001So, I'm concerned that now they're coming up at high school with a hefty balance. It's only gonna, you know, grow, grow, grow, grow, and then by the time they get to their senior year, it could way over $1,500, if not more. So, um, I know a lot of the schools were pushing that donation website, I forget me, I forgive me, I don't remember the name of it, to help out with paying off some of the bills for the lunch balances. So, I was just wondering what the status of each school was or the district, you know, in general, cuz I know it was a hefty balance. Um, in regard to security, um, we had I know equipment was requested, um, at the high school for a repeater to be utilized down in the wing. So,
002um I was just wondering what was the status of this piece of equipment because it is helpful because at times we cannot communicate via radio if you're in the front part of the building all the way down to the wing. Um it's very sporadic. So, um some questions around that and I think that's it. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I know I had a lot. I'm sorry. I apologize. Do you have anything >> if you want to answer first or let me close it? >> Let let anybody else go. >> Well, yeah. Are there any other comments from the public? If not, I will take a motion to close public comments. >> All in favor? I thought Superintendent Glover, would you like to address any of the Oh, she left out. >> I'm all
003right. Fun fun evening. First of all, I want to in the four and a half years of me being on this stage, I've never stepped off. I want to apologize as you understand vacation time. some of our normal folks who are running and setting things up weren't here. So, I do apologize. I take responsibility for that. That's not reflective of how we do things. So, I have to own that. That's not what we do. So, we look a little discombobulated, but we're not. We're still on point and we're focused. Um, thank you, Angela, for the information. I'm going to go in a few different orders. appreciate your comments on the Hillside Scholarship Foundation and I'm sure that the students the student who received the scholarship is definitely appreciative and we understand and we definitely appreciate
004all the work that goes into making sure our students have an opportunity to get a scholarship. the tutors. So, this is an extension of what we began several years ago. And I'll be in my presentation. I would love to show you that we're going to demonstrate some success that has come from having tutors primarily in our elementary spaces, but we're now pushing it a little bit into our middle school spaces, what we did this year. The qualification, I have to go back and look at it. The qualification is subsert or it should be a um well, subsert subsert or bachelor's degree. It shouldn't say sub and >> no, I'm not sure if it says and or. So I believe it's I believe it's or but the expectation is that these tutors come into the district.
005They're not permanent employees. They're more or less part-time well they are part-time employees. Don't receive benefits. They're not a part of the association any e either association and they are receiving training before they even start tutoring around the resources that we have. This is during the school day tutoring. So they're they're infused into the classrooms or they are pulling the students out. So this is should be sub which requires minimum number of credits college credits or bachelor's degree in a content area but they're trained around ARC resources so that they make sure that they're well prepared. Okay thank you NTN so correction our consultant that was working with us Dr. Tina Pow was working with the district in this curriculum space not just around NTN. NTN is national uh training network which has really helped
006us boost our math scores and coaching teachers and working with students and helping us develop our curricular resources. So one of the primary spaces that she wanted to take on because she's her math her background is math was to make sure that that program worked well helps facilitate conversations but she's working in other spaces. When she came on as interim which ends this month >> sometime this month as we have our new director here which I'll introduce in a few um Dr. POW may serve in a consultant but still around as we transition but it will not be just NTN and doing both lunch balances. I'm going to skip that for a second because we had a very interesting conversation about what we may do as well as how we can support students so that
007they don't end up with these healthy balances when they graduate. and the security equipment. In the time that I've been here, that has been a consistent concern. And what we're looking at now is really revamping several aspects of our security resources. The repeater is very expensive. Um, and we've tried to budget for it a few ways and use the appropriate funds so that we don't get in trouble when we get audited. But the repeater is an important tool. We do understand that there are some dead zones, but we're looking at several resources that'll be cost effective to make sure we're more effective, but we are definitely on that. The lunch balances. So, we have been talking to actually to our auditor as well as our broker to see if there's any latitude we can use
008so that we can pay off pay these off or write them. not a broker, not a broker, our auditor or a treasurer who comes in and helps balance our books because if we can eat it in some respects, then that reduces the balance for the students. We're still trying to recoup those funds, but and we're liable, but we're running a loss. But I will say this year based on the preliminary figures that we have, the balance amount was over about $113,000 across the district. seems like a lot but at one point in time we were trending towards well over 200,000. So the fact that we have stabilized it and brought it below closer to 100,000 while a lot still is nowhere where we were trending to to be. So our auditors looking at it and
009seeing if there's some things we can write off as we kind of move towards supporting our students so they don't graduate with high balances. Okay. And that's it. >> I think that was it. >> That's it. So, we'll turn it over to you now. >> Yeah. I had such a great presentation that I wanted to show you. F >> f first, I would like, if I may acknowledge Councilwoman Hyatt, who's in the audience today. I want to acknowledge your own twofold because this past Monday, the council approved the ordinance in regards to ecigarettes and vaping and much stricter regulations around the businesses within the town who may distribute and may be selling the products, but perhaps selling the to minors or others and not following the laws that are on the book. So, I just
010would like for us to give a round of applause to her work because I think that it's important that we recognize the folks who are behind the scenes and making sure we're protecting our babies. Great collaboration and we'll continue to make sure we do that. I'm going to get started because I I want to be mindful of time. So, board members have the presentation. The first few slides are what they normally are. There's a slide tonight that is it's special to me, but it also speaks to my passion and my why. One of those comments, one of those slides speaks about the why. And my why is always about children and students. And today I was blessed with the news that my niece, we all have favorites in our family, and she's that one who
011happens to be my troubling favorite. She gave birth to her first child. Oh, >> a little scary, some complications, but she came through. Both mom and baby are doing well. And as I sat in my office preparing for the meeting, it just reminded me like this is why it's important that we get it right. >> Yeah. >> Because children are consistently coming into our society and all of us have the responsibility to give them the best. And I'm that uncle. And I say this to my family, my all of them. How do you have an educator in the family and not expect me to think about how they're being educated? So, as this new baby comes into the world and she does what she does, her uncle is going to be there to make sure
012she gets the best. That includes staff, resource, and and others. So, when we think about our why, that's that's my why. So, my niece's name is Tonnie and the baby's name is Keelani. >> Don't ask. It was something about rhyming and I just didn't. But I'm sure there's meaning behind it. >> Congratulations. >> I will make sure she did all the work. Now I just have to pay for some things. I buy the books in the family. Core values students first clear communication and integrity. this summer. How many folks got a chance to either go in person and see our students in our summermies or see the live stream activities or some of the videos that have been put on social media and our website. Folks, I wish you could have seen the joy, the
013energy, and the excitement in the students faces. our attendance this year because I've been I tracked it on a regular basis. Disappointed in the beginning, we we hovered between 75 and and 90% consistently in a summer program for five weeks. That's pretty good. And and our students wanted to come. We mix the academics and the hands-on. We have plenty of pictures. And those pictures will allow you to see not just the excitement, but ask questions. So, when we say students first, we're really about it. We broke down the cost and the average cost per student to do the five weeks was about $700 per child. We didn't ask the parents for a penny and we've been getting we're trying to get better every year and next year we're we're going to even get better. I
014I promise you because we saw some spaces where we can do better. But anytime our students get a chance to do hands-on activity as well as academics enrichment, that's a win-win. And today was the last day culminate culminating event that took place at WK was again collaborating our partnership and bringing our township and our districts together. It was a volleyball game between the students, the children from the summer camp of the rec recreation community center and our students. I don't know who won, but the pictures and the excitement in their faces was really cool. So, congratulations. The collaboration was cool. They had a good time and I'm I hope we continue to make sure we put those type of programs in front of our students. We had a group of men come to us who
015were on Shark Tank. Um, and it was cool for the students to ask them about the process and what they did to bring their invention to life. We have students doing hands-on building building resources and it's called engineering design, model cars, drones. How many folks ever flown a drone? We we have drone classes. I get excited because the students were excited and they they they obviously took it home with them. I went into the lit camp. Lit camp is literacy camping and they set up these little camping sites in their classroom. The variety of literature that was given to our students. Excellent. Hopefully they took them home with them. But again, another opportunity for our students to use the books and to make sure that those books um continue to spark a little energy and
016and and positive thinking in their life. So, the summer academy ended today. I hope for the next five weeks our students stay engaged. Staying engaged also means that we did something else for them. If please go to the website under parent resources, not just a traditional read a book or go to the library. We put series of activities they can do and you can do with them from going how many folks ever picked blueberries or strawberries came home and made we want hands-on activities and free free the museum. We put several activities at the museum. So we're pushing go to the Hillside Public Library. We put we've already have a collaboration with there. There's no reason that our students shouldn't be able to say they experience a variety of activities during the course of the
017summer. We frontloaded it. Our supervisors and our team from the curriculum space have done a good job and make sure there's a variety of activities and a lot of free activities for students to engage in. And then post pictures on social media with your child being wherever you're at so that they they can see in the community what's happening in our town. Board members, I want to share with you that as many of you are aware, our current president and the legislators froze the federal funding for title funds. It was recently released. As of October 7th, which is today, the funds should be October. >> August 7th. >> That Well, it might be October. No, as of as as of August 7th, the funds are supposed to be released to us. I'm looking right at
018the screen, too. That's even worse. And we have a quick turnaround to make sure that we update. If I'm going to use it, I need the clicker. We have a quick turnaround to make sure that we each school gets their application completed. It has to be done by the 29th of August. We have to approve it and then make sure our allocation for each school matches what they say they put in their annual school plan. According to the documentation that we received from the Department of Education, funding should be flat compared to what it was in previous years. However, I don't believe that because our IDA funding was cut by $50,000. Last year we received $950,000. This year we received 900,000. 909. So to be quite honest, I anticipate that we may see a little
019shortfall. Those title funds go to supporting tutoring, teacher professional development, our multil- language learners, our professional development around technology. So those title funds definitely help us run our programs and it go it has to go into the hands of the students or touch the students. We don't hire staff with those funds because as you can see, they can go away. So, it's as I wanted to share with the board members tonight, we received the guidance. The guidance is really clear as what we have to do. We're going to make sure we submit that. So, at the next board meeting, we have to approve some areas of um as a board that we're going to accept the funds as we always do, but then all the schools plans have been completed. And I assure you that
020we will make sure because we're not going to lose that money. We're also required [Applause] Thank you. Well, the screens on this side might be up. We're also required to make sure that we do a data presentation. We have received our preliminary data from our NJSLA spring 2025 results. We have some great gains in several spaces. We have some spaces that are still a little concerning. However, our plan to continue to support our teachers and our students so our students demonstrate success is still intact, but I we are required statutoily to present the following data. NJSLA and access. Our access data is our multil- language learners, ESL students, bilingual students who take assessment to see where they're at. We also will be pres we presented our NJ GPA. We're going to also talk about again
021for those students who may have taken it this summer. So, it's important that we are presenting that to the public. So, you'll see. I will say to you that I'm not proud of some of the outcomes in some of our grades. Some of it we expected. Some of it was due to some inconsistency in instruction. However, we understand what we need to do and we we I'm assure you we have a plan of action and we'll present that. But the data will be presented in the August board meeting which actually will be Can I say it now? Are we set the 27th? >> Uh yes, >> August 27th. So that we're moving it up a day from the 28th. It'll be Wednesday, August 27th. It'll be posted as always, but just want to make sure
022you're aware that's when we'll be presenting the data. Um, can you see if this hyperlink works? Hyperlink works to this document, please. Didn't show up. Okay, we're going to keep it moving. Just a reminder, this was the results of our student performance based on our goals from last year, June of 2025, and where our students fell. Key indicator here is we're paying attention to our kindergarten student, our rising kindergarten, and our which are pre-current prek, rising first graders, and we're also paying attention to our second graders who are now going to be rising in third graders. We have a plan of action to make sure we support them, especially those who still demonstrated some struggles, especially around phmic awareness. And when I say we're being very specific in what we're calling out, I want people
023to understand it's important around phmic awareness comprehension so that when you're doing things at home with your children, you understand those are skills that they could be working on. I hope you're still continuing to read. Reading is very important in the summertime as well. I continue to show this statistic. 20 minutes five days a week exposes our students to 1.8 million words per year. You do the math and they do it over the course of five years increases our vocabulary. Then some of those words that come out their mouth may not be the frequent words of choice. This is where again I just remind you where we can see our students engaging in reading for digital content or handheld. But speaking of digital content, I hope that we are monitoring the number of hours our
024students spend on social media or spend on digital devices. Let's reduce that is also going to be preparing our students because as many of you know our governor says we have to have a cell phone ban policy in place and I know parents are going to be the first ones to come knocking on the principal's door but we are required to have a cell phone ban policy. We'll leave that alone into August. Let's go on a fun night. So this is hyperl and I since my hyperlinks aren't working this evening um I'm gonna put this on our website what I wanted to show you this is the link to and when you go on our website again plugging it parent resources summer activities summer reading 2025 it's a little tab in the corner and you
025open that up and it looks like a PDF but there are hyperlinks throughout it takes you to resources it takes you to fun activities families can do takes you to farms museums places to visit restaurants, recipes, all kind of things you can do at home, increase their understanding of fractions, etc., etc. So, please go and take a look at it. And then I just wanted to kind of end with you seeing just some of the images of our students and the things they were engaged in. And lot of fun for our students, lot of fun for us. I was out there on those 100 degree days and it wasn't hot to me. It was just enjoyable. But the students still did their thing. The young ladies on the skateboards, there was a couple young ladies
026who were design who designed their skateboards, coded it, and they were doing brother better than our young brothers. So, I'm excited about seeing our girls rock science and our engineering in the future. AP Morris welcome event will be on August 20th. Please make sure you follow their website to see the dates and activities. This is for pre kindergarten students. I probably should have put that up there, but this is for pre kindergarten students, prek three and four. Welcome them to the district and welcome welcoming them to our oh, welcome in to our great event. But check their website for the time. And there will be prizes, there will be giveaways. You never know who might be there to surprise you as well. And some of these beautiful board members who sit on the deas will
027be there to welcome them as well. And the first day of school, we're going to do something exciting for the first day of school. We're going to welcome our students. A lot of flare. So, the first day of school for our students is September 8th and the first day back for our teachers. Now, they might not be smiling when they hear this, but they know it already is September the second. Have a great day and enjoy the rest of your summer. [Music] >> Thank you, Superintendent. Okay. Um, we can move on to our committee reports. Vice President Horton Given. >> Good evening. Good evening everyone. >> Good evening. [Music] >> We'd like to start with finance. Our committee meetings were held on July the 28th, Monday, July 28th. And I'd like to ask our Mr.
028Shapiro board member. >> Sure. The uh committee met in full and discussed agenda and non-aggenda items. >> Thank you. Buildings and Grounds. Board member Eduahiti. Good evening. Um the committee met Monday, July 28th and um it was discussed uh to approve the attached 2025 to 2026 environmental safety program agreement between Union County Educational Services Commission and Hillside Board of Education. Thank you. >> Thank you board member Aguiti Education. We' like to ask board member Okai. >> The education committee met on July 28th to discuss line items 1 through 26. >> Thank you. We'll move to labor relations and we'll ask board member Hargrave. Good evening. The labor relations committee met on Monday uh July 28th and we discussed items 1 through 40 on the labor uh relations agenda. >> All right. Thank you. That's all
029for our committee reports. Thank you, Vice President Horton Given. May I have a motion to go into executive session? >> Motion. >> Is there a second? >> Second. Board member Parks. >> Hi. >> Be it resolved pursuant to the open public meetings act that the board of education meet and close executive session at this time to discuss matters relating to personnel, any labor or contract negotiations and attorney client privileges. The board will reconvene in public session at the conclusion of the close session. The matters discussed in close session will be disclosed to the public as soon as the need for confidentiality no longer exists. We shall return. Thank you. >> Yes. Elissa, is this a name you recognize? I was just [Music] only >> so tired. Oh, I am too. >> It's over, right? >>
030Next week was my last and had corrected. They were not. >> It's nice to put your face with your name. email has come across my phone while I'm looking at I'm >> nice to meet you. >> Some of them did. Some of them >> right >> the first year we changed the thing. >> Right.