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welcome to the February 24th Board of Education meeting would you all please rise for the flag salute all right folks sorry about that sorry for the little delay we're going to call this meeting to order the meeting's been posted in accordance with chapter 231 PL
1975 Mr cagino could you please call the rois here trusty Leon here trusty mon here trusty M here trusty Pacho here uh vice president daro here president
benini here the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend meetings of this board except where spefic specifically Exempted by law at which time any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance
with the provisions of this act the board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having same advertised in the Belleville times also notice of this meeting has been mailed to the members of the Board of Education the burrow clerk all elementary schools the middle school the high school hornblow Early Childhood
Center and posted on the district website also this meeting is being televised via the district's YouTube and Facebook pages great thank you Mr Paladino and uh could we please have a motion to approve our minutes from the January 27th meeting so move is there a
second second all those in favor I okay and let's move on and welcome candy dong our high school representative thank you for being here you have a report for us this evening yes I do thank you good evening everyone my name
is Candy dong and I'm the student board representative first I would like to offer our congratulations to all the students who will be recognized tonight for their academic achievements in old news on February 20th BHS hosted a program of studies for parents and
students to learn and explore various courses offered by Beville High School to ensure a successful path thank you to those who attended in new news check out and follow the Beville journalism Club on Instagram at Beville Buccaneer to access Beville High School school's
monthly newsletters of information updates and events of staffs students and teachers on Friday February 28th the Beville Middle School will host a Black History Month concert at their Auditorium featuring Beville Council woman Tracy mro if you're looking for a
place to do your homework or receive extra assistance from the National Honor Society Kasa is here for all students in grades 7 through 12 the location is at 522 courland Street in Belleville Monday through Thursday from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm thank
you great thank you Candy doll um and do we have any items to be presented tonight Mr yes do I'm going turn this first presentation over for everybody's uh enjoyment tonight Mr Bliss from lurge viny Bliss is here to present the uh June 30th 2024
uh audit okay there we go good evening everyone uh thank you for having me here tonight to present the audit uh for the year end of June 30th of 2024 um our main responsibility uh after we examine the books and records of the
district is to express an opinion on your financial statements as well as Express an opinion on your uh compliance with federal and state grants our opinion on the financial statement was unmodified unmodified means a clean
opinion meaning the financial statements are fairly stated they're prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and there were no scope limitations in performing an audit U an unmodified opinion is an absolute must and any financial statement audit
uh our opinion on your compliance with um federal and state grants was also unmodified also clean meaning you complied in all material respects with the requirements of those grants again an unmodified opinion on grants is an
absolute must in a school district audit so both opinions un modified uh clean opinions uh we noted no material weaknesses uh find ings in internal control and we had no findings related to significant deficiencies in internal
control uh we had three recommendations which I'll discuss a little later uh one which fell under government auditing standards and two which were General findings with respect to the financial condition of the district um if you want
to follow along on page 79 of the uh annual comprehensive financial report um but overall the district basically broke even from the year before the amount of surpluses that they anticipated and used in the
2324 budget was completely regenerated um ended the year with 4,998 698 uh in capital reserve uh you were able to increase the capital reserve by
921,000 roughly uh capital reserve can only be used for capital projects in the long range facility plan uh these funds were put aside by board resolution um and remain in that reserve for th that spe
specific purpose uh for those capital projects uh you also had a maintenance reserve of 1,533 265 uh decreased by about 133,000 those are funds again put aside
by board resolution to fund required maintenance of school facilities um they're it's different than capital projects capital projects uh add life to the assets extended choose for life such
as additions uh complete re-roofing uh new windows throughout the school where maintenance projects keep your facilities in their current working condition basic repairs the district also has an unemployment compensation reserve of
almost 160 6 6,000 uh the board has elected to fund its unemployment claims on basically a self-insured basis uh the These funds have been put aside 166,000 to pay for
those claims um self-insured or or or re or the reimbursement method for unemployment claims is uh more economically uh advant advant
better for the district uh than if you did the contribution method uh you had a sawing fund balance for year end incuman of about 417,000 those are open purchase orders at the year the end where you have committed
funds for specific per per purchases uh those purchase orders as the goods come in and the services rendered they get liquidated in the subsequent year and at this point in time those funds are no longer available for future expenses uh
you also had a sign designated for subsequent expenditures of $500,000 where the district uh the board approved the use of $500,000 to balance the 2425 budget um after you you put
your budget expenditures put all your revenues you added 500,000 of surplus to balance that budget of that 500,000 is being used now in the 2425 year to fund expenses and is no longer available
going forward to fund future expenses that leaves you with the unassigned fund balance these are the funds uh that are available to fund future expenses of the district uh the district ended with 2,348
18177 an increase of over 690,000 from the year before uh this represents the max you're allowed to have it on ass sign which is 1 and a half% of your budget plus an additional uh 825,000 of
state aid you received during the year that you didn't budget for the state allows you to add that to the one and a half perc um overall the district's fund balance total 9,963 th000 basically the same as the
year before it's slightly down by $6,000 um overall financially uh the district is in very uh stable condition uh year to year with we with respect to the findings again we had three uh findings
in our audit uh they're on page 14 of the smaller uh book The Auditors uh management report uh the first finding was on the financial planning accounting and Reporting uh we had a situation where a
compensation paid for unused sick pay uh was not in accordance with the contract it appeared that the employee was overpaid um I know uh the business administrator is looking to get those funds back uh in addition uh just going
forward we should really have a procedure in place where all un uh all unused six days uh paid be reviewed and signed off by a supervisor
um we also had a recommendation under financial planning County reporting regarding uh the refinancing of capital leases in New Jersey you can only finance a capital lease for a fiveyear
period uh we had several situations where during that five-year period those leases were refinance for a longer period than five years uh that practice has to be disc continued um you have to stay within the 5-year
period and then finally under School purchasing program uh we had a recommendation regarding uh Cooperative purchasing program uh vendors uh Cooperative purchasing programs are uh programs where another governmental
agency goes out to bid for services and for goods the uh district is not required to go out to bid you're allowed to to piggy back on those bids um what we noted and this is not unique to Belleville this is pretty much uh in
many of our audits uh the contract documentation the price list that the co-op awarded that vendor uh we need to get those documents and verify that the prices being charged by the co-op vendor is in
accordance with the contract awarded by The Cooperative purchasing program uh those were the three recommendations uh no repeats uh no material weaknesses in internal controls and no significant deficiencies in internal controls um
it's a very good report probably uh the best report we've issued uh for the Belleville Board of educations good job by Administration if there's any questions be more than happy to answer them any board members have any
questions no okay okay okay thank you thank you all right T now we have several presentations that we're going to make uh before we do that though I just want
to advise everyone uh tomorrow night at 4:30 in the high school gym against rochell Park uh the boys basketball team will be playing and they're going to be honoring a senior Connor Cook who scored a th points so if you have an
opportunity to get out and see the game I advise you to get out there and cheer them on uh the girls basketball team has entered into the group North group four state tournament they're playing on the
27th feary 27th in Ridgewood at 4:30 so again another time to get out and support the uh the girls basketball team as well as the boys this Tuesday uh at this time we also have several presentations that be made by Mrs demov
uh and she will come forward and make these presentations good evening Mr perado members of the Board of Education members of the Belleville Community I would like to present an
award tonight to one of our very special students her name is jonabelle Kalo and jonabelle scored second place in one of our talented and gifted competitions which took place in
Livingston at the Lester noer school on February 5th the name of the competition is totally Global and that competition is sponsored by the Essex County steering committee during the competition
students are put on teams of four and five from various school districts they go through 10 stations which are all drenched in social studies and history it's basically a problemsolving event
at each station that the students facilitate around they have to solve problems based on new um countries United States presidents longitude lude latitude excuse me using an atlas
identifying state capitals naming famous artists based on their paintings anything else did I miss any no okay didn't want to miss any so there are 10 teams they go through 10
stations jelle's team tied for second place with another team so they had to do another round and go through a whole new set of seven stations janab bel's team was Victorious and they were our second place winners so let's hear it
for jonabell Ceno please here's your certificate honey congratulations great job if you'd like to take a picture yes please come down if anyone would like to come down to take a picture please do so are her teachers here from school from
her school no thank you great job jonabelle okay the next presentations that we have this evening are black history presentations and we know that black history is celebrated 12 months a year
not only in February I would like to invite School 4 our teachers Mrs kitchell and Mrs Pepe to come down can we please have Maya Crutchfield Khloe
Maldonado Jasline Taipan and Ariana Santiago okay good evening to all and to the board I'm Miss Pepe and at the end is Miss kitchell and we're here representing school for talented and gifted students who worked on a Black
History Month project they started by in by researching influential people as you can see some of the slides that students created up here um so now I'm going to pass the mic so our student Representatives we have Maya Jasline and
Ariana um to tell you more about the project we created um and I hope you enjoy okay quoting hold is significant place in black history partially in the context of African-American culture and
resilience historically africanamerican women use quilting as a form of self-expression community building and storytelling quilts often served as a means to pass down Traditions till a family history
and preserve cultural identity in the face of Oppression the use of fabric patterns and Designs such as the freedom quote tradition is often associated with coded messages to guide enslaved people along
the Underground Railroad symbolizing hope resilience and survival these quotes were not only works of art but also served as tools for empowerment and liberation for our Black History Month project we choose to explore the life and
contributions of notable figures such as Martin Luther King Jr Rosa Parks and Ma and Maya Angela which of which which of whom played pivotal roles in the Civil Rights move movement and cultural expression similarly some of the some of
us focus on lesser-known individuals who have made significant impacts in their fields such as Tyler the Creator or Muhammad Ali our choices were Guided by personal interest in a particular person our goal was to create a unified quilt
that also educated others about the stories that have been that contributed to the nation's history thank you okay students great job we have certificates for you Maya Crutchfield Jasline
Taipan Ariana Santiago and Khloe Maldonado great job School Number Four thank you we have one student who couldn't make it so she'll teachers will you give her her certificate tomorrow thank you
so much okay lovely quilt great job okay we're moving on to school number nine can I have Mrs Sharon Greco please come up our talented and gifted teacher at school number
nine can we also please have Scarlet Delgado Charlotte relo daab Beltran and Sophia Cabrera please come up they are going to who their theme is
stitching leg not stitching sorry that was the other one their theme is wax museum exhibits good evening everyone um every all the students in The Talented gived program at school number nine chose a famous
africanamerican that they decided to research and actually earlier today they all the students came down by grade level and were able to witness everyone's presentations Bes um these four girls and others as well so I'm
going to let I'm going to let my my wax figures do their thing thank you hi hi my name is Mariah Cary and I was born on March 27th 1969 in Hunt in New York I was meant to become a singer
because my parents named me after their favorite song from a Broadway musical my first ever song was called Vision of Love I had the privilege of having 19 number one hit song on Billboard Hot 100 I'm known for having a five octave voice range which is something that most people do not have one of my most famous
Christmas songs is all I want for Christmas is you it was the most dreamed song on Spotify in a 24-hour period I'm also a mom my kids names are Monroe and Moroccan Scott they're born on April 30th 2011th I am Rebecca Lee kumler I was was born on February 8th 1831 I'm the first
African-American woman to receive a medical degree I was also an American F physician nurse and author after studying at New England female Medical College in 1864 I became the first African-American woman to become a doctor of medicine in the United States
I was also one of the first female physician authors in the 19th century in 1883 I published a book of medical discoveries if focused on material and pediatric medical care and it was the first publishing written by an
African-American on the subject of medicine my Rebecca Lee Society one of the first medical societies for African-American women was named in my honor my home on Joy Street is a stop on the Boston women's herd Trail February
8th 2021 was declared Dr Rebecca Lee crumer day in Boston as part of the 190th anniversary of my birth I cluded Coen I was born on September 5th 1939 I am an American Pioneer of the
1950s Sil rights movement and retired Nurse Aid on March 2nd 1955 I was arrested at the age of 15 in Montgomery Alabama for refusing to give up my seat
to a white woman on a crowded segregated bus I was one of the four plaintiffs in the First Federal Court case filled by Silver Rights anony Fred gray on February 1st
1956 as broer V Gale to challenge bus segregation in the city on June 13th 1956 the judges determined that the state and local laws requiring bus
segregation in Alabama the cas the case went to the United States Supreme Court appealed by the state of Alabama to end bus segregation the Montgomery
Bus Boycott was then called off after a few months the court subsequently declared all segregation and public transportation hi I'm Michaela the prince I was born January 6th 1995 and
passed away on September 10 2024 I used to have parents but unfortunately they passed during the Sierra leyon Civil War I was sent to an orphanage in the orphanage I was treated terribly they had rankings 1 to 27 which were the
names we were called by one being the favorite and 27 being the least I was treated unfairly because of a medical condition called Vitiligo which made some parts of my skin lighter than it should be the nannies thought this was a
bad Omen and mocked me and said I would never get adopted and told all the kids not to associate or play with me but luckily I had one friend 26 she was outcasted by the NES for being left-handed and was usually forced to
use a right hand due to superstitions back then 26 was the kindest person to me while in the orphanage one day I was just sitting in the orphanage when a piece of paper flew
in I went and grabbed it it was a pretty lady wearing a pink tutu W with pointed shoes it was the brightest most colorful thing I had ever seen I was fascinated and knew that's what I wanted to be one day a tall lady came in wanting to adopt
26 but apparently when the nannies were talking with her they talked about the thin chance of me being adopted so she took me too she was my new mom when we got to America I watched The Nutcracker with my mom Non-Stop and pointed out
every mistake this impressed my mom so she took me to a ballet class I was still afraid people would treat me as the as the nannies did I usually covered my neck with turtleneck sweaters to cover my spots till my teacher saw I
weakly admitted my secret afraid for the worst but her response completely changed my view of my Vitiligo I didn't even notice after that I gained more confidence and became one of the first africanamerican ballerinas on
stage thank you girls you did such an amazing job and you made everyone at school I very proud thank you don't go without your certificates I don't know Scarlet Delgado Charlotte relo daa
beltron and Sophia Cabrera parents at this time you can come up and take some pictures if you'd like great job School Number Nine and now we have Beville Middle School so we have a presentation that needs to
go up on the screen for BMS and I'd like to invite Miss Rebecca panaco to come down please she is our tag instructor talented and gifted instru instructor at Belleville middle school and we're going to begin with seventh grade so let's
have Zoe madon Emily Gutierrez Mia loisa tala SOA Gia cample Verde please come down and their theme is African-American
artists contribution to music and songs you hi my name is Miss panaco uh I'm a teacher for tag at uh Belleville Middle School uh I had two groups uh do
research on various uh historical people for Black History Month um and one group gr researched um black artists and their contributions to music um and they analyzed some song lyrics um so there is
music in this presentation hopefully it's not too loud right um and only uh Mia here she's going to um present the slides uh although several students did help her out okay the song a beautiful friendship was
released in the year 1956 it talks about a friendship ending but also being the beginning of a new love as said in the lyrics that was the end of a beautiful friendship and just the beginning of Love Ella Fitzgerald
was an American singer songwriter and composer she was born on April 25th 1917 she was known by nicknames such as first lady of song Lady Ella queen of jazz the first lady of jazz and the
first lady of Swing she passed on June 15th 1996 at the age of 79 due to a stroke proven Oni Blues by Ma Rainey first came out in 1928 the song is about being self
assured it is also about breaking breaking gender Norms the lyrics said it is true I wear a collar and tie ma rainy was one of the first women to record the blues professionally she
talked about the hardships that African-American people went through she later died of a heart attack on December 22nd 1939 during 1928 it was illegal to be with someone of the same gender it would
be considered taboo to write a song such as prove it on me Blues the song what's going on was released in the winter of 1971 the song is a call for peace and protest against War what's going on is
repeated multiple times in the song and is referring to all the chaos and racial discrimination going on in the country picky lines and bck signs don't push me with brutality this line refers to the black black community getting silence
repeatedly Marvin Gay was an American singer songwriter and musician he was born on April 2nd 1939 one of his most popular songs is what's going on sadly Marvin Gay died on
April 1st 1984 after being shot twice by his father X Factor by Lauren Hill was a s relased in 1998 the lyrics and X Factor are about being in a relationship with someone and it fails or ends loving you
is like a battle and we both help with guards these lyrics signify that by being with that person they both get hurt in relationship Lauren Hill broke barriers for female rappers and had numerous artists across many genres sample or
cover X Factor during the year 1998 Lauren Hill released the M education of Lauren Hill this album was almost entirely written and produced by Lauren her the album featured a mix of Neo Soul
and rapping after the release of her album Hill became an instant Superstar thank you Mia great work yeah do you want to just okay so we're moving on to grade eight now and we have Xavier Garcia
Martin Valentin Jake Lacy those are the three correct okay and what is their theme uh yeah so we have Jake and Martin over here and um they're going to
explain what they did so we researched Alexander miles and he invented a bunch of things but the one we chose to focus on was the automatic elevator doors because they made elevators a lot safer in a time when they were becoming more necessary which T buildings being
made we did the the presentation as like a shark Tain video where like Alex Ander miles is like the the investor W while the while there's two other other people
who want to like invest in the product yeah so uh only uh two students uh who are in the um uh presentation here could attend tonight so we recorded the skit so we could show it to you so
just enjoy will you pleas inform us about the main purpose of your of your invention of course as well the applies there another to make door that we open and close when anyone call the FL and does this invention make the usual
elevators we have now more safe this is great for secets since many people forget to close many of doors after stepping out the elevator this causes very severe safety hazards every reason why many elev found
f what was the process of making your invention like the challenge challenges when creating it well it was a challenge to say the least there were financial problems technological limitations and you know trying to put a new mechanism they not ready
elevators anyways it is all it is all Sol now I want use our to invest in we can improve the elevated doors and safety how how would we make money from this we have multiple manufacturers list and buyers listed in this plus l c has
been a long problem for a long time many companies and many other builds will buy this to solve that issue so I'll be hoping to get $100,000 investment no $100,000 and a 40,000 40%
investment that's way too hard this idea has a very specific use and we have very limited use to the lack of elevators well on once this project is introduced there'll be a Sur to future oh I don't believe you can make an impact that big I'm deeply sorry but
I know so I've been thinking and I'm willing to bid $125,000 for a 25% investment are you serious that's a horrible proposal instead of 25% investment how
about you make it 35% 100 125% $125,000 and 30% investment final deal okay you got yourself a deal sir good christas they really hard rting that start
so okay great job by our seventh and eighth graders at Belleville Middle School congratulations we have some certificates for you seventh grader she's on top okay okay our seventh grader
is Zoe madon I'm sorry it wasn't oh sorry me oziah sorry our eighth grade students Xavier Garcia Mar Valentin and Jake Lacy thank you you did
a great job thank you for allowing me to present and have a great evening thanks dby thank you so much much thank you so much sorry about that just one thing thank you Mrs
demov at this time i' also like to take this opportunity to congratulate the students of the month for January all schools that are participating congratul ations to each and everyone and that completes my report we ask
time okay Dr deia did you have any reports for us I we have to make sure that you appear on our uh agenda sir thank you madam president um not so much reports but just kind of relaying uh some announcements for the district uh that
you'll be seeing um formally uh we are kicking off fre Across America the beginning this Friday February 28th um it's going to be the throughout the first week of March and um one thing that we will um be communicating out to
the public is a uh Beville reads together literacy night for grades 3 through six that will take place on March 11th at Belleville High School uh so I just was asked to communicate those uh those agenda items um sorry uh announcements that will be forthcoming
to the community that's it great thank you very much Dr deia and a report from our business administrator Mr Paladino just briefly uh I know he left already but thank you to Mr Bliss it's a it's a pleasure
working with him all these years um he's always a good guide good Mentor um always helps us out thank you to for the to the board excuse me for uh being so supportive uh year in and year out different boards uh you guys have always been very supportive of us um have
always kept us up the task and then lastly just thank you to my uh staff in the business office uh without them none of this is possible they do all the hard work uh and I appreciate appreciate every single one of them so thank you to all of them very good and very good report
thank you Mr Paladino and finally a report from State monitor Thomas Ean good evening uh my report is very brief uh you heard the presentation of the audit from last year came out
excellent best report they've had in uh 10 years um in addition uh it made reference to uh funds that went um increase our uh reserves uh and our our
stability uh uh in in this current 2425 school year we're in good shape I should like to add in addition uh we will be asking our Auditors to give us a projection through the end of um June to
make sure that we don't have any surprises so that our our good standing uh MoneyWise is uh uh will be good and lastly the governor tomorrow will be present presenting U the state aid
numbers uh for next year uh it it'll be in lump sums but by each district we won't actually get those specific numbers uh until Thursday don't be surprised if you see numbers being
printed in the newspaper before they give it to the schools it's just um it just happens that way um but we uh then then we uh our responsibility will be to submit the budget for next
year um I forget the exact date now I think it has to be at the county level uh by March 17th or 18th um so ends my report thank you thank you much very much Mr
Ean all right and let's move on to uh remarks by citizens on agenda items only three minutes when I call your name you can come up to the podium okay uh Gabby oh I'm sorry we have to do motion to open yes we before before before we move
to that can I ask a question when it comes to opah request is it possible to have or is there any reason why whatever request was made cannot be included on this agenda so that way it can it can it can show
here like so we can keep track of of the information Shar yeah um op requests are are public like the requests themselves are public so in theory in addition to uh the material that's that's published um or provided I
should say to a member of the public um that is public the the request itself could be uh public correct so so so moving forward we can not just include what request could the entire request I
mean Oprah requests are public themselves so can we maybe move it to the back of the agenda where we include all the requests that were made and how it responded that's up to this board it's otherwise public unless there's something in it for some reason that's not I can't think of anything that wouldn't be there's there's case law that describes opah request themselves
as public record is there anything that would be redacted if it's shared because if it's already shared public would to I can't imagine off the well I mean it's up to the board as to whether or not you would like to do it okay that's you could discuss that in committee okay thank
you very good thank you and let's go back again motion to open so move second all those in favor I all right and so we'll start with our comments Michael Sheldon please come up to the podium okay Michael Sheldon 47 Floyd Street um
couple of agenda items I'd like to ask about firstly 12.8 I see you're renewing the fiveyear lease to use Mr dorso's uh State Fair property for Board of Ed purposes but the agenda item has no details it doesn't indicate the amount
of money um the annual percentage increases Etc I I'd like to know uh without having to an Opa request uh what the new contract entails and I assume that after the board moves to approve this tonight the full contract will be
posted hopefully linked directly uh via board docs and not buried in the district's website but I one way or the other I'd like to know all of the the details about this five-year contract new one uh the next item is 11-20 you're you have a whole bunch of
policies and regulations for first reading included in it is uh what Mr Darrow uh promised last month that you would be uh moving within the next two months to hopefully uh um modify the uh policy regarding public participation
but again all of these uh policies there are no details just this titles we have no idea what is being changed so uh years in previous years those full statements would be provided there would be links PDFs or Word documents so the
community could see even with the first reading what was being uh considered for revision or introduction but we have no idea uh what's happening with these policies I'd also like to know in light of uh the uh recent Announcement by Governor Murphy that he's making $3
million available for districts to uh acquire RFID pouches to uh make sure that cell phones are properly isolated uh in classrooms Mr Manon was here in December and spoke at length about how uh the district at present allows
students to use smartphones which I don't know how anyone can expect our teachers to effectively instruct our kids if all of our kids are are dealing with Tik Tock and Snapchat and and every everything else Under the Sun so I hope you guys are already considering that if
if you have later tonight I'd like to hear what you may be doing to take advantage of that $3 million that Governor Murphy is making available it says I only have about half a minute left the last thing I want to uh say is uh something about the audit report this is now the fourth consecutive year the
general fund Surplus has been 10 million or more uh obviously our district is in good Financial standing next month the last payment on the $4.2 million loan that the state had to give us back in 2015 will be paid the state loan will be
paid repaid in full there is absolutely no need for a state monitor from this point forward and I would hope that someone on this board one of the seven trustees has the courage tonight to do the the right thing for Belleville and make a motion to collectively appeal to
the doe commissioner to return full autonomy to our district it's long overdue now is the time to act thank you Mr Sheldon on the policies that you are referring to this did we just received those so we just put them up for a first reading at this point the
policy committee will be meeting to make any revisions or changes so that all those changes will be ready for the next meeting March 17th and they will be posted for everybody on the resolutions to see right we just wanted to get the first reading in because we're we have
to get them adopted but the second reading is where they become actual policy so right now they're just first reading as they stand the second reading will have all the changes that will be made by the policy committee okay and
um you're finished right yeah okay uh Ruben Rodriguez cop he just wants the amount Mr Mr paladine you have the amount and then I know you're going to put it up for everyone to see uh so doesn't have percentages but
year one is and now remember this is all coming out of uh pea funds preschool educ education aid funds year one uh which is effective February 1 2025 till January 31st
2026 uh the rent is 285 600 year 2 February 1 2026 to January 31st 2027 is 294 168 year 3 February 1 2027 to January
31st 2028 302 993 year 4 February 1 2028 to January 31st 2029 31183 and then the last year February 1
2029 to January 30th 23rd is 320415 no it's per year yeah that's just the first phase that's the first phase which is the the first five classrooms we did five years ago you're going to put it up when yeah yeah he he has a copy he'll put it up
all right Mr Rodriguez how are you Ruben Rodriguez he Avenue uh it's nice to see everybody it's been a while I like the new chair positions um Mr deia it's nice to see you up there it's a nice to have an internal promote on the days um as far
as the reading night like get Pizza Hut to bring back the free pizzas you know that kept me reading my encyclopedia Browns when I was a kid um again as far as the Oprah request Mr mun I um I I don't know if you remember I believe you
were still uh board president when um Dr TOMCO had discussed creating a shared dock to have all of the open public requests because if it's open and it's public we should have access to it there's no reason I should have to ask for something that's already been asked and answered and if it's there it's
something we could see because it is on the website showing like the last eight or nine but I understand what you're saying if it's open it's public it should just be there easy to everybody to find so we know we don't have to ask the same question twice um it's like you
know the teacher always said don't asked a question someone else has this probably the same question um 12 13.9 if you could talk to this the submission of a local Recreation Improvement Grant to renovate the VHS tennis courts to be
used for basketball and volleyball did we just redo those whole tennis courts like three years ago didn't they just get redone um and also if it's going to be a basketball court is it going to be open to the public or is it going to be is it going to be there for a month and then be closed also my daughter plays
volleyball and I know the town has been requesting volleyball but playing volleyball on concrete is not going to be fun um it might be fun to just bang around but you can't have a recreation department playing volleyball on um on
uh on concrete and uh before Mr Paladino says it it's a grant remember all grants are taxpayer funded so although it may not be Beville money directly uh Trenton does not have a job except to tax us um um and then finally my last question
is where this this is my fun one uh 1221 um it would be really great if we had something like inhouse where we could make our own pizzas and showcase our culinary Department instead of getting them from a area in uh from a
pizza shop in Bloomfield for a High School open house so that might be something to look forward to and having a create a way to create and U make our own pizzas for these events it might be really a good way to showcase our culinary Department um excuse my voice I was at a dancing competition all weekend
um where we actually had a a dance for a uh one first place for a Caged Bird by Maya Angelo so I tie all that in together and um for the young lady that left Lauren Hill was from uh West Orange I believe and Roberta Flack passed away
today which that was her famous song that she copied so just wanted to tie all that in for Black History Month I hope everybody has a great rest of the night and I'll see you in 10 minutes nailed it um I know Lewis and Mr Paladino you were working on that grant for the vol
ball nets well well I was the pain in the butt that was asking for um us to bring volleyball into our Sports cuz for a couple years now the kids have been you know you know my extracurriculars I have like 50 kids that are um in our crew team that my wife and I um look
after every weekend and a lot of them are oh some of them play played volleyball some of them already graduated actually so she's going to be excited to come back and uh and see that already done but we we've been wanting to bring volleyball to the outside um of
the buildings so um I've been harassing Matt for a while now and uh he said he was going to work on trying to find a grant for it and that's what he's been able to do so I'm excited to see that come together could have just said it better myself uh Mr munies has been asking for
a while for volleyball basketball uh tennis court and uh uh kind of I'm sorry yes yes so I said we would look into it the numbers that we had gotten back we
felt a little too high to spend taxpayer money on so I had said to him we'll keep an eye open for a grant and uh we got a grant where the state's going to pay for it so it's not the local taxpayer money no just remember it's not local taxpayer
money I'm going have to put my boxing gloves on for a minute because you know you're in direct competition with the township who also applied for the same Grant all right with that we'll have uh motion to close so moved second second all those in favor I
I all right and here we go with the agenda items is everyone ready all right res resolution suggested by superintendent on Personnel resolutions 9 to 9.24 we have a motion so moved second second
and is there any discussion on any of the resolutions for personnel hearing none Mr Paladino could you please call the role trusty Gillis yes trusty Leon yes trusty Muniz yes uh trusty msia yes trusty Pacho yes
vice president daro yes president benini yes all right and we have no resolutions uh for curriculum instruction so moving on to resolutions for board action and board policy suggested by the superintendent is there
a motion so moved is there a second second does anyone have any comments or discussion on the board policy hearing none Mr Paladino trusty Gillis yes trusty Leon yes trusty Muniz
yes trusty massagi yes trusty PCO yes vice president dar yes h president benini uh I'm going to say yes to all but abstain from 11.4 okay Matt because that field trip is to the metal lands
okay all right and resolutions on purchasing and business services suggested by the superintendent these are from items 12 to 12.43 motion second is there any discussion on any of these
Services hearing done Mr pal please call the role trusty Gillis yes trusty Leon yes trusty monise yes trusty Mia yes trusty Pacho yes vice president daro yes president benini yes and then moving on
to finance items 13 to 13.13 is there a motion motion second is there any discussion does anyone want to say great job Mr Mr Paladino for the fantastic job
Mr Paladino excellent thank you all right Mr Paladino please call the rooll trusty Gillis yes trusty Leon yes trusty mise yes trusty msia yes trusty Pacho yes vice president daro yes president
benini yes all right we're going to move on to remarks by citizens on anything these remarks are five minutes we have quite a few of them so we will get a motion to open public
participation all moved second all those in favor all right we have and forgive me if I don't pronounce your names correctly Jennifer De Los Angeles yeah just please good
evening superintendent parapod members of the Board of Education members of the community my name is Pastor Jennifer the Los Angeles and I've been a resident of Belleville Township for about four years
now I serve as a pastor under the leadership of Bishop Pernell at bashim Yahweh Ministries but more than anything I'm here tonight as a very concerned parent and a resident of this town I have two small children in the
Belleville school system and I'm very concerned about especially my middle schooler who will be at the high school in less than two years I'm very concerned about what that's going to look like for her given the political climate that is very clear to students
to parents to teachers it's very concerning for me so my question here tonight is what is the Belleville Board of Education doing concerning the four history teachers who got together
basically to show up to work making a political statement that is rooted in white supremacy and in Mexican indigenous eraser that's concerning to me that history teachers would do something like
that one because it's white supremacy it's divisive the Belleville High School is a school with a student body of 73% Latino students and overall this is a diverse town from what I've come to
know living here after four years so that really stands out to me and it's very concerning that that's the kind of behavior that is allowed and I say that it's allowed because superintendent perado I've read the news and I've seen
your statement that these matters are being handled internally that people have freedom of speech but when freedom of speech is sending out a divisive statement that then creates a hostile environment for
parents for teachers for students don't you think that's something that should be addressed and right now to me and quite a bit of other members of the community across education and just parents and students it's looking like the statement from these four history
teachers who wore those t-shirts saying Gulf Of America it's looking like the Board of Education sanctions the statement because there hasn't been anything said saying what's happening we don't know how it's being addressed and I work for a board of education so I
know what the process looks like and I know what the language really means so I am concerned about what I'm hearing and what I'm seeing and what's concerning to me for anyone who wants to disagree on matters of whether it's white supremacy
or Mexican indigenous eraser is the fact that as history teachers a statement was made it was a political statement it's personal when you show up to work your political statements and persuasion should stay at home because you understand that you are serving a
diverse population of people of students and of course your co-workers so for me looking at history teachers and I I have have a degree in history so even just wearing a golf of golf of America t-shirt not only is it divisive but it's just
anti-history so for history teachers to make that statement that's concerning what they should be teaching is about the Maha people that is why the Gulf of Mexico was called the Gulf of Mexico because of the Mika they are
indigenous people to the land and Gulf of Mexico is historically sound it is a appeared on maps it has appeared on documents across centuries the Gulf of Mexico was established years before centuries before the United States was
even formed so all that being said and which can be historically verified it's concerning to me that history teachers would come in and make a statement like that and furthermore it's also illegal what they're what they're standing for
what they're representing which is why the president of Mei is suing Google because it is a violation of the United Nations convention law of the sea which dictates that if a country wants
to change the name of a body of water it can only do so pertaining a body of water within 12 nautical miles of its jurisdiction so these are facts upon facts upon facts that I would expect history teachers to know so not only is
this a disturbing political statement which again is rooted in white supremacy because we know what history has taught us what white supremacy does is that people walk into a place and they put their name and their claim on something that they had nothing to do with so I
would like to know what the board of education is doing in this regard and how this is being handled on behalf of all of the parents students and teachers who are too afraid to speak up and we even afraid to show up here today thank you very much
thank you Pastor I'm I'm Jonathan Bush I'm the board attorneys I'm going to speak to uh a response quick brief response on on what you've said um I think it's fair to say that the just speaking generally um that the board of education is is deeply concerned about
climate issues in the school uh we work really hard uh to ensure that that they're sensitivities are addressed uh the superintendent didn't say anything about First Amendment right specifically in his in his letter what he said to the community was that um his priority
remains fostering a respectful learning environment for all students and staff and that he takes these concerns really seriously as a matter of Law and I'm sure you know as a pastor you can appreciate this as a matter of Law and a School employee the board is prohibited
I I know that the board members probably would like to speak in more detail about this as a Personnel issue but we really are prohibited because we have to make sure that we we preserve the rights of all our staff that's obviously very important to us on top of the ideals that we already addressed today so we'll
say this to you it's a it's a private Personnel issue uh we're dealing with it um the word internally is something that I know that that was not something that you wanted to hear but the reality is by law the word is prohibited from sharing um you know sensitive Personnel matters
but we certainly appreciate your concerns and you've been heard tonight like I like I said this is a Personnel matter we're aware of the occurrence of what you've described and we're dealing with it uh as a as a private Personnel matter we can't share the details of our
of of what we're doing internally thank you yeah we have quite a few people on the list and just so everyone knows some of us up here do have students that are at the high school middle school and in the elementary schools we're very aware of the situation but as our attorney
explained we just can't comment so we're gonna we're going to listen to your comments so our next comment I I think this is how you say your name Belin D Los Angeles Kelvin Kelvin De Los
Angeles would you like to come up to the podium all right amen my name is Apostle Kelvin De Los Angeles amen that is my wife amen that just spoke thank you so much for having us amen again this you know we're not four
years here in Belleville amen and again most importantly uh we're coming here as parents I am a father I have two daughters one son but two of my daughters go to the schools here and I understand what you're saying you're
saying it's a private matter but as a father and after we were told of what took place and saw the pictures of the magga teachers I got very upset and I'll tell you why because when I saw
that shirt all I saw was the root of America which is racism and hatred you got to understand as a father and you saying how Private Matter and I understand by law right but to publicly come and orchestrate Four history
teachers orchestrate come together create a plan and then show up with those well as they say it was a dress down day but they pretty much dressed up what they said and the message that they are showing especially right now in
the political climate that's taking place you have to understand especially me as a Dominican my wife being Dominican 73% of Latinos and I know you're saying you have your own kids and you guys have kids in the public well
okay amen you understand as a father as a mother I'm coming here first as a father amen I'm standing here for the voiceless there are plenty of kids and parents that wanted to show up but were
afraid and I want to pose this question do you know who Joslyn Rojo is do you know about the 11-year-old young lady who took her life in Texas because she was being
bullied by her classmates saying that we're going to call Ice on your parents and you will be left alone do you understand that there is a little girl a Latina somewhere a Latina and Frank somewhere hiding in an attic
because she's afraid of ice a brother a sister there are kids that get picked up by grandmothers grandfathers brothers sisters cousins Aunts Uncles nephews do you understand the Fe fear the torment
the disconnect for history teachers Mega teachers to come in and show up boldly and it emboldens because all you got to do is look around this room it emboldens them it's like a badge of honor I call it
dishonor I stand for the voiceless I'm speaking up for them that are afraid to show up amen that is my duty that is my commandment and I stand at a father because I have two girls and like my wife said there are two two years from
now or a year she'll be coming to the high school we want to understand what to expect what is my daughter going to expect when she enters these Halls when she's just sitting down trying to listen to a a lesson a history lesson or any
other lesson we're speaking of black black history right like the teacher said it's all year long right so what are these magga teachers really teaching if they're so bold to come to class and
just show up like that and show that message like a walking talking billboard you are read whether good or bad you always send a message when all of you leave this Podium people look up to you whether good or bad there are people who
watch you there are children who watch you who look up to you whether good or bad that is the price of leadership where is the account of ability that's all we want if it was publicly done in boldness then why can't we have the
names why can't it be addressed that's all we want that's all we're calling for amen and I just want to read something before I go terrible things are happening outside
poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes families are torn apart men women and children are separated children come from school to find that their parents have disappeared and
Frank thank you thank you Joe Bome come to the podium really glad I came to speak good evening members of the board faculty parents and students my name is
Joe bnom and I'm here tonight because I cannot believe we are having this discussion teachers are being threatened with punishment or have faced consequences simply for wearing t-shirts that reflect an official designation made by the
president of the United States this is outrageous and every single person here should be questioning how we got to this point let let's be clear there is nothing offensive about the words Gulf of America the name was officially Changed
by an executive order and platforms like Google Maps have already updated their us services to reflect it this is not some Fringe idea it is the recognized name of this body of water by the federal government so why are we treating it like it's a
crime for teachers to acknowledge it history teachers that teach GE graphy by if some people don't like it the name because of who changed it that's their personal opinion but punishing teachers over this is nothing more than a
political bias disguised as outrage we have teachers dealing with real challenges in their classrooms every day lack of resources students behavioral issues and declining academic performance but instead of focusing on those issues
this board is entertaining maybe you're entertaining the idea of punishing Educators over a t-shirt that's beyond ridiculous now let's talk about real offense because I've been offended for the past 10 years because I keep hearing how
offended some people are over this but I don't recall much concern when it came to things that I and millions of Americans found deeply offensive over the last few years I was offended when the Administration opened our borders and allowed crime drugs and human trafficking to flood into our
communities while American families were left to suffer the consequences I was offended when our hard-earned tax dollars were sent overseas to fund Foreign Wars while our economy crumbled inflation skyrocketed and people
couldn't afford food gas or even basic necessities I was offended when women's sports were undermined by allowing biological men to compete erasing years of hard work and opportunity for female athletes I was offended when books with
sexually graphic content was made available for children but when those things happened what did we hear we were told to sit down shut up and accept it we were told that our concerns weren't valid that we were on the wrong side of History we
needed to just go go along with the changes no matter how much they hurt the people or the communities and now suddenly a t-shirt is where some people draw the line that's the breaking point that's where we're going to take a
stand I am proud to support president a president who actually puts America First who protects the rights of American citizens including legal immigrants like my own family who came here the right way by the way I had one member of my
family who did not come here the right way and he got deported until he came back here legally and I am disgusted by the idea that teachers who have done nothing wrong are being made into scapegoats because some people can't handle a name change they don't agree with this board
has a choice tonight you could take a stand for families in common sense or you could bow to the same selective outrage that has been used for years to silence and punish people who don't conform to the left's narrative if you go down that road understand that you
are setting up a dangerous precedent one that says political bias is more important than reality and that people can be punished simply for acknowledging the truth I urge you do the right thing end this nonsense now leave these teachers alone and let's move on focusing on what actually
matters our students their education and the future of this community thank you thank you Mr Bello uh Michael Sheldon please come up to the podium uh good evening everyone Michael Sheldon 47 Floyd Street I I wasn't
expecting to use this time to speak about the matters addressed by the the previous three speakers but U uh I do want to add that after the alleged incident took place I was contacted privately by several of our teachers who
not only were terribly upset if not outraged about what some of their colleagues had done but they shared with me how many of their students had come to them literally terrified Tears in their eyes wanting wanting to know whether they should leave our district
all together the upshot is that what I've learned learned over these last few weeks is that again you know Mr Bush being the lawyer will say well this is largely what what you're saying Mr Sheldon is hear say but what I have been told by many of our staff is that over
the course of the last several months especially in the last couple months there's been a very negative climate to say the least developing our district essentially a terrifying atmosphere where 70 nearly
75% of our students who are Latino are worried if they can continue as students in our district and I I have a meeting with Mr perado delayed from last week but we're I'm meeting with him on on Wednesday I've already shared with him and Mr Bush
that uh one of the teachers um allegedly involved with this matter apparently has a history of his place of previous employment of making not only racist comments to
supervisors but also making homophobic homophobic comments to in his workplace before staff and students so I don't think this matter is as simple in as clean cut as the last speaker would like you to
believe uh there seems to be a really serious problem rapidly developing our district and I hope this board acts quickly to nip it in the bud before it explodes I just would like to say with with all due respect to Mr bomi I find the the irony Sublime that he gets up
before this microphone and professes to teach to say what's right and wrong when he himself was part of the January 6th attack on our Capital he was front and center on the West Port West balcony Portico pictures are all over they've been posted countless times but there he
was with some of the same people that entered the capital well Mr bomi there's no evidence that he was actually inside the building he was nevertheless part of that he is sir thank you go ahead Mr Shel thank you Mr bomi was front and
center with the attack and he's there on the balcony with a couple of the guys that were inside the building a few minutes later so um with that said let me uh when I still have a couple minutes left let me get back to some M mundane
matters here uh Mr rean announced that Governor Murphy is making his budget address tomorrow uh we'll learn by Thursday what the school funding is but once again with Mr Egan here I'd like him I'm going to ask once again Mr Egan last year we had a great audit almost a
$10 million general fund Surplus but yet you turned around and stuck Beville with a 6.4% tax increase well beyond the 2% cap we had no opportunity to make any appeal I almost got on air with Governor Murphy last month with the news12 New Jersey
asked the governor segment and I was prepared to ask him about this to finally force the issue to have you finally explain to all of us how you were able to give us a 6.4% tax increase when last year Governor Murphy announced that we would be fully funded and and we
had a 10 almost a $10 million general fund Surplus but you still stuck the median home with nearly a $300 School tax increase so I guess you'll still stay quiet about that and refuse to explain yourself uh I'd like to know if there any updates on the parking garage
matter uh I'd like to also know if uh the board has commenced a nationwide search for a permanent superintendent Mr perado is here on an interim basis so I'd like to know if if any activity is going on in regard to searching for a
permanent superintendent uh I only have a few seconds left here very recently a new website has uh been released here in New Jersey called wakeup new jersey.com it speaks to the uh pervasive problems
our students are having especially in mathematics but as I pointed out in my Facebook page when you look at the eighth grade results for Essex County our students bble students are the worst performing eighth graders in the entire
County we are worse than Irvington worse than East Orange worse than nework Etc so that says a hell of a lot about what's going on with our our classrooms and uh lastly since my time is just about up I uh I'm glad that uh uh Mr
Bush is here tonight I I I assume that you would be in Garfield tonight because that was probably going to be a much more interesting meeting than this one but actually it turned out you know we had a a few highlights here here but uh I'm waiting to get home to see if uh if
has been called to Garfield so thank you thank you thank you Mr Sheldon uh the next name is it Dora Toronto lelli left okay uh Ruben Rodriguez Nikki dtis H Nikki dtis Burkle have hi
guys U my comments are more towards Mr Egan our state monitor now that I'm on this side of the podium I feel a little bit more comfortable saying this there have been multiple meetings where the public questioned him on the tax
increase he implemented on us last year multiple meetings now where Mr Ean refused to explain himself I just want to say that if you are going to sit here and overturn the board and its decision and increase taxes by as much as you did you can at
least sit up there and have the decency to answer to the public when we ask questions as to why that's all thank you thank you Mrs dtis Ruben Rodriguez how you doing how you doing Ruben Rodriguez Ceda Hill Avenue
um wow that was a lot to take in U my Rec facility question seems really pointless right now um I do ask for this is whatever but um we have been advertising the rec facility you know I've been talking about about that for a while um my kid and I went for one of
the open gym nights because on the on the Facebook post it had hashtag hash softball hash batting cages blah blah blah and we get there and they told us the back room was rented out so all I ask is if you're going to advertise for
the open gym please be more specific because we you did we did promise us at least four hours at week for the open gym and we're not getting what we promised and what we paid for um just so you know other districts other towns I should say West ver West Orange
Verona all of these those softball girls are practicing those softball girls are playing you guys want to have a feeder system you guys want to have a good sports athletic thing and we need a good Recreation and the town isn't given us a recreation facility that we could use um
you guys built it even though we told you you shouldn't um so please let let's just help us our Recreation kids get in there um please for the sake of God please make your own cell phone policy before this Governor does something to mandate and
and again have trenen uh uh parenting our children we don't need trenen parenting our children we don't need another 3 million dollar to get spent out of our money again Mr Paladino Trenton doesn't have a job that's our money we don't need RFD we don't need our children sellon apparently by what
everybody's talking about tonight the should should have access to their cell phones because if this is the biggest thing that's happened how do we know what what else is happening we need self-governance there's no there's no cameras obviously it could have been 10
times worse if if what happened did happen um I I really wasn't going to talk about this because honestly my kids don't go to the schools uh you know that my money does go to the schools but what bothers me
is you know I've been coming here for for 5 years now it's been me and Mr Sheldon who you know me and him have we disagree about on everything except what goes on in this room um the manufactured outrage is
just it's getting out of hand I commend the couple that came and spoke tonight um I don't 100% agree with everything they've said but I commend them coming out and I do want want to call out everybody out here that you could have 200 comments on multiple Facebook posts
yet there's nobody here except three extra people and the same two people that are here every single week um people say they're scared to send their kids to schools because of some stupid t-shirt which I saw the pictures it does not say gol of America it says golf of
you could determine it all you want I had my time this is my time five minutes um you could take it as however you want I'm not defending it I'm just saying it's gone so out of hand what people should be afraid to send the kids to this school system is sending their kids
to eighth graders that can't do math that are coming home with 90s that are coming home with hundreds on their report card and then they go and take a test and we have 2% of the kids passing my kid was an honor student in in in school 3 she got up to go to school in
Monclair and she was two years behind the rest of the students so if you want to be scared of something be scared of the test scores be scared of kids not caring be scared of 70 absences and the kids passing and getting moved on to the next thing don't
be raise your children to not care what somebody says what somebody's t-shirt says don't be people should be here getting upset that we that my mortgage just went up another $40 a month because of a 6% increase last year and what are
we getting for it what's the return on investment please let me know manufactured outrage is what it is it's a bunch of Facebook post post it's a bunch of Facebook comments I I post a lot you know why because I try to stir a pot so hopefully apparently it worked we
got two extra people here this week and if that works if that's what it takes to get two people here if I I my sister-in-law wanted to move to New Jersey she wanted to know how do I know the best school districts you know what I told her watch the Board of Ed meetings watch the Board of Ed meetings
and see how many people are in the stand see how many people are in the room if you want to know what the best districts are because the best districts are the ones where the parents come out not just to take a photo op of a of a of a presentation which by the kid way the children does a great job is democra
does a great job with the talent to the gift at all the time but it's like halftime at a Giants game when it's over everybody walks out of here no one stays so please take your manufactured outrage or your your sound bites or your
photo or your influencer comments and put that where it really matters let's get these teachers what they need let's get the teachers the the the resources they need and let's get these kids learning and caring and giving a damn again because you could say and I know I know TOMCO I'm I'm gonna take my extra
two minutes I'm take Nikki's extra two minutes and I'm gonna say what TOMCO always said worry about your kids we're sending kids to college all over the country but are those kids prepared when they get there ask yourself if they're prepared when they get
there thank you very much thank you Mr Rodriguez and Gloria frisman hi everybody and thanks for hosting this tonight I'm glad I'm here my name is Gloria frisman I just want to give you a little bit of my pedigree in this town
my grandfather built the house I currently live in my mother was the president of the Chamber of Commerce um I have an older brother who was retired captain of the fire department sister-in-law is a was a special education grammar school teacher my nieces are also teachers uh my neighbors
is a longstanding teacher in this town so it was her daughter so her husband was a detective in this town who passed away years ago I am a graduate of school number two of bille junor high school of Belleville High School class of
1977 and I'm a professor at Monclair state University and if you have questions about Sexes as far as male and female I'm more than happy to educate you on that because there are a lot of variations in between so as a mother my
children went to Belleville High School I did my grandson goes to Beville high school now I have two things really two sides of this coin the first one is when he came home to tell me about what had happened at school with the teachers
with their t-shirts I don't care if anybody in this room if any of those teachers if any of you take your weekends and wear your hats your t-shirts your hoods or your
Confederate flag you are free to do that in this country but on dress down day or in this building in these school buildings you have a responsibility to our children I entrust my my children to you all dress down day doesn't mean wear
whatever you want there's still a protocol there's still something to be said about what these kids wear they don't walk in here with gang colors or gang shirts they still have a decorum when they walk in here and so should the teachers now if anybody wants to argue
that that was not a a concerted effort I have a a bridge to sell you because it was and I respect that we all have our different sides of the aisle you make it left or right or wherever you want to put that knock yourself out it has no
bearing in that school room I have concerns I don't manufacture anything outrage is my deal I am Italian too so I have a pro I don't have a problem with that I mean I could be outraged all I want what I have a problem with is the
respect we need to show our children the our town has become incredibly diverse and from what I've seen on the presentations tonight the teachers for the most part are
amazing and I'm more than happy to trust my child to them they're doing a fantastic job you can see it to the diversity of the children standing here tonight it really almost brought me to tears this is what I know of our town
this is what I know of Belleville what I've seen here and understand you saying that it's an inhouse thing but what are you telling the students what are the students who dealt with this what how are the students getting anything back from the school
saying something positive to them you know what that what that said to these students is I am not here to protect you and I won't and that is a little bit offensive to me now these kids my grandson tells me this all the time kids
are not coming to school there is a a a fear and that's why these seats aren't filled there's a lot of parents out here who are in fear of speaking up I have no such fear and I never will so here I
am I just hope that in the future you do have something set in stone where respect is the number one priority our te our children my kids went to number 10 school because number two was no longer there our t to respect each other
it should come absolutely from their teachers to respect everybody in that room their job is to teach their job is not to bring their political thing and as far as the gulf goes I don't care what you name it if you look at different bodies of water
around the world there's different countries that have different names for the same body of water so just because one person decides they want to change it go for it knock yourself out it doesn't mean the rest of the world Falls in line because they don't ladies and gentlemen just to make
sure we know that fact it is not across the board that everybody recognizes that body of water and there's other bodies of water too so if you want to get into the geography discussion we can my only concern is that we are here I can entrust my children here and they will
be respected that's all I care about thank you for giving me that time thank you thank you everyone and could we have a motion to close public participation so moved is there a second second and all
those in favor yes all right very good and thank you all for coming out and speaking tonight we're going to go into our board comments and uh if anyone has any committee reports to give as well we're going to begin with uh trustee
Brenda Pacho no comments sure it yes um wait we're gonna we're going to just do a motion to to read before we do the if I can sorry before you board members for a second if I can just because we're formal and otherwise I wouldn't be doing my job up here so we'll reopen for public comments but by
a show of hands for those who haven't spoken yet who still wishes to address the board there's two members here because these will be the only people able to address so it's it's like because the list never got to you is that accurate okay so we'll we'll get a mo we'll get a motion to to reopen ex uh
public comment and then a second and then a vote and then we'll have those two people if you could just sit in chairs can you explain what the normal process would be so that way uh cuz you know we we are we have new people here and it's important that we know what the process is cu so so the
board chooses to maximize fairness in in making sure that everybody has a chance to address the board they pass out a signning sheet at the beginning of the meeting which is typically returned to the de before as the meeting begins so in the future U members of the community
who are wishing to address the board should get on that list and do so uh at the commencement of the meeting okay okay all right motion yeah but um do we have the list uh the sign in sheet can we take the sign and Sheet back and then
sign these folks back in all right yes very good all right and we'll do a motion to reopen so move I'll second that all right and all those in favor I all right very
good okay would you like to come to the ponum please state your name and also sign the sheet um before you sit in the interest of time if you could sit in this chair right here just so that you can thank you Mr Rodriguez there Mr Rodriguez it's not a
precedent issue it's just a matter of tonight there seem to be people the the board because the bo because the board let me just let me let me just explain something to you this is not more important than anything no actually no no Mr Rodriguez this is this
is a this is a public Board of Education as you well know because you're here all the time and you absolutely and and the board Mr Rodriguez Please Mr Rodriguez you've already spoken to the board tonight the board decided after having the option to allow additional people to
speak they can do that everyone's going to have an opportunity to address the board I don't know how many times these people have ever come to a board meeting they're learning about the process and they're going to have an opportunity to address the board because the boards decide they're the only two people who will be addressing the board tonight from what I understand beyond the people
who sign the sheet just if you could just give your name and Mr Rodriguez please your name and address for the record please yes my name is Angelique and I live on Mitchell Street um wait wait and I just want to I'm sorry Jonathan thank you very very much
um our attorney Mr Mr Bush we have we have made exceptions in the past so this is not the only time that we have we have done this before and we have made exceptions in the past because we don't want to dissuade anyone from being able to speak to us so this is not the first time I've been up here for six years um
on the board of education um and I do remember when Mr munes was was President we did allow other participants to speak we are looking at the policy and we are looking into changing it that's all I'm going to say right now so I'm sorry for interrupting you that's okay thank you
how much time do I have okay um so my name is Angelique I graduated from bille high school in 2001 um then I I am a funny person I'm a comedian professionally and this is
extremely serious and I usually deflect with humor so I'm like I want to say the word poopy just for funsies um so I um can remember fondly of my junior year year I sat in Miss vard's English class
and I remember she used to like pop her gum and chew her gum and we got on the topic of politics and um I remember her standing there she used to wear these like suit dresses and she said I can't tell you who to vote for I just tell you
you got to vote this way you can complain and I love that I love that so much that there was an adult in a room where I was a child and she didn't try to sway me intimidate me or make me feel
bad about how I felt you know I don't know how she voted um I don't know if she knew how I would vote when I became a grownup and I think that kind of touches on the topic of respect that um a couple of other folks have said and I
think that's really important um I live on a really cute little small street and I'm really happy to live there and I don't know that I vote the same way as all of the people on the street but I'm still looking out for their Amazon packages and I'm still you know making
sure nobody leaves dog poop in the grass in front of their house you know I'm I'm a neighbor I'm a friend this is a community and um I feel like a lot of that can be lost the sense of community and the sense of togetherness a lot of
it has been lost on the national level uh the city level and even you know you got neighbors with two different kinds of flags that they hang outside their house and I think that kind of sucks um we're so angry at each other and what exactly are we showing our kids you know
um that person votes differently than you call them a a jerk you know call them a terrible name and that sucks that that sucks and um I work in a place where we might vote differently and we have a lot more in common than we do our
differences and I think it's really good that my kids are around people that vote differently than we do in our house because how are you going to know how to make the other side or the other sides kind of meet in the middle see the world how you see the world nobody has the
same kind of experience um and I think that as adults and as grown-ups fostering a community of healthy kids with good emotional Integrity I think that's really important I think we often forget that with um our our hats and our t-shirts and our
flags and you know we can stand for anything we want to stand for and that this is America and that's really awesome um with that being said you know I know what I was doing today when I put on my shirt that says Belleville moms versus
everyone um so I I feel like those Educators who definitely studied early childhood development and adolesc childhood development knew what they were doing and had a great intention not a great intention excuse me had
intention to they knew what they were doing when those shirts were put on and I think that's terrible because you walk into the hallways of this school this Beville High School my Beville High School their Beville High School you
walk into the hallways and you know what you're doing when you put on a shirt that is meant to incite meant to bade me to you know kind of make the kids feel bad I'm never going to tell my kid that they're a jerk or they're an idiot
because they didn't get an A on a test you never want to make a kid feel that way and I'm sure as Educators who study Child Development and education they know that and I'm really disappointed in the choices that those teachers made um and I'm hopeful that
there will be something set in stone so everybody feels good when they come to school I think we all deserve to feel good as a child when we come to school and that's all I got to say thank you guys thank
you can you come on up and state your name at the podium and don't forget to sign this sheet please all right good evening U my name is Daniel and I live on wates Avenue and
um what taking place in what I saw a few days ago a few week few maybe last week with the with the teachers putting in the Gulf of America shirt and using the scare tactics to some of the students is appalling I was extremely upset and I I
want to give a brief uh background on my relationships to Belleville I do live in Belleville my daughter does go to Belleville high school she plays for Belleville High School basketball team my son's also plays Belleville High School football
he's uh starred in Varsity since he was a freshman all right and my other son he's a middle school student 8th grade he was here for the seventh grade and the eighth grade now coming into Belleville you know you hear rumors and things like that about the race
relations in Belleville and we we said hey that's the past we'll move forward but my daughter's first year here she experienced a lot of racism in the school and we brought it up to the
principal Mr rhods and he saw it like it's a normal occurrence and that was very troubling for me and my wife and and um it was very very hurtful the stuff that she said that was they were saying she filed
a Hib form and which they they dismissed but because me and my wife came forward um we decided they decided to go ahead and process it through and what was said was the the end bomb so it was repeatedly said and she was
uncomfortable with that because we don't use it in my house is not something normal that happens in my community you know but Mr Rose felt like it was something normal and he he brushed it off and it was very disturbing because
he said hey all the kids say it so who's the adult here right so I ask is this the leadership you want representing your school is this the leadership that you want a r somebody who
who uses race or allows race to say hey it's something normal and that's not normal in my house it's not normal in my family we don't walk around saying it so despite what he believed that is
incorrect totally incorrect so my wife and myself met Mr rhods and we let him know exactly how we felt and he was very combative with my wife not with me with my wife but I wasn't there so I was a
witness to to that and I have the recording still cuz I recorded the entire conversation so if you require that just let me know I will more than happy to provide that for you you know but what took
place with the Gulf of Mexico or Gul of America situation that was the straw that broke the Camas back for me yes I could have came a while ago and expressed this but that right there was dead wrong it was extreme
disturbing because that was a form of terrorist to some of the kids here and their families we know what that represents you know you don't have to be a rocket scientist you know what that represents you know the hate that that represents you know the hate in the
administration of this country right now we understand that and I I'm if I offend somebody so be it you know but we understand that everybody understands that people might not agree or or they might not believe it or might
not uh accept the truth but the fact of the matter is that was very hateful and that was a fear tactic it's the same as putting a hood on it's the same thing but guess what the hood has been removed
and we can see you now thank you I'm done thank you right we'll have a motion to close public participation so move the second that'll second all right and all those in
favor once again thank you everyone for coming out speaking tonight so we'll move on to our board comments um by our trustees and we'll begin with Mrs trustee Brenda Peko good evening
all well first of all congratulations for all the kids they've make the made the programs the made the competitions and talk about black history um congratulations to all second
I'm going to just an announcement fre cross America official come in March and bble Public School District celebrating R Across America and we start the March SEC 2nd to set to the sex please encourage your kids to
read and parents welcome to the schools and read with our our kids that's all I'm GNA say thank you good night thank you trustee Jean Gillis good
evening and um just going to reiterate a bit as we approach the end of the week we're excited to kick off rrest America students have the opportunity to enjoy guest readers from the community additionally there will be literacy night at some of the elementary schools
and there will be one here for 3rd to 6th grade on March 11th and our team is actively preparing for the summer programs we have newly trained Orton Gillam staff members who will be assisting throughout the summer as well thank
you thank you and trustee Steve Leon thank you Madame President and good evening everyone uh Little Light On Athletics it's uh towards the of the year uh winter season rather so but we we have some uh updates our Athletics uh web page is currently getting a facelift
and I would like to thank our athletic director Dr Mar and Our IT department for their hard work uh we're going to try to put the coaches uh contact information just a little bit more transparency and more information out there for the parents so please visit our website at www.bo athletics.org for
up-to-date announcements and all things Bel Athletics uh our girls flag football team their inaugural uh home opening game is on March 31st 4 pm versus West orang so please come out if you can make that and uh Mr perap
stole my thunder earlier but uh I would like to again uh congratulate Conor cook from our boys basket team for scoring His Thousand Point uh as a former basketball coach that's not an easy task and and that is quite an accomplishment so uh to my knowledge right Mr Le he's going to have some type of ceremony
we're going to before at tomorrow's game so hopefully you can come out and uh we can celebrate them uh good luck to all our student athletes in the uh the state playoffs and state tournament and that is all thank you great thank you and
trustee Dr Liz misia okay good evening um congratulations to the students who participated in the Black History Month celebrations and activities the presentations were wonderful and I think they did an amazing job as they do uh
every month we're always very very proud of what they do and they never cease to amaze us um I'd like to commend the business office Mr Paladino and his staff for the outstanding job they did in terms of the
preparation of the audit I think the presentation by um the auditor spoke volumes to us that for the last several years and even including the fact that I think what did he say in the the best
audit even in 10 years now that um we're in really good shape and that the the audit was um the best one he's seen even in 10 years so thank you Mr Paladino for the amazing job you're doing we really we really do appreciate you thank you
and um thank you for for all of that um I don't have too much more to say I think this went from being a board meeting to somehow some kind of really bizor political rally and I don't think I really want to say anymore about it because it's I think I need a pyc or
some Tums or something and on that note um I'll just wish everybody a safe trip home and and have a good evening thank thank you Dr msia trustee Lewis munise good evening everyone um I to
Echo uh the sentiment here I want to congratulate everyone on on being recognized and awarded tonight um I want to take a minute and just address some of the things that we've been working on in the last month um earlier this month on the 11th uh
Gabby uh president benett Mei myself um Mr perado uh we had uh Jeff who is our our lead our director in uh the IT department Mr Paladino is involved as well um we were fortunate enough to have
assembly woman um Carmen Morales uh deputy chief uh corbo and Sergeant Augusta who works for the juvenile um the juvenile detective division here in Beville um uh a couple of months ago a
couple things were brought to my attention um that some of our students were dealing with which prompted me to very quickly get get everyone engaged and see really what our processes are internally and what our crisis intervention team
does in in situations where um our students you know where we're out of the building after school on a weekend Saturday or Sunday and our kids are not in our building to that point to our staff and our and and our our
our crisis intervention team here I really want to highlight them because they do such an incredible job when our kids are here and they can actually reach them immediately their response and their ability to really help them it's incredible um but it I it brought
up a a very obvious Gap um when our kids are out of our buildings and out of our facilities and when our kids are home Saturday and Sunday um if there is any crisis that our kids in um are dealing with they're not in our buildings where we can immediately respond to them the
protocol is to call local police department and then our local police department then immediately with priority engages getting in front of your child in front of my my children and and providing them with the help and the that they need in that process then
it continues on to our our our building directors um our principls our our superintendent and our crisis intervention team um one of the things that I was uh one of the things that I was concerned about was that reaction
time and how we can help engage and get get access to our children a little bit faster which prompted the meeting that we had and um we had a very good outcome um our our our deputy chief uh corbo and and Sergeant Augusta came in they told um they gave us a behind the scenes look
at what their process is like in case any of you call 911 and say hey I need help for my child or um you know my child was in in my instance it my child was um you know one of a few kids in a group chat and something was head which
prompted me engaging everyone and trying to get assistance for another student um which everyone handled it amazingly um so they gave us a glimpse behind the scene and they allowed us to see um some of their struggles and some of their protocols that are in place and
how they react in an emergency situation for your for your children and mine um which led them to ask us to give them certain access and instead of um just our juvenile uh detective division
having access to our student database uh you know name um date of birth address very basic information um we we were able to come up with a a way to give them access at the front desk so when you call who you speak to also will have
that access that doesn't trigger them having to call the Juvenile detective which or called the school district or called the building principal it just removes all those layers giving us quick and direct access to the information they need to get to our kids so I just wanted to highlight that and emphasize
the importance of us being able to speak with our kids and just kind of get a gauge for where they are and what they need um not just for themselves but in you understanding that you could tell us like we had you know today a lot of conversations today was us recognizing
some of the things that our children need and us being able to come together and provide that for them so I'm I'm I'm very excited very proud to say that everyone resp responded very quickly uh everyone made themselves available very quickly uh assem assembly woman Morales
is also oo took a lot of notes throughout that which she's going to provide us a lot more State um assistance um for us to be able to create more programs which some programs she also um as an educator she took that on and she's uh they're piloting a few
programs that they're going to share with us as well so we can do something with that uh information and that data um which also prompted her to realize how well um our procedures are established internally um compared to other places that she seen some of some
of the reporting process so um overall good news and I wanted to share that with you um you know if you want to share if you want to look up and just Google some statistics on um some of the leading causes that are causing the death of our children accidents
obviously being the first thing that happens you know you unforeseen accidents second one is suicide and then it's all medical situations you know whe whatever they were sick with you know any cancer any anything that you want to anything you could think of but second
to accidents and uncontrolled circumstances is suicide so please you know share some time with your children get to know your children I try to do it with mine and I hope that we're a big enough Village that we recognize something in each other or in our children as they're out and about in our
community that we you know reach out to our local school districts our local buildings even to that kid themselves and just try to give them a motivating recognition so that they know that there's more people out here for them and so that they know that they're
not alone so I just wanted to share that and um thank everyone that was involved in this process thank you very good thank you and vice president Michael darl yes I'd like to just start by saying we'd like to thank everyone for taking the time to come out of your busy
schedules to be here tonight especially for those that have come out for the first time we appreciate it every comment is that bait is very important to us and I hope that in the future uh that many more would feel more comfortable coming out to to speak about it uh because a lot of times everybody
relies on social media and social media is not always the best gauge of public because it might be three or four people complaining or talking uh but to see you in person and to see these these uh things come up as as real needs that you
want to share in the future please always feel free to come out uh we were respect you a lot for doing that thank you uh I would like to congratulate our second place winner uh total globally and gifted competition and for all the student presentations we just saw uh to
celebrate Black History Month uh to some other points that were made about the board policies and I'm sorry Mr Rodriguez took off and so abruptly because we are looking at things such as public speaking and cell phone policies we're looking at some of the uh the
oldness of some of those rules that are out there and I've questioned some of the uh list myself as to whether it should be in the front whether it should be back whether it should be an electronic signature whether it should be just open to uh whosoever will so these are ones currently being bandied
about right now so we are looking at several policies including the cell phone policy right now we know the governor kind of daily goes back and forth on it uh we're not exactly sure we heard the 3 million that we heard over here uh there's just so much out there uh we kind of want to get we do want to
get in front of it uh but we know that Trenton is going to come up with something and then probably give it to the school districts to make those decisions so we want to make sure we're cognizant of doing that uh I think we have a first reading that we put out there we're going to do a second reading I guess next month where we make some revisions to that uh so hopefully you'll
more to come in that respect and some of the other policies we're just looking overall just there's so many things out there that probably haven't been Revisited since 2012 2013 which is now over 10 years old so we want to kind of look to see if everything's updated and should be uh what it should be
accordingly now um we have I've also tried to recently spend more time with our local hsas and opes uh to get someone to know some of our parents better to learn how we can become a better partner or resource to them uh this has helped me get a little better pulse of what they like to see from us
as a board um as a side not it's been a lot of fun working alongside them with our Bingo nights and winter dances and I hope to just continue that as I go forward I also look forward to being able to participate in the upcoming read Across America days held at the elementary schools I'm glad to see that
this tradition is continuing uh to be observed here in Belleville uh I hope everyone here has a great evening uh with March coming we finally get to welcome in the spring a little warmer weather uh but thank you for coming out tonight very good thank you Mr Daryl and
just to uh close it out for everyone I want to thank you all for coming and I want to thank you all for your lovely children sending them to our schools you can mark my word that uh this board is very very proactive uh we're very involved in the schools each one of us is a liaison in the school some of us
are involved in even the community and are on community um or organizations and committees um so we hear you we are here for you um I do want to thank our board attorney who is always watching out for
us though as well and I think you guys can understand um why we we just cannot comment on on certain things but we do hear you and we do see you and we do know everything that's going on um I'd like to thank all of our board trustees too for your volunteering and your time
and and for being out there in the community um thank you Mr Paladino for your report and for working very well and we can't forget to thank candy dung who is our our high school representative and if that's not a a
great example of of a student out here who really got to see a lot tonight miss dong um so I just wanted to remind um what you know one of the events that you talked about that no one else did mention uh the Mr and Mrs Belleville pageant is on March the 13th so don't
forget that's happening right here at the high school thank you to all of our staff and administrators also for your tireless job um every day um so with that we'd like to close our meeting and we will see each everyone for the next
meeting which is on March the 17th um and if you can't make it out here we do stream live so we'll see you either way all right so do we have a motion to close so moved second second and all those in favor hi all right very
good everyone thank you