001e e the meeting for other items issues raised by the public may or may not be uh responded to by the board but all comments shall be considered the board requests that all members of the public be mindful of the rights of other individuals when speaking due to due to the confidentiality and legal rights afforded by the state of New Jersey members of the public are asked not to speak negatively or in a derogatory manner of about any employee of the board or any student roll call Mr Fallon here Mr Garvin here Mrs Milano is absent Mr vicaro is absent Mr baman present Mr Nez present all right let's get on to the fun stuff so on to our student of the month for January Lara you're up first good evening everyone this year the
002doyle staff has broaden its categories for student of the month nominations to create a more inclusive recognition program each month we will highlight different areas of student achievement and for this past month we were excited to focus on writing our students of the month are our writers of the month were nominated and selected based on students who demonstrate outstanding Talent interest and effort in writing we believe that highlighting these Young Writers not only encourages them to keep pursuing this creative passion but also Fosters an appreciation for literacy recipients of this honor received a certificate of achievement they also have their photos prominently displayed outside our main office on our TV as well as on our website and our social media page I now present to you the K through three writers of the month in
003kindergarten Milo Ramos I believe he's on vacation but I promised I'd shout him out at the next meeting too grade one ARA Arman Naran I'm sorry if I butchered that come on up ARA congrats gly to go okay in grade two Zoe agarwall come on up [Applause] zo and grade three Luke Makowski where to go pal okay we're going to pose right there job where to go keep it upo hello how are we good okay to follow along follow with along with mmid um as she said we recognize students U monthly for different events and different parts of our community so today we at the Intermediate School we are recognizing noteworthy musicians and the first one I would like to call up is Amelia ampo fourth grader [Applause] on so we asked Amelia here you
004go and we asked Amelia why did Mr salum pick pick pick lessons and love acting Adeline is an aspiring actress she has presently been in the production of The Polar Express she had to pass several hurdles to get this gig pronunciation was very important she needed to be a certain height able to remember her lines in the script and she spent many hours traveling to New York City for rehearsals in a studio and then came rehearsals on the train itself located in whiy New Jersey all in all this was a great experience experience for adelain and in hoping to do another production sometime this year congratulations Adela [Applause] here well [Applause] done good evening everyone as winter settles in and the school year reaches its midpoint it can be easy to lose momentum however these
005students of the month have demonstrated exceptional focus and staying committed to their goals despite the distractions and challenges that come with this time of year their dedication and ability to stay on track set them apart as Role Models their ability to stay engaged and manage their responsibilities with consist consistency is truly commendable these students exemplify what it means to maintain Focus proving that dedication leads to success congratulations to each of them for staying the course and setting a strong example for the seventh grade we have Kayla Mah for the eighth grade we have annia [Applause] marinan for the ninth grade we have Ava CLA [Applause] Duc for the 10th grade we have William Guerrero who is not here tonight for the 11th grade we have Maya Cruz who also is not here tonight and for
00612th grade we have desire Chola which she's our exchange student from Italy this year and has been doing such an amazing job at Wood Junior Senior High School let's just take a picture here good conratulations [Applause] students congratulations speaking of students Dev we have your report for the student report January was a quick and quiet month at wooders Junior Senior High School the Glee Club and Blue Devil band enjoyed a trip to Medieval Times for a show and lunch the month concluded with midterms in February the second marking period ended report cards were released and 190 students made the Honor rooll all honor rooll students will be treated to a breakfast this Thursday course elections for the 2025 2026 school year are complete guidance counselors visited all English classes to assist students in choosing their
007courses now guidance and administration will begin working on their master schedule for next year Miss Mano hosted another choir workshop with Richfield Park in Garfield creating a beautiful day of singing and collaboration last Friday Mr hassinger chemistry class went to a glass CL coloring and blowing Workshop students learned about how professional glass blower shape and color various types of glass as well as observed how glass is fused students rotated around three stations each focusing on a different property of the Amorphis solid glass students also Al observed how elements of various colors created a color glass that may not match up with the original color of the element or even spectroscopic color now for athletics we will be hosting our winter sports award next Tuesday March 4th in the auditorium at 5:30 p.m. all welcome all
008are welcome to attend wage wrestlers concluded their season as we had three fourth place finishers in districts Nicholas poo Jack kazero and Abdul Elish all wrestled tough and will return next year as the future looks bright for wage beon has two wrest that have advanced into a regional tournament this Saturday boys and girls basketball concluded their season both teams showed great effort throughout the season and look forward to returning many starters within both programs a special shout out to our winter cheer team for cheering on both teams as and executing great routines bowling had an opening round victory in the state tournament but recently lost to West calwell Tech in the second round trustees any questions sorry Dev sorry sorry I had I one ask you a question myself winter track showed great growth throughout
009the season as many athletes hit their personal record Isabella adrus placed fourth in the 800 meter race and Mia Irving also played fourth in the 200 meter BR County meet of Champs Middle School basketball had excellent Seasons both finished with a 10 and two record excellent effort by our middle schoolers that's all thank you de so now you're a senior what do you know how many days you have left in school not that many okay I was usually counting 75 I believe 75 I believe all right so we're going to move on to a regular course of business um there'll be a presentation um regarding our audit but if anybody wants to take a break for a minute and go back to home or you don't have to stay we will not be insulted so
010I'll take a break for a minute and if you exit great if not we'll get started in one minute thank you everybody hey Matt I'll speak with you thank you Deon bye Dev oh my god wow so we should be saying congratulations to Mickey Mickey I just learned congratulations are in order so it's old I don't know if it's congratulations but [Music] more weeks I call you before good night I think it's because I said audit I said I said audit they all the you know departed so anyway let's get to our normal course of business we'll go on to our 2024 audit presentation switch on the [Music] top there you go all right uh Alex Bree from Lurch vincey and Bliss uh thank you for having me by the way uh we've completed your
011June 30th audit um everyone should have received two documents the first being your annual comprehensive financial report and the second was your auditor management report the same document um as far as your annual C uh report there's three opinions in that report all of which are unmodified the unmodified opinion represents a clean opinion uh which are free of any material weaknesses or significant deficiencies um usually we talk about your general fund fund balance which is your operating fund of the district your general fund decreased slightly around 30 ,000 from 6.1 million to approximately 5.8 million but there are some restrictions to the fund balance the first being your capital reserve in your capital reserve is approximately three million those are restricted for your capital projects that are in your long range facilities plan uh we
012have 534,906 purposes and any excess Health costs uh 233,000 in your unemployment Reserve which is restricted for on your unemployment claims approximately 54,000 is your open encumbrances these are your purchase orders that are open at year end that roll into your current 2425 budget where the services and goods were not rendered um 969 th000 of the fund balance is used to balance your current 2425 budget and then lastly your 2% Max that the state allows you to keep is approximately 888,246 ctive action plan that addresses each recommendation and how Mr Lisa is going to implement procedures to correct those recommendations but um you know o overall financially you're in good condition you have some healthy reserves and um the eight recommendations we don't consider we don't consider material weaknesses or significant we classify them as
013just general recommendations um that could be easily fixed so if there's any questions on any recommendations or on the fund BL fund balance I can take those at this time you know I always like to ask did you receed the full cooperation of the business administration yeah yeah I would like to you know thank the business office and and the superintendent's office for you know full cooperation and everything we that we asked for we we received uh it's my understanding that six of the um eight recommendations have been implemented so we are trying to move as expeditiously as possible okay great trustees any other questions I really wanted toe get ahead of Chris and ask that question myself but you know just one last question yeah um you know we worked very hard this board
014to establish reserves are our reserves excessive in any way no so your capital reserve is actually 56% of what the maxim amount is your maintenance is 50% of the maximum amount and then your emergency Reserve is 38% so you know you're not the full next not too long ago we were only at 1.2 million for our capital reserve so right the investment we've made into that has been quite significant and that's certainly a testament to this board here our financial responsibility thank you thank you thank you Alex all right on to our ba report uh good evening everyone with February soon coming to a close I'm happy to report that the business office has finalized all tax related submissions to the state and the federal government I'd like to thank my wonderful staff and the
015business office for their hard work and efforts in getting these Monumental tasks done I'd also like to thank Mr barice and uh and his team from LGE viny and Bliss for finalizing of our audit as you have just heard uh prepared and presented his efforts have gone a long way in improving our practices and procedures and I look forward to continued success as resulting from their recommendations as part of Mr B presentation he indicated his findings which have included as part of our correction corrective action plan that is being approved under board operations 12 this evening um I am happy to report as uh Mr garvett had mentioned that our plan has already addressed many of the issues indicated and will address all findings by years's end finally along with the usual work of the
016business office involving purchasing and payroll we have been submerged in the process of producing our budget for the 2025 2026 school year the preliminary budget is anticipated to be put forth for board approval at our scheduled meeting in March I'd like to thank our teachers and administrators for their efforts in getting to me anticipated budgeted purchases for next year while not even halfway through this year along with their already busy schedules this is a difficult task for anyone requires a lot of knowledge and also quite a bit of ability to predict the future would also like to thank the board and especially Mr Garvin for his work and support in these efforts I look forward to formally presenting our final budget later in the school year this is the conclusion of my report thank you
017trustees any questions so if I understand correctly we have our next meeting which is moving to the 18th and that will be the preliminary before it cor actually submitted all right Mr Alro is going to take us through his superintendent report and we actually have a presentation so I'll ask that we actually step to the sides or down to a seat good evening everyone before I begin my presentation I just want to recognize um one of our new administrative staff members Miss Elizabeth termanini Miss termanini visited our district a few weeks ago we held a workshop in combination with the division of developmentally disabled uh it was a great workshop on one evening we didn't have snow that night it worked out very well um Miss termanini was appointed at our last meeting uh barring
018Interruption she should be here towards the end of the march at the end of the month of March um we will have a Cooperative meeting of our district and our parent advisory network at some point around the time Miss T begins so that she can meet everyone formally but I do just want to recognize Miss Liz termanini and welcome her to [Applause] Woodridge and Mr termanini perhaps after the meeting we can meet the board thank you dear in my presentation this evening I'm reporting out about chronic absenteeism chronic absenteeism is something that impacts almost every District in the state and throughout this presentation this evening I'm going to outline what is it that makes us be deemed a chronically absent District how each student contributes to that that and some of the myths associated with
019it in terms of students not coming to school what's excused from the school level perspective but what's not excused by the state so chronic absenteeism is defined as a student is chronically absent if they're absent from school for 10% or more of the school year in the state of New Jersey the minimum number of days that a school is required to be open is 180 school days a chronically absent student based on a 180 day school day requirement is a student marked absent for 18 or more days this includes any absence the school year is 10 months long and a chronically absent student has missed as few as two days of school a month beginning in September treny in the state of New Jersey is defined as having 10 or more unexcused aanes where they're
020not accounted for each School District as per our district policy can determine whether a student absence be unexcused or excused this is for the districts count only and all absences count toward the state's chronic absenteeism rate what is the big deal chronic absenteeism is a primary cause of low academic achievement and a powerful predictor of school of students who may eventually drop out of school attending school every day obviously increases chances of success in school and in life by grade six along with earned academic marks absenteeism is a top predictor of dropout rate and I've lifted list I've listed on our presentation for the public here and at home and the board our 4-year graduation rate so a certain cohort of students starting at the same time as freshman at the end of four years
021so in 21 still coming out of covid 88.2% of our students in that cohort graduated in 22 was 88.1 and in 23 90.7 New Jersey based on the states that have reported 2223 data has the lowest chronic absenteeism rate in the nation More than 70% of New Jersey schools have 10% or more of students chronically absent now the state excuses about seven different things as an absence and they're recorded a certain way on the students attendance every day the state recognizes as an excused absence a list of religious observances that are approved by the state each year up to three school days per school year for college visits for students in grades 11 and 12 where travel does not count take our children to work day participation in observance of Veterans Day participation in District
022Board of Ed Board of election membership activities which we've had student groups in the last few elections participate as helpers the closure of a busing District that prevents a student from having transportation to the receiving School and participation in one Civic event this is the newest excuse absence for students in grade 6 through 12 the absence can only be applied to an event sponsored by a government entity a community-based organization or a nonprofit the event is required to incorporate an element of service learning and address a public issue or concern what is an excused absence in Woodridge with the appropriate documentation but not excused as far as New Jersey is concerned any student illness with parental note or medical note driver license testing date Court appearances AB apus is consistent with individualized education programs the
023individual with the Disabilities Act health care plans Etc suspension death in the family medical dental appointments as deemed by the building principle on appeal from the student's parent so those types of aanes are backed up with paperwork they're counted as excused adanes but every one of those excused adanes in our district and in many districts in our state they are not excused from the state's perspective the law basically says if 10% or more of the students enrolled in a public school are chronically absent the school shall develop a corrective action plan the school shall Sol solicit input from students of parents of students currently attending the school at a um there's a parental survey the school Andor District shall present the cap to the Board of Education the school Andor District shall annually review and
024revise the document and present to the board until the percent of students who are chronically absent is less than 10% this is the first time that we've been cited as chronically absent in quite some time now to give you a comparison of the last few years in chronic absenteeism in 2223 you can see Doyle's percentage the intermediate School percentage the high school percentage and then the percentages last year the doyle school had a a chronic absenteeism of 10.2% which deems it as chronically absent the Intermediate School smaller uh student population 5.7 and the high school 15.8% now anything in the high school does not reflect out of District special Edge students who do count in our atmosph but the state hasn't given us the data yet so they do we have the overall atmosph but
025not the total quantity of dates and when and that has been the unknown that later on in my presentation you'll see how we're going to address that and I also did a snapshot of today any student who has 10 or more absences as of today which is about 105th day and currently we've almost have haved our rating from last year of course subject to the remaining 75 days or so at 5 3.6 and 6.6 so I'm hopeful that last year was an aberration as far as numbers as opposed to percentages those are the numbers of students who were rated chronically absent last year 50 13 and 80 and currently by Doyle Intermediate School High School 249 and 36 and again 36 are inclusive of out of District students a parental survey was shared via Google
026earlier this month in responding families were asked to indicate the following information grade level of their student number of appes thus far in the school year and we had three different rankings 0 to 5 5 to 10 10 to 15 and general reasons for apases and these were some of the reasons that were given um we had about 358 responses illness Sports vacation personal special needs Sports Injury mental health school avoidance half days medical appointments Transportation family emergencies or functions Sports travel student refusal speaking about climate and culture conflict in schedule for kids in and out of District that's an example of I have a high school student who might attend the Bergen School and the Woodward schools are open but the Bergen schools are closed the parents Hope was for us to be on
027the same page so one doesn't stay home and one doesn't that's a fight that they don't want to fight anymore um after care some parents have concerns about Aftercare and they feel that a a more supportive Aftercare program would result in their students coming to school more often religious observances and HIV in the survey families were asked to identify actions that the school district could take to reduce the number of apposes for their child children many of these were repetitive but I listed them all for you understanding classroom cleanliness related to illness more Afterschool activities for special needs nothing it's the responsibility of the parent staff development on 54s and I APS other families that send in sick children are getting my children sick do not count tardies to school cumulatively as an absence that
028occurs in the high school if you're AB if you're late a certain amount of time to a class in the high school you're no longer late you're absent allow more days of absence if the student is a strong student and can make up work so if they do go away allow them to take more days off because they're not not going to miss that much work they're that good in their work ethic stagger drop off and pickup time between the doyle school and the Intermediate School continuing perhaps put a reward system together nothing my child loves School an automated system to report illness or absence offer one mental health day per markting period of course if we have 180 school days in the year if I give everybody a day off doesn't count as a
029day of school we have too many half days parents are citing the fact that they have to take off from work for a half day and then the students stay home give actual days off not half days one one reply was to rather than have six half days have three full days let's start post winter recess later returning from vacation as opposed to January 2nd start later perhaps start the next week the school calendar but again that puts our school year later reduce the 24-hour fever rule that's basically a rule that mainly applies to elementary school if your child gets sent home or is reported to have a fever the school asks that you wait 24 hours fever-free before you return to school absent any sort of medication need more academic program and play time
030with friends need more School counseling sometimes the school workload is too much for a child to handle a lack of outdoor recess area ability to to receive homework if absent crosscultural themes and events are needed we need remote learning with a doctor's note again the doctor's note makes you absent according to the state what we're doing to respond anytime a student's absent there's daily confirmation with the home one parent cited the look need for automated system parent can call into school the parent can email into school any medical notice plac on file communication from school to home should appes be excessive or in certain patterns or Trend by the quarter by the semester by the full year more frequent communication with out of District placements for students receiving special services counseling as needed administrative discussion
031with individual teachers for the recognitions of Pattersons patterns day before a test that sort of thing case study team case managers child study team case managers providing support to those students on their case load with attendance issues as a former School building principal one of the most difficult things is to send that letter home because I already know what the response is going to be I have a doctor's note for these five days we're away for those four days I hate to use use the Expression don't shoot the messenger the administrator is just doing their job because the reality is the federal government and the state government Supply money to the school districts and they have a certain degree of accountability one component of the accountability is the money that they're sending for these school
032districts to operate are the students going to school so when myself or any of my colleagues sends a notice home we're not trying to cause upset we're basically demonstrating to the state that we are keeping track of advances because that's what they want us to do and that we're following through and of course with every communication is the offer of what can we do to help you and in some cases the reasons that I listed from the survey are brought up at that moment and the principal then jump in and intervene and refer to whatever service in the school that might help them that concludes my presentation at some point later in the school year I will give another corrective action plan um based upon what we're doing so far attendance wise as I mentioned
033right now as of today our numbers are good we've gotten through Christmas re uh holiday recess but I will revisit probably in April to see where our numbers stand at that point with the hope of not having to give the report again next year and of course the state being as it is I was informed three days ago that there's a chance they made a computation error on all of our numbers and it's possible that we have less than I'm reporting tonight if there are any questions I'll take them as part of the open meeting to the public thank you [Applause] Tony was the was the person who made those numbers absent that day trustees do we have any questions before uh no we're good with them all right approval of minutes upon the recommendation
034of the superintendent the Board of Education approves minutes of the following meeting public session meeting January 27th 2025 Mr Fallon Mr bamonti discussion roll call Mr Fallon yes Mr Garin yes Mr banti yes Mr Nez yes all right let's not change up a thing I will go over the committee report I have a special announcement Mr neis um I have been I have learned that we're having some difficulty with our live streaming this evening so if anybody at home is watching should experience any sort of uh breakage or loss of service Etc it's something that we're working on right now how many were logged in okay they are okay good all right curriculum instruction approval of districtwide Summer learning acceleration program approval of extended school year program approval of field trip request approval for CST
035home instruction uh out of District location approval of home instruction extended approval of purchase equipment approval of field trip request approval evaluation request onto Personnel approval of 2425 school safety climate and culture team appointments revised approval of a mentor approval of personnel appointment 2425 District substitutes approval of a clinical internship approval of a home instruction Personnel approval of a chaperon approval of personnel appointments extended uh school day program approval of personnel appointment and another uh which includes munaki approval of personnel Employments extended school day program and onto policy approval of policies and approval of regulations buildings and grounds approval of facilities request onto Finance approval of the bills list approval of monthly financial report of the board secretary and Treasurer approval of the certification of a Ballance budget approval of the budget transfers approval of
036fundraisers um two of them one which includes munaki approval of the NJ semi corrective action plan for the 2526 school year and on to board operations we have approval of the agreement with ybh of pic Hill Hillel a New Jersey nonpublic school to employ Robert burger and the New Jersey St initiative August 25th uh 2025 to June 26 uh 2026 approval of agreement with Joseph Kushner Heber company academy uh a New Jersey uh non-public school to employ Jonathan hassinger as a stem initiative um from the 25th uh 2025 to June 26 2026 and approval of agreement with Miss mvita of Clifton a New Jersey non-public school to employe G Gabriel Ben noon and NJ stem initiative September 2nd 2025 to June 25th 2026 um approval of one-year affiliation agreement with cbh care for the purpose
037of providing mental health clearances for the 2025 school year approval of a New Jersey of a new 403b provider a mer price Financial Inc approval of Maintenance reserve withal and appropriation Tri-State folding partition company or Inc approval of Maintenance Reserve withdrawal and appropriation Butler of water Corrections uh approval of Maintenance Reserve withdrawal and appropriation Advanced Plumbing Inc approval of Maintenance reserve withal and appropriation Ranger Parts approval of Maintenance reserve rals and appropriation Liberty Plumbing Heating and Air Conditioning affirmation of the superintendent's report of incidents um of harassment intimidation bullying otherwise known as Hub within the district and approval of the audit report for the 2324 school year and corrective action plan for the 2425 school year and lastly approval of the wrestling shared uh Services agreement between Woodbridge Board of Education and cross that East
038Rutherford Regional Board of education for the 2020 for the 2024 25 2025 26 and the 26 2026 and 2027 school years trustees any comments before I open it up to the public all right I will open it up to the public on the resolutions only what do you got for me Ted nothing no one else no one else okay hearing none uh seeing none in the audience uh any submitted online all right I will close the hearing of citizens trustees let's see Rich if I can get this one right this week trustees looking for your support which includes munaki curriculum instruction one two and three personnel 347 and N policy one and two buildings and grounds One Finance 1 through five and 7even uh board operations um 1 through 10 12 12 and 13 can
039I get it first Mr Garin second Mr Fallon discussion roll call Mr F yes Mr Garvin yes Mr banti yes Mr yis yes trustees looking for your support this is Woodridge only curriculum instruction 4 through eight Personnel one two five 6 8 and 10 uh none for policy none for buildings and grounds Finance number and board operations number 11 Mr B Monti Mr Fallon discussion roll call Mr Fallon yes Mr gar yes Mr yes Mr yes trustees thank you for your support as always uh before I open up to the hearing of citizens there anything I like to talk about anything for unfinished or new business no no no all right I will open it up to the hearing of citizens anything you like to ask hello just name an address for the record please
040I'm Denise bogach 419 inz Road um I have two special education students in the district and I just learned from my case manager this week that the district intends to have a fully contained um selfcontained classroom for seventh and eighth graders and that would be new for next year so I wanted to say thank you for that because that's causing a lot of angst in my household um there's a certain sense of security for us as parents knowing that our children can stay in District in our community with Educators and families that they know it's really wonderful um I wanted to know if you anticipate any concerns or barriers to Staffing those classrooms or having the space for them Mrs bogash I don't anticipate any problems with either okay that's wonderful thank you to you
041whoever else was part of this decision I'm very happy to hear it I hope maybe it's something that will get expanded further than seventh and eighth grade too she was just saying thank you for whoever was responsible and hopefully it expands Beyond just the seventh and eighth grade um it it is something that we hope to continue obviously when we get to nth grade we're now earning earning credit towards graduation so that might present different challenges but no no challenges that we cannot reach and take take surpass um okay as you said earlier and I really greatly appreciate it our goal is if we can provide the services we want our students to stay here yeah and exhaust all possibilities so um the class that you speak of uh we started recently within the last
042three or four years and the child study team the board we we don't really want start something that we're going to have to change at some point so this is something that we're committed to the children have been thriving in that classroom yes and in their mainstream opportunities they're doing very well they're vital parts of the school community and I could not think otherwise of what to do in the future yeah thank you for that because it's really important it takes them so long to just get settled and make friends and it's it's really working nicely so thank you again thanks thank you anyone else here I knew Jimmy wouldn't let us down Jim fche 14710 can you just give us a brief update on where we're at with the renovations of Doyle it's been
043a while and I know the construction seems to be moving ahead are we ahead of schedule behind schedule well obviously there's there's two parts there's a renovation and there's is the construction so from a renovation perspective an existing Doyle school that is pretty much completed with the exception of this summer there'll be uh the new at the Highland Avenue wing of our existing doy School the last four classrooms were not touched this summer because they served as storage for all the other items so they will be renovated this this summer so that the entire existing Doyal School floors walls ceilings will all look the same no more different color scheme and match the new Wing the new Wing right now if you if you're' driven by we're starting to see walls go up what you
044don't get a chance to see is I'm not a construction person but the wiring the plumbing that's all going on behind those closed walls and everything that I have heard indicates that we are completely on target for a September opening next year next year awesome uh the other question is last meeting you guys discussed uh Student Records kept on file at the individual schools are are those records available to parents or Guardians upon request to go through the records to see what's there as far as the students information that is part of the law yes okay all you need to do is contact your child school with some advanced notice so they have everything ready for you absolutely awesome thank you anyone else no all right close the hearing citizens those here anything we receive
045nothing on all right I will close the hearing of citizens all together truste final comments questions March 18th so on the the uh we had a March 24th and um a March 10 10th meeting um we've since collapsed that to a March 18th meeting it's going to be at the intermediate school so we'll only have one for March it is an important meeting because it's a day before we need to submit our budget to the county all right motion to adjourn Mr bamonte Mr Garvin discussion all in favor all opposed thank you I'm off tonight