Board of Education Meeting - Public Session - 12/18/25

001with board member Jeff Bennett. >> Board member Dear Ja Brown, board member Elizabeth Callahan >> here. >> Board me board president Nubia Deval Wilson >> here. >> Board member Regina Eckert >> here. >> Board member Bill Gford >> here. >> Board member Bill Kapadia. Emma Kapadia. Board member Will Meyer >> here. >> Board member Shaina Saki Gable. All right, we have a quorum. >> Okay, thank you. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. Okay. Um, please take notice that adequate notice of this meeting has been provided in the following manner. That written notice was sent from the office of the secretary of the board at 2:30 p.m. on January 3rd, 2025. That said notice was sent via email to Maplewood and South Orange Township clerks and the editors of the news record, Sar Ledger, Tapman

002to Soma, and the Village Green. And now we are going to have a winter concert. Is Is everyone here? Right. >> And then feel free uh to formally announce them at the mic over there on the table. Thank you. So everybody ask me And then >> no real quick. Make sure you're up to All right, guys. >> I'm just call I'm going to start I'm going to start with Deck the Halls. So, [snorts] let's go Deck the Hall. Silent Night. Is it difficult because of space to get them in the >> I don't know if we >> Yeah, this is what we've always done. We just sort of got to the side. >> Yeah, >> cuz then the cellos could just boom get their stuff. >> Go into the mic and and I'll say oh

003yeah, >> not a problem. >> No, we're only 10 minutes. All right, guys. >> Hi, everybody. My name is Todd Bever, orchestra director. Oh, this one start. >> Wow, it's more important. Uh, hi. My name is Todd Van Bever, the orchestra director at Columbia High School. This is our varsity orchestra, which is a combo of both the orchestras from South Orange Middle School and Maplewood Middle School. Uh we rehearse every Thursday night from 7:00 to 8:00. Uh we've been rehearsing since October. So only only had about six or seven rehearsals. Um they also have just performed with the high school orchestra. Uh they're doing the same repertoire that we're doing with the string orchestra at the high school. So there's almost like an AP for middle school orchestra. We're going to play a bunch of

004Christmas tunes for you today. Uh we're going to start off with Deck the Halls and we're going to follow that with Silent Night. Ready? We're just gonna play each one once. One, two. >> Maybe just share with them. The joy of uh yeah, holding hands. Can't put that much on them. All right, we ready. One, two, three. >> [music] >> Happy to God. [music] [music] Thank you. One, two, three. [music] [music] >> [music] >> Hallelujah. [music] Thank you. Thank you. Um, we're going to do two more pieces. We're going to do Hark the Herald, Angel Sing, and Angels We Have Heard on High. So, we'll stick with a little angel theme. Herald first. The angels be ready. >> [music] >> Hallelujah. Hallelujah. >> [music] [music] >> Good job. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Let's push

005the tempo on this one. >> Share with him. The folding stand. Maybe try it on her stand. >> All right, let's do it. One, two. [snorts] [music] Hallelujah. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Hallelujah. [music] [applause] We'll do two more. So, our last two pieces will be away in the manger and Oh, come all ye faithful. I want to wish everybody a happy Hanukkah, a merry Christmas, happy Quanza from the arts uh at Columbia High School and in the district. Thank you guys for coming. It's great to have this little tradition. This is our third year uh playing for the last board meeting. Thanks for inviting us and enjoy your vacation. >> Ready? Wait a minute. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> All >> [applause] >> right, last one. One, two, three.

006[music] >> [music] [music] >> All >> [music] [music] >> right, [applause and cheering] Guys, let's all take a bow. Ready? One, two. Thank you very much, [applause] guys. Great job. >> All right, don't pack up. Come over here with your instruments. >> Yeah, come right around. Like I would go all the way over to the other side. Yeah, Well, we're short some board members tonight, huh? >> Yeah. Oh, >> I was so sick. I'd like to make a motion to enter executive session at >> 6:55 p.m. >> I'm just going to to discuss attorney client matters personnel and hip reporting. The length of the executive session is estimated to be an hour after which the public meeting of the board shall reconvene. May I have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you board member Meyer.

007All in favor? session a little bit later than usual. So, first I need to uh approve our board minutes and then we will do our board member acknowledgements. So, I'd like to make a motion to approve the board meeting minutes from November 19th, 2025 board retreat and the November 20th, 2025 exec session and regular board meeting. Do I have a second? Thank you. Board member Callahan. All in favor? Okay, great. Board meeting minutes have been approved. Okay, so now we will begin our recognition part of the meeting. After that, we will have our a five minute maybe 10-minut break um for us to be able to say things to people. Um but so first we are going to start with board member Bill Gford. Um next Regina and then myself. And so, former BOE member

008Johanna Wright, please come up and you can sit in the the chair here. And oh, and I see uh our assemblyman. He's here. >> Choseier, please. Yeah. Can you someone grab Thank you so much for being here. three minutes and I have a lot to say about Bill Gford. Lord have mercy. Here we go. And I'm excited because I have Choose next to me, our new assembly person and uh for the state. Y'all give him a hand. But that's that's [applause] really So I just want to say um good evening to everyone. Um, titles do not guarantee values. That's why it's truly special to sit here tonight recognizing someone who represents the very best of what education, public education can inspire. Tonight we honor Bill Gford, a former student of this district, a husband, a

009father, a son, a valued colleague, a friend, and a dedicated public servant. Bill's journey is one that comes full circle this evening. As seniors in high school, Bill and his best friend, now a New Jersey State Assemblyman, Chigosi Ana, ran for seats on the South Orange Maplewood School Board because as students, they were already paying attention. They saw how decisions were made and who paid the price when adults were protected over children. Even then, they knew not everyone who serves on the board of education serves students. Seeing both of them continue their commitment to service is a powerful reminder of why this work matters. And I can remember when some people laughed at you guys when you ran. [clears throat] Years later, Bill came home as an adult to raise his children in this community.

010And once again, he chose service over silence. Let that sink. That kind of commitment to place, to people, and to principle is rare and it's beautiful. And he didn't change his name. During this time on the board of education, Bill brought thoughtfulness, integrity, and a student centered perspective to every discussion. He consistently advocated for equity, academic excellence, and responsible stewardship of our resources. Bill took on work that isn't flashy, but is essential. First, he streamlined our policy review and editing process, addressing years of outdated and neglected policies. Because of his leadership, this district was brought into compliance in time for our CUAC review. That is governance. That is accountability. Secondly, an advocate for vocational and technical education, in his very first year, he requested that the district partner with Mike Shaft, founder of Maplewood Shop,

011to bring meaningful hands-on learning back to our students. That vision became reality when the launch of a secondary wood shop program in the fall of 2023, providing real skills, real dignity, and real pathways for students. And thirdly, Bill [clears throat] brought his professional expertise in green energy and solar solar power directly into his role as finance chair this year. For the first time, this district is incorporating environmental sustainability into its fiscal strategy, not as a slogan. There's a plan that includes what I would call ESIP, energy saving improvement plan, which will include LED lighting upgrades, uh, solar panel installation, and HVAC improvements. That is what smart stewardship of taxpayer dollars and responsible planning for our students's future. At a time when some decisions have prioritized the wrong people, Bill consistently prioritized students. What made Bill

012especially impactful was his ability to listen. Listen to students, listen to families. He listened to staff even though people told him not to. And fellow board members and to lead with both conviction and collaboration. Our district is stronger because of his service. We are grateful for your service. We're proud of your accomplishments and excited to see what's next for you. I want to thank your beautiful wife, Lily, and your wonderful children and your family for sharing you with all of us. Bill Gford, thank you for giving back to this place that helped shape you. And I mean, we helped shape you, too. Help shape him, right? >> Look at him. He's sharp, too. He's kind of like eye candy. My god, have a personal prayer. >> Oh, but and and and and for reminding us

013that um what's possible when former students return as real standing leaders who are standing on business with 10 toes down, no cap. So to those who laughed years ago, I ask you plainly, who's laughing now? >> [applause] >> And now for Chozi. And now it's my honor to to to uh invite Chozi, our new New Jersey State Assemblyman, to say a few words about his friend. >> Thank you so much, Miss Wright. Uh it's so good to see all the board members. It's good to be in this space again. It's been a little while. Um, I read somewhere, I think it was Proverbs 27, that uh, as iron sharpens iron, so does one person sharpen the other. Uh, Bill, I've known you for almost 30 years of my life. I think we got close probably

014in sixth grade. Um, and in that entire time, it's been iron sharpening iron. Um, you know, Miss Wright talked about the schoolboard election where we ran together in 2005, but it really our sort of political journey begins much before that. I remember when you took a class with Mr. Rodriguez. It was a sociology class. I can still remember being in my bedroom and you telling me about the things you were learning in Mr. Rodriguez's class. And so the following year, I took Miss Cooper. That's why I took sociology, right? So for me it was like an opportunity to join in the studying that you were doing to be in solidarity to be in partnership with you on your political journey on what became our political journey. And in 2004 you ran for the school board.

015We didn't run you ran. And I remember watching you when you ran for the school board. I'm like wow what in the world does a school board do? Um, and over time I learned that, you know, by the time we ran together, I learned that the school board is where important decisions were made about the future of our young people. And so I joined you in that struggle in 2005. Um, we've known each other so long that you're like family to me. You know, you're one of my brothers. Um, and family is heavy on my mind today. Um, some of you may know that my father passed away almost 6 years ago and but he was born 73 years ago today. Today's my father's birthday. Um, and you know, when I gave my father's eulogy,

016I said that um, he was my hero, but not the perfect kind. In fact, he was always imperfect. But what mattered was always. He was always there. He always tried. He always got better. And most times he got it just right. You are an always person, brother. You are always in a struggle. you're a long-distance runner. Um, and often times, you know, we think about what it means to be a hero. And heroes for me aren't like these fits and starts of bravery. Heroism is about persistence. You've been in this struggle for a long time because you are persistent. And for that, you're a hero. And I think about as this chapter closes, another one is beginning. And I'm excited to see what comes next for you. And I'm mostly looking forward to writing it

017together, brother. Congratulations on an excellent term [applause] >> and congratulations to our other two board members who are leaving. Thank you so much for your service. It's a thankless job. Nobody knows that more than I. I serve longer than any board member uh in this district and and and not to mention over 40 years as an educator and to go out the way that I did and to to do the things that I'm doing now. I I really appreciate your service even though most oftent times it wasn't good for many people. >> Thank you so much. [applause] >> No, he was finally Oh god, there we go. [applause] >> All right. [sighs and gasps] Sorry. Thank you so much for that. That that definitely did make me a little emotional. And mama, right, as usual,

018you stole some of my thunder uh for some of the things I was going to mention. Um so, but I'll try to make this quick. It's [clears throat] it's hard to sum up one's tenure on the South Orange Maplewood School Board of Education. At times, especially during our meeting, serving can feel like an eternity. Yet, it also feels like yesterday that Nubia, Regina, and myself were elected and sworn in, just as new board members will be next month. I wish them luck and pray for their success. A sincere amount of passion and time goes into being on the board. From campaign season to getting behind the horseshoe and doing the actual work, you quickly learn change doesn't happen fast and it takes time and coalition building to accomplish real progress. With the plethora of problems

019the district faces every day, it's a struggle at times to recognize the achievement we've made, but there are a few that I would like to call out. One of my biggest initiatives coming onto the board three years ago was to provide students alternative pathways so that we are not just focusing on college but trades as well. Luckily for us, one of our community's residents is Mike Schllo, the founder of Maple Wood Shop, who runs a hands-on woodworking education company. Working with Mike, I'm happy to say that the district has slowly brought back wood shop with the help of with the help of Maplewood Shop at the at first starting as a pilot in the middle schools and now under Superintendent Bing's direction, we just increased usage of Maple Woodshop, moving it to CHS as a

020pathway for for construction and carpentry. Another issue I'm proud of to say is that we made progress uh that we made progress on is the effort to install solar on our schools as a way to save money on energy costs and provide students exposure to renewable technologies. When I first joined FFT 3 years ago and brought up solar, I was quickly shut down and told we are we are in the middle of executing the long range facility plan. No way, no how. Today, no longer on the sidelines, our BA is actively exploring a solar energy savings improvement plan and EIP and will identify candidate facilities for future inter for future installation. [snorts] That said, I'm sorry. That said, the main reason why I ran for the board as a high school student and again as

021a parent in the district was to push efforts to close the racial achievement gap. On this issue, I take little pride as it seems we are stuck at the in the same place we were more than 20 years ago. I applaud Superintendent Bing for taking a more collaborative approach to working with the Black Parents Workshop as the monitor, Judge Wallish seems pleased with our latest efforts. Nevertheless, according according to our latest New Jersey school performance report, white students are graduating at a rate of 96% with within their cohort, while black students are currently at 79%. According to NJSLA, Algebra 2 end of course assessments, 75% of our white students met or exceeded expectations compared to 36% of our black students. In language arts, white students had a proficiency rate of 85% and our black students

022had 50. As for discipline, in the 23 24 school school year, of the 24 uh out of school suspensions, 20 were black students. That's not to say the folks here are currently are not currently doing everything possible to reverse this trend. As a board member, we see dedication from this administration poured into solving these problems. I hope going forward the board and administration are bold enough to assess to assess things as they are and make the necessary changes where needed, no matter how loud the public outcry may be. All that to say, I leave this board incredibly hopeful. Last week, I visited the fifth model Gary Convention in the CHS library where students commemorated the groundbreaking 1972 National Black Convention held in Gary, Indiana. This event centers student voices and allows them to grapple with

023the many challenges faced by black and brown communities. In the time I spent there, I saw students imagining a more equitable world and strategizing ways to arrive there. This work supported by the likes of MAPSO Freedom School and Max Scholars are as important as the work we do in this building. So for myself, it is clear there is no lack of potential from our students. It's up to us, the adults, to figure out the best way to support them. And that's all. Signing off, [applause] Superintendent Bing. Superintendent Bing, would you join me and the Honorable William R. Gford the third in the presentation of this plaque? And three, two, one. One more with three big smiles. Three, two, one. One more. Thank you. [applause] >> [snorts] >> So, next we will talk about Regina who

024just walked away. So, we're just going to give her a minute and then we'll resume. [laughter] >> [laughter] >> So, part of our new protocol for outgoing board members. Um, we are borrowing from a certain holiday called Festivis and we're airing grievances. So I have a list. [laughter] This might take a while. So please just >> I love to >> say it's been a pleasure to work with Mr. Gford would be an understatement. Uh he brings a certain energy to a room that is warm and engaging uh and just makes it very easy uh to be yourself. So um not only is an advocate for all students um he is just a passionate person. So something I I I envy of him. So I want to thank him for all his hard work. Uh blood,

025sweat and tears as was noted. Um salaries were cut for board members about five years ago down to gratus I believe. Um and they dedicate hours and hours and days and days and weeks and weeks and months and months. Uh it is a tedious position. Uh and he has put his time, sweat, and equity into these kids. So big thank you to Mr. G. [applause] >> And now we get to talk about Regina. And I'll be delivering some words. So, Regina, it is with great honor that I speak on behalf of my amazing friend and teammate, second BP, Regina Eert. Regina, I'm going to try not to get too emotional. [laughter] I could not have gone on this journey without your wisdom, wit, tenacity, and support. I'm so proud to be celebrating you tonight. Regina

026is a type of leader who pref who prefers to be behind the scenes than in the spotlight. As such, I want everyone to know that Regina is one of the most dedicated and hardest working people I've ever met. I could not have had a better second VP this year. But let's start from the beginning of her term. For three years, Regina has been the chair of the personnel committee where she brought her years of experience and human resources and education. It is one of the committees that is exposed to some of the most confidential district information and Regina always managed the oversight of that confidentiality with hypervigilance. Regina has been a steadfast advocate for our teachers and their morale. She pushed for the district to move beyond exit interviews and implement stay interviews to improve

027retention and further understand teachers needs. Her advocacy influenced last spring staff surveys and the ongoing state interviews that HR conducts today, helping strengthen our approach to teacher morale and retention across the district. Starting in 2023, Regina was our biggest advocate for student hardship transfers, ensuring that policy 5124, internal student transfers, was updated to enable families placed by our integration initiative to have their real world challenges addressed. It took a year, [laughter] working in partnership with the district and the board. But by the end of 2023, we had an updated policy. Her vigilance with this effort continued in 2025 and we updated this policy again to ensure the district was evaluating hardship transfer requests effectively. Thank you, Regina, for your contributions to an effort that has aided many families. Regina's critical thinking, eagle eyes, and problem

028solving skills were integral to our budget process each year. She spoke out often requesting that our budget cuts and riffs in 2024 were not going to negatively impact student classroom experiences. She held the district accountable to being transparent on our deficits and financial challenges. Even on the EWG campaign trail, Regina advocated for a more thorough audit of our finances. She took her budget oversight role as a board member very seriously, and I learned a lot from her thoughtful questions and analysis. Some may not know that Regina is a sports fanatic, but I learned that quickly when it was time to support our girls softball team and all athletes by voting on Ritzerfield. I know many have different opinions on turf. Not going to talk about that tonight. But aside that, we can all appreciate Regina's

029unwavering dedication to this project. Don't be surprised if you see some proturf public speaks from her at future board meetings next year. As we look to move ahead on this vital project that is going on seven years past two, Regina was also on our negotiations committee two years in a row, which we all know is not a cakewalk, [snorts] but Regina took it in stride. In 24 and 2025, she was on on the many long meetings, missing bedtime with her kids, and eating late night meals here in this building. I want to make sure the community knows how committed Regina was to the two-year process to finalize our teachers contract and give them competitive wages. Regina, I'm going to greatly miss our partnership and work ethic we shared over the years. Whenever I needed someone

030to talk things out with, when I was overwhelmed, you were there. When I needed someone to remind me to delegate tasks when I'm busy, because you know I'm bad at that, you called and asked, "What do you need from me this week?" You were always ready and willing to be there for me, the executive committee, and the board. I wish that everyone could have witnessed your work ethic and service behind the scenes. You are a force. I know our friendship will carry on after our board service, but I'm going to miss working so closely with you. We have barely gone a day without speaking by phone, email, or text since August 2022. Thank you again for your great service to this community, and I wish you all the best in your next chapter. [applause] >>

031Thank you. Okay. [sighs] So, for anybody that knows me or watches board meetings, I'm I'm not one for many words. And of course, I picked tonight after a 5day trip to Disney, 12 to 13 hour days at every single park and trying to keep my kids from not killing each other by the end of the trip. Um, I of course make this the night that I'm actually going to speak the longest. Um, tonight is bittersweet. It marks the end of my three-year term on the South Orange Maplewood Board of Education. the second most challenging and rewarding role I've ever had. Coming in just behind being a parent, this work challenged me and pushed me to grow in ways I didn't expect. I didn't always get everything right, but I always showed up. I asked questions

032and I led with care. I learned not to shy away from moments when things didn't go as planned or when I made a mistake, but to acknowledge it and stay committed to doing better. That's a lesson I learned early in my career and one I carried with me into this role. And through it all, I was reminded again and again why this work matters so deeply. As I come to the close of my three-year term, there are a few thank yous I want to share. First, to my family, Alex, Lucas, and Damian. You made the biggest sacrifice. This role didn't just ask something of me. It asked something of you. Thank you for your patience, your flexibility, and for supporting me through long meetings, late nights, and the and the many moments when board work

033took precedent over dinner, bedtime, or being at the sidelines at your games. To my fellow board colleagues, past and present. We didn't always agree, and that's part of the job. But I'm especially grateful to those who are willing to collaborate, engage in civil discourse, listen to different perspectives, and then move forward together. Some decisions were easy, many were not. And I trust that future boards will continue to lead with respect, curiosity, and a shared commitment to our students. I also want to acknowledge our teachers and staff, the backbone of this district. Any progress we talk about only happens because of the work you do every single day in the classrooms, in the hallways, and schools across this district. Your dedication to our students, it is what moves this district forward. To Superintendent Bing and the

034central office staff, it's been a pleasure getting to know you and working alongside many of you over the years. There is still a lot of important work ahead and I believe that with stronger systems, clear communication, and datadriven approaches, the district can continue moving in a positive direction for all of our students. To friends, neighbors, and community members, thank you for trusting me. I knew when I stepped into this role that the work wouldn't always be easy or popular and that I might vote in ways some of you didn't agree with, but you trusted that I was doing the work, asking the questions, weighing the information, and making decisions with students at the center. And that trust meant everything to me. And finally, and most importantly, to our students. You are the reason we are

035all here. From the student performances that open our board meetings to the artwork lining the hallway outside these doors to the many times students stepped up to advocate for themselves at public speaks. Whether it was to save a journalism class, call for better safety at CHS, present a traffic caling proposal that went on to win a competition or push for safer, more accessible playing fields. Add to that the musicals, the art shows, and everything in between. These are the moments that reminded me again and again why I sat up here for three years. I'm so incredibly proud of the work that we took on together, strengthening teaching and learning in the early years through new elementary ELA and math curricula, supporting the intentional integration initiative by reinstating transportation and making pragmatic empathetic adjustments to the

036transfer policy and doing the hard work necessary and doing the hard necessary work to put our district on stronger footing for the future. As I step away, my hope is simple. That this board continues to focus on what matters most, our students. Our students are extraordinary and they're watching and they deserve our best every single day. I'm so grateful for the chance to have been part of this work and this community and I know I'll carry it with me long after after tonight. Thank you and happy holidays to everybody. [applause] Mr. Bing and uh the Honorable Regina Eert, please join me. >> Two in three, two, one. And in three, two, one. One last one. In three, two, one. >> Thank you. Echard, you stepped out when we introduced the new protocol of airing our

037grievances for exiting board members. Um, I've been very lucky here. So, you know, a little more than a year and I've had the pleasure of uh working with wonderful people around very difficult and challenging issues. Uh, people that uh don't always agree but can agree to disagree, which is how consens consensus and how effective districts move forward to be honest with you. Um, you are our opinion I value. I often have gone to you when when uh challenges come up. Um, and I will continue to value that your words and opinion. Thank you. [applause] >> Thank you. Now I'm up next. [laughter] Regina, thank you. I do some pretty good writing on the plane if I must say so myself. Um, leadership is bringing the vest the best versions of your team out. Nubia, you

038did exactly that. You stepped in into the role of board president at a moment when this community needed reassurance that this board could function, collaborate, and communicate with integrity. And you delivered from the start. You recognize that everyone on this day brings different strengths, perspectives, and lived experiences. And you brought those voices together in service of strong governance, thoughtful policy, and a district that put students first. You lead with empathy. You listen. You don't shy away from hard conversations. Your leadership changed how we work together. You raised the bar for communication, strengthened trust, and helped this board show up as a team, even when the work was hard. And behind the scenes, you were often the person checking in, following up, and making sure everyone felt heard, even when we didn't agree. Your advocacy around

039mental health and survivors of abuse has been deeply impactful. By sharing your lived experience with courage and honesty, you reminded us that our decisions aren't abstract. They they shape real lives and that perspective brought humanity into this work in a way that truly mattered. I learned a lot watching how you led in these moments, especially when things were uncomfortable or emotionally hard. [clears throat] Your background in communication strengthened not just this board, but the district's relationship with the community. You pushed us to be clearer, more transparent, and more accountable, and that will last well beyond your term. Over the course of your term, your impact showed up in very real ways. This is just a snippet of it, but in 2023, I was extremely proud to work beside you on CNI to push for a

040stronger elementary reading curriculum. And as FFT chair that year, you ensured careful oversight of hazardous route evaluations, always centering student safety. In 2024, you worked with some fellow board colleagues to draft and pass a resolution supporting statewide funding for the New Jersey Anti-bullying Task Force, a clear statement of our values. And in 2025, after about 14 months of negotiations, you helped bring the Sumea contract across the finish line. And while the Ritzer project didn't quite get there this year, the foundation you helped build positions the district and the next board to move forward and finally break ground in 2026. Nubia, thank you for your leadership, your courage, your friendship, and your heart. [snorts] This district is stronger because of the time and care you gave it. And while your seat on this side of the

041horseshoe may be ending, the impact of your work will continue to show up where it matters most. In classrooms, in hallways, and in the daily experiences of students who feel safer and better supported because you were here. You reminded us again and again that this work is about real children and real families and that how we lead matters just as much as what we decide. Thank you for keeping students at the center of everything you did. >> [applause] [snorts] >> Okay. Thank you so much, Regina. I'm going to try to get through this without getting too emotional. Um, thank you all who are here tonight to send Regina, Bill, and me off as we end our three-year term on the board of ed. I also want to thank and acknowledge my family, uh, my husband,

042who's trying to take a picture of me right now, Chris, uh, my daughter, Ella, who's in seventh grade, and son Luke, who's in fifth grade. Luke gave me a huge hug when I told him tonight was my last board of ed meeting a couple days ago. He then reminded me that I spent half of his years in elementary school on the board. That feels like an eternity to a child [laughter] and uh to me too. It it um definitely felt very long. Before I continue, I want to acknowledge my father uh a civil rights activist, musician, and visual artist, Thomas Tyo Dval, who passed on March 31st, almost a month before finalizing the teacher's contract. Although he died at 91 with dementia, his memories were strong when I was a child. I grew up listening

043to my father's stories about living in DC during segregation, experiencing racism, joining the movement with Malcolm X in Harlem, and on and on. He loved his stories. I learned so much him from him about activism, the power of my voice, and standing up for what is right. I'd like to believe he is proud of my accomplishments as a BOE member. I also want to acknowledge the executive committee members. First VP Will Meyer and second VP Regina Eckert. I aspired to preside over a board that was calm, [laughter] functioned well, reflected the strengths of each member, and pushed our district forward in a number of ways that positively impacted our students. To you both, thank you for working with me to make those goals realized. Bimmel, Deardra, and Jeff, I'm sad that I will not be

044here for your second and third years, but I know you all do well. Each of you have a number of strengths from data analysis and critical thinking to end district parenting experiences that make you huge assets to our board, to our board service and district's goals. I cannot wait to watch you from the other side of this horseshoe continue to make a difference. Liz and Shaina, it's been a pleasure working with you these past two years. Thank you for leading your committees with such dedication and focus. As the most senior people left on this board along with Will, your experiences as chairs and additional NJSBA training you received this year will continue to be an asset. Will, [laughter] [gasps] thank you for your ongoing support and work and work ethic as my first VP. You

045really were a great team member in this journey. Our collaborative partnership and daily conversations allowed us to be a strong team. And when I say daily, I I mean daily, [laughter] all three of us. Actually, um I kind of feel bad that, you know, you never had a chance to run a meeting because I never missed one. [laughter] I'm coughing on you. I don't know. >> I I know. I know. Um I was never sick. But I have a feeling that that opportunity is coming soon. Uh we'll see. Although we had differing opinions at times, we were always able to have a professional dialogue that enabled us to find paths forward and that continue to drive positive outcomes. And I'm I'm very proud of that. To my running mates who formed EWG in 2022, Regina

046and Bill, thank you for accepting me into your world so that we could go on this journey together. And as Bill has said many times, we put in our petitions unbeknownst to one another and then came together thereafter. Uh, so Bill, I remember when we first chatted on the phone about aligning. Uh, I don't think you were too into that idea at first, [laughter] [gasps] but that's okay. It all works out. Um, you've been determined to serve on the board since high school, and I was so inspired by that. Um, I'm proud of all your board service work, being policy chair at a time when we were greatly behind in our policies, advocating for Votech, um, your work on the FFT committee. I mean, all that you did was no easy task. and I'm so

047happy that you tried a third time to get on the board and um your leadership was greatly needed. So, thank you, Regina. I just talked about you a lot, [laughter and gasps] but uh I do want to call out that your friendship and support this entire term has meant so much to me. I could not have done this without you and thank you for believing in me when I decided to ask for board support to be president this year. Um, your savvy, high attention to detail, and sensibility will be hard to replace. And then there's our not so new anymore superintendent, Mr. Bing. Time for my grievance. Um, I remember the weekend the board spent interviewing multiple applicants in 2024. When I heard you speak and present to us, I knew you were the one.

048I don't know how you managed this role. Nine different bosses with three changing annually. It sounds insane. >> [laughter] [gasps] >> But you're exactly what this district needed when you arrived and you continue to show that daily through the best and most challenging days when leading this unique school district. Thank you for your steadfast dedication to our community. I will miss collaborating with you. A big thank you to our hardworking senior leadership team and central office staff. I'm probably going to forget people, but I want to say um thank you to Mr. Adoyan, Miss Bodner, Miss Carrera, Dr. Wyel, Miss Jesse Maria, Dr. Gilbert, Mr. Moody. Um, Mr. Draper who's here taking photos, Miss Cordado, Miss Cassandra in central office, Mr. Bonds, uh, Mr. Morgan, our board and superintendent would not be successful without your

049wisdom, support, creativity, problem solving, and passion to help us drive positive outcomes for our students and staff. And thank you to our amazing teachers and school administrators who help educate our bright students, as well as our student reps. Thank you, Pen. I'm sad I'm not going to be on this the the the second half of of your time here and to Scarlet as well, but um so far I'm just so impressed with you and how you're advocating for students and so thank you so much for your work thus far. So, I'm more comfortable sharing the successes of others and myself, but I will briefly share that I am very proud of my work on the hazardous routes evaluation and policy, reinstating [snorts] courtesy transportation to support our integration initiative, passing policy 4281, inappropriate staff conduct,

050which requires reporting on alleged misconduct if a student might have been subject to child abuse or neglect by school staff or leader. advocating for a new phonics based ELA program which launched I Ready magnetic reading and pushing forward on the richer development to support our athletes. As I exit the BOE, a reminder to our current and future boards, keep collaborating together to make a difference. I'm proud of what we all accomplished together and I wish the board much success in 2026 and beyond. Thank you all. [applause] Superintendent Brain, please join me in welcoming the Honorable Madame President Nubia Dval Wilson and presenting this award. [snorts] And three, two, one. Going to do a few more. And three, two, one. One more. Three, two, one. >> Thank you. [laughter] Um, Regina, [clears throat] Bill, and Newbie,

051it's been an honor to serve with you for the last year. And just want to say that, you know, there's something to be said for coming back in a couple years. Like, you know, don't think of this as like a permanent farewell. Like, just think of it as a break, okay? Like, you know, maybe 2031, 2035 has your name on it. uh airing of grievances. They have been aired. That is the beauty of our relationship. [laughter] Uh you the beauty of the relationship uh of a board president and a superintendent is it is a challenging position [laughter] that often requires a lot of support. Uh, and whether she was holding me up or I was holding her up, um, somehow it always worked out for the best for the kids, which really is what it

052comes down to. So, >> thank you. >> Okay, so we're just going to have like a fivem minute break. I know there's friends in the audience, family. My kids have to get to bed, so I'm going to uh just motion for just a five minute break. Do I have a second? >> Thank you, Edward. And uh then we'll resume in about five minutes. Thank you. follow after that. >> All right, perfect. So, good evening everyone. I just want to say a quick thank you to our board members who are leaving at the end of the year. I've only known you a few months, but all of you have been an inspiration to Scarlet and I. And so, thank you so much. So yes, we're going to begin with our board recognitions. So to start, want

053to send a shout out to Miss Donna Frederick and Miss Vanessa Leforest for leading our excellent fifth grade safety patrol students in celebrating Ruby Bridg's National Walk to School Day. The morning kicked off with a wonderful community walk to school made even better by joining forces with Seth Bdon. Later that afternoon, the grades attended a truly inspiring school assembly. Our fifth graders did an incredible job sharing poems and uplifting words of inspiration to honor Ruby Bridg's immense bravery and courage. We'd like to give a special um shout out to Miss Frederick and Miss Leforest for their genuine dedication and commitment to making this important day an annual meaningful tradition here at Seth Bdon. Thank you so much for inspiring our students. Next, send a congratulations to Caitlyn Chan, who received the Youth Leadership Award at

054the New Jersey Chinese Teachers Association award presentation [snorts] um on December 13th, nominated by Miss Mung, Caitlyn was honored for her exceptional leadership and dedication to promoting Chinese language and culture. As co-president of the Chinese Honor Society at Columbia High School, she has demonstrated strong organizational and collaborative skills, including co-chairing the annual induction ceremony and leading peers in recognizing academic excellence and cultural learning. We also congratulate Miss Mung for being nominated for the 2025 NJCAA Educator of the Year Award. Miss Mong proudly represented Columbia High School and the SOSD Chinese teaching team at the NJCAA ceremony. And Miss Mo was also my freshman teacher. So, congratulations. [applause] Next, we are proud to recognize CHS students who were selected to the 2025 2026 New Jersey Area Symphonic Band after competitive auditions held on December 6th. Their

055selection reflects months of hard work, dedication, and commitment to their music. Congratulations to Ka Masushi for playing the English horn, Julian Ka Bo for playing clarinet, Luke Wit on the tuba, Ella Levi playing the tempani, and Max Ginsburg as battery percussion. We would also like to recognize sophomore Levi Vetal who demonstrated strong musicianship and effort through the process. These students will represent Columbia High School as members of the ensemble and their first concert will be on January 17th at Mount Olive High School. Columbia High School band program is full of talent and we extend our thanks to the band families and music educators who have supported our classmates. And for our final recognition, congratulations to Miss Carissa Handler on being named the 2026 New Jersey Counselor of the Year by our state's school counselors association.

056[applause] On behalf of the students at Colombia, we are proud to recognize Miss Handler for the care, dedication, and leadership she brings to our high school community. Miss Handler is known by students for always being there and making sure her students feel supported. From creating opportunities such as college visits and the Perseverance breakfast to expanding support for multilingual learners and assisting with the CHS yearbook, Miss Handler has made a difference in students lives. [applause] She's being honored for what students experience her as every day. counselor who truly believes in them and helps them succeed. So, that brings a conclusion to the BOE recognitions. And tonight, Scarlet and I would like to discuss our student administrative internship program as well as some information about the proposed new teacher administrative communications policy. So, Scarlet is joining from

057Zoom and she will speak later. So to begin our we would like to discuss current developments and a structured plan for our proposed student internship program. We brought this up briefly at the end of the last meeting and since then we have developed um our thoughts and so the aim of the student administrative support and internship program is to strengthen school operations at CHS while providing students with meaningful real world experience within Columbia High School. At its core, it's intended to be a multi a mutually beneficial program between administrators and students. And our aim for administrators is to add targeted support, targeted operational support without adding complexity or yeah the complexity of hiring new staff to and to do that we envision that departments within CHS will select and assign small groups of highly motivated

058students to department specific projectbased roles. In doing this departments will benefit in four ways. Number one is they will be able to address certain initiatives that often go under prioritized due to time and staff constraints. Number two is to reduce or increase pardon me operational operational efficiency without increasing permanent staffing. Two, number three, improve consistency and flow on long-term projects. You know, I've Yeah. And making sure things get followed through. I've talked a lot about being distracted by the future during these meetings. So, trying to begin some of those projects now with our students and seeing them through to the end. And number four, avoid avoid spreading staff too thin across one too many tasks. And in our initial proposition, we mentioned that we envision student tasks be routine and unspecialized. However, we would now

059like to propose that students are given projectbased assignments instead. These tasks being projectbased rather than routine ensures that student involvement is focused and requires less constant oversight by administrators. It is a program to increase operational efficiency. We don't want to be in a situation where administrators are spending too much time teaching students. And specialization also allows for departments to explore new areas of work. such as communications, event coordination, or fundraising support. Those are some of those um items that often get overlooked. And we propose that we begin with a smaller pilot model of the program so that we can strategically expand capacity while maintaining full control over scope of the program and the expectations of it. And like I said, it's a mutually beneficial program. It is intended to help students as well. And it

060provides high quality in like within the school year experience and career exposure that emphasizes responsibility especially as students get older and prepare for secondary education in college. And students gain, you know, real exposure to administrative work, opportunities to apply their individual strengths to meaningful projects that they can see get carried out and control. practical insight into career paths before college and post-secary commitments and most importantly increased independence through guided ownership of said initiatives. And what this means that students will be given supervised independence over the development of their respective projects. And what we intend to make this program so special is by harnessing the innovative and unique qualities of CHS students and provide and providing them with student autonomy in their projects to accomplishing the long-term goals we hope to achieve within the district. So,

061like I said earlier, we proposed we start with a smaller pilot program and we just recently within the past couple days released feedback forms to the student body and it's only been a few days so it's too early to make general generalizing claims over student support but the trends are very positive with so far 100% of respondents you know in support of the program and I believe Scarlet has some more specifics Hi. Um, I just want to take a moment to say thank you to the board members who will be leaving us. Um, although I've been in Washington DC this se this semester and didn't get to work with you as closely as I would have liked, I really do appreciate every opportunity I did have to work with you. Um, so truly thank you

062so much for your service and dedication. Just adding on to PEN um I want to go into a little bit more detail about how this project would work. So um administrators um would delegate long-term projects to students. Um for example, some of these projects would look like fundraising projects for sports teams, putting them in com communication with parents who would want to raise money for the sports teams. um uh finding the best software to manage scheduling of spaces um for sports practices like um Ritzer versus Underh Hill for a sports practice so that students can get their location of practice early on time and know where they're going because that has been a concern among students. Um so those that's just going a little bit more into detail. I don't know if Pen has anything

063else to add, but he covered most of my points. So, thank you so much. >> So, yeah, one last thing real quick. I want to emphasize again the importance of harnessing uh the strength in our youth uh youth at CHS. It's a very very strong public school and there are aspects of communications and as the modern world develops that believe young people and students are very good at like you know social media and stuff like that and using the resources at an to provide not only unique opportunities for students but also unique opportunities for administrators to learn from students and I think structuring the program like that is one very unique to our district, it would be there's not really a path seen before. It's new and that's not a bad thing. It's a good

064thing. So, >> thank [snorts] you so much. [applause] >> Yeah, if there's any questions about that before we transition into the communications policy then. Any >> questions? No. Okay. >> Okay. Perfect. So, Scarlet. >> Yeah. So, I just wanted to update you all on a communications policy that Pen and I are working on um along with the board. We met with the policy committee and we're proposing a stronger communications policy for teachers um for teacher and student communication. Um first we want to emphasize the importance of the channels through which teachers communicate with their students. I think that um there has been some student concern um with teachers um communicating with students through um channels other than just email which seems a little bit concerning and we just want to emphasize the importance of that.

065but also we want to come up with a new policy to make sure that um teachers are responding to students on time and in a timely manner. So we are proposing that and we're currently working on that. So I'm excited. Thank you. So, any final thoughts or questions? >> Thank you. Have a good night. >> So, we did meet with Penn and Scarlet two weeks. Two weeks ago. >> Oh, yeah. It's true. uh about the uh internship. >> Two weeks, two days ago. >> It's about right. [laughter] >> Do you know what day it is? >> Get out of here, Pen. Uh and it it really seems like a promising program. So, we're kind of we're excited. Uh he did and Pen and Scarlet did share some early results of the survey. Uh I saw

066Mr. uh Adado, Dr. Gilbert. Um, looks like out of the 120 so far, 119 want to intern in the superintendent's office. [laughter] I see only one for HR and unfortunately zero for Dr. Gilbert. [laughter] So hopefully those numbers will change, but >> are those results something that could be distributed just so we can have a sense of what they look like too? No, I'm >> asking Pet Pitscar just just released this the survey. We're actually going to borrow it from them to uh give to our departments to see how they want to utilize >> uh interns. So uh yeah. >> So would it be for all departments then like special services? Okay, great. >> Okay. Do you want to do your update? Superintendent. [laughter] >> So Pen uh and Scarlet shouted out a a few

067people. So, we just want to pay them a little more attention uh before we uh move on. So, let's start first uh with Miss uh Carissa Handler, New Jersey School Counselor of the Year. [applause] Uh, Cararissa of Columbia High School has been selected as the 2026 New Jersey School Counselor of the Year, representing Essex County after being named this year's remarkable county counselor by the New Jersey School Counselors Association. She demonstrates outstanding dedication to students and a strong passion for school counseling. At Colombia, Miss Handler supports students in grades 10 through 12 with academic planning, college and career readiness, and social emotional growth. She is known for expanding access to college opportunities, creating meaningful student recognition programs, and ensuring families feel supported and included. Miss Handler will now advance to the national selection process as

068New Jerseys nominee for the 2026 National School Counselor of the Year. We hope to congratulate her next summer. Uh but for now we want to give her a round of applause for the being the New Jersey counselor of the year. Uh if you want to say a few words. We we thought you might do that. So where is Mr. Sanchez? Uh we just want to bring up Principal Sanchez just to say a couple words. I just want to say how fortunate our students are to have Miss Handler. It's uh counseling position at Colombia High School is very different than most suburban high schools. Um at our high school, we have students reaching for some of the best universities in the United States of America, and they come to Miss Handler for her expertise. Miss Handler

069also is one who always is creating opportunities working with the Achieve Foundation for example in in making sure that our students are also wellfed not you know understanding um that students who um aren't feeling well or who aren't fed can't do academic uh as well as they can. Uh, Miss Handler has also run a few of our college field trips with our students again through Achieve Foundation and other uh, organizations to make sure that our students have seen different opportunities um, you know, many many colleges that um, sometimes as as parents who work two or three jobs can't take them to to different opportunities across New Jersey or the tri-state area. So, it's it's it's a it's it's a it's an incredible position being a counselor at CHS and to to be able to to

070wrestle with all of that and then to still have students say she's our trusted adult is great. So, I just want to say that I'm lucky to have an incredible sta counseling um staff and and especially with Carissa Handler being part of that staff. So, Cararissa, we've vanquished 20 other counties and I'm looking to see us defeat 49 other states, Miss Handler. So, congratulations. You are a gem at Columbia High School. [applause] And I'm I'm sure I'm stating the obvious here because school counselor has always been a challenging position. Uh, since the pandemic, you could multiply that by a thousand. uh they are really our go-to folks for our kids that are going through stuff and uh not only South Orange School District but across the state. We have kids a lot of kids going

071through stuff right now. Uh so big thank you Carissa for all that you do. [applause] >> Second and Pen noted these folks as well. I want to call out the uh Columbia High School Chinese program and also the team. Um I am pleased to announce that Columbia High School's Chinese program has been recognized at the national level as an outstanding Chinese program. In just eight years, this program has grown from a small grant-f funded initiative into a strong districtup supported program serving more than 600 students in grades 6 through 12. Thanks to Miss Mung, our dedicated world language teachers, and the leadership of Dr. Roberel Fernandez, students at Colombia are gaining meaningful language skills, cultural understanding, and opportunities that extend beyond the classroom. We are joined by Miss Mung from Columbia High School and instructors

072from the Chinese program. I want to make sure that Miss Mung calls out this unbelievably nationally recognized team tonight uh so everybody knows who they are. If you have young kids in this district, take a good look at this team. Uh because there's a very good chance uh you're going to be in their classes. Oh, we also have Rosia Lopez as well. So, take a look at Rosia because if you go to Spanish Route, you'll be seeing her as well. Uh but it's quite an honor. Uh we sat about God, I'm I'm shouting out timelines that are completely wrong here. I believe two weeks ago you brought a Chinese delegation uh to to Columbia High School and I just thought the conversation was wonderful. Uh it was a really wonderful opportunity for for the school.

073So Miss M, I'm going to ask you to say a few words and introduce your team. Uh and if our if your team has any some words as well, we'd love to hear from them. >> Oh, is >> just press the red red button. >> Yeah. Yep. >> Yeah. Okay. Uh I would say I truly appreciate the invitation to the BOE meeting for recognition of our achievement. Um this outstanding Chinese award reflects not only the strengths of Chinese language program but also the district that um the education to global uh education, cultural understanding and u academic excellence and um I think you know our um achievement would not be possible without the strong support of the board, the district and the school administrators, the dedication of this team and uh most importantly the enthusiasm enthusiasm

074and engagement of the students and the parents who bring the language and culture to life every day and um we look forward to continuing this meaningful work to sustain the healthy and long-term development of Chinese program and to contribute to the diverse culture of the school district and the community. Thank you so much [applause] >> guys. If you could introduce yourself that would be wonderful. >> So my name is Jennifoy. I teach Chinese at Columbia High School with Miss Mom. [applause] >> Um I'm Miss Shane Lim. I'm teaching in both two schools. I'm at South Orange Middle School, also at Columbia High School. [applause] >> Hi, my name is Jachi Jang. I'm uh the Chinese teacher in Maplewood Middle School. [applause] >> My name is May Weaver. I work in uh Maplewood Middle School. Thank

075you. [applause] >> Hi. Uh my name is Vince Chen. Uh I teach in South Orange Middle School and also in the high school too. [applause] >> Say congratulations to our Chinese program and all our teachers for this national recognition. It's unbelievable. Thank you guys. [applause] >> And I have to say Jao J. >> I'm going to give Mr. Sanchez a couple I'm gonna give Miss Sanchez a minute up here because I know he's got some stuff to say about the about the team. I like that you said just a minute. So you just there's a timer. I don't know. Mr. Mr. Bonds, you want put the timer? No. Um I think what what wasn't said was that this program everyone started in 2017. So just to put that to something to think about 2017 and

076and and you and you saw these these incredible educators, not a single person said they're from the elementary school. So to think that we have an award, a nationally recognized award-winning program that really just begins in sixth grade says something that the dedication of these teachers uh and what they do and we are just blessed to have them. And I want to add just one more thing. We want to thank Dr. Robles for for starting this program in 2017. But what I do love about going to any world language program whether regardless of the of the language is how connected the students are to our teachers, how they're engaged. And I will say which I think is very interesting, the Chinese program is one of the most diverse programs that we have. It is a

077program that really is something that shows the beauty of Columbia High School. different colors, different class, uh just and and and to think about that I think is is something that's awesome. And I want to thank specifically the opportunities that this language program can have for our students. And we yes, we've invited uh Chinese scholars to be here. We had Taiwanese students with some of our our our teachers. And we hope that we can really give these students here at Columbia High School an opportunity to travel abroad as well. So, thank you so much for the board of education for supporting these incredible teachers. Thank you all. Um, I'll give a quick update piggyback on what Principal Sanchez just said. Uh, Mr. Robace, our supervisor of language, and a couple of SLT members have been

078doing some exploration uh about bringing a dual language program uh to South Orangewood School District. Uh they've recently visited uh West Windsor and Dover to look at their Spanish immersion classrooms at the kindergarten, first grade level. Uh so we'll continue to explore that, but this is all due to the wonderful work done in our Spanish program uh and also our Chinese program. So again, uh big thank you to both of those, especially engaging our students and and increasing their interest in culture and languages. Thank you so much. Um we had a uh solid meeting with Soma Shares. I think coming uh out of the fundraiser uh last month uh around food, making sure we have folks and taking care of our folks that that that needed uh SNAP benefits and did not have them. Uh

079our community stepped up. Um out of that work, we've made the decision to expand our food pantry program. So currently we have food pantries at uh Clinton Elementary and at Columbia High School. We're going to expand that to every school in the district. Um our first step in this process uh will be working with both middle schools over the next few months and uh designing and then building out food pantries in those buildings. We met with Soma shares today and both principles uh and we're going to probably collaborate with some of our Eagle Scouts who have done wonderful work around the town. Um so we're going to start that work within uh in the new year. So we're excited about that. And in the spring we'll expand it to our elementary schools. I do want

080to shout out a couple policies that are on our agenda. Policy uh 2312 class size uh going from a plus two to a plus four. Uh and then I also want to shout out policy 9320. Um which is a cooperation with law enforcement um we have been doing some really good work uh first led by Stanley now led by our new director of safety Paul Morgan uh to really build relationships with our local police. Uh so we're look forward to developing that relationship moving forward uh and making sure our campuses are safe. Um it was noted earlier some of the work that we are uh undergoing currently. One of that part of that work is the Colombia high school program of studies and the development of career pathways. Um, you know, when you talk to

081employees, uh, employers, when you talk to colleges and universities, you often hear 21st century skills. You'll often hear soft skills, executive functioning. Uh, we want kids coming out with more career readiness. We want a workforce that's ready to go as soon as they graduate high school. Um, we believe, uh, CHS is a perfect venue for that work. And I we do believe that that sort of work will also on a selfish side help us help us increase our graduation rates, help us uh increase our attendance rates as well uh and also help uh increase student engagement. So uh we'll be launching some career pathways starting in 2627. You'll see them in the new programs of studies that will be coming out sometime in late January, February. uh just to mention a few uh we'll be

082doing a partnership with Ruckers around health sciences as you know and if you look at NJO department of labor data it is a growing and exploding field um we'll be health that's health science pathway we'll expose kids to healthcare careers uh they'll be taking a course in anatomy physiology be taking a course in wellness ending that course in a capstone uh where they're either doing work-based learning or uh doing a real authentic uh workbased project aviation we are bringing to the district. Uh we ran a pilot program last summer that garnered around 25 students uh for a five-day program at CHS. Um so we sent a couple folks out to Indianapolis to uh look at a new curriculum, a free curriculum, and we'll be implementing that next year. So we'll be running an aviation program,

083aviation 1, aviation 2, and aviation 3. Um, from a uh perspective of our field, we'll also be running a program that we hope will create a pipeline of teachers coming back to SOSD. Uh we'll be partnering with Ryder University around a program called Tomorrow's Teachers. uh students will be taking three classes, dual credit classes uh in the education field and again culminating in a capstone as noted by Bill earlier. We're expanding our woodworking, carpentry program, so kids get an idea of again another exploding field, carpentry and construction, business entrepreneurship. We'll be launching that. We'll be launching business marketing, a computer science pathway. I think you've heard uh principal Sanchez often talk about uh the uh college board's computer science programming. We'll be launching that full cycle. Uh environmental science as well. And we'll also well

084we currently uh are running a car tap program. We mentioned this a couple times for those you don't know. Uh the automotive service program is down by about 65% in regards to employees. Um we are working with local car dealerships. Uh this particular project is in Hillside where some of our students will have the opportunity to go after school and receive training in car service, automobile technician service. uh for the next I believe it's six months uh and then uh we'll be knock on wood offered a position uh by a dealership. So we'll continue to work uh with the auto automotive dealerships around the area and we're looking at a few other things in the fields of advanced manufacturing as well as supply chain management. So we're excited about that launch next year. uh we

085have launched our transportation action committee as you know we've established a budget action committee last year uh that uh I think really helped us in the development of the 2526 budget we expanding that model to transportation as you all know I don't have to say it we struggle in that area of transportation and busing uh is an area we can significantly improve in uh we have worked collaboratively with a lot of our community members and parents uh who've been a value ad in this process. So, we're expanding the community budget action committee to a transportation action committee. Uh applications are online right now. I know a lot of people have already applied. So, we'll be launching uh that committee in the new year. Take a hard look at our routing, our bus lengths, uh our

086bus trips, things of that nature. So, we'll make sure those notes are posted on the website as we as we uh meet with that committee. Uh we did have a meeting of the children's cabinet uh this month as well that continues to grow. We are at about 32 different organizations currently. Um again just to uh remind folks uh children cabinet is is really just a mechanism to try to fill in the gaps of service that may be out there for our children from cradle to job. Um obviously as in the education field we have a certain lens. However, there are other organizations out there whether it's the YMCA whe whether it's uh you know a a minefield of other organizations that are doing just wonderful work with kids that we don't know what each other

087are doing. Um we need to know what each others are doing. I think we could be a lot more effective in that manner. So the children's cabin is just a way to synergize the great energy that's already happening Maplewood and South Orange for services that uh afford our kids a better life and bring those services together uh under one committee uh so we can be a lot more powerful and a lot more effective uh in serving children from cradle uh to job. Uh and as we noted last year and I just noted when we talked about uh how important school counselors are uh you know there there's becoming more and more of a need for health services especially mental health services for for our students. Um and we are hoping the children's cabinet will will

088play an important role in getting those services to our students. Uh I do want to speak briefly about the budget. I know Ammani is going to talk about it. Um we are literally witnessing uh the devastation that an inadequate state funding formula can cause. Um we've been talking about this for now a year and a half. We have gone down the Trenton to advocate. Um, if we are looking around, uh, we are seeing districts like West Orange, uh, we are seeing districts like Montlair, uh, and as you go down south, Berkeley, Tom's River, uh, Asbury, you name them, um, being ripped apart. Uh, the latest obviously is Montlair, they've been in the headlines, uh, for the past month now. Um, we are doing everything we can in our power. Uh and again this goes back

089to the strength of an effectively working board which we're lucky enough to have. Uh in regards to not end up like Enclair or West Orange uh that work will include some difficult decisions. Uh that work uh needs to be strategic uh and also needs to be data driven. So um you know we are looking to maintain staffing and especially studentf facing programming. Uh so that means we're taking a hard look at what positions are open, what positions are needed. Uh we're looking to utilize transfers again this year. Last year we had the opportunity to move around 40 individuals. That saved the district around six million, five and a half, six million dollars. Those positions usually would have been filled uh with new hires. Um and uh uh we're going to continue that work. Mr. Moody

090is going to also comment on a lot of other strategies that we're looking at uh to hope hopefully keep uh a solid budget uh and to make sure we can develop a balanced budget for the 26 uh 27th school year. So I will turn that over to the president and I think the president will then turn it over to Ammani. You want me to go right to Aman? >> Ami I'm going right to you. [laughter] Okay. I'm not the president, but I am business administrator. And uh I think I'll start off since [snorts] you began speaking to the budget challenges that we're all facing across the state. Um, I will begin with the budget presentation that we have teed up. Um, and our amazing IT department is throwing that up onto the screen for me.

091[laughter] >> Thank you. Um, I guess you can put it on the Yeah. All right. Slideshow mode. Thank you. And, you know, I want to start out by saying my own appreciation and thanks and gratitude to departing board members and the rest of the board just because, you know, um, I will say that the board has been, I think, unique to historical boards in South Orange Maplewood. I only know the board that I've sat with, but the fact that we've been able to engage and communicate and collaborate with the quorum and shared goals uh through many a challenge is uh it just emanates throughout the district in terms of the decision-m when it's set when that tone is set. So I wanted to uh articulate my my appreciation to you for for that effort um

092through tough decisions and superintendent is talking about tough decisions. We uh have to continue to engage in um really strong self analysis and tough decisions and so thank you for that. Um you know that's folks are citing their their father today. I don't you know my father's passing was a couple of the anniversary of his passing was a couple days ago and that's one of the things that he was big on. He's actually a civil rights activist as well. We have to talk about that. Um, so, uh, thank you for that. So, our current financial reality as a superintendent spoke on is, uh, everyone's facing the forces at play that create a a structural deficit. Uh and that's why we're we're titling this budget presentation and really throughout the year as bridging the gap South

093Orange Maplewood School District's path from fiscal cliff to financial sustainability because uh sustainability because that's the vision set forth and that's what we're here to to achieve. Um next slide. So um facing that reality um and understanding the forces at play that do create a fiscal cliff you have to really look at historical decisions uh things that have set us up to today. um historical decisions that were the right decisions at the time really to use some of the reserves and we had a precipitous decline in reserves as we were trying to fight the fight these u these battles and and fund our educational efforts. Uh this is a story we've been telling all year. Essentially we had um a precipitous decline in unassigned fund balance from $32 million down to $14 million. People hear

094$32 million and they think there's a piggy bank uh in the district. Um but that's not true. And we had uh a tremendous decline. And then our capital reserves and maintenance reserves uh also declined and even up to including the prior year where we had to use some of our uh uh maintenance reserve to fund our budget. And we had to uh you know really go into reserves and then continue to uh face the fact that on the revenue side of the equation we're capped. We're capped in terms of our tax levy. which capped at 2%. Uh state aid was um was a bit um uncertain as well. Um and uh we can move on to the next slide. So um in the interest to actually save money and uh direct funds towards educational outcomes,

095you know, the prior administrations, you know, did do a lot of outsourcing. uh they went out and retained the services of external companies, right? And so that makes for an initial savings uh but then those savings go away over time. So what we found uh in becoming you know leaders of this district is that everything that could be outsourced was outsourced. So then that's uh a bit limiting in what you can do because you have to uh engage in or you're subject to the contractual commitments. We also have uh you know the desire and need to uh appropriately compensate our you know our teaching staff and our uh and our staff internally within the district. So we have to we're we have tough decisions to make with contractual obligations around where we direct our funds

096and again reserve depletion. So, a lot of outsourcing saves in the short term, but then with inflation and contractual obligations, >> those costs go up. >> Next slide. >> Oh, excuse me. Just one second, Mr. Moody. Yeah. >> I just wanted you to know we're um just being mindful of time this evening. So, >> I will put my pedal to the metal. >> Okay. Thanks. Yeah, maybe like five more minutes. >> Nice. All right. I love it. So uh moving forward quickly um again on this slide what I'll call to your attention is the projected revenue expenditure gap analysis right uh in the business office um we are really engaged in improving our lens widening our lens looking forward and projecting uh as far into the future as we can project. So a large part

097of what we're doing here is doing the look at the quarter 1 actuals, making a projection for the 2526 fiscal year and then projecting forward based on what we know is likely to the 2627 year. And what we did there uh and we did that analysis after quarter 1, what we find is that we're projecting uh a $7.7 million funding gap. Um, so again I've said it, savings down, revenue capped, expenses rising. Next slide. So we have to engage in a strategic transformation. Um, we're taking a look at all externally uh contracted services. We are bringing services back into district where possible. We're optimizing contracts. Um, engaging in gradual internalization where possible. Uh, of course that's always a costbenefit analysis, but I tell you when you have internal staff that are performing these services, you

098incr improve your ability for quality control and your commitment uh to improvement. So, uh, it makes for a longerterm cost savings. Next slide. So, our immediate action plan has been cost control and efficiency measures. I do want to spend a little bit of time here because what we're doing here is we having to change organizational behavior. Uh we've talked about the fact that we engaged in zerobased budgeting. That's where we widen the the conversation around who's actually putting in information and their perspective on the budget process. We're uh engaging in instruction around the district. We're paying attention to more voices, the boots on the ground at the schools, uh at department heads, and then coming up with our uh very meticulously crafted budgets. But then, uh we have to, you know, monitor the billing associated

099with those budgets. So, we engage in thoughtful budgeting, but then we have to actually pay attention line by line to the billing as it comes in to make certain we're not going over the limits we've been set. and renewing that discipline is is really tough. Uh and bringing folks into that process is the most important work for budget management that has to that has to happen. You know, largely in the business office, our job is to uh hold up a mirror to the district and show itself what it's doing. But then we have to polish that mirror and make certain that we're taking a really hard tough look at how billing is coming in, how funds are being expended, and then make tough decisions and make cuts and make uh adjustments of priorities uh with

100that new knowledge of how things are really proceeding and then uh move along a pathway to growth uh growth in efficiency and growth in revenue and mitigation. of expenses. Um, so I'll say here that a large part of that process was to monitor the billing. We're currently uh engaged in quarterly projections each quarter. We're always refining those projections so that we can know where this money is going. And we're attempting to enhance awareness around our financial reporting, improving the the information that we present to the board, and really enhancing our ability to have self-awareness about what's actually taking place so we can make strategic decisions and meticulous choices uh so that we can avoid crisis later. Next slide. So, as we do that, um, folks will know that we we went through the hard process

101of taking a fresh look at our health insurance coverage. We knew that it was likely to the state plan is going to grow by 31%. We had only budgeted uh, you know, much less than that. and a shift to a different plan that's same or better uh and has uh the same networks 95% overlap in networks was a really strong uh choice and actually is going to serve to limit our projected limitation for expenditures there would is bringing it down to about 11%. Uh and that was a tough undertaking and it was a collaborative process. So, I I applaud both the board and district leadership and staff for uh walking along that journey to that change for Janu. Um that's one where we're projecting at a million dollars in savings. We also engaged in a

102budget freeze earlier in the process this year, November budget freeze, but what that means is we now are repurposing those funds based on what was unexpended in November. This is the tough work that is required to move the district along and get to a place where we're engaging in uh savings and efficiency. Next slide. So here uh it's probably tough for you guys to see this, but uh I'll just briefly go over this. This is kind of a list of some of the the decisions that we're making and the operational changes that we're making over the course of the 2526 school year. The superintendent mentioned the robust effort uh with HR, business office, and senior leaders leadership team to move uh positions around the district and attempt to to gain some some impact there. So,

103we're projecting about a $2 million uh savings in salaries through that work. Special ed transportation. Uh you know, we've made some changes there. So we've got some projections around what's possible to achieve in the way of surpluses there. Um and then there's some shortfalls that are happening as well. We we have been attempting to rightsize our distribution of pair of professionals but we're over by 800 projected 876,000 on that line. So these things were achieving some successes. We're also attempting to stem the tide of uh shortfalls. But where we are now is that we're projecting uh basically about 3.7 million in in surpluses, 3 uh 3 million in shortfalls. So we've moved the needle about 400k. The work continues. Um, we're projecting that $7.7 million budget deficit for next year, but our work continues to

104really evaluate uh potential strategies to contribute in this 2526 budget year to the 2627 shortfall that we're projecting. That's the work. Next slide. So along those lines, and I've received a side eye from the president of the [laughter] So, I'm I'm going to continue to to move more quickly, but um what I'll say is there's action plans of foot. We're workshopping these ideas. Uh we're talking about adjustments to courtesy busing uh for the transportation uh circumstances and optimizing those and achieving some savings. We're talking about strategic staffing decisions. We are talking about, you know, um repurposing the funds that were the savings that came from the the November 1st spending freeze, enhanced special ed monitoring to make certain that services are going to the right uh students and are efficiently administered. So, we're going through

105this with a whole host of ideas including revenue generation initiatives, energy cost reduction initiatives, new bell schedules, six period adjustments, uh, uh, hazardous routes, subscription busing, class sizes, and evaluating the the Columbia High School course catalog. We're looking all around because we have to do that in order to uh explore opportunities to not um experience those things that our neighbors are experiencing. Next slide. Uh we are also uh as was mentioned earlier embarking upon an energy environmental sustainability initiatives through our energy savings improvement plan initiative and we're looking to take a fresh look at how we can achieve longerterm savings through HVAC efficiency uh high efficiency lighting and building improvement solar panels and the like. Thank you board member Gford for bringing that to the table as well. Um next slide. So in this final

106slide, we're talking about a roadmap to success because that's what we're targeting. And then we're doing the hard work to be self-reflective and make tough decisions. Um, and this is kind of a timeline of that. We been engaging in assessment and planning um strategy development, implementation and monitoring and uh towards the achievement of financial stability. It requires budget planning and monitoring in the 2526 year. extending our our lens and budget planning for the 262 27 year this early, but then also up to and including building a long-term strategic plan that looks out uh or aligning a long-term financial plan to the strategic plan that's forthcoming in order to have long-term financial stability. So, that's what we're seeking here. Budget uh presentation done. [laughter] Um, now we I do want to mention um if you can

107actually put up a Ritzer timeline. I'd like to go into the Ritzer timeline. So, we've been moving along the our progress uh along our planning to do the great work that we've been evaluating for the Ritzer field. Um, and that process has uh it began long ago, but we continue with that process. The timeline will be up shortly, but I'm just going to go into it. Folks know from the um prior presentation, as you can see here, we've got site investigation was a major part of the the early process and that was October and November. Um we've been moving forward into the design and development phase. And the design and development phase has involved um boring holes into the richer field to do testing, environmental testing to test the groundwater and the chemical uh makeup

108of that groundwater uh to inform the process of setting parameters for the drainage um that's being planned. So it we've been hitting milestones uh every week. Uh the last meeting we identified the fact that in December there would be a lot of milestones hit around testing and analysis. All of that work has uh is ongoing. The last several days there are machines that folks may have noticed on the field that are boring holes deep into the soil as far as they can go to do that testing and send information out to labs to inform their their design work. Uh so that's been happening uh this week. We there's also a crew on site to stake out the fields yesterday, today and uh and the day before and also to assess and make certain to preserve

109project adventure uh and adjust parameters such that uh we don't have to touch that as well. >> Just real quick, the uh arborist has also finished their inventory and report. So they'll be submitting that report within the next two weeks. >> Absolutely. Thank you for that. Um so moving forward in the process um you know in design and development and you know it also dovetales with our effort to uh you know having to manage the accounting and finance and the audit. Um I'll just briefly say that the audit has come to completion. We we actually uh signed off on all of the audit paperwork today for submission tomorrow. So, we have a a completion of another successful audit. The new guidance came out three days ago which stated that the due date is January 15th.

110So, we're well ahead of the due date. Um, but in the process of doing the work for the audit, we had to take a really tough I mean a really granular detailed look at the uh close out of the proceeds of the bond sale. As folks know, there was $187 million of bonds issued over the last five years or so, and those projects have come to completion. There's still a little bit more work to do, but in that analysis work, we found that there were some unexpended balances there across an array of projects that were we were even able to repurpose towards uh the early design work um on on the Richer Field. So, that's a success as well. So, we're moving forward with that design and development phase and up to an including uh

111submission to the Maplewood Planning Board. That's submission is underway uh in advance of their January meeting. So, um that's where we are in that process. I won't uh go too much further into that because I also want to uh bring our attention to the budget calendar if the time permits. Okay. All right. Budget calendar, folks. Well, you know, I'll begin speaking on the budget calendar. budget calendar is long and uh detailed, but as as we are at December 18th, we've um made it through our October and November and into December milestones. Um during this month of November and December, we've engaged in a comprehensive process of meeting with our principles around the district and our early meetings with department heads. We're getting refamiliarizing them with the systems uh getting them to put in their perspectives

112on their needs um at the building level. We're also uh coordinating the process of of working with department heads to get in their perspectives around needs for the 26 27-year budget. The beauty is having come through a process of imple implementation of a requisition system and then a a a targeted spending freeze for November 1st. folks are increasingly familiar with their budget lines and what their needs are. Uh and so they can it it informs their ability to to actually make their projections for next year. So it's a continuous process. So we move out through those milestones November and December. If you can advance the screen um down to like the November December area. Thank you. Um so you know then we're at that place as I just mentioned where we made it through doing

113a Q1 actual fullear projection uh that in is informing our our projected shortfall analysis. Um and then we're at the uh federal single audit uh and this the state single audit. We're at that inflection point now where we've submitted. Uh there will be an audit presentation coming up in January or February, but uh we're on good schedule for that. We continue uh with the superintendent is doing program of study revisions with departments. >> Can you scroll a little bit more for us for the people at home? >> Thank you. >> Yeah. So we can get to >> So we can get to those dates. You see how December actually other direction >> the other direction moving down through the calendar. >> Perfect. Y >> keep on going. keep on going. Uh so we're right around,

114you know, December. Uh you can keep on going as well. Uh down to when superintendent and I review instructional operational budgets. We're looking to get those finalized and finalize those submissions. They're the the deadlines are there, but they're still coming in. We'll be finalizing that uh just before the holiday break. And then we'll go to a presentation of the audit in early January. Uh and then we begin uh the or continue the work of interfacing with the board, presenting them with their data request and analysis and then making tough decisions around uh the structure of our budget moving forward up through February where we refine uh and then we look to uh finalize our budget and uh make a presentation to the community and uh you know to the board and then finalize our budget

115prior to or once we receive the guidance from the governor's budget address. Then uh and we continue to deliberate and then around uh the latter part of March and into April is where we do our submission. The budget calendar is formally uh on the website for everyone's viewing pleasure and to follow along through this process. It's helped us to shape our movements. And with that, I'm going to bring this to a close. Um, and uh, but we're on track, but we have tough decisions to make. [snorts] Thank you. >> Thank you. And I just want to mention that this budget calendar was also worked on collaboratively with the board. And I and this month we did work on um which I think is listed in the calendar, but we did work on giving the district

116those uh ongoing questions that board members typically ask so that there can be structure year-over-year with the type of questions, the type of answers to prepare for us in advance so we're not always bugging you. [laughter] Um so thank you. That was great. I appreciate it. Um, so now we'll go to um Oh, sorry. Did you have a question? Sorry, I forgot. Yes, go on ahead. [clears throat] Um, thank you very much. That was a very sobering presentation. We're going to have a lot of work to do over the next couple months. Um, I just want to say that I I think actually state aid for the next year might be a little bit better than it was for this current school year and a little bit better than the $600,000 estimate you had baked

117into the budget estimate for the coming school year. Um, the reason I sent that are that, you know, new, our school district is underated by $1.6 million for this current school year, meaning we're getting $1.6 million less than the statute says we should be getting. And with a deficit like that, it's kind of harder to go down. So maybe we'll have a rebound next year. And the state's own income taxes are coming in very strongly. Um, the income taxes so far for the state are up by 11%. And the governor's estimate, you know, a few months ago was only a 3% growth. So, you know, with that very um very vigorous revenue growth, um I think there should be um a lot of state aid left over for districts like us. And unlike West Orange,

118like we get zero in equalization aid. So, that's bad for us, but it means you can't get less than zero. So, perhaps state aid will be a little better than we think um for extraordinary aid and the K12 APEX aid. Maybe uh of course we're going to have a deficit, but um maybe it'll be a bit less than 7.7 million. >> Also do want to call out as as you recall uh we met with our county BA and county superintendent last year uh who really made the mandate that we put 2% back into our savings uh every year for the next 3 to four years. So, I know Monti just showed you about a 7.7 gap. You need to add another 2% onto that because we have to start building our coffers back up. [clears

119throat] >> Okay, no other questions. Okay, great. Moving right along. Um, I will be quick with my board president update. Um, just want to highlight some things from the calendar year, not school year, of 2020. I wrote 2026 here. 2025. Um just acknowledging some of the boards and districts milestones. Um so our 2526 school year budget did not have any reductions in force. Um our SMA and ASCA contracts were settled this year which was great. Um and SMA in particular um having one of the best salaries in the county. Thank you very much. Uh Freshman Academy was reimagined and relaunched this year with our superintendent leading the charge in partnership with CHS leadership. I don't know is Mr. Sanchez is still here. Um well, shout out to him and our SLT to better support our

1209th graders. Um as our BA mentioned, uh we transition to a new health insurance plan, saving us a lot of money um and preventing um some financial burdens for next year. That that 37% increase would have been really crippling for us. Um work to continue efforts to finish our two 2019 LRFP capital projects field. Tonight we vote on um approving engineering and design services uh provided by SPEA architect architectural group as we continue to provide the NJDOE with the necessary documentation as our BA mentioned. So that is um to be passed tonight. Um also implementing our K through9 phone ban to further prevent distractions in the classroom and on school grounds. um related to smartphone access. Tonight we are accepting $28,257 in grant funds from the NJDOE phone free schools program to support those efforts

121which can only be used for phone storage solutions that enable secure restriction of student access such as yonder pouches and shout out to board member Callahan for being a great um supporter proponent and making sure that things like this are on our radar. So thank you. And then also uh something that the district will also be sending out soon in a correspondence. We are going to push our fiveear strategic plan community sessions to uh March 16th, April 15th and May 11th. Those will be in the evening. This will enable the district and the community to have a clearer picture of the 2627 school year budget as well as the forthcoming three years. So we want to make sure that we have some more uh data on that before we do our meetings. So, the district

122will be sending out a correspondence with the RSVP link, right? You're going to do another Yeah. Great. And I'm going to keep it at that. So, next I'll do the board president's statement. Uh, the schoolboard meeting is a business meeting in public and not a meeting with the public. Oftentimes, it may appear to members of our audience that the board of education takes action with very little comment and in many cases a unanimous vote. Before a matter is placed on the agenda at a public meeting, it is thoroughly been reviewed by the administration, the superintendent of schools, and the board of education, after which it is placed on the agenda for board discussion and action at a public meeting. Uh hearing of individuals and delegations. Thank you for coming in person and joining us online

123this evening. The South Orange Maplewood Board of Education values public involvement and respects that you've taken the time to address the boards at tonight's meeting. Uh friendly reminder to please be respectful as we take into consideration your valuable input which will inform future deliberations and work by the board of education and its committees. The board does have time limits by policy and it will be enforcing those to enable as many people to speak as possible. Each individual will be given three minutes to speak. First [snorts] public comment period is limited to 1 hour with priority given to items on the agenda. Second public comment may be limited to 30 minutes. Please remember to say your full name and town where you reside. Uh Nicole Burns. [snorts] >> Good evening everyone. Uh my name is Nicole

124Burns. I have been the secretary at Montrose School since November of 2019 with the then principal Bonita Samuels. Um from my interview I was immediately connected with Montrose. I found comfort in my work uh that made it never really feel like work. Um I have a great work home balance. Um the little ones kind of make it less like a job, more fun. Um my children are much older uh in college and in the workforce. My job is rewarding and I value those blessings. I love being part of the foundation of our young community and working with an incredible staff. As I stated, I joined Montrose in the fall of 2019. I supported the program through COVID and recovery to a sense of normaly. Then through turmoil and absence of a dedicated administrator, I provided

125stability to a revolving door of administrators in the absence of a permanent administrator and even further fully committed myself to Mr. Johnson when he assumed the position as interim. I've been the constant at Montrose on more than several occasions have been addressed as the glue that held us together in the eyes of many storms. These remarks have come from the community, colleagues and administration alike. So my first question is why would I be pulled from something that I am so passionate about and finally is working so well? After the initial and quite frankly shocking meeting with HR on the afternoon of 129 informing me of my transfer, I was able to secure a meeting with Mr. Bing and my union representative. Uh in that meeting, Mr. Bing initiated the conversation stating that budget cuts are

126everywhere, much like how he was addressing us earlier um regarding Monontlair as an example. When I asked why me, he said that there was only room in the budget for two salaries, referring to mine and the newly appointed Dr. Santos. Um uh and that now there would only be room for one. I asked him about the grant, which is the pea grant for preschool, um if that was what he was referring to that was being cut. Um and he stated yes, that only two get funded. Um, I referenced knowing differently and seeing in the October agenda, all of the employees that are paid through the PEA. Everyone at Montrose other than three special ed teachers and our child study team are paid through the grant. So, it didn't make sense to me. I spoke of

127how much I love my position at Montrose and how sad it would be to be removed, especially in the time frame I was given. Mr. Bing said he would do some research and get back to me on Friday. This was last week. Today is Thursday, almost a week later, and I only heard back from him today because the YMCA, who provided who provide before and after care in our building, wrote a letter to the board supporting me and how important my role is at Montros to them. I also sent a thank you note as a followup um an email to our meeting last Thursday and provided the documentation from the October agenda, including showing all staff, including mine, paid from the pea grant through June 2026. A follow-up email was sent later yesterday afternoon from

128HR confirming that they were moving forward with the transfer. Has there even been a posting for the vacancy in facilities to address the operational needs? >> For clarification, >> Nicole, I just want to let you know you're at time. >> Go ahead. >> I just want to let you know you're at time. >> I'm at time. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Okay. Next, we will have Daniel Kaplan. Good evening. My name is Daniel Kaplan. Live in Maplewood. I'm here tonight to speak about the recent anti-Semitic incident uh at Columbia High School. Uh as you know, this latest incident occurred on November 12th. However, it was not reported to the Maplewood Police Department until November 18th and only to the community last weekend. That delay raises serious and troubling questions. Would the community have even

129been informed about this incident at all of anti-semitism were not so painfully visible in the world right now if 15 Jews hadn't been slaughtered in Australia for simply celebrating Hanukkah? It was a throwaway line in Mr. Sanchez's email to the community. What message does it send to Jewish students when acts of hate that are directed at them are not treated as urgent? This delay is not just concerning. It's not compliant with New Jersey state law. the uniform state memorandum agreement between education and law enforcement officials as well as BOE policies 5512 on harassment, intimidation, and bullying and 8465 on hate crimes and bias related acts. These policies exist to protect students and ensure timely action. They were not followed. What makes this even more troubling is that this is not an isolated failure. Nearly the

130exact same pattern occurred two years ago at CHS. In December of 2023, anti-semitic graffiti was discovered multiple times. The first incident was found on December 12th, not reported to police until the 14th, at which point it was disclosed that it was actually the third incident that had occurred since December 4th. Additional swastigos and graffiti were reported on December 15th, 20th, 22nd, and 23rd. Yet, police notification was repeatedly delayed, sometimes for days, sometimes until after the weekend, and in one case only after reminder that swastikas must be reported to the police when they're found. The incidents on the 22nd and 23rd were not reported until December 27th. The response to this most recent incident was even slower than all of those incidents from two years ago. This stands in stark contrast to how a similar incident

131was handled on January 5th, 2024 under acting principal Bodner when police were notified the same day and families were promptly informed that day as well. That response demonstrated that timely compliant action is possible when leadership treats these incidents with the seriousness that they demand. Given this history, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that ensuring Jewish students and their families feel safe has not been treated as a priority at CHS. That is unacceptable. So I ask, where is the accountability? An administrator who mishandled multiple anti-Semitic incidents two years ago now appears to be even less compliant with required protocols. What corrective steps are being taken to ensure this does not continue? I want to be clear about the human impact of this. It has been exhausting to be Jewish in Soma over the past few

132years. The lack of visible allyship from parts of the broader community has been painful. But the lack of leadership from those entrusted with our children's safety is something else entirely. It is unacceptable and it must be addressed immediately. Jewish students deserve to feel safe. Their families deserve transparency. And this community deserves leadership that follows the law, follows policy, and takes anti-semitism seriously every time. Thank you. Ne next we have Kelly Moore. >> Good evening. My name is Kelly Moore and I am been a teacher at Montrose for the past seven years. During my time at Montrose, our school has been a revolving door of teachers, staff, and administrators. The one constant that we have had through all the ups and downs over the last few years has been Nikki Burns, our secretary. Recently, we found

133out that when we return from our holiday break, a valued member of our staff will no longer be there. Nikki is an important part of our staff, and as many know, the administrative assistant in a school is one of the most important roles. They keep things running smoothly and if you don't have the right person in the job, things can fall apart quickly. I ask that you please re reconsider taking Nikki from us and making it so that we have to go through another loss and change at Montrose. Thank you. Would it be okay if I read the rest of Nikki's statement in the time remaining? >> Yes, sure. Go for it. You >> okay? For clarification, I am one of two secretaries for preschool. I am the Montro school building secretary and the other

134is the preschool department secretary. Up until this past summer, she was housed in central office. I started with the district November 2019. She started October 2020. I have 11 month seniority in the district over her and full knowledge of how Montro School operates. No one from the district has been willing to communicate the alleged grant related cuts or why I was chosen. If there are changes that were made with the grant, please share the information or an explanation if there have not been cuts. Based on the information I've given and with the support of the community, staff, and colleagues, I'm simply asking that you decline that transfer request on line 488C or at the very least table it until further information can pro be provided. Thank you for your time and attention. Thank you. Uh,

135next we have Rosio Lopez. Uh hello Rosio Lopez um South Orange School teacher and Sumea president. Um listening to my colleagues um yes if we have money for a grant for a secretary that is already paid by the state why do we need to do these cuts or these changes? If we can actually avoid it I will appreciate it. um we don't need to change in the middle of the school a year um the middle of the school year a school that is working well you know it it makes a difference for the students especially when they are that young um but today you know I'm not coming to talk about that necessarily I'm coming to talk about it's another year it's another board it's another change right so for the three board members that

136you are about to go thank you. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your three years. We have our ups and downs. You know, we have moments where, you know, we support each other and we have moments where we have seeing each other's head, you know, head to head and um no matter what, at the end of the day, you know, we're educators and as an educator myself, as a as a person that I believe in spirituality, I believe we're all here to learn. That's our journey in this life because what else do we have in this life if it's not learning and that's the reason why I suppose many of us do the job that we do. So I brought you a little something. Um I want you all for your journeys to

137align with your chakras. Um for the females for the males I actually give you some kind of like bracelets that are going to kind of take care of yourselves some good spirituality. This is the kind of things I believe. People doesn't know some things about me. But I want to for the ones that stay here, we need you to, you know, be better, heal. And for the ones that are living, you know, we want you the best and we want you to heal and we want you to be able to leave all the pressure that you had during these three years here and continue with your lives. So Sumea wants to thank you for your job. We thank you for the contract. Again, that doesn't mean that we're happy with everything, but we thank you

138for the contract because at the end of the day, our salaries um are more aligned to the salaries of people in Exis County. And we're going to wish you the best. So, I brought you some bracelets for everybody that is sitting over there and I also brought you some cards. So, when I walk, I'm going to walk and I'm going to take my last minute to take one card for each. Read it. If it resonates for you, keep it for yourselves. And we wish you, you know, happy holidays and a great new year to all of you. Thank you. >> Thank you, Rosio. [applause] >> And I'm all into the chakras. I believe in that. So, I'm excited for my car. >> [laughter] >> Oh, I'm taking my head. It's okay. We have two more

139uh two more in person and that's Rebecca Shear and Zach Karns. No. Oh, no. It's fine. We're good. Have a wonderful It's a close. >> Okay, Rosio, you have 30 seconds. >> Should I? >> Yeah, you can come on up. Can I start? I don't want to interrupt anything. Thank >> Can can you guys >> Thank you. We can hear you. Yeah. >> Hi, my my name is Becky Shear. I'm a Maplewood resident. I am a mom to two boys um who were at school in the district. One's a freshman at CHS and one is in fifth grade at Tuscin. And I first want to um thank Nubia, Regina, and Bill for their service to our district for the past three years. Um we'll really miss you. Thanks so much. Um, [snorts] I'm here to

140talk in support of the rank choice voting resolution that I think is on the agenda tonight. Um, I want to thank Jeff for introducing this and for all the hard work and research that he's put into this. Um, [snorts] for some background, rank choice voting passed um, this res of resolution passed un in favor of it passed unanimously in both Maplewood and South Orange governing bodies. Um, so there's broad support for this amongst our elected officials already. um rank choice voting means um in in the context I think of our school district with um multiple candidates that candidates will need to appeal to more than one group of voters. Um even if a candidate won't be their first choice, they can still vote to be their a voter second or third. For this reason, it

141also works to encourage voters to vote for individual candidates rather than to blanket vote for a slate, which which often happens in our elections in this district. Um, so, so both of these things will lead to a less contentious elect election climate, which I think many agree, um, no matter who you support in a BOE race would be a welcome change in our schoolboard races. Um, and also now that New Jersey has gotten rid of the ballot line and its primary ballots, um, it's which would give priority uh, ballot placement to a single candidate. Um, since we don't have that anymore, we're now seeing many more candidates run in our primary elections. And with this, we're seeing a lot like for instance, we have, I think, 12 um candidates running in this primary for the

142our congressional special congressional election. Um, and with this, we're seeing a lot of new interest in rank choice voting [snorts] um with both the public and in our state legislature. So passing um this resolution um would really put our BOE on the forefront in what is going to be a really big movement in our state. Um so I um ask you all I hope you all will vote in support of this resolution. Thanks so much. >> Thank you. Um last in person and then we have one online is Zack Zack Karns. Thank you. Hello. Thank you. Uh, my name is Zach Karns. I'm a resident of South Orange and here to also speak in favor of the rank choice voting resolution. Rank choice voting would allow voters to rank candidates in order of preference. a

143change from our current winner take all system and potentially provide an antidote to the toxic polarization, vote splitting, seessaw effect, and bullet voting that can happen in a lot of contested elections with a lot of candidates and especially uh toxic elections. Voters would rank their candidates in order of their preference. And when a candidate has received enough support uh to meet a certain threshold in the case of uh say three seats are up for election that would be they'd have to get at least 25% of the vote each of them. After that point there would be some math based on the number of votes they get beyond what they need that would be proportionally given to their the voters's next choice. And that would keep going on until you have three candidates that each have

144at least 25% of the support of the community that is voting. uh because candidates want voters to rank them. Uh it would encourage them to reach out to voters who they might not be their preferred candidate. It would encourage them to do more coalition building and reaching out to new voters outside of their their base, taking powerful steps to reduce toxic polarization in our elections. In a multi-winner election, this could allow for a more diverse selection of candidates that represent a larger portion of the community and creating candidates who are collaborative and comfortable reading reaching outside of their constituency. Across the state, nine municipalities, including Maplewood and South Orange, have passed resolutions in support of rank choice voting, sending a clear message to Trenton of the broad support of this opportunity. this board could be

145the first in the state to lead the charge and pass a similar resolution sending a message to the legislature and the NJSBA that this is a desired change. I urge the board to pass this resolution and chart a new path giving voters in New Jersey the choice to use rank choice voting showing support for elections that could bring communities together rather than divide them. And uh take a last little bit to give a background. The enabling legislation is really focused on the choice to use rank choice voting. No municipality or board would be forced to use it. Each one would have to adopt it by a vote of the actual voters. Not the board, not the city council. The voters would have to choose to use it. So, it would be a choice. Thank you

146for your time and for your service on the board. >> Thank you so much, Zach. Very informative. Okay. Um, Zach and Rebecca, thank you. Uh so online um Jane Conrad, is she online? >> Okay. Um so then that completes public speaks. We are going to skip committee reports tonight because it's already pretty late. Um, so just a reminder that all of the recaps are online. Oh. Oh, wait. Sorry. Hold on. Uh, we do still have someone online and it is uh Mayor Cullum. So, can we bring her up, please? She's been very patient. I'm here. Can you guys all [laughter] hear me? I'm still here. >> Yes, we can hear you. Thank you. >> I am certainly grateful of your service after three hours. Um, so I just had some prepared remarks. Um, good evening

147all. My name is Sheena Colum and I'm proud to serve as mayor of South Orange. I'm here this evening simply to say thank you to acknowledge and honor the service of three individuals who have given so much of themselves to this district. Nubia Dval Wilson, Regina Eert, and Bill Gford. Serving on the board of education is not just a public role. It is a personal commitment. It requires long hours, difficult conversations, and countless moments where time with family, friends, and personal pursuits are set aside in service of students, parents, educators, and the many stakeholders who care deeply about our schools. Each of you made that sacrifice willingly and with intention, and our communities are so much stronger because of it. From the municipal perspective, I want to recognize the communication and partnership you fostered. Strong

148school districts and strong municipalities are inseparable and your collaborative approach, mutual respect, and willingness to engage meaningfully set an important example, especially for our young people who are watching and learning every day what leadership can look like and should look like. Nubia, I am deeply grateful for your leadership as president of the board, leadership of which there is so much to be proud of. Our friendship spans more than a decade, and I still remember the first moment I met you at a community coalition on race event. From that day forward, your integrity, compassion, and courage were unmistakable. You are a role model in both your personal and professional life, particularly through your advocacy for survivors. You have an inner strength that shines incredibly bright. It has been an honor to serve alongside you and call

149you a friend. Regina, you have been a steady and principled presence, never loud, but incredibly powerful. I know a workaholic when I see one. And while many of your contributions may have happened quietly, I see them. Your passion for serving all students, your attention to detail, and your laser focus strengthen this district in ways that may not always be visible, but are deeply felt and profoundly important. And Bill, your service represents something truly special. You are a shining example for this generation and future generations of students who have grown up in this town and can see themselves one day giving back to the very system that invested in them. That continuity, that sense of belonging and responsibility is powerful and enduring. And yay for the solar panels, the sun and the planet appreciate you as

150well. I want to close by saying this. Our school district has incredible potential. We all know it. I am confident that by continuing to work together, by recommitting ourselves to positive, honest conversations, by seeing one another first and foremost as neighbors and never adversaries, we will be better stewards of our children's school experience. When all stakeholders come together with respect, empathy, and shared purpose, we create not just stronger schools, but a stronger, more unified community. Happy holidays to everyone and I look forward to the work ahead in the new year. >> Thank you so much, Sheena. We appreciate you so much and your mentorship and leadership. Okay, now that officially completes uh public speaks. As I said, um we're skipping committee reports and we're going to go straight to the action portion. Um, so, uh,

151Jeff, I know you had some words you wanted to share right on our CV. So, why don't I just first officially have Mr. Moody read the resolutions into record and then we'll go to the open. Okay. >> Sure. Thank you. Uh, the board uh should be ready to take action on action items resolutions 48.88 through 4900. um uh many of which have been uh preliminary pre preliminarily discussed by others here. So proceed. >> Uh thank you. The rank choice voting resolution that we're voting on tonight is ask the New Jersey School Boards Association to support a pending bill that would legalize electing school boards and town councils by multi-winner rank choice voting as an alternative to the existing plurality block vote system. As for the substance of what these terms mean, plurality block vote or

152just block vote is a voting system that elected all of us and every other board in New Jersey. It's a very simple system that says that the candidates getting the most votes win. In these elections, there's no rank ranking of candidates and all votes count equally from one made with complete confidence to one made reluctantly, perhaps a strategic anti- vote against a strongly disliked candidate. By contrast, multi-winner rank choice voting, which is also known as proportional rank choice voting or single transferable vote, has voters rank candidates from one to however many candidates are running. So in a 10 candidate field like one through 10, it's a kind of proportional representation and award seats in accordance to a grouping's share of the electorate. In a three-winner election like our board uses, a group would get a

153seat for every 25% of the votes it gets. So 25% support equals one seat, 50% support equals two seats and 75% support would be mean three seats. Like in single winner rank choice voting, votes from last place finishers are redistributed. But in multi-winner rank choice voting, votes are also redistributed from the top place finishers. So votes above 25% are considered surplus votes and they're redistributed. Um there you might be wondering why ask permission for this change. Why go against if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Well, maybe our system isn't always broken, but it doesn't always work either. Um you know, one advantage of multi-winner rank choice voting is that there's no advantage for a trio running against a singleton or a duo. You know, right now, like because of like voting dynamics, a singleton

154would have a hard time beating a trio unless like all their supporters bullet vote. um you know a singleton could actually win an election by five points and if only 19% of their voters don't bullet vote they would lose. They come in fourth place. Another advantage is that um rank choice voting can handle a field of any size. From time to time we have a very big field here. In 2018 we had 11 candidates. In rank choice voting you would just rank them one through 11 and actually let the system work it out. There's no need to strategically vote for like candidates you think have a chance to win even if you don't like them. Related to that, like if you have a big field, what if you have four or five ideologically similar candidates

155running against like, you know, two candidates or three candidates who are similar, you would have a vote dilution effect. It's entirely plausible that an ideology that has four or five candidates actually is the majority's ideology in that town, but they would still lose because of vote dilution. kind of like what happened in 2000 with the presidential election. Um [clears throat] what were so um also finally in rank choice voting um you would not be able to get a sweep realistically because it takes 75% of the support to get all three seats and I think actually that would kind of like take the tone down in some of our elections because instead of facing an election where the outcomes are like three seats for your side or nothing for your side all or nothing winner or

156take all you'd have scenarios where like you'd have like three factions and like Maybe each one could get one seat. So like a one one one outcome. Or you could have an outcome that's two to one. And if you're only competing against like competing for one additional seat instead of three seats or nothing, like the stakes are lower and you can actually be a little bit more chill about things. Um you'd probably, as one of the public speakers say, you'd probably see a lot of cross endorsements of different c by different candidate slates. Um as for what happens next, uh the New Jersey School Boards Association's next delegate assembly is not till May. So, we have a long wait. Um, but hopefully they'll be open-minded about this and hopefully they'll pass it. And if that

157happens, like there'll be a lobbying force for democratic reform in New Jersey. What'll happen after that, I don't know. Um, sometimes things happen which might seem pointless. In 2013, I was on the board and we're involved in another resolution asking the state to redistribute adjustment aid to undered districts like ourselves. At the time, like the journalists in New Jersey were not reporting that issue accurately. It seemed hopeless. It seemed impossible. The New Jersey School Boards Association was actually against us. A lot of other power players were. But five years later, the legislature and Phil Murphy agreed to redistribute adjustment aid. And seven years after that, which was 2425, we did get 100% of our state aid. So, you never know what's going to happen. Anyway, perhaps nothing will come of this other than ripples of

158information. And tonight's resolution might be forgotten. But I think the momentum in the state and the country is for voting reform. And maybe other boards of education will join us. support will build in a few years. New Jersey will legalize rank choice voting and we can be proud to have helped make our state a little bit more democratic. Thank you very much. >> Thank you so much. Um and uh Will, I believe you had just like two whatever. Yeah, I uh want to just highlight within the uh significant number of resolutions that are in our consent agenda tonight. Uh within uh resolution 4891, uh resolution F, uh we are receiving a donation for a I think a four valve rotary tuba, which sounds very impressive. Value of $9,000 from former MMS van director Vernon Miller.

159Thank you so much. Uh, resolution 4891G, we're receiving equipment donations from the Soma Basketball Boosters. Also tremendous. Thank you. 4891, we're receiving a $500 donation to the parenting center from Lissan Enterprises. 48.91H, uh, we have a clinical program partnership we're entering into with Ithaca College, uh, which is terrific. and 4891 I we have a clinical program partnership we're entering into with my alma mo Emerson College uh highlighting as well we uh we do have a resolution 4891K which is committing to services with our architect's feasel uh for $310,000 and that is I believe money that's being paid for out of found funds in a prior bond that is really restricted for use only for purposes like that uh which is a great way of getting that covered. Uh and uh we are uh we have

160a payment in here for uh SOPAC uh $30,000 to cover some of the tremendous programming that they are providing to our uh kids, including the terrific Lux Orchestra School performance that I got to uh go and attend last month. Um I also want to say very briefly, I was uh very happy to get to work with you, Jeff, after months of your advocacy and trying to get this over the line. likewise >> uh to uh to get that that RCV resolution. I'm excited to see it go to the delegate assembly uh in May. Um and lastly, [clears throat] I will just highlight within uh we we skipped the policy readout, but there is one policy I do want to highlight here. uh I will be voting for it but reluctantly uh you know we've talked

161a lot about the uh the tough choices and the hard cuts that we're going to have to look at and one of them uh in practice tonight is our policy regarding class size uh which is policy 2312. It's in resolution 4896 and we are increasing the possibility of class sizes in grades 1 through 5 by two additional students. We hope to not have to see this in any cases that we don't have to. Uh but this is uh something the administration asked for to allow us to try to keep the number of uh sections per grade per school in the cases where that was going to have an impact budgetarily. So that's a piece that's in here. It's up for first read tonight and um you know it's a piece that we're discussing. >> Thank

162you. And um I do want to point out um uh first VP experienced the delegate assembly process with me when we did that bullying resolution. It's a great experience. And so um I don't know how the committees will be next year, but being on that delegate assembly or I don't know if it's called delegate assembly, but the Essex County meeting and hearing everyone and you get to speak and and and advocate for why this should be um included. So it's a great experience and I'm I'm really proud of the work that you two did together. So, thank you. Um, any other comments before we >> Sorry. >> Oh, yeah. >> So, it's a good idea we're not doing a committee readout tonight, but I do want to bring everyone's attention to some discussion in the

163finance committee about transportation next year, like what's being contemplated and such. >> Yes. Yes. It's an ongoing conversation. Thank you. Um, okay. So like you know >> like um you know we've talked in public a lot about changes to prek busing that might happen but u you know there are changes contemplated to K5 busing and you know Mr. Moody mentioned the possibility of subscription busing but you know there other changes contemplated. >> Yes. Good luck to the future board for [laughter] figuring that out. [gasps] U well look I mean I got to say good luck. I'm not going to be able to do anything. Okay so um Mr. Moody, would you like to uh do a roll call, please? >> Sure, absolutely. I'll proceed with the uh roll call vote for uh action items 4888

164through 4900. Board member Bennett, >> yes. >> Board member Brown. Uh board member Callahan, >> yes. >> Board President Duval Wilson, >> yes. >> Board member Eert, >> yes. >> Board member Gford, >> yes. Board member Kapadia. Board member Meyer. >> Yes. Board member Saka Gable. >> Yes. >> All right. The eyes have it. >> Okay. I um don't think we have any. Mr. Draper, can you just check the the sheet to see if there's any new? No. Okay. And uh I'm assuming no one online. >> Right. Okay. Great. So, we are now going to new business. I'm assuming there is none. Yeah. like I was just like, "Nope." [laughter] So, I will announce the future meetings. The board of education will meet again on January 5th, 2026 at 6:30 p.m. in public session for

165our annual reorganization meeting. We have two of those board members here tonight. Congratulations to them again. Action will be taken. Uh Mr. Moody, I would like to now make a motion to adjourn this meeting, my last meeting, um on Thursday, December 18th at 10:47 p.m. May I have a second? Thank you both. Secel Callahan all in favor meeting is adjourned. Thank you everyone. Good night.