001Regional High School Board of Education. Please stand for the pledge of I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Open public meetings act statement. New Jersey 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 at 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 date, time, and place thereof posted at the Augusta, Branchville, and Sussex Post offices, and notice sent to the New Jersey Herald, the Sunday Herald, and the
002clerk of the burrows of Branchville and Sussex in the townships of Frankfurt, Lafayette, and Wantage. Mission statement. High Point High School in partnership with staff, family, and community is dedicated to the quest for individual excellence. [snorts] By fostering high standards of achievement, we prepare students to become responsible and productive members of a diverse society. I ask for a roll call, please. >> Mr. Dunn, >> here. >> Miss Palac here. >> Miss Diaz. Miss Schuman. Miss G >> here. Mr. Mr. Vanto >> here. >> Miss Longberg >> here. >> Miss Weise. >> Miss Orsy >> here. >> Dr. Ripley >> here. >> We have a quum. >> Okay. Uh a no. A motion will now be made that the High Point Regional High School Board of Education enter executive session to provide an update on legal
003personnel and negotiations 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 [snorts] 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 those uh attending virtually uh we expect that to be approximately 7 p.m. Uh I'll make that motion. May I have a second? All favor. I have a motion to return to public session. Motion >> and a second. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Any opposed? >> Okay, we're back
004in public session. Approval of minutes, the regular meeting minutes from September 23rd, 2025 and executive session minutes from September 23rd, 2025. Um, I'll make a motion to accept those minutes. >> Second. >> Any uh comments, discussion, corrections? See, >> Miss Palac, >> yes. >> Miss G. >> Yes. >> Mr. Mr. Van Stone. >> Yes. >> Miss Long number. >> Yes. >> Miss Weiss. >> Yes. >> Miss Orsy. >> Yes. >> Mr. Doug. >> Yes. >> Passes. >> Uh, our first public comments section of the evening. Uh, accordance with the open public meetings act. We will open the public comments for agenda items only. At this time, each speaker should state his or her name and address. You have three minutes to address the board, which would be timed by myself. We will limit the section
005to no longer than 45 minutes. Please be respectful and mindful that your comments are being recorded. So, I see no potential comments in the room. Do we have anything submitted online? >> No. >> Uh, may I have a motion to close public comments? >> So, move and a second. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Any opposed? So, moving on presentations. uh our student representative uh speaker of the house, George Orian, will give us an update on the activities of student council. Well, you can speak from your desk if you'd prefer because you're one of us. But if you want to go to the podium, that's all right, too. Whatever you feel more comfortable with. Uh hey, everybody nice to see you all again. I'm George, as you well know. Um and just for a
006few updates for uh as of right now what's going on with the school. Uh right now we are in the middle of red ribbon week and we are doing uh some activities related to that as well as some Halloween related activities. Uh so far on Monday we've done a wear red day where we've done also some uh goodie giveaways and putting the public together activities. Uh and then today, Tuesday, we had the students wear their favorite team jersey and also have uh also two right do drugs fun stuff giveaway. And uh tomorrow we're going to be doing some pumpkin painting which the student council had bought each pumpkin uh for a dollar a piece for a total of 100 pumpkins. And then on Thursday uh There is also another pajama day as well as giving
007away the rest of the bags. And then on Friday, the students are able to wear costumes and go around on the trick-or-treating uh trail as well as vote on the doors that teachers had decorated uh outside of their classrooms. Uh there are currently five themes that they will be voting on. Uh, best overall door, most horrible, best individual connection to their department, say art for art classes and such. Uh, best department collaboration being multiple doors and best Halloween spirit. And then as of right now, uh, there are two activities to note or at least two two classes that are that I for. Uh the class of 2026, the senior class, they have the senior dormal November 5th, next Wednesday at Oak Bridge. And the class of 2028, the sophomore class, they are doing a curb
008chocolate bar candy sale fundraising. And some and the one uh relevant note from last month uh is that the student council had bought a 7 foot freezer uh for their concession stands. That way they can start selling ice cream in order to make more. >> Thank you. Thank you. Uh, next up we have the HBA president Sunday. >> Good evening. Start couple minutes late. Um, I wanted to begin by expressing my sincere gratitude to everyone who has actively supported my transition into the role of the HPA president. Um it is an incredible responsibility of learning one that comes with both great opportunity and a very steep learning curve. Our executive union team is made up of a dedicated experienced group of educators who some of which are new to the team like me um and
009new to this capacity of leadership. This includes Mark Russell who's been my vice president. Um he's doing an exceptional job I feel like on the first floor where I've taken on the second floor but he has been incredible so I'm grateful for him as well as Stacy Zeremba who Dr. Zumba who is my secretary Christina Dateo is the treasurer Ben Kappler as our grievance chairs as our membership chair and Aaron Bang is our sunshine committee. Um, as president, it is my role to strengthen this team um, and also to strengthen the relationships with the staff and build new ones as well where they're needed. I firmly believe that our school community can only thrive when we work together. Our students flourish when they feel valued, and I would argue that the same is true for
010our faculty, staff, and administration. With this in mind, we extend our sincere thanks to the administration for helping set a strong foundation for this school year. The implementation of the new cell phone policy has already made a noticeable difference in our hallways and classrooms, and this progress would not be possible without the consistent support and responsiveness of our administrators. So, thank you. I also wanted to acknowledge our faculty and our staff who time and again go above and beyond to ensure that our students receive the highest quality education. On behalf of our union membership, I also want to thank the board of the board office for their support as we fully transition to our current contract. We recognize and respect the logistical and financial challenges involved, which makes it all the more impressive that the
011faculty and staff retroactive checks were distributed this past weekend. So, we were very grateful. Thank you so much for that. And also, I'd like to thank you, the board of education. Um, serving as CNU president definitely has given me a deeper appreciation of the complexity and the nuances of nearly every aspect of education. I look forward to collaborating with you in pursuit of our shared goals and mission here at Point Regional High School. Um, also I'd like to thank Scott who's been super supportive of me and John. I truly love our meetings that we have when we sit down together. Um, the lines of communication have been fantastic. So I'm very grateful. Um, and I also, this is a side note, um, this Thursday, our newly elect state union president and JA president DB will
012be bringing lunch here to High Point during the lunch. So, he will be here as well as assess county education association resident Angela Ducha will be here and our unis rep Henry John. This is open to all staff um, admin as well. So, we're having it hosting it up in the roadkill. I met him over the summer and so he's new, I'm new. We just thought it was nice just to kind of network. So he offered to bring us lunch, sandwiches, salads, that kind of thing. So we're going to host it up in the Rokill Thursday on the 30th. So if you're around and you want to stop by, our lunch is from like 10:30 to 11:30. Um salads, beverage, paper, whatever. But he will be here um like I said up top and you
013might stick around and it's you can just pop in, grab food and go or you can stay and chitchat. Um, that's all I think I have. Thank you so much. And sorry, I just didn't want to leave anything out. Thank you. >> Appreciate it. Thank you. >> Uh, next is our principal report, Mr. John. [clears throat] >> Yeah. >> Good evening everybody again. Thank you very much for words and look forward to the continued partnership. Um, so just wanted to give a principal report update like I usually do and then we're going to roll into the SSDs report as well which is a little bit different side of things but we have to talk about all these things that are part of education. So as you can see behind me actually this is a good
014segway because my opening for um Christmas is our academic award ceremony which was on October 8th where we honored this doesn't capture all the students um but it captures most of them. So we honored over 100 students for high honor role for market periods last year's last year's academic achievements plus AP awards plus other mayor awards as well. Um and the best part I don't know if you can really see it in the picture. Um we make the students stand up and you can't see that what we're talking to them is make sure you smile, make sure you take your time to take the picture. But you can see all the parents on the the bottom half with their thumbs up because that moment that they get to take those pictures, right? Even though the
015students like my own daughter doesn't like to stand pictures very often to smile is pretty cool. So you can see all the pictures being taken up there but again over 100 students are recognized and very proud of their students every single day. It's nice to bring a ceremony together like that um for for those achievements. Also in October um in early late September we had two fantastic um student assemblies. One was called digital dilemma. was focused on just what it says, social media, cell phones, the impact on that on everybody, not just the young adults, on the adolescent, but on everybody as well. And that was very well received. We also had recently um a new program that we're going called the No Hate Tour. It's actually a BMX assembly um that was just as
016it sounds in our gym. Um and we had full BMX professionals that were exchanged champions um that were talking about how to be the bystander in a positive way. Um and anti-bullying prevention activities along the way. So, their message was around bullet prevention and awareness, but they brought it with a completely different spin and um our gym was just electrified and filled with a lot of a lot of fun. I had to get up on the stage and get jumped over, which wasn't part of the plan, but we did it anyway. We had a good time on the way. So, that was two very wellreceived programs. Both of those were funded by outside grants um or an outside organization. What I mean by that is the digital was funded by an outside grant. Um the
017no APMX tour was funded this year by the Marines. Every year it's it's national tour. It's on a national circuit. Um each year sponsored by somebody else. This year was sponsored by the Marines um as well and they had the Marines were there and they did a little bit of a piece of it as well. Um we also as Jordan mentioned a lot of activities that are taking place. Um student council Mrs. Bean initiating our red ribbon week. Um said that really slow and a lot of activities that that George so eloquently highlighted already. And then we also have a question of the day that's going out to our student body from Mr. Bean. Um and that gives us a chance to kind of be more aware of substances that are around us particularly for
018for adolescence. Um as well we also had earlier in October our save students sponsor week and respect activities and we had a kiosk set up over here by the media center as well as up front that becomes two good hubs during our unit lunch where student activities can be led and initiated um every single time. Again, it's not just about the week, but we like to make sure we highlight those weeks that come up throughout the time period as well. Um, also this month, we had a busy I think a little bit of a mix of athletics as well. Follow that. We had a very busy month for our fall athletics. We had many um senior nights that were uh playing accordingly and it's very fun to see our senior parents out there with with
019all of our our student athletes. We also had um play paint and cancer awareness um events as well throughout this this um last really last two weeks. So, our um boys soccer team had a a play paint game. Our field hockey team had a play pink paint game. Um our volleyball team had their first ever dig for cure game in the gym filled with pink um and a packed house. If you haven't had a chance to watch the volleyball game, our volleyball team is up and coming. Our best record ever so far this year. Um they had a packed house on that night. It was just a fun, fantastic night to see our student athletes um have a have a good time for the community. And then last but sure not least, our girls soccer
020team had a kick from the pure game as well, all on the football field. So kudos to Mr. Dexter and all of our coaches for highlighting those events that are mentioned. It's not about the dollar amount that you raised. It's about coming together as a community and being part of something that's special and want to make sure that our coaches, our players, our parents actually get the credit for for all those things. Um we also had our eighth grade tours earlier this month where all the eighth graders in on two different days. Um and that was very very well received by both both our students but also by eighth grade students as well. Had a chance to meet with our eighth grade center and district principles. I meet them every month the week after that.
021Um and we all had positive feedback from the eighth graders every year seeing High Point for the first time on them. Um many of them have siblings and they're here for when they're growing up and kind of those things but many of them are here for the first time. So get a chance to see that. That's led by Miss Jack and our peer leaders. So kudos to them because they are the face of the school. The peer leaders are out there. We have about 340 kids represent high point. I represent High Point very well and we're very appreciative of that. Also this past month, this past weekend actually rehearsal for murder. Congratulations to Miss Kelly and D Smith. Um and all of our theater students, our tech students, our lighting students that made that production
022um in that fall play very very successful. They're looking forward already. They have a couple weeks of I guess downtime if you want to call it that. And they're going to be getting ready for a free musical um quickly as well. So, our students do and continue to do a fantastic job. They shine all over the place. Um, not just athletic field, but on the theater. Um, marching band is having a fantastic season this year. They have the state tournament coming up this weekend as well. So, just a lot of great things that our kids are doing to represent went very, very well. We're very happy and proud of that. Speaking of state playoffs, we've talked about the marching band and state competition on Saturday. Football team, volleyball, girls soccer, boys soccer, cross country, who
023is the coach, and girls tennis. Um, all are participating. in a state tournament in this next week's time. So, a busy schedule. Um, again, it's not about always making it to the states, but it is a nice thing to be able to have that achievement. Um, and then you never know, right? As you can see, you never know what's going to happen when you get into this. Again, thank you to our student athletes and our coaches. Um, and also wanted to to give a shout out to our our trainer, John Meyer, um, who keeps our athletes as healthy as they can be. uh when the seasons get long and as coach Sunday knows the seasons get long, we have injuries that happen and and we have to battle through those things. So, it really is
024a complete team effort. Uh George also raised the the senior formaliz next week, next Wednesday for her seniors, I believe. Last count, Mr. By, we have like 150 almost 160 students going our senior class, which is one of our highest numbers ever. Um so, I'm very very happy about that. It's a it's a great event to to happen. all seven on the same date. No coincidence, but that's the end of our first market period as well on the 5th. So that came fast. I'm talking to my daughter about that. It feels like you're in the middle of summer talking now talking about the end of the first one. Any questions on any of that report? >> I just wanted to say thank you about the um the award ceremony. Uh as a parent, you know,
025my son was a freshman last year. I had no idea that this was a thing. Got an invitation to it and it was really a very nice event. It was very positive. So I I I appreciate that. >> Thanks. Appreciate that. And and again, it's something that's tradition that we've we've tweaked along the way. Um but we wanted to try to highlight everybody in that that capacity and it's something that we honor. Anything else? All right. Now, shifting gears. I'm supposed to do this quicker. I like this picture. This picture is a good picture. Keep that up. I'm going to give an overview of the SSDs, which used to be called ED RS back in the day for those that may remember that. Um it's the same system overall. There's not really um difference between
026the state kind of refined it. It changes a little bit differently as well. So I will try to progress through this and and more than happy to answer any questions along the way um as I do that. This is our overall reporting um for this school year. So we're reporting on last year's numbers, right? Last year what looks like in terms of that again real quick familiarize yourself. This is what the state requirement is for what gets reported over the course of time. Violence violence, weapon, substance abuse, and HIV. That's the required categories. Each one of those categories then has multiple subcategories. That makes any sense as well. I'm trying to get lost in all the aspects of these are the main categories that the state is looking at for our um this you can
027see it is our historical SSDs data. Uh I want to highlight a couple things before I kind of talk about the the outline numbers there on the side which is which is that um as assistant principal many many years ago um few years ago but I remember those days I would have to report on this as well and I've seen trends go up and down one constant that remains um that I believe that we've always been very forefront about just like Mr. can't listen to all his reporting and all the data reporting about our data. Um we have been for all the time that I can remember that's an important transparency that doesn't change or eliminate numbers um and numbers can be perceived and and received differently but I believe that we're consistently um in
028the right spot with our numbers. So these numbers reflect again 2017 18 to 24 and 25 um being last year's number and again the categories we talked about um of the five categories here they are listed um again a couple things I want to highlight before I kind of drill down on last year's particular numbers um I strongly believe as an educator as a principal as a home assistant principal and as a parent that co um and legalization and I'm not going to get on a platform here and say do this or marijuana has impacted greatly here in education. If you look at the number change obviously 2021 2020 21 not only because the whole world shut down um and then 2122 the world was shut down for half of those years and we all
029counted remember that we came back in cohorts and then eventually we're able to open up all our course. Those numbers that represent that substance abuse inhib those years were really the last two months of that school year 2021. Um again reflective of postcoid aspect of it also key which is not highlighted here just wanted to make a point of it that I think has an impact on society and has an impact on us education was marijuana legalization took place in 202122 right after um that impact makes it accessible and acceptable all across um all all across our state. So the parameters that you see the highest numbers 32 39 and 44 right again not hiding from the numbers right I do believe are relevant to a societal shift that education's experiencing um student experiences I'm
030not going to get into personal stories of what we hear but student experiences of where they're getting um different substances from with the family beliefs behind that support of society behind it definitely shifts the mindset amongst that again that's not an excuse we still have a reality we try to do our best to manage But that we do believe is part of that increase on the substance side. Um completely consistency remains really when you look at the violence numbers, the vandalism numbers. Um and again numbers are pretty consistent across the board as as well. But I just wanted to highlight that just and thoughts and that's my own my reflection. That's nothing relative to anything besides my reflection on my experience um here. We look at things. Um I think it's really important also to
031to recognize that um the state requirements are pretty black and white. Um so something for an instance like um a fight um say there's 17 right there on that number again to break that down a little further let them fight maybe 55 that are assault as defined by the state not as defined by the criminal code but as defined by the state right in terms of assault um are pretty narrow right so those fights may represent very small physical interactions or a larger scale interaction again want to make sure that you understand that as well Same thing with substance use again with the accessibility of of vaping and THC pens and all that happens in our world right the accessibility um right and the acceptability of that it's definitely increased um students level of of
032use again this is kind of a breakdown of of what we're talking about with the assaults and the fights assaults are more of a a again not a criminal assault chargeable but based on the state definition and then when we look at the substance use that's really broken down by multiple categories, right? Um confirmed use and possession. The possession [clears throat] numbers have increased crazy. I was here principal started in 2008. Um when we didn't have CAC, we didn't have any of that, right? We had marijuana and things of that nature. That's how you possess things, right? You don't see that anymore, right? you see it focusing on a fan or a vape or any other way that mass that possession has gone up because again accessibility has gone up as well and those are
033barriers those are very strategic those very families as well and then you look at the other ones you know that again those things that don't as much have impact on the overall numbers this is just I know I'm going to talk a little more about this confirmed in this again going back to go back if I can. Sorry. Um again, consistently across the board the HIV numbers as much as reported before period one report period 2. So you go to about January to report period one and fourth period 2 is January to June. That's why we have these numbers originally reported. I'll talk more about that as well. But again a somewhat consistent um aspect of it couple anomalies spikes that are there as well. This is the part that really I think matters to
034all of us. I don't want to stand in front of you as principal when I I reach high school and say to you that the numbers don't don't matter because they do matter to me. Um what matters mostly is the kids um and the struggles that they are bringing to us every day. And again I can't share the personal side of those things but there's a lot of real struggle um and I believe uh this board of education Dr. Ripley the administration has poured a lot into resources um for for our students and for our staff for the course of time. Um some of that is just personnel right body staff some of that is finances some of that is other resources that are out there as well um but I believe that that's best
035case how to do that but we think we also want to highlight um a few things as well although we see that the trends of the substance piece particularly everything else pretty much remain flat um continues to increase if I had a magic eightball I would tell you standing here today in October that number is probably going to be about the same um as they are currently for us to use based on where we're at right now. Um and that's just a a gut offic. But these are the things that matter because if it impacts one student um and it changes their pathway and their trajection of what they're doing and choices that they're making then that matters right I may maybe doesn't student that one student it does matter. Um we strongly believe in
036the setup of support for communication relationships and strengthening trust. Um there's a big gap out there postco there's a lot of brokenness out there aspect that existed before has been brought exponentially to the level that that it's at right that brokenness that broken trust broken relationships um that broken communication right is is relative and real that is our focus every single day in everything that we do um in our classrooms that talked about our interactions on our on our fall play and theater and march band um and our school meetings as um that you recently just talked about. I was saying to you, thank you for being willing to spend money and thank you Dr. for being willing to support staff in our counseling area because we have we recognize the need um and that
037need continues to to rise and that's just not with our own um internal counseling um our primary counselors, school counselors and our stack. There's also tremendous external counselors that are that are out there as well. Um that utilization has robots um that have robots. Robots being uh finances, finances, insurance, transportation, most importantly willingness. Um there's just still seems to be a gap there for willingness to try to get help on some capacities and some family dynamics that we hear see is that it's okay that this is existing and it's happening and we're up against that trying to navigate through that. We're not going to give up that capacity. Our Wildcat Wellness Center um is a a new focus in this year this year. Wildcat wellness center is in our back room. I don't know if
038you've been in the back hallway by room 120 tech um that is staffed by and led by Mr. Van and our counselors Main, Mrs. Zarno, Mr. Emma have been um really really essential uh in getting that off the ground and our focus on is intervention, mediation um and restoring. How do you restore that relationship that may have happened? How do you restore the hurt that you may have had? Um or building money for a lot of other reasons as well. Um and let's talk to the staff in the beginning of the year. Focus it really on why. Um although there's going to be consequences and we talked about that with numbers over the course of time. How do we figure out the why? Why are the student making the same decisions over and over again?
039And in those numbers that you don't that you don't see there's a lot of repeat, right? There's a lot of cycle that happens and occurs. But trying to figure out the why and restore that u with the help of our counselors and administrators and our staff is really the way we're going to see some improvements. Um and we just started to step into that fully this year. We already have students that have been part of that program already. Some the high level success um with that market center program and some that are still a little bit standoffish to receive now because they have um again Mr. and our counselors, Mr. Delaney, Mr. I've done a tremendous job of making sure that that is one of our first steps. We're using it for raising education. We're
040using it for um discipline issues that come up within students. We're using it for students that may come back after a substance um out of school suspension. So, there's other ways that we are doing that, stepping into that again, and we're hoping that we can continue to redesign that and craft that. It's not stagnant, not like here's the one model, this is what's going to be the whole year. a really good period of time that data in constant meetings with our group on post. In addition, we have as George four student council character initiatives that take place um each and every month. Next one's coming up in November 3rd. We had NJ wellness summit. I took about 15 students um um to pre that summit focusing on mental health, right? Taking care of your mind,
041taking care of your body, taking care of others, right? Be aware of that. We're hoping to take those students and by the course of the end of the year have them teach many lessons to our nth grade students. Um the same model we're looking at script number seven class business presentations. I go to every senior class in the beginning of year meet but I go to every senior class English class beginning to talk to um Mr. Emma and Mr. classes and talk to them with the counselors. Right now we're bringing in another level of peer leaders. We want our peer leaders to be in the forefront as they are with educator doors to go in those classes and talk to students and teach them lessons about critical thinking about organization about decision making um because
042they live it right and students want to hear that from them. They don't want to hear from even though we have conversations uh class multi- multi-tier systems of support again that goes back to where the Wildcat Wellness Center is really designed off of and that data that drives that we talk about that for um our academic data all the time. It's also extremely well for our behavioral data as well. And then again highlighting the red recently because the student council project sponsor that. So that's a summary. I think that was the last one. Sorry. Um any questions on that? I know there's a lot of data and I don't have to talk. So get a chance to answer any questions that you may have. Do you see are you seeing a lot the uptick in
043mental health possibly? >> Yes ma'am. Yes ma'am. The increase um is drastic when you guess the number right now but over the course of time and I do not like to go back and be to go back to cos kind of align but national data is real that the state data is real and local data is real that that has created a um I believe again this is personal opinion. I believe that those variables were there and relevant prior to that. Um, and that disruption brought a lot of those variables to the top quickly. >> So, you're seeing like a lot I'm just because I agree with you, but I'm saying I can see that a lot of kids or young people are is that are they using the mental health issue for then having
044an uptake in the substance? >> Great question. Um I believe that we do see that in anecdotal discussions with students that there's a dual um a dual challenge there substance and mental health related which one comes first sometimes hard to tell but that actually is relevant. It's a great question but that is relevant and you see it >> can you just explain a little about what the Wildcat Wellness Center actually looks like on a day-to-day basis and who has access to that other than the students that are identified. And students just walk in there, who's in there? How does that work? >> Yep. So, Mrs. Bean is our head counselor that's in there and also our sack. Um, it's also rotated in um serviced by our other counselor, school counselors and child study team members
045as well. Um, so on a regular basis, a student can't just go to the Wildcat wellness center. They still have to go to the main mail office, guidance office, CST, and then they would be given a pass to go to law center. That's more for just accountability to know where students are, but they can't go from the classroom right to that center. often times they'll they'll go hey I need to build it for 12 per queries they'll meet with the counselor for whatever intervention may be and then they go back to class so it can be used that way it can also be used where a student just feels that they need to um be in that level they go to guidance and then say okay we're not going to be able to to work
046on this challenge here let's go with another counselor case man right and develop and work on some of these interventions there's also like a file report that goes to the parents and part of that again is is data Sometimes that's good as that partnership again. Um sometimes we get no response back in the branch, but there's a follow-up that happens as well. It could also be used um in due needs maybe to be out of class, right, for four or five periods on on a given time period. So instead of them being out of school, they're going to be in that log wellness center and they're going to do an academic work by a counselor and a staff member and also administrator and then they can maybe transition back at the end of that day
047or maybe they're not in a place where they can't trans transition back and need some more time. um for his interventions and take place that good question. I want to thank you for your personal insight. I did want to ask you back to the historical data. So, I know when I see this, I immediately jump to what can I do in my position as a board member to help improve that? And I'm sure anybody in administration, anybody staff member here, when they see this data, they see the same thing like there's there's some there's an alarming trend. Yes, we all know about the co years and what that did. Um and I know we have to report on this. This is a requirement. The school and the whole school environment is a big portion of
048uh a student's life, but we're we're cog wheel right there. I guess what I'm what I'm hoping I'm appealing to those that may be listening elsewhere like it's there's the family, there's uh community sports, there's community organizations, there's places of worship, there are a number of other elements in the students life that can also affect this beyond just the school. We all have to work together to improve this. Um I'm not happy with this. I mean, but we can't beat ourselves up solely that this is the source of the problem. We don't have all the solutions. We have some of them. Um, but we all have to work together to hopefully turn this around. And and this isn't just our school or the state, but this is a this is a much broader problem. >>
049So, there isn't a question in that. It's just more of an observation. No, it starts from the the anecdote piece of when we talk to students that are going through for example influence um or those that go through it several times right are pretty insightful um because a lot of what we just mentioned um there is none there's there's no attachment to anything and as humans and this is why this as well as human we attach to the sports to attach to or club to attach to or to attach to organizations to attach to attach to be attached to something else. Um, and we're hoping to make in rooms and break those cycles for a couple students. And again, I wish like all the other students that are my kids, right? I wish I could
050break that cycle for all of them. That's not the reality of what it is. But to your point, that that's trying to find that why develop at least one attachment to somebody here or somebody that's elsewhere um is really the answer to that. We try to partner a lot of times with families. We've had other parent nights that have not been very well attended over the course of time. We're going to stop doing that. We try to educate. We send a lot of information out parents look at great because that important stakeholder piece is very very low. those that have that attachment ownership intent. Um but yeah, there's not answer, but that's just my does the wellness center if they were to see something that they found the walk, do they refer the child to
051the doctor? Do they tell the parents you have to bring your child to the doctor? How does that work? >> Yes. And so if we have a student that comes to any one of our counselors, administrator or staff that they're expressing some concerns, right, that either goes to our to our guidance team, they then assess whether it be a new well on the center that came up there or the counselor office. They assess there. We do called screening process. It's renowned process. It's a kind of overlay. Um it's always done by two counselors and then they determine if that that student needs additional help in the moment. that there's a threat to themselves or others um and they need additional help at that point. parents contacted parents are contacted anyway later but that point is
052needed. parents contact the vital administrator, they come in um to go that assessment with them which is a difficult and challenging conversation to have. Um and then that that student that parent will go to resource which could be to um inside hospital could be to their own treatment position or treating therapist that already seen which you see a lot of go and try to make an appointment with them. So at that point they would then be seen by the individual and then beum saf school that that could happen in the office on the center or um really into that's the process that looks like >> and they file when they come back to school then there's follow up >> and when they come back to school then the counset that comes back but then there's
053more importantly there's direct conversation that comes back and then has that almost like a mini re-entry meeting to make sure the student is okay to have sometimes not sometimes they need to appear to be a guidance or wellness determin students want to go right back into the classes because they do questions. >> Thank you. Almost right now. Good evening to see everyone tonight. Um once a year we are required to present on fifth time I said a comprehensive annual presentation. Um the data you'll see here is from the last six months of uh last school year and there's a lot of work involved in supporting students in investigating concerns in looking into allegations and I want to thank everybody that's here in particular Mr. Wright Dr. Ripley Mr. Tal Mr. Sarno Mr. Emma Mr. Rice
054is here tonight. It's a lot of work. U make sure that we're thorough. We look into every single allegation and do the best we can to support um our students. If you're on the board for a while, you've heard this before, but it's important. Uh we constantly need to be reminded of what a hit is and what a hit is not. For an act to be a hit, it must be an act that a reasonable person would deem to be harmful or Okay. Second of all, it must be motivated by a distinguishing characteristic. Body type, age, sexual orientation, race, gender, intellectual disability. But that can vary. It can be broader than that. It could be political ideology. It could be something that we've never even imagined before. But it must be motivated about a particular
055aspect of the alleged victim. is being um harassed or intimidated based on that. And third, the most important thing, it must have a significant negative impact on the school or on that student's education. Now, what gets tricky here is many times there's conflict and sometimes misbehavior and a student or a parent makes a hip allegation and we have to tell them it wasn't a hip. But we're very careful to tell them that doesn't mean that um misbehavior didn't occur. It doesn't mean that one student didn't treat your child inappropriately and they they're dealt with because it's a code of conduct. And that's very important because sometimes when your child has had a conflict that perhaps they were mistreated, said no, it wasn't him can feel dismissive. And so we're very careful to communicate that quite
056thoroughly. An important part of the hip legislation that was a gamecher for the state was that it covers behavior that occurs off campus. It could be the summer, it could be weekend, it could be social media. Um, and that has gone a long way, I think, to protect students and in those situations to make school um really um the the the place where protection and support can be provided. Our website has a tremendous number of resources. The 338 form is terrific. A lot of times parents make a concern and it's vague whether or not they're actually suggesting it's a hip. So we'll email them this form and say, "Listen, we're on it. We're you're investigating your concern. If you believe it may be a HIV, please feel free to fill out this form." Now, based
057upon the report, we may just call it a hit a hip investigation right away. But if it's at all gray, we say, "Here's the form. Please let us know if you want it to be investigated as it." We also have an anonymous app which empowers people who don't want to come forward with their identity to report concern and those reports are taken seriously. On our website is our policy, our self assessment and other resources. So for the last half of last year, I believe this town may just uh presented that we had eight confirmed pigs for the year, which means there were five confirmed pigs um from July through December 31st and three confirmed pigs in the second half of the year. You'll see that we investigated 28 allegations. Some schools are now exercising an
058option within the statute that you can make some discretion as to whether or not you investigate it. Dr. Ripley has um directed us to be transparent and thorough. We investigate every single allegation. As you'll see, the vast majority of them are not his, but many of them are code of conduct. Um there's misbehavior, there's tension, there's, you know, people not handling that conflict well. and is addressed in its and in five instances the matter was uh unfounded. So if you go to the school report card, you can look at every single school in New Jersey and they must report three things. How many allegations were made? How many times did you investigate? How many confirmed fails? What you'll see from High Point is the number of allegations and the number of investigations match because we
059take every allegation seriously and investigated. But our number of confirmed is um we would like zero but is relatively um modest at eight relative to the number of investigations that we conduct. I think this is a bit redundant. Tal just did an excellent job going over the vast variety of resources. Look, everybody in this building wants to support children and when conflict occurs to the point where it's a possible hit whether it is or isn't, child study team is involved, counselors involved, administration is involved, parents are called. We had an issue with situation last week that was of concern. The first thing I said to my colleague is having spoken to the parent. They're like call the parent immediately. Um we want parents to be aware of the situation. We want students to be protected
060and we take it very very seriously. Um it's a lot. It takes up a lot of time. Um we're we're very thorough. Um and we meet we met last week with a um our school climate safety team where we have students parent teacher and talk about how we can be better in this area. Any questions about the process? >> I just have one question to number. >> Sure. Just go back. Um apologize if I misspoke. Um for the recording period here 21 investigations were confirmed when >> this is the first half of the year that the other >> Yes. So Mr. I projected it was the year and total of the body. Um, you have any questions about Great. Terrific. Just one other thing I want to mention on uh October 13th uh for our
061October inservice day. We had a great day. Um, many of our staff went to Frankfurt. Dr. hosted a countywide um in service program primarily focused for elective disciplines and here at High Point we hosted for core academic subjects from our four partner schools in the area um a workshop and we came into this room in the morning coffee and bagels and we said first of all we're a pretty big district collectively we're about third county um and I said to the middle school teachers you get them when they're uh firing and uh evolving into young people. Um and the the age group you deal with has this unique set of challenges and they come here in a blink of an eye. They're leaving us as young men and young women. So to be in a
062room with a 100 educators who are working in common to support that same group of students from grades 6 through 12 was a really nice experience. We had an icebreaker in here. Dr. Zumba led the group through an icebreaker. But then we broke off and what was most important was subject specific teachers 6 7 8 9 10 all got to get together and the most important goal was to establish relationships. Put a face with a name, share email contacts, talk about your best practices. Eventually, the hard work is aligning curriculum and making sure that there's greater consistency among the schools you send to us and that we're able to best support the students that come here. Um, but the relationships is key. It was really um a very enjoyable day. So, I want to thank
063our um our partner schools. We've since met as a group. We meet once a month now. And um it was a very very nice day bringing together colleagues from um five school districts to talk about. >> Okay. Moving into other business. We have uh one item is a recommendation of the superintendent uh that the board approved a memorandum [clears throat] of agreement between education and law enforcement officials reviewed for the 2025 2026 school year along with the article 12 affirmation which can be viewed at the link as listed below. I will make a motion. May I have a second? >> Second. >> Uh any discussion or comments? Okay. Miss Palac. >> Yes. >> Miss Diaz. >> Miss Gaul. >> Yes. >> Mr. Van Stone. >> Yes. >> Miss Lberg. >> Yes. >> Miss Weiss. >>
064Yes. >> Miss Orsy. >> Yes. >> Mr. Dunn. >> Yes. >> Passes. >> Okay. Moving to action items. Curriculum instruction and technology done by Miss Schuman. Um. All right. And interest. I will uh recognize 1 through three and move 4 through 7. [snorts] Uh 1, two, and three are the faculty attendance, school attendance, uh student attendance and uh suspension reports for September. Uh four is a recommendation to approve the harassment, intimidation, and bullying reports for the period September 23rd through October 28th, 2025. Five is a recommendation to approve the field trips listed on tax roster. Six is a recommendation to approve the prof professional development activities as attached. Uh seven is a recommendation to approve the revised 2025 2026 school calendar uh which reflects a half day schedule for students on January 2023 midterms and
065that was seven. Okay. So uh I will make that motion to move 4 through 7. May I have a second? >> Second. >> Any questions? Okay. Roll call. >> Mr. Dunn, >> yes. >> Mr. Van Stone, >> yes. >> Miss Palac, >> yes. >> Miss G, >> yes. >> Miss Wise, >> yes. >> Miss Orsy, >> yes. >> Miss Longird, >> yes. Passes. >> Uh, next personel. >> Yep. >> Yes. >> Put those together. Number one, u approving substitutes for the 202526 school year, Andrew Global and Crystal Whiteman. Number two, um Mark Russell advances on the guide from MA30 to MA45. Number three, approving the extended sick FM LA of absence. Number four, medical leave of absence. Number five, approving Mr. Kenneth Hoy as a full-time custodian the annual salary of the salary of 50,66.
066And number six, accepting the resignation notification for Melissa. I'm making a motion seeking a second. >> Second. >> Any questions? >> I'm sorry. What is the second time? >> Any questions? >> Roll call. Mr. Yes, >> Miss Wise. >> Yes, >> Miss Longberg. >> Yes, >> Mr. Van Stone. >> Yes, >> Miss G. >> Yes, >> Miss Palac. >> Yes, >> Mr. Dun. >> Yes. >> Passes. >> Uh, under extracurricular, I will move one through five. One is recommendation to approve the following extracurricular appointments for the 2025 2026 school year as listed. Two is a recommendation to approve Roger Koko as a volunteer ski racing ski racing coach for the current school year. Item three is a recommendation to approve Ben Kapler as a volunteer wrestling coach during the school year. Item four is a
067recommendation uh to approve the following individuals to fill the need of a piano accompanist for various events during the current school year and they are as listed. And item five is a recommendation to approve Nickos as the unified basketball coach for the 2025 2026 school year at the site amount of $1,000 which is paid through a unified So I'll make that motion one through five. >> Second. >> Okay. Any discussion? I just want to uh recognize our volunteer coach coaches in uh particularly here as listed but really across the board. um in many cases without volunteer coaches um either members of our staff or even sometimes members from um the uh from the community that are probably uh credentialed. We can't run some of the programs that we do. Um so I just want to
068recognize them. I'll ask >> Mr. Dun. >> Yes. >> Miss G. >> Yes. Miss Lombard. >> Yes. Yes. >> Sweise. >> Yes. >> Mr. Benstein. >> Yes. >> Passes. >> Okay. >> And go back to for the one policy. >> We have one new policy student some protection. Making a motion seeking a second. >> Second. >> Sorry. Second. >> Nancy. >> Okay. >> Any questions? last time. >> Yes. >> Okay. Miss Orsy, >> yes. >> Miss Weiss, >> yes. >> Miss Longberg, >> yes. >> Mr. Benstone, >> yes. >> Miss Gall, >> yes. >> Miss Kac, >> yes. Mr. D, >> yes. >> Passes. >> Okay. We have no negotiations or buildings and grounds action items. I do want to um like to publicly recognize um Captain Kush's letter that went out to our community
069regarding an issue we have with um it's a buildings and grounds item, right? Um and we're very hopeful that it brings about some change. So, thank you uh you and Mr. Vance for work in that area. I won't go into it in detail. It's people got the letter Uh so brings us to finance. I will move one through eight. Finance one is a recommendation accept the report of the board secretary business administrator for the month of uh September 2025. Item two is a recommendation accept the report of the treasurer for the month of September 2025. I guess we got that in time. >> Yes. >> Uh item three is a recommendation approve the report of transfers and minimum expansion transfer report for September 2025. Item four is a recommendation to approve for payment. The attached
070schedule of audited bills dated October 28th, 2025. Five is a recommendation to approve the adult education agency account, athletic account, cafeteria account, construction account, principal petty cash account, scholarship account, school store, and student activities reconciliations for September 2025. Item six is a recommendation to approve Wage Excavation uh excavating company to perform work related to winter maintenance, snow removal for 2025 2026 school year. And item seven is a resolution be resolved. The board of education gives expressed permission to EI associates and representatives thereof to access, revise, and update the district's long range facility plan. And item eight is recommended that the board approve and authorizes the execution of the following tuition contracts between High Point as a sending district and the following districts uh as listed. So I will make that motion on eight. If I
071have a second, please >> second. Any discussion on any of those? Um, I wanted to note that uh item seven um was a requirement for us to get our long range facility plan updated. Uh it does not indicate any uh necessarily long range agreement rate beyond that. Okay. >> Excellent. >> Okay. Roll call. Mr. Dunn, >> yes. >> Miss Pala, >> yes. Miss G, >> yes. >> Mr. Spanstone, >> yes. >> Miss Wise, >> yes. >> Morsy, >> yes. >> Miss Longwood, >> yes. Passes. >> Okay, Miss Pal. >> Transportation. Um, for transportation, there are many are >> 22. I'd like to move motions 1 through 22 in one vote. Um, one is >> Did I do it the way Joe did it? >> You may. >> Okay. Um, all items are relevant to the
0722526 school year in regard to transportation contract for this district and also any joint agreements that the district may have with other schools. Um, everything is in accordance to appropriate statutes and in accordance with any law. >> Excellent. >> I make a motion seeking a second. >> Second. >> Any questions, discussion? >> Roll call, please. Miss Palac, yes. Mr. Van Stone, >> yes. >> Mr. Dunn, >> yes. >> Miss G, >> yes. Miss Orsy, >> yes. >> Miss Lombberg, >> yes. Miss Weiss, >> yes. >> Passes. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Uh, that's our action items. Uh, we have the correspondence or miscellaneous items. Uh, so our second public comment section of the evening. Same rules apply as uh the prior. Uh, please state your name and address. And I don't see anybody in the
073room. So, I'm going to ask if we have any virtual comments. Seeing none, may I have a motion to close both public >> and a second? >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Any opposed? >> Wonderful. Any non-committee board member reports or comments? >> I just wanted to make a comment >> about um the numbers that he we that John presented in after co and I I feel like CO was devastating to like our school, our community. it really undermine like I think back to that time and it was scary. Um, and I think in a lot of ways, like I'm still kind of coming out of that and I feel like we don't even have the words to talk about it, like what happened, you know, what kind of who died, who did we
074lose, what relationships, what groups did we lose, what attachments that you're talking about. I just um I really don't think we we give it enough credit in some way to that how how much it affected our lives. I just want to There's a reason for those numbers. >> Thank you. >> Sure. >> Anyone else? >> I have a uh motion to adjurnn. >> Motion. >> Second. >> Favor. Has anyone seen the in