Good evening. I'd like to call this meeting of the Board of Education to order. Mr. Schimp, can you please call the roll? Dr. Braddock here. Mr. Fain. Here. Ms. Cummings. Here. Dr. Driesen. Here. Mr. Greenbaum? Here. Ms. Manzano? Here. Ms. Palmer? Here. Ms. Stern? Here. Ms. Winters Thank you. Public notice of this meeting pursuant to the open Public Meetings Act has been given by the board secretary on April 9, 2026 in the following manner. Post-it notice on the school bulletin board at the administration building, posted on the board's official website, transmitted to the Clerk of Cherry Hill Township. Please be advised, this meeting is being recorded and live streamed. All rise and join me in saying the Pledge of Allegiance.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all We are starting with board recognition tonight. Which is one of my favorite things, and our first piece of recognition is to welcome our new board representatives from our high schools for 2026 and 2027 from High School East and West. Can you guys… you don't have microphones. Can you pop over to the microphones or pass the microphones down so you can introduce yourselves?
Hi, my name is Chloe Wren. I'm a representative from Cherry Hill East and I'm a junior or rising senior. Hello? There we go. Hi, my name is Elias Kang. I'm also a junior, a rising senior, and I am the other representative from Cherry Hill East. And High School West Hi, my name is Isabella Rodriguez, and I'm going to be a senior this year. And, my name is Mason McPolla, and I'm also going to be a senior this year.
Welcome to all four of you, we're so excited to have you here. We also have recognition of our student athletes for spring sports, and I'd like to call out Mr. Borrell.
Thank you very much for having us here tonight. Just another outstanding season for Cherry Hill Public School Athletics. From the middle school to the high school, this spring has been nothing short of spectacular. We have several teams here to celebrate tonight Our championship athletes from the spring, and we're very excited to have them here. Just a couple quick numbers I always like to kind of start with our participation, but this spring we had almost 900 students at the high school level participate in spring sports. And just to top that, we had over a thousand kids at the middle school participate in a sport or one of our intramural programs
Just outstanding. We continue to grow each season. This spring, East and West had a combined 73 all Olympic Conference athletes, and we had three conference championships. Just outstanding work by our student athletes and our coaching staff here On May 27th and May 28th, we celebrated 53 senior student athletes from Cherry Hill East and West at our college signing day ceremonies as they committed to continuing their academic and athletic careers at the collegiate level, which is just another outstanding number that we continue each year
To build on. Outside of our championship teams that we're going to highlight here this evening, I just also wanted to point out a couple just great achievements, but our Cherry Hill West baseball team was ranked number 10 in New Jersey this season. Our Cherry Hill East baseball team reached the Group 4 South semifinals for the first time since 2019. They finished second in the Olympic Conference Eastern boys golf were both at Camden County Team Championships this year. East Boys Tennis reached the Group 4 South semifinal, having six of their seven new starters in their lineup this season, which is just tremendous work by Coach DeWolf
Our West Girls track, Brooklyn Ezekiel, finished as one of the top triple jumpers in the state, and she'll be continuing on to compete at Nationals in a couple weeks. And once again, we had another exceptional season of unified track with almost 20 students from East and West participating in our program and attending 7 track meets this fall, or this spring It was great So, without further ado, I want to recognize these outstanding coaches and athletes. We're going to start tonight with our Rosa Girls Lacrosse program, and as you know, this is our first ever inaugural season of having lacrosse at the middle school level. I think it was a success
But up here to talk about that, we have Coach Klein and Coach Romano. Hi, how are you? I'm Irene Klein. I'm Alexander Romano Okay, I have you did a great job, but I'm going to read this. What a way to make an entrance. It's the very first year of existence. The Rosa Middle School lacrosse program didn't just compete. They dominated. The team finished their debut season with a flawless 10-0 record, sending a clear message that Rosa is a force to be reckoned with. This spectacular run was a true showcase of teamwork, and it showed on the field with the vast majority of our goals coming from assists.
Our unstoppable offense was led by our standout 8th grade leaders and bolstered by the relentless playmaking of our talented underclassmen. Just as impressive was our powerhouse defense, expertly anchored by phenomenal goaltending that racked up 36 saves This group's incredible communication and ability to shut down opposing momentum allowed us to completely control the field from end to end. I am incredibly impressed with the group of athletes that we have here. My first day coming to practice. They came in and we're ready to go. And it was such a joy to see them. And then we went to games and they just the camaraderie and cheering for everybody and
I'm so proud of him, I'm trying not to cry, but I'm really proud of you girls Oh, okay, now I just repeat. Yeah. Just read them? Okay. Charlotte Hutchinson. Maisie Grillo. Karen Nettleton Maya Verdes
Juliette Valachel Oh, Houston. Chloe Pasparallo. Lady Augustine. Bella Donato. Noelle Johnstone Nola Carney. Zoe Berkser.
Charlotte Smith McKenna rash? Sophia Fariola Gwen Schmidt And Jada Weiss. Congratulations, girls.
All right, I mean, there's no secret to why we have such good lacrosse here in Cherry Hill. All of the girls, they were upset because they had to miss club practice tonight to be here. But up next is the head coach of West Girls Lacrosse, Coach Taylor Gretz. I'll keep mine a little bit shorter. Unfortunately, all my girls are at club practice right now. And then the other ones work, so I have our four seniors with us today. But good evening, thank you to the board and Mr. Brown for recognizing West Girls Lacrosse team tonight. The season was an exciting one, defined by growth and the ability to adapt to ever-changing circumstances. Our girls consistently stepped up when it mattered the most, embracing new roles and challenges without hesitation
Their commitment to the program and to each other allowed us to improve every single week and compete with confidence. We're so proud of their resilience that they showed and we're grateful for the support that helped make the season possible. So I have Kira Hassler, Erin Ryan, Charlie Torres Thorpe, and Sam Bruno.
I think Coach Gretch has missed out, but they have won the Olympic Conference National Division. This is their seventh year in a row. San Bruno is attending University of Richmond on a lacrosse scholarship and Kira is attending Stevens Institute Up in North Jersey. playing lacrosse there as well. All right, up next head coach of West Boys Track, Coach Matt Al Muccio, who had just a tremendous season this year, and looking forward to having him come up here
Thank you. First, I wanted to talk about just the team in general, even though I have an individual that I'm going to talk to you about. It was a phenomenal season for West Track on the track, probably arguably as good as we've possibly ever had, just judged by the fact that we broke almost every relay record Which just shows that the team is really improving, doing well. The only one we didn't get has stood since 196 But he has assured me, Supreme has assured me that we have the guys to do it next year. And we only missed it by half a second, so we're there. So really good stuff going. I'm going to speak about Supreme for a minute, but I've already spoken to you about Supreme because he's a phenomenal athlete
And he, has excelled so much this year and grown so much as an athlete. He's competitive with the top athletes in the state. The last time I came to speak to you was about his state title that he won. One, the conference title this year, and he's more than just a jumper. He's somebody who has competed in all those events, all those relays I talked about. He was an integral part of that team, and helping this team become what it is, and he's only a sophomore.
Since I've already spoken to you about his athletic accolades, I'd like to say this about him. Unsolicited, a teacher came to me today to talk about Supreme, and usually that's not the best news when that happens. But in this case, it was phenomenal news. She wanted to talk about the growth that he's had How important athletics has helped play in that role, that it has helped him give him motivation to what he does in the classroom, and I think that really highlights the connection between the two, and as a coach, any of the other coaches in this room know this
We are just excited to get that kind of information about a young man as what he does out there, and so I'm really proud of not just what he's done in the track, but what he's doing in the classroom. So I'd like to bring up Supreme.
He's like the winningest guy I know. The five time state championship coach From our East Esports team, Mr. Andrew Graff. I will be brief, it's been a real honor to be the advisor slash coach of these fine people. The two folks who were here today, the team is full of many seniors, so we had the two here, some, two of the, the leaders of the team who have
been reliable in all ways, including coming to a meeting to get honored here. You can see right here that this is the championship belt for this year. We have about five, as Mr. Brown was saying, five of them, and they, I'm sure after this year as well, Cherry Hill East will be feared as it has been for the past couple years, when they see you and other coaches see that, that they're going up against the East. Valorant, for some reason, we are a playground, a working ground there where kids just come up and have excelled, and they work really, really well together
And, it's been great to see them get challenged every now and again, but also just be, be really, really excellent across the board. So both of these, Hannah and Kevin, come on up here. They have both, taken part in a collegiate meet that happened last year, and, while they… not, neither of them have taken up any, scholarship offers, they did get several of them, and Hannah is a junior right now, and has been
told by the head of Garden State Esports that there are several colleges, including New York begins with an S. But Syracuse, thank you. Syracuse University is very interested in her for the future. So I'm here to just say thank you to them and to congratulate them. And This is one of the founding members, and so he will be missed, the whole team will be missed, but I'm sure we'll have the legacy will continue. So, thank you
from East Boys Golf, our head coach, Mr. Ryan James. Thank you. I don't even know where to start with this group back here. But Three years ago, we change the culture in our program. And basically The group we had, and these guys have been a big part of that, worked really hard. They won the state championship. They were 13 and 13-4, or 13-3. Last year, they were 18 and 1, won sectionals again. This year, they even topped that. They were 15-0.
One conference in 21 years of coaching East. I think we've won the conference now four times. It's hard. I mean, there's some really good teams in our conference, you know, and they had to beat some really good teams to do that. So this year They started off the year winning the Garden State Cup, and the Garden State Cup is the best teams in the state in parochial and in public schools. The main team that we beat there, St. Jose Regional
They ended up winning the whole thing again. So they're just a phenomenal team, and these guys beat them in that tournament. They are three times Camden County champions, again at sectionals, played very well. We were fourth at sectionals Tyler Whitney ended up moving on from sectionals and going to the Tournament of Champions, tied for the lead for the best score in the state. So he had a 69, it was a three under at 69. So technically, he's the best public golfer in the state of New Jersey. He's the best public golfer in Group 4
So that's the type of year we've had. But to go through a year, I don't think East has ever had a year where they've been undefeated. So to be 15-0, it's just remarkable. You know, besides that me as a coach, the relationships I get to make with these guys is just phenomenal. I have a blast out there. They work extremely hard, they play all the time, and that's what it takes, you know, and that's why they are the champions of the conference, all right? So, that's one
So we got Jake Silver Colin Murphy And Ryan Olson I had a few guys that couldn't make it today, so I just want to mention them as well. So Mason Fowler is a big part of our team. All these guys played all year long. Oliver Lawler, Vaughn Mondell, Mason Petkoff, William Jones, David Mogul, and Isaac Green
As well Thank you. I believe Mr. Schiff has already reserved Tyler for his foursome at the golf outing in the spring or in the fall. Next up from East Boise Track, we have head coach Mr. Marcus Holman.
This is new for me being in front of the mic. But we began this year I gave them the team a mission and that was to chase excellence so they can achieve greatness. And they all we had a phenomenal season. They all bought into our workout plan, bought into everything we were trying to do week after week, we just kept seeing times drop, them doing phenomenally. I mean, we started off the season a little rough, because everybody has a long season, we got a lot of 3-sport athletes on the team, so they came into the season a little banged up, and I just asked them to be patient and trust the process
And they did. And throughout the year, they just kept getting better and better and better. And this is a team unlike no other. We only had four seniors on the entire team majority of the team, were JD last year. So they all stepped up to the plate, and they just continue to just Impress me and do things that they didn't even imagine that they could. several of them. They, you know, they asked they had goals at the beginning of the year, and I told them, you know, I believe that they would get that, and then more.
And they went on to even exceed my expectations of them. So we had… we got into the… got to the end of the year and Going into the conference game. I mean, going to the conference meet You know, they just went out there and said, hey, coach, I just, I feel phenomenal about what we're getting ready to do today. Even some of my assistant coaches said the same thing, like, coach, I think this is going to be a big meet.
We came in, I think, in the 4x1, we were seated like 15th. We ended up winning, you know, came within came within 1 tenth of a second of breaking the school record. But that wasn't just one performance, it was a whole host of performances. This year, we took more athletes to states than we ever have before We took 11 athletes to states. We took an athlete in every discipline, with the exception of jumps, and we just missed that. He just… our high jumper just missed making it to state. So this was a phenomenal year
And we have five athletes that achieved first team all-conference this year. So these are the athletes that are here. I have a team of 90, so we can have all 90 here. So we're gonna start with these athletes. First up. Kia and Sherlock. Secondly, we have Jacob Lozowski.
Next, we have Riley Percival We have Tim Lightson, who couldn't be here, but I definitely want to recognize him. He was, he was very very He did a phenomenal job in helping the team get to where we got to. And lastly, but not least. This young man actually did break the school's 100 record with running a 10, 5, and that was Tamir Gale
He is one of the four seniors on the team, and he will be attending Rowan University next year. So I don't know if you know this or not, but Taimir is actually the fastest person in Cherry Hill. And I can actually prove it. He ran a 10.57 in 100 meters this year, which is just
You know, I don't know, I definitely can't do it. All right, last up we have East Boys Volleyball, and I'm going to have senior captain Gabe Topp come up here and join me. So unfortunately, Coach Lou couldn't be here today. Our head coach, Photom Lu, if you can imagine, he sent me something to write. So if you can imagine a I am not him. He's a six foot five
Super cool Vietnamese guy who's a professional volleyball player. I am none of those things. But we're fortunate to have him. So he had a little message here I'd like to say to the team, so I'll be reading it on his behalf. Good evening, everyone. I apologize for not being able to attend today's gathering, and am very grateful for your recognition of this year's Cherry Hill East volleyball program. I remember my first year, I coached for this program, we were able to win the Olympic conference title, and I felt a bit arrogant as I pictured myself being able to continuously do it over the next few years.
Unfortunately, this was not the case. As the past two years, I realized very quickly that the Olympic Conference is one of the most challenging levels of competition because it's so high These past two years, we have seen defeat more times than we would like to mention. However, with each loss, we gain more knowledge than we were able to receive from a victory. These young athletes sitting here before you today are products of those who did not quit and give up because we were losing, but rather worked relentlessly throughout the offseason To make it so we can stand before you and be proud to say that we were able to win the most games ever in the history of East Boys Volleyball, finish the season at 20-5 as the Olympic Conference American Division champions.
As much as I would like to take credit for some of the success we've had this year in true reality, it's these boys love and passion for the game that have them playing whenever they could and also for their parents supporting them in the process. My message to these young athletes, soon to be young adults, is to never forget what you have built here at Cherry Hill East Boys Volleyball program. Our team culture with those five pillars of respect, communication, hard work, responsibility, and humbleness is something that you can take with you throughout your entire life And as long as you never give up like you did this season, you will truly never lose. Coach Luke
So we'd like to recognize the athletes To begin, Mason Wills Nathan Yee I am Wilson Pan
Anthony Soligobe. Ray Tao Daven, you are And Gary Zang.
Okay, we have a few more names. Quinn Cunningham. Alexander Bonilla. Jacob Adler. Nathan Aguilo. And myself, Gabriel Top.
So thank you to everybody for coming out to support them. Next, we have a project update from Mr. Schimp.
Okay This will be the final update before a very, very busy summer construction season before our summer construction gets underway here. So we'll just talk real briefly about the ongoing interior rentals at Rosa, Carusi and the East Auditorium As well as all of our upcoming projects, Beck Interior Reno Phase 1, Security Vestibule projects going on at four of our elementaries, Barton, Kingston, Johnson
sharp, as well as renovations to the west, the lower level team and locker rooms. And in addition to that, site improvements at five of our sites, plus playgrounds at two of them, and then we'll talk about some of the planning already underway for summer 2027 So Rosa As you can see here, obviously the main entrance at Rhodes has been completed for some time that's open, accessible and being used. We actually finally just had furniture delivered for the main office area. The only thing to mention here is we just have some ongoing punch list items
Replacement of some cracked sidewalk sections as well as some small concrete around the flagpole there. just some pictures To share Over at Rosa. So these are the As you can see, the exterior construction obviously largely complete. If you've been by Rosa of the new cafeteria addition. In the top left, you can actually see the sidewalks and ramps that have been installed as well as the curbing
There's an interior picture, it's a little bit dated. But the interior paint and caulking are now complete, as well as the stage floor that has been installed. As you can see there and protected architectural lighting on the interior is complete, so we're close to wrapping up the cafeteria edition over at Rosa. As well. So moving into the summer, this will be the final phase of the interior renovations. At Rosa, so that work will include abatement and renovations in the existing cafeterium
And serving area As well as the A-Wing classrooms and Media Center. So the existing cafeteria will actually be, as we've talked about a lot, reconfigured into a new instrumental music room, two large instrument storage rooms a new general classroom as well as additional student toilet rooms. So all of that work, in addition to everything else we're going to talk about will or the new work will commence, you know, as soon as the students let out on June 22nd. That will run through August of this year, so full interior renovations at Rosa will be complete for the opening of school in September of 2026. So the remaining allowance on that project is actually $174,000 of an original $287,000
We do have actually a change order on the agenda this evening for moving services. So for the existing area or the remaining area that has to be renoed They'll be removing all of that and storing all of the furniture over the summer, and then replacing it for us once that's complete. So to date, about 70% of the base contract at Rosa Has been completed getting into Karusi. Some of you here got to see some of these sections live when we hosted a couple, or the DOE commissioner and some others about 2 Fridays ago, I guess now
But phase two work has just about been finalized. So we're on punch list items. Right now, the Tco has been issued for the B wing, which is good through August, October 29th So the final inspection will occur as soon as students leave once we take down the temporary walls over at the B wing. So there's a couple pictures you can see the interior of a couple classrooms With the furniture ready to be set, and then a new hallway, obviously, with all new lighting, ceilings, flooring, and lockers.
So we'll be moving into phase three work, phase three of four. So mind you, so Karusi still has a two full school years of work remaining. The green area that you see will be done over this summer and will reopen for the students In September, and then the purple or pink sections, those will be, will begin in June and will not be completed until approximately May of next year, so they won't be online until September of 2027. Right now at Karusi, we have a remaining allowance of about $56,000. So about 86% of the allowance has been utilized and roughly 70% of the work has been completed. So we are trending in a good place there as well at Karusi
East Auditorium, the renovations over at East Auditorium are well underway. All of the demo has been complete. So the existing doors, hardware, wall panels All of the theater seating and existing conduits and feeders for the electric has been removed. Installation of the new electrical panels, conduits and feeders is currently underway. As you can see in the picture on the lower left, the repointing and anchoring of the exterior walls is currently being done
They've already started the inspections of the existing column bases at grade level, some at below level. So once school ends the abatement of the VAT flooring will begin and commence In addition, one thing of note is, as you recall, a couple months ago, we Did a change order with TN Ward to redo or modernize the elevators at both East and west. So that was an $883,000 addition. That was a standalone change order, so the remaining allowance on the project is about 122,000
of an original 150. So that's about 18% utilized and roughly 10% of the contract over at East has been completed. So upcoming projects, obviously we'll be jumping into Beck interior renovations, phase one of two In June, that bid was awarded in November to DeAndrea Construction for $11,069,000. Some abatement work was completed over spring break. We're doing some electrical during off hours, but
Like all the rest of these projects, we'll be jumping into them on June 22nd. So, as I mentioned, we'll be doing 4 new security vestibules during this summer, both at Barton Kingston Johnson and Sharp, that was also awarded to DeAndrea Construction. In addition to that Renovations at the West lower level locker rooms, team rooms, the weight rooms will commence. That contract was awarded to Connor Construction on April 28th That was about $5.6 million. Right now, we're anticipating receiving a change order for the Lula installation over at West
So we're hoping to do that as a change order with Connor Construction. Site improvements, so we will be commencing the site improvements at both Kilmer and night. They'll get full parking lot Redos as well as accessibility and sidewalk improvements. That was awarded to Wyndham Construction. Then over at Johnson and Mann, similarly redoing the parking lots as well as the sidewalks and accessibility
That was awarded to Landberg construction One more site improvement. We'll also be tackling the east administrative lot. Over there, so they'll be working next to and on top of TN Ward, who is redoing the The auditorium over there, so we've had some coordination meetings with them. We've already for all the projects I just went over that are commencing in June. We've already had 3 to 4 pre-construction meetings. So all the contractors are ready to roll, everything's on time and ready to go pending weather on June 22nd.
I'll just mention the playground enhancements again will be redoing the existing playground at Mann in the rear. As well as Stockton. Stockton's gonna be delayed a little bit, due to some installation issues we have with the contractor, so that actually won't begin until school starts in September, but it should be done sometime in October, so it'll give the students a chance to utilize before the cold weather rolls in there before Thanksgiving So right now, I just wanted to add to so we're already in the design phase and thinking about 2027. So right now we're looking at the Barton interior renovations
as well as the high school east and West media centers. Right now, the plan is to tackle the six remaining security vestibules in the summer of 2027. So that would be Kilmer night man Cooper, Stockton, and Hart And We're already looking at this is one of the larger ones, High School East F wing So we're looking at design options on that. We have the new principal involved in those meetings, because that will require a little bit of messing around with the schedule and course options, as that will be offline for about two full years, as that's a full demo of the F wing and rebuild
So We're ready to go on June 22nd. Going to be super busy. But everything is progressing on time. And on budget. More importantly job. I'll take any questions. Thank you, Mr. Schimp. Do any board members have questions about the progress? Dr. Dryson. Thank you. So just to reiterate what I heard, the goal now is to complete all the remaining security vestibules in summer 2027
That's correct. Yep, so all all schools will have security vestibules by the end of… that's the plan as of now. Thank you. September 2027. Any other board member questions? It's a very aggressive and ambitious schedule. Yes. And I just want to acknowledge that and give my appreciation to you and everybody who's working tirelessly behind the scenes on the BOM projects. Because I know it's a heavy lift and a tight timeline, especially in the summer when the kids aren't in the building. So thank you for everything that you do. Thank you
All right, seeing no other questions. Is it possible we are already at first public comment? We are. So this is the first public comment section. There are two opportunities for public comment this evening, and this first public comment section is for board special action items only. So those are items that we are actually voting on this evening. And tonight those are items 19 through 22. If you wish to speak on any topic other than what is on the agenda for a vote, you may speak during second public comment, which is at the end of the meeting.
Speakers must provide their name and the municipality. If you are a student, any students in the room, any students online, you may speak on any topic during the first public comment period by identifying yourself as a student. That's either in the room coming to the microphone first, or online putting an S after your name so I know that you're a student and to call on you first. We will alternate between speakers in the room and those wishing to comment online. Each speaker has three minutes to speak and the timer on the screen will indicate the amount of time remaining. All statements, questions or comments will be addressed to the chair. Your inquiry may or may not be addressed by district administration at the close of the session.
By custom, we always start with first public comment in the room. Is there anybody in the room who would like to comment tonight on an action item? Please approach the microphone. Please state your name and municipality and Mr. Schimp will start the timer. Rick Shore, Cherry Hill. Action item for the construction. And action item for the replacement
of Dr. Birdie. I'm sorry, Mr. Short, which for construction on 21.2 for Dr. Birdie and the action item. Let's see Hmm… Is it the change orders? Yeah, the change orders. Okay, thank you. I got it. Okay. Let's first start out with Dr. Birdie replacement. Dr. Birdie, since, I believe around February or March has assumed being principal at EAST, so he's been doing two jobs, supposedly.
So why are we going to end up replacing Dr. Birdie when We're trying to cut back on staff How much are we spending? Another $185,000 for somebody to drive around and make sure every Middle school and High school is doing restorative justice practices correctly It's a lot of money we'll be wasting to replace them Now moving on to the rental costs.
So you're spending $27,000 for two schools And then you're spending another $27,000 for 2 schools And the contractor is removing the office in the front and some of the other stuff You can rent a storage place in Cherry Hill for about $450. You can save $13,000 per Per school I mean, these costs are just ridiculous. So 13,000 times 4 is $52,000. So tonight you were voting on something and you will waste $52,000. All right, I'll give you, you know what? I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. You're going to waste
$50,000 in rental costs when you could ask the township to come in I'm sure they would empty out the the front offices. And then, on top of all this I don't even… the presentation that was just made said Rosa was doing a total rehab on the interior So is the $100,000 that you're voting on, is that even for the right school? Because I'm confused. Didn't really show what you're doing it back.
That you're spending $100,000 to move To move Furniture and put it in storage. It is absolutely insane. So you're wasting, let's say Hmm. Maybe $75,000 when you vote tonight, and no one, I hope somebody asks a question. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Give me one second. I am looking online to see if there's anyone with a hand raised. I do see a hand raised. It's a phone number ending in 788. It's your turn. Please unmute, give us your name, municipality, and it is your 3 min for public comment.
My name is Jeff Podowitz. I live in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, 21.4 and 20.5. 21.4 appointments certified just look at all the things on 21.4, the money we're spending. We're spending S on K-12 world language curriculum. Not to exceed $18,000. T secondary ELL committee, not to exceed $21. 21,900. Curriculum writing for new courses, we're getting 4 new courses
One, ethics. Two, AP Business and Personnel Finance. Three, film through animation, 1 and 2. And 4. AP Physics. 2. Four new courses. That only cost $1,900, but Why don't you spend the money on maybe decreasing, Mickey, the classes a little smaller in other… in AP1 physics, in math, other things, hired some more teachers. Instead, you're creating 4 new courses. At what cost? No. Vote no on that. Don't create four new courses
Take care of the ones you have right now. Then M secondary Size curriculum, $16,000, and secondary math curriculum, $24,000. Secondary social studies, these are career committees for the summer. It's about $60,000, et cetera, et cetera. Vote No! We could use that money maybe to hire a teacher. Then there's 20.5. Let's see… and Cherry, it's about the economy of scale. Well, all three things. A lot of questions. We were just told that I think the cost at Beck D'Andrea, and good for them, it's gonna be about $11.6 million? Yeah, but it's going to cost us $100,000 more for labor and materials
And don't forget, we have 25% Soft costs So, in other words, if you have a light fixture, and the cost would be $100 The costs on up to the bond is really $125, because we have soft costs. So imagine what the soft costs are on $363 million. So, and don't forget also Principal and interest. It's just unbelievable. And here, what Mr. Short just said, just think about it!
11.6 million, or over $11 million, they're getting And that's not enough. Another $100,000. And what about those other two items? 27,000 here, 27,000 now. Now, you know. 160, $170,000 The money adds up. That's what's happening. There's no economy of scale in Cherry Hill. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Podowicz, for your call. Is there anyone else in the room who would like to make first public comment this evening?
I don't see any takers looking back online. I don't see anyone else for first public comments. I'm going to close first public comment tonight. Move on to correspondence. Mr. Schimp, is there any correspondence that you've received on behalf of the board? There was not. Thank you. So I'm moving on to Superintendent's report. Thank you, Ms. Winters. I'd just like to say welcome, officially, to Elias Chloe, Mason, and Isabella. Definitely looking forward to working with you guys throughout the course of the 26-27 school year. Just as a reminder
Being appointed and as a board representative for your school buildings is amongst the highest honor that any student can be bestowed in their schools. So tremendous honor for you guys and kudos to you for what you represent and what you have represented And what you will as we move forward. Also, congratulations to all of our spring sports teams and athletes. We remain extremely, extremely appreciative of all the efforts of our coaches and of all the interactions. You heard some of the numbers that
Mr. Burrough gave in terms of the scores of kids that participate in our teams, it's truly outstanding to have an opportunity to, to give our children a comprehensive, full experience at the high schools and at the middle schools as well So we have reached the final few weeks of the school year, final two weeks of the year, and as we move into the month of June, this is just a great time for celebration, where we have many activities that culminate the school year beautifully. This is also a time where we
Nas and celebrate Pride Month. So I'd like to extend a happy Pride Month to all those in the LGBTQ plus community. Thank them for their contributions to society. Thank you to board members as well. For representing For those who are I mentioned some of the activities that take place during these last few weeks of the school year. Chief amongst are the high school proms had an opportunity to go to both the proms. Kids look
Fabulous. There's nothing better for me than to see the kids all dressed up in their, in their absolute best, so I had a chance to attend High School East End, High School West. Just next week, we're looking forward to great events, elementary clap outs past parties Preschool moving up ceremonies, elementary move-up ceremonies, middle school graduation, ultimately high school graduation as well. Next Friday as well, the district will be closed for the recognition of Juneteenth. Juneteenth holiday is an extremely important holiday for us
It's where we commemorate the emancipation of enslaved African Americans in this country. So, very important for us, obviously very important for me and my ancestors and legacy of my family and for all those as well, celebrating. Just like to wish Happy Juneteenth Thank you. Thank you for your report. Do any board members have old business to raise tonight? Dr. Dryson. Thank you. Due to a work conflict, I was unable to attend the meeting two weeks ago, so I just wanted to go on record for two items from that meeting. The first had to do with the CSA evaluation training. Really appreciated all that training. One thing that was interesting for me to hear, and so this, if I was there, I would
The board already knows this, but it was interesting that I am firmly in the minority on this, just to be clear, the trainer made clear that 95% of districts in the state do it one way. My preference would be from, from a point of view of transparency and governance would be that non-conflicted board members start with a compilation as we're thinking about annual evaluations versus starting with a draft report. This isn't specific to this board. I'm just speaking in general my approach from a governance perspective, I think that's, you know, the
the most transparent way to go about doing it. So if I were in that meeting, I just wanted to go and record that it just, I mean, in this case, I am certainly a minority, but I am that 5%. The other comment because about a month ago, I was in a meeting where clearly I was confused about what was going on. And so two weeks ago, I did appreciate Dr. Morton clarifying for the community that there never was a vote on the table, just to be clear, about any particular graduation requirement. What I just wanted to comment on here, and I know it got confusing because I think the conversation got confusing.
particularly as we welcome new student representatives to the board, what I was focused on in that meeting, and again, I'm only speaking for myself here, is that we are representatives of the community, and the board, the way the board operates is that anything that a board member brings up can go to committee for discussion. And at least my understanding was that a motion for the board was for something to go to committee for discussion. My perspective is I anticipate that that would have been tabled in committee. So just for the community's knowledge, my point of view on topics like this is if any board member brings up a topic
And they want to bring it up and send it to committee, I'm going to vote in favor of that to go to committee, because I think we represent how we can have civic dialogue in our community. This is something that I just feel personally strong about. And actually, the NJSBA is having an effort right now. We talked about this a bit in CNI around board governance, and how can we have difficult conversations where people may disagree with each other? And I think we can illustrate to the community how we can do just that. So I just wanted to share my two cents on those two topics. Thank you.
Thank you, Dr. Dryson. Any other board members have old business this evening? Don't see any other old business. So I'm going to move on to committee and delegate reports and Dr. Dreising, you did steal a little of my thunder with CNI, but when we get there, you can chime in. So, the Curriculum and instruction committee met on June 1st at 7 p.m. We had Miss Cummings sub in for Ms. Surefain at that meeting, so thank you, Ms. Cummings, for attending.
The first thing we did was that we approved theatrical productions for High School East and West. For East, we had productions all the way through the spring, because East is going to be Hanging out at West Next year as their auditorium, as you just saw, is going to be under construction. So I think in anticipation of the scheduling and logistics, we've proved east productions all the way through the spring for High School West. We approved two things, their fall show, which will be in October and their fall musical Which is 1776 this year. So I'm looking forward to seeing all the shows from both high schools, but this year housed at High School West.
The vast majority of the meeting was spent in a workshop style format led by Ms. Staffen. So thank you for that, Ms. Staffen, showing us how the portrait of a graduate work that we did last year with community meetings at each school to talk about what we want our graduates to be able to do and be as they complete their Cherry Hill curriculum and their graduation requirements, how to incorporate that into the curriculum all the way from pre-K up to 12th. So it was really instructive for me, because I always had a hard time conceptualizing how these concepts that are… seem fairly abstract
could actually be operationalized. So I want to thank Ms. Staffen for working through that with the committee so that we could actually see the work that you're doing to incorporate those things. The example that she used was critical thinking Which is something that we feel is very important, and she showed how that could be shown through many different subject areas and through many different grade levels. Ms. Staffen, is there anything else you'd like to add, or did I Capture it I think you've captured it well. Thank you. It's hard to distill a 45-minute workshop into three sentences, but
I tried. We had a little bit of conversation about difficult conversations and civilities, so I'll turn that over to Dr. Dreisen, because he was the one who… you brought that over to the community and the committee. Oh, sure. Thank you. I think I didn't mean to steal your thunder there. I think I shared my piece. I mean, I'm a Dartmouth alum. Actually, I think one of the former student board reps is now at Dartmouth and what I shared with the CNI committee was that there was just a very sizable Dartmouth gift given for current students to learn about how to… there's been a lot of talk about how we've seen divisive comments at universities across the country, and it just so happens in this case, Dartmouth has been featured as one where there hasn't been a lot of noise, there's been constructive dialogue
And what is the causal factors around that? And so, it's now called Dartmouth Dialogues, and so that was just something that I brought up at the CNI table as to, you know, as we're working on these attributes and open-mindedness is one of our attributes for a portrait of a graduate How are we thinking about teaching Cherry Hill, at least high school, but I mean, the attributes go from K through… well, pre-K through 12. You know, how can we think about, you know, instilling open-mindedness? So I just shared the Dartmouth story. May I comment on one other thing with Sienna? Because
As it relates to that, the one other thing I shared with CNI, though, just for the board's guidance, is this is a lot of work that we're now… that we're now tasking the administration. We have a lot of attributes. We did talk about this when we were devising the strategic plan This is going to be like a multi-year process to incorporate each attribute thoughtfully into the curriculum. So, I just think it is important for the board to be mindful of the work that we're tasking the district with, and as we prioritize different work
You know. you know, this is a three-year strategic plan. We're going to reevaluate the strategic plan. They made the comment in the meeting, like, let's be careful, let's… let's be thoughtful as we revise these attributes and things, because a lot of work is now going into the implementation of them Thank you, Dr. Driesen. Any other comments from people who are at CNI or non-CNI members. The last piece, I guess, that I would bring out is that NJSBA School Boards Association, which we're a member of, is doing a project on civility and having dialogue within school boards. So I have asked that that go to the governance committee, because I think that's where it appropriately sits to talk about whether we would like to
be involved in some of that work through our school board. I think there's a civility resolution that we could adopt. There's a civility pledge. So I think governance is going to take a crack at that this summer, and then maybe make some recommendations out to the full board. That's something they want to pursue. Anybody else? And there's a Rutgers, so she called it our full disclosure, the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University is involved in that, and I am an Eagleton alum. Go Rutgers!
So it was one of the best things I did at Rutgers. It was fantastic and definitely taught me how to have difficult conversations across the political spectrum, which is a skill that I still practice. So anybody else? All right, then I will turn it over to Mr. Greenbaum for BNF. Thank you. So this month in BNF committee, we had three topics we covered, starting with 2026 capital projects update. We'll Cut this part short, because Mr. Schimp just went through that in his presentation, but we went through a summary of construction projects going on this summer, and as Mr. Schimp discussed, we're going to have work going on in 13 buildings starting June 22nd, right after our kids get out
Another busy summer of construction, and a lot of wonderful results for the new school year in September. We had a discussion on bond investment proceeds from the bond referendum. So as of April 30th, the district has earned about $35.5 million in bond interest, about 4.5 million is the current arbitrage liability. That means We did too well. We earned a little too much and we got to pay taxes on it when we eventually spend it.
That means there's more than 31 million dollars in available funds for future purposes. They are not earmarked for anything at this point, but it's good to know that there is. There is a little bit of a cushion should we need it in the future. We'll continue maximizing investment earnings. And just a reminder, there are still 63 million worth of bonds left to sell only 300 million have been sold so far, and probably not looking to do that for the next three years, but always keeping an eye on favorable market conditions when we look to do that
And lastly, Moody's rating. This is a credit opinion. One of the things that comes with more transparency about our budget challenges is more visibility. Moody's took a look at our financials and concluded negative outlook It sounds bad, but it is not actually a change to our credit opinion. There's no downgrade in the district's rating, and there are no real surprises in there. It had to do with some factors that we already knew about with limited fund balance and limited capital reserve, and things like that
The district is already actively taking steps to reduce the use of fund balance and other actions. These are things that we discussed all throughout the budgeting process, and we're very helpful in these discussions. And the focus on investment earnings for the bond proceeds, which we just talked about, was certainly helpful because that leads to additional funds in the future. Should they be needed? I think… I think that's about it.
Did I miss anything? Yeah, it was a great discussion, just getting a little better insight into the district's financial situation, where we are with projects, what's going on with their credit rating with the bond. But overall, it's a very enlightened meeting and some great discussion Are there any Bnf committee members or other board members with questions? Ms. Turn. Just a couple of comments I made within the committee. I wanted to make to the full board.
you know. There's only a few of us left here who were part of… who were on the board when the bond was voted on and passed by our community. And you know we we thank our community every day for what the community has supported us to do with fixing our buildings Many of you no longer have kids and, you know, in some of our buildings that had some of our greatest problems. You know, one of our high schools had a collapsed roof that had been collapsed for years, and in a gym, and the gym just had to be closed. That was it. We closed the gym, because we didn't have the money to fix the roof, and with a collapsed roof comes
you know, water comes, unfortunately undesirable little critters in our buildings. You know the things that our students live through and our teachers and staff and administrators live through before we pass the bond were really Quite horrifying sometimes. You know, I can't count how many times I was in a building where I walked by a large garbage bin catching water leaking from the roofs during rainstorms. Just small examples, and
When we asked the community to support the bond and the community supported the bond to improve our schools and fix some of these huge problems in some of the smaller ones. I will tell you there was not ever a conversation that, oh my gosh, we actually could also sell the bonds and earn interest on them, which could then further secondarily financially benefit our district. But that's exactly what has happened because our administration has been so fiscally minded and made really good investment choices with that money. And as a result, we now have a pot of over $30 million that
You know, can now continue to benefit our district and provide ways to our schools and our students that don't need to further come out of taxpayer pockets for those things. I just really want to emphasize the magnitude of that. I don't think it's easy to appreciate that for people who didn't know what it was like before, or didn't even, or maybe wasn't part of that process. So I raised that in the meeting, and I just want to thank
you know, this, you know, the ongoing centrally soundly focus that Dr. Morton, Mr. Schimp, that the two of you have on being excellent stewards of taxpayer dollars While making sure that they're well spent and that we are providing for our students and making sure our buildings have a long future ahead, which was exactly what the whole tagline of the bond was, was Cherry Hill tomorrow
Because it was about tomorrow. So kudos. And I'm sorry that we are so openly transparent that we got on the radar of the ratings group Moody's, or whatever their title is, but I'm glad that they, you ultimately saw that although you know We are facing difficult times. We are navigating them with a high level of success and attention.
Thank you, Dr. Braddock. Very quickly, with respect to the Moody's rating, is the expectation then given the responsibility that's been paid to the budget that will maintain that rating that we have now. Moving forward, if we retain Moody's attention, let's say. I mean, they did place a negative outlook, but they've also they noted very carefully that we've taken corrective actions in 26, 27's budget to mitigate some of that concern, so…
The outlook, I wouldn't refer to it as negative. I think we're on the right path. Okay, any other comments or questions? All right, thank you very much. Thank you. Moving on to HR, Ms. Stern. So we do meet, we met last week and HR is Most of us can imagine. We talk about confidential matters, personnel matters, so we don't talk about them. I don't ever give any specifics in our report, but I do want to say we had some really great discussions about
finding the balance of managing our challenging financial situation with all the state aid cut, with also ensuring that we really retain enough of the right positions in place to ensure our schools are being run well, which is always a discussion, and always, you know, there's always a lot of opinions about, you know, what are the right balances of staff, administrators, teachers, you programs, you know, activities, but I think that, you know, there was so much focus on doing the best we absolutely can, while also making sure you know we we remain fiscally responsible. So that was definitely part of our conversation
And we just got some great updates from Mrs. Lieber about where we were at with hiring and fulfilling open positions. I'm trying to see if we have anything else. We started talking a little bit about goals, which we'll be doing much more of in July And I want to say, I think that is it. Any other members from committee comments? This is for
Just to kind of elaborate a little bit, because since I'm kind of the one that's always talking about the budget and trying to find ways to cut costs, I did want to just emphasize what you said already about the robust discussion that we had about You know, the current balance of Staff within the district, and I wanted to highlight Dr. Morton's efforts to be very mindful of our… of the reality of our budget. So I just wanted to make sure that that was very clear.
Thank you. Any other comments from members who are on the committee or members who are not on the committee? It's always a short report for HR. Thank you. That's it. Thank you, Ms. Turner. Moving on to P&L, Ms. Palmer. Thank you. So the policy and legislation Committee had a very full agenda for June. We had a number of policies on first reading. The full list is in the minutes for board members, but there are a few that I do want to highlight. So policy 2363, which is the student cell phone policy remains on first reading mostly as you've heard, because of conflicting information that we've had come out about
The intent of the new state law. We do believe that we have enough of an understand and understanding about what is required, what we as a district are required to implement, that we do plan to have a full conversation on that policy In the July committee cycle with the intent of moving it forward so that it is final for the start of the school year. There was a series of policies focused on eligibility and open enrollment and attendance areas that had been up for mandatory policy
revisions before we started the elementary rebalancing conversation. They had been tabled in the event that the outcome of that conversation led us in a path that required those policies to be updated. In the meantime, there were some… there was some feedback from the community specifically around the impact of forced transfers, and You know, there is a waiver policy. But the committee felt it warranted a fuller discussion than we had time for in last month's agenda. So we tabled those three policies because they really should be looked at together. Tabled them until July. So our intention is to revisit those in July as well
We also began our review of the board bylaws. So the first series of bylaws, if you look at our policies online… sorry, the first series of policies, if you look at them online, are the bylaws that govern how the board works. Many of those… so there's a set that need to be updated every year We have done all of those for this year. There are a few that have been revisited in the last 12 months, but there are another 25 or so that have not been looked at in close to a decade that we can say it might be longer. So I really wanted to
Get through those before the fall if we could. So we took our 1st stab again for board members, if you look at the minutes, you can kind of see the schedule of how we're chunking them out to get through them by September. Hopefully, maybe October The majority of the bylaws that we looked at in June were really kind of statutory, straightforward, not a lot of room for discussion. There are a number of policies in the July meeting, August meeting, September meeting that might warrant a more robust discussion. So my challenge to all of you is, if you have some time, please take a look and send the committee your feedback
Of course, we will then refer them to governance since they do deal with the way that the board operates. And then we'll recommend them for board action at a later date. But again, as always, feedback is always welcome, but there will be ample opportunity when the full board considers. Next, the bulk of the meeting, I would say half of the meeting, focused on a technology presentation, so thank you, Dr. Mahan, Ms. Staffen, Mr. Pluminski on the way that the district is currently using technology in the classroom. It is a hot topic here in our community nationally
It was the starting point of the conversation for us with the intention of introducing a series of policy drafts in July that deal with things like time on device, acceptable use of apps, kind of work hand in hand with the AI policy that we adopted earlier this year, but I'm looking at as kind of a holistic technology package. A couple clear takeaways from The presentation itself. The presentation is online for anybody in the community that would like to see it and has not. It's clear that we need some guidelines, so I envision policies that are similar to the AI policy, where it's kind of a broad stroke, big umbrella, and then administration is already working on plans to kind of operationalize that. So we'll set the parameters
And then administration will set the day-to-day how we manage those things. So more to come on those in our July report out, but thank you for the work that went into that presentation, and I think we look forward To continuing that conversation between P&L, and it'll be a joint effort with the CNI committee as well. Finally, on your agendas tonight We discussed a resolution from New Jersey School Boards Association. It is a ceremonial resolution similar to the one that we as a district adopted earlier this year around state funding. This one is more of a statewide effort by NJSBA to ask the legislature to help districts deal with the rising cost of healthcare
It's a crippling thing for all of us. The committee felt strongly that it was the right thing for us to take action on. So that is on your agendas for tonight. Any other comments from committee members, questions? Mrs. Cherpin. I'm just curious with the technology presentation, if, Chromebook usage was discussed. I know we recently received some communication from the community about it. Yeah, it was. You know. And Dr. Mahan or Mrs. Staffen, if you want to weigh in, I'll let you kind of share your thoughts. I mean, it was clear that there are
uses for it. We got some information about sort of how it's policed, what technology we have to kind of monitor how students are using how to block, you know content. We don't want people accessing to. I think the overall sentiment is that Chromebooks and different types of technology have a place. We need to teach students how to use them. They are unavoidable in some respects, but there is a need to Implement some best practices, some guidelines, kind of control how and when they're used just to create a little more uniformity across grade levels and from school to school. We need them, but how we use them, I think, is what the policies are going to look to tackle.
Dr. Driesen. Time permitting, because I know these meetings get long and there's other presentations, but that might be a presentation that is warrants being given here because I know you're saying that like it's a fact, but I, for one would be would be interested in hearing what are those ways where it is clear that it is being effective And I think it would be helpful for the community then, too. Yeah, and I think I kind of feel the same way. I think there is definitely a place for a full board presentation. I think There might be some additional detail that we'll be able to flesh out kind of as we develop the policies that I think will make the presentation more meaningful in the context of a full board conversation. But I do expect something like that to come in the next couple of months.
Other questions, other comments, concerns? Mrs. Stern. First, I just want to I just want to comment on the bylaws. I want to really thank you, Mrs. Palmer, for you know taking a thorough approach to the bylaws. A lot of the bylaws, if you look at them, they were last written in 2016. Many of them say that was the last update. That was 10 years ago. And in my time on the board, I haven't seen this type of a thorough, methodical approach, so I really want to thank you and highlight that
As a, you know, I think it's nice to see, it's exciting to see I also wanted to mention one of the bylaws that are not being reviewed this year is the student representatives bylaw, which is a 0143.2. But I wanted to mention it because we have our new student reps who are here tonight Those are the bylaws that govern you guys and your role on the board and we are not reviewing it this year because we got input from our student reps. I think it was last year or the year before.
Lost track of time. And oh, thank you. There it is. Thank you, Dr. Dreisen. It was October 25, it wasn't that long ago. And we revised them with very thoughtful debate and discussion. And so I feel really good about the work we did last year on them, and with new… our new reps here, just wanted to mention that, you know, if you want to know what is your role, and are some of the parameters, it's general, but you can always look it up that way. So, you know, and I'm excited for some of the revisions we made to be implemented, so
And again, I mean, I appreciate those comments. I think the majority of our bylaws kind of are what they are. There are a few, you know, there's been a lot of conversation at the board table about things Cherry Hill does differently that other boards maybe do not. There are some Definitely some pieces of our bylaws that are unique to Cherry Hill. So those are the things that you know I just want us all to be aware of and kind of call out. It doesn't mean that things have to change. But I think it warrants a discussion, and I certainly think
are bylaws that govern the way we work warrant a review more than once every decade. Thank you to all of you for your support in that endeavor. I think that's it for me this month Thank you so much. Nothing for governance at this meeting. So are there any other reports from board members who have attended things as Delegate reports, committee reports. Ms. Stern.
So I just wanted to give a report on our special education committee, which met last week on June 2nd, which feels like it might have been a month ago, but it was actually a week ago. So, just a few highlights from our meeting. We got some great updates from Ms. Mallory, and As happens in every meeting, Ms. Mallory brings kind of a
more information about something that we didn't know about, that we've never learned about, and how the district is approaching things, things that are being added, some things that are successful and also, you know things that are being assessed as maybe we need to make a change So I just always want to thank Ms. Mallory for just this constant flow of information that continues to remind us of how lucky we are to have you at the helm in special ed. Well, it's true. So, I mean, at least that's you know we're always learning a lot in that in that committee. So we talked about one of the things we talked about, which I'm actually going to turn over to Mrs. Ms. Mallory and
First off is about something new that's been done this year, which is sharing with parents, sharing student information about students dibbles outcomes. Hello, thank you. Good evening, everyone. So the discussion started with a lot of the inquiries that we've been receiving via email and or directly to our office regarding students with dyslexia and additional supports being requested or inquired about
That is something that remains on my team's radar. One of the things that we implemented this year was a state-mandated screening, which we were already doing, but we increased it to three times a year, and sharing the results with parents Via mail, correct? in the mail. Okay, so we. So that being said, this is data that is new parents. It's sent with an explanation letter from Cni. However, we've gotten a lot of questions generated. So one of the important things to understand about the Dibble's assessment
is there's no passing or failing. The DIBELS data is to give
information to parents, but making sure that they really do understand it, and because it can be, you know, surprising or unsettling sometimes if they see certain results. So thank you. We also talked about other types of analysis that you're doing for different areas, areas that you're looking where you're, you know recognize gaps and you're trying to address the gaps. And so, you know.
doing some of the deep dive with your different areas, different staff to ultimately make improvements and also help guide where we're going next year, for our goals. And we talked about, supporting our students who have special needs Not only in their academic classes, but also in their other activities and developing their career readiness. So really very comprehensive approach to making sure all of our students, you know, are inclusion is extending to not just, again, kind of our academic classrooms, but to all of
to well beyond that. We did talk about, as I mentioned, kind of looking to see where we're at on our… from our goals this year, how we did with them, and building upon them for next year and starting to develop those. So I'm sure I left things out, but that those are my notes. So I'll turn to committee members to feel free to jump, add things, have bring questions and then to other board members as well. Okay, I did it. Great. All right. That's it. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any other delegate reports? So things that you went to as a representative of the board, meetings you went to, Mr. Fain.
So full transparency, I got permission to say this. It didn't originally start out as a representative from the board, but I think it's important to highlight it here at the table. I had the privilege of attending Cherry Hill West's Hall of Fame last week It was for a close friend of mine and former teammate on the softball team at Cherry Hill West who was honored at the ceremony and is now part of Cherry Hill West Hall of Fame. And the reason why I wanted to bring it to this table, especially after hearing all of the awesome accomplishments
earlier today is something that was brought to me by Mrs. Medadiri, who is one of the people on the committee that tried to support the Hall of Fame is it's becoming harder and harder for the committee to find statistics and to prove documentation For the athletes, it's a very rigorous process that they go through, which was quite impressive to me, and I had absolutely no idea what goes into that. So this is just my preach to any parent who have amazing children that are athletes in the district
To keep all your records and documentation, so eventually, when they are nominated for the Hall of Fame, whether it be East or West, you can prove your point and honor your child at the ceremony, which is really incredible. And they also had currency… I believe they were seniors there as well And the accomplishments that they've had in athletics were also presented there. So it's an awesome thing, and so I just felt like it was very important for everyone to know. Mr. Fain, do you have your softball records from High School West? I am not a Hall of Fame member.
However, I do have all of my equipment that I'm now using for other purposes for myself. The bat still works. I think that's amazing. Who knows if you have all your softball records, maybe your time is Don't know that I will ever be invited into the Hall of Fame One can only hope. One can only hope. It's been solid now. I attended the reorganization meeting for the Camden County Educational Services Commission. I am our Cherry Hill representative. Cherry Hill was once again elected to the 15 board of directors. So for the 34, I think
towns in Camden County, so we will sit on that board of directors, which means we go to a meeting every month. If you are just a general member, it's twice a year, and hopefully I'll be able to bring back some good information from our Camden County Superintendents Thank you so much for attending that on our behalf. We appreciate it. Anybody else attend anything else wonderful? As a delegate representative on behalf of the board. I don't think so.
I don't think so. And Dr. Dreisen just made a really good point. I don't know if you all saw us looking around looking confused up here. It was because the internet went out So if you're listening at home and we went dark for a minute, we do apologize for that. We think it is back on now, but if everybody in the audience is wondering why the board members were all looking around going is because we were nervous about the internet, but we think we're back up live and going. I'm getting a thumbs up that it's happening. So we apologize if there's a disruption for anybody who's listening out there.
Okay We have made it through that, and we are now on our special action agenda. And I am First I am not first. Dr. Morton is going to be first. Just really quickly, I just wanted to mention that administration is going to pull an item from the HR Action Consent Agenda. Item 21.4, item F The last line, cooperating teacher, Dominic Dominguez for Emily Williams. Dominic is actually resigning his resignation is being approved tonight so we'll
I'll work to get another cooperating teacher assigned to that individual. And we are very sad because we love Mr. Dominguez, but the board gold star goes to Miss Manzano for her thorough and careful reading of the agenda. It's just because Johnson will be very sad to see him go. So I noticed that right away. So thank you, Ms. Manzano for catching something that none of the rest of us did. And we are very sad to see Mr. Dominguez go as well. He's one of our favorites. So starting with CNI, the superintendent recommends, and I move the following agenda items 19.2 and 19.3 as presented. Is there a second?
Dr. Braddock, are there any questions on Cni this evening? Mr. Schiff, please open the vote. Motion carries. Thank you. And we're all happy the internet is back for the online voting. Mr. Greenbaum, BNF, please. Thank you. The superintendent recommends and I move the following action agenda items 20.2 through 20.5 as presented. Do I have a second?
Ms. Cummings Is there any discussion or questions, comments, Dr. Dreisen Yes, is there anything you can clarify with respect to 20.5 in particular? Absolutely. I could respond or Mr. Shin. Sure, I asked Mr. Schiff about this previously. So the change orders that have to do with moving and storage of furniture, it applies to three contracts and five schools. These are not new expenses. These reflect new regulations that
To how these contracts are bid, they're simply added into existing contracts to comply with these changes in regulations and are reflected in change orders. Did I get that right? You got it right. It's just these were typically in past projects they were awarded through cooperatives. cooperatives no longer permit time and material bids, so we're flowing it through the general contractors.
Contract For the moving expenses, again, I mean, to get into the moving expenses themselves, we're talking about moves that are far exceed the capabilities of our custodial maintenance staff. These costs have been incurred at Rosa and several other schools as the bond projects have progressed, and were built into the referendum. Thank you very much. And I'll add that moving all of the furniture and half of Beck is no small task.
But excited that half of Beck will be renovated and good as new in September with the other half The following summer, but I digress. Any other questions, comments? Okay. Seeing none, Mr. Schimp, please open the voting. Mr. Schimp, I have a couple I have to recuse from. Jewish Federation on the first and fifth bill lists and Lenape on the 6 bill list.
But other than that, yes to the rest Motion carries. Thank you. Ms. Stern, can you move the HR agenda, please? Superintendent recommends an I move the following. As presented items 21.1 through 21.10. Do I have a second? Dr. Braddock, are there any questions or comments?
Mr. Shim, can you please call the vote? Mr. Schimp, I'm going to abstain on 21.10. And yes to the rest. Mr. Schimp, similarly, I'm in abstain on 21.10, and yes to the rest. Motion carries. Thank you very much. And with that, we have a new principal
Please approach the microphone. We are so thrilled that you are here. Kingston is thrilled that you are here. Welcome to Cherry Hill. Thank you. Oh, no. It's actually welcome back to Cherry Hill because I raised my children here in Cherry Hill and they went to Cherry Hill School. So now I'm coming as A member of the school system as opposed to just the parents, so gives me good perspective coming in. Thank you, Dr. Morton.
school administrators and the school board for Entrusting me to leave Kingston I am truly excited to be back in Cherry Hill, and I'm looking forward to meeting my little Kingston Bulldogs and the staff, and the families, and I'm just really ready to have a tremendous first year of many to come. Thank you.
Thank you so much, Ms. Jackson. We're thrilled that you're here. Welcome to Cherry Hill. Welcome back. Moving on to the P&L agenda. The superintendent recommends, and I move the following agenda items at 22.1 through 22.4 as presented. Can I have a second? This is Chiffain or any board member questions, comments, items for discussion? Seeing none, Mr. Shim, can you open the vote?
Mr. Chimp, I just have to abstain from 22.4. I wasn't present for those HIVs Thank you. Motion carries. Thank you. And nothing for governance this evening. So we will move on to new business. Does anybody have any new business to raise this evening? Seeing no new business, I'm going to move on to second public comment.
So second public comment is for any thing related to the district. 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, obscene, or which demeanor are defamatory to any individual or any group of individuals will not be tolerated As 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 the board president via email or other alternative means, and we do love getting your emails.
And I try to respond to everybody. So we are going to start in the room. If there's anybody who would like to come up for a second public comment. Please approach the microphone now You'll have 3 min Rickshore Cherry Hill. Thanks for fixing the sound, Mr. Greenbaugh. Thanks for the signal. You know, you think we might want to dot our eyes, Mr. Schimp. We are past the five year period. I'm not an expert on bonds, but I think we're into six years
So maybe that's something for the legal counsel. I don't want to see you guys get in trouble. I thought the bond was supposed to… the expenditures were supposed to be wrapped up in 5 years. Also on 5/26-26 was a very concerning night about public comment the entire night It just seemed like, from listening to public comment, racism is just out of control. It was just like it was out of control 6 years ago, so all your work with culture proficiency and all the thousands of… well, hundreds of thousands of dollars you've spent on the African American course
And I guess more or less, it's your procedures of what you're bringing in. So, you know, I can only speak from facts So the fact is because we want civil dialogue here, is policy 2100 is the anti-racist policy 2100 racist. I mean, it says everyone other than white So under civil dialogue, it seems like it's racist. So are you guys racist? And now moving on to Madam President, because you did say this on a mic
You mentioned that there were too many white kids at Russell Knight And you said on the mic that that's a problem So is that statement itself, is that racist So I don't get it. I don't really understand how it's okay to make racist comments and to say that you're this great education system. Now let's move on to what happened with Dr. Morton. I still don't understand how Dr. Morton has a job after this. We spent $9,4
And $38 to defend pretty much hate speech. So now it's okay for a school board member to call somebody a white supremacist, a white nationalist, and a modern-day Nazi. And, you know, you had our legal people spend 9,438. And I want to also mention some of the other things that was said on Facebook by Dr. Morton, which is concerning about the level of where we're going here. And one Facebook post, he said, however I am challenged on the
Are Facebook posts relevant to the operations of Cherry Hill Public Schools? Well, yeah, it is, because it has to do with what Dr. Morton believes in what he is saying. So now you just interrupted me that I'm trying. Yes, a superintendent, he's responsible for what he says in public Facebook is a public thing, and now you've just stop me. Will you give me another 20 seconds, Madam President. You just interrupted me. Will you give me another 20 seconds? You can finish your comment. Thank you All right, however, I am challenged on my viewpoint because many of the wars that have been fought in the past have
Have been done to liberate the oppressed. So what's concerning to me is in this Facebook post It almost says under wars that we should go to war to fight against racism. So that's very concerning. Thank you for your comment. Going to the line, the next person is Carolina Bevid. Ms. Bevid, it's your turn.
Thank you, Carolina Bevid, Cherry Hill. I saw the slideshow about tech usage at school, and the list of websites shared in Google Classrooms So sorry Sorry, okay, so I saw the slideshow. I want to read a list of websites shared in Google Classrooms. I'm not sure if they're all utilized in class or shared for students to explore independently, and I'm not making a judgment on the value of these sites, but I want to highlight the volume
Some of these sites were mentioned in the P&L slideshow, but many were not. And I'll just read as many as I have here. It's not a complete list, nor does it include most of the links that are embedded in Google slideshows. It doesn't include ChatGPT, which students can access on their school computers Or any of the games, the many, many games that students can access at school, including Minecraft-style games and even gambling games like Blackjack. So, Edpuzzle, Tinkercad, EverFi, Vacaroo, YouTube, iXL, Study Jams, Google Forms, Quizlet, Formative, Screencastify, GimKit, Wayground
School AI, loom, Kami, Simply Science, Padlet quiz on EverFi forward education, CommonLit, Microbit, Weebly, Cetera, Jetpunk, Lizard Point, Strive Math, Magic School Khan Academy, Learn360, Delta Math, Book Creator, BrainPop Explorer.concord, Nearpod story maps
Chrome Music Lab, Beast Box, Incredibox, Arts and culture, viral hip hop, Scope Scholastic Learning music button base Free Beatmaker online, learning music.com, BandLab, Chrome Music Maker .piano, Soundscape, Viral Hip Hop, Beast Box DJ, Arts and Culture, Incredibox, Ready.gov
USGS, whether WizKids, Prepare with Pedro, PBS Mitigation, NOAA, OpenSciEd, Explorer.concord, PandaTree, Quizzes, Tripomatic, TripAdvisor BBC, code block, BWRSR.state, Palm Oil Scorecard. Bio Interactive, learner.org. GeoGuessr, World Geography Games, Worlder and Kahoot. So I was just able to read a list for three minutes of a non-exhaustive list of all the websites that kids are assigned to visit in a day. So I really hope the tech policy is robust
Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Going back to the room is there anyone who would like to make second public comment Please approach the microphone. Just give us your name and municipality of three minutes. Louisa Botaraco, Cherry Hill. In the technology presentation, we saw highlighted the positives of tech, of which there are many, but not the negatives. We now have evidence from bellwether lawsuits against big tech that the companies have explicitly targeted schools in order to make kids their customers In order to make them addicts
An employee of TikTok discussing a new feature wrote teachers are going to hate it. That employee's manager responded, if we assume teens are going to do this anyway, we'd rather have them here on TikTok. In other words, this will be bad for kids and bad for teachers, but it's good for our bottom line, so we'll do it. And before you say TikTok isn't part of the school curricula, know that it doesn't have to be for it to be a problem for us. TikTok has given the National Pta millions of dollars to throw school events about online safety and provide favorable comments to journalists
Our schools have been and continue to be the target of big tech. So what are we doing to address the negatives? That needs to be a part of any presentation. other districts are on it. The La District Board in April voted 6 to 0 to ban tablets and laptops in first grade and below to require a screen time policy for each grade and subject and encourage assignments using pen and paper In March, New York City rolled out a system based on red, yellow, and green traffic lights to determine when schools can use AI.
Where are the controls for tech in Cherry Hill and what are the antidotes to tech overuse? Have you banned YouTube? Have you allowed parents to leave Chromebooks at school if they don't want them at home? Have you banned phones from bell to bell, which includes important socialization opportunities like lunch and recess. Have you supported non-screen solutions in every single school For when recess can't be held outdoors. The answer to all these questions is no, even though those practices and much more are being enacted in other districts.
Respectfully, I ask that Cherry Hill builds on the momentum of our devices during class ban by offering greater protections from an industry against which teachers, parents, and especially our children stand 0 chance in the absence of swift and meaningful change Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Going back online, the next person is a caller with a phone number ending in 788. It's your turn. Please unmute and give us your name and municipality.
My name is Jeffrey Podowitz and I live in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Arbitrage costs will be $4.5 million. If we use the interest appropriately And it's accumulated interest, alright? Like other districts, alright, to pay to… so we didn't have to sell the full $63 million But we would only have to sell 26, we wouldn't have to pay any arbitrage costs. The arbitrage cost is because we're using that interest to do something else. And by the way, that's $63 million comes with interest. It's like a mortgage
So to save us money, we'd be better off if we used the full amount of money, which is around $37 million, to… so, in lieu of the $63 million worth of bonds, but they won't do it because they're using the money for something else. The profiteers, well All the work that we're having done. Are we getting value for our money I don't know. I really don't know if we're getting good value for our money, except you just saw an example.
$11.6 million to work on BEC It's not enough, with, of course, 25% soft cost, and that is a lot, 25% soft cost. I don't know if we're getting value for our money. I really don't. All right, I sent something. There was a movie called Pressure about D-Day. The students learn about the Normandy invasion and what it was about
There was a British play called Pressure, and it's in the movie theater right now, and it's stated that pressure refers to the unmanageable difficulty faced by everyone involved in planning what is known as D-Day. This has to do with With meteorology. Interesting movie, read about it However, I sent you a PDF, which you could share with the students, that PDF. And it's written by the chief of the beach subsection of the information section intelligence division, Office of the Chief's Engineer, headquartzi Towson. He was from Belgium, and he was teaching at MIT
When the war began He was also a yachtsman, and he was very versed on the Normandy coast. Note there's a Colonel Miller down there. He was chief of the Intelligence Division, and that brother died of wounds during the D-Date invasion. Colonel Millet Eventually went on to serve in the War Office, which is now called the Pentagon, and joint sees of Staff. So why don't you point that into past that one PDF on with the student reps. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Dr. Podowicz. Going back to the room, is there anyone else who would like to make second public comment tonight? Seeing no one, welcome back to the line. It's Laura Einhorn. Please unmute and give us your name and municipality. You have three minutes. It's Annine-born Cheritone, New Jersey. So thank you, Dr. Dryson, for bringing up the Dartmouth Program that's that's has been initiated. I've been following it on YouTube and I find it fascinating. But I wonder if some of your board members understand that the five components of stability are to respect others and yourself, to be aware, to communicate effectively
To take good care of yourself and to be responsible and that the core value of any civility is to just treat others with respect And at the last board meeting, I saw a tremendous lack of respect in my perception from one board member to another, and then also the community also had issues with the acts of civility. A suggestion was made it was not written in stone. It became a major, major discussion from the community that evening, somewhat targeted particularly by
The previous school board administer a school administrator, very sad to see in this day and age. We have enough trauma going on in the outside world. We certainly don't need to see it at the board table. I would like to bring up the fact that the Director of Secondary Education is leaving. I think that if the board is truly looking at how to have cost savings, that you look at the amount of salary that that individual made And perhaps if you look at the… I believe that it's called the chart of organization, organizational chart that I'm looking at, that a number of those
categories could be reassigned in the administration building since we do not know Still, what layoffs or what have you have been produced in the administration building. I think it's a serious question should have a serious discussion, particularly at BNF and I guess CNI since it pertains to our children But you would do the community a big service after you said you're on the road to making different cost savings that you sincerely look into that position at this time because
That particular salary could probably support at least 20 educational assistants. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Going back to the room, is there anybody who would like to make second public comment? Seeing none, going back online. I don't see anyone with their hand raised. Last chance All right, and I'm going to close second public comment. And move on to board member activity. Same rules apply. Board members will have up to 3 min to describe their activity
In the community over the past two weeks And I'm going to start on this side tonight with Dr. Braddock Nothing official, but I have taken my little ones over to Rosa to look at some of the outside bond work, and they're very much looking forward to going there, I guess about What, eight years give or take, but just like to something it's cool to see some of the bond work done and go around the community and see it with my eyes, even though Mr. Shimp does an incredible job with the presentations.
Mr. Fain. I just realized I said mine in the wrong spot. I don't have anything to update you on. Ms. Manzano. I attended two events in the last two weeks. I'll let some of my board colleagues talk a little bit more, but I attended the Coles graduation ceremony. And I just want to shout out all of the faculty, staff, administrators that were there, the students and the parents. It was just so cool to have such a personal touch message that so many people, when they spoke individually about each of the students, it's just very heartwarming, and it's also super congratulatory to all those students for their successes and getting to hear all of them. But
Close to my heart, we had an awesome event at Johnson yesterday, the East Robotics team, five members of the East Robotics team came over and did assemblies. We did four… they did four assemblies, excuse me, which was so amazing to see them interact with the younger students. I hope that more of our elementary schools take advantage of something like that, because the younger kids got to ask questions, and they got to drive robots and learn all of this fun stuff. So I just wanted to shout out, Jose Johnson, Jennifer Sasso, and Michelle Johnson for helping to coordinate that
And of course, Mrs. Giordano over at Johnson. So thank you. I feel like I've been all over town with events for my three kids, but as a board member, the only one I attended was the Coles graduation, which is a really special time. I think looking at what the students have achieved and the personal stories from the educators who worked with them is always an amazing reminder of why we all do the things that we do And it's always amazing to celebrate graduation season, so congratulations to all of those kids and all the kids graduating around the district.
Nothing this week, but looking forward to moving up ceremonies and graduations next week. No comment. Nothing to report. No official board engagements, although I'm looking forward to a full week of moving up ceremonies and graduations next week, but do want to just take a minute to call out that while I was not there as a board member, the Carusi Band and Orchestra concert last week was the final concert after a 26-year career for Mrs. Francesca Seacrest at Carusi Middle School
I did not realize until she spoke at the end of the show that she has actually taught in all but five of our schools, which I thought was incredible, and I think over 26 years, it's safe to say that she's impacted the lives of hundreds, maybe thousands, although I'm not great at math students, but she is a life-changing teacher, you know, advisor, so congratulations to her and to everybody that performed. So along with Mrs. Winters and Mrs. Manzano, I also attended the Coles promotion ceremony, and I thought, just like they did, it was equally as lovely and moving and very touching to hear each individual student
You know. Their tributes, the teacher's tribute to each individual students were very moving, and it really just goes to show how important that program is in our district. Thank you. I'm moving on to Superintendent's comments. Thank you, Ms. Winters. Just one quick comment. Just want to say thank you to the community members who shared comments about technology usage, about safe technology usage in particular. This has definitely been a topic of discussion
amongst the administration, certainly amongst the Board of Education as well. Ms. Palmer shared some thoughts about P&L and policies that are being reviewed, but just to share, ironically, the list of apps that were read were not was not even the full list. We only included a portion of the actual apps that, have circulated throughout the district. There's actually over a thousand different apps that are on that list. So the work of the administration, currently is to call that back
to vet those apps and to establish an approved list of apps that actually directly contribute to learning and do so in the safest way possible. And that's exactly the work that's taking place. We also have an AI implementation plan that's underway as well That will complement the AI policy that the board has recently adopted. That information will be shared with the community. We'll bring that forward. We absolutely recognize that there are tremendous values and merits in the use of AI, but they're
are also safety concerns, and that's just the truth. I also would be remiss if I didn't mention that our district was amongst the first districts in the state to implement a cell phone ban And this is the second year of that ban. We're expanding that to our Bell to Bell. It really just protected the instructional periods. But additionally, and I believe we may be the only district just about in the state, because I haven't heard of any others whose cell phone ban is extended to the Board of Education as well. So as you look around this table, there aren't any board members with cell phones out because they recognize the importance of focus as well during that I'll say thank you and have a good night. We are the only ones
And the reason we did that was because we knew how important this topic was, so… and I do think it's increased collaboration and communication Among the board, it's almost impossible to get anything done when you're constantly distracted. So we're going to take that and we're going to keep moving forward. I'd like to make a motion. Oh. Miss Stern had a very good point. Did we want to talk about the Commissioner's visit? Are you sure?
I'm gonna… yeah. Well, you have to help me out. The Commissioner of Education visited, and I didn't, I thought Dr. Martin was going to talk about it in his superintendent comments, but we can all talk about it. So she came to Cherry Hill last Friday. It was absolutely incredible to have her here. We did look at only 3 of our 18 schools, which was really hard to pick, honestly, because there's so many things going on in all of our schools, but she was on a time crunch, so in order to keep her less time transporting and more time looking at the schools. We started out at Carusi Middle School, where she was able to see some of our, some of the bond work that's being done, some of what's going on in our special education classes as well at Karusi, and the importance of inclusive opportunities for special education students.
Ms. Franco was kind enough to host us as we walked through the building and talk about the things that are going on there. After that, we went over to Kilmer, which she got to see our elementary schools, but also our preschool expansion program, because we have our new classrooms Kilmer, thank you to Dr. Mahan for discussing our preschool program and our expansion with the commissioner. That's one of her priorities, and it's one of our priorities as well. And then we ended the morning at West Which was incredibly impactful because at West the students really led the tour and told their story about the buildings. And I think what struck me the most about the entire day, honestly, was hearing the high school students that were with us, both our representatives from Eastside who are also our student reps
the West students as well, and the students at Carusi. Talk about the opportunities they've had in Cherry Hill and their hope and desire that those opportunities remain for the students that are coming up behind them. And I think that message resonated with the commissioner. So I remain I've moved from, I think, cautiously optimistic to pretty hopeful that we have been heard. The fact that she posted about her visit on her page of the Department of Education page about how she came to Cherry Hill and what she saw here means that we are top of mind, and we resonated with her with our message
So I still hold out hope that the legislature will do what it's supposed to be doing, and help us both this year with a supplemental appropriation for Cherry Hill in order to restore some of the things that we had to lose And also to fix the funding formula for the future so that the opportunities that our high school students currently have will be there when our preschoolers get there. How is that? Is there anything that I missed? Any other board members? And with that, I'll make a motion to adjourn. Is there a second? Ms. Surefain, all members in favor. The meeting is adjourned. Thank you so much, everybody.