Yeah. Good evening everyone. We are about to start our board meeting here. Um, written advanced notice of this meeting was provided at least 48 hours ago. Such notice provided the time, date, and location of this meeting and included
the agenda to the extent it was known at the time. Notice of this meeting has been given in accordance with law. Minutes of this meeting are being kept by the board secretary and will be made available promptly to any member of the public requesting them from the board secretary at 25A Leen Lane, Heightstown,
New Jersey. Minutes will be provided at cost in accordance with board policy. Are there any board members present who believe this meeting to be in violation of the Open Public Meeting Act? There being none, we may proceed. In compliance with the fire code of the state of New Jersey, I call your
attention to the emergency exits for this room, which are located behind the audience and to our left and right. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. [Music] I 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. [Music] Item C. [Music]
Having read the materials, sorry, hold on a second. Having read the materials received, I move the agenda be approved as submitted. Second. Pull the board, please. Miss Conpsion.
Yes. Miss Drake. Yes, Miss Laruso. Yes, Mr. Lavy. Yes, Miss Patel. Yes, Mr. Weekes. Yes, Miss Lans. Yes. Item D.
Be it resolved that the East Windsor Regional School District may hold two closed sessions at this meeting. These close sessions concern personnel, administrative introduction, and negotiations update. Minutes of these closed sessions will be made available to the public when the need for confidentiality no longer exists.
Second. Please pull the board. Miss Conpsion. Yes. Miss Drake. Yes. Miss Laruso. Yes. Mr. Labberty. Yes. Miss Patel. Yes. Mr. Weeks. Yes. Miss Lans.
Yes. Item two, our student representative report. Mark, would you like to say a few words? Yeah. Just do a quick introduction uh to our new student reps tonight. So we've been uh long awaiting their arrival. So so uh happy to have them here tonight.
So we have Daniel Mahenni and Sophia Buddha and they will uh continue I think a good tradition we've started here in the district in terms of hearing directly from students. So they are representing Heisttown High School. We we met earlier today and they they talked about some lofty goals they have
and and one of those would be kind of infusing some of the the happenings at other schools. but but obviously uh curious to hear what they have to share at the beginning of the school year. So, welcome. So, to start off, hello. My name is Daniel Mahenny and I'm excited to work with you all this year. Um outside of
serving serving on the student council, I'm the president of the computer science club, co-president of the future business leaders of America, a leader of the mental health advocacy club, and a member of the FTC robotics team. Good evening. My name is Sophia Buddha.
I am one of your student representatives this year. Like Danny, I am also very involved at Heightstown. I'm the founder and president of the photography club. I am a member of the yearbook club and a member of DECA. I am also a part of team pep peer leaders while also being a part of student council. And I can speak for
myself and Danny when I say we are both excited and honored to be your student representatives this year. With this with the new school year underway, it's exciting as a senior to see the incoming freshman class roaming the halls and beginning to connect with the upper classmen. It's bringing back
memories of when my friends and I were freshman ourselves, trying to navigate the halls for the first time. This year, the student body is full of enthusiasm. Students are adjusting to their schedules, getting to know their teachers, and settling into classes. While the usual hallway congestion comes
with the start of school, the energy has been positive and the year has been to a has been off to a lively start and a promising one. The freshman BBQ was also a great success, giving the freshman class an opportunity to connect with one another as they begin their journey
through high school. On top of enjoying food and a welcoming atmosphere, students introduced were introduced to a variety of clubs and activities, and it was an exciting first step to help freshmen feel at home and to get involved with their community. Entering this school year, the district
purchased two new electric buses. I can say with confidence these buses were a very good investment. My little brother, a fifth grader at Periel Drew Elementary School, is on one of the buses and he loves it. He says that not only does the air conditioning work, but having a radio and listening to music makes the
bus ride to and from school that much more enjoyable. On Friday, the senior sunrise had one of the biggest turnouts we've seen in years with a large number of seniors coming together to kick off the new school year. The weather was perfect, making the morning even more enjoyable for
everyone. Many students also got to see the new Jumbotron on the football field for the first time, and it was a fun addition that caught a lot of attention during the event. On Friday the 15th, the student body had their first town hall meeting of the school year. In the town hall meeting, the assistant principles talked to each
class about the upcoming school year and the expectations for this school year. While the seniors and juniors were talked about things like college fairs, secondary planning, and exciting events like prom, the underassmen got to got reminded of the different resources has to offer them to getting involved in
school events like upcoming spirit week and long-awaited pep rally and homecoming events. After the meeting, the hallways were filled with excitement about this year's homecoming theme, which is classical fairy tales. And the senior class announced that they will be doing Cinderella as our fairy tale. The
town hall was a great way for the students to get excited and informed about this school year. Fall sports are in full swing and our football team started off their season against Madawin High School with Heightstown herd being being there in full support in their tropical gear.
They brought home the first win of the season. The cheer team has introduced a new coach this season and amazing work is being done. We are all excited to see what the new coach has planned for this year. Coach Kelsey Finan is heading into her second year at Heightstown as our field hockey head coach. With exciting
games against Penny and West Windsor, we are excited to see what she brings to the field this year. This past Saturday, the Heightstown cross country team took on the Cherokee two-mile challenge. Two of the varsity runners placed in the top 30. And as the season goes on, we are excited to see our other teams like
girls and boys soccer, girls volleyball, girls tennis, and gymnastics succeed throughout the season. We wish good luck to all of them. [Music] In terms of exposing the new students to the opportunities that they have here at Heightstown, many clubs are now preparing for the rush week, which is
happening during lunch from September 16th to the 18th. Leaders are now organizing introduction meetings, creating posters, and planning activities to help the students learn more about each club. With the new school year, students came back to school with new guidelines put
in place. The high school experienced not having their phones out while in a learning environment. For the upper classmen, this came as a biz big adjustment and shock due to not having these rules in previous years. But for the incoming freshmen, these rules didn't face the class of 2029. If
anything, they are happy to adhere to these rules because coming from the middle school, they weren't allowed to access their phones at all throughout the day. So now that they can have their phones during passing periods and lunch makes them very happy. While this is a major adjustment for not only myself but
my fellow classmates, it has challenged me to step out of my comfort zone and talk to people in my classes. As for the new computer guidelines, the school is split. Many are upset they can't use their personal computers while others are not affected by this new guideline. When students were told that these
guidelines would be put in place due to the public school to the due to the public school Wi-Fi being locked, many students bought up the excuse that they can use their phone hotspot. Students mainly use personal computers due to the limitations that the schoolisssued devices carry. Not being able to access
different databases is not only frustrating for the students but a timely inconvenience to many. With website websites blocked, many students found it more effective to be bring in their personal computers, especially for research heavy classes like AP Seminar and AP research.
Hopefully, students will be more resourceful and when needing a website unlocked, they can go to a teacher to further help them. In terms of college preparation, college visits will begin later this month with representatives from schools such as
Monontlair, Rowan, TCJ, and many more starting off coming to meet coming to meet with the students at the high school. Additionally, counselors are posting several resources on Google Classroom for um for scholarships as well as different internship opportunities.
Um, additionally, opening um, additionally, the counselors have opened meeting times for students to ask questions openly about their college applications. This concludes the end of our report. We are honored to have the opportunity to be working with all of you this school
year. Thank you. Thank you, Danny and Sophia, for that very informative update for only three days in school. That's great. Um, welcome. We're very happy to have you here and we wish you the best of luck in your senior year. Have fun. Okay. Okay.
We'll now move on to the superintendent report. Good evening again. Uh welcome everyone. Thank you both uh for a great report tonight. Looking forward to the remaining months of the school year. So uh obviously welcome back to school. Another school year uh is upon us. Very
exciting. So just a quick a few updates regarding the first few days of school. Um, last week, September 2nd, we welcomed our our staff, really our 10-month staff, back to school. Um, staff met at the Melvin H. Creps Middle School auditorium. I had a a light
breakfast uh for for returning staff members uh to celebrate a year ahead. Um, just had a brief kind of welcome of sorts during our staff convocation. Um, just to kind of reaffirm our why in terms of as we're moving forward throughout the school year. uh placed an
emphasis on our students, our 5,000 students, recognizing that, you know, every student deserves to be seen, known, and valued. Also talked about our opportunities over 180 days and having that opportunity to to work with and and support students. So just reminding
ourselves that each day is an opportunity to make a difference and kind of use the make a difference as a springboard of a of a theme for us this year as the adults who are charged with guiding and educating our students. So, um, just wanted to also emphasize the
fact that for us and for me in particular, you know, I look at our our most valuable, uh, most cherished resource being that classroom teacher and, uh, just making sure that we want to have opportunities for our teachers to thrive because we know that that will
directly benefit our students, but they need to have um, strong support and strong teams and strong systems um, within the schools that they serve. So uh we want to make sure we place an emphasis on uh professional development
uh a sense of uh collaboration and opportunities for planning uh but also having a strong curriculum that will serve as that framework and that road map uh for the year ahead. also reference the fact that that kind of road map is um an umbrella of sorts will
be our strategic planning goals and just as a reminder that our decisions are are driven by those five goal areas starting with student centered learning as our goal one. Uh goal two is connected to staffing. Our third goal is community engagement. Uh our fourth goal is
facilities and finance and our fifth goal is culture climate. The doors to our schools opened on Thursday, September 4th, as our student representatives uh indicated from a high school perspective. Uh some of the transition uh that occurred during those
two two uh two days. For me, the start of the school year typically is okay. Are the buses going to uh pick children up on time? Are they going to make sure that they hit those stops? Uh we did make a few adjustments in particular at Walter C. Black regarding the parent
drop off pickup area. We we modified that really to safety and just to create a little bit more of a fluid approach. So the buses now do the drop off and pickup in the front of the school. The horseshoe and we've uh transitioned the parent drop off pickup to the the back
of the school. Gives us more more space to accommodate uh parental traffic to eliminate some of the congestion that was uh building up on Haron Avenue. So far uh we believe the change has been um the right decision. I just ask
parents and remind parents that the drop off area is no longer at the front of the building during the the uh the drop off and pickup times and to use the um the driveway on Marson Avenue to gain access to the school.
Uh on tonight's agenda, uh a couple things just want to highlight as it relates to personnel. So, uh first thing will just be a new appointment. So, um I'm excited to share that on tonight's agenda, I'm asking the board to approve Mr. Daniel Finkele to serve as the next principal of Heightstown High School. Uh
Mr. Finkel currently serves as the principal at Cherry Hill High School East in uh the Cherry Hill public schools. Uh he's also served as the principal of Delran High School, assistant principal in the Livingston public schools and also served as a teacher of mathematics in the West
Windsor Plainsboro uh school district. So uh after participating in a pretty rigorous uh thoughtful selection process, Mr. Finle has emerged as the candidate with the disposition and a collection of relevant skills that I believe will uh continue to move the
leadership of Heightstown High School uh forward. Also on tonight's agenda, um it's a familiar name, someone by the name of Erin Sevil. Some of you may be familiar with her. Erin Cavilla served as uh uh the assistant superintendent for human resources for
several years in the school district. Recently retired. Uh we have a situation over at PLLD where um current building leadership uh building principal Mrs. Allen uh needs to take a temporary leave of absence for approximately a month. So
I'm asking the board to support an interim principal recommendation and and to have Dr. Sevilo uh work with Katie Mento, the assistant principal there just to continue the leadership uh really for for the duration of September uh through the beginning of October. um
you know for obvious reasons uh Dr. Zavilla brings a skill set uh she brings um an institutional knowledge of our school district well acquainted with our values and culture and I'm confident that she'll maintain the supportive approach and high standards associated
with Perry Drew. I also uh obviously look forward to Mrs. Allen's return uh early part of October. Tis the season. So, back to school night reminders. Um actually beginning this week. So, just to to kind of recap where
we are. Hopefully parents will be able to attend. We do have Perry Drew Schools back to school night tomorrow um September 9th beginning at 6:30. following night, uh, September 10th, Wednesday, at 6:30, we have, uh, GNR,
GNR's back to school night. And then the following night, um, September 11th, we have Walter C. Black's uh, back to school night beginning at 5:30. And then pushing into next week, uh, we have, uh, on the 16th, Melvin H. Creps
Middle School back to school night beginning at 6:30. Following night, we have Heisttown High School. on the 17th beginning at 7 PM and then we're concluding our back to school night series on the 18th at uh EMK beginning
at 5:30. At our last meeting, I talked about um a couple of things. One being the launch of our EV buses. our student representatives kind of highlighted um some a student perspective today and I know we've kind of said we've tagged those to to one assigned to each
elementary school but ultimately those four buses are circulating through all the schools uh in addition to to the four elementary schools. Um and we did have our our ribbon cutting ceremony had the opportunity to to to uh ride on one of those buses which is
an interesting experience. quiet uh different different type of drive. So, we we're curious to get a sense of how um those buses are are added to our fleet and the fuel that we have for those as we move forward.
Uh at the last meeting, I also mentioned that we were scheduled to have um our was two-part. We had a second part of a um a ninth grade transitional program, but also concluding with a ninth grade orientation for all incoming freshmen.
all were invited uh with a barbecue to kind of conclude the day. So we had we had an overwhelming uh participation. We had um about 200 parents who actually signed up to attend and register to attend, but we actually had a significant higher number than that who actually showed up on August 28th and it
was held here. Uh event was um a success. The uh we had a packed house and um it was you know kind of a combination of community building obviously with some information uh as it relates to transitioning our freshmen and their families uh into a
new school year, information regarding particular clubs, activities, and so forth. Uh so we we are very uh confident that that served as a great bridge for our 9th graders as they started at the high school. Just as a reminder in terms of the calendar, schools will be closed uh for
Rashishana on Tuesday, September 23rd. And with that, it concludes my report. Thank you. Thank you, Mark. Um, we will now move on to item four, our first opportunity for board member comments. Do any of members
of the board wish to speak? Um, has there ever I have the the pleasure of doing um high school drop off. Is has there been any thought given to um maybe I know that we changed how you drop off at the actual school but
going down that road I I don't know the road's name when you turn at the gas station that's terrible. I mean you've got a ton of kids. You have buses. You have cars. And then when you get to the high school and I understand it's only like day
three but I'm a rule follower so I'm turning left. But you have people stopping letting their kids out. you have cars coming from the opposite direction and then if you're trying to leave up lessen I mean it's completely backed up. You can barely make the left. It's just crazy.
And I I think I brought this up a couple years ago too. I know that we didn't come up with that's the entrance to the high school to come down that road, but has there ever been thought given? Am I the only one complaining about it? Um tonight, yes. But it's okay. So, so
what I'd say is I mean um yeah, Westerly does get congested, right? Point point well taken. There's two there's two things I would say. One um I would encourage high school students to take the bus. That would be my first
recommendation. We have a lot of people that get driven to school that don't need to be driven to school. Two, I would avoid Westerly, right? I would probably um try to come up on Leen um off of Main Street and trying to in
terms of trying to avoid that it becomes a little tricky. Yeah. just just to avoid westerly. I know, you know, but yeah, there's no Yeah, there's not a I mean, we had talked about years ago maybe modifying the entrance um on gaining some access to the high
school campus off of 33 off of Stockton, but but yeah, Westerly is at a certain time it it gets um a little congested. So, um I don't have a perfect solution tonight, but I definitely know that I
would encourage those students that can ride a bus to ride the bus. Um and if you don't have to take Westerly in, don't try not to. But yeah, there's not an easy we've gone back and forth in terms of um you know, there's only two ways
really in to the campus, right? So just trying to figure out ways in which we can alleviate some of the headache. Moving the parent drop off on lean was something that we wanted to do to try to create some uh some space away from buses and taxis and some other things at
that time of the day. Uh so we we realize it's a volume issue. Um so we'll take a look at that to see what we can do to potentially alleviate some of that that madness. Uh, but it is difficult because Westerly is such a a small street uh with with with quite a bit of
traffic on it. [Music] Any other board members have comments or questions? Okay, we will now move on to our first opportunity for public comment. Any members of the public wish to speak,
please come to the podium. Okay, there being none, we will now move into our executive session be about how [Music] 45 45 We'll be about 45 minutes this
evening. Thank you. Okay, everyone. We're about to get started again. We will pick up with old business. We have our committee meetings for the remainder of the calendar year there. So, we'll start probably looking
soon to add some for next year. Um, any questions on old business? [Music] executive session. Um, number seven is our second opportunity for comments. So, do any
board members have comments at this time? Yeah, I do. Uh I just wanted to say that um I was able to attend girls volleyball game last week and our vers varsity team won and I'm just very proud that we have
a few years old volleyball team and my daughter looks forward to it every game. She's not varsity yet JV yet but uh it was an amazing game and you know to come from here to here it's not like we were like a varsity team for so many years.
We just started this a couple of years back. So, I'm very impressed with our uh team and our amazing coaches. Thank you. Congratulations to them. Any other comments? We'll now move for our second
opportunity for public comment. Any members of the public wish to comment, please come to the podium. There being none, we'll move on to item eight. Having read the materials received, I move that the board approve the routine
agendum agenda items as submitted. Staffing for September 8th, 2025, ESS addendum substitutes. C. Approve curriculum documents. D. Technology recycling batch number 62. E.
2025 to 2026 organizational chart. F. Approved travel and related expenses. G. Idea grant full year 2026. H. out of district placement. I, East Windsor Regional School District Nursing Services Plan 2025 to 2026. J. Approval
to submit to DOE. K. Transportation joiner. L. Professional service contract GZAGO environmental incorporated change order number two. M. Board meeting minutes approval. N bill list of September 8th, 2025.
Second. Any comments? Tina, I have a question. Just a clarification. Uh what is transportation uh jointer? Uh from the document, it looks like we have three kids from
Lawrenville to and from school. And I'm trying to understand what is that expense for? So basically, we just share the expense of transporting kids to school. So if if there is a placement in a private school for the disabled, we're sending someone,
Hamilton is sending someone, we agree to buddy up, if you will, and we share the bus and we split the cost. Shared services. It's it's basically, you know, what percentage of kids you have on the route. Thank you. Any other questions?
I have one more. I have one question um just about the um Oh my gosh. [Music] organizational chart. There's a box that has the assistant principles and then
there's a slash and the athletic director. Did that was a position we had. Should they be two boxes or are they just I mean it does say that they're slash. It's just a slash. It's fine. Okay. That's what I thought. I just want to check. All right. Thanks.
And yeah, the same chain. Yeah. Okay. Any other comments? Okay. Pull the board, please. Miss Conpsion. Yes. Miss Drake. Yes. Miss Laruso.
Um, abstain from a line number seven. Yes. To everything else. Thank you, Mr. Ly. Yes, Miss Patel. Yes, Mr. Weeks. Yes, Miss Lans. Yes.
Okay, we do not have a need for a second exec session this evening.