001I'd like to call the meeting to order the files. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. In accordance with the provisions of the open public meetings act, public notice of this meeting has been sent to board members, all district schools, the Herald News, the suburban trends, the record, the messenger, Westford town hall, the county superintendent's office, board attorney, cable vision of Warwick and Westford TV77 and posted in the administration building. Copies of the board meeting calendar resolution were provided to all local media, town hall, township, library, and all district schools. Roll call, please. Mr. Schultz, >> Mr. >> Here, >> Mr. Jurgensson. Mr. Mark >> here. >> Mr. >> Here, >> Mr. S >> here. >>
002Mr. Lippy >> here. >> Mr. Romeo, >> Mr. Van >> here, >> Mrs. L >> here. So the purpose of this meeting is to appoint a superintendent of schools effective July 1st, 2024. So I'm going to take a moment to just uh say a few words. So first off, we would like to apologize to the community for the delay and release in the agenda. We had the intention of doing a full transparent release of who the candidate is once we received final approval from the county. This took a little longer than we expected. We received the approval today. A lot of time and effort went into the task of finding our next superintendent. We would like to thank Mrs. Kathleen Helawa of Educational Consultants for all that you did to get us to this point.
003Your expertise and professional professionalism were evident throughout this process. I would also like to thank Mr. Schultz and my fellow board members who were part of the superintendent search committee for all the days, nights, and months that you committed to this very important process. Finally, thank you to our community for your feedback and completion of the input surveys. They gave us important data to draft a strong candidate profile to try and guide us in finding the best candidate for the district. Because of the large number of applications we received, 29 in total, we were able to narrow the pool to nine very strong candidates, all of whom showed exemplary qualities. Dr. Brian Kitchenen throughout the three interviews stood out and impressed all of the board members with his student focus, his achievements in building teacher
004and administrator capacity, his financial acuity, his commitment to the community, and his ability to build strong relationships. He comes to us with almost 16 years of experience, almost 10 as a health and physical education teacher in a regional school district, four as a middle school principal, and the past two as a superintendent. His doctoral dissertation was a correlational study between self-esteem and academic achievement. We are delighted to have on our agenda for approval tonight a dynamic, innovative, and visionary leader So, now we're going to go on to public comments. All speakers will have five minutes to speak until a period of 30 minutes transpires. Before speaking, please state your name, group affiliation, and address for the record. Members of the public who have requested to speak prior to the meeting will be recognized by the
005chair first. After speaking, all speakers are asked to sign the register provided and give their full name, group affiliation, and their address. All statements shall be directed to the presiding officer. No participant may address any question board members individually. Mr. Schultz, has anyone um as Oh, I'm sorry. All speakers I didn't finish it. All speakers are expected to have read the statement within the agenda regarding the regulations concerning public comments. Members of the public are reminded that they are legally responsible and liable for their comments. Anyone signed up to speak, Mr. Schultz? Is there anyone who would like to speak? Okay. Mayor Dale, ladies and gentlemen, members of the board of education, guests, teachers, students, on the behalf of the entire township's governing body, it is my honor and privilege to welcome our new superintendent,
006Brian, to the district. Excuse me. I'd like to take a moment to express my gratitude uh to the dedicated members of the board of education for their relentless effort and commitment throughout this rigorous process and search for the proper candidate to fill the vital role of a superintendent. Your hard work and dedication have not gone unnoticed and I commend each and every one of you for your unwavering commitment to our district. As we welcome our new superintendent, uh it is crucial that we continue to work together as a unified team towards a common goal. Uh the goal of success and well-being of our students. The role of the superintendent is pivotal in shaping the future of our school district and is an imperative that we support um him with all of our being and collaborate
007with our new leader to ensure that our schools thrive and excel. I am confident with you at the helm and the dedication and passion of our teachers, staff, parents, and community members, we will continue to build upon a strong foundation of excellence. Let us embrace the new chapter with optimism, enthusiasm, and a shared commitment to working together towards a brighter future. Thank you again. >> Thank you, Mandal. >> Anyone else wishing to speak? Move to close public comments. >> All those in favor? >> Any opposed? >> Uh, can I have a motion to adopt the agenda as presented? >> Move to adopt the agenda as presented. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> Any opposed? Uh, Mrs. Rano, personnel student affairs. >> Um, it is my pleasure to move number one under personnel student
008affairs. Be it resolved, the West Milford Township Board of Education appoints Dr. Brian Kitchenen to the position of superintendent of West Milford Township Public Schools effective July 1st, 2024 with the annual salary of $25,000. >> Thank you. >> Uh, any discussion? Seeing none, roll call, please. Mr. Schultz, Mr. >> Van, I Mr. Sidwood, >> yes. Mr. Rano, >> yes. Mr. Libby, >> yes. >> Mrs. Dwire, >> yes. >> Mr. Mark, >> I absolutely >> Yes. >> motion two. >> I I would like to move number two under personnel student affairs. Be it resolved to the West Milford Township Board of Education approves a contract with Dr. Brian Kitchenen, superintendent of West Milford Township Public Schools, effective July 1st, 2024 through June 30th, 2029. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Seeing none, roll call, please. Mr. Schultz,
009>> Mr. Van, >> I >> Mr. Sideways, >> yes. >> Mr. Conor, >> yes. >> Mr. Ly, >> yes. >> Mr. W. >> Yes. >> Mr. Mark, >> I miss L. Yes. All right. >> Dr. Kitchen, would you like to say a few words? >> Okay. >> I just want to introduce myself. Uh, as you've heard by now, my name is Brian Kitchen. Um, and a lot of you were kind enough to share some of my educational background, but I would like to share with some of you who I am as a leader. Um so I'll begin with my relationship with the board of education. Obviously through our process we had a lot of time to speak together and go really in depth on um what West Milford is all about and about what I
010who I am as a leader. I really look forward to working with all of you. I think it's really important that our relationship is collaborative and that begins with communication from my side to make sure that you understand what's going on in the district because I'm the bridge between you and the schools. Uh so I'm really looking forward to that. Um, as far as the leader that I am with administration and staff, I really do think it's important that uh I recognize that my role is not to step in here and and know everything. My job is to recognize the strengths, the collective strengths of of the community and of the staff as a whole. And you know, I I I always look at it as though the staff here in this district has centuries
011of collective experience and tapping into that is really important for the success of a district. So for me recognizing that any challenge that any staff member or administrator in this district has faced, they've got a colleague who's faced that same challenge in the past met with success or failure, but undoubtedly learned from that challenge and finding ways to unlock that, finding ways to uh help each other learn and grow. Um, and in many cases as as a school leader getting out of the way and allowing the people who have the expertise to do what they do best and and really drive this district forward. I think that's really important. um again on on the on the administrative side and the teacher side. As far as who I am to the community, I think it's really
012important that people recognize that um you know we are partners the the community, the families and the district in in raising uh these these young men and women and making them productive members of society. Not a single person in this community cares more about the success of our schools than our parents. So to me, it's really important that uh when when we're in a situation where our parents are sort of placing some blind faith in our district to uh help their child be successful, you put your kid on the bus in the morning and you trust that we're doing what we need need to to educate them. It's our job to make sure that we give you comfort and that trust by making sure that we find opportunities to peel back the curve a little
013bit to show you all the wonderful things that we're doing um and demonstrate some success in educating your children. And then last but not least, my my view on on the students of this district. That's the reason that we're all here. Um students is the most important part of a district. And one of my favorite quotes is uh prepare the child for the path, not the path for the child. And I really think that that holds true in education. I think it's very important that we recognize that we cannot possibly know all the challenges these students are going to face in their lifetime. Uh but if we arm them with the tools to take those challenges on, uh then they can meet any challenge with success. And that goes beyond just reading, writing, math, science,
014it's it's everything. It's helping them understand how to uh interact socially with one another. It's helping them understand how to problem solve. Um and that's all part of the education that West Milford should be striving to uh to put forward for our students. and it's it's our job as a board, as staff, um, as administration to make sure we're carrying that out. So, keeping the focus on the students is really important. Uh, I can't wait to be a part of this district. I I I really grew very excited about the prospect of of joining all of you throughout the interview process cuz the more that we spoke, the more I realized that that this was was really something I I wanted to be a part of and I felt was a really great fit for
015my side of things as well. So, um, I genuinely appreciate that that you, uh, share that belief and that faith in me to be your your next school leader, and I'm looking forward to doing it. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. [Applause] Okay, now on to the um second public comment. So, all speakers will have 5 minutes to speak until a period of 30 minutes transpires. Before speaking, please state your name, group affiliation, and address for the record. Members of the public were requested to speak prior to the meeting will be recognized by the chair first. After speaking, all speakers are asked to sign the register before and give their full name, group affili affiliation, and their address. All statements shall be directed to the presiding officer. No participant may address or question board members
016individually. All speakers are expected to have read the statement within the agenda regarding the regulations concerning public comments. Members of the public are reminded that they are legally responsible and liable for their comments. Anyone signed up to speak? Mr. Schultz, is there anyone that would like to speak? Okay. Miss Hawa. Um, uh, Kathleen Hawa. I live at 79 Ryman Road in Warren Township and I am uh the owner of Kathleen Helawa Educational Consultants LLC. Uh the firm that helped guide the board through the search process and I am very thrilled to be here this evening. It's such an important night in the district's history and I congratulate the board. I congratulate Dr. Kiten. Um, and I want to assure your community that this board did excellent work. We did everything right. Um, it was my
017joy and pleasure to work with you. Um, I want to assure your community that although everything took place properly in executive session, it wasn't a public session thing, but this board listened. The non-conlicted members who were able to participate, listen to their stakeholders, listen very closely to the candidates, listened very closely to each other, had wonderful, rich, well-informed and very candid discussions. They did their work and they did it beautifully. And I am so proud of that good work and I am sure that it's going to yield wonderful results for your students. So kudos to you, Brian. Best of luck. I look forward to hearing about all of the wonderful things you do here. And I thank Dr. Fernari and Mr. Winston and also Bill Schultz for all of their help in getting all the
018practicalities taken care of in a very seamless way. And thank you for the opportunity to address you. >> Thank you so much, Miss Hawa. Anyone else wishing to speak? >> Move to close public comments. Second. >> All those in favor? >> Any opposed? Uh, so at this time I would like to open it up to the board members if you would like to say anything. Um, you have anything to say. I guess we don't have really, you know, an opportunity. So, >> well, I do. That's only because I was going to open my mouth and try to shut me up. But anyway, um, >> hey, Mrs. Dwire, >> you know, we we interviewed many wonderful candidates and, um, I was just so impressed by Dr. kitchen. His educational um motivation, his um commitment, like his
019willing, he didn't he didn't know us, but he was so committed to us as soon as he he met us. And I have a lot of respect for you, Dr. Kitchen, and I look forward to great things in West Milford. I looked forward to those scores soaring and I look forward to good um relationships between you and our staff and I thank you for accepting the position. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mrs. Dwire. Uh Mrs. Van Djk, unfortunately, I'm conf conflicted and I was not able to participate, but just hearing you tonight has brightened my day. Um, I'm very excited about the new chapter for West Milford and I'm looking forward to working with you and I your philosophy of of the relationship between each part all the stakeholders excites me to know that we're
020going to be moving forward with somebody who truly cares about the education of our our students here. So, we welcome you and I look forward to working with you. >> Thank you, Mrs. Van Djk. Anyone else? Mr. be quiet. >> Um, in my tenure on the board, obviously there good moments, bad. It's It's on Maybe I just love >> I can see there's a conspiracy to keep me down. But uh in my tenure on the board uh I think we can all collectively agree that there's been ups and downs and everything in between and it's it's sometimes traumatic and this was no different. You know we've we've entered into the process of an interim superintendent and now a superintendent and during that time I was asked will please have an open mind. I feel that
021I delivered that. But in that process, I really feel that we grew stronger as a board. I feel more connected with my fellow board members because we had that opportunity to be candid and to discuss the future of the of the school district, which was huge. And I'm thankful that we were guided by Mrs. Helawa in that process. She held us together professionally and cordially and we really got solid work done during that process. And to say that this process was more influential than all my trainings at New Jersey school boards would be an understatement because it was above and beyond a huge learning experience. And thank you to my colleagues, thank you to Mrs. Hela, Dr. Kitchen. Best of luck. Thank you, Mr. >> Thank you, Mr. Sioitz. Anyone else wish to speak? >>
022Okay, so we have no need for an executive session tonight. So, I need >> all those in favor. >> Any opposed? And the time is 7:20. >> Almost. Thank you.