Zang. Yes. And Miss Chigarelli. Yes. Agenda items pass 90. Okay. Perfect. For curriculum, Miss Ross. Yes. I'd like to move action items C1
111to C2 on the regular agenda. Second. Agenda items C1 and C2. Miss. Ross. Yes. Miss Allen, yes. Mr. Belandro, yes. Miss Peek, yes. Mr. Ryan, yes. Mr. Smith, yes. Miss Weber, yes. Dr. Zang, yes. And Miss Chickelli, yes. Agenda items pass 90. Perfect. Thank you so much. Um, okay, moving on to board business. So, the only thing I have on board business is the calendars as we know. Um, so I don't know if anybody has any questions for Dr. Lusa or Dr. Sortino or anybody else for that matter before we um distribute this out to the parent community in order to get their feedback. My only question then is on on calendar three and four. Yes. With the um staff coming back for professional development days on the 17th. Um there's two calendars like that.
112Yeah. I kind of proposed ditching one of them because I think it'll dilute some of the feedback for calendars one and two, which I think will be more popular. I mean, you know, one man, one vote, as Rich Connor always says, we can go out with four. I'm just afraid that those two will be not very favorable. What? Three and four, right? Three and four. with the staff coming back um on the 17th. August 17th. August 17th. Students starting on August 24th, probably makes sense to ditch four so that you have one option with a full week off in February. I would agree. Okay, great. And they also get off January 10th, June 10th. June 10th, sorry. They get off much earlier. I mean, that's always a bonus. Yeah, I agree with that. If you
113want to go, if you're in it earlier, right? They're not going to vote for I don't have any skin in the game because I can still go to school here. I'm just saying they they used to, but but I still think the 15th is the earlier is an earlier graduation date than one or two. Um I mean I think I would vote in favor of what Susan says. So we do have one option with a full February break if that's important to some people or not. But yeah, I agree with Susan as well. I sometimes do agree. four options is too many. Yeah. I just don't want to dilute it so much that it becomes meaningless. Right. Right. February. Is everybody okay with Oh, sorry. Oh, yeah. I'm okay with that. I just wanted to
114point out I think we've been through a few years of growing pains with people adjusting their summers to go back to school before Labor Day. And one thing I'm noticing as I drive around town is that most of the camps, there are so many camp opportunities already available this week. And I know that that was a concern of many parents in years past was not having child care early enough in and camps available early enough in June. But it seems like the businesses have figured out that there are students off now as at least as I drive around. So I'm not as worried about kids being off a little earlier in June. Oh, no. I love that. Yeah. Right. That part I love. Yeah. The more instructional time we can get after Memorial Day, the
115better, right? And and close out the shop sooner, right? After Memorial Day, the quality sometimes diminishes a little bit. No offense, the weather's a lot of doing it. Yeah. I don't want to offend our educators. So, should we take out calendar 4 and circulate the first three? Is that the consensus? I I Is everybody okay with that? It was my favorite one, but I know I'm never the smartest guy in the room, so it's okay. I'm all good. Yeah, I'm okay with it. Okay, Dr. Z. Okay. Question. Yeah, I know at the Cadam Middle School PTO meeting, it came up where parents asked if the survey results could be sent out after so that there was a record of of the results. Is that something that we can do? I think we do usually, right?
116Right. Well, we send out I believe the calendar that's chosen, but we don't send out what percentage breakdown it was. I think that's what they were asking. We mentioned it if I understood right right correctly. Yeah, we definitely mentioned it, but maybe it doesn't go out. Yeah, we haven't sent out the results, but when we communicate the the calendar the board adopts uh in July, then we can put a note with it about which what the parents voted for. Okay. And it's going to staff too, correct? We don't circulate them to staff. Okay. See, getting old. Um, okay. So, if everyone's in favor of get rid getting rid of option four, I say we then give you the go ahead to circulate one, two, and three to the parent community. Perfect. All right, then. Anybody
117else have anything else for board business outside of what's going to happen when we leave here? Um, okay. Um, I'm going to open the second opportunity for public commentary. And I know this guy's going to keep his comments brief. Got a few minutes. Hello, Pete. You know who I am. Um, uh, one thing, a couple things actually. Uh, Mike, I want you introduce yourself, sir. Oh, I'm sorry. Uh, Matt Gilfillin, former board member for a decade. Um, first thing I want to do, Mike, set the record straight. I was here for every single vote when we voted you for principal all the way up through being superintendent. Uh, you didn't just roll into this job. You were actually pretty much identified as the golden child pretty early in your career and your destiny in life
118was to always be a superintendent. So, you were um obviously identified pretty early from your incredible talents. Second thing, um just one piece of advice. As you know, I did this for 13 years. I always said to myself I'd be coming back very often and it's been three years since I've been back. Um Mike, your last run in Chattam. Do me a favor. Just run around each of the campuses and just take a stop in front of each one of the entrances and just take a look at it and understand how much you meant to this district, how much you were a part of everything that's changed over the last number of years and take it in because this district sits on your shoulders. You have an incredible legacy that you're leaving here. And then
119I just want to use it one more thing. Um, everybody used it tonight, but the word lucky, right? I was very lucky to have be a part of this for all those years with you. The greatest times we always had were the phone calls that we had on the side. I think everybody on this board was unbelievably lucky in their life to have you a part of it and to learn from you. You know, as much as you sit there on the board of education, don't forget it's all about purely supporting you. And what you gave back to us was 10 times more than I'm sure we ever gave to you. Um, this Chadam is unbelievably lucky to have you. Princeton, we're jealous, but they're lucky to have you as well. So, Mike, I mean,
120I'm glad I'm here for your last one. I was here for your first. And it's an honor to have been a part of your life and been a part of your time here in Chadam. That's it. Then I'm going to go take care of Richie Connors now. We'll see you there. Thank you, Matt. Okay, I'm gonna say we're going to close it there. No one else wants to get up, right? Do you? Patrick. Patrick. Patrick, are you looking to speak? Go for it. Go for it, Patrick. Good evening everyone. A lot of you may know me. I'm Patrick Ryan, a resident of Chadam Burrow. I am a member of the 18 to 21 year old transition program here in Chadam. I want to thank the best superintendent the I could ever ask for, Dr. Lasusa,
121for everything he has done for our amazing school district and he made it even better. Princeton will be lucky to have him. And I want to see this guy over here all the way on the right work in Trenton one day. And I am very excited for Dr. Sortino. She is going to carry those. She is going to carry on all the wonderful things Dr. Lassusa has done. Thank you very much, Dr. Lassusa. I will miss you so much. Well done, Patrick. Thanks, [Applause] Patrick. Well, I think that's the perfect way to wrap up Dr. Lassusa's last meeting. Thank you for your comments, everybody. Thank you for coming out. We have a very brief executive session. Action will be taken. I'm waiting for the cues. Okay, perfect. Thanks everyone.