today and I got out of the shower i'm like "What's the weather?" Alexa and she's like "The New New Jersey public's meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or
acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the Belvadier Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof posted with the Star Ledger and Express Times and submitted to the town clerk of the town of Belvadier on March 26
2025 the meeting will be livereamed at www.bevierd.org flag salute please i pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and
justice for all the mission of the Belvadier School District is to celebrate our past and empower our future while focusing on our four cornerstones of our district tradition excellence academics and community we strive to build confidence and promote collaboration we encourage
an equal partnership with our students and staff as well as its community members we empower everyone to develop the best version of themselves the Belvadier School District is committed to shaping students into global citizens who take initiative for their success and contribute to the continued
excellence of the district our students are leader in the decision-making process of their education and will be prepared to excel in the 21st century society roll call please mr blum
Mrs cabone here dr zith here mrs duckworth here mr scott Miss Stefen here miss Walton present mrs wer here Miss White here Mr cherelli here Mrs gardella
here and Mrs robbatha here we're going to start out uh Mr carabinus is going to introduce our bowling team the state champs i know he's got a few nice things to say so Mr carabinus take it away the first four year of Belvadier Bowling
um with a 23 and2 record um 78,110 pins knocked down a 189 team average led by Landon S with a 220 average um freshman returner next year with a 200 average and in a sectional
final and team final two win the state title with a 2008 to 1696 score i'd like to have a huge round of applause for the state championship Bellevier bowling team i would love them all to get up behind the board here get a nice team picture
they're also Skyland champs sectional champs and state champs um if you have never gone out to a bowling match this was my first time ever watching a bowling match and Coach Tac is the NJ.com coach of the year wow i will tell
you what watching these guys bowl watching the strategy that goes into rolling the ball down the lane like most of us do these guys dissect it when they're saying they're purposely missing right to create a lane i guess and what
they do and what Mr stout also helped is phenomenal and if next year when they get to Bellpike to get the opportunity to go and watch them and watch the crowd that shows up to watch them bowl it's tough to even get a seat to see the lane so if everybody can go up to the board I want to get a quick
picture with the entire team we go right behind Miss Duckworth and Mr kruba that is really cool yeah I like our veterans coach T could not be here he's on a road trip to Tennessee he's on a road trip to Tennessee but again for us for Belvier
who won a state championship and our first full season in any sport is impressive another round of applause for the Belving i think that's safe to say we will not be challenging them in a bulloff we get a handicap don't we if we get a hand we get lots of
other than our canes oh yeah everyone um our other honore tonight uh Malinder cannot make it so we've uh pushed that back to May 7th so we'll we'll honor Maddie on May 7th okay so that brings us on to our student representative report
andy thank you um student government is working on spring cup week they are looking to have multiple student and staff activities as well as a pep rally um the Leos Club will be helping the Lions Club with their Camp Warren Cleanup Day as well as assisting at the Special Olympics at Hacketstown High
School on May 4th also working with the Belvader FFA planting trees shrubs and flowers in Belvier's Butler Park on May 5th and 6th um and visiting Mirav on May 9th we will be planting flowers and spending time with the residents if
anyone knows anyone or is interested in donating flowers for this project we would really appreciate it and please reach out to Mrs lernie the spring concert will be held on Tuesday May 6 at 7 um and at the concert Mason Chamberlain will be recognized as the
New Jersey State winner of the Heart of the Arts Award given by the New Jersey Music Educators Association and the National Federation of State High School Associations this organization is the National Leadership Body for High School
and high school athletic and performing arts the month of May is a busy one for the Belir FFA chapter our floriculture class is preparing flower and vegetable seedlings for the May greenhouse sale our dairy cattle evaluation and management team is currently training
for their competition on May 3rd ffa officers are preparing for their 84th annual FFA banquet on Saturday May 3rd at 700 p.m at the Beler Manor tickets are available by contacting Mr duckworth the FFA and Leo's club will be working together on multiple projects throughout
the end of May it was recently announced that the FFA members Andrew Ducker Andrew Duckworth and Carolyn Bilick will receive their Garden State degrees at the New Jersey FFA convention in May and FFA members Ashley Postmount and Owen
Gambali will be receiving profession proficiency awards at state convention in the areas of fruit and nut production and turf landscape maintenance ashley and Owen's applications will then go to be judged at the National FFA organization this summer and other FFA
applicants throughout the United States thank you thank you [Applause] thanks and stole my thunder i was going to uh talk about Mason Chamberlain also with his educators but um also today we had opportunity to recognize Mason mason
was also chosen as just one of 90 uh football players in the state of New Jersey to participate in the North South game which I think it was June 8th at K University i think that's the date they said uh it's a great honor for Belvadier it's been probably 25 years plus since we've had someone selected for that so
congratulations to Mason uh Mason obviously is a great representation of Belvadier High School i do want to just uh swing back and uh talk about a couple past events um for those of you that got to see Nemo Jr uh about two weeks ago it was outstanding it was probably one of
the best middle school elementary school plays I've seen um great performances laura Baker uh Eevee Schlifer just to name a couple were great the scenery was great um it was just a lot of fun it was fun on great Friday night and a great crowd so congratulations to Miss Kerpad it was a great show and hopefully
continued success with that program uh last week we had our regionalization discussion so I do thank Dr green and Mr maguiar for leading that discussion and I thought it was uh great to see well over 100 folks here in you know in the crowd it was good discussion a lot of questions uh a lot of discussion i think
hopefully we'll pick that up during uh continuing business as to just some of the comments and maybe where we want to discuss going i know we talked about in harmony the other night too for a little bit so just to sort of get a sense of where everybody wants to go um I'm
excited to announce that our scholar athletes should be at our next meeting in May 7th um Mr carabinus announced them last week so uh we're really proud of them but I will let him do that next week and announce our winners also we'll recognize our top 10 students from Belv
High School um so it's starting to get towards the end of the year and those awards are starting to come down so we're excited for our students um personally I'm excited that tomorrow myself Miss Ko and five other chaperons and about 40 students will be getting on the bus to head to JFK to fly to Greece
so um we'll be some of us will be there for six days some of us will be there for eight but uh looking forward to the trip so that'll be tomorrow we head out uh reminder May 7th is our budget presentation um we have spring break starting and last but not least um and
I'm going to let Mr bone jump in a little bit here um last Friday we had uh Mr carabinus uh and the staff put together a staff and student talent show uh at the uh elementary school and um I unfortunately was at the teacher of the
not unfortunately I was proud to be at the teacher of the year lunchon i didn't get a chance to see it but uh my understanding is Mr young Luca Lutz stole the show at the end and we have a little video clip of that we always like to recognize some of the great things that are going on so Mr bone why don't you take over uh yeah so thank you so
much i wanted to share um I asked if we could share this video it um is my mic mic is on yeah so my son um and his friends have been talking about this talent show my son is in sixth grade um since Friday came home super excited
about how wonderful this talent show was and they've been talking about it all weekend and this morning I was scouring through his phone and they had sent this um video and they were going back and forth about how awesome it was and I
watched the video and I thought it was a really great representation of our community and our what our staff is doing today and our students and how they're collaborating and our present day environment and where we want to go into the future so I asked if we could
share it at the meeting today let's play the piano [Applause] [Music] [Music]
that's [Music] enough [Applause] heat [Applause] heat heat
[Applause] heat heat heat [Applause] heat heat
[Applause] [Laughter]
[Applause] cute girl yeah i just thought that was just really nice to share how happy everybody is yeah it's my understanding if we ask real nice we can get the video of Mr carabina's pogo sticking to start off the event too oh I have to pay off for
that one i got money yeah that's my report okay we're on to correspondences any correspondence i'm going to read the correspondence tonight okay yeah dear members of the board of education
it is with mixed emotions I am writing to formally announce my retirement as superintendent of the Belvadier School District effective October 20 October 1st 2025 after careful consideration and reflection I made the decision to close this fulfilling chapter of my professional life 15 years ago almost to
the day I came to Belvadier for only my second time to interview for the position of high school principal even though I was actually 12 hours early that day for my 800 PM interview I knew that this would be an amazing place to be and soon after I started to serve as BHS principal serving the BH the Belvadier
community for the past 15 years as well as chief school administrator and three high school principal has been one of the true highlights of my career throughout this time I have witnessed the remarkable growth and resilience within our district and I cannot be more proud of what we have accomplished together we have faced many challenges
financial COVID major changes in technology and significant changes in the way students learn as a district we have worked through these challenges and as I leave there are still many that we face being an educational leader for two districts for the past 12 years has been rewarding and demanding at last count I
have worked with close to 60 different board members during that time and almost all been supportive and great to work with all of us have put the needs of the students first and I've always tried to do what's best for the students and community of Belvadier during that time I have also had the privilege of working with hundreds of dedicated
teaching staff members many have been here my entire time at Belvadier and others were students here where when I began before joining our staff this all also includes the countless coaches adviserss the custodial maintenance staff and the administrative assistants who ensure that our students have the
best educational experience i have also had the privilege of working with quite a few great administrators in my time from my first days with Mr swanvelt to today's team with Dr mckini Mr carabinus I am proud of the work we have done the tough decisions we have had to make while always remembering to put the best
interests of our students first without their support and hard work I could not have had such a successful career in Belvadier in addition I'd like to thank our central office team through my 12 years as superintendants i've always as superintendent I've always been able to count on Miss Chama Miss Amelia and Miss Chel finally I would like to thank my
family for being there to support me as well my two boys can't remember me working anywhere else but Belvadier and my daughter thinks of me only as a county cedar while this decision mark of my time with Belvadier I remain fully committed to committed to ensuring a smooth transition for my successor i am
prepared to assist the board in any way necessary during this process and will work diligently to maintain the district's momentum throughout the remainder of my term i wish the district nothing but good luck and hope for its success as it moves forward there are many challenges that remain for our small district but I know that the foundation of the district and community
is second to none and the Belvadier school district will continue to grow and prosper with Cedar Pride chris Karuba any other correspondents okay so before I call for a motion for executive session I have one more thing
to say um on behalf of myself and the Belvadier Board of Education I would like to thank Mr kruba for his many years of service and dedication to the Belvadier School District the staff the students and the families we congratulate you on your retirement and wish you well in the future we also look
forward to working together with you over the next six months as we strive to make this transition the best it can be we would also like to thank the staff students families and community for their understanding and patience throughout the administrative restructuring during the 2425 school
year as we begin as we begin the process of choosing a new superintendent we ask for your continued support as we work towards a smooth transition and a successful start to the upcoming 2526 school year now can I have a motion for
executive session for personnel and hib motion second all in favor i any nos any abstensions okay any discussion held by the board which need not remain confidential will be made public as soon as practicable minutes for the executive
session will not be disclosed until the need for confidentiality no longer exists the board will reconvene in public session at the conclusion of the closed session in approximately half hour half hour
okay you guys can please step out the back okay we are on to our first round of public participation this public participation is for agenda items only
and it's limited to 30 minutes 5 minutes per speaker does anybody have any public participation for agenda items no all right then we are going to move on to personnel items it's 1
through 10 we also have the additions it's 10 A B C and D on your papers does Can I have a motion for items 1 through 10 D motion
second any questions on any of those items no okay then when can we have roll call please mr blum mrs serbone yes dr zappith yes mrs
duckworth yes mrs stefen yes miss Walton yes mrs wer yes miss White yes mr cherelli yes miss Scardella yes and Mrs robbotham yes okay so we move on to education items
it's 1 through 17 with some additions can I have a motion on education items 11 through 17 motion second any questions on any of those
items no all in favor i any nos any abstensions no okay so that brings us on to business items 18 through 22 no
additions can I have a motion for business items 18 through 22 motion second any questions no all in favor i any nos any abstensions okay so that brings us to
continuing business does anyone have any continuing business i'll go through the normal list of continuing business um still no official word on the Third Street sale um I know that our architects sent another letter to the department um department of ed to try to
find out where we were with the process it had been over 60 days since they sent the init the initial letter so they were waiting to hear on that so hopefully that will uh kick a few tires we'll see where it goes um I did send out the email about the ad hoc committee for special ed i got a few responses i will
get back to everybody um once I get back from Greece on dates that following week or the following week to try to get that meeting up and running um Mrs mrs gardell I owe you some info on study halls that will push off until the curriculum next curriculum meeting and I don't know how you guys want to handle
discussion if any on regionalization now or wait till next meeting what does everybody feel does anybody have any questions about the regionalization meeting from last week that weren't answered or wanted
Did you receive a lot of questions from community or parents no other than what was said at the actual meeting no okay no feedback nope given that we have to wait for the the law the legislature update I say we
table it until we have that information and then see if it makes sense to pursue further okay any I mean I have some thoughts about the middle school but considering your retirement and shifting
some things around I'm not sure this is the right time to address it view on that one so I think just wait a year and see if we can get any information on the funding and then by then we'll have your replacement and we'll be in a better position to move forward um I do have a question about and I was wondering if you had an update on the
bathrooms so I know uh Robin brought that up last meeting um I I don't have one i'll have one for the next meeting i'm sorry any other continuing business as part of the bathroom update can we also get an update i noticed you know
we've had a number of expenditures for replacements that if we can talk about what's being done uh in terms of vandalism and how to minimize those costs and disruption to the
students any other continuing business um okay new business any new business i can start off about um I would like to thank MirV for having our students i know that was talked about um by our student representative
that they're going to be planning another trip there soon they also did a scone sale um to um benefit Project Graduation um they were delicious by the way if anybody has that again I highly recommend them they were great um when I
went to um pick everything up I had talked to one of the directors there who was so appreciative of our students and our staff and the time they spend there um she said it's so great to see the students there talking with um the
residents the residents enjoy it so much and she said the students are always so happy and so engaging and she thanked us so much for having the students there she said what a great time it is how many people look forward to it and they just really wanted they did the scone
sale because they really wanted to give back to some of our students for all the time they spend so that was really great to hear um and how polite our kids are going over there and the staff that brings them and stuff they're just very appreciative so I wanted to put that out
there um again to echo uh Mr kruba the play was fabulous um we enjoyed it and when I went what struck me so much was how many age groups of our students
first off are in the program the fact that um our director came back Miss Kerat thank you her so much um and Mrs weber for helping her with that that was great it was great to see so many of our kids involved in that but then to go beyond that so many of
our high school kids stepped up to help and be with those kids and interact and what a great like just age group from our high school kids down helping out with that program and it's just really great to see them interact um with the
younger and hopefully you know encourage them to continue so I'm excited to see the future of our program here at Belvadier with all the talent and lastly I wanted to talk to you guys about um we have talked about doing some more board training so it's been a little while
since we had our last one and I wanted to contact our um New Jersey school boards rep to set something up and I just want to get a feel for you guys what kind of next education would you want to do would you be interested in doing um like a workshop or you know
what everybody's feeling is before I contact her and I was thinking maybe we could do it like towards like after the end of the school year just because we're all going to be so busy you know with everything here and um you know getting on to our summer plans so I wanted to kind of set something up and
get a feel for that before we're all going our separate ways with stuff so if you guys you know you don't have to answer now if you have ideas great but just send me an email you know what you would like for board retreat or I would throw out a board retreat there's so many new board members that might be a
good idea so if if just everybody lets me know what kind of your preference is and then I can reach out to her and we'll set something up maybe we could do something with goals district goals we could do that all the board retreat yeah yeah that can just be thrown into it because it's perfect timing and
communication i know i Yep never know who can and who and what like a Okay great yeah any other new business i have something that probably should have been
old business or continuing business dawn's room do we got an update on that i'd like to incorporate that into our monthly board meetings yeah so we um make sure we met was that last week Judy last Wednesday um we're going to uh right when we get back from break we're going to visit a couple of the local um
districts that have uh life skills pro class just to get some ideas and then we're going to regroup and just start to plan out like as far as money and talking to some people about donations and things like that so we met last it was last Wednesday we're going to continue to do that every couple weeks you can just add that to your Yep yeah I give you that is there a timeline that
that all needs to be done by i mean we're hoping to have the classroom up and running as best we can for September okay so we'll see what kind of challenges we face and you know once we actually um and you know Mr kennedy was there and one of the things we talked about was all right we go to let's say I know Warren Hills has a good program let's look at theirs hey how long did it
take you to put this together give us some of the processes and the costs i could maybe get a scientist if you don't make it by this date you don't get the money well that that Yeah give you a nice deadline that wouldn't be terrible so but yeah we want we're as soon as we get back from break that's like one of
our high priorities but thank you um I just wanted to second what Melissa said about the elementary school play um one of the things that I love about it is that we do so much with so little like just the jellyfish with the umbrellas
phenomenal great idea was so creative and I think that just illustrates you know how I don't know it's so important to be able to learn to do things with what you have and we do a really really great job of doing that here um and it came across
perfectly and it was just uh wonderful so any other new business oh not maybe not new but do we have an update with that JCPNL [Laughter]
you don't want to hear this the finance committee met tonight on that and we had a quick Zoom with um the consulting company that put it all together because even though we started this project in
June of 2024 with all of our applications and we have been waiting for our notice to proceed to come what we got most recently at the beginning of April is that JCPNL now does not think that they are going to support the
program they think that Elizabeth Town Gas Gas should with another tier of this grant so um there's more what the consultant asked is if it's if the board committee was okay with pushing back on JCPL that
that is just not fair okay um and he actually thinks that that may work a bit so we are going to be drafting a letter to push back on them even to go to the board of public utilities that you know we've gone through every step of this
entire program since June of 2024 and to start over with Elizabeth Town Gath when when their program isn't even up and running yet is not in good faith so that's the committee supported that and that's what we will be pursuing next
okay how does that impact the budget for the new year does it at all or there's absolutely impact if we don't get this project going forward so that's what we'll be pushing on any other new business all right i
asked I have a question uh playground grant have not heard anything okay any more no okay so this takes us to our next public participation again limited
to 30 minutes five minutes per speaker does anybody have public participation hi my name is Vicki Davenport we've all seen me before um I did want to ask a few things which I know you guys can't actually answer but just food for
thought can you talk closer to the I'm sorry I can hardly hear you i'm sorry i'm not a very loud person and you're not my It's perfect it's perfect all right um I just wanted to say a few things and some food for thought i know I can't like actually ask expect you
guys to answer a question um so Blairtown just had a autism and special needs resource fair which I believe is part of the special needs parent advocacy group for the school district it would kind of be really nice if we could have one of those here for our
students as well it had a lot of great things where ABA therapy and OT PT and other therapies that would benefit kids with special needs um the other thing I I need some rework for the
IEP i'm not sure who to go to anymore because now everything's even more confusing got it um have you guys started deciding like taken steps or started the discussion for the new head of CST i know her seat
isn't cold yet but I'd like to be proactive [Music] uh that's it oh and whoever is doing the group for the investigation for the special needs kids I'd really like to talk to you i'm
not sure which one of you that it is but if I could um I gave somebody my info if you guys could just Thank you any other public participation
is this good take your phone hello my name is Matthew Smith and I am a student and senior at Belvier High School i have been at Belvier High School since my freshman year and my favorite part of going to school is seeing my English teacher Ms mchugh i can say with no doubt in my mind without
M mchugh i would have hated my high school experience she has been my safe space for me and many students and she has always been there for anybody in need whether you need somebody to talk to help with schoolwork or advice on anything Ms mchugh is always there to
listen and help in my four years of attending Belg High School I can say that my teacher Miss McHugh has made every day better and helped me become a better person i also have a letter written on behalf of Mea Farber hello to any staff students or
parents listening my name is Mea Farber and I am currently a senior at Belvier High School i am unfortunately at work during this moment and that is why I'm writing this because I want my opinion to be spoken at this meeting ms mchugh is one of the many amazing teachers at
this school and has taught here for many years she is very caring respectful and understanding teacher she is also a great mother as her two daughters are in the high school as well if the meeting has anything to do with the Facebook post about her then this is my letter saying I am defending her the drawer was
a confiscation drawer that she kept for proof for the school if a child/ student needed punishment proof for drawing any one of the following photos she has no longer has any of the contents in the drawer i personally believe this is just a big fuss for no
reason as the video posted was taken over a year ago and the drawer no longer has the contents i will say straight up that whoever posted the video is just a sensitive parent who should be worrying about the bigger problems in the school district excuse me one second i
interrupt for one second i stopped the clock want you to understand that um board you're reading part of your but the board will not be able to comment or respond that is fine that's
fine all right the video is just a sensitive parent oh sorry i will say straight up that whoever posted the video is just a sensitive parent who should be worrying about the bigger problems in the school district one of the moms Katie Pringle is one of them and she has no business
talking about the high school as she doesn't have stop you again want to warn you and I but if you make any comments about it person whoever that may be your public
could subject you defamation i'm fine with that say something about it i'm fine with I would caution you perhaps not to use me thank you um this lady should not have a say with
anything involving the high school she is accusing Miss McHugh as a groomer completely using that term in the wrong way ms mchugh is not a groomer in the slightest as she is a sweet and welcoming teacher students enjoy her room as it is a safe space for us back
and back to the drawer ms mchugh has ADHD so I can understand why the drawer was emptied as she mo mostly forgot it even existed if you know any teacher they function their desk in their own way i would also like to mention a substitute
teacher should not be going through a teacher's desk while filming if they need to grab something that is understandable but there is no reason to be digging through the drawers just because I know many students who are backing me up on this and as well as Ms
mchugh if the staff could take into consideration the actual student side who know her and not these sensitive parents that would be greatly appreciated thank you for your time and listening thank you other part public participation
Good evening members of the board of education fellow parents concerned community members my name is Shiloh Mate and I stand before you not only as a proud alumni of this school but as a deeply concerned parent of two children currently enrolled in the district i never imagined that I would have to
stand here and demand something as basic as accountability and decency in our classrooms yet here we are faced with a deep deeply troubling situation that cannot be ignored recently I have been made aware that inappropriate and unacceptable materials have been discovered in a teacher's desk
drawer containing drawings and clay figures of male genitalia items that have absolutely no place in a school setting let alone in position of an edi ed educator entrusted with our children to make matters worse I have also learned that this same teacher while
acting as yearbook liaison managed to sneak in an inappropriate image of male genitalia sorry into a past yearbook page 113 to be exact this is something that went unnoticed at the time but is now part of a disturbing pattern of
behavior our school should be a place of learning safety and respect not a place where students are exposed to anything that contradicts the ethical and professional standards we expect from our educators this is not a matter to be swept under the rug it is not something
to be excused or overlooked we demand a full transparent investigation into this matter we demand that the proper consequences be enforced not simply just removal of said drawer but real accountability the actions of any teacher do not affect just one classroom
they affect the integrity of our entire district the reputation of our schools and most importantly the well-being of our children the Belvadier School District name is in the news and on social media for the wrong reasons i ask this board what message are we sending
if we allow this to go unanswered if we do not act we tell our students that inappropriate behavior has no real consequences we tell parents that our concerns do not matter and we tell our community that our standards for education and professional professionalism are
negotiable that is unacceptable and I along with many other parents here tonight will not stand for it we entrust our children to this district every day with the expectation that they are in good hands safe hands that trust has been broken and it must be repaired and the only way to do that is with action i
urge you to take this matter seriously i urge you to show us that you value our children's education and safety as much as we do and I urge you to ensure those that who violate that trust face the proper consequences thank you
um I've seen some of the faces before in here this is not the first time I've spoken on the board and yeah of course no I'm going to so my name is Relic Little i am an alumni at this school i graduated in 2023 and the yearbook under question is
actually the yearbook that is my year um to speak about that I know that the yearbook was definitely under strain and it was mostly studentrun so forcing all of the expectation on Miss McHugh is slightly unfair since it was extremely rushed but regardless of that
information the individual that is accusing Miss McHugh I've heard personal experiences about that person inside of the school building and there has been multiple times where she has harassed and yelled at students and that has been swept underneath the rug if we're going to talk about the safety of students as
well as the former friends that I have that still go to the school then justice needs to be done for both of them not just Miss McHugh it is unfair to put her inside of this chopping block inside of this situation where as well as many others this is not the first time that
she has been on said chopping block it is unfair to throw her underneath the bus when this educator as a substitute teacher has done if not worse things to other students and not only I'm not the only person that has experienced this of
course I'm going to try and keep it quick and brief of course I don't have a paper in front of me but I have heard stories and there has been people that have been hurt multiple times by this same person if we're all going to sit here and turn a blind eye to her then we
must turn a blind eye to Miss McHugh as well because clearly she was doing this under the right intention of confiscating students items and students objects as a job as an educator to protect our students it was her right to confisate things and when everybody
hired her as a board of education to come together and allow her to teach here one she is an incredible teacher but regardless of that fact it is her job it is her sworn duty to protect everybody that is inside of this room and their children and as alumni our
children to come it is unfair to treat her with such rude and heinous words not only online which I just realized has happened but also inside of the school building that is absolutely ridiculous to say the least i am a person who is
very passionate who is very well spoken and has done this before and to see all of these people out here to support her that means something we have shown up time and time again to watch our teachers be disrespected and defamed
every single year i have heard teachers I have heard their stories i have heard their pain it is unfair especially to watch her children be here and stand up for her mom somebody that we care about these people have families these people
have lives and I am not one to crap on somebody for no reason but it is unfair to treat somebody that disrespectfully over her doing her job i think we can all realize inside of this room as some people have been
teachers or who have students going here it is their job to make sure the students are safe not a single teacher that goes here has no ill will towards
any of us i have heard time and time again where teachers have admitted that they would lay themselves on the line especially in the American climate that we live in to sacrifice themselves for said children to sacrifice themselves for their students and their kids that
actually go to this building to sit here and act like her actions are somehow unjustifiable is honestly hellacious at best it amazes me that I have to sit
here and come back 2 years later to defend a teacher that I deeply cared about who made me make it through sophomore year of high school and now I'm looking at her kids at our families at people who struggle with ADHD as do I
and be made fun of online and on the news and everywhere else and we are going to sit here and turn a blind eye to our substitutes because of that honestly it's time for y'all to wake up seriously this has gone on for far too
long and this is not right and that is just blatantly obvious thank you for your time and I hope you all have a good night thank you any other public participation uh hello my name is Sand Gandh from
White Township District um first of all I want to congratulate Mr krue on your retirement um and I appreciate you calling my husband today i'm really happy with that thank you very much this is a long time coming
that I'm speaking out i'll really try to stay within five minutes i'm going to have to read this hopefully I can hold it together um first I want to say this is not a dig to any special education teacher they have been great nor a dig to administration it's more specific to
the special education department i had to finally come forward after hearing and I'll try not to use names the director of special ed speak at the December 11th board meeting that all IEPs are being followed all our years at this district our son's IEP has not been fully followed um teachers do a great
job providing some things but special ed has been remissed in ensuring other things are implemented and I can only imagine it's been difficult for the teachers as well in 2018 we moved our son to another placement due to IEP not being followed in 2021 with the promise
of the director of special ed to provide everything he was currently receiving we agreed to mainstream him back it was clear to us after the first month there was no intention of providing even close to what he was receiving at his other placement or to follow the IEP for four
years my husband and I have tried desperately to get our concerns heard and the treatment we have received from the director and her staff from going to Mr thompson for two years while at White where he would then have to ensure the follow-through of the IP from March to June to reaching out to Warren County special ed department speaking with
Lamont and Flynn Moren Kho advocacy from NJ include Lisa Marshall of Warren County special child services span abilities DDD perform care even at the request of Mr thompson we got a New Jersey state representative to come in and attend a IEP meeting on 8th
grade um I expressed our concerns to Dr mckini in 9th grade and then I also spoke at the board meeting last June July that our IEP was not um hadn't even received it as IEP a completed IEP and in August
Stephen and I met with Mr krue regarding the intimidation and bully style treatment we've received from that director most people we spoke to have told us they have heard the same thing and the only advice they can give us was to move away um that they've heard the same thing about Belvadier we do not
have a good reputation when it comes to special ed the reason we have never come to the board before this was we were also told that it isn't the forum to discuss concerns over special education we were in fear of retribution towards our son and mostly it kills me to speak here tonight because the trust that I
built with my son never talking about his business um I'm violating that tonight by coming here and talking about you know his IP so that's really the reason I've never come here before um but the experience it has affected our family in ways you
can't imagine it has affected me financially emotionally physically i go to bed each night sick to my stomach and I wake up every morning sick to my stomach our weekends and summers are all based around tutors and academic camps to get our son from drowning and to provide him the learning loss that has been obvious since moving him back to
district math in particular the entire IEP process is severely broken um from us never having a working document to go by at our annual IEP meetings to not having measurements data goals not met progress reports have little to no information and in many cases have false
information case managers have taken things out added or changed items on the IP without ever discussing with us or the team and we know within 15 days no matter what it goes into effect and even though we've disagreed or have reached out we either don't get a response back
or um we're told that's you know it's just going to go into effect that's the way it is go to due process i will not go through the entire IP document and list out everything that is not being done however I think by me giving you these examples of what has transpired through the last four years and what was told to us by the specialed
team will give you a pretty good idea as to what we have endured in the lack of concern or any interest that we are at an IEP meeting on behalf of our son's best interests soon after we mainstreamed them back in 2021 the director of Huntington Learning from Bridgewwater attended our IEP meeting
she and his other school have worked hard with supports one-on-one and us paying close to $30,000 in tutor costs to get Jaden up to almost grade level math reading and writing she asked the team if they could work with her collaboratively to keep Jaden on track and progressing she
was told "No we will not work with tutors and if the parents are privileged enough to be able to send him to tutors then you can they can continue to do that and we'll do what we do." His sending district provided white with the goals that should be added to the IP and they were told no they will not add them we asked for writing goals and was told
no parents do not dictate the curriculum we asked for compensatory services during CO and was told no he also did not receive OT a behavior modification plan for two FBAs that were done goals were not met progress reports had false information and he regressed in reading
writing and math your time's up so please try to finish up at every meeting we also brought up the state goals the LinkedIn scores where support strong supports were needed at our eighth grade IEP meeting um we had concerns about the academics
reading writing and math we were also told if we could add OT into his IEP we were told Mrs gond don't worry um I'm sorry when we asked about the OT's being added we were told if he
hasn't learned um the strategies by now he never will um when we told them that he's literally still on fifth sixth grade level learning we were told Mrs gond don't worry we have graduated other students on sixth grade level
before um I'll try to skip over some of these things we asked if we can get his hard copy entrance exam at Btech because he doesn't do well on it's on his IEP to give a hard copy test we were told no that they won't do it but that's not true they did do it when I called Votech they said our team never reached out to
them i'll just I'll for fast forward because I know you were at the last IEP meeting we had in February uh 9th grade he had his reevaluations done they were worse than they were three years ago we brought it up in a in a meeting and we were told if we're not happy with what we're doing now we'll put him in an MD
class not what we were asking we just wanted more supports currently right now we have in his IEP um more supports another one-on-one for his math class and also counseling we're told counseling is being done we know it's not being done on the progress reports
it states it's being done and it's not thanks to Mr krue we're finally getting that added help in math um but we had our February 18th IEP meeting and um had to hire an attorney after we had an advocate the advocate told us clearly
they're threw their line in the sand we have to get an attorney got an attorney just so we could get the IEP followed with math and counseling um at that time it got contentious my husband got hostile this be I won't say her name um
my husband asked the director of special ed why the IP wasn't being followed and she said she can't speak to that because she was not included in the meetings nor agreed to it but at that time she did not feel it was necessary even though the CMO counselor the math teacher um
and the attorney felt it was definitely needed and she still refused to follow the IEP our attorney asked the district attorney what he felt and he as well agreed with the director and said it's not needed so that brings us to here um
it's April our IEP still hasn't been fully followed again the progress reports are invalid and we're going to start at school again in the fall with no IEP that's working for him no transition plan we were told they're not legally obligated to provide one so I'm
very concerned he's only in 11th grade he's 16 we have no transition plan and I don't know where we go from here so thank you for you know interrupting me that I don't have a lot of time left and uh I appreciate this i want to thank the teachers the teachers have been awesome if it weren't for Miss Black and Miss
Kimble he probably wouldn't be as successful as he is today so thank you for your time thank you could you send your information to Mr kuba so he could share with us so we could see the rest of what you had to say thank you dear parents staff and students of
Belvador High School my name is Ricky and I am a part of the graduating class of 20 and is a student at Belvader High School in Houston now you may have heard some of the issues that have been circulating or have been keeping up i am here to voice my opinion about these
issues miss McHugh is one of many great teachers within Ardu School District she has worked here for many years she is caring responsible respectful and understanding when it comes to her students miss McHugh makes sure all her students are taught the proper material
and offers assistance when need be i am acquaintance acquaintances with her students that do attend Belvadier High School i am here to voice my opinions on the Facebook posts and and comments that were made within the drawer aka the
inappropriate images that were made um these drawings were made by either previous students or graduate like graduated students or current students that attend this drawer was made to keep the drawings in order to punish the students and keep as proof although I do
understand where the parents are coming from however I do not appreciate the backlash he's been receiving on the internet specifically Facebook the drawer has no longer holds these inappropriate images as it has been cleared out the video that has been posted online containing the contents was taken over a year ago which does not
make sense to me why it's being talked about now it should have talked been talked about previously the parent who is speaking about this issue also has been accusing Miss McHugh of being a quote unquote groomer now I will forever stand by this i disagree i
disagree the groomer is a term that is used and is the action and behavior of trying to gain a emotional connection with a v vulnerable individual miss McHugh is not a groomer i hate that word being tossed around
without really knowing definition everyone tosses it around like it's candy thinking "Oh this is this this is that." No miss McHugh has done nothing but do her job as an employee in this district many students including myself
enjoy her company and appreciate her she has done nothing but try to embrace herself as a person without a care of what others say about her or think about her i truly cannot thank her enough for all that she has done for her students and myself i will defend her through the
time that is spent here i will spend I will stand by her through thick and thin miss McHugh is my English teacher and a teacher of many i will stand by her and appreciate her i will stand by her and defend her as my time slowly comes to an end at this district miss McHugh is a
quote unquote safe person as she offers assistance as with anything her students may ask of her she offers her room to students when they need someplace to go and to debrief miss McHugh is there for anyone and everyone if one needs someone to talk to or to have someone be there for
them it sickens me to see as others look past the good and focus on the bad throwing terrible terms around and destroying one's reputation without proper proof i would like the school to focus more on major issues in the district such as the
mice issue destruction of school property and illegal activities as a under as for example underage smoking on school property these issues are more important than inappropriate drawings that were drawn by either previous graduates or current students that attend here there are major issues to
focus on and to not be overlooked please consider my words i want nothing more than the best for this district for the students and staff thank you for your time thank you [Applause] joseph Barnes i'm a parent of two
students currently enrolled here in uh Belvadier um I want to start by saying that I am completely appalled at the situation that I've been aware of made aware of over the past several days and furthermore I'm appalled at the childish immature and unwarranted actions of the parents of this community and how they
quickly accuse condemn and slander vilify and subject to defamation on one of our own school teachers Mrs samchu um she has been a safe haven for the students of this school um that have been ostracized singled out bullied and in some cases abused she has shown
compassion understanding and acceptance to everyone that has come through her class the accusations on the internet of the small group of people that are attacking her makes me sick i look around the school and I think back to every back to school night every back
teacher parent conference night and every on sporting event theater event and I see faces that I don't normally see it also brings me back to the day I met Sam McHugh on my first uh night here when my son became a freshman and I was
meeting his teachers to become an active and involved parent and I took solace knowing that my student was my son was going to be part of a school where someone is going to be caring and understanding and accepting of him and somebody that was going to think of him as more than just another grade another
test and another day closer to her pension okay samchu has been an empathetic and sympathetic person to every student whether they are her student or not whether they are attending her classes or not whether they are enrolled in her current
curriculum they come to her because she is a safe place for them to be themselves as for these accusations of the yearbook photos that have been submitted again that is a very old photo why was it not brought up previously and to my understanding how many other
people assisted with the the assembly of that yearbook i don't think there were any like you said it was studentr run and without Sam McHugh I'm confident that that yearbook would have been nothing more than pictures of staff and students and that's it she alone was
able to get them to meet their deadlines and submit that they had a yearbook that they could me memorialize their time here at Belvadier furthermore these cowardly keyboard crusaders and their name calling and internet are focusing on a slight
overlook because it suits their agenda i find it very disheartening that our small rural community can turn on each other and attack people without having them uh or even giving them a chance to explain themselves the actions of this small group of outspoken overreacting individuals that have threatened the livelihood of Sam McHugh and her family
makes me weep that there where we have gone to from a caring community that we once were furthermore uh they have also resulted to immature name calling and bullying of the children of student and uh the stu children and students that frequent her class calling them misfits calling them
degenerates saying that they are being groomed which is disgusting and outrageous accusation these are children that are becoming young adults and seek nothing more than acceptance which they find only in the school and her classroom not amongst their peers and not amongst the remaining staff this
group is nitpicking on an event of a minute detail of the classroom that of of every minute detail of the classroom and how it's decorated how it is lit these people are being petty and childish the children learn more in a in a environment where they feel
comfortable and we all know that there are published studies about the effects of fluorescent light and the way that it can affect people's eyes especially when it comes to reading so if you're teaching an English class and you are subjecting people to fluorescent lights you are already hindering them from their ability to learn my children have had several
interactions as they have gone through her class over the years and they have had every one of them was positive when it comes to Sam McHugh and the way she treats her students oftentimes men mentoring them helping them get caught up on past due work because they have not been able to complete it for whatever reason um and should the board
entertain these outlandish requests of terminating her employment it would be a huge loss to the community of Belvadier and the students that attend the school thank you very much thank you any other public participation this This will be the last one this will be our sprinkle i'm the one with the
dick drawer pictures videos i was sent it i'm appalled i don't know her i don't care it's not okay it's in the yearbook it's not justifiable to me whatever i am here about my daughter and the mismanagement of this administration my
daughter has been assaulted she's in third grade she's been assaulted by the same boy three times the most recent time we file police reports every time but the most recent time the police came to the school found it on the video camera whatever i'm messaging administration Carabinus is nowhere to
be found he has an Oh sorry Mr as I said before he's saying okay the principal our principal never got back to me like I didn't exist like my daughter didn't get hurt no followup the only email I received was from Mr karuba telling me
he received my email that's it period end of story i received it thanks um and then I have Miss Tierney messaging me saying she's now handling code of conduct i would love to know why Miss Tierney or sorry the guidance counselor for the elementary school is handling
code of conduct issues that's not her job she's not getting paid for that the principal gets paid 150,000 plus for that and he's dodging his job completely the It's disgusting okay okay you're not saying the name but
you're identifying the position so can I can't say guidance counselor who do I say i just want I pause the timer i just want you to know also as I said earlier that the board will not be Oh no i know the board won't but I just want you to know who I'm talking about when I say that somebody else is handling code of
conduct that is not the principal when it's the principal's job or the superintendent's job it is not this other person who was dealing with it and this is something that I am finding this is something that many other parents are finding because I'm talking to them and it's crazy and very common and I think
it's disgusting and I think the whole school needs to be investigated and I've started a petition with over 200 signatures to have our school investigated by the state of New Jersey and I know you don't care that's fine you can go retire and pretend like you that's your thing but that's all I got to say have a nice day
well that'll end our public participation because our 30 minutes is up okay so we are looking I need a motion to go into our second executive session um for
personnel can I have a motion for executive session please motion second all in favor i any nos any abstensions okay any discussion held by the board which need not remain confidential will be made public as soon
as practical minutes of the executive session will not be disclosed until the need for confidentiality no longer exists the board will reconvene in public session at the conclusion of the close session in
approximately be a while 45 minutes no we won't be taking action right there will be no action taken when we come back um from executive session okay thank you very much i did I did that