Okay. Good evening everyone and welcome to the Caldwell West Calwell Board of Education public conference meeting tonight, Monday, November 10th, 2025. The purpose of this meeting um is to discuss Let's go back. So sorry everyone. The board met in executive session tonight at 6 o'clock p.m. in
room 105 here at James Cwell High School, 265 Westville Avenue. The purpose of that meeting was to discuss personnel litigation, miscellaneous, and old business matters. That meeting has been advertised and is in compliance with the Open Public Meeting Act and NJSA 10:4-6, also known as the Sunshine
Law. The matters discussed will be made public when confidentiality is no longer required, and formal action pursuant to said discussion shall take place only at a meeting to which the public has been invited. Tonight, the public conference meeting is taking place at 7:02 p.m. here in the James Cowell High School cafeteria. The board of education
meeting is being streamed live, but all community questions and comments will be welcomed here in person only. The Caldwell West Coal Board of Education public conference meeting is also in compliance with the open public meeting act and NJSA 10 colon 4-6 also known as the sunshine law. Notices have been sent
to the progress in Caldwell, New Jersey, the Star Ledger Newark, New Jersey, and TAP into West Essex. Notices have also been posted at the Board of Education business office located in the Harrison School Building, Grey Street, West Caldwell, and have been delivered to the clerks of the Burrow of Caldwell and the Township of West Caldwell for posting.
Dr. Fenari, can you please take the role? >> I will. Thank you. Okay. Uh, student representative Angie Parat >> here. >> Mrs. D. Martini Greenley >> here. >> Mrs. Landie Jefferson >> here. >> Mrs. Mack >> here.
>> Mr. Jambola >> here. Mrs. Groso >> here. All present. We have a quorum. >> Yay. And do you want to lead us in pledge of allegiance? Everyone, please rise. >> 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. >> Dr. Fenar, are there any communications for the board? >> No, not this evening. Okay. So, we're going to pass it on to you for the superintendent report.
>> Okay. So, we have several items on our superintendence report this evening. Good evening, everyone. Uh the first group I'd like to invite up are our middle school students who are here to give us an update on Gropa Middle School activities.
Hi, thank you Dr. Fenari and the board of education for inviting us to speak tonight. I'm Avery Pissy and I'm representing representing the House of Knowledge. >> Good evening. I'm Ava Durkin from the House of Respect. We had a busy month at
GCMS and are now wrapping up the first marking period on Tuesday. We started off the month with an ultimate football tournament. People from the houses competed against each other. The house that won was the house of responsibility. The house that came in second was citizenship.
The week leading up to Halloween, the whole school participated in a spirit week. We dressed up as Adam Sandler, participated in Twin Day, PJ Day, Rhyme Without a Reason, and on the last day, it was to wear your costume to school.
On Halloween, we had a Jacko'Lantern contest where everyone drew pumpkins and house leaders taped it around the school. Students had to find the wanted jacks throughout the day. If you found the pumpkin, you would win the contest and get points for your house.
GCMS GCMS is currently hosting a food drive for Thanksgiving. Kids should bring pasta, rice, and salad dressing. We are also competing completing NJSLA adaptive testing on Wednesday and Thursday this week this
week and will have a special bell schedule on those days. Today, GCMS held a Veterans Day assembly honoring former GCMS alumni who have or are serving in our military. McKenzie
Courtright, Matt O'Harn, and Brian Bergen all came back and shared some inspirational words with us. We had we thanked them all for taking the time to visit us and for their service to our country. The band, chorus, and orchestra are also
were also a part of the Veterans Day assembly. They they accompanied the presentation presentation with specially selected musical pieces to honor our country and our veterans. Courage is currently currently in the
lead with 619 points. Citizenship is in second place with 567 points and responsibility is in third with 397 points. My favorite part about being a house leader is seeing how everyone participates and seeing how people bond
over house days. I like playing games and refing and I'm excited to make more memories on house day. >> My favorite part of being a house leader is running all the games on house days and seeing all the people in my house have fun. Thank you again, Dr. Farenari and
members of the board of education for your time. Do you have any questions? >> Any questions from the board? >> I took my question because I always ask what your favorite part is. Um, so instead I'm going to switch up a little bit. Just ask what was your favorite part of um the veterans assembly today.
Um, my favorite part was probably the like the inspirational words from them and seeing how like they both they all like went to GCMS >> and had like were in our shoes one time
so they know. >> Yeah. I also like how they all went to GCMS and I also like the singing part and like the band and orchestra. >> They did an incredible job today. Great. That was Those were really special. Yeah. >> Great.
>> Oh, we give everybody a round of applause. Good job, girls. >> You want to take a picture? You want us to take a picture? We'll take a quick picture. Okay, let's take a quick picture. Okay. >> Okay. So, next under our superintendence
report, I'd like to invite um Eagle Scout Mitchell Courtright to come on up and share his project with us. Okay. We have a present. We have >> Oh, yeah. I want to see. Okay. >> Yeah.
>> Swivel chairs. Oh, here we go. Right here. Here we go. >> Hello. >> Can we hear you? Good. You're good, Mitchell. >> All right. Hello. So, I'm Mitchell Courtright, a sophomore at uh JCHS and an Eagle Scout from Troop 6. Um, that is
my Eagle Scout project right up there. Uh, it's a it's a path by at Lincoln Elementary School that goes along the side of the parking lot about 100 ft long, 3 ft wide. Um, I found this project idea from emailing the principal
of Lincoln Elementary School, Mr. Gayer. uh he gave me this idea um and I thought it was really good so I decided to do it. Um I decided Lincoln school because that's the elementary school I went to and I wanted to give back to it.
So um here's some uh pictures of the very beginning of the project. We were digging down about 4 in deep. Um definitely a lot of hard work there. >> Yeah. Uh we used wheelbarrows to wheel out all the excess dirt. And then we
placed uh crushed rocks and stone dust um in the hole we created, packed it down as you can see in the bottom left corner. And we placed about 50 stepping stones uh that go all the way down. Uh
after that we placed mulch, had to spread it out and everything. Um, we had extra money, so we decided to also put uh flowers along the side. >> So, here's the before and after pictures of the path.
>> It was about 150 hours over two days with 29 people working on it. >> Wow. So Mitchell, who who helped you with it? Like who were the people that like assisted you like with the physical labor? Because we saw some other students it looked like in there. >> Uh yeah, some of my close friends helped
and a lot of members from the troop and other uh friends I have from scouting. >> Great. >> And then isn't it that I mean we learned this right going to the the Eagle Scout presentations you have like a a troop leader that's like your mentor on it, right? So, who was your Is that right?
Am I being Am I saying that right, Jean? >> The Eagle coordinator? >> Yeah, like who was your coordinator? >> Um, most I we didn't really have an Eagle coordinator for me. Um, it was kind of just the work of uh two people. Um, Mr. Court, right, my dad in the back
and so cute. >> And, uh, Mr. Brown. >> Oh, that's really nice. Oh my gosh, that's great. >> Oh. Um, there's also two people that really help with my project, both the planning and with getting the materials.
Uh, Mr. Mackin and Mr. Hos. >> Um, they're two landscapers. >> That's amazing. That's amazing. >> Do you fund raise for the funding for this or? >> Uh, yes, I did do fundraising. >> And what did you do to fund raise, Mitchell?
>> I did a GoFundMe. >> Great. So Mitchell, one of the other things I was curious about, I saw you down there with the with the line and the tape measure and and all of that. So of the u pre-planning for this, how long did it take you to actually map out your design
before you did your initial dig? >> Uh probably about at least 20 hours. >> Okay. Wow. >> It took a long time. >> Yeah. Yeah. Because it's beautiful. It's really very beautiful. >> That's amazing. >> Any other questions?
Thank you for getting back to the district. It's gorgeous. It's amazing. It's so beautiful. I'm sure Mr. Gar is so appreciative of it. And um we're so proud of you. This is really outstanding. I mean, I know that like Danielle, Terry, and I had the great privilege of going to one of the Eagle
Scout ceremonies last year. I was so sad that we missed you on Sunday. I'm so sorry we didn't, but I'm glad you're here so we can celebrate you. Um, but it really is like it's so you're a very remarkable person and I know you have a lot of struggles and what you go through on a daily basis with your and I just
have to say I'm so proud of you. You are a role model for your peers, for the district and yeah, just wonderful. Just so amazing. Can we take a picture? >> Yeah. Yes. >> Can we take a picture with you?
So, one thing before we we're gonna um we have a certificate for you, Mitchell, but um Mr. McCarthy, who's not here tonight, is gonna we're going to need to take it back after we take our picture so that he can sign it and then we will get this to you. Okay, Mitchell, thank you so much. Um,
the last part of my superintendence report this evening is uh just a really quick reporting of our second half of the school year. Um the uh we have a report that we submit twice a year to the New Jersey Department of Education
and it's our instances of violence, vandalism, harassment, intimidation and or bullying report. Um so I just have some highlevel numbers. You may recall that at our last meeting I gave uh the
board some information about um our self assessment for HIV, the self-grading report. And this is actually summitive data from the prior year from January 1st of 2025 through June 19th of 2025.
The categories include uh incidents of violence or vandalism and other incidents leading to removal, HIV confirmed, HIV alleged and so um and also H uh training sessions that have to
do with violence and vandalism and and HIV. So, um, at the secondary level, we had, um, 42 instances in the second half of the year at James Cowell High School. We had 18 instances at Grover Cleveland
Middle School. Um, when it comes to HIV at the secondary level, there were two confirmed cases in the second half of the school year. There were three alleged cases of HIV for the second half of the school year. At the middle school, there were five confirmed cases of HIV uh for the second half of the
year and eight alleged at the second half of the school year. For the elementary schools, uh we had none at Jefferson Elementary. Lincoln Elementary, we had five instances of violence or vandalism and other instances leading to removal and two
alleged HIV instances. At Washington, we had one instance of violence, vandalism, or other instances leading to removal, one confirmed HIV, and one alleged HIV. The other two schools, Wilson and Harrison, had none in any of those categories. District trainings, we had
two in the second portion of the school year. And um those rather than have them at each of the schools, we held district trainings. Um so that's the the obligation is just to share those numbers with you and um as those uh
the data is being collected currently for this year's reporting and so mid year I'll be able to share September through January. >> Okay. >> Okay. Or September through December really. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> All right. >> Okay.
Dr. Fari. Anything else? here that you're done for tonight. >> I think the only thing I have to say is, you know, I had the opportunity to attend the Veterans Day ceremony this morning and um I told the coral instructor, I said the chorus made me cry. They did a beautiful piece that uh
about being thankful for the service of our veterans and it really was stunning and um shout out to the instrumentalists. They did a great job too. And the interesting thing now you most of you know I was a music teacher and um I play about six instruments. I
was a vocalist by profession as well as doing this kind of work. And um and just to hear that the uh the orchestra students >> created the arrangement of America the Beautiful that they played today >> was and it was wonderful. You know, we
have really talented, creative staff and students in our district and just thank you to all of them and and really thank you for the service of all of our veterans, those that were honored today and those that that are out there who have served and are serving.
>> Great. Thank you, Dr. Fenari. >> Um, for the president's report, again, I just want to piggyback on what Dr. Fenari said. I know we have a service person in our midst. So really just want to say thank you. Happy Veterans Day.
>> Thank you to you and to all the veterans who serve our country. We are grateful to you for the blanket of freedom that you provide for all of us each and every day for your service, for your sacrifice. So may God bless and keep you and um we thank you. We thank you
especially being a young person and doing this by choice. It really is such a symbolism of your courage. It really is and your patriotism and we are grateful for you. So, we're we're blessed that you're part of our community and for all veterans out there. I'm sad that Andy and Meline are
not here. I know Andy is a veteran as well. So, to you, to Andy, to all of our veterans who serve, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Um and then finally, also just for anybody who wasn't or doesn't go to Jefferson School, but we did welcome in a new principal. Um,
Jasmine Akawala will be the new principal of Jefferson School and she begins in January. So, we're excited to welcome her and we will be uh paying tribute to Mr. Ays in the December >> December meeting. >> December meeting. So, welcome. If Miss Squal is watching, we're excited for you
to come and welcome. Um, that being said, this is not a voting meeting. Okay? So, we're just I'm just going to peruse the agenda. We are going to vote on one HIV. Uh, but that's about it. So, um, let's just look through. We have no committee reports this week. We'll
approve minutes next week. Um, looking at the agenda right now, I'll open up public comment for the agenda items only. If anyone sees anything they'd like to question Dr. Fenar on, public participation shall be governed by the following. Participant must be recognized by the presiding officer and must preface comments by an announcement
of their name and address. Statements are to be limited to three minutes duration. Participant may speak no more than once on the same topic until all others who wish to speak on that topic have been heard. All statements shall be directed to the presiding officer. Boards use the public comment period of the meeting as an opportunity to listen
to citizen concerns, but not to debate issues or enter into a question and answer session or a cross-examination between the public and individual members. Be aware that not all issues brought before the board will be resolved this evening. Boards may respond to public comment by seeking additional information or by delegating
the authority to investigate the issue to the superintendent or her designate. The presiding officer may interrupt, warrant, and or terminate a participant's comments if they exceed the allotted time or are objectively obscene. Participants may be civily liable for any obscene, defamatory, or slander statements made during public
comment. That being said, does anyone have anything they'd like to question on the agenda this evening? Okay. All right. All right. So, moving on, we have curriculum and technology um enrollment report. We've had four, five new enrollments. Um to date, we have
some community- based instruction, some field trips, um some continuing education courses, out of district placements, and then we have our um HIV, which we'll move right now. Terry, let's move that
>> upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools motion to approve items A under curriculum and technology on this evening's agenda. >> And can I have a second? >> I'll second. >> Okay. And then Dr. Fernari, whenever you're ready. >> Okay.
Right. Um, Mrs. D. Martini Greenley. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Landie Jefferson. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Mack. >> Yes. >> Mr. Danola. Yes, >> Mrs. Groso. >> I'm going to abstain. I was not at the meeting to listen to this one, so I'll
abstain. >> Okay. Four vote uh voting members voted yes, one abstension. Motion passes. >> Okay. Um then we just have some salary guide movements, appointment of um non-athletic extracurricular club at the
high school, I believe it was. Um finance certification of some funds. Um, we have our contract for the swim team to swim at NJIT that's on here. Um, our evacuation emergency evacuation drills
for our buses. We have a bunch of uh facility usage, a lot of um renting of the JCHS G uh CPA um for dance recitals, which is always good for us. That's revenue. And then we
have just the wreck using things FBLA. So that's great. shared service right there. And then we have some policy readings. The policies are for use of physical restraint, electronic surveillance, coop or cooperative agreements with the law local law enforcement agencies.
>> Um and those are second readings, Dr. Fenari on those. >> Those are the first first readings. First readings. >> The second readings are just above that. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Let me just go I just want to go back to see that. There any questions or comments from the board on anything that's on the agenda
tonight that they'd like to question and come up? Okay. All right. That being said, if anyone would like to come up and address the board on anything else, I'm not going to read the whole spiel. It's a light crowd. So, would anyone else like to get up to me? Okay.
All right. That being said, we wish Brian well. He should be back on Monday. So Liz, if you have any questions for him, bring them on Monday. Um, I know the play at the high school, it's called >> Thank you. Midsummer Jersey, which is like a Jersey version of Midsummer
Night's Dream, which should be awesome. That's coming up next week. >> Next Friday and Saturday 7:30 and then Sunday at 2. >> Next Friday, Saturday 7:30. Good. We'll do that. We'll advertise that again on Monday. So that'll be great. Um, great. So please support the kids. I know the
fall play is not highly attended. So, let's get out there and buy tickets and really support them. >> Free for students. >> Free for students. Yay. Music and more. All the students should come and see it for free. Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. Okay. So, that being said, can I have a
motion to enter into executive at 7:25 p.m.? >> I'll make a motion. >> And a second. >> I will second it. >> Okay. Dr. Canari. >> Okay. Are we all all in favor? >> All in favor? Any nays?
>> Okay, motion passes. >> Okay, thank you everyone. We'll see you Monday. Monday, we're at what school? Dr. I for Washington. We're at Washington Elementary on Monday. >> Yep. We're going to be moving. >> You're welcome.