001e e e good evening welcome to the world Township Board of Education meeting for Tuesday March 18th 2025 please stand for the flag salute stesy and justice for all Mr Smite Sunshine announcement and roll call please yes this is the Wall Township Board of Education meeting for which adequate notice under the open public meeting Act was provided by notice to the co-star Asbury Park Press Township clerk's office all Wall Township Public Schools and the board Administration office on January 9th 2025 take a roll call Miss Adams here Mr anesia M barbier here Mr Bron here Mr buffer miss djovani here Mr Smith here Mr wandra here Mr M here here thank at this time I'm going to ask for a motion to go into executive session for those items indicated on the agenda Mr gvani
002second Mr wandra uh we anticipate coming back to uh session at p.m all in favor rather all approved thank you for e e e [Music] la [Music] [Applause] [Music] la [Music] wish [Music] h little [Music] [Applause] [Music] play it all three parts [Music] n e [Music] [Applause] [Music] hallelu Hallelujah hallel hu [Music] hallelu the our [Music] where you go you can [Music] for [Music] for [Music] in [Music] little suck [Music] [Applause] [Music] for [Music] play it all three [Music] for [Music] ch [Music] [Applause] [Music] Hu hallelu hallelu hallelu hallelu hallelu [Music] mother your [Music] of [Music] [Applause] [Music] for see [Music] h [Music] [Applause] [Music] play it all [Music] n [Music] [Applause] [Music] Hallelujah huuu hallelu [Music] love you [Music] you e [Music] [Applause] e e e good evening and welcome to the Wall Township
003Board of Education meeting for March 18th 2025 please stand for the flag salute and the honor guard of the nncc sound ATT march on the [Music] colors right [Music] wheel free colors FL of the United States of America the stands na indivisible andice for all Mar of the colors car colors cut Color Guard right wheel March forward March okay Mr SM roll call please reconvening to public session take a roll call Miss Adams here Mr Ania miss barier here Mr Bon Mr buffer here M DG iani Mr Smith Mr wandra Mr MTH here at this time i' like to turn over to Dr hhan for the student showcase thank you so much Mr Mali um it is my pleasure this evening it's uh wonderful to see um so many people at our meeting this evening
004especially uh it's a thrill to have some of our students here so um welcome and I would like to invite our high school princip Mr Kevin Davis up to um start the first recognition thank you Mr Davis who's done a lot of hard work uh for one of our clubs in support of our mock trial team um and what I'd like to do is invite Kierney Grace who's president of Mark trial in a 12th grader at wall high school and and Katie Duran vice president of Mark Tri 11th grader to come up uh and say a few words about Mr Tracy who's here with us tonight and then we can thank him and recognize him so come on up [Applause] girls all right um honorable members of the Board of Education my name is Kierney
005and I am the President of the wall high school debate and mock trial club and I've been a member since my sophomore year my name is Katherine Durant and I'm the vice president of the mock trial club and I've been in this club for my freshman year um please allow us to show the students appreciation for all the time effort and expertise Mr Tracy has devoted to our club Mr Tracy who has 21 years of experience as an attorney coach has been working with the wall High School Mock child team for the past 10 years every team that competes in the New Jersey state Mock Trial Competition must have an attorney coach as well as a teacher coach Mr Tracy is our attorney coach every year during competition season he volunteers his time and expertise
006in order to assist the student attorneys and Witnesses with crafting their cases for the Year this is no small feat um covering both the defense and prosecution Mr Tracy effectively takes on two extra cases all free of charge alongside his already intense workload as a practicing attorney in order to help the mo trial he spends all of his time and effort going through all the cases coming through all information to help us better understand the case not only does he does defense but prosecution so double the work he volunteers all his time and resources on helping us even if he has family events he has his own social life work life and everything he does not get paid for this and he uses all his time and effort to help us and it really we
007wouldn't ever have gone as far as we would have been in mock trial without him so um yes uh thank you Mr Tracy and thank you members of the board for allowing us to share with you the special contributions from Mr Tracy here um I do want to add too that our uh adviser from the high school Mr Gavin sends his regrets for not being here tonight he's actually a member of the Board of Education his community where he resides and they had a meeting tonight so he could not be here um but uh thank you again for this opportunity to recognize Mr Tracy and I think we want to invite him down and we have a certificate I'm pretty sure we do want it to give him some proper thank you okay all right
008so Mr Tracy if you come down and join us thank you [Applause] students pleas thank you would you like you know what I'm sorry I'm gonna have us move this way so we can fit everybody in [Applause] that was such a wonderful way to uh start our meeting this evening um our next up I'm going to introduce our assistant superintendent of curriculum instruction to move over with our next um aspect of the student highlights so miss mccan thank you Dr handerhan um for those of you um who were able to be um watching uh the video prior to our meeting starting um March is music in our schools month um so I am going to ask our music supervisor Dr Christine Kennedy to come up and share some of the events that we have done
009um in the schools and we also have an opportunity to highlight some of our amazing music students in all of our grade levels Dr Kennedy [Applause] uh good evening everyone as we celebrate music in our schools month I want to take a moment to recognize the incredible dedication passion and talent of our students and Educators the video you just watched captures just a small snapshot of the amazing band Orchestra choir and general music happenings throughout our district a special thank you to Mr britz for her help in creating this wonderful video first I would like to recognize our outstanding music educators who bring the joy of music to life every day Miss Carol shoski from Old Middle School right behind me um Miss Victoria mcglaughlin from Allenwood Miss Sandra Addison from West Belmar School Mr
010Kyle M McLaughlin from Central School and our elementary ad junk teachers Miss Anita Co Mr Doug Deyes Miss Jessica barui and Miss Tessa oo at wall Intermediate School I'd like to acknowledge Miss Victoria June Mr Mike montalto Miss Angelina franchis uh and Orchestra adjunct Miss Erica seers and from wall high school we recognize Mr Les Hollander Miss Ellen Hollander and Mr Steve Bryan these Educators go above and beyond arriving early staying late and giving extra lessons to support our students in their musical Journeys music in our schools month is a time to reflect on the power of music education as the National Association for music education reminds us music is not just an extracurricular activity is an essential part of a well-rounded education that helps students develop creativity discipline collab collaboration and critical thinking skills
011this month we celebrate the impact that music education has in shaping well-rounded individuals and inspiring lifelong Learners tonight we also honor the hard work and achievements of our wtps students who have earned special honors in competitive level bands orchestras and choirs um some students could not be here tonight because they're actually auditioning for allshore band but we have some other of recognition for our students who could make it their dedication and perseverance have led them to excel in their craft and we are incredibly proud of their accomplishment ments each of these students will receive a certificate in recognition of their excellence in music thank you to our teachers students families and administration for making music a priority in our schools and happy music in our schools month so we're gonna call we are going to
012call the students up by name and recognize the different competitive uh honors level bands that students have got recognition in thank you Dr Kennedy Dr handerhan and Mr Mal will you join us please sorry I got to move your papers okay um our first category is I feel can I I feel weird with my back towards everybody sorry that's felt a little strange with my back towards all of you and to talk to all of you now I have the board behind me but that's okay all right so our first category is allshore chorus of Mammoth and ocean counties um first up Sam Elliot Avery fereres Ava Minal Karina manal miles simers Nico vatello and Leah Yates do you guys want to come this way because we have a lot to call come up this
013way we're gonna spand everybody just watch the next category is allshore Orchestra we have McKenzie cavaleri Juliet Feliz John L manowitz Mia l manowitz Kelly puza James Smith and Lauren all right I guess they're all auditioning for something else um we also have New Jersey All State Orchestra Justin [Applause] Lee we're going to move on to John's not here we're going to move on to wall Intermediate School we have the Region 2 Wind Ensemble and that is Octavio esquel we have allshore band we have Brady Connors [Applause] Octavio esil Luke McKenna Matthew angam Pang okay kala terreri and Samuel Schuman also at wall Intermediate School we have allshore orchestra we have Julia Brown I'm sorry Julia Bowen Isabelle fan and Colin Curry [Applause] also at wall Intermediate School we have the cjmea Middle School honors
014Orchestra again it's Julia Bowen Violet skel sorry skelo Kristen Jolly Grace henders h luchana lamb Isabelle Fran Thomas Malanga Samantha Shannon Molly sponza and Noel Clark [Applause] here's and we also have some elementary students to highlight the cjmea elementary honors band students Matt Killian Connor Owens and Vincent [Applause] mavani congratulations to all the students who were able to join us and those who were unable to due to other um um things going on um in their schedules um but we are so proud of all of their accomplishments um it's not an easy feat to do a lot of the competitions that you do um and we are just super proud of everything that you've done um and [Applause] congratulations want okay e e okay thank you at this time we're going to have our student
015representative report we have Aaron Richie and Michael southwell here for our student representative report winter sports have concluded their Seasons with both boys and girls basketball teams making it to the sectional semi-finals wrestling made it to their sectional final and had four District 24 winners the ice hockey and swim teams all made it to their state tournaments sophomore sensation Donovan Klein capped off his incredible bowling season winning the state championship and is the New Jersey state bowler of the Year congrats to Donovan spring sports are beginning scrimmages this week with tryouts having concluded last week our seniors are just returning from their amazing class trip to Walt Disney World where magical memories were made while they were away the wall High School counseling department worked on finalizing course requests with our underclassmen to prepare for
016the 2025 2026 school year seniors are making final decisions about their postsecondary paths with most admissions decisions expected by late March we look forward to celebrating all of our students on May 1st as they commit to their colleges universities military and career plans a huge shout out to the Juniors for their outstanding e effort during the NJ GPA testing last week great job everyone we're excited to see the results of all your hard work Naro diversity activities kick off in wall public schools on March 2st with rock your socks Friday a crazy sock themed day in honor of down syndrome Awareness on Friday the wall night social club and unified students will have a special lunch in together following by activities taking place the week of March 31st these activities include announcements on the morning
017show that highlight important neuro Divergent members of the society and a special display case featuring artwork from our MD students and their classmates check the wall High School uh website for more information of Neo diversity activities happening the week of March 31st through April 4th thank you very much for your reports tonight and I know you guys as senior both seniors correct all right it's a very busy time for you I know lots of time lots of anticipation coming up not only for the end of this year but beyond we appreciate you taking your time to uh inform the board with this report so you're welcome to stay but you may leave if you certainly wish thank you thank you okay at this time we are going to be opening the floor uh for public
018comment the board requests that those individuals speaking will be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals while making comments specifically comments regarding individual students and school Personnel 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 Walt Board of of Education there is no responsibility nor will it be liable for any comments made by members of the public speakers should consider their comments in the light of the legal rights of those affected or by ident or by or identified in their comments and recognize that they are legally responsible and liable for their comments so the public comment individuals are limited to three minutes and this is on any school related issue anybody wishing to make a public
019comment please we have microphones on the down here and up the the top of the auditorium good evening Betsy cross I Wall Township tonight I stand before you not just as a concerned parent and grandparent but as a proud mother as a proud member of moms for Liberty as you're all aware I believe deeply in the fundamental rights that our constitution guarantees the fifth nth and 14th amendments are clear we as parents have an undeniable right to direct the upbringing Education and Care for our children this is not just a preference or a matter of personal opinion it's our constitutional right I'm here tonight again this month to speak about speak against policy 5756 you will recall I also mentioned it last month a deafening silence you have all had the last month to put
020it on the agenda to discuss it and in my opinion repeal it but sadly it is not on tonight's agenda we have had numerous caring and intelligent people speak all across New Jersey to speak speak against this bill and close to 40 schools have now abolished policy 5756 nine of them are in Mammoth County it's important to note that this policy is not a law it's not even a mandate so why does wall still have it first and foremost we do not co-parent with the government even in Wall Township so I'm asking if Mr Mali or Dr handerhan can kindly provide us with an update rather than just ignoring the question again this month I strongly believe the best way to support our kids is the removal of this policy if you believe otherwise you
021should State why when our government works in the dark nothing good comes out of it you need to be honest and forthright as you will all lose credibility when you just sit there month after month and don't acknowledge your constituents with valid questions the very essence of parental rights is being threatened what worries me and what should worry all of us is that there's a growing Trend where the state and our own Wall Township school districts seems to be overstepping the rules this isn't just a small overreach it says a dangerous precedent for what's to come next I'm sure you've all seen in the news about Payton McNab uh she was a 17-year-old Junior she was injured she was hit in the head um and she suffered brain damage we can't have boys in the
022girls locker rooms we can't have Boys on girl Sports um the policy as it's written um allows secrets to be kept from the parents and you know as a board member that have children in the school I'm just not sure why you would even agree with that the policy includes the following Provisions the principal or designate is advised to work with the student to create an appropriate confidentiality plan regarding your student transgender or transitioning status the school district shall keep confidential urrent new or perspective students transgender status I mean that to me is just outrageous we we cannot have uh the school co-parenting with the government so we need this policy removed and um I hope you can comment it on it this evening thank you for your time thank you m cross do we
023have anyone else for public comment seeing no one else for public comment we are going to close public comment at this time all right at this time I'm going to give my uh uh president's report uh we have uh the students of the month uh for grade nine we have Grace Osmond grade 10 Arabella Jimenez uh KN of the week grade 10 Joanne Solano cavier grade 11 Jay ogal wer uh grade 11 Davis har and also grade 11 Colin Kurt so congratulations to all those students in addition I'd just like to make a couple comments about some events uh that I've attended over the uh the past month uh few weeks ago I attended Here In This Very Room the wall Intermediate School production of uh Beauty and the Beast and it was a a
024very uh wonderful uh presentation I'd like to offer my congratulations to all of the the student participants the performers as well as the crew uh but also uh the advisers and the and the many parents who contributed uh to the uh success of the event I know there's uh lots of uh long hours in in rehearsals and when it really gets down to that crunch time the last week or so before the production I know there's probably some anxiety at home and I'm sure that uh it was handled well so uh uh it was a wonderful production I'm looking forward to the High School production of The Adams Family coming up uh later on in the spring also uh this past week uh there was the uh read Across America where uh our B the
025schools elementary schools primarily were involved in that and uh I want to thank the uh uh the principals and the teachers for inviting uh members of the board some of the I know Mr uh Smith Mr D Giovani Mr Baron uh were able to attend as as uh was myself uh Dr handerhan and and uh Miss McAn and Miss Bond I think also uh took our opportunity to go as well and uh so I want to thank the as I said the principls and the uh uh the teachers and especially the kids and the kids were they were just so darn cute and it was just really a wonderful thing and uh this time I'd like to turn over to Dr Hanahan for the superintendence report thank you so much Mr malof uh that was
026definitely a highlight of March it always is a highlight of March read Across America and um I concur they are incredibly cute so I look forward to it each year so good evening U I would like to formerly thank the wall High School color guard and Colonel Jax for opening up our meeting I would also like to thank our student Representatives that gave up their time this evening Miss Aon Richie and Mr Michael southwell once again um I just want to Circle back and congratulate our amazing and accomplished musicians that were here earlier this evening um you know I have the pleasure of seeing the students uh practicing um under um really the tutelage of their music instructors and the hard work and I can attest that um you know they're practicing goes far beyond
027the classroom walls uh you know they're practicing at home and they're just honing their skills and it's such a wonderful opportunity for us to recognize all of their hard work at each and every level um you know they I I have to say that um I recognized how much the music program was such a a really a point of Pride when I uh joined the team at Wall Township Public Schools so it's wonderful uh to see the skills developed um throughout the Continuum I would also like to thank Mr Tracy for his dedication to our mock our mock trial team I will tell you having um in my career been very involved at the at the high school level mock trial the amount of time that is spent uh really um honing our teams to
028get ready for for their courtroom experiences is you know it's a really special experience and it's one that takes an awful lot of time and um the students really introduced uh their uh legal advisor uh so eloquently because uh and I think that they really do appreciate the time element because it is mighty and let alone um I believe Mr Tracy has U worked with our team for the last 10 years so um clearly it's a passion and clearly um you know it's really helping to shape our kids in such a positive way so I thank him for his dedication and his service the special services department would like to invite the district to participate in World Down syndrome day this Friday March 21st by wearing bright and colorful socks there is a global campaign
029called Rock your socks where everyone is encouraged to wear fun and colorful socks and this is to show the advocacy for rights inclusion and well-being with PE of people with Down Syndrome the idea behind the rock your socks initiative is to recognize that our differences make us unique while also remembering that we are more alike than we are different it is observed on March 21st 321 due to the trism 21 chromosomal difference that causes Down syndrome the district as mentioned earlier by our students will be celebrate celebrating neurodiversity week March 31st through April 4th neurodiversity celebration week is a worldwide initiative that challenges stereotypes and misconceptions about neurolog iCal differences while creating more inclusive and Equitable cultures that celebrate differences and Empower every individual April is Child Abuse Prevention and awareness month you may have
030noticed that um we are design we have designated it on our agenda this evening we formerly recognized this to highlight the importance and commitment of all children's safety and well-being on this evening's agenda you will also see the tentative school budget for next year I would like to stress that that the key word is tentative we are required to submit this tentative snapshot of our work in progress to the Doe by March 19th a great deal of time and effort on the part of the Board of Education and Central Administration as well as building Administration is dedicated to not only developing the annual school budget but also to refine it we are in the midst of this refinement process now as many of you are aware the budgeting process includes the work of board committees
031and a full board budget Workshop session which is held in public the budget presentation and the formal public hearing is scheduled for April 29th I wish to provide everyone with a friendly reminder that Thursday March 27th is an early dismissal for all students because of the districtwide professional development you may have also noticed that a revised 2024 2025 school calendar is on tonight agenda as many of you were aware we have two remaining snow emergency closing days the proposed calendar revisions reflect schools closed on Monday April 21st and Friday May 23rd in the event there's an emergency closing following April 21st school will be in session on Friday May 23rd I would like to remind everyone that the Crimson Knights Foundation Galla awards are coming up the Gallow Awards take place on Thursday March 27th
032at 5:30 p.m. at the Spring Lake Manor please visit our district website for ticket information congratulations to this year's recipients Miss gaale Mah Nancy pet Miss Nancy Peterson and lieutenant commander of the US Namy Navy Amy zask our total District enrollment numbers for February 2025 are as follows prek 76 kindergarten 229 first grade 225 second grade 232 uh excuse me 233 for second grade for third grade 248 fourth grade 235 Fifth Grade 282 sixth grade 238 7th grade 255 8th grade 258 9th grade 219 10th grade 217 11th grade 252 and 12th grade 233 kindergart kindergarten registration is under way parents if you have children that will be five years of age on or before October 1st please register your child for kindergarten please visit our websites for details we have a dedicated page strictly
033for for the registration um again there's a lot of congratulations and I do want to uh you know uh encourage and well congratulate the um Crimson kns Foundation gala Award winners uh we have three of them and it would be amazing for you to uh join us for the celebration and I do hope that you take the invitation to go to the website to learn about ticketing information it's I it promises to be a great night it's a night's tradition that that um that the um Crimson Knights Foundation that they undertake to recognize uh just uh you know dedication to our schools and dedication to the community so um again please check it out and congratulations to our winners this year and at this point I'd like to turn it over to you Mr Mala
034thank you okay thank you Dr heran at this time we have the Board of Education update any members of the Board of Education wish to make a an update or a comment at this time okay okay uh next we're going to on to uh committee reports committee reports uh are listed and can be found uh on the agenda uh any uh anyone wish to make comments Mr buffer thank you Mr malof um just a quick couple uh things from fnf um we met last I guess I guess it was last week March 11th um another productive meeting um to recap what Dr handerhan had just mentioned about the budget we are voting on that tonight if anybody has any questions about that at any point please feel free to reach out to me uh Dr
035handhand or Mr SMI um couple other things that I wanted to just touch on um referendum project updates detailed referendum project updates are on the website under the referendum tab um Dr Hanahan and Mr SMI do a nice job of make Shing that they're updated frequently uh so as soon as the fnf committee reviews them uh they are updated very shortly thereafter and they have details on um project status um bid status so on and so forth so please uh take a look at that for more detail information and if you have any questions let me know um one last thing I did want to touch on was uh during our meeting it was was um we had discussed um a lot of positive feedback from uh staff students members of the community um regarding
036the significant amount of work that Mr Canda and the operations Department did on the baseball fields as and the softball field um they kind of went the extra yard this year and and did like I said a significant amount of work and it did not go unnoticed we we got a lot of positive feedback District administration received a lot of positive feedback um and I just wanted to make sure that uh we publicly thank them for you know going doing a little extra this year to make sure things are uh the way they should be so thank you that's it thank you Mr buffer and again the uh uh minutes of the four committee meetings uh can be found on tonight's agenda at this time we're going to any other uh comments from the any
037of the other committee chairs okay uh at this time we're going to open up the floor for our second public comment and this comment uh uh these comments are to be uh directed to items on tonight's agenda anyone wishing to come up to speak to items on tonight's agenda bety cross I love wall I was just going through the agenda and I was looking under the the bills and claims report and for health benefits you have a separate health benefit sheet for a million 366 475 but then under the operating account you have a separate amount of 133,134 I was just wondering why are they in two different sections now um I did put an Oprah for um bills for Horizon and I've gotten them in the past but now Mr SMI would like to
038charge me a fortune to get them so um I'll decide what I'm going to do with that um but there's a precedent of providing Horizon insurance bills so to now not give them and want to charge me I don't think it's the the way you want to go um I see you're going out for quotes for the broker I mean not quotes yeah quotes not bids you should be going up for quotes so I hope we're not going to tailor it so that we can get brand to Brown again I think they've been awful we haven't seen any type of updates on what you're saving for Self insurance I think you're budgeting another million6 this year for health benefits um so without sharing information nobody knows what you're doing and now when you want to
039charge for turn uh Horizon bills it it said it's it's a big red flag for me um I totaled up I mean at the end um Dr Hanahan maybe you could say what the total student count is so that we don't have to do it um it looks like not counting prek 3,124 students but maybe every month you can just say the total not counting that so we know where we're going it looks like we're going to have a real decline in the next couple years in the high school because you only have 27 219 and 217 and freshman it's off more years so that's a big drop I hear a lot of students are leaving the high school next year I have a lot of people people that are afraid to come to meetings
040they're afraid of uh their child being targeted and things like that so it's really disappointing um terms of the budget if you could I know you're passing a resolution tonight to go to the county but if you could give any type of update of how you came up with the number it would really be appreciated um you know since we can ask questions we can go to the meeting but we we can't have anything in front of us that you're looking at and we can't ask questions this number means nothing to me um except I think a million6 extra for health benefits which should really be explained I see Athena Cornell's attorney bills just for one month on here over $15,000 when I look at other school districts their attorney bills are nothing like this
041for for Athena Cornell's firm uh I looked at rson Fair Haven where you came from Dr Hanahan I've looked at a number of the schools but you've got to get these attorney bills under control uh thank you for your time thank you mross I'd like some answers to my questions if you can't give them tonight maybe you can write them and send me an email thank you Mr malof is there anyone else for a public comment on agenda items okay seeing no one we're going to uh close uh public comment uh at this time I'm going to ask for uh a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda with the exception of item 16e can I have a motion for that oh I'll second Mr Baron Mr buffer uh roll call Mr Smite uh Miss Adams
042here yes on the motion on the table consent agenda item 12 with the exception of 16 yes thank you uh Mr Adia yes but I'm also going to recuse myself from uh number 13 the uh minutes since I wasn't at that meeting noted Miss barbier yes Mr Bon yes Mr buffer yes m d Giovani yes Mr Smith yes Mr wandra yes Mr MTH yes uh at this time I'm going to ask for a uh a motion to return to uh executive session where there will be no action taken at that time when we there will be no action ahead so we're moving back into executive session however when we reconvene the public it'll only be to adjourn the meeting no action will be taken uh after the executive session topics can I have uh Mr
043yanio I'll second okay Mr buffer to clarify the agenda items oh go ahead you it' be the agenda items from from the previous executive session okay yeah would be the agenda items that were on the previous executive uh agenda that we were not able to get to before 7 o'clock okay go ahead all in favor I opposed extensions thank you e e for