Good morning, everyone. I'd like to call this meeting of the Board of Education to order. Public notice of this meeting pursuant to the Open Public Meetings Act has been given by the Board Secretary on November 19, 2025, in the following manner. posted notice on the school bulletin board at the administration building, transmitted to the courier post, Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Clerk of Cherry Hill Township. Please rise, and join me in saying the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. into the republic for which it stands. One nation, under God.
indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Mr. Shim, can you please call the roll? Dr. Braddock? Here. Mr. Fain? Here. Dr. Dryson. Here, Mr. Greenbaum. Here, Ms. Manzano. Here. Mr. Mayor. Here. Ms. Palmer? Here. Ms. Stern? Here. Ms. Winters? Here, thank you. We are going to start with one of my favorite things ever. recognition of our fall athletes. Mr. Varal?
Our superintendent, uh, Dr. Morton's gonna be joining us up here. you know, it's funny, when I started this job 9 years ago, I didn't need glasses, whatever, I have to read, so… Um, yeah, our athletic season, um, this year, just another outstanding season by our student athletes. We had, uh… almost 400 students at West, and almost 450 students at East. who participated in our fall athletics. Um, was about 850 students total at the high school level, and about almost 1,200 students at the middle school level participated in our athletics and intramural programs this.
Uh, fall. Um, for the high school level, we had, uh, 60 of our, uh, student athletes were named, uh, first or second team all-conference. Um, just really an outstanding… really outstanding season, uh, this fall. Our East Boys Cross Country was ranked. 8th in the state, they actually finished second in the conference, second in sectionals, and fourth at states. Um, and Group 4, and we're 8th at the Meet of Champions, that's all the teams combined overall.
Um, our East Girls Cross Country, I'll kind of let them get in there, but they finished ranked 9th in the state of New Jersey. Our West Girls field hockey team was ranked in the top 20 in South Jersey. And both East football and East soccer were ranked in the top 10 in South Jersey. Um, our East Boys soccer team made it all the way to the South Jersey Group 4 sectional championship. And, you know, another season, just overall of how competitive our teams are, is every single team except two. Uh, both our high schools made the playoffs. Um, and at the middle school level, we're gonna honor two of those teams tonight, but also Rosa Field Hockey.
Uh, lost in the finals of the South Jersey Middle School League Championship. So, just another outstanding season by them. I'd like to thank the Board of Education for all of their support. Uh, one of the things that's really cool that's happening tomorrow night's our first time ever, is, uh, we have a combined Cherry Hill team. It is our girls wrestling program is combined. And, uh, they're gonna have their first ever dual meet tomorrow night at Cherry Hill East, 5 o'clock versus Kingsway, and we're super excited to have that one of our programs.
We've really been working to grow, and we had the opportunity to bring them together, and they started NJSA, started a dual meat program, so we're going to start that tomorrow night, so… We're super excited to kind of get that kicked off the ground, so… All right, without further ado, let's start with our first team tonight. Um, our Rosa Boys Soccer. Uh, Coach Young, would you come on up here and join us? And here comes, uh, Principal John Cefagna. All right. Thank you. I've kind of turned half here, is that alright?
So, just a couple quick words. I know I need to be quick, there's a lot of teams here, um… This team was truly, I think it very simply… the one word that would come to mind for me is just teamwork. They were, across the board, a team. They, um, played offense together, defense together, um… I don't love quoting stats, but we had 15 different scores, 19 players on the team. We had, uh, 8 shutouts. They played offense and defense together, like I said. Um, they work together all the time, we had fun, we enjoyed ourselves.
And I'll just quickly say, one of the coaches, the teams we played, we played on a nice turf field. We played very well. This coach, when he saw us the next time, he said just this was literally the best. middle school team he's ever seen play. And they truly were. So, thank you to the boys for allowing me to be part of it. I was… it was a pleasure for me to be part of it. Congratulations. So, jump right in. All right, I'm gonna call up Jack Archer.
Bob Archer. Right early. Gino Escona. Alex Berbilis. Brody Debello. Matt Hall.
Jesse Kellerman. Jacob Lee. Charlie Lloyd. Jude Minnella. Harper McCollum. Colin McMahon.
Liam, no. Chris Reichener. Lucas Sharp. Aiden Chin. Dylan Stewart.
Rizal Trinidad. Arush Varma. Sean Hammer? and Hector Pina. Thank you very much to the board. Dr. Morton, thank you to everyone. Thank you so much, and congratulations, athletes. Just so you know, when you're done coming up to receive your certificate, you're going to head down to the boardroom, which is down the hall and to your right to get a picture taken.
All right, uh, next up, um, from Beck Boys Cross Country, I'd like to have a. Coach, uh, Anthony Maniscalco. And Principal Sims, you want to join us up here? Hi, I'm Coach Maniscalco, here to represent the Beck Boys Cross Country Team, and I've… Got a little helper, Shane Wachowski, for me. Uh, the Beck Boys had a tremendous season.
Uh, not only did they win the Cherry Hill Championships. But they actually won the Camden County meet. Uh, I'm wearing the shirt from that meet, and actually, all of the boys who will be rewarded tonight will get this. Same shirt, uh, from the meet. The Camden County meet, uh, it brings together all the best runners from Camden County. Uh, and that includes Haddonfield Middle School, so it was a really big honor to finally, um. beat Haddonfield in that race because, you know, as you know, they're a spectacular team.
Um, I'm so proud of these boys and their maturity. I coach at the high school. I did cross-country at the high school for 17 years. I'm still there for track, so I bring that same mentality to the middle school. And it's just so fulfilling to see the younger boys, um, living up to those same high expectations that I have. Uh, so I'm really honored. Uh, so tonight, I'll be calling up the top seven from that Timber Creek meet. Uh, they have this really cool plaque that Shane is holding. Uh, Shane, if you want to face the audience, too.
Um, so that was made, we'll find a place for it at Beck to put up, and it has all of their names on it. Uh, Joni Goldberg. Uh, Adam Reinhardt. Miles Keating.
Connor Senbach. Robinson Wolfe. Everett Rome.
And Lucas Clark. Just, uh, one quick note about Lucas. Um, he has not lost a cross-country meet this season. Uh, he was the overall winner of that Camden County meet, and then he went to a Poughkeepsie, New York for the middle school regional championship, and of all the kids, middle school kids in the Northeast.
Lucas Clark took first place by about 30 seconds. Congratulations, Lucas. Thank you, and then, boys, your shirts, uh, outside. Congratulations, athletes. We're so proud of you.
All right, uh, continuing on our, uh, Parade of champions here. Uh, next up, uh… Coach Mason from our East Girls Cross Country team. Hi everybody, I'm Coach Mason. I wanna… I'm sorry, I don't really know where to even look here. This is weird. I'm sorry to give you my back. Uh, congratulations to this wonderful, dedicated varsity team that we have.
Um, it's not easy to come here in June, start training in June, and with a determined goal in mind. And for us, it was to get to meet champions this year. We actually did, so it was really great. Um, the girls had won, uh, SJ Open 3 years in a row, not only having or winning our division, but also the fastest team. all 3 years. Uh, division champs. Uh, at sectionals, we came in second place. And then qualified at states. States, we came in fourth.
moving up from 6th last year. And then the ultimate prize, which of course was the Meat of champions. Uh, only 14. teams of the entire state make it there. And we did. And we got there, we kicked some butt, and uh… we came in 8th place. And, uh, they did just a phenomenal job. It's really their dedication and their willingness to. just come out and do the… are just a really tough sport, so congratulations to these girls. Only four are only here today, out of seven. However, I wanted to call up the 4 right now.
Riley Budsock? Katie Gratini. Ella Davidson. And Rebecca Tibbetts.
Addie Weiss, who isn't here today, um, made second team All-State. Uh, she not only won various varsity races all throughout the season, however. at, uh, at the meet, she set the course record at DreamPark. With a time of 1746. Absolutely astonishing. Um, so, but she couldn't be here tonight for me to give her a formal. shoutout with her here, but she did a phenomenal job.
All right, um, as you could hear, just a phenomenal things that, uh, that are happening, uh, with our East Girls Cross Country team. I think most about if you want to find the East girls cross-country team, they're very easy to find. Anytime between June. in December, you can usually find them right on Crescent Road, headed in that direction. Um, in the summer, they're there very early in the morning. Um, I think that the success of the program has really just been outstanding. Coach Mason, she was, uh… this is her fourth year as a head coach.
Uh, this year she was at Olympic Conference American Division Champion. Uh, she went over all the accolades of just the wonderful job that her team has done. Um, she was nominated as a New Jersey Girls National Coach of the Year. Um, and with that, she has been awarded the NJ.com Olympic Conference. Coach of the Year for Girls Cross Country, so congratulations to you.
Congratulations. Thanks. Alright, I'll try this way. All right, so the only person that was upset about Addie Weiss winning the, uh, cross-country. championship was, uh, Coach Feeney, because she was a setter on the volleyball team last year, uh, as a freshman. Um, so next up, our Olympic Conference America Division champions, Coach Feeney, uh, from the East Girls volleyball team.
Uh, first I'd like to thank the… Uh, the board for inviting us out here. Uh, this team's done a lot of winning. Uh, we won our second straight. uh, conference, uh, championship, um, going… A lot of these girls here, uh, have gone a perfect 16-0 in the, uh, in our division of the Olympic Conference. tough stack, uh, divisions are quite, quite the accomplishment. But I'm gonna take a little bit different, uh, perspective tonight, and uh… you know, tell your girls that it's… this isn't what it's about, it's about… you know, I was listening to something from.
Greg Popovich, uh… famous NBA coach, and he talked about the wins and the losses, they. They fade away. That stuff fades, and as you get as old as I am. you start to understand what this is about, is relationships. It's about the relationships that you form with your coaches. It's about the relationships that you form with each other. That's the stuff that's going to last. Uh, the winning's fine, but when that's done… Um, that's the stuff that matters, and I'm just grateful that. you know, I got to spend the last two years with you guys, and have one more chance to celebrate you.
Um, so with that, I'll call up my players. First up, Isabel Balagno. Angela Cho. Greta Mueller. Didn't mess it up. Harper Nickel.
Madison Neves. Nicole Shoel. Dave Slattery! Sydney Brown. Remy Choi.
Leela Man. Madison James. I saved my freshman for last just to torture them a little more. Uh, Evelyn Cruz. And Ariana fills Amy. Thank you.
All right, and… our, uh, final team for tonight, I'd like to introduce, um. East football head coach, Mr. Tyler Job, who is a West Jersey Football League Memorial Division Champions. Alright, I just want to first thank the board, Dr. Morton, Mr. Burrell. Uh, for your continued support, and let me coach the football team again. It's been a tremendous, uh… Tremendous run we've had the last couple years, um… Just a little quick, uh… point on that, when I, you know, started 4 years ago, this is our third time being here for this, and um, you know, some people might have said that was crazy. I know when.
I talked to Ms. Burrow and interviewed and everything, and we talked. some of the things I had envisioned, and things for the program, and the only reason it happened, because, you know, tremendous coaches. Some of them are here tonight. Coach Holman, Coach Serry, and a buy-in from all of our, you know, our parents and our players, who just had tremendous support from them. Um, we've really had the same coaches for. about 4 years now, which is hard to do, and we love being together, which I think makes it worthwhile. Um, the guys love being together. We just had a, you know, we have off-season workouts if they're not in a winter sport, we just… We had that today, right before this. I mean, it's really a year-round…
thing, year-round commitment to working out, um… And trying to be a championship football team. That's really, we know how it's gone, and… Especially in South Jersey, it's really competitive, so… tremendous season for us, um… Besides that, just want to thank the community and everyone for continuing to come out and support us at the home game. It's been awesome the last two years, having lights, and… something as an alumni, I always envisioned and hoped for, and I think that's been tremendous, having everybody come out and the students come out, and. Really show support for the guys, um… It was awesome having a home playoff game, something our guys will look back on. It was a really tough loss, but… is great, uh, great accomplishment, and…
We look to do more, uh, going forward, so… Just gonna honor some of these guys now. We have a couple guys from each grade, um, that are here tonight. First, from our senior class, we have Brody Connors. Uh, next we have Keon Simmons.
And from our juniors, uh, we have Josh Greenberg. on those last two guys, Frew walks out, Keon Simmons is two-time on conference. Great player for us, and Josh Greenberg's all-conference this year as a quarterback. Uh, we have Trevor Levin. Jaden DeLau? Yeah.
And then a couple guys from our sophomore class, we have Giorgio Barone. We have Riley Percival. Ethan Reynolds. And then the T.O. Simpson.
did have about 90 players, and… 60 varsities, so I didn't think you're going to listen to all 60 of them, but thank you again. Thank you. I was at a lot of East football this season, and they were phenomenal to watch. Congratulations, athletes. Alright, moving forward, the next thing on our agenda tonight is an administrative report. It's an update on our projects by Mr. Schimm.
Okay, thank you. Uh, so this is just our monthly Cherry Hill Tomorrow project update. That'll run you through, uh, board members, it is attached, um. in Board docs, if you want to follow along that way as well. So tonight we'll just focus again on the ongoing projects at… Malberg and Kilmer with the preschool editions and renovations, as well as the interior renos at Rosa and Carusi. And then we'll get into the upcoming project status.
Uh, as some of the future projects are really starting to take shape. Uh, now. So, Mulberg and Kilmer, as you know, we've added, uh, 8 preschool classrooms at each of those, as well as interior bathroom. installs at Malberg. Um… As of today, we actually had furniture being delivered to the Kilmer site. Uh, so we are just about… we are on the home stretch here at both of these sites, so construction… is complete. We are in punch list.
We are still waiting on. the final COs, which we anticipate. later this week, but the classrooms are starting to be occupied. Teachers were at Kilmer, as well as their aides today. place in the furniture, and we'll have Malberg. install on Thursday. So, we're looking good for our January 5th opening of these new 16 classrooms over at Malberg and Kilmer. Here are just some pictures, um… over at the Kilmer site, you can… or, yes, Kilmer site, you can see the, uh, fencing.
Uh, in the background, fire alarm's complete, all the playground equipment is installed, is now open for use. Unfortunately, with the weather, it's not being used at the moment. Uh, classrooms are clean, and again, furniture has been installed. You can kind of see the casework. here, uh, actually, this is at Malberg. Over at Kilmer, you can actually see some of the furniture that was delivered today. Teachers are starting to put things in place. Getting ready for opening on the 5th. Uh, it's a good shot of the playground there. You can see the. rubberized, uh… ground has been placed, that's been tested, and again, that is now in, or can be used once the weather clears here.
Over at Kilmer. So, Rosa additions, you can see here, is a decent shot of the main entrance. We're just waiting on the lettering, which will be coming sometime in January, but this obviously has really taken shape. Over there, uh… Here's a good shot, again, of the cafeteria addition over at Rosa, as well as the interior. Um, structural steel erection obviously is complete. Sprinkler systems installed. roofing is in progress, almost complete. Foundation Waterproofing, you can see there in the picture on the left, is complete, and the brick installation is underway.
This picture's a little old, so, you know, some progress has obviously been made. Uh, since that time. Here's the other part of Rosa that's ongoing, so the main office area is complete. Again, we're just waiting on. A final certificate of occupancy. But a couple good shots at the main entrance, the new office area, as well as the security vestibule. Uh, we're looking, hopefully, to get the administrative offices moved over. from their temporary placement over break into the new setting, although we do still have some furniture needs that we're working on over there.
Uh, Rosie, you can see here just the… the… Phase 2 work, um… that's scheduled for later this summer, that'll be coming up. Uh, all interior and exterior work over at ROSA. Uh, we'll button up by next August, and Rosa will be complete all interior renovations for school in September of 2026. And we are on schedule on that. Uh, we still have $188,000, actually, remaining on the initial allowance of $287,000, so… project is progressing on time and again.
within budget. Karusi? You can see here, Karusi continues to progress. As you all know, that's one of the construction sites that's ongoing while school's in session, as we have the temporary classrooms. Uh, located in the rear of the building there. Right now, you can see we're working on the B wing in the blue. Uh, C-Wing is pretty much complete and in punch work. That work should be wrapping up in June, and then we'll be heading towards.
Phase 3 of Carusi. in June, in the interior. So, working, uh, the B-Wing continues. You can see just a couple pictures. Here, uh, classroom doorway opening. As you may recall, I've mentioned over at Carusi, because of a lot of the asbestos work. all of the entries or classroom doorways had to be completely reconstructed. Um, it wasn't as simple as just swapping doors, so you can see that they're taking. taking shape. Uh, sprinklers in the boiler room, also complete, you can see a picture there, and then there's a typical classroom.
In the B wing, you can see getting prepped for floor. This is just future Phase 3 work you'll see that'll be taking place in the D and C wings. That'll be starting up in June. As I mentioned last month. Dewing will continue through the summer of. Uh, 2027. There, to wrap up the Karusi site, and then the remaining allowance, we still have $144,000 left. of the original $400,000 amount, so that's consistent with the construction work.
construction work completed to date. So again, progressing on time, on budget there as well. So future projects, uh, we've added a couple since last month when we talked. Um, so the Beck interior renovations, you may recall, had to be re-bid. Uh, that bid was redone, and we awarded a contract to D'Andrea Construction for just over $11 million for Beck Phase 1 interior renos. Uh, on November 25th, so Phase 1 at Beck will commence in June of 2026.
Uh, high school auditorium, so… Once again, a bid was awarded to TN Ward for about $13.7 million for both the East and West auditorium renovations. Uh, we actually had our pre… pre-construction meetings start up with that. Uh, last week, so we'll be getting underway at the East Auditorium in April. of this year, and that should wrap up in December. And then we'll be doing the West Auditorium, same thing, April 2027, wrapping up in December of 2027.
Uh, critical HVAC, continued work through the co-op, we'll be doing the. West Gymnasium. Uh, beginning in April as well, and then East Gymnasium will be done the following April 2027. Uh, so since last meeting, we did announce the new… the four new security vestibules we'll be doing over summer 20… 26, so we packaged, uh, Barton and Kingston. together that is currently out on the street for bid. Those bids are due on January 15th, and we'll look to award, hopefully.
At the action meeting in January, and then we package Johnson and Sharp and those bids. are out and do on January 29th. east-west elevator. Modernization, that's also. Uh, currently out for bid. Those bids will open on January 21st. So the existing elevators at both east and west will be modernized as part of this package, and we'll be adding an additional elevator. at West, it's on the E-Wing, 3-story E-Wing, uh, elevator will be.
um, placed there at West, and again, those bids open on January 21st, so we'll be looking to. later that month. We're also starting to do some preliminary work, or not work. started to look into our architects, looking into to create the scope of work for the. lower-level locker rooms, team rooms, and weight room over at West below the Jones Gym on the lower level there. Uh… that's… that's kind of a priority of mine, so I've, uh, we're… Architects are getting on that, and we're hoping to get a significant amount of work done over the summer down.
below the Jones Gym there. Uh, again, site improvement, so the bids for site improvements will be going out in January. Uh, we've packaged both Johnson and Mann, and then Kilmer and Knight. So we'll be doing all of the asphalt parking areas, as well as site accessibility improvements with sidewalks. Um, and we're also going to package or put out a package for the first phase of the East. parking lot, which will be the administrative side. So we've done a lot of work. Uh, with our engineer on the east lot trying to figure out a way to make it.
more efficient, and I think we found a way to. get the buses all located in one spot to kind of allow, uh. more parrot pick-up and drop off, uh. become more efficient operation over there. The only thing with East, unfortunately, because of the. additional renovations we'll be doing at that building. We're not going to be able to fully finish the scope of the site work. at east until, um… most likely 2028. Because part of that on the… On the one side of the building, there's going to be a lay down area, so we don't want to… destroy the work that we've done.
So, a lot of work, um… We'll be commencing shortly in June. Coming up already, and we'll have several bid openings in January, and looking to make a ward, hopefully. Uh, the numbers come in under budget at our action meeting in January. Wonderful, thank you. Do any board members have questions for Mr. Schimp on the… Bond project update. lots of joy around the east parking lot, I can tell you that. Alright, well, if there are no… Board member questions. I'm going to move to our next agenda item, which is a presentation.
Bye, Ms. Barati on community engagement. Good evening, everybody. Can you hear me? Okay. Right? Okay, that's better. Good evening, everybody. My name is Nina Barati, I am the Public Information Officer for Cherry Hill Public Schools. I just crossed one year of being in this role. It's been a great year, and we have a lot of fun things ahead as well. Tonight's presentation is specific to community engagement and social media metrics.
So this falls under some of the goals and recommendations that are in place, two of them relate to our strategic plan, uh, one. concentrating on elementary enrollment balancing, another with enhancing community connections and transparency. Finally, with the communications audit that was done a couple of years ago, we've been going down there and really using a lot of the advice and recommendations to just improve internal and external communications. So, that kind of falls under this presentation tonight as well.
First, just to touch base on the elementary enrollment. balancing. We recently had 3 in… I'm sorry, 2 in-person meetings and a virtual one. We launched a district-wide communication campaign. We were able to announce the community input sessions. We put together a discussions with Dr. Morton episode, we sent out reminders via CHIPS Weekly, the district website. the individual, uh, school. Newsletters and all over social media. after the conclusion of the three meetings, we were able to launch a dedicated webpage that had all of the information on it.
But these, uh, the, uh, three meetings were well attended. We were able to engage and hear directly from the community specific to elementary enrollment balancing. We had about 36 people at East, 21 at West, and. around 112 attended the virtual meeting. Going back a little bit to the start of the school year to highlight our bond referendum construction, the engagement that came with that, we were, uh, we had. six very successful open houses. We opened up the new all-purpose rooms at the 6th elementary.
schools, we invited the community in, we had people from all the different communities come in. We had grandparents come, we had a lot of people show up just to see the construction. It was, uh, pretty positive night as well. a couple weeks later, we were able to host the ribbon cutting, again inviting, um, you know, with… especially with the open house previews for the six… being able to invite the community and engage with them, and talk to them about what's been done and what's moving forward for the. on referendum construction. Now, specific to online engagement, this, we, as you all know, we launched our new website January of last year, so we are closing out our first year with it.
These were pulled on December 7th, so this is from January 1st through December 7th. We had, uh, about 2.8 million views to the website, the top visited pages were our homepage, the parent section, the calendar. the Our Schools page that has all the contact information, and our employment page. I also wanted to highlight where people are visiting our website, how they're viewing it. You can see the top, uh. active users are using their iPhones, and that's great because Final Site, with the new website, it's very mobile-friendly, a lot of things, uh… they're easy to read, and they change to your mobile device pretty easy, so we can see from here how many people are using it and able to engage with our website.
When it comes to s'more, s'more is the platform that we use for the newsletters that you get every week from your principal, as well as Chips Weekly. This is specific to Chips Weekly that comes out of Dr. Morton's office. This data was pulled from January through the end of November. I averaged out the view count for all of the s'more newsletters from the beginning of the year through this time, a little over 17,000 views. averaging for all the newsletters. The lowest view count was around 14,000 people, and that was actually the, uh, s'more going into.
the Thanksgiving holiday break, the highest views were the last week of school and the first week of school, welcome back. So, a lot of people are excited to come back to school. Now, when it comes to social media, since I've been here, that's been a priority of mine to. Social media is used… can be used as a really great tool to connect with our community, to provide correct information, and to celebrate all of the wonderful things we have going on across the district. So, this is specific to the Cherry Hill Public Schools, the district. social media accounts, we have separate ones for all of the schools and the clubs.
going on, but again, this is through December 7th on Facebook, we hit 1 million views in October. We, uh, so this morning I checked, we, uh, just crossed over 1.3 million views as of this morning. I think it was the 2-hour delay that pushed us over. Um, when it comes to content interactions, that's how many people are liking, commenting, sharing. putting emojis on our… on our posts that we've had over 19,000 people interacting with our content. We have approximately 3,400 followers right now. Instagram's a little bit different, even though they're, uh, through the same platform. The way that the analytics breaks down is a little bit different.
Um, you're only able to look at specific timeframes from them currently, so this data that I have showing here is from May 22nd through December 7th. a little under half a million views to that page, uh, about. close to 8,000 content interactions, and we do have a little bit more followers on Instagram, even though we… our biggest audience on both Facebook and Instagram are, um, parents and our community, there's a high number of students that use Instagram, so that's why that number is a little bit different, especially at the high school level, because. every club has their own, as you guys know, has their own account.
So, this is by view. So this is how many people, if they're scrolling, they might not necessarily follow us on social media, but it comes up in their. Uh, in their feed, somebody they know likes or comments on it. These are our top views from this past year. This is from January 1st through, uh, last week. Uh, the highest viewed post was actually a, uh, we are hiring for, uh, it was… the post was shared into a couple, uh, job searching groups. a notice from the Office of Special Education we recently had, elementary enrollment balancing. The fourth photo was us welcoming our new staff into the 2025-2026 school year, and the final one was the surprise the East graduate last year when her brother surprised her.
Um, he was, um, in the military and was able to surprise her at graduation. Now, again, this is the views, the highest views. what you're looking at now here is the highest interaction. So again, this is the amount of people that are liking, commenting, sharing. And if you look at this, all of these are very positive things. Our audience on Facebook loves to highlight Cherry Hill Public Schools, and you can see that because the more positive the content is out there, they love sharing it, they love commenting on it. This is what they love to see. And sometimes these are posts that. the, you know, if they're in one elementary s'more, for example, they might not make it to a high school s'more, so these are the things that we're able to celebrate and show around the whole district.
It's another tool for communication. So, for this, again, the top content by interactions, uh, the number one was actually… we recognized them a couple of weeks ago, was the Cherry Hill High School West. marching band. Again, the East graduation, a superintendent spotlight from last year. We are hiring post, and another, actually, student recognition from a couple weeks ago, uh, here, um. when we had it here in the APR. Instagram, again, is a little bit different, just because of the number of students that we have here. Again, this is views.
Uh, we had special guests at Barton last year, and the rest of them are very student and, uh, sport-focused. interactions, again, a little bit different. How many people are liking and sharing everything. Uh, similar posts, but you kinda… get the picture of, you know, this is what everyone likes to see and interact with. Now, when it comes to YouTube, YouTube is a little bit different. I kind of keep that separate from Facebook and Instagram, only because it serves a little bit different of a purpose. We're able to use YouTube to house these longer videos, such as discussions with Dr. Morton. It's where our Board of Education meetings live.
for this year, again, this is through December 7th. We've reached approximately 45,000 channel views. It equaled out to about 4,100 hours of watch time. How many people… that's hours of people watching our videos. We don't have that many videos that go longer than an hour, so a lot of them are shorter than that, so that's a lot of watch time. on YouTube. The top viewed video right now is still Discussions with Dr. Morton episode. Uh, followed by a 504 Q&A webinar from actually last year, and, uh, two videos actually from 2024 people are rewatching.
Looking ahead, this is something we're really excited about, and we're working on, and we're hoping to, uh, have it in the next, hopefully over after winter break. We're going to be launching the Ask. chips bot on the website. It's essentially an AI tool. You can go on there and say, what's for lunch today? What time is the Board of Ed meeting? How do I register my child for preschool? So it's a chat bot that will live on the website. It's almost ready to go, there's a couple little things we have going on behind the scenes that we're finishing connecting the dots, but it's going to be a really great tool and another way that we are able to connect with our community for them to ask.
questions that'll be right at their fingertips on the website. We do have more discussions with Dr. Morton episodes coming up. The next one will be a tour of our new preschool classrooms over at Kilmer, so stay tuned after winter break, it's coming soon. We are also revamping our superintendent Spotlight video series. That went very, very well last year. We're doing it a little bit differently. I don't want to give it away, but Dr. Morton and I have a very special, uh, plan for this year. You're gonna see it soon. And we're gonna continue to do some more updates when it comes with the bond referendum construction, including updates to the web pages as we get more photos.
And, uh, hopefully another event next year. So that is me wrapping it up for community engagement. Does anybody have any questions? Thank you so much, Ms. Perotti. Phenomenal. Board member questions? Mr. Mayor. Really not a question, more of a thank you for long overdue, and it's not the first time I've said. Um, things along… along this nature. With regard to what you've brought to the district, um, so… First, congratulations on your first year, and. Um, I felt when you were brought on board, your vision and.
this opportunity for you to really. Start telling the story of the district. in a much more… it was already a positive story, but it just wasn't out there the way it should have been. Um, and you had a vision. Um, to go across platforms. uh, you know, to put your experience to work. For the students, for the staff, um, and, you know, this is a great way of showcasing it. So, you know, thank you for all your work, thanks for, um. putting the district in the light that it's always deserved to be in.
Even though this question is going to be moot for me after tonight. Um, what can this board do. Going forward to continue to support. your ideas, um, into the future. Great question. Honestly, um… Everyone has been so great since I've been here. I have nothing but wonderful things to say, especially the folks at this table here, Dr. Morton, Mr. Schimp, our principals, everyone has been so welcoming to me, just with open arms. very supportive of my ideas, and just always wanting to collaborate, which I appreciate, and I've been mentored by.
Some of the best people in this room, they've been truly so wonderful to me, so just… keep supporting and sharing our positive stuff on Facebook. Get those views up. other board member questions. Mister? Uh, just a quick thank you, um, and wanted to highlight, um. that you mentioned that the discussions with Dr. Morton, one of the. Metal, metal to metal magnet, um. be one of the most viewed was on 504s. Um, I want to mention that recently, another one was put out on special education with Ms. Mallory.
And I think it's the time of year when people are quite busy thinking more about holiday stuff, um, so I just wanted to, um… you know, just kind of highlight it that it's out there, and hopefully, maybe when people are not as busy in January. They have a chance to watch it, because it was another wonderful video, very informative, very helpful, so… Um, it's great to have these, so thank you so much. Miss Palmer. Uh, Ms. Barati, I want to, you know, I appreciate the presentation that you put together. I know you and I and the Communications Committee have had these conversations throughout the last year, but.
One of the things that we've discussed is really finding ways to meet. Um, meet parents, meet families, meet people where they are, and. put information out in different ways than we historically had. Um, I think, you know, you're doing that, and I think we're starting to see… we're starting to see the fruits of that effort, so… I appreciate it, I know how much work goes into it, I know, especially as a team of one. Um, not that you're a team of one, there's a lot of support, but… you're doing it yourself, day to day, so I appreciate what goes into that. I think we're seeing, um, you know, the communication that we've done around the.
elementary rebalancing efforts. Um, you know, so I just keep that up. I mean, I think… I think it is really important that videos. Q&As, those things are. kind of where we're headed. So, thank you. Anyone else? This table is weird, I keep looking around the room, I'm afraid I'm gonna miss somebody. Right, seeing no further questions. Thank you so much, Ms. Brody, for everything you've done. It's been a wonderful first year.
All right, we are now on to correspondence, and it is a wonderful time of year for board member correspondence, because there's so many things going on in the district. Dr. Braddock is going to tell me which side of the table I'm starting on. Yes. I'll be wrong. I'm wrong 100% of the time. That's fine. Although I'm talking now. None to report. So now we're going this way. Ms. Palmer. Sure, so I went to… I… I had the pleasure of attending two different events since our last meeting, um, last, uh, last Friday, I went to opening night of Dracula at Cherry Hill East.
Uh, my daughter and I went, and uh, it was. funny, it was a little bit of a different, maybe non-traditional kind of production, but I thought the students did a phenomenal job, as they always do. I was happy to be there. Um, and then attended the, uh, middle school winter vocal Concert at Beck. Again, phenomenal job, I love those kinds of things. So, I appreciate the opportunity to be there. Ms. Stern. So, I… attended 3 events, um, since our last meeting. Um, one of them was the New Jersey School Board Association.
Um, Camden County, um, there was a training on the 3 R's. And also the meeting, which I'm not going to speak further on, because I went there with several board members who can talk about that. But it was… it was a nice evening to be together. Um, and on, uh, December 3rd, I, uh… went with Mrs. Winters, well, with several other board members, actually, Mr. Fain, um, Mr. Greenbaum. Is there anybody else there at the, um, the township recognition of volunteers?
celebration. Um… So, anyway, other people can talk about that as well, but just, we were there, and then we… Ms. Winters and I went right after that to… Um, the secondary level, sixth… grade through 12th grade math and literacy night, which was held at Cherry Hill East. Um, it was a nice, um, opportunity to. uh, see so many, um… Uh, teachers and staff and administrators, um. Um… Ms. Staffen was there that night. along with her team, um, and, uh, to learn about math.
Um, and literacy at the secondary level, um, and the teachings, um. There was, um, CHEA had tables to… with snacks, and there were books, and there was all kinds of great stuff. Um, you know, I think it's a tough… it's probably not as well attended as some of the ones I've been to at the elementary level, where I think maybe parents are a little more engaged in that type of learning. Um, those kinds of, uh, information nights, but, um, it was really well done.
And so I brought back with me, um… a piece of poetry, um, which, um… Wait, was this the poetry? This was the poetry table, yeah. So I… there was a table with a number of teachers who were. Um, teaching poetry, they taught something called Black poetry, which I'd never heard of. Um, and students were given, um, pieces of, um. all different kinds of pages from books. they would, um, use… they would black out parts of it.
to isolate words to write poems. Which I'd never seen that before, it was really cool, and beyond that creativity, the level of artistic creativity was unbelievable. To see what these students… I wish I actually could have brought… there were samples of it, I wish I could have brought it for show and tell, because it was so cool to show, but I did get my piece of… Poetry. Um, great night, um, great to see so many of the, um, the teachers, and a lot of effort put into that night. Um, and then the last thing that I got to attend, which I've been.
waiting 5 years, I don't know why, but finally happened, was yesterday I got to attend. the Fraternal Order of Police holiday party. There were 60 tables, 10 people to a table. Um… of, um, and it's a… it's an… it's… the entirety of South Jersey. Um, students with special needs are invited to attend this event. Um, and it is an enormous event, I have to thank, um, Milana and Lacey, who gave me a personalized tour of the entire event.
and explain to me how all the students are involved, all the activities, so I do want to really highlight it was. the Terry Hill Police, with a horse. Even was part of the greeting. Um, we walked in, and there's just this huge welcome line. I don't know what… I'm sure there's a name for it. Um, students on either side cheering, excited, with a big. Um, you know, entranceway, um… to welcome all the students who are coming from all over South Jersey, arriving on buses.
Um, on a 2-hour delay day, I might add. Um… with the jazz band playing chorus singing. Um, and in the main room, there's dancing and games at all the tables. dispersed throughout the room, lots of staff and teachers and administrators. all converging to celebrate, um, the holidays with these students, and. you know, it's eye-opening, because there are students from every, um, level of need in our, uh, in public school who come to this.
Um, the students get gifts. This… that I've learned from our students that the students serve the. the attendees, they serve them a meal. Um, it's just a really great event, and then they get, of course, like I mentioned, they get the gift, so… Uh, I saw Mrs. Dollerton gave me a full rundown of the event, um, and how long it's been going on. It's really… amazing, and I would encourage every board member. Wrap it up, to attend, uh, during your time on the board, if you can. That was a really special event.
Sorry, went on too long. That's it. Sounds fun. Dr. Dryzen. Yes, on Sunday, I had an opportunity to attend the Sunday matinee of Dracula, so… credit to the students and the community, Snow did not get in the way. I would echo Ms. Palmer's comments, and the one thing I thought it actually builds on what you were saying. Um, Mr. Picambino is the director, um, and I just… something really resonated with me, which I thought I would amplify. in the meeting tonight as part of his letter, um, for the performance he wrote, um.
If, more importantly, if on some dark and stormy night, this experience inspires one to brush the cobwebs off a copy of Dracula. the true potential of this play might be realized. It has become far too easy to avoid reading. And far too accepted that most people do so. We all have an obligation to find creative ways, just like Cairns did for me. to engender a lifelong love of literature and art in each other. And so I loved that, and I thought I would just share it here. So, kudos to the entire team. Awesome, thank you. Mr. Greenbaum.
Thank you. So, uh, I attended a couple events. I'm not going to repeat some things that have already been said, but I will reiterate. Uh, I joined several of my board colleagues, and one incoming board member at the Camden County School Board Association meeting. Uh, where we had a very timely discussion on chronic absenteeism. Um, during some of the discussion, we talked about the potential benefits of the community liaison position, something we're discussing here in Cherry Hill. Uh, and also looked at some real-world success stories in significant reductions in chronic absenteeism as a result of some of these practices.
So it was nice to join my board colleagues and have a lively discussion on such a timely topic. Thank you. Thanks, I did a bunch of different stuff, but I want to highlight only two things. I was at the library, where WHYY sponsored a. community event around school funding, which was kind of an interesting and fun topic, so it was neat to be part of that, and to hear what community members had to say. about the challenges that we face as a school district. And I also went to ROSA to see the winter concert, 7th and 8th grade chorus, which was pretty fun, especially being in the new gym with new bleachers.
That's pretty neat. Mr. Mayor. Sadly, though it's my last opportunity to share engagements. I did not attend any centralized. That means you have to attend 3 more before you're done on December 31st. I got the memo. He says he'll follow. dispensano. Uh, like, some of my… Board colleagues already said, I attended the NJSBA Camden County meeting at Haddonfield High School. It's beautifully.
Um, represented by lots of Camden County board members. her learned about the three R's, great presentation on chronic absenteeism, and I look forward to all of the events I'll be attending in December and January. Thank you, Ms. Chaffain. So I missed the last meeting, so I have some catching up to do. Um, but again, I also attended the Camden County, um, New Jersey School Boards. Um, meeting that we had earlier this month. Last month, I attended the Gloucester County meeting. virtually, which I thought was really great. The title of that presentation was How to Lead So Students Learn.
And the presenter was really good, and um… I thought that that was a really good presentation. Um, very unexcitingly, I attended the delegate assembly for the Staplers. Nothing to report there. Um, but more excitingly, I was in attendance at the, um, volunteer. event that our mayor put on for the county, which… or the community, which was really, um. a nice event. I met a lot of people that I have. Never spoken to before, so I enjoyed that. Um, and was able to attend the Karusi 6th and 7th grade vocal Concert.
Which was fun and, um, definitely a huge shout out to their music teacher, who you can tell absolutely loves this job. But has the most hilarious time with all of those students, but you can tell the relationship between the students and him is. Fantastic, and they did a really good job, and now it's raining tacos as a permanent staple in my household, so thank you to him for that. Awesome. Alright. We now have our student rep reports, and Dr. Braddock is going to again tell me if I'm starting with east or west.
I thought so, I would have gotten it right that time. Preschool West. It is your turn. Good evening, everyone. We are already halfway through our second marking period, so let's review all of our activities.
As for extras, some students from the Ronald McDonald House Committee held a thrift shop at West on Saturday, December. 13th. All of our proceeds were donated to Ronald McDonald House, and the turnout was amazing. We thank the community for all of the donations. To get in the holiday spirit, each student will receive a ticket for a free hot cocoa with toppings and a cookie during first period on December 19. This will be our first Winter Wonderland event. And students will wear festive clothing and do fun crafts during the lunch periods. Starting on December 1st, over the course of a couple days, school clubs and organizations had taken their yearbook photos.
Yearbooks are currently on sale for $90, so order yours now. As for academics, at the beginning of December, students put together a Mirabelle sister exhibit. This allowed students to learn about their history and recognize the International Day with the Elimination of Violence Against Women. on December 6th, West was a testing center for the SATs. To help guide parents, our guidance counselors held a FAFSA meeting for parents on December 9th at 6pm. The interim period ended on December 15th. the progress reports available to students and parents very soon.
As for our athletics. Swim, wrestling, and winter track have already started their seasons with various meets and tournaments. Our boys swimming is 2-0-1, and wrestling participated in a tournament in Paulsbury this past weekend. The first meeting is at Shawnee tomorrow. The girls state Group 3 champions defend their title tonight at Cherokee, alongside our boys basketball team. We wish all of our athletes luck. As for Arts, on December 11th at 7pm, we had our annual winter band concert.
Every instrumental group did a great job performing, and the livestream link can be found online. On December 11th, our musical group, Chamber singers, advance into the B101. Coral competition finals and placed third, bring back $1,000 for our music program. We applaud them for all their hard work. We will have our opening winter choir concert of this year. This December 18th at 7pm. and require a small group has invested a great deal of time into this performance. So we hope to see you there. Our upcoming musical is confirmed to be SUPS, and we are 1 in 12 schools in the country allowed to perform this production.
We are extremely grateful, as our students will be getting additional experiences, such as. watching a real performance and experiencing further involvement with activities related to the show. auditions are still taking place. More information will be posted until then. Our small group chamber gigs are officially on for this season. You may watch them on December 19th and 24th at Cafe Aldo Lamberde from 6.30 to 9.30pm. They will also be performing in deport… Adelphia's at 11am to 1pm on December 21st. So make sure to visit our small singing groups will be performing in West Hallways.
during periods E and F on December 23. to increase school spirit. Finally, congratulations to freshman Timothy Zorn. for having the 4th highest score out of all cellos who auditioned for the All-South jersey. Senior High Orchestra, earning his position in the group. They will be performing at Rowan on January 11th. As for extracurriculars, yesterday, on December 15th, was the annual FOP party. Unfortunately, due to the 2-hour delay, some schools were not able to attend. However, the majority of schools did attend, and they had a blast.
The day was filled with holiday spirit, a whole lot of Santa meet and greets, and a lot of dancing. Shout out to every student and teacher from both schools who volunteered to make this event possible. This whole entire month, the Spanish National Honor Society had been collecting and wrapping toys from Y casita. A festive day of celebration, which will be happening tomorrow with our seniors who are involved in Spanish courses at West. We would like to welcome our new club, the Jewish Student Union, to West. This club's opening had perfect timing, as it aligned with the first night of Hanukkah. Our Model UN team attended the ViewMon conference on December 6th.
And our seniors ended up winning our Spirit Week after winning the dodgeball tournament at our prep rally. hallway decorating, and lip sync. We hope everyone has a warm and safe winter break. Thank you so much for your report. And now turning to High School East. Hello, everybody. Starting with activities. East Robotics team competed against teams from around the world in the prestigious Worcester Polytechnic Institute event in Massachusetts.
from December 4th to December 6th. They also attended a competition at William Patterson High School on December 14th, and will be hosting a competition at East on December 20th. You smell the UN, attended a conference at Clearview Regional High School on Saturday the 6th. 9 news delegates, won awards. It's… it's… sorry, East Speech and debate team attended the Summit Holiday Hilltopper Classic Competition on December 13th. 13 East competitors won awards. About 90 students were involved in organizing and running the annual Fraternal Order of Police Holiday Party, along with friends from West.
They did an incredible job in hosting a festive celebration for students with special needs from across South Jersey. Several other East organizations are planning holiday celebrations as well. the National Math Honor Society will be hosting their winter party tomorrow night. The Spanish National Honor Society will be hosting Las Posadas, their annual gift exchange slash trivia night. Also tomorrow night. The African American Culture Club is planning a holiday party for this Thursday, the 18th. East Student Government is incredibly proud of junior Logan Friedman, current school-wide vice president. for running for president of the New Jersey Association of Student Councils.
Student government is busy making campaign materials in preparation for the election, which will be at the annual NJASC conference on January 7th. Additionally, each student Sonia Motawala is running for a statewide leadership position in the Business Competition DECA. Best of luck to both. Moving on to athletics. Congratulations to senior offensive lineman Ona Pella on being selected for the All-South Jersey Touchdown Club. 2025 team, marking this the second consecutive year in which an East football player has been selected to the most prestigious club in South Jersey.
Congratulations to senior wrestler Dominic Conzano on winning the Ronald Bond tournament at Haddonfield this past weekend. impressively stringing together 3 first period falls. The boys basketball team, which made the top 20 beginning of the season rankings for teams in New Jersey. started out the winter season strong with a dominating 78-32 win over the Kings Christian School. The girls basketball team opens their season tonight against Paul VI at 7pm. Good luck to both of our basketball teams throughout the season. the Boers bowling team is off to a great 4-0-1 start to the season, including a 4-0 victory against West during their season opener.
The boys' swim team and the girls' swim teams are both off to a phenomenal 3-0 and 2-0 starts, respectively. And another congratulations to all of the incredible fall athletes who are honored today for their commitment and hard work throughout the season. Finally, with arts, these chamber music program, consisting of a brass ensemble and four string quartets. perform some festic music at the Cherry Hill Public Library on the 11th for members of the community. East Winter Show, Dracula, a comedic thriller, ran from Thursday the 11th to Sunday the 14th. The show was a great success, and we congratulate all of the amazing and talented staff advisors, cast members, and crew.
That helped bring it to life. We also want to thank the parents and community members involved in the Feeder Boosters organization for their invaluable support. Auditions for the All South Jersey Orchestra were held on this past Saturday, the 13th. Dozens of students from East across all instruments in the orchestra were accepted. East Winter Instrumental Concert will be this Thursday, the 18th, at 7pm. all of East's instrumental groups, including several bands and orchestras, will be performing. Entry is free, so be sure to come check it out. Overall, we've had a very busy and successful month, and we hope all students have a relaxing winter break.
Awesome, thank you so much. And before we move on, I just want to thank our student representatives for all that they do, and for volunteering for this position. We really appreciate you being here. and adding your perspective to all the work that we do, so thank you so much. I'm sure you're all looking forward to winter break. It's that time. Alright, we're moving on to first public comment. So there are two opportunities for public comment this evening. This first public comment session is for board action items only. If you wish to speak on any topic other than what appears on the agenda, you may speak during the second public comment, and speakers must provide their name and municipality.
Now, if you are a student, and I see some students here. You may comment on any topic during the first public comment period by identifying yourself as a student, either by coming to the microphone or putting an S after your name online. We'll alternate between speakers in the room and those wishing to comment online. Each speaker has 3 minutes to speak, and the timer on the screen will indicate the amount of time remaining. All statements, questions, or comments shall be addressed to the Chair, and your inquiry may or may not be addressed by administration at the close of the session. By custom in practice, we always start in the room. Is there anyone who would like to make first public comment tonight?
Come on down, and just give us your name and municipality. I'm great. Okay. I'll just speak loud. I'm Grace Shiner, I'm from… Cherry Hill High School West. Uh, I'm Virgil Tayar, I'm also from Cherry Hill High School West. Yeah, so in the past 2 years, there's been some. There's been changes with how seniors with disabilities with 504s or IEPs have been treated.
And… some of these… uh… concerns are having to do with accommodations. Specifically about early… I'm sorry. Specifically about, um, attendance. and accessibilities with… what they need. Uh, um… this, uh, this… I am currently a senior at Cherry Home High School West. And for my past 3 years. this school, um… I have not gotten repercussions for.
lateness or absence due to disability. I have 4 documented. documented physical disabilities, which impact. my lateness and absence to school. Um, however, this year, I have recently received. Um, uh… consequences for lateness and absence. when, in the past, I have been told that I would not be getting those. And this seems to be only happening to seniors, and Virgil's not the only one it's happening to.
It's just a weird effect. And kind of what we've been told is that this is like a. board thing that's going on. that, um… Specifically, they look at attendance for seniors more than any other grade level in high school. Um, I just wanted to ask if there's any new policies between. people with medical disabilities or conditions that have to do with. Uh, attendance.
So, usually when we do public comment, we don't respond, but since you guys came here and waited so patiently, I'm just gonna let you know that. Um, there is no new board policy. I am not sure what this is all about, but thank you for coming to tell us. As you saw, we were all taking notes up here, and then what happens next is we follow up with district administration. about what's going on, and then you'll get a response, okay? Okay, thank you. So thank you for coming here to tell us tonight, we really appreciate you guys coming and listening. Thank you so much. Thank you. I hope you all have a good night. You too, have a great holiday.
All right, going online, the first person is a caller, phone number ending in 788. Please unmute, give us your name and municipality. My name is Jeff Hotowitz, and I live in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. God, I was the first one. Um, first one is 13.3, second one is 13.4. First one, first one is professional service agreement between Cherry Hill Board of Education and Cooper. Health system, is that corporate learning to provide services at public grade school. This is about reading help.
Um, do we use Cooper. for specialized reading, helping Cherry Hill. It's $99 an hour and $105 an hour for a group. Cooper, they have a reputation of being very good, so do we use them? Two, are we paying for this out of. our IDA or SFRA funds, or this is money that was put aside and goes through. That's important because we get so little as it is. 13.4 Camden County Educational Services.
Same question. This is federal IDA funds. Are we paying it for our miniscule amount of federal IDA funds? to do, uh… it's for a structural assistance and related services to non-public school students. Um, is that separate aid they get, separate state aid, or does that include us, too? Because we're getting little aid. as it is 15.2, uh, appointments, a new appointment, a new director of special projects, and.
and student services, it's a new position at 1868,000. A new position, Director of. special projects and student service by Dr. Scott Goldthrough. I'm sure he's very, very good, but. What about the supervised positions? I think some of them may have supervisor positions. Have they been eliminated or is this addition another layer of bureaucracy and another layer of costs, $168,000.
I know there was a supervisor, Ms. Roscoff did one of those duties. What happens is, and will there be no supervisors, or will we still get supervisors? That's important, because. hey, our rate is being cut, remember? It's prorated at $168,000, but um… It's good to know. We're expanding. administrators of. Yeah, okay. Please vote no on that if you don't remove the supervisors. There's a balance if you do, if you're… and you may want to read.
what exactly this position does, including 504s. Anyway, thank you very much. Some questions, I don't expect an answer, but on this. If you're not removing supervisors, please vote no on the other ones. It is a question because we get so little money as it is. Thank you very much. Bye. Thank you, Dr. Potowitz. Going back to the room, is there anyone else who would like to make first public comment on an action item? I see some students, but they're not current Cherry Hill students. And they don't look like they want to make any comments. Going back online, I see Laura Einhorn. Please unmute, give us your name, municipality, and the action item which you are speaking on.
In Einhorn, Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Um, 15.6, the appointment of the supervisor of school counseling. I don't see a salary listed. Um, and before you vote, could we find out, as a public member, how much that salary will be? 14.7, the Cherry Hill Educational Foundation's phenomenal. donations to our school district. totaling over $46,000. I thank you very much. I saw John Cohen a couple weeks ago, and I thanked him.
But quite frankly, without them. We would have a huge void in our schools and the services that they provide. I'd also like to thank the family, Suzanne Nelson, for the $35,000 donation. for a female varsity athlete at West, West sort of needs that kind of support. And from the bottom of my heart, I appreciate. that you respect West in that regard. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Going back to the room, is there anyone who would like to make first public comment this evening?
Going once, going twice. I see no takers, looking back online. I don't see any hands raised, and so I'm going to close first public comment for this evening. And moved to superintendent's comments. Thank you very much, Ms. Winters. I would like to just begin by sharing additional congratulations to our. students who were recognized this evening. Our fall student athletes. We really have so many students that are just truly dynamic.
And outstanding young people, um… interact with our kids and seeing our kids. continue to be successful, makes me happy. And I get great joy and pleasure out of that. had an opportunity today to interact with student members of… my student… my superintendent's student advisory council. Uh, students spent a portion of the day here. the Advisory Council itself is comprised of students from High School East and High School West. We have about two dozen students, as well as students from the Kohl's Alternative Program as well.
And as we began to interact, and they interact with one another, and I… presented them with the question of, what do we want to focus on this year, and what do we want to tackle as our primary project. Uh, the thing that came up from those students, um, resoundingly. was, uh, unifying. high schools east and West, bringing more unity across the district and bringing it together. And, um, you know, to hear that stuff. that come from the students, um… Again, it's inspiring, it's wonderful, so… Great day this, this, uh, this morning, and just a reminder of the outstanding students that we have.
Um… so, obviously, we operate on a school year calendar. June to July, uh, traditionally, but. You know, we also exist on a calendar year as well, January. through, uh, through December, or through January, and as I reflect on this year, and. All that's been accomplished, and all the board has accomplished, the district has accomplished, administration has accomplished. Um, I'm very grateful and very, um… happy about the momentum that we've built, about the work that we've done together.
Um, it hasn't been easy. the conversations have been difficult conversations at times, but. You know, it's not supposed to be easy when you're doing the hard work, and you're moving forward. And doing things in the best interest of, um, our children, so… Thank you to all of our board members. Thank you to. Uh, the members of our community who continue to come forward and to. who demand the best for our children and for our school district and our community. I think all of that helps us to refine.
Our ideas, refine our practices, and allows us to, uh, to move forward with purpose. Uh, and great momentum. I would just like to echo. and amplify a comment by Ms. Stern around the, uh… discussions with Dr. Morton, the latest episode that's just come out. around special education. Uh, there's so much information that gets, uh, shared, and we don't really have an opportunity to speak back to issues around special education in this particular setting. Are there confidentiality rules that. exist that do not allow us to do that.
Uh, but this episode in and of itself was really. Um, an opportunity. for Ms. Mallory to speak to the vision that exists for special education, and just speak to some of the actual practices and things that are taking place. across the district, and, you know, I encourage everyone. Uh, to take 12 minutes of your time to just listen. You have an opportunity to hear it directly. Um, from the source, rather than from, you know, other sources, and you can hear. what it is, uh, that. we are attempting to do what her vision is.
But more than anything, I think you get a sense of. Ms. Mallory's heart, in the heart of the Special Education Department, so that's, uh, that's critically important. And, uh, just to answer two questions, uh, so the two positions that are. up on the agenda for, uh, board action this evening. Director of Special Projects. as a position that we have, uh, reconstituted. It was initially. a position held by Carol Raskoff, as was mentioned. I was a supervisor of Special Projects position. We, uh, changed the job description a bit.
and add a director to the title because of the supervisory and oversight. of our student services department that will come along with that role. Uh, we also have. Uh, another position listed, Supervisor of school counseling there, that position was formally. supervisor of, uh, pupil services. position that was held by Mr. Von Carter. So we also changed the job description there. to align better with the needs that we have as a district. the candidate that's being recommended this evening. is currently an administrator in the district, and that position itself is a lateral.
For that individual. So that's why there's no salary that's listed, so… It's allowed to remove. With that being said, I will turn it back over to you, Ms. Williams. Thank you so much, I appreciate it. As always, moving on to the action agenda. I will go first, CNI, the superintendent recommends, and I move the following. 13.1, approval of attendance at conference and workshops for the 25-26 school year. 13.2 approval of out-of-district placement for the 25-26 school year.
13.3 resolution approving a professional services agreement between the Cherry Hill Board of Education and the Cooper Health System. To provide services at Pullet Today School. and 13.4, Camden County Educational Services Commission. for IDEA Part B funding. Do I have a second? Ms. Palmer, are there any questions on the CNI agenda this evening? Seeing none, Mr. Shimp, can you please open the voting?
Mr. Shim, I need to recuse myself from 13.3 to avoid a conflict of interest. Motion carries. Thank you, and now Mr. Greenbaum, can you please move the VNF agenda? Thank you. Superintendent recommends, and I move the following. 14.1, approval of minutes, regular meeting minutes, and executive session minutes, dated October 28, 2025. 14.2, approval of minutes, board work session, and special action meeting minutes, and executive session minutes, dated November 11th, 2025.
14.3, approval of minutes, regular meeting minutes, and executive session minutes dated November 25th, 2025. 14.4 financial reports. 14.5, various resolutions. 14.6, approval of Cherry Hill McKinney-Vento, DCPMP students for the 2526 school year. And 14.7 acceptance of donations. I always like to make a point of reading through these, and as Ms. Einhorn mentioned in her public comment earlier.
Uh, we had a long list of very generous donations, so bear with me while I read through these. We're very grateful for the generosity. Uh, starting with almost $50,000 in donations from the Cherry Hill Education Foundation. Including a donation to be used for. We're a virtual author experience at Beck. For a small group instruction at Cooper. uh… first grade classroom. suppliers at Cooper for a portable stage at High School East for flexible seating for students at Cooper.
for 6 robotic bundle kits at High School East. to purchase Star Games t-shirts. for transportation costs for students to attend Black History Living Museum at High School West. for new high-interest books at ROSA. For a charter bus for the African American Culture Club at High School West to visit the National Great Blacks and Wax Museum. for a 3D printing station at Sharp. from meetups at Jake's place for district preschool providers.
And… to purchase raised planter boxes, seeds, and gardening tools for district preschool providers. Thank you very much. We also have a donation from Patient First to be used to purchase character, uh. character ed incentives at MAN. And a very generous donation from Suzanne Nelson, from the Michelle Lerdo Trotman Scholar-Athlete Scholarship to be used for a. $35,000 scholarship. For a female varsity athlete at High School West. Again, thank you very much for your generosity. Um, these incredible donations are gonna make a huge difference for our students, so thank you very much for that.
That being said… Do I have a second? Mr. Mayor, are there any questions? Seeing none, Mr. Schimf, please open the voting. Mr. Schimp on 14.4, I just have to abstain from any payments to be out in the fourth bill list due to a conflict of interest. Thank you. Mr. Trump, similarly. on 14.4 Bill List 4, I have to accuse myself from, uh, invoice payment to ESS to avoid.
Yes, and everything else. Motion carries. Thank you. Mr. Fain, can you please move the HR agenda this evening? Sure. The superintendent recommends, and I move the following, 15.1, termination of employment non-certificated. 15.2 appointment certificated, 15.3 appointments non-certificated. 15.4 Leaves of absence certificated. 15.5 leads of absence, non-certificated. 15.6 assignment salary change certificated.
15.7 assignment salary change non-certificated. And 15.8 other compensation certificated. Do I have a second? Um, do I… are there any questions? Eastern. Doctor Morton, um, can you please. share about the process… the interview process. for, um, the supervisor of school counseling position. Um, once the positions were. Um, I guess… use the word reconstituted earlier to reflect the.
the first constitution, but… the second one, when we, um… went through the new job description, added, um, language. Can you just talk about that process, please, for… Yes, absolutely. It's no different than our conversation from Friday, but… We, uh, actually interview for Director of Guidance position. And had a number of candidates come forward. an interview for that. Uh, there were… Three finalists that. emerged from that process. Two of the finalists are up for… Board action today?
Uh, from… from that process. We felt secure and comfortable. with the candidates that we had as finalists. And we assigned one of those. to that position that you're questioning. Yeah, thank you for… and yes, we… had a previous, you know, conversation about it, so the… clarification that I just wanted to make, you know, to bring forward was just about the process in terms of. the timeline of the interviewing and the approval of the job description, so… Thank you for clarifying that.
Any other questions or comments? Seeing none, Mr. Schemf, can you please open voting? Mr. Shimp, I'm a no on 15.6. And yes to the rest.
Motion carries. Thank you. And with that… I see two gentlemen in the audience who have now been appointed to the new positions. Dr. Martin, would you like to say something? Yes, absolutely. Thank you, thank you so much. Uh, first and foremost, to the new position, Supervisor of school counseling. Mr. George Zagrapos, I'm gonna ask… George Z, or Mr. Z to come up?
Mrs. Zagrafos is a beloved figure here in the district. He's been with us for over two decades. He's had an opportunity to be a mathematics teacher, guidance counselor. Assistant Principal at Rosa Middle School, and currently at High School East. Absolute, uh, great confidence that. You'll do a great job in this role, working directly with our counselors. Couple words? Thank you, thank you. Thank you, Dr. Morton, and I thank the Interview Committee as well, as well as the Board of Education.
For believing in me. I've been here for 22 years. You know what you're getting. I will work 110%, just like I've done in every single role. I believe at Cherry Hill. I live in Cherry Hill. My kids went through Cherry Hill. We have fantastic counselors. great administrators, and I look forward. to working with the district administration. All of the building principles are awesome counselors and SACs. To give our kids the best opportunities to be able to be career and college ready.
when they graduate from Cherry Hill Public Schools. I thank you for your time, thank you so much. Awesome, thank you. Excellent, and making his return back. to Cherry Hill, where it all began. Dr. Scott Goldthorpe. Dr. Goldthorpe has one of the more unique backgrounds and experiences here in the district, starting out… actually starting out as a paraprofessional, or an educational assistant, working his way up.
to becoming a teacher here in the district, a supervisor of CNI. He is now an assistant superintendent. in another school district, but we are so happy to have him come back as our Director of Special Projects and Student Services. He'll head up our Student Services Department. Amazing vision, great guy. All right, thank you for that, Doctor Morton, and thank you to the Board of Education. Um, it was funny, as I was driving over this evening, I was thinking about. Uh, the first time that the Cherry Hill Board of Ed appointed me to a position, and it was that educational assistant position.
back in 2007. And at the time, I lived over in Philadelphia. I did not have a family yet, and. boy, how things have changed in the last 18 years. Uh, since that time, I, uh… have worked in numerous positions, uh. in the district as a mathematics teacher, as a science teacher. As a supervisor of curriculum and instruction, I earned two master's degrees and a doctorate in education. And, uh, I'll say most importantly. I moved to Cherry Hill with my family and my two children now.
attend our schools, and I couldn't be more proud. And to return back to the district where. I began my career and to serve in this capacity as Director of Special Projects and Student Services. So, thank you, and I look forward to returning home. Amazing, thank you so much. All right, moving to P&L, Mr. Mayor, can you please move the P&L agenda? Indeed.
Uh, superintendent recommends that I move the following. Item 16.1, approval of harassment, intimidation, and bullying investigation decisions. Those. Or decisions that the board heard. on December 2nd. Do I have a second? Let's just start. Are there… Seeing none, Mr. Shimp, would you kindly open.
Motion carries. Thank you. We have no items under governance this evening. Do any board members have any new business? I see no new business. Do any board members have any old business? I'd like to talk about some old business. We have a retiring… senior… board member this evening, who is… Get yourself in more and more troubles.
Go ahead. Departing. the board. who will be missed, Mr. Mayor. You and I sat in this room together. and interviewed against each other. Her position on this venerable board. My biggest concern that January in 2022 was that I couldn't find a mask. that was appropriate to match my suit. I figured it out. You trounced me in that effort. to be appointed to this board.
And it was the right choice, because you have been an excellent board member. You served as board vice president, and your leadership was wonderful. You were a leader during our superintendent search. You are a leader on developing the cell phone policy, one of the first in the state. that has vastly improved. what our students experience in the class every day. And most importantly, your sense of humor. has been key to getting through some very challenging conversations, so I'm now going to open the floor to other board members.
who would like to… roast, I think the kids say, Ms. Palmer. Mr. Mayor, as is proper. For his role on the board. Dr. Braddock. going against, kind of, my normal. MO, I'm not gonna roast, I'm just gonna thank Mr. Mayor. Um… I remember when I decided to run for the board. Mr. Mayor and others said for the first year, you're just gonna try to stay above water and learn things, and that's what it was.
Or that's what it is. I still have another couple days before I have to know everything about the board, but… Um, I will say, with respect to everybody else, I think I learned the most from Mr. Mayer about how to. carry oneself on the board, uh, because I can be… mercurial. I can be… I can be aggressive, I guess, um, but… Mr. Mayor's, uh, his, his sense of humor and his calm demeanor, that combination showed me what it means to be a. A productive member on the board, so thanks for all that, and thanks for your leadership on P&L as well.
That was, um… it was very useful to have you there to be able to teach me the reps there, so thank you for everything. Sorry about Syracuse and Notre Dame. Ms. Palmer? No, I, uh, I… as one of the newer kids on the board, although I don't know if that applies after tonight, I really appreciate. Um, Mr. Mayor, you, as much as anybody else here.
how welcoming you have been. Um, how open with your time, with your advice, with your insight. if my kids were here, they would roast you for, you know, being one of the older members of the board. I will not do that. You got me by, like, 6, 7 years. Um, I don't think that I would have, you know, I know that I have learned. a ton from you. I appreciate your leadership on P&L. Um, just can't say enough about, you know, your.
dry sense of humor, I appreciate that sarcasm and the way that you just kind of, like, fit it in there and you don't even realize. The joke hit you after. Um, but just thank you for everything. Thank you for the time that you've put in, um, you know, we know up here at this table. what that really looks like, um, the time away from your family. your other obligations, um… you know, that does not go unnoticed, even though it is. thankless a lot of the time, so… Thank you for your leadership, your friendship, your guidance.
Everything else you've done. So I had a chance to select you when you interviewed in this very room as Ms. Mrs. Winters referenced, and um… I'm happy to say I did vote for you, and I did not vote for Mrs. Winters at the time. But you know… I have a growth mindset that I can change sometimes. I can change my mind about things. So, you know, it was the right decision then. Um, and you've gone on to serve… Um, with, you know.
true, um… Leadership and skill. knowledge, um… You are definitely… you win the WIT Award, for sure, on the board, and your puns will… I've never met anyone who can make puns the way you make them, so… Um, the ones you come up with, and the speed at which you come up with is impressive. Um… I also had the great honor to serve with you in leadership, um, when I was president, you were vice president.
Um, you were the quiet steady in the meeting. Maybe not before or after the meeting, but in the meeting, you were always the quiet steady. And, um… I remember being at our NJSBA convention conference. and a funny typo, if you recall, on the events calendar, which I will not say in this room tonight, but it was a very funny typo, and it was. the first time I saw you not be able to stop giggling, and it was.
amazing to see that kind of laughter coming out of you. Which I'm seeing a little bit right now, so that's… that's lovely. Um, but in all seriousness, I will truly miss you. I'm… Very grateful. We've served quite a few years together, and I'm very grateful for that. Um, I'm absolutely going to miss your wise guidance. I won't call it officially counsel, because that's not technically what your role is here, but… You have been very instrumental in helping us understand legal matters, which.
Um, can be a very, um, difficult, you know, difficult water system through. despite having our professional legal counsel. it's nice to have that as a backup, and it… more context. Um, so I want to thank you so much, and I wish you all of the. joy that comes with being freed from this responsibility, the time you will get back in your life. I definitely want to thank your family. Because, um… I have a small appreciation for the impact.
this role has had on your family. Um, probably based on small remarks you make here and there, but also my own lived experience. Um, it's a lot, it takes a lot, and it takes a lot from a family, and so thank you all for. allowing him to spend his time, all the time he has with us. And to serve the community and, um… It's… they're very few people who want that. want to do this. No, I'm serious. Look at how many people run for the position, right? Or offer, so, um, so thank you for being… being one.
Being one of those. Yes, I will just echo the thanks that you've heard from the board. I mean. I would go back to, um, when I, um, got elected, and we had an introductory meeting. Um, you were… you gave your wisdom as to how you, um. you know, build in board work into. the cadence of how you do things. I mean, something that the. My community doesn't know, I mean, the board work extends into the weekend for us. Every weekend. There is work that we're doing, and um… just get him into a rhythm, I appreciated your counsel there, and I always appreciate, I think how it's been mentioned, you're… how, um, the demeanor you bring to the board table, and how you, um, identify opportunities, um.
to recognize folks when recognitions do, and then also point out areas for improvement. And so. I've looked to you certainly as a mentor, and so just very grateful for all… everyone on the board, but as you're moving on, just for your service to the community. And I wasn't… but I would just echo, particularly to the family as well, I mean… This is a big time commitment, and so you've contributed to the community very much. As well, so thank you. No, Joel, you were… Vice President, for my first two years on the board.
And I learned early on, if I wanted to talk on the phone for an hour. about a particular topic and everything tangentially related to it, I would give Miriam a call. And if I had a quick question and wanted a direct answer. Cold Joel. 5 minutes max, 10 minutes if we made small talk, it was awesome. I was glad to find early on we had a shared style of communication. You brought experience from your legal career. and also as an educator to this board, that was invaluable and helped us.
face many challenges head-on, and as others have said already. Uh, your sense of humor and dry wit have made it a joy to work with you and got us through some pretty challenging times. Thank you very much for your service to the students of Cherry Hill. You'll be missed. I'd say I miss you, but we live next door to each other. it's a problem. Um, but… In all seriousness, I don't know if there are another pair of next-door neighbor.
board members in the state. It is pretty unique. you could always move, but who would… who would blow leaves at… 2 in the morning. Thank you. To your family, we give him back. Ms. Manzano. In my short time on the board, I think. Yeah, which I… the newest board member, but only for a couple more weeks.
Um, I just want to thank you for elbowing me when I needed it, opening things on a computer that I wasn't quite sure where to find. Uh, and I really enjoyed our time at the NJSBA conference. We had a little time, one-on-one time, we had… we took a class together, um, lunch together, it was really, really great. So I hope you don't mind if I don't lose your number, just if I have any questions. along the way. Thank you to your family. Um, with a young family at home, I know that. the time commitment is grave, and I'm sure it's exactly the same for you guys, so thank you for sharing him with us, and I, uh… Wish you the best of luck.
They certainly will not be the reason why we're here till 10 o'clock tonight. However, I do wish you the best, and I hope that you can recover some of that time lost with your family and make up for it. So, best of luck, thanks. Can't miss out on all the fun. I also would like to echo what everyone has said here. Mr. Mayor, I have absolutely enjoyed working with you. I've enjoyed getting to know you. Uh, more personally, and greatly appreciate you for who you are.
Uh, for many, you're a dad-like figure, seeing you interact with your own children as well, and you are… phenomenal dad, also. It's been an absolute… pleasure to see the passion that you have for all the kids in this community. It is absolutely palpable. You're a man of strong convictions. More importantly, one who's willing to stand… stand. for his convictions, and willing to deal with whatever comes about. As a result, the standard for those convictions, so… That's aspiring for me, and it has been inspiring for me to see that, to work with you, and to, um… have an opportunity to, uh, to learn.
As well, uh, thank you. Thank you for all you've been and for all you've done for this district, for me, and uh… I wish you all the best as you move forward. I still don't understand how you make that trip to Syracuse seem like you're going down to the… to the mall. But, uh, but I think that reflects the love that you have. For your girls. So, I have a plaque for you on behalf of the board.
You don't have to, but I can imagine you're gonna pass up the opportunity. So, while I was… I thought about passing up the opportunity. Since you've all annoyed me by complimenting me. Anyone who knows me knows I don't take compliments as well as I probably should. I also did something that everybody who knows me knows I don't do. if I'm gonna speak… For me, it's a thrill. It's a thrill to not know what… when the sentence is gonna end. What I'm gonna say. So, I did a thing that is unusual.
I wrote some songs. That said… I'm not gonna read that. They refer to them, so forget something. I'm not big on scripts, is anyone. knows me, um, will tell you. So, first of all, thank you for. Honestly, I… you know, I came here when I… first joined… the district, even before I was a board member, served for a year as a member of.
the School Security Committee, Safety and Security Committee. That gave me sort of an idea that there's more to do. And more to contribute, and when… opportunity came to… To serve as a board member, I thought. how much I admired Cherry Hill. And I admired, um… what I admired about the Cherry Hill School District when I was a student elsewhere. was how much my friends, most of whom. Jerry Hill West, if you're east.
how much they love their teachers, and they love their school. And that was… refresher, even as a high school kid, I recognize that as something different. because it wasn't that way for us. And I thought, you know, here's an opportunity maybe now that I'm in Cherry Hill. Um, with much younger students in the Cherry Hill School District. Maybe I have something to contribute. This is an opportunity, um, when I grew up, I literally had.
ugly brown… Call us a west. Brad 1980 pumper sticker. Back in the days when stickers were actually stickers and you couldn't get them off. So, there's always been a part of me that wanted to be here, wanted to be part of Cherry Hill. Um, and hopefully, um. that I've spent here, it was only 4 years. But it was… it was a pretty busy 4 years. Those things that we've done. We did them as a team, and I'm grateful.
To have had a chance to have participated and… whether it was bringing all that money in with the bond. helping with that towards the end. The… the cell phone policy. You know, we had a lot of… we had a lot of challenges, we did a lot of great things together, and whether it's this board or previous boards and members that I serve with. Appreciate all of them, I appreciate having been part of that. That said, there are two particular fights that I'm most proud of.
board member. It was a late-night phone call. That, uh, Mrs. Stern might recall. with a certain previous. Superintendent, the night before. where the budget was finalized. when I fought against that previous superintendent. in order to bring preschool. preschool here to Jericho. our visions did not. Necessarily agree. This was an opportunity, I thought.
take a position alongside Mr. Stern and… that here we are as one of the. The largest school district in the state with. It's only getting better, and thank you to Dr. Mahan. for continuing, um. will be, I think, a wonderful tradition going forward. Second point that I'm most proud of. is the one that I made in order to… worked, um, and bring on board.
our current superintendent. Always confident, regardless of challenges going forward. That the district is in… best hands it possibly could be in. meet what's coming. Um, you have a passion, a vision. Um, like no other, and I… reminded daily. Not that we've always agreed on everything. Or my daily life so hard.
And, um… thrilled that you're there. You and your administrative team. So, as I thought about… I want my time here, and… What it's like to be in school as an educator now, so I'm teaching every day in schools. It's given me also a much greater appreciation and respect for. what our staff does every day in the schools. Hearing it as a board member is important. But being in the schools is really open.
The work is just so hard and so stressful. I'm grateful to be part of that now. Reminded me specifically of my time even when I was in 6th grade. teacher, Mr. Misty Chili. fashioned, like, actual televisions, big black and white things. And then we turned on… the beginning of the Watergate universe. That's what school was for me back then. It occurred to me that that may have started me on the path that eventually brought me into courtrooms.
legislative offices from D.C. To California. And finally, um… to the 3 words… To trigger me the most. And they are. I just… Because when I hear, I just can't. It's usually after some. outrage, another attack on public education. scrolled across the bottom of the screen. Or it's popped up on a… TV screen somewhere.
And, uh, all too often. That is met by… or too many people, that. For them, I just can't mean… I just want, or I just don't care enough. To speak up for those who are most in need of. Our protectionist board members. of our support. most marginalized communities. nothing else I don't want. anyone to ever say that. I said that.
that I would hope they would know that I knew that I just could and I did. I can't anymore after tonight. Everyone else on this table. And I trust, and I know you. and know what's in your hearts, I know. you to defend those things which. You know, we've all… I grew up feeling we're… Absolutely rock solid. Whether it's freedom to read. Speech, the rule of law.
common decency. these attacks on public education. real, they're present bothers me to. be walking away from this role. at a time when that fight is where it is, because I'm drawn to these things. But even though I just can't… vote from this table. I just can't speak, and I always will. And I hope that that's what I remember. But I trust. Because you can, that you… with this district and the children in this district will go forward.
Uh, they will have… quality education. Character, um… We know Cherry Hill to be. And I didn't read it. Thank you. You'll be missed. But not too far away.
Moving on to second public comment. This is the second public comment section for any topic. Public comment is an opportunity for members of the community to provide input to the Board of Education on educational issues. The board welcomes diverse opinions on relevant matters, however, statements that are abusive, abstain, or which demeanor are defamatory to any individual or group of individuals will not be tolerated. Such comments are disruptive to the orderly operation of this meeting. Speakers wishing to provide the board with information which is not relevant to the district's operations may communicate directly with the superintendent and board president via email or other alternative means.
If you would like to speak now. We're going to start in the room, is this by custom. Please approach the microphone, state your name and municipality, alternate between speakers in the room and those that are online. The speaker is given a maximum of 3 minutes, and the timer on the screen will indicate the amount of time you have remaining. We will start in the room. Is there anyone who would like to make second public comment tonight? Just give us your name and municipality, and we'll start the timer. Spiegel, Cherry up.
Good evening, my name's Nicole Spiegel, and I'm here to share a story about my child and the Special Education Department's complete lack of integrity. I wish I could share a positive story about hearing about… after hearing about you this evening. I purchased my home in Cherry Hill as a single adoptive parent to provide my children. With the best education that I possibly could. As a Cherry Hill West graduate, unfortunately, Cherry Hill is not what it used to be. My son Nathan was unfortunately declassified from pre-K to kindergarten with 5 diagnoses and lost all of his supports.
His evaluations and data show complete regression. Once Nate was finally classified with an IEP again. He was suspended 32 times for a manifestation of his disability. As you can see, this is clearly a denial of special education students' right to a free and public education. In addition to 32 suspensions, I was called to pick him up. Missing 32 days of work as an educator myself. And more importantly, my son was not provided with home instruction.
Last year, he was told he was expelled from Russell Knight by the case manager as she was in tears. this told me that was not her decision. Yes, expelled as a 6-year-old from Cherry Hill School District. He has an IQ of 110, but he is unable to read or even write his last name. He is now in the Behavior and Emotional Support Program at Bret Hart with a one-to-one aid. However, staff continue to restrain him almost daily. I was appalled walking into the parent-teacher conference last week to find the principal who was there to tell me that he will be disciplined.
and suspended, despite his behavior being caused by his disability. Imagine, as a parent. not hearing one single positive about your child. Just… I'm sorry. Just today, he came home and told me that he was restrained yet again. And I was never notified. For the board's knowledge, I have Nathan in therapy daily, and he is monitored weekly by a psychiatrist. I have worsed my concerns for almost 2 years now to the superintendent, and have been completely ignored.
My child's lack of meaningful progress over the last year. Ongoing safety concerns of his, as well as other students. and the district's own documented limitations demonstrate that his current placement is inappropriate and insufficient. Thank you for your time and consideration for my child's needs. Thank you for your comment. going online, the first caller, it says, Michael. Please unmute and give us your name and municipality.
Yeah, hi, Michael Nussbaum, Cherry Hill. Alright, thank you. I think you submit your name is Ms. Spiegel, and I want to just echo everything you just said. I hope you can hear me clearly. I'm also a parent here in Cherry Hill. I'm also a public school teacher like you. Um, and a doctoral student in educational leadership. Um, I'm here online tonight, as I have been for the past several months. Because I continue to believe that systemic… there's a systemic cultural problem in our special education system.
One that goes far beyond a single case, a single school, or a single child. While I've been advocating for my child with special needs continuously over the past several years. four and a half years, and this is the pattern that I've seen. Quite contrary to what was mentioned tonight about devotion to each student with special. needs. I, as a parent of one, the more I advocate, the worse I get treated by the district. routine conversation becomes adversarial. Interactions become cold, cooperation decreases. Simple questions get rerouted through multiple layers.
requests that should take minutes end up. taking weeks to resolve. All in all, the more I speak up respectfully, professionally, and within my legal rights. The more pushback I receive. That is not only unprofessional, it is harmful. Because when the district punishes the parent, the child is the one who suffers. Also, in the 12-minute video, talked about mediation. Um, and mediation is being used as a crutch instead of just having a discussion, just getting back to parents and just having, like, an open and honest discussion.
Um, there's no open and honest discussion, it's just defensiveness, and it's… it's not right. You may wonder, am I asking the district for too much? In fact, I'm asking the district for less. Less time in his restrictive. self-contained setting and more time in an inclusive. classrooms. That actually requires less resources, not more, but less. The individuals with Disabilities Education Act provides protection that our students are in the least restrictive environment possible.
I'm only asking for what is a civil right provided by law. Recently, I learned that my child's time in a general education setting was quietly reduced, and the district labeled the experiences. quote-unquote auditing. Instead of the experience being viewed as meaningful inclusion aligned with his IEP. The district has minimized the purpose of the placement, cut the time, and has reframed the experience. is something optional or superficial? That is not inclusion. Okay, that is box checking that, uh, you know, we went through mediation about, and it's there to just shut me up and not to serve what my child really needs.
Cherry Hill is a large, well-resourced suburban district. What we have here is not a funding problem. It is a cultural problem, a culture of defensiveness, lack of transparency and retaliation towards parents who simply want their child. Thank you, Mister, your time is up. Thank you for your comment. Going back to the room, is there anyone in the room who would like to speak? Please approach the microphone and give us your name and municipality.
I'm Sarah Jocelyn, I'm from Cherry Hill. I would like to thank. Mr. Myers, for his service. And I thank all of you. Uh, board for your service. I'm here tonight to follow up on the issue of chronic absenteeism. We're about halfway through, we're approaching halfway through the school year. And, well, I did not check our dashboard tonight to see what the statistics said. I think the meaningful thing is to look at the students that are impacted.
And see whether we have made progress. What actions are working out to address root causes? And where we go from here, I speak particularly of concern for those who are in high school. that are at risk of losing credit, credit that is needed for graduation. And we know that while we have higher chronic absenteeism at preschool, but let's look at the other end. of the thing, and especially now that we have required 4 years of science, 4 years of math, you know, I mean… Each one of those is very critical.
And at this point in time. There seems to be either a warning light that needs to go off relative to graduation. relative to prepared for each year. freshmen, sophomore, junior, and senior, not just senior year, but each year of where people are. And this is something that's important to communicate. Um, both to the individual student. as well as to communicate to the community and the families.
Um, so I… I do bring up that issue. I'm not aware of whether… where it stands in terms of being assigned to a committee. If it's a committee of the whole, but I think we need to look at this as we're, um. reaching the January timeline here. And so, um, I know that it is an issue that's probably on every school's plate. for their own criteria of things to work for, is reducing chronic absenteeism.
But now we need to look at, from the individual up. Because we need to be seeing. which students are being impacted and what supports are needed. Um, I also, uh, remind you. that the State Board of Education has now, in December, issued the additional. Um, proposed curriculum. Our proposed student learning standards, excuse me. And from that will come the next level of curriculum that will be needed. So I remind you that.
As homework, this is something that the board needs to be. Uh, looking into before we get too far out and down the road. They have made some major changes in how they structure this. Um, and so I think that, um… there should be a set-aside time when you… when it is… is… there's a dive into at least understanding from your point of view. Within the curriculum committee, however makes sense. on how this will be. This may not be this year's goal.
But it's certainly going to become the goal that's going to be the next year, okay? So, I bring that up. I thank you all, I wish you a safe holiday season here. I look forward to seeing all of you as we come into the new year. Which, of course, will be… 2026, and we're going to be talking about how we celebrate. Here, in this district, in this community, in this state, and in this nation. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Johnson, for your comment.
Going back online, phone number ending in 788, it's your turn, please unmute, give us your name and municipality. My name is Jeff Potowitz, and I live in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. OCR and other federal complaints have been filed against our school district for years. I believe things are getting worse. Nothing has really been done. Their behavior, that's your behavior as a district. has never changed. Our former school board lawyer was lauded by our school board for the job he.
did for them. state leadership and the State Board Association has done nothing to change. this behavior. Parents are forced to fight as individuals. for their kids. Of course, those families that are more economically stable and socially stable can better fight these powerful individuals. So this power structure is. or use the diversities among us. among those that advocate for special… for students with disabilities against us, and all of us.
And this is a ploy that works. I realized this first about 20 years ago after I read a Northwestern law review article back in 2007. we were on an amickey brief to the Supreme Court for the case Winkelman v. Parma School District. After decision, this article in the Northwestern Law Review basically characterized the Winkelmans as well-to-do, as wealthy. So this positive Supreme. court ruling would not really help those that were poor, except.
they were not wealthy. They were not well-to-do. They became knowledgeable. and pursued their special ed. case per se. They could not afford a lawyer. Meanwhile, their school district, just like Cherry Hill. had plenty of money and resources. to fight them. Again, just like Cherry Hill. All right, this law review article, Ms. Caragli's who the Winklemans really were. Turns out it really didn't help them that they won a Supreme Court case. Why? Because when they got to the local district.
their child, they did not get. what they wanted for their child. And this shows how powerful school district leaderships like Cherry Hill are. at a more local level. This is what has happened and is happening in our state and in our community. The power structures ploys are successful, and they divide and conquer us. I heard what those two parents. said, I've heard that before.
and I understand it, just good luck. Talk to Chapter. That's what you should do. talk to chapter, talk to other people, all right? The state would be good if they helped you. The federal government. Maybe. From an article about breaking the school to prison. pipeline among uncarcinated youth, 85% have learning and or emotional disabilities, yet only 37%. Thank you, Dr. Padowitz. Doctor Potowitz, thank you for your comment tonight.
Going back to the room, is there anyone who would like to make second public comment? Thank you, perhaps, um, hopefully. Name and municipality, please. Yes. Um, Jill Mayer of Cherry Hill. I am here tonight, um… As a parent of children who have gone through the school district and have attended, and. are here tonight, and one who's currently enrolled. And as the wife of board member Joel Mayer.
whose last official meeting? as a board member is tonight, unlike my husband, who is not reading his comments, I am going to refer to my notes. It's always been a difference between us. For the past 4 years, my husband has had the privilege of serving on the Cherry Hill Board of Education, and I say privilege intentionally. Because that is truly how he viewed his service. What I've seen up close in preparation for these meetings is the depth of Joel's commitment to public education. and to the well-being of every child in Cherry Hill.
I saw first time. the time and effort, firsthand, rather, time and effort that he put into analyzing the issues that came before the board. And how deeply he cared about. academic excellence, but also how much you cared about inclusivity. student support. And ensuring that every student felt seen. safe and valued. Those principles guided his service and his decision-making, even when conversations were difficult.
And at times heated. I know that he took his responsibilities seriously and approached every decision and every vote with an awareness of the real. and lasting impact. those choices would have on families' day-to-day lives. I know that because we talked about it often. As you all know, serving on the board requires a significant amount of time and a fair amount of courage. As we've heard from many of the comments here tonight.
And I watched Joel stand firm on issues he believed were right for students. And for the district, even when public criticism. crossed the line. from disagreement into something less constructive. And through it all, I admired how Joel remained focused. respectful and committed to doing what he believed was in the best interest of all Cherry Hill students. So on behalf of our family. and of our friends, I want to thank my husband for his service.
His integrity. His unwavering support. of public education. Cherry Hill is stronger because of people like you, Joel. who are willing to withstand public scrutiny. and stepped forward and listen and participate, and be part of the solution. Our family is proud. so proud of all that you have done. And that this board has accomplished together. over these last 4 years, and the role that you have played in Cherry Hill's educational success.
So I thank you. Thank you for your comment. Going back online, the next caller is Laura Einhorn. It's your turn. Please unmute, give us your name and municipality. It's Anne Einhorn in Terry Hill, New Jersey, so I'd like to go back to the appointment of the Director of Special Projects and Student Services tonight. I don't know what that means still, um…
I'm assuming that one of his main roles will be the absenteeism issue, since it's definitely a student issue. And, um, the commitment by the board. would allow for him to be part of that process. But I really would like to know, moving forward, since. I really didn't know what the former supervisor was doing with that. that it's going to involve something other than absenteeism, because there are a lot of things in our district that could utilize those services. Um, so I would like to know if the superintendent would be able to.
As you move forward with this position, to let us know what's the next project, or what's the next thing. that this individual will be working on. I do have a concern, because I've been listening and attending meetings for a long time. that we are still hearing from parents who have felt they have had nowhere else to go. But to come to you publicly about the issues in this special education department.
There's something wrong, board members. that we keep having to hear. Parents express their concerns in the way that they are being treated. So, I would hope that one of the projects could be. A better way to communicate with the parents that have these needs for their children. They're like any other parent in the world. They only want what's best. So I thank you, Ms. Spiegel, for calling, and the other gentleman.
Because it's ongoing, and I still don't understand why parents have been forced to come. In a public setting to express their concerns about children. that have more needs than the average child in our school system. So I would hope that you would make that a board priority. Though I think that was one of your goals, um… moving forward, because my heart breaks for any parent that has to experience this day in and day out.
Um, and I think that we can do better. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. back to the room. Is there anyone else in the room who would like to speak? Going back online, the next person is a wider bridge. It's your turn, please unmute and give us your name and municipality. Alana Yarris, Cherry Hill. Um, I want to thank Joel Mayer for his service to the board. Um, I… Attend as many meetings as I can, and I know that there's so much more work that gets done, and I just want to say thank you. Um, I also wanted to know, I remember from Mr. Presentation that he said the lettering for ROSA was ordered. Is that…
Uh, where on Karusi, it says Karusi Middle School, but on Beck, it says Henry C. Beck Middle School. What will the ROSA signage say? Um, I mentioned it when the name was changed, and I just… I would like consistency throughout the district if we're using. First name, middle initial, last name, that we do so on all schools that have that. Um, at… Kilmer drop-off this morning, the preschool delivery of furniture was happening, and I guess… I'm not sure what time it started at, but it created a little bit of a problem in the parking lot. Um, there was a truck parked.
That was blocking the way for cars to be able to get around, and buses were. Coming in with cars for drop-off, blocking in the parking lot and on Chapel Avenue, so I guess when you do the Malberg delivery, if you can either do it for. after morning drop-off, where there's limited parking as it is, and tons of buses on Winston Way, or… early enough in the morning so that you don't cause a traffic disturbance, that would be great. Um, it was just very unsafe to let my kids out of the car this morning at drop-off because of that.
Um… And I just wanted to say last week for conferences, thank you to all of the teachers in the district who put in the time and effort to, uh, put those conferences together for my children and the students of the district. Um, I appreciate it. And, um, I just hope that on the calendar for the school district in the future, it says that those are half days instead of just the Friday as a frequent attender of board meetings and meetings in general, I know that that Friday's a half day, meaning all the rest of the days in the week are half days, but a lot of.
parents in the district did not know that, so if that could be clearer messaging, that would be fantastic. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Going back to the room… you know, takers, going back online, I see Dr. Yoni Yaros, it's your turn. Hi, uh, Dr. Yonian. I want to echo what the prior speaker said, and to say thank you so much to Travis the Mayor.
Um, Joel, you've just been an incredible asset to the boards since you came on. I've had the pleasure getting to work with you. on one district committee, and just, you were always insightful and thoughtful, um, in your voice will be missed. Um, hopefully you still stay around once you get some good rest and recovery. Um, also just wanted to acknowledge Mr. Sweeney has done an incredible job since coming into Kilmer. Um, his response to this is just, you can feel the vibe of just how incredible. things are going, um, and as a long-time Kilmer parent, and will be there for a very long time, I'm just very much appreciative, so I'm grateful to Dr. Morton.
I'm Mr. Guy for bringing us, Mr. Sweeney. Um, because it's really been quite wonderful. I also want to say that I reached out to Mr. Sweeney yesterday. When I was picking up my daughter, um, those of you who may not know the Kilmer layout. There's a rear path where 4th and secure exit. That path was not cleared. After our crazy snowstorm. But I reached out to Mr. Sweeney just to make him aware of it, and it was done. by the next morning, and that's what it's been like with anything. Coming up, he is just incredibly responsive and just a really great person to have back in the district.
I also want to celebrate that the preschool program has really hit a stride this year. Um, was really wonderful getting to be there for my child's conference, and just. The staff is glowing and celebrating, and Ms. Edwards has done a fantastic job in really. Now that we're in year 3 of the expansion, you can really see, as they always say, it takes 3 years. Um, and it's really going to be exciting come January when we bring in the next cohort. And so, thank you all for doing that. Thank you. Going back to the room, last chance.
If anybody wants to approach the microphone and say something pithy. Wise, whether it's red or unread from a piece of paper. I see no takers. Going back online, I don't see anyone with their hands raised online, so I will close second public comment. And turn it over to Superintendent Comets. Thank you very much, Ms. Winters. I do not have, uh… many long comments this evening. I'll just say thank you to everyone for their comments. There were a few questions about specifics as it relates to operations, and I would just like to, um.
bring everyone's awareness to a chain of communication that we have available. on the district's website. If you go to the district website on the main page, click on, or hover over our district. You'll see a link to chain of communication. there, if you click on one of those links that corresponds with the level that you have a question about. You can, uh, figure out who the correct administrator is to call to have your questions. answer immediately, um. I highly suggest that you reach out to the.
To the… to the administration with any questions. Um, as it relates to operations. Other than that. Uh, congratulations again, Mr. Mayor. Have a great night, everyone. Thank you, I'd like to make a motion to adjourn. Do I have a second?