001I have such a headache. Oh jeez. I just have a headache. I have a really bad headache. Call the meeting to order. Roll call, please. Miss Rakamando, present. Miss Bali, present. Mr. Richello, present. Missyello, present. Mr. Laurentino, present. Miss Roloff, here. Miss Torvick, present. Miss Traverso, standing. Present. President, please rise 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. Okay. 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. Okay. Uh student representatives, can we have your report? Okay, good. Okay. Starting off with Washington school. It's
002been a very busy week for them having ReadAcross America week and they welcomed many readers into the students classrooms. They were so excited to see their parents, family members, and special guests from across the district. In addition, students from the middle school high school sale program came to read and do special crafts with the students during ReadAcross America week. At the end of last month, the students had a field trip to Imagine That. And this month they will continue their study on their study on pets, learning all about such things as their natural habitats and how to care for them. And lastly, as the warm weather approaches, Washington School is excited to get more use out of their new playground equipment. Franklin School has been buzzing with exciting activities. Their kindergarten classes enjoyed two special
003visits this past month. one visit from Saddle Brook High School Service Learning Club who came to read to the kindergarten classes along with a visit from students in the Saddle Brook High School sale program who assisted with events for their kindergarteners during Kids Heart Challenge Month in their gym classes. Additionally, Franklin School celebrated ReadAcross America Week with tremendous success with events all throughout the week and welcoming over 20 guest readers who shared their love of reading with Franklin students. Now for Smith School, they've had a quite busy and exciting few weeks. They kicked things off with a good celebration for ReadAcross America Week and they also had a character dressup day. Um they were thrilled to welcome the preview performance for the high school musical. The students thoroughly enjoyed the show and it was a
004great opportunity to connect with the high school community. Additionally, they took this moment to recognize some of the former Smith School students who were in the play. Smith School PTO has been incredibly active and supportive bringing a truly engaging mad science assembly titled Up Up and Away for the students who were absolutely captivated by the demonstrations. And everyone is very grateful for the PTO's commitment to enriching their students learning experiences. And last night, they had the pleasure of hosting the incoming kindergarten parents from all three elementary schools. It was a wonderful opportunity for them to come together and learn more about the exciting journey that awaits their children. Smith looks forward to meeting all the children soon. Long school has been vibrantly active in the past month. They want to firstly voice their gratitude as
005they were honored to host guest readers from Shadow Brook High School staff staff community in Bergen County this past month. They extend their sincere gratitude to Miss Vietti, Mr. Okamando, Mr. Archello, Mayor White, Mr. Gallo, Mrs. Jenkins, Miss Collie, Mr. Osborne, Mr. Donis, Mr. Mesh, Miss Mansfield, Miss Kelly Fontana, Miss Lauder, Miss Weiss, Miss French, Miss Ferrero, Mr. Joam, Miss Christine, Lieutenant Buchek, and Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Mousella for sharing their time and passion for reading with their students during ReadAcross America week. Aweek also brought an element of delightful surprise with their teacher swap providing students the unique opportunity to read to a guest teacher and share and sharing one of their favorite books. The atmosphere was lively as the students and staff alike showcased their literary enthusiasm by dressing as their favorite book characters
006for read across America week as well. The creativity and engagement displayed were remarkable. They also had a schoolwide color run kickoff assembly that generated enthusiasm for this highly anticipated BTO event. They encouraged all to mark their calendars for the color run on May 17th at Long School. This month they also had a special preview of the high school musical Once Upon a Mattress courtesy of the high school music staff. They appreciate their dedication to sharing the performing arts with long students. Ultimately, it was a great month at Long School. Now for the middle school. On February 13th, they celebrated PSI Love You Day by wearing purple. And the intention of wearing purple on this day is to come together as a community to provide suicide prevention and to provide a sense of unity and mental
007health awareness. The middle school students decorated coffee sleeves and wrote positive messages on them. They were donated by the Saddle Brook Starbucks. Starbucks then distributed them and decorated the sleeves to its customers all weekend. I can attest cuz I worked there, all the customers were very happy to see them and they were very, very cute. The eighth graders are one step closer to the promotion ceremony on February 28th. They were measured for their caps and gowns. A big shout out to everyone that performed in Once Upon a Mattress. It was a stellar performance. So proud of the middle school students and all the high school students as well. And the middle school would like to give a special thanks to Mr. Ortega and Mr. Cuden for the great show. For the high school, the senior
008banquet was banquet was held on March 12th at Brownstone. Seniors ate from a buffet, took amazing pictures, danced, and some were hypnotized, putting on an entertaining show. The class of 2025 validictorian and saludatoran was announced this past month. Congratulations to the validictorian Shawn McCauley and to the saludiatoran Deanna Jo. The NJGPA testing took place this past week. While juniors tested, the rest of the school participated in a delayed opening schedule. The spring musical was a great success. Once Upon a Mattress was a hit. Congratulations to everyone who participated. You all did a great job. On March 3rd, marking period 3 progress reports were released. Coming up shortly, April 4th, the third marking period will end. Lastly, the AP mock exams will take place all week next week. Good luck to everyone participating. Okay. And finally,
009we have our information regarding the sports department. The Saddle Brook High School athletic department would like to recognize the following winter sport all league players. For indoor track and field, it's second team shot putter Jaden Taylor. For wrestling, first team all league 215 pounder Ryan Cruz, second team at 126, Jake Rialosce, and at 138 Dylan Sarasel. An honorable mention to selection at 285 Charles Henle. For boys basketball, it's first team Nelson Aim and second team Mark Franson and an honorable mention to Nicholas Vidiello. For girls basketball, first team Bella LaGuardia and second team Zleal Law. An honorable mention to Brianna Cologne. And finally, for competition cheer, congratulations to the Saddb Brook High School competition cheer team on winning second year in a row at the NGIC conference championship and coming in second place in their
010state competition. Along with that, our girls were named for back-to-back years national and high point champions. Congratulations. Thank you. Um, Mrs. Violet, we weren't done this report. Thank you. So, you heard our students share about Once Upon a Mattress that was our spring musical this past weekend. It was absolutely phenomenal show. So, thank you to Mr. Ortega and Mr. Cudin for all their hard work with this performance. And I also think we should acknowledge the fact that they they were able to stay clear the stage and make sure this room is ready for our board meeting within a few days. So, thank you to them for that. I also shared on social media today some updated pictures on our turf field and lights. It is coming along very nicely. It's fascinating how they create the
011turf field. It's fun to watch. So, we're really excited and hoping it'll be a couple more weeks before we're able to get on that field. Let's see. NJSA NJSLA testing. I just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the hard work our staff has been doing in preparing our students for the NJSLA. We are really focusing on improvement in our academic performance this year and I just want to take a moment to extend my gratitude to the staff for all their hard work with this. Um last night we had our parent partnership night. We it was the second one of this year. We hosted a college and career fair. Spencer Bank hosted a session on financial planning. Never too early to start. Um we also NJ4S is a nonforprofit nonprofit organization. They did a session
012on anxiety and stress on coping with anxiety and stress not increasing it. And our elementary principles did a kindergarten prep session as well. It was very wellreceived. Lots of positive feedback from our families. Um it was the first time we did a nighttime college and career fair and the parents were very the feedback we received is the parents were very happy to be able to have this experience with their child. So, and I also just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the fact that um my leadership team has been present at these parent partnership nights which not only shows support but also has them be visible to our community members that attend these events and it's such a great um thing for our community to experience. I want to take a moment to extend
013my gratitude to our leadership team and also our communication has been great with the township and the recreation department and our school system. And I just want to acknowledge this as well. We're being informed about rec basketball basketball championship games, about wrestling, competing at the states, and it is nice to know exactly what's going on with our students and having that communication back and forth with the town and the recreation department. So, we appreciate that. Next, I'm going to we have two what we started this um tradition this year of acknowleding students at our high school that exhibit the qualities of a true Saddlebrook Falcon of someone that we're proud to have at our high school. Um and we're calling them exemplary falcons. And what I'm going to do is I'm just going to share
014some comments that people have shared about both of these students. So, we have Mia and Rebecca. And what we do is we have teachers nominate students each month and then we send out a form to our entire district staff and anyone's able to write a positive comment about these students. So I'm just going to take a moment to read them, have them come up and present them with a falcon of the week shirt and then we'll take some pictures. Okay, I'm not starting to move. No, I want my phone to take pictures. forgot. Thank you. You're welcome. I always forget that question. Okay, I'm going to start with Mia Kosvski. Mia Kosvski, you're nominated for being an excellent motivated student, very involved with extracurriculars after school. Mia is one of the founding members of the
015Reset Club. She goes above and beyond helping plan the activities and ensuring that everyone is involved. I had Mia in my class when she was in middle school. Mia was a dedicated and hard-working middle school student who consistently demonstrated a strong commitment to both academic and personal growth. Engaged in classroom discuss discussions, she actively contributed insightful ideas and asked thoughtful questions, showing an eagerness to learn. Whether tackling challenging assignments or collaborating with peers, Mia approached every task with determination and a strong work ethic. She was always striving to excel. More recently, I also had the opportunity to chaperon a Latin club trip where I enjoyed getting to know Mia as a young adult. It was fun spending non-academic time with her. Mia is a dedicated writer for the Falcon Flyer, always eager to get involved.
016Her enthusiasm and commitment to storytelling shines through. Mia's curiosity and drive make her an essential part of the team, bringing fresh perspectives and keeping the school community informed. Mia has a great attitude towards learning. Her assignments are always over and above what is required. She is always smiling and is a pleasure to have or was a pleasure to have in my class in eighth grade as well as this year. I had Mia in fourth grade. She was a role model to all and an exemplary student. Everything Mia did, she gave 1,000%. She had a work ethic like no other. She demanded excellence in herself and it showed with flying colors. Her writing was always organized and exceptional. Because of her sweet disposition, Mia was a friend to one and all. Having seen her recently, I
017can see that she is still that lovely and wonderful student I had in grade four. I was Mia's kindergarten teacher. She was a hard worker then, and it sounds like it continued through her time in Saddlebrook schools. She was always kind and quiet and a pleasure to teach. It is a joy to hear all the wonderful things that Mia is continues to accomplish. Mia Kosvski is an excellent student and has been a pleasure to work with. I am looking forward to what the next few years will bring. So Mia, congratulations on being recognized in exemplary falcon. Come on up. Large small paper. Okay. And then our next one is Rebecca. How do you pronounce your last name? Good. Goody. Thank you. Rebecca Goodoy. Rebecca has been working with my first graders since September as a
018tomorrow's teacher. To Rebecca comes every day with enthusiasm for learning, passion for helping each student, and kindness. When she walks into our classroom, the kids light up with excitement to see her. It is special for me to have Rebecca in my classroom because she was also my second grade student. Rebecca was my student at Long for many years. Always helpful in class, but her enthusiasm was wonderful, too. I'm so happy that she continued with music at the middle school and high school as well under the direction of Mr. Ortega and Mr. Cudin. Every year, I love to visit them and watch how Rebecca has grown musically over the years. Kudos to Rebecca. Rebecca was my student in fourth grade. She was just a sweet young lady who tried hard every single day and gave her
019best. She started and ended each day with a smile. Her enthusiasm to learn was contagious. Seeing her blossom in the play in the plays makes my heart sing with happiness. I can't wait to see where she goes from here. I am very lucky to have been Rebecca's teacher last year. She always came prepared to class, ready to work and gave her best effort. She is a consistently dedicated, honest, and kind student who is always a good friend to those around her. Rebecca has been a pleasure to work with over the last 3.5 years. She has intentions of becoming an elementary school teacher and plans to attend Bergen in the fall. Congratulations, Rebecca. Here she is. [Applause] Okay, that concludes my superintendent report. Thank you, Mrs. Violet. Mr. Karate, you have anything for us? Yes. So,
020just quick, I just wanted to say that it's been u two years since we passed the referendum and like Miss Vietty said, the field is looking great. Uh if you didn't see, I think it was last month, she did a presentation on all the projects. Everything's moving along well. We started um back in the summer of 23. We did some more projects in the summer of 24 and we're hoping to finish up with the last uh group of projects in the summer of 25. But um everything's been great with it and the buildings are are looking really good and we thank thank all the uh residents. That concludes my report. Thank you. Okay. So um we are we can open the meeting for agenda items only. Does anyone want to speak on agenda items only?
021Okay. And we will not open to the public. Okay. You want to read your statement first about the board action. Okay. So before the board takes action on um item B2425.33, we're going to add to the statement. So, it's approved a long-term suspension uh for student ID 3945 per the res resolution as listed on exhibit 03192025B which the board discussed in close session. Thank you, Mr. Kate. Okay. So, for board um action items B2425.32 and B2425.33. Can I get a motion? Motion. Second. Thank you. Do roll call. Any questions? Anybody? Roll call, please. Miss Rolloloff. Yes, M. Traverso. Yes, Miss Aarelli. Yes to 33, but I'm abstaining from 32. I was not at that meeting. Which one, Mr. 12th? 20th. No, 12th. Sorry. It's the 12th I'm abstaining from. It's a one, two, and three.
022Just one, two, three. One, two, and three. Okay. Miss Belli. Yes. Mr. Archello, yes. Missyello, yes. Mr. Laurentino, yes. Mr. Torbick, yes. Okay. Education and curriculum. Mrs. Ianelo. Okay. At the recommendation of the superintendent, I make a motion to approve the following items E2425.41 through E2425.45. Second. Okay. I'll share some of the field trips that are on for approval. We have a business math trip for our students here to visit Ramipo College. They'll get a tour of the trading lab, the business department classrooms, a campus tour, and have lunch in their cafeteria. Students in our sculpture class here are going to visit MoMA in New York City. There's an exhibi exhibition on cycllatic art. Students in Spanish 3 will be visiting Felician University to be immersed in a celebration of Hispanic cultural art history by
023viewing the Hispanic Flamco Ballet. Grade one students at Long, they're actually doing a pizza making class at Brothers Pizza. So, each class is going separately. Um, and grade two going to the Newark Museum. There's a safari exhibit. We have we're having our students that are in grade six in our MDABA classrooms at our K to6 buildings. They're going to visit the sale program here at our middle school to help them with their transition for next school year. Our steam club is scheduled to visit Liberty Science Center. We have some grade level trips to the Turtleback Zoo and the Wax Museum, Adam to Saurat Wax Museum, which our grade five students do the wax museum here. Um, Kids Empire and Pramis is a new sensory place that opened up. So, some of our special education students
024will be visiting that. Um, grade six students will be visiting this building for their middle school orientation. We started doing that earlier in the last few years, maybe last year was their first year. So that way while they're in sixth grade here, they come up to our middle school and they get their orientation. Um, where am I? Students in environmental club, they're going to visit grounds for sculpture exhibit. I believe that's in Hamilton, New Jersey. National Honor Society students are going to assist the preschool students at Washington School with their spring egg hunt as their one of their service projects. Our middle school high school band is scheduled to perform in the Greek day parade in New York City and our preschool students will be visiting our public library. Thank you. Any questions? Roll call,
025please. Roll. Yes. Miss Traverso. Yes. Misselli? Yes. Mr. Akamando? Yes. Miss Barelli? Yes. Mr. Archello? Yes. Missel? Yes. Mr. Florentino, I'm going to vote yes to all but in E2425.41, I'll abstain from number 162. Miss Torvvic. Yes. Okay. Budget and finance. M. Traverso. Before I go on with the vote, I'm going to read a quick summary. Um, just telling you how we got here and how long of a hard process it's been. Um the administration puts together the staffing pro staffing projects and items needed for next school year budget of 2526. The superintendent and business administrator review the items with the administrators. Revisions revisions and cuts are made until a budget is presented to the budget committee which consists of board members myself, Mr. Akamando, Mr. Archello and Miss Torb. The committee has met with
026Mrs. Vleti and Mr. Karate approximately five times to review all aspects of the budget. When the budget was first given to us, it was approximately $3 million over the tax levy cap of 2%. We are facing high projected increases in large areas of areas of the budget, 15% for health benefits, 17% for utilities, 8% in property and other insuranceances, 6% in workers compensation insurance. These increases along with contractual salary increases and required special education costs put us far over a 2% tax levy cap. Many revisions and reductions were made to reduce the amount we were overcap. In the end, the budget committee did not want to lose some current programs or even current staff positions. We actually need more staff in some areas. So to balance the budget, we had to increase the allowable tax
027levy cap with state approved adjustments for enrollment and health. In doing this, the tax levy would increase a projected 4.61% for next year's budget. The impact of the average house in the township of $473,300 would be $277 for calendar year 25. After the budget approval tonight, it is sent to the county office to review. After their approval, we are scheduling a full presentation of the budget at a public hearing meeting on May 5th at 7 PM. At the recommendation of the superintendent, I apologize. Did anybody have any questions on the board? No. No. Thank you for that. At the recommendation of the superintendent, I make a motion to approve the following items. BF2425.74 through BF2425.91 second. [Music] Any questions for 2425.77 the professional development workshops. I just like to highlight some of the ones our
028staff are attending. These include social anxiety and perfectionism, behavioral threat assessment and management best practices, practical interventions for classroom behavior problems, um challenging behavior in the school setting. There's also CPR training and uh school counselor association, the spring conference and a scheduling workshop as well. For 78, I explained during caucus um how we are proposing a cooperative sport for wrestling for next school year with Loi High School. Loi will be the lead and um it as I explained it would benefit both of our districts to kind of join forces with for wrestling next school year. Anything else? Anything else? Anybody? Any other questions? We went over a lot of this, but any other questions? Roll call, please. Miss Rollolof, yes. Mr. Traverso, yes. Miss Adarelli, yes. Mr. Akamando, yes to all, but I'm going to
029abstain from uh where is that? My finger hit the screen. BF2425 number 74 checks number 66654 and 66655. Yes to all. Okay. Miss Barelli. Yes. Mr. Archello. Yes. Missel. Yes, all but I'm going to abstain from BF2425.74 check numbers 9336 and 6679 in BF2425.77 I'm going to abstain from item number 133 and then in BF242 25.78. I'm going to abstain from that one. Yes to everything else. Okay, Mr. Laurentino. Uh, yes to all, but I'll abstain in BF2425.74 check number 1012 and 1388. And I'll abstain in BF2425.77, workshop number 124. Okay. Miss Torbick. Yes. Okay. Facilities and operations. Mr. Archel. At the recommendation of the superintendent, I make a motion to approve the following items. F2425.7, approval of school facility use reports for April 2025. Second. [Music] Any questions? Roll call, please. Miss Roloff, yes.
030Miss Traverso, yes. Miss Aarelli, yes. Mr. Akamando, yes. Miss Bali, yes. Mr. Archello, yes. Miss Einelo, yes. Mr. Laurentino, yes. Miss Torb, yes. Okay. We have no policy. We have no negotiation. So, personnel, Mr. Laurentino. Okay. At the recommendation of the superintendent, I make a motion to approve the following items. P24256 through P2425.66. Second. Any questions? Roll call, please. Miss Roloff, yes. Miss Travero, yes. Miss Aarelli, yes. Mr. Akamando, yes. Miss Barali, yes. Mr. Richello, yes. Miss Einelo, yes to all, but I'm going to abstain from P24259, item number two. Sorry, there's another. And then I'm going to abstain also from P2425.61. Okay. [Laughter] Mr. Lorentino, I'll vote yes to all, but I'll also abstain from P 2425.61. And Miss Torvbeek. Yes. Okay. Um, committee reports. I don't think we have to do budget and
031finance again because that was fun, right? Facilities and operations. I have something for facilities. Thank you. So, the facilities committee met on March 13th where we discuss projects currently being completed as well as upcoming projects as uh Mrs. Vleti mentioned the turf field was delivered and laid out over the last week. It looks fantastic. Check it out on social media for new pictures I think taken by Ray Karate himself or Mrs. Vleti herself. Um the lights are about 95% installed and the uh visitor bleachers will be completed around May. We are looking forward to seeing the work completed. Uh Koolage School the work at Koolage is progressing nicely and currently floors are being installed. Electric is being hooked up to the building. We are hoping to have the building completed soon. Uh we're using rod
032grants to do boiler and HVAC replacement throughout the district this summer. And uh as approved today tonight in the budget, uh Franklin Long and Smith School will be getting new playgrounds. We thank the old playgrounds for their 20 plus years of service. Thank you. Okay. We had no negotiations. We have no policy. Correct. Mrs. Okay. Does anybody have any liazison reports? Long school. I have Washington. Okay. If you don't mind. Uh I have Mrs. Traverso. You want you want to start? Yeah. I'll start. Pretty simple. Go ahead. Go ahead. Okay. Uh Smith School. Okay. Um, teachers and faculty at Smith School received a special surprise from Double Good Popcorn. They won a contest and received 100 bags of popcorn for the staff. Uh, Smith students sold chocolate from Gertude Hawk. Delivery will be on uh
033the week of April 7th. They're also hosting their annual VIP dance next Wednesday, March 26th at the Fiesta. Uh they have a good night of fun uh for the families planned and Smith PTO encourage any graduating seniors that are Smith alumni to apply for the Smith PTO scholarship. The deadline is uh April 1st and their next PTO meeting is April 15th at 7 p.m. on Zoom. Thank you. Thank you. Franklin School. During March, Franklin PTO had an Irish soda bread fundraiser where they sold loaves from a crumbs bakery. They also completed their annual Girtual Girtroot Hawk chocolate sale which is used toward the sixth grade activities. The PTO has been assisting with funds toward field trips for the various grades. The next event will be Falcon Funday at Humdingers on 3:24. This event is open
034to everyone and they had their meeting tonight so I don't have anymore. Mrs. Traversa band long schools up uh upcoming programs. Friday, March 28th, they will be doing their duct taped fundraiser to benefit the sixth grade class of 2025. The sixth grade committee is hosting breakfast with the bunny for LMS families on Sunday, April 6th at the Paramis Applebee. Yours truly will be the bunny. So, if your kids are, you know, out there, bring them in from long school, please. The LMS color run will be held on Saturday, May 17th. Spirit sale continues. Please join the website to see those uh sweatsuits and whatnot. They're very nice this year. Very, very nice. As a friendly reminder, the LMS PTO members can join the Facebook page. All LMS families and staff are encouraged to visit our
035website, which is kept up to date with their upcoming events, fundraisers, etc. Next meeting will be Tuesday, May 13th, in the LMS cafeteria. I have the high school, middle school. Thank you. You're welcome. Um, on April 5th, they will be hosting a spring popup day with a photo shoot. There's various themed stations, plus a bunny station, and our very own Mr. Aamundo is going to be their bunny. Oh, boy. Okay. Uh, details and forms are going to be emailed tomorrow. Their next meeting will be after break. They haven't set a date yet. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Washington. Yes, please. Great. Washington school. Uh, as Sana said, Washington School had a lot of read across America. Mr. Readers come come in. So, they do thank you for, uh, volunteering. This month, they will continue to study
036pets, learning uh, all about such thing as natural habitats, how to take care of them. As the warmer weather approaches, they're excited to get out and use the new playground equipment. Uh next month the teachers and the PTO will be putting on a spring egg hunt for our students and the National Honor Society from the high school will be coming in to do another uh spring event with the children. Uh things that happened. So March 12th uh earlier this month the PTO had a very successful paint and sip fundraiser where they raised over $1,600. Good job. Nice. Uh March 24th there's no school for staff development. April 11th is movie night where the preschoolers will will be watching Pulp Fiction. Just kidding. Making sure you're paying attention. the the movie is to be uh determined
037and I'm sure it will be something age appropriate. Um, April 16th will be the spring egg hunt. April 18th through the 25th is spring recess. Uh May 5th through 8th is teacher appreciation. Thank you. Thank you. Any correspondence? He said none. Uh old business. I have two for old business. Sure. Because what's new is uh now old. I'd like to thank my colleagues on the board for uh coming to a successful conclusion with our contract for our superintendent. Not sure if people are aware, but before the superintendent, we had about five superintendents in 10 years. Uh I think bringing stability back to the district is extremely important because it's really going to only equate to a better education for all the students in Saddle. So, thank my colleagues very much for getting that done. Uh
038number two, though technically not a board issue, uh we had our first Saddak High School Hall of Fame, athletic hall of fame meeting. Couple of weeks ago, that was a tremendous success. Also like to thank Mr. Iella who's here and Miss Vietti. Uh the work they have done is beyond and I could have hoped our response has been tremendous. Uh I've talked to so many people over the last couple of weeks, including Mr. Gallow. Thank you very much. Uh our next meeting is going to be April 6. So this is a project we're going to get off the ground. So, I'm very much looking forward to it. Thank you. Could I just mention something, too? Sure. Just uh I just wanted to congratulate our nurse Fontana on her retirement uh at Long School. Uh she's
039more than just a nurse over there. She is nurse, mom, aunt, whatever you want to call her. She's a a light at Long and she'll be she'll be missed. Absolutely. We have some huge retirements this school year and um we will be acknowledging our retirees and our teachers of the year. The the plan is to honor them at the June board of ed meeting just so that we are all aware and I just would like to take a moment to thank the board for their confidence in me to continue as superintendent serving as superintendent public schools for Saddlebrook. I appreciate it and to the community I appreciate the support that you have in me as a leader here. So thank you. [Applause] Okay. So, for new business, I just want to add I want to
040say how happy we are that you will be uh continuing here at Saddlebrook. We're very happy to have you. Um I want to congratulate uh Mr. Ortega, Mr. Cudin, um everybody who worked on or was um part of the play. I went on Sunday and it was fantastic as usual. Um that's it. That's all I have to say. Anybody else have any? That's a 15-year contract for the superintendent, right? Yes. 25 year contract now. Okay. How long to retirement? So, I'm going to assume there are people that want to speak, so we'll open the meeting. Okay. Can I have a motion to open the meeting to the public? No business. Second. Thank you. Okay. I'm going to read my statement. Residents are requested to state their names, addresses, and subject matter. In the event it
041appears the public comment portion of the meeting may exceed 45 minutes, the presiding officer may limit each statement made by a participant to 5 minutes duration. Issues raised by members of the public may or may not be responded to by the board. All comments will be considered and a response will be forthcoming if and when appropriate. The board asks that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals when speaking. Specifically, comments regarding students and employees of the board are discouraged and will not be responded to by the board. Students and employees have specific legal rights afforded by the laws of New Jersey. The board bears no responsibility, nor will it be liable for any comments made by members of the public. Members of the public should consider their comments
042in light of the legal rights of those affected or identified in their comments and may be aware that they are legally responsible and liable for their comments. Does anybody want to speak? Okay. I was like, I hope so. I just heard that whole damn thing. Take it off the stand. We We got to hold the computer, though. All right. Thank you. Hold this for a sec. Nick Videll, Brandon Booza, Jaden Gatis. Good evening. My name is Nicholas Videll and sitting next to me is Jaden Gatus and Brandon Booza. We are all captains of the football team and we are here tonight to say farewell to our coach. To be honest, my teammates and I are shocked that our coach was not voted back as our head coach for the 2025 season. We put an effort
043to show how much we care, coming to the board meeting, reading his statement, and even trying to push for another vote. It's not every day that you see an entire football team show up to stand behind their coach. And we did it peacefully with nothing but respect for the process because that's the kind culture our coach built. As a team, we created a petition and supported and support we received was overwhelming. People from both out inside and outside the community stood with us and not a single negative comment was written. Yet despite all of this, our votes, our petition and the board did not take action. That's disappointing to say the least. We are the players. We are the ones who put the uniform on, who play for the love of the game, who work
044hard towards opportunities at the next level. Me and Nick have both been on division one college visits made possible from the help of our coach. That alone shows the dedication he has to his players. We ask the board to stand with us to recognize what he has done for this program. When coach took over this program, it was broken. He gave everything to rebuild it. He gave us hope, not just as athletes, but as people. He pushed us to be be more than average to expect more from ourselves. One comment from the petition really stood out to us. I'm deeply disappointed by the situation unfolding inside regarding coach. Having been around many coaches in my career, I can confidently say that coach is the one best one of the best I've ever seen. He really
045cares about the kids, the community, and the program in a way that is rare in today's coaching world. With the challenges schools face in finding and keeping quality coaches, allowing some of his caliber to walk away would be nothing but a disaster. It's frustrating and embarrassing that a few individuals in town believe their opinions outweigh those of the administration, the athletes, and the major majority of the community. The people have spoken. They want coach to stay. So why is this still being debated? Why are we allowing a couple voices to be hold so much power over something that affects so many? Sodber should be doing everything in his power to retain an amazing coach, not pushing him away. If this decision goes the wrong way, it will set a terrible look and hurt the people
046this is supposed to be about. It's supposed to be about the kids. Another comment, it's nice to see a group of young men coming together to fight for a cause they that they believe in. there are the they're the ones playing the game, not anyone on the outside. The grass isn't always greener on the other side. That's just two two people's comments, but it echoes what so many of us feel. In a total, there was 25 comments and 158 signatures. If this truly is a farewell to our coach, then on the behalf of the team, we want to say thank you coach for making us stronger both physically and mentally and for dedicating the countless hours to our program that needed that we needed. We won't forget all the long hours dedicated to us. Thank
047you, coach, and thank you board members. Does anybody else wish to speak? Should I close it first? Okay. Could I have a motion to close the meeting to the public? Thank you. All in favor? opposed. Nick, Jaden, and Brandon, thank you for representing Saddle Brook High School so well. Um, we the entire I speak I'm I'm going to say that from the board that we thank you um for expressing your thoughts and opinions with us. Um, as far as a football coach goes, as you're aware, we are receiving applicants at this time and we are going through the interview process and we will move forward from there. Thank you. I have a motion to close the meeting. All in favor? Opposed? Thank you. Okay. [Music]