001Public notice of this meeting was advertised in the Asbury Park Press on January 14th, 2025. and notice was provided to central jersey.com on January 9th, 2025. Notice has been posted in accordance with the Open Public Meetings Act of 1975, chapter 231, effective January 16th, 1976 in the board office, 370 Broad Street. A copy of this notice is also on file in the office of the burough clerk. Members of the public wishing to address the board of education on both agenda and non-aggenda items must state their name, address, and are requested to limit their comments to five minutes, which when it appears the public comment portion of the meeting may exceed 30 minutes in duration. The public participation portion of the meeting is open to citizens for the purpose of addressing agenda and non-aggenda items. Issues
002raised by members of the public might require review and investigation and may or may not be responded to by the board or superintendent during the meeting. All comments will be considered and a response will be forthcoming if and when appropriate. The board asks that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of the individuals when speaking. Specifically, comments regarding students and the employees of the board are discouraged and will not be responded to by the board. Students and staff have specific legal rights afforded by the laws of New Jersey. The board bears no responsibility, nor will it be liable for any comments made by any member of the public. This meeting is being tape recorded for a purpose of board review and future reference and to assist in preparation of minutes. QR
003codes are available at each board meeting to access the agenda. Mr. Apollo, roll call, please. Mrs. Abrahamson here. Miss Cunningham here. Mr. Fopoulos here. Mrs. Scowski here. Mr. Houseman. Miss Cahain here. Mr. Stall here. Mr. Mr. Staley here. Mrs. Teas here. Miss Vanhton, we have a quorum. Thank you. Uh we do not have a student representative this evening. So we will go to our first presentation of two tonight which is the climate green team presentation with Miss Maganelli and Miss Barter. I think Mr. Miss White's going to do the introduction. Thank you. Good evening everyone. And I just want to take a few moments this evening to share how proud I am that through the support of nearly $90,000 in funding from the New Jersey Department of Education, Keyport Public Schools has launched a series
004of innovative initiatives aimed at promoting sustainability and environmental awareness across our district. These efforts reflect the leadership of Dr. Seavoya, whose commitment to prioritizing grant opportunities continues to open doors for our students and our staff. and we are grateful. Tonight, we will celebrate the remarkable accomplishments made possible through one such initiative, the expanding access to climate change education through interdisciplinary learning and community resilience grant. Before Miss Maganelli and her team begins the celebration of our accomplishments, I want to express my sincere appreciation for her outstanding leadership. As a district coordinator for this grant this past year, like Midas, everything that Tammy touches turns to gold. She always comes up with a new idea. We are very fortunate to have her as part of our village here in Keyport. In addition, we are grateful for the
005dedicated members of the green team. Please, if you're here, give a little wave. Mrs. Burgner, Miss Fleming, Miss Grammalia, Miss Kikstein, Miss Varga, Mr. Valero. They all work aside alongside Miss Vanelli to bring these initiatives to life. Whether it be grammatically, mechanically, artistically, mathematically, or scientifically, this interdisciplinary crew has truly left their mark this past year. We are grateful. And finally, board of board of education members, I want to thank you for your continued support for our district's efforts in these meaningful and future focused opportunities in programming. These curriculum opportunities not only benefit our students, but they also strengthen our community. We are grateful for your partnership each and every day. And now I would like to invite Miss Maganelli, her students, and members of the green team to the podium. [Applause] Now I have
006to move this way down. Okay. Had to wear my heels so I could see over the podium. Good evening. Um I'm thrilled to be here to be able to share with you all the amazing work our team and our students have done this year. It was quite an undertaking and we were up to the task and I'm so proud of our team and I'm so proud of the young people that were involved in both the central school and the high school. So I just want to take the opportunity to go through my presentation to share with you some of the amazing things that we've done this year. Maybe not. Oh, I'm going the wrong way. Okay, let's try that again. Here is uh our green team as Miss White had mentioned. So we had representation
007at both the central school and the high school. We had some amazing community partners this year. Natalie Smith from the food pantry, Leslie Katsis and G Marie Ryan from the library, Lynn Kazabaki from the Keyport Environmental Commission, and Xan Yanosh from the Keyport Garden Club. Um for board members sake, I will share the additional slide presentation with Dr. Seavoy to share with you. Uh to make this go smoothly, I just put screenshots of some of the videos and the links just so that we wouldn't have to uh worry about clicking back and forth. Um as part of the grant process, I needed to communicate with the administration and community partners by monthly. So I created s'mores each month, uh which had lots of pictures and information. So I linked all of the newsletters on our
008presentation. We started out the year with a lot of green team initiatives. Um Dr. Seavoya had uh brought this initiative to our attention and our students actually produced amazing videos for the litter free New Jersey contest. The high school produced a video and the central school team produced a video and we were proud to announce that our central school students won second place and received $750 in Amazon gift cards. We took uh those funds and used them to additionally uh do some green team initiatives and we purchased a bench and we will get a plaque and that will be placed in the garden area um in dedication to those students that were part of the program. Uh G Abrahamson was part of that team and did an amazing job narrating our winning video. As part
009of the green team, we also got to go on some pretty fantastic adventures and experiences that our students may not have otherwise been afforded to. So, our green team from the high school and the central school got to go to Jeninson's aquarium. We had uh private tour guides that shared information with us regarding climate change, which they tied it into our grant, which was fantastic. And we also got to go to the room and uh meet the penguins and experience that as well. So they had a great a great trip. You can see some of the pictures of the central school and high school students. Additionally, uh thanks to Ms. White, we were able to to secure double the original funds for the grant and that afforded us our brand new outdoor classroom which we
010dedicated in December with a ribbon cutting. And we had uh Ross Garary, our NJ DOE rep, who was able to come and visit us for the grant and uh he was there for the ribbon cutting ceremony, as was uh admin and several of our board members. So, we appreciated that. Additionally, our green team in both buildings worked on numerous projects. Uh our leadership teams created a greenhouse at the high school. You could see on the right there, they used recyclable water bottles and turned that into a fantastic little greenhouse with the thanks of our uh maintenance team and our buildings and ground team. And our middle school students did a number of initiatives to help us prepare to reertify for sustainable schools for our bronze certification. We also did uh book swaps and uh like
011I said, various other recycling campaigns. And I did speak to um Joanna from Sustainable Schools today and the central school has um garnered enough points plus 10 to reertify. Yay. I had to get those 10 points. Uh so we will be bronze level certification again. And our high school team, which was a novice team with sustainable this year, did an amazing job. Last time we certified, it took us all three rounds. This time, Central School took two rounds and high school is just five points away. So, for a team that was brand new and didn't really have much experience, it was a pretty amazing feat to get that close so early on in the year. So, we're excited about that. We also had a green team family planting night which was well attended. Uh the
012students were able to come and learn about the August bride plant. They had pots and they painted and it was a wonderful evening with administration there and our green team and parents and families just having a lovely evening chatting and painting and planting. Um, Miss Fleming, our art teacher, is working with her art honor society to help us get some things ready for our garden area. They are currently working on the sign which was used um which was created with recyclable wood uh thanks to Dylan Borders who secured that for us a wooden pallet and they are also painting our rain barrel garden which will go out in the garden area. This year we decided to start an eighth grade legacy project. So every student in the eighth grade will be creating a fish rock
013that goes along with the story only one you. They're leaving their legacy behind by creating a book of advice to incoming middle school students and they're discussing what legacy they will leave. We're going to have a um an area out in the garden where we will put those rocks on the back of each rock. They have their name and their graduation year. And we're hoping that that will be a new yearly tradition that as our garden grows that will grow as well. And it's a nice memory for them to leave behind. our marking period one students. We did the grant in four phases to ensure that the majority of our eighth graders did have exposure to the climate grant. So in unit one during marking period one, our students learned about climate education. They did
014research about native species plants. They wrote letters to Mayor Oranio imploring her to incorporate more native species plants into the landscape of Kipport to which he very kindly uh communicated with us and uh gave feedback to the students. Uh Mr. Fleming, Miss Fleming's husband, was kind enough to donate his time to purchase some native species plants for us. Uh the ones that we created flyers and did research about. He came and we planted our first raised bed garden in the fall. Um, the kids had an amazing time being able to learn about these species and then actually plant them. We created QR codes to put in the garden so people could click on them and learn more about those plants. And they were responsible for the care and maintenance of those plants as well until
015the winter. And there you can see the flyers they they put out at parent teacher conferences and our QR codes dur and you can see them doing the actual planting. They also got to meet with Lin Kazabaki who is a member of the keyboard environmental commission. She has just been fantastic through this whole venture. She was so incredibly helpful to us when dealing with the uh shoreline part of our grant. Um, she actually got us in touch with Dr. Jun Chang from Kain University. We went down to Cedar Street Park and the students were able to learn from him about coastal erosion and they got to use his really very cool GPS equipment to learn how to measure the changes in our shoreline. You can see the pictures there of them using his GPS equipment,
016uh, which they absolutely had a blast with. And that's uh Lynn Kazabaki as well came down and talked about the horseshoe crab project. During marking period two, we kind of hit colder weather. So we did a little more in uh inside work. The students learned about what a living shoreline is. They conducted research about different types of living shorelines. They created written reports and shared them with uh Miss Kazabuki Kazubaki um to show how the which one they felt was the best, how it works, the cost effectiveness, environmental impacts and benefits. And then they did additional research uh they conducted on trees and their impact on the environment. They also learned about items yielded by trees. Mr. Flynn was actually there for that lesson and tried to guess uh himself during that time. Uh they
017also worked with Ms. Fleming to create sustainable ornaments that they sold at the chorus concert. They raised $90 from those um ornaments and we donated it to the American Literal Society and they used it for their Chuck It don't chuck it program. The students also created a debate. Uh they were deciding if real trees or synthetic trees were better for the environment. And we also had three guest speakers. uh Matthew Fullerton, thanks to um one of our high school teachers and uh Mr. Valaro and we from Stockton University. We had a board member Mr. Fatopoulos who came and spoke to our students about the um advantages of volunteer work and we had Meredith Comey from the urban coast institute at Mammoth University to dis to discuss um oyster castles. We were very involved and created
018a partnership with the American Literal Society. We did a three-part series with them. First part was February 25th. They came in to uh talk to 25 of our eighth grade students uh and they create they planted native grass which we cultivated in our classroom. And then on March 13th, we took that out to Asbury Park and we planted it in the dune areas. And then on May 1st, we went to Sandy Hook to the Bay Area and we conducted singing activities and learned a little bit more about horseshoe crabs. So that was our debate and some of them doing their debate work. Uh this was Miss Fleming instructing them on how to do the paintings on our natural wood pieces. And then this was part of the uh American Literal Society. Samantha Hemming came in
019and planted native grasses with us. Uh Dr. Seavoya was there to join us on that day. The kids had a great time. We took great care of our grass. Uh there's Mr. Fatopoulos joining us. It was a very impactful uh discussion about the importance of volunteer work. The kids wrote very meaningful thank you letters to him. So I know how very important they felt his visit was and they were very impressed with his volunteer work. And then Meredith Comey came and spoke about her work at uh Earl Naval Base as far as developing oyster castles uh on the base and invited us to join us if we could at some point. Matthew Fullerton also did uh several uh did several uh speaking engagements with us as well um thanks to Mr. ARO and he talked
020to us about food insecurity and he also talked to us about different environmental issues in the climate. Marking period 3 um was the dead of winter so not too much gardening there but our students did go into the field with the American literal society and planted their native grass. We have Gia Abrahamson here who went out on that very chilly day so she might be able to share some information about that with you. Um, our students were very excited to work with the environmental commission to create a flyer that went into every water bill in town. So, each resident should have received that. Um, they created it with Canva and worked with the environmental commission to select the native species plants that we were encouraging people in town to plant. We got a lot of
021really positive feedback about that. Students worked on uh food insecurity. They conducted research. uh they researched solutions for food insecurity and how we can educate younger students about it. They also read children's books about it and then completed uh companion slides for staff and they prepared to go into classrooms um in prek through fifth grade classrooms. They went and they read the books and then talk to the students about what food insecurity is and where they can go for help and who is a safe person at school to talk to about it if they need to. Um, they also participated in our serial box domino challenge, helping to collect over 2,300 boxes. This marketing period wrote, directed, filmed, and edited their own video to promote the project, and it was on the morning show. This
022uh group also attended the uh Mammoth University uh culminating event to where we met uh Tammy Murphy and uh various other New Jersey Department of Education VIPs. Uh it was a great day of networking. And on May 1st, both Mark and period two and three students went to Sandy Hook with the literal society for our final adventure with them and had a great day of conducting singing activities. So here is um behind the scenes at the commercial and then the young ladies that worked on our flyers that went into the water bill and then these were the actual flyers that got sent home in the water bill. The environmental commission was so impressed with all four they couldn't select one so they put all four into various water bills which we were really proud of.
023These uh we also did some work on learning about food insecurity by shopping on a budget. So they went through and used various websites and um shopping circulars to be able to learn how difficult it is to be shopping for different types of families with different types of dietary needs with very small budgets. This uh these were the pictures from our uh Mammoth University event. We were really proud of the work that we brought with us to share. And here we have some of our eighth graders in classrooms reading the books and sharing the companion slides. They got a lot of positive feedback from teachers. We were always very fortunate that when my community partnerships class asks for opportunities to go into classrooms, teachers snap it right up. So, we're always very grateful to them.
024Those were the books that the students went in and read to the to the uh younger learners. Here is our very chilly day when we went to Asbury Park Beach and Mr. Flynn stopped by on that day. So, we enjoyed having him. There's our grass on the bus on the way there. And you can see by their sweatshirts and the wind, it was it was a bit of a chilly day, but our kids were rock stars and they did an amazing job of helping to make a positive impact on the environment. Marking period four is where we are currently at. These students really started kicking off our indoor and outdoor gardening. They planted indoor hydroponic fu fruits and herbs. They also started seeds indoors for the summer garden. Um we have some snap peas growing
025outside. We currently also planted our August bride plants left over from our family planting night. We've got two blueberry bushes that are thriving and we've got some lettuce out there. We just planted some cucumbers the other day. The students completed various activities learning about the herbs we planted indoors and they learned about the importance of herbs for cooking and health and they completed activities about the nutritional value of different types of plants that we've planted. On May 12th, we also worked with the Keepart Garden Club to plant our spring flowers out front in the uh garden boxes so that our entrance at KCS is beautifully decorated and ready for all the fun that will be happening in June. So, you can see where we did some hydroponic planting. We do have some tomatoes growing out
026of there. We had a meeting in my room today and we've got some nice size uh sprouts and we planted uh peppers and lettuce and tomatoes and cucumbers inside. We just transplanted our cucumbers outside. You just see we've got some herbs there on the left and uh we're fortunate to have the supplies that we have to get everything going. some students uh watering and planting our August bride shade plants and our snow peas and snap peas and lettuce. And uh this was our work that we did with the Keepart Garden Club and we're very grateful that they donate those beautiful red and white flowers for us each year. This was our Sandy Hook singing adventure. The kids had an amazing time. They got to go out in the bay and grab some horseshoes and learn
027more about them. And they also went out um with Samantha Hemming and did their singing and they did some seashell um investigation on the beach side. I really didn't think they were going to put those waiters on, but they were fighting over them. So, we were happy about that. So to wrap up, we basically attended Cedar Street Park Beach, Jeninson's Aquarium, Asbury Park in class and on-site visit, Mammoth University's climate grant culminating event, and Sandy Hook Beach. We have still two more upcoming trips. We're going to Grounds for Sculpture on June 3rd and Liberty Science Center. We're taking the entire 8th grade on June 5th and we'll have two climate sessions there as well. Uh we created outdoor classroom uh PD. There are slides for staff so they can sign an agreement and understand how
028it works and have some resources. So we have that and we also have a Google site resource for teachers that uh the green team built with lesson plans and sites and ideas. We are very grateful to the board of education for giving us this opportunity to run this grant. The entire administrative team whenever we asked for something it it was able to come to fruition. the buildings and grounds team. Without them, uh the garden area would not be where it's at. Of course, our staff, community partners, our parents and guardians and students for their unwavering support. Um and I can't stress enough how grateful I am to Miss White for making this all happen and uh to Ms. Ioli uh her secretary who answered a lot of crazy questions as the year went along. So
029extremely grateful for them. I know we do have one uh green team member, Mr. Valaro is going to come up and then we just have a few students very quickly. But thank you so much. [Applause] Okay, good evening everyone. I promise I'll keep this a little bit briefer than Miss Magnelli. Yes, and you did great. Okay. Um so Dr. Seavoya, members of the board of education, and members of the community. Good evening. For those of you who may not know me, my name is Mr. Valaro, and I've had the pleasure of serving as a freshman English teacher here at Keyport High School for the past two years. This year, I also had the privilege of working as one of the adviserss for the green team as part of the grant secured by Mrs. White. Now,
030I'll admit science is not my area of expertise by any means. Um, so I was a little hesitant when applying for this role. Uh, but I'm incredibly grateful that I took this leap because the experience has been both eye- openening and rewarding. Thanks to this grant, our students were able to take their learning far beyond the walls of the classroom. They explored sustainability in real tangible ways, learning by doing, questioning, and engaging with the world around them. It also allowed for meaningful cross-curricular experiences. For example, while creating an infomercial on the dangers of single-use plastics, students had to research credible fact-based sources and craft thoughtful scripts, combining literacy with science. When building a greenhouse out of recycled water bottles, they practice math and engineering skills, taking precise measurements and making informed predictions. In addition, they
031use the caps from those water bottles to create vibrant mosaics, transforming what would have been waste into meaningful artistic expression that now decorate our school and promote environmental awareness. We were also fortunate to welcome guest speaker Matt Fullerton here at the high school who specializes in environmental and sustainability issues. This provided students with deeper understanding of how pollution affects their own community right here in Keyport. And of course, like Miss Magnanelli mentioned, there were the field trips, experiences that students may not have had access to without this grant. Our visit to Jeninson's Aquarium, for instance, was tailored specifically to our students learning goals. We are also looking forward to one final trip in June to Grounds for Sculpture to close out the year with a celebration of everything we've accomplished throughout this year. This grant
032has truly enriched our students education, giving them unique opportunities to learn, explore, and grow. On behalf of the Green Team, I want to sincerely thank Mrs. White for securing this grant and Miss Maganelli for her leadership and dedication in organizing the meetings and events throughout the year as our grant manager. Thank you. [Applause] I'm going to have Gia Abrahamson to come up and speak about her middle school experience. Hi, I'm G. Abrahamson. I am an eighth grade student at the Keyport Central School and I was a student of Miss Magelli's during her third marking period community partnerships class. Um I was in that class while we were doing the climate grant and we learned about food insecurity and pollution. Our class was fortunate enough to have a lot of field trips and experiences and guest
033speakers. Um, we had the guest speaker come in for grasses and classes and afterward we went to Asbury Park and planted native GL grass to New Jersey and we got to see a lot of the boardwalk and it was a lot of fun. Then we also learned a lot about the native grasses and made the flyers that hopefully you got in your water bills and about the native plants in New Jersey and how they help the tides and what's best to play in our community. Um the class was a lot of fun. We had a lot of experiences. We it she's a great teacher. That's all I could say. She's amazing and I'm going to miss her. And I'm so thankful for thankful for all the wonderful opportunities that we had to help the community
034and the life experience we all gained. Thank you. Have a good night. Thank you Miss Maganelli and the green team. Um you guys have been very busy and we are very proud of all your guys' hard work. So thank you. Um our second presentation this evening is students of the month, Mr. Flynn. [Applause] Good evening everybody. I just want to comment on all of that. Great job, Miss M. You are a great teacher, Miss Maganelli. Um, when I looked at that, it looked like five years rolled into one. It was exhausting. I was like, "Wow, I forgot everything. We unload on you." Uh, and the high school did a great job working with you. Uh so thank you again to everybody with that. That was awesome. Um okay now students of the month. This is
035very important. They work hard and I want to recognize them properly tonight. I also want to thank the parents for the work that you do. Um it is very obvious the hard work you do at home makes it easy on us. Uh this is a well-rounded um honor and it takes um parents at home building the values that are necessary for us to do our work in school. So I want to thank the parents and students. I'm very happy for you. When I call your name, please come up and join us and uh don't be shy. All right. in first grade. Wyatt Espazito. [Applause] He's He was the first one called. We've done this all year. You were the first one. You were up here like no problem. Usually Usually our first one is very
036hesitant and very slow walking up. You did a great job. In first grade, Felix [Applause] Jimenez. He did a great job, too. He wasn't worried about coming up here. Kingston Walton, second grade. Ava Tmaine. Wow, this is the best group. Great handshakes. They're excited. Great job. Third grade, Gia Galapo. Laya [Applause] Evans in fourth grade. Liam [Applause] Megon Hana Hernandez Cruz in fifth grade. Caitlyn Castro, Ava [Applause] Neville in sixth grade. Jorge [Applause] Mariano, Lauren Wickham in seventh grade. Laya [Applause] Greenberg, you did it like graduation where you come around. That was good. Good job. You're getting ready. Alexa [Applause] Alvarado, Leah Castro, and eighth grade, Nate Leonard. Good job. All we're all going to take a picture. If you want a picture, stay in the middle. We'll stay as long as you want. Uh,
037give us a second. Yep. You guys are holding it up right. Good. Hold it up in front. Yep. Well, [Applause] Thank you. And congratulations to all of our students of the month. You guys can go home now if you would like or you can stay for the rest of the meeting. It is up to you. All of the teachers can go home as well if they would like. Now you're you can also Okay, we are going to continue the meeting at this time. Uh, president's remarks. Our students uh drawings were in the I love keyboard day. They were very good. It was so nice to see the creativity of so many of our students that were spread out around town. Uh, the Wizard of Oz Central School play received many great reviews. So, congratulations to
038all of our students who participated in that as well. Uh, Dr. Seavoya, communication. Okay. We are in receipt of a letter of resignation from Mr. Lowry, Miss uh, Mr. Smokus, Miss Frick, uh, Miss Nichols, and Miss Brady, who is going to be retiring. uh public participation on agenda items. Dr. Seavoya, superintendence report. Okay, I will highlight some of the uh opportunities. As the recipient of expanding access to computer science high school courses, KEORT is being awarded an additional $22,216 and an amendment was being submitted for such as of today. I saw it come up. Uh we have also applied for the advanced placement and international balorate course expansion grant in the amount of $50,000. This is a highly competitive grant. Only four will be awarded this grant to access college level course work for traditionally
039disadvantaged students. The the grant aims to increase the number of credentialed educators, expand AP course offerings, and enhance current programming. The district is also submitting uh funding for optimal comprehensive universal screeners, our focus grant in the amount of [Music] $2,210. This aotment is based on the total number of students in K to3 from October um from our October count NJR snapshot. This grant was spons sponsored by the office of learning equity and academic recovery. The grant will support our new NJDOE literacy legislation mandated for 2526 academic ski school year and the dibble screeners. Um, as of at the August 21st board meeting, you approve the submission of the school district HIV grade reports as required under the anti-bullying rights act. These reports have now been reviewed by the state and are available for public re.
040The reports must be posted on the website by May 21st, which is today. This has been done and the new document is in our is on our HIV website. Our a AI survey district families and students in grades six to 12 were surveyed regarding AI. Mr. White sent the correspondence out on the on May 13th. We're so excited about the opportunities for our students and stay up due to the grant. This prestigious prestigious award places our district among the state's educational leaders in exploring how AI can transform teaching and learning. On May 28th, uh there will be a district's reading and math kickoff party from 6:00 to 7:00. Books will be given out to students in attendance and pizza will be served. Come one, come all. Um we're all in the hiring process for our
041summer RRU robotics kickoff week for grades K to8. Uh the curriculum team is prepared to release this flyer once all the teaching positions are filled. I think we're very close. Uh this program for the summer is funded by the climate education resilience continuation grant. Activities will be projectbased and interdisciplinary. Students will be grouped in grade bands by next year's grade levels K3, 3 to five, and six to eight depending on hiring. The program will kick off with a robotics robotics lab week on June 30th. Uh more to come on that one. A family letter was also distributed for the AI literacy grant. Uh the comprehensive equity plan is on the agenda for your approval. I've spoken to that in my previous report. Thank you again to the climate team from Central School and the high
042school and all the hard work by Miss Megan Ellie, Miss White, and all of our staff. Um, in addition, on the 28th, Keyboard High School's gaming club will travel to Brookdale Community College for a workshop titled The Next Level Esports Career and Content Creation. This part of the session titled Before You Play Career Proitioning Strategy Guide is designed to introduce learners to the path toward after graduating from high school. Um, I want to acknowledge a couple of um, personnel and members of our staff. Uh, one of which is Miss Fleming. She truly worked her her hardest with mapping every piece of artwork for the um, I love keyboard day and it's also going to be a part of the gardenwalk as Miss uh, Cunningham spoke to which is really exciting. It was it was just
043spectacular. Uh, the slideshow is actually attached and it was that was distributed out to the community as well. In addition, congratulations to Miss Vincent on completing a prestigious two-year post-bachelorate program on the Holocaust education and prejudice reduction um at Kain University. Her dedication to fostering empathy, understanding, and historical awareness is aspiring inspiring uh at the elementary actually at central school and the high school that we're finishing uh testing this week NJSLA. I have to say that you know it was a full team effort. Uh stu one student actually even said to me at the baseball game yesterday, Mrs. White was in there the whole time. You Mr. Pruzie was in there so Mr. Flynn all everybody was all in so that students can see it is one snapshot of an opportunity. But obviously we know
044that if you know a student if it's takes 50 minutes to do something and somebody's finishing in 20 you know what they they they see that we're as committed as they are to doing as the best that they can. So that was a really great endeavor. Um and this week actually in this May we had 70 students at the high school take um 100 AP tests. That's a proud something very um excited to be proud about and our increase in these offerings. So I'm really hoping that you know fingers crossed we're one of the four for that grant that's coming forward. Uh in addition there is a wide variety of opportunities uh coming up and events for the board. I'd love for everybody to attend. Um, lastly, I would say to you that uh the
045senior athletics awards, just a highlight of one, June 5th, senior signing day, May 29th, there's an athletics uh newsletter out there as well. And since the last board meeting, there were zero incidences of HIV reported at Central and zero at KHS. Um, lastly, uh, as I said previously, there's a superintendent coffee. There's a lot of things on the upcoming events. The superintendent report will be also put into the meeting minutes so everyone can add those items to their calendar. But please also pay attention to the weekly blast that comes out that Mrs. Gallow puts together because it really does condense everything into one snapshot. Thank you. I just have a question about the AI survey that went out and since Mrs. White is here, maybe she can answer. I don't know. Do we know to
046date how many responses you have gotten from that? I can look and let you know. Thank you. Yeah, I can look online too. Thank you. Uh Mr. Rapola, board secretary, report building and grounds finance. Uh good evening. Want to give everyone an update on the tax levy incentive aid application. Uh we have not heard anything yet. It hasn't been approved yet by the NJ DOE. attended a meeting on Friday at the county level and uh we were told that it could be a while before districts hear uh whether or not they were approved. It could even go as late as uh the middle of the summer. So, uh I will keep you informed if I hear anything u anything more on that. Um I know that you're aware that we had a new prek playground
047that went in at the central school. uh we were uh reimbursed $74,000 uh from the DCA as part of a local recreation improvement grant. So we we did receive that money back in our account. Uh we've also submitted uh for a reimbursement of $126,600 through the prek facilities expansion grant. So that entire project cost $316,000, but we have already recouped 74,000 and we should be recouping another 126,000. So it's a little over 200,000 uh that that we'll get back for that. So uh and and I think it came out uh very nice. Uh the New Jersey School Board Association's workshop for 2025 is from October 20th to October 23rd. That's a Monday through Thursday. I'm going to send an email out to everyone uh to gauge uh who will be attending and and what nights
048uh you'll be staying over. Um and I just want to uh I know you approved it at the last meeting. I just want to remind you uh the board meeting that was scheduled for June 25th is now scheduled for June 16th. So there are three meetings in June and they will be on June 4th, 11th, and 16th. 16th is going to seem strange probably to you because it's a Monday. Um we usually meet on Wednesdays, but we're going to be meeting on a Monday the 16th. So, Miss Cunningham, uh that's all I have to report and I'm looking for uh 81 to to 108. I need a motion for 8.1 to 10.8. I'll make a motion. Second. Second, Mr. Roll call. Miss Abrahamson abstain on 8.1. Yes to everything else. Miss Cunningham. Yes. Mr. Vopoulos.
049Miss Growski? Yes. Miss Kaine? Yes. Mr. Stall? Yes. Mr. Staley? Yes. Mrs. Teas? Yes. Okay. Motions pass. Thank you. Uh Dr. Seavoya curriculum personnel and policy. Okay. Underneath curriculum you you see uh resolutions for comprehens comprehensive equity. Uh the eighth grade is having their uh dance at uh off campus this year yesterday. So I wanted to make sure we drew uh special attention to that. Uh our HIB grade as I spoke to previously. Um I did not attend a conference so we pulled that back as well. um green team members underneath personnel there's the motion to accept the resignations and the retirements of some of the employees I spoke to under communication uh there's also 126 where we have personnel for extended care uh home instruction uh our summer students will this is our fifth
050year if I'm not incorrect having technology interns and uh and uh custodial interns at the student level so we're very excited excited about that. Um, in addition, we have some approval of staff for RU as I spoke to previously previously as well. credit recovery, some summer programming for ESY for our special education students, um our site supervisor for that program, uh summer hours against for a child study team, counselors, the dean, um the approval of our new uh a uh computer science teacher and our special education teacher. And then um 13.1 is for a first reading on changing number five on the AI policy and straight. So you'll see that in the policy committee will also review that prior to the next reading. I need a motion for 11.1 to 13.1. I'll make second. Second.
051Uh questions. Mr. Poll. Roll call. Miss Abrahamson. Yes. Miss Cunningham? Yes. Mr. Patopoulos, yes. Mrs. Kowski, yes. Miss Cahane, yes. Mr. Stall, yes. Mr. Staley, yes. Mr. Teas, yes. Motions pass. Thank you. Uh, old business. New business. Um, I just have something quick for new business today. We had a professional development meeting this afternoon. We were talking about the credits that we need for our board certification to keep our master board certification. Uh we also talked a lot about individual board certification. So we currently have two certified board leaders. We have four people on track to become s certified board leaders and our newest board member is on track to get their new board member certification. So we're doing really great with our individual certifications. Um so we've been focusing more on that than as
052a whole. So we kind of need to figure out where we're going with that. Uh we also have we talked a lot today about the board retreat, what we wanted it to look like, things that were important. Um and just to have an idea, we also have another meeting scheduled for May 30th, I believe it is. So Monday, June 30th. Uh and that's all I have for new business. Public participation on agenda and non-aggenda items. Laya Greenberg, 144 Theresa Avenue. Hi, I'm Llaya Greenberg. I'm a seventh grader going into eighth grade. Going into eighth grade, I would like to play a sport I enjoy. Playing field hockey has brought me so many opportunities such as making friends, getting out of my house, and getting exercise. Field hockey got cut, and I was hoping there was
053a chance to get it back. I'm a well-rounded student and since Keyboard High School is not offering field hockey, it makes me want to look at another high school. Thank you. Hi, I'm Chloe Mars, 26 Perry Street. I am a seventh grader in Kipor Middle School. I would like to bring up how field hockey got cut. Take field hockey getting cut takes away opportunities from me and my peers. Taking field hockey away affects mental and physical health. I will be willing to do anything to get it back. Thank you. Hi, it's Quinn 26 Perry Street. Hi, I'm Quinn Mars and I'm a freshman at Kore High School as well as a varsity player on the field hockey team. Field hockey means a lot to me. So, when I heard it got cut, it was very
054upsetting for me and my team. I have a few things to state. Scholarships. As a high school student will going to college in a couple years. I was willing and hoping to get scholarships. Second, we are willing to do fundraisers and raise money for our team. Third, we put so much time, effort, and money into our team. So, we were hoping that we could bring it back. Thank you. Christina Greenberg, 144 Theres Avenue, Keyport. Um, I'm here tonight to once again bring up Rising Stars. I'm very proud of the eight students that graduated last week, but you heard 45 students by cutting their teams. that those eight students cost this district and the taxpayers $80,000 to get their degrees. While that would be great if we were a district that could afford it, 45 students
055are missing out on scholarship opportunities, keeping them off the streets, exercise, it's really just appalling to me that we have not addressed this. This is the third time I'm bringing it up. Um, I think it's something that needs to be looked at and I think it's something that needs to be rectified and I don't think taxpayers should be paying for college education. [Applause] Thank you. Any other public participation uh by the be resolved by the board of keyboard board of education as per chapter 231 PL197517.11 that hereby determine that is necessary to meet in executive session on May 21st 2025 to discuss personnel and legal advice. I need a motion to go to close session. Make it second. All in favor? All right.