President Neron is running a little late. He had to go pick up Noah and we all know what it is to have to take care of our babies. So, I'm going to get get started and as soon as President Neron comes, we will switch over. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, and good
evening. This is a public hearing of the budget for the school year beginning July 1st, 2025 to June 30th, 2026. Pursuant to New Jersey statutes and the rules adopted by the board of education, notice of this meeting was sent to the
Star Ledger and cable vision of Elizabeth on Monday, April 28th, 2025. In addition, this notice is posted on the bulletin board in the lobby of 500 North Broad Street. And pursuant to this act, a copy has been filed with the
city clerk of the Elizabeth, New Jersey. I wish to extend a warm welcome to everyone present for this May 7th, 2025 meeting of the board of education. This meeting is be being recorded and will be part of the Elizabeth Board of Education
permanent record. In order that the recording will adequately reflect the proceedings, please refrain from talking while others are speaking. I also ask that you silence the sounds on your electronic devices. Since it is legally
mandated that these proceedings be accurately recorded, I may have to ask for order periodically should noise begin to interfere with our recording capabilities. I am pleased that you have taken this time this evening to join us. Thank you for your interest in the
Elizabeth Public Schools. We are here this evening to hear the public express their views regarding the proposed 2025 2026 budget in accordance with New Jersey statute 18A
22-13 and I quote on the date and at the time and place so fixed the board of school estimates of the board of education as case may be shall hold such public hearings at which time the taxpayers
and others. Interested persons shall have an opportunity to present objections and to be heard with respect to said budget and the amounts of monies necessary to be appropriated and the various items and pursues for which the
same are to be appropriated for the use of public schools in the district for the issuance of school year. There will be a public portion for the citizens to address the board. P participants for the public portion must
personally sign in prior to the start of the meeting so that they may have the opportunity to speak. The sign-in sheet states the name, the address, the telephone number, and the reason that the person wants to comment, whether it
is an agenda item or a general education comment. Mr. Kennedy, roll call, please. Barbosa Matus. Chev here. Jacobs.
Marina Ortega here. Rivera present. Harvalo present. At this time, I would ask that everyone please stand for the presentation of colors. Please remain standing for the presentation of colors by the Admiral William F. Hollyy Junior Health and
Public Safety Academy, JOTC. reverse. I would ask that board member Jerry Jacobs please lead us in the pledge of 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. Say by the dawn early so proud we held at the twilight
last stripes and bright stars through the fight or the ramparts we watched were so gallare bursting gave proof through the
night that our flag was still there. Oh, say does that star spangled yet for the land of the free and the
home of the brave. 4 Round of applause for our JOTC from the Hollyy Junior Health and Public Safety Academy. Please be seated. I will now have the superintendent of schools introduce the
student representative. Thank you, madame board vice president. It is my pleasure to introduce this evening uh Christ Julian Villard is a senior at Admiral William F. Hollyy Junior Health and Public
Safety Academy where he serves as the president of the Hally Student Government. In his leadership role, Villard has been an advocate for his peers working to create a positive and inclusive environment within the school. He is also a dedicated member of the
youth enrichment services program. from the YES program, demonstrating his commitment to personal growth and community involvement. Beyond his academic responsibilities, Villard is an is actively engaged in a variety of extracurricular activities. He's a
member of the Hollyy National Honor Society as of this year 2425. He has been a member of the uh FIC the FRA Institute Charten for seven years and is also involved with the JEC the June
animation if it's correct where he continues to build leadership and mentorship skills. Ard is passionate about fitness and sports having earned a championship title at the Haitian Fitness Kickboxing and Karate Academy in
2019. He is also an active participant in the American fitness, kickboxing, kickboxing and karate academy and the mixed martial arts academy. Additionally, Ard has excelled in public speaking, winning the rhetoric and
debate competition in 2018 and has been recognized for his athleticism with a victory in the SLG the St. Lou Konagu soccer championship in 2017. With his leadership experience, dedication to
service, and diverse extracurricular achievements, Ard is committed to representing his school as well as his peers with passion plus integrity. It is my honor now to uh ask Mr. Valard to please come up to the DAS.
It's true. the little time that we did speak in private. Um, he also mentioned that he speaks four languages. Pretty impressive. Impressive indeed. At this
time, as vice president of the Elizabeth Board of Education, I will ask the superintendent of schools to present the 2025 2020 26 school budget. all of our current expenditures. reviewing all the recommendations made
by our school principles, by our instructional directors, by all of our director, operational directors in order to ensure that we have presented a fiscally responsible budget for their approval.
And we begin with a reference to our district strategic plan. Our promise that we make to our students to provide an innovative and personalized learning environment that ensures that every child achieves excellence, ensuring that
we are striving to become one of the top performing urban school districts in this nation. We're very fortunate to have incredibly dedicated team members in our district that go above and beyond each and every
day to ensure that the services that are provided to our children are the best. And therefore, it is important to be able to share with our community that this is translates to our promise to our children. ensuring that we are
addressing the needs of our of all students, ensuring that we are challenging all of our students so that we can strive for excellence. Our strategic plan also refers to the goals of the organization, ensuring that our students
are prepared for college and beyond, ensuring that our students are career ready. And this is done by ensuring that we have a multi-tiered subsystem of supports, ensuring that we have professional learning communities
whereby all administrators and all of our teachers and dedicated staff are engaged on a regular basis in examining our practices, examining our examining our curriculum,
examining the performance of our students and ensuring that we are comparing our our performance at both a state and national level. And lastly, important that we're consult that we are conducting data consults, ensuring that
we are reviewing all of the state's data, our local data. Uh and doing this in a manner that uh really, as we say, digs deep to ensure that we understand the performance of every single child. And next, I'd like to be able to turn to
uh a slide that shows the history of our state aid revenue. The money that we receive from the state department on an annual basis. And as you will see, uh the caption on the slide is correct. State aid is indeed trending upward. As
you can see, we had received back in 201617 $419 million and we are at this present time in preparation for the 2526 school year receiving
$651 million. And that includes an increase of 14.2 sure where the sound is coming from. 14.2 million increase. So, we're very beneficial in the budget that we are uh presenting to you this
evening. This translates to the fact that we are able to preserve all of our programs, ensure that we are preserving all of our staff, ensuring that um all of
our priorities are indeed preserved in this budget. And in order to be able to present this budget this evening, it is important to be able to share with you the process in which we engaged in the preparation of
this budget. And I'd like to take a moment to be able to thank our assistant superintendants and all of our directors in this district because um as a result of their time and effort and
um strategic conversations that we were having together with our principles, it ensured that we were accounting for the needs of all of our schools of all 37 schools. So to be able to walk you through that process in a in a very uh
streamlined manner begins by examining the prior year's spending data. Correct. From there we are examining our school-based needs. We're working together with all of our administrators in order to identify specifically where
it is that we need to allocate our dollars. It involves ensuring that we're very much aware of the goals of our organization which are aligned in this presentation for you this evening and identifying both the long and the
short-term budgetary goals. It's not just about preparing a one-year budget. It is about having in mind the next five years and where it is that we need to be and ensuring that we are making a conscious effort to budget appropriately
so that we can sustain our programs and our services. It is about examining our enrollment which I will cover with you this evening. It's also about examining the staffing needs which I will also cover this evening in terms of what the
needs are. Do we need to increase our multilingual learner teachers? Do we need to increase our special needs teachers? Do we need to increase our English or mathematics teachers? And that I will review with you this evening. And lastly, facilities. And
it's about ensuring that we're planning for those capital improvements and ensuring that our facilities, many of which we have celebrated their hundth year as most recently Hamilton Preparatory Academy celebrated its hundth year and those facilities
uh are offering our students an excellent education and they're maintained to ensure that we have the proper environment. And as we continue now, I'd like to be able to share with you the
alignment of our budget to our strategic plan because it is important. We have in place a five-year strategic plan and our budget must be in alignment with that plan. It is about our p our first pillar teaching and learning and the focus
there being enhancing teaching and learning to provide all of our students with personalized pathways to success. Our second pillar, social and emotional wellness. Supporting the social and emotional wellness of all of our students and our staff in order to
promote a safe environment for all our students so that all of everyone has a sense of belonging in this district. The third pillar, workforce development. It's the importance of focusing on hiring, developing, and
retaining our employees to ensure that we are providing our students with a highly effective and diverse workforce. Our fourth pillar, parent and community engagement.
And it is uh the focus is on strengthening the engagement of all of the members of the Elizabeth public schools learning community, not just everyone in our schools and our central offices, but also ensuring that
we are working collaboratively with all of the agencies, all of the uh community providers in order to improve outcomes for students and for families. And lastly, the fifth pillar, organizational effectiveness. Because it is not just about the
critical work that we're doing in our classrooms, but it's ensuring that all of our departments, whether it is our human resources department, whether it is our transportation department, our food service department, our transportation
department, our security department, our technology department, all of the departments need to be able to be very much aware of the needs of this organization. in order to respond appropriately and work
collaboratively. So I now move to the demographics of our district. So we are indeed the second largest school district. We're comprised of 37 schools. We're currently serving 28,315 students uh across a multitude of
schools. We have our three early childhood centers, our 20 neighborhood schools, our six magnet schools, our eight high schools. Our graduation rate as of the class of 2024 was 89%. As you as one of the main goals of our organization was to strive towards a
90% graduation rate. That needle has been moving diligently. We had a record 1,874 students graduate as part of the class of 2024. Our free and reduced lunch recipients are
83.4% and currently our district is comprised of 4,210 amazing team members. As you can see from the demographics you see the display before you. We are 76.8% Hispanic. We are
15.12% black. We are 6.25% white. We are 1.54% Asian and um other categories uh Asian Pacific Islander um 21 and as you can see the student profile in terms of
the students that we serve 54.2% general education multilingual learners previously known as English language learners is 32.3% our special education population is 9.8 8 and our dualcoded students that are both special needs and uh
multilingual learners are 3.6%. Next, I would like to be able to uh share with you some trends with regard to our enrollment. Uh last year, I presented a similar presentation and shared with our community that our general education
population has been declining. So one population decreases and another population increases. As it relates to our general education uh students as you can see you see the trend data from 2019 where we were at
67.6% of our students were general education and that has now dropped to 54.5% of our students in general education. So that represents going from 19,500 students to
15,467 students. So now in turn when we look at the population that has increased, we now see our multilanguage learners increasing from 19.5% in 201920 to our current 36%.
And also for our special education, our students in 1920 were at 11.4% and that has increased to 12.9 uh percent. So what does that translate to for our multilingual learners? We were at
6,000 students in 201920 and we are currently at 10,200 students that are multilingual learners. As I look out into the audience and I see our director of bilingual and ESL, Dr. Nunez, and also
our director of special education, uh, Dr. O'Hara, who both, um, we sit and we talk about how we're going to best need, uh, meet these needs of our increasing populations. And for our special education, we were at 3,600 in 2019 and
uh we have increased uh to 3,700. So now we're going to move into discussing how it we are allocating our funds. So our strategic plan investments aligned to our strategic plan to our five
pillars. And first it begins with teaching and learning, right? The importance of enhancing our teaching and learning in order to provide all students with the personalized pathways as I shared with you and it is important that
we share the programs and as I stated earlier correct this is a maintenance budget. We are maintaining all of our programs and our services. So on the screen before you you see programs uh
that we will be offering next year. our summer Saturday afterchool academic programs, our summer Saturday afterchool art and music programs, our recreation programs that take place in the summer and on Saturdays, our summer ESY program, our athletic program, our
summer and Saturday athletic clinics that will continue our uh dual enrollment partnerships with Kain University, with NJIT, with New Jersey City University, and with the College of New Jersey. Our commitment to serving as an AVID
district, our professional development provided in literacy through the children's literacy initiative, our math professional development provided by the car by Carnegie learning. Our focus on the national academy foundation which
supports uh programs such as finance, IT, engineering, and biomedical across ourmies. our focus on career and technical education and of course ensuring that this budget supports contentbased professional development in
all of the content areas and in addition to that the importance of ensuring that all of our instructional materials have been refurbished supporting our gifted and talented programs supporting our international balorate program um
providing specialized programs for our special populations I mentioned the ESY summer program Uh we also have our bridge program for our multilingual learners. We have the first ladies program, the leaders of technique, our our support for our marching band, our
color guard, our jazz ensemble, our percussion. um right the visual and performing arts that are critical ensuring the supports for our high school students through the credit recovery program through our attendance program um our bilingual magnet program
and also ensuring that we're funding the appropriate academic intervention so that our students can succeed. So we now move to social and emotional wellness. And as you can see here under social emotional wellness, we have our uh SEAL
after school program, our positive behavior supports in schools, uh supporting our students by being able to survey them and the their what their interests are and that leads to the offerings of the um high school clubs. the opportunity to be able to
fund the importance of having expanded over the years the number of guidance counselors and the number of social workers. the importance of having our substance abuse coordinator, our college and career coordinator meeting with our students, our Saturday student support
service programs, our gaggle management system, Panorama, our partnerships with therapeutic learning connections, the nurtured heart approach, our partnership with uh Robert with Johnson Trinitas, the youth enrichment service, and of
course ensuring the wellness of all of our employees, our partnership with the American Red Cross, cost that provides the CPR training and in addition to that um our nurses correct the valuable service that our nurses provide the valuable services that our speech and
language uh pathologists provide occupational therapy physical therapy through our partnership with Trinitas our chief medical inspector services and our behavioral services all of which fall under the umbrella of social and emotional wellness because it is the
well-being of all of our students that is our priority. As we continue, we now turn to workforce development. Uh and as we transition, it's important to be able to share that
in this budget, we are going to be funding 48 new positions, new teacher positions. So, we are adding 12 special uh we're opening 12 special needs classrooms. We
are um opening uh seven uh bilingual classrooms. We are adding five uh classrooms at the elementary level. We have at the high school level, we're expanding the number of English, math, social studies, science teachers. uh it
it is the intent is to be able to address the needs of our everexpanding um enrollment. And then as you can see on the slide before you, I've also uh included 31 positions. 31 positions that
were funded federally previously. We have moved 31 positions into our district budget. That is a total of 79 new positions in this 2526 budget. And we were able to do that
fortunately due to the funding provided by Governor Murphy because Governor Murphy increased our state aid by $14.2 2 million thereby affording us the opportunity to be able to sustain and that's important that everyone hears
that to sustain the important services that are provided to our children. In those 31 positions, we have instructional coaches. In those 31 positions, we have reading specialists. We have BCBAS. Those are critical
services for our students. and then I'd like to be able to speak to the 26 sustained ARP positions. So last year in September, actually this past year uh last year in September, uh we had completed the um
round of funding from the federal government for um the under the American Rescue Plan and we had included 26 positions over the course of three years through those federal funds. In this
school year, this 2425 school year that we are in, it was the first year in which we had embedded those 26 positions into our budget. And we're proud to announce that those 26 positions will now continue for a second year for the
25 26 school year. Uh we're very proud of that because our focus is clearly on ensuring that we are hiring talented folks to be able to serve our students and we are prioritizing small
class sizes. Perhaps that may not be the case in other communities. I'm sure that everyone has read the headlines. Other communities are struggling with the number of students in their classrooms, but not here in Elizabeth. we are prioritizing small classrooms and that has been a focus area for
us. So as we continue we are now uh turning our attention to our parent and community engagement. And as we focus on parent and community engagement, we uh would like to be able to share the multitude of parent
workshops that we provide our families, beginning with the financial aid nights uh for our parents, our high school information sessions for our eighth grade students, which are so incredibly informational. Uh the middle school and
high school parent seminars. Uh we're beginning to roll out this summer a new district website particularly focused on ensuring the ease for our families so that they can navigate without a problem. Uh our family engagement uh in
fact last night we had uh both uh Mr. Cologne and Mr. Brown providing parent training which is done virtually in for in order to accommodate over our families and also um our academic and attendance expectations parent training
that is provided and this is in addition to all of the uh work that is done at our school levels in collaboration with the PTAs on ensuring that there is a response to the needs of our families. And then we move into our fifth pillar, organizational
effectiveness. And with that, I turn to as I stated uh previously the importance of all of our departments, our business operations, our food services, our transportation, our technology, our security, uh our plant and property,
capital improvements, all of which serve the purpose of ensuring uh that they are properly funded and able to support all of our schools and all of the needs of the organization. So, we're going to move into highlighting a few of the capital
improvements. Uh, carpet replacement at seven schools, floor replacement at 15 schools, painting projects, landscape renovation and outdoor repairs across 20 schools. Um, we've been focused over the years, and you have seen this in in my
budget presentation, our focus on adding security cameras all throughout, not only the exterior, interior, hallways, and preserving, right? ensuring that we are prioritizing the safety of our children. Bleacher replacement and two gymnasium. Uh four schools that will
have their classrooms, hallways, offices painted. Uh the um sidewalk replacement and repair of the athletic center, kitchen renovation, playground uh replacement, and bathroom renovations. And as we continue um on, we we would be
remiss if we didn't include our academic highlights. So, three schools that were named the 2025 New Jersey School of Character that included school 21, school 22, and school number 28. Our Elizabeth High Schools uh that made the
2024 AP school honor role, Elizabeth High School, Hamilton Preparatory Academy, and Johnny Dwire Technology Academy. Our 14 schools that received the safe schools to school gold award. our our Dwire Technology Academy that
became a NAF model academy, our Admiral William F. Hollyy Health and Public Safety Academy awarded the Naval Honor School, and our 2025 Elizabeth High School indoor percussion ensemble in being the US band's indoor percussion
scholastic marching a champions. our focus on the athletics, on the arts and on academics and ensuring that uh we are supporting all throughout uh our
organization. And now it is my pleasure to introduce Mr. Kennedy who will present the financials Kennedy. The right one. Absolutely. Excuse me.
I forgot to shut it off. Thank you. Good evening everyone and thank you for the opportunity to take a brief moment to present some of our finan financial data. Sorry. It's not changing. Excuse me for a second.
Okay, thank you. Yes. So, how did we develop our needs-based budget? It's really is quite a task. It starts right after Thanksgiving um and continues up through tonight at the budget hearing. So phase one, we gather input from our
stakeholders. And what that is mainly is um we take all those 4,000 employees and cost them out in our budget system at their contractual salaries. And um the other thing we do is we put out Mr.
Malotra department puts out spreadsheets of all of the schools and they get to put all of their non salary needs in and um that's what we call their budget requests. Then it moves on to um we wait for the
as a result of the October 15th annual count in the schools we get our enrollment and my department doesn't do this but all the directors and and the principles get together and based on the enrollment each of the schools is
determined at October 15. They do a class size analysis and that kind of drives how many instructional employees they need within the buildings. U I'm sorry. The next thing is phase three. We
determine the priorities with these face-to-face meetings which go on from pretty much after Christmas all the way through January. And it's a one-on-one with the directors that are here and each individual building administration.
They also um review all of their current curriculum inventories and they actually see how many books that they have, how many supplies they have, and how many do they need for next year. Once again, face toface. Um, and then the last thing
they do is do they do a comparative analysis to their requests that I described before to um what they what they were allowed in their budget in the previous year 2425. Then we go through after we're done with all the schools, we start
bringing in all the operational and educational directors and they do a line by line review of their budgets. Um and then they determine how much from they call them um required programs that the
departments are are telling the schools this is what you need to provide within your schools. Um the next so that's all gathered up and as Mr. from Halter and his department. We're basically comply um compilers of the financial data, but
it's all based on recommendations from the schools and from the operational directors. That gets all put together. We come up with a number uh of what our appropriations are and we sit and wait for the governor's address in March to
determine what is our state aid going to be. This year was a little bit different. As I said, starting in November, um the superintendent and I were getting directions from the state and the county office, um that it wasn't going to be a good
budget year revenue-wise. They were actually telling us to anticipate a reduction in state aid this year. So, in all those meetings, there were sad faces, but that we tried to build our budget um to anticipate not getting
quite as much revenue as we anticipated. The governor's address came out. We were very pleasantly surprised that the message we got got was not the way it was going to be. And as we were able to maintain, as the superintendent said,
um, everything that we did last year, the same number of personnel and so forth. The last thing we do is we take all of our data together and we share it with our fi financial consultant who works handinhand with our finance committee and the rest of the board um
to let get a better understanding of the numbers that we presented. After all that starting in November all the way up to May here, here we are and ready to present some of the numbers. Start with revenue. So our total budgeted revenue
is 752,798527 and it's comprised of 651,222,416 in state 86.5%. The next the next thing is um our local tax levy is next at 59
million813124. Pleased to announce that once again we have not raised local taxes and that's for the 11th straight year. That tax levy has remained the same 59813124. The next uh largest revenue item is our federal aid 26 million
366916 or 3.5%. Our fund balance appropriated which is um reserve that flows out anticipated reserve that flows out of our 2425 year that we are allowed to use
in 2526 budget 10,950,000 uh or 1.45% 45%. And finally, miscellaneous revenue, which is basically um interest and e- rate money that we receive um from
everybody's telephone bills. That's 4,44601 or about 0.59%. So total revenues 752798527 and you move over to the budget expenditures and were required to be a balanced budget. So budgeted revenues have to I mean budgeted
appropriations have to equal budgeted revenues. So once again, our budgeted appropriations 752 798527 and that's comp comprised of 74.59% is going where you think it
should go to instruction 561,468166. Um next is operation and maintenance of plant our 37 buildings and administrative uh offices. 81,63241 or
10.84%. We have um other which is community service, transportation, capital outlay and employee benefits 85,515882 11.3%. And um finally our admin admin is
24,18278 or 3.21%. For once again total 752 752 million. Another way to quickly see the statistics for expenditures 74.6% for
instruction 10.8 8 for our plant and operations uh benefits transportation and capital outlay 11.4% and admin of 3.2%. So the state requires us to calculate um our appropriate how our
appropriations translate to a per pupil basis. So our per pupil basis for 2526 budget is 23,126 and mirroring the um appropriations in classroom instruction
13,000 of that 23 is 13,452. Next is operation and maintenance of plants 3,688 support services which includes um health services, attendance, guidance services, child study team, uh
educational media services and professional development. That's 3,797. And the last one is our admin per pupil is 1,913. So that's the central administration and school
administration for a total of 23126. So the state requires us to maintain um our admin ratio within parameters and once again our admin cost which we saw before was 1,913
uh per student per student which is well below the 2,677 allowed regional cost per student. So, Elizabeth Public Schools is spending less this year per pupil when compared to the New Jersey regional
cost. Um, talking about the budget process, we don't just sit in the business office and make up throw numbers and there's a a complete review process and we have to follow certain rules. So the 2526 budget and tax levy
proposed this is in accordance with the rules and regulations as promo promulgated by the New Jersey Department of Education. We we prepare our budget following instructions incorporated into the budget guideline and electronic data collection manual prepared by the state
and it's published by the NJ DOE office of school finance. It's a book about this big with all the rules. And the reason we do the state does that and every district in the state has to follow these rules is that um when you do that, it ensures that the budget and
information submitted for approval to the executive county superintendent and the and their business administrator are complete and correct. Finally, uh the board and central office believe in an open and transparent budget process. All be board meetings as
this one is are open to the public and agendas and meetings and minutes are available on our website. Copies of the 202526 are on file in my office and they'll be available on the website after this meeting and um as it says
here it will be posted online at the district's website. So, thank you for the brief opportunity to present some of the numbers and some of the processes that go about developing the budget. And once again, I'd like to thank our finance committee and the entire board for the
assistance and guidance that they provide us and couldn't do it without our directors and and building principles um to come up with such a such a I think it's a wonderful budget this year to that we're allowed to maintain what we always have tried to do
in Elizabeth. Thank you. Let's give our superintendent and our business administrator a big round of applause. Um again, thank you for that budget presentation, madam superintendent, and our to our business administrator and the entire staff, our entire team, all our stakeholders, our
directors, our um board members, our fellow board members and the finance committee for the great work that they did in um you know, galvanizing the information, making sure that we can still provide quality services even though we see what's happening nationally and the potential threats
that exist towards school budgets and department education. we here in Elizabeth are trying to or are not only trying but we are maintaining um quality education, quality services in having a a a responsible fiscal budget u moving
forward and it's been an honor to work with this entire team to make sure we can bring this to fruition. Um any board members have any comments or concerns? Yes, Mr. President. U Commissioner Moreno, please. Yes. Uh thank you. First, I want to say thank
you to our finance committee. It's a lot of work behind the scenes. I really appreciate. Also, I want to say thank you to Mr. Kennedy, Madame Superintendent, Director, Administrator Rajie, and everyone who is involved in this budgets.
Today um May 7, the Lisa Public School have the happy face and the board two to present uh very good detailed budgets uh with five uh important key points. As
you see uh my dear community we in crisis in some districts we heard the news every week. I give you example. Nali, New Jersey will be proposed to all athletic and after school activities and
it's not only that one. This is just one example. This mean I love the way they present the budget with the five key points aligned to the five years plan and especially I have two key points.
the social emotional wellness. Everybody know without mental health we cannot uh educate our students and in this time when the main government could uh our
mental health support. This mean front teaching uh support for our parents more position 79 extra position and this is a very very happy day for me for the board
member need to be a very happy day for the community for teachers for director like we will not anything absolutely anything thank you so much Mr. Mr. President, I'm very proud and this is my
happy moment. Thank you, Commissioner. Mr. Mr. President, Mr. President. Yes, Madam Vice President. I just want to thank uh superintendent, assistant superintendent, uh Mr. Kennedy, uh Mr. Mahra, and the entire team, all of the
principles. And this is a really tough time of the year. And I know the pressure that you are all put on and asked to cut and to re-evaluate everything that you have in your schools in order to maintain the quality of
education that you that you put out. Um we we value you. We understand you. Um, you may not always see us, but uh, we sit in those uh, back rooms and we have to crunch numbers, too. And, um, you always, at least, I can speak for myself
and and just about everyone else that's up here for the last uh, 11 years, 11, 12 years, you have always come back with numbers that we can work with where it does not affect the children and the quality of
education. So, for that, I know that I speak for all the board members. Thank you all for having a heart and caring more about the children than yourselves. Mr. President. Yes, Commissioner. Thank you. I I just wanted to reiterate
uh something that Mr. Kennedy said and I just want to make sure that it everyone can get a good idea. He said for the past 11 years there hasn't been an increase of taxes of taxes at all. And I
think that merits a round of applause. Thank you for all the hard work for putting this budget together and that really reflects how we're working as a team and making sure we're providing the best quality service for the children and for for Elizabeth. Thank you.
Thank you, Commissioner Jacobs. Thank you, Mr. President. Uh, I'd like to uh thank Madam Superintendent, Dr. Hugo Meyer, Mr. Kennedy, the business office, the assistant superintendent, the directors,
our principles and BP, and everyone who was involved in the budget process. This year's budget again was an extraordinary feat. And I think what makes that so much more impressive is the fact that we were able to keep and maintain the
services and the programs that we provided in the past when we were getting $80 million in extra funds which we are not getting in the future. We're also able as Madam Superintendent I just want to reiterate the points some of the points that Madam Superintendent said in
her presentation. the fact that we were able to keep 31 title one positions, okay, in our budget due to that due to the anticipated uh federal cuts that we may see next year. In addition to that, the 26
sustained ARP positions uh for the level of supports for our students to make sure that we're delivering a thorough and efficient education for all of our students. Um, I I also have to say that, you know,
being able to accomplish those things um with the budget that we had is quite a feat in itself. Um, one caveat to that also is the fact that we as the second largest school district do not have a billion dollar budget that we are voting
on today as the number one and number three school districts do. And I think that's a testament to the leadership of Dr. Hugoire along with the uh supervision and coordination of Mr. Kennedy with the business office in running a lean and tight operation to
make sure that we can deliver the most in the classroom. Uh the other points that I would also like to note that in this budget presentation we have seen that our per pupil cost have gone up $5 since 2023
2022 23 while maintaining our budget which I think is an excellent thing. Another uh and I'm going to be brief. Uh another caveat that I would also like to point out is the fact that we've been able in this month's agenda, we are
approving our health insurance, medical and dental coverages and we've been able to maintain the same coverage for continuity even though this may be increase in our expenses but we know that we value our employees and we'd like to keep them whole on that and the
same. I would be remiss if I didn't also thank my finance committee colleagues, Commissioners Pastana and Commissioner Bless for the many meetings that we had to attend to ensure that this budget came in on time and on schedule. Uh,
also I'd like to also point out um a special shout out to our Acasure consultant uh who has done an amazing job um these last seven years, 7 to eight years in helping us navigate the health insurance marketplace which has
seen perils um in other districts and we and as Madam Superintendent stated, you know, the people who have been following the headlines, many other districts have not have unfortunately ely we're not in the position of many other districts that have had to face um making
budgetary cuts and staff and service positions and thankfully I am I have to say I'm my hat off and I'm eternally grateful uh that we were able to bring this budget in. Um I think that was the last of my
comments and again I'd just like to say thank you again. Thank you Mr. President. Thank you. Thank you to all our board members. Um, at this time we want to turn the floor over to the public. Citizens may address the board at this time. Microphones are open for public
comment. Uh, to those having signed in prior to the session. Each statement made by a participant shall be limited to three minutes in duration. The total time of public comment shall be limited to 60 minutes. No individual is able to yield their time to another individual. All statements shall be directed to the
presiding officer. No participants may address or question the board members individually. Each speaker shall comply in all respects with board policy 9322. Copies were provided next to the sign-in sheet. And we have a sign sheet.
There was there was no one signed up for the public uh budget hearing. All right. Seeing um no one has signed up. Seeing none hearing none, I closes the public portion of this meeting. Um, again, I
want to thank our finance committee, our superintendent, the entire staff, and all in attendance today for this first portion of the board of education uh, budget hearing process. Mr. Kennedy, your mic is Mr. Kennedy like to go to a vote to approve our budget? Yes.
There there's a resolution before you to approve the 2526 budget. Need a motion and a second. I move to accept the 2025 2026 uh budget. Uh motion has been made and properly
seconded to adopt the 202526 adoption of the final budget for the school year of 2025 2026. Uh Mr. Candy, roll call, please. Bathless. Yes. Carvalo. Yes. Chevres.
Yes. Jacobs. Yes. Marina Ortega. Yes. Gonavas Pastana. Yes. Rivera. Yes. Neron. Yes. Budget is passed. Again, thank you all. Um we look forward
to a very successful 202526 year. And to all in attendance for this portion of the meeting, want to wish everybody a very happy Mother's Day and especially uh we want to celebrate our teachers for teacher appreciation week. So we salute all our educators in
district. So let's give them a big round of applause who are all here. And I want to call uh a motion to adjurnn. I move to motion has been made. I second. Properly seconded. Mr. Caddy, roll call, please. Bathless,
Carvalo, yes. Chevrises, yes. Jacobs, yes. Marina Ortega, yes. Can Pastana, yes. Rivera, yes. Neron, yes. Thank you everyone and have a great evening. We will be back shortly after a
15-minute break as we start the next portion. All right. Good evening and welcome to our board of education meeting of the Elizabeth Board of Education. This is a combined regular agenda and business meeting of the board of education. Pursuant to New Jersey statutes, the rules adopted by the board of education.
Notice of this meeting was sent to the Star Ledger and Cable Vision of Elizabeth on May 2nd, 2025. In addition, this notice is posted on the bulletin board in the lobby of 500 North Broad Street. And pursuant to this act, a copy has been filed with the city clerk of Elizabeth, New Jersey. Want to welcome
everyone present here at school 51 to our televised viewers to this May 7th, 2025 meeting of the board of education. We are here to govern, provide management oversight, and make policy of the district. The superintendent manages the district. This is meeting of the board in public, not a meeting of the
public. This meeting is being recorded and will become part of Liz Board of Education permanent records so that the recordings will adequately reflect the proceedings. Please refrain from talking while others are speaking. We ask that you silence the sound on your electronic devices since it is legally mandated
that proceedings be accurately recorded. We have been asked to we may ask for order periodically should noise begin to interfere with our recording capabilities. There will be a public portion for the citizens to address the board. Participants of this public portion must personally sign in prior to
the start of a public portion so that they may have the opportunity to speak. The signin sheet states the name, address, and telephone number and the reason that person wants to comment, whether it is an agenda item or general education comment. We are pleased that you have taken time out to be with us
this evening. And welcome again to the Elizabeth Public Schools Board of Education meeting. Mr. Kennedy, roll call, please. Barbosa, here. Bathless here. Carvalo here. Chevro here. Jacobs.
Marina Ortega here. Pastana here. Rivera here. Naron here. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance being presented by board member Stephanie Pastano. Please remain standing as we have
Commissioner Baffis read our pledge of ethics. As a member of the public schools professional learning community, I will treat people as I wish to be treated. To do that, I pledge to understand that the school community is a special place. Listen respectfully when someone else is
speaking by paying close attention and not interrupting. Speak in a calm voice and use proper language. Dress appropriately for teaching and learning. Inspire the best of myself and others by celebrating successes and learning from mistakes. Care about others by demonstrating acts of kindness. Be a
lifelong learner by taking every opportunity to learn from others. Thank you. You may be seated. Um this evening it is my honor and pleasure to introduce to you our student representative um who will be presenting this evening
on behalf of I believe he is our which okay that's what I thought Admiral William Fally Academy let's give him a big round of applause for Mr. Christ the Lord. So good morning, good, good evening,
good board members, superintendent, Yugger, Yugo Meyer, assistant superintendent, principal, vice principal, administrators, teachers, staff, fellow students, and families. My name is Christ V Lord and I'm honored to serve as student representative of
William FC Health and Public Safety Academy acade academy. Tonight I stand not just as one voice but as a reflection of many of the vibrant diverse and dynamic student body that make our school truly exceptional.
At C Academy diversity isn't just a statistic. It is a leave experience. Every hallway, every classroom tell a different story. We come from diverse culture, speak different languages and have different
perspective. We practice different tradition. Yet it is in the difference that we find strange. Creativity and connection is that unique blend of background and experiences that will prepare us for future in a global interconnected world. How will he
provide the space for every student to explore their their passion and reach their potential and that is what I'm excited to share more about with you tonight. Throughout the school year, each one of the school representative had to collaborate with administrators, teachers to improve our school and make
them a place where everyone feel comfortable and motivated to learn. We recognize that education is essential and that everyone learn differently. So that's why we try to find creative way to reach everyone in their educational experience. A perfect
example of this is our interclass sporting event at which I had the privilege of spearheading. It was more than just a competition. It was a celebration of school spirit and unity with approximately 1,000 student in
attendance. This event brought together student from grade 9 to 12 and includes staff member from whole semen and anxious. You got to see student who might not usually interact all cheering each other on playing side by side and representing their class with
pride. The positive feedback from student and staff after this event were overwhelming and I demon and that demonstrated how impactful community activities can be in fostering school spirit and unity. This is just one example of the
incredible work we've done together. Our commitment to a school community doesn't just stop there. At HOI we also care about their environment. You can see that in our student led environmental club recycling initiative and working near greenhouse and
gardens. This effort reflect how much student care about making a positive impact and all the student are leading that charge with creativity and passion. We also grow beyond the classroom. in September fundraising
event throughout the throughout the the year. They not just raise money, they build a community. Whether it's for class trip, charity event or special school event, they bring student and teachers together for common goal. So my
arts, the ninth grade form field trip and corn maze which was an immense success where student learn about biodiversity, climate awareness and sustainability practices. In addition, wholesale hosted visit from university like Montlair State University, Union
and GIT that helped us plan our future. Accordingly, the ninth grade student hosted the H.B.CU college fair, organized thank you gram for the staff and closed the year with impressive holiday dance performance. All of which
represent whole commitment to student involvement. So welcome 2025. We at resolution wall where students share their goals for the new year. I'm very proud to be of part of the school that value not just but
also personal grow. In February our volunteer social emotional the classroom to help student feel more connected and include except more student join club like the national society, the math club, the art club and also the yes program. We also had a hot chocolate and
cookie sale to raise money for the for the senior class. Group like the honor society and leadership club offer student a place to feel connected, belong and build their confidence. We celebrate black history month with fun event like dance show at
school or door decorating contest and a education meeting. We had student versus student game which were a big hit with all grade to promote wonderful school spirit that whole has at no one must go through high school alone. One
of our most powerful example of our inclusive spirit is how we celebrate one another especially dur like woman in story month. At Cy it is not just a calendar event. We decorated classroom
door get a perfect example is celebrating who did great in the RTC fitness competition coming out coming four out of 14 teams at academy every achievement matter.
Every voice is valued and every student has a place. We pro we promote inclusivity as seen in April where we celebrate autism awareness and through the treat people with kindness event where we promote kindness and school spirit. All C excel at this with our
going activity like the give someone a reason to smile today builtin board daily rice shout out and weekly rice shout out which I let the kindness and character of all the students. In closing I want to extend my deepest gratitude to the board of
education and our dedicated staff leaders school leaders sorry for giving me an incredible opportunity to serve as student representative. It had been it has been an honor to represent the voice of my peers and advocate on behalf of Hy Academy. This year we have
celebrated academic achievement, artistic talent, athletic victories and countless moment of leadership. Thank you for trusting me with this responsibility and continued commitment to all Elizabeth student.
None of this could have been possible without support of our amazing staff members like people like Miss Galgo, Mr. Vanvit, Mr. Stoop, Miss Rean. Thank you all for allowing me to represent our school of which I'm so proud of. It has been a privilege to
serve and I'm excited for the bright future ahead for OC Academy and all it student. My name is Christ. It was nice to meet you. Thank you. Commissioner Villard, thank you for those uh amazing comments. Um your journey and your story is truly
impressive and um something to um inspire so many students throughout the district, but even us as board members, we're inspired by your story and all your accomplishments that you've made and what you're doing as a student representative is uh to be saluted and appreciated. So, thank you for
participating and thank you for stepping up as a student leader. Let's give him another big round of applause. At this time, microphones are open to public comment for those who have signed in prior to this session. Each statement made by a participant shall be limited to three minutes in
duration. The total time of public comment shall be limited to 60 minutes. No individual is able to yield their time to another individual. All statements shall be directed to the presiding officer. No participant may address the board members individually. Each speaker shall comply in all aspects
with board policy 9322. Copies were provided next to the signing sheet. At this time, we have Mr. Brian Guzman. Good evening, Superintendent Olga and the board. Turn his mic on and reclaim
his time. Thank you. Good evening, Superintendent Olga Huga Meyer and the rest of the board members. I am here to express a concern about the recent decision to reinstate the final exam policy which many ex which exempts many
students in grades 9 through 11. Good evening. All right, let's let's just make sure you're testing. Can we hear him? Do another test for us, please. Hello. Test. Test. Good evening. One more time. Good evening. Okay. All right.
Good evening again, Superintendent Oga Hugai and the rest of the board members. I am here to express my concerns about the recent decision to reinstate the final exam policy, which exempts all students grades 9 through 11. What concerns me is not the policy itself, but the lack of time with the lack, but
the timing of the lack of prior communication. Regarding this change, without regard to mental and emotional state of the students, throughout the school year, many students, including myself, have been working under the clear impression that finals we exempt for those who consistently performed well
academically. Many students have pushed themselves to attend school even when they were not feeling well physically or mentally out of concern that ab absences would jeopardize their exemption eligibility. This concern influenced how we approached our studies schedules and
stress management. Now with only a quarter of the year left, we are told that finals are required for all grades below the 12th grade regardless of performance and attendance. Final exemption has been consistent event for the past two years. So this warrants the
question of why the sudden shift without any form of communication. We know we would have known what to expect if this was communicated prior than just the quarter left. As a collective, we are upset that this wasn't presented earlier to students and their parents. Additionally, this abrupt
change has affected many students' well-being. Anxiety levels have increased and added stress near the end of the year has left many feeling overwhelmed and discouraged. This sudden shift feels unfair and discouraging to students who have maintained high grades and demonstrated responsibility throughout the year. Changing the rules this late
undermines our efforts and penalizes those who have worked hard to avoid the need for us final assessment. Our entire school administration, teachers, and counselors have wanted us to advocate for ourselves. So, here I am advocating and representing our voices. Please realize that this would demoralize the trust and effort within
the high school population. I urge the administration to reconsider this decision or at least postpone it or acknowledge or have an open path of communication towards the students. I'm just here to elect our voices and to present those who want to be presented
in the right way. I'm aware that there's a petition going around. I don't know if most board members are, but there is a petition going around and I didn't see that as the correct way of doing it. They weren't going through the proper means of doing it. They didn't let anybody know they were making a position
and they weren't really doing it the proper way. So, I took the correct steps and here I am trying to voice other students concerns. Thank you for your time and attention to this matter. Thank you.
Seeing that no one else has signed up, I move forward to uh close the public portion of the meeting. Uh Brian, um at the conclusion, please see our um assistant superintendent, uh Jen Sado Daniel, who will um I'm sure she may have talked to
you prior, but I'm sure her and the superintendent will uh be talking to the students and addressing their concerns. All right, so thank you for those comments. At this time, we'll now review the agenda. I want to start with tab 1A
official and private minutes of April 17, 2025. and tab 1B treasures report from March 31st, 2025. Are there any questions from the board? Seeing none, hearing none, Mr. Kennedy, please add tab 1 A and 1B to
the agenda. Tab 2A, personnel report, and tab 2B. Are there any questions from the board? If there are no questions, seeing none, hearing none, Mr. Kenny, please add tab 2 A and 2B to the agenda.
Tab three, tuitions report. Are there any questions from the board? If there are no questions, please add tabs three to the agenda. Tabs four, 4D, superintendent report. Any questions or comments?
Seeing none, hearing none, please add tab 44D to the agenda. Tab five, authorizations report. No questions or concerns. Please add tab five authorizations report to the agenda. Tab 6 6A finance and
accounting report. I don't know that we'll have any questions. We just approved the budget. So, please add tab 66A to the agenda. Tab seven, award of contracts. Any questions or comments? Seeing none, hearing none, please add
tab seven to the agenda. At this time, um I want to start with our special education um committee report from Chairwoman Commissioner Elelliana Chevress. Hold up, Commissioner. Hold tight. We
got to start over. The V. Can we adjust the volumes, please? Nope. Can't hear you. You can hear me. I can't hear her. There's no volume on her. Okay. Thank you.
for that day in Planefield. Insta for our second pattern event for this school year. The division of the special services is serving our CPAT pattern of the recommendation for a workshop topic. The purpose choice are postsecary
program auction for a student with disabilities and challenging behavior strategies and support for families. The result will be aable by Friday May 9 and will be planned for the event to be during the last week of May
virtually. Dr. Roera presented to the committee the four of the division of special service to recognize all special education team member for the contribution to our students in recognization of New Jersey school board association special education week for
2025. The event will take place this year from Monday to Friday May 12th to 16. In addition to recognized number of number of the special education program via our social media platform, two special event will take place. Thanks a
part professional day, faculty and staff appreciation day. That conclude our report for this month. Thank you commissioner. Negotiations Committee report presented by Commissioner Jerry Jacobs. Chairperson.
Thank you, Mr. President. The negotiations committee met on May 2nd. The committee was briefed on the negotiation meeting with the EA that took place on May 1st. The discussion included salaries and longevity. Several offers and counter
offers were exchanged and additional dates were confirmed. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Commissioner Jacobs. School Properties Committee Chairperson, Vice President, Maria Carvalo. School Properties Committee met on May 5th. The
committee reviewed a report with the count of custodians with boiler licenses. A total of 47 head custodians and 71 custodians hold a boiler license. The committee discussed the need and strategies to staff custodian positions
with boiler licenses to ensure proper coverage in the district's 37 buildings. The committee reviewed a report on the status of all projects requested by the committee including 12 HVAC EIP projects, Dwire Hally window restoration
projects, school 19 gym HVAC project, security lobby project, including the installations of TCUs at Baton Annex, PR perimeter security enhancements at
nine schools, playground grounds restoration playground restoration at school 5. The committee discussed the use of facility fees including reimbursement of security security and custodians and rental fees for use of
buses out of district by community organizations. Thank you. Thank you, Vice President. Finance and Accounting Committee report. Uh Commissioner Jacobs. Thank you, Mr. President. The finance and accounting
meeting accounting committee met on May 5th. The committee discussed the use of facility fees including reimbursement of security and custodians and rental fees for the use of buses out of district by community organizations. In addition, the
committee reviewed budget allocations and the increase of 14.9 million in state aid. We also discussed the state mandated closure of 21 district classrooms and nine provider classrooms resulting in the reduction of 435 prek
seats. The committee reviewed in the projected enrollment for 2526, the current number of registered preschoolers for September as well as available seats. The total number of available seats for the 2526 is 450
seats as of May 5th, 2025. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Commissioner. Education Management Committee Chairwoman Stephanie Kavas Pastana, please. Thank you, Mr. President. The Education Management Committee met on May 5th. The committee reviewed the 2526
school calendar and noted starting and notice starting on September 4th, two half professional development sessions in September being added on the 15th and the 29th, and Easter week being moved to the week before Easter. The June graduation dates were confirmed for June
24th and June 25th. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner. Thank you to all the uh committees and um the arduous work and time that you take out of your busy schedules to make this happen and to keep our district moving forward. So, just want to thank everybody at this time.
Um tab number nine, claims list. Are there any questions from the board? Okay, seeing none hearing none, please add tab nine. At this time, we'll turn the floor over to our superintendent for community updates. Thank you, Mr. President.
Now, I'm going back to my old uh mode of operation. Next slide, please. Uh we begin by celebrating, as our board president referenced earlier, uh celebrating our teacher appreciation week. Um it's an amazing week. I know
that our principles have coordinated so many wonderful activities for all of our teachers this week. It is just uh amazing. And I'd like to actually take a moment to recognize the president of the principles and supervisors union uh Miss Jen Jen Campell that is here this with
us this evening. Next slide please. Also uh important to recognize that it's National Nurses Week. fantastic opportunity to recognize uh the commitment and hard work of all of
our nurses across all of our 37 schools. Why, thank you. Great. Doesn't take much to make me happy. And next, we'd like to be able to uh share with our families that uh we
have our scholarship and FAFSA uh completion uh nights. Uh we have uh May 14th our last session that is coming up. I'd like to recognize the department of student services uh director Donado for
um coordinating the u scholarship and FAFSA completion nights in our district. School counselors will be available to assist our students with completing the FAFSA and applications for upcoming scholarships as well as showing students where they may find additional scholarship opportunities. For those who
plan to fill out applications, please create a going Mary account prior to attending. This information will be posted on our website for reference. And next we have our parent uh development workshops. In fact um
last night uh learning about artificial intelligence was presented. It was a virtual u conference for our parents, our workshop for our parents. And uh as you can see from the chart before you, we have several dates that are upcoming. Uh
we have May 13th, teamwork for success, building effective communication and relationships with schools and teachers. We also have on May 20th, improving self-esteem to enhance your educational self-improvement, followed by May 27th, growing confident kids, boosting
motivation and self-esteem in your children. June 10th, dollars and cents, building financial literacy in your youth. And we're ending the school year on June 17th with financial foundations, money management and financial literacy uh for parents. Uh wonderful um
opportunity. The sessions are held uh in both English and in Spanish. We encourage and we also have translation in multiple languages for uh all of our families. So we encourage our families to sign up. Uh this these communications go out via text and email. Next we have
our student assessments updates. So we are in the midst of NJSLA which just started this past Tuesday, May 6 for our students in grades three to eight and also um high school for assessment in ELA, math and science. Uh
reminder with regard to uh dynamic learning maps, DLM that started back in April but continues through May 28th and also our AP exams which started this past Monday and run through May 16th for our high school students.
Next, we have uh it's an exciting month to say the least. May 22nd, we have our 32nd annual excellence award dinner for our top 100 high school students from the class of 2025. Very excited to be able to celebrate um our seniors, our
high performing seniors. And next, uh we'll be posting on our website the eighth grade promotion ceremony dates for all of our schools. Uh eighth grade promotion ceremonies will begin on June 23rd, but all eighth grade students are
required uh to return on June 24th for the half day to receive their uh promotion certificate. So, as you can see on the slide before you, we have a listing of all the schools scheduled for June 23rd at 9:00 a.m. and followed by
uh uh our eighth grade students uh that will be promoted at 100 p.m. on the 23rd, followed by June 24th, once again at 9:00 a.m. And then we move to our high school
ceremonies. Uh our high school graduation and class awards ceremonies will take place on June 24th and June 25th. Two exciting days where we will have four graduations on each day. It at
the at the Dun Sports Center. It is a phenomenal two days. That's for certain. So, as you can see, June 24th schedule for our high schoolmies and our June 25th schedule are on the screen before you. It's incredible how fast this year
has uh flown by here as we're nearing the end of the school year. Uh, inside EPS, our news from Central in celebration, a perfect way to recognize in honor of National Nurses School Week, our EPS coordinator of
school nurses, Marie Verden was named the 2025 and New Jersey State School Nurses Association administrator of the year. Uh the New Jersey State School Nurses
Association um award is presented annually to publicly recognize and honor a practicing New Jersey school nurse administrator for outstanding leadership in school nursing. Uh candidates must exhibit many leadership qualities include engaging, supporting, empowering
all levels of school nurses from novice to expert. Act as a resource. um also lead establishing policies, procedures at the district level, collaborating with school district partners as well as promoting a common vision for school health and school community. And I I can
honestly say I've had the honor of working uh with Marie Verden for many years and she certainly exemplifies all of these qualities. She's a phenomenal person, incredibly dedicated. And lastly, just to uh review all of the important dates this month, we started
at the month of May on May 1st by celebrating our school principles day. Uh and that led into teacher appreciation. We have our national teacher day which was just this past Tuesday. Our nurses week um our mother's day as our board president acknowledged
which is this Sunday. Our Haitian flag day on May 18th. Our Cuban flag day on May 20th. our Memorial Day on May 26th, uh, Better Speech and Hearing Month, AsianPacific Heritage Month, Haitian-American Heritage Month, Portugal Heritage Month, Mental Health
Awareness Month, kindness awareness month, and National Military Appreciation Month. So, a lot to celebrate in the uh month of um in the month of May. And that completes our uh community
updates for the month of May. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Madam Superintendent. Um, at this time, we want to move forward to 10 to 10R resolutions. Um, we have I'm proud to present Haitian Heritage Month
as a proud Haitian-American. That is the month of May. So, um, that is tab 10. Um, tab 10A, we have Portugal Day, which is a great honor to celebrate. Another great honor is
CubanAmerican Day. Tab 10B 10 C. Um we're approving um entry into purchase agreement with HP Inc. for 2100 student laptop computers for technology department. Tab 10D, excuse
me. Tab 10D, payment for unsick uh unused sick dates. Tab 10E accepting purchase offers for out of service vehicles sold through public sale pursuant to NJSA1 18A1
18A-45 10F approval and submission of Dr. Antonio Pentoha, school number 27, flood mitigation renovation. Tap 10 G, approval of long range facility planned amendment. Tap 10H, resolution
um for insurance coverage for dental insurance which expires on June 30th, 2024. Tab 10 I, a resolution of the health benefits in insurance which expires on June 30th, 2025.
Tab 10 J um insurance coverage for prescription insurance um that expires on June 30th, 2025. Tab 10K um Elizabeth Board of Education vision care insurance which expires on June 30th,
2025. Tab 10 L, transfer of capital reserve funds. Tab 10M, transfer of maintenance reserve funds. Tab 10 N appointment of the American Wear Inc. to provide food service uniforms and aprons. Tab 10 O
appointing cream and land dairies LLC approving form of contract for provision of uh fluid juice products for food service. Tab 10P appointing RP Baking LLC approving form contract for provision of bread and rolls for food
service. Tab 10 Q appointing Frank R M Gargiano and Suns Incorporated to provide delivery produce items. Tab 10R appointing Nardone Brothers Bacon Company LLC approving form of contract to provide delivery pizza products. And
that concludes our resolutions in tab 10. Board members, any questions or concerns? Seeing none, hearing none, Mr. Kennedy, please add um the superintendent uh community updates as well as resolutions 10 to 10R to the
agenda. Mr. Candy, do we have a policy readings for this agenda? We do. We need to do our first readings. If you wouldn't mind, I'll do them right now. Um, we have a first reading for policy 1112.4, expectations for conduct at
interchoolastic competition events. Uh first reading of policy 1121, Special Education Parent Advisory Committee, Regulation 1221, Special Education Parent Advisory Committee,
Policy 4151.1, Personal Illness and Injury Health and Hardship. Policy 5113, Attendance, Absences, and Excuses. Policy
5131.1, harassment, intimidation, and bullying. Policy 5131.5, vandalism, and violence. Policy 6164.1, intervention and referral services for general education students,
and bylaw 9200, orientation and training of board members. All of these policies and regulations are available for review in the office of the school business administrator. Mr. Kenny, I have a question. Um, policy
for the attendance, absences, and excuses. Um, is that the first reading? Yes. Okay. Thank you. World members, any questions or concerns, comments?
Seeing none, hearing none, please add the um first readings to the agenda. At this time, um I would like to request u to go into private session. The president requests a motion to go into private session to consider matters exempt under the open public meetings
act specifically for discussion of legal matters specifically workman's compensation CP DMSD and MS legal settlement of DOE versus EBOE uh personnel interview personnel report the board will reconvene in public and
take formal action. May I have a motion and a second? I motion to go into private. I second it. This is great. Motion has been made and properly seconded. Roll call, please. Barbosa.
Yes. Bathless. Mr. Kennedy. Uh, yes. I don't have all the policies. Pardon me. I don't have all the policies, but that's not what we're talking about now, right? No, we're going. All right. Thank you. Yes.
Chevz, yes. Jacobs, yes. Marina Ortega, yes. Pastana, yes. Rivera, Mr. Rivera. Yes. Naran. Yes. Thank you. And we'll be back to reconvene public session um at the
conclusion of private. Thank you everyone for your attendance. Um we'll see you shortly. Good evening everyone. Uh, turn the floor over to Madame Superintendent for the HIB report. Thank you, Mr. President.
Welcome to the public hearing on harassment, intimidation, and bullying and our student safety data system reporting for the period starting July 1st, 2024 and ending December 31st, 2024. In July um 2011, the anti-bullying
Bill of Rights was signed into law as public law 2010. In accordance with this law, all New Jersey public school districts must designate the first week of October as the week of respect. During the week of respect, school districts are expected to organize activities including but not limited to age appropriate instruction and
opportunities for student discussion on conflict resolution, issues of diversity and tolerance. A resolution was put before the board in September declaring the week of October 7th through the 11th, 2024 week of respect. Each of our schools planned appropriate activities for this for this week in fulfilling the
reporting requirements pursuant to NJSA 18A17-46 two times each year between September 1st and December 31st between January 1st and June 30th. The school board shall hold a public hearing in which the chief school administrator will report to the board of education
and the public any acts of violence, vandalism, and harassment, intimidation, and bullying which occurred during the previous period. From September 1st through December 31st, there were 142 HIV investigations conducted by appropriate staff. Of those cases investigated, 56 were confirmed cases of
HIV. The following anti-bullying specialist, anti-bullying specialist alternates, and anti-bullying coordinator conducted these investigations. Katherine Calderon, Jamila Ward, Nafisa Freeman, Brienne Towns, Dinora Mahia, Fabi Ramos, Andrea
Juka, Melissa Dea Cruz, Yenia Torres, Gabrielle Gonzalez, Megan Courtney, Sophia Verma, Jacqueline Lupon, Jada Nicholson, Judith Antigua, Yomida Carrero Ellesia, Cindy Gonavves, Chris Lopez, Samia Simpson, Tanya Sanuchi,
Jessica Ortega, Daniela Damiani, Shyra Bamante, Kathy Amato, Cindy Lickenstein, Melvin Luciano, Maria Cabrera, Antonio Sapio, Nagua Elsa El Samra, Kelly Connelly, Sarah Brown, Kathy Santos,
Kylie Montero, Colleen Reynolds, Lordis Sodto, Christine Flarity, Cassandra Pedrosa, Karen Slusher, Carrie O' Connor, Laura Belleview, Immani Lures, Edson Martinez, Ishmamail Medley, Jessica Sulveda, Judith Valdez, Feliz
Fabiano, Jessica Sranco, Valerie Henden, Briana Kaine, Christine Rapa, Chenise Hurst, Daniela Granenko, Yasmin Maher, Desan Brown, Elona Seawitz, Jill Waller, Sophia Howell, and Pete Boser.
She was still alive. She was still alive at the beginning of the year doing the HIVs. Of the founded cases for HIV, there were 13 incidents based on race, national origin, seven incidents based on color, four based on sexual orientation, two incidents based on gender, two incidents based on gender
identity or expression, three incidents based on mental, physical or sensory disability, 38 incidents based on other targeted bases. Of the founded incidents, 33 were verbal, 19 physical, nine involved involved electronic communication. For all HIV
investigations, there were 46 out of school suspensions, 30 inschool suspensions, 20 classroom changes, seven changes to school placement, nine administrative counseling sessions, admin additional services such as counseling, skill development sessions, classroom lessons, behavioral
interventions, referrals for out outside mental health treatment, referrals to outside agencies, and parent conferences were offered to all involved students between September 1st On December 31st, the district provided appropriate in-person and virtual HIV training to
school counselors and social workers and to new staff and support staff in the district. Additionally, all district certified staff received a 2-hour mandatory virtual HIV training, which is required every five school years. The district also provided extensive
in-person and virtual specified training to the anti-bullying coordinator and to all anti-bullying specialists and their alternates. Non-certified staff also received training. New school level administrators and new HIV staff received virtual and in-person training
in the hipster reporting program. There were a total of 168 substance abuse incidents districtwide during the same period. There were 194 incidents of violence, 22 incidents of vandalism, 10 weapon incidents which are
broken down amongst our 37 schools. And that completes the uh report for this evening. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Superintendent. Mr. Kennedy, do you have anything um to add to the agenda?
Yes. Um, first thing to add is a resolution for appointment of assistant business administrator Rajie Mahaltra, a resolution for settlement DO versus EBOE and a resolution for workers comp
settlement MS. Thank you, Miss Kenny. Please add those items to the agenda. Can I have a motion to approve the entire agenda? I make a motion to approve the entire agenda. Motion has been made,
properly seconded. Miss Candy, roll call, please. Barbosa. Yes. With the exception of tab 4C, page nine, item 35 and 36. Bathless. Yes.
Carvalo. Yes. with an abstension on tab 2 A and tab 4B. Chev. Yes. With extension in tab 28 page 20.
Jacobs. Yes. Ortega. Yes. Pastana. Yes. Rivera. Yes. Nara. Yes. With the extension abstension of tab 2A, 4B
um 2A and 4B. So the full agenda plus the additional items added has passed. Thank you. Any comments, concerns from the board members? Seeing none, hearing none.
Congratulations, Mr. Multra. Um I want to call um again to all our teachers out there, we want to celebrate you and salute you for teachers appreciation week. Um it's not something that we should just do on a weekly basis, but every day we celebrate you. So, thank you for all the
hard work and dedication all our educators throughout the entire district do. And to all our administration and staff, you're all part of the system in education. So, we thank you for participating and supporting our teachers and upholding the integrity of the Elizabeth Public Schools. And um to
all our staff here who've been staying up late with us through a budget hearing and our regular double meetings, um thank you for all your time and efforts. And to all our moms, happy Mother's Day. And to all our ladies of our district, let's give them a big round of applause here on our
board. Happy Mother's Day, moms, mother figures, grandmothers, aunts, and um you know, all the great women in our district. Thank you so much. Can I have a motion to adjourn? I second that motion. Motion has been
made and properly seconded. Roll call, please. Barbosa, yes. Good night. Bathless. Yes. Carvalo. Yes. Good night. Chevresz, yes. Good night. Jacobs, yes. Good night. Happy teachers appreciation week and happy Mother's Day to all the
mothers out there in the world. We wouldn't be here without you. Marina Ortega, yes. Good night, Pastana. Yes. Good night everyone. Rivera. Yes. Good night and happy Mother's Day. Non.
Yes. Good night and God bless.