001Hello and welcome to the Monday, June 23rd, 2025 Hillsboro Township Board of Education meeting in accordance with 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 Courier News. Uh, can I can we please take role, Mr. Record? Mr. Davis, Miss Jackson here, Miss Craig here, Miss Lanny Beer, here. Mr. Lee here, Miss Nurse, Miss Stats here, Mr. Hill, and Mr. Murray here. We have a quorum. Motion to move into executive session. Whereas the public meetings act chapter 231 of laws of 1975 provide that a public body may exclude the public from that portion of the meeting of which the public body discusses certain matters for which confidentiality is required as
002committed in section 7B of the act resolved to the board of educa board of education of the town of Hillsboro and the county of Somerset state of New Jersey as follows. The matters to be discussed are the superintendent's evaluation, a student disciplinary manner, uh a grievance hearing, and negotiations. Uh the matters 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? So move. Second. All in favor? All right. We'll be back around 7:30. Thank you. Hello and welcome back to the Monday, June 23rd, 2025 Hillsboro Township Board of Education meeting. We are now back from executive session. Uh Mr. Eard, if we could please take ro. Mr. Davis, Miss Jackson here. Miss Craig, Miss Landing Beater here, Mr. Lee here,
003Miss Nurse here, Miss Stats here, Mr. Hill here, and Mr. Marin here. We have a quorum. Uh, let's stand for uh the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the stand with all. All right, I'd like to acknowledge the correspondents as listed on the agenda. Uh we will move on to the board president's report. All right, we're going to read some proclamations. Uh proclamation for recognizing Pride Month. Whereas the month of June is observed as Pride Month, a time to honor uh the Stonewall uprising of June 1969, widely acknowledged as a pivotable pivotable moment that spurred the movement for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other sexual and gender minority rights. And whereas our nation's foundation foundational principles affirm that all individuals are created equal, possessing inherent rights
004to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and deserve the full recognition and protection of the law. And whereas public health data, including findings from the Center for Disease Control, indicates that LGBTQ plus youth face elevated risks of experiencing violence and higher rates of suicide, it is therefore crucial that all young people in our community, irrespective of their sexual orientation or gender identity, feel genuinely genuinely valued, secure, empowered, and supported by their classmates, educators, and community leaders. And whereas Hills Hillsboro Township Public Schools is committed to cultivating an environment of acceptance for all students and actively working to prevent discrimination and bullying based on sexual orientation and gender identity, our school community is undoubtedly enriched and thrives through the diverse tapestry of ethnic, cultural, racial, gender, and sexual identities among our students, families, and staff,
005all of whom contribute to the vibrant character of our educational system. And whereas Hillsboro is indeed a welcoming community and an outstanding place to live, learn, work, grow. And whereas the LGBTQ members of the Hillsburg community are integral to various fields and professions significantly contributing to a stronger more inclusive society. Now therefore be proclaimed that we the Hillsbor Township public schools do hereby recognize June as pride month within our district. As board president I would like to present a copy of this proclamation to Janette Cena the chair of the staff LGBTQ alliance and Kevin Hodelik the adviser for the student GSA. [Music] [Applause] Got a few more. Uh the next proclamation of the Hillsboro Township Board of Education uh commending the Hillsboro High School girls track and field team for their championship achievements. Whereas the
006pursuit of excellence in athletics embodies the spirit of education perseverance and teamwork qualities that enrich our school community. And whereas the Hillsboro High School girls track and field team has demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to these values throughout their remarkable history, most recently in the 2024 2025 season. And whereas the Hillsboro High School girls track and field team has achieved an outstanding season, securing victories as Skyland Conference relay champions, Somerset County Relay champions, Skyland Conference champions, and Somerset County champions. And whereas these remarkable achievements underscore the team's consistent dominance, exceptional skill, unwavering dedication, and outstanding team spirit. And whereas these championship victories represent the culmination of countless hours of rigorous training, unwavering support from coaches, families, and the entire Hillsboro community, and a testament to the athletes individual and collective talent. And whereas achieving these multiple
007championships brings immense pride and recognition to the Hillsbor High School and the entire Hillsboro Township School District. And whereas the Hillsboro High School girls track and field team has served as outstanding role models for our students, demonstrating the importance of sportsmanship, dedication, and relentless pursuit of excellence. And whereas the team's consistent performance has established Hillsborough as a powerhouse in New Jersey high school track and field, showcasing the high level of athletic talent within our district. [Applause] If I could have anybody from the girls track team please go behind the go behind the camera and up against the wall. Yeah. [Applause] So Cassie Montoy is going to represent the uh girls track team. And maybe you just want to introduce yourself to the community and talk about what it's like to be part of a perennial
008powerhouse with the multiple championships we had uh behind there. And um maybe you want to speak about your coaching staff as well. Hi, I'm Cassie Montoy. I'm an incoming senior at Hillsboro High School. Um we just wanted to thank everyone for being here and recognizing our achievements this season. Uh we work super hard. We practice every day. uh we go to wait room, we are always running as obviously. Um yeah, it just means a lot to have this accomplishment and so many down um like in the trophy case. So yeah, we just want to thank everyone for being here and also our coaches. Coach Rudy's here today supporting us and Coach Reapy couldn't make it, but we want to thank him too for his outstanding coaching. Thank you, Cassie. And before Before President Marini reads
009the next proclamation, I do want to say if you didn't notice when you were driving by Hillsboro High School, uh, Coach Reefy had a real milestone that I think it's important to point out. Coach Reefy this past season coached his 100th season in Hillsboro as a coach. No, you are not hearing that incorrectly. 100 seasons, not 100 years. Okay? 100 seasons as a coach. So, congratulations to Coach Reefy. Now, we do have some other people to recognize as well. All right, the next proclamation is for the Hillsborough High School boys volleyball team for achieving the Skyland Cup championship title. Whereas, the pursuit of excellence in athletics embodies the spirit of dedication, perseverance, and teamwork. qualities which enrich our school community. Whereas the Hillsboro High School boys volleyball team has demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to these
010values throughout the remarkable history and most recently in the 2025 season. Whereas the Hillsboro boys volleyball team achieved a significant milestone by winning the Skyland Cup championship title. Uh this remarkable achievement underscores the team's consistent dominance, exceptional skill, unwavering dedication, and outstanding team spirit. This championship victory represents the culmination of countless hours of rigorous training, unwavering support from coaches, families, and the entire Hillsburg community and a testament to the athletes individual and collective talent. And we just found out, first of all, you can clap for the volleyball team and hang on one second and we would like to just one second. We would like to commend Jack Casey as the 2025 Skyland Conference Coach of the Year. [Applause] Can I have the boys volleyball team and coach Casey please come up over here for a
011picture? Please walk uh to the side of the camera. Do I have any any volleyball players here too? Yeah. Yeah, please. Yeah, come on. [Applause] Coach Casey is going to say a couple words about his season and his team. Uh I also just found out this morning about the coach of the year award. Congratulations. Uh thank you. Uh but really it is just a testament to the athletes. Um they put together such an impressive season. They had a one and4 start to the season that they then went on a 24 game win streak which I had to keep checking to make sure that was the real number as it kept going up and up and up. Um but a truly dedicated team that was resilient. Uh faced down game point match point again and again
012and just kept that record going. Uh couldn't go quite to the state championship but we made it just right there. the semis and it was a really proud of everything they did this season. It was awesome job. Congratulations. And we have one more team that we would like to honor. All right. Uh we would like to commend the Hillsboro High School baseball team for achieving the Central Jersey Group Four Sectional Championship title. Whereas the pursuit of excellence in athletics embodies the spirit of dedication, perseverance, and teamwork, qualities that enrich school community, the Hillsboro High School baseball team has demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to these values throughout the remarkable history and most recently the 2025 season. The Hillsboro High School baseball team achieved a historic milestone by winning the Central Jersey Group Four Sectional Championship title.
013And this remarkable achievement marks the first time since 2012 that the Hillsboro High School baseball team has secured this prestigious sectional championship, underscoring their exceptional skill, unwavering dedication, and outstanding team spirit. This championship victory represents the culmination of countless hours of rigorous training, strategic preparation, and wavering support from coaches, families, and the entire Hillsboro community. a testament to the athletes individual and collective talent and achieving the Central Jersey Group Four Sectional Championship brings immense pride and recognition to the Hillsboro High School in the entire Hillsboro Township School District. Congratulations and one second. One second, coach. One second. One second, coach. Also like to commend Matthew Moscow as the 2025 Central Jersey Sports Radio Coach of the Year. Now the baseball team can come up here for a picture. Can I get all coaches and players
014to come up for a picture? [Applause] I'm convinced at this point you're doing this just for the memorabilia. For those of you who don't know, um, I collect Hillsboro Sports memorabilia and in my office I have lots of autographed items and now I have the seniors autographed the ball for me from the championship team and everybody else I have a picture too. So these will be going up proudly in my office as well. So I want to sincerely thank the baseball team for for knowing that about me and for putting something together. And I also want to sincerely thank the baseball team coach before I turn it over to you. You were the ninth seed, right? Correct. you you you aren't supposed to be winning state sectional titles. No. So, can you can you kind
015of tell the community here, you know, going into the tournament as the nine seed, you know, what are you thinking and then and then kind of what what happened from there? Absolutely. So, um special group of players this year, our our senior class we've been looking forward to this year for a few years now with their talent, with their leadership skills, with their ability level. Um so, we were very excited at the start of this year and started off five and one, very hot. Uh we had a rough middle patch of our year, but then we finished up really strong with six and one finish with four of those wins coming uh in our state tournament as the nine seed. Uh I give a lot of credit to the players, obviously our coaching staff, tremendous
016preparation this year. Um our conference is loaded with very good teams across the state and that prepared us as well too for our state tournament run uh which was on the road for two games. We knocked off the number one seed in Central, one of our top rivals. Um, we got a home game with our neighbors at Montgomery that we uh we took care of business there. And then we went on the road against Oldbridge and had a a real nice comeback win. We were down six to three in the uh fifth inning. We scored 10 runs in the last three innings to uh to go ahead 13 to six with our final score there. Amazing, amazing, amazing feat this year. The one thing that I wanted to point out to and the other coaches
017um the players maybe the parents can can point this out too. What I noticed when you guys won and you were presented with the trophy is you were so stoic like you were so calm like you didn't get excited about that and any I'm joking for those of you who are there. The guy was jumping through the the ceiling and well outside there's no ceiling but uh there's this picture of you on on central jersey.com or whatever. I don't know if you've seen it. You know we talk about in this school district joy and purpose and I think you captured that in that picture when you were jumping up receiving that trophy and bringing it over to your players. Can you talk about what that moment meant for you when when you guys finally won
018that? Of course. I mean, I think it might be on your collage there as well, too. One of the bottom picture corners possibly. Not not the one I'm thinking of. Oh, wait. There's one. There's one. Yes, that's that works very well. As as an alum of the district, as a current employee of the district, as a resident of this town, it it meant a lot to everybody involved in this, the parents, past players, past coaches. Um the program will be there forever. these seniors are moving on, but they've they've hung a banner in the gym. They've updated the banner on the back of our dugout. Um, and it means a lot to to me personally, to my coaching staff, um, to everybody involved at the program that the amount of texts that I was getting
019that night. The the phone call I received from you and and Mr. Dolo, the principal at the high school was special as well too. I saved those on my phone. Um, hearing from a lot of the community and also coaches from around the state as well, too, uh, was was very special. uh because it's been a rough few years as far as our success levels uh and and the culmination of that this year even with a record of 14 and 11 was was very very special and something that these boys and their families will cherish forever hopefully. Absolutely. Nothing can ever take that away from you and uh thank you coach Moscow. I really want to thank all of our teams, all of our coaches, all of our parents, all of our players and especially
020our seniors especially if you graduated and you came back for a board meeting tonight to be recognized. Thank you so much for that. Congratulations again, coach. Thank you very much. And and I can say I think the finals was during the senior awards. So I was sitting next to Principal Dlo and he's falling on his phone. Jane and I were sitting there getting updates during the game and we're like down and then we're coming back and stormed all the way back. So it was really I could tell he was following along very intently and very excited when you guys won. So congratulations again. Sure. Yeah. I think we'll take a a two to three minute break if you want to take any pictures or say thank you and then uh we'll continue on with the
021meeting. Thank you. All right, sir. All right. Uh, we're going to take about 30 more seconds and then we'll continue. All right, welcome back. Um, just to wrap up the superintendence report, um, I'm happy if you guys have seen the agenda. We're taking a final vote on the contract with the HSA. HA wrong letter. HA. So, we're happy that we're going to be agreeing to that uh with a five-year agreement. So, that'll be on the agenda and uh pass it off for the superintendence report. Thank you, Mr. President. For the first part of my superintendence report, I would like to I think I see her in the audience. Invite Katie Fina to the podium from the American Heart Association. we in Hillsboro Township and many of my teachers, particularly my physical education teachers, have done
022a lot of work uh with the American Heart Association. So Katie, I know you wanted to say a few words and if you just want to tell me when to advance some of the slides, that would be great. Yeah, perfect. You guys can hear me. All right. Yes. Thank you guys for inviting me. I know it's a very busy agenda. Um so I'm glad that I could have a few moments to recognize our amazing volunteers here. So just quickly to introduce myself and who I am. Um I'm Katie. I'm with the American Heart Association and I cover Somerset County working with our schools that participate in our school programs. Um so if you want to hit it to the next slide, I just wanted to kind of share with you guys all the things that
023we've done um over you know since the '9s uh since the 1900s um everything that has taken place because of the volunteers and because of the work that your teachers are doing in our schools. And so tonight is that night to really recognize everything that they've done. You guys can see up here, we've made huge impacts. And while we know that heart disease is still the number one killer, we've cut those deaths in half alongside stroke deaths. And so things um like heart transplants we know are super successful now. And so we thank everyone who has participated in our programs, parents, families, um and the teachers as well. We can go to the next slide. This is just a quick glance look at all the schools, including the six that you guys have participating in
024the Hillsboro Township School District. But we're reaching millions of families. We are having um thousands of schools participate and we are so lucky to have your six be a part of us. Next slide. And this is really where this is just one year to recap, but I know that our volunteers who are here and the ones that are were not able to make it because I know that it's uh school has let out and they're on vacation. But this is just a quick glance of everything that uh these teachers have done for us. So, like I said, six participated. Over 3,300 students and staff are receiving hearthealthy information, and that's in various capacities. Some schools will kick off our programs where I come in and we kick it off that way. Other staff members are
025introducing it to their whole school in smaller class sizes and then they are taking the time, the effort, the dedication, and that hard work to plan activities throughout the entirety of our program. From that 3,300, we have over 1,100 students and families that completely committed to our program. They registered, they're online, they're receiving hearthealthy information, and they're also able to take some challenges, which leads me to the next one. Um, oh, sorry, can we go back to that? Sorry, last the next bullet point. But, um, we've had 184 students and their families learn handsonly CPR. And so that's one of the biggest things that we want to reach with our families is that yes, these volunteers are leading it with amazing activities in their classroom, but the families still have a community engagement piece where
026they're at home learning hands only CPR with their families. And so while that number to some might look like only 184 out of the 3,300 that receive this information, we like to at least triple that number because that's just 184 students. we know that there is a parent helping them or a guardian and there might be some siblings watching along as well. Um, just last thing to say about this slide is that collectively over these six schools there was $55,000 raised going back to the American Heart Association so that we can continue to do what we do and continue to um improve our mission. And of that six, it's changed a little bit since I sent this over to be board approved to share it, but now $6,000 has gone back and been invested into
027the schools to advance your health and PE equipment, the department, and to continue to give back to your students. Now, we're ready for those pictures. Okay, these are this is just a small small snippet. Not every school is included in this because sometimes it's just we're so excited um and there's no time for photos. But over at Triangle, Ron is I don't even know what he calls it. To me, it's a giant skip it. But he's getting all of his third and fourth graders involved in his kids heart challenge. We have principles and the the volunteer the PE volunteers who are getting slime to celebrate. Um we had Hillsboro Elementary. We had 17 teachers, I think it was, commit to doing an inflatable race. So, um it was hilarious. It was fun. And it was
028a great way to wrap up their kids heart challenge. and I'm lucky that I've been invited to all these events and again highlighting AEDs. So, we're talking about heart health in so many different capacities. And my last slide to focus and highlight on these volunteers and to give them some recognition that they deserve all over all of the years that they've participated. Um, if I call your name and you're here, I know there's only a couple of you, but at Auton Road, we have Roz and Jack who have done an amazing job. I have a certificate of appreciation for you guys. um at Amsterdam. I know Scott couldn't be here, but we have Uncle Scott, Serena, and Jason over at HS. Thank you guys. Thank you, Jack. Thank you guys. At Sunnyme, we have Christian
029who took it on within that first year. Triangle, Ron has been leading the program. And I know Jason, you're over at Woods Road as well, but we have Megan, who has um taken over that program as well. And the last group of people that I want to thank are you, Mr. Vulby, for saying for allowing them to do this, and to the principles for saying yes to the program, the main office staff, everyone in the Hillsboro community is so so kind um and accepting, and I'm very excited to continue the work that we are doing with your school district. So, thank you guys for letting me have a few minutes. I appreciate everything that you guys have done. So, thank you. Would any of my would any of my PE teachers like to make a
030comment about your efforts? Serena, you at least have to tell me who won the HS inflatable race because that's pretty cool. Well, I have to tell you the inflatable race. First of all, this the fact that 17 of our staff members volunteered and purchased their costumes to race in that was amazing. Um, when I first started this ever ago, um, we only raised I shouldn't say we only raised, but we raised like three we started as $3,000 and we raised over $18,000 this year um, as our little elementary school that we are. So, um, that is impressive. But, um, our winner was our first year teacher, Mr. Slater came in first place. But, we had best distraction, which was Mrs. Hornberger and best dance moves while she was on her way down there with Mrs.
031Lori. So, it was very fun. So, thank you again for supporting this. Thank you so much everyone. Thank you Katie. We'll continue to partner with you. My superintendence report continues and I'm sorry it's it's going a little bit longer than we had thought. Um but I I need to go over something that's that's very important and relative to to everyone here. One of the things I want to make sure of is that I provide consistent fiscal and financial information, not only to the board, but to the community. So, part of my superintendent report is about the fair funding school fight. Um, and that fight for me continues, and I'll tell you why it continues. Um we all know that the board took action to take uh advantage of the opportunity provided by the state um
032in raising the tax levy and some people are certainly going to feel that some more than others. That's why it's so important for me to be fiscally responsible moving forward. The other thing that couples with tax increases also has to do with home assessments. And when you have home assessments along with the tax increases, those are the two things that can can increase your property tax bill. It's not one or the other. Um, we raised the levy for the school fund and when the township assesses and the county assesses your houses that makes it go up as well. And I was having a conversation with my mother recently and said, "Yeah, you know, I for those of you who don't know, I'm also a Hillsboro resident." I said, "My taxes are going to be higher,
033not only because we're raising taxes uh for the general levy for our education program here in Hillsboro, but also because my home assessment went up a lot this year." And my mom who lives in Middle Sex County in Woodbridge Township said, "What do you mean?" I said, "Well, you understand. You know, when you raise the tax levy, the taxes go up, but also when your house gets reassessed, that causes your taxes to go up as well. What do you mean you got your house reassessed?" I said, "What do you mean? What do I mean?" And it led me down this rabbit hole that it's important for me to share with the Hillsboro community. Taking a step back for a second, I do want to go over part of the state aid formula and some of
034the variables. And I'll try not to bore you and I'll try to make this as concise as possible. We all understand the local cost share. One of the variables in the local cost share in the state aid formula has to do with property values. I don't care if you understand the formula behind me or not or all the wordage wording, but please take a look in red. that certainly property values are a part of the state aid formula. I think we can all agree to that. So when I was having conversations with my mother and talking about property values and houses being reassessed, she didn't understand what I meant. And I was ready to like start pulling my hair out because I'm like, "What do you mean your your house gets reassessed? The value goes
035up." And my mom said, "No, no, no it doesn't." I go, "What do you mean it doesn't?" My mom told me, "We bought our house in 1977 when you were four years old for $74,000." And I said, "Well, what's the assessed value right now?" She told me, " $80,000." Her house was assessed at $80,000. Any house in New Jersey at $80,000 is is insane. So, I did some digging and continued to look a little bit further. So, if you if you look at the board behind me, I want to show you a little history of me. And you you won't be able to figure out where these houses are specifically, but there's a picture of my childhood home and there's a picture of my current home. One is in Woodbridge Township and one is in
036Hillsboro. The current township assessed value in of my parents house, as I just said, is $80,000. 80 not 800 80. The current assessment of my home is $730,000. How many times have these houses been assessed in Hillsboro? Our houses are assessed for tax purposes on an annual basis. Meaning that when tax assessors look at our houses, they assign a value. That value goes up. We have higher property values in Hillsboro. According to Woodbridge Township, my parents house is only worth $80,000 and they have been reassessed three times since 1977. They were only assessed anytime they did work on the house, not annual assessments like they do here in Hillsboro. So, I was like, you know what? I said, maybe my parents just live in a really crappy house, although I visit them and everything, too.
037It's not that bad. So, I said, "Let me just go on Zillow, which has nothing to do in any way, shape, or form with the state aid formula, and see how much the market value is." My parents market value of their house is about $530,000. So, their assessed value is about 15% of that. My house on Zillow is around $915,000. I was pleasantly surprised, but my assessment is at 80% of market value. So, my house market value is worth 915, assessed at 730. My parents' house is assessed around 530, assessed at $8,000. When your house is assessed that low, the only way that you can raise the amount of taxes you need is to have a higher tax rate. So, Woodbridge Township pushes their tax rate higher because their assessed values are lower. and that's
038how they get their money. We comparatively looking at at Hillsboro have a lower relative tax rate. I'm sure some people would say it's still too high, but relative to Woodbridge, we have a lower tax rate because our assessments are higher and the actual property taxes when you figure out for for the amount value is comparable in each. No, nobody's paying they're not paying much less than than than we are here in Hillsboro. The amounts are comparable. But my question is if the state aid formula is partially be uh based on property value, does the equalized value variable control for this? Maybe it does. Maybe there are people out there smarter than me who can quickly explain this. But I'm looking for answers and haven't gotten any. And I don't think anybody sitting in this room
039right now knows, hey, yeah, the formula definitely accounts for this by we really don't know. So what did I do next? I started doing my homework and I started looking around Somerset County because you know what's happened in Somerset County with state aid over many years, right? Who's been hit the hardest? Hillsboro has been hit the hardest. So as I started looking around, I started looking at the different municipalities. Now, most of them say they do it annually like Hillsboro, but when you get into the details with some of the towns, now I don't have all the details for all of the towns. When you look at like Peepac, Gladstone, and I forget which district they they uh go into, but they do theirs annually, but on a four-year rotation, which means they're doing the
040property assessments every year, but your house is only getting hit once every four years. If you look at uh Bernard's uh they're inspecting approximately 20% of the township properties each year. So you're probably getting hit once every five years whereas I know I'm getting hit in Hillsboro each and every year. Um Warren uh they're they're doing um every they're field inspecting every property approximately every five years. Um, if you look at some other ones, Somerville, their last county, their last townshipwide assessment evaluation was in 2010. And even the ones that say annually, I just don't have all of the details. Southbound Brook, their last evaluation townwide was in 2009. Montgomery, right down the road, their last townwide evaluation assessments for assessments was in 1998. They do assess when there's uh property changes made, but that
041is when. So, here's my problem. My problem is we have a variable in the state aid formula that is not being applied equally across all municipalities and all school districts. And my question is again, does the state aid formula somehow account for this that everything is equalized or is this something that I can't get answers on? Because nobody knows. The big question behind me again is does the equalized value component of the state aid formula uh take care of this at all? How does it or does it? I don't know. And you know, we have a gubernatorial election coming up and everybody that I've spoken to, every lawmaker, every even sometimes, you know, board members or anybody, well, the next governor, well, the next governor, the next governor is going to take this on. So,
042I want to put a call out right now to both Mikey Cheryl and Jack Chidarelli. One of the two of you is going to be the next governor in the state of New Jersey. And I would suggest that you get on the front side about figuring out about the state aid formula so it doesn't take another year once you're elected and have somebody answer this question. Is potentially the state aid formula off because houses are being assessed differently in different communities. Now I will again say maybe it is but nobody can tell me that. So I would love if somebody could tell me that. I would love if either candidate would reach out to me to have a continued discussion about state formula funding and go over these variables. And I think it's also important
043for the people of Hillsboro to know uh this little nugget of information that I discovered. As I discover more information, if either candidate reaches out to me, you can get you can get a seat with me at any time. I will report back to the board and I will certainly report back to the community as well. So, thank you for that time. Um, moving on. I still have other things to talk about, too. Okay, something fun. On our website, we now have an AI chatbot. If you go down into the bottom corner of our website, which I'm not going to be able to pull up right now, but I can maybe pull up a picture. In the bottom right corner, you'll find an H and you can click on it and you can ask any
044questions of our AI chatbot. Who's the board president? It should tell you Paul Marini. Who's the superintendent? It should tell you Mike Vulpi. When's the first day of school? what phone number can I call for this? So, we are hoping that people start to use this uh AI chatbot for a couple of reasons. As this is used, we can see what questions people are asking and we can prioritize and bolster those things on our website. And honestly, when an AI chatbot first starts, first starts, it sometimes makes mistakes and the more you ask it the questions and the more it tells you who's the board president. If somebody says Mike Vulpi, we can correct it and say, "No, it's Paul Marini." and then we get those corrections over time. So, it's just another way that
045we are trying to reach out to the community to find ways that we can communicate with you that is easy for you. Sometimes digging through a website is tough and we want to make it as easy as possible. So, please check it out and the more questions you ask, the better it's going to be. The last item on my superintendent report is an exciting item. We have two new hires on the agenda tonight and they are going to be the two newest members of our administrative team and I'd like to introduce both of them and give them an opportunity to introduce themselves to the Hillsboro community. Uh the first person is going to be our new supervisor of social studies and gifted education and that is Noel Baxter and she is coming to us from
046Scotch Plains where she has been a supervisor for 13 years. Is that corre? 13 years total as a supervisor, right? Is am I right about that? Sorry, 14 years. Yeah, she's very experienced. Let's put it that way. And in the area of social studies and we are very excited to have her on board. Uh we seem to be getting a lot of people from Scotch Plains recently. And as long as you're good, we'll keep taking you. So, uh Noel, if you wouldn't mind, uh coming up to the podium. Uh welcome. First of all, give her a little round of applause if we could and just uh tell us a little bit about yourself and she'll be starting with us on July 1. Sure. Thank you. I just want to say thank you for this opportunity.
047I'm really excited to be joining the team. Um it is nice to be coming to a team where I do have some familiar faces which is great. Um but I'm really excited to get started. Um uh my family is here. So we do live in Bernardville. So that was um very helpful to know about um you know how things are working across the county. Um I'm like I said I'm just really excited to be joining the team here. I love being a supervisor. I love working with teachers. Um, social studies is definitely my passion, but I've been, you know, had the, uh, opportunity to supervise other areas over the the several years that I've done this job. Um, so I'm looking forward to working with the gifted and talented team as well. Um, and again,
048just thank you. I'm really excited to be here. Welcome aboard, Noel. You got to wait a little bit down the agenda. Your name will formally come up and then you'll actually be hired, but it's still nice to to get to know you. And then uh I'd like to introduce Dan Polus too who is going to be our new supervisor of physical education, health, and nursing. And Dan is one of our own. He currently works for us here at Hillsboro High School and is a budding leader and has a lot of experience in both physical education and curriculum development. And we are happy to get him on board too. Dan, would you mind uh coming to the podium too and introducing yourself to the Hillsboro community? I guess your superintendence report is going to be a
049little bit longer because I prepared something. That's great. Please feel free. So, good evening, Mr. Marini, Mr. Vulpi, members of the board, and the community. I'm honored and truly grateful for the opportunity to serve as a new K12 supervisor of health, physical education, and nursing. I first want to thank the board and the district leadership team for placing your trust in me to be an advocate for the health and well-being of our children throughout the interview process. your commitment to our students shine through time and time again. My mission in this new role includes two overarching objectives, both of equal importance. First, I will ensure that our students receive the best most meaningful health and physical education experience possible while preparing them to live healthy and active lifestyles. I look forward to accomplishing this objective
050by supporting and collaborating with our K12 health and physical education teachers in coordination with our administrative team. My second objective is to support our dedicated nursing staff with providing quality health care for our learning community. Our nurses are expected to serve in many critical capacities, assessing student health, administering medications, managing chronic conditions, providing first aid, developing individual care plans, and educating students and staff on the health and wellness topics that are just are just a few of their many actions our nurses take on a daily basis. I look forward to working alongside our nurses and being a proponent of their challenging yet rewarding duties. Thank you, Mr. Vulpi, and the entire district's leadership team for taking such a vested and genuine interest in the success of my new role. I couldn't ask for a better
051group of professionals to work with, and together, I know we will continue to put the wellness of our learners first and give our students the tools they need to live healthy, active, and meaningful lives. Thank you again for this exciting opportunity, and I'm ready to get to work. Thank you, Dan. Have you met Noel? Because you're going to be right down the hallway from her, so you might as well say hello. And and and do you know Jack? He's one of your He's gonna be one of your teachers. Okay. Awesome. Awesome. Congratulations to both of the new supervisors. A little bit down the list, uh you will be formally approved and then you're hired and you both have July 1st start dates. And Mr. Mr. President, that now concludes my superintendence report. All right. Awesome.
052Let us continue. So, we will move on to committee reports. Uh we'll start with education. Miss Jackson. Um we met um last week. Can't recall the date. Um but um based on the agenda um we reviewed the new performing arts, music and related arts courses. Um HHS course title changes um HMS and HHS math curriculum. Uh new curriculum for algebra 1 part one and algebra 1 part 2 CP. uh new curriculum for US2 history and uh approval of ARIS HMS literacy course title changes uh grade six fiction book and I think that was um nope we had um the motion there'll be a motion to approve the dance art music and applied technology curriculum And I think that's it. All right. Thank you very much. Uh we will move on to HR, Miss Nurse. Yes.
053Our committee met on Wednesday, June 18th. We started with a personnel matter and then talked about um a request for building monitors. Um we then moved on to a discussion about a few unbudgeted positions within the special ed department because of our increase in numbers um to and our need to meet the code. We uh then talked about the approval of the supervisors that you just met and um we had a few other personnel matters that we needed to discuss and we had a brief discussion on the vote 16NJ which I believe is going to be a discussion uh at this meeting. Okay. Thank you very much. Um Mr. Davis is not here, so I will cover operations. And I'm just looking through my minutes because I was here. I believe we discussed the uh
054building rental fee schedule, um, which we will be updating. Uh, we discussed the status of the Bloomingdale environmental cleanup and payments that were outstanding for that effort. Uh, we also talked about the Catholic Charities uh, agreement for before and afterare uh, programs. Um, we discussed uh anformational item on the eligibility of resident non-resident students. Um, and we agreed to bring uh a policy update to the board. Um, and discuss submit your uh recognition items um and an update in the status of the protective gate at Hillsboro High School project. All right. And for the governance meeting, a little bit shorter of agenda. We did again talk about the midyear reorganization appointment consolidation that we have on the agenda tonight. Uh we already have 100 items or so, so we figured we'd consolidate that as best
055as possible. We also discussed the votes vote 16J which we'll be discussing. And we discussed about the uh pending board retreat uh discussing that we would send kind of a date um assessment for board members for their availability uh for that moving forward. All right. So with that, uh we will now move on to the first public comment period. Uh public input on the reorganization and regular action agenda. We very much welcome Hippo from the public. During the board meetings, there'll be two 30-minute periods of time that they may be open for public comment where members of the public are invited to comment which they may do if they're attending in person. During the first public comment period, members of the public may comment about items that are listed on tonight's agenda before the board
056votes. There's a second public comment period. Members of the public may comment on any school district issue that a member of the public feels may be of concern of the residents of the school district. As for B 0167 before you say your com, you'll be asked to provide your name and address. There's a third limit on public comment. Please understand that a public forum is not structured as question sessions rather offers opportunities to share your thoughts with the board. Instance with the board believes there are misunderstanding or accuracy. The board president or superintendent will address the comment. There may be times a member of the public uh makes comment a question about personal hiring decisions. kindly note the own public meetings act the private rights of public employees that come to their end did not
057permit the board to discuss personal issues in public session. Do we have any members of the public that wish to make comments? All right, seeing none, I will close the first public comment period. Uh we'll discuss the vote NJ session after the action agenda. So, we can now move on to the uh we'll do the approval of minutes. 10.1 motion to approve regular meeting minutes May 12th, 2025 and motion to approve executive session minutes May 12th, 2025. Can I get a motion in a second? Second. All in favor? All right. Now, we'll now move on to negotiations. Yeah. So, uh as Mr. Marini had mentioned before, we came to an agreement with the HA. So, I would ask for the board's consideration to approve the negotiations agenda as follows. Ratifying the agreement between the Hillsboro
058Township Board of Education and the Hillsboro Education Association for the term of July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2030. Can't even fathom that, but through 2030. All right. Can I get a motion in a second? Second. Uh, any discussion? I'm not sure how much we can discuss this before voting, but any discussion for the board. All right, seeing none, we'll move to roll. Miss Jackson, yes. Miss Craig, yes. Miss Lanning beater, yes. Mr. Lee, yes. Miss Nurse, yes. Miss Stats, yes. Mr. Ho, yes. And Mr. Murray, yes. Motion passes. Congratulations. Congratulations, and thank you for everybody who's been involved with that. Um, I'd ask for the board's consideration of the following motions when it comes to the midyear reorganization. Designation of signitories, official newspaper, depositories for school funds, board auditors, architect of record, school physicians,
059insurance brokers of record, the mid-year motion appointments, board policies, job descriptions, existing school district curricula, field trip destinations, the strong plus model for evaluations, membership in the NJSA and Skyland conference, board secretary, purchase purchases from state contract vendors, advertising bids for goods and services, and cooperative purchasing. I got a motion on second. So, second. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll move to roll. Miss Jackson, yes. Miss Craig, yes. Miss Lanning beater, yes. Mr. Lee, yes. Miss Nurse, yes. Miss Stats, yes. Mr. Ho, yes. And Mr. Min, yes. Motion passes. I'd ask for the board's consideration to approve the following motions in the area of education. Affirming the superintendent's HIB determinations, uh, professional travel related expenses, new performing music and related arts course proposals, HHS course title changes, revised HMS and HHS math curriculum, approving new curriculum
060for algebra 1 part one and algebra 1 part 2 CP, new curriculum for US2 honors course, ARIS HMS literacy course title changes, a grade six fiction book, the application for the stop thebleleed grant program, staff to administer model testing for ESL, the teacher climate and culture expansion grant in the amount of $60,962. Project manager and lesson planners for the work under the teacher climate and culture expansion grant. Long-term suspensions of students whose names are on file in the office of the superintendent. Dance, art, music, and applied technology curriculum writing. stipens for curriculum writing training, stipens for summer science institutes, revised list of teachers for the summer credit advancement program, and the revised list of staff for the summer multilingual learners program. All right, I have four walk-ons. Uh 13.20. Be it resolved that the Hillsboro
061Township Board of Education here in reference to as the board hereby rectifies and reaffirms the recommendation of the superintendent to reinstate the student on June 5th, 2025 as more specifically set forth in the resolution that is attached here too and made a part hereof. Be it further resolved the superintendent is is requested to provide the students family with a written statement of the board's decision together with a copy of this resolution. Uh 13.21 21 be resolved that the Hillsboro Township Board of Education here and referred to as the board hereby ratifies and affirms the recommendation of the superintendent to reinstate the student on June 5th, 2025 as more specifically set forth in the resolution that is attached here too and made a part hereof. Be it further resolved that the superintendent is requested to provide
062the students family with a written statement of the board's decision together with a copy of this resolution 13.22. Be it resolved the Hillsboro Township Board of Education, here referred to as the board, hereby adopts the recommendation of the superintendent to continue the suspension of a student whose name is on file in the superintendent's office until the next regular meeting of the board as more specifically set forth in the resolution that is attached hereto and made a part hereof. Be it further resolved that the superintendent is requested to provide the students family with a written statement of the board's decision together with a copy of this resolution. And 13.23 23 uh be resolved that the Hills return board of education here and referred to as the board hereby adopts the recommendation of the superintendent to continue
063the suspension of a student whose name is on file at the superintendent's office for the remainder of the 2024 2025 school year as more specifically set forth in the resolution as attached here too and made a part here of be further resolved the superintendent is requested to provide the students family with a written statement the board's decision to together with a copy of this resolution and this is is this a new one Mr. President, that's a fifth walk-on resolution denying the request for reinstatement of a student for the 2025 20226 school year. Thank you. 20. Okay. Thank you very much. And that would be uh 13.24. All right. Thank you very much. Uh now, can I get a motion to second? So moved. Second. Any discussion before the board votes? Miss stats? Uh this is
064regarding uh 13.7 motion to approve new curriculum for US2 honors course. Um um it's described as uh an additional advanced level coursework option because uh there's also AP US history uh offered as and um of course there's also um uh US history to CP um and I notice US history one CP and US history one honors have the same number of students in them which I um I just find that interesting. Um but also especially since we there's already an AP US history course to have yet another uh advanced level for them but again just one level for everybody else. That's a concern I've been expressing in in other areas. Um also um in another department I noticed that uh this year the um for seniors there's um two AP courses as well as as
065an honors course and then CP for everybody else just one level CP and the honors course that's offered has only 10 students. So it concerns me that uh when you're offering this other course that will take a teacher away from uh reducing the number of class sizes uh for the other for CP andor the other for the AP course. So again uh I'm just concerned about the attention that's given to providing variety to um advanced level students as opposed to all the other students. Thank you. Any other comments before the board votes? Okay, seeing none, we'll move to roll. Miss Jackson, yes. Miss Craig, yes. Miss Lanning Beater, yes. Mr. Lee, yes. Miss NZ, yes. Miss Stats, no for 13.7, yes for everything else. Mr. Hill, yes. And Mr. Mine? Yes. Motion passes. Thank you.
066I ask for the board's consideration in the area of human resources. This is a long list, so please bear with me. Uh approving resignations and retirements, appointments for 2526, the reappoint of district staff for 2526, change in employment status for 2526, transfer and change in assignment for 2526, separation agreement, rescending an employment contract for 2425, approving leaves of absence, revising a mentor contract for 2425, turnkey trainers for 2425, six period coverage for 2425, Rescending a student teaching placement for 2425. Approving student teachers for 2526. Approving parent chaperones for the FBA leadership FBLA leadership conference. Summer work for 2025. The high school weight room staff. Extra coverage. Fall coaches for 2526. The revised HPSA employment contract for 2526. Revised extended school program, nursing, CST, and transportation work for the summer of 2025. Revised renewal of non-tenure
067certificated staff for 2526. Revised renewal of tenure certificated staff for 2526. Revised renewal of instructional assistance for 2526. Revised renewal of registered nurses and personal nurses and aids for 2526. Revised renewal of HA office personnel for 2526. Revised renewal of clerical assistance for 2526. Revised renewal of building monitors for 2526. Revised renewal of lunch aids for 2526. Revised renewal of custodians, maintenance, and mechanic workers for 2526. Revised renewal of bus drivers and bus aids for 2526. Authorizing the superintendent to make appointments of non-administrative personnel during the summer. And creating an unbudgeted building monitor position. I just want to be clear that all those revised renewals of staff are because of the contract being done and we had to put them back on with their new salaries. That's why it's so long today. Thank you very
068much for that explanation and we'll take a motion in the second. So moved. Second. Any discussion before the board votes? Seeing none, we'll move to roll. Miss Jackson, yes. Miss Craig, yes. Miss Lanning beater, yes. Mr. Lee, yes. Miss Nurse, yes. Miss Stats, yes. Mr. Ho, yes. And Mr. Marine, yes. Motion passes. And I know they're not here, but I'd like to formally welcome Mrs. Baxter and Mr. Bolus into their new supervisory positions. In the area of operations, I would ask for the board's consideration approve the following um motions. uh monthly bills, monthly financial statement, financial status, line item transfers, addendum to settlement agreement, a settlement agreement, and another settle agreement, and a third settlement agreement. Details are in administrative content. Agreements with Catholic Charities for before and after school care for the 2526 school
069year. The disposal and sale of obsolete equipment. An agreement with Effective School Solutions LLC. Approving professional services agreement with Phoenix Advisors for the 2526 school year. Joining the North Jersey Wastewater Cooperative Pricing System, approving the joint transportation agreement with Delaware Valley Regional High School. Disposal of books. the 2526 municipal tax levy payment schedule for Hillsboro Township and Milstone Burough Municipality. The waste disposal contract for the 2526 school year. Professional service providers for the 2526 school year. Approving a nursing services contract for the 2526 school year. Door monitoring and access control. A contract to Garden State pavement solutions for work at Hillsboro Middle School. Accepting a donation. Approving a capital maintenance reserve transfer. Approving out of district placements for the 2526 school year. approving the use of the facilities be scheduled for the 2526 school year,
070approving the quote for the fire alarm equipment replacement at Hillsboro Elementary School, and approving the 2526 parent transportation contracts. Thank you. Can I get a motion in a second? So move second. Any discussion by the board? Seeing none, we'll move to roll. Miss Jackson, yes. Miss Craig, yes. Miss Lanning Beater, yes. Mr. Yes. Miss Nurse. Yes. Miss Stats. Yes. Mr. Hill. Yes. And Mr. By. Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. In the area of policy, I would ask for the board's consideration to approve policy 511 as reviewed by the operations committee for first reading. That's it. Just kidding. That's it. That's the That's the only one in that section. Can I get a motion in a second? So move. Second. Any discussion by the board? Seeing none, we'll move to roll. Miss Jackson, yes. Miss Craig,
071yes. Miss Lenning Beer, yes. Mr. Lee, yes. Miss Nurse, yes. Miss Stats, yes. Mr. Hill, yes. Then Mr. Marin, yes. Motion passes. We'll move on to the second uh public comment session. We very much welcome in from the public. During the board meeting, there'll be two minutes 30-minute periods of time that the meeting will be open for public comment. Members of the public are inviting to comment, which I may do if attending in person. During the second public comment period, members of the public may comment on any school or school district issue that a member of the public feels may be of concern to the residents of the school district as per 0167. Before you say your comment, you'll be asked to provide your name and address. There's a three minute limit on public comment.
072Please understand that our public forms are not structured as question answer sessions but rather offered as opportunity to share your thoughts with the board. Instance where the board leaves misunderstanding or inaccuracy the board president or superintendent will address the comment. There any times a member of the public makes a comment or ask question about personal hiring decisions. Kindly note the open public meeting exactly the privacy rights of public employees and compass therein do not operate the board to discuss personnel issues in public session. Good evening. Gan Bates, HA secretary and negotiations co-chair for HA. Um, I want to take a moment on behalf of our membership and our negotiation team to thank you for an excellent partnership during the negotiations process. Our membership was incredibly pleased with the results that came from the agreement. Um,
073I'd like to thank you uh for all of your time and effort in the process. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, seeing no others, I will close the final public comment. I'll open up to the board. I know there was some uh questions as we sent around. Uh Mr. Oh, sorry. Marini, I don't Are you students that wanted to speak? This would be the time for you to speak. I appreciate that, Commissioners. Thank you. Hi. So, uh, I'm Arov and he's Nishit. We're from the high school and we're the co-presidents of Hillsboro Hillsboro Middle School Science Olympiad. We basically go to the middle school, help them out with science olympia, help them understand what it is. So the issue we're running into is Mrs. C, the old adviser has retired and we do not have a
074new adviser. And if we do not have a new adviser, we're not able to continue the club as we need the advisors to sign us up for competitions, deal with the paperwork, etc. So, we're wondering if the we've been looking for new adviserss, but if we're not able to get new adviserss, we're looking to see if we were able to do what HHS robotics does and have the middle schoolers come to the high school instead of us coming to them. So, we do not need a advisor. Thank you. And I appreciate I know you emailed the board as well. Um, and I certainly appreciate your students coming up here and advocating for that. What I can tell you is first we will continue to recruit for an adviser for you and then we can have
075discussions about that in committees if we do want to restructure the way um that anything is done. But we will actively recruit for someone for you and we will have continued discussions. Unfortunately the board can't make a decision on that right now but we will talk about it. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Anyone else? listeners. I don't I I kid I kid I kid. No one else interested in talking. All right. All right. So now we will close the public comment. All right. Um yeah. So uh now uh for those who are unaware, there is something called vote 16NJ. It's something that's been approved, I believe, by the governor's office to allow individual municipalities to allow 16 year olds and up to vote in schoolboard elections only. Um,
076I believe to this point, to my awareness, there's only one district in the state that has done this. I think that's Newark. Um, that allows this right now. Uh but our student rep uh Sanjuna went to the uh committee township committee meeting advocating for this and the one question she was asked was well what does the board think about this? So she reached back out we did a quick uh couple question survey and then there was some feedback from the board uh members who had strong feelings one way or the other uh and I guess the the town committee was looking for our uh opinion on the matter not that it matters. They make a decision. We could all say all of us want it and they could say no. We could say none of
077us want it and they could say yes. But they weren't interested in the board's uh opinion. So what I'm going to do is take feedback, consolidated feedback from board members from what was either said in this meeting or if any members would like to provide any written feedback, I will also provide that to the township committee. I'll send it to the board before I send it to the township committee. So in case I misstate anyone's comments or comments in general, we can do that. But I wanted to open up this uh remaining board uh committee meeting time uh board meeting time with uh board member comment session. If anybody would like to present any comments or feedback or thoughts um you can add them now and or provide them in writing and I can provide
078them attention. So if there's anybody that would like to miss nurse I'll share my thoughts and they're not very strong. They're initial thoughts um that I have. I I think it's wonderful that we have our um student population advocating to be advocates for themselves and for others and to be active participants in the community. Um however, I do think you know there's so much in our society where you know we consider adults 18 and they unfortunately there seems to be not a lot of privileges given to adults at 18 anymore. um I think more so 21. Um so there are very few things at 18, one of which is the ability to vote in all types of elections. Um, I think the high school career is a great place to learn how to go about
079deciding what is uh your views um as a person, as an individual, as somebody um who is looking at the school and how certain elections such as the student body president and other positions could affect you as the person um and your school community. And I think it probably should stay there and allow them to learn uh that it is not just about the individual that you know, but what platforms they're standing for. Um and so I I do believe that um I am not in favor right now of the vote 16 New Jersey. Thank you. Does anybody else have any comments? Miss Jackson. Yeah. Um I would um I would not be in favor of this. I think um I think it's a great lesson to incorporate into high school. I don't think it's
080um I think there's and I think the best example we saw was the vote to raise taxes. There's a whole financial component that uh someone at age 16 just doesn't understand. It's an experience thing. It's um you know it's it's a life learning. You you have to have lived and understand how to budget where your money comes from and the whole thing now with you know re-evaluating the uh cost of the house. So I think you know for their feedback it's it it's not taking into account some of the more practical things that have to be considered when you put a vote out there. So, any others miss that? Not to pile on, but um I also don't think uh there should be a vote for 16, 17 year olds. I I think I'd be
081more likely to agree with it if this were across all elections or at least um local and state elections. Um I I'm guessing the reasoning behind this is because um you know their education you know is a big part of their lives but arguably um what affects uh their education the most is I would think uh uh state decisions you know like what you've been talking about Mr. will be. Not to mention there's other things that that's part of their lives that are um that are in the hands of other elected officials. Um so with that logic to be consistent, if they think it's their that their opinions are valued uh for for anything that impacts their lives, um then it should be 16 17 year olds could also vote in all elections. Um but
082they're not saying that. They're saying that their uh input should only be matter for uh board elections. So, um and along with the points that Miss Nurse and Miss Jackson made, um I do not think that they should vote in four board elections. Yeah, I'll say I don't have a too strong of an opinion. I I do like the idea of getting kids interested in voting so that when they're full-fledged adults, they're actually showing up to vote. I think that's a a bigger problem in our country that not enough people vote in elections. So I from that side of it, I see there's a benefit in getting them into voting and realizing its importance, but it's a it's a tough decision whether a 16year-old is mature enough or experienced enough to cast a meaning meaningful
083vote. So there's my thoughts. All right, I don't see any other comments. So I will I will close that uh public comment session. Uh we have no more on the action agenda, but we do need to move back into executive session uh to complete the uh last item on our original one which was the CSA evaluation as that is statutoily required before the end of the month. Uh so I will take a motion to move into executive session and we will clo uh okay missed that scope before before we move. I just want to say I just want to say a couple Sure. Sure. Sure. Um well what one of the things what I just wanted to mention you mentioned that uh we were at senior awards night and um in our conversation uh with
084with you and uh me Mr. Marini, we were really admiring how uh Miss Povval, the director of school counseling and her the counselors and especially her secretary, Miss McClary, I think that's how you say her name, um all the work that they put into it because it's so wellrun and just starts right on time and moves quickly and honors a lot of our students. Um I also went to um an NJSBA conference on on AI which um was very interesting and illuminating. Um and I went to the locks of love assembly at Amsterdam school um where students and staff and even alumni from um that are now at uh donated their hair um for people who are have lost hair to cancer or other medical issues. And I also at Amsterdam went to the community
085coffee card in Amsterdam where students serve coffee and treats. Awesome. So I know that make that clear if there's anybody else that wants to make any more public comment before we close. I was thinking about what I wanted to say about NJ16 and I decided I actually wanted to speak in favor of NJ16 since it was a five to four from what I understand that vote. So, um I think when students are advocating for themselves, um I just looked at it as this particular vote, not necessarily I actually think that if we're going to lower the age for voting for school board, why not for the other um state as well as um national elections in the sense that this is the future. They are our future. And I was informed that cuz cuz one
086of the things Miss Jackson you were saying about the tax um I would actually love it for if only people who own property um got got to vote but that's not possible. Um so given that the students are the ones who are most impacted by who is on the school board I think that it's it's um something that I would support. I think that that's important for them to voice their opinion. Um, from what I understand, I don't know where I read it, in Newark where it was, not very many students I think%. So, that's unfortunate. Um, I think that it would be great for students to perhaps have that as part of their education perhaps in social studies and so forth so that they could understand what each candidates's platform is or what what
087they um what they believe in. The other thing is that 16-year-olds are actually not required to go to school. So, I think that that also is is I don't know if that's in favor or against it, but I think that that would um I just think that it's a good idea that they should have that opportunity, especially our student representative who graduated. I mean, she advocated strongly for it. Um I think it's worth a shot to try. Yeah. I mean, just to be clear, I voted yes on this, but I wasn't very strong either way. So, can I just clarify one thing for the public? We're saying 54 and people voted on this. There was just a a straw poll taken among uh board members and the board does not have any jurisdiction or authority
088to allow 16-year-olds to vote. That was just getting an opinion the township committee who can make that decision. Just wanted to clarify that. Yep. No action taken by the board. This is just a discussion point. All right. Any other board members before we move back into exec? All right. So, we will move back into executive session. No action will be taken. Uh we will adjourn the meeting from executive session. So, at this point, we'll take a motion to move into exec and that will close for the evening the public uh part of this meeting. So, can I get a motion? Second. So, move second. All in favor? All right. We'll see you next month.