001Christina, >> in accordance with the provision of the open public meetings act, the board secretary has forwarded notice of this meeting for advertising by having the date, time, and place thereof posted in the caucus town hall on the p on the bulletin board located in the hallway of the board of education administrative building as well as the district website. Flag salute. Roll call. >> Mr. Bartletta, >> here. >> Miss Doddetta, >> present. >> Mr. Barry, >> present. >> Mr. Deombre, >> present. >> Miss Eckles, >> present. >> Miss Geller, >> here. >> Miss Howard, >> present. >> Mr. Lewis. >> Mr. Lions, >> present. Okay, this time I'd like to give some updates in some of our schools. Starting with Caucus Middle School and highlights for January. Caucus Middle School was pleased to welcome families
002to their middle school open house on January 15th of 2026. The evening provided an opportunity to share information with academic programs, student support services, extracurricular offerings, and schoolwide events. They appreciated the strong turnout and the opportunity to connect with families and showcase the vibrant learning community at Caucus Middle School. We are proud to congratulate sixth grade student Rehea Bahage who was named the Caucus Middle School spelling be champion. Rayad secured Rayad, I'm sorry, secured the title by correctly spelling the championship word monolithic and will represent Caucus Middle School at the Hudson County Spelling Bee on Saturday, February 7th, 2026 at Hi-Tech High School. We commend Riad for his accomplishment and recognize all of our all of our spelling B participants for their hard work, courage, and dedication. In addition, our middle and high school students
003proudly represented CC Caucus at the STAJ governor's award competition. This marks only our second year participating in the competition and our first year including middle school students. Congratulations to Olivia Nativid who earned a top 14 placement in musical theater solo. David Schmullian and Jack White who placed sixth in m musical theater duet. and David Schmullian who earned first place in playwriting and presented a staged reading of his original work. We are incredibly proud of our students for their talent, creativity, and commitment and for representing CC Caucus with excellence. Thank you for your ongoing partnership and support as we continue to provide meaningful opportunities for our students. That is courtesy of Dr. Garzone. January updates at Clarin. Our holiday season celebrations were truly memorable. The PTA's annual holiday bazaar was, as always, a highlight for our
004student shoppers in a very successful and festive fundraiser. Our winter concert beautifully showcased the talent and hard work of our students under the direction of Oscar Gangora and Zachary Lowerman. Teacher door decorating added an extra layer of joy, creativity, and school spirit throughout the building and was enjoyed by students and staff alike. We also recently held our annual spelling bee, which was a wonderful success. Our participant our participants demonstrated impressive preparation, focus, and perseverance. And we are proud of every student who took the stage and challenged themselves. Congratulations to Elena Bazar Zea, I'm sorry if I mispronounced that, who earned third place, and Eric Francis, who finished in second place. A special congratulations goes to our first place winner and 2026 Claran School spelling bee champion, fourth grader Charara Brihenny on an outstanding achievement. Looking
005ahead next week, we will proudly kick off our St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Mathon. Lisa Bartletta and Dear Chini Orti Ortiz have organized a fun and engaging month of activities and incentives for our staff and students to raise money and awareness for this amazing cause. This is always a meaningful experience for our students as it combines strong math practice with an important lesson in service and compassion. And lastly, at Yuber Street School, the update for January is the winter season kicked off with a spectacular display of harmony on December 2nd at the Arthur F. Couch Performing Arts Center in a beautiful show of collaboration. Yuber Street joined forces with Claridan School for the annual winter concert under the baton of Mr. Oscar Oscar Gangora. Fifth grade musicians from both schools united to form the elementary
006school concert band filling the hall with impressive melodies. The Yuber Street School chorus featured talented fourth and fifth graders led by Mr. Dan Amato also taking the stage also who also took the stage to share their voices to share his voice. Sorry. The evening reached a high note when both school choirs combined for an en high energy encore performance of the hit song Golden by K-pop Demon Hunters, leaving the audience cheered and inspired. Okay, I just want to also um update the community on the superintendent uh search process the board will be putting out. um a statement next month at our meeting about our plans and a timeline of how we plan to move forward with that. Also, at this time, we are going to change the order of the meeting which we will be
007voting on tonight. We will be moving the public forum general comments section to fall in line under the public forum agenda item section. So in other words, when the first time we open up the floor for public forum items, it will go in the order of agenda items and anyone coming up will still have the opportunity to speak for 3 minutes during that portion. And then right after that, instead of waiting till the end of the meeting, we will then have our public forum for general items to be discussed at that time together. And again, if somebody wanted to come up and speak on each, you will still be allotted that that same time frame for each portion. So, um, we just thought that that would be a little bit better to do it that
008way. >> I make a motion to change the agenda and move the public comment section. We are going to move that section under the public forum agenda item section. So, all public and agenda items will be spoken here. >> Discussion. Call the role. >> Mr. Bartletta. >> Miss Diodeta. >> Yes. >> Mr. Barry. >> Yes. >> Mr. Deombre. >> Yes. >> Miss Eckles. >> Yes. >> Miss Geller. >> Yes. >> Miss Howard? >> Yes. >> Mr. Lewis. >> Mr. Lions. >> Yes. >> Approval of regular meeting minutes of December 18th, 2025. >> Discussion. Call the role. I need a second on that. >> Oh, sorry. >> Mr. Bartletta, >> Miss Diodetta, >> yes. >> Mr. Barry, >> yes. >> Mr. Deumbre, >> yes. >> Miss Eckles, >> yes. >> Miss Geller, >> recuse. >> Miss
009Howard? >> Yes. >> Mr. Lewis? >> Yes. >> Mr. Lions? >> Yes. >> Board appreciation month proclamation. Yes. Um, this month we recognize our board members as it is board appreciation month uh for our board members. Whereas school boards create a vision for what students should know and be able to do. Whereas school boards establish clear standards for student performance. Whereas school boards ensure that students assessments are tied to established standards. Whereas school boards are accountable to the community for operating schools that support student achievement. Whereas school boards align school district resources to ensure that students meet standards. Whereas school boards create a climate that supports the philosophy that all children can learn at high levels. Whereas school boards build collaborative rel relationships based on trust, teamwork, and shared accountability. And whereas school boards are
010committed to continuous education and training on issues related to student achievement. Now therefore, interim superintendent Dr. Tobach and myself hereby declare our appreciation to the board members of the CC Caucus School Board and proclaim the month of January to be school board recognition month. We urge all our citizens to join us in recognizing the dedication and hard work of local school board members in preparing today's students for tomorrow's world. And as a sign of our appreciation, please accept the little gifts in front of you. And we do mean when we say never forget the difference that you make. You do make an incredible difference in our community. So, thank you to all of you. Is that a May I say a word or two? Okay. So, um so I'd just like to also take a
011moment to recognize our board members. Um you know, the public sees the public board meetings and you know, maybe there's a brief period of time every month where you see the board members in action, but I can assure you there is so much more that goes on behind the scenes. It's the tip of the iceberg, barely scratching the surface. There's a lot of work involved with being a board member. It's one of the most challenging forms of volunteer service you can possibly sign yourself up for. You can volunteer for many things, but board membership requires something special that's well above and beyond. Done well, board membership is an enormous commitment that often requires every last bit of energy. It can be very rewarding, but it also can be very difficult because difficult decisions are made
012all of the time. So difficult budget decisions, difficult staffing decisions, a host of other things that board members are confronted with that are completely unexpected. And the only person that can truly appreciate the challenge of being a board member is another board member. So thank you to all of our board members for your many contributions to the school district. >> Thank you, Grace. Thank you, Dr. Kobach. At this time, I'd like to welcome up Felicia treat to give our student data presentation. Okay. Hello every Okay. Hello everybody. Uh I'm Felicia Chhatrit. I'm the director of elementary education curriculum and instruction. Um I do want to take a moment as well just to thank all the board members for all that you do. We truly appreciate your support. I'm excited tonight to uh share about our
013benchmark a data analysis. This is from our link platform. If you are watching at home, you may be familiar with linkit as well. Um, our students have taken linkit benchmarks throughout the year. They take them three times a year. I'm here to discuss benchmark A and how we use these benchmarks throughout the school year to ultimately drive instruction. When many of you hear data, um, you will most likely expect to see a lot of charts, numbers, graphs throughout this entire presentation. I tried my best to make them as large as possible on the screen, but at the end of the day, some of the charts might be quite small. Uh, so I just want to let everyone know that it is already posted on our district website under board presentations. So if it's hard for
014you to see, um, if you're watching at home or even in the pack center right now, you can pull it up on a device or at a later date, it's there for you to see as well. So the purpose of our link at benchmarks is to identify, address, and support. And this is the theme that I'm going to be discussing throughout the presentation tonight. As Dr. Tolbach has shared with you at a recent board meeting, uh this is one of our goals for the district, goal number two, which as you can see what's circled down below, part of the goal is to share data reports with the board of education three times a year. So this is the first of three data presentations I will give throughout the school year. Just a little bit of
015background information. You may or may not be f familiar with the word link it from your children or just from uh the staff and faculty in our district. But we have three benchmarks. Form A, form B and form C. That's taken in September, January and April in ELA and mathematics. And that's what this presentation is going to focus on tonight. The categories there are exceeding, meeting, bubble, approaching, partially meeting, and not meeting. Now, the bubble category is a new type of category. I get this question quite often because the NJSLA does not have a bubble category, but our link platform does. Now, the bubble category was created by linkit to really help teachers uh really figure out what areas we can support our students with. And that bubble category means a student scored mathematically at
016the meeting level, which is a great thing. They're at the meeting level, but fell in the bottom 10% of that meeting cohort. So even though technically that bubble means they are meeting, which is great, but we want to make sure that those students stay in that meeting category and don't fall below into the approaching. So that bubble group is a group you really got to watch just to make sure they get all the resources and support needed to remain in that meeting or even go beyond meeting as well. So we are also going to talk about navigator reports. That's all the charts I'm about to show you in this presentation. Now our platform provides us with customized analytics to help our school district turn complex student data into actionable insights. And a lot of this
017information, it's a lot of data, but I really hope you'll find by these charts and graphs I'm about to show you, it makes it a lot easier for our teachers, parents, staff members to really understand. Uh, it also enables educators to identify trends, track progress, ensure equity, and make data-driven decisions for instruction. It's also used for curriculum planning for individual students to the entire cohort, such as an entire grade level or a group of students. This facilitates collaboration, supports our strategic planning by summarizing and comparing multiple data sets. You we also utilize this data to ensure students are supported throughout our schools. And the beauty of linkit is everything I'm showing you right now. All of our educators can also build from their platform as well. And it's also shared with teachers too, which we've
018been ultimately using a lot of our professional development time to really educate everybody on how to use our platform to the fullest. Okay. So, the first page I have for you, this is grades one and two for our math. These are our average scores. You're going to see that these are um the average scores for grades one, two, and then math in all the grades. You'll see that here compares Huber versus Clarin. And then that takes the same slide and turns it into this graph. Now you're going to see it's in quartortiles unlike other categories that I explained before with the bubble score. That's because grades one and two in math are not testing grade levels. So they separated the data into four cortiles instead. So grades one and two will look a little bit
019different than the rest of the data I'm showing you throughout the district primarily because it is not a tested grade level with the NJSLA. However, our goal is to get our first and second graders prepared so when they do take the NJSLA in third grade, they're ready to go. So again, here it's breaks it down. It's nice and colorful. Shows you this information, compares both schools. So we can really use this to drive instruction. Then I also have third and fifth. And you're going to see I'm going to gradually go through the grade levels tonight. You're going to see this is our meeting and exceeding cut scores. And then it turns those cut scores into what the predictions would be for the NJSLA. Now again, this is just from form A which was taken in
020September. So now we're using this information to figure out our strengths and weaknesses and what we need to use to guide our instruction. And again, each slide's going to show you this too because now it breaks it down where it cuts it into the proficiency levels, the cut score proficiencies. And you're going to see on this slide, it shows the not meeting, partially meeting, approaching bubble, meeting, and exceeding. So now third and fifth third, fourth and fifth grade is now a testing grade level. So it breaks this slide up just a little bit differently. But what's nice about this is we can really compare each grade level, see where our students are at and where our needs are for the school year. And grades six through eight. On this slide, I actually showed the growth
021from the past three years. Since we have one middle school, we're not comparing any of our schools here. Um we have sixth, seventh, and eighth. And it's nice because you can see a steady growth here, which is very nice to see. And then on this slide again it breaks the proficiency. Now when you are looking at the math scores here just as a reminder grade eight math and algebra one at the middle school is the same group of that's all eighth grade students which is why it separates that. So you might see that one might be higher or lower versus one or the other. But at the end of the day that's all of our eighth grade students and they're separated into that algebra 1 versus eighth grade math. And now we have grades nine
022and 11 as well. Again, it's a great way to predict and and see where our growth is, where our areas of strengths and weaknesses are. And it's really nice. Sometimes people like the bar graphs, sometimes people like these beautiful, the red, orange, the yellow. And what's nice too is you see this is at the beginning of the school year. So now you know exactly who my bubble kids are, where the approaching kids are. That's okay if it's a large group of people out approaching because our goal is from September on, we're trying to get them to that next level. And now I'm moving on to ELA. Very similar to how math was as well. Similar setups. You're going to see in these slides as well. You're going to see we have two schools here. Figuring
023out again where our strengths and weaknesses are and what we need to do moving forward. And again, it breaks it up here, too. Uh I really personally love these colors. It's nice and easy to identify where where we need to target, where we need support in, and how we can support our students. And then we have grades three to five ELA. Again, the average scores. And it's nice. It shows you from third to fourth to fifth. And you'll see over time they start getting very similar, which is very nice to see. And then I also broke this up again with our proficiencies. This is what's nice. If you're a testing grade level, it's great to view it in this manner because you're able to see exactly what students and each percentage those teachers get to
024see exactly what students are in those categories. So they know exactly who to pinpoint and support. And we have grades six through 8 ELA as well, which again very similar. You can see compare the differences from year to year and again in the cut score proficiency too. And in 9 to 12 we have English one, English two, English three and so on. Um it's nice to see that progression as well. And then again breaks it down into the cut score proficiency. Now you may be wondering what do we do with all of this data? How are we using this as a district? Well the first thing is we promote collaboration through PLC and department meetings. We have vertical and horizontal meetings during professional development days. We just had a professional development day this past Monday.
025there was a half day and in the afternoon many teachers had the opportunity to work with the linket representative to go through the data um look at form a benchmark also look at form B men benchmark and determine where our strengths and weaknesses are and what we need to do as a district and even as grade levels to really support our students throughout the school year provide support to teachers to ensure curriculum is implemented effectively to support all learners. The beauty of this data is as administrators and we get to see exactly where the needs are, what areas might need some extra support based on looking at this data. We also analyze data to ensure students below expectations have supports in place. Anybody in those bottom two categories, we want to make sure that they
026are get all the supports that they need to be successful in our school district. And also explain and educate teachers and parents on the bubble category and what to do to support this group of students. Now, this data also breaks everything into subgroups. These are the subgroup capabilities, which is really great just to have that option. My favorite that you're about to see is the skill and topic sections, which here, these are just a few examples, but you're going to see it says the standard for yearover-year comparison. So, these standards on the bottom are really, really small. So, I apologize if you cannot see, but if you are able to open this presentation on another device, you'll see the exact standard for first grade. And you could see the comparison from one year to the
027next. So where you know where we might have increased, where we decreased, um what standard might be a little bit lower, where we can support our students. And then let's say you don't know what all those numbers and letters mean from the standard, you can always look at the skills and the skill correlates with the standard and tells you exactly what it is. So on this page, you can see sequence, vocabulary, character, main ideas, plot, prediction. That's all there displayed on the screen for you. So, it's nice for a teacher to quickly look and see what standard do I really need to focus on. You might say, well, prediction's kind of low right now. Well, I don't do I'm not working on that at this time, so I'm not expecting that to be very high.
028While another category might be much higher. Um, and you may have just recently taught that. So, you know, that should be high. And we also have topic comparison as well. This is a math example. You'll see numbers and operations and fractions, measurement and data, um, and numbers and operations in base 10, which is nice too to see that comparison from one year to the next. And the teacher navigator, this is one of my favorite features with our platform that our teachers have access to. This is a powerful data analytics and reporting tool to help our teachers understand student performance, support personalized learning, inform instruction through customizable reports, which I'm about to show you now, and ultimately to help educators identify trends, pinpoint specific student needs, and tailor interventions for better outcomes. This is an example
029of what a teacher navigator sample looks like. This is something teachers received after their students completed form A. So you're going to see here what's nice about this is a teacher gets this in September. They see their roster of their new students and they can see how they performed on the NJSLA from two years prior. So if this was fifth grade or um any of the grade levels, you'll see that they saw their 2425 NJSLA as well as 23 24 NJSLA. And it's a nice chart to see where their growth was. Did they increase from one year to the next? Did they decrease? And you also see their benchmarks, which the goal of the benchmarks is to correlate to the NJSLA. So, if everything is moving nicely throughout the year, it should all match up
030nicely. Now, then you also see your form A. This is what students took in September. Did they go up or down? Um, what's their at risk ratio? What's the group of students in your class that you need to keep an eye on? Um, and really see what their performance they went down, you know, one year, but they went up the other. So, like you know they're capable. Where do you need to focus to really make sure that you're able to get to that student, make sure that they are successful with you in your classroom? And you'll also see at times some blanks that means that the student may have not been there. You'll see in that second column um they took the form A, but they clearly were there in September, but they were not
031in our school district the previous year. So, that's great information for a teacher to see. So that way they can see where that child is at and they're aware that they didn't have any of the resources that our other students may have access to the previous school year. So this is a nice visual um example and our teachers will get that after form B is fully completed and they'll get all this information again but then there'll be another column that says form B. Uh so this is just a great resource that our teachers have access to really get to know their students at the beginning of the school year and next steps. So this growth data highlights how much a student has learned from one benchmark to the next even if they have not yet
032reached proficiency. This is especially important for recognizing improvement in all learners. You might even see on some of these charts and even that example I just showed you with the teacher navigator report, a student might stay in the same category. You might see that they're still in orange and you could be a little worried. But if you saw and look at the actual numbers, you might see that they might have stayed in the same category but they increased by 30 or 40 points. That's still great to see that progress and it's nice to see throughout the year that they're progressing. If you saw that decrease, you know, we know as a district, well, this is where we need to support this student. What else can we do to help them? Um, the growth reports provide
033clear, meaningful data to share with teachers, administrators, and families showing how instruction impacts student learning over time. For all the families out there, the link at parent portal, you have all have access to this. You can also find the link on our district website under the parents tab under useful links. Benchmark B all families will have access to by the end of next week. So stay tuned. You'll be getting an email from me shortly with new benchmark B data. Uh and then the beauty of this is now we're comparing benchmark A to benchmark B. So our teachers began doing that and you as parents can also start doing that next week once you have access to benchmark B data. And the beauty of by comparing both we can make sure where we see where students
034make gains or need additional support helping to adjust instruction reteing or enrichment opportunities as well. Now this is an example for an activity that well and what our platform ultimately does um that many of our teachers participated on this past Monday. So you're going to see that you see link at form A and you see link at form B. So right here you can see all the categories your students have been in for both benchmarks. And then in the right column that I put in this beautiful fuchsia color, you'll see that you can see where your students increased or may have decreased. And you know exactly which students you need to target on now for the remainder remainder of the school year. And like you might see you might see that well the students stayed
035in partially meeting. There's 20 points but then went to 40 points. So you still see that growth of plus 20 which is great to see but they remained in that same category. So now we know what else we need to do to work on that. You might see that somebody went from meeting to exceeding or approaching uh partially meeting to approaching. You're seeing that growth there. So this is really nice for our teachers to quickly just visualize to see where their students have how their students have been progressing throughout the school year. You can also choose to organize this by standard, by topic, by everything that I showed you in this presentation. So it's really amazing that our uh software has the capability to do this and we can use those benchmarks to drive instruction.
036So I just want to thank everyone for their time. I hope you enjoyed um learning about our link benchmarks. Does anybody have any questions? No. All right. Well, thank you so much everybody. Thank you, Felicia. going to give everyone a chance to get back before I turn this over to the student representatives. Um there's uh I realize my apologies is that there was an additional update from Yuber Street School. So I'm just going to read that real quick and then I'll turn it over to you guys. Um so we ended with um the performance of hit song Golden by K-pop Demon Hunters, leaving the audience cheered and inspired. Beyond the stage, our students have been showcasing their academic grit. Yuber Street recently hosted the annual annual script spelling bee where dozens of brave competitors battled
037through se several intense rounds of difficult words after a fifth grader Sam Vart Chararma emerged as our champion. We also want to recognize fifth grader Ryan George and Roger I'm gonna try this one Sagulim Sagolium um as our as our champion. Um they took home second and third place as well. Um Yuber Street is incredibly proud of every student who stepped up to the microphone this year. Finally, as they look forward to the future of the school family, they're excited to welcome the newest learners. Registration for kindergarten will be held February 2nd through February 6th, followed by preK registration from the 23rd of February through February 27th. Um, we look forward to seeing our youngest Bears join the den very soon, courtesy of principal of Yuber Street, Rob Valente. And now I will turn it
038over to our student reps who will give you an update on Caucus High School. >> Good evening. We'd like to share several highlights that reflect the strong academics, athletics, arts, and community involvement at Caucus High School. To begin, Caucus High School recently hosted our open house where families learned about academic programs, extracurricular opportunities, and student support services. Information was shared regarding counseling services, advanced placement courses, dual enrollment opportunities, the STEM Academy, the Discover program, and offerings within the business and humanities departments. We would now like to recognize our students not only excelling in the classroom but also outside of the classroom. Caucus High School students participated in the Stanch Governor Awards Competition, a statewide theater event bringing together high school students from across New Jersey. We would like to congratulate se several seniors that achieved
039notable recognition. First senior Olivia Nitivod who was named a finalist in the musical theater solo category placing in the top 14 out of over 200 participants. Next, seniors David Schmolan and Jack White earned sixth place overall in the musical theater duet category. And finally, David Schmolan also captured first place overall in the playwriting category. And as part of his award, his original play was selected for a staged reading performed before all students and educators attending the competition. In addition, students had the opportunity to learn from Broadway professional Hamilton from Hamilton performer named The Jaspersonson who visited Caucus High School for a master class. Students participated in vocal warm-ups, movement, and choreography, gained insight into professional performance and the discipline requiring the arts. We would also like to recognize recent senior nights and student activities. The
040boys basketball team celebrated a successful senior night with an exciting victory, including a three-point shot by Carmelo Camas that tied the game late and sent it into overtime. The swimming team also honored its seniors during a well- attended senior night event. The coding club hosted a successful hackathon and the peer leadership club will be sending Valentine's cards to senior citizens in the community. Looking ahead, the counseling department will host junior college planning night for the class of 2027, providing families with information on college planning, testing, financial aid, and so much more. We also look forward to breakfast with the Easter money hosted by the class of 2028, a community event that strengthens connections between the school and the town. Midterms began today and account for 5% of the semester grade. Today, students completed their first
041and ninth period exams with two and eighth period exams scheduled for tomorrow, followed by third and seventh period exams on Monday, and finally fourth, fifth, and sixth period exams on Tuesday. Any snow day will result in the remaining exams being pushed forward by one day. Another reminder that the last day to order your books is January 30th. Thank you. And that is all we have to report for this month. >> Thank you, ladies. Correspondence. Yes. Um, on behalf of central office, we sent a thank you card to the board thanking you all for our Christmas lunchon. It was fabulous and we truly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. >> You're very welcome. Thank you for all you do. You deserve it. Thank you. >> Interim superintendent report. >> So, there's a lot of reporting
042that's going on tonight. Our student reports are extensive, so I'm going to keep my comments to a minimum. I'd like to begin my report this evening by sharing an update regarding the district calendar planning process for the 2627 school year. School district calendar is important in every community and caucus is no exception. As the board is aware, we've begun preliminary discussions around next year's calendar. We have some sample calendars and after considering all the factors that go into calendar development, we're down to a few viable options. I'll send a letter and a survey to the school community tomorrow to gather community input on the calendar. The outreach effort is intended to be inclusive. So students, staff, parents, and all members of the community will be invited to share their perspectives and input on the district
043calendar. Community engagement is part important part of a thoughtful decision-making process. We believe that providing that opportunity for broad participation strengthens that process and the final outcome. To make a long story short, one of the primary challenges associated with the calendar for next year is the unusually late date for Labor Day in 2026. Following the district's traditional scheduling pattern, this would result in a very late start to the school year and a correspondingly late end on June 24th, 2027. This reality presents educational, operational, and family planning considerations that merit careful discussion and community feedback. The board's ongoing dialogue and the input we received will help inform the district's next step. On another note, like to take a moment to highlight the positive partnership between the public schools and our police department in support of our
044special needs community. Many in the community are aware that the police department offers an autism registry program. There's an additional advancement. The district is working collaboratively with the police department to share information about the newly established Blue Envelope Program. This program is designed to assist individuals as drivers who have communication impairments and other disabilities during interactions with law enforcement by providing officers with helpful context and guidance. So, I want to extend my sincere thanks to Officer Sal Manente for his leadership and collaboration in raising awareness of this program in our community. Information about the blue envelope program will be shared at our upcoming CPAG meeting on January 27th, and Mr. Mene will be participating the district's annual special education transition fair which will be held this year on March 11th. This will ensure that families
045and students are informed and supported. This year the district scheduled a professional development day on part of Martin Luther King Day to allow our staff to attend a range of opportunities to meet their diverse learning needs. We have so many opportunities for staff development and we made this time to learn together really count. There was something for every staff member. As far as our HIV report goes, we have one case of HIV that is reported since our last reporting period. That case was fully investigated and found to not be an actual case of HIV. >> Concludes my report. >> Thank you, Dr. Tobac. I make a motion to accept the harassment, intimidation, bullying findings as reported by the interim superintendent and they are available at the administrative offices for review. >> Second >> discussion. Call
046the role. >> Mr. Bartletta, >> yes. >> Miss Diodetta, >> yes. >> Mr. Barry, >> yes. >> Mr. Deombre, >> yes. >> Miss Eckles, >> I have to abstain from November 21st, 2025. And yes to December 18th, 2025. >> Miss Geller. >> Yes. >> Miss Howard? >> Yes. >> Mr. Lewis? >> Yes. >> Mr. Lions? >> Yes. >> Grace. Does Tatiana have to abstain from December? >> Um. Yeah. He's okay. Okay. Sorry. Good ladies. I don't know if you're more than welcome to join us, but I know you have midterms that you may have to study for. So, if you'd like to be excused, you're welcome to leave. And thank you for your report. Is this administrative board secretary report? >> No report at this time. >> Okay. Thank you. At this time, we will
047open up for public forum for starting with agenda items. We have nothing for agenda items. Okay. and then we will follow up with the public forum general items. >> This meeting is open to the public for the purpose of addressing any subject matter that is pertinent to and/or directly related to the operation of the S Caucus Public School District. Residents wishing to speak on such items must sign the register provided for this purpose and are required to state their names, addresses, and subject matter. Comments are limited to three minutes per person. The board may or may not respond to issues raised by members of the public at the time they are raised, but will provide a response if and when appropriate. The board asked that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the
048rights of other individuals when speaking. Please note that the board will not respond to comments regarding students or board employees in light of the privacy rights held by those individuals. Moreover, the board discourages such comments about such individuals and will not be responsible for such comments. Members of the public who choose to speak during this public session should carefully consider their comments since they may since they could be held potent personally liable for any statements they make. Finally, please note that in accordance with district policy number 1100, the board will not officially comment or respond to any matter mentioned unless it can confirm that the matter has first been brought to the attention of the appropriate school personnel in an attempt to resolve the issue. >> Thank you, Robert. Anthony Grineer. a great job um
049running this district. And so I do appreciate that. And also when the school board finally does open up this position, I would urge you to to apply as a as our permanent superintendent uh if that is something that interests you. Um, but as we stand here today, um, the school board has still not either provided an update on what's going on. What was provided today is not an update to tell us that we're going to get some information next month is not an update. I've been asking for an update for over four months uh when the board decided to not hire our last superintendent or during that search. Um, and we still sit here today with no update. So, I have 3 minutes of time before this board. At this point in time, we're at
050about 1 minute. So, I'm going to stop talking for about the next two minutes and see if the board would like to provide any answers about either why we don't have an update or when we're going to start this search. So, >> as I stated in my president's address, we will be giving an update to the public in February. And as I stated, that's a non-answer. >> Okay. Well, I have about 20 more seconds. And in that time, I would like to state that the only way that this district is going to move forward is with a permanent superintendent that has a long-term vision for this district, which we have not had in over a decade. So hopefully we could fix that. Thank you. Okay. >> Thank you, Dina Derbasio. Hello. Good evening. Um, happy
051new year. Happy board appreciation month. Um, so I initially came here to ask for an update on the board superintendent and then I saw at the beginning of the meeting that you'll provide an update next month. So, what I really wanted to say was I hope um in your update um that you'll get feedback from the community and you'll do things differently than you have last time. And the last time I was up here when you guys were doing the search, I had asked for that and that hadn't been done. And I hope this time you'll do things differently. And I want to share with you a quote and I think I had shared this quote and I live by this quote. Um if you always do, we always done. you always get, we always
052got. So, I really hope that this time around you do things differently and we find a permanent superintendent. Um, I I have done my research on what other districts do. Um, I've seen that they have full websites dedicated with um a timeline. They they're transparent about what they're doing, when they're doing doing it, and they they are fully transparent. And um you know I I really hope this time it's a little different and we actually get a permanent superintendent and we don't get to the final round and say that this person wasn't qualified. So um that's really what I'm hoping for because this town really needs it. And uh and you know what if the update is that Dr. Tobach you're saying and you're coming out of retirement and you're going to be our permanent
053superintendent that would be cool as well. So, uh, you know, it's just something that we need. Um, I had a few questions as well. One for you, Dr. Tobac. When you and I first met at, um, coffee with a superintendent, there were some questions about screens. And, um, you were mentioning that you were looking into the data between, um, uh, reading with screens and with, uh, physical books. And I remember I joked about how I wish our kids could uh you know have the rolling backpacks and have all the textbooks and the readings like we did. Um but then like I started to really think about and you said you actually look into that data and I wanted to see if you looked into that because um I actually saw some uh articles recently that
054Denmark was reverting back to physical books versus um screens because they no longer found it working for their country. So they've completely reverted back to that. So I had that one question for you and then I actually have a question for you Mrs. Chhatree regarding the data. Can parents opt out of the you know the testing that you show us here. Can parents opt out of that? Okay. So and if you don't want to answer me and you want to email me, that's okay as well. But these were the questions that I had. Thank you. >> That's all. Thank you. >> Hope I pronounced this correctly. >> Carolina Divoli. Good evening. Can you hear me? Yes. It's Karolina D'vor 603 Sunderling. Uh, I'm here tonight. It's my Oh, wait. The timer. I here tonight because
055um I'm pretty upset uh with Clarendon school. Uh my son is currently in the fifth grade uh Clarendon and October 30th was the last day uh where the teacher was present. Right. The groups are the classes are divided into groups. uh you get um primary teacher is a English teacher and then the other teacher is the math teacher. So since October 30th they did not have the teacher. The teacher is sick. That's all I know. And I find out this via my son. The school has not communicated anything to the parents directly. There was no email, no letter. We only know via communication with our kids that the teacher is sick. And I feel really bad for the teacher, right? I appreciate teachers. They work hard, right? They love our kids. They they are dedicated.
056But and I don't want to blame the teacher, right? I'm blaming the school. Some parents didn't even realize that the teacher was not teaching that the kids had substitute teachers because the teacher kept posting their activities, their homeworks and the teacher is grading um their homework. But it uh the kids had about five substitute teachers and exactly I cannot vouch for this number. This number is given to me by my 10-year-old. Right. Uh there was a one very good subset teacher that they had him uh for about a week I think. Um but I feel I spoke with Miss Clar um Gandala and she said he's a teacher now in the fourth grade. I cannot wrap my head around it that there is no procedures for school to try to go around the confidant whatever
057that is that they could not communicate to parents that we will not have a teacher for three months. Three months is a long time. There's only 10 months in the year that the kids are learning, right? and learning stops around I don't know April May right so we we had a teacher for two months no teacher for three months and now we are going to be looking for a teacher we have to interview the teacher the teacher has to be a right fit then we have to extend the offer the teacher has to accept the offer so I'm assuming one more month no teacher so three months four months no teacher and this is a fifth grade last year in a in elementary school they moving to the middle school they need to get ready
058for more work not less work I think the morale in class are also lower when they don't have I'm sorry I ran out of time um the teacher that is present and growing with them since the beginning of the year and knows them they participate and they get extra points for participation right so I just hope that we can um get the permanent teacher as soon as I know I know the posting is there. So I appreciate that and I just hope we can speed up that process and going forward have procedures in place for situations that are not are unexpected right I'm pretty sure everybody has been here for 20 plus years I mean the school the the uh the principles superintendent right that we can figure out the way to avoid situations like
059this thank you >> thank you Dr. to back >> just very quickly in response to your question. So if you look on the agenda on page four, Eric Degelman is being appointed tonight as long-term replacement elementary teacher. So that starts January 23rd. Okay. Okay. So that's that. And as far as avoiding this in the future, this at the time that um you expressed concern regarding communication, the fact is that the situation at that point was unknown. It was not something that we were necessarily aware of. So it was very difficult to communicate because we didn't know the extent of the absences and the in the period of time involved. The way to avoid this is to create another class of employee, a permanent substitute who is ultimately also certified who can step up in any
060situation in any classroom in the event that a teacher is out for the year. So having a permanent substitute in every school is something that is super helpful and a very cost-effective way of avoiding that. We do not have that now. That's something that will likely be recommended with if it's within the budget for the upcoming year. Again, it's just it's generally the cost of the substitute. So it's something that we're working towards >> through the chair. >> Yes. >> May Dr. Tobac, may I ask you then? This teacher will be with that class through the rest of the year. This will be a permanent >> place in teacher >> to June 30th. >> Yes. >> Okay. You're welcome. Thank you, >> Kristen Bil. Evening everyone. Kristen Beckill, 1123 Stonewall Lane, Caucus Education Association President.
061Um, just speaking in regards to the proposed 26 27 uh, school calendars, I'd like to make the board aware that there is contract language in regards to the start of the school year and that um, Google surveys um, do not drive or supersede the agreement between the Caucus Education and um, the Seauus Board of Education and the CC Caucus Education Association. Um, so please keep this in mind when looking at the proposed 26 27 school year calendars and be advised that the Caucus Education Association is prepared to file a grievance if the calendar does in fact violate the contract. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Moving on to board business governance committee. Good evening everyone. In our governor's meeting, uh we reviewed and approved um the first reading of several policies and regulations. Uh one
062on epotism, another on employment of chief school administrator. Uh two on sexual harassment and one on conduct of board members. Uh we also discussed trust as May who we consult with for our school policies and regulations. They will be providing a presentation to the board during our retreat that's coming up. We discussed the use of devices by board members and are adding policy to reflect our discussion. We also reviewed our facilities use policy uh to see how we can improve and update it. Reviewed uh approvals for several positions and uh contracts. The committee reviewed the 20 2026 2027 school calendar. And lastly, Dr. Tobec presented the committee with several possible opportunities uh using uh new software solutions to improve our updating of the school calendar. >> Thank you Alex Education Committee. >> Good evening and
063happy and healthy new year to all of you. Thank you for joining us today. The education committee met on January 19th and we are halfway through the school year and it's a very busy time in education. Our high school students are taking midterms in the next few days. We wish all of you guys best of luck. Our faculty and staff had professional development on January 19th. A variety of different subjects were discussed and PD was highly beneficial to all our teachers and staff members. Also, the district reported that all curriculum is updated on our district website uh to meet CUSA criteria. Also, I would like to highlight a few important events that's coming up in the district. So, and please mark your calendars. On January 27th, CPAC is inviting all interested families to attend an
064information session discussing the difference between the APS and 504 plans. Uh on February 3rd is the virtual multilingual family information night. We encourage all our multilingual families to attend. It's a very great resource. And also on February 5th is the junior college planning night. Um we also have three resolutions to vote on tonight. The district is asking for approval to dispose of outdated technology. Also, the district is looking to approve uh the 202526 nursing service plans for all of our schools and we have a few very exciting field trips coming up. That's all for this month and thank you. >> Thank you, Tatiana. Operations Committee Joe Finance. So, at this month's operations uh committee meeting, we were updated on CUSAC, which will begin on uh May 11th. Uh also, one of the fire alarm sensors
065at the high school was detecting moisture um and was activating. That sensor was replaced, and the alarm is working as intended. Now, uh 499 school DU uh school dude items have been completed with 110 still uh still open. The web climber in the playground at Chuba Street School needs to be replaced. Uh and the playground will be closed until that is complete. Uh the walls in room 119 and 120 at Milidge School have been uh checked and are okay to be moved. This will uh make both rooms uh larger. Uh the playground at Claron School needs to be replaced uh needs to be repaired. Uh our architect is drawing up specs uh for a new elevator at the high school. Uh we're also getting uh quotes for replacement uh of the press box. Once the
066plans are drawn up, uh they will be sent to our architect for approval. The 2425 audit is complete and our auditor presented his findings to our committee. Uh the district received an unmodified opinion which is the best that the district can receive. The district is in excellent financial shape with no material weaknesses reported. Uh the board uh will vote on accepting the financial audit along with uh uh the corrective action plan. Uh lastly uh there has been uh discussion about rising healthc care costs that went into effect in January. I can say that the business office did a thorough projection through June 30th and the district will have no reported loss in medical benefits. Uh, I would also like to commend and thank uh, Grace, Pat, and the rest of the business office for their
067hard work and many hours that they put into making sure that the district uh, stays in in great financial health. So, I thank you on behalf of the board. >> Thank you, Joe. >> Buildings and grounds, everything buildings and grounds. You did a report on that, too. >> Uh, there's that was all >> that was all together. Okay. It was all together. >> Okay. >> Is there a discussion on any of the items for agenda for governance, education, operations? You just keep track of anybody if you have to recuse or abstain. Okay. All right. Call the RO. >> Mr. Bartletta. >> Yes. I have to recuse from R 1.03 and R 1.12. Miss Dadetta, >> yes. >> Mr. Barry, >> yes. >> Mr. Deombre, >> yes. >> Miss Eckles, >> yes to all, but I
068need to abstain from R4.02, R4.03, R4.05, and R4.06. >> Miss Geller, >> yes. Miss Howard, >> yes. I just have to recuse from R 1.03. >> Mr. Lewis, >> I need to recuse myself from 4.01. And yes, do everything. >> Mr. Lions. >> Yes. for the ad hoc committees. Shared services has a meeting scheduled hopefully if the weather permits for Monday, January 26th. No legislation meeting, no athletics meeting scheduled. Technology will be meeting on January 28th. The visions committee is actively searching for an available date to meet. Negotiations is also actively searching for an available date to meet as well as the policy special committee. Board member comments. I just at this time would just like to congratulate my fellow trustees um on board member appreciation month and thank everyone each and every one of
069you for your dedication and your hard work. Um as Dr. Tobach said, I don't think anybody understands um the commitment of a board member other than a fellow board member. So I thank you. It's been an honor to work with each one of you and I couldn't do this without you. Thank you. I appreciate all of you. >> Kelly, I just want to say something. I also want to commend uh Grace and Patty and the team. Uh it's very common in the news now that we're hearing that school districts are having very big deficits in their budget. And one of those main issues are the health benefit cost and the use of fund balance to balance their budget. And I have to say, sitting through the audit meeting the other day, they're doing an an
070incredible job keeping our fund balance where it needs to be, just in case we hit an emergency at some point in time that is out of our control. So, I really do commend them on their hard work that they do to make sure that our finances can keep the district running appropriately. >> Agreed. Thank you, Melissa. >> Um, I would also Yes. I would also like to congratulate Mrs. Dela Cruz and her musical theater students, all of our spelling bee winners, and also congratulate Miss Priest on her retirement coming up. I also um believe it is important for me to address address a recent discussion from our last month's board meeting. I am honored to continue serving our community by retaining my seat on the board of education. I take seriously the confidence placed in
071me by my fellow board members and remain fully committed to serving our students, families, educators, and taxpayers. Recently, statements have been made questioning my competence and education. While public service invites different differing opinions, I strongly disagree with these claims. My record reflects years of dedicated service, active participation in board governance, and careful consideration of complex issues facing our district. I approach my role prepared, informed, and focused on what is in the best interest of our schools. Effective board service is not about personal attacks or labels. It is about collaboration, accountability, and results. I have worked constructively with board colleagues, district leaderships, and community stakeholders. Even during challenging and unprecedented times, always priorit prioritizing stability and progress for our district. I will continue to serve with integrity, professionalism, and transparency. My focus remains on strong educational
072outcomes, responsible governance, and maintaining the trust of the community we serve. Thank you to those who have offered support and constructive dialogue. >> Thank you, Mary. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else? >> Okay. >> Uh, as Kelly said before, next month is February is St. Jude month and Marathon. Um, kickoffs will be Monday for in Clarin and Huber Street School, weather pending. Um, I encourage board members, administrators to to show up and, you know, see how excited these kids are to get this thing started. I mean, it's it is truly a wonderful uh event that they do, and I encourage everybody to get uh to support as much as you can. >> I have one more thing to add. Sorry. Go ahead. Uh, we haven't had an athletics meeting, but I did want to mention
073that we do have, and I don't know if we announced it here, but a first time ever girls high school varsity hockey team, and they are absolutely killing it out there. So, I just want to say it's really great to see and that the girls have an option like this. >> Thank you. Anyone else? >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Motion. >> Second. Second. >> All in favor? >> I >> Good night everyone.