001Okay. Call together uh call to order the January 27th, 2026 regular meeting of the High Point Regional High School Board of Education. I ask you all please stand for the pledges to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Open public meetings act statement. In New Jersey public, open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies of which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon. In accordance with the provisions of the act, the board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the time, a date, time, and place thereof, posted at
002the Augusta, Branchville, and Sussex Post offices, and notice sent to the New Jersey Herald, the Sunday Herald, and the clerk of the burrows of Branchville and Sussex in the townships of Frankfurt, Lafayette, and Wantage. Mission statement. High Point Regional High School in partnership with staff, family, and community is dedicated to the quest for individual excellence. By fostering high standards of achievement, we prepare students to become responsible and productive members of a diverse society. I may ask for a roll call, please. >> Mr. Anderson, >> here. Miss Longberg, >> here. Miss Orsy, >> here. Miss Diaz, Miss Dakis >> here, >> Miss G >> here, Mr. Ven Stone >> here, >> Miss Hill >> here, >> Miss Wise, >> Mr. Dunn >> here, >> Dr. Brick >> here. >> We have a quum. >> Okay, thank
003you. Uh, a motion will now be made to High Point Regional High School Board of Education enter executive session to provide an update on legal personnel and negotiation items which are exempt from public participation pursuant to New Jersey Public Law 1975, Chapter 231, Open Public Meetings Act. Any discussions held by the board which need not remain confidential will be made public when appropriate. Minutes of the executive session will not be disclosed until the need for confidentiality no longer exists. The board will reconvene in public session in person and virtually at the conclusion of the executive session. It is not anticipated that any action will be taken. And for the benefit of the public, we expect to return uh approximately 700 p.m. So I will make that motion uh to enter executive session. May I have
004a second? Second. All >> in favor? >> Any opposed? Okay. that children. >> May I have a motion to return to public session, please? >> Motion >> and a second. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Any opposed? Okay, we have returned to public session. Um, normally we move on to approval of minutes and public comments, but we have a special presentation this evening. Miss Valerie Dolan from the is here to present a review of the June 30th, 2025 comprehensive annual financial report. Is that still called the Kapper? >> That is >> to the board of education. >> Welcome. >> Thank you very much. Hope everyone stays more chilly in here. Is that on purpose? That's what we're trying to keep us moving quick. [laughter] >> Um, like I said once again, it's obviously I'm
005here to present the audit. Um, we were we had been done for a honestly this year for a very long time, but the federal government shutdown actually delayed us for a very long time until I could issue it finally. Came this close to a actually issuing a piece of the report without the other pieces. So, we held it as long as we could. And lo and behold, right before Thanksgiving, federal government released the last piece of information I needed and we could get the report out, which means you were filed statutoily on time by December 5th, which is a lovely thing. Wasn't sure if that was actually going to happen even when I met with finance earlier in the year. Um, just to give you a little bit of a refresher, there's actually two reports
006that we provide to you. The first one is our annual comprehensive financial report, which is part of the book. [snorts] That is actually the large audit. It's actually broken into four main sections. There's an introductory section, just a small little section about the district. Lots of financial information in the middle section. Then there's a very a very interesting section called the Jay's or the statistical. That's 10 years comparative data. So that's 10 years comparative data not just about the school district. It's about all the communities that sent to High Point about the county itself. It's a lot of great information from a historical standpoint of 10 years. And then lastly, there's a single audit section which is compliance with all of the grants. The second report I provide you is a small management's report. It's
007the second bound report. That's my report to the board of all the things that we did and tested and any comments and recommendations that we would have would be located within that report. That being said, it's a very big what we refer to as the big fat blue book, the yearbook of all things. But I would tell you out of this whole document, there's probably about 11 pages. That's probably the most important. It kind of starts in the middle of the page. Starts on like page 89 and goes to about 100. is your audit schedule C1. That audit schedule C1 is the budget. That's the real answers. It goes through all of the information. It shows you your introduced budget. It goes through any transfers um either any transfer online items. It'll go through all
008of the revenues that have actually been realized against the budget. And it will show you any expenses and any unspent balances. When all is said and done, that gets you to what we refer to as your fund balance picture. Um fund balance has a tendency to have many parts, but when I look at it, From an overall standpoint, High Point is actually down from where I was when I was here last year, about $150,000. So, you're sort of on the decline. As we do about 90 of these, this is what we've been seeing. This is the trend in school districts there. Obviously, the budgets are getting tighter each year. As their budgets are getting tighter, the excesses are getting smaller and smaller and therefore less and less is available to circle into future years. That
009being said, you still have still have a healthy s uh sub surplus is what we would call it about $3.7 million, but that $3.7 million is earmarked in an assortment of areas. You have about $600,000 of incumbrances. Those are purchases that were purchased during by June 30th for which they hadn't been completed and paid before the end of the year. You actually have money set aside in two reserves, a capital reserve and a maintenance reserve. So, your maintenance reserve has about $125,000, which is actually down from where it was last year. Your capital reserve has about $966,000, which is actually up a little bit from where it was last year. Most of that up swing is about $100,000 that came over from the completion of the SBBER project and the unspent funds on that proceeds
010on that project that came back into the reserve. you're utilizing in your budget itself in 56 almost a little over a million dollars. So, a lot of that money is pushed forward into the budget that you're currently operating in now, which will leave you two pieces of information, but what I say is about the half a million dollars of this whole budget that you have that the state allows you to hold is what they call free fund balance, undesated fund balance. And then leaving you with about $500,000 to build your budget to start for next year. That's where you start to actually see the real decline. You were using a million dollars last year, you're going to be using half a million this year to start. So, as the budgets, and this is truly the
011as budgets get tighter and tighter, less and less is available to go into subsequent years. So, basically, you're budgeting and spending is what's happening. Fortunately, you're still generating enough to be able to put some money aside into some of these reserves, but it is going to get tighter and continue to get harder. Um, we've seen a lot of districts all over the place that you've heard a lot of news, a lot of school districts not doing as well. Our answer to everyone is to say keep an eye on the bottom line. Always watch your expenses. A lot of these districts that are getting into trouble lately that we've seen are spending above their means. They're not really spending the way their budgets are being conducted. So, it's a very time of the year when we
012really say you got to sharpen those pencils and really pay attention to what you're spending. Some other financial highlights, you did receive and spend about $825,000 of federal, state, and local grants. And you actually have two enterprise funds. One's the transportation enterprise fund, and the other one's the cafeteria. Overall, the two funds together pretty much stayed the same balance. But interestingly enough, the food service probably made about $60,000 and the transportation lost about $60,000 this year. So, they netted themselves out, but in the end, transportation is starting to see a decline and I really think that's because of the costs of transportation. They're just astronomical that districts are being faced with to deal with. As for my management report, we do I do want to say that last year's recommendations in the report were corrected.
013So, I do not have any repeat findings. So, both of those areas were resolved. This year, I do have three formal recommendations that will require corrective action. Um, one of them is actually compliance was already done while we were here. Each March you're required to submit down to the IRS, what they call an ESERT form, which certifies the superintendent or business administrator SE salaries with the IRS. It never got filed. It was filed while we were here doing the audit. So, compliance was done, but it was missed the March deadline. The second one comes in the area of grants and the collection of them. Um, I know I was up here this time last year. we were worried and concerned about collecting those capital grants. You also have a lot of federal and state and
014local grants. That's all on a reimbursement basis. So at the end of the year, you still were holding almost 58% of that grant money wasn't received. Wasn't being submitted timely. So we always recommend, you know, the state will tell you they want you to do it every month. We'll say, you know, do it quarterly. Whenever you're spending that money, it's your cash flow. You ask them for it and they'll they'll get you the reimbursement basis. And then the last one is in the area the school store. I did have a recommendation on a few things in previous years. This year the only piece that we're really trying down to is depositing time. It's just we have to come up with a system as to what you feel is acceptable. Um a lot of times we
015use this 48 hour rule, but it's really not a requirement for it to be 48 hours. So our recommendation is come up with some sort of policy. Should be twice a week, once by the end of the month. It's not a lot of money, but any money that's left undeposited to the bank just runs risk. And you know, we never want to have any risk available if you can negate it by putting it into the bank. So, what we spoke with is about coming up with a better a plan so that at least there's a policy that makes sense whether it's a daily deposit or if it's on a Thursday, at least we know then what we can do is test to make sure that that policy implemented is being adhered to. All in all,
016Otherwise, it was a great We do have one suggestion to management, which we always like to put in things that might be future. Two of those. One is actually an added county standards. The standards can never leave me alone. They always want to change the way I report things. So, there will be a new standard again next year that will go into the report. It will just be in in the way that we disclose information in the report in that introductory section and how we how we disclose um the enterprise. So those will be changed a little bit in the presentation, but we will work through the district to do that presentation. So >> any other questions? Otherwise, you're doing well and in good shape. >> Just I I heard y >> we had 800,000
017that we received in federal. >> That's the extent of what we were expecting. >> That's what we're expecting for those ers and all the titles. Yes. It's about 800. No longer. >> Right. Right. Yeah. There's no ability to apply for any of those. No longer. >> We got them while we >> you got them while they had them. And I think that's the other issue is a lot of districts had a lot of um COVID funds that were here between all of the ers and all of the pandemic funding and all of it's like most of the districts that was completed and spent. Now the question comes is those things that we utilize those funds for, do we keep them in the budget and figure out a way to pay for them or do we
018actually have to stop providing the things that we're providing with those funding because there's no federal funding questions and um I'll say this because I know the I'll ask it even though I know the the answers. There was no debt debt service that we had to pay or that we had to do any study on because we've been fortunate enough not to have had >> right. You have not had to do any debt. You've been fortunate enough that you have enough money in your capital reserve set aside to fund capital without having to do a referendum issue debt. As the funds, this is the one area like we said we've been seeing as those excesses are not generated, the reserves become less, which then could potentially put you at some other time down the line.
019Anything major capital you may or may not have funding to lose. >> But the number that you stated was in capital reserve is sufficiently robust not to cause any concern. Correct. Correct. >> It's all depending on projects and what you need to do in a longer range plan. If there's nothing major needed, then yes, if you have major renovations that need to be done or any type of project, >> yeah, >> I think it sufficient. It's just harder to replenish the days of being able to put a lot of money aside in those reserves. >> And that that amount, well, I know this was an audit for last year, but is that amount also after we had done the work up front paving, >> right? >> So, I think the only thing that might not
020have been out of there is the parking lot paving. No, it was it's it's my understanding that it was >> I can't remember the time >> fairly con. >> Okay. That's the only one I know of the other project that was recently done was paint. >> Yeah. And uh that may >> That's what we needed it for was for the baby. >> Wonderful. >> Anybody else? >> Thank you very Thank you very much. >> Have a wonderful evening everyone. >> Okay. Um actually if I may just before we go into back to the agenda >> [clears throat] >> uh I want to recognize that we are now a board of 10 even though we do have an absence tonight. um the first time that this board has consisted of 10 members since it was organized
021in 1966. Uh reason being [snorts] um one of our um send receive districts, Monu specifically has reached uh the level of um 10% of our student population which by statute allows them to have a member sitting on our board. So, I'd like to welcome Caitlyn Stack as to our board as our Monu rep [applause] and uh yeah, I mean, even numbers are usually not a great idea for board composition, but we're going to make it work. Make it work well. So, welcome, >> uh, Caitlyn. >> They can do this, you know, finally in in public. Um, okay. Uh so returning to the agenda, approval of minutes. We have a number of them. Regular meeting minutes from December 16th, 2025, executive session minutes from December 16, 2025. Our reorganization minutes from January 6th, 2026. And our
022special meeting minutes and executive session minutes of January 21st, 2026. Um I will make the motion to approve those minutes. I have a second. Second. >> Any discussion, comments, or >> clarifications? >> In the special meeting minutes, I I just scanned it before coming here. There were a few typos um in the section of the public comments in the special meeting minutes. Shannis's name was >> We know who it was, right? >> Yeah, we know who it was. >> We'll take a look at those. >> I don't think that prevents us from Nothing that corrections. >> Anyone else with comments, corrections? >> Okay. Uh just going to put this out there that you can accept. You can vote yes on individual items. You don't have to abstain all of them if you happen to be
023present for some or not. >> So I guess we'll go to roll call. >> Mr. Anderson, >> I'll abstain on all five. [snorts] Miss Longberg. >> Yes to all. Miss Orsy, >> yes to all. Miss Diaz, >> yes to all. Miss Sakus, >> uh, yes to the two on the 21st and abstain from the 16th of the >> Miss G. Yes to all. >> Mr. Van Stone, >> yes. >> Miss Hill, >> yes to the January meetings. on the December meeting. >> Mr. Dunn. >> Yes to all. >> Yes. >> Okay. Um, this brings us to our first public comments of the session of the evening. In accordance with open public meetings act, we will open to public comments for agenda items only. At this time, each speaker should state his or her name and
024address. You will have three minutes to address the board, which will be timed by myself. We will limit this section to no longer than 45 minutes. Please be respectful and mindful that your comments are being recorded. And as always, we have the ability to address us here uh in person or virtually to our uh email address that is posted on that portal. Nothing there in the room. Okay. Okay. May I have a motion to close public? >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Okay. Then moving on to presentations. >> Dr. Ripley, you want to >> uh I will read it, but it will take me go through it quickly because it is absolut I think it is required. Whereas the New Jersey School Boards Association has declared January 2026 to be
025school board recognition month, a time when all residents can acknowledge the contributions made by our local school board members. And whereas the High Point Regional High School Board of Education is one of 580 local school boards in New Jersey, which sets policies and oversees operations for public school districts. And whereas the High Point Regional High School Board of Education embraces the goal of highquality education for all New Jersey public school students. And whereas New Jersey's local school boards help determine the educational goals for approximately 1.4 million children in precar kindergarten through 12th grade. And whereas New Jerseys 5,000 local school board members who receive no remuneration for their services act as advocates for public school students as they work with administrators, teachers, and parents for the betterment of public education. And whereas school boards strive
026to provide the resources necessary to meet the needs of all students, including those with special needs. And whereas boards of education provide accountability to the public, they communicate the needs of the school district to the public and they convey to school administrators the public's expectations for the schools. And whereas New Jersey can take pride in its schools which rank among the nation's best in key achievement indicators such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress scores and the preparation for college through advanced placement offerings and SAT assessments. Now therefore, be it resolved that the High Point Regional High School Board of Education does hereby recognize the services of local school board members throughout New Jersey as we as we join communities statewide in observing January 2026 as school board recognition month. And be it further resolved
027that the High Point Regional High School Board of Education urges all New Jersey citizens to work with their local boards of education and public school staffs toward the advancement of our children's education. We don't have to accept that, do we? >> I mean, it's a little selferving, right? >> The role fold. >> No. Uh, thank you. Um, next we have uh our student council rep, George Morana, speaker of the house, will give us an update on the activities of student council. Good evening everybody. Uh I just wanted to start off by saying that for this month of January, student council's uh theme word is self-discipline to sort of relate that to the idea of the New Year's and New Year's resolutions and sticking to your New Year's resolutions. Um, and for the executive student council,
028we are also doing the matchmatics again for the fourth year where students will go onto a survey monkey link and take a light-hearted and fun personality survey that then matches them with other students in the school who also take the survey. We will sell the results the day before uh Valentine's Day on 213 for just a dollar. And then for this Friday uh 1:30, the chamber singers as usual will be singing the national anthem when we also have our marching band performing as well. And uh we will also of course announce the student athletes of the season. And then we will have three games uh musical chairs and scavenger hunt as we can all imagine how those look. And then in the new game, stack the boxes where volunteers from each class will have to
029stack five moving boxes without tower and the winning team wins. Um but apart from that I believe that is all >> thank you >> and feel free to comment. [laughter] Uh next I have uh on the agenda HBA president Elizabeth Sunda who would like to address trust the board and >> give us any updates. >> Good evening lot. Um but for those of you I've yet to meet so welcome to the board. My name is Elizabeth. I am the HPA president. Um so I just wanted to reintroduce myself to those of you new to the board. So thank you. Um I represent the executive team as well as the faculty at large um and it's a privilege to serve in this honor um or enter this role. We are coming out of midterm week um
030which I think went really smoothly and successfully. We are grateful as group teachers for the recent storm to hold off till after midterms um so that way the students and staff can remain focused and um uninterrupted. So that was kind of nice. As a team, we are finding still continuing to find tremendous value in being proactive. We've learned that the most effective way to address the challenges that we faced is open communication early and often with our administration and within each other. This approach has allowed us to problem solve and to um build a shared understanding amongst our staff. and the trust that we developed as a new executive team along with our administrative partners continues to grow and we see this as a strong foundation moving forward as um as a Highpoint community. As
031always, please feel free to reach out to me um with any questions or concerns and we value the open dialogue from our staff to you um as we support our students here at. So, thank you very much. >> Thank you. Um, principal support. >> Good evening everybody. How you doing on this beautifully warm evening coming in. So, welcome to our said welcome to our new floor members. Look forward to working with all of you in many capacities. As you can see, we have some beautiful pictures up there on the board. I want to start with that. Um, and we have some honored guests here. So each year for those who don't know we have the opportunity special opportunity to recognize we call governors and educators of the year right and also ESP of the year
032which is educational support professional of the year every school district in the county gets that opportunity to nominate those individuals and that comes through a large committee um it's done from our staff s one of our assistant principles is the one that kind of coordinates that leads that does a great job and this evening we have Anthony Tokar and Mark Felry here I told him I was going to embarrass him for a couple seconds that's okay Um, and you see the pictures up there we have with the staff. We always like to surprise them. Um, so the top picture is in um, Mr. Belchure's classroom. We literally stormed his classroom with flowers when the kids are there and they're like, "What is happening? What's going on?" And the bottom picture, we pranked Anthony and made
033him come down to the main office. I think they said that he had like some kind of big data issue issue going on in the main office and he comes running down and there we are in the hallway surprises. So, I just want to say both Anthony and and Mark are part of the backbone of what we do as as a school district. Mark is a longtime special education math teacher here at Norwegian High School. He also is a longtime wrestling coach for many many years as well. Anthony is obviously part of our IT team and data specialist that whenever he needs something we call Anthony and he figures it out. Um don't know how he figures it out but it happens and he ends up getting it done. Um these individuals are constant professionals.
034Uh they demand the utmost respect from everybody quietly because they they provide quiet leadership to our school district every single day. Mr. Dry's been here for a couple years. Um, I see him standing by his door every single class period, greeting his students every single day. Little things matter and they go a long way. He makes math come alive in his class, which is not always easy. Very, very practical. I'm sure he had some ideas as he was listening to the audit going through his head about how they can use. But really appreciate the the practicality, how to buy a car, how to how to build credit, how to apply for a checkbook, all those things you hear in his class. Anthony is also one of our um ice hockey coaches like ice hockey coaches
035for a long time. He just came probably from ice hockey because his own kids play ice as well and they practice I used to know 7 8 9 10 at night. Um so we're very very proud of both these individuals. Um it's an honor and a privilege to work and walk alongside them every single day. I just want to give them a big round of applause and thank you for what they do. [applause] >> [applause] >> of course. So, a warm applause. [laughter] We do uh in the springtime get a chance to go to a nice county function that kind of does that. You s in a room full of educators with your families and friends. It's really nice experience that that we get to recognize all of you. So, market, thank you for for
036all you do. I appreciate you very much. Also like to make sure we mention that we had our pretty and pink which was the [clears throat] the the beginning of our pretty and pink along with field hockey many many years ago. So this is the 17th pretty and pink basketball game that took place on Saturday. We had practice down here um for a lot of games. I saw some of the there as well. We started at 1:00 with the freshman all the way through 6:00 was the last game. Both gyms are being utilized. We were up and down both places beautiful things within the community. I want to make sure that you know um that we were able to raise we and the students, the players, the community over $6,000 that were given to two
037families that were in need. Um we always look to try to find individuals that are in our community that are going through a medical or challenges with cancer and we have two individuals that are very very difficult ones um with students here in the buildings. It's a very very hard situation. both those individuals who were able to receive a small token um to help them along their their journey which can be very very long. So, I want to make sure I say thank you to our girls basketball team. Most importantly, they're the ones, our seniors, um they're playing over at New right now. They're the ones that uh really kind of spearheaded this and got it together. All of our parents that assist with that as well, our community members that continue to give day
038in and day out. No matter how many fundraisers there are, how many pink games there are, they continue to give and they continue to to come to that. You just watch the the screen scroll through all the advertising for all the people that donated. It's really great thing effort. I thank our coaches, coach Ruben, um, also coach Montana, coach Grady, our new name, all the work that they did behind the scenes as well. It really was a nice community of effort. Mr. Dexter also, kudos to him 17 years ago when they initiated with one of his players who said, "Hey, coach, I have an idea." Um, and that's how this all started. [clears throat] Mr. Smith, Mr. Smith, back in the day, 17 years ago, here we are still. I believe the tally was over
039$350,000. Um, in total, some around there. Don't quote me exactly, but somewhere around there over the course of 17 years. That's a tremendous amount of of money that the community sponsored that. So, thank you to the the team for that. We also had a beautiful district music and arts celebration night. Um for those that don't know what that is, that started um this is our 10th year actually 10 year anniversary is we invite all the district students up and they come they perform music um band and there's there's mix choirs, there's mix band, there's parts from there just middle school students there, elementary school students, there's parts of everybody which a little bit treacherous since it's a full stage now. Um but it really is awesome to see how that in 10 years we went
040from very small a couple risers. It was pretty much just our students and a couple others to we have to have extra risers and you literally can't see on the on the stage because there's so many managements. I don't know what's who's the one, right? But everyone gets able to come up. They'll do a little composition and everybody gets a chance to perform in front of a packed house auditorium at full capacity on that night. Um it's it is a busy busy night and it really is cool for the parents to see the joy in their eyes um as they sit there and they watch their their students perform whatever capacity that may be. There's also a really cool note that many of the musical um band directors and also choir directors that have come
041through that are now elementary middle school are high point grads. Um so I counted three of them at least that were now serving in in different districts along the way. So it's a pretty cool thing to see that that passion that music carry on and carry forward. So thank you to Dory Martin and James Slainy for their leadership and coordination on that. It really was a a great night. We also had a busy January 8th open house. eight different houses. We invite all the race traders and their parents here into our district and we show this facility off and enjoy the night as well. We had about over 150 attendees there for that night. So it's a great night for us. Wanted to thank a couple individuals particularly Chris Stacky Danny know Danny's over there
042Martin James Smith Jeremy Goff Martin and all our administration the artwork and the great presentations each we have tour stops um teachers are are in those areas presenting what they do in their classrooms and what that department does in their classrooms there's music going on the band playing there's a lot of things that are that are happening along the way and then we have student leaders that are peer leaders counseling as well as other clubs that help guide the touris along the way as well. And they give a lot of insightful information as I was listening to the tourism and kind of just running around making sure everybody was going in the right direction. Listening to the students have a conversation with parents is pretty cool. I caught a couple glimpses of that along the
043way. It was just neat to see them talk about their school and what it looked like to their right. So, thank you for everybody's assistance with that because that was a a long um a long night but a great night overall. I know Mr. Kim's going to talk a little more about the supervisor visits down our senate districts but we do have scheduling happening soon um for all our senate districts eth graders first and then the rest of our 11th graders currently so this is the lady um is of course seeing that with our guidance and cd team as well that's a lot of behind the scenes work that happens um I know Dan and also part of that behind the scenes work and we have this beautiful massive schedule that comes out at the
044end of the year as said we just finished our midterm exams thankful that we snow days had nothing to cancel. Um and last but not least for me for I just wanted to highlight that um today even though we had a a closed snow day yesterday and we had a delay opening um today we had planned for what we call wellness presentations at our students and I'll give a little background to this um in October I was part of a group of our principles from the NJAC. The NJAC is our overarching athletic um conference about 40 schools that are part of the NJAC. um a small group of us helped and developed and organized an NJC wellness summit that we did over at Redfield Lodge for our our senior scholarship dinner. Um and we had
045about 400 students from all the NJAC schools there and a couple keynotes and we had all breakout sessions, small group sessions all around um wellness could be physical wellness, could be mental wellness, could be a little bit of everything. Very very well received. Our kids loved it. We took about 15 16 kids over there. Um and then Mrs. Man, one of our counselors, Mr. Mayhem, one of our our teachers and also the teachers and health teachers. We said, "How do we get this to go the next step?" Right? It's always great to have these great things, these great summits, but what does it look like to take it to the next level? So, we met with those students over the course of the next couple months and we said, "We really like you to see
046what this looks like for you. Can you look at something that would be helpful for High Point um here? What would it look like through your eyes?" So in a course of probably six seven eight meetings um that group went from my 15 to 16 [snorts] right to about 10 and they developed their own presentations their own lessons and they gave those breakout sessions starting today to our phys teacher my physic classes in nth to 10th grade on their own um set them up in the gym they had screens they had projectors I was there Mr. M was there Mr. name there's the health and logistics but they taught the lesson the breakout session so it was really a cool circle tomorrow they'll finish um because again with the schedule happening yesterday and today tomorrow
047they'll finish those breakout sessions but really seen I just wanted to make sure I get a shout out to them because it's a really great group really kind of close talk about a lot of things that can make my point better um and they are definitely leaders um in action so Ethan sprung John McCarthy Chase Chvers the chance to Myers Sophia Lawrence Lillian Lillian do faculty gerald and Sarah Alaswani were all students most of them 10th graders 11th graders a couple seniors in there as well that gave presentations and gave breakout sessions some of the topics that they developed they came up with confidence leadership positive mindset um take a break from digital distractions really cool to see that having positive capital in life and also academics and managing academic expectations from the senior who's
048living and going through it right Yeah. Um, so students learn best from each other. Just wanted to make sure that I gave them a shout out as well as Mrs. M. I don't know what's going to take next. They want to be again or anyway. They're active like when we meet next period. So they have ideas which is really cool to see them train. Switching over to athletics stuff. That's okay. Mr. Dex g some good information to share. Um Katie Bruno was just recognized as a two-time NJ boy of the week. Mr. Perry. Coach Perry passed it on. She has currently a 191.4 average. That's really good. She's listed as 13th in the state. Um, so that's a pretty cool thing. This is her second time for that recognition. HWS can talk about wrestling a
049little bit with with coach Bel. The boys wrestling tournament out of Pittsburgh on January 10th and we had J Rupaul in second place and Carter Dri in third place. HWS girls wrestling tournament was held at High Point on January 4th. Great event that was. We had a great crowd. Um, we had two champions, Ale and and Alex Shander Reese were two of our champions. In fourth place, Kay Guner and Gabby Vano both took home fourth place as well. We also had HWS champion, Katie Bruno for her her bowling was the HWS girls bowling champion and Kelly Southern finished fourth as a two-time champion for for Katie. It's a pretty prominent thing to be able to do. We also had competition cheerleader second place in traditional cheer in first place in game day division at the
050pack competition. all took place in the last several weeks. And then some athletes of the week, Haley Celler for bowling, as Cabra for for swimming, blue for wrestling, and Katie for none other than so congratulations to all of them for doing great things um along the way. Any questions? >> Thank you for your time. >> I already did. I told him excuse >> they said they wanted to say >> they wanted to give a speech at the end. >> Yes. >> Congratulations to two outstanding colleagues for their accomplishments in >> so class of 2030. Um, it's pretty exciting that our eighth graders are going to be here. When they graduate, that will be, I think, uh, 63 years the high school has been going. So, that's that's pretty cool. Our eighth grade open house is
051awesome. It's such an honor to be in a position to brag about facilities, staffing, programs, etc. As may mentioned, the following week, our administrators went down to the sending districts, the charter school, to the private schools to talk to teachers and administrators about what their academic experience will be like when they come here next year. And those were great um great dialogue with the districts. Thank you, Mr. Gardley, for his work on our new website. Right on the front page, you'll see their scheduling information. And if you click on that, there are customized sections specifically for parents and students of eighth graders so they can begin to prepare uh their curricular choices for next year. So, we're really tailoring information to them, trying to bridge that gap and help with that transition. Then, starting next
052week, our tremendous guidance counseling team goes to schools. They also do go to the practice schools and the charter schools and they have individual appointments with students and their parents to make sure they build uh the most personalized schedule possible for their um high school experience. So, we're doing a lot to bridge the gap, a lot of visits, a lot of information. It's exciting. Um it is pretty neat when you see them on uh eighth grade open house because they are young um and they change so much from 8th grade to 12th grade and it's pretty it's a privilege to be part of that exciting part of their life. Also exciting is one of the best and brightest that has ever uh done the job here at High Point, Mrs. Corey Leola. Uh I'd like
053to talk about two of her extremely uh noble accomplishments this spring. Let's make it three actually. This spring she'll be traveling to uh Romania as she is a Fulbright fellow and will be going there on a teacher exchange program. The Fulbright program is one of the most prestigious academic awards in the world and we're so proud that she is fullbrite. 24 years ago, New Jersey passed the law mandating that African-American history be embraced, particularly in middle school and high school. Some districts look at mandates like this and they just check the box and they do the minimum. Our school, led by our history department and Corey Lyola, poured themselves into this mandate to make sure that African-American history is uh authentically interwoven into American history. and she is a leader in that field. Last month,
054I invited uh Miss Glow to come to the county curriculum meeting because the department of ed reached out and said, "Your school is the only school in Sussex County to have a staff member participate in the Amastad Commission. Uh this summer there's a summer institute. This is Lyola as a faculty member of that program. It's it's virtually free. It's approximately $100 really to just make sure that you follow through on your commitment. Um it's a tremendous program and she is trying to lead more people from our county to attend that program. So we're very proud of her and the American Exchange program and I know Miss Diaz and Mr. Dunn were host families last year. It's an incredible program um started by uh American historian David McCulla. His son founded the program. Stephen Spielberg and
055other um wealthy Americans contribute to it. The entire program is free for the young adults to participate. Now, this June, 12 High Point graduates from this year's class will go all across the country and experience parts of the world completely different from High Point. And in exchange, our community will be enriched by having 12 uh recent graduates come to our community and not just broaden their horizons, but broaden our horizons as the host community. Um, so it's just a great program. If anyone is interested in hosting, we have more than enough applicants for the High Point students to go abroad or across the country, across the country. Um, we do need a few more host families. Contact me directly um or Mrs. Loyola directly and we thank her for continuing to be uh really a
056leader in education. Um questions or comments on that? No. Okay, great. Um, last Monday we had our January ins service program and I want to thank Mr. Tal because uh the National Football League and the New York Jets um chose as their charity a mental health program uh and they partnered with the US center for mental health and sport founded and led by Dr. Margaret Dumpka and Dr. Doctor came to the NJC program, how many schools? 37 >> 40 40 high schools and presented and we were the only one who said we've got to have this person here free. This is an expensive um endeavor in most years. It fulfills a mandatory requirement for suicide prevention, but beyond that, it was a quality program that our staff was truly uh engaged in. You see her
057picture there. She's actually a u World Cup official World Cup soccer. So, she's very accomplished, very poised, very humble, very articulate. Staff loved it. Um and I I found it moving to sit in this room for two hours and to see our staff uh engaged. That's a long time and that's a weighty topic, but um there is no topic I think that would take greater precedent. So, I'm proud of [snorts] the fact that we brought in an outstanding facilitator and then every member of our staff engaged with that um potentially life saving training. So, that was really um thank you. Um I just I I forgot my apologies to uh Mr. Anderson. I haven't introduced him formally. This is his first public meeting. I give recognition to our 10th member, but I want to formally
058welcome Mr. Anderson to our board as well. Sorry. >> Thank you. Sorry. >> I'll try. >> Uh so proceeding with action items then. Uh curriculum instruction and technology. >> Sure. Okay. Uh we have eight items. I think I'll be moving them all together. Okay. Um so uh first four are the uh faculty attendance rate, student attendance rate, suspension report, and uh the um harassment the hip reports. Okay. Number five is uh field trips. Um it's this on the attached. Number six is professional development activities also the attached roster. Um number seven is the um revised school calendar and number eight is the proposed dates for the extended school year for this coming summer. Um >> so I going to move that. Can I have a second? >> I'll second. Yeah. Does anybody have any questions
059or comments on any of this? >> What What's the graduation date as I was going to say maybe there's going to be something about the calendar for >> Listen, that may change by the day. So, right now it's a moving target, >> but I will say that as in the past, we've done this many times. We we likely will not go beyond a Friday because the community effectively, let's say it's the 19th and Friday is the 19th and I don't know what it is. We will likely take days off of spring break so as to ensure that the se the school year ends so we do not go into the last few days of which are just not productive. >> Okay. Yes. Stop guessing. We'll probably if the weather stays the way it's been, we'll
060be having another vote on that the same issue in the future. Uh, okay. I guess we're ready for a roll call, please. >> Mr. Van Stone, >> yes. >> Morsy, >> yes. >> Mr. Anderson, >> yes. >> Miss Longberg, >> yes. >> Miss, >> yes. >> Miss Stackus, >> yes. >> Miss G, >> yes. >> Miss Hill, >> yes. >> Mr. Dunn, >> yes. >> Passes. Uh next up is personnel. >> I will move one through five together. Temple one is a recommendation by the board of the retirement certification from Caroline Bner English language arts teacher effective July one this year. Uh number two is approving a four substitutes as listed. Number three is approving the appointments Christine Gert as child study team administrative assistant. Number four approving an extended medical leave. Number five is
061approving a maternity childare leave. >> Second. >> Any questions or comments? I would like to uh congratulate Miss Bob McCall on a long distinguished career at High Point in which she uh she was a deeply respected member of the faculty and had a uh a long and effective career impacting the community and children of this community who are better today for her having been here. So congratulations on your retirement. >> Congratulations. Missy, >> yes. >> Mr. Van Stone, >> yes. >> Mr. Anderson, >> yes. >> Miss Diaz, >> yes. >> Miss Gaul, >> yes. >> Miss Hill, >> yes. >> Miss Stacis, >> yes. >> Miss Lung, >> yes. >> Mr. D, >> yes. >> Passes. >> Under extracurricular, I'll move uh the two items there. One is a recommendation to approve an overnight trip
062for the competing members of the girls wrestling team to attend the NJSIA individual wrestling championships to be held in Atlantic City from March 11th through 14th. Um, wrestlers qualify and make it to the finals, four hotel rooms will be needed. And item two is a recommendation to approve the following volunteers for the spring musical pending background check confirmation and the director of safety and security. And there's a number of names there listed I believe. Uh so I'll make that motion on one and two. May I have a second? >> Second. >> Any comments discussion? >> We just want to reach out. We want to make sure that we thank those who are volunteering. This this degree of uh of participation uh just demonstrates the commitment by the community that we want to be the hub
063of the community and their participation, their volunteering enriches our students experience. So thank you >> Miss Diaz. >> Yes. >> Miss G. >> Yes. >> Miss Hill. Yes, >> Mr. Vun Stone. >> Yes, >> Makis. >> Yes, >> Miss Orsy. >> Yes, >> Miss Longberg. >> Yes, >> Mr. Anderson. >> Yes, >> Mr. D. >> Yes. >> Passes. >> Okay, we have no uh action items under policy, negotiations, or buildings in grounds. Uh so, moving on to finance, I'd like to move items one through eight together. Uh one is a recommendation accept the report of the board secretary, business administrator for December 2025. Item two is recommendation accept the report of the treasurer for the same month. Item three is recommendation to uh approve the reported transfers and minimum expense transfer report for the same
064month. Item four is a recommendation to approve a payment for the tax schedule of audited bills dated January 27th 2026. Item five is a recommendation to accept the adult education agency account, athletic account, cafeteria account, construction account, principles petty cash account, scholarship account, school store, and student activities reconciliations for the month of December 2025. Item six is a recommendation uh to increase the substitute bus driver rate to $27 per hour effective immediately. Item seven is a recommendation to approve Health Express New Jersey as the student drug and alcohol testing facility for the 2025 2026 school year. Item eight is a recommendation to approve avoiding an attached list of outstanding checks in the cafeteria account and moving monies back to that account. Um so I make that motion 1 through eight. May I please have a
065second? >> Seconded. >> Any comments or questions on any of those? Yes. >> Mr. Anderson, >> yes. >> Miss Longberg, >> yes. >> Miss Orsy, >> yes. >> M. Stackis. >> Yes. >> Mr. Van Stone. >> Yes. >> Miss Hill. >> Yes. >> Miss G. >> Yes. >> Mr. Dunn. >> Yes. >> Pass. >> Um, I'd like to move nine alone. Nine is a recommendation that the board of education acknowledges and gratefully accepts a donation of $20,000 from Dr. Frank A. Cordasco to establish a $1,000 annual social studies scholarship to be called the Frank A. Cordasco class of social studies scholarship. I make that motion. I have a second. >> Any discussion, Dr. Yeah. Do you have any background on uh Dr. Cordasco or I can >> do either of you gentlemen have any background
066that you'd like to please give us? >> Yes. Dr. Kasco was 1975 um graduate and they had their region here in the cafeteria actually about 35 of them. Um and they they stayed for the football game. So uh in that conversation I went and talked to the group of them and we had some laughs about where things were back in the old days and where things are now. Um, then Dr. Pasco said, "My name is Frank. Like to talk to you a little bit later on about some things we want to continue." I said, "That sounds great." Talked to the football game a little bit, changed contact information, then I called up with him. Um, he's so proud of this institution, this facility that he wanted to develop a scholarship. I said, "That's awesome. He
067has many scholarships come in." I was astounded when he said um that he wanted to establish a $20,000 fund for his family. Um, and he wanted to be given to a social studies candidate. And it's always intriguing being that he's a worldrenowned um many many articles written research wise well-renowned surgeon in New York City. And I said, "Well, what's the background to that? Why social studies?" And he said, "Because it was my favorite class when I was here at High Point. Once again, it goes to show and demonstrate that passion and Mr. K all the time about that well-rounded allound student. Um he's obviously a STEM person because he's having a pretty good career as a surgeon in New York City and doing some great things in the medical field, but yet social studies was
068his favorite class. Um and he has a passion for that. So he wants a scholarship to develop towards somebody that has um civic-minded high academic standards and that is going to be chosen each year um by High Point staff and we're very very proud of that opportunity to be able to do that. Um and he's just you know very very happy to be able to give back to um High Point many many years ago. So that's the little nutshell version of we're very appreciative of it. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, I >> thank you. >> I happened to find some reference online and there were like two pages of board certifications for this gentleman and and another page and a half of published uh >> you know papers um incredible >> and um he started
069here. >> So thank you uh Dr. Kasco. Hope you're listening. Thank you. >> Um, I'll take a roll call, please. >> Miss Longberg, >> yes. >> Mr. Anderson, >> yes. >> Miss Forsy, >> yes. >> Miss Diaz, >> yes. >> Mr. Sakus, >> yes. >> Miss B. >> Yes. >> Mr. Van Stone, >> yes. >> Miss Hill, >> yes. >> Mr. Dun, >> yes. >> Uh, I'd like to move uh the remaining items with the exception of 11 which we are going to strike from the agenda. We received some um recent uh information on that which will cause that one to go back uh to committee I believe or for renegotiated the item for the for striking. >> Sure. >> Right. Uh so we're going to move 10 12 13 and 14. 10 is a
070recommendation um that the board authorizes the school business admin administrator to execute and submit a letter of interest to Schneider Electric to conduct a preliminary energy savings improvement program EIP business case analysis. Uh item 12 is a recommendation to acknowledge and gratefully accept the donations from the following individuals who will use their remaining lunch balances to offset the negative lunch balances of families in need within our community. Item 13 is a recommendation to authorize execution and following tuition contracts between High Point as a sending district and the district's uh related information uh receiving. And item 14 is a recommendation to uh authorize and execute uh the following tuition contracts between High Point as a receiving district and the following districts and related information as uh so I'll make that motion on those items. May I
071have a second? >> Second. >> Any comments or discussion? Uh thank you. I mean it it it may not be a large number that that is captured in that uh offsetting donations. Um but what a great idea. Uh thank thank you Miss Polish. >> Is uh are there a lot is there a large amount of students with outstanding balances for lunch? >> Outstanding negative balance >> negative that that owe money. Yes. Because I know it's it's becoming a prevailent issue in many school districts. Is there any plan in place uh thoughts to >> So far we have not uh we we do our best to try to recruit that money and notify the parents and speak with the families as frequently as possible. However, in the end we have not um become a collection agency.
072So we've written it off as a as a loss. That's our practice here to forward. that would be the plan moving forward, but I probably just said that uh to the whole world who's saying, "Oh, cool." >> So maybe we'll change that. >> Um I I did uh there is an organization I will look up and try to get the name. There is an organization um that is funding on an application basis to help relieve schools who are having this issue. I'll I'll I'll look for it again and pass it on. >> Thank you so much. That's very helpful, very thoughtful. Thank you. >> So the comments, >> Miss Diaz, >> yes. >> Mr. Anderson, >> yes. >> Miss Orsy, >> yes. >> Miss Longberg, >> yes. >> Miss Sakis, >> yes. >> Miss G,
073>> yes. >> Mr. Van Stone, >> yes. >> Miss Hill, >> yes. >> Mr. D, >> yes. >> Passes. Um, Miss Wise is not here this evening who would be normally handling transportation. Is anybody from the transportation would like to run us through those items? >> I don't know if I am. >> You can do it. >> I'll go. Unless you want to >> I'll try. I I don't know if I think I I think I that's the new committee. >> Really exciting. Okay. So, we will be moving items uh one through >> 1 through 10 >> under transportation. >> Uh item one is for shared costs uh for area band rehearsal at Mount Olive High School. Uh item number two is a joint uh transportation agreement for um the first one was uh the
074first one's with Frankfurt. The second one is Sussex Wanage to go to the U Mount Olive High School for area band. The third one is a um quoted contract uh for the uh EDT seminar capstones at Bernard's High School. Um number four is for the debate team to attend the tournament at Roxberry High School. Um, five is a quoted contract uh for EDT seminar capstone uh to go to Bloomfield High School. Uh, six is quoted contract uh for the High Point Chorus to uh go to Kennalan High School. Uh seven, a joint transportation agreement with Walkville Valley uh for the swim team at the uh Morristown Fair High School. Um guessing that's a competition uh eight uh trans joint transportation agreement with Kittatini uh for high kittatin students to go to the college of New
075Jersey. Um, nine, joint transportation agreement with Vernon uh for the students uh to attend what's TSA >> technology students of America. >> Thank you. Uh at the College of New Jersey and number 10 is an agreement with uh between the Southern uh Bergen Joiner Commission and High Point Regional High School uh for coordinated people transportation services. I move all 10. Okay. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Roll call. >> Any comments? Sorry. >> Got to give that up. >> Sorry. >> Okay. Miss Diaz. >> Yes. >> Mr. Van Stone. >> Yes. >> Miss Stackis. >> Yes. >> Miss Wise. Miss Hill. >> Yes. >> Miss Gaul. >> Yes. >> Miss Orsy. >> Yes. >> Miss Longberg. >> Yes. >> Mr. Anderson. >> Yes. >> Mr. Dunn. >> Yes. Okay, we have no correspondence. Miscellaneous,
076our standing item on board vanity training I think uh we were apprised of already. Uh so our second public comment section of the evening, same rules apply. Uh I don't see anybody in the room. Do we have any virtual comments? No comments being submitted to our virtual platform. So may I have a motion to close public comments? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Okay. All in favor? I >> any opposed. Uh any non-committee board member reports or comments at this time? >> I have none. I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. Any >> oppose? Sorry, he was watching. I love when he watches. against.