001Statement is hereby made that adequate notice of this meeting was given by the prominent posting of said notice in all district schools and other public places. The mail and gander hand delivery of said notice to the designated newspapers, the Asbury Park Press, and the Monalepin Patch, filing with the clerk of Monalepin Township and the clerk of English Town Borough. I'll call the roll. Mr. Ferber? Here. Mr. Green? Here. Mrs. Herr? Here. Mr. Cain? Here. Mrs. Lucas is on her way, but she's absent at the moment. Mrs. Parisi? Here. Mr. Santoro is absent this evening. Mr. Tosetti is also? I'm running behind. Okay, I hope that he's on his way. Okay. I don't mean to interrupt. I'm going to ask everybody in the back to make their way to a seat. So the meeting has officially
002started and we're doing roll call. We just want to make sure everybody can hear because there are some steps you need to be involved in. And then Dr. Wallace? Here. Thank you. We do have a quorum, so please rise for 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. We are going to go into executive session for the purpose of discussing several items, an HIV appeal with student number 37196, the HIV executive summaries, a personnel matter involving employee number 4161, and a legal update on the matter of Plattkin versus MERS. Can I have a motion and a second, please? Dave Ferber? Second? Ryan Green, sorry. All in favor? Aye. Anyone
003opposed? All right. We're going to close session at 8.15. And I'm going to say 45 minutes to an hour. And I also, before we go in, would like to welcome Jessica to her first meeting with the board. Thank you. Okay. We're back in open session. Oh, here she goes, Janie. You want to do it for the board's information, Dave? Or do we have changes first or I don't know which comes first? Changes come where? Okay, yeah. Changes and revisions. Changes and revisions. Okay. I'm going to read the changes and revisions. Thank you. Let me get to the agenda. We are adding an item under administration, item number 3. I'm unlocking it now and making it public. Menalpan-Englishtown Regional Board of Education resolution affirms the decision of superintendent in HIV matter involving student number 37196 pursuant
004to NJSA 19A 3715B 6E. Whereas the Menalpan-Englishtown Regional District received a report of incident of harassment, intimidation, and bullying, and whereas the district promptly investigated the report pursuant to board policy NJSA 18A 3715, whereas the parent of student number 37196, a student involved in the investigation, requested a hearing before the Board of Education pursuant to NJSA 18A 3715B 6E, and whereas at its meeting on January 27, 2025, the board held a hearing pursuant to NJSA 18A 3715B 6D, and whereas after considering the position of the parent and the student and the evidence presented by the school administration, the board is determined to affirm the decision of the determination of the superintendent. Now therefore be it resolved, the Menalpan-Englishtown Regional Board of Education pursuant to NJSA 18A 3715B 6E hereby affirms the superintendent's decision in HIV
005matter involving student number 3196. Then we have under the personnel section L, we have item number 46, and that is now active. Recommend the board approve the following five-day suspension without pay, effective as noted. Employee 4161, 51625, 51925, and three days to be determined by this transportation coordinator. So those are the two read-ins. Anything else was sent out previously? Thank you, Ronnie. Okay, moving on, item F, public comment, if you'd like to speak, Ms. Gaffer, since you're the only person from the public here, oh, actually Jan also, all right, being there's no public comments, we will close public comments and move on with our agenda. Item G, for the board's information, anyone have any questions on anything in item G, G1 through G5, is there, no, there's no action, okay, we'll go on to action
006items, H, reorganization, can have a motion and a second on H1 through 41, please, this is her, Mr. Kane, any questions guys? Is it possible to look at the locations of some of these meetings and do them at different schools? I mean, I know we've got two schools that aren't on there at all that I see that would normally, you know, or three. And then I also would like at some point to have a discussion about if we're going to use the main school for hosting that we discuss, it doesn't have to be tonight, a different location than Wimrock. I don't know how we go about, is there something wrong with Wimrock? I just would like to discuss other locations, that's all. So we, this is the meeting schedule we put out now, it'll change
007once we add on all the winter concerts, all the concerts that we go to, concerts haven't been, the schedule for that wasn't completed yet, so that'll be updated. I just, what I'm trying to see is how we would go about discussing moving it from Wimrock into the auditorium at MEMS, because it would be more functional and seating availability. I'm only bringing this up because it's been brought to me by numerous members of the community to host it there with the different type of seating and such. That's why I said we don't have to do it tonight, but I would like to have a discussion to move it to MEMS, to the auditorium. My biggest concern is that we try to keep one location as consistent as possible, so if that's the location, that we keep
008that just because. Yeah, I'm trying to... Well, every time... Well, that's what I'm saying, if we're going to have a main one, I'd like to have a discussion about having the main one be with the large auditorium at MEMS. The better accommodate. The only thing with that is that we have to... Right, I know it doesn't, I know it sounds silly as we have Ms. Gaffa and Jan here, but... Rare occasion. When there's something where we think there's going to be a big crowd, we will go to MEMS. The only issue with MEMS is that we have to be on the stage because we can't... Remember, during COVID, we could not do it, otherwise we're all in the line. And a lot of times, too, they set up for stuff there that they don't necessarily
009break down. So their plan... I'm not trying to have the discussion today, it's something that I just... Throwing it out there. Just throwing it out there. I'm not trying to be like, let's nail all this down tonight. I'm just... For consideration, maybe, you know? I'm open. September 26th, I'll be happy to have all our meetings at MEMS. I'll just walk down the hallway. Dave, could I also add to that, if we're talking about the schedule, I brought this up before, not looking to do it tonight, but if we as the board want to move more to a committee system where we have more committees, I mean, to be honest, I was going to bring this up when we introduce policies in the next group of items. You know, we have four policies on the agenda
010tonight. I think a policy committee would be helpful. And if at some point we wanted to look at the schedule to accommodate committee meetings, it might be worth having the board consider that as well. Just an idea. Thanks. Thank you. Any anything else on action items one through 41, H1 through 41? It's in... We're approving it tonight. And I think we... To be honest, I think with everything going on with the referendum, we probably have more action meetings than we normally would have because of that, knowing that we are going to have activity and more things that might be time sensitive. I did also want to note that because we do have a gubernatorial election this year, the state aid timeframes get shifted slightly. They always grant the incoming governor an additional two weeks to
011give his budget address. So that compresses... It pushes back the date that these state aid numbers are awarded or announced and doesn't really change the ending time, but it compresses the whole process by two week period or so. Can you repeat that, please? It can confuse me a little bit. I just want to make sure I... Sorry. The governor's budget address is statutorily set for the fourth Tuesday in February, I believe it is. We always get state aid numbers to 48 hours after the governor's budget address. So it's always that Thursday, the last Thursday in February, typically. When there is an incoming governor, they afford them an additional two week period to give their budget address, to give them some additional time to formulate their budget. So the budget address would be two weeks later,
012which would be the second week in March, more than likely. But the timeframes after that point don't change. Our tentative adoption date remains the same and our final adoption date remains the same. We just have a shorter period of time to react to state aid, either increases or decreases, whatever they may be. I appreciate the clarification. That's why I was trying to connect the dots. Thank you very much, Ronnie. Yeah, I think we're ready for roll. Roll call. Okay. Mr. Cain? Mr. Cain? We're doing roll call. I mean, we're doing roll call. Yes. Can you hear? You guys can hear me, right? It's on. Okay. Mrs. Parisi? Yes. Mr. Tosetti? Yes. Dr. Wallace? Yes. Mr. Ferber? Yes. Mr. Green? Yes. Mrs. Her? Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. What about Ms. Kelly? Lucas. Ms. Lucas. Oh,
013I didn't hear it. I apologize. I'm not. I'm still working these out. Sorry. Here we go. No, it's all good. Thank you. I apologize. I realized that I jumped over something in item G that I wanted to just bring up, if we could take a step back for a moment, related to the HIV self-assessment. I thought it was important just to take a look at and point out where we were a year ago, where we are now. Overall, the schools show an improvement by a few points from their self-assessment that we did a year ago. We were at a 69, which the max scoring is 78. So a year ago, between all our schools, we were at a 69 average. I think all the schools, yeah, they were exactly 69 across the board. This year,
014we averaged out to a 72, so we bumped up a few points. Now, again, this is their self-assessment. The two items that are consistent where each school seems to be deducting a couple of points on themselves are those first two elements, the HIV programs, approaches, or other initiatives and training on the BOE approved HIV policy. So that's where it seems like every school consistently docks themselves a couple of points, feeling like that's where they can improve the most. So I want to make sure that we're putting enough attention and emphasis in those areas so to give them the support and help so they can improve in those areas. And Pinebrook showed the biggest improvement. They gave themselves a 76, which is quite a jump from the previous year. So I'm glad to see that. They
015feel like they're in a good position handling all these HIV situations. But again, just following on some other discussions that we were having, you know, I think it's important to really take a look at this and kind of note how the schools are seeing themselves in these different categories. Thank you, Dave. I will follow up with Mr. Perez as well. Thank you. All right. That's all I had on that. Anyone else had anything they wanted to say while we're on the topic? Otherwise, we'll jump ahead with the agenda to item I. Okay. Can I have a motion and a second on items I-1 and 2? That's actually I-3 because we opened the- Oh, yeah. Okay. I-1, 2, and 3. Mr. Green? And can I get- Mrs. Herr, thank you. Any questions, anyone? Just Dave, to
016put on the record regarding the policies that are up for first reading, something did catch my eye in the student suicide prevention policy. And not that I would get into it now, but I believe- so these are the recommended mandates from Strauss-Esme for this policy? Mm-hmm. All right. So I'll send an email with the specific question or maybe language suggestion, and maybe we could talk about it at the adoption. There is one change that we made internally, and I can tell you what it is, if you give me a second. Yeah. While you're looking- Who made the motion and a second there? Who was the one that made the motion and a second? I'm sorry. It was Ryan Green and Jamie Herr. Okay, thank you. So while you're looking, I was just a little confused
017by this is being shown as first reading, but while we have these policies in place or existing policies, shouldn't these just be a policy update? We always do it as a first and second reading. First reading for any revision, any policy revision or abolishment we do. We don't do a second reading, I think, on abolishment, it's only first reading, but always changes our- Any changes, we do a whole re-adoption. Unless, because that's what our policy says. We have the right to- Compliment it. The bylaws, we can say that we are gonna suspend the bylaws if there's a unique situation that's extremely urgent, that we do it in one passing, we are allowed to do that, and we have done that in the past, but typically we do two readings. I just thought it was usually,
018if it's an existing policy that's just being updated, that it usually says an update as opposed to it appearing like it's a brand new policy being introduced. It says it here. It was adopted in May 2001. Oh, I know that, yeah. So that's where it shows that it was- Right. No, this is the standard way. We've always done it. Ryan, the only change we made internally is that they had student commit suicide. We changed it to dyes by suicide, because it's not a crime that they commit. They die. All right, thank you. It says a student commits suicide. We change it to dyes by suicide. It's something in that community that they prefer. Yes. Yes. So that's an update we did internally. Right. Yeah, go ahead. Thank you. Mrs. Lucas? Yes. Mrs. Parisi? Yes. Mr.
019DeCetti? I'm gonna yes on one and two, and I'm gonna abstain on number three, please. Dr. Wallace? I'm a yes. Mr. Ferber? Mr. Ferber? Can I go back for one second? Sure. Hold on. We are- I just got lost where I am. And I? And what was number three again? What were we just doing? The HIV appeal. Oh, the HIV appeal. That's what I dismissed. So I want to correct myself, so I want to say yes on one and two, and abstaining on three. Okay. Mr. Ferber? Yes. Mr. Green? Yes. Mrs. Herr? Yes. Mr. Cain? Yes. Motion passed. That was good. Thank you. Items J, business items, can I have a motion and a second on items one through 24, please? Mrs. Parisi and Mrs. Wallace. Questions anyone? Kelly? Yeah, the- no, I don't know
020what numbers they were. ELC playground and the gym renovation at Clark. Does this affect any of the renovations regarding the referendum? What number is it? The local recreation grant? Yeah. For both. Number 20. 20 was Clark Mills. Yeah, gym renovation at Clark. And then ELC, I haven't found that number yet, I read it before, something about a playground. So the playground was a grant we applied for, we're going to be applying every year and then systematically go through our playgrounds and update them, there shouldn't be an effect. And then as far as the gymnasium, that shouldn't be ill there, because this summer, Clark, I believe, is doing HVAC and roofing and paving. So there may be a little overlap on the work getting done, but Jeff's not concerned. I think it's also worth noting item
02121 is the fire alarm bid, correct? Yes. Yes. The fire alarm bid award, which is part of the referendum. So that has been proceeding nicely on schedule, I think, as everyone saw in the committee minutes on that meeting. So just want to thank the staff for getting that together and on the agenda tonight. It's been very, very busy with referendum stuff. Great. Go ahead, please. Mrs. Parisi? Yes. Mr. Zasetti? Yes. Dr. Wallace? Yes. Mr. Ferber? Yes. Mr. Green? Yes. Mrs. Herr? Yes. Mr. Cain? Yes. Mrs. Lucas? Yes. Motion passed. Thank you. I have a motion and a second on curriculum items K-1 through 8, Mrs. Lucas and Mrs. Herr. Any questions, anyone? Go ahead. Any questions? Mr. Zasetti? Yes. Dr. Wallace? Yes. Mr. Ferber? Yes. Mr. Green? Yes. Mrs. Herr? Yes. Mr. Cain? Yes. Mrs.
022Lucas? Yes. Mrs. Parisi? Yes. Thank you. I'm going to have a motion and a second on personnel items L-1 through 45. Mrs. Parisi and Mr. Cain? Oh, 46. That's right. 1 through 46. Is it Mr. Parisi and who? Mr. Cain. No questions? We're ready. Go ahead. Dr. Wallace? Yes. Mr. Ferber? Yes. Mr. Green? Yes. Mrs. Herr? Yes. Mr. Cain? Yes. Mrs. Lucas? Yes. And Mrs. Parisi? Yes. And Mr. Zasetti? Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. That is it for our action items. We will move on to board business, new and old business. I will start with you, Kelly. I have nothing. Mr. Green? I'll just say it again quickly. We had a good committee meeting with the referendum committee. Letters are on track, and it's going to be getting exciting pretty soon with the projects actually
023starting. I don't want to steal any of your thunder, Nicole, but I know that letters did go out to the community and the staff, so that's appreciated. The only other thing I would just reference quick is that we did ask our construction team directly if ending school early was helpful, and that was a resounding yes. So when the board opted to use those unused snow days to end school on June 18th, that really did help the referendum. So it was appreciated by the team and will help with the overall schedule, so thank you. Thank you. Jamie? I just want to thank and congratulate the Manalopans tonight for putting on a performance. I know I'm always bragging about them, and I'm probably a little biased. However, I hope you all got to appreciate them and enjoy
024them. They really do an amazing job, and I hope they're able to continue on when Mr. Yeltsin retires, which is boohoo sad. Anyway, they did amazing. I want to thank all of the teachers and administrators for putting on such a wonderful evening of excellence tonight and congratulate all the students who won. I told everyone here tonight my daughter was a recipient during the COVID year, and this still hangs on my refrigerator from 2021, so this night is really important to the families. It's important to the students. It's that first taste of I do what I need to do in school, and my hard work pays off. So hats off to all of the winners tonight. The only thing I do want to add is that Dr. Santor and I had a conversation regarding CPEG as
025the liaison. There's going to be a survey going out at some point for the parents to fill out in regards to CPEG, so I don't know if we have an update on whether or not that went out, but it will be going out soon, so that's something that families should keep an eye out for. Yes, I will follow up on that. Okay, perfect. The Delegate Assembly met on Saturday, May 10th. There's a new NJSBA for the Delegate Assembly. I don't remember her name off the top of my head. That's a two-year term, so that'll be up again in 2027. Also they passed four different resolutions that they're going to put bulletins out in support of to the Legislative to the State Senate and Assembly. Another thing is currently District 12 does not have a Delegate
026Representative for District 12, so I was approached about doing that, so I'll be going to the Legislative Chair Committee for the Legislative Branch Saturday, so we'll see where that goes. I don't know if you know anything about any of the openings for Monmouth County's NJSBA and what they're doing with that, but I know that they mentioned that they were going to do something along the lines with the Legislative Committee, so I don't know where we stand there with their newly elected officials or anything. Right, there is an opening and there is an application process. Right, and I've already put that through all that, Dave, and Dave know that. And so Dr. Connor, the Financial Vice President for NJSBA, he's put me in contact with those people. I had to meet with the President on Saturday.
027Thank you, Jesse. Serena, anything? No. Nothing, thank you. Okay. Same, nothing for me, thank you. Excuse me. Choking over here. A couple of things I wanted to bring up, a short update on our situation with English Town and their redevelopment plan, which affects our administrative building on Main Street. We attended some of board members, as well as Dr. Centoro and Ms. Wolfe, both their planning meeting and their town council meeting, and they passed the ordinance that they needed to in order to move forward with next steps in getting their redevelopment plan approved. So we're in communication, we've been in communication with the borough, with the mayor and their town council. So we're still trying to have discussions with them to potentially negotiate in a way that is beneficial to both the borough for what they're
028trying to achieve, but as well doesn't impact our school district negatively. That's our ultimate goal. Other than that, right now it's a little bit of a wait and see as things play out and we continue to try to keep those lines of communication open with them. Dave, I'm curious, have we received any formal, I would think that after them taking the kind of action they took, there's got to be some formal notification to us that the action was taken, correct, I would imagine? It is, yeah, they do have a responsibility to do that. I don't know what that timeline is, but as far as we don't have any record of receiving anything as of yet. That was a planning board resolution, right? Correct. So then it goes to the council. It did or it didn't?
029It did the very next day. They remanded it back. If the council changes the ordinance, then yeah, we would get notification of it. Is there generally a time frame? How long after? Off the top of my head, I don't know what it is, but it would be very easy to find. Yeah, I think that we, you know, as the subject property of the redevelopment plan, I think we should receive, even though we were there in person to see it happen, I think there is some formal notification requirement that has to be in the law. Yeah, yeah, no, there is. And I believe Dante had affirmed that in other conversations that there is a requirement for them to inform us officially. So that's it. But we'll continue to keep everyone updated as, you know, more transpires
030and we learn more about how this is going to play out. Nicole, did you want to mention anything related to that? No, I think you gave a good summary right now. You know, we're kind of in a little bit of a wait and say, and really we're asking for two things. We're asking for fair compensation for a building we've owned since 1909, and we're asking for the time to make sure that we don't, you know, we're fiscally responsible to the taxpayers and we're not moving multiple times and hiring moving companies multiple times or renting property for a short period of time. I think those are our two asks. And yeah, that's just disruption to our total operations if we've got to waste time moving more than once. Yeah, correct. I don't think it's a big
031ask, but so again, we'll see where that goes. And, you know, fingers crossed that I think will hopefully come to a good resolution there with the town. Want to congratulate all the honorees and award recipients in the evening of excellence. It was fantastic. Menal pins, as always. Performance was fantastic. Mr. Geltsch can't thank him enough for everything he's done for our district. And all the students that he's helped guide in his department. So we thank him very much. And, you know, I think just looking at all the award recipients tonight, which it's a lot of people, it's a lot of names, a lot of kids and just really highlights how much achievement is happening in our district. I don't think there's that many school districts of our size that match up to how many achieve
032great things as as like a lot of students that did tonight. So I think that really says a lot about what's going on here. So, you know, just makes you proud to know that you're part of it. And it's again, it's always it's always just rewarding to see not just the students, but the parents and the joy, you know, and seeing their kids, you know, from, you know, four or five years old and all the way up really having success. So that was wonderful to see. And that's all I got. I think we have two meetings coming up in June and June 24th, June 2nd, June 24th. Thank you. June 24th is where we hope to award the edition at MEMS and the generators, I believe. Yeah. And graduation is the 23rd, right? Monday, the
03323rd. That sounds correct. Yes. Yes, I just wanted to verify because I don't have my stuff. Yeah. Monday, the 23rd is our grade graduation. So I got the call. I will be quick. Again, thank you for your kind words about tonight. It is one of my favorite nights. It's an amazing event where we get to take some time and honor our children. And I'm so glad that we were able to add MEMS this year and recognize them as well, which we haven't done in the past. I also want to remind the board or let the board know maybe that we have a number of activities next week. On Monday, we are filming our thank you video for the referendum. So that's exciting Monday morning. Monday night is the Junior National Honor Society induction ceremony at
034MEMS. Tuesday is our board meeting, which is also our evening of appreciation. So please remember that Tuesday also starts at seven o'clock. And that's where we honor our teachers that are retiring, as well as our teachers and staff members who won staff member and teacher of the year. And then Wednesday is the MEMS Spring Sports Awards. So if you're interested, I can give you the times on those, but tons of tons of events happening over the next few weeks, which is always fun. And then we move into our moving up ceremonies in fifth grade the following week. And then it'll be MEMS's graduation. Great time of year. That's all I got. All right. Great. Ronnie, anything? I just wanted to just say, as we're talking about the referendum and the communication, I want to let
035you all know that we, along with a few other districts, nominated Laura Bishop Communications for Business Partner of the Year Award through my state association. And they were selected as the winners. So they're kind of proud about that. But I think everything that was said about them from us and other districts really just clearly showed what consummate professionals they are and how helpful they are to school districts in passing these initiatives and referendums. Glad to see that. Now, I'm happy to see that. And Miss Gaffa feels they should share that award with her. She was an integral part of getting that referendum passed. Thank you, Ronnie. Anyone else? All right. Motion to adjourn. Mr. Green, Miss Lucas. Aye.