Thank you so much. Oh, here we are. Hello. >> Okay. Good evening everyone. Um, I'm Maggie to Oh, sorry. [Applause] Sorry. >> It's okay. It's all right. It's okay.
Call the meeting to order. Please rise for the flag. United States. The New Jersey Open Public Meetings Law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meeting of public bodies at which any business affecting their
interest is discussed or acted upon. In accordance with the provisions of this act, the Cedar Grove Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be advertised by having the date, time, and place thereof posted on bulletin boards in the district, published or transmitted to the Verona Cedar Grove
Times newspaper, tap into online news, filed with the township clerk, and posted on the district website. Can I have a roll call, please? >> Here. here. >> Good evening everybody. At this time, I'd like to open the
public the meeting to public comment agenda items only. Seems that's fine. Seeing that nobody is here, a motion to move to close that portion of the meeting. And we're going to move on to
committee reports. And we have our student representatives today. >> Hi. >> We're very eager to start and present today. >> The floor is yours, girls. >> Good evening everyone. I'm Maggie Tumi and this is >> Victoria Venta. >> Um we also have Sophia Babrowski. Unfortunately, she's at her soccer
senior night. Um so today we're going to be talking about what's going on at each public school in Cedar Grove. Um, I had the opportunity to take on Southoun. Sophia took North End >> and I took the middle school. >> Yeah. And I'll be talking about South End in North End since she's not here.
Okay. So, over the past month at North End, here are a couple things that's been going on. First, the North End FSA hosted a pumpkin patch in spite of the rainy weather last Monday in the gym. Students were able to explore the patch before having their class photo taken and selecting a pumpkin to take home.
The North End Big Brother Big Sister program will begin this month. This is a true highlight for the kindergarten and fourth graders who will have the opportunity to meet and work together as they get to know each other and make new friends. Students were encouraged to continue read and or listen to books over the
summer through the summer reading program. All North participants were entered in into a drawing and the winners Donald Wilson, Kenzie Mcadsine, Olivia Schwarz, Sloan Fitzgerald, and Avery Schwarz will enjoy pizza lunch
with the principal provided by the FSA. North's week of respect was filled with themed days that reflected the concepts of the program, including putting bullying to bed, teaming up with kindness, respecting differences, dressing to respect, and respecting your school. students and faculty had a
wonderful time not only supporting these themes but discussing how we can ensure that we are demonstrating respect at each day at North End. Our kindergarten students participated in the annual safety walk on Tuesday, October 14th. For the coming days, the FSA has a family fun night bingo scheduled for
Friday for Friday evening in the North End gym. It looks like it will be a fun night for all. So, that's what's been going on at North End. Um South End, very similar. Um at Southounn they celebrated the following students who were recognized for their participation in our summer reading initiative
sponsored by our curriculum and instruction department. The following students will also join Mr. Mario for lunch in October. Congratulations to all um first grade Violet Colberg, third grade Sylvia Luzy and Macy Sullivan, and
in fourth grade Jackson Reetti. September spirit days include team Tuesday, patriots day and to in support of our first responders, the first full day of fall and childhood cancer awareness in memory of Nicholas Storms and all children battling cancer. Spirit
days will continue throughout throughout year each month to foster a sense of school pride and community engagement. Our students are very excited to begin checking out books from our media center, Miss Fitzpatrick. And our media special specialist
encourages students to try new genres and promote a love of reading. Kindergarteners loving recess time with the help of our fourth graders who have volunteered their time to be safety patrol helpers. We certainly need their help, but are also so proud of their leadership skills. We celebrated NJ week
of respect October 6th through October 10th. Our students discuss the importance of kindness, empathy, and inclusion during our morning meeting times through spirit days and guidance class. South would also like to thank our FSA for helping us kick off the new year by providing our students with new
recess equipment, pencil boxes for our kindergarten students, bins for our lunch boxes, scholastic magazines for our classrooms. We can always count on our FSA to support us throughout the school year. Many thanks. So there's South End and North End. And now Victoria is going to be talking about
the Memorial Middle School. >> So over the past month at the middle school, we've had plenty of spirit weeks um such as Red Ribbon Week that um is for drugs and it talks about all that type of stuff and week of respect that
every school throughout the district has been doing. And then we've had school violence awareness week as well. Um just like the high school, the middle school has student of the month, but they do two of each grade, not one. And
these were our, um, September student of the months. Um, this past Friday, um, the peer leaders trained with Lindsay Meyer Teen Institute on how to be a leader inside and outside the classroom, as well as the community and other things like
that, such as activities, sporting events, and they did a big activity with the peer leaders. Now we're both gonna talk about the high school. You can go first. >> Okay. So, tonight actually the uh senior the soccer team is playing against Fort
Lee for their senior night. Um that's actually taking place right now on the field. Um the football team has an incredible record of 5-2 just c and they just celebrated a big win of 4234 against Glenn Ridge. Um the soccer boys just had their senior
night ending in a two um one tie with two two tie with boot and currently have a record of 10 three and two. Um the girls tennis team also just currently had their senior night celebrating their senior Leah Predicquez and
um the volleyball team currently is ranked nine and nine and just played in their senior night last week against Glenn Ridge. And the CGHS cheer team also just competed in their annual competition, Cheer for the Cure, and they won SEC for best stunts.
Um, our student of the month this past month was Selena Morrow, but unfortunately we do not have a picture of her, but Selena's in a lot of clubs such as yearbook, and she's a really big help around the school, and she always keeps a positive mindset, and we're super thankful to have Selena in our
school. Here's some fun activities that have been going on at Cedar Grove. Um, the art club has been painting all bulletins around the school finally because those bulletins have been empty for so long. So, that's really good that they're doing that. Um,
the freshman biology class has been working on labs. This lab was based on lipids and carbohydrates. So, as you could see in that picture, a little group working together. And that's everything that's been going on at these schools. Thank you all so
much. And yeah, thank you. [Applause] >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Have a good night. Thank you so much. >> Okay. All right. We're going to move on to some committee reports that will not be
as exciting as that. Sorry. Um All right. So, we had several meetings this um last couple of weeks or since our last meeting. Um, we had a curriculum and instruction meeting that Mr. Pick and I attended.
Would you like to speak on that? various programs and um what we would like to be planning for as we move into the future. Um we did look at some other test scores and some things that going on within the district but
educationally right now he's doing really a very good job of leading the district in the right direction. Then we uh we met the personnel right after that door and myself Dr. And the personnel meeting was uh
basically discussion on some contractual issues um and some personnel issues that will be presented to you this evening uh in the form of resolutions as recommended by the superintendent. >> The only other thing I want to add to
the uh curriculum and instruction is that um Dr. T shared the district's plan for the year which to the goals and so it's pretty extensive um PD plan in the works so we appreciate that
>> thank you we just had a professional development day >> Monday yesterday forget what today is yes so that was a a success I'm assuming >> all right just hang on one second
um we have some FSA reports South and North our FSA meetings. At both meetings, we we covered primarily the same agenda uh was rolling out the plan that Dr. T had presented with his
goals. We also discussed the outstanding job that the maintenance crew had done opening school for us, getting all our business, our buildings in in in prep ready and in preparation for that opening. Uh also we we discussed the
commended the administration for the work that they did in ensuring that we were completely staffed at the start of school which in this day and age is a very big accomplishment for many districts. And then um finally we
discussed the referendum at length with a variety of questions that were presented none of which are not talked about and thus we will be speaking further about that as we move forward speaking
to that future as well. Okay, thank you. Anybody else have anything that they want to share? Okay. Um before I hand it over to you, Dr. T, I just want to welcome Cheryl to
our her first meeting today. We uh appreciate you being here and excited for you to be joining us. >> I appreciate being here, too. >> Wonderful. You're in good hands, I think. As we >> wonderful. >> Yes.
>> Great. All right, Dr. T, the floor is yours. >> Thank you, Madam President. And I also echo the welcome. Very excited to have you on board, Cheryl. Um, and good evening, Cedar Grove school community. I hope everyone is doing well. As we begin to settle into what promises to be a
very exciting 25 and 26 school year, I'd like to acknowledge all of our educators for their commitment to ongoing professional development. Our inservice day yesterday proved to be very busy with many different training sessions occurring across all of our schools.
from data analysis of student outcomes to learning more about AI and ways to integrate AI technology into instruction and planning to deepening our understanding of the nurtured heart approach. Our educators were focused on these important topics and more
throughout the afternoon. Across all of our sessions, I observe staff fully engaged in the work of their own professional development, which is one mark of a truly high performing school district. We very much appreciate everyone's efforts that went into ensuring our inservice activities were
fruitful and productive for all. I would also like to highlight a few items on our agenda this evening. One action we're taking is to change our prescription drug program plan effective January 1st of 2026. While we are pleased we're able to make this change
at this time, I do want to reinforce to our staff that given the volatile nature and rising cost of health benefits across all sectors, we may very well need to review our options again in the spring to see if another change will be
needed to ensure we're building a strategic budget for the 2627 school year. All options must always be up for consideration. Also our agenda on our agenda this evening is the submission of our HIV selfassessment grades for the 24-25
school year. Our grades range from a score of 60 to 75 out of a total possible points of 78. These grades will be certified later this spring and then posted on our district's website. Lastly, in closing, I would like to acknowledge and appreciate our two
student board reps for their outstanding report this evening. We are very excited. they are now reporting out to our community about student activities occurring across all of our schools. Great job students and we look forward to future reports. Um and then just I
know there was mention just updates specific to the referendum. Um I do want to share with the community internally our planning continues on a tight timeline for March of 2026. Uh we are currently anticipating uh to receive
approval for our application sometime the middle of November um which would put us on track for action at a December board meeting um about what exactly the refer referendum projects will include. Uh I will begin another round of
community engagement by early November to begin to prepare the community for the projects that we consider to be the highest need. Uh and based on the focus group feedback and continuing planning, it remains a priority to take action steps to reopen LRP by September of 2028
as a 345 school. Um I do want to also inform the community that we are continuing to welcome feedback and our planning for what it looks like to reopen LRP and the entrance way and the access point around traffic is something we're studying. A traffic study has been
something we've already initiated and we've met with a civil designer recently uh to take a look at all potential options for traffic management in the reopening of LRP. Uh so right now there are all options on the table and as we
get to decision points I am fully committed uh to have doing presentations throughout the community to talk about the overall design of the projects and the local tax impact which I know is of concern for all of us. Um and with that I can conclude my report.
>> Thank you. All right. Under the business administrator's report, can I have a motion for G1 through G9, please? >> Any discussion? >> Yes.
comment on resolution number eight. It's with um some uncertainty that I am going to support this resolution this evening after speaking with the superintendent. I know that healthc care issues and
health contracts are of the utmost important to staff and how they use these benefits within their contract to to move their lives forward. Um,
having changed it in April, changing it back in January, and with a good possibility we're going to have to change it again in July. I'm uncertain about the move, but I will
support the superintendent on this. I will support the association as they would like to move forward with this. However, with great anxiety that I do. So my experience tells me, you know, we're going to be in the same situation.
So that's just my comment. >> Thank you, Mr. Pal. I do want to add to that that the um the the association has been um involved in this process as well and um ultimately is in support of the
change. That's correct. Right. Yes. So, I just wanted to make sure that um the community is aware of that and staff is aware of that as well. >> Great possibility could change depending on volatility of the market especially
with healthare need. >> Okay. Any other discussion there? Have a roll call, please. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes.
>> Thank you. Under superintendent report, general administration. Can I have a motion for H1 through H6, please? >> Some move. Any discussion?
Roll call, please. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Under human resources, a motion for I1 through I10. >> Second. >> Discussion.
Roll call, please. Mr. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Under curriculum and instruction. A motion for J1.
>> So move. >> Second. >> Discussion. >> Roll call, please. >> Yes. Yes. >> Thank you. And under special services, a motion for K1.
>> Second. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Roll call, please. Grande. >> Yes. >> Yes. Present not voting. >> Yes.
>> Yes. >> Thank you. At this time, I'd like to open the portion of the meeting to public comment. Any school related items? Seeing as there's nobody here that wishes to speak, I move to close that portion of the meeting and
announcement of future meetings. Our next meeting will be November 18th at uh Cedar Grove High School. Regular meeting is at 7:30 6:30 executive session if necessary. And the following meeting will be December 16th, same times.
At this time, uh make a motion to adjourn the meeting. All in favor? >> Meeting adjourned. [Applause] I don't know.