001attend. >> Hello and welcome to the Monday, November 24th, 2025 Hills Township Board of Education meeting. In accordance with the state sunshine law of New Jersey, adequate notice of this meeting of the Hillsbor Township Board of Education was provided on January 8th, 2025 to the Hillsbor Beacon and the Carrier News. Mr. Record, if we could please take role. Mr. Davis >> here. >> Miss Jackson >> here. >> Miss Craig >> here. >> Miss Lanning Beater >> here. >> Mr. Lee >> here. >> Miss Murse >> here. >> Miss Stats >> here. >> Mr. Mr. Hill >> here >> and Mr. Ray >> here. We have a quorum. I'll take a motion to move into executive session whereas the open public's meetings act chapter 231 of the laws of 1975 provide that the public body may
002exclude the public from a portion of that meeting for which uh public public body discusses certain matters for which confidentiality is required as permitted in section 7B of the act resolved by the board of education and the town of Hillsboro and the county of Somerset New Jersey as follows. The matter to be discussed as a legal matter. The matter discussed in executive session shall be disclosed to the public when the need for confidentiality no longer exists. Can I get a motion to second? >> Second. >> All in favor? >> All right, we'll be back around 7:30. Thank you. couple hours. >> Yep. Hello and welcome back to the Monday, November 24th, 2025 Hillsboro Township Board of Education meeting. [clears throat] We are now back from executive session. Uh Mr. Eard, if we could please take
003role. >> Mr. Davis, >> here. >> Miss Jackson, >> here. Miss Craig >> here, >> Miss Lanning Beater >> here, >> Mr. Lee >> here, >> Miss Nurse >> here, >> Miss Stats >> here, >> Mr. Hill >> here, >> and Mr. Marie. We have a Please stand for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the republic for it stands one nation andice for all. All >> [clears throat] >> right, I'd like to acknowledge the correspondence is listed. Uh, and we will move on to the board president's report. So, one of my favorite things to do as board president is to acknowledge students. We've got some uh recognitions that we are going to complete tonight. Uh the first one is for imagination uh rec recognizing Isabella Del Priori
004and Ana Ajit and Harini Ragarama. Congratulations for placing third in the environment category in the 2025 imagination at Princeton competition. Entry title, a marble makeover, preserving history one stone at a time. We're gonna come over and take a picture. [applause] >> [clears throat] >> Hello, my name is Karen Randazzo. I am the chemistry teacher at the high school. Um I have had just a wonderful time getting to know these three ladies. What's so amazing about Chemagination is typically this is a program offered for AP chemistry students. This is a project that we do after the exam. These young ladies heard about Chemagination through their honors chemistry teacher and asked me to advise them. Of course, I was very enthusiastic. Um, I am so incredibly touched at how dedicated these students have been over the course
005of working through this. They did not enroll in the AP chemistry course last year. They are all honors chemistry students and in my history of running imagination with all of our students. That has never happened before. So, it is quite incredible that they were able to place quite incredible that they were so enthusiastic and wanted to participate. And congratulations, ladies. Very well deserved. [applause] >> Thanks so much. Appreciate that. >> All right. Next, we would like to to recognize the semi- finalist for National Merit Scholarship. Um those individuals will include Narav Banerjee, Manan Badwage, Isan Goyle, [clears throat] Cynthia Leia Nid Hammuni, Tun Nidhamuni, Keith Raman Pollen and Sinakshi Single. [applause] trouble pronouncing. Clearly commercial. Hey, you show >> [snorts] [applause] >> And last, but certainly not least, the Hillsboro math team. We would like
006to congratulate them for placing fourth at the Central Jersey Math League competition at Matuchen High School. Uh we will first bring up the entire team. Um and then we will uh individually recognize some additional students. Hold on. >> Uh that will be uh Isan Goyle, Dane Lee, Arman Sharma, and Lakshia Gupta. [applause] Congratulations. Good job. >> [clears throat] >> All right. So, congratulations again to all the students we recognize today. [applause] And with that, that will complete my uh board president's report. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Um before we get into the heart of my report tonight, I just wanted to take a moment to address the community. Uh as we approach Thanksgiving holiday, I wanted to take a moment at this public forum to pause and express deep gratitude for the collective spirit and
007dedication that defines the Hillsboro School community. The work we do is challenging yet profoundly rewarding and our successes are fundamentally tied to the strengths of our partnerships. First and foremost, I extend my heartfelt thanks to our students. You are the heart of our mission and your curiosity, resilience, and creativity inspire every decision we make. Thank you to our parents and guardians for the trust you place in us every day and for your essential partnership in supporting both learning in and out of the classroom. To the faculty, administrators and staff across every department, our teachers and certificated staff, custodians, bus drivers, office personnel, food service teams, and everyone. Thank you. Your professionalism, tireless commitment, and positive energy are what truly create a nurturing and high achieving environment for our students. We are incredibly fortunate to have
008such a dedicated team. Finally, thank you to the board of education for your governance and visionary leadership and to the entire community for your unwavering support of our schools. This year, we have faced obstacles together, and I'm deeply thankful for the resilience and determination we have shown in overcoming them. Your involvement, whether through volunteering, attending events, or simply maintaining trust in our direction, makes Hillsboro a wonderful place to live and learn. As we transition into this time of reflection and rest, I wish every member of our community a peaceful, safe, and joyous Thanksgiving holiday spent connecting with loved ones. We look forward to welcoming everyone back energized and ready for a strong finish to the end of the calendar year. Happy Thanksgiving. With that note, I would like to get to the heart of my
009superintendence report. As you may know, we have been talking for quite some time about redistricting and uh full day kindergarten and what that's going to look like. Um I'm going to kick it over to uh Mr. Handler who for the past several months has been reporting out to the public about our efforts in that area and he's going to update us once again. Mr. Handler. >> Thank you, Mr. Bulby. Uh good evening members of the community and board of education. I want to begin by expressing our sincere gratitude for the incredible level of engagement demonstrated throughout this planning process so far for we've had both um involvement from our redistricting committee as well as the wider community. We hosted several successful parent engagement um events. One was in the morning. We then again we had
010one in the afternoon and then one more in the evening um where we had uh community members come out and participate to provide feedback um as well as uh you know providing insightful ideas. The feedback we received at these sessions has been invaluable in helping us understand the priorities and needs of our families. Based on this comprehensive analysis, we are pleased to announce a clear path forward. We will be moving forward with ma maintaining uh the six existing local community elementary schools. This decisions follows the rigorous evaluation of two alternative structural operations guided by the community input committee's recommendations and detailed data analysis. So first there was a proposal to convert Hillsbor Elementary School into a fourth grade school. It did not garner strong community support and critically was not projected to deliver the anticipated
011financial savings we thought. Therefore, this oper operation or option is no longer being considered. While there was significant interest in the Triangle School becoming an early childhood center for our kindergarteners and preschoolers, our deep dive into the current and projected enrollment data, shows that the school would be immediately at capacity on year one. This scenario leaves no room for future growth, which we know we will most likely be getting over the next few years, and it would quickly force us to return to um instability that we're at now, um which is an outcome we want to avoid. So, as we're not planning for new construction at Triangle, this option is really no longer viable as well. So, finally, the decision leads us to um the next level work, which is adjusting school boundaries. Our primary
012goal is to adjust the boundaries as minimally um as possible to effectively balance capacity and space utilized across all six elementary schools with um providing as as little impact as possible. We will focus specifically on balancing enrollment strategically accommodating the current growth trends within the town and ensuring long long-term stability. So, um, one of our main goals is looking at what will happen in year two, year three, year four because we don't want to redistrict and need to have to do it again in the immediate near future. We aim to inform parents of the new school boundaries for the 2627 school year by spring break. We are committed to a humanistic approach for any students who will be moving between schools. For one, we are going to actively look at opportunities for students to visit
013their new schools um later this spring to ensure a smooth transition. Options and how to do this and if it will be possible at all or are being discussed now and how we can kind of achieve that. The second thing we're looking at is the exploring the viability of potentially rising fourth graders or current third graders who are rising to fourth grade that may be moving to another school with the ability to remain at their current school for that final year if space allows. Um notes, please note that such a plan would likely require parents to provide transportation for those fourth grade students as district transportation would not be would no longer be guaranteed in that area. Um we'll also provide an update on the feasibility of this option as we get closer to the
014end of the year and I've determined the new boundaries and what our capacities will be. One last thing I will say is we will be opening kindergarten enrollment sometime in January. Um our hope is to get the word out to get registrations as high as possible and or as many registrants as possible early on so that it will help us in determining the the boundaries and and where we are. One of the difficulties we're running we will be running into is kindergarten enrollment next year is a projection. We really don't know the numbers. We don't have enrollments right now in our school of preschoolers um that are going to kindergarten. So um our hope is if more community members who are going to be attending kindergarten next year are able to enroll sooner that will
015help us in determining um what our capacities are going to be. So I want to thanks again for the patience and thoughtful input from the community. We look forward to prov providing more specific boundary information and updates as our work progresses. Thank you, Mr. Moy. >> Thank you, Mr. Handler. Thank you for all your work involved. It is uh a lot to put on a person to lead that. It's appreciated and Mr. Handler means what he said. We heard a lot of ideas from a lot of community members. Uh several board members showed up at some of those meetings, too. Um we've been talking about this for a year plus, but now we know the direction we are going in. So, the big takeaways, we're keeping all uh six schools K to4. We're going to
016be redrawing the lines. We're going to let you know immediately after spring break where your children are going for next year. And then we're going to plan transitional activities in the spring so that everybody has a good feeling about their new school because all of our schools here in the elementary, you tell anybody, they're very happy with their elementary school. It will be tough for kids. Um, sometimes it's tougher for parents, but we will take a very kid- centered approach as we continue to implement this redistricting plan, and you'll hear more from us over the next several months. Uh, and Mr. President, that concludes my superintendent report. >> All right. Thank you very much. All right. We'll now move on to committee reports. Um, if we could begin with education, >> Miss Jackson. >> Hi.
017Um, we met once and we discussed was um new course proposals for introduction to research and research experience >> a little bit closer if you can >> again new course proposals for introduction to research CP and research experience honors uh we disced the overnight trip for the seventh and eighth grade wind ensemble. We did um discuss briefly also the fundraising um is done to offset costs and we'll have some followup information on that. We discussed the 2026 27 district calendar. Um we had some updates on the HNP option two. Uh we had a um an initial look into the review uh and revised curriculum and that's it. >> Okay. Thank you very much. All right. We can move to HR. Miss Nurse. [clears throat] Our committee met on Wednesday, November 19th at 4:00. We had
018a brief uh agenda. We talked about a settlement with the HA regarding a personnel matter. Um a continued discussion about a possible unified robotics stipen and we got the report on the redistricting. >> All right. Thank you very much. Uh Mr. Davis, operations, please. >> Thank you. Uh operations met on Friday, November 21st. And uh the first item we discussed had to do with a proposal to replace the uh temporary classrooms at Triangle School. And uh that will in involve uh the architectural engineering firm LAN Associates who we've worked with in the past. And there were several questions about this project. It's not quite a uh slam dunk or a snap or snap and fit or whatever the words are. You know, one would think if you're replacing temporary classrooms that are already there, wouldn't
019you just bring in new classrooms and plop them in place, but it turns out it's not quite that simple. Uh the buildings the buildings department and the state and regulations. So, so we really need almost to start from scratch for for the new uh temporary classrooms. Uh, one significant enhancement that is anticipated uh is to actually erect a breezeway from the side of the school over to where the temporary classrooms are so that people don't have to walk out in the rain and the snow and all that to make that 20 yard trip. Uh so that requires some architectural work as well. Uh but uh one I think the item is on the agenda this evening to approve land to go ahead with that preliminary work. It's not approving the project because ironically land has
020to do a bunch of preliminary work before they can propose the project. So that's what's on the agenda this evening. Uh there was an other item uh which uh the committee uh agreed to forward to the board and that has to do with a Girl Scout project at Hillsboro Elementary to erect a sign out in the playground area having to do with the environment and diversity and tolerance and all those nice things. We did uh have a presentation from Dr. Vulpi about the redistricting. So we had heard uh these things prior to this evening which was highly appreciated. Uh and there was good conversation about that as well. U we had another conversation about a land project that's in the offing. It's it's certainly not on a front burner, but it has to do with
021improving facilities for the transportation department and or perhaps uh the buildings and grounds department. Right now, the facilities that they're using, which are over near Hillsboro Elementary, are quite outdated and inadequate. So, we're in the what are we going to do department and so that's under review to determine really what's necessary, what might be prudent, might be forward thinking uh as opposed to just squeaking by with what we can get away with. And that's part of what the conversation is now. And then we did have a conversation about uh the budget way preliminary. Of course, the budget work does begin early and there are conversations about uh what types of taxes would we be talking about for the new year and that turned out to be quite a lengthy conversation. There are, if you will,
022perhaps the standard would be to just roll forward with the 2% tax cap increase, uh, which would mean, you know, increasing the levy to generate revenue, but there was conversation about, well, why not have a zero tax levy? Why not have a year where we don't raise taxes at all? do we have enough reserve to support that? And that got banged around quite a lot. I mean, pros and cons. Uh because it's it's not apparently it's not that simple. There are impacts with what the state department of education thinks and how this all works out. There was even a suggestion in that conversation of perhaps going to a township referendum uh to approve the budget which is like back to the old days where the budget would get voted on. And in talking that over
023just among the committee and you know there are no decisions that can be made at the committee level but the feeling at the committee level was that it would we would benefit from the entire board engaging in this conversation. you know, it's it's it's not a conversation that one committee can have with three or four people and then bring it to the board for a vote when pe there's so much give and take and brainstorming and back and forth and investigating. So, and this is not I'm not making a motion. I'm just reporting what was discussed at at the committee meeting, but uh it seemed to make sense to us at the time that the initial vote that would need to be taken by the board would be whether or not to even have the
024conversation, the conversation about taxes and levies and how we should roll forward. The question would be should we have that conversation? Because if if the board says yes, it's time we need to really look into this more carefully. The result of that could be that a special meeting would be convened. called it a a board retreat in a manner of speaking to give the board members an opportunity to all participate in this kind of rolling interactive conversation about this topic which would then perhaps move toward a board vote as to whether or not we should even move forward with such an idea. And one of the reasons for thinking that doing this in such an incremental manner would be beneficial is simply to make sure that all nine board members have had ample opportunity to
025participate in the conversation and benefit from the discussion of the pros and cons and the ins and outs. So that's what we talked about at the operations committee and uh we don't have that vote on the agenda this evening per se but uh that was where we ended. >> We have a question. >> I do have a question in terms of having a conversation. Does that have to go to a vote or is that just something that we can say that we need to have a conversation about? >> Six of one half a dozen of another. I think >> it doesn't require a vote. so we can talk about it at any day. When would the vote be? When is our timeline for that again? >> Well, Mr. Eric, you can correct me if I'm
026wrong. I don't know if the 2026 um schedule has come out from the state, but what we did look at last year was if the board was considering putting a referendum out that we would have to essentially vote on the question dotted eyes teal delivered at the reorganization meeting on January 5th. So, this is a extremely tight timeline at the moment. Um, we will continue to check to see Jerry if the new timeline has come out, but that's my understanding as to when we would have to have that done. >> Yeah. And that that information is not generally released until sometime in mid December. >> But to have that referendum vote would have to be there's a cost associated with that that the board would have to pay. >> But what would the referendum vote
027like? What would we be going to referendum for? So there there was some individuals that said, "Oh, maybe we should go to 0% and have the township vote on if we go to 2%." Which is I mean our responsibility is to build the budget, but they were saying let's not and just let the township decide whether they want a 2% increase or not, which I I'm personally I'm not I mean I think our job is to set the agenda, uh set the budget for the year. So personally I I would not be in favor of that but I think they would want to have a conversation to say is there an appetite from the board to support that. >> Um just I can throw my two cents in right now which I would agree with
028Paul. It's part of our job the state you know after you know has put in place what was acceptable and what wasn't which was the 2%. Um and I think it is our responsibility and also um just something that you know there are legalities put in place for reasons. One was to be most coste effective. Um one was to be able to keep back in the day when it first came out and the 2% it was we were able to function within 2%. Um, unfortunately we're not anymore because of the recent problems, but I I think that that should be um a board deciding to, you know, what they're going to do with that. So, that's just my thought. Like, I would not vote to go to referendum. >> Yeah, sure. Um the the uh
029sentiment behind the idea of having the board vote on whether or not to even hold the conversation, if you will, was kind of along these lines. I mean, if there are nine people on the board, if five people on the board were to vote, uh that this is a worthy conversation, let's at least look into it. versus if five people on the board vote to say, "Nah, we don't even, you know, gently roll your boat downstream." Uh, that kind of gets us going in one direction or another. >> So, we can do that through like a Google form and say, "Are people interested in having this?" And if we get five that say no, we don't. If we get five that say yes, >> then we can. And I was just going to clarify for
030legal purposes, what you're describing is more of like a straw poll than of the that we're taking action. I just wanted to clarify that for the board. Yep. >> Anything else? >> That's it. >> Oh, okay. >> All right. So, I will cover governance. Uh we met on uh Wednesday, November 19th. Um in attendance to begin the meeting, we had Kathy Poria, who's our new NJSBA rep. She came with these fancy little booklets that I'm holding here. Uh and basically she was you know besides doing a general introduction uh as as our NJSBA rep um she talked about some points uh considerations for committee of the whole versus the committee structure that we have now. Um if you wanted to get board certified and some field rep uh service topics that they could present on.
031So she went through a couple of items uh and basically did some introductions which was nice. Um, and if we want to do a board certification, that would be, I think, four trainings a year over four years. And then you could be a certified board member, a certified board, and then you could do individual uh board member certifications as well. Uh, the next topic we covered was the red redistricting options, uh, which Mr. Handler presented at this meeting. And uh the last item here was the uh board orientation manual. Um so I think one of one of the comments was to remove the word orientation. So there's a board manual that basically covers generic uh basic board operations and functions and how the board operates. This is something that we provide to new board members
032when they join the board. It's available to any board member. Um but the comment was hey this is not necessarily an annual update. It is a living document. So if there's any feedback throughout the year of things that want to be improved and changed, we can always provide that feedback. Uh last but not least, talked about the fact that um for new board members, the idea of having a mentoring program just to have them guide through their first year um on the board in case they had any questions. They had a person to reach out to. Uh and I think that was it. Um yeah, we're revising that by the end of the year. Um Um Oh yeah, sorry, one other thing. Uh the superintendent will bring a draft of the 2026 2027 uh board
033of education meeting schedule to the December 19th governance meeting for us to review and that is which is approved at the at the reorg meeting. Right. Reorg meeting as well. All right. And then we talked about student recognition which we did today and we agreed to move forward with that. >> All right. That's it. >> Mr. respect to the board question is that it might be a good idea to make it available to the public as well. >> Sure. Yeah. I think there was a comment in in there that said maybe pull out the board specific information into a separate flyer. So emails, contact information, that kind of stuff would be a separate attachment to the standard board manual. Pull that out and that way it could be made public for anybody. might be helpful
034for people who consider >> my other question with respect to Mr. comments about the discussion about the hospital%. >> So, we will send out a Google >> What's that? >> Yeah, I I think um got some direction to send uh something out to the board. I can do that in Brass or just do a separate Google form and you can give us some feedback. Are you interested in this or not? And I could turn that around relatively quickly. >> Interested in the conversation? interested in having like a like having a retreat type meeting to discuss this. So, >> I'm still confused. I'm sorry. >> Sure. >> About to have a separate retreat and not be able to talk at the D. It's something it's a bud. It's if it's budget, I'm assuming the people of
035the community are very much invested. And so I don't know to put a separate date on the calendar and make people including ourselves come out on this separate date would make sense. I I feel like if we're going to talk about it that we should be able to talk about it right here at you know if we say okay we're going to come with our thoughts. I know the timeline is is a little hairy. I don't know maybe people are not ready to have that conversation right now. if anybody is great. Um, unless and that's unless that's why you're thinking a board retreat because of the timeline and December 22nd would be too late to have a conversation. I think sometimes as well people can speak more freely in a situation that isn't quite being
036uh televised. And there may be a lot of questions and a lot of implications that are not obvious that may require a lot of renditions, a lot of kicking around, a lot of asking the same question over and over again. uh so that people can really understand what the implications are one way or the other and minds might change one way or the other based on deeper information >> and I just wanted to add to either way we we could speak at the deis about this or we could have a board retreat. I think part of you can correct me if I'm wrong Mr. Davis, part of the operations uh committee's wish to have uh another conversation was because like tonight you have a lot of other board business to do and I think there
037just wanted to be just a focus on that conversation rather than a whole lot of other things to to approve. So I just I didn't want to speak for you but I think that was part of it as well. >> Thank you. I mean, the other option is like not rushing this and having this ready for the next time we do a budget and put something in place is also the option because you'd have to make a decision really quick to then put a referendum out there in the same way we said we didn't like rushing it the last time which we're kind of forced into. We'd be really rushing this decision, >> right? MS >> but that's just it. I mean because of the timeline that forces us because of you know what Mr.
038director was saying if we were to go to a referendum, I think we should have a conversation sooner. I I'm concerned about us voting on what, you know, like a survey or whatever before there's a conversation. Um, I mean, it might be, you know, spur the moment, maybe even today. I don't know. But I do think that's important to have that conversation before, uh, minds are made up regarding whether or not we would have an referendum. >> Yep. I guess I don't know. When I think of us going to a retreat, I feel like, you know, there's a great, you know, we don't have people show up necessarily a lot. Um, and it >> it is a public meeting. >> I know it's a public meeting. I do know it's a public meeting, but I
039also feel that there's benefits of like, you know, the public is very respectful in the fact that it is usually something where we try to get work done and the inner workings of the board. I feel like if we start using retreats for things that are such hot topics for the public, it's we lose that balance of being able to work together at a retreat and and take on what we need to figure out amongst ourselves versus where the o you know having I guess I mean I'd rather if we want to talk about this separately at not tonight I'd rather have another board meeting in December in early December to tell you truth instead of calling it a retreat and be very specific about this because I do want the public to be here.
040I feel that we tried to get ahead of our budget issues last year and that there are a lot of uh there was a lot of backlash um with people in the way that they voted and you know that's the community's right but ultimately for me I want people to know what I'm thinking and why I'm thinking it. I voted to increase the taxes and I'm as a taxpayer. I knew what it was going to do to me, right? I, you know, it's not just affecting other people, but I took an oath to do what I thought was best for the district. And I want to be able to say that to the people in the public who question why I voted a certain way versus why I did it. I'm not, and I'm looking
041at you, Joel, but I'm not talking just to Joel. I'm just talking in general. I would prefer it to be in a public forum or something where it's presented in a way that seems like a public forum. I think a retreat again, we've been so grateful to have that time when it's just smaller and when we can, you know, work out, you know, whatever we need to to work out. But I I think this is very much at heart to the community members. I think to have a full board meeting where people can come and speak and I know that that all can happen at a retreat but if those are all the things that are going to happen let's just have another board meeting >> stats >> yeah I think the term retreat is
042misleading and to to your point yeah so have a meeting or we can have a special board meeting or whatever but of course you know be open to the public and in fact I would welcome their input you know so for For that reason, I wouldn't want to call it a retreat because like you said, there's that understanding like oh that's retreat is usually about you know um you know like intra board business whereas this is something that definitely affects the public. So this nope, go ahead. >> December, perhaps we could find a Monday in December before the 22nd to have we could have conversations tonight again. I guess if somebody wants that extra meeting, they would have to put it through as a motion. I don't know. >> Or do we just say that
043that's what we're doing? >> As a motion, we can just schedule the meeting. >> Okay. >> As long as it goes out to the public. Is that what most people are feeling that maybe we can straw poll this right now as to whether we want >> We have our reorganization meeting the first week of January. That's when we decide when our meetings are. So >> we can always adjust the scheduling deadlines as long as we give like a was it three days notice >> this is for before the January deadline. >> Can we take a straw poll about whether we would like an additional meeting or not? Is that allowed? >> We could. >> I I just don't know how you want to go forward because we we don't have anything on the schedule except
044for December 22nd. So, I think people need to decide tonight if they feel that an extra meeting is warranted, is wanted. >> So, if we're doing a Monday, I can tell you right off the bat, the 15th is the only Monday I have available. Um, so if we're looking to do that, it I don't know how many board members we want to have here for that. >> So, so Monday, a Monday public meeting. >> Yes. >> It would be voting for last term retreat, >> right? >> Yeah. And just to clarify too, as I'd said before, you're not really voting on anything. You're just kind of taking the temperature. Do people want to have a meeting and then trying to figure out the best date? >> Yeah, >> I think we have to. >> Does
045it have to be a Monday? >> It does not have to be a Monday. >> I understand December is really crazy for all of us, >> right? I do think the conversation >> hear what you're saying. It doesn't have to be I would feel uncomfortable. So >> yes, and I only said why not a Monday because Mr. Marini indicated that he was only available one Monday in December. Additional Monday. >> Yeah. Yeah. And I mean I I could probably make something else work, but the rest of the days are fairly difficult with soccer and a bunch of other things I have to do with my kids. >> So what would be the Monday when you're available? >> I Well, we already have the 22nd, right? 15th is the one before that. So I'm not even
046in New Jersey on the 9th and I have something else on the 8th and I have something else on the first that I >> So the 15th >> 15th would be the only one I could make. >> I could do the 15th. >> In looking at the calendar, does that impact Hanukkah for anybody? Oh, I said that. Now I don't know because if it's Hanukkah that I can't >> I guess before we all have to break out our calendars. Um I guess whether we would like to schedule a meeting needs to be the the first thing the original >> and then finding a date would be the second step. >> That's that's the second night of Hanukkah which would not >> work. What? >> I don't think I don't think that would work. I >>
047have to double check. >> Can Does anybody want to voice their opinion about whether they would like this? >> Why don't we take the straw poll of who wants to set an additional meeting >> to discuss it? >> Yes. Sorry. Yes. >> All right. Who wants to do a meeting? Show of hands. >> I don't care. >> Public. Yeah, definitely public, but I'm I can talk right now. I'm an open book, so I'll talk any >> that's five. So that's >> Yeah. And the purpose of the meeting is as was discussed during the operations committee report would be to exclusively discuss the question of levies [clears throat] and budgets and and those things. >> So I'd just like to make it clear once the date is picked, I'm not going to put any action items
048on there. It'll so it'll just be for that discussion. and public comment, right? One >> yes, there's always public comment is required. Yes. >> All right. So, I think we can maybe we can do a form for date availability instead of trying to figure that out here today. So, >> I'll get that out tomorrow. >> One date might be that might be good is the 17th. There's at least two committee meetings that evening. We can >> cancel committ cancel the committee meetings um if we need to or >> Yeah. I can't do a Wednesday. >> Are you aren't you on the uh governance committee? >> Well, yeah, but that's done by 6:30. >> I'm I have a prior committee. >> All right. So, we'll do this by email. Um, I'll ask every person individually to
049email me and Mike uh what days they are available in the evening and we'll see if we can get consensus. >> Is that all right for the board members? Let me know. >> Yep. >> Okay. Appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> And that concludes the governness uh meeting minutes. >> All right. Perfect. >> All right. So um we will now move to uh comments from the board public and input on the 2026 2027 budget. Uh we very much welcome input from the public during board meetings will be two periods of time. The meetings will be open for public comment where members of the public are invite comment which they may do if they're attending in person. Uh there's a clipboard for all participants to write their name before commenting. Please state your name and address.
050There's a thin limit on public comment. Please understand that our public forums are not structured as question answer sessions but rather offers opportunities to share your thoughts with the board. An instance where the board believes there's a misunderstanding or inaccuracy board president or superintendent will address the comment. There may be a time when member of the public makes a comment or ask question about personal hiring decisions. Collect Act privacy rights public employees and companies there in the board discuss personal issues in public session. So for this first one either action agenda items or budget comments. >> Hi Amy silent tier and road and ATA first vice president. Um I'm just here to comment about the action item for the 26 to 27 calendar. Um we appreciate the intent of the calendar and how it um
051provides days off that acknowledge the diversity of the Hillsboro population. So that was really nice to see. Uh also realize that it's likely what made spring break shorter than usual. And um we're hoping that we've already provided some feedback and we're hoping that we can continue to maybe collaborate on feedback to um to work on keeping spring break whole as well as can um keeping all of the other acknowledged days off. We do have some ideas for that. We shared some already. So I don't know if tableabling might be an option or not, but if it is, we're very happy. Like we like everything that it has except for that spring break. Many of our members do likely. Um, we're thinking families probably will too. Um, for continuity of learning purposes, families who are going
052to go away for that week are going to go away anyway, which means we'll likely have increased absences on those two days. Um, which makes it really hard to do continuity of learning during that time if you know you're going to be missing anywhere. Like today, I was missing six students. Could be for Thanksgiving, could be for the usual fall cold. Who knows? but to have to deal with, you know, the usual November breaks like that where there's increased absences and then possibly also spring break again for the next school year. Um just something to consider. So again, really appreciate all of the um acknowledge um acknowledging the diversity and if we could work on maybe keeping spring break how it usually is for the reasons I stated it. also weather related things as we
053know um there's always all kinds of weather that can cancel Hillsboro schools besides snow. So again, thank you. Just something to consider possibly tableabling it and and we could work on it together. Thank you. [clears throat] >> Thank you for your comment. >> Seeing no other comments, we'll close the first public comment. Anything by the board before we move on to the action agenda? Kathy, go ahead. >> I got a bit of feedback from some Hillsboro high school students about the um 2026 2027 calendar. There was actually an overwhelming um push to make spring break shorter because a lot of people wanted to sorry a lot of people wanted to keep like they will they assume that the summertime they wanted to feel they want the summer time to feel shorter. So, they would prefer
054a shorter spring break. I got a couple of people to respond back to me. There were about 21 incoming freshmen. Um, only five incoming sophomores, 11 incoming juniors, and 10 incoming seniors. That was in a couple hours, but a lot of them wanted a shorter break. And this is u something that someone said. I would personally want a shorter break because I don't travel throughout spring break. And generally in the past few years, the weather has not been nice. I would rather spend my time off during the summer when it is much nicer out. This year, our schedule has shown to end in late June, which means that it cuts off much of our summer. And I also talked to a lot of student athletes and they argued that they prefer a shorter spring break
055because they don't get to go away anywhere. But I understand that's not all of the population in Hillsboro. >> Thank you. >> I just wanted to thank our student for that. That was I think the first time we had students give us input on the calendar and that perspective was very interesting. I had a lot of >> if I can just add one thing to that today. I want to say um today I got to spend uh some time at the student council meeting at Hillsboro High School. Uh there was I don't know 20 30 kids in the room. Uh no there's less. >> No, we usually have more. It was the first day of winter sports today. So there was so there was there was less than than typical, but Cassie uh really represented
056the board well in there and uh asked people for feedback and then obviously followed up as well. So Cassie, I did just want to commend you for that for being an active participant in the board. >> Yeah, but there was there is controversy. It's not an overwhelm like a completely overwhelming push to make spring break shorter. So if we postpone this, I'll get more information and um hopefully more spots. I'll send out a form to the student body and everything like that. So, >> thank you. And if we do approve, we could always adjust at a future meeting if we need to. So, these things aren't set in stone. >> Okay. >> But yes, please continue to provide the feedback. We really appreciate it. >> All right. Seeing no other comments here, we'll move on
057to the approval of minutes. Uh 10.1 motion to approve public meeting minutes 102725 and 10.2 motion to approve executive session minutes 102725. Can I get a motion to second? So move. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Thank you. All right. We'll move on to the action agenda. >> Thank you. After the board's consideration to approve the following motions in the area of education, professional and travel related expenses, the HIV determinations, 2627 district calendar, new course proposals, overnight trip, field trip destination, accepting funds for the optimal comprehensive universal screening grant in the amount of 17,772, authorizing the submission of the amended FY26 IDEIDA grant application to include carryover funds and the acceptance of carryover funds and proving long-term suspensions of students whose names are on file in the office of the superintendent. >>
058I get a motion to second. >> So move. >> Second. >> Any discussion by the board before we vote? Miss Nurse, >> I would like to see the calendar um postponed. Uh I feel I know that we can approve and then change it later. I think that just causes confusion and chaos and frustration. Um, so I would put that as the last possible choice. Okay. I I feel if people feel strongly about this calendar, they vote tonight and it goes through and I'm a minority, but you know, when we were talking about it um in our committee meetings, I had asked if the HA was their feedback was in here um because I just feel they are the people that are on the front lines of this. They know what happens and I as a
059teacher also know what spring is like. Um it is long especially when you're looking at a spring break um in March. It it does make for a very long spring. The kids start getting restless. Um there is in con there is problems when you're only supposed to be in school for two or three days that there are a lot of families that do take advantage of that and go away. Um so the teachers who are already busy getting ready for state testing. Um at that point you're looking at the end of the third marking period. So uh grading for that marking period. And when we have kids a lot of kids out it it just makes it all the more difficult. So, I really do rely heavily on what the people at the forefront and
060that are in the classes. I I I value their input and I think that it should not be taken lightly. >> Uh Mr. Vi, is there any issue with us delaying approving this by meeting? >> No, there there is not. The reason why I brought it as an action item is it went to the education committee and the education committee was unanimous in bringing it forward. So, there was no reason for me to delay that. Um, that being said, we could remove it from tonight's agenda, send it back to the education committee for further discussion, and I can put it on the um December 22nd. Is that when our meeting is 22nd agenda? >> Okay. >> That's >> Could we still discuss it tonight? >> Sure. Well, even if we motion to dis uh to
061suspend it for a week, there's still a discussion before that motion is voted on. So, if you want to discuss it before that, you can. Can I just say make some points? Sure. Because um we've gotten some push back because of uh you know the that spring break time is fewer days, not a full week, you know, Monday through Friday. Um but then again, if we go if we change it so that we go into uh another another week in June, we might hear people push back from that. So, I I do I do want I do think it's good that we postpone it, but hopefully get feedback from the public in general. Uh students, I love how you were proactive in getting feedback and of course staff. Um one concern I do have though
062is Passover. Now, now remember this is 26 27. Um, Passover in 27 starts on the at sundown on April 21st and the proposed calendar has a half day for students and that afternoon is in service for staff. Now, um, if someone observes uh, Passover, if they want to prepare the sader meal, they would want to probably take off that day. But now the 22nd is a full day off and they would have to contractually get permission to take off on the 21st which is a concern for me and I propose that that day be a half day for everyone and schedule another day on the previous iteration of this uh April 14th was a half day for students and then an inservice in the afternoon. That way we can accommodate those who celebrate Passover, especially
063if we want to prepare the for the first cader meal. >> That's that's a possibility. Yes, >> I like that idea. >> I agree. >> So, if somebody wants to table this, they would need to make a motion to do that. >> I motion to table the vote on the 2627 calendar. Second. >> Okay. Any discussion on this before we vote on tableabling it? >> All right, we'll take >> Oh, sorry. Go ahead. >> Just just I welcome feedback from all positions whe whether or not you you're you're against having that shorter week uh for spring break or you're concerned about um summer starting so much later. It's important to get feedback from everybody. >> Okay, >> Mr. I don't know. I'm not education having that strong discussion now. >> Okay. All right. Seeing no
064other comments, we'll take role. And this will be for suspending this until the next meeting. Tabling this until the next meeting. >> So we can take role. Mr. Davis, >> yes. >> Miss Jackson, >> yes. >> Miss Craig, >> yes. >> Miss Lanning beater, >> yes. >> Mr. Lee, >> yes. >> Miss Nurse, >> yes. >> Miss Stats, >> yes. >> Mr. Trillo, >> yes. >> And Mr. Mine, >> yes. Motion passes. We can take role. Uh, before we Is there any other comments on the rest of the action agenda? Are we okay to move to Okay, see no other comments. We'll move to roll the rest of 11. >> So this is No, you didn't get the motion. >> So this will be 11 11 two >> and then four through nine. >> Mr.
065Davis, >> yes. >> Miss Jackson, >> yes. >> Miss Craig, >> yes. >> Miss Lenning beater, >> yes. Mr. Lee, >> yes. >> Miss Nurse, >> yes. >> Miss Stats, >> yes. >> Mr. Hill, >> yes. >> And Mr. Murray, >> yes. Motion passes. >> Thank you. In the area of human resources, I'd ask for the board's consideration of approving the following motions. Retirements and resignations, appointments, change in employment status, transfer and change in assignment, leaves of absence, doctorate degree stipen payment, revised employment contract, revised seven period coverage, mentors and buddy, revised school counseling department stipens, instructional assistance stipens, co-curricular adviserss, coaches, sports clinics, extra coverage, and a settlement with the HA. Can I get a motion in a second? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion on 12? >> Seeing none, we'll move
066to roll. >> Mr. Davis, >> yes. >> Miss Jackson, >> yes. >> Miss Craig, >> yes. >> Miss Lanning Beater, >> yes. >> Mr. Lee, >> yes. >> Miss Nurse, >> yes. >> Miss Stats, >> yes. >> Mr. Hill, >> yes. >> And Mr. Murray, >> yes. Motion passes. >> Thank you. Thank you. In the area of operations, I'd ask for the board's consideration approving following motions. monthly bills, the fiscal year 2025 audit, contract with Teleaalth Services Northeast, contract with Positive Behavior Supports Corporation, contract with the Hillsboro YMCA for the 2526 school year, contract with Gohar Speech Therapy Services, the disposal approving the disposal and sale of obsolete equipment, contract with Pro Skate Arena for the 2526 school year, uh the proposal for the Girl Scout Gold Award project at Hillsboro Elementary School that was
067referenced in the operations minutes. Uh, tuition student accepting a tuition student, accepting donations, approving out of district placements for the 2526 school year, and approving the land proposal for replacement at Triangle Elementary School. >> Can I get a motion and a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion on 13? >> Miss, >> I just want to thank Mr. Davis for his thorough um explanation of the land proposal. That was very helpful because I had some questions about it and uh um especially the details I provided and also I had uh I was concerned about some of the book the the books that were being disposed of and and I uh uh contacted uh Mr. Vulpi about it because they're classics but >> I mean I suspected um they're not in good shape. They're in really bad
068shape because they've been well used throughout the years in our district. So uh so they're going to a good place. >> Yes. As I had mentioned, disposing of Hamlet is a tragedy. >> Okay, I got a couple laughs. Thank you. >> Sorry. >> Wow. >> I know. I'm sorry. >> Please, let's move to roll. [laughter] >> Mr. Davis, >> yes. >> Miss Jackson, >> yes. >> Miss Craig, >> yes. >> Miss Lanning Beater, >> yes. >> Mr. Lee, >> yes. >> Miss Nurse, >> yes. >> Miss Stats, >> yes. >> Mr. Mr. Hill. >> Yes. And standing on 13.11. >> And Mr. Marin. >> Uh yes. Uh motion passes. >> Thank you. In the area of policies and regulations, I ask for the board's consideration to approve uh policy 6220 for second reading. >> Can
069I get a motion second? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Seeing none, we'll move to roll. >> Mr. Davis? Yes, >> Miss Jackson. >> Yes, >> Miss Craig. >> Yes, >> Miss Lenning Beater. >> Yes, >> Mr. Lee. >> Yes, >> Miss Nurse. >> Yes, >> Miss Stats. >> Yes, >> Mr. Trillo. >> Yes, >> and Mr. Murray. >> Yes. Motion passes. We'll now move to the second public comment session. We very much welcome input from the public. There's a clipboard for all participants to write their name. Before commenting, please state your name and address. There's a three-minute limit on public comment. Please understand that our public forums are not structured as question and answer sessions but rather offered as opportunities to share your thoughts with the board. Instance when the board
070leaves a misunderstanding or inaccuracy the board president or superintendent will address the comment. There many times uh there may be times when a member of the public makes a comment or ask a question about personnel or hiring decisions. Kindly note the public me exact the privacy rights of public employees encompass therein. Do not permit the board to discuss personnel issues in public session. >> Hi. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm ready to go. Uh no problem. Hi uh Grant Culmer and of uh 144 Taylor Avenue. Uh I'm really here to acknowledge and to commend uh some of the administration for their efforts. So uh the administration as such I know I'm in a role in in a similar district where we just don't get acknowledged and praised too much. So I'm coming here to publicly thank uh
071a couple members. One, Superintendent Vulpi and Assistant Superintendent Mr. Handler for their commitment and engagement with community regarding the redistricting project. I very much appreciated your transparency, frequent updates and willingness to engage in the public discourse greatly appreciated. Uh while the finally decision uh will be challenging and it definitely was. I know you're sort of reeling with it uh and not everyone will be happy with it. Uh just the open leadership throughout the process really truly stands out. I really appreciate it. Um, I also want to thank the administration recently for the release of the I Ready scores uh and the letter from uh Dr. Bendis. Thank you. Okay, good. I got it right. Um through the Genesis parent portal as well as I received an email from Miss Baxter's email which uh pertaining to
072providing detailed scores for the gifted and talented programming. Great. Awesome. Um and whether the I Ready scores were posted proactively as a step for uh some parental engagement or whether a response to LER a state mandate whe that was I still just want to acknowledge the level of transparency into student progress and most welcome it is most welcome uh and uh helps provide parents a better support for their children learning. And if I may add just a little bit lastly, I would encourage the district to consider offering all standardized assessments or tests such as NJSLA, Kogats, uh, or WEDA scores in some of the same accessible format through the Genesis parent portal as other school districts do. Providing the scores via that parent portal would give families a clear understanding of their child's progress and
073could even lead to some cost savings rather than mailing out these letters to have just the digital format uh could be a real benefit to it. So I thank you uh for your continuous efforts and your openness uh to engage the public. So thank you. >> Thank you for your comment. Okay, seeing no others, I will close public comment. I'll open it up to any board members who would like to make a comment before the meeting ends. Miss Stance, >> just a quick thank um on November 14th, I saw a performance of She Kills Monsters, a play performed at the high school and uh first of all, it was hilarious, but had some really moving parts to it. And uh anytime you're dealing with comedy, that's that takes a lot of talent because timing and
074all that's really important. Um plus it involved things like Dungeons and Dragons and stuff that I don't understand, but they still were able I mean I was laughing out loud. Um so of course as usual so much talent on the part of our students um you know on stage also behind the scenes and of course the staff. >> Thank you Miss Nurse. I know that we've been reading it in our brass tax updates weekly, so I'm not sure. I guess this is the place. Um, there was some, uh, pondering about the give back day that's scheduled. I know I think it's currently for this year, Easter Monday. Is that correct? I I believe you're correct, but I >> and we were talking about possibly since we are now open for primary day in June, moving
075it there. I am a big proponent of that because I am always safety first, you know, I as much as I would love Easter Monday. I would like everybody to remain as safe as possible. you know, we are constantly training our children how to hide in corners for lockdown drills. And I just feel that that should definitely take precedent over >> um or priority over anything else if we can get that closed if there's a day to do that. >> Yeah. The only thing I I will double check I just don't have it off the top of my head. I forget what the first or second give back day was, but I can get that information out again and that is something that the board can act on. I just want to remind the board
076members that we did um Mr. Eert and myself and Mr. Stoko did work with the township and the county to try and get primaries moved out of the schools. Uh we were only told within the past uh month that that's not going to happen. So that's why I updated you in brass tax because our initiative was try to try and get voting out of the schools. Unfortunately, we are where we are. So to follow up, Miss Nurse, I just don't want the the board to make an uninformed decision right now. And by uninformed I mean I don't have all my facts in a row. Uh I will certainly bring that back uh and make sure that you can make uh there's a lot of time before June but I know the sooner sooner is is
077better than later. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Any other point stats? It it is frustrating because we used to have other locations that were polling locations and uh with how tight our calendar is and you know all these all these restrictions on it the having uh a primary day any election day um cause yet another problem especially when it comes to the safety of our staff and students. Um it's a shame that we don't have other resources like we used other locations like we used to. >> Yeah. I mean we're trying to figure out a way to take get it out of school districts completely but we're not at that point yet. Cassie, >> I would just like to congratulate the pride of Hillsboro Raider Marching Band who won the captain awards of best percussion
078and best guard in the US band's New Jersey state championships, as well as the Hillsboro High School debate team who won the outstanding ovation award at their debate competition this weekend. And also, I wanted to let you guys know that we're doing really great with fundraising in the high school right now. And it's for various causes like we're having this um senior citizen dinner that we do every year. Um also for our spirit night at the end of the year and we're going to donate to a state charity once we've gotten money from our different fundraising. So I'll let you guys know how those go after they happen. >> Awesome. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Any other board members? Okay. Seeing none, we'll take a motion to adjurnn. >> So moved. >> Second. All in
079favor? >> All right, we'll see you next month. Thanks. >> Happy Thanksgiving.