Right. [Music] Good evening. This is a public meeting of the board of education, Clark Public Schools. Adequate notice of this meeting has been given in accordance with PL1975, chapter 231, that a special notice was
made in conformance with section 13 of the act. Got a motion to return to public and Miss Harrison. All in favor? Hi. Just raise for rise for pledge algiance 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. All right. So, at this time, we'll get a roll call. Mr. Here.
Mr. Benovinga here. Mr. Miss Caguire here. Miss Harrison here. Miss Guerrero here. Miss Hickman here. Mr. May present. Mrs. Smorro here. And Mr. Ducker Slooh
here. Have a nine board members who have a quorum. All right. So at this time we're going to welcome our new student board member Maline Schmidber. I, Maline Schmipper, do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the State of New Jersey and that I will
bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the government established in the United States and this state under the authority of the people. So help me God. I, Maline Schmippberg, do solemnly swear that I possess the qualifications for the office of student member of board of education and that I
will faithfully, impartially, and justly perform all the duties that the office according to the best of my ability. So help me God. [Applause] Welcome, Maddie.
All right, so at this time can get approval minutes from last month. I see Mrs. uh Hickman followed by Mrs. Guerrero. Any questions or comments? Roll call, please. Mr. Aonis, yes. Mr. Benvingo, yes.
Miss Kquire, abstain. Miss Harrison, abstain from the September 4th meeting and good for the 22nd. Miss Guerrero. Yes. Missman, yes. Mr. May, yes. Mr. Smurl.
Yes. And Mr. Duncan. Yes. Motion carried. Uh, so at this time, we'll open the floor to the public for agenda items only. So, if there's something on the agenda that you would like to discuss, now would be the time to come up, state your name, address. At the end, we'll address non-aggenda items. So, seeing
none, we'll move on to personnel items 1 through 19. Can I get a motion? Miss Akalonus, followed by Mr. Bena. Questions or comments on those? Roll call, please. Mr. Akalonus. Yes, Mr. Vinga. Yes, Miss Calquire.
Yes, Miss Harrison. Yes, Mr. Gerrell. Abstain on 2 4 7 8 9 11 12 13 14. Yes on the rest.
Thank you, M. Eggman. Yes. Mr. May, yes. Mr. Sorl, yes. And Mr. Duncan, yes. Motion carried. Now we have curriculum item number 20. Can I get a motion? I see Miss Harrison followed by Miss Caliguire.
Questions or comments? A roll call, please. Miss, yes. Mr. Beningo, yes. Miss Calgary, yes. Miss Harrison, yes. Miss Guerrero, yes. Sickman, yes. Mr. May, yes. Mr. Smurl, yes. And Mr. Duckus,
yes. Motion carried. We have now policy items 21. Motion just 21. Uh, any questions or comments? Or I see Miss Grow for a motion and Mr. Me has a second. Any questions or
comments on that? Roll call, please. Miss, yes. Mr. Mvinga, yes. Miss Cuire, yes. Miss Harrison, yes. Mr. Guerrero, yes. Mr. Sigman, yes. Mr. May, yes. Mr. Smurl, yes. And Mr. Duckus,
yes. Motion carried. Now we have board governance items 22 to 25. A motion. Miss Akalonus. Mr. Benga. Questions, comments. Roll call, please. Malonus. Yes. Mr. Benoa.
Yes. M. Coguire. Yes. Miss Harrison. Yes. M. Miss Guerrero. Yes. Miss Hickman. Yes. Mr. May. Yes. Mr. Smurl. Yes. And Mr. Duckerson. Yes. Motion carried. And then finally, we have items uh 26 to
49 on finance. A motion Mr. Smorl followed by Miss Aonus. Any questions or comments? Roll call on those please. Akalonus. Yes. Mr. Vinga. Yes. Mr. Cuire. Yes. Miss Harrison. Yes. Miss Guerrero.
Abstain on 26 27 33 34. Yes on the rest. Thank you. Min. Yes. Mr. May. Yes. Mr. SML. Yes. And Mr. Dunkers. Yes. Motion carried. Usually I'd hand it over to Mr. Grandandy, but for just before I
go on, I just want to rewelcome Miss Caliguire to this to the board of ed. Uh Miss Caliguire is filling the shoes of Mr. Lewis, who unfortunately passed back in August, and we appreciate Miss Caliguire coming back, helping us out, and uh look forward to the next few
months. Thank you, Nice to be back for a short time. Thank you. Any other comments? All right, Mr. Randy, good evening and thank you, Mr. Donasoot. Welcome, Meline. In the words of Mrs. Ambone, her school counselor.
Matteline is an ambitious senior who has pursued a rigorous academic path, including honors courses and 13 advanced placement classes with an emphasis on history. A member of four National Honor Societies, Meline demonstrates a strong commitment to excellence both in and
beyond the classroom. Passionate about political science, she's actively running a campaign to promote voter registration and contributes to her community through her involvement with the Clark Lions Club in her role as a student advocate for drug and alcohol
prevention. Maline's leadership skills are exceptional. She currently serves as lieutenant governor for her key club district, vice president of her class, president of the National Honor Society, and captain of the varsity cheerleading team. Again, Maline, welcome. and we
have every confidence you're going to do a great job this year. So excited to be sitting next to you. This evening, the board of education adopted our district goals for 2526. In background, these goals are developed annually to help guide the district
moving forward. They're based on the work of the board of education committees with input from administrators, staff, and parents. We use these goals to continually measure our progress towards meeting them throughout the course of the entire school year. And this year's four goals
to align our schools and students across a district in meaningful ways through, for example, student programming. To continue to engage in recently passed bond referendum that will help us to upgrade our facilities.
to continue to enhance our early childhood education program through our second year in the preschool education a aid pea process and lastly to continue to enhance our curriculum and instruction in order to improve student
achievement. On this evening's agenda, we are also approving our CUAC results from last winter's New Jersey Department of Education monitoring and they are as follows. Instruction and program 86%.
Fiscal management 100%. Governance 100%. Operations 97% and personnel 100%. Many thanks to the board of education, administration, faculty and staff, students, parents and guardians, and our
entire school community for these results. The New Jersey Department of Education created a tool for the purpose of schools self- assessing under the anti-bullying Bill of Rights Act. The following values are the scores for our
schools that were accepted this evening. These values are not to be confused with percentages since they are not based out of 100. Instead, they are merely benchmark values for us to compare our past and future values to. Arthur Johnson High School 73 out of 78.
Carl H. Comf Middle School 72 out of 78. Frankie Henley School 74 out of 78. Valley Road School 77 out of 78. And the preschool annex 77 out of 78. And again, we're using these results to
get even stronger in this year that lies ahead. As a friendly reminder, schools will be closed for students and staff in honor of Columbus Day next Monday, the 13th. And lastly, as our school rankings have been a
recent topic of conversation, resulting in some confusion, I wanted to take this opportunity to focus on the metrics that we, as a school district, put the most weight into. These are the rankings issued by the New Jersey Department of Education. They're based on the student
school performance reports and look at such factors as student achievement, student growth, and student attendance. Each of our score each of our schools scored roughly in top third if not higher of the state. Only high schools
were given ranks and ALJ was ranked 120 out of 358. We are thrilled to be in the pack so to speak with some strong local high schools and even in some cases to have surpassed them. We have implemented a number of various educational initiatives from the Orton
Gillingham OG approach to reading and spelling instruction for our early learners to an honors academy through which students can earn a significant number of college credits while still being with us at ALJ. We are looking forward to continuing this good work and
introducing additional initiatives with the goal of hopefully moving these ratings even further ahead. Thank you and have a great evening everyone. Thank you, Mr. Grandandy. All right. So, moving on from that, we have the report of the committees.
Yes. Um, I would just like to make um mention of a few things for the benefit of the viewing public who do not have agendas in front of them. Uh, the first one is under curriculum instruction. uh we did approve a lot of professional
development for staff for the purpose of having them uh further uh grow in their particular uh areas. Some of the areas that we did approve were teachers, new teacher instruction
training, instructional coaches, conference, visualizing and verbalizing training, and not but last um not but last least the IMS
district instructor for Orton Gillingham. Another area that I just want to briefly address is that uh for the second reading we've adopted 12 additional policies and we have revised them and
they're being adopted tonight. And couple of those um policies that I think would be interesting for you to know about would be legal services, professional services, the grading systems, student and sun protection,
budget preparation and spe special education u Medicare initiatives. So uh these are the policies that govern not only um the actions of the Clark public schools but the board of educations as well. In addition, we adopted five
regulations that are coordinated with the policies. So that's just a point of information for the general public. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Sonus. Mr. Smile. Yeah, I just like to mention I'm I'm uh one of the members of the um athletic
committee, board of education athletic committee. Um it's a little bit outside of the um scope, but on October 16th, we are going to be having our second uh ALJ Athletic Hall of Fame dinner at the
Grand Centurans in Clark. So, um for those of you that have any interest, you're certainly welcome to attend. If you're interested in tickets, I would recommend you reach out to Mr. Gus Kicas. Um the tickets are $65 each. Um we think it's going to be a great night.
It's it's the second time we're doing it. We did it in 2023. It was a spectacular evening and we expect uh this one to be um pretty much the same. So again, October 16th, 6 o'clock at the Grand Centurans for the ALJ second group
of inductees going in for the ALJ Athletic Hall of Fame. Thank you, Mr. Small. Any other reporter committee's unfinished or new business? Yes, Mr. G. Want to uh remind board members that Wednesday is the Union County Educational Services, excuse me, Union
County um schoolboard Association meeting. It's in person at Garwood at the Westwood. Uh you can still um register for it. It's also being held virtually. The topic is artificial intelligence from the perspective of the
students. There are four students who are going to be on the panel and one of those students is from ALJ High School. Uh so it's not too late. Uh the dinner starts at 6:00. The business meeting starts at 6:45. So you can sign up on
the New Jersey School Board Association website if you're available. And with that, I think a congratulations to Charlie Neimoth. I believe is our representative there. Correct. What's that? Charlie Neimoth is our representative. Yes. So, congratulations to him. All right. So, any other unfinished or
new business? Okay. So, seeing none, we're going to hand it over to Maddie for first update. Hi, this is the board update for September. So, at the preschool, the district health educator visited all the preschool classrooms to lead an engaging lesson on handashing. Students
participated in a read aloud and sang a song emphasizing the importance of hygiene to demonstrate how germs spread. Glitter was placed on the students palms and they high-fived one another visually reinforcing the concept. This in the classroom the first educational unit began with a family theme. As part of
this, students presented their all about me projects highlighting their family members and personal interests to help foster classroom connections. Henley School began the academic year with an annual welcome back assembly which included a moment of silence and remembrance for the heroes of 9/11. Parents and guardians attended back to
school night to meet teachers and learn about classroom plans for the year. The PTA hosted its first family event, a fall fest, and room parents were introduced to teachers to coordinate classroom activities. Additionally, early year events included picture day and bus evacuation drills. Valley Road
School opened the school year smoothly with only one reported building related concern and several positive comments from families and staff about school operations. Back to school night was well attended and positively received. School photo day ran efficiently with photographers praised for the
professionalism. The first PTA meeting of the year received strong support and favorable feedback particularly from the kindergarten parents. The reading incentive program launched with an assembly organized by Mrs. featuring teachers reading in disguise under a large cougar mask. Students
enthusiastically guessed the identity of each masked reader, including a surprise appearance by Mr. Grande. Many students and staff dressed as literacy characters and participated in a costume showcase during the assembly. Comf middle school is preparing for several key events. 8th
grade students are scheduled to take the PSAT on October 22nd. The PTA will host a Halloween dance on the 24th of October. Tickets are $5 and only CO students may attend. Customers are allowed but must be school appropriate. An open house at Arthur Johnson High
School will take place on October 28th for 8th grade students and their families. Additionally, the Comf Unified sports team is set to participate in the annual Turkey Splash and Dash at Asbury Park on November 15th. Information regarding team registration and donation opportunities will be sent home shortly.
ALJ is starting their school year off strong. Goat USA partnered with the CESA Club to visit Henley Valley and Comf schools, delivering presentations focused on encouraging students to be their best selves. On September 30th, the high school hosted a highly successful college fair in collaboration
with Westfield, Scotch Plains, and Cranford High Schools, drawing thousands of attendees and featuring over 150 representatives from colleges, career programs, and the military. ALJ continues to strengthen connections within the district with upcoming joint initiatives. During the week of respect,
peer leaders will engage with students in grades three through five to emphasize that respect is not just a word, but an action. Additionally, the tomorrow's teachers class is partnering with ALJ preschool students to foster early learning experiences. The school is also beginning to celebrate senior
nights during recent fall athletic events highlighting the achievements of ALJ student athletes. Overall, our schools are great off to a great start for the 2025 to 2026 school year. Thank you. Thanks, Maddie. All right. So, at this time, if there's
anybody in the public that wants to talk about uh non-aggenda items, now would be the time. You come up to the podium. You have three minutes. State your name, your address for the record. I think you can spin. Yeah, I think it'll spin around. No, I think
and then I think it's I think the green light is still lit maybe on the on the microphone. Yep. Yep, it is. It's live. Awesome. Great. Thanks. Uh so Megan Decker, Clark, New Jersey. Um so I noticed that the the goals for the year have been adopted, which is awesome, and we're doing great in terms of pro progress toward the bond
referendum. I was wondering if you could elaborate on some of the plans for the other objectives that the board and the district have sent out. um specifically as it relates to the prek and the early education initiative. A couple of the parents have been asking about sort of what the vision for that looks like and what the goal of the board is to
progress that forward. So just to clarify your question, you're asking about more specifics related to the goal around the preschool. Y okay. 14. So this year we're in year two of the five-year
program through the state at which point at the end of the five years we'll be fully servicing any three or four year old whose parents want their child to attend our free full day preschool program. Right now, we have the four additional classrooms up and running at ALJ and
we're looking to continue those and at the same time get ready to house additional preschool classrooms for any overflow partnered with the referendum and the expansion at the Henley School. In the meantime, while we get those
classrooms up and running, those additional classrooms, we want to make the current program, which we're thrilled we're off to a strong start, um, you know, Mrs. Donaldson, with Mr. Tempen's help being, you know, housed in Mrs. Oliver and Mrs. Possky's building,
we're thrilled we're off to a strong start. Um, all the prayers worked out and now we're looking to get even stronger. We're looking to start a PTA to start a parent advisory group that meets um periodically throughout the course of the school year. um providing
our teachers not only with the essential professional development and tools of the mind so that they were able to start teaching on day one but refining it and doing let's say early OG training so that when they go into kindergarten they
not that we want preschool to become pre kindergarten because a lot of preschool is learning how to play and socialize but you know also strengthening the academic component of it while not creating a stressful environment for the children. So that's kind of the vision with the preschool.
Thank you. That's really exciting to be able to pull that. Thank you. Bill Draggy, 47 Post Road, Clark, New Jersey. And as usual, I'm speaking against Governor Murphy's
executive order that said uh all all the schools in Jersey uh from I think of 1 through 12 have to teach on transgender and on abortion.
Um, as far as a transgender, um, almost every time I come here, there is a shooting once a month just about. And even the last shooting against Charlie Kirk.
It wasn't directly a transgender person that shot him, but the shooter was a boyfriend of a transgender girl. really a boy
now. Um, uh, and the last time I think I talked about the Maryland case or maybe a time before, which is a similar, they have a um, state similar to Jersey um, Democrat um,
uh, legislature and they have the same sort of rules. They have to teach transgender also. and and it went to the Supreme Court there and uh the Supreme Court said they have to parents have to have the right to opt
out of the stu opt out of these classes if it the class uh is against their religion is a violation of religion that's that's in the constitution. Um,
now uh what is what is the rule for opting out here? Do they have to give a reason? Does a child have to give a reason why they're opting out? No. His or her parent just submits a letter to the building principal and it can be an opt out for an entire unit or
even a particular lesson just asking to be opt out without any reason or justification required. Now, uh, also part of the ruling was they have to actually describe the the curriculum very very um very well. That was that was the Supreme Court ruling
for Maryland. Doesn't apply to Jersey, but in a sense it does because it's the whole country. Um, uh, so uh, so therefore I I tried to look up the curriculum. and
you said it was kind of easy to find, but I spent two hours today looking up uh the curriculum uh and trying to find the transgender and the abortion curriculum and I couldn't find it at all. And then finally, it say my uh
computer uh there wasn't enough space, but I watch movies every night with with hundreds of millions of megabytes. Why do I have to have so much space to to load down your curriculum? Do you have any any other um parents um
complaining about that? No. In fact, I believe they're Google Docs that don't require a download. But Mr. Dy, if you email me, I'll respond with the with the links that you can easily access. How how can how can I easily access it? If you email me, I'll respond to your
email with the links that are easily accessible through Google Docs that you that you can just with a web browser access. You won't need to download. I don't. Yeah, those are the versions that are on the website. That's why I'm confused why you're having difficulty, but I'm happy to assist.
Yeah, but I was I was also thinking that if a teacher would like to bring in a book that's not on the curriculum because the whole thing that did that had that affected this Maryland case was just a story book with two daddies and that would that's what brought the whole case in Maryland and went right to the
Supreme Court. Um, so I I guess even if it's not on the curriculum, any one of the teachers that might be in favor of this transgender stuff, they could bring in a book uh they find in the library or something and it may not be on the curriculum and
they could be teaching this. So it's it's very possible. So what I suggest to the parents is if they unless you you state that you will not obey
um Governor Murphy's law or executive order that says you have to do this. I would say opt out the parents should you just opt out of these. Mr. Dre, your your time is up, but I think I think that's what they should do. very transparent with parents and yourself about where we I want to I just want to say I think we've been very
transparent with parents and yourself about our curriculum and how we stick to it and what's taught. So I think we have a very good relationship with our parents and you know I think that's a good start. Thank you. Are there any other questions
or comments from the public on non-aggenda items? All right. So seeing none, we'll close out that portion of the meeting. And with that, can I get a motion to adjurnn? Aonus, followed by Miss Harrison. All in favor? I.
Thank you. Have a good night. [Music]
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