0013:30 p.m. And I'd like to call to order the March 26th Nope, May 26th 20 May 20 Is today May 28th? The May 28th meeting of the South Orange Maplewood Board of Education. Mr. Bing, would you please take the roll call? >> Uh we're not Are we live? There's >> We good, guys? >> Yeah, we're good. >> Great. >> Um Board member Jeff Bennett. Board member Dedra Brown. Board member Elizabeth Callahan. >> Here. >> Board member Meredith Higgins. >> Here. >> Board member Bimal Kapadia. >> Here. Board president Will Meyer. >> Here. >> Board member Melanie Nayar. >> I thought I spoke. >> Board member Shayna Sackett-Gable. >> Here. >> Board member Paul Stefan. >> Here. >> And would you please recall Mr. Bennett? >> Board member Jeffrey Bennett. >> Here. >> Very good. We
002have a quorum. Please stand if you are able for the Pledge of Allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> [clears throat] >> Adequate notice of this meeting was sent from the office of the secretary of the board first on April 29th, 2026, and then again on May 26th, 2026 to the Maplewood and South Orange Township clerks, and the editors of the News-Record, Star-Ledger, Tap Into Soma, and The Village Green. The purpose of our meeting tonight is threefold. The board will meet in executive session this evening, just the nine of us, to discuss the evaluation of our chief school administrator, Superintendent Berg. This is our annual legal obligation and
003all board members have invested significant time and thoughtfulness so far in this process. Prior to that, we will have the second of our annual retreats, which is in fact our fifth during the current school year. Gene Cleary, our field service representative from the New Jersey School Boards Association, uh is uh going to be presenting. Regular trainings are an important part of our certification process, as well as a useful process as we fulfill our varied duties as board members. Uh as we put our heads together this evening to synthesize our individual evaluations to a consensus document and prepare for our own board self-evaluation, uh Gene is going to help contextualize the process and review roles and responsibilities of the board. This will also help prepare us as we look toward the outcome of this evaluative process,
004the development of next year's board and district goals. Before this, however, we will take up two sign time-sensitive resolutions, one of which is securing paraprofessional services for the summer of 2026, and the other is approving architectural services for the ongoing remediation of drainage issues at Seth Boyden that has kept one of its gyms offline for multiple years. Uh however, before that, I'm going to turn it over to the superintendent for some brief words and then we'll move to our hearing of individuals and delegates. >> Thank you, Board President Meyer. Just wanted to give a quick update on Maplewood Middle School. I am happy to announce students and staff will be returning to Maplewood Middle School tomorrow on Friday. Uh I want to give a very big thank you to our director of facilities Henry who
005has spent 24/7 since Memorial Day weekend when we had a small portion of a ceiling fall on the second floor. He immediately contacted the state, immediately contacted our contractors. Uh worked very closely with our municipality, with our fire department, with our police. Um we had our state approved contractors in the building from around 2:00 p.m. yesterday to around 2:00 a.m. last night uh doing the final repairs, uh sending out the final uh also air quality test that all came back clean as of this afternoon. Uh we also have the final inspection approved uh from the state. So, our students and staff are ready to uh occupy the building come Friday. So, very happy to announce that. >> Okay, we will now move to our hearings of individuals and delegations. And we are having one hearing
006this evening. Thank you for coming in person or at least enjoying us online this evening. We value public comment at our board meetings and while we cannot engage in a dialogue with you, we take your comments very seriously and your input will inform our work. Our comment period is limited to 1 hour and each speaker will have 3 minutes. Please begin by stating your name and your town and please note there will be just a single public speaks this evening. Ms. Quadrello, do we have any person public speaks? We do not. Uh I believe we do have one online public speaks. Uh Rebecca Newberg. >> Person is not present online. >> Understood. Uh that therefore uh concludes this evening's hearing of individuals and delegations. Uh we're now going to move to the action portion of
007our meeting. On our agenda this evening is one resolution, uh, resolution 4982. Uh, there are parts A and B. 4982A is to approve the, um, ESS services organization for provision of paraprofessional services in the summer of 2026. Uh, and B is the approval of the, uh, architect at Parett Samgen to, uh, do the, uh, project development work for the, uh, Seth Boyden drainage project. Uh, do I have a motion to consider these? Board member Sackett Gable, do I have a second? Board member Steffen. Uh, discussion. Board member Higgins. >> You're looking right at me. Um, >> What's that? >> I thought it would just be helpful to hear kind of the process of how this works. My understanding was, you know, when it when it comes to an architect, there's still the next step of
008finding a contractor and then scheduling their availability. So, I just thought it would be helpful to hear like, what are the major steps in this process so that I understand and the public understands, you know, those steps. >> Yeah, I asked Frank to just do a quick sum. Um, obviously, uh, originally, the work was before my time, before Frank's time. Um, this particular company that was chosen has done work in this district previously. Um, we also, uh, they have received high recommendations from other districts. Uh, it's just part of our protocol in regards to, uh, making sure we're we're getting quality folks. Um, for us, uh, aside from Tiffany, I've also worked with this company in other districts. Uh, and Frank has also worked with the company in other districts. So, uh, we know they're
009very reputable. We did have an incidence 2 weeks ago in regards to the state disqualifying a vendor, so we wanted to make sure that did not happen. Again, again, that's we went through a co-op system and and that's uh really just a group of schools that work cooperatively to get lower prices for for work across the state and also qualify professional vendors so districts don't have to do it on their own. Um so, we did a lot of legwork in regards to making sure this current company is qualified and certified after 2 weeks ago. And I think we're in a good place to start the work moving forward. And it's about time for Seth Boyden. >> Great. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Any other discussion? Board member Nayar. >> Um Mr. Bean, can you
010confirm that the um para-professional contract extension is it's through July and it is within the budget that we approved. And so, um we're going to go out to bid and we expect to have a new contract in place by August. >> Yeah, so for us, it just made a little more sense to stick with ESS for the summer. So, we met with them last week. Literally, within 4 hours, they sent over an addendum to the current contract which expired June 30th to extend their services through our extended school year. Uh that also gives us a little more wiggle room in regards to putting out a para bid uh for the fall. Gives us more of a cushion. So, we will put out a we probably well, I don't want to say we will. We just
011received bids in for our initial uh power bid for the fall. So, we we are looking at those um and we're looking at some other avenues through co-op, as well. So, we'll make some decisions around if we are going out for a second bid, um probably within the next week. But, ESS was wonderful to work with and as I noted, within 4 hours, they sent over an addendum and we will have the we will have no gap whatsoever between end of the year and ESY. >> Any other discussion? Okay. Ms. Green, would you please call the roll? >> For motion 4982A. >> This is A and B together. >> Board member Bennett. >> Yes. >> Brown. Board member Callahan. >> Yes. >> Board member Higgins. >> Yes. >> Board member Kapadia. >> Yes. >> Board
012president Meyer. >> Yes. >> Board member Nair. >> Yes. >> And board member Sackey-Gable. >> Yes. >> And board member Stefan. >> Yes. >> Eight affirm. >> Very good. The motion passes. Uh we will That concludes the action portion of our meeting. Uh we will now move to the retreat portion of our public meeting, which we hold in a conference setting and is not live streamed. After that session, we will uh move into executive session uh and will adjourn immediately thereafter. So, we will be saying goodbye to our online viewers at this point. The board will meet again in public session on Thursday, June 11, 2026 at 6:30 p.m. for a special meeting to present in executive session of the CSA evaluation. Action may be taken at that meeting. We will also meet for our
013regular monthly meeting on Thursday, June 25th, 2026 at 6:30 p.m. Action will be taken. And with that, we will retire to the conference area.