Hallelujah.
[Music]
Happy birthday. [Music]
Huh? That was so much fun. Huh? Really? Well, that was really easy, but this one's like fun. This one's like Don't say anything. [Music]
[Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music]
Hallelujah. [Music]
Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music]
Heat. Heat. [Music]
One more. I wish I [Music]
Happy birthday. [Music] That's great.
I don't know. [Music]
Hallelujah. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]
Smile.
[Music]
Heat. Heat. [Music]
after. [Music] Thank you.
[Music] Thank you.
[Music]
Happy birthday. [Music] Sweet start to go. 7:34. Should we do that one?
Yes. Sorry. I don't know what happened. Heat. Heat. [Music]
Heat. Heat. [Music]
Thank you. [Music]
Hallelujah. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music]
Hallelujah. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Awesome. [Music]
[Applause] think before we get started with the uh official meeting, uh the Chattam High School Chamber Orchestra Quartet and uh their director is uh sitting up here in the audience. His name is Liam Keller. I'm going to
ask him to say a few words about the students that we just heard as well as uh an award that we were just notified we won that he uh devoted some time to called the best communities for music education award. So Liam, take it away. Good evening board. Uh thank you Dr.
Lassusa, Dr. Donny Hugh, Dr. Sortino and the board for having us tonight. Uh my students are honored uh to be able to perform for all of you. Uh just their names quickly. Brooks Wang on violin, James Lee on violin, Ishia Rao on viola and Lily Datana on cello. Um that is our
Chattam High School string quartet and they are phenomenal. They are seniors this year and we are going to miss them dearly. Um but as Dr. Lusa said, "We were notified today there's a uh company called NAM which represents uh music manufacturers and music makers and every
year they award uh different awards for the best communities in music education. and Chadam for the second year in a row and fourth year overall has been awarded uh the best community for music education which encompasses uh all of
our students uh from the very beginning all the way through their senior year and recognizes uh the diversity that we show in our program, the support that we have through all facets, both band, chorus, orchestra, general music, uh theater as well. And we couldn't do all
of that without the support of the parent boosters, the parents involved in the process, the students, the board, and the administration. So, thank you again for all that you do, and we look forward to many more years of wonderful music making for you. Thank you, Liam. And now over to Mr. Dquilla for
the start of the meeting. Well, we'll call it to order. All right. Um Okay. In accordance with the requirements of the Open Public Meetings Act, chapter 231 PL1975 announcement, I wish to announce that 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 meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon. In accordance with the provisions of this act, the school district of the Chattams Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the
date, time, and place thereof posted in the board administrative offices sent to the clerks of Chattam Burough and Chattam Township, the library of the Cadams, the Chattam Courier, the daily record, and the TAP online news. Mr. Dquilla, Miss Ross, yes. Miss Allen,
yes. Mr. Delandro, yes. Miss Peek, Mr. Ryan, yes. Mr. Smith, Miss Weber here, Dr. Zang, and Miss Chikarelli. Yes. Six president accounted for. We have a quarrel. Perfect. Thank you. Um, please join us if you can for the pledge of
allegiance. Flag is to my left to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Okay. Um, I just want to echo the
comments to the um, wonderful musician students that were here. They were absolutely amazing and um, what a great award for us to receive. That's great. Um, I don't have any other comments immediately at this time. So, we could pop right into your report if you'd
like, Dr. Lassusa, or did you want to go to Miss Weber first? Yeah, thank you, Miss Cherelli. do think I have a full slate here, but I think um we had a recent development in uh the federal uh lawsuit that we've been contending with for uh the better part of seven or eight
years now. And I think Miss Weber uh can speak to that development. Thanks, Mike. Appreciate it. Thanks for teeing that up. Um is my mic on? Yeah, it is on. Yeah, there it is. Great. Thank you, Nick. Um, I just I just want to remind
everybody about this lawsuit that's been going on for about eight years. And while Kate's not here, I suspect that Kate is unfortunately going to have to deal with this 10 years from now. So, I want to make sure that we don't forget the timeline and what this was based on. So, if you just bear with me for a couple of minutes. What Dr. Lassus is
referring to is a recent ruling by the uh third circuit court of appeals. A three panel judge ruled in our favor that the plaintiff's son was not coerced and converted into Islam. But just as a reminder, this has been an extremely expensive lawsuit. It is, you know,
haha, we joke about it. Oh, I can't believe that's going still. It's extremely expensive. It started in 2018. Um, she sued the school district claiming that the middle school tried to indoctrinate her son and convert him to Islam during a one unit, a 50-minute
class in seventh grade. And, and let's be clear, I just want to make sure people know this is not a current seventh grade parent. This is a parent whose seventh grader was in seventh grade in 2017 and this kid is just about to finish college. The law still go still goes on. So just real quickly from
a timeline in February of 17, Libby came up and complained and she did she didn't agree with the the lesson the various lessons on in the curriculum. Okay. Dr. Lassus answered her, Dr. Chase answered her at the time. That was unacceptable. Two weeks later, two weeks after that,
not giving it a minute, two weeks, she goes on the Tucker Carlson show and makes these false inflammatory statements which caused a firestorm in Chadam. You could look it up. Threats to our building, threats to the teachers physical safety, threats to the superintendent. We had to hire
additional security guards for a long period of time. Um, some of the threats were so credible that we had to get law enforcement involved, not just local law enforcement, but county and state as well. That wasn't enough. keeping keeping going. She she filed a lawsuit a year later, had a whole year to think
about it and thought, you know what, it's a good idea. Let me sue the school district again saying that the school violated the her son's first amendment rights, the establishment clause. So, two years of litigation, two years of depositions, two years of the superintendent and all of our teachers
being out of district giving deposition, two years of expenses, you can imagine what two years of litigation costs. after the two years of that judge McNelte and the district says you know what uh it's summary judgment for the school district there's no coercion that nobody indoctrinated anybody and it was
the whole class has to be taken in context so summary judgement means the the Libby had such a baseless claim that it didn't even have enough merit to continue okay thinking that's the end of it nope Libby has to appeal the decision and she wants it to go to the third
circuit court of appeals okay another two years go by the third circuit gets it and says says, "Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, but we're going to wait and send it back to McNelte because there's another Supreme Court case." Two more years. Every time I do this, think dollar signs. Two more years. Goes back to Judge McNelte. He looks at it. Okay,
I looked at Breton versus um Kennedy has no impact. And Breton versus Kennedy is where Joe Kennedy coach was fired for praying at midfield at a football game. And the court, the Supreme Court said, you know what, he can pray at midfield. It doesn't violate
any establishment clause. So if Joe Kennedy can play midfield, then our teachers can certainly teach the mandated curriculum. So 22 it comes back. 23, Judge McDonald rules again, reaffirming the original summary judgement for the for the
district. Still not good enough. Libya appeals it again to the third Third Circuit. And here we are 18 months after that. Again, remember every time I do this, it's dollar signs. So that brings us to last week, May 15th. The third circuit court of appeals, three judges,
it's a three judge panel. They agreed unanimously again that the school district was in the right summary judgement. Not enough not enough to go on. Um again, it was three justice panels. One, the lead justice um
Heramman, we expressed no opinion about the curriculum at issue except to hold that it does not bear any hallmarks of religious establishment. For that reason, we will affirm the district court's judgment. Justice Phelps institutional instructional material about Islam, beliefs, practices, and
modes of worship do not offend the constitutional provision, and I respectfully concur. Judge McNelte, I am acutely aware that this is public and not parochial education. Reli religion, however, is a fact about the world, and no study of geography and cultures is
complete without it. So, eight years, millions of dollars, four judges, and I understand that Miss Hillsenwrath is planning on appealing yet again. Now, these appeals don't cost her a dime. Not one dime. There's a law
firm out in Michigan, 700 miles away, that does this for free because they get publicity out of it. All we get is angst and and expense. So, the only one on this planet that can stop these appeals is Libby Hills and Wrath. the law firm in Michigan can't continue without a
plaintiff. They can't continue unless she authorizes it. So, this is this generates a tremendous amount of legal and financial burden for the district. So, I understand she's going to appeal it again and she wants the entire third circuit to hear it. So, that'll be 12
judges to hear the same case. It'll be two years from now. And again, remember when I do that, it costs money. So, I just want everybody to aware that this is a baseless, useless, senseless lawsuit that's been going on for almost 10 years. Her son's about to graduate college in a year or so. And while we
can't do anything about that, we have no control over that. I do want to take the opportunity to remind folks that some of our teachers were named in that lawsuit and it impacts their reputation. So, when you go to Google some of their names, the first thing that comes up is teacher indoctrinate student into Islam.
So, I I just I just need to take a moment and remember remind our our residents how great our teachers are. When this young man was testifying during his deposition, he he actually said, "Not only were my First Amendment rights not
violated, he actually said, "Oh, no, no. I perceived the purpose of the lesson was to educate students about the word religion and the importance of avoiding group generalizations." So now he was testifying two years later, two years after his 50-minute class in the middle school, and he still remembers the
lesson. And this poor kid had to sit in a conference room with all adults in his mother's attorney's um law firm. He probably wanted to be anywhere else but there, but he actually remembered that it would included the importance of generalizations. So not only did our teachers teach the core curriculum about
geography, cultures, prominent religions, and a re region, but they also instructed our seventh grade students. remember they're 12 years old. Taught our seventh grade students about the lessons of avoiding generalizations. He recalled that lesson
two years later. I can't get my kids to remember a dentist appointment, but that stuck with him. And this shows how strong and effective all of our teachers are, not just the seventh graders. They don't get to seventh grade without prek to six. This is how much influence they have on our students. And think about
it. Because our kids take seventh grade geography, they're better prepared to understand what's happening in the world. They understand what h what's happening in Israel and Gaza. They understand the war in Ukraine. They learn to think critically for themselves. And they understand global issues. They see how making broad
generalizations can lead to prejudice and maybe unfair treatment. Again, these kids are 12 years old. They also learn to form opinions of their own and to get information from multiple sources. Now, unfortunately, we we're going to have to continue to deal with
the consequences of the baseless lawsuit, but it also gives us an opportunity to honor our dedicated educ educators who were negatively impacted by this lawsuit. The teachers who work tirelessly every single day, every day
to create an inclusive classroom for our kids where our students can learn, they can engage in thoughtful dialogue without without fear of repercussion. they can explore new ideas and perspectives that were previously unfamiliar to them. And that's that's
what our teachers give to our kids. So again, people move here because of the school district and the teachers are the heart and soul of Chadam and it's why communities why families move to this community. So, I just want to remind everybody that this board, previous boards, and I'm sure Kate's not here,
but I'm sure future boards, we absolutely stand firmly behind our teachers, and we have unwavering commitment to support not just their work, their integrity, but also the the importance of their role that they use in shaping our children's future. So,
I'm sorry that was a little long as president, but by my account, it's good guys for Libby Zero. Correct. I keep score. You should be keeping score. I should be keeping score of the price is what I should be keeping score of is how much it's costing us and
continues to cost us. I'm glad my mom didn't drag me through that. Well, thank you. Yes, you're welcome. Thank you. Thank you for the update, Miss Weber. Again, poor Kate's going to have to deal with this probably 10 years from now, right? Not just Kate. Yeah. Well,
what do you want? I was going to say, can you remind us how much it's cost us so far? Well, the district, it's millions of dollars that are going to our attorneys. Our insurance is covering most of it, but real money out the door, it's a little over $100,000. And that doesn't count like the time of of all
these teachers out of district. 800 right now. What's that? 800 a year, right? Is that the same is the same? Is it 100 a year max out of that? No, no, no. Because now now the judges are saying, I don't want to hear any arguments. Submit your briefs and I'll get back to you in two years. So that's awesome. It's a little bit less now, but
they don't even have tolerance. It's been four judges and it's not even a split decision. They all said it's baseless and summary judgement for the district. Great. Amazing. Who's on their payroll? The other side. Thank you for the update. Um, anybody have any
questions for Miss Weber? No. Okay, moving on. Um, Dr. Lassusa, back to you. Thank you. And thank you, Miss Weber. I'll transition to a current student now. Um, and as we all know, we have been working on uh a change in the
uh grade levels for each of our schools uh before the high school. And uh as part of that process, we've been looking at uh the needs of students at different buildings and uh the need at the middle school to ensure that students have uh access to to time for recess and they
can do activities at recess that they enjoy. And one of the hot ticket items right behind us on the other side of this wall is a gaga pit that was installed a few years back at Lafayette. And uh it's packed all the time. I walked back there probably last week and
saw kids kind of like it's like a young person's young whippers snapper version of dodgeball if I could describe it. I've never played myself. Uh but lo and behold, earlier this school year, we had a student of ours step up who uh was working on on obtaining his Eagle Scout
rank and said that he would like to construct at his own expense uh two Gaga pits. We have only one back here. He was willing to build two from scratch uh behind the middle school. and uh he put together the plans, the proposal, he
lined up the materials, and uh back in March, I'd say in April, maybe early April, uh right around spring break, he was hard at work. And now we have two gorgeous gaga pits sitting behind the behind the middle school that we can use next year and years beyond. And of
course, he is earning his uh Eagle Scout rank. And he's with us tonight. His name is Will Hartzell. I wanted to recognize Will and when he got here I said why don't you go up to the microphone uh at the podium and maybe just introduce yourself even though I've already done a
little bit of that um and talk about what it's what what one has to go through to obtain the the Eagle Scout rank and then of course if any of you have any questions um there's a ringer uh on on the on the board who's quite familiar with Eagle Scout uh Eagle Scout
awards and Eagle Scout processes. So, Will, take it away and then we'll just maybe ask one or two questions about the project. Okay. All right. Thank you. Uh hi, my name is Will Hartzell. Uh I am in now an Eagle Scout from Troop 8, uh here
in Chadam. Um so my my journey to become an Eagle Scout started very young in first grade, I think, when I wanted to become a Cub Scout. Um, and I did Cub Scouts all the way through up until fifth grade when transferred over to uh
the Boy Scouts. Um, and you know, in the in the beginning parts of, you know, your journey through the Boy Scouts, it's a lot of, you know, just general knowledge, box checking, uh, you know, making sure you know how to do knots,
first aid, um, outdoor survival skills. And it's just, you know, make sure you know these skills. They quiz you and then they check the box. Um but then you know as you get a little older for me um it was around my sophomore year in high school when I started getting uh into
these higher ranks uh through Boy Scouts is when you start having to earn merit badges which are these long um I mean sometimes they can be as short as 45 minutes up to as I've learned with delays can be five or six months.
Um and uh these merit badges, you need 21 of them. Uh 14 are required for the Eagle rank and then uh the remaining ones can be if you're choosing uh from a very large selection. Um and then on top of these merit badges, you also need to
demonstrate uh your leadership skills uh by leading service projects. So, these can be food drives, uh trail cleanup, um just picking up litter around town, just anything that is giving back to your community. Um and
uh um then also as you're doing this, you start to earn positions of responsibility within your troop. Um so I'm very fortunate. Uh we have a very large troop and I was able to um get a lot of positions of responsibility starting out as a leader of my
individual patrol and then working my way up to the senior patrol leader uh who is uh the leader of the entire troop. Um and uh then to end it all off uh to get the actual Eagle Scout
requirement um rank, you need to have a an Eagle project, which is the final test of leadership um to kind of show that you have, you know, you are knowledgeable, you're able to carry something out from the start to finish, and to show that you have made
good leadership skills and are able to give back to your community. Um, and so I uh had the idea or the idea came across my desk of building uh these two gaga pits uh for the uh the middle school and I thought it sounded like a
challenge and it sounded like a good project and I I love playing gaga ball and so it was something I thought would be really fun to do. Um and so I coordinated with um Dr. Lassusa that the principal of the middle school Mr. Osini
and then the uh PTO president, Mrs. Johnston. Uh we organized a location for the Gaga pits. Um times where I'd be installing them and then certain specifications, you know, what they would be made out of, what the flooring would be. Um and then with the help of
the uh carpentry class at my vocational school and uh a bunch of other scouts, we were able to construct these gaga pits and uh put them in. And I I think they look very nice. I'm very proud of them. Um, and then finish it off, I have
a border review where um, a board of uh, adults within scouting determine if I am uh, worthy for the rank of eagle and I passed my board. So now I'm an Eagle Scout. Thank you. Amazing.
That is absolutely amazing. I think that maybe we just need to add one more thing to your project. And before Dr. Lassusa leaves the district, we might have to have a little gaga pit game so you can teach him how to play. Can you do that? You can coach him through, right? Of
course. Anytime. All right. Perfect. We're going to arrange that. Amazing. Congratulations. Thank you. Nick, can you turn? And Miss Weber has a has a question. Yes. Oh, there we go. Great. Now, I I have three Eagle Scouts. Well, from TUATE as you're from TUITE, so I know you
downplayed most of that and I just as a senior I just need people to understand how arduous the process is and the fact that you're senior patrol leader. Can you just give us like what was your how how did you feel about being senior patrol leader and that that means Will has to monitor,
organize, get fifth graders to do something like a whole bunch of them. So just give us a little bit about what you what that was like. All right. So, um, being senior patrol leader, you're senior patrol leader. You're elected by the troop. Um, and you will remain in
that position for 6 months. Um, at the time I was elected, we had about 85 scouts on roster. Um and I needed to organize meeting plans um plans for campouts. Um and uh I attended committee
meetings where I was asked you know how the function of the troop. Um I had to make a lot of announcements and you know handle individual issues of you know all of these scouts. Um, I think the biggest challenge during my my
term of SPL was um summer camp, which is when we had uh 50 to 60 scouts and it was just 247 leadership for six days. Um or yeah, 246. Um, so,
uh, yeah, that that was definitely my biggest challenge because it's just constantly people are coming up to you. You know, you're you're the guy at the top in the chain of command. All right. Scouts is a uh boyled institution. Um, and my my troop especially, we, you
know, really emphasize that we leave all of the planning and leadership up to the actual scouts. Um, the adults are there to keep us safe and make sure we don't make stupid choices. And um yeah, so um
that's yeah, extremely impressive. Now think about it. He's running an 85 person organization for kids who can't even tie their shoes. So you can imagine how difficult it is. And when he said they're coming up to them, he means literally around the clock. He's got kids crying that want to go home and somehow he has to talk them off the ledge because he knows if he can get
them past two days, they're going to be Eagle Scouts themselves. Um, also will I don't know you didn't mention but only 4% of scouts make it to that rank, guys and gals. So it's, you know, people fall off. Hundreds of people join scouts, but they don't get to that level. Um, you
also downplayed the board of review. Um, Will had to sit between before and present to not just local leaders, people that he knew, he also has to report to district leaders that he has he doesn't know and they're they are not cupcakes. They are going to grill him. And and sometimes people don't pass it.
So the fact that he passed it is also a testament to his preparedness, his stick tuitiveness. So it is very difficult to get and I commend your parents as well for having you to stick to it and it is very impressive not just your eagle but the fact that your SPL is extremely do
you feel more prepared for what's ahead than had you not been in? 100% I feel more prepared. Um yeah the these I mean these skills I'm going to have with me for the rest of my life and they will help me for the rest of my life. you will. And that's that's fantastic. Well, congratulations and well done. Thank you
for your thank you for the building the gagakits. Thank you. Thank you, Will. All right. My next two items are just simple reminders that the district will be closed next Thursday and Friday because we had a mild winter and had excess days in the calendar. And then
our next board meeting is on June 9th and the very following evening on June 10th will be our annual TEDex Cadam event. Uh that's one of the best nights of the year. So all are invited to attend that. And then the last item underneath my report is the annual
report of the graduates that our high school principal Dr. Walker delivers on uh a yearly basis. So I will invite Dr. Walker to the microphone and the board can descend into the house and listen to his uh report. Cheers.
Okay, good evening everybody. Thank you for uh allowing me to present here tonight. I'm proud to present the report of the graduates from last year's class of 2024. In the presentation, I'm going to show you some data on the outcomes of those graduates. Some will be large
charts and visuals. Others will be tables of data. This report will be published online and it's meant to really be a point of reference. So some of these tables with data might be something that our current students or future graduates might take a look at just to see some trends colleges that
students are applying to and things like that. So definitely serves as a point of reference. And I would be remiss if I didn't thank a couple people for helping me put this together because I don't do this in isolation. One would be uh Kaitton Slate, our college and career counselor plays a significant role in curating some of this data as well as
our administrative assistant in the counseling department, Janice Stler, helped me put this together. So our first um data point is our postCHS plans. Um and you can see in the class of 2024 with 93% of our students
who continued on to four-year universities, 2% who continued on to two-year and 5% who continued on to other. This is in a graduating class of just under 300 students. Amongst that graduating class, our GPA distributions. You can see we broke them
up into bands where the largest majority of our students at 47% fall between the 3.0 and 3.99. Um, and then you can see our highest band at 4.5 and above is 11.4 of the senior class. And you can see the others. So, the largest band,
it's almost about a 50-50 split between a 40 and above and then below. On this slide, I targeted our students that fall in the would be a lower quadrant of our GPA band, below 3.5 um percent GPA. And you can see that's still a great deal of success
within this group with the vast majority of our students still continuing their education in a 4-year university. I listed some of the schools that students in in that band um have metriculated to. I I try to list schools that have a lot of different students, so I'm not signaling out particular students and
their GPA, but you can see that students even in that band graduating from Chadam High School have some really great opportunities in front of them. In addition, I take a look at the population of seniors that graduated with an IEP, so special education
students. And again, so what I think is some really astounding numbers, a high level of success among those students with over 80% of of those students continuing their education in a four-year program. Uh just under 6% about five and a half and in two-year
programs. And I did provide a sample metriculation of some of the schools that some uh some of those students had metriculated into. Um I will point out in this data set in the other as well as in the um post-secary placement one a
percentage of the students in the other are students who continue at Chattam High School after graduation. We do have an 18 to 21 year old program in our special ed. So those students fall into the other category, but they're continuing inside in in their program here at the high school. And that's been a really great and very successful
program here at the high school. Four-year college placement. One data point that we take a look at each year is the choice of public versus private. And you can see here that we had a little bit of an increase in public universities last year in comparison to other years and a little
bit of a drop in private. Have to believe that a significant portion of that is cost is part of the reason why we've seen that but has been a a slight change there. Each year we take a look at the regions of the country that our students
are deciding to metriculate in. You can see that we had a little bit of a drop on the east coast going into 2024, but an increase in the south in particular and the Midwest. Those are two that stood out to me a little bit. Um, so a little bit of change in terms of where our students are deciding to
go. Give you a second to look at that. Okay, in terms of applications, you know, our counseling department does an amazing job. We processed last year 2,830 applications that resulted in over 1,400
acceptances. That equal to about a 52.44 acceptance rate for our seniors. We averaged 10.1 applications per student. So that averaged out to about 5.27 acceptances per student in that
class. We did have 125 early decision applications. Early decision is a binding agreement. So when you and you make when you apply early decision, you are applying saying to that school that I am if I get in, I'm absolutely going there. Uh financial considerations are
not really a factor. Although there are some opportunities to get out of that agreement if you if it becomes a hardship. It really is sort of binding agreement. So we had about a 50% acceptance rate there. And then early action is not binding, but it is an early decision process. So your
applications are submitted earlier and you find out sooner. And we had about a 57% acceptance rate there. I will take note that we do did see a change from the class prior. Class prior had uh slightly more applications at
3,58 and what had a 47% acceptance rate. So with less applications going into this year, we saw an increase in our acceptance rate as well to 52.4. Okay, this is bands of number of applications per student. And so what I
wanted you to take note of here is you have the bands on the lefth hand side. Students who applied to more than 20 all the way down to students who applied between one and four. You see the uh number of students and percent of the class that falls into each category and the percent acceptance rate uh of those
groups and you can you can see very clearly that the students who applied to a a lower slighter less number of schools saw better outcomes. Um this could be attributed for a lot of reasons. They're narrowing their focus. They're applying to schools that are they have deemed to be a really good fit
for them. They're putting their efforts into less applications. um they're really being specific on where they apply and they end up seeing much larger um in some cases some of the times students who are in the larger number are just applying to incredibly competitive schools and in some cases
with those schools it is literally a lottery if you are to receive an acceptance with some of the schools that have four five six% acceptance rates. So sometimes you will see a larger number of applications in that pool of students. This chart just shows some
trends over time just to take a look um going back over uh a few years starting at the bottom of the chart looking at 2013 heading up to 2024. just take some data points, show you kind of how our average GPA have progressed over
that time, our SAT and ACT scores, how many colleges students are applying to, sort of that rate of increase, and then the acceptance rates over those years. Just um just some data to show some historical trends. So, the most attended schools of the
class of 2024, P Penn State University tops that list with 11 students who are attended that school. Nor Eastern has seen an increase over the years. Some of the other schools like Ruckers has has been on this list, you know, year after year, but we do see some new schools popping onto this list uh recently, and
it is a list that does kind of move from year to year. Uh, but these are the schools that had the most students from Chadam High School attending in the fall. So, this is a a slide of the schools that received the most applications from Chadam High School. I think this is one of those examples
that's a good data point for future graduates when they're looking to apply to schools. you recognize when you apply to Penn State, which receives over 100,000 applications a year in general, you're also competing against what could be a 100 students from Chattam High School. Um, and so these are the schools
that receive the most. Penn State tops that list with 100 over 100 applications. And you can see the list of schools and the number of applications. I also include how many acceptances and then the students who actually chose to attend. Many times I get asked questions if that
if you know you have you know for example 62 students accepted to Ruckers and only eight enrolled is that you know does that look badly on Ruckers to us you know us when we have all these students accepted and no not necessarily. Um the schools you know put
out a lot of acceptances and they expect a particular yield. Um I think also with colleges the more students that apply and that they could not accept or not enroll actually helps their with their rankings to make them seem more selective. So we don't really see any
issue in terms of uh students schools that receive a lot of acceptances but kids don't metriculate and it doesn't seem to really move the needle in terms of they're looking at our students moving forward. Again some more data points for our students. This this slide would be a
list of schools that receive 20 or more applications from our students. So, these are the most popular schools that our students are applying to here at Chattam High School. And again, a point of reference for maybe our our next year's uh senior
class. The next slides are included in our in our school profile as well. And this would be the schools that our students metriculated to. So we have a list in alphabetical order and the number of students who are attending is listed there and this goes over two
slides. So again, a point of reference that you can take a look at when um you know once this is posted online, but these are our schools. And I'm going to wrap up our presentation with just speaking a little bit about our programming. And this is
where I really have to give an incredible amount of credit to our counseling department and in particular Kate Slate who is our college career and testing coordinator. Um she really has been taking us to new levels in terms of the programming that we can provide over the years. We've always hosted college
rep visits. We totaled 120 college rep visits in the past school year. That number fluctuates from year to year based on the availability of the reps and such, but that's a large number. um we opt to have these visits rather than have a large college fair. It's a little more intimate. You get an opportunity to
meet the admissions reps. Usually those reps are regional and they're usually the first reads on applications as well. So there's a benefit to meeting those individuals and we listed some of the visits that were most popular amongst our students there. So they got a larger turnout. We do these in our college
career room but we move to a larger location if we have more kids that are interested in attending. We also did a number of programming events. Um, one thing that was new is we actually had an opportunity to do a small student panel on with students who are studying in the UK. We had our alumni return day in
December, which we normally have every year where alumni come back to speak to our seniors. Happened to had some alumni who chose to come back not necessarily to speak in front of the students, but we're just coming back for the event and they were willing to meet with students during lunch on that day in a small panel discussion to talk about uh
attending schools in the UK. We continue to do our our parent and student uh post-secondary planning night. So, our junior planning night, our senior planning night, um our financial aid presentation happens each year. We bring in a director of financial aid from a
university to talk about college funding. And we also had a panel of college admission reps who we just asked them panel questions about trends that they're seeing from various universities. So, a we continued to do these events. We also had a a county
college lunch information session and um we had a number of push-in events with our 10th grade classes as well and sort of planning for the future. So there's a progression that follows. 9th grade is about acclimating to high school. 10th grade is to start exploring what my
future may hold, what interests me, maybe some um career interest inventories, and then we get to junior and senior year where we really start working with the counselors to plan ahead. The last slide which is some additional programming is we also are providing opportunities for students who are
considering other pathways besides college. So during the month of December we had sort of careers in service and defense month and we had uh visitors from uh Chattam Emergency Squad, firefighters, US Navy nuclear power, department of corrections. They came in for lunch and learn sessions. Students
can sign up to learn about careers in those areas. We also had a second year in a row now a huge open house for uh police and military. We set that up in our library. All the armed forces came in. Some of the police um programs came in. State police, local police, county
police, corrections officers, army, navy, marines, we had them all and we had information sessions and kids could walk around and learn about all those programs. ROC programs as well, things like that. So that was actually pretty highly attended. We had a number of students the first year. So we did it
again this year and it really went great. We had an information on gap years as well for students who were taking gap years. We did have a few of those that category other in in my presentation. There's you know that equals uh you know maybe about 12 14 students I believe and you know there's
a number of them in there who had were taking a gap year for different reasons and we're starting during the spring to bring in trade school program presentations as well. Last week, we continue our our our college assessment programming here by offering the PSAT10
and the PARACT10 as an opportunity for kids to get exposure to both assessments. Then we offer the PSAT 111, which is the National Merit Assessment. Last couple years, we've been having an in-house SAT for grade 11. So, that's taken here at the high school during the school day instead of a Saturday
administration. And moving forward, we're we're also looking to more than likely move to an ACT school day as that uh assessment moves to computer-based testing as well. So that is our class of 2024 and it concludes my presentation
and if you know as you return to the stage you have any questions I'm happy to answer them. I do have a question um on the um the number of schools that students uh apply to.
If a student applies ED and they have to withdraw their other applications, does that just count as one school applied to them? Correct. Yes. Yeah. We pull the data like after the fact. So we pull it from Nviance. So it's Yeah. They might have 10 applications out, but they get
an ED, you know, they find out in December, say, they pull then I don't pull the data for this report until the summer after graduation. Okay. Got it. Correct. So the students that apply to one through four would they might have had eight applications but then they
pulled back. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. And some of those students might be you know ath athletic recruits and you know sometimes there's specialty situations right uh servicemies things like that. Thank you. Are schools getting back to um using the
ACTs and SATs more for colleges? I mean trying to get kids back into schools that way. Are they looking at them harder than they were two, three years ago when it sort of went test optional or are they getting more test specific again? Yeah, it's
interesting. So I I was recently talking to some of the counselors about that. There are certain bands of schools that are starting to pay more attention to the test scores. Still a lot of test optional. It's still significantly uh significant, but there are some uh bands
of schools like state school systems that are going back to requiring test scores to differentiate. I again I I don't want to misspeak. I feel like the the California system might have went that way, but I'd have to confirm with the counselors. I don't remember. I'm not that much in the weeds with them as
in my role now. I was just wondering in general because I know that it's been it was been it's they sort of went towards test optional right during the pandemic and I don't know where if they're coming back the other way or not. Yeah. And you know, we're noticing with our own students there, you know, we're kind of um you know, I don't see heavy
heavy emphasis on test scores amongst our students. Like we see still like lower amount of percentage kids taking the SAT or ACT and you know, and you know, we advise them still if it's test optional, you know, send your scores if it helps you, right? Um and if it doesn't help you because some students their scores don't correlate to all
their other pieces of the puzzle, right? And others it helps. So the counselors advise on a case- by case basis if the flexibility is there. Dr. Walker, can you remind us uh what year do the students typically meet with their college counselor for the first
time and how many uh students does each counselor really take on um to help them? Sure. So, essentially our four-year sequence is we do they meet their counselor for the first time in ninth grade. So, we actually have counselor student conferences that
happen after the first what's considered marking period. We're not on marking periods at the high school. who are on semesters, but after the what would be the first marking period. And so that's really their beginning where they start to form the relationship. And really the goal of that too is we do it then because they've been in school now for a couple months and they have some things
to talk about, right? So we establish the relationship. Then 10th grade we do a lot of programming where we're pushing into certain classes where we're talking about like I said career exploration, introduced to Navvian, things like that. The first real postsecary planning meeting happens in junior year and it
happens in the spring of junior year. We start off with our parent and student presentation about the college search process and we do that presentation in January and we then that's when we begin having conferences with the juniors to really start exploring. We ask stu
juniors ahead of time to do some exploring and nviance and maybe have some schools that they're thinking about on their list just so that there's something to talk about a little more during the meeting. the counselors really dig in with the students about that and start talking about everything that goes into trying to find what would
be a good fit for you. So, they meet with them and then of course they can follow up with them at any time and they could see Miss Slate at any time. She's available for all students. And then um the next point of contact would be senior year. And by the way, that junior conference is parent student counselor.
And then senior year coming the fall, this is about the application process applying. And so we do a parent presentation happens usually like the first week of school, maybe this maybe the second. And then we start senior conferences with the counselors. And that's counselor, parent, student. And
that's really like going through the application process, common app or if there's a uh if you're using a different application if if a school has their own and linking NVAN and then at that time too the counselor still works with the student to narrow a list if they're still uncertain of a list. Our
counselors are incredibly knowledgeable of the college environment and you know they they do a really nice job because I've observed them quite frequently of really getting to know their students and they always come to every meeting with a list of schools that they think
are ones they should take a look at. Um and then different kids come in with different things. Some come in, they've done really nothing, they have no idea. Others come in, they've been working with outside uh college counselors. They have their own list. They tell their counselor sometimes, "We don't really need your help. We're good. We got it." Some say that. They still interject and
still give opinions. Um and but they always come prepared with what I think is really good list of options and alternatives for the kids. Thanks. It's very helpful. Doc Dr. Walker, when you say metriculating, you mean those are the schools the kids enrolled in. They're
attending. They're attending. Can you talk a little bit about the schools that they got into but maybe chose the money instead of the instead of the school like they they were accepted to other schools that maybe considered more prestigious? Yeah, but there was scholarship money to be had. There's no question. Uh there they're definitely if
you looked at the list of acceptances, you're going to have much larger numbers next to those universities, right? Um uh so I there, you know, when I when I talk to the counselors and some of the students who I talk to in in the halls, you know, sometimes they do make those decisions for financial reasons. And you know, I I've worked with students over
the years who taken like a number of AP courses and done really well on those exams and recognize that there are some universities they go to, they're going to accept the vast majority of those and have been able to get a bachelor's and a master's degree in two years just because of the number of AP credits that they were able to transfer. So we have
scenarios like that. Um you know we have students there are definitely some students who just apply to schools because there's a nervousness to this. So they want to have as many options out there as possible. They really have no intention of actually going to some of those schools and they get those acceptances and they don't attend. That
happens as well. Um and sometimes it's a matter of changing their mind on geography and things like that. But so yeah, there's definitely a lot of decisions that go into it. cost is, you know, a factor for a number of students with especially with some of the prices of the schools now. So, one of the things that Kate does and we've done
this for a number of years is we try to bring in when we do our rep visits to bring in schools that are comparable to the ones that our students are all applying to but maybe aren't getting as many applications. Um, there's over 4,000 colleges. So, you know, trying to bring awareness to some other schools
that are maybe a lower cost point but still have excellent programs or maybe just as expensive and just as competitive, but they don't have so many Cadam students applying to them. So, we're also trying to build awareness with that. I mean, we did see some change this year with Midwest and West
Coast increasing because the Midwest was usually a low number for us and the East Coast was always it. So, our kids also seem to be getting braver. They're willing to go a little farther away from home than they did in the past. Um, and I am noticing that as well. Excellent. We had a lot of California this year in our senior class this year graduating.
Great. Perfect. And having been around the block a few times, um, Dr. Walker is being a little humble. The reason that there's a shift in the not going to the northeast is because Dr. Walker has done a complete overhaul of this program in the last 10 years. This this programming does didn't look anything like that 10
years ago when Mr. Heap and my kids went to school. So you've started to bring in a lot more reps of not the traditional schools, you know, the kids, the ones that they all apply to, the schools that know us the best. You don't focus on them. You focus on the the diamond in the rough, which is so thank you to you
for for bringing in these people's and and the programming that that you've done. And it seems like it's the message is getting through focused applications, better acceptance rate. So for sure again, thank you. I know this has been a 10-year journey for you. And I think it was a brick that Dr. Lassusa put in your
bag on top of your vice principal duties at the time, but this is a complete complete overhaul and it's thank to you and your staff. So, thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you. Any other questions for Dr. Walker? Thank you for your presentation as
always. Incredibly thorough and uh you know, really something to take a look at. And as Miss Weber said, like you really truly have over overhauled it and it's it's evident in the shift, too. You know, no longer are we having, you
know, 42 kids go to Villanova. So, yeah. No, I think it's great. I think it's great. And and the Pope, right? Um and you know what? Listen, like you said, there's 4,000 colleges out there and there's we have amazing students and guess what? These colleges deserve to
have our students, too. So, it goes both ways. So I think that um I think it's it's clearly evident which is great. So thank you again for that. Thank you. That's it. You good it for me. Okay. All right. Moving on. Business
administrators report. I am sorry that I have to bring up the month of November uh because I definitely don't want to rush through summer which is my favorite time of the year. Uh but the nominating petitions have been posted to the board website and are on the county uh election website uh for the board member
elections. Uh this year the current incumbrants that are up for election for the burrow it's Mr. Delandro and for the township it's Ms. Ross and Dr. uh Zang. And the petitions need to be filed with the uh county board of elections by July
28th for anyone who's interested. Um uh the construction reports very brief. We're proceeding and ready to all the contractors are ready to hit the ground running uh once school is finished and hope to complete everything uh before school starts again in August.
Excellent. Okay, thank you so much. Um okay, for our student liaison report summer. Okay, so um just a couple things from the past few weeks. So, we had for sports, we have our spring track team just competed in the NJAC track and
field championship this past weekend. Um, our very own junior Sarinovich placed first place and broke a 26-year-old Chattam High School record. Yeah. In the 400 meter with a time Yeah. four a time of 5645. So, very, very impressive. And
then, um, our girls lacrosse team just won the Morris County tournament final against Mendum, um, on Saturday night. It was awesome. Our girls lacrosse is doing great this um this year and our boys lacrosse actually plays Dol Barton I believe tomorrow night and so we'll be
is the final I'm pretty sure it's the final. Yeah. So we'll be supporting them as well. Um so congratulations to all of our Cougar athletes. For theater um last May or last week May 8th and 9th at um 7 p.m. here in the auditorium they held
the Lur Lur project if I'm pronouncing that correctly. I don't know. But um so that was basically like a capstone course for the all the theater classes at Chattam High School. Um free admission and from what I heard it was very impactful. So props to them for that. Other than that um on kind of like
the senior course that we were just talking about um the 150 seniors are going on internship starting next week. So this is the final week of school for those 150 seniors. Um this is an 80hour internship with local businesses and companies in Chadam, Madison, New
Providence, and Summit. So um that's pretty exciting. So it'll be the last week of school for those seniors that choose to go um AP testing. So for any students um that are in advanced placement course or AP courses, um many of them if they chose to uh took the A
uh AP exams last week and up until the last one is this Friday. Um, so this week and last week it they held or CHS held 30 different AP exams with over a 1,200 exams total like administered. So very impressive for all the students
that took them. And then for um testing in general, we have the 9th and 11th uh graders taking the NJSLA, which is just like a statewide exam. Uh I believe for science next Monday and Tuesday. I know 11th grade is science. Not totally sure about nth grade, but I think something
along those lines. But yeah, it's just state testing. And then finally, um for uh we have our district art show next Monday and Tuesday at CMS, which is basically a K through um 12 showing of um bunch of different art from our school district. So that's all I have for today.
Excellent. Thank you so much. Very thorough. Yes, tomorrow night, I believe it's at 700 p.m. at Drew University, Chadam Boys play Delbarton. You know, the boys that we always want to beat. So let's hope that this is our year. Knockwood.
Okay. Um Okay. Moving on to committee reports for personnel. Miss Weber. Great. Thank you, Ann. Um personnel has not met since our last meeting. We don't have one on the books, but we may need to schedule um an impromptu meeting because of all the staffing and work
that uh Beth Grant's team is doing and Emily is doing. Everybody's um you know, working on staffing up. So, got it. While we don't have one on the books, please be aware that we may have one. Okay, perfect. Uh, for curriculum, Miss Ross, curriculum has not met either
since the last meeting, but I'm checking my calendar now to see when our next one. June 4th. Thank you. June 4th. It is. Personnel too. Okay, perfect. Um, for finance and facilities, Mr. Smith is
not here. Who else is on finance since the uh prior to the last board meeting? Okay. Do they have a meeting on the books? No. Okay, fine. Got it. New school year. Yes. Correct. Perfect. Policy and planning, Mr. Ryan. Yeah.
Policy has not met since the last meeting and not sure when the schedule is for that. Okay. Yes. Next school year. This was a tight time frame between meetings. So, uh between public meetings. So, um Okay. Perfect. Anybody
with a liaison report? Yes, Miss Weber. Thank you. Sure. For the for Chattam Burough. Um I just want to make people aware that Chattam Burough Council is starting to make some presentations regarding um third and
fourth round of their affordable housing obligations. and they've been very very thoughtful in um having the planner come in and talk to residents and allow them to ask questions questions about what a payment in le of taxes um arrangement would be versus them funding it
themselves. So um if you have an opportunity you know educate yourself and the council is always willing to answer questions. So just be aware that they're having a lot of public sessions. So you know I don't want somebody to come two years from now and say oh nobody told us. Um and the reason I mention it because there's a nexus with
the school district in that depending on you know housing um it you know will impact the school district but they're being very very thoughtful in in how they're um organizing themselves regarding the third and fourth rounds. So Right. Thank you. Okay. Good. Perfect. These mandatory rounds numbers
are mandatory. Yes. Yeah. They can't say no thank you unless you're Milburn and then you can say no thank you. Oh, it sounds like they could say no thank you all they want. But I was just wondering are is any of that changing? No. That's hard and fast. And that's how that's going. Unless there's litigation that changes it. Okay. Again, unless
Well, I they just say no. They just say no. Okay, perfect. Um I'd like to make a motion to um approve the minutes from the April 28th board meeting, uh public
session, and executive session. Please. Executive session minutes. Miss Ross, yes. Miss Allen, yes. Mr. Delandro, yes. Mr. Ryan, yes. Miss Weber, yes. And Miss Cherelli, yes. Agenda item passes 6. Okay, perfect. Thank you. Um, okay. This
is going to be our first opportunity for public commentary. Um, hearing of the citizens during the public commentary section of the agenda is an opportunity for any member of the public to be heard about issues which are or are not topics scheduled for the current meeting. To help facilitate an
orderly meeting and to permit all to be heard, speakers will be asked to limit their comments to a reasonable length of time. And if you could just please sign in and um just state your name and where you're from, that would be great. Sure. Good evening, Dr. Sortino, Dr. Lassusa,
and members of the school board. My name is Sharon Sandell and I'm the mother of two boys in first and third grade at Southern Boulevard. I'm following up on the email I sent last Thursday to Dr. Lassusa, Dr. Sortino, and each board member. Only Miss Allen responded,
"Thank you for taking the time to do so both Thursday and today. While I appreciated your acknowledgement of the library and Mr. Deoya's contributions. Unfortunately, your email did not address the core concerns I raised. Since no one else responded,
I'll assume others haven't read my message. So, let me summarize why I reached out. Exactly as stated earlier, my family left Manhattan six years ago and chose Cadam specifically for its schools. That's why I was deeply
disappointed to learn not from the district but from other parents that Mr. Deoya would not be replaced and that a shared librarian model across the three elementary schools would cut the structured library special time for K
through 2nd students including my rising second grader from weekly to bi-weekly. I wrote to express my frustration with this decision, which was made without involving parents in any discussion to explore alternatives. The American Library
Association highlights the vital role of school libraries and librarians in student success. Research shows that well staffed libraries lead to better academic outcomes, higher test scores, and improved literacy. The value of our library to early
childhood development cannot be overstated. This decision sends a troubling message about our district's priorities. Reducing access to books and trained staff is shortsighted and risks harming both our children's future and
the district's strong reputation. The s the success of our high school depends on the foundation laid in K through 8. Also, as stated earlier, by high school, it's too late to undo damage from cuts to critical
early programming. Now is not the time to compromise the quality of Chattam's education. Miss Allen, in your response, you wrote the following, and I quote, "With the changes of adding full-time kindergarten and moving the third grade to Lafayette, we have an opportunity to
shift resources to ensure that all students have ample library time." With the shift of third grade to Lafayette, we have many empty library shifts in the K through2nd school schedules. A shared K through2 librarian will now be able to cover multiple K through2 schools with
all students still having access to a librarian. Additionally, home room teachers will have additional library shift to take students to media center each week. Additionally, the middle school will require more library hours as we add fifth grade to the school.
This is not a budget cut, but a shifting of library resources to match up with the shift of students per school. Frankly, this was both dismissive and puzzling. First, K through 2nd student needs haven't changed. Full-time
kindergarten and moving third grade are unrelated and don't justify reduced library access. While middle school needs are valid, they shouldn't come at the expense of foundational K through2 literacy. Second, I don't dispute that
students will still have access to a librarian. I take issue with the fact that their structured library time is being cut in half and that's been completely glossed over. Lastly, it's hard to see how this isn't a budget cut. But if it's not,
that's actually hopeful. It means there's still room to fix this mistake. So, with that, I respectfully urge the board to reconsider. Please reinstate weekly library services and reaffirm your commitment to a well-rounded
education to preserve the high standards that make Chattam schools exceptional. Thank you for your time. Hello. Um, my name is Emily Smith and once again I'm here to advocate for the ISL program. I apologize for my uh attire. I had to leave dance to come
here tonight. Um, after standing up here twice and speaking, it has become clear that the main threat to this program is sexual harassment. I think this is an unfortunate problem with consequences both for the student and the school. I mentioned having background checks on
employees within the facilities, but that was argued against. I agree that the process is extensive, but I don't believe athletes should be punished or put at risk because we are unwilling to help. Even if the athlete doesn't get school, school credit for their sports, it doesn't mean that the sexual
harassment will go away for the student. Let's take the opportunity to be a force for good. Let's start by educating the students. We are not formally taught in nth grade health about talking about sexual harassment from adults. We should have a seminar video for the students to
watch to advocate for themselves because even if you aren't responsible, it still happens. Teachers watch a video about handling sexual harassment within their classrooms. So why can't students and athletes? How are we regulating coaches to keep athletes safe? How does a
student go about advocating for themselves when victimized at her school? I do recognize this isn't just a safety issue, though, and I know that you are concerned about being sued or charged with something that's not on school grounds, and that is unfortunate for the school district. If that's the thing you are most worried about,
contracts can be drawn up to make parents athletes responsible just like senior internships. You educate, parents should protect, students should advocate. We should make this happen. Thank you for your time. [Applause]
Uh, good evening everyone. Uh, my name is Tracy Kovalevski and I'm from Chattam Middle School and I'm here tonight on behalf of the art department to formally invite the board of education, um, the administration and our community to our annual district art show. Thank you,
Summer, for mentioning it before. It's May 19th and 20th, 6:30 to 8:30 in the upper gym at CMS. Um, and additionally, we have some senior hours this year on May 20th from 10 in the morning till noon. Um, we started this event in
2017. Dr. Luza, I'm not sure if you remember, but you sent us all an email after that first show with feedback and compliments that are still a career highlight for all of us. You said the show was spectacular, the details magnificent. Parents, staff, and
community members had massively positive feedback to share with you, and some were even brought to tears. We are so grateful to have the support of the school district to make this event possible and bring the community together to celebrate the
artistic talents of our students. And speaking about bringing the community together, last year we had over 2,000 visitors each night at the art show. Our wonderful senior interns stood at the door with their counters to verify. And so we really hope that you
will be there to experience that amazing energy with us. Um I would like to sincerely thank the administration, the board of education for their support of the visual arts program in the district. Chattam Education Foundation um for
their tremendous support through grants that's provided us with our display furniture so that we can have our wonderful shows over the years. Each of our building administrators, our supervisor, Lauren Spooner, the maintenance staff, CMS custodial staff,
and last but not least, our CMS PE department for generously allowing us to use their space um year after year. all of their contributions work to make this event possible and we hope to see you there one week from tonight. Thank
you. Good evening. My name is Jessica Leaken. Um, and I'm here because I'm under the impression that there have been additional cuts to the music program. Uh, partly why we got to hear from the wonderful music students earlier this evening. I would just like
to ask that you respectfully reconsider those reductions that you have chosen to make. The arts program, as you've heard, in many ways, is shaping students in very important ways and for future success as they go on to leave Chadam High School and continue to pursue
things that they are passionate about and excited about. And that started when they were in the early grades here at Chadam. Not being able to have lessons, not being able to have the direct influence of the staff, the excellent staff that
we do have will impact the students and their ability to continue into the music program, band, and orchestra as they move into the higher grades. You all know that this program suffered substantially as a result of COVID. And we've seen the numbers at the high
school level decrease in terms of band and um participation in band, participation in marching band. Uh I'm not sure about the orchestra numbers. I don't have kids who are in orchestra, but we now have an opportunity due to the fabulous work that the teachers have
been doing and Miss Gaul in particular, Miss Spriggs in particular, and building huge numbers of students who are interested in instruments, instrumental lessons has played a critical role in that. We have the potential to continue to impact through the high school level
the students who are engaged in those uh ensembles and in those performance opportunities. but they need that support in the earlier years as do the teachers. I would also like to remind you that this is not the only impact that the arts students have had. This is
the second meeting I've been to this year previously advocating for a number of exceptionally articulate ninth graders who were here to speak on behalf of the Disney trip. And that of course also follows the reduction in a supervisor position that impacted the
arts as well. So, I would ask that you respectfully reconsider your decisions there so that we can continue to offer the students the music education that they need and that they will be able to take forward as they go into the higher level grades. Thank you.
Good evening everyone. My name is Mike Ba and I've had the privilege of serving as a library media specialist for the past 33 years. 24 of those years have been spent right here in Chadam at SPS and Washington Avenue
School. This year I will be retiring and I have to say that it has been a pleasure and honor to really serve and work in this district with all the wonderful students and staff. But today I stand before you with a heartfelt concern for our youngest learners in the K to2 grades.
Next year, due to budget cuts or not, our district has made the decision not to replace my position as I retire. This means our K2 students will not have the opportunity to engage with the certified library media specialist every week. Instead, they will have library classes
every other week while the remaining specialists like art, music, ENT, etc. will be doubled upon on the weeks there are no library classes. These other specials are important to have every week. So, why isn't library why does this matter?
Well, studies have shown that students tend to earn better standardized test scores in schools that have strong library programs. Increased reading and writing scores among students can be attributed to the access of the strong library media program with a certified school librarian. It's important to give
our youngest learners weekly access to the library with a certified librarian to guide them. It's not just about checking books in and out of the library. We keep saying that students need to put down their devices, get off the technology, give it a rest. Library
books and certified and a certified librarian to guide them is the perfect way. Our K2 students are readers and they're developing readers. They just don't hatch into high schoolers. The librarian provides a safe space for students of all academic
levels to learn the library curriculum and enjoy literature. The library has always been a vibrant heart part heart of our K to3 schools. It's a place where curiosity is ignited, imagination takes flight. The library is more than just a collection of books on a shelf. It's a
space where students learn vital skills. The students engage in our program with literature and literary elements. They embark on inquiry investigations, research projects. They learn how to be good digital citizens. They develop a love for reading that will serve them
throughout their lives. Without a dedicated library class each week with a certified librarian, we risk depriving our youngest students of essential learning experiences. They will miss out on the joy of storytelling, excitement of discovering new authors and the skills needed to navigate the
information in our digital age. The school district of the Chadams has always prided itself on being a champion of libraries and reading. Lafayette, soon to be grades three and four in the middle school 5 to eight will both have full-time librarians. While I understand the needs to be cost savings in the
budget, there must be another creative solution to have the K to2 students to have a library special each week with a certified librarian/ library media specialist. Perhaps reassigning staff or another creative solution can be developed in advocating for the K to2
students to have library each week with a certified librarian. I urge you to consider the long-term impact on their educational and personal growth. Let us ensure that the KT2 program remains a place where every child's child feels valued, inspired, and ready to learn with a certified library media
specialist every week. Again, as I said, I'm retiring this new year. I don't need to be here tonight, but I really truly care about the K2 students and the importance of the library program. Cadam has been a wonderful place to work and I'll cherish all my time here but I really hope that you'll reconsider
having library once a week for the K to2 students. Thank you so much for your time and consideration and thank you for the opportunity to work in such a wonderful district. Thank you. [Applause] Good evening Bill Heap Chattam Burough.
Uh three quick notes. First, registration for the 48th annual Fishawak race is underway. Uh you can see various posters and flyers around town for information on how to sign up. And if you happen to be in the neighborhood of Scoop's ice cream store,
you can stop in and see our uh quilts, actually two quilts uh that have uh that display most of the t-shirts from the past 48 years uh that hanging up in uh his uh ice cream parlor. Um second, the
recital tonight was great. Uh, I'm not capable of producing even one note on a musical instrument, but I know good musicians when I hear them, and they were terrific. And last, but not least, uh, can you remind us again of when the
TED talk is? Uh, I think this is one of the hands down one of the best things that the district does. I have gone for the last three or four years and I have not been disappointed. It is great entertainment and the price is right. Thanks,
Thank you, Mr. Heap. Uh, TED talk is June 10th, 7 PM. Is that correct? Okay. June 10th. Mark your calendar. Um, thank you everybody. Anybody have any comments or
questions? Go ahead. Yeah, not not not really a relevant question other than um Miss Sandell um I have a little OCD about checking my email and yours came over as like it came over as thrill thrillshare thrillshare and then went to spam and
then the reply was no reply atappg.com. So that that may be the reason some of us didn't answer because we didn't get it. Oh really? We're gonna have to look into that. Yeah, we'll have to look into that because I didn't get it either. I didn't get it.
I didn't get it. Huh? And it's not in my spam. Can we just check that or test the portal that it doesn't go to spam because that's the only way they that So, mine was sharp, but it ended up in my inbox, not in my spam. Your special. Mine went into I wonder how wonder how it got to yours.
Same thing. Yeah. Weird. But if we could just Peter, if you could talk to John A about that, huh? Fine. Reckless with their email. What's that? I got it. Reckless read. I check your email all the time. I guess I just wish if someone were going to quote
me, they'd read the whole email rather than half the email I wrote because I I personally know how wonderful Mr. Deoya is and thank him very much for his service and have enjoyed every moment in my SPS library experience with my
youngest. and uh you know he's done a wonderful job to the district and I can't express my gratitude enough for him which was also part of my email. Congratulations. I understand I did answer your questions but go ahead. I didn't have anything
else. Could you turn on Mary's Dr. Donny's mic? Okay. Thank you for your comments and Mike, thank you so much for coming. your passion for the library just oozes out of you and we appreciate it so much. I did just want to touch on a couple of
the points that factored into our decision- making here. Um, this was a challenging decision, but we did try and look at things very closely from several angles. I did want to point out that within our K2 classrooms every day, the majority of their time when they're in
school is dedicated to English language arts. There's over 120 minutes that are dedicated to ELA. And because we um ELA filters into all of our other subjects, it is a very heavy literacy-rich learning environment. In looking at the impact of
the third grades leaving the K2 schools next year, what was happening and what we saw was that across PE, library, music, art, and DNT, those faculty members schedules were not full because of the removal of the third grade. And
what that impacted what resulted in is there were 24 empty class spaces at Southern Boulevard, 28 empty class spaces at Milton and 20 I'm sorry, 28 at Milton. Yes, and 21 at Washington. So in examining this and trying to make a
decision that worked not just for the students but also to make sure that all of our faculty members had complete schedules that did factor into it. So in the off weeks when the teachers are bringing down their students to library, the other specialists will be providing
another special based on their availability. I would say that in regards to reducing access to books, I don't I would not describe it as that. While they will not be with Mr. Deoya on the off weeks or um a library media specialist. They will be with their home
room teachers who spend a great deal of time coaching the students on what their reading level is, what a just right book um is. They are very dialed into what their interests are in the classroom and they will be the ones to support their selection of books in the off weeks. So
again, to kind of summarize, the decision really was fueled by trying to make sure that our staff members all have full teaching schedules. Um, and it did not seem to be the right thing to take one of our PE teachers or a music teacher and send them into the library
to offer library media instruction that we thought it should remain specific to the specialists and left in the hands of our teachers who, as I said, do understand their interest and their reading level that the students will have um a valuable experience going down to select the books in those off
weeks. And I did did want to touch upon um for the music. I'm not certain where the reduction you're seeing if it's the part-time strings person from Lafayette. I just wanted to follow up and say that
third grade because of their age, they're not having lessons next year and that was what the catalyst was. So at Lafayette next year, third and fourth grade will have general music. Third and fourth grade will have chorus. Fourth grade will have theater. third grade is going to have an intro to band and
they're going to also have an intro to strings so that they can have a proper semester to get to know both so that then they could make a proper decision after. Um we're still having applied music at Lafayette and Miss Gaul has brought forth her um her desire to bring
jazz band to the middle school to continue that. So, um, the reduction of lessons really is triggered just by the fact that third graders aren't just quite there yet, and we're giving them the opportunity to experiment both with band instruments and string instruments.
Thank you, Dr. Donahghue. Dr. Susa. Well, first off, I just need to tell Mr. Heap that he's right about the TED event, but the district art show will give it a run for its money. So, you should swing by the middle school next Monday and check it out. Um, I'll just
note that we we actually increased music staff a year ago because we hired additional staff at the middle school knowing that this current year would be light um for our staff there, but anticipating that come the fall of 2025, we would need additional staffing. So,
we hired more full-time music staff uh districtwide last year. That staff was deployed to the middle school. And then this year, like Dr. Donnu said, we're peeling back an itinerate staff member who's not a tenure track staff member uh
who's been supplying lessons and and um other assistance at Lafayette. Uh but overall, we've had an increase there. And then I can't uh speak to the LMC any better than Dr. Donnu has. Um, but I'll just say we have to remember that we're removing 25% of our students from three
of the buildings in the district. And when you remove 25% of your students from a school building, uh you're left with fewer sections in that building and um the need to evaluate how you are staffed. And we had many discussions
about which areas of staff we could potentially reduce. and they weren't confined just to classroom teaching staff or just to specialists, but all of the positions at our current K3 buildings, which will become K2 buildings. I won't be here, but I
anticipate that that evaluation will continue next year when we make the full shift to K2. Um, but there are K5 buildings uh nearby that don't have as much staffing in certain areas as we do at K3 buildings, and now we're moving to
K2. So, the idea was to try to be efficient in the staffing that we have. Um, look where we could um ensure that we continue to run our programs and provide the the the programs and instruction that we believe our students
deserve. Um, but do so in a way that was responsible and that was the most efficient given all of our resources. And I'm sure that that's going to continue as we move into next year. Okay. Perfect. Thank you, Dr. Lassusa. And I'm sure that at the end of the year
that and throughout the year, there will be evaluations of how it's working out. It's not as if, you know, anything is forever. So, um, okay, perfect. So, I am going to close this public commentary section. There will be another
opportunity after our regular agenda later in the meeting, and we're going to move on to our regular agenda um for personnel. Miss Weber. Yes. Thank you, Ann. I'd like to move I'm sorry I'd like to move action
items A1 through A25 on the regular agenda and I would like to draw your attention to 26 through 29 on the addendum with particular note of 26. I'll second
that. I think that Dr. Sortino may want to say something here. [Music] I'd like to congratulate Aaron Yamamoto who is our new principal of Chattam Middle School. He has done a phenomenal
job in his role as the supervisor of mathematics for the past three years and prior to that he was a math and computer science teacher at Chattam High School. So he knows the district well, the staff well, the families well and he's very attuned to the unique needs of middle schoolers which is very important. He's
excited for the reconfiguration and I have the most confidence in him in making sure that everything runs successfully and is ready to go for an August start. So congratulations Aaron if you'd like to say something 12. I know. Good evening everyone. Um I know it's
been a long meeting so I don't want to take too much more of your time but uh I want to take an opportunity to thank the board of education Dr. Lassusa, Dr. Danahghue and Dr. Dr. Sortino for this incredible opportunity. Um, day after Mother's Day, I certainly can't um
forget to thank my wife and my kids for supporting me. Uh, this is for me a dream that I had when I ver very first started teaching 15 years ago. Um, to become a principal. Um, and I've been fortunate enough for the past seven years to be here uh with the school
district of the Chadams. Uh, I'm a guy from Philadelphia. So, I moved to New Jersey with very little information about this district and why it had this incredible reputation and why it was plural as well. Um, but you know, fast forward seven years and I can assure you
I know why it's plural. Um, can't always tell you where the boundary lines are between the the township and the burrow. Um, but more importantly, I I've been able to figure out why this is such a special district. Um, and why the reputation precedes it. Um, anytime you have this conversation, uh, for me with
my colleagues beyond, uh, the district, um, in particular, the last three years as supervisor, I've gotten to work closely with our staff. Um, and I'm really looking forward to the fact that I'll be able to leverage the dynamic talents that we have in our fifth through 8th grade staff at Chattam
Middle School. Um, so I'm really looking forward to, you know, leading us through the reconfiguration and ensuring that Chattam Middle School continues to be a school where our students can thrive, where they can explore, where they can maximize their potential and, you know, we can ensure that they transition
successfully to uh Dr. Walker and Chattam High School. So again, thank you so much for the opportunity. Uh, and I'm really looking forward to getting started. Well, we're so excited to have you. We're so excited that we have had you this long and I think it's going to be an amazing role for you for sure. Um,
it's going to be challenging, but I think you're up for it. Um, yeah. So, congratulations. It's going to be great. And, uh, go Birds. Go. I couldn't resist. Sorry. You had to. You should have. When Aaron first took
over the math supervisor position, he came down the gang plank there and I stopped him and said, "Oh, I thought he was a high school junior." I'm like, "Oh, are you here to see Dr. Lassusa?" And now I see his lovely bride. You two must get proofed all the time. I They are old enough to teach. They're They
have their driver's license and we're we're thrilled to have you. It's a special place because of people like you, Aaron. So, thank you. Okay. Ready for a vote? Sure. Agenda items A1 through 25 and agenda addendum items 26 7 8 and 29.
Miss Ross, yes. Miss Allen, yes. Mr. Delandro, yes. Mr. Ryan, yes. Miss Weber, yes. And Miss Chicarelli, yes. Agenda items pass 6. Congratulations, Aaron. Excellent. Okay, moving
on to Uhhuh. Um, finance. I am no longer on finance. Oh, who's on finance? No one. Probably be Mike. Uh, Mike Ryan, you on finance. Are you on finance? Sure. All right, let's go.
Um, I'd like to move action items B1 through B12 on the regular agenda agenda. A couple of donations to mention before we get there.
Um, let's see. We have a Fidelity Charitable Donor for the Eleanor Shipler Award in the amount of $500. We also have a $6,000 donation from the Schmeltz family
to fund the Elanor Schmeltch, sorry for pronouncing that incorrectly if I did, uh, scholarship fund. We have a $1,000 donation from the American Red Cross and we have Box Tops donation from
Chattam Middle School, $4460. And we also have an athletic booster club donation. Uh $4,000 to buy a new refrigerator for the snack shack at Cougar Field. Thank you everyone for those donations.
Okay, second. We got a second from Mr. Delandra. Great. Thank you. Agenda items B1 through B12. Miss Ross. Yes. Mr. Al Miss Allen. Yes. Mr. Mr. Dellesandro, yes. Mr. Ryan, yes. Miss
Weber, yes. And Miss Cherelli, yes. Agenda items pass 6. Perfect. Quick question. Does the Schmelts Foundation does Schmelt's fund uh go to several students because it's a lot of money. It's $6,000.
I don't recall, but I wrote about the EJ SM scholarship in the board memo. if you read about it. Okay. EJ was a Cadam High School student who uh I taught two years. Terrific kid, as
good as they come, and he was accepted into the Air Force Academy. Uh he was captain of the football team, star baseball player, most humble salt of the earth kid you could ever come across. and his first year at the uh right after
he came came home after the first semester went back spent Christmas with his family, went back to the Air Force Academy, he suffered a cardiac arrest uh in a in a training drill and there was a a defect or an issue with the AED that they used on him and he died and he was
an only child and you know, wow. That's why I remember. So that's the scholarship. Got it. So, don't forget after I'm gone. Yep. We got it.
Noted. Okay. Did we vote? We did. Correct. We We did vote on curriculum. Moving on to curriculum. Curriculum. Yes. I'd like to move action items C1 to C3 on the regular agenda.
I'll second it. Agenda items C1 to C3. Miss Ross, yes. Miss Allen, yes. Mr. Dellesandro, yes. Mr. Ryan, yes. Miss Weber, yes. And Miss Sharelli, yes. Agenda items pass 6. Okay, perfect. Um, I do not have
anything else for board business. Does anybody else? Just calendar. Oh, calendars. Are we discussing or they're just for us? I think it was just for you guys to digest, kind of take them home. Maybe at the next meeting you can share your
thoughts and decide which ones should be axed or which ones should be modified or which one should go forward and then we can circulate them uh to get some parent input. Okay. So will we so we can discuss these amongst people we know as
ideas or no? Yeah, you can discuss them all you want. I just didn't think you'd be ready to tonight. Right. Um but yeah, on June 9th you can decide which ones we should circulate for input. Sure. Oh, so we may decide to modify and then
circulate three for vote. Anything you want. Okay. Is the significant difference between the three the February break. Uh they have a couple of different start dates. Um
okay. I'm just trying to recall. Right. One has a February when there's an early graduation. Teachers are starting like early. Okay. Two start on the 17th. One starts on the 20. One you're talking about with the April break starts on the
25th of August. Okay. As opposed to starting the 17th of August. Okay. Thanks. They're all very similar otherwise though it appears to be. I put in the Monday after Easter on a couple of them because that seemed to be popular this year in past years. What's
caused families more angst not having the early I mean there's a significant difference in the start date in August but they're both they're all before Labor Day but then one has a February break and some don't. Have you had more feedback one way or the other what people have liked
in the past? I think it's kind of all over the place. Okay. I mean, historically, we have usually voted for the calendar that gets the highest percentage of votes from the parents, right? Or at least close to it.
Yeah. I think um we've gotten very positive feedback with the the way we've structured the February break with just the Friday and the Monday. It's just enough that I've heard from many teachers like they don't want the full week. Yeah. Because it's a little bit too close to the December break. So,
that I think is good feedback. Right. One question I'm looking at. I see I E D L F I. What is that? March 10. Is that the Lunar New Year one? No, that's Ramadan.
Ramadan. Got it. The final. I knew we'd discussed that and I was wondering if that was one of them in there somewhere and I couldn't I don't know the uh I didn't know that. Got it. Okay. So, yeah, feel free to take those home and we can discuss
um before the next board meeting. Uh policy, we have nothing. And this will be our second opportunity for public commentary if there is anybody else that would like to add anything else for the evening.
Close. We do not have an executive session or we do. We do not. We do not. Okay. Perfect. Okay. That all being said, I would like to make a motion to close this meeting. Okay, perfect. Thank you
everybody. Everyone get home safely.