Hopatcong Board of Education October 27, 2025 Regular Board Meeting

001All right, at 6 pm we are live. Would you like to call the meeting to order? >> Sure. Call the meeting to order at 6 pm. Do the flag salute. >> 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. >> [snorts] >> Hi. >> Hey there. >> People need to invest in sunglasses. >> Okay. >> Welcome to the board of ed meeting October 27th. We have the opening statement according to the agenda. Mr. Hal, can you please call the role? >> Dr. Capelloa, >> present. >> Mr. Davio is absent. Miss Shrimp, >> yes. >> Mr. Chaffy >> here. >> Mr. Dustphano is absent. Miss Pachena >> here. >> Mr. Citri is absent. Miss

002Gulan is present virtually. And Miss Falcone Schubert >> present. >> Can I please have a motion to go into executive session? >> I'll make it. >> Second. >> A motion by Jim, seconded by Jen. >> Dr. Cello. >> Yes. >> Mr. Davia's absent. Miss ShraMM. >> Yes. >> Mr. Chaffy. >> Yes. Mr. >> Stephano is absent. Miss PCA. >> Yes. >> Miss uh Mr. Citri is absent. Mr. Miss Gulan. >> Yes. And Miss Falcone Shu. >> Yes. >> All right. With that, we will adjourn for executive session. Re resume at 7 p.m. >> Okay. And we are back live. >> Can I please have a motion to reconvene? >> I'll second. >> Motion by Miss Shramm, seconded by Dr. Capello to reconmpete. [clears throat] Excuse me. Dr. Capelloa. >> Yes. >> Mr. Davio is absent.

003Miss ShraMM. >> Yes. >> Mr. Chaffy. >> Yes. >> Mr. Dustphano is absent. Miss Pachina. >> Yes. >> Mr. Citri is absent. Miss Gulan is virtual. Miss Guran. Thank you. >> Miss Falcone Schubert. >> Yes. Can I please have um approval of the minutes for September the regular and executive um sessions? >> Move it. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Item 6A, approval of the minutes. Dr. Capella. >> Yes. >> Mr. Davia is absent. Miss ShraMM. >> Yes. >> Mr. Chaffy. >> Yes. On B, but um I'll abstain on A. Thank you sir. Mr. Stephano is absent. Miss Palachena. >> Yes. >> Mr. Citri is absent. Miss Gulan. >> Yes. >> And Miss Falcone Schubert. >> I have to abstain too. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. Okay. We'll move on to the superintendence and hip report.

004>> Right. >> Oh, for the kids. >> Yeah, absolutely. Good evening everyone. We'd like to introduce our two student representatives this evening who have an update to provide to us. Uh Natalyia Rom uh Garina Roman and Reagan Gervat. So ladies, who's uh our first victim tonight? All right, go ahead Natalya, how are you? >> So on Friday, the Chiefs, we went against the football game. So for the marching band is actually our last game because two weeks ago audition for 11 kids audition for the band two for the choir n audition 11 kids audition for the band and choir nine audition for the band while two audition for the choir we had eight students placed and it's really really competitive they only select a couple kids for each instrument. Um and then on Tuesday last

005week we got to meet the merchant we got to meet our new director who's going to be joining us again member Miss Marcetti. She visited our rehearsal. Everyone was really excited. Um the drama club all play Arsenic and Old Lace will take place in November 20th to 22nd and the 23rd. Um the 20th through the 22nd is 7 p.m. performances and and the 23rd is the 2 p.m. matinea. Um we'd like to invite everybody to attend and along with this if anybody knows anybody or anybody's interested in something they can add into the program those are available and I can speak to me. Um NHS and NJHS will be starting our Thanksgiving food drive on November 3rd. They can provide me with their email and I have that flyer. Um and guidance held their annual

006financial aid and completed the F c FA workshop the past month. Um, Max Huan recently, like in the last month, placed fourth out of hundreds of others at the Tast Master High School uh combine in Alabama. And last but not least, on October 6th, our new high school principal, Mr. Jensen, started and really excited. >> Thank you, Reagan. What do you got? >> Um, all sports are coming to an end. Girls and boys soccer ended last week. Football and cheer have their last game this Wednesday at 3:00. If anyone wants to come check out the game this Saturday, cross country competes in state sectionals at Garrett Mountain. Banner night on October 3rd ended up with seniors winning with their mean girls being banner. PSATs were last Wednesday for grades 8 through 11. Next week, students

007looking to get their permanent 16 will take their uh motor vehicle oh my gosh. NBC knowledge test. This week we are celebrating Red Women Wait, Red Ribbon Week against drug and alcohol addiction. Marking period 1 ends on November 11th. Back to school night was a success. We had student volunteers from NHS and NJHS to guide parents to classes. Students from 10th and 11th grade had the chance to talk to college and university representatives at the college fair last week. And congratulations to all scholar athletes or all sports. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. As I look out in the audience tonight, I do have some scholar athlete uh awards. So, we're going to present those in just a few minutes to some of our students who may be here with us this evening. So, that's wonderful. Um, ladies,

008thank you very much for your reports. I really appreciate it. One of the things Natalya mentioned is um the food drive. Um, we've got several food drives that are going to be going on throughout the community. Several opportunities for families who may be in need this holiday season um for food and gifts and things like that. If your child is enrolled in one of our school districts, in one of our schools, I would encourage you to reach out to the school nurse to have conversations about some of the options that we may have available with community resources to try and support you and your children um through these difficult times for some of our families. If you're interested in donating um whether it's canned goods and non-p perishable goods, please reach out to our student

009representatives. They're doing a lot of tremendous work to help out our families and we're looking for those opportunities to support our hometown as much as we possibly can. One of the things that was mentioned is a change in date and time for a home football game. We were originally scheduled to play a consolation game on Friday night with the uncertain weather forecast. That game was changed today from Friday to Wednesday, which would have been a night game. And then of course the next phone call comes. Hey, listen. The visiting team has a conflict Wednesday night. Would we be amanable to doing a Wednesday afternoon game? We really want to get a game in for the kids knowing that the field conditions may not be great after this storm that is expected to hit. We are

010going to do a 3:00 game this Wednesday. Uh we know it may be difficult for some families, but we want to make it available for our students. For those of you who can make that game on Wednesday, there will be no admission price for entry for anyone wishing to attend the game. Um, it is a free admission for that event. So, we'd love to be able to pack the stands uh show support for our student athletes um as our first uh fall season here wraps up and as we get closer to the end of the first marking period, which is kind of hard to believe. And then before I turn the report over to um Mr. Robinson for an overview of some of our test scores from last year. I do also want to congratulate

011this is Stacy Yanko, our guidance secretary who happens to be in the audience this evening. Uh Stacy is a uh very much recognized leader amongst the state um with the NJA and National Education Association and she was once again recognized for her efforts um as the New York Giants educator of the week. Um Stacy, I want to congratulate you for your efforts. I want to thank you again for a lot of the work and the guidance counselors uh who helped to put on uh an opportunity for some of our colleges to come and some of our um our military uh branches to come and uh show off their opportunities for our students. So congratulations to you Stacy for all of your hard work as well. >> With that I'm going to turn uh this part

012of my report over to Mr. Robinson who has a presentation on some of our test scores. Board members, if you'd like, you're more than welcome to slide your chairs or turn your seats. Um, as you can see, for those watching at home, um, I know that it's a little bit difficult to see everything that's up there. This report will be posted on our website tomorrow. Um, for those who are looking for additional information and may be joining our meeting this evening online, Right. So, welcome. I'm Matt Robinson. I'm our assistant superintendent for curriculum instruction here in Hopakom. I didn't realize so many of you guys were interested in test scores, but that's what we're going to be talking about tonight. Um, so I'm going to be discussing three different assessments that we gave this past

013spring. Uh, we gave the NJSLN, we gave the DM, and the access test. I'll describe what those are, what they mean, and how we did. Last year, I stood up here and I promised you two things. That we would see growth, but it would be incremental. We saw growth and it was incremental. Um, you know, big sh big ships turn slow. We're not really a big big ship, but we are the third largest school district in Sussex County. We're one of four K through 12, preK through 12s. So, you know, change does happen, but not as quickly as we would always want it to. So, NJSLA stands for New Jersey Student Learning Assessment. It's the statewide assessment that's been in place since 2019. It replaced the park assessment, and it measures ELA, math, and science

014in certain grade levels 5, 8, and 11. Uh, the per performance levels, there are five of them. Um, levels four and five are meeting expectations or exceeding expectations. That's what's considered passing the NJSLA. Uh, purpose and benefits of the NJSLA. It really hones in and provides us data on how students perform relative to the New New Jersey student learning standards. Um, so that way we know we can assess what we're doing in the classroom against what the state expects us to do so that we can kind of hone our approach. And I I described this already. It's uh grades 3 through nine in ELA and math, 5, 8, and 11 in science. It's computer-based with accommodations available. And the results were provided to families a couple of weeks ago. And we use this data for

015state accountability measures and school improvement planning. And the board uses this really to recognize trends and identify where we want to invest our time and money so that we can continue to grow. Uh by law I'm uh supposed to tell you how many students took the exam each year. So right here we see how many students across the board took the exam and 33 fewer last year than this year just based on grade level enrollment. Uh for ELA for math you'll see a drop of exams. That's because um our high school numbers are lower because the NJGPA math fulfills the requirement for juniors. So, we didn't administer all the other assessments on top of the NJGPA just so we could focus on that NJGPA which I reported out on uh I believe in August. And

016then for science grades um 5, eight, and 11, we had a net loss or gain of zero students, just different numbers in the cohorts, same amount of kids. So let's get into the data and let's see how we performed. So our overall achievement levels, and I focused on levels four and five because again, that's what passes the test. Um happy to report that we did grow. Um I did a three-year look back. So in 2023 29.1% of students passed 2024 31.9 and last year we had 35.7 uh passing the assessment. So that is good solid growth. What it means to me is um we've shown steady and measurable growth. 29.1% of students met or exceeded in 2023 compared to 37 35.7 in 2025. That's a 22% increase in the fit in uh proficiency from 29

017uh to 35, which is great. Our students also grew more rapidly this year. They grew by 12% as as opposed to 10% the year prior. Progress reflects the district's uh focus investment in literacy instruction and in the science of reading. We're really trying to balance reading comprehension and reading in authentic texts with making sure that children know how to decode. Uh they know their phonics and their phmic awareness. so that they're able to apply those skills um across the board whether it be an ELA uh contentbased literacy so on and so forth. These are the areas where we showed growth highlighted in green. So you can see that these are the areas where we outpace the state in growth a lot of times pretty dramatically at least doubling if not tripling quadrupling growth. So my

018focus here is growth. We're starting from a certain point and we know where we want to go. And when we see those dramatic growth numbers, that's calls for celebration for our students and for our teachers. It shows that the investments that we're making and the things that we're doing are working in the classroom. This is a five-year look back at student achievement. I did this because it um we go back to 201819. That's pre- pandemic, right? So I want to take a look at where are we relative to prepandemic numbers. as we talk about pandemic learning loss, so on and so forth. In a lot of cases, we're close or if not now exceeding that level, certainly closer across the board. Um, our grade 8 does have some rebounding to do. Um, and and grade

019nine as well, but overall 41 to 36 across all grades. We're still five percentage points back of where we were pre- pandemic. This is our performance relative to the state. You can see the trend line here. This is state performance and this is our performance. So what I notice immediately off the bat with our performance relative to the state is that we see a backslide in grades 6, 7, 8, and nine. We see declining achie achievement. So that's something we certainly need to focus on as we move forward. And I'll detail a plan for that. I also need to get into demographics. This is our proficiency by race. We see uh the large demographic groups that exist in Hopakhong, Asian, black, Hispanic, and white um all grew last year with the exception of our uh

020black students with just two percentage points off there. Proficiency proficiency by gender, 42% for female versus 30 by male. I've worked in a variety of school districts and you see this across the board. Generally speaking, males do not perform as well on the NJSLA ELA assessment. We can, you know, try to ponder why that is, whether or not uh teachers are using texts that are interesting to boys, um, you know, and and where, you know, boys strengths lie. So again, that's something that we can take a look at. >> By program, these are the different programs um that our students fall into. Our ELLL population has gone from not passing at all to 7% last year to 12% um this past year. Solid growth there. Free reduced lunch again approaching pre- pandemic level. Um you

021know not not even mentioning the fact that our free reduced population is growing. So the denominator grows bigger. Um but we're still growing in that regard. 504 students were down a bit this year. Our special ed population showed solid growth and our gened population has now exceeded uh pre- pandemic. >> Matt, just one thing I want to point out on that slide [clears throat] made Matt made mention of our free and reduced lunch population and that that population is growing. I've been in the district now this is my 22nd year. When I first started in Hopekong, our free and reduced lunch population was about 7%. This year our number is approaching 40%. So our demographics have changed and the needs of our students have changed. The other thing that we are seeing is that these

022are what are considered to be duplicated counts. So a child may fall into a free and redosed lunch category. They also may be a non-native English language learner. They may be specialed or they may be general ed. So they count in multiple categories for accountability purposes. So that that end number, the number of children that make up our enrollment. And that 7% was back in the early 2000s when our enrollment was almost 2,000 students in the school district. So only 140 kids. Now our total students need is a much larger percentage of a much smaller number of students enrolled in the district about 1,600 students. So important to understand that change in demographics as well. >> Thanks Jeeoff. Absolutely. >> Um so our action plan this is the data what are we going to do

023about it? The things we've already done um we utilize two different um internal benchmarks for our students. We use link it for grades 4 through 12 or 4 through 11, excuse me. And then we use I Ready for grades K 1 and two. Um I Ready is a little more uh primary level friendly, but it still gives us really good data that's actionable for our teachers to use. So we provided our teachers with trainings on how to um take the data and and basically make it sing, right? um taking a look at how to uh develop your lesson plans that in a databased way, your instructional groupings, uh getting everything leveraged that way. Like I mentioned earlier, I want to examine the root causes of sliding achievement of cohorts across the middle grades. I have

024a sneaking suspicion that it may be because of the uh instructional resources that we're using. Um the contract on that is up this year, so that's something that we're really going to do a deep dive on and take a look at as we move toward next year. We're also implementing Chief Scholars Academy. This is going to be a free tutoring program for students in grades K through seven and 11. This is going to be provided via Title One funds for our students. Information about that is going to be coming out very shortly. We are starting small. We're going to be starting it at Tulsa School and hopefully branching out to our other schools. Um, but if you get a notice uh via email that your child is eligible, it doesn't mean that they that they

025failed anything. It just really means that we've identified some areas for that child where we could uh help them out and this is a great free opportunity for your child to get tutoring with teachers that they're familiar with from the building. >> Beth, do you want to just mention that grade 11 is the GPA? >> Yes. And for grade 11, that's going to be an NJGPA academy. So, we're going to identify kids who um we did give NJGPA benchmark in September in ELA and math. So, we have data on that. Who did well on that? who needs a little bit of work. We'll invite students in for uh GPA Academy as well, probably around January as we ramp up toward that time where they take the test in March. Um we've also implemented the RISE

026program in grades four, five, six, seven, and eight. This is an intervention period that's built into every kid's schedule. And what it allows teachers to do is to uh work with students utilizing the data they have in a smaller group environment to um hone in on those areas of need for students um that might otherwise derail a lesson. Right? So I can't teach you multiplication facts if we're working on fractions, but I can help you work on that during rise so that you're better at working with fractions during, you know, when we teach fractions. So, it's just an extra time to give kids what they need. Uh, we're exploring new curriculum resource like I mentioned and we continue to utilize PLC's and department meetings to target areas for improvement across the board. And that was

027just ELA. Here's Matt. So, again, we saw growth. We actually saw a backslide last year. We went from 23.8% of kids passing to 21.3 and we've rebounded to 27%. Again, we do see some pockets here where um you know, there are definitely there's lowhanging fruit and areas for growth that we're going to be working on. And I mentioned the dip. Um our students showed growth on six of the seven seven tests administered. Our renewed focus on math intervention, small group instruction, and conceptual understanding is making a difference for our students. And again, we're still working toward matching those prepandemic levels of achievement. Similar to the ELA slide, this is the math slide. This is where we showed growth as compared to the state. Again, doubling, quadrupling, so on and so forth. So, when you talk

028about what you want to see as an assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction, you want to see growth. So, this is again calls for celebration. We really want to make sure that um our students continue to grow and that's my charge uh is is making sure teachers have what they need so they can get our students to grow. This is our five-year look back on achievement. We see that we are again close to if not exceeding preandemic performance in a lot of different areas. um our algebra 1 middle school has skyrocketed up to 79% of our students passing almost to the 83 before the pandemic and the rest is you know there is growth but it's it's relatively static. So overall we've got 27% as compared to 31% pre- pandemic across the board. This is

029how we performed versus the state. We see our trend line again. Do you notice how our trend line kind of mirror mirrors our performance when you take a little bit of a look at it? To me, that means that we're on target. We just need to beef up the the core skills here so that we can continue to show growth. Um it's it's more our performance is more akin to the states in this as opposed to that slide that we saw uh for ELA. So I I I do see that as as a light at the end of the tunnel here. This is our proficiency by race. Everyone grew last year, which is wonderful to see. Again, female and male are they both achieved at 27%. Showing growth again by program. Our ELELLL students again

030showed three percentage points of growth. Free reduced lunch, five percentage points. 5043 special ed, that's five. And then overall, it took me a minute. I'm not a math. >> [laughter] >> I'm right here if you need me. >> Right here if you need me. >> Dr. Capello here. And then we've got um our eight percentage points overall of growth, which um overall if we take a look, we have exceeded our prior performance on this assessment. Our action plan, we've already expanded mathematics instruction time at the primary and intermediate grades. there is a very um intense focus on literacy in those grade levels, but we also need to focus on numerousy and and working with numbers and getting kids to familiar with the concepts that they need to know. So, I did charge our principles at

031Durban and Tulsa this year with expanding math time a bit and that's been done. Um, Chief Scholars Academy again honing in on areas of need for those who need it. Exploring professional development opportunities for teachers with a focus on differentiated tier one instruction. Tier one is what goes on in the classroom. How can we differentiate for kids? How can we give them what they need within that environment without having to send them elsewhere and really teaching our teachers how to do this? Um, finally, I'm going to be charging our principles with developing smart goals for each grade level and area. The go goals are going to be co-developed with grade level teachers for the purpose of buyin and accountability. We want to know what we want to achieve for next year. you know, whether it's

032we want to see 10% growth in grade three or we want to see 10% growth in a specific area of math that we're struggling in, we'll work on those goals. We'll present them out and we'll monitor them throughout the year uh through PLC's. But wait, there's more. There's also science um science 18 to 14, another backslide and then a rebound to 20.4%. Our grade five high achieved its highest percentage of students meeting and exceeding last year ever, which is great. 14 percentage points over last the year prior. Grade 8 slid back by 3 percentage points and grade 11 rebounded from a 14 percentage point decline last year, growing by seven. Uh growth in scores dramatically outpaced the state in grades 5 and 11. As you can see here, 2.5 versus 14. Uh 0.2, we went

033down 3.4. or I don't see that as as as terrible and again doubling the achievement um the growth in grade 11. This is the look back. We can see that grade five is far exceeding the scores, you know, that they've ever gotten. Grade 8 is is kind of relative to where it's been and grade 11 had a really great year a few years back and performance is kind of leveled out to to where it's been, but still better than pre- pandemic, 20% overall. This graph looks a little different, but it's just easier because there are only three data points. It just um displays our performance versus the state in a in a bar graph fashion. >> Matt, can we go back one slide? [clears throat] Just want to talk a little bit about eighth grade,

034right? And so you look at it and you say, okay, Hakon's total is below the state total. Why is there that gap? One of the things we are looking at with our science curriculum, especially at the middle school level, is you have a children who take a maybe earth science in sixth grade, who have a focus on general science in seventh grade, biology in eighth grade. When they take the eighth grade science test, it is a accumulation of all three of those science topics in eighth grade. Some of those topics they haven't been taught since they were in sixth or seventh grade. So, one of the things that we are working on with that science curriculum is an opportunity to um make it more linear in the fact that we'll teach concepts of all three

035ideas, earth and space, uh general science and chemistry and biology in each of those three years to build more of a scaffolded uh idea of an approach. And to be honest with you, I'm not sure where the science test will be. We'll talk in a minute. We'll talk a little bit about changes to the state testing and and federal testing guidelines. I don't know that state testing in science will be a requirement in the next year or two depending on where the federal government ends ends up on some of its uh testing objectives. >> Yeah, absolutely. So again, uh just our proficiency by race, the breakdown there, uh growth across the board with the exception of our Hispanic students only down by two percentage points. By gender, again, solid growth, five percentage points and seven.

036Our proficiency by program, our ELLL students do struggle with this assessment. It's very wordheavy. There's a lot of technical language that we'll work to focus on with those students in that environment to help boost student achievement. Pre-roeduced lunch is up by nine. I went too far. Um 504 is up pretty dramatically. Special ed is up by five. And then our overall gened students are up by um 7 percentage points. So what does this mean? What are we doing with our action plan? So last year when we did our link benchmarks, linkit does give us science benchmarks. I only assigned it for grades um five, eight, and 11, those who take the assessment. This year, we assigned it across the board for students in grades five through 12. And it's through 12 because it's broken down

037by domain. So, if you're taking physics, you take the physics. Uh if you're taking chemistry, you take the chemistry link. So, we're collecting that data. Our teachers are using it to tailor their instruction, which is a great thing. The science curriculum was rewritten over the summer for grades six through eight, and it's currently being implemented. Uh we're going to continue to evaluate our current instructional resources and like Mr. Halenbeck said um we our curriculum we're going to work toward exposing students to all topics from all science domains whether it's earth and space, life or physical every single year in a graduated level of difficulty um so that they are successful when they ultimately hit that eighth grade assessment which tests all three domains and they haven't just focused on one for that year. So they're

038not jogging back two years of of their schooling which to a kid feels like you know what would feel like a decade to us or more. [laughter] So so that's NJSLA. I am also going to briefly touch on DM. Our DM is a computer-based system for students with significant cognitive disabilities. They are students who would be unable to take the NJSLA. They are provided additional supports u but their progress is still monitored via this test. It's available for grades three through eight in high school for ELA and math and grades um 58 in high school for science. Uh it reports out the data a little differently. Students are either emerging, approaching at target or advanced. And the reports also summarize results related to each student's performance on related essential elements. So when we take a

039look at our performance on this assessment, we see that on ELA, um the vast majority of our students were emerging with 20% approaching and then 20% more on target. Again, with math looking relatively similar, but we did have um some advanced students um on the math with some on target and some approaching. I can't report out on the science DM because it is only three grade levels and there are so few students who take it. I can't really do that without identifying those students. So, I'm not able to do that here because I'm breaching confidentiality if I do. Um, and then we also have the access for L's. This is the last assessment that I'm going to cover today. And the access for L's measures uh a variety of different facets of an of a

040multilingual learner's progress toward uh English language acquisition. So if we take a look, it focuses on speaking, listening, writing and reading with he writing and reading being more heavily weighted uh and speaking and listening a little bit less of the pie there. I'm happy to report that we saw a lot of growth last year for our multilingual learners. Um you can see this share of this uh stacked bar bar chart here. 28% of these students were in the expanding category. This category is where our students live who are eligible to exit the program. The state cutoff is a 4.5 and then a student is considered eligible to exit and go back to uh general ed classes and they don't require the um the ESL instruction anymore. That being said, they don't just get pushed off

041a cliff and we say here you go, congrats. uh they are monitored for two years to make sure that um they are still achieving academically and we intervene as needed and in some cases even pull them back if they're not succeeding in the classroom. But again, happy to report we had 74 students take this test last year, down from 86 in 2324. of those 74, 11 received a 4.5 or higher um versus spring 2024 when only two students hit a 4.5 or higher. So, we've really been trying to also invest in our multilingual learners here in Hope Hackon. It is a blossoming population of students. Um been working pretty closely with all of the uh multilingual learner instructors uh to get them what they need in order to make sure kids are successful. Um, like

042I said, we monitor all these students for two years by statute. And we also had 10 additional students who were in that expanded category. Remember when I showed you um this green here? Not all of those kids were at a 4.5, but maybe they're at a 4.4 or 4.3. And perhaps over the summer, they showed a little growth in their English language skills. So, what we're able to do is we administer something called the WEDA model in the classroom. And if students are able to achieve a 4.5 on that, they are also eligible to exit the program. Um, and that serves two purposes. It gets them out of a program that they may not necessarily need anymore, and it lowers our numbers so that our teachers are more able to focus on the kids that

043are there that really truly uh need that level of instruction. And next steps for um the access test, we've already sent the scores out. And I just wanted to make mention of the fact that we continue to monitor our our multilingual population. In 201819, we had 39 multilingual students. We peaked at 88 last year students who took the assessment or two years ago. I keep saying last year, but I'm mixing myself up. And uh 74 in spring. I've also worked really really closely with this department to make sure that we've created a lot of efficiencies in the qualification process for our students. Making sure that they really truly are eligible for the program. Um we're interviewing families, we're giving screeners, we're reviewing um all cases on a case-byase basis, really getting to know that child

044um before they're referred to the program so that no one is misidentified and we really truly have the kids in there that that need the program. Okay, >> so that was a pretty comprehensive look at our data. That being said, um questions. One question that I think Mr. Helenbeck and I have is what is this going to look like next year? Um there is a new assessment coming out now that is going to be called NJSLA adaptive. It is a different look at how we assess students. It's more akin to our benchmark assessments where um they adapt up and down based on how a child answered the previous question. So, we're going to be looking at that and how that's going to be reported out um and what my presentation will look like next year

045basically. Um it could be very different. We we are waiting and seeing what that's what that's going to look like in the end. But in the interim, um, you know, like I said, I'm proud that we showed a lot of growth here, especially in specific grade level bands where we saw that green and saw, you know, some double digit growth. Always a great thing to see. At this point, I'll take any questions from the board. Um, or anyone in the audience about my presentation. >> Matt, are we piloting that? >> We are. We are doing a field test. Um, it's starting next [clears throat] week at the middle school. Um and it'll go into the following week at the middle school and the high school levels. So that's for the pilot is not adaptive, but

046it is on the new platform and it's based on the test that was given >> last year. So if I'm in fourth grade, I'm taking it, but I'm taking the third grade assessment in fourth grade based on the third grade standards. If you followed that, [laughter] >> there are stickers and certificates at the end. >> Give you some scratch and snips. >> This is a so it's just testing the question. >> It's just testing testing. >> It's really an infrastructure trial for the state um you know as they roll this out to try to iron out all the >> to read between the lines. The state had a multiund million dollar contract with vendor A and they decided that they wanted to save money and they were going to switch to a different vendor. And

047they decided very much at the last minute where they notified districts and and boards of education in August that this was going to change >> August 22nd. [laughter] and then decided to not only say that the test was changing, but the [snorts] entire format of the test was going to change and it was going to be adaptive and provided no understanding to school districts about how do these test results going to compare to previous years? How do you compare a kid who graduated last year with a completely different test? And unfortunately, if you've been in education long enough, this seems to be a cycle. Every five or six years, the NJSLA replace the park. And while you had five great years of park data, you change to an NJSLA, that's a different test. That questions

048are different. And you can't compare those previous years. That is the fear that I have. We've got five years of good data from NJSLA. We'll have an adaptive test. How are we going to compare that? So, you'll hear your students come home in certain grade levels, uh, we had a math test today, we had an ELA test today. Those are tests that we want them to try hard and we want them to do well. We'll use that data in theory. Uh, the state is not going to release any scores to us. All they're going to show us is how did the platform perform and what technical things can we use. So, we want them to be able to answer the questions to test the system to see if it will work. And then we'll figure

049out what do the spring tests actually look like. Will they truly be adaptive? Will there be changes to the platform? And then between then and next October, we'll get results back in late summer and and we'll try and see how they figure out how to correlate things as we move forward. So, Matt, thank you for the presentation. I appreciate it. >> Thank you everyone. Appreciate it. Bring back the HPA. Bring it back. >> Oh, the old Huspa and Easa. >> Bring it back. >> That was paper and pencil though, wasn't it? >> Bring it back. >> Fill in your circle. Heavy and dark. >> Write a letter. >> Bring it back. >> Fill in your circle. >> It's never good at bubbling in scantrons. >> Only in math though. Only in math. >> Oh, let

050me get the um >> I had kids in my room. >> All right. Let me um as part of my presentation this evening, let me provide uh both the board and the public. The board we've talked about um our hibs in executive session um information that each month I provide to you on New Jerseyy's harassment, intimidation, and bullying law. And one of the things um that we talk a lot about is the name associated with the law doesn't necessarily match the definition of what some of us might think of as bullying. Right? So for the legal purposes of this law, it talks about uh behavior that is demeaning to individuals that falls into one of several identifying characteristics. It might be your gender, your sexual identity, your weight, your skin color, uh some identifying characteristic.

051It is not just being mean to someone. That's inappropriate. That's a code of conduct violation, but it doesn't meet the statutory requirements of what is a HIPP. So each month um not every month but some months we have reports that are either generated by a student uh a parent a teacher a guardian that they believe an issue has come up that might rise to the level of him and then it's our responsibility to investigate that and then report out to both the victim u the potential aggressor and then to this board of education um the disposition of those cases. So during the month of late September, the week before our September board meeting and October up until this past week, we had a total of six reports of behavior that were reported as potential HIPS.

052Of those six reports, one was a confirmed HI, three were codes of conduct violations, and two were neither HI nor code of conduct. All right. And so for personal and confidential reasons, I can't relate out to you the specific students involved in the actions that were taken. One of the components of the law with regard to students who are found to have violated the HIP statute is counseling, is parent outreach, is opportunities for depending on the grade level, peer mediation. Um, parents of children that are repeat HIV confirmed offenders during a course of a school year, more than three, can face legal penalties in the state of New Jersey. Um, and that is a recent change to the law. It used to be it was just the student. But if your child is a habitual

053offender and is constantly violating HIP law under the new state law, you as a parent can face responsibility as well for your child's behavior. All right. So, we'll report those out to the board and the board will uh will accept that report that we discussed in executive session and we've talked a little bit about here in just a minute as part of my um my report. And I'm going to stand up to do this because I think better when I stand. Um, [laughter] I want to have an opportunity to talk to some of you and certainly some at at home. We had an issue at Tulsa Trail School on Friday of last week where we had an inadvertent um panic alarm that was set off at the Tulsa Trail School at 8:22 in the morning.

054And so there [clears throat] are some things I can share with you and then there are some things I cannot share with you because they are part of our confidential safety and security plans. But let me say this as a dad, as someone who has been in this community both for 22 years, I treat your children just like I treat my own children. I spend more time [laughter] with your children sometimes than I do with my own and I've make peace with that and my kids are probably good with that. [laughter] But I take their I take their safety very seriously and part of my career a large part of my career has been focused on school safety and security. So we have multiple ways that we alert law enforcement when there are issues and

055problems in our school. If you're not aware, we have SRO's that are in our schools most school days. And I say most because I cannot guarantee you that every single day of the school year there is an SRO in every single school because someone may take a personal debt, someone may have to be off for training. And all of these SRO are employed by the Bureau of Hopon. They are considered to be either a full-time licensed law enforcement officer or something called a class three officer, which means they retired from law enforcement. They are under the law allowed to provide police powers only on school grounds and they are employed by the municipality. They are trained. They have to face the same weapons qualifications and things like that as any other police officer on the

056road. There are fewer and fewer class 3es that are out there. So, it's not like there is a pool of substitutes that we can draw on. However, you are very, very fortunate as a community. The average response time from a police officer in Hopkcom to one of our schools is about 35 seconds if there isn't an officer in the school. In the case of Tulsa Trail, an officer at the high school or an officer SRO at the middle school or in the case of the event that happened Friday, detectives and lieutenants on the road plus uniformed officers on the road arriving at the school in less than a minute. All right. We don't have state police coverage, which is a wonderful thing. You have a number of school districts across the northern part of New

057Jersey who do not have a local police response. They depend on state police to be able to respond to issues in their schools. They don't have SRO. They don't have private security. They don't have armed security. In some farther regions of our of our county, a response time is 8 to 10 minutes for state to police depending on where the officers are on patrol, depending on where an incident happens. So the incident on Friday was originally thought to be part of one of our automated alerting systems and there are a couple components to that. One is a panic button and we thought that there was a malfunction with a panic button. It was actually a little deeper than that. It was a technical issue with a hardware and software product. All right. Three years ago,

058we were investigating ways to take steps out of our alert process. So, think of it this way, and I'm going to speak in very generalities so I don't give away all of the secret sauce, right? In a [clears throat] school setting, we have to have a way to notify people in the building that there's an emergency. We have to have a way to notify people outside of the building not to come into the building. We have to notify law enforcement and we have to notify our internal assets to be able to make sure we can protect the things that we need to. In a school setting, that requires lights being turned on outside of the building, red strobe lights that flash in an emergency that say don't come in the building. Someone has to make

059a PA announcement through the school to notify everyone that there's a lockdown. someone has to call 911 to allow a lockdown to be initiated and the police to be able to respond. Years before that, in a lot of our schools, the only way you can lock a classroom door is to go out into the hallway, put your key in the lock, lock the door, and then step in and close the door. As part of our annual safety review and monthly reviews years ago, we changed that to have our classroom doors locked all of the time. They may be prompted, but all you're going to do is pull it and it's closed and it's locked during the day. In order to try and streamline the process and take out somebody flipping a switch, somebody calling 911,

060somebody making a PA announcement, we tied in a number of devices. Back in 2018, we had a a software product that we piloted across the street at the high school for any of you who might have had high school students during that time called the Sarah system. Is $18,000 a year just for that building to put that alert system in on a pilot basis. A recurring $18,000 a year. That was something that we couldn't afford to do. And so we worked on a partnership. We went down and looked at a couple of other school districts. How could we leverage our internal technology to be able to do this more effectively and cheaper without recurring costs? Last year, we finalized the last hurdle, and I said to the board, I wasn't going to say this, but

061I will say it. One of our biggest drawbacks was our PA system, the way in which we call into classrooms. Two of our schools, Hudson Maxim originally, which we no longer own, and the middle school have very antiquated PA systems. So much so that the only way we could get replacement parts for those PA systems was through companies that had finally stopped using these PA systems. One of the last entities that used these PA systems was the New Jersey State Prison System. They were 40y old PA systems. Couldn't get spare parts. When the state prison system updated their PA system, we had spare parts to use. That was great, but we couldn't adapt a 40-year-old system to automate to make emergency announcements on its own. Last year, we replaced our phone system and we upgraded

062to a new system that had zero ongoing cost to us for service and software support. We saved $40,000 by moving our phone system over to an internally controlled phone system that allowed us to tie in multiple devices, trying not to get technical, relays that when any one of five things is triggered, it triggers all of the other events. Meaning, someone calls 911 for a lockdown, it turns on the strobe, it announces the lockdown, and it initiates the process. If someone hits a panic button, it calls 911. It puts the strobes on. It announces it. So, it doesn't matter which of those items happens. It triggers everything. Last summer, last spring during spring break, we tested that system for the first time with no students here working with the police department. Tulsa Trail was the last

063school that was tested to bring that system online. And a piece of code was entered into the software to test everything. Durban Avenue tested, middle school tested, high school tested. Tulsa was the last one to test. That test server became our backup server for the alerting system. This past week, software to the phone system updated overnight. Unfortunately, it kicked to the backup server. And if you've ever typed in a word document or a Google document and you hit the undo button, what was on the backup server over what was on the operational server. The test for the software over spring break last year that was conducted was conducted in 8:22 a.m. It ran the same script at Tulsa Trail on Friday at 8:22 a.m. Right. So police responded. We initiated our protocols. Our students were

064locked down. One caveat, the lockdown occurred as our students are arriving at school. And in order to get all of our students in school when our teachers are on duty, not every teacher has an AM duty in the morning. There is a period of about five or six minutes where our students are lined up at Tulsa Trail waiting to go into their classrooms. and there are several teachers in the hall that are have duty and they monitor those students. That's when the alert went off. We had one classroom that a teacher did not get back to during the lockdown. She went into the wrong classroom. She was getting kids into classrooms. She thought she was getting into her classroom. She got into the classroom before hers. Once the doors are locked, those doors don't open

065for anyone. The only way we ever get out of a lockdown is if the police department physically comes and keys into every single classroom because in theory a PA announcement could be faked. It's all clear. Everybody can come out. These are part of our protocols that are best practices across the state and the nation. Unfortunately, my heart breaks that there was a class of kids that didn't have an adult with them. However, let me say this. I was amazed and as a dad incredibly proud. Students in that classroom when everything was happening grabbed other kids out of the hallway and said, "Come in our classroom. Come in our classroom." And they closed the door. I know they were scared. And that's one of the things that we've talked about our processes and protocols. Somebody said

066to me uh this weekend, "Mr. Why didn't you just put them all in the gym? The reality is there isn't room in the little allpurpose room at Tulsa Trail with a cafeteria table set up for lunch every morning for 240 kids to all be in that little area. I met with the police chief. I met with lieutenant and dispatch. We went through a number of different things and we're going to continue to work on modifications to those changes and those protocols. I had a couple parents say, "Mr. Hollandbeck, can I sit in with you and the police department when you go through those protocols and you develop that and I say this with utmost respect? No. No. That would be and I use analogies a lot so I'm going to apologize and I'm not trying

067to equate two items to each other. That would be like me saying my my mother passed away. She left me a a precious brooch. I want to go to the bank and get a safety deposit box and I want to say to the bank, I need to know all of your security protocols, your cameras, what systems you use, and how everything works. That's information I can't share because if I share the information about our protocols and our processes, it makes us more vulnerable, right? We are going to continue to work through our processes. We just had a meeting with the PD three and a half weeks ago as we go through and every month we are required by law to connect to conduct drills in every one of our schools. One safety and security drill

068a month and one fire drill every single month. And I had a great conversation with a dad today and he said, "Hey, Mr. Hovic, what do you think about practicing a lockdown during arrival uh during recess?" And it's an area that we've gone back and forth on. And I have um I have emails out to other superintendents around the county. State passed a law several years ago that said that any drills that you conduct cannot be conducted in a manner that would unduly panic and harm students. And so the issue with young kids, kindergarten, first, second, third, is do we conduct a drill like that out of the blue at arrival time, unfortunately, like happened Friday, but plan to do it. Is that the best approach? And it's a conversation that we're going to continue

069to have and we'll continue to talk about what are the best ways. The other one is lunch periods, right? And where and how do you address those things? We did it years ago at the high school. I've had I had conversations with the other uh three high school districts in the county and every one of them has said, "You know what? We've done one, but we try and stay away from drills during during lunchtime." Um I would love to say to you that every scenario, right, is covered in every instance. I know this. I know you have a tremendous police department. I know you have a state department of ed that has an entire office devoted to school safety and security um that comes out and does announced and unannounced drills and and provides guidance.

070We have an 84point plan that has to be developed and approved every single year for safety and security. Um, I live in a state, I live next door in Pennsylvania that rarely conduct safety and security drills in their schools. And there are some states that conduct zero school school drills. All right. What I will say to you is this. I spent a lot of time task force with the FBI. If you have ever read um any of the Secret [laughter] Service reports on school safety and security, I can say this to you. Of every single incident of violence that has happened in a school setting over the last 25 years, children that are behind locked doors, not barricaded doors, locked doors are the safest. All right. Some someone asked me, "Hey, do you jam things

071under your door or do you pile desks in front of your doors?" The only way we allow our students out of the rooms is if a police officer keys in. If you ask somebody to pull a barricade out of the way or take a blocking device out of the way, they're not going to do it because they don't know that it's a police officer on the other end. So, we'll continue to work through those processes. The one thing I I'll say to folks is I [cough and clears throat] try to be as transparent as I can as a dad at first, superintendent second. If you have a question, if you're concerned about something, I know some of you I've known some of you for many, many years, I can promise you this. I will call

072you back. I will give you an answer. I can't promise that you're going to like my answer all of the time, but I will give you an honest answer. and I am open to feedback and I will certainly listen to that. All right. So, in a couple of minutes, um, we're going to accept my superintendent report. We'll, uh, get an opportunity to hear from our PTO's. We'll open it up to public comment. And if there's anybody that didn't get a chance to sign in that has a question or concern, um, get your opportunity to be able to share that then. Okay. So, thank you. Thank you to those of you at home as well. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. >> Okay. Can I please have >> Good. Can I please have a motion

073to accept the superintendent and hip report? >> I'll make also >> motion to accept it. >> All right. I got Jen on the motion and I'll get uh Jana on the second. >> Okay. >> Any discussion? Sorry. >> No, you're good. >> Okay, we're good. >> All right. Dr. Capello. Yes, >> Mr. Davio is absent. Miss ShraMM >> Yes, >> Mr. Chaffy. >> Yes, >> Mr. Dphano is absent. Miss PCA. >> Yes, >> Mr. Citri is absent. Miss Gulan, >> yes. >> And Miss Falcone Schubert. >> Yes. >> Okay, next we're going to move on to acknowledgements and correspondence. And if any of our students of the month or scholar athletes are here, please stand and we will recognize you and get a nice picture for mom and dad. Um, so congratulations to the following

074students who were chosen as Al Pacon Middle School students of the month for their outstanding performance in September 2025. Grade four, Jade Wilburn, grade five, Annala Lantigua, grade six, Katherine Stickle, and grade seven, uh, seven, Kinsley Rice. Congratulations to our middle schoolers. >> Okay. And then congratulations to the following students who were chosen as Hakan High School scholar athletes of the season for their outstanding performance throughout their fall sports season. So for boys soccer we have Nick Hardman's back there. >> I'm really short so it's hard for me to see. I can only see the front row. [laughter] You got to come over here. Dad's got to stand up. Dad's got to get a photo. Got to get in the photo. >> That's all right. [laughter] Thank you. Congratulations. >> That's okay. [laughter] >> For

075girls soccer, we have our goalkeeper, Reagan Gravat. >> Reagan, how many goal How many saves did you have? Was it 100? 200 >> career? I have 200 right now. Like somewhere over that. >> Wow. >> Nice. >> Gonna I'm not going to shake it. >> It's okay. You can. >> Yeah. should blame [laughter] me. I know she does >> mostly. >> For girls soccer, we have Kayn Jackox. >> She's not here. >> Okay. Girls tennis. Oh, sorry. Um, did I say? >> Yeah, esports. Gavin Tooff. >> Okay. Boys cross country. Alex, I'm terrible at names. Sorry, guys. Um, Palico, thank you. Girls cross country. Liam Mesus. >> You guys want a photo with her? >> Get in the picture. >> Get up here with [laughter] I see you trying to put this over. Thank you.

076For marching band, we have Susan Alamela. Good to see her. >> Cheerleading Camila Milan and football Michael Serto. Congratulations everybody. >> Congratulations to all of those students. Now, we are going to take a 30 second pause for our families who had an opportunity to come out to be recognized tonight. You are free to leave if you would like. So you won't offend us in the least. We're going to continue on with our business here in just a minute. >> Dinner time, right? >> That's it. >> A little late. >> Thank you so much and congratulations. >> Okay, next we're going to move on to the parent teacher organization representatives. Is there anyone in the audience here that would like to give us an update? >> Yes, Miss >> Thank you. >> Oh, nice. >> yesterday.

077>> Yes. Um, so I'm just going to expand a little bit on what Natalia uh spoke to earlier. I know I said last month that we were really looking forward to having the students audition. We did have 11 students audition, two for choir. Um, we had one of them just missed by one spot. It was highly competitive. Over 60 students audition for that uh for Sopranos and they only took 20. So one of our students was number 21. Unfortunately, she didn't win. but we're still really proud of her for auditioning. So, we had eight students that were accepted into the Sussex County All Honors Band. We had senior William Bender and freshman Haley Rodriguez on flute. We also had this girl right here auditioned on both flute and piccolo and she placed first in both

078instruments. >> Senior Natalie Lebul and junior Emily O'Harn on clarinet. Natalie placed second in the county. We're super proud of her. [snorts] Senior Ashlin on base clarinet. She also placed first in the county. And senior Dominic Amela on the trumpet and he placed fourth in the county. There's another student that placed, but she doesn't want to have her name shared. [laughter] Shared here. >> Great job. Thank you. >> Um I could just tell say that the PTSO provided bagels for the staff after the um back to school night. It was later than we normally do it, but back to school night was a little bit later so we can meet um the parents can meet uh Mr. Jensen, the new principal. So, we did that. Um and we're just gearing up for tricky tray season.

079So, word of that. Is there anybody else? Okay. Next, we'll move on to public comment. So, I have three people who signed in. Um the first on our list is Allison >> Lumatola. >> Thank you, Limatola. [laughter] >> Hi, guys. So, I'm one of the parents from the classroom that had no teacher on site during the lockdown. Um, couple different things. I wanted to see if you guys could shed some light on what the procedure is because I'm really not aware. Um, it's troubling that there was no teacher there. Unfortunately, I have heard now two different stories. I had spoken to principal burn this morning. He told me that there was a misunderstanding that Mrs. Mrs. Duth Taylor was helping children into one room and aid was helping our kids into their room. Mrs. Duth

080Taylor thought that the aid had the kids and then the aid said, I'm just quoting that she thought Mrs. Duth Taylor had gone back into the room. These are not the same stories. Um, it doesn't quite make sense because I've seen the classroom and there's no way to really look in and think that you saw the teacher. Um, so I'm hoping maybe there's some kind of conversation we could have that really breaks it down in the case that this was an actual emergency and the kids were left alone, what would have happened? Um, we're lucky the kids acted how they were supposed to, >> but on the chance it was a real emergency, how should things have been handled? Should somebody have said, "Hey, I've got this room. These are my kids. I've got them."

081Or, "You're over there, so I'll take over for you." The whole thing is kind of confusing. I don't really know what the proper situation is. >> Yeah. >> So, if somebody could walk me through >> the actual procedure of the lockdown. So, you know, the bells ring and this is what everybody does. This is how we know that this classroom is covered and so is that one. >> Yeah. So, the best I can say to you is this and it may not be the answer your heart wants. Right. And it is it depends on every individual situation. The ideal situation is that um one, a lockdown never happens, but two, if it happens, you're in your classroom, you're with your kids. If it happens during the course of a school day, and you're walking your

082kids from room 14 to the art room, you're you're jumping into an open classroom, the nearest available classroom, and you're securing that door, and your kids are locked in with you. If you are a student who goes to the bathroom and a lockdown happens in any of our schools while you're out at the bathroom and you're depending on where the bathroom is, you're going to end up staying in the bathroom behind that door in a toilet stall. You're not going to be able to make it back to a classroom and get in a classroom with an individual teacher. >> Do the kids know this? >> It is something that we talk about. It is something that you you practice it because ultimately half of our lockdown drills are planned. The other half are unplanned. More

083unplanned at the high school and middle school level. A little more planned at the elementary levels, especially at the beginning of the year to prepare kids for that process and to get that kind of muscle memory. as much as you know an aid saying hey I'm going to put kids in a classroom that may not have been the AIDS specific classroom and they may have thought that have you ever heard of and again sometimes my analogies are not the best right when a heightened situation happens you think you're finally uh following through with all of your steps and practices and as much as you've worked in that building for 20 years and you know you're in room When that happens and you're coming down the hall and you're throwing some kids in other classrooms, you're

084not looking at the room number. You're thinking, "All right, I've come down the hall the hallway. I'm jumping into my room and it isn't mine." There's no practical way for every teacher to be able to communicate with each other in that moment to say, "I'm not with my class. Who's with my class?" All of those things happen in a split second. uh from when a lockdown is initiated to when that door is closed. Um so it's difficult. Um but every situation is going to be a little bit unique and there are situations over uh you know my my [snorts] 16 years we've been doing lockdown and safety drills where kids are in a custodial closet, kids are in a bathroom when a lockdown happens and the police come in and they get them out of

085the bathroom. um those things are unfortunately going to happen. Um that the entire classroom not being accounted for and that timing is one of the difficult parts of it. >> Okay. Could you tell me what is the teachers what is their job to do when the lockdown happens? Are they not entirely responsible even if they're down the hall to make sure my classroom is here, all 30 of my kids are here. That's where I have to be. I'm just curious, are they supposed to dive into the nearest room? >> So, they're going to >> responsible for the kids. >> Yeah. So, again, it's going to depend on the situation and where they are. If my kids are moving from art to music and I'm on my prep period, right, and they're moving in the hallway,

086I'm not going to be with my kids, I might be baking photo copies because it's my prep period. I'm not on duty. So, it's the timing of the AM arrival where not every teacher is on duty. There's a handful of teachers that are in the hallway supervising and that's where this drill happened. That's where this alarm happened. >> Um, I'm curious. So, when the kids are waiting in the hallway in the morning to go into their classrooms, you mentioned there are several different aids walking through. >> There are several adults on duty. Some may be teachers, some may be aids, some may be people just passing through the hallway. Um, how many classrooms are lined up per those several ES? I'm wondering do each >> I I can't give you the specific numbers and I

087wouldn't want to >> responsible for set classroom. It's kind of just going up and down. >> They're not walking from one end of the school to another. They have basically a quarter of the hallways where there are classrooms. >> I'm just trying to wrap my head around something happens and nobody knows who's responsible for group A. Mhm. [clears throat] >> How does that really work in this situation? How do we send our kids to school knowing that, hey, nobody really knows who's responsible? She thinks I have them under control, but she also thinks that I do, >> right? >> How do I send my kid to school every day like this >> in the situation? Number one is that the kids are in and behind a locked door, and then we'll we have to go

088from there. As I said to you, I I don't want to It's not that I don't want to I can't go through all of the specifics with you and tell you every single scenario what's going to happen. What I can tell you is the kids acted according to their training. We'll continue to go back and look at our protocols and try and make some additional tweaks and some changes to that. But there are areas where uh again students in the hallway passing, students at arrival time, what happens students who are getting off a bus outside of a bus, where do those students have to go if a lockdown is initiated, where do the buses go? All of those things are part of our plan, but it also depends on where the threat is and where

089the action comes from. If the if the threat is outside of the school, you're going to try and move in a direction that's away from the threat. It could be back onto the bus. It could be to get into the school building. It could be to flee up the hill, up Lacawana Avenue and down the street away from the school. Every one of those scenarios is different. And as part of our training, we talk about the whatifs of school safety. And I've said to you before, I use a lot of analogies. And one of the analogies that I've heard in trainings and we've talked about is when you drive your car and you're driving down the street, nobody taught you every single thing about evading a deer. But when you drive, you use reaction and

090you evade that deer. So if you always say if a deer jumps out in front of you, you always turn your car to the right. That won't apply in in every single situation. And so our drills have specific outlines and our protocols have specific outlines we try to adapt to and we try to address depending on the age level of the children, the layout of the school and the scenario. Each one of those components changes just a little bit. >> Very understandable. I'm just um >> This is not unique to HPAC though. >> No, right. >> This is every school district. >> Oh, totally. >> Yeah. scary, but it is every school district that has to >> It's just kind of hard to wrap my head around the fact that you have all these different

091classrooms, teachers assigned to each classroom, but somehow we didn't have anybody assigned to our classroom. So, as you had mentioned, Mrs. Duth Taylor, she thought she went into the wrong classroom, but I heard something else. Um, Principal Burn had told me she thought the aid had it covered. The aid thought that she came back. So, can you clarify or can she maybe clarify in her own words at some point exactly what happened because now it seems like a little bit of a trust issue. >> Yeah. And that's and that's >> every day and I want to feel good about it and right now I don't I feel the complete opposite. I was very hesitant to send him today. >> And how did he do today? >> Um he did fine. He's very brave. He's not

092too affected by these things. Fortunately, they don't really know the real reason for the lockdowns. They don't know why these things started in the first place. So he thinks that it's if somebody bad tried to come to the school. He has no idea about all the other bad things that come along with that. But um when the lockdown happens, could you walk me through the kids? They know exactly where to go and the teachers that's so what happens here? >> Yeah. I can't walk you through every single one of those steps. >> I don't need like exact details, but I'm curious to know how this works. >> Yeah. If you'd like to, I'm more than willing to sit down with you and I'll meet with you and absolutely I'll talk with you. Um, and then

093when the kids aren't in session, I can even walk you through a classroom and we can talk a little bit about it that way, too. >> That would be great. >> The the other thing I want to say too is I don't know how old you are. I'm not asking your age, but when I was in school, we didn't practice these things and now I'm a teacher, right? And this is we do these twice a month for different things. The kids >> know what to do. So much so that they did exactly what they were supposed to do when there was an adult in the room. So that makes me feel good that we've trained them, right? Also, as a mom, it kills me that they were by themselves. So I think it's good that

094we go home, we talk to our kids about these things. I know Natalyia did cuz her son was in the school and he even said like, "I pulled kids into the classroom." Like they know what to do. Um, things like this happen when in passing periods, kids are just supposed to go to wherever the closest room is to hide. And staff is supposed to do that, too. >> So, you need to get into a safe room. >> If we're looking out for ourselves, >> we're not looking out for ourselves. We're looking out for the entirety of the school. So, you go into a room where kids are if you're walking past that room. >> I'm sorry. It just it sounded like it was um there's danger happening and we need to get to safety. That's

095what it kind of sounded like. >> That that is what it is. Everyone needs to get to safety. We train them to do that. >> So, it sounds like the kids did exactly what they needed to do, but unfortunately some of our teachers, our helpers did not because the kids were left unattended. >> I wouldn't classify it as that. I would >> I mean, that's kind of what it comes off as. You know, with all due respect, >> no. And that's and that's okay. I think communication. >> I think one of the diff most difficult things about this is that we're even having to have this conversation about our kids being safe in school to begin with. And I think that's the even more unfortunate component of it that we have to practice and drill

096for someone who wants to try and come into a school and cause harm to adults and kids in a school setting. And that's the even more difficult part that um you know that's why we have to have these protocols and that's why we train. And not every single drill and not every single practice is going to be perfect. And so we're going to continue to work on it. more than willing to meet with you and and talk with you a little bit about it and try and give you u a little bit of a better understanding and try and and try and help to make sure I understand your concerns and share with you what I can but again knowing that I might not be able to give you everything you'd like. >> Just one

097last question and I swear I'll stop talking. >> No, you're okay. >> I had seen in your email a little while ago that you had mentioned maybe like the second paragraph that a few different things were being put into the safety measures. Could you >> I cannot share any of those because they are things that we are discussing and we're working out each of those details. Uh a lot of those things are internal controls and they would be as we might say part of that secret sauce that we wouldn't be able to communicate out but we're trying to work through a couple of different scenarios of the whatifs. This isn't something that's come up before. It's come up here. they've handled it this way, but our facility is different than this school district. It has

098a different building layout. It has twice the number of staff. How can we accomplish the same objective within what we have and the layout that we have to make it work? So, we're doing a lot of work. We did a lot of work over the weekend. We'll continue to look at some of those things. Um, I put that in there specifically because I wanted to be transparent and say this wasn't an issue that happened on Friday and it's over and done with. This is something that we're working on and we're focusing on and when we can make some public updates, we will do that and then other components of that will be part of those confidential plans that we can't share everything about. >> So, sorry, one last question. >> Um, in the case of

099a lockdown, when could we expect to be notified? I had seen maybe we had an email a few hours after everything was settled. >> Could we expect to be notified whenever it's over? >> Your your your response is going to be this, right? And this is the toughest thing about being a parent that that absolutely stinks. Someone's going to want information right away. And the people that are going to put out the information are the people that are involved in understanding what's going on and helping to secure the scene and get to all of the information. So on Friday, as soon as I got back from Tulsa after an initial meeting and debrief with the police and technology, that alert goes out to say, "Hey, we had this lockdown. This is where we're at." When

100it's a planned drill, we try to send an alert within 30 minutes of that drill occurring. When it's something that's unplanned, whether it's the police department calling us and saying, "We're chasing a suspect. We need you to lock down your schools." We're not getting that alert out to folks. Because just like anybody else, I'm dictated that I have to lock myself in an office in a secure place away from a window as part of those safety drills as well. And so as soon as we can get that information out, we absolutely do that. The toughest one, and it's something I think about and I pray about every day, is situations that we train for on a much bigger level, where there's an issue and there's a an event, and we train for it in every

101school district around the region, where a school has to be evacuated and there is a reunification plan for all of those kids to be reunified. You're not being reunified in Hopaccom. You're going to be reunified and have to drive 10, 15, 20, 25 miles away to meet back up with your child. And that reunification is not going to happen for hours. And those hours in mom and dad time is an eternity. So that's the unpart unfortunate part when I say to you, every situation's going to be different. Reunifications and notifications can be 30 minutes to we're understanding the situation and we want to get out information. I'm [clears throat] of the mindset I want to notify you something happened, but I also want to notify you with as much information as I can give you

102initially and we'll get that information out as quickly as we can. I think on Friday, I think my alert went out around 9:20, 9:30, maybe 9:40. Um, so we tried to get it out as quickly as we could to follow up that information, but depending on the incident, the type, where it's located, and and what it is, those those notification periods can be a lot longer. And one of the things that's the toughest, right, is not knowing. And it goes against every fiber in your body as a parent, which is to rush to the school. >> Yeah. And that's the one thing that can't [snorts] happen, especially in a small town, because it clogs up the roads. And if you look back at past history of certain areas, it makes it difficult for law enforcement

103and people to be able to get in. And it goes against everything in your body to protect your child is I got to get there. I got to get there. Um, that's the hardest one, I think. >> All right. Thank you. >> You're welcome. Call me tomorrow. Yeah, I will. >> Okay, perfect. And I know Stacy's gonna go, Miss Moyer. >> Hello. >> Hi. >> Go ahead. >> I know I uh emailed you earlier um with some observations that I saw from Friday. >> Um sentiments, same my daughter was in the same classroom. Um >> I had some major concerns about just the protocols in the morning with arrival with the students. Um, and if there's an actual event, how if there is some kind of panic alarm going off, why weren't the other schools

104placed on lockdown, especially the high school right next door? If there's an actual security threat, the high school is right there. >> Yeah. >> And should also be locked down. So, that was also another thing that I noticed. >> Yeah, >> I know that. >> Great question. And if I can answer that one for you. Um, when I talked a little bit earlier about that undo button right on the backup server, part of that undo was taking away the notification to the other schools. Built into our protocols, when that system operates, it automatically notifies besides the police department, it notifies all of the other schools and it places nearby schools in proximity on lockdown immediately. and then schools outside of the initial perimeter are placed on lockdown by law enforcement depending on the scenario. So

105>> yeah, >> appreciate that. >> Absolutely. >> Um the other um thing I wanted to mention was obviously this SRO's at the schools is amazing and I'm very grateful for the officers who responded in such an amazing way and they were there within what like you said minutes. Um, I just wanted a clarification. So, from what my daughter told me and what you said earlier, um, you said that the students went in, they closed the door, they hid, and they followed the procedures. From what I thought happened, the door was left wide open. Can you clarify on whether or not that door was left open? I know that now in hindsight, doesn't matter. Is a false alarm. >> Um, >> my understanding from our debrief is that officer George opened that door and came into

106the classroom. He opened it so it was closed. Okay. >> Thank you. >> Welcome. And I would encourage you, same thing. Um, if you want to give me a call, you want to come in and meet, more than willing to. Um, I I think having that opportunity again to have that dialogue. Uh, to go through some thoughts and some ideas. Um, and then talk about, hey, what are the parameters that we're trying to work under? And you know, um, sometimes that extra idea is a good one that, you know, I'm, uh, I'm honest enough to admit that, yeah, I I gone through it and done it a lot, but just like anything else, sometimes you hand a sheet of paper to somebody, say, "Hey, give me another set of eyes." >> Um, I I' I'd

107welcome that other set of eyes, even though on the backside, I can't necessarily give you the details of what we do. >> Um, but but I welcome that extra set of eyes and and those thoughts and Yeah. >> Thank you. >> You're very welcome. Thank you, ladies. both of you. I appreciate it. >> Thank you. Um then we have Miss Yenko. >> Oh, hi. Um Stacy Yenko. I'm the secretary in the guidance office at the high school. I actually just had a question um about number 12 [snorts] under personnel. Um, and I wanted to know if the school and child study team secretaries could be considered for the high school after school student assistance as well. I know it says certificated staff and so that was really just >> Yeah. So, um just for clarification

108that student assistance is providing coverage for students who might have a um paraprofessional with them during the course of a school day based on specific IEP needs that might be attending a night or after school event and need additional support. Um so that would be available and that's one of the reasons why we phrased it that way so that we don't have to um every single board meeting approve an individual um we can give ourselves flexibility depending on the people who apply. >> So that was just what I was asking if the school and CST secretaries could be added to that. >> Absolutely. All of our staff. >> Yeah. Tonight that's all I'm going to ask. [laughter] I want to thank you for the acknowledgement. I I don't know if you um I didn't hear

109you say it, but along with that is a $1,000 donation. Yep. Which I hope to work with Mr. Halen Beck and Mr. Jensen um to use with the guidance and counseling office for the students. >> Wonderful and welld deserved. Thank you, Stacy. >> Absolutely. >> Okay, that will close our public comment. And ladies, you are more than welcome to stay, [laughter] but you're also just >> you're also more than welcome to go home, too. No problem. >> Can I please have >> Can I please have um a motion to move 11 finance? >> I'll move it. >> Second. >> So 11 A through H. >> Motion by Mr. Chaffy, seconded by Miss Paulina. >> Is there any discussion? hearing none. >> Dr. Capello, >> yes. >> Mr. Davia is absent. Miss Shramp, >> yes. >>

110Mr. Chaffy, >> yes. >> Mr. Dphano is absent. Miss Pachina, >> yes. >> Mr. Citri is absent. Miss Gulan, >> yes. >> And Miss Falcone Schubert. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> I please have a motion to move 12 A through M. >> I'll make it. Second. >> Any discussion on personnel items? Hearing none. >> Dr. Capello, >> yes. >> Mr. Davio is absent. Miss ShraMM, >> yes. >> Mr. Chaffy, >> yes. >> Mr. Dphano is absent. Miss Pelina, >> yes. >> Mr. Citri is absent. Miss Gulan, >> yes. >> And Miss Falcone Schubert. >> Yes. >> I please have a motion to move item 13. >> I'll make it. >> I'll second. Any discussion? Motion by Mr. Chaffy, seconded by Dr. Capello. Dr. Capello, >> yes. >> Mr. Davia is absent. Miss ShraMM, >>

111yes. >> Mr. Chaffy, >> yes. >> Mr. Dphano is absent. Miss Poachena, >> yes. >> Mr. Citri is absent. Miss Gulan, >> yes. >> And Miss Falcone Schubert, >> yes. >> Can I have a motion to move item 14? >> I'll make it [clears throat] again. >> I'll second. >> Any discussion on policy and regulations? 14. I hear none. >> Dr. Capello, >> yes. >> Mr. Davia is absent. Miss ShraMM, >> yes. >> Mr. Chaffy, >> yes. >> Mr. Dphano is absent. Miss Pelina, >> yes. >> Mr. Citri is absent. Miss Gulan, >> yes. >> And Miss Falcon Schubert, >> yes. I please have a motion to move item 15 A through C, Student and Services. >> I'll make it. >> Second. >> Any discussion? hearing none >> on the motion by Miss Pelena, seconded

112by Miss ShraMM. Dr. Capello, >> yes. >> Mr. Davia is absent. Miss Shra, >> yes. >> Mr. Chaffy, >> yes. >> Mr. Dphano is absent. Miss Paulino, >> yes. >> Mr. Citri is absent. Miss Gulon, >> yes. >> And Miss Falcone Schubert, >> yes. >> Can I please have a motion to move resolutions item 16A through I? >> I'll make it. >> Second. Any discussion? >> One note for the uh the public this evening. 16H and 16 I are the next uh milestones in our referendum project. Uh this evening uh we will be um approving and accepting bids for the roof replacement at Tulsa Trail School and the roof replacement at the Hopakhong High School. Um the architects and uh our attorneys have reviewed uh the bids and identified the two lowest responsible biders um

113for each of the individual projects. We had 11 biders on the Tulsa Trail roof. Uh excuse me, nine biders on the Tulsa Trail roof, seven on the high school roof. Um over 30 vendors expressed interest in the projects. to understand uh these projects and how it works. As a contractor, you have to be approved by the Department of Treasury and the state of New Jersey. You also have to be bonded to be able to handle the level of projects that you're working on. And you have a threshold based on the size of your company as to how much work you can bid on and take on. It is not how much availability in your credit limit you might have when the project starts, but when you bid. So, if you're a large roofing company and

114the state says you have the capacity to work on $25 million in projects and you already have $21 million of projects on the on the books, you only have $4 million available to bid on our project or you can't participate in the bidding process. It's not like um I can go to a local um contractor and say, "Hey, Al's roofing company, I'd like you to put a new uh roof on the high school." There are specific requirements that go through that process. Um both of the bids that have come in are on or under target uh for both of the projects. We'll work through the final design phase, the permitting phase. Um, these projects will stage the week before school lets out in June. They will start the Monday after school is out. And based

115on our contracts with the vendors, the projects will finish the third week in August with 95% substantial completion prior to the opening of the school year. at the high school. It will mean interruptions to office staff functionality and locations because there will be power outages at the high school for power cables that exist on the roof that have to be re relocated. It will impact uh internet access. So, we will be developing summer plans for relocation of offices um for certain components of the construction project as we go through it. But more details to come forward after this next step in the process. >> Yeah. >> All right. So 16A16 I on the motion by Mr. Chaffy, seconded by Miss ShraMM. Dr. Capello, >> I am an abstain on a a yes to B through

116I. >> Thank you. I appreciate it. Mr. Davio is absent. Miss ShraMM. >> Yes. >> Mr. Chaffy. >> Yes. >> Mr. Mr. Dafano is absent. Miss Paulina, >> yes. >> Mr. Citri is absent. Miss Gulan, >> yes. >> And Miss Falcone Schubert. >> Yes. >> Can I please have a motion to move item 17, the Sus County Regional Cooperative? >> I'll make it. >> I'll second. Is there any discussion on 17A through C 11? Hearing none >> on the motion by Miss Pachena, seconded by Dr. Capello. Dr. Capello, >> yes. >> Mr. Daffy is absent. Miss ShraMM, >> yes. >> Mr. Chaffy, >> yes. >> Mr. Dphano is absent. Miss Poachena, [clears throat] >> yes. >> Mr. Citri is absent. Miss Gulan, >> yes. >> And Miss Falcone Schubert. >> Yes. Okay. Our last item

117on the agenda is board member comments. Is anyone who would like to make a comment? Yeah, I think it was a good meeting. We had a lot of good information shared with us between the um testing scores and our security plan. Just want to thank you all for that information and for all of you coming out and um giving us feedback. Um like Mr. Houndback said, you know, we're here for the kids and we want to make sure that um you know, we're doing right and best by them and we appreciate all of your feedback and um reach out to him. He is like a jack of all trades and knows all the things. It's really amazing. So, thank you so much for coming. And on that, can I please have a motion to adjourn?

118>> I'll make it. >> Second. All in favor? >> I [clears throat and snorts] thank you. >> Have a good evening. This >> is yours, I think. Okay.