001meeting. [clears throat] Public notice of this meeting was given to all board members and associate and a notice dated January 8th, 2025. Adequate and electronic notice of this public meeting has been provided specifying the time, place and manner of which this meeting is being conducted. It was advertised in the courier post hosted in all schools, the administration office, the municipal building, the library, the bub doo center, Edgewood acres, Elmtown, and the Wow Township post office. The mission statement of the Winslow Township School District, a large, diverse, and growing community, is to educate all students to become independent, lifelong learners, critical thinkers, and caring and competent members of their community. The district in partnership with the community and in the climate of cooperation and mutual respect will provide an academic environment which values excellence and diversity.
002Encourage students to strive for personal excellence and assist them in acquiring the knowledge, skills, attitudes necessary to contribute positively to a rapid changing world. Miss Boil, roll call. Mr. Clark. >> Mr. Clark has an emergency and will be absent. >> Thank you. Miss Dreaden >> here. >> Miss Gloyd, >> present. >> Miss Martin, >> present. >> Mr. Matthews, >> present. >> Miss Neves, >> present. >> Mr. Shaw, >> present. >> Miss Pit, >> present. >> And Mr. Thomas, >> present. >> We have a quorum. >> Pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Mr. Goal [clears throat] B >> 2025 2026 district goals student achievement continue to implement
003researchbased best practices for delivering instruction and accilerate learning for all students including sub all subgroups. This shall include conduct weekly administrative walkthroughs to monitor teaching and learning. utilize the district diagnostic assessment platform to analyze student data to inform and guide instructions to monitor and track measurable goals and ELA and mathematics in grades one through nine to implement creative ways to accelerate student learning by providing additional support throughout and beyond the school day. Number two, promote a positive environment for all students for students and staff. Enforce the code of conduct to ensure safety and stu for students and staff and compliance with the district policies. Incorporate social emotional learning opportunities for students to celebrate positive behaviors. Develop strategies for students with significant behaviors to reduce the interruption of instructional time. Decrease negative actions and improve school
004attendance. Number three, increase stakeholder engagement. Explore and expand innovative opportunities to increase parent communication. Create parent learning opportunities with a focus on how to support their child's learning and to continue to share the accomp accomplishments of Winslow students and all student activities. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Mr. Peas, are there any awards and presentations at this time? There are four number recognition awards. Am I taking the lead on that? >> Okay. So, okay. So, I came into the district in September and I had the honor of working with uh the first board that uh greeted me and uh Mr. McManis uh was one of those individuals and I would like to bring Mr. McManus up to recognize him for his years of service although my tenure [applause] with Mr. McManus has been short
005but it's been uh very productive. So, in recognition of loyal service as a member of the board of education of Winsow Township, January 2025, December 2025, uh, members Michael Clark, Lorraine Dredden, Wanda Glaw, Rita Martin, Benjamin Matthews, Rebecca Neves, Cheryl Pittz, John Shaw, and Joe Thomas, and your general superintendent, Maris, and your board secretary, Miss Tyra McCoy Boy. So, CONGRATULATIONS AND THANK YOU. >> [applause] >> SO, OUR next uh board member to recognize is Miss Julie Peterson. Miss Peterson, could you come up please? Miss Peterson uh was part of the board uh and hiring me and uh our time together has been short but it's been very productive and as a member of the board of education of Window Township from April 2010 to to December 2025. A lot of years of service and taking
006care of young people. Uh again the board members Michael Clark, Ren Dre and Wed Law, Rita Martin, Benjamin Matthews, Rebecca Neves, Cheryl Pittz, John Shaw, and Joe Thomas. Your interim superintendent Mark Peas, Ty Tyra McCoy, Royal our board secretary. Thank you for your dedication to our community. [applause] As a past president, you are given a gabble. I haven't seen him yet. Will you open? >> Yes. [laughter] Thank you. >> So, she has her official gabble and it reads, "Miss Julie Peterson, in recognition of your service as a president for the Winsow Township Board of Education, >> I just want to make a comment. I want to thank everyone for this honor. Let me tell you, this been a pleasure to work 15 years on the board. I've seen a lot of positive changes and I
007know the new board will make the same adjustments and make sure that we grow. But the best thing that happened this week to me is one of your students stated that she wanted and she's a former cheerleader stated that she came into Rowan for orientation. She wants to go in and she is an education major. So we are getting the best and the brightest from Woods and I thank you. I've been at Rowan 48 years. [laughter] >> [clears throat] >> picture. Oh. >> [laughter] >> doesn't exactly flatter. [laughter] [clears throat] >> Thank you very much. >> [clears throat] >> YEAH, MR. PEAS, ARE THERE ANY CORRESPONDENCE? >> NO, NO, NO. We have uh a district presentation of our district uh goals. So, we'll use this time to uh go over those goals. I am going
008to be assisted by the assistant superintendent, Miss Clement. >> So, I mean, if you would like, you may want to give >> I I just want to make recognition. We have the war three committee uh leader uh Jack Bel. Jack will lead that's in the house. >> All right. >> [clears throat] >> So each quarter we are going to present our quarterly goals and this is uh information basically uh that starts in the summer. I wasn't here for the summer, but uh it basically starts when the school year starts. So, there's a lot of good work that took place uh from my uh start date until now. And we're going to talk about those things. We'll go go through it. Uh each board member has the actual report, but uh Miss Clement and I will
009do the uh presentation. So our our goals uh like many school districts, student achievement should always be a part of your uh your district goals and stakeholder engagement and positive school environments. So these areas we will talk about and we'll talk about some of the things we've done to achieve success in these areas in a short time. >> Good evening. Good evening. >> Good evening. So I will not bore you by reading line by line but I'll just go through some of the things. Um when we talk about the coordinated teaching schedules that are in your report what that is is across grade levels across schools that allows for greater opportunities for uh teachers to collaborate greater ability for administrators to ensure alignment of the delivery of instruction. So in short, what it is is
010in preschool, the three-year-olds, everyone has the same schedule. Four year olds, everyone has the same schedule. In kindergarten, across the district, wherever you go in building one, two, three, and four, if I want to see math, I can go at 10:00 and everyone would be doing that. So this allows for a teacher if we want to have professional development, we could get teachers from schools one, two, three and four on a call al together and we can have some conversations about things that we need to do to improve our instruction, things that we need to do for students. So that coordinating teaching schedules is something that we've done across buildings. As a former principal, what I used to do is go to my binder, look up the teacher, see what they were doing for the
011day, and figure out how I was going to get in to a schedule. Now, all I need to do is say, "What do I need to look at?" I know what time it is. I can go to any building and see that, and any building principal can do the same. So our pilot, our ELA pilot, this has been a wonderful undertaking. We have 89 teachers from grades K to 8 piloting five programs. The teachers have been absolutely outstanding, dedicated, passionate about their programs, passionate about their professional development, their learning of new research, new techniques, etc. We anticipate a decision by late February and we'll be developing a rubric based on the reading link to to do this. Um what I gave you in your folders you'll see [clears throat] just so that you have if
012you have some leisurely reading time this is um guidelines from the reading league. Everything that we're doing is researchbased. Everything that we do is going to be equitable. It's just not who is um popular, what material is popular, who likes it best. It's all going to be based on criteria. So, what I wanted you to see by giving you this is that in your packet, you'll see some of the research that the teachers are working from. the simple view of reading Scarboro's reading group all late research that we should be moving to so that we have what they call HQIM and those are highquality instructional materials. So the curriculum office led by Dr. Ferguson we will be developing a rubric based on this and the teachers will then get to choose their program. What has
013been interesting is some of our vendors that come through and talk to us have said, "We've never seen a process like this. We've never seen anything like this." What usually happens is we come into a room, there are five boxes, and somebody picks the purple one. So, we're doing our due diligence across the district to make sure that the next product that we select is one that will benefit our students and staff. So, you will be able to see what the teachers are working from, research that they're working from. it'll identify some red flags. So if it's in a pilot and there are red flags and overabundance of them that may not be the product that we want. So just so that you have something to refer to if I can add in there. >>
014Sure. Now one thing about this process which is really good and I've been in several districts that have gone through pilots and looking at uh making a selection for ELA curriculum. A lot of times the boots on the grounds your teachers don't get a chance to participate in that process and this is a great way for our teachers to collaborate not only with administrators and our curriculum team but along with the uh the vendors. So we get to ask them questions and really grill the the vendor to make sure that we're getting what we want and we we get a chance to pick the product that best suits our needs. So for professional development, um that is an ongoing thing for us and we talked about some of the ways that we're facilitating that. On
015February 13th is our next district-wide inservice. Um it will be a half day of teacher learning because we are a school so we have to do that part. But the second half of the day will be wellness for our teachers. So there will be some opportunities for um some unwinding, some I won't tell all the secrets, but some line dancing, some some coloring, some crocheting, and our teachers volunteer to come and lead these activities for us. So they have fun in um engaging with their colleagues and just having a good time. So it'll be a good day of teaching and learning and relaxing on our next wellness day. Again, the curriculum office is putting together a wealth of activities for us to enjoy. The next two, the administrative walkthroughs and the collaboration are what principles
016and assistant principles do all the time. Walking through their classrooms to make sure that things are going the way that they should be. Principles are doing observations. They're doing informal walkthroughs. Um, all to make sure that we're following our curriculum. Our collaborative calibration is another type of white walk through where administrators Mr. PS and I curriculum office. We go through classrooms and we talk as administrators. What did you see? What do you think? How would you score that on an observation? Because as a unit, we need to be consistent, right? What's a four over here should be a four over here. So those conversations need to happen across the district to make sure that we're doing our due diligence and working as a team for all of our teachers and our students. So that's what
017those two are. The last three are the diagnostic assessments, the progress monitoring, and the targeting support. We've already completed our first diagnostic. We're actually coming up soon on our second one. So, that's where the fun begins, right? We see where our baseline was. Now, we see what growth we've made. We start to be able to have some data team conversations as teachers and administrators to say, where does Sheresa need to go for extra help or acceleration? How do I provide that either in small groupoup instruction in my classroom or in any of the offerings that we have as targeted supports for high dosage tutoring before afterchool tutoring response to intervention within our buildings etc. So all of that has begun. Teachers are diving in. When you see on your board agendas, data team meetings, that's
018what that is. Meeting of the minds of teachers, they're talking about scores. They're talking about students, what's best for them, and how do we accelerate them through their learning. >> Mr. P. >> So, uh, Dr. Ferguson, this might stand in real quick. Introduce yourself. This is, uh, Dr. B Ferguson, our curriculum director. She's new to our district. And Dr. Perus has been doing a phenomenal job uh jumping in and doing this work along with the leadership of Miss Clement who's been doing a phenomenal job just making sure that this area a priority a a lifeline in our district is something that we we pay a lot of attention to and their work and uh Miss Clemens's leadership has uh really guided us through this process. It's giving teachers uh the the answers. Uh we're we're
019we're tackling tough questions and we're just making sure that they have a voice in this whole process and it's through uh Miss Clement's leadership that we're able to do this. So, we're very pleased with the curriculum department and the leadership of uh Miss Clement uh in our areas of student achievement. So here's some pictures from uh our professional development and this is uh a pilot meeting and this is the teachers coming together to talk best practices and their experiences with the uh pilot and also uh some information about the impact grant. Anything you want to add on the impact grant um >> so the impact grant is when I talked about HQIM high quality instructional materials you all approved for us to apply for that it was a competitive grant we actually won. So, we
020won close to $200,000. We will use those funds at the end of February to um to help in our purchase of whatever program we all decide in. So, that impact grant will be critical in offending offsetting some of the cost of what can be one of the most expensive purchases in the district and that's an ELA program. So, that work we have been uh has been great has been beneficial. So, >> and that's a huge win for the district, you know, when we are competing against hundreds of districts for these grants and for us to be selected to uh receive a grant of that magnitude is important. It's a it's a huge win. So, it's letting uh the state know or the state is letting us know that we trust your work. We trust what
021you're doing with these uh funds and you're good stewards of these dollars. So we are uh very excited to uh have received that grant and we're looking to receive other grants to support some of our initiatives. So uh promoting a positive environment, you know, that's that's pretty dear to me and we do a great job. We have policies, we have codes of conduct, uh you know, we develop strategies to uh you know, deal with some of our significant and difficult behaviors and very big on uh social emotional learning. It's important that we uh handle these three areas uh in a way that we're constantly promoting these things and making sure that uh the work is getting done. So when you look at the code of conduct, we use the policy of course we use the
022policy in our uh our student handbooks to guide us in making decisions on dealing with behaviors. But we also want to make sure that our administrators have that level of communication not only with the children but with the parents and making sure that you know there those lines of communications uh are there and are uh viable to uh correcting some of these behaviors. Listen, we're not going to be perfect. No school district is perfect when it comes to uh behaviors. But it's all about how we service our community and service our students and how we're able to uh work out some of these uh these difficult situations. And sometimes my answer may not be the answer the parent wants to hear. And they're going to come to these meetings like this and voice their concerns.
023But the decisions that we make is going to be policy driven. It's going to be in our handbooks. And we're going to provide parents opportunities to communicate with us so that we can kind of resolve it. Are we going to be perfect in that area? Probably not. But we're going to do our best to make sure that we give parents uh the time and you know good reasoning on why or how we're dealing with the uh the behaviors. The same thing with uh developing strategies. We talk about this all the time with our department heads, how we can uh support our most difficult students and some of the strategies. We also uh lean on outside agencies. you know, some of these grants and some of the uh county supports that we have. We we lean
024on them to provide us with strategies to help support some of these difficult students in the district. Again, is it going to see you're going to see a magic wand? Uh I I sprinkle around and change things. It's not going to happen. It takes a lot of work. It takes communication and it takes a partnership not just with us, but a partnership with the community. Parents need to understand that there's a certain way that we need to do school and there's an expectation on how we do school and we need them to support that expectation and sometimes that's not always something that everybody agrees with, but it's it's the way we need to do it. So, we'll continue to communicate those things with our parents. And lastly, social emotional learning. You know, I'm I'm married
025to a school counselor and I hear social emotional learning all the time. My house, my family is built on social emotional learning. You know, it's all about kindness. It's all about loving people. And it's all about making sure that you're empathetic to some of the issues that students may be facing. Peeling back the layers to understand what they may be struggling with. What's going on in the home that may be causing that child to uh be a problem in the classroom and then showing some love to make sure that we're dealing with those those young people and making sure that we have proven strategies that work and not give up on finding new strategies that may be better beneficial to those uh students. So me on my end, I'm promoting this. I go to the
026buildings. I read the kids. We talk about uh some of the books that are uh social emotional uh learning uh uh driven. And I'd like to have uh our teachers and our principles continue to do that work. So I want to set an example uh by being there and supporting this initiative. And I I know it makes a difference. So when you have an environment where students feel good about coming to, they feel safe, they learn better. So it's up to us to make sure that we create create these environments. Again, are we going to be perfect? We're not going to be perfect in these areas, but we are going to set a standard to make sure that our our teachers understand, our administrators understand that it's important that we push these areas and that
027we have some consistency when it comes to these uh these topics. So that's me and uh one of the classes and uh uh it was an awesome day. So that book that book up there, No More Chairs, is a true story. It's about a a teacher from New York who uh when he was a little boy, he went to a birthday party with his best friend. And mind you, his best friend was black. So he he went to this house for the party and they weren't received well and basically he was told there there were no more chairs in the house for them to participate in the party. So it talks about how this teacher leaves an empty chair in his classroom to basically you know remind him that there will always be a a
028chair for somebody and everyone will be welcome. So I had a chance to talk to these students about that and see how they felt and it was it was a serious book and they really really broke it down as far as you know what it meant to them and how it made them feel. So you know those are the type of things that we're doing. So those are uh the uh examples that I'm trying to set for our administrators and our teachers that even a superintendent gets involved with social emotional learning. And again, that wellness day that uh Miss Clement talked about, I'm a firm believer in that. Uh school business is hard. Parents got a taste of that during co the work is real work. It's stressful work. And more than ever, you're seeing
029more teachers leave the business because it's so stressful. And it's our jobs if we want to retain these great educators, it's our job to take care of them. So there's going to be days when you know what? Let's let our hair down. I don't have much of it, but uh let's uh let's relax a little bit. Let's take care of the people who take care of hundreds of students each and every day cuz it's important. Cuz without them now, we're dealing with people who are not really certified that well or push through the system to get their certifications and we're missing out on a lot of great educators who may turn away from the business because of the stress of it. So, it's our jobs to keep them. We got to take care of them.
030You know, of course, you know, that comes in other forms as well, contractually and things like that, but we got to be able to do those little things social, emotionally to take care of our teachers because it's important. There's days they're they're balancing their lives because life doesn't stop when you become a teacher. You walk into that classroom, you got to put your game face on and deal with the game faces of those children, but you still got to be able to do your job on a high level. So we have to look at ways to support our teachers and I truly believe in any opportunities to support wellness with our teachers is important. So uh stakeholder engagement is another thing that uh that is dear to me. Communication solves a lot of problems. when
031we talk, when we let you know what's going on, when you understand what we're struggling with, you take the middle school for example, that was a huge undertaking. That was a huge emergency. And the best way for me to handle that was share the struggle that the school district was facing with the community, not hide it. It was a it was a problem. It wasn't going away and we had to make some tough decisions about it. But by giving parents an opportunity to know what we were dealing with, I think that allowed them to trust that we were making the right decisions. So, communication's important and having that type of communication in uh ways where may not have been a a a common thing in the past, but I'm okay with being on social media.
032I'm okay with doing videos. I just met with the TV produ production uh class today. They do a phenomenal job. and uh Miss Clement and I have some things planned for uh next coming weeks as far as improving our communication. I just uh created a uh public relations uh group here in this building to kind of help with our branding of the district. We want to continue to show uh the community all the great things that we're doing. And again, there's always going to be some difficult things. There's always going to be some turbulence in the air that's uh says, you know, what's going on in WISA? But you know what? there's always going to be a lot of good things happening and it's up to us to make sure that we promote those things.
033You know, life is life. Uh school is a living breathing thing and changes every day and there's things that I can't control, you know. So, but the things that I can communicating and getting that information out to you uh via our social media platforms, which we will be increasing. We're going from just not just only Facebook, but we're going to increase it to Instagram. We already have our YouTube channel. So, we'll continue to do those things as well. But you're going to see more of us on uh our our platforms and our websites just communicating with parents and making sure that they have what they need to uh understand what's going on in the district. We're not hiding anything. We're here to do good work. We do hard work and we're all about making sure
034that this district continues to uh excel. So lastly, you know, the uh the committees, there are several committees that we uh we belong to or that we have and it's important that we uh allow uh those individuals who belong to those committees to get a little closer to us to dig behind the scenes and see what we actually do. And that, you know, is important to the community because now there's a another voice that's involved that's allowing them to know like, you know, I spoke with Mr. I spoke with Miss Clint about this topic and now it's coming from someone from the community a little bit closer to them and so they feel uh a sense of relief when they hear from not just my voice you know what we're saying is what we're doing
035and so that brings a level of comfort. So there's uh several committees that uh are important. We do our CPAG which uh is our special education parent advisory group. We do our bilingual parent advisory committee and we have our early childhood advisory committee and we also have our citizens advisory committee. So those are some great committees to uh be a part of along with your HSAs at each school. So it's important to get involved uh to get uh involved so that you have understanding about what we do or get a closer understanding of what we do and also provide that support. uh parent learning opportunities. Uh during those uh committee meetings, there are learning opportunities for parents. You know, we we want to use those committees to help educate our parents on some of the
036uh curriculum. Uh just helping my son, he's in first grade doing math. Math is totally different than it was when we were in first grade. So, sometimes you need uh a little clarification on what the teacher is asking your child to do. You know, maybe a little different than what you're used to or the way you do it may be different than the way we're teaching it. So having these opportunities to talk to uh teachers and be a part of these committees are very helpful. I know the uh fast uh program is a a STEM program that they uh have uh throughout the year and it's a great way to see some of the activities and see teachers involved with the students and and get a chance to uh see some of the things that
037we're doing uh in the public. And I think that's about it. Uh any questions? Here's some of the communications, some of the things that we've uh sent out. Mr. Long, >> I have a question for Miss Clement coming. You said during professional development, there's dancing. [laughter] >> My question is, do you know that in his neighborhood, Mr. Peas is known as Fred Stare? [laughter] >> So, I want you to take full advantage of that during your professional development sessions, please. >> Understood. I got a mean two. >> Be aware of that. [laughter] >> That's a known fact. >> But uh with our communications, I don't know if you, uh seen it, on each website of the schools, we have a digital backpack and in there you're going to find all the flyers that come from
038different organizations throughout town, information and letters from your school buildings. So, it's a great way to make sure you have the information that's going on in your school. And if you missed it, just go to the digital backpack and it'll be there. So, that was something new that we started this year. And again, our website and our Facebook post are another way to uh get information. And uh our IT team does a phenomenal job making sure that our technology is up and making sure that we're able to uh put that information on our website and on our Facebook pages. So again, we're really pushing the whole communication thing. We added a communication piece here for meetings. Uh we have our email uh public portion or public question uh portal that allows people who can't attend
039the meeting to submit a question via email. Uh almost same thing as our phone calls. And so we'll monitor those throughout these meetings. But uh we are really uh pushing making sure that our community has a voice when it comes to decisions that we're making and we're listening and that also the information that we have is getting out to everybody in a timely fashion. >> I have a question for you. >> Yes. >> So for your community flyers, I really love that that digital backpack. So that will that help alleviate from the nonprofit organizations have to burn off 1400 copies? >> If they don't want a paper copy, all they got to do is send me a digital copy of it and I get it to uh Mr. McCra who then puts it into the
040appropriate backpacks. >> That is awesome. Thank you. >> So, here's some pictures from some of the uh uh fast nights that uh Miss Stump and her team puts together and it's just a great way for learning to take place in a fun environment in our schools. Our teachers are involved. Uh I love the concept. There's also uh during uh CPAG, you know, we always have a guest speaker come and talk about some of the uh urgent concerns that uh their students may be dealing with in uh special education. So, you know, these are all great things that have been here and now I'm just using them to continue to do great things in the district and and just improving them, you know. So, we're going to add a little flavor to it and you know,
041we may tweak some things, but most of these things have been in in the district and I'm just taking advantage of uh putting my own little philosophy and style on it. So, uh and I I I truly believe the more I communicate with my parents, uh my teachers, and my administrators, the easier the job is for me because it's a tough job. Let me tell you again, superintendent job is a tough job. I hear all I hear all of the stuff that goes on in the district and there's no escaping it. I have to deal with it. You know, a lot of times I'm fortunate to have a strong team beside me, Miss Clement, who handles a ton of it, but then there's times when I have to get involved. And it's there's times you
042have to make tough decisions. And you know, me being the face, it's easy for me to take a lot of those hits. But, you know, you have to be built to be in this position. and and I I I thank I thank God for the uh training and the years of experience that I had to deal with this. So, um I'm happy to be here. I'm happy to do the work regardless of how difficult it is. I'm happy to do the work. And uh thank you for coming out tonight. M >> is there any need for correspondence tonight? M. >> Uh, no, Mr. President. We have no correspondence. >> Okay. I'm looking for a motion to approve the following meeting minutes of the board of education >> for Wednesday, December 10, 2025 open and close
043session. >> Motion to approve the following meeting. Um I move that we approve the following uh board minutes from our board of education meeting regular um December 10th open and close session. >> Second, Miss Martin. Any [clears throat] questions? Roll call. >> Miss Thread. >> Yes. >> Miss Gloyd? >> Yes. >> Miss Martin? >> Yes. >> Mr. Matthews? >> Yes. >> Miss Neves? >> I see. >> Mr. Shaw, >> yes. >> Miss Pittz, >> yes. >> And Mr. Thomas, >> yes. >> So, Mr. Matthews, since you did not attend that meeting, would you like to abstain? Yeah. >> Thank you. >> On Monday, January 12th, >> motion is >> motion. Are we ready now? >> You know, I'm rolling. [laughter] >> On Monday, January 12th, at 400 pm, [clears throat] I met with our board
044attorney, Mr. Howard Long, and his office. I expressed to Mr. Long my desire to come forth myself in a manner that is always ethical and transparent. I asked Mr. Long to research and prepare for my use a detailed written opinion regarding whatever permissible and nonpermissible engagements by me at the board of president. This stems from the fact that I am an immediate relative and as defined by the school board ethics law was employed by the school district prior to my decision to run for the board of education. Now that I have been selected as the board president, I intend to be particularly mindful of fulfilling my role in a manner consistent with the law. Subsequently, Mr. Long contacted me to advise that there is a case law which provides that in certain instances I am
045procluded from making certain board committee assignments. I was not aware of this at the time. The committee members were named at our reorganization meeting last week, but now that I am aware, I intend to cure it in accord with Mr. Long legal advice. Hence, I am withdrawing my selection and assignment of board members to certain committees. The law states that in the absence of the board president making such assignments, the board vice president shall do so. Thus, I hereby resend my appointment to the following committees. Education committee, negotiations committee, operations committee, policy HR committee, and the technology committee. [clears throat] I have asked Mrs. Pittz as board vice president to make the assignments to those committees. I reiterate my desire to at all times perform the duties as board president in a transparent manner without
046compromise ethics and consistent with the rule of law. Thank you madam madam vice president. Mr. President therefore um what I'm going to do is to announce the following committee appointments. uh our education committee, our chairperson is Miss MVZ. Uh the members of that committee are Mr. Benjamin Matthews and Miss Peter Martin. On our negotiations committee, the chairperson of that committee is Mr. John Shaw. The members on that committee are Miss Lorraine Dreaden, Mr. Benjamin Matthews. Our operations committee, the chairperson of that committee is Miss Lorraine Dredden. The members are Mr. John Shaw and Mr. Benjamin Matthews. Our policy committee, the chairperson of that committee is Miss Wanda Claude, myself as a member, and Miss Rebecca Mves, also a member. And our technology committee, Mr. Clark is our chairperson. Members on that technology committee are Mr.
047Benjamin Matthews and Mr. Rebecca Mves. All other appointments that were made last week at our reorganization meeting remain the same. >> Thank you. >> Moving along to the board committee reports. >> Do we have a student? >> Should we um have a vote on that? >> Do we need a vote on that, Mr. >> Uh we can we can ratify those appointments? Yes, sure. There's a motion in a second and an only favor. >> Okay. I'm looking for a motion to ratify all the committee appointments that were made last week at our reorganization. >> Second. >> Can I get a first or can I get a first? >> As amended tonight. [clears throat] >> Motion Matthews. >> Second. Miss Martin. >> Any questions? Roll call. >> Miss Dre. >> Yes. >> Miss Claude. >> Yes.
048>> Miss Martin? Yes. Mr. Matthews? >> Yes. Miss Neandez, >> yes. >> Mr. Shaw, >> yes. >> Miss Pitts, >> yes. >> And Mr. Thomas, >> yes. >> Motion has carried. >> Thank you so much. Moving right along. Do we have a student representative tonight? >> Okay, moving right along. We going any report from our athletic and arts committee. >> Yes. Um, good. Good evening everyone. For athletic report for 11426, the girls wrestling program is consistently improving. Freshman Shalia Fleetwood is an up and incoming star. Her only loss this season is is to [laughter] the defending state champion. As an eighth grader, she was the undefeated at the middle school. On January 7th at the Melrose game trail, the boys 4 by 400 relay team of Prince Ausu Tum, Kean Ali, Elijah Deanley, and Kuran
049Ali who was also Karan Ali is a Townson University committed student athlete placed second with a time of 322.49 >> which ranked number one in New Jersey public school and number two overall in the state of New Jersey. With that time they qualified for the Melrose game with would and will compete against some of the nation's top high schools. Also January the 7th the girls 4x4 relay team also won um magnificent um numbers and states. Mr. Thomas, do you have the um information on the girls relay team? >> I believe I do that, Mr. Let me just check my uh trusty companion here. >> Number one in the country. >> Yes. >> So, our girls team is number one in the country. We have um a few upper classmen that are already committed to college
050and we have the rest of them that aren't seniors. They're all underassman. So, our state, our girls are going to keep moving them forward and moving forward. Um and we also have our girls basketball team which is seven to four. They have four losses are and the four losses that they had were to top ranked teams and the team is getting better and we should still run strong with the playoffs. our boys basketball team, they're not doing so well, but we as a community and as a school district, we should still go out and show the school spirit and try to uplift them and get them to do better at their school as as well as the boys wrestling team. And as far as the arts is concerned, by me being the adop adoptive parent
051of school [laughter] number three, I can speak on school number three. School number three will be having um a black history program on February the 11th. Um please check the school 3 website to see the time um of that pro presentation. Also for some of the arts at school number six on January 22nd they will be having their winter concert and on January 27th at school number five they will be having their winter chorus concert. So, let's go out and support our kids in the arts and athletic programs so that we can ensure that we can pull together as a community to continue to give the positive reports. Thank you. >> Excellent. Excellent. I will assume they can look in the digital book bag for them flyers too as well. >> Yes. [laughter] >> Moving
052right along to our citizens advisory committee. Will there be a report? >> Uh no report, but Mr. President. Um we have in our folders the list of uh citizen advisory members and I would like to note that um back in November when we had our meeting the members of the CAC committee at that time I had expressed to them that if they were interested in continuing that they let me know. Okay. >> If they were not. Um, so those who were [clears throat] part of the committee still remain. Those who I haven't heard from. Um, they're they're no longer part of the committee at this particular time. Um, I am missing some numbers on these, but I will get the phone numbers and I anticipate that we'll probably have a meeting only because we're just
053starting out in January next Thursday um, at 6:30 in the administration building. Would you mind reading the names that you have so far? >> Uh, yes. Tiffany Brown, Rob Fox, Rosie Hoffman, Marcy Thomas, Deborah McKim, Rachel Patch, Abigail Murphy, Ununice St. Capri Bailey, Jennifer Moss, Gregory Wake, Louisa Vega, Patrick Oak, Julie Peterson, Jamal Stevens, Paul Glickas, uh Gerald Lamoda, and also Diane McKenna. >> Thank you so much. And you said you'll have a date for the meeting for me by next meeting. >> We will have a meeting uh next Thursday. >> Next Thursday. So that'll be your annual meeting. >> That will be the first one. first >> and um you also ask the committees to let you know the citizen the citizen advisory committee usually meets on the first Thursday of every month. >>
054Thank you so much. Excellent. Excellent. >> And can I add one more thing to that? I'm sorry. >> Sure. I have a request of the policy chair um for the CAC um an attendance policy for the CAC to add that on and as well in pre well a long time ago we used to require uh CAC members to at least attend one board meeting a month. We would like to bring that back as well. >> Okay. Do we need to do any type of ratification for that? >> Oh no. That it needs a policy change which should come out of the policy committee sir. >> Okay. Thank you so much. So, can we move on? >> Yes. >> All right. Now, we're at the education committee, Mr. Neves. >> As of right now, pending further
055discussion, we intend to meet the last Monday of the month at 5:30 in the administration building, but we'll go Miss Clemensson ratify that. >> Thank you so much. Marketing committee, anything, Mr. President, at this time I will speak with the members of the marketing committee so that we can schedule a um a time and date in place for the um marketing committee to begin to meet. I anticipate that that will begin in sometime this month. >> Excellent. Excellent. Mr. Shaw, negotiations >> at this time, unless Mr. Peas or and Miss Bole let the negotiations committee know there is no need to have any meetings until further notice because the negotiations committee rocked out last year and had everything squared away. [laughter] >> Absolutely exceptional there, Mr. Shaw. Really appreciate your service. >> Operations Committee, Mr.
056Anything? >> Uh, nothing for today, Mr. President, but I want to just say that on the 4th Tuesday of January the 27th at 5:30 will be our operation committee meeting. >> Thank you so much, Miss Claw. Policy. >> Yes, I have a copy of the scheduled for policy for January through July 2026 and a list of the policies that we will pull pull out. Mr. Davis, I will give you a copy. We will have two policy meetings on Mondays. There's two Mondays. The dates are on here. one will be in person and one will be um virtual um at the request of Mr. Davis, I try my best to do it at 4:00, but I had to think about when I come out of my subdivision at 3:30. I'm stuck there for like 15 minutes
057because of the school buses. So, I would never make it at 4:00. So, I made the in-person um meetings for 4:30. All right? And the virtual meetings will be at four o'clock. That way, we can get it get it in and get it over. Um, so I will pass this along to all of the board members so they'll be aware and be uh know what policies that we will be covering um to get the policy handbooks updated to current date. Um, and that is that completes that. >> Thanks again, Miss BL. Very appreciative. Yes. Technology committee. Uh, Mr. Clark is not there. Have any communication with been with you, Mr. Matthews, or anyone else on that committee? >> Yes. Um, we intend to meet virtually the last Friday of every month at 5:30. >> Fantastic.
058Thank you so much. Township economic development council. Uh Miss Dre, you'll be assisting. We'll be going on that that event. I believe one of the first events is I believe on the first Monday in February. >> Okay. >> All right. Uh Mr. Matthews Drug and Alliance, any information? >> Nothing to report this time. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Uh planning board, Mr. Shaw, any information you want to share? We have our reorganization meeting tomorrow and our meeting uh right after that. So, um that will be upcoming. Thank you so much. We're moving along right at the >> Mr. President. Yes. >> Um I did forget to give you the athletic and arts community day. We will be meeting every second Monday once a month at 6 PM in the admin building. >> Good. Okay. >>
059Appreciate that. >> Yes. >> All right. We're going to move right along to page three, the superintendent report. I'm looking for a motion to accept the superintendent report. It starts on the top of page three, goes to the middle of page seven. >> Mr. um President, >> yes. >> Uh it was brought to my attention that on page six, item number 23, >> page six, >> item number 23. >> Yes. Uh it says it's under professional de development and it says approved to have 24 middle and high school social studies teachers to visit. Mhm. >> It should be 34. >> Okay. So, can I get a motion to accept the superintendent's report with the change to item number 23 on page six? How many did you say >> from 24 to 34? >> To 24
060to 34. >> Mr. President, I move that we accept the superintendence report as it uh appears beginning at page three, continuing through to uh page seven with a noted change. >> A second. Any questions? >> I just have one comment. Um, I had the opportunity to speak to Mr. Peas earlier about the light speeded systems and stop it solutions item number 25. I was actually really excited about that and wanted to give him the opportunity to explain that to the community as well. >> Sure. The light speeded system and stop solutions is a grant program that is in several South Jersey schools already. And this program will allow our students to report anonymous anonymously any mental health concerns or issues or any concerns that may be troubling them at the time over the weekends or
061after hours. Uh we will design the calls to uh either go to our administrators during a reasonable time. If not a reasonable time, it will go to our police department and they will be a partner in this as well. So, we're excited about this monitoring and just allowing our students to have another uh layer of protection uh during difficult times. >> Thank you, M. >> Thank you. Thanks again. Moving right along to the business administrator report in the middle of a roll call. >> Okay. >> Going too fast. >> Yeah. >> Skip it. [laughter] >> Roll call. Can I get a roll call, please? >> Absolutely. Miss Dreaden. >> Yes. Miss Gloyd, >> yes. >> Miss Margin, >> yes. >> Mr. Matthews, >> yes. >> Miss Nandez, >> yes. >> Mr. Shaw, >> yes. >>
062Miss Pit, >> yes. >> And Mr. Thomas, >> yes. >> The motion has carried. >> Moving right along. >> In the middle of page seven, the business administrator's report. I'd like to get a motion to accept the business administrator's report in the middle of page seven all the way to the bottom of page 13. Mr. President, I move that we accept the business administrator board secretary report as it appears on page seven and continues through to the bottom of page 13. >> Second. >> Any questions, >> Mr. Thomas? >> Yes. >> All right. You had asked me before the meeting if there were any changes. We send the um agenda out to the board on uh Friday and it's posted on Monday. We did add one sentence to item number 21. So the agenda that
063you should be if you if you're looking at the agenda you received on Friday, there's an additional sentence for and this is under item number 21 bid 20 26-10 security staff. So a we're approing approving to record the bid of the vendors we we receive. B. Um, we approve to award that bid to security staff and to seer secure. Seer secure is higher than disc writer. >> Okay. >> So, we added in the bid submitted by the apparent low bidder discriter inc is being rejected as nonresponsive. So we we rejected the lowest because it was nonresponsive and we went with the the second lowest. I mean to add it to add it to would making the motion it be agreeable to amending their >> it's not amended. The one that was posted was already changed.
064It was just the board the initial one. So that was just an formative question. All right. So we can move right on. Can I go to a roll call >> if you like? >> Roll call. Uh, Miss Dreaden. >> Yes. >> Miss Gord. >> Yes. But I have to abstain on page 11 item, excuse me, on page 12, item number >> at the bottom. You're going to [laughter] >> Thank you, Miss Martin. Uh, yes, but I have to abstain from page 12, number 22. Thank you, Mr. Matthysse. >> Uh, yes, but I have to abstain from page 12, item number 22, >> Mr. Matthews, you're okay with the no charge. >> You can you can vote in favor of that if you'd like. As long as we're not spending money, >> then yes. >> Yes,
065Miss Neanderves. >> Yes. >> Mr. Shaw. >> Yes. But I abstain from page 11 number 20. Miss Pitts. >> Yes. >> And Mr. Thomas. >> Yes. >> The motion has carried. >> Okay. We're moving along to page 14. The personnel report. >> I'm looking for a motion. Approve the personnel report. The superintendent recommends approval the following actions. Can I get a motion? >> I move, Mr. President, I move that we approve the personnel report as it appears at the beginning in the top of page 14 and continues through the bottom of page 18. Second, >> any question? >> Roll call. >> Miss Dre, >> yes. >> Miss Glo, >> yes. >> Miss Martin, >> yes. >> Mr. Matthews, >> yes. >> Miss Neves, >> yes. >> Mr. Shaw, >> yes. >> Miss Pit, >> yes.
066>> And Mr. comes. >> Yes, >> the motion has carried. >> Are there any addendums? >> We don't like addendums anymore. >> So, I [laughter] think that is enough. >> So, Open Public Records Act. >> Okay. >> No, we did not uh respond to any during this time period. >> Any informal items? >> Yes. Uh just want to wish everyone a happy new year. Uh also would like to use this time to recognize uh this amazing community uh our students our staff and I'm thankful for the uh administrative team that I work with daily and closely and that's uh Miss Bole, Miss Clement, and Mr. Davis. Yeah. >> And I am appreciative of their uh support of my work. So thank you. And that concludes my update. Any old business? >> I have one item.
067>> So, we remember that the CAC had recommended the establishment of the uh arts and academic hall of fame. So, I wanted to pose that we officially put that out on our social media channels and Mr. Peas if you could talk to the township as well so they could post it um so that we can begin forming that committee and people can apply and we can get that moving forward. Anything else under old business? >> All right, moving right along to new business. Anything under Miss Glory, you got anything? >> Oh, yes. I Well, it's >> under old business. >> New business, old business information. I would like to thank um Mr. Peas, Miss Clement, and um Dr. Say your name again. >> Ferguson. I apologize for that. You know, sometimes I have like some
068kind of space out in my brain. Anyway, I would like to thank you so so very much for the presentation in which you gave us today that warmed my heart like seeing the progressions that you have made since the beginning of the school year and as we continue to strive to to to succeed the goals that we have we set back in August that I know that come September we'll have a whole new set of goals because we would have achieved these goals as we continue to sharpen them up. So, thank you so very much for taking that time. I appreciate it and it shows how stellar our school is is actually really is not just athletically but academically and administratively. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Clark. Uh, a couple [clears throat] things.
069Go ahead, Mr. Shaw. Just to reiterate what Miss Glaude said, um to know [clears throat] when we were doing during our board retreat in August and we were setting these goals to see where we're at by January with Mr. Peas and Miss Clement and now you Dr. Ferguson and Mr. Davis and >> and Miss Bole >> and I wasn't I wasn't done yet. I gotta say, Miss Bole, [laughter] boy, did you learn coachable. you are coachable. You know, to see where we are now in January and everybody here on this board and to have Miss Neves and Mr. Matthews here with us now. It really is amazing to know that just in four short months that we've come such a long way to accomplish everything. to have such great people in these administrative seats to
070ha to lead us and our students and our teachers and to have such excitement across the community to see where we're at is just truly inspirational. So, thank you very much to each and every one of you whether you're sitting in those seats right there, Mr. P's and yours and every board member up here. Thank you so much for everything you're doing for each and every student in Winsow Township. And and and to add, I must put out thanks to our forefathers for those people who sacrificed and did the things necessary for us to be able to hear to sit here and do what we do. I'm sure there was some blood, sweat, and tears that was done in them phases to get us here. But moving on to No, >> Mr. President, if I
071could just say also just picking up on um something that Mr. Shaw said as he made reference to our retreat if you can recall at our retreat uh one of the things that we talked about and we even have t-shirts that say um I think it encompasses everything which says team wins and that's what we our t-shirts say and I think Mr. um Mr. Michelle, I think you explained that um beautifully by what you just said. Uh because to take that and pull it all together, it is team wins. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Anyone else at all? All right. Going back to new business, I I'd like to introduce or ask the board for a discussion on getting uh a five-year strategic plan. we're in a a position where, like you said, we are
072doing very well and we just want to make sure that we're sustainable and then moving in the right direction. Uh we're we're in a pivotal moment and I'm I'm asking comments and questions because I'd like to have Miss uh Dr. Barlo come down in a couple weeks and just do a presentation on how to establish uh a five-year strategic plan. It can be done by their services. It can be done with Mr. He's in his services, but I at least want the board to entertain that conversation about establishing a five-year strategic plan. >> Any comments, questions? >> That's fine. >> Can I get a vote? Voice vote. >> Do we need a vote? >> Do we need >> No, you can you have the authority schedule. >> Okay. So, we will we will schedule M.
073Can you can you arrange that with with Dr. Barlo to come down at a convenience to do a presentation on uh capacity of creating a fiveyear strategic plan. >> Would you like to have that during a public meeting? >> Absolutely. >> Okay. >> Uh another thing which honestly uh Mr. piece has already been doing in these with with, you know, with all the great initiatives. We want to be more intentional with our outreach to nonprofit organization and faith-based or organizations to so they know what we're doing. We know what they're doing. Uh we're sharing their website, they sharing our website in order to create, as he said, a branding for Winslow Township. Moving forward, we have uh Miss Peterson had built some some some cards, some sympathy cards that we're going to intend to send
074out to people. uh from the board or or uh staff that have uh deaf in their family. We want we want to we want to let them know that we care. We're going to send something to whatever place of establishment that housing that to make sure that they know that we care and they're part of family. So there's no need for us to discuss that. Mr. Peace has already moved that available, moved that forward. Uh the third discussion is our booster club. I believe Mr. piece has some some exciting information concerning our booster club because our athletic department is going places we never been before. So, corporate sponsorship and funding and and and for for what I'm hearing, they're trying to go to Texas and and for their first game. So, we need the community,
075we need the uh the businesses, we need everybody to arouse around us and help us in in this category. Mr. P. >> Yes. I met with uh principal Mela and athletic director Lane and coach Dalton in regard to the booster club. I reached out I sent a invitation to the president but I think she was under the weather so she did not attend. So I was informed that they would have a financial report to me uh by Friday and once I receive that I can share that with the board. Again, I reiterated to them that myself uh nor the board want any control over the booster club, but we have to make sure that their financial uh dealings are uh something that we are privy to. So, uh they are all in agreement with that
076and as of right now, I think the football team is the only booster club that is out there. I asked and I was informed that there were no other booster clubs but there is a policy to manage uh those teams booster teams uh clubs rather and we just need to make sure financially that they are handling the uh finances uh of fundraising for those teams properly. So I'll get that report and I'll be able to report to you either before our next meeting or if you would like I can report at uh our last meeting for January. >> Thank you so much M. Outstanding. Moving all on to public comments. >> May I sir? >> Sure. >> The Winslow Township Board of Education highly values the input of citizens and making the important decisions that
077affect the children of our community. We believe in the rights of citizens to observe board meetings. To ensure that all of our citizens have the opportunity to attend schoolboard meetings and offer comment and to ensure that the board can conduct the important business of the district. We ask that speakers follow the guidelines for making public comments. The board secretary will recognize those individuals in the audience who wish to make public comment. And we'd ask that you kindly respect the following procedures. One, all members of the public attending schoolboard meetings shall treat each other and the board with respect. Two, please state your full name and town of residence. Three, please limit your comments to four minutes. or submit your questions in the event we're unable to answer them tonight to the board with your name,
078email address, address address, and phone number where you could be contacted and your question will be answered within a reasonable time period. And lastly, individuals offering citizen comment are not permitted to make personal attacks on any district employee, board member, other testifier, or member of the public. Thank you, sir. >> You okay to open it now? >> Yes. No. >> Okay, good. I'm looking for a motion to open up public comments. >> Motion to open up public comments. >> Can you name him? >> Was that Mr. Matthews? >> Yes. >> Mr. Shaw. >> Yes. >> Sorry. [laughter] >> Who second it? >> Dre. >> M. Dre. Second. >> Dread. Thank you. >> Vote. >> All in favor? >> I >> um Mr. President, the list that was brought to me, there was nobody that had
079signed up to speak here. Um, I'm asking Mr. Falsiani if he has anybody on the line. We have nobody on the line. Prior to the meeting, I hadn't received anything um through technology. So, I didn't get that. Has anything come in since we >> No. [clears throat] >> Okay. Do you have anything that came in? Because I just saw your notice and nothing else. No, nothing. >> So, we have no >> session. Yeah. [laughter] >> Nothing for >> No, no participant. >> All right. I'm looking for a nomination to a motion to close public comment. >> Motion to close public comment. >> You're in a second. >> All in favor? >> I executive session. Mr. President, we will need one this evening. >> Okay. I'm looking for a motion to uh adjourn and go. How
080did that go? Yeah, if I may frame it so that we identify the correct exceptions to enable us to do so. >> Please do. >> In accordance with the requirements of the open public meetings act, we'll be adjourning into executive session on January 14th, 2026 at approximately 8 uh 10 p.m. of the nine items under the law that permit us to go into executive session. Uh one would be with respect to contracts on a pending construction contract, Mrs. boil that we had discussed earlier in the week. >> I'm pardon me, I can't understand what you're saying. >> Okay. Um >> what number is that? Mr. >> Uh that would be number seven and number eight which would be matters relating to employment and that would be uh uh CSA uh selection process. >> I'm looking
081for a motion to uh enter into executive session. Motion to move into executive session. >> Second. Um, Mr. Long, approximately how long? >> I would say 45 minutes to an hour. Roll call. >> No, >> Mr. Mr. Thomas. >> Roll call. >> Thank you. Miss Dre. >> Yes. >> Miss Gloyd. Yes, >> Miss Martin. >> Yes, >> Mr. Matthews. >> Yes, >> Miss Mandez. >> Yes, >> Mr. Shaw. >> Yes, >> Miss Pits. >> Yes, >> and Mr. Thomas. >> Yes. >> Motion has carried. >> Thank you.