##VIDEO ID:Conp3qRrzto## good evening welcome to the Camas City School District Board of educations January 28th Advisory board meeting it is 5:31 p.m. the meeting is now called to order please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the repic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice 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 the act the csas city school district board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published on January 10th 2025 and posted on the district website at www. Camden cityschools.org publishing the board's designated online media Outlet newspapers The Courier Post and the Philadelphia inquire filed with the canas city clerk and mailed to all persons if any who have requested said notice please be advised that this meeting is being recorded and may be brought broadcast on local TV and the district's website at a future date roll call please board secretary tellor board member board vice president Janette Alvarez Gabriel kamacho Derek gashaw Wanda Garcia Cameron Hudson Danielle Jackson Karen Merck Maria Perez president president nanam d pres you have Quorum therefore be it resolved that the Camden City Advisory Board of Education enter into a closed session to consider the following matters monthly HIV reporting contract negotiations and safeguarding of public property is there a motion moot thank you board member Hudson is there a second thank you board member Jackson all in favor any opposed any extensions we will be in close session for for 30 minutes and we'll return at 6:04 thank you good evening welcome back therefore be it resolved that the Camden City Advisory Board of Education returned from closed session to the public session of tonight's regular board meeting is there a motion to reconvene back into public session thank you board member Hudson is there a second thank you board member Garcia all in favor any oppos any extensions thank you we are back we will now have the student representative administration of the oath of office so if you would join me Elijah Vargas at the podium [Music] [Music] please raise your right hand and repeat after me I Elijah Vargas I Elijah Vargas attest and affirm attest andir that I will that I will share information about my school share information about my school to the best of my ability to the best of my ability so help me God congratulations thank you for being an alternate for East Side High have a [Applause] seat introduce him to Jer [Music] okay welcome we are glad to have you here uh Elijah thank you so much for being here and taking the time to be dedicated Elijah is one of our students from East Side who is very dedicated and he's very active if you ever take a look at the social media page the Instagram page because they don't do Facebook they do IG um at that at this age and so if you take a look you'll see um a lot of the activities that he's involved in and he just has great school spirit and so we know that he will provide us with information about how we can do um better um for our students at east side but also the things that are going well so we're glad that he had the opportunity to join us Midway through the year in order to be able to share so thank you let's give Elijah another round of applause for being here for showing up and for uh sharing his voice with us and so at this time would you like to share any of your thoughts on how things are going at Eastside High School thank you here so I have two things of I have glows and grows so the glows I have 11 we have four e Side High School students participated in the Des spin so National Honor Society for actors two students received honor Bill Mansion East Side High School has over a 100 students receiving their bity seal in multiple languages 506 students are able to use a small multiple pools from room for lunch the system we use to enter the lunch room checking student schedules for the correct uh lunch period the cleanness of the building and the cafeteria we also have an excellent Geral to see program the great communication between students and staff overall a positive feeling in the building guidance counselors making the small space work and I have two things for grows we need more choices for school lunch and the second one more Security in the building because we have one officer going to going out with the gym classes and another officer used to patrol in the parking lot thank you very much Elijah for sharing the glows and grows you did an excellent job first time out of the gate and we appreciate it we'll respond to them as soon as we hear from our second board rep um from brim Medical Arts High School uh Mr Daman irisari hello everyone my name is Daman izari I'm a senior at bur Medical Arts High School first with the glows um this school year just in general has been an amazing school year um we haven't had any problems that I could say as of right now um the administration team at bical Arts is doing a wonderful job Miss um Miss um Perry and everyone else who works um diligently for students to go on for students to go into classes on time for the um their be no interruptions or distractions while instruction is taking place so greatly appreciated for that um and yeah so um I kind of just wanted to share an idea that I had just for as a districtwide as a whole for high schools in general um as everyone possib well as everyone possibly know already um I did get into Columbia University on a full ride thank you so I will be attending Columbia University this fall but I as a person who always wants to give back to the community that I grew up in and poured everything into me um the program that gave me this food scholarship was Quest bridge and um as of right now I've been work um I'm going to work with Mich C and another teacher to inform our Juniors um our junior class about the program but I would like to do that at a district level because this program caters to only lowincome families which I believe is everyone within our district and not a lot of kids know about CR Bridge or even just the opportunities of low that is provided for low-income families to get into these top and prestigious colleges so I was was asking like is there a way that we could do like an assembly for each school where I could um present questbridge and also just share the information and help also do like um groups where I can help students apply because there's also a junior program that um increases your chances of getting into the full scholarship program as well so thank Youk you Damen absolutely thank you to Damen and to Elijah at this time I'll turn it to our board president to see if there are any comments or questions from our board members for our student board reps thank you superintendent are there any board members that have any comments for our board reps uh vice president Alvarez thank you board press it's not working thank you board press um I just want to congratulate um you Elijah welcome aboard and congr congratulate you Damian for um getting your full ride um thank you for sharing that information and how you got to where you're you're going um and just congratulate you thank you for sharing thank you VP Alvarez any other board members board member Merck I'd like to say welcome aboard and I'd like to say congratulations and I'd like to thank you for your service for so many years on the board as a student rep you do an amazing job and I know you're going to be amazing in college and um and I love the fact that as you climb you LIF and that's what you're doing when you want to create the program for other children excuse me so I want to thank you for that and congratulations to both thank you board member Merck any other board members board member Hudson yeah I would just like to say uh welome malija and congratulations uh Columbia obviously is a uh we over now school um thank you for your service the last few years I'm advocating for the students here and um I know you're going to be amazing you got a really bright future ahead of you um and you're setting such a great example for you know um everyone that's coming up behind you so congratulations thank you board member Hudson board member Garcia I just want to say congratulations to both of you for the well job done that you do I love that shirt purple and the gold I am a mo thank you thank you board member Garcia or member Perez um I want to say I want to say I I too want to say congratulations to the two of you and hey guys she she got me saying this she congrat you on your shirt Elijah remember I'm the alumni there okay thank you thank you B board member Perez any other board members so I Echo everything that was said congratulations Elijah and Damian um continue the great work welcome aboard and again thank you for your service and uh we definitely wish you the best along your journey uh like to turn it back over to you superintendent thanks thank you so much and again your grows I can't I'm underscoring what the board members have already shared um we're so proud of you and I I just can't say it enough both of you so proud of you and I'm not going to say you know because since we're throwing it out there um graduating from Cen high school but my mother worked at Eastside High as a par professional so it's all good it's all love but also being an Alum of uh Columbia University as well as our SBA um also spent time there and graduate stud study we are doing something wonderful when our young people from Camden can continue the legacy of going on to any school whether it's an HBCU whether it is um an Ivy League whether it is Community College whether it's the military whatever it is we want to celebrate or technical schools vocational careers but we are proud and we're not going to rush this moment we will get through the rest of the presentation but too often we rush the moments and the opportunities to really applaud and celebrate our young people we talk about a whole lot of other things but can we talk about these two amazing young people who are sitting before us we will take a look um um at the uh Staffing levels of security officers at Kramer Eastside High at Kramer and we'll also uh work with our senior director of nutrition on the food choices to see um what we can do there Elijah and Damian as also um we can definitely um provide opportunity for you to TurnKey what you've learned through the questbridge program Etc with our students so thank you so much for your commitment um at this time we are getting ready to transition into uh the state district superintendent board presentation so if you can join me in the front board members if you transition down um we can get ready to go into our superintendent report e all right thank you so much for your patience um again we look forward to seeing everyone we also have some very special guests who are in the room with us today and we look forward to um hearing from them um and before we do that though I want to just open up the superintendent's um report by you know thinking about us ending the month of January and we know that during the month of January we honor the life sacrifices and Legacy of Dr Martin Luther King Jr the Kanas City School District continuously strives to uphold the principles the values and the dreams shared by Dr King because our students deserve no less and before we move any further we're going to shift GE for a moment um and and share a moment of silence for two incredible individuals this evening sorrowfully we must begin with a moment of silence Dr Maria Medina was a was a devoted member of the Canon City School District and was a bilingual first grade teacher at Davis Family School when she passed I believe principal monu is still here thank you and probably some of the staff members at Davis um we know it's been a very difficult time Dr Medina has been committed to the dist was committed to the district for many years before she passed away uh her tenure in the district includes she was a bilingual elementary teacher at Davis school she also taught at Kramer she taught at Dudley she taught at Molina and she also taught at Village and she began her tenure in 199 before so she committed many many years to this District in addition Mr Jose Jimenez Mr Jimenez worked in the district for 30 years from 1974 until 204 during his tenure he also served as the Director of bilingual and foreign language in our bilingual education department and he put in place many different initiatives um during his tenure in the district some of which we are still implementing today so please join me in taking a moment of silence for two incredible Educators thank you and so before we go any further into uh the presentation that I have today I want to take this opportunity to um invite one of our um guest presenters to the front today um we like to take this opportunity to thank Boatman and Company and our lead partner who is here today Mr Mike kraan um for coming today I will at this time have our school business administrator um Miss Aisha Taylor to come forward and formally introduce them it is very important that we are transparent with where we are with regard to our audit our audit and our audit findings and while she is coming I want to just share very quickly and briefly with you um since fiscal year 12 um which was the beginning of State intervention I'll just call out in fiscal year 12 we had 15 audit findings 13 11 audit findings and fiscal year 14 we have nine audit findings fiscal year 15 21 fisal year 16 25 fisal year 17 27 audit findings fisal year 18 25 audit findings fiscal year 19 17 audit findings fiscal year 20 18 audit findings fiscal year 21 nine audit findings fiscal year 22 six audit finding findings and fiscal year 23 three audit findings that is amazing progress um and that speaks to the collective accountability and so let's find out how we did this go around thank you superintendent stole my thunder but we have come a long way we've come a long way um I'm new to the district but have um done my research prior to to coming on board and Kanas City School District as superintendent mentioned has come from many audit findings regarding purchasing internal controls we now have three audit findings two of them are repeat which is not so great um but we've already put things in place for those two repeat audit findings to not be a finding for the current 2425 year so we are um excited about that with that Mike C if you could please come up and share the um financial report and audit for the community it is a requirement that the audit is discussed at a meeting it is not a requirement that the auditor come but it's a good idea to have an independent auditor come chair Mike thanks thank you um as the superintendent and the business administrator discussed um we've come a long way in the past couple of years um in the 2024 audit report for the year ended junee 30th 2024 there are three findings again um two of them are um non-compliance findings with how the district reports uh Assa and drts to the state um and we've been working with the business administrator to hopefully resolved those and then the third finding had deal with the national school lunch program and the meal count and reporting of meals uh we've reviewed the issues with the school business registrator and we hope that that also won't repeat next year um in the board packet there was a synopsis I'll briefly go over some Financial numbers the total fund balance on the governmental funds was a total of $59 million uh of that $13 million was reserved for capital projects $10 million was reserved for maintenance a million for emergency Reserve $4.7 million were incumbrances at year end that will roll into the fiscal year 25 budget and then additionally there were $51 million set aside in support of the 2025 budget uh on the governmental funds that left a deficit of $21 million the reason there's a deficit is because the state delays the last two state aid payments uh until after July or after June uh the total of those were $33 million so the dist had the district received that money before June 30th the de the deficit would not have existed and there would have been about $ million in unrestricted unassigned fund balance total revenues um over the governmental funds total $540 million with uh expenditure with total expenditures just over 54 million the change in in fund balance this year was a positive $36 million which increased fund balance from 29 million to just over 65 million for total governmental funds um again we've seen some we've seen a lot of growth in the finance department um with the reduction of the findings and we uh hope to continue our work with the finance department to help uh continue to reduce the audit findings and with that I'll turn it back over to the superintendent thank you just something crazy thank you thank you sorry no you're fine thank you we definitely appreciate thank you to SBA Taylor and also to Mike craan and our partners at Lowman for ensuring that we continuously improve in our financial stewardship as um was shared by Mr craan we have again three audit findings um but we have already begun to and SBA Taylor is working on the corrective action plan to ensure our goal is zero I like round numbers we're getting there for moving in the right direction um and so that was very important to present so thank you again we're going to move forward with another very important topic um I think we have displayed on the screen the agenda for today and you can see there are a few focused topics um inclusive of a student Spotlight that we are very excited about um as with all board meetings we are going to focus in on these key topics to highlight during this January meeting um and as I said before the topics are in front of you um so if we move to the next slide our main uh January Focus topic is our CCSD Safe Haven commitment know your rights um putting students first all are welcome in the camon city school district so again in the camon city school district as we shared last month and we will continue to reiterate we are deeply committed to creating a safe inclusive and supportive environment for all students and All Families especially during times when their safety and dignity are at risk recent discussions about Federal policies targeting immigrant families challenge the very values of equity Justice and humanity and Define our that Define our district and our community that's why we proudly reaffirmed our 2020 resolution number 165 in school which was um put in place school year 1920 declaring our schools as sanctuary where every child can learn grow and Thrive without fear We Stand United in rejecting actions that threaten the well-being of our students and our families Camden's diversity is our strength and we remain dedicated to our mission to protect and uplift every child who walks through our doors at this Mo at this moment I'd like to take this opportunity to invite Miss Kimberly Val from IM IMM M schools who will be sharing a few resources about how they are supporting us not only here in the Camden City school district but throughout the city um Miss Val please come forward at this time let's give Kim a round of applause as she comes forward she's a partner and we don't know um everything so we have to work together to make sure that we are building the fabric that's going to protect our children and and our families and in schools has been a great partner with the district since school year 1920 and we are glad that we had a 5-year partnership before something like this occurred and so she's going to come with a presentation um this will not be the only time that we're sharing information on this critical topic but please take notes share this information it will be on our website we want to inform our community so Kim you can feel free to come over thank you good evening everyone and thank you CCSD for this opportunity for allowing M schools to speak on the community efforts that we have been doing to support all of our students and our families regardless of their Recreation status and who we are we are an immigrant Le nonprofit organization and we are the only immigrant and a nonprofit organization in South Jersey supporting our immigrant Community all of this work is personal as I was uh part of a mix status family my mother was deported when I was 7 years old so I understand the impact of deportation and race as it trickles down to our us as born children in our schools as well as I was a former educator in Philadelphia schools so I understand also the many hats that are educators are currently playing in our schools and next slide please the presentation is going so I am going to translate in Spanish um I do know that there are some Spanish speakers here so I want to honor my Spanish speaking folks JY I'm not sure who's managing is it up there okay got and so I I'll just keep speaking as as we're pulling up the presentation but um we are supporting we have been supporting as superintendent Miss momes had had mentioned we've been in partnership with C City School District since 2020 to ensure that our schools and our classrooms are safe and inclusive regardless of immigration status now immigration is not a Latin issue it is affecting other immigrant communities right so we definitely want to acknowledge that in campon City there is a large Haitian Creos speaking population Vietnamese population and Cambodian population amongst others so this is not just affecting our um Spanish speaking folks or Latin ex communities um and so we have been uh amongst with CCSD with other schools as well Charter networks and Renaissance schools to ensure that our families are equipped um with the no with the know your rights workshops that we do have we want to make sure that our parents and our families and our students know rights that they have regardless of their immigration status and so we understand that schools are doing everything that they can currently to protect our students regardless of who comes into the front of the school and asks for their information so under the fifth Constitution we all have a right to to remain silent even our our students and even our family members so that means if our students come up to us to educate or even to an administrator asking for what do I do or I had this situation with ice or you know our family is is has anxiety we don't know what to do if ice were to come to our doors and so we affirm that you have the right to remain silent you have the right not to not to um sign any documents and we understand the impacts of raids and deportation and how it trickles down into the classrooms and how that shows up and why does it matter for us to to um pay attention to this is because it affects the classroom the school the district as a whole because currently right now our families are making a tough decision to keep their parent to keep their children at home right so we understand that that comes with the marri of challenges we understand that if a parent does not continue to take child to school then they can get in trouble right they can diapers can be called and other situations so we want to make sure that our families feel safe and protected and you know our our community is facing not only they're facing fears of deportation in terms of when they are picking up their child or dropping off their child to school but also when they are coming to school how does that show up into the class classroom so we are um currently providing a series of professional development sessions to our school leaders and T Educators not only having a protocol and a safe Zone resolution in place that trickles down and communicates to our security to our secretary in front because they are the ones that open the doors right they're the ones that allow us inside the schools so as we walk in right the Met detectors all of that security guards must know information that they should not allow ice inside the schools or give out any information they have every right to do so and so we are communicating this to Educators and to administrators to ensure that everyone has this Mutual understanding of what to do and not only that but we're also providing professional development sessions for educators on what to do how to um social socially and emotionally provide strategies to ensure that the student is thriving in the classroom right we cannot change their emotions we cannot change if they feel sad or how they're feeling about the situation but what we can do is come together right utilizing the resources that we do have in the schools communicating with counselors and social workers to provide additional support additional mental health support for our children who are currently experiencing some fears right um they don't know whether or not they're going to find their parents at home um when they come back from school next slide please so this is what I was mentioning regardless of anyone's um immigration status we all have rights and alluding to some of the Federal policies that are still in place right and this is still true to this day we want to make sure that we are protecting the information of our students so um in any way shape or form should we be asking um our students or for their families um documentation status what we should be doing now is creating an action plan encouraging that our families go to the DMD get your driver license because in the state of New Jersey regardless of your status our families and even our our youth um with driving age are able to get their driver license so we want to make sure that we could communicate this information with our families and students so that they actively have identification from their state next slide please and so when an ice agent does come into the school or tries to come into the schools we do want want to ensure that we are communicating with our security guards once not allow them to let them in or sharing information about our our students but two also asking for a Judicial warrant right so um most of the times ice agents just come in or without a Judicial warrant so we must ask in order for them to make an arrest an actual legitimate arrest they have to present a Judicial warrant sign by judicial judge issued by the United States court of law um an invalid uh an invalid warrant is a statement or a letter from the DHS from the Department of homeand Security so as we see here it's very very tiny but one of the things to really remember is one if it was issued by the United States Court um signed by a Judicial judge and if that person that they looking for their name is is uh the the correct name that spelled correctly next slide please and so another thing that we can proactively do is continuously share uh resources but also share uh opportunities for learning for our for our families so one of these is our upcoming family Workshop my colleague J who is here who he will be leading our family workshops this will be live streamed on Monday all are welcome it's not just folks from CCSD so we are opening this to everyone in the community to want to make sure that we are sharing this information as much as possible um we do have Haitian cre in um Spanish and we are working on getting interpreters as of right now and we do have resources in the front table with Mr Ramos um we do have M rights one pagers in multiple languages not just in Spanish but Asian Creo and Vietnamese um we want to make sure that our families have this information whether you know in their wallet we do have red cards which have the constitutional rights um that we all have regardless of our status so this is just reminder that our families and students can carry their wallet um you know God forit they do you know get in front of an ice agent or nice asan is questioning uh an individual they have to say have the right to remain silent and share their red C and I cannot stress how important it is to create an emergency plan so I urge um if if if you are representing a a school right now and you haven't had an opportunity to um have a session with us or a professional development uh session with us please contact me I do have my email up here um where we can coordinate a professional learning as far as how do we uh come together to make sure that our students and our classrooms Thrive right um tapping into that social emotional learning and mental health peace we want to be proactive rather than reactive itive right we want to make sure that we have a plan and that we are coming together and also leveraging organizations in our community um to make sure that we are communicating with our families in case if a family member does get deported and it's affecting our children and how they show up in school so we are leading a professional development with our school leaders tomorrow uh which will go into more tell as to how a family emergency plan should look like and how um fam should communicate that with our leaders but also more best practices on what to do um in the event that you know law enforcement agent does come to our schools and so with that um I leave my information here and again I thank um Kanas City school district for allowing in schools into the district and allowing us to just share all this information and we know that these times are are tough for many of us um even if we don't relate um you know right away with with what is going on but it is affecting us as a community as we are standing here in in the district and so thank you so much and have a good evening thank you thank you so much and um again we look forward to uh continuing to maximize the benefits and leverage the benefits of a partnership with um our partnership with M schools I also want to take the opportunity to thank the canyon education fund um for their support they are actually funding the M schools partnership to ensure that this U very much needed um partnership and the benefits of it are spread throughout the city because were're concerned of all about all of our young people I also want to remind everyone that um the Latin all of our presentations our board presentations that are posted online the videos um are translated into Spanish by Latino spirit and so we have also been doing that since about 2019 2020 uh and so everything that is posted here in family members community members who may not speak English as their native language um they can get the translation in Spanish and we are working on translating into other um languages as well um so again we want to thank our partners and moving forward with the next slide just as a not as a reminder but to extend I want to extend a special invitation to each one who may be viewing this later and each one of you here to spread the word that on Monday February 3rd at 6:00 p.m. we will host a live in the house session on our your Facebook page featuring our Valu partner M schools during this session they will speak directly to our families offering support and valuable insights if you know anyone who would benefit from joining us on this live Zoom Workshop please encourage them to tune in on Monday February 3rd at 6:00 on our Facebook page the campas city school district's Facebook page we are fortunate to have the partners that we do um who not only joined us for live sessions but also as was stated we'll be providing professional development for all School leaders tomorrow morning at 9:30 a.m. equipping us to better serve our families we will also be setting up teacher professional development workshops and some of our schools have already taken advantage of having workshops in their buildings for teachers from m m schools so Flyers are available for this in the house session um outside of this Auditorium for you to take and share and distribute let's make sure that we are united in this effort next slide please and so again just to further elaborate on uh this important Point as you see on the screen the campon city school district protocol for school staff and security officers in the event of an ice visit has been disseminated to our camon City School District staff to all staff um as you can here this is just a synopsis of what was shared but to ensure Clarity and preparedness we've established clear protocols for All District staff to handle any potential Immigration and Customs Enforcement Presence at our schools these Protocols are designed to prioritize the safety dignity and privacy of our students and their families our protocols include immediate notification and verification so so when someone comes in we will not let anyone through the door unless they have a um legitimate warrant which we included a copy of what that looks like in our communication uh second protocol restriction of access to school grounds third the protection of students and family privacy next steps to ensure staff and student safety and finally engaging with legal counsel and communication with the community so this information has been shared and we will continue to refine our efforts as we go through this crisis because we are learning as we go but we are prepared so we're not building the plane as we're flying it we're prepared we will just revise as we need to moving forward next slide and we want to shift gears just for a moment I mentioned earlier that we had a student Spotlight it is always always um so exciting to share uhoh it's okay it's okay mistakes um to share our student Spotlight so we want to take want you to take a moment first to watch this video and then I will share who this beautiful and amazing young Le since the 1970s Philadelphia dance company or fileno has had a major influence on the dancing world of Philadelphia from ballet to hipop tap to Jazz Johan Myers Brown has paid the way of dancing especially for young African-American kids in Phil Philadelphia for almost 55 years the philadanco is the name that stands for the Philadelphia dance company but it's now four dance companies and two dance schools the mission of filenko is to combat the fundamental racism embedded in the dance world since its creation filenko has provided a place for black dancers to learn and grow in Jo Myers Brown created this company for Access mainly for her dancers who were dancing in her school who are now old enough to get into companies auditioning weren't able to have these opportunities and she created a gateway to have a space have a place where we can perform professionally and tour nationally and internationally and to this day she still is a Pioneer filenko has provided a safe haven to be in highlighting the importance of learning from people that dancers can relate to according to instructor Tommy wahed Evans and you're learning from people who are a lot like you and coming from a type of background and Aesthetics and and those those things are very very important when you're trying to grow and learn and be in a space that you can be comfortable and flourish in this place like a family so to have that support around you that makes them like okay I can do this I feel like they they give us a lot of confidence because there's not a lot of black girls in ballet so anjan is trying to is trying to get a lot of black girls in ballet and I feel like that's kind of impactful young dancers at filenko Express the impact dancing at fileno has made on their lives it has a lot of opportunities especially for young black dancers specifically specifically male because there's not a lot of males in the Arts so it it opens a lot of doors for us she made this because what she couldn't do when she was a child so it's like now I can do what she could so I feel like I need to honor her by doing that it just kind of makes me more like C confid in different areas I'm cuz when I started dancing I was kind of shy so it kind of had that big impact on me of being more confident filenko Roots were for serving black dancers but now filenko has evolved to become an all-inclusive company according to Janine beckles we're all inclusive I always have to tell people that people just automatically assume that we're a black dance company and we're not we're inclusive of all colors and religions and I would say her emphasis was black dance but we're all encompassing we've been around 55 years we've been a 20 different countries five different continents and we're still trying to get black girls and ballet companies and we're still trying to provide opportunities for dancers for the past 55 years filenko has forged a path of excellence and inclusivity that sets it apart from other companies however there's still work that needs to be done [Applause] excellent job so you can see the journalism skills that went into that and we're going to bring her and her teachers her Wonder wonderful instructors and her family up in a moment but we want to congratulate shamyra we want to congratulate you for your outstanding achievements at the wh y y youth media Awards out of more than 100 video submissions evaluated by a 20 judge panel shamir's Talent shown brightly earning her three trophies sleep she won first place everyone say first place first this is our student so we're going to do it up she won first place in news reporting for the High School Division with her piece on Philadelphia bike Lanes where she contributed to both writing and production she also earned third place for fileno where she excelled as the lead repor and additionally shamaya received a judges award highlighting her exceptional skills and creativity CNN watch out we are incredibly proud of shamir's accomplishments and camp wait to see you continue to shine so at this time without further Ado shamra would you please join us on the stage along with your incredible instructors and your family to receive a special district recognition can I ask our board president as well as our board vice president and anyone else who he wants to come up to come up yes let's give it up for our student C City School District own Miss shamra Taylor for showing them how it's [Applause] done awesome awesome come on over and I'm going to read I'm going to read this certificate um and this is a certificate right there so that where I okay so you can you can come up too but oh okay or we can go down we will you sure okay all right all right so this certificate of achievement is proudly presented to shamay Taylor in recognition of your outstanding achievements at the wh y youth media Awards your accomplishments bring Pride to the Canon City School District and inspires others to strive for excellent sign by myself the Trinity mome state district super attendant and Mr n Nelson Advisory Board president this is for you and we also have presented by our Advisory Board Vice President we have roses doesn't she deserve yes inde abely together thank you and we can't do anything without amazing instructors don't these gentlemen look serious they're about business and when you go into their classroom they have everything in order so thank thank you for what you do for our students we're going to go right [Applause] and we're going to continue with one more round of recognition so this is board member appreciation month so if you follow our district social media channels you've seen you've likely seen the amazing Advisory Board recognitions we've been sharing throughout this month at this moment I'd like to take this time to acknowledge our incredible board members this is just a small token of our appreciation when I call your name please come up to receive a certificate and recognition of the great work you do board president anami Nelson [Applause] we getting our steps here today it's okay you're welcome congratulations and thank you for all you do you're welcome stand and get a nice B picture at the end thank you vice president Janette [Applause] Alvarez getting congratulations thank you Mr Gabriel kamacho one of our newest board members Mr [Applause] kamacho Mr Derek gashaw our second newest Advisory Board member Mr gashaw Miss W Garcia thanks you thank you so much thank you Mr Cameron Hudson Cameron Hudson all right Miss Danielle Jackson I believe she had to go she was not feeling well and miss Karen Merck [Applause] thank you for your service thank you you're welcome and last but certainly not least Miss Maria pz and Mr H you can keep on to and we'll just do a group photo and continue on thank you thank you for your service a awesome and another round of applause for our advisory Canon City scho [Applause] [Applause] dist so crazy okay and shifting gears to one of our um another uh presentation that we want to share today um we have a presentation from the Rowan University Ruckers Camden Board of Governors I'd like to welcome at this time is Melissa Thompson pre-doctoral fellow to present a proposal to the Camden City school district Advisory board for the use of the recently demolished Broadway building site this is just a proposal there is no um business or action but we wanted the board to hear this proposal you may come up thank you let's give Miss Thompson in a warm Camden City school district uh welcome thank you for thank you move this out of your way so you have space there you go good afternoon everyone thank you so much for having me um board president vice president thank you um for having me here so my name is Melissa Thompson I am a pre-doctoral fellow at the Board of Governors but I'm also um the director there or a director there of Special Projects specifically this project and I'm so thankful and happy to be able to bring this proposal to you all to explain a little bit more about um the projects I'm not sure if the slides transferred in terms of the update so bear with me as I look on and narrate I can I can get started if that's okay um so again my name is wsa Thompson I um am a resident here in the city a property owner here in the city um and I moved to Camden from New York originally is it this one okay um in 2015 when I moved I moved as a result of getting placed in a Camden City well a school in Camden Kip um as a first grade teacher and I lived right there down the street um and when I was there I recognized okay so here goes the presentation um so again um I'm representing the Board of Governors and I'm sure folks in the room know um about the Board of Governors but essentially we exist to be able to um coordinate and to work with um the e in Med district and uh development projects in Camden so I'm a director there we can keep going contact information if you guys would like it you can keep going so this was I when I was a teacher and a lot of um the students that you'll see there are also um in the program that I'll be discussing in a little bit if you see my face that's how I felt when I first started right and now um fast forward 10 years I get to be able to do um this amazing work when I first started at Kip one thing I said to my students or a lot of things but one of the things that I said to them was if I love you that means I'm going to work to make your lives better and that's what I've been doing ever since um or I've been working to do that one of the ways in which I um wanted to do that was to get my doctorate so right now I'm at Ruckers in the department of public policy and administration working to Think Through um specifically what does it mean to do Equitable development and development in a way that really centers our community um and that has been the research that I started with and you can go to the next slide it is also the research that I currently do so right now again I'm a director at the Board of Governors and when Jeff Nash Our CEO brought me on he asked hey how do we get a grocery store here in the city and of course that has a a very storied history as to what does it mean to get a grocery store here in the city and building on the model of um former mayor red and the former CEO of the board of Governor mayor red um we decided to Think Through what does it mean to do a food Cooperative here in the city a food Cooperative is a community-owned grocery store so the first two letters of Co-op that should help us remember Community o and grocery store and ever since then I've been researching and thinking through what does it mean to actually do this and how do we do it because it's a very hard uh feat and I believe that I've been able to kind of put together um a model with the help of some very important and wonderful people in this room um to be able to do so you can go to the next slide so the proposal that superintendent momes mentioned um refers to a project that uh is the building that you see in the middle that was there in the middle that now is demolished the Broadway Street School the Board of Governors is um seeking to acquire that project and on um that lot what we propose is a food Cooperative the lot next to it and I'm pointing this out because it will be important for the presentation as I go on but the lot next to it um or 510 to 518 South Broadway the board of Governor currently own that lot and will be activating that lot through this project you can go to the next slide so again like I mentioned the project in and of itself seeks to have on the ground floor a food Cooperative on the second floor some sort of health clinic or County clinic and then floors three and above housing specifically um teacher and educator Workforce housing what I didn't mention is that when I first was a teacher at uh Kip I thought to myself there's not enough black and brown teachers in the CL classroom and there's also not enough teachers that live in Camden I was the only one and what I decided to do was to buy a house and to do teacher housing that house ended up burning down however fast forward 10 years now I get to think about what does it mean to do this at this level so um the purpose again is to be able to Think Through how do we establish this thing and of course a lot of us in this room um know that development is often times a difficult thing that to take to take place in what my goal has been as director is what does it mean for us to attract a developer to be able to develop this project um the project of course has to go through all the stages of the procurement process and RFP process and all of those things um but my goal has been what does it mean to to create a narrative that really centers our students and our youth and our families um and that's what the proposal that I'm presenting today to you all is you go to the next slide so what is a co-op again Community owned grocery store I put this slide here just because it truly is a different model to think about often times when we think about um development we think about capitalistic models and a Cooperative model is not um typical capitalism as we see it right it's about building solidarity and these values are super important to this work so things like self-help self- responsibility solidarity Equity those are really things that we want to make sure that we prioritize in the model um to the left hand side what you'll see is the the co-op principles the most important one specifically for this presentation is education training and information is everything okay okay um the most important one is education training and information and the model that we're building is specifically around that go to the next slide so um board members I've left a piece of paper with you all that has the slide there but the purpose of the co-op is to be able to serve as a community Economic Development vehicle um to be able to Foster uh food agency where youth lead a culture of Health a lot of big terms and words but I'm only sharing this to say all of these things are built into this model as much as I can um and thinking through what does it mean to bring the research and make it very practical CU often times it can be very theoretical and this process which I'm hoping to be able to bring everyone in because this this Co-op has to be Comm LED and Community owned um should be able to pull everyone in all of this information will be I believe on the website eventually um and they're also it also can be found on the CO-OP Camden website you go to the next slide so the way that we thought about this is to be able to to start the food Cooperative we thought about let's start um with our youth let's Center their well-being and to do so I found a program out of UC Berkeley called y plan y plan stands for youth plan learn and act now and what it does is it brings students Into the Heart of City Planning um in this past fall semester we did a um version of why plan at Mighty Riders um with Derek gashaw who's the site director there who's been amazing and and super supportive as we did this work the why plan Pro uh project again invited our students into City Planning they did the site visit they did a SWAT analysis they did all these cool things to be able to really help them understand okay how do we do this thing um and what we'll be doing um and of course everything is subject to board approval but what we'll be doing is we will be working to establish why plan for the next few years as we build out um the co-op you go to the next slide so what are our guiding theories again as I've been like scouring and reading and thinking through what exactly um how do we build a model that is truly Equitable and truly censors I think the most important things as a resident here I think not I think I have also worked really hard to establish health so one of the first models you'll see is nurturing a culture of Health which is how do we get health to be a shared value here strengthening Camden addressing food and nutrition security centering youth well-being in establishing Community ownership so those are our guiding principles and practices and associated with all of them is the theoretical background and framing a lot of that framing in uh theory is available at the front um if you want want to grab um those materials but really am trying to Center these theories as we build out the model go to the next slide so on December 17th last year we had a final event for our students at Mighty Riders um and you'll see those pictures to the left of the screen what you see on the right is is the lot that I referenced at the beginning so 510 to 518 uh Broadway our students were able to create art so art stands for art that activates real foods that heal and technologies that transform and the hope is that they'll be able to use those art projects to be able to activate the lot that you saw there and going forward for the spring semester what we'll be doing is we'll be at Urban promise um to be able to establish this I say that to say part of the or one of the most important things at the core of my heart is to be able to teach our youth ownership um and thinking through what is it mean for us to take ownership of our bodies of our communities all of those things so my hope is to be able to Pilot why plan after school and eventually be able to present that back to you all so that we can think through what does it mean to really do um something similar why plan in schools more broadly so we can talk about these things and teach our students the things that they need um ownership Equity cooperation all those things that aren't traditionally um taught in schools um so that is the Hope and that is the project the most important thing of this whole entire thing is that the co-op has to be community-led it has to be Community Driven it has to be Community benefiting it must be that it cannot be Melissa or the Board of Governors doing anything right it has to be Community welcoming community and saying this is your project to own so as we continue to build our first step is to be able to establish some steering committees um and that information will be shared on our socials um and the hope is that everyone in this room teachers students families board members everyone should be able to be a part there is a space at the table for everyone in this project and it cannot happen without you all in this room so that is my call to action my charge for you all I am just working as a vessel if you will to be able to help coordinate that to be able to hand it off to um you all and to our youth because they deserve it so I think that's it for me thank you all so much and my card is at the back open to any questions open to any feedback push the model if something's wrong tell me about it I'm willing to I'm willing and wanting to receive your feedback so we can make this the best that it can be and we can get a grocery store here in the city thank you thank you thank you Melissa thank you so much for sharing that amazing cont concept and again um we wanted to just share that for the board so that they can hear that presentation and we thank you um for sharing it so one of the things that we're required to do um is to present a report of student safety data system information twice a year and so this is the report that we're going to share now in order for our students to thrive academically and social emotionally from pre through 12th grade we must ensure they feel safe and fully included in their learning environment so as a school district we are required to report as I shared at a public meeting twice a year on the student safety data system under operations in qac next slide all student all schools all public schools in New Jersey as well as all approved private schools for students with disabilities must report annually in the student safety data system as the state superintendent of schools I must certify that all CCSD schools have reported by January 31st for September through December and then again at the end of the year for the January through June data next Slide the incidents that are reported publicly by the New Jersey Department of Education fall into the following five categories vandalism violence vandalism substance AB substance offense weapons offense and confirmed hivs next slide so as you can see from the graph here during this first reporting period of the 2425 school year a total of 198 incidents were reported this figure includes all cases of violence vandalism substance abuse weapons related incidents and HIV investigations recorded between September 1st and December 31st 2024 by school next slide and again this will all be on our website if you want to delve into it more later primary schools reported 126 incidents during the first reporting period the key labels the type of incident to the right violence is red vandalism is yellow substance is green weapons is orange and confirmed hibs are Aqua next slide for the high schools 72 incidents have been reported during the first reporting period across bpla brim Camden high creative arts and Eastside High School next slide on the next four slides I will share the breakdown and year-over-year comparisons later in the reporting I will also share strategies that are happening across the district to cultivate a nurturing environment where HIV does not occur so on this slide we see that between September 1st and December 31st 2024 a total of 44 HIV investigations were conducted 38 were at the primary or family schools and six were reported at the high schools of the total 12 investigations which is 27% were confirmed as incidents of harassment intimidation and bullying in comparison during the same reporting period in the 2023 2024 school year there were 26 investigations with six confirmed HIV incidents next slide in our high schools data from September to December of the 2024 2025 school year shows six HIV investigations with two confirmed cases in comparison during the same period last year there were 13 HIV investigations of which four were confirmed next slide in our primary and family schools from September to December of the 2024 2025 school year there were 38 Hib investigations with 10 confirmed cases in comparison during the same period last year there were 13 investigations with two confirmed as HIV next slide out of the 44 Hib investigations conducted districtwide during the first reporting period 12 were confirmed and this chart captures the schools and the number at each location next Slide the next three slides will break down the founded allegations by school what the Hib action was the remediation or discipline and the staff member who investigated the claim during the first reporting period which is September through December 20124 next slide and again this is a continuation of that data by school allegation Remedy or discipline and investigator next slide and this is the final slide of the remaining schools with founded cases inclusive of what the claim was the remediation or discipline and the name of the investigator who is the anti-bullying specialist next slide out of school suspension during the 2324 school year we recorded a total of 155 out of school suspensions during the first reporting period and that is represented by the blue bar in the same period for the 2425 school year the total number of suspensions is 206 which is depicted by the Red Bar above each school next slide during the first reporting period of the 20 202 23 2024 school year there were a total of 81 in school suspensions in comparison for the same period in the 2024 2025 school year there have been 76 in school suspensions and the same as the former Slide the blue bar reflects school year 23 24 and the Red Bar represents the first half of this school year next slide so that is what the evidence shows and what's more important than just sharing the evidence is what our response is going to be what our reaction um and our strategies that we put in place as a district will be to continue to um lower those incidents that we referred to and so in the next four slides I will share at a high level the training and practices we are implementing to Foster healthy learning environments first across the board for all staff members in the Camden City school district we require training through the global Network compliance or Global compliance Network gcn program for all staff members including District level administrators School administrators teachers paraprofessionals and other Personnel throughout the 9 hours of comprehensive PD key topics related to today's reporting include anti-bullying Bill of Rights Act characteristics and needs of individuals who or groups at risk for harassment intimidation and bullying conflict resolution strategies cyber bullying awareness and intervention HIV prevention and consequences parent involvement in HIV cases peer relationships and social norms School climate and culture Improvement social skills and relationship building and suicide pre vention related to HIV additionally this district collaborates with County resources including the nonprofit restorative Center to offer free restorative justice training to community members Educators students and stakeholders restorative justice emphasizes communication and mediation rather than punitive measures fostering the well-being of victims offenders and the broader community our administrators are actively working to integrate restorative practices into all schools these practices align with the New Jersey tiered system of support a program designed to enhance student outcomes in academics Behavior social emotional development and attendance next slide and these additional programs which I will not read to you again they will be posted on our website additional programs and resources is utilized by the district to increase positive behaviors and improve outcomes for all students are captured here as you will see resources include personnel and the work of school-based Youth Services parent universities anti-bullying Task Force and and tools like Panorama and help me stop it next slide and this slide outlines the implementation of trauma informed practices in our schools it emphasizes the importance of comprehensive training for all staff and students including understanding trauma and recognizing its signs it stresses the creation of safe spaces where students can express themselves and feel supported additionally it highlights the need for building resilience in students through coping skills and emotional regulation techniques collaboration among educators parents and Community organizations is crucial for a unified support system and finally the slide un underscores the necessity of continuous evaluation and Improvement to ensure the effectiveness of trauma informed practices next slide and finally this slide covers three main areas data recording documentation professional development and student growth under item three student growth this aims to help students build resilience ience and manage stress through strategies like mindfulness social emotional learning and access to counseling this includes the SS this concludes the ssds reporting for period one I will now transition to other important reporting areas and then finally District highlights next slide New Jersey quality single accountability uh Continuum or New Jersey qac next slide during the November 25th Advisory board meeting I share the District's most recent qac placement scores from the April 2024 full review in fiscal management we scored 79 and operations we increased significantly to 92% in in instruction and programming we scored 57% in governance we scored 87% and in Personnel we increased to 87% remember 80 is the passing score for cusac we did submit appeals and we were not granted appeal so these are uh this is where our qac standing remains as of today based on our final scores the district has prepared a district Improvement plan for DPR areas instruction and program and fiscal management as required for any area under 80% the district Improvement plan committee met on December 16th to share the data and gather feedback from various stakeholders including members of our advisory Board of Education the goal of the committee was to determine strategies for to determine strategies for continued implementation and ensure that we remain very clear with our communication across schools departments and the district next slide and I will not go through all of these because the uh District Improvement plan is presented as one of the items on our um agenda and so if you want to read through the entire program you can do that um at your leisure but this slide captures our instruction and program goals and strategies you will see the goals are to set me to are set to measure progress for three years and include Ela Math and Science achievement we will use Ms mgps or median student growth percentiles to capture teaching and learning next slide continuing with teaching and learning here we highlight the focus on increasing ing graduation rates reducing chronic absenteeism and ensuring curriculum development to meet the New Jersey student learning standards next slide as it relates to finance there are a few key areas we will focus on to regain All Points together we will focus on the annual audit process and you heard the audit report earlier so I won't belabor that point which will include audit submission timelines schedules and auditor requested information as soon soon as it is requested in the area specifically of audit findings our data team of eight will work with the charter schools Renaissance schools and other internal departments to ensure that there is backup documentation to support our categor categorization of students our data team will have ba oversight to ensure we Implement our own quality control measures to ensure the ASA Assa enrollment accounts are supported by the exact same enrollment counts in Genesis our student information system and that work has already begun under the leadership of our new school business administrator the district will request our Auditors complete a final review of the submission prior to final certification and then we will focus on systems to eliminate material weaknesses and significant deficiencies next slide additionally under the area of fiscal management we will ensure by annually that we complete the health and safety evaluation of school buildings checklist to gauge compliance and problem areas which with aged buildings are many and last in the area of Staffing our Administration will encourage support employees including the senior director of facilities um to obtain a CFM and that is at the time um of our assessment but our senior director of facilities has obtained his CFN and we are very proud of of that accomplishment next slide open enrollment important dates as a reminder main round enrollment for the 2526 school year officially began on November 26 if you missed our countdown on social media now's the time to explore the best fit schools for your child we're here to help you through the process so don't wait secure your child spot today for more information visit our website or contact the solution Center at 856 966 2507 and now we will move on to just a few key updates I want to always keep us um keep the board informed of where we are with the Eastside High project next slide so this is the timeline the project timeline that we've shared and we will check in with this timeline every month we are excited that um in the coming months we will be able to begin broader engagement um around the new Eastside High but ccia or the Camden County Improvement Authority awarded the contract for demolition of Eide High to USA windsinger in November the building was turned over to the contractor as of December 31st work is beginning this month with abatement and removal of the identified historical artifacts the public will begin to see the building come down in late spring early summer of 2025 so again we will continue to um come back and share and again we look forward to engagement um and we have individuals who've signed up for committees and we're looking forward to that process next slide teaching and learning just a few highlights the real implementation Scholastic and Camden embarked on a partnership and launched real in February 2023 where this slide is a brief overview of the program 200 mentors and well over 50 organizations brought energy excitement and dedication to children in Camden by encouraging them encouraging them to read and serving as reading mentors next slide but we need volunteers read Excel achieve lead that's what real stands for and so it's that time again we're excited to announce that we are inviting our reading mentors back into our elementary and family schools at the start of the new year and so if you would like to be a mentor a volunteer or Mentor please scan QR code uh so that you can complete the mentor application uh and we look forward to training you so that you can support us in uplifting a love for literacy and reading in our young people just as we did last year next slide here are some pictures pictures are worth a thousand words um the ancient Egypt the mummification process here we'd like for you to check out our Morgan Village Middle School's feature of the week Mr bass's sixth grade social studies class the the sixth grade students were learning how to describe the process of mummification in ancient Egypt the students were EMB balers for the day next slide if you take a look at this slide you will see at Forest Hill our CCSD students in grades 4 through 8 who are receiving pullout instrumental music lessons every week this is something that we've been able to build back in our district students are excited to learn and play their shiny new instrument in the pictures displayed you see an all girls trumpet section at Forest Hill receiving instruction next slide Eastside High is growing their music Pro program as well back to easts side but this time inside with the students we are excited to share the Eastside High School's music that Eastside High School's music program is rapidly growing the instrumental music class went from just a few students with instrumental interest to full classes Mr and I hope I'm not what what's the correct um pronunciation is it thank you bero instrumental music teacher has been building students confidence teaching lots of foundation and intermediate skills and developing school pride and you can see from the pictures that the students are engaged and excited and growing and learning East Side musicians played in the winter concert Parade from floor to floor FL for the school Community we cannot wait to see the spring concert next slide drone Tech Navigators students in our gifted and talented classes at cat and HB Wilson Schools are receiving drone instruction once a week during that time students are learning about the anatomy of drones and safety participating in simulations writing code to navigate the drones developing collaboration skills with their peers and so much more stay tuned for the finale as our Scholars build their own drones in the spring next slide this is just a reminder the New Jersey access for English language Learners testing window um is on the slide test Administration begins February 3rd and it will go through March 28th please forgive that we will um update and correct that edit that spelling um uh uh mistake makeup testing March 31st through April 4th it is critical that our students take this assessment our multilingual Learners in grades K through 12 will begin taking this assessment as I share for the New Jersey access our district will be testing students in Reading speaking writing and listening student attendance is extremely important during this time so please make sure your children get a good night's rest and that you talk to them about the importance of doing their best on these assessments the assessments are both paper-based and computer-based unless modifications are required if you have any questions please reach out to your child's teacher or to your school leader division of talent and Labor Relations DTLR updates um there's information on this slide and I will just highlight a little bit the DTLR team is currently working to fill all remaining vacancies the primary focus is to continue strategizing to identify and hire qualified special ed Spanish health and PE and science teachers these areas have been the most challenging to fill and DTLR anticipates an additional eight new teachers being onboarded within the next 30 days so our team and DTLR continues to excuse me offer signon incentives to those with certifications and hardto fill areas and are planning for spring hiring events for school year 2526 the district is registered to attend various College fairs that include Rowan the College of New Jersey Temple and Stockton University DTLR is also planning to attend several diversity hiring events next slide and the last portion of our report has to do with our district highlights so on this first slide you'll see the Camden education fund supporting all Learners Grant here we have a few pictures from the supporting all Learners Grant through the Camden education fund we value this partnership with the the Camden education fund as together we work to ensure equity and access to education for all of our students both Camden high school and Eastside High School were successful applicants and each school was awarded nearly $250,000 and across the city the award amounts totaled $1.1 million so the Camden City school district received o uh about half of that money so we thank the teachers and the administrators who are ensuring that Not only was a grant well a Grant application well written but that they are being very Innovative in their strategies and approaches to supporting all Learners let's give Camden high an Eastside High School a round of applause that is no small feet and the next slide belly bumper fund at Martha F Wilson Early Childhood Development Center so check out our students at Martha F Wilson Early Childhood Development Center using belly bumpers this is a fun and active way to promote physical activity balance and coordination as a reminder we are still enrolling three and four year olds into our Early Childhood Program it is a free free free preschool program and it is one of the best in the state of New Jersey so please uh share the information we do have slots still available next slide so we know that what this is e a g l s Eagles these are cream Scholars who pumped up for the game prior to the win uh and maybe they brought the Eagles good luck but they did a great job and and I hope you saw the the TV footage of our young people just having fun just enjoying uh principal Dyer is there in the middle and you can see it was just a great day our board member Danielle Jackson was there as well as many others to um support our young people next slide Veterans Memorial family schools Kelloggs and rabbits check presentation I'm here smiling with our amazing vets cheerleaders this is a great example of donors choose rabbits uh who owns shoppr and Kellogg donated $110,000 to veteran school to award health and PE equipment and that is definitely something to cheer about so we're excited for the resourcefulness of our schools and leaders and teachers um as they go after those funds next slides save the date we're going to forward to that one celebrating Black History Month important dates to remember our Black History Month celebration will be at HB Wilson this year on February 27th from 11: to 1 11:00 to 1:00 p.m. we are looking forward to another amazing amazing event as we celebrate the diversity of our Learners and our community and our world next slide another important Date to Remember is February 6th for our next parent Roundtable meeting at Davis Family School our family engagement numbers are increasing and we encourage everyone to attend and bring a family member and finally February 7th is President's Day there will be no school for staff and students and that is just a reminder thank you for your attention we will transition back to the stage where our board president or his design will honor our atti our retirees as we move forward to the ending of our meeting thank you thank you uh I just want to take this opportunity to thank you for this privilege of of honoring these individual ual of retirement as I look at these numbers you got over 130 years collectively of service that they provided uh to the district first with Bruce Hicks custodian A1 with 32 years and two months we have Joan Kane teacher ESL 25 years we have Evelyn Mendes teacher Elementary 25 years and 9 months we have Marie Sher school counselor 27 years and six months and jene Schwarz teacher in elementary of with 25 [Music] [Applause] years that at this time I'll turn it over to our board president to president to lead us through committee reports but before we um do that I do want to take this opportunity there was an ERA that was called out with regard to our translation on um one of the slides I think it was for HB Wilson I'd like to thank you um board um member um for sharing that with us I'd like to also um ask that any of those um if you see mistakes or anything like that we're all human right so we'll get it back to our staff to make sure the translation is updated appropriately but please um we're asking you to um not yell out during the board meeting or not discuss it just give the information to us and that way we can do something about it and change it and we can have that mutual respect that we want to see on display for all of our young people so thank you for letting us know and we will correct it and make sure it is appropriately fixed uh right away thank you um to our board president you're welcome thank you Superintendent at this time we will have our board committee reports and we can start with board member Perez with finance and operations thank you the finance and operations committee met on Tuesday January 21st via Zoom meeting present were um Miss Haka Taylor um president board Nami Nelson Mr John morela board member Daniela Jackson Mr Warren Betha and myself um as was already discussed in the presentation um we had three issues that were reported and um of those three the first one was a misclassification of students which we had the opportunity to correct immediately so though that is um done and the other two findings which were repeated findings um we are diligently working on correcting those and the biggest problem with that is the POS system and um the suggestions were made that we possibly have um more um Regular checks and possibly retrain people who may not have been trained or on on the POS system and how to handle the problems when the POS system is um not working so overall it was it was it's been an amazing um report because we went from 17 to3 one it's already been fixed two will be fixed thank you thank you board member Perez next we will have our Communications committee uh with board member Garcia thank you thank you board president the communication committee recently held its first meeting on Tuesday January 3rd during this meeting we established our primary objective which is to strengthen communication with both internal and external stakeholders We Begin by reviewing the district's current communication tools discussing ways to enhance their effectiveness and improve community community interaction over the next few months we will focus on two key initiatives first we are working on strategies to enhance the content shared on Channel 19 ensuring is highlights the district's priorities and accomplishments in a way that resonates with our audience second we're excited to develop on roll out a monthly staff recognition campaign designated to celebrate the incredible contributions of our staff members the committee consists of Deputy superintendent Dr Dana Walker Chief Communications officer Sheena Yaro vice president Janette Alvarez board member Cameron Hudson and myself we plan to meet on the first Friday of each month to continue building on these efforts and to ensure our initiatives align with the district's mission of putting students first I look forward to providing updates on our progress as we work to enhanced communication across the district thank you thank you board member Garcia next we have our teaching and learning committee uh who's reporting out board member Merck yes okay well we had our meeting um a couple of our uh board members were unavailable they had prior engagement was myself Dr worker and uh we discussed um absenteeism um in uh prek and kindergarten and we were talking about how important it is for for um our prek and our kinds to attend school because parents usually keep them home and that's the crucial um part of Education um so we were discussing you know how could we um counteract that and um you know Assist the parents um and letting them know how important it is for um children at the Early Education to attend school daily um we discussed a lot of other things but we're going to revisit that next month when I discuss it with my board members thank you thank you board member Merck does that conclude our committee reports is there one other all right we also have uh policy and governance I apologize board member Hudson uh good evening everyone uh Cameron Hudson report now from the policy and governance committee um we convened actually yesterday on uh the 27th uh the committee is chaired by me but it's also uh in attendance where uh uh ABM Jackson uh ABM kamacho uh District Representatives Teresa Reese Ashley Zimmer Zimmerman and kimly bule Alvis um the items that we had uh addressed yesterday or discussed were uh District updates the representatives provided updates on legal matters recruitment efforts and affirmative action Title Nine initiatives um we also Define committee responsibilities uh we Review Committee roles including the secretary which uh board member Jackson is taking on uh board member kamacho will be the the spokesperson who will be um reporting out um each month to the rest of the board and then we reviewed and discussed uh several policies including our visitor policy which is uh number uh 1250 um and then we continue discussions on uh updating and reviewing the lgbtq A+ policies and also followed up on recommendations related to uh Staffing and uh uh training opportunities for board members um through uh gcn um which I'm going to uh connect with the board president about at a later date uh we also educated or went over different ways to research and um update policies what that process looks like for the new board members and also um yeah and that's pretty much that's pretty much it but this committee remains focused on ensuring policies are inclusive Equitable and continues to meet the needs of Camden City students and Families um our next meeting will be on Monday February 10th at 1 p.m. no further updates thank you board member Hudson uh that concludes our committee reports at this time I'll turn it back over to superintendent thank you thank you board president at this time I'll turn it over to general counsel to um give us guidance through our public comment portion all right good evening the Camden City school district welcomes the attendance and comments from all members of the public at its meetings this public comment period is your time to present your comments to the board and the state district superintendent each person who signed up to comment will have three minutes you will be notified when your 3 minutes are up and you cannot yield your time to another person when it is your turn to speak please request to unmute your microphone state your name and address for the record please address all of your comments to either myself or the state district superintendent please be courteous to your fellow community members and keep your comments within the time frame allotted so that everyone has the opportunity to speak at the end of your 3 minutes the microphone will be silenced and your comments will have concluded please conduct yourself in a respectful manner the first amendment is not absolute and the board can prohibit language that is inappropriate in accordance with our board policy 1121 we may interrupt warn or terminate your statement question or inquiry when it is too lengthy if a member of the the public speaks about a staff member Interruption may be necessary to caution the speaker of the danger of slander for anyone whose comments or actions harass intimidate or threaten the safety of any person we will provide you with a warning or immediately end your comment time we may request any person to leave the meeting when that person does not observe reasonable decorum we may request the assistance of law enforcement officers in the removal of a disorderly person when that person prevents or disrupts a meeting with an act that obstructs or interferes with a meeting we may call for a recess or an adjournment to another time when the lack of public decorum so interferes with the orderly conduct of the meeting and finally we may wave any of the rules when necessary for the protection or privacy or to maintain an orderly operation of the board meeting um after this public comment period is closed the state district superintendent or her design will address your questions to the extent provided by law so it looks like we have six speakers tonight that signed up the first is K Walters and then after uh Kay Walters is Karen burelli [Music] Luke good evening everyone hope everyone's feeling well it's a long night so uh what are the District's plans to be more proactive to combat how Charters coers parents into the false Narrative of their superiority how will the district share the glows of our purposeful district and our talented students in a more productive and proactive way that is in an effort to really combat disinformation two how is the district going about making sure the gym for the new Eastside High is built to reflect the current gym Dimensions because an auxiliary gym has not been and is still not necessary all inside Sports have been effectively played in the current gym space since the schools Inception and was built uh three the earlier disingenuous conversation of some on this board and City officials to insinuate superintendent momes is in effect and needs to be removed is another false narrative like the current situation in Washington they are getting rid or attempting to get rid of things that work and are putting in single Fant who I would hope that conversation is over this District would not be where it is without superintendent mom's leadership four when can the school-based team expect the counseling doors to be installed I believe doors to other areas in the building have been at East Side installed however counseling is a confidential moment in need of privacy and in May during mental health month the school based youth service program is sponsoring its annual teen Menor Health Summit on Saturday May 17th 2025 at Eide high school we look forward to the district support have a good evening all right up next is Miss Luke and after her is Mr [Music] Delgado good evening Karen burelli Luke cea representative teacher yes a certified teacher who is whose responsibility to do what is right by the students to do what is more Al and ethically right so I just found out that the district has directed that permanent Subs who are not even CCSD employees who are outsourced by Kelly and minimally have 60 college credits be placed on student schedules as the teacher hear that correctly the teacher of record that very same sub is assigned to roster in Genesis they are grading our children's work and responsible for inputting grades this sub's name will show up on the report cards and transcripts uh give me a second and they are not certified teachers mind you I have six years of college education and three teaching certifications that got me employed by this District where I instruct and grade and input grades and a sub who is not a CCSD employee and not certified has the same access to grading and instruction of our children as me and even access to personal information of our children there is something morally and ethically wrong now back to the PE equipment the storage that just started coming in that is going to take up a third of a health classroom it was bad enough that I had a bunch of ninth graders that are smaller bodies but now starting Monday it's 12th grade and we know 12th graders can be bigger humans that are going to need and require bigger space so that space is now going to be shared with all the fizzed equipment when it should have been a she shed or a he shed whichever gender you want outside where the trailers are locked up you have trailers that have everything else no other other classroom the classrooms are smaller than regular High School classrooms to begin with cuz we're at Kramer do is shared with equipment except for one of the health classrooms which is mine and I would greatly appreciate if we can get some type of shed out where the trailers are for the fette equipment thank you all right up next is Mr Delgado it's my understanding that he has since left uh after him is Miss Gonzalez I believe she left as well uh Kenneth Miller and then Kimberly B [Music] [Applause] good evening everyone um my name is Kenneth Miller I'm school counselor at at Big Picture Learning Academy and also the current indoor track coach and um in the spirit of um celebrating Student Success um I just want to recognize these four gentlemen if you could come up they are part of the track team they are the state 4X two champions [Applause] [Music] not only are they the state champions uh they broke the state record um that was also take your head off that was also held by Canon High School in 2019 and addition to that um these young men um had just been outstanding athletes um a Ali senior at creative arts Chase Robinson Junior at Brim uh Jadon still Junior at bpla and Chris Braxton Junior at at bpla now it's wanted in in addition to their accomplishments uh their relay team was at one point ranked number three in the nation currently the top South Jersey team relay team number two in the state and the fastest time they ran this year was the seventh fastest in the history of South Jersey so I just want to make sure they get recognized for their accomplishments thank [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you we are so proud of you um I'm I'm just breaking protocol for a second then I'll give it to board president president but thank you um Mr Miller for sharing that great accomplishment we will highlight it as a part of our um report um in a um more formal way but before you leave gentlemen our board President also would like to say something thank you superintendent uh thank you Mr Miller for coming up and sharing that information thank you to uh the track team again let's give them another round of [Music] applause I don't be have of the board uh we would like to do something small just to recognize you guys um so we we'll come together and figure out what that is what that looks like um just to show our appreciation so thank you keep up the great [Applause] [Music] work um I don't know if she is is Kimberly still here okay all right so that concludes all of our speakers I'll turn it back over to superintendent mums thank you so much um wow love it that that's that's a great note to end on um this is amazing I want to thank everyone who participated in our public comment por portion we understand that my presentation was a little bit lengthier because we had a lot of ground to cover some mandatory areas but thank you for your patience and if you want to go back and take a look at add it please feel free to do so it's on our website Mr Waters thank you so much for always um being an advocate for not just all things east side but for our young people and their mental social emotional health as well so you asked a specific question about what we plan to do to combat Charters or to at least make sure that the good news that's happening in our district gets out in a way um that's able to have us to be just as competitive um to make sure that our families in the community know that we are um a school of choice so what we've done is we've all a district of choice as well what we've done is we have um augmented our Communications team um sheina Yara has been doing a solo job of trying to get out all of the good things that are happening in our district um and so there's been an addition to her team um she has a um more junior staff member on her team but someone who has experience and can help us to um make sure that we Elevate our marketing strategy this board of educ ation has constantly advocated especially our board president for us to do a better job as a district just as you have stated um echoing your sentiments to make sure that everyone knows the great things happening so she just came on board in the past two weeks so as we move forward we will have more information for you that shares um the targeted and strategic approaches that they're going to use that are different that are Innovative than different than what we've done in in order to get the word out because we all can see there's greatness happening but we want to make sure that we magnify that so thank you um for that comment and we will continue to update the board and the public um next how will we just how will the district make sure the gym is built um as for the same capacity as it was we will continue to Advocate and work with our elected officials who are very instrumental new East Side High but to ensure that that space is maximized and we have had many conversations about just that so more to come um but you're um definitely on target with what we as a district also are advocating for thank you um for your support of my leadership thank you um I'm humbled I do what I do to serve um and the district that has ported so much into me and gave me my Foundation but I do thank you for publicly publicly acknowledging um your support and then finally um when can school based uh the school based team expect the doors so I am not sure where the door project at East Side High stands but we will find out there um is a school based you Services counseling room and the door was supposed to be replaced but I will commiserate with our SBA and also senior director Bea who I believe is here as well to get a timeline to you and your principal so that you can we can make sure that that's taking place we walk through the building you showed it to me we've seen it but we need to make sure it's um put in place because you are right that is a confidential space excuse me and we want our young people to feel safe with sharing and you need a door in order to do that so we will follow up on that um expeditiously um and thank you for telling us about the school-based Youth Services mental health Summit in may we will begin to share that on our social media platforms Miss belli Luke thank you for staying um thank you for um sharing your concern about P permanent Subs um being placed on student schedules um as a teacher of record so our chief Talent officer is not here she an emergency but I will Circle back with her um in order to get a response that is complete and accurate to share um so that you know I want to make sure I'm speaking with Integrity so if you will allow me to reach out to her get that information and then Circle back with you on a response I would really appreciate it thank you for your patience um PE equipment taking up space so I'm going to ask that Tanya Wilson who heads up that uh Team works with principal Vega and um Ellie Shanklin and Ellie Marcado to um come up with a solution if there is no solution I know we have the bi-weekly um committee meetings that have been going very well with the Eastside High um committee leads and and thank you because of your advocacy we now has have a physical education uh teacher on that committee and so we will take that issue up as well and thought partner and try to brainstorm solutions for how to make sure our teachers have um the best space that we can afford them but thank you for flagging it for us and Mr Miller again again I think we already said it he's gone but thank you um to Mr Miller and the team um for just your accomplishments and we look forward to celebrating and highlighting you um that concludes my responses I'll turn it over now to SBA Taylor to take us through the agenda items oh board president comments board president comments I'm just kidding board president comments I'm sorry I'll turn it over to our board president it's been a long one people thank you thank you Superintendent at this time are there board members that have comments start off with our board vice president Alvarez thank you board president um I just want to thank you superintendent and your team for the acknowledgement this month we greatly appreciate you and we thank you from the well I thank you from the bottom of my heart um I'll let the other board members speak um I also want to congratulate the uh track team I know that Mr Miller left but um kudos to you um it's just a um acknowledgement of what you're doing to the team so congrat ulations and have a great evening thank you board member Alvarez any other board members would like to share anything at the star board member Hudson yeah like the uh Echo the sentiments of uh VP Alvarez um thank you superintendent so much uh for the acknowledgement as well as uh principal uh Mont Gill uh from Davis I really really really appreciate that and uh shout out to Sheena back there um she did a remarkable uh social media campaign just uh highlighting board members so just give her a round of applause um and just uh just thank you for everyone who continues to come out and uh give us your thoughts and um you know suggestions on what how we can do better and just seeing the updates that are going on around the district each month so that is that's about it thank you board member Hudson are there any other board members board member Garcia I just wanted to say congratulations to Sheena and it's a pleasure working with her in the Comm Communications committee along with Dr Walker and all the other board members congratulations Sheena good job thank you board member Garcia are there any other board members board member [Music] comments so I would like to say a couple things quickly um so I know so first uh echo in uh Board of VP Alvarez thank you superintendent and to your Administration uh Sheena special shout out for the acknowledgement of board members um for board member month um shout out to all the board members um give yourselves a round of applause you know thank you for showing up daily um to the events and the schools and you know whatever things may be taking place whether that's lunchtime taking off um after work um you know your commitment and your dedication is appreciated it I know board member uh Jackson had to leave but we have a full nine member board I think that's something else to give yourselves a round of applause for it and uh you know I just want to stress um the importance of us working together I know sometimes we don't agree on everything um but especially in the challenging times now um us staying unified um to do the work to serve our kids our students and our community um and we're committed to working with our superintendent the administration um and all of us um to do the work that's needed you know everything is not always spoken about everything is not always announced but there's some work that's taking place daily um and I don't think it takes place by one um individual um it's the group effort um and us you know working together in order to get it done um I know it was spoken about the uh acknowledgement of um staff members um at we move forward and I just want to you know stress that highlight that all our staff is important we don't feel like there's one position that's more important than the next um thank you Sheena thank you to Super to the superintendent this has been a conversation since last school year and I think we found a way to um try to find ways to acknowledge everybody unfortunately it won't be all at once um so you know uh one by one we'll uh take time to recognize um all the hard work that are our staff does day in and day out um to keep our district moving forward um thank you thank you thank you um I would like to acknowledge uh principal monague um I know staff show up all the time um but I see her as a principal present you know for every board member um board meeting so just thank you thank you thank you um I know uh Mr Waters uh spoke about um you know just our efforts and I know the superintendent spoke about you know things that we're doing and we're talking about as far as marketing um and Outreach um and you know I just want everybody to understand that we don't have the same access um and the same capabilities as our counterparts at times so some things aren't as easy to do um but superintendent and her Administration has worked hard to find different ways um to be able to match those e efforts and hopefully to uh surpass those efforts of uh some of our counterparts just to make sure um that the things that are taking place in our traditional public schools are put out there um and that's all I have so thank you at this time I'll turn it back over to uh superintendent thanks thank you board president at this time I'll turn it to the board secretary to present the January board agenda items for approval good evening again there are a few items I would like to highlight the first one being the audit and I'd like to give any space for board president to um share any questions or receive any comments from board members as it relates to the 2324 annual audit so I'll open it up to any of our board members any questions any comments so I don't have any questions just a statement um thank you for working hard um you know with the audit and also to um you know look at you know things that we've done and just making sure moving forward um that you know we're not in that same situation and also um just for uh the amount of audits that we have now obviously the work that has been done um to decrease that you know obviously has to be recognized and acknowledged first and foremost um so thank you for those efforts um and appreciate your continued work thank you and I'd also like to publicly thank the business office staff they are amazing I walked into an amazing team so uh kudos to them for um improving internal controls if there are no other questions about the audit I would also like to highlight donations we did receive um well the accept acceptance of SDA funds so on an annual basis the SDA or School Development Authority gives former Abbott districts which um Camden is one of an emergent Capital project allocation this year's allocation 2425 is a million doll and that's found on page seven of your agenda if if you look at that agenda item when you have a moment it will itemize for you the capital projects plans that we are planning to do with that $1 million any questions about the SDA 2425 emergent capital projects allocation great hearing none the last thing I'd like to highlight are donations if I could find them there were two donations um one for a scholarship be with me let me I thought I had it ear marked yes on page 16 I would just like to publicly thank the Camden County Association of school administration for donating a $500 gradu uh scholarship for a graduating student and I'd like to thank an anonymous donor for $500 earmarked for student lunch student coats or student Footwear that concludes my highlights but I will take any questions if there are any board member Perez it's not a question but I realized that after I gave my finance um um highlights there is something that I really do want to acknowledge here tonight because I know that everyone is important but sometimes people behind the scenes who do so much work get little acknowledgement so I do want to focus again on Mr morela um on Mr Bea and Alisia I believe her name is um please please let them know how much we appreciate their hard work not only with our children but all the children that attend the schools here in the city of Camden so I think that even though they're not here they too deserve a big round of applause thank you board member Perez any questions any any comments from any other board members thank you if nothing else state district superintendent please share uh the approval thank you SBA Taylor um board secretary um in accordance with powers vested in the state district superintendent according to njsa 18a 7 a-35 I hereby approve all January 28th 2025 board agenda items if nothing more I will turn it back to our board secretary uh to call for a motion to adjourn the meeting motion to adjourn by Mr Hudson is there a second second by board member Garcia all in favor any opposed any extensions thank you so much have a good evening