001Okay. I'd like to call to order the regular meeting of the Bagota Board of Education for Tuesday, September 16th, 2025. Please stand for the flag salute. Pledge >> allegiance to the flag, United States of America to the republic for it stands one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [Music] The New Jersey open public's meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of the public bodies at which the business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act. The Boda Bagota Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date, time, and place thereof posted in the Boda Burough Hall, communicated by record, filed with the
002clerk of the Burrow of Bagota, and posted on the Bagota Board of Education website. My age is telling me I need glasses. So, please roll call. Mr. M Alvarez Mr. Alvarez >> present >> Mrs. Cruz absent Mr. Navaro absent Mrs. Oliva >> present >> Mr. Rackard absent Mrs. Salam absent Mr. Chavez >> present >> Mr. Ronda >> present. >> We have the quorum. >> Thank you. Also present is or are is superintendent Damian Kennedy, board attorney Thomas Cobin, school business administrator board secretary Epsil, and assistant board secretary Elizabeth Ruiz. We also have our special guest, Student Representative Himenez Vargas. Um, welcome. >> Thank you. >> All right, we're here for you. Okay. Um, should she go now? I'll do my >> You'll do it with your report. Okay. Uh I'd like to open the floor
003to hearing of the citizens on agenda items only. Do I have a motion to move? >> Motion. >> Chavez. Do I have a second? >> Alvarez. >> Mr. Alvarez. Any board discussion? All in favor? >> Any opposed? Any member, please state your name. You have five minutes. No one present. Anyone online? >> No. >> All right. Do I have a motion to close? Citizen on agenda item. Citizen remarks. >> Chavez. Do I have a second? >> Olivo. Any board discussion? All in favor? >> I. >> Any oppose? >> All right. Moving on to superintendence report. Have at it, Mr. Kennedy. >> Thank you. First up is our student representative, Jimene Vargas. >> Good afternoon, everyone. It's been an exciting September here in BOD. We're off to an incredible start to the 2025 2026 school year.
004We kick things off with the eighth grade orientation which went absolutely amazing. Our incoming students got the chance to tour the building, meet their teachers, and connect with their classmates. It is the perfect way to welcome them into the Boot family and set the energy and tone for a successful year ahead. This is also a very special year because for the very first time, Boot is sporting brand new school uniforms. A big thank you goes out to junior Isaac Crespo who made it all possible. It is a change that has brought a lot of pride and unity to our student body and it's something we'll remember as a milestone in Bagota history. On the athletic side, Bota Sports has been off to a fantastic start. Our football team made history by winning the first home
005game in our new field and so far the team is undefeated. Spirits are high and it's clear it's going to be a memorable season. Cross country also opened their season with an incredible result. The boys varsity team ran their way to first place overall while the girls varsity team secured third place among nearly 20 competitive North Jersey teams. It was a powerful showing and it proved once again that Bagota runners are a force to be reckoned with. And of course, Bagota volleyball continues to dominate. Just recently, the team took home the 2025 Pramis High School Jersey Classic Championship. Congratulations to the players and coaches for bringing home another big win and showing everyone the strength of our program. It's also with great excitement that I share that the fall play has been announced. This year's
006production will be Peter Pan performed at Steen School gym while our auditorium is being redone. Looking ahead, back to school night is scheduled for tomorrow and the day after. And this is a great opportunity for parents and families to connect with teachers, learn more about classes, and really see all the hard work that has gone into making this school year the best it can be. All in all, it's been a wonderful start to the Bagota school year. From welcoming new students to stepping onto the field in new uniforms to championship level victories, there's already so much to be proud of and we're only halfway through September. We look forward to all the things to come. More wins, more accomplishments, and more moments that bring us together as a school community. Here's to a year of
007pride, progress, and success. >> Thank you. >> That was amazing. >> Thank you. >> See, we got this. >> Okay, first up for me, HIB. We have none to report at this time. Each year the the state requires us to indicate the seniors who graduated last year their gra their graduation pathways uh according to what state assessment they passed. So I'm I'm reporting on that right now. Of the 89 students that graduated, 47 of them passed solely the NJ GPA, which is the junior test that we take. 24 of them passed one NJ GPA and then a substitute test whether that be PSATs, SATs, ACUPPLACER. 17 passed only the substitute test and then one did the portfolio appeals. So that is our graduation pathways from last year. Also to note, we already posted this but
008we have a new October board meeting date. It was originally scheduled for October 21st, but we had to move it to October 28th when we made our schedule. Uh, school boards decided to change the normal week that they have their school board, so we have to move ours to the week after school board. So, again, new date for the October meeting will be October 28th. Big shout out to everyone involved in getting our schools ready to open this year. Uh we threw a lot at a lot at everybody involved in the process from relocating teachers from Bixby and Steen to redistricting to all the construction projects we had going on. Uh courtesy busing. We really did throw a lot of things at a lot of different people and I'm very happy about how smooth that
009went this year. There will always be a couple bumps in the road, but for the most part, it was an excellent job by administration, our custodians, our maintenance, and our teachers, and of course, our students. So, I just really want to say uh it kept me up all summer, this redistricting. And I think President Miranda will attest to that, that I spoke to him several times saying I'm not I'm nervous about it because it was something new. But as usual, our teachers, our administrators, and our students stepped up. Uh, and I and I have to speak on Friday night opening of Fel Field and the football game. I've been a part of Bagota High School for 15 years and the atmosphere down there on Friday night was electric. Um, it was really great to see.
010I saw a lot of students that have graduated that were jealous that these fields are here now and they graduated five or six years ago. And just really kudos to the board and to everyone involved in getting that done. Uh there's a video online and it was pretty cool of the marching band playing after we scored our touchdown and the stands going wild and just seeing the aerial view of those fields is really something to be proud of. So very exciting stuff. CTE building, the elevator was put in this weekend. We have another week or two before we get into that building. Auditorium in the high school is moving along. We hope to be in there in 3 to four weeks. and Bixby. The gym is underway and we're hoping to be in there in
011three to four weeks. So again, great job for start the school year. Very exciting stuff happening. Reminder, back to school nights. We start at Bixby tomorrow night at 6:30, Steen on Thursday night, and then next week we have the middle school on Wednesday and the high school on Thursday. We are looking at the middle school on Wednesday night because it has come to my attention that it's still Rashaashana. So we might be moving that. We're we're talking to uh a few different people to see what our situation is there. So, we will get word out uh by tomorrow or or uh Thursday to let everyone know about a new possible date for that. And that concludes my report. >> Thank you, Mr. Kennedy. Um I got to tell you, I I know he blows through
012his report because he's got his he really didn't sleep for several weeks. He kept saying how he was truly nervous. And I said, 'But what are you nervous about? I I also touted the board. I said, 'What are you nervous about? The board has got your back. We have the administration's back. And and I also said, "You have a good team. You guys have established a good team. You have Vera. You have everyone." And he says, "I know I do. I just want He wants it to be perfect." Right? So I would say that courtesy busing, no one's talking about that, right? Courtesy busing. It's the first time in the history of Bagota that we have local busing, courtesy busing. It's not a mandate from the state because we're not even two miles from corner
013to corner, but we have courtesy busing and that that was a gift to our community. I hope it continues to work so that our community uh when we when we ventured off as a board to to do the redistricting so to better spend our tax dollars to better, you know, open up space in our schools before we have to build a $50 million school and go ask for that referendum and still give them the parks and do all of that. We did this and and and we added courtesy buses. So kudos to everyone. Kudos to Kennedy. Kudos to Iran who makes everything work. You know, kudos to Chan because we started getting when we knew this was about to happen, we applied for grants. We went and got electrical busing. We applied for monies with
014the state and everything with the park. So, it all the funding wasn't it wasn't done in pieces. It was one whole project from an administrative side of the way all the way to playing sports. It wasn't just we didn't peacemail anything here. It was all one big task. And in two years, we did it. We did it. So kudos to you guys for believing, seeing it, and making it happen. Because I cannot explain how many boards spent four hours fighting about what. I don't know. I hear it down the block. I hear from people, and everyone commends us for not doing that. Everyone commends us because this board changed BGOTA. Changed all the shenanigans that BOD ever had in the past. It's positive. It's inclusive. It's diversified. It's it's it's parenting because that's the key.
015It's parenting. It's realtor vibes. Everyone brings a dynamic approach to this board to sort of put their hands around bod changed it. Change the attitude, change the nonsense, and some of that always creeps in. We know political season comes in and you hear crazy stuff, but at the end of the day, it changes it. Uh, and it did change and I hope it stays this positive little town uh, for the next, you know, years to come. The uniform, Kennedy, thank you. I couldn't have stressed any more about this band uniform. As you know, I got those emails. I got those emails. Did you watch that? Did you see them in uniform? They look like the park. They looked amazing. They performed amazingly. I mean, listen, I don't take credit from anybody in performance, but when
016we had to compete against the other side, we sounded so much better. So kudos to Adam. Kudos to everyone. Uh I'm sorry Abe to Mr. Abe. Thank you for that. That was just that's really was amazing. For those who haven't seen the career build technical building, please check it out. That's yet another thing, guys. We didn't just with $20 million. It makes you want to cry. You did so much. I'm going to exclude myself. You did so much. You put a beautiful building. I mean, go look at the kitchen. Trina has an idea about competition now. Children against board and cooking and you just go check it out. Go check it out. Please go. You did that. You did that. This board, this administration, you did it. And and and you got to get credit
017because I've seen postings out there and all types of crazy things lately because people said, "Wow, it's been so long since the fields look like this or that we see something like this." They never credit the people who did it. That's fine. We know who did it. But they said it and that feels good. It feels good. I tell you, right behind that, there's a lot of haters. I'll say it loud and publicly. There's a lot of haters. Some guy said that told Jose and I that it cost them a lot of money in taxes. Wrong. Wrong and lies. And people will spew lies just to defame the fact that we made the fastest progress historically in Bod. >> But they're still in the park and they're welcome. >> They're enjoying it. >> And they're
018enjoying it. >> They're enjoying it. I got to tell you, I've had people tell me I was so against this and today I exercise. I was wrong. You know, I don't know what's coming in the future. I don't want to spit up like my mom taught me. They fell flat in your face. But we had a major storm recently. Storm number one. And we got through it. I only pray that we continue to get through these storms and our fields continue to thrive cuz I run through there and I jog through there. Oh, and Jose is walking his grandchild through there all the time. >> Oh, yeah. Every day. use it. It's beautiful. And you get to finally have a place where your community comes together. You're getting to have so many conversations. I got
019to tell you, they're non-political conversations. They're non this. There's just people saying, "Man, good job. How you doing? Where's your kids?" >> It has united the community. >> It has united this community, guys. You guys did that. This board did that. So, I'm going to give that um amazing renovations in our schools. Check them out. I mean, ask Kennedy if you can see what you voted for and what you're doing. The part the partitions are going up. What they call the man traps. the that's that's a police term I guess I call it partitions. It's hard for people now to get into our schools. We had an incident as you remember in Steen there was a little maybe not maybe a false alarm but it was a real incident. The person was arrested that can't
020happen anymore. You know we're protecting our children. Safety has been number one for us. And I go back to the taxes. You know, had a brilliant idea, high interestbearing account at the time when there was high interest. We earned plentiful amount of money to help us expand on our projects, to help us expedite our projects and to do the best we can. So, you the board give yourself gratitude because you did it. You guys did it. This administration did it and those who supported us and even the ones that didn't support us. people just I take this as a I always tell people you know sometimes you're resident in your community you have children they have a fever of 104 and you try to give them Tylenol and they refuse the cup of Tylenol and
021you often have to like take it just take it and then when the fever is down oh I probably should have taken that medicine a lot earlier when you're just used to something you sort of get blocked and I understand that when you're used to false promises and force people running and making all this stuff well that's a roadblock in lives. It's called ignorance. I'm happy to say that this board was all on the same mission and I kudos you guys because I got to see it with my own eyes. It's one thing to get behind it and all working and talking and do it. But when you're standing there and you become part of the community, you see what it what it brought to life. >> We chose not to be complacent. We chose
022not to be destroyers. We chose to be builders. I'm very proud of all of us. Thank you all. >> And please don't exclude yourself because with a great team, there's a great leader. So, thank you, Mr. President. because I don't take it as a leadership. You guys know that. I I'm just relentless. I like to keep going. We made a promise. >> It's a great snowball effect that's happening. >> That's true. >> Thank you. Thank you guys. Let's keep paving forward. Um I'm going to move on to >> I just want to also add, you know, the traffic around Bixby to be flowing. So, thank you for um Maplewood Avenue resident. I want to say thank you very much. Um I I know my kids get annoy got annoyed at seeing the blotch because they
023didn't understand it. I had to explain it to them. um being out of the school system, they weren't aware, but I I I seem to feel that it's going uh it's flowing very nicely. I don't know what feedback you guys are getting, but it seems >> it is. And I will say I took it upon myself to go to a council meeting that I haven't been long and I and I actually thank the council and the mayor for taking that proactiveness that we have been requesting for a long time. And I thank the police department because without that unity, you know, again, we're sending waves down that it's all positive stuff. So when there's no infighting in a little town and people are picking about who did what, it wasn't about us. It was about
024children, was about safety. And I got to tell you, the first day, you should have seen how many cops were around the schools. I actually went around to to to alleviate Mr. Kennedy because I think he felt like the buses were going to fail and this and I was like, "Let me just check. Maybe I have to get behind a bus." Right? my volunteerism kicked in and and it worked out. I was like, Kennedy, great job. He was like breathing hard. Um, so I will say, you're right. You know, we got to thank the mayor and the council. We got to thank the police department who took who listened and they worked with us and they got it done. So, I want to appreciate everybody. It's one big community trying to come together. >> Snowball
025effect. It is. All right. Enough of my right stuff. Moving on to resolution 41 which is approval of agenda items approval of August 26, 2025 regular open meetings. Do I have a motion to move for one? >> Olivo. Do I have a second? >> Alvarez. Any board discussion? Perfon. >> Mrs. Alves. >> Mr. Alvarez. >> Yes. >> Mr. Solivo. >> Yes. >> Mr. Chavez. >> Yes. >> Mr. Miranda. >> Yes. >> Motion carried. >> Moving on. Uh, nothing under policy resolution. Moving on to 621 education section which is the approval items 7 61 through 620. Do I have a motion to move 621? Motion. Chavez. Do I have a second? Mrs. Alvarez. Any board discussion? Roll call. >> Mrs. Alvarez. Mr. Alvarez. >> Yes. >> Mr. Solivo. >> Yes. >> Mr. Chavez. >> Yes. >>
026Mr. Mando. >> Yes. >> Motion carried. Moving on to 718 in the personnel section which is for the approval of agenda item 71 through 717. Do have a motion to move 718. >> Olivo Chavez. A second. Any board discussion? Roll call. >> Mrs. Alvarez. Mr. Alvarez. >> Yes. >> Mr. Solivo. >> Yes. >> Mr. Chavez. >> Yes. >> Mr. Miranda. >> Yes. >> Motion carried. >> Moving on to 88. Finance section for approval of agenda items 81 through 87. Do I have a motion to approve 88? >> Alvarez. Mr. Alvarez. Do I have a second? Mrs. Alvarez. Aa. Any board discussion? Roll call. >> Mrs. Salv. >> Yes. >> Mr. Alvarez. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Solivo? >> Yes. >> Mr. Chavez? >> Yes. >> Mr. Miranda? >> Yes. >> Motion carried. >> Moving on to
02791, which is approval of a change order for BHS auditorium project. Is there a motion to move 91? >> Motion. >> Okay. Okay. So that's Mrs. Alvarez, Mr. Chavez. Any discussion? Roll call or phone. >> Mrs. Alvarez. >> Mr. Alvarez. >> Yes. >> Mr. Solivo. >> Yes. >> Mr. Chavez. >> Yes. >> Mr. Miranda. >> Yes. >> Motion car. >> I'll just put out there that our entire projects are still under budget. So, let's keep going. >> Okay. >> All right. Moving on to committee reports. Are there any committee reports? Any old agenda items? Any new business? Moving on to 131 floor. Opening the floor for hearing of the public. Do I have a motion to move? >> Alvarez. >> Olivo. Mr. Alvarez. Any board discussion? All in favor? >> Any oppose? Anyone? You have
028five minutes. Please state your name. >> Is it that person there? I was just a joke. >> Nothing. >> All right. Do I have a motion to move? >> Motion to close. I'm sorry. Hearing of the public. >> Motion. Chavez. Do I have a second? >> Alvarez. >> Al, Mr. Alvarez. Any board discussion? All in favor? >> I. >> Any oppose? We're not going into executive session. Do I have a motion to adjurnn? >> Alvarez. >> And Alvarez. >> Idalia Alvarez. So, aa and any discussion? All in favor? >> I. >> Any oppose? We have a motion to journ. Good night, everyone. >> Night.