001Okay. Mr. Akamando, Miss Bali >> here, >> Mr. Dello >> here, >> Mr. Roello, Miss Einelo >> here, >> Miss Roloff >> here, >> Miss Torbick >> here, >> Mr. Traverso >> here, >> Miss Zarelli >> here. Please stand for the pledge of >> 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. Adequate notice of this meeting has been sent to all members of the board of education and to the Bergen record in accordance with the provisions of the open public meetings act chapter 231 1975. At this time I please be advised that all cell phones and electronic devices are to be turned off. Student representatives reports Suzanne and Mia. Good evening everyone. I will
002now share what we have going on in our school district. Beginning with our high school. Before students went on winter break, the high school held their winter pep rally and spirit week. Students were invited to wear ugly holiday sweaters, Grinch clothing, and fuzzy pajamas, just to name a few. Our high schoolers also greatly enjoyed the many fun events at the pep rally, including box stacking races, and class against class dodgeball. Our winter sports are well underway now. We actually have a game going on right now. Wrestling, track, basketball, and cheer events are happening every week, and the high school encourages all students and families to come and support their peers by continuing to attend these sporting events. For the 10th grade students, the teen mental health first aid training will begin shortly in their health
003classes. And for all students, scheduling for the 2026 to 27 school year is beginning soon. The high school looks forward to the new year and wishes everybody a happy new year. Next, over at our middle school this January, students will be taking their Linkit Bmark tests. This provides a great opportunity to see how much they've grown so far this year and to ensure that they are mastering the key English and math standards for their grade level. At the end of January, the middle school is proud to welcome the Harlem Magic Masters for a special student assembly. Their mission is to provide schools and communities with affordable, highquality entertainment and empowering messages. By using basketball as their medium, their performances offer a fun experience for all ages while supporting their ongoing efforts to motivate and empower
004their youth. At the middle school level, they're always focusing on on innovative ways to keep their students engaged, motivated, and eager to learn. And the middle school also wishes everybody a happy new year. Finally, over at Washington School, their December newsletter highlighted a busy and exciting end to the year. As they returned from break, students are settling back into their daily routines and preparing for upcoming events. Washington just had their winter snowball event yesterday, which was hosted by the service learning club. Students will also begin the clothing study as part of their curriculum where parents, family members, and friends are invited to visit and share information about the uniforms or clothing they wear for their jobs. Another highly anticipated event, their annual fashion show, is just around the corner and is always a favorite among
005students. Washington School is excited for the engaging learning experiences and community involvement planned for the weeks ahead and wishes the district a very happy new year. That's everything for our high school, middle school, and Washington school. I will now hand it over to Zuzie for our elementary schools. Thank you, Mia. Happy New Year from the Long School. This month, our school is focusing on relationship skills through social emotional learning. On January 30th, students will lead a bright assembly featuring presentations on this important topic. To wrap up 2025, fifth grade students participated in the annual Shark Take Project as their economics unit. Working in teams, students designed innovative products to solve real world problems while researching materials, calculating cost and profits, creating company branding, and developing advertisements. The project culminated in a Shark Tank style presentation
006to a panel of guest sharks highlighting the students creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking skills. January has also been an exciting month of learning through the ELA amplify curriculum. Kindergarten is exploring farm life. First grade is studying early American civilizations. Second grade is learning about the War of 1812. Third grade is focused on the ancient Rome and the properties properties of light and sound. And fourth grade is examining the empires of the Middle Ages. We are proud of our students continued growth as learners and leaders. Now at Smith School, Smith School is thrilled to be back in session and ready for a great new year. This month, students are learning more about our school and Saddle Brook's history. Every Tuesday, our daily announcements feature one or two trivia questions about Smith School or the loco area
007with the answers revealed on Friday. Fun fact, our school originally opened in 1950 as Cambridge School. Students and staff are busy preparing for upcoming events. Our winter concert is scheduled for January 29th, and on January 30th, our sixth graders will host the annual Duct Tape the Teacher event. We'll share highlights and results from this fun tradition in next month's update. Now, finally, at Franklin School, December was a productive and exciting month. We successfully concluded trimester 1 with well- attended parent conferences, strengthening communication between families and staff. Our winter spirit week brought energy and excitement to the school with themed days that created a fun and positive atmosphere throughout the building. One highlight of the month was the fourth grade Ellis Island experience event. students and families participated in an interactive learning experience that brought history
008to life. Thank you to the fourth grade teachers for their dedication in planning this event and to all the families who attended and supported student learning. We also recognize our Falcon of the Month recipients and ended the year on a joyful note with our annual holiday singalong assembly. A special thank you to the PTO for organizing the holiday shop, class parties, and the Franklin Express event, which added to the fest festive spirit across the school. As we returned from winter break, Franklin School looks forward to continuing the progress made during the fall and preparing for our upcoming winter concert later this month. Thank you to our amazing staff, families, PTO, Board of Education, and community partners for making December a memorable and successful month. Thank you. Thank you, Zusie and Mia. >> Um, Miss Vileti,
009our superintendence report, please. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Okay. I wanted to let the board and our community know that Franklin School's fourth grade has been selected to represent schools across the the country by taking the National Assessment of Educational Progress. The NAP is given by the National Center of Education Statistics. It's out of Washington DC. It is not part of New Jersey Department of Education state test. It's voluntary. Student participation provides information that can help lead to improvements in education nationwide. There are no grade, no results are shared. This is happening on March 10th. If a student is struggling, they don't complete it. Your child's grades are not affected by the test. And all this information did go home to our fourth grade students at Franklin School. I also wanted to share that Governor
010Murphy declared January 2026 National School Board Recognition Month. So, I want to thank our board trustees and I did send out a Google sheet link to our board trustees. If you can please fill out a blurb. I would like to create a one pager that I can share out with everyone's um photo and a little a little blurb about yourselves. Whether it's your background, why you're on the board and >> can I just I try to click on that and I can't get in it to type anything. >> Are you signed in with your Saddlebrook email? That's probably it. But I can change it for you. >> I'll try. If not, I'll just send you something separate. you can send me something separate as well. I would like to get that out. So, thank you
011to our board trustees. [laughter] [gasps] >> Okay, Mr. Cuden share that is with great pride they're recognizing following. There's well, I'm not going to name them all, but we had 16 high school students who successfully auditioned for the 2026 all North Jersey Region One Chorus. Over 500 students from one, two, three, four, five, six, seven counties auditioned for this honors choir. and 16 of our students made it. There will be a gala concert on Saturday, February 14th at Mars Nils High School at 4 PM. And a very big congratulation goes to Jeter Martinez, who's a ninth grader who placed first tenure one in the region. And I love how Mr. Kunan signed it. Sincerely, I had to share that. All right. Um Mr. M sent out um an email regarding our senior scholarship banquet and
012AC an academic award. So this year we're going to switch it up. We are going to celebrate our seniors all in one night. We will do a separate academic awards night for students in grades 9th, 10th, and 11th. And then our 12th graders are going to receive their academic awards the same night that we have our senior senior scholarship. So, we're going to combine those events. We're going to change the location to this building and we're finalizing details. So, I will share out the details as they come out. But, we did have our first meeting. Now, we're getting some quotes, but the thought was it became too costly for our families to attend as the cost of the prices at our restaurants increased. and also the location, the distance. And at that time of the
013year, our seniors have so much going on and there's so many different events to go to that we thought if we can consolidate it and have one night where we honor our seniors that that would be more beneficial. And then also make our academic awards for 9 to 11 for students in grades 9 to 11 a little bit more uh focused on those students. Team mental health first aid training did start this week with our 10th grade students. We've been doing this every year now for several years where it's a program that teaches our students how to identify or what to do in the event that a peer expresses depression or makes comments to them and they don't know how to reply and this is a program that teaches them um how to do so.
014Our K to6 winter concerts are the over the last week of January. Unfortunately, I do have um Texo a couple nights that week. So, I'm not I cannot attend them all, which is very sad because I love concert season. But uh they are all happening that last week of January. And in fe February's board meeting, I will do our district goal update. So that way we can update our board members and the members of our community with our progress on our goals. >> Thank you, Miss Bleti. Um now our business administrator report. Mr. Karate, >> I gave my report during the caucus meeting. So I have no other items to report on. So at this time we are going to have our high school. They are going to lead a presentation on all the exciting
015happenings at our high school. I see Mr. Shaross is here. Thank you Mr. Mish. And we have some students as well. So at this time I'm going to ask our board members to transition to the chairs and we will have our high school representatives come on up. Okay. So, at this point, every as you know, every month at our board of ed meetings, we've been highlighting a different school. So, it is now the high school's turn to share all that they are doing with our board members and community. So, I now welcome Mr. Mish, our principal for high school, to share. All right, good evening everyone. Thank you for having us tonight. So, I'm going to just kind of walk through a little bit of just the overview of the high school schedule, uh, which
016is really a year- round process. And then we're also going to hear about some of our new things for next year. Mr. Shross is a big part of that. And then you're going to hear just from some students and their perspective. Two of them were already here. and Kaden is in our public speaking class which is one of the newer classes that have been approved at the high school within the last couple of years. And so without further ado, I'm going to get started. So our timeline for scheduling at the high school, like I said, is a year- round process. And so starting in September, we start looking at what do we currently have, what can we do better, uh what's working, what's not, new courses and course proposals. We rebrand current courses all the
017time. Uh in fact, one of the courses that we it was a rebrand but it was a new course is one of the ones that Mr. Shalcross will speak about tonight. We review our facilities staff certifications. That really is a what drives a lot of what we can offer is what their staff are certified to teach. Our program of studies we make changes. There might be slight changes to prerequisites. The probably the most biggest recent change was we changed the history sequence. A couple years ago, we had every freshman take world history, then US one, then US two. We're in our last year of switching. It's now US1, US2, and then world history. So, right now, every sophomore and junior are in US 2. And um and then next year, all the 10th graders will
018go to world. We add our new courses and electives. And of course, we put it through for Board of Ed approval, which is tonight. We have our 10th and 11th grade scheduling meeting, which is really our big scheduling meeting where we go over everything. Um, it's a lot. Mia just sat through that. Um, and we talk about the whole process, soup to nuts, and our electives in option, too. Were you absent? All right. So in January and February, we come up with curriculum curriculum writing plans, scheduling meetings with students. They have the counselors right now are meeting with groups of students. Eighth and ninth graders, I believe they already met with during PE and health. They're beginning individual meetings. I think they're pushing into the English classes right now to speak to the juniors. And
019um then they start their individual meetings. They start with the 11th graders, which are hands down the most complicated students in the school to schedule on down through 8th grade. and the parents will be invited to all those meetings with the counselors. So that's going to actually be included in our updates this week. March through April, we determine the number of sections running for each course. Assign teachers. We cut courses if we don't get enough requests. Counselors are meeting with students again to determine alternates. Hey, we're not running this course. You know, do you want this as your alternate? We go through course waiverss, honors, AP testing. We build the master schedule. and we start scheduling students with priority goes to seniors on down through the nth grade. May through August we resolve all the
020all the fun complex they assignment they get their summer assignments. Um the schedules come out in August and that is when the ad drop period begins. We finalize the option two placement for seniors and then we start over again for the next year. So it really is a year- round process. Our option two pathways are the same minus the career explorations with m which Mr. Shross will speak about but we have option two for alternative PE for 11th and 12th graders. We have college experience for our 12th graders. And then we have workbased learning, teacher mentorship and career explor explorations for our 12th graders. So for next year what's new? We are implementing a freshman seminar class during their PE period. It's going to be the first marking period and it is going to cover
021and that actually came about from something that we did with the students. I was I was talking to Susie about that today. Um where we talk about the transition to high school, academics, athletics, extracurriculars, mental health, college and career planning. Um, and the plan behind that is having some older students push in, having, you know, different coaches push in and just getting a an understanding of what it means to be involved in the high school because that's ultimately what we want is we want our freshmen to get involved, take ownership of the school. We have an online option for financial literacy, which will be one of the marking periods during 10th grade um, their 10th grade year that will be taught by one of our business teachers. And the reason for this is so that
022our students can take more electives while they're here. Uh because this ends up eating up a semester. So that's what we're So that's the plan for this for next year. And then I am going to turn it over to Mr. Shalcross who is going to talk about dual enrollment interactive media and our career explorations. >> Hi everyone. Thanks for letting me speak. So, next year we're um slightly changing our advanced video editing and turning it into interactive media. It's going to focus on advertising because there's a strong need for more advertising and marketing as shown by our student uh signups. And then we're also looking to expand our option two pathways to be more flexible because I really believe that's the future of education especially at the high school level. So this is just a
023little on career explorations, what it is and why it could be a very very strong program at this high school. So the goal is to give kids clear pathways and plans from high school to post-secary success. Most kids at Saddlebrook are going to be going to college, but a lot of them aren't. And we really need to think about what their whole plan is going to be and what their backup plans are going to be and really spend time focusing on not only their soft skills but also their technical skills because those are two of the things that employers are um saying they see huge gaps in and we want to expand it so it can fit everyone. Not all these kids are going to go to Bergen Community College as a senior. Some of
024the parents don't want to pay. Some of the kids don't have cars. Sometimes it's not always available in their schedule. And this would let them participate in option two, so they can be with all of their peers because like I've been in classes where it's all 10th graders and then there's like one lone senior and it's always awkward for them and this would be a much better situation and it would be a lot more practical for them. So we want to ensure they have a strong foundation in career readiness. A lot of the classes I teach are highly specialized. This is not that. We want them to be able to explore a lot of different ways and cast a very wide net because we don't want them to kind of pigeon hole themselves at their
025age. They're so young. But we also want them to have a couple clear plans. And I say a couple because I change careers. A lot of people change careers. Statistics tells us most people are going to change careers. And even if they want to do something like join the military, you're probably going to have to decide what trade do I want to pick up in the military. So this structure ensures that everyone has access to option two and they can start actually building career skills. So this is why it matters. We have some basic statistics on CTE. Um so career and technical education in general they're 10 to 21 percentage points more likely to graduate on time. Each traditional CTE course reduces likelihood of dropping out. It has a strong impact for students traditionally at
026risk. I'm not worried about our student representatives. We're worried about the other kids and making sure we can get everyone through those doors. Um, lower unemployment rates for students earning CTE credits, higher early career earnings, especially for non-ol pathways because they have a foot up and they've actually started to think about what their career is going to be. Strong alignment with regional workforce needs. And then we have 74% of CTA concentrators pursue post-secary education. So, it's also letting these kids know it's like you can still go to college. No one's stopping you. We just also want you to have plans and do skills assessments and actually figure out what their values are and then what their skills are because a lot of times kids aren't always the best at this. CT students are just as
027likely to attend four-year colleges and many choose majors related to their career in technical education experience. So, these are some potential in-house workbased learning paths. A lot of these already naturally fit within Saddle Brook High School. We could have a media team. We could have kids help with web development. We could have a marketing team. We could have kids help with the IT. We could have home health aids. We could have, you know, them helping out everything with like the sale program. And then we have DECA Technology Student Association and Future Business Leaders of America where a lot of those kids, these are real student organizations. They have competitions and they're fantastic ways for them to showcase the skills they're learning. So, these are all potential in-house workbased learning paths that you can work with
028just one course because of the hybrid nature. And then we also have our music and art um departments which is very strong. You know, we have plenty of kids. They're here tonight practicing. We have kids who are band leaders. We have them who are going to be building sets. And there's ways that they can pair this with career education very nicely. And then I just want to let you know this could also support all students. So for sale IEP and 504 students who can't secure a job, who can't complete the course material. We can still create additional in-house workbased learning opportunities. So we could have school stores. They could manage inventory, handle sales and market products. We also have office assistants. They could gain clerical skills by assisting the main office. So there's a lot
029of different directions we can go on. And most of this is not um me coming up with a brand new plan. I just finished a cooperative education certification through Ruckers and most of this is based off of what other schools are already doing in New Jersey. And then obviously we have custodial and maintenance support as well and let's go through this. Okay, so I'm not going to go into all of this, but you know stage one would be them actually doing the discovery phase, understanding their own traits, strengths, interest, and values. Then they would be moving on to applying self-nowledge to the professional world. Then we would go into the practical application projects where it's hands-on focusing on the soft and practical skills required for success in whatever field they've chosen to focus on at
030that point. And then we're going to professional readiness where the products are designed to accumulate in tangible assets for job seeking so they can actually build a portfolio. A lot of these kids here are really really smart. They have a great knowledge set, but they don't have much to show for it other than a transcript. And nowadays, people want to see a lot more than just some numbers on a piece of paper. They want to see what can you do, what have you done, and this is the concept in action. So, the economics of it makes sense. Hybrid classes allow for significantly increased student capacity. So, you can fit a lot of kids with a lot of different needs in one class. student value. They have flexibility to balance their education with other commitments, making
031programs more accessible and relevant. You know, there's a ton of kids here who play sports. They might have to go pick up their other siblings. They have to take care of other family members. And this would allow them to do everything that the vast majority of our students do. And then it also gives them innovation and agency. So, if they say they want to actually major in something, well, let's actually start doing it. let's see if you actually really like it as opposed to just studying it because we all know that theory and practice are very different and this what it might look like. So these are all examples of stuff kids are already doing, right? So this would be like the media team doing sports marketing. Okay. Um we could also have things like
032this. >> This is 3D printed at Saddlebrook. The kid programmed it. We also did all of the wiring. So, it's completely built and he did this as a junior. He's going to have me, Charles Hankle, as a independent study next semester. But, you know, it doesn't have to be an independent study. It could be paired with a career exploration. I'm just showing you things that can only be done in unique situations. And like these are videos for like the billboard, the new DIGITAL [applause] And those are my brief examples. Thank you for letting me explain this. As you could see, I wish that we could clone Mr. Shellcross a couple of times. Um, so what what I want to do now is I kind of want to turn it over to our students and I
033want you to hear from some of the students on what their experience has been with courses they've taken. So the question that I, you know, told them that I would like them to answer would be, you know, what were some of your favorite classes at Satwork High School and especially for the older ones, um, how that's prepared you for life beyond here. So, I'd like to go first. >> Kaden is here from our public speaking class for his authentic experience. >> Yes. Yeah, you guys are screwed up. Hello everyone. Um, obviously he just said, "I'm Kaden and I'm a part of the public speaking class." I actually know two people in that photo. The guy raising his hand and the guy raising um or not raising his hand um has the mic on the left
034side. Those are my two best friends. Um, honestly, public speaking, I wish it was a full year course because with how much I've learned from this class, even like speaking right now, I'm doing it for well, not only the grade, but also to have my help to uh help myself um like actually get out there with talking to a crowd, talking to people that I don't know really at all, and to actually not be afraid of talking to an audience. ience because Miss uh Miss Ripus, the teacher that teaches us, has said a lot of times that somehow the number one fear above heights and death is public speaking. I thought that at first as well when I first did the course, but now I'm a lot more comfortable with it and I'm very happy
035that I took it um with because my dad said that I should take public speaking and I was actually best advice advice I've ever heard in my life. And I'm very happy that he told me to do it because the fact that I'm even up here right now is honestly insane to me. I didn't think I would be doing this at all. Um, and some other courses that I've taken. Um, last year I took sociology with Mr. Sheldon and I took criminal law with Miss Klene. Also some of the most interesting courses I've ever taken um, in the school. um sociology with Mr. Sheldon. Absolutely love Mr. Sheldon to death. Um he's uh taught us so much about um not only uh very hard topics like racism and stuff like that, but he has taught
036us a lot about uh society and how we function in so many different ways. And criminal law kind of does the same thing except more like with how criminals might have like a mindset and how certain things work with the juvenile system and all these different things. And I have a lot of family in criminal law. My dad's a cop, my aunt's a cop. I I have a lot of cops in my family. But they have all basically made me have an interest in this sort of like like line and honestly I've thought a lot about going into that line in the future and even now I'm taking um the college course for forensics and again it's it goes into that kind of line and I just love it. It's always so interesting to me.
037Um, again, but to go back to public speaking real quick again, I w I really really wish it was a full year course because so many people need it. Honestly, I know um one of my friends, I'm not going to say his name because I might embarrass him because you guys know him. um sometimes he's afraid to talk to uh people where he has to order for food or drinks and he's going to be taking that course um next and I'm honestly definitely afraid for him. But I am also very happy that he's taking that leap in order to try and better himself for the future because public speaking we do this every single day. He was just doing it. Mr. Shross was just doing it. All of you were just doing it before and
038I think it help it it helps everybody. It's a really uh it's a really good uh skill to have especially for the future in case, god forbid anyone goes into politics or something like that. You're trying trying to run for president or something like that. You need you need public speaking. That's like the main thing that you need. And I will forever say that this is one of the greatest courses I've ever taken for schooling and I could not be happier with it. Susie, come on up. Great job, Kayen. >> Hello everyone. Oh, you know me. I'm Zusie, but I'm going to copy Kaden. Public speaking. I took it sophomore year. It was the best class I've ever had. And not only Miss Rupus, Miss Rapus, I love her so much. So, she taught it.
039She taught us so well. But public speaking just like prepares you for everything. Like just being here and now, like being student representative with Mia, like to be able to talk to you guys, to be able to talk to a crowd, like I feel so much more comfortable. I'm so much more confident in like the way my speech and everything. But not only that, but when I go to college, when I get a job one day, interviews, just talking to your manager, talking to your boss, it's all public speaking. and we all learned in from that class. But another course that I love so much this year I took it or I'm taking it. It's because it's offered for seniors is anatomy and physiology. It's I love waking up in the morning like 8 a.m.
040knowing that we're going to have to dissect like a sheep's brain cuz it's it's so much fun. It's so much fun. It just like makes you like like especially since I I want to go into the medical field. So that the school offers um anatomy physiology just like drives my motivation to do that especially for so many students who go into bio literally any medical field. It just drives my motivation to keep wanting to strive for that. Um and lastly I would have to say that any language arts class that I took always Mr. Garvey shout out Mr. Garvey, incredible teacher. Just not only like learning about writing an essay in 40 minutes and preparing us for AP test, but that class has just taught us to like to be open-minded people, how to read
041literature differently, read works differently, and I just look at things way more open-mindedly. Is that a word? [laughter] But yeah, right. An analytically, that's a good word. But yeah, those are my top three. Thank you, [applause] >> Mia. Last but not least, >> thank you. So, um, I'm a junior right now, so obviously I have not taken a lot of the classes that they have yet, but I have to shout out Miss Ripus. I know they mentioned Ripus, but when Mr. Mush when you emailed me saying, "What were some of my favorite courses?" She's the first person that came to mind. So, she's getting another shout out. she deserves it. Her I had her both in middle school and in 10th grade. Um and I remember 10th grade more. So that English class, I mean,
042it really taught me so much that now I can transfer into Mr. Garvey's class, which is also very useful. We have to do timed essays, which at first, you know, we're just starting out. At first, it's a little bit stressful, but it's very useful to be able to think that quickly and still get your point across. So definitely Miss Ripus and Mr. Garvey's English classes I think are some of the most useful and my favorite classes. Um, and I also did really like last year I took uh algebra 2 with Mr. Rosselli and his class prepared me so much for taking my AP pre-calculus course this year because he went with his honors class at least he went a little bit ahead and taught us a lot of the stuff I'm learning now in calculus.
043And I think without him, I would have been so lost. Like a lot of the stuff that Miss Metacis, my teacher now, is teaching, I can remember a lot of it from Mr. Roselli's class. So I think his class was also super super useful. And yeah, those are probably my three favorite courses. >> Thank you students, Mr. Shross, and thank you to the board of ed for having us. Back over to M. >> Thank you, Mr. Mush. Um, our board of trustees, any questions for our high school crew over here? >> Yes. Correct. It would be during one of the marking periods of of their gym period. >> Okay. Yes. It was it really was driven from the the history department. Um that and just in the sequence. So the whole sequence really even at
044the middle school level they shifted it because it would you do civics in seventh grade and then you were doing ancient world history and then you would do world modern world history and then it was like oh back to civics US1 US2. So now it's a it's much more in order and again also from the it was also feedback not just from what we felt was best for the students but also from our history department. They felt that the order should be so this was a really a 6 to2 measure that we did. Mrs. Dabonis has been taking the lead with that and then Mr. Osborne actually Dr. Osborne joined her as um an option a workbased learning uh person as well. So what they do is they they meet with the students and I
045know just from working closely Mrs. bonus in the past on this was she takes the interest of the students, she asks them, "What do you want to what are you interested in? Where do you want to go?" And then she reaches out to those places and so she sees if she can connect them to someone in that field and it's been very successful over the last couple years. Okay. So, I want to do a final thank you to our high school crew. And before you exit, I do want a group photo. So, come on up so I can take a photo. Great job, everybody. Thank you. You know what? >> Listening foodies. Tony speak. [clears throat] >> All right. Can we whiz through this? >> Thank you again to all the students. The students. Um
046I'd like to take this time to open the meeting for a public comment >> for agenda items only. Coravore. >> Do we need a motion? >> Motion. >> Anyone? >> Perfect. All in favor? >> I. >> Okay. >> I would like to close the meeting for public uh comment. Motion. >> Motion. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Okay. Board action items. I would make a motion to approve B2526.28 through B2526.31. >> Second. >> Discussion. >> I reviewed everything at our caucus, but if you thought of a question, please don't hesitate to ask. >> Roll call. Mr. Karate. >> Miss Bali. >> Yes. >> Mr. Dello. and yes 23031. >> Yes, >> that's right. >> Missello. >> Yes. So all >> Miss Torvick. >> Yes. >> Mr. Traverso. >> Yes. >> Miss Zaderelli.
047>> Yes. >> Miss Roloff. >> Yes. Education and Curriculum. Miss >> Belli, I lost my >> I need to get my glasses. I'm not used to this. >> Okay. At the recommendation of the superintendent, I make a motion to approve the following items. E252643 to BF. >> Nope, that's it. E25646. I got to get my glasses next time. So, anybody have any questions? >> Second discussion. >> Point45 is the high school program of studies that Mr. Mice just shared. It is a Google site. It's very comprehensive. So, I really would encourage our board trustees in our school community when you have time to go through it and see everything our high school has to offer. >> Anything else? Roll call. Mr. Karate. >> Miss Browley. Yes, >> Mr. Deello. >> Yes, >> Miss Einelo. >>
048Uh, yes to all, but in E2526.43, I'm going to abstain from item number 77 and yes to everything else. >> Miss Torvick, >> yes. >> Mr. Traverso, >> yes. >> Misselli, >> yes. >> Miss Rolloff, >> yes. Budget and finance, Mr. Akamando is not here. So at the recommendation of the superintendent, I make a motion to approve the following items. BF2526.62 through BF2526.65. Second >> second discussion nothing. Okay. Roll call. Mr. Karate. >> Miss Bali. >> Yes. Mr. >> Deello. >> Yes. Miss Idello. Sorry, hold on. >> I'm sorry. Hold on. I'm just looking at So, um, in BF2526.62, 62. I'm going to abstain from check numbers 68147, 7433, 7818. Okay. And then in BF2526.63, I'm going to abstain from item number 77. I think I obstained in the wrong spot before. >> Yeah, I
049So, in the in the last one, I wasn't abstaining from anything. >> I apologize. I was ahead of myself. >> Okay. Mr. Orbick. >> Yes. >> Mr. Verso? >> Yes. >> Miss Adarelli? >> Yes. >> Miss Rolloloff? >> Yes. Facilities in operation. Miss Torbick. At the recommendation of the superintendent, I make a motion to approve the following items. Item F2526.8. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Roll call. Mr. Kate. >> Miss Belli. >> Yes. >> Mr. Dello. >> Yes. >> Miss Einelo. >> Yes. >> Miss Torbick. >> Yes. >> M. Traverso. Yes, >> Misselli. >> Yes, >> Miss Rolloloff. >> Yes. Policy, Miss Ayana. >> At the recommendation of the superintendent, I make a motion to approve the following items. P2526.4 approve the second reading of the following policies and regulations. P2530 through R 9130.
050>> Second. Any discussions? >> Okay. Roll call. Mr. Karate. >> Miss Bali. >> Yes. >> Mr. Deello. >> I abstain. Uh P O L2526.4 through R 9130. >> Okay. Miss Einelo. >> Yes. >> Miss Torbick. >> Yes. >> Mr. Traverso. >> Yes. >> Miss Zarelli. Yes, >> Miss Rolloff. >> Yes. >> Negotiations. >> Nothing. >> None yet. Personnel, Miss Torbic. At the recommendation of the superintendent, I make a motion to approve the following items. P2526.35 through P2526.40. >> Second. >> I second. Any discussions for.35? We have number one is Mr. Felli who is resigning effective February 9th. He is moving on to a leadership position in another district and we wish him the very best. We also have Mr. Napoleon, our high school science teacher. He put in for his retirement effective April 1. And
051we also wish Mr. Napoleon the very best as he retires from education. And then for the appointments down to 37. Number one is a resend. Number two is middle school mathematics and number three is middle school science who I interviewed this morning and he accepted. So we are very excited to fulfill these middle school teaching positions. And then we have the stipens for spring coaches. >> And our minimum wage has increased in our state to $1549 um at their to $15.92 of an hourly rate effective January one. >> Okay. Roll call. Miss Barley, >> yes. >> Mr. Dello, >> yes. >> Missel, >> yes to all, but I'm going to abstain from ID number 1 through 13 for P2526.38. >> Mr. Torbick, >> yes. >> Mr. Traverso, >> yes. >> Misselli, >> yes. was roll
052off. >> Yes. >> Um, since it's the beginning of the new year, no committee reports at this time. Any liaison reports? >> No. But through the chair, can we go back to personnel? I just have a question on P2526.40. Do the lunch aids only get minimum wage without raises and only get raised when there's an increase in minimum wage? >> No, that's where they start. >> Okay. >> Yeah. There's ones that are paid higher than that. >> Okay. I don't know where they fall, but we negotiate with them. >> Okay. Do we have any leaison reports? [clears throat] >> I have schools >> for educational foundation. >> I do have one. >> Okay. >> Let me just get it. Okay. Not a lot, but they are working on rangers and there'll be a lot more
053to report next month that's on the educational foundation >> and Franklin >> Franklin I got the Franklin PTO reported on a very successful holiday shop and Franklin Express event for December. In addition, they will be having a heart-shaped pizza fundraiser in February as well as a Philly pretzel factory pretzel sale this week. That's it for Franklin. >> Uh Helen Iceman School. >> There is none. Uh Long School, Mr. Yes. >> Long School sixth grade committee hosted their annual breakfast with Santa on December 21st at Applebee's. They send their thanks to everyone who attended and volunteered at that event. The holiday class parties took place on Tuesday, December 23rd. As the PTO provided a slice of pizza for all students and staff, class parents provided additional treats, small gifts, and entertainment. The LMS PTO purchased an
054outdoor basketball hoop, marble run kits, not sure what that is, and storage containers for indoor recess, and also sponsored a staff welcome back breakfast, their upcoming program, events, and fundraisers. Uh they're continuing to collect membership dues in the form of excuse me I'm sorry PTO membership forms and dues for $15 per family. The special guy Little Lady Dance will be held on Thursday, February 12th at Vagios in Paramis. The sixth grade committee is hosting their snack sale on January 19th. Heart-shaped pizza fundraiser orders will be due February 5th with a pickup date of February 11th. Any questions regarding the sixth grade fundraiser committee, please see Melissa Traverso or Sher Dcasta. All LMS information can be found on their homepage of tinyurl.com and weekly updates can be found on their PTO LMS website. Their next meeting
055is scheduled for Tuesday, March 10th. >> Thank you very much. Uh, Miss Torbeck, anything? I know we just did these and Washington school. >> I have middle school. Hi, >> Sylvia has middle school. >> Oh, okay. >> All right. Actually, they wanted me to just put out there if anyone is interested in being an officer, please reach out to the PTO SBMS atgmail.com and someone will get back to you very shortly. >> an officer. >> Thank you. And if I may just share two things. First is I just want to thank our PTOs because our presidents, we have a a running Google sheet where there's a tab for each month and each PTO president kind of adds their events, what they're doing that month in their buildings. So that way everyone kind of sees what's
056happening across the district. And it's really been very collaborative. And I want to thank them. They're really keeping up with it. And I've just heard such positive feedback about all of our PTOs and they do so much for our staff and generally want to extend a heartfelt thank you to them all. And also as far as CPAC, the special education parent advisory group, Miss Hannenburgg, Miss Collie and myself met with two parents that are willing to take the lead with CPAC. And at our parent partnership meeting in March, we are going to have a CPAC section and we session and we are going to kind of share all of all of what CPAC is about and we're going to invite our parents of special education students to come join us and find out all that
057is all that is happening across our district in regards to special education students and also have more support systems for our special education parents. So that way we can kind of plan coffee and and snacks where we can get together. the special education parents may get together and just have a support system. We want to build that for them in the district. So that's what we talked about at that meeting. >> Okay, thank you very much. Any correspond correspondence? >> No old business, >> new business, >> monkey business >> through the chair. >> Okay. >> And new business. I just wanted to thank or just mention to everyone um we uh Mr. Mr. Versel and myself went to the DECA competition yesterday. So, thank you to Miss Ripus as Miss Mayor for inviting us. Um,
058it was a great experience. I very much enjoyed it. It was wonderful to see all of these young minds um dealt with these situations and how quick they were on their feet to give us business plans. Unfortunately, we didn't see our students because we weren't allowed, but I was very proud of all of our students who participated in it. I think it's a great competition. I think it was something that's going to prepare you for the future. So, I'm very proud of all of our students for putting themselves out there and doing that. And I also would like to thank Miss Sharp that she was with us and what a absolutely wonderful baker she is. The she made us cookies and they were delicious. I love them. So, thank you. Um and Miss Ripus deserves
059all of those shout outs. I mean, she is phenomenal. The um Miss Sharp and Miss Mayor too. I just know Miss Ripus for many years with my own um children. So, you know, we are very lucky to have all of them. So, I just wanted to let us >> Thank you for sharing and reminding me of that. So, thank you to Miss Ayonello and Mr. Verso B for being judges at our DECA competition. We actually had a strong showing of students. We had about approximately 10 of our students that participated in DECA and we had about seven judges. So, we had myself, we had the two board trustees, we had Mrs. Donus, Mrs. Collie, Mr. Mish. Um, and I know I'm forgetting a couple, but thank you for putting in the time for this. It
060was really a fun time. It's very it's it's a lot of bonding and fun to kind of get everyone's perspective on it. So, they do encourage board members to be a to be judges at these competitions. So, as we do it again next year, we'll be sending the invitation. We hope that more can join us. >> Um, and through the chair, I have one other thing may I just quickly I know last year, I feel like it was last year, the year before, we had the therapy dog at Smith School. >> Do we still have our therapy dog? >> We do not currently have the therapy dog. >> Okay. Is that something that we're looking into having again? Possibly. >> Possibly. >> Something that we can discuss. >> Okay. >> Now, I'd like to open
061the meeting to public comment. Oh, never mind. One more. >> So, uh, next Wednesday we set up a, uh, board of ed training with New Jersey school boards for the ethics training. And we're going to, we're going to have that at 7 o'clock at our, uh, Coolage Board of Ed building, our conference room. So, it should be good. And we're going to try to schedule now that we have the committee set a policy meeting, a committee meeting before that if we could. So, I'll be emailing the committee to set that up. Thank you. >> Anybody else? You sure? >> Okay. I'd like to open the meeting to public comment. >> Second. >> Motion. >> Anyone? >> All in favor? >> I >> Okay, I'd like to close the No. >> Anybody want to talk? >>
062Somebody want to talk? So, I can read this. >> You can say anything. >> That's okay. Do you think? >> Okay, I'm going to close the session. >> Motion second. >> All in favor? >> I'd like to adjourn close session. >> Make a motion to close the meeting. >> Motion. >> Second. >> All in favor? I >> I made it through my first meeting. Thank you everyone.