001Thank you. I pledge algiance 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. Miss Ael here. Miss Crisel here. Miss Giovani here. Miss Hans here. Mr. Sher here. Mr. Stampone here. Mr. Toe here. Miss Bodwitz here. Miss Calderone here. Notice of the May 12th, 2025 meeting of the board of education was emailed to the clerks of the burrows of Essex Falls and Rosland and to the township of Fairfield and to the editor of the progress on January 7th, 2025 and the Star Ledger on the same day. Welcome everyone. I hope those of you had a enjoyable Mother's Day. At least the sun came out which is always nice. Um I honestly I don't have any board
002um minutes for right now. Um I go to go we have maybe we have do have um a curriculum correct very brief uh statement here. Um so we have received a number of emails uh regarding the uh start time for our schools. As you know, we've been um actively involved in a almost a year-long process now to evaluate and analyze our uh bell schedules. Um so I do want to say we appreciate our famil family's advocacy on behalf of our students and we also appreciate the insight that they have provided to myself and our board members. Um at our last uh school starts times stool school school start times committee meeting, you know, I had informed the committee that we were going to uh pause the process um because of several unknowns with regard to
003a potential construction project in the area. Um since our last uh meeting with our committee, we did have the opportunity to have a preliminary conversation with our potential builders and we're in receipt of some new information um which will allow our team now to continue further with our process. Um in closing, I just want to emphasize that our committee and board will remain actively engaged in analyzing all factors related to potential adjustments to the school day schedule. I would just like to piggyback off of uh Mr. Machochi to say that the board members have all acknowledged and read the emails, have taken into account everyone's concerns regarding the school start time, have been involved. We've had a committee of board members involved with the school start time and we just want to make sure that
004we do our due diligence in investigating every component of it that comes to our attention before we make a final decision on it. It won't be a vote. It'll just be a recommendation by the superintendent to the board of education and it'll be regarding whatever the school's start time committee is informed about and whatever will be best for the students at the end of the day and the teachers. So at this time as Mr. Machochi says we are not you know I know there are quite a few emails we are all in receipt of and we do take the time to read it and discuss them and we are not pulling anything As of right now, we're going forward with just doing our righteous investigation to make sure everything goes ac as accurately as you
005can when you're dealing with the unknowns. So, that's the only thing I want to say at this point. So, we appreciate everyone's patience. Um, and we will keep everyone informed and be transparent as the process takes place. Should we uh pod it up there? Sure. Okay. So, here's your click here. All right. And um so we shortened the presentation a little bit, but we also printed out the longer version. Not a whole lot, just a couple copies. Take a look at the longer version. Couple on the table here. That packet version is a non-complete version. So it is missing some sections but includes more graphs, quotes, uh results from mathematical studies and surveys I did with uh the video game community here in New Jersey. Yeah. And um L has managed to really blend um
006their love of the arts with uh video games. So this will definitely be a pursuit for you after high school. And and the la I believe the last page are your sketches. Yes, the very last page are my concept sketches for the game I'm pitching here today. Because I will be pursuing a college minor in concept designs for video games. Okay. So floor is yours. Okay. So first marking period I chose to focus on the history of video games. What brought us to today and what has historically done well. that being cute, cool characters. We saw that with the war between Mario and Sonic in the 80s and then the invention of Pac-Man, which was specifically done to get women in arcades. Diverse stories. People want to be able to customize who they play as.
007They want to be able to take their own routes. And we see that with the popularity of RPGs. When I surveyed a group of people, the large majority picked RPGs as their favorite game, the game that changed their life. Having choice has always been a important value for people who play games. And then a balance of replay value and completion ability. People want to complete a game and then maybe come back to it. They don't want to get stuck in a gameplay loop, but they don't want to completely set it down. And back on the same diverse stories, player immersion and choice. And then an emphasis on community creativity. People don't want their companies to bar them from creating what they want in addition to a game. We saw that with Doom when it was
008first released. It allowed players to mod the game, aka create their own additions to the game as long as they purchased an original copy. And then people want representation and just good quality craftsmanship. People want to feel connected to the creators of their games. In terms of marketing, the best way marketing has ever been done has been competition. From Space Invaders 1980 to Rock the Rock with Sega and to modern esports, we see success in games that have a large competitive community. Same thing with community in allowing creators, fan creators to add to their favorite games. And then the extension of family and friends. Sega's own CEOs quoted in saying, "We get the older brother, his younger brother will play." People want to see themselves in the games they play. Madden really took off being
009one of the first video games to represent African-Americans on a title release video game. And overall, people are willing to buy where content where they feel a community and representation along with the engagement that they want. For the second marking period, I decided to look at the current market for video games. In your packet, you will see some graphs that compare the top 30 video game companies and their current stock values for the what is considered the largest profit time for video games, which is the holidays. From October 1st to January 10th is considered the most profitable time for video games. And with those graphs, the box plot and the dot plot you see below as well as all the mean information, that does not look like a successful Christmas season. People are getting sick
010of large scale game companies. And when I asked for survey approval, overall AAA games or big release games rated much lower than indie developed games, which are games with solo comm community creators, small teams that are filled with passion because those creators want those games to exist. They are often more finished. They are often more approved. And that brings us to on the screen. You'll also see various quotes in green from my survey if to extend on my numerical data. Out of survey results, most gamers prioritized gameplay mechanics, stylistic artwork, and while every response was different, they wanted a game that gave them an immersive world to escape to. Very few prioritized realism or certain genres. At most, they were specific about mechanics that they wanted. They wanted a smooth gameplay experience. And overall, they
011prioritize games with both multiplayer and single player modes that they could play separately. And on a much more concise page, what do gamers not want? They don't like microtransactions. They don't like gambling mechanics. All the things you see in big AAA releases recently have brought a lot of upset to the gaming community, which also extends on why indie releases have begun to po to populate the market more prominently. And for the third marking period, I focus right here in New Jersey on the state of esports because here in New Jersey, we have the forefront lead on introducing esports to high schools. which has brought a ton of money in scholarships to universities. It has brought a ton of opportunities for connection and people just feel at home in their local esports communities. Uh we also
012have an esports cafe that has opened up not even 20 minutes from our school and a lot of people have been really happy about that. It has given us a place to meet up and hang out and have a place to exist. Overall, by 2029, the esports industry is expected to reach 5.93 billion dollars. It is one of the fastest growing entertainment industries along with movies, actual sports, and books and literature. And of course, there will always be a need for new games to keep the industry alive. So, I asked people, "What makes a game good for esports?" And across the board, from the book written, A Newborn Business by Zultan Entraovics to survey results from here in New Jersey, there are a few factors that make a game good for esports. Things like characters,
013balance, divine goals, stakes, and most importantly, engagement for players, announcers, and fans alike. Esports is nothing without the gamers that love it. And so with all of that information, marking period 4, I set out to make a game concept that fit all of the bubbles that I could fill for what makes a successful game. And with that, I present Great Beyond. Great Beyond is a multiplayer online game concept with separate s with a separate single player story mode. The multiplayer is a 6v6, but instead of a standard hero shooter like your Overwatch, Valerant, the games we're familiar with, it takes a more capture the flag angle. Each team has a commander played by one of the six players, becoming a real active RPG style boss fight, something that hasn't been seen in any multiplayer online
014game before. Kill the commander three times and you win. Various additional challenges or goals may occur within a round. Capturing a space, retrieving an object, something to keep it fresh. The story mode follows a robot named Bit as they navigate an alternate dimension full of embodiment of cosmic concepts. Think space, time, the ocean, nature. Their goal is to unite the world, undo harm and stigma to technology, and discover the true secrets of the universe. Players will make their own choices to decide whether to heal the world or fight fire with fire. The colorful cast of characters can then appear in the multiplayer mode. And here is the final concept art for a few of my favorite characters out of the final 13 that I designed for the first round of characters. Thank you. [Applause] Thank
015you very much. Take care. She left. But I I was so impressed by her enthusiasm and her passion. It was like it was coming through. Pretty remarkable. Okay, here at the middle school, first and foremost, big congratulations to Mrs. Rizzo and our amazing music ensembles. They made it through the rain on Friday at Dorney Park. Uh phenomenal in their divisions. The orchestra took second place while both the choir and band earned first place. And all three groups received superior ratings, the highest possible honor. A special shout out to our band, which was named overall best instrumental ensemble of the day. And the judges also recognized our talented viola and woodwin sections with outstanding section awards. Alex, Zach, and Vicky Manuso were honored as outstanding soloists. And as I said, with a little rain, they were
016amazing. So super proud of them. Moving on, you know, the middle school is a special place, and I say that because our faculty and staff genuinely care for our students. So, in honor of National Teacher Appreciation Week, we celebrated our entire team, teachers, secretaries, nurse, everyone and anyone that we could. We tried to celebrate. This past week, our student council, they provided a grab-and-go breakfast. Um, we had an ice cream social after school. Tuesday was sweet treats. Wednesday, Wednesday was very carb heavy. Bagels in the morning and and nothing bunk cakes donated. Um, in the afternoon we had the PTO donate again, grabband go lunch. So, it was an amazing week. Um, just really appreciative for everyone who donated and super proud of our team at the middle school. Let's see. April was autism awareness
017month. had the ability to go see the Special Olympics at Brookdale Park. What an amazing experience if you haven't been before. Everyone kind of has their own special moments for but for me seeing adults interact with the children their student athletes and just seeing that relationship um we get bogged down with a lot of paperwork and education and it kind of really brings back the spirit of why we got involved. So that was really special. Moving on, new play No Place for Hate. The middle school is excited to announce we are designated no place for hate school again for the second straight year. Thanks to Mrs. Hulse and our entire team, we are making strides in our efforts to combat bias and hate of all kinds. And we look forward to this important work again
018next year. We partnered with the high school um in partnership with the National English Honor Society. Our middle school and high school book clubs hosted a book drive. Here at the middle school, Mrs. Mos Kawuchcci collected 12 boxes, pretty large boxes of gently used children's books, and they were donated to Bridge of Books, which is a nonprofit that provides books to children across New Jersey. What else? Hoops for Hearts. I may not have told you, you knew every March we do our Hoops for Heart event through our PE department, but I don't know if if I shared that we raised over $6,000 that was donated to the American Heart Association. So, a special thank you to Mrs. Shakitano, Miss Leafura, Mr. Rambo, and Mr. Rajiro. We have one more day of NGSLA testing tomorrow. The
019kids are officially burnt out of testing. The eighth graders are excited, I guess, would be a nice way to put their energy in the hallway. Um, so we have one more day and then we're good there. And then finally, on Thursday for our eighth graders, we have Powerhouse Studios coming. Um, it's kind of a third party vendor that we use to have a field day for them. Calling for some rain, so we're going to see. We do have a rain date scheduled on Friday, but hopefully we can pull that off. So, uh, we're moving straight ahead at the middle school. Thank you. I'll turn it over to Dr. Roosevelt. Thank you. All right. Good evening, everyone. Um, so we are in the middle of AP testing right now and I just want to give a
020shout out to Miss Fernola, our assistant principal and AP coordinator because in these two weeks we have over 1,000 exams being administered and she is responsible for coordinating the proctors, the locations, um, making sure every student with accommodations is placed in the right room and so that is no small task. So, she's doing a phenomenal job with that. And our students are also just crushing it. They I mean, some of our students have two exams in one day and they're just taking getting a snack in between. Um, as you know, we can't control the time of the test. The College Board dictates the timing of it. So, obviously, we would want to give them more of a break in between, but that's out of our control. Um earlier this month or last week I should
021say we celebrated the our school's validictorian and saludiatoran. Um at the 2025 Essex County Scholar Awards me Mr. Machochi were there. Our validictorian Alex Bjani was there with his mother and his guidance counselor Sammy Rinmith. Our saludiatoran Emily Dy was there with her parents and her guidance counselor Jess Pratt. and it was a really nice event celebrating all of the top scholars in Essex County. For athletics, our baseball coach, Mr. Cardell, earned his 200th career win last week over Columbia High School, which is exciting news. And um our senior Anthony Drago in boys lacrosse captain is now our all-time leading scorer in program history, which is um pretty amazing. So, congratulations to Anthony on that. in our arts program. Um, I just want to say congratulations to our choir and band programs for their beautiful
022spring concerts earlier this month. I'm not sure if you guys had a chance to stop in at all, but they're the programs are just they're doing so well. They're thriving. The kids are amazing. Um, I was actually historically crying at the end of our choir concert because the seniors were so sad to be leaving and it was just a really beautiful moment. And um, and those are the reasons why we're here, right? Um, also this is pretty cool. Well, we have two students who were nominated to showcase their artwork at the New Jersey Teen Arts Festival in Middle Sex College on June 2nd. So, we have junior Nichollet Guerreri and senior Kevin Rodriguez um who were nominated for that. And Kevin's piece on surrealism was also selected for the traveling exhibit, which means it was
023like hung at different locations throughout the state. Um, which is amazing because Essex County can only nominate three students for this distinction. And so, he was one of them. So, we're really proud of Kevin and his work. Um, for our culture and climate, just as the middle school is, we're excited to announce that we are a no place for hate school again with gold star designation. Um, our students created and participated in four lessons to give us that gold star recognition. If we to be a no place for hate school each year, our students have to create at least minimum three lessons and our school has to participate in that. if we do a fourth lesson, that's what gives us that gold star. Um, so under the direction of Mrs. Holtz, we were able to
024achieve that. Um, and this is our second year in a row. So, we're really proud of that and our commitment to inclusivity and respect for all. I'd also like to say thank you to our student council, our key club, and the PTO for sponsoring some of our staff appreciation events last week that we had just like the middle school, we had lots of sugar all week long, which was great. Um, nothing says appreciation like stuffing your face. And um, but the the teachers felt loved and appreciated. They really did. And they should because we we feel that way. We are really thankful for the work they do. I also, as you know, each month I've been recognizing different departments to give each of the departments in my school a little shout out. Um, so this
025month I want to recognize the social studies department led by Miss Laura Drago. These teachers are having the students critically thinking, learning about civic government, a deeper understanding of history, government, and global issues. And you can see that in every classroom that you visit that these students are these teachers are dedicated to that. I also want to recognize our fine performing and practical arts department led by Miss Lisa Swanik. These teachers bring creativity, innovation, and expression to the forefront of our school culture. Whenever I need a pickme up, I walk down that hund wing and you just you smell the delicious foods being cooked by culinary. You hear the beautiful sounds. You see the beautiful artwork all around you. So, I just want to recognize both those departments for their work. What do we have
026upcoming? Okay, we have NJSLA testing in next week. Grade nine will be math and ELA Monday and Tuesday. And then on Wednesday and Thursday with grade 11 for science. On May 17th, I invite all of you guys to our Asian-American and Pacific Islander celebration. It's this huge event um being run by Missu and some parents in the community. It's Saturday, May 17th at 11:00 a.m. in the high school gym. There's going to be performances, delicious food, activities like origami, dragon dances, and chopstick challenges. It'll be really fun event. Um it's only $5 cash only for the community members to enter. It's also free to staff and students if anyone wants to participate. Um, and we have our district orchestra spring concert coming up on May 21st at 7 PM. And finally, we have on May
02728th, we have three events. It's Wednesday, May 28th. Starting at 5:00 p.m., we have our district art show in the media center. Then we have the Masers Cabaret at 6 p.m. And then we have our district jazz show at 7 p.m. So, if you're looking for some arts and some fun on the 28th, please welcome come and join us. And that's it for tonight. Thank you guys. Thank you. We appreciate everybody. Yeah, definitely. Um the curriculum committee met on May 6th. It was a very robust agenda. Um we discussed the New Jersey performance report looking at scores how to impact change. Let's use some examples are um a boost camp for NJSLA studies. Um developing a more robust gifted and talented program and looking at earlier benchmark tools to ID risk and enrichment. Uh the
028summer enrichment enrollment is very high. Some examples are 16 students signed up for personal finance, 12 for honors geometry and 27 for culinary. Um we have 12 students who are going to join the ELLL program servicing them next school year 202526. The summer reading list is finalized and it was sort of interesting to hear how they picked the novels. um they pull the students. They look to see what the students are gravitating towards. They look for popular authors that the students are reading throughout the year and looking for books with sequels to encourage more reading. And I think one of the most impressive things is a new er ERI program which is a new initiative for 2025 26. Those are for students with emotional regulation impairments. It's going to be a therapeutic setting but in
029West Essex High School. So, our students are going to be able to stay in district access to mainstream environment therapeutic setting and it's also um a significant cost savings for our district. Questions or anything? Okay. At this time, I will open the floor floor for public or comments on for excuse me, public for comments on agenda items only. So, anything that is within the agenda this evening, if we have anyone here in the public who would like to speak, please come up to the podium, give your name, address, and you have three minutes. Good. Okay. With that being said, we're going to go forward with the agenda. Finance Ray, please. Following finance motions are made at the recommendation of the superintendent of schools. Anything placed on this agenda, items 1 through nine will be voted
030upon in one motion and I second. Miss Aml, yes. Miss Crystal, yes. Miss Eani, yes. Miss Holl, yes. Mr. Sher, yes. Mr. Samone, yes. Mr. Toad. Yes. Miss Wadwitz. Yes. Miss Calderon. Yes. Building and grounds. Laya please. Yes ma'am. The following building ground motions are made for recommendation of the superintendent of schools. Anything placed on this agenda. Items one and one second will be voted upon in one motion and I so miss. Yes. Miss principal. Yes, Miss Giovani. Yes, Miss Hollstead. Yes, Mr. Sher. Yes, Mr. Sam. Yes, Mr. To. Yes, Miss Vodus. Yes, Miss Calone. Yes. Personnel motions. John, please. Oh, that's right. I'm sorry, Jonathan. Following personnel motions are made at the recommendation of the superintendent of schools. Anything placed on this agenda, items 1 through 36 will be voted upon in one motion.
031And I move second. Miss Amal, yes. Miss Crystal, yes. Miss Giovani, yes. Miss Longstat, yes. Mr. Sher, yes. Mr. Stampone. Uh, yes. 1 through 36 with the exceptions of number one, number six, and number 25, which are excuse me, six, 25. Mr. Toad. Uh, yes on items 1 through 28. Abstain item 29 and yes on 30 to 36. Sorry. Okay, Miss Wad. Uh, I recuse myself from number one. Yes to 2 through 28. I've seen 29 and yes 30- 36. [Applause] Sorry. Okay, Miss Caldron. Yes. Sorry. Court moving special ed, please. The following curriculum special education motions are made at the recommendation of the superintendent of schools. Anything placed on this agenda, items 1 through six be voted upon in one motion and I so moved. Second. Miss, yes. Miss Crystal, yes. Missy Gavani, yes.
032Miss Hollstead, yes. Mr. Sher, yes. Mr. Stampone, yes. Mr. Toads, yes. Miss Voditz, yes. Miss Kel, yes. Uh, the following miscellaneous motions are made. The recommendation of the superintendent of schools. Anything placed on this agenda. Items 1 through eight will be voted upon. Uh, in one motion and I move it. Second. Second. Miss. Yes. Miss Chris, yes. Miss C. Giovani, yes. Miss Hans, yes. Mr. Sher, yes. Mr. Sam, Mr. Code, yes. Miss Wad, yes. Miss Calone, yes. At this time, I will open the floor to the public for comments on non-aggenda items. As I said before, please step to the podium, give us your name, your address, any affiliations, and you have a three minute time. We have anyone? Hello. Should I speak into the mic or We're good. Good as is. Uh Jet Safarini,
0339 Brentwood Drive, North Caldwell, New Jersey. Um, I think there were a few questions that came up uh in the last couple of weeks around the work that the board was doing to investigate whether uh school time opening time should be moved around. Um, and uh I think we'd love to hear an update on that and uh uh try to understand a little bit of where where the communities are. I know there are many different communities with different uh different views on the matter and I think we're looking forward to not having the kids, you know, go to school in the dark, but uh I'd love to hear a little bit more about it. Your daughter doesn't come home and tell you all since she's a part of our committee. Uh you know, Deb, my
034daughter's 16. She doesn't talk to me about anything. She has a lot to share. I can vouch for that. She has a lot to share but it's all very good you know she brings she brings to the table the you know that which is most important to students you know and we have to take all stakeholders are you know are all you know have a voice um Mr. Machoi did speak about it just prior when you started. Just want to repeat that. So, we've been um Good evening. Thanks for coming. We've been working on this process for several months now. We have a committee. It's um students, parents, teachers, administrators. Um we've been looking at data. We've been um having conversations. We we've been talking about transportation. We've been communicating with the police. Um, so
035we've had a pretty extensive process that we've been going through. Um, we, um, did receive a number of emails this evening. I'll just kind of repeat what I said a little bit earlier and then if you have any other questions, I happy to try to answer them. Um, so we did get some emails tonight inquiring about our school start times. Um, and we do appreciate when we hear from people um, from the public. you know, we we do value your input and we appreciate when our parents are advocating for their children. Um, at our last committee meeting, I did I did tell the committee that we were hitting the pause button on the process. Um, and that was because a a lot of unknown information was circulating about a construction project that could have some
036significant impact on our, you know, entry and exiting of the campus. And I know the police came to our meeting and we talked a lot about traffic and safety and making sure that we didn't create a bigger problem by adjusting our start times. So, um it was simply a pause until we can gather more information to make sure that we feel very confident about adjusting our start times. Um, since that last meeting, we did have the opportunity to have a very preliminary conversation with one of the builders and we do have some new information which we feel now will allow us to kind of our team to continue to further that um, further you know investigate and do more with our process. So basically what I want to emphasize is that we are going to
037remain actively engaged in this process, continue to look at some additional information and um you know related to potential adjustments and most likely call our committee back for another meeting sometime in the near future. Great. Thank you. Yeah, I I'll just say one thing. I appreciate that you guys are thinking about this um diligently. The uh town zoning boards are not without recourse. they do have quite a bit of um quite a bit of regulatory um I don't know what you call it sway I suppose over the builders and so um to the extent that you're involving the town I presume you guys are whether it's North Caldwell or Fairfield or whoever else is involved in the development um I'm sure they'd appreciate to hear from me if you haven't already we have we have
038reached out to um the I forget is the burough administrator, burough administrator, the mayor. Um, so there is open, you know, dialogue between all of us. Now, it was really just brought to our attention at one of our school start time um meetings about the construction. One of the North Caldwell uh officers brought it to our attention. I mean we knew about it but we didn't know to the extent of things that were happening and that these were happening directly across from our entrance. So um that's why the committee you know we all felt that we we have to do our due diligence and just investigate everything that they will share with us and then make a you know constructive you know decision on it going forward. But it it is not, you know, we
039the emails we received were indicative that they thought that we were voting on it this evening. That's not happening. There's no vote. Um there's none of us here that are against it. We are just here to try and and find out everything before we make a final commitment because it is a big commitment. It is a big commitment due to, you know, the students, the academics, the scheduling, and then traffic. And those of you who come in and out of this school on a regular basis know that that's something we all deal with. So, we just want you all to know, we haven't said no. We haven't put a hard stop to anything. We are going to continue investigating. Um, we know that the builders are going in front of the planning boards on one
040in June for North Coal and one for Fairfield. Um, and we anticipate that at that point we'll have a little bit more data to go and more dates to go forward with, but we promise to keep everyone informed and as Mr. Macho said, have another school star committee meeting and then be transparent with the population of the community, the students and parents. Wonderful. You're all looking at me like I'm Is there anything else I should be saying here? I've never done the podium thing before, so you're doing great. Thank you very much. Appreciate you. [Applause] Anyone else? Good. Okay, that being said, Okay. Um, there being no further business before this board of education, be it resolved that this public meeting be adjourned at I know my watch is 810. 810. Second. Uh, all in
041favor?