good evening and welcome to the board of education meeting this is a combined meeting regular agenda and business meeting of the board of education pursuant to New Jersey statutes and rules adopted by the board of education
notice of this meeting was sterile ledger and cable vision of Elizabeth on April 10th 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 we want to welcome everyone present here at school 51 and to our television viewers to this April 17th 2025 meeting of the board of education we are here to govern provide management oversight and make policy for the district and the superintendent manages the district this is a meeting of the
board and public not a meeting of the public this meeting is being recorded and will become part of the Elizabeth Board of Education permanent record so that the recordings will adequately reflect the proceedings please refrain from talking while speaking while others are speaking we ask that you silence the
sounds of your electronic devices since this is legally mandated that these proceedings be accurately recorded we may have to ask for you to periodically um turn the noise down if we begin to interfere with the recording capabilities there is a public portion of the meeting for the citizens to
address the board of education participants of this public portion must personally sign in prior to the start of the public participation portion and they may have an opportunity to speak the signin sheet states the name address and telephone number and the reason why the person wants to comment whether it
is an agenda item or general education comment we are pleased that you have joined us um this evening to take time out of your busy schedule to be with us here at the board of education thank you for your interest in the Elizabeth Public Schools at this time Mr kennedy Barbosa
Baffilus here carvalo Chevres here jacobs marino Ortega here gonavalas Pastana rivera here maron
present please stand as we take a moment of silence for Afia Inbat third grade student at John Marshall School number 20 elizabeth Robinson food service worker at Dr albert Einstein Academy School number 29 James Ford former board
member of the public schools and for all those who lost their lives in Dominican Republic during that recent tragedy please stand and give pay their families respect and give them a moment of silence thank you at this time please remain standing for the presentation of colors by the
Admiral William F hollyy Health and Public Safety Academy Junior ROC what is the word thank you please remain standing as Vice President Maria Carvalo leads us in the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all please remain standing for the Star Spangle Banner so proud we
held at the twilight last stripes and bright stars through the fight or we were
so red the bombs gave that flag there oh say that
spangled yet for the land of the free and the home of the brave please remain standing as board member Jerry Jacobs will lead us in the pledge of ethics
understand that school is a special place listen respectfully while 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 in myself and
others by celebrating success 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
let's give our junior RTC a big round of applause thank you you may be seated we just want to take a moment before we proceed with our meeting to uh take a pause and recognize our former board of education member Mr james Ford who
recently passed um Vice President Carvalo I believe you have a resolution good evening whereas James W ford was born September 7th 1953 and graduated from Arthur L johnson High School in
Clark New Jersey in 1971 whereas throughout his life James W ford was a dedicated professional and community servant while enjoying many different personal interests whereas on April 26 1995 James W ford was sworn
into his first term as a member of the Elizabeth Board of Education serving the board with great dedication to provide the children of Elizabeth and their families the best education and school system possible for nearly 10 years james W ford twice served as
president of the Elizabeth Board of Education in 1997 through 1998 and then again in 2001 to 2002 while acting as chair for five committees and a member of eight committees during James W ford's tenure
on the board the district and board would set a course for long range facility plans that resulted in the construction of then Westminister Academy School number 26 Francis C smith Early Childhood Center school number 50
and Donald Stewart Early Childhood Center school number 51 with several more newly constructed schools that would come over the next decade already in the planning phase james W ford also served on the board of Salvation Army of
Elizabeth an organization that provides various programs and serves to help pe people's physical mental and spiritual needs during a long career of various endeavors and pursuits James W ford was
renowned by his tireless work ethics and savvy that allowed him to transform AMSE LLC one once a local office and lab in New Jersey into a global empire that
provides leading testing inspections and certification serviceses for a wide range of industries and products the Elizabeth Board of Education and Elizabeth Public Schools professional learning community were saddened to learn of James W ford's recent passing and express their sympathies and
heartfelt sorrow to his family friends and loved ones therefore be it resolved that the love purpose and devotion which James W ford lived each day of his life and served both the Elizabeth public schools and greater Elizabeth community
serve as an inspiration to us all be it further resolved that this resolution spread on the official minutes of the Elizabeth Board of Education and copy of this resolution be presented to his family thank you thank you Vice President and
our prayers and condolences go out to his family and all those that we um honored earlier at this time I'd like to um pass the uh open the floor to our superintendent Superintendent Huger thank you Mr board President
i'd like to be able to provide an introduction to our student representative for this evening josiah Holly is an exemplary scholar at JC Christian Bulwage Finance Academy who embodies excellence through her impressive academic accomplishments and
active participation in extracurricular activities with a GPA of 4.0857 0857 she not only excels in her studies but is also a dedicated member of the National Honor Society respected for her positive character community service and
her leadership skills her academic achievements are matched by her ability to juggle multiple responsibilities showcasing her strong work ethic and outstanding time management ability in addition to her academic endeavors Josiah also has taken on leadership
roles in various activities such as the varsity cheer captain leading her team at many events including pep rallies and all-star games she's earned nominations as an all-American cheerleader four times as the junior and senior president of her class she has successfully
organized spirit weeks and collaborated with student government to foster a positive school environment josiah's commitment to her community shines through her volunteer work including her role at volunte as as a volunteer hospital visitor at Trinitas Hospital where she brings joy and support to her
students additionally her involvement with junior junior achievement high school heroes allows her to educate younger students about financial literacy and business concepts josiah has been honored with several nominations and selections by her peers
including the 2425 homecoming queen the NAF scholar representative for communitywide events and recognition as a bull witch bull student of the month along with receiving Union County unsung hero award Jai exemplifies the qualities we strive to cultivate in our young
scholars she's insightful focused and committed to her ambitions as a voice for her peers and an advocate for positive change josiah cherishes her family friends and community her kindness and caring nature the strengthen the bonds within our school and contribute to making the world a
better place it is my honor to be able to introduce Josiah Holly as our student representative that'll join this evening yes that wasn't me man down breakfast
lunch sure we got some stuff over here she's coming up with the reports yes she's good so now Let's give Miss Holly another big round of applause welcome on
board mr candy can you record Miss Holly as one of the board members for today yes thank you noted thank you at this time public participation um will take place citizens may address the board uh microphones are open for public
comment to 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 shall be able to yield their time to another individual all statements shall be directed to the board officer no
participants may address or question board members um individually each speaker shall comply in all respects of board policy 3 9322 copies were provided next to the sign sheet the following rules will apply time limits will be strictly enforced no personal attacks on
individuals no vulgar or indecent language a person may address the board no more than once during a single meeting comments will not be debated any person in violation of this policy will be warned and their comments uh may be terminated if needed as a reminder this
is a meeting of the board in public not a meeting of the public at this time um we have I think Miss Candy Perah is that the name yes please come forward
good evening Miss Candy good evening board of education my name is Candy and I am an organizing with the youth exist and resist collective a youth group in Elizabeth fighting for immigrant rights i am also a sophomore at Jefferson High School Academy and at the age of 10 I
migrated to the United States from Dominican Republic and I came to this country with hope for safety for a better future and for the chance to learn but lately instead of feeling safe in school I feel scared i carry this fear with me every day not just for my
parents but for myself too it's hard to sit in class and focus with the increased presence of ICE in our city when I hear about bills that could enforce undocumented students to pay tuition it feels like they're trying to push us out and when I see a president targeting black and brown immigrant
youth like me I can't help but feel like they may come after me or my peers during school hours i feel like I don't belong even in a place that's supposed to be for everyone elizabeth is my home this school is my home but it doesn't always feel like home when I'm made to
feel like a threat or a number this fear is real and it's a barrier to my education schools are supposed to be spaces where students can thrive and excel not a place where students live every day in fear that any form of misbehavior may result in contact with
immigration enforcement i'm asking the board of to of the education to take action create clear strong policies that protect all students like me and families regardless of their immigration status train staff on what to do if I
shows up don't stay silent make it known that our schools are place of safety not fear real school safety means more than just locked doors it means food security mental health support training teachers on our rights investing in our arts
programs and policies that protect all students we need the board to stand with us not just in words but in action thank you and we hope we can meet you soon thank you please forgive me if I say the name
wrong i'm trying to read what's been written um I believe it's Jean and it starts with a C cella is that your name yeah jean Cola jean Cola okay jean Cola good evening good
evening board of Education my name is Jean and I am also an organizer with the Youth Exist and Resist Collective i am a senior at FJCA and will soon be going to college i am the child of immigrant parents who also came to this country fleeing from poverty and violence in
hope to give their children a better life and education my story is not unique thousands of students in Elizabeth have immigrant parents or immigrants themselves since January Elizabeth has had numerous ICE rates occur while students are on their way to
school or in school we have seen the trauma ICE brings in our communities as it purposefully targets black and brown immigrants and separates our families their targets are the same population that make up our schools with the increased presence in ICE in our schools
in Elizabeth it has been hard for us to focus on school and feel safe to leave our homes we live in fear every day wondering if ICE may come into our classrooms especially after Trump announced that they can enter our schools on January 24th a Tik Tok video
which is now deleted went viral when an Elizabeth resident reported that ICE had came into Holly and removed students this caused a wave of fear as students began to repost this video worrying if they should go to school the next day since this incident the board of
education has yet to address publicly to students and parents about what had happened on this exact day and if there had been any actual cooperation between the board of ed and ICE immigration enforcement doesn't just disrupt families it destabilizes entire school
communities parents fear that dropping off their children in school can result in deportation students can't focus in school as they worry their parents will be detained or deported while learning our schools must be sanctuaries of learning not places where the threat of
law enforcement can tear apart families and disrupt lives this is why we urge the board of education to take any and all action to keep immigration youth and families safe by introducing and passing resolutions we urge that they create and pass resolutions committed to creating
accessible and safe learning environments for all students to thrive regardless of their immigration status we urge that they meet with students parents and community members when drafting these kinds of solutions to ensure that they are meeting the needs of the community we want to work
together to create the schools that all students deserve and we hope to meet you soon thank you thank you Jean next we have David Lennis good evening Board of Education good evening my name is David and I am a member with the Youth Exix and Resist
Collective i also stand here as a former Elizabeth High School student who graduated from Hamilton in 2020 but I also stand here as an uncle whose niece attends Terrence Riley School number seven an uncle to a niece who has two hardworking immigrant parents both of her parents migrated from
Colombia at the age of 12 with hopes of having an education and building a better future for themselves and they did they went to school in Elizabeth and graduated in 2005 they got married and had two beautiful daughters and put one of them in school here why because they
trust that Elizabeth public schools will keep them safe yet every day as I watch the news I grow more and more concerned ice is becoming more and more vicious showing up to apartments nearby schools to detain parents during school hours breaking car windows to detain people
they are detaining students they are detaining legal residents they detained a veteran in Newark it feels as if nobody is safe when when we send my niece to school we are trusting the board of education with their safety and her future thousands of parents and families are entrusting you with the
safety of our children i no longer feel safe sending her to school every day today I worry that dropping her off to school may result in the possibility of ICE being nearby and detaining people since January there has been a rise of ICE presence in Elizabeth and yet the board of has made no announcements on
how they will keep our children safe from immigration enforcement school staff parents students and community members have yet to receive any materials on knowing your rights this is why we urge the board of education to take any and all action to keep immigrant youth and families safe by
introducing and passing resolutions committed to creating accessible and safe learning environments for all students who thrive regardless of their immigration status we urge that they create spaces where students and families can talk about their concerns and where the board takes real action
please protect our children thank you thank you miss Maria Franchini good evening good evening i'm here because on February 25th we had a meeting at Elizabeth High School with one of the parents and we were told that
some information would be given to her it is now April and nothing was done mr o'hare sat with us when Miss Gimenez the principal had said that the parent could get footage of what had happened
to her child now all of a sudden Miss Geminis also told her "You don't need to come to the board of education meetings just come and speak to me." Correct right miss Maria please address the board not Not the gentleman okay not a
problem but he was there he's my witness too so what had happened till this day they did not give her the footage of what happened to the child now all of a sudden they came with uh we can't do this because it's not through the legal
department because another child's face is on there the parent never asked they offered to give it to her because her child was hurt and also they also promised her to h the child special ed was supposed to have the assistant oh
we're never changing her she's going to stay put again the assistant was changed there's no consistency of what's going on in the school this child is a special need child you cannot keep
changing teachers on the special need child when they feel comfortable all these testings were supposed to be done they're yet to be done it's nice when you go to the school you're promised roses and then at the
end these parents get a bunch of weed i'm here to advocate for this child i'm not here to advocate for myself or anything but things have to be done correctly and Miss Geminina's tell her that I will not
stop coming here as long as there a child that needs and that wants and that steps in my office with a parent I'm going to back that child up 100% thank you thank
you Miss Ame Bernardz i hope I said that right good evening board good evening my name is Amy Benavides i almost 14 years ago um a boy was born which is my son a year
and a half later that he was born he was diagnos diagnosed autist autistic as a mother to hear those kind of news is very hard we think many things and say is our
child going to be safe is he going to be able to socialize is he going to be able to be normal to play with the kids education all that that's the main concern for as a parents is thinking is
he going to be okay over the years I've been struggling with him in school getting therapies um which has been hard some cases that were he was not approved okay um not getting enough
therapy um he started high school this year um that's a ninth grade last year he was in elementary school we had an issue with um one of the aids that he had an assistant
there was some conflict with between the assistant and my son which my son comes home and tells me a lot of things what goes on in school which we were worried as a father and mother you know getting more of the story that he told us that
his aid touched him threw him to the wall you know and told him to calm down as an autistic child they cannot control their sensories okay So I know it's very hard to be able to educate these kids
and that's why I feel when I take when I know when these kids my son and as a mother we think our children are going to be safe especially in the district of Elizabeth and I don't
understand this year we had a conflict that my son's finger got caught in the door in the cafeteria i asked the story what happened they're telling me the principal and the other um uh uh the child study team you know
we had a meeting they tell me the story that my son uh personal aid was with him and the other kid that slammed the door my my son's finger got caught in the door was also there so I want to know what happened exactly if the
personal aid are there why did my son's finger got caught in the door thinking my son is safe is the assistant doing a job i want to know so I asked her for the video footage until this day it's
been two months and I still don't get the foot the video footage they Miss Amy your time has expired but um we can't discuss your matter in public but I would like for um one of the assistant superintendents Dr dr to take this
matter and discuss with you further what has taken place all right thank you Dr thank you we have Miss Claudet Smith please come up good evening board members
hi um all the stories that I'm hearing are reiterating the same things whether it be students whether it be parents whether it be advocates feeling that children are not safe within the school system i am a mother of a six-year-old
at school 14 and I stand here in the same instance i want to know who in this room can justify my child being spit on or who can justify someone another student telling my child that they would not play with her because she was black
these are things that have happened in the school these are things that I have reported to the administrators and from my standpoint these things have been brushed under the rug my daughter loved going to school and she is now at the point where she does not want to go to
school i pulled her from school because of safety reasons some of the instances of things that has happened to her it's not a complete list but some of the things are on September 19th she was hit in the mouth by uh one of her classmates
she was then hit on the head with a lunch bag by one of her classmates she was bit on October 10th october 11th she was poked in the eye and spit on october 16th she was smacked on both side of her cheeks october 17th she was
pushed up the stairs or down the stairs october 18th um I sent a Hib letter saying that I wanted a Hib there was no reply from the principal on November 21st she was dragged a pencil was dragged across her
hand i was told that there was a a that the child had a bad day and that there was pushing on December 2nd Nala was pushed in the chest to the point that she went to the nurse she went to the nurse asked to speak to me
when she called and to talked to me about being pushed in the chest I'm thinking it's a medical thing because I was not fully notified that a student pushed her in the chest and that's why she was hurt on December 17th her shirt was pulled up and other students were
told to look at her on December 18th a student pushed her out of the chair which caused her to have a bruise on her hip on February 5th I sent a letter to school saying to her teacher saying that Nala has had an
emotional breakdown she does not want to go to school please be gentle and allow her to hold her doll during the day that very same day one of her classmates grabbed her by the neck and pushed her down to the floor
as I said before all of these things were brought up to administration and I feel like things were being told to me to Miss Clawette um thank you for your comments the time has expired but I do know that you will be meeting um with
the board later on um to discuss these matters further so thank you Miss Cassandra Smith no okay all right seeing that there is no more um public comments at this time I
close the public comment portion of this meeting and the public portion has ended um so I know a lot of you heard a lot of comments this evening um with a lot of diverse matters that are presented to
the board and one thing I want to say we have a number of students who came up here advocating about immigration rights and and feeling safe in schools um I want to share a little quick story with you and just want you to put this in perspective we have a
very diverse board that are all of immigrant families that come from diverse countries around the world that are all seeking the American dream and seeking to be safe i think it's fair to say that I stand with this board to say that we empathize with you we hear you
we feel your pain and there are a lot of things that we cannot discuss publicly because of a lot of legal ramifications that the board cannot disclose right there are a lot of scenarios that you hear about that are not what they seem to be and not what you're actually
hearing they're all individual cases that are dealt with individually the board of education prides itself and makes the safety of all students in all schools a major priority including what the parents are talking about tonight so we'll be able to talk to the parents um
as with the students if we can have um one of the assistant superintendents also address the students as well so that you can further tell them some of your major concerns and what you're hearing and what some of the um stories or scenarios that you're familiar with that may be impacting you directly
please talk to them about them and um I believe Miss uh Assistant Superintendent Sadena will be addressing that right now but um 1969 my father immigrated here from Haiti during a time where um it was not
safe uh for a black man to be in this country because of what was happening with the riots and he immigrated from Haiti not knowing the language not knowing where he was going to land not knowing where he was going to live um so those are the stories that I grew up with and I grew up as a a child from
immigrant families um seeking justice and seeking empowerment for not only my family but for people of color and people around the world that immigrated into this country so this entire board has very similar stories um of what their fabric has been and what they
fight for every single day so uh I want you to know that we empathize you we hear your voice we hear your cry we stand with you and we know that we are living in a time in this country where things feel a little bit unstable we don't know what is about to happen or what's going to happen but we know that
we have each other we have a district that cares we have administrators that cares and we have a community that will stand with you so thank you for all those who uh express themselves tonight um I don't know if any of our other board members have any comments they'd like to make
yes Mr president yes um thank you for your words uh for our student and our community um it's not most of the board member identify with yourself especially when we arrive from different country
and it's not we know we want to let you know we care and we heard you and we listen to you okay and this is our priority the security of our communities our student and our priority is educate
yourself to be success in this wonderful country uh thank you for your words this night and as a teacher I feel proud for you thank you and good good evening Mr president and I would just like to
address one of the concerns that were expressed by the students this evening um and be able to provide some clarification there was a reference that was made and I hope I understood correctly so please if if that was not was what was communicated please correct me but there was a reference that um an
ICE agent had come to one of our high schools and you're you're nodding in agreement so I want to be very clear with regard to that uh it is only our local police our local Elizabeth police officers that are here this evening in fact in the back of the room and I'd like to acknowledge them for the amazing
work that they do each and every day in our community the only officers that would be coming to our school would be our Elizabeth police officers and to give you an example u as you know I'm sure you hear from your principles from all of your teachers with regard to uh
the fact that vaping is not allowed in schools when vaping does occur and that vape is confiscated by the building administrator by the security guard that is then turned over to our director of security Mr glacken at that point in
time the police arrive at our school in order to collect those vapes that is one example of an Elizabeth police officer coming to one of our schools a second reason would be if there is an incident that occurs and our principal calls Elizabeth Police
Department to request assistance other than that you would not see a US immigration officer in our schools you would only see our Elizabeth police responding to our schools i just wanted to make that clear um and
especially if that's what you have internalized if you thought that you um had heard it's important but I'm glad that you came here tonight to be able to voice your concerns to share what your fears are and know that we are here to support you we love you very much and also to be able to provide any
clarification for you thank you thank you Madam Superintendent okay at this time um we're celebrating a very important month and this month um we opened up uh
to conclude the opening of our calendar this evening we'd like to present a spotlight video highlighting the initiative sponsored by board members Diane Barbosa and Elelliana Chevress which I have to say have the biggest hearts in the world um I couldn't have
imagined any other um commissioners that could do it the way they do it um and they celebrated autism acceptance month throughout the month of April throughout the Olympic public schools will be promoting events and activities to show its support to those affected by autism
spectrum dis disorder and not only showing support but to those um affected by autism spectrum disorder but also empathizing and building awareness and kindness around autism among those activities are autism accepted month bookmark contest and the parent
appreciation day that offers parents of students with autism the opportunity to receive manicures facial treatments shampoo blowout and a haircut from the Thomas A edison Career and Technical Academy cosmetology students can we give
them a big round of applause for that because if you're a parent anyway right you have you need a time off and you need a spa moment so the fact that they were able to do that for those um impacted by autism was amazing both of those activities were conceived and
developed by board members Diane Barbosa and Chevroed the EPS team members and students at this time I'd like to present and highlight their video for Autism Acceptance Month hi I am Elizabeth Board of Education member Ilana Chavez and I'm Elizabeth
Board of Education member Diane Barbosa it has been our great privilege to serve in our community as a member of the Lisa Board of Education during the month of April under the leadership of board president Stanley J is our honor to sponsor and support
audis citizen months activities and events throughout our schools in Elizabeth the Elizabeth Board of Education is always committed to recognizing and celebrating the unique personalities and character qualities of all those affected by autism spectrum disorder we want to ensure they are
learning the skills and knowledge necessary for them to become successfully contributing members to their community in adulthood thank you for your continued support of all our students at the Elizabeth public schools
you thank you commissioners on an amazing job this month i was able to participate in a number of activities also a full version of that video will be available at the end of this month on our website so please um tune in to our website for more information on what's going on in
our community as well as uh the special initiatives of our board members at this time I want to return the floor back to our superintendent schools who will present our community updates so good evening everyone we're going to begin with our community updates for this
evening we'd like to begin with our scholarship and FAFSA nights uh that have been taking place since the month of February over the next few months the Elizabeth Public Schools Department of Student Services will be hosting scholarship and FAFSA completion nights school counselors will be available to
assist our students with completing the FAFSA and um applications for the upcoming scholarships as well as allowing students where they may find additional scholarship opportunities for those who plan to attend we ask that you fill out the applications for
scholarships create a Going Mary account prior to attending um and log on to www.goingmary.com these those who are attending to complete the FAFSA form should create a federal student aid or FSA ID prior to attending and also most importantly
please do not forget to bring your laptop uh to these sessions very important so that our counselors are able to assist with the completion of the FAFSA forms and next I'd like to turn to our high school registration
which was launched on April 2nd uh and in fact today is the final day of our high school selection registration registration will be completed on powers school uh we ask that students consult with their high school selection guide for more information about our schools
including eligibility requirements and special components of the registration process for certain schools and if you haven't done so please register this evening at um and our Elizabeth residents uh not currently attending those public schools who wish to transfer to one of our high schools
should register for one of the eight high schools so I think that our sessions have been incredibly well attended by our eighth grade students and their parents and important decisions to be made with regard to where students will begin their career
in their high school academy in ninth grade next slide actually I don't have to say next slide i have control of my slides thank you so we had uh launched a series of parent workshops uh last this past month um and we're
offering our families uh quite the variety as you can see on the slide before you uh we have topics such as keeping your children safe online improving self-esteem um enhancing your um education self-improvement building financial
literacy in our youth and these virtual these workshops are very convenient for our families because they're virtual uh the link to the workshop is sent via text to all of our families as well as via email and then of course you can certainly log on to our district web page for more information regarding uh
the availability of these workshops um as you can see they run through June 17th and I encourage all of our families to participate want to commend um our director Samatien for having coordinated these workshops and they are incredibly
well attended next we're going to move into our student assessments update and with that some important dates regarding uh assessments as you can see we have uh the month pretty much the month of May
from May 5th all the way up through May 23rd we have a series of assessments that will be administered um everything from the dynamic learning maps to advanced placement um exams to the state assessments such as NJSLA in all the
content areas such as uh math literacy and science and of course at the end of this month we have our administration of the SAT to our 11th and 12th grade students so parents we ask that you mark your calendars important for our students to get their rest and a good
breakfast and be ready to take their exams busy month coming up next we'd like to be able to turn our attention to the remaining days uh of our autism acceptance month calendar
which was created to support our families and community members um as well as further educate our learning and greater communities as you can see on our district web page we have posted our autism acceptance month and
it's filled with daily activities that uh parents can do with their children it's an interactive calendar and you can find this on our web page this is just a couple of screens showing you the variety of activities leading up to the end of the
month so next we turn to our inside EPS and wanted to be able to acknowledge our Dire Technology Academy that was recently recognized as a NAF model academy um themies are spotlighted for their excellent efforts in delivering high
quality educational experiences um NAV transforms the education in the classroom with personalized learning environments and career focused curricula to ensure our students are equipped for the future and I did not move the slot ah there we go there we go it's a wonderful opportunity to be able
to recognize our Dwire Academy for the uh wonderful experiences and um curricula they offer uh the students in order to prepare them in a variety of fields of technology next want to be able to
acknowledge uh once again this the successful college fair that was held um over 130 representatives from several states universities colleges technical institutes uh government agencies and military and it was uh very well
attended our students showed such excitement the types of questions that they were asking the recruiters were phenomenal a great deal of information that was shared regarding scholarships uh acceptance criteria uh all of the offerings even I would have to say uh
the representatives were um very informative with regard to the reasons why you could even relocate to that particular state and the benefits of living from an economic standpoint uh wonderful opportunity and I think that um it was an excellent job coordinated
uh through our uh student services department uh tremendous opportunities that were afforded on April 8th next we would like to be able to acknowledge uh one of our teachers that was recognized by the New Jersey General
Assembly during Women's History Month uh want to be able to acknowledge that our student teacher of uh student activities Tatiana Gaygo who's an assistant coach of the Elizabeth girls varsity flag football team uh was recognized with a
resolution by Assemblywoman Annette Kihanu in recognition for her contributions to the community so great opportunity to have one of our own uh recognized at the New Jersey General Assembly congratulations and next we move
on and one of our own once again uh recognized Chessie Dley Roberts Academy principal awarded the Mloud Bthoon award by the NCNW so our principal Arlene Campbell um great opportunity to have been
recognized um at the greater Elizabeth area section of the Par breakfast dr bthoon founder in was an American educator stateswoman philanthropist humanitarian civil rights activist best known for starting a private school for
African-American students in Daytona Beach Florida and also co-founded the UNCCF in 1944 with William Trent and Frederick Patterson our very own principal of school number 30 Arlene Campbell was um honored for her distinguished career in education that
spanned over four decades starting as a first grade teacher she also served as a teacher tutor a reading specialist vice principal and principal at school number 30 so special congratulations uh to our very own Arlene Campbell principal of
school 30 go and oh I think I a little bit too fast there we go next we have our William Howerin School 22 students that were selected as winners of the annual children's dental health month uh poster
contest this is a statewide opportunity for students to uh participate and be able to design their own posters and they were recognized by the New Jersey Academy of Pediatric uh dentistry so a congratulations to our students uh two fourth grade students that were selected
as winners uh this school year fantastic opportunity and then lastly we want to be able to uh provide um a glimpse into the month of May and the important dates that are be coming up we're beginning the month with school principles day on May 1st um
moving right into teacher appreciation week National Teacher Week National Nurses Week National School Nurses Day Mother's Day our Haitian Flag Day our Cuban Flag Day Memorial Day uh Better Speech and Hearing Month our AsianPacific Heritage Month our
Haitian-American Heritage Month our Portugal Heritage Month our mental health awareness month Kindness Awareness Month and our National Military Appreciation Month so although we have testing for the pretty much the entire month of May I am sure that our
teachers will be able to squeeze in some special opportunities at the end of a week in order to ensure that our children um have the opportunity to celebrate these important dates and that completes our community um updates report and then next I'd like to turn to
our performance report for the 2324 school year not sure if we're ready to You always are fantastic thank you thank you very much so I'm going to provide a brief overview of our report school performance reports are
put out by the New Jersey Department of Education each year and they report on the previous uh year's uh data the school performance reports for the 2324 uh became available at the beginning of April and are intended to provide communities with a broad picture of the
schools in their district uh these reports can be found on njschooldata.org and they're available at um our district web page on the district homepage and each school's homepage as well you can find the resources under students and families
so the reports essentially include hundreds of data points uh about schools and districts in New Jersey and that can include demographic information student growth academic achievement graduation rates and school
accountability the 2324 reports include changes that respond to feedback federal and state requirements and also most importantly data availability it can include um chronic absenteeism seal of biiteracy uh visual performing arts data
additional information on student um discipline as well as high school persistence and graduation rates through the reports you'll see a variation of trend data um or you'll see a single year data depending on the data set and in some instances you will see a
comparison to statewide data as well the table at the bottom of the slide shows a change in our demographics most notably an increase in our population of English learners from 26.8 in 2122 to 33.1 in
2324 and as you can see this population continues to grow more than 34% of our students are multilingual learners student growth is important because it measures um how well our students are
learning each year and each student gets a student growth percentile from 1 to 99 in English language arts and math that explains their progress compared to students who had similar scores in the past student growth data um is not available
for the 2122 uh school year due to federal waiverss and assessment cancellations as a result of COVID however you're able to see the data for 22 23 through 2324 um so in order to interpret the data
that you see before you an SG um you'll see various points that we're going to be going through the presentation and this is how it is presented uh throughout the course of the report so when they refer to the median student growth percentile want to be
able to provide some um specific points for you if it's before 30 below 35 that means low growth if it's between 35 and 65 uh that indicates typical growth and if it's above 65 then
that indicates a high growth so that you you're able to see typical growth as it relates to our student growth percentile for ELA it's 52 it grew to 60 in 23 24 and in math from 52 grew to 49 right so
that both are representative of typical growth in compar the state that essentially was flat 50 to 50 in both categories school performance reports contain information about student participation and performance on
statewide assessments including a variety of assessments such as the NJSLA the access uh DM and NJGPA which is for our 11th grade students here's another example of assessment results and you'll see in the first row
of the table you can see that we have a high participation rate but nearly all students scheduled to take assessment um assessments and they are participating and as a reminder our students in grades three through nine are required to participate in both the uh English language arts assessment as well as the
math assessment as you can see the gap between our performance and that of the state in English language arts remains at about a six percentage points year after year and the gap in math is a little bit larger but also remains consistent graduation rate um is the
percent of students who completed high school in four years and also and also reported for students who complete high school within five years once one of the requirements for a high school diploma is the ability to pass a graduation assessment or an alternative assessment both of which are measured by the state
and federal government next slide we have now our graduation rates for federal reporting and accountability so the federal version um aligns to the New Jersey Department of Education it's used for
accountability purposes the uh state version continues to use the same methodology it used prior to 2021 and it reflects um all students who received a state endorsed diploma it's important to note that these required federal changes
only change how graduation rates are calculated for federal reporting and accountability these changes do not affect requirements to earn a diploma right now the federal and state um are both aligned
next we have our state graduation rates and as you can see our four-year graduation rate continues to increase and the gap is closing between our graduation rate and that of the state as a whole incredibly uh happy to celebrate right class of 2024 achieved an 89% uh
graduate four-year graduation rate um as you know we always talk about our goals for our organization and always striving for 90% of our graduates to graduate on time our next slide refers to the federal graduation rates um and as you can see
when we look at the students from cohort 2022 after six years which is now what the federal government is measuring they're not only measuring four-year graduates and five-year graduates but we're now measuring six-year graduates and that uh pertains in particular to
our students that may be attending an out of district school a special needs school that may require additional time as a result of additional supports that that are required after six years 81.1% of the students graduated cohorts 23 and 24 have surpassed that with on-time
graduation rates and fifth year graduation rates next we have chronic absenteeism and attendance and chronic absenteeism is being absent for 10% or more of the days enrolled during the school
year as our rate of students who are chronically absent consistently declines it's note noteworthy that the gap between Elizabeth public schools and the state is less than one percentage point and I want to give credit to our principles because they submit um
chronic absenteeism plans every single year we review that uh with regard to the types of um activities incentives um communications with parents stressing the importance of attendance and it clearly yields very positive results for our district here you'll see the chronic
absentee uh rate for students in pre-K through 12 in the district in dark blue and the state in light blue overall our rate is similar to that of the state as a whole in most grade levels we are within one to three percentage points of the state with the outliers being prek
and grade 12 at 8 percentage points next you see the chronic absenteeism for students in prek12 in the district is dark blue and the state is light blue overall our chronic rate is similar to that of state as a whole in most grade levels we're within one to
three percentage points of the state with the outliers once again being uh prek 12 and eight college and career readiness reports show information about college entrance exams advanced coursework such as AP and CTE programs and the last indicator in
the chart is the number of percent of students earning a seal of biiteracy the New Jersey Seal of Biteracy is an award given by the New Jersey Department of Education in recognition for students who have studied and attained proficiency in at least one language in addition to English by high school
graduation 17.3% of our 12th graders earned a seal of biiteracy with less than 10% of 12th graders across the state earning this distinguished seal next you see another indicator which is a visual and performing arts
and you're able to see um how well it is that we are preparing our students and that's by the enrollment in the v various courses next slide is with regard to student safety and this is another data set that's reported on the school performance reports and it's under
violence vandalism and HIV reporting we're seeing a positive trend as our violence vandalism and hibs are all lower than in 2122 and 2223 substances are down in 2324 from a sharp spike in
2223 next we'll talk about our early childhood uh program in the district and I'd like to highlight here that there are still many districts in New Jersey that continue to provide half-day programs for prek and kindergarten all of our prek and K students are serviced for full day uh classes and I'd like to
point out that our prek enrollment al although has been um impacted slightly this year we have nearly 3,300 students enrolled in our three and fouryear-old programs next slide is with regard to our student supports and services and as
you can see uh a listing of the student and staff ratios right students to teachers students to administrators teachers to administrators and the list goes on as it relates to the different special areas such as media specialists nurses counselors uh child study teams
psychologists social workers um and safety specialists i think we take tremendous pride in keeping our admin costs low so that we can ensure that we are funding areas that are most important such as counselors child study teams nurses psychologists social
workers next is our school accountability u New Jersey's ESSA school accountability system provides a formula to determine a summitive score which is based on various measures of uh progress academic achievement progress towards English language prof
proficiency and student success as measured by chronic absenteeism so what is targeted support u schools identified as in need of targeted support for one or two reasons either they need additional targeted support and improvement for a low
performing student group with a score in the bottom 5% um of title one schools across New Jersey or targeted support and improvement for a consistently underperforming student group identified as missing annual targets um or missing
standards for all indicators for two consecutive years these are two areas and then of course the last category a comprehensive support school which could be for one of three reasons either an overall low performing uh
meaning that they have a summitive score in the bottom 5% of all title one schools across the state or they have a low graduation rate meaning that their overall graduation rate was 67% or less or the or the third category uh chronically low performing student
meaning that the school was identified additional targeted support for uh three or more consecutive years so those are the categories and so now let's turn to uh the data for our district and
considering we have 37 schools we're incredibly pleased with the progress that our district has made because we only have uh one school um in targeted uh status and we have one school that is in comprehensive status for a low
graduation rate making tremendous uh strides in that area so incredibly proud of the hard work and efforts of all our principles in our district and it clearly shows in the designation uh by the US Department of
Education so our last slide so what happens next um schools are identified for support and improvement work in partnership with their educational community with their parents with the New Jersey Department of Education and they need to assess those needs related
to their areas of weakness they have to identify strategies and resources that can impact improvement they have to create an annual plan as well and they have to outline the specific activities and steps they're going to take in order to make the necessary improvement they have to have a timeline of completion
and they have to understand the steps needed to be removed from status so overall I believe that the although a year we're talking about a year that has already concluded we clearly have made uh tremendous improvements in a variety
of areas as we can see and sorry I'm losing my voice specifically uh in terms of the growth of all of our students in all the tested grades it is evident and exemplary uh work by our principles by our vice principles by all of our
teachers in our district who work diligently to provide the instruction and those necessary interventions in order to ensure our children make the necessary progress and that completes uh the requirement by the New Jersey Department of Education to present the school performance reports thank you
thank you Madam Superintendent um thank you for reviewing the progress and uh giving us community updates to see a lot of the activities that the district is engaging in and participating in and providing our families and parents especially with the um the parent workshops that are offered
online uh very few districts do that so u thank you for all those initiatives and to our director HN want to thank him as well for his efforts um and thank you for giving us an overview of the progress our district is making um we've done a lot of work over the years to do
deep data dives to address some of those numbers and we see the progress that um is taking place so I want to thank our entire board and all our administration for all the work that they've put forth um in making um our performance um actually become a not only a
performance but a progress report to see the progress that we're making in our district um at this time I'd like to Excuse me Mr president may I have some comments about the our superintendent report at this time uh yes go ahead thank you thank you i appreciate uh um
as a board member we establish goals and today I'm happy like as a board member two goals one is increase our graduation rates and also when we analyze data is
the absentees has mean is I want to say um thank you to our board members you know is a lot of data analyzed behind the scenes each one of of us uh analyze get together in different committees and
today we have the numbers to prove our community uh we have uh increase in our graduation rate and also we have 50% of award student who take AP classes is
it's not easy it's a hard work and dedication from our staff administration and and as a AP teacher I know how hard it is mean today our community I want to explain our
superintendent uh bring the proof to the community and to our board member we show the proof with numbers by the state like we achieve our goals like we promised to you uh thank you and it's a great night
for us thank you thank commissioner Mr president yes Commissioner Jacobs thank you thank you Mr president um I also um would like to echo your comments on the parent involvement workshops um I attended one of the sessions uh earlier this month
that was online and there was quite uh good attendance um especially considering the format was during the evening um it was a very informative session done in a bilingual fashion uh but focusing on uh Dr hugo Meyer's
report um on our school assessments um I first want to uh thank along with my uh colleague Commissioner Morena Ortega uh Dr hugo Meyer under her leadership along with the assistant superintendent our
teachers our principles our entire administration and staff in trying to ensure that all of our students are receiving a free and appropriate education um also I'd like to thank uh Dr hugo Meyer for sending this report out in advance for us to be able to look
at it and ask um questions um at the meeting uh one thing that struck out uh that stood out to me was the fact that our student growth in ELA exceeded the state by 10 points um between 2023 and
2024 uh we're not seeing the same growth in math but we know statewide that this still is an issue with math but that was very encouraging to see that after the pandemic we are starting to see we're starting to return to the levels of growth that we were experiencing before
the pandemic um I know also know um that our governance uh expert is watching and hopefully these are some of the issues that we can talk about when we go into our retreats as focusing on board goals um to make sure that we are trying as
board members to make sure that all of our children um are receiving the best education um I also uh noticed in the report the focus on chronic absenteeism we've seen the fact that chronic absenteeism rates have increased
dramatically after the pandemic uh we can see in the data that was presented that grades K through five and grades 9 through 12 we are trending above the state in those categories and in but middle school those grades we're
trending below the state so it's interesting be interesting for us to know why are we um doing so much better with that group of children versus when they get to high school it starts to increase again we all understand that it's a different issue with the younger
children because the fact that they're younger they may be dealing with sicknesses whatever the case may be but it's is if we start to come out of the downward spiral in middle school how come we can't get those same results in high school even though high school is a
whole another um animal to deal with I think it's something that we as a board need to make sure that we look at and make sure that the practices that are being implemented by the district um are being followed and that certain um
supervision is being done uh the next thing that I also noticed that I was also impressed was the number the percentage of students uh enrolled in visual and performing arts in our dis in our district is our testament in supporting the creative side of our
students and it's not you know we all know that there we're here to learn the ABCs and the one two3s but that there's more to education than just the books and the numbers that we also have to create that other side of our students to make them well-rounded individuals
going forward in life uh the other oh uh something that my colleague Commissioner Roso Martino Ortega uh commented on the fact that we are extremely exceeding the number of
11th and 12th grade students enrolled in AP classes at 50.4% which is an outstanding number but I also want to point out the fact that we can't also as a board lose focus on our underperforming students to make sure
that all of our students are being are able to graduate on a timely basis which leads us into um also our graduation percentage which is still somewhat lagging slightly below the statewide average at 89% um hopefully as a board
we can look at what measures we can try to implement in our board goals to try to improve those numbers but I am applauding the fact that there has been a steady increase over the past 11 years incrementally us increasing our graduation rate um which is a good thing
but of course we always have to keep striving for better and lastly oh lastly I also want to comment that um Elizabeth High School was ranked based on these state summit uh summitive scores was ranked 35 in the state which
is a testament um to the work that's being done i do have a question for Madame Superintendent um is school 28 and Edison the only schools that are in status that is correct uh school 28 that is in targeted status and Edison as in
comprehensive status I think only two schools yes all right thank you uh Dr hugo Meyer so I think that's also a testament because as we've known in the past we've had a number of our schools in status before and us being able to work diligently as far as the the
principles the teachers the administration and working with the New Jersey Department of Education to get our our to get our schools out of status is very important and I think it's a testament of the education that we are trying to provide here at the Elizabeth
Public School Systems thank you Mr president thank you Commissioner Jacobs any other commissioners seeing none hearing none at this time we'd like to review our agenda thank you for those comments um in reviewing the agenda we'd like to
go over tab 1A official private minutes February 20th and March 18th 2025 are there any questions or comments yes yeah mart seeing none hearing none miss Kenny please add tab 1A uh to the agenda tab
1B treasures report February 28th 2025 are there any questions from the board seeing none hearing none please add tab 1 A and 1B to the agenda tab 2A personnel report are there any questions from the board yes Mr president yes uh
the question is now for Mr questa uh is for the um administration to decide it's P I'm sorry 2A page 19 for my board member reference in page 2A uh table 2A
page 19 is about launch sign tutoring like it is amazing um I want to make sure madame superintendent I see some school who they receive um 30 minutes of you know support uh three times per day
i love it uh how they select the the schools uh in this launch uh support like is three times uh per day the schools are selected because um our schools receive title one funding that
is one of the suggested activities that are coordinated for our schools so essentially every single school has the opportunity to participate and offer lunchtime tutorings and then the students are identified based on need thank you Mad Superintendent thank you Mr president
mr president yes i have a question for tab uh two page 15 um I see that there's a back salary for two years can you tell me why and that question is Mr quest
page 15 you said yes uh under um business office business office yeah that that is um a mistake that was made and he has been corrected you're talking about the salary correct yes so that person was serving as a head custodian
for two years and never got a the correct salary that's correct it was brought to our attention we looked into it and we realized that it had been a mistake so we we are attempting to correct that mistake right now oh thank you we don't make that mistake often do
we no we do not thank you that's a trick question Mr president i'm forget one question yes yeah it's not for Mr qua but it's in this part uh it's not for Mr qua is for
this uh administration to design the this is page 20 um we have Saturday NJSLA um for our community is preparation for the state test uh it's on Saturday from
8:15 to 1:15 it's unlimited student everybody can be part of that program or we pick a student who is low performance it's based on teacher recommendation thank you madam superintendent Mr president yes i just want to turn
attention to page seven and when I was going through our um retirements I just I had to point it out that um and congratulate uh the passion that a lot of teachers um
certified staff administ uh secretaries assistants they have been here 27 36 40 years 36.9 35 years amazing and I you know thank you for their service because
that's a long time in in one particular um district in one particular job so it has to not be go unnoticed thank you for your service to the Elizabeth Public Schools thank you Commissioner uh highlighting
that we were proud to highlight during uh women's history month a lot of our um women who served 40 plus years so it's definitely an honor and um we we salute all those who dedicate their
lives to education because it's not easy and um thank you for your service any other commissioners on Tab 2A mr president yes Commissioner Jacobs uh first I'd like to um piggy back off of Commissioner Mareno Ortega's comment on
Saturday NJSLA and put a question to the ED management committee in reference to um the NJ NJSLA program as well as the Saturday attendance recovery program uh is followup being done to ensure that
students who may be selected based on um a teacher recommendation if they are not attending those programs then are we also making sure that students who may want to participate but may not select it have been um chosen to attend those programs or be be eligible to
participate so I'd like to make sure that we just put that I don't expect an answer today but that we just put that for ed management possible When we submit our plans to the New Jersey Department of Education we have to adhere to the criteria uh the
criteria that has been uh submitted and approved by the New Jersey Department of Education is to ensure that we are offering these programs to our students that are struggling in the areas of English language arts and mathematics we are also responsible for providing um
the as an accountability to the state department we are responsible for providing uh their performance and ensuring that all the recruitment efforts are made to uh ensure that our population of students that are the neediest are participating in the programs uh so that that is the criteria
that we have to adhere to um there are different interventions that are offered to all students uh so we afford that to students that may not be eligible to attend the Saturday program may benefit differently in small group instruction during the school day
so So just to make sure I understand you clearly on that so I understand you were saying that there's certain criteria that we have to make sure that we abide by and making sure that we service all of our students however being that these this is a voluntary program and that we may not get the same attendance a full
attendance on running the program are we not also then looking at students who may not may necessarily be on the cusp of these services that were not providing the services i will gladly provide the board a report so you're able to see the number of
students and the regular attendance at the programs and in terms of who is eligible to participate be happy to provide that thank you madam sure madam superintendent uh also I'd like to put a motion on the floor to table um tab 2A
page 24 the last item uh initials J we're not on tab 2A yet are we yeah we are oh second uh motion has been made and properly seconded uh Mr candy roll
call please no just a page 24 just to clarify talking 2A page 24 first item last entry with the initials J A S T only that
line uh the vote is Barbosa yes oh Bless Carvalo chevro yes jacobs yes marina Ortega yes kavas
Pastana yes rivera yes non yes all right um tab three tuitions report any comments or questions uh board members any questions or
comments seeing none hearing none tab 44D superintendent report uh madam excuse me Mr president yes I have a question for Tab 4a
yes um madame commissioner this is to Mr dionado hey so for for number number one number two excuse me i
like it thank you for the different opportunities number three um I I don't see your name on this but um I just wanted to know where where did the budget come from and is that under Dorothy dorothy I don't know on Dorothy's number three item three is
that for the forensics team yes oh that's not you that is part of the high school's budget u so every year when we sit with our high school principles uh we go through the various cost and uh the forensics club is a very uh popular club with students and we account for
their uh travel cost as well okay thank you absolutely number five are they spending a night for the cost $4,000 Uh yes they are yes there's a waiver included in the uh board report oh it says only May 23rd if they're spending
night would it not go to the next day on May 23rd I will gladly uh check on that but I believe so i'll double check that for you okay thank you uh Mr president I have more questions tab 4 oh no nope i don't have
Oh I'm done thank you are you good yes okay are there any additional questions seeing none here uh Mr president are you speaking of uh I can comment on 4C too four to 4 D yes okay 4
C uh 4 C is field trips consideration um I just want to highlight what 128 field treat we have it is amazing no every district is have this
amount of field treat and different variety from um uh visit the environment analyze how food grow um be able to interact with uh news and
about the weather report and everything this has been I want to really highlight and say thank you for the principals and also teachers because remember this is not mandatory by contra the teacher at 10 field treat is because they want they
willing to and it's 128 field trips and I'm happy I just want to highlight that part thank you Mr president thank you Commissioner Moreno um madam superintendent uh Miss Balas under 4A
considerations uh the backup shows that for item number five Hershey Park it is a same day trip moving on from four to 4 D Mr kenny please add tab 4 D four to 4 D to the agenda um at this time we're reviewing
five and 5 A are there any questions from the board mr president before we just move forward to tab five can I just move backward for a quick second um I would like to table tab 2A please i need a
motion the entire tab yes please okay so I need a motion is that the bring back after mhm you have your second is there a motion i make a motion to table tap to need you to say it yeah and
you have a second yes sorry about that okay motion has been made properly seconded roll call please Mr kennedy mr president what part uh is a motion can you repeat okay thank you tire tab 2A Miss Kenny bathless
carvalo yes chev yes jacobs yes marina Ortega yes canavas Pistan yes rivera yes neron yes all
right move forward to tab 55A authorizations report any questions from the board no questions but Mr president yes just a comment on TAP 5 page 4 although the Department of Labor has decreased some
of the funding I think this is an opportunity for our administration to really focus on making sure that these adults can receive the proper ESL and GED um and really tone in on those 19 participants and make sure that we can guarantee that these 19 participants get
the full access of the service thank you for bringing light to that Commissioner um Madam Superintendent Yes absolutely uh Dr mosley um runs our uh program in collaboration with uh
Union uh Union College and we will ensure that since the funding only supports 19 uh participants we will ensure that their attendance is reg is regular and that they are able to maximize all of the
offerings in our school definitely thank you authorizations report any other additional questions seeing none oh sorry Mr president yes I'm getting to my tabs excuse me i organized myself
i Oh no hold on okay i just want to acknowledge page number nine and that we are accepting uh the 23 donated instruments i thought that was very cool and I just want to say thank you to that i also wanted to say that I love the fact that we on page 10 that we're
getting donations of 25 fivegallon buckets so that we can do a drumming program i participate in something like that it's really cool and really fun so I just want to acknowledge that lastly um I noticed that we have a revised vision of the 2024 2025 school
calendar year did we approve the 2025 2026 revised calendar year Mr president no not yet okay right but it's coming correct next month oh thank you so much i just want to make sure I didn't miss it you didn't miss it those changes will be here thank you sure
Madam Superintendent i was going to echo the same statements mr kennedy uh responded before I could sorry thank you oh shoot tab 5 5B 5 and 5 any additional
questions commissioners and I think it's safe to move forward okay tab 6A finance and accounting report are there any questions from the board yes oh I had just a observation Mr
president um sure item 32 for some reason the amount and total is not there i'm so sorry repeat that question in the item 32 to tab six tab six which line uh 32 oh 32 okay yeah i noticed the amount
and total is not there is by mistake or is for some specific reason uh Mr k is that there by as an error or is there supposed to be an amount there um it's an error there's they didn't submit so that shouldn't be there it shouldn't be there okay thank you so
please omit that line 32 please commissioners any other questions or concerns regarding finance and accounting 66A oh lights seeing none hearing none moving on to award of contract reports 7 and 7A
yeah yes Mr president yes Commissioner this question is for Mr donado now item on page three for K University how many students are participating i don't see the number of students there so they're still recruiting but it's up
to 250 students from those eight schools oh and how were the students or how were the schools selected so the state department selected the schools that could participate and Gear Up is going into those schools to actively recruit have parent meetings and so far right
now we have 96 kids signed up excellent and when we get to 250 it'll stop correct all right thank you so much i have another question Mr president yes um for Mr milanz on page six so so one two three four four down
it says that um these schools are going to be getting an additional video coverage security do all of our schools in the district have proper video security coverage thank you this is part of a grant okay
so this is part of the cops grant so this is uh to enhance um another project that we had so we adding this the you know we're buying the u the materials to uh to do that next time can you add that here so that I don't have to bother you
can just say it's part of the grant blah blah blah blah thank you that's all I have thank you so much Mr president yes um I have a observation in page A um and
actually nine the recommendation from Dr michelle Panichi um Christian Bish Academy they have a few workshop to don't have calls um for students to safety do I think this so important and
also about like um social skills for children with autism to I would like to consider it to bring to other schools because it's no cost workshop um in the same in page 10 uh Dr mona
Wines from Jefferson Academy she has a workshop uh focus on um self-care for the staff and is no cost to I think that is something to is a great idea to implement in other schools thank you thank you for bringing light
to that commissioner mr president Madam Superintendent can we consider that just Thank you Mr president i took took note of both recommendations absolutely commissioner Marino yes uh top seven page three the question is for
director of student services uh right uh very interesting is the agree i want to you know later you can give the board um some information the agreement between Rocker University and
the district uh for the nurses rules and responsibility of the university to our student be complete some um ex clinical experiences uh especially for that student who want
to be nurse um if you know assume we have the agreement I want to make sure why we offer our student why we offer because it's a lot of parents and student who sometime they ask and it's
interesting to know how how we define and how we look like that agreement between the university and our schools this is actually for students uh for students at Ruckers to come and do clinical supervision vision within our
schools similar to student teachers we have student nurses so this is the articulation agreement for that it's not for our students within the Elizabeth public schools okay next time can you please clarify that part we'll do thank you i appreciate are there any additional
questions commissioners seeing none hearing none Mr kenny can you please add tabs seven and 7 A to the agenda okay at this time we'd love to hear from our student representative report u presented by Mr josiah Holly
commissioner Holly you have the floor greetings and good evening to all of our guests first and foremost I would like to thank Dr huga Superintendent of Schools and the Elizabeth Public Schools Board of Commissioners for this special opportunity that I'm very grateful for
my name is Josiah Holly and I'm the student representative for Jay Christian Bullish Finance Academy i'm the senior president of the student council and vice president of student government my biggest accomplishment this year was being awarded the Union County's unsung hero award i am beyond excited to
graduate in a few months on the track to finish with 150 plus community service hours and a 4.0 GPA and I am prepared to take my next steps as a future student at North Carolina ENT as a student representative of JC Christian B Finance Academy I helped
organize and have a voice in planning events for our school our school year kicked off with a back to school night where the JC Christian B Finance Academy student planning events student success center scholars led seminars for 9th grade students to focus on schoolwide AVID strategies regarding time
management skills and organization skills we recognize breast cancer awareness month with a celebration writing notes that were delivered to Trinitas Hospital an event covered by News12 during Hispanic Hispanic Heritage Month we engaged in dance events to
celebrate our diverse cultures we also organized collections and donations for Thanksgiving in partnership with St joseph and the Elizabeth Coalition for the Homeless the Veterans Breakfast was a meaningful occasion for honoring those who served our country throughout the
year we hosted monthly parent training seminars and information sessions alongside PTO meetings that focus on college and career readiness for student safety highlights included an entrepreneurship workshop family fitness nights fast workshops and discussions
surrounding social media safety vaping dangers and cyber security presented by the New Jersey State Police in December we celebrated our mark and period scholars with a breakfast and organized a toys for tots collection with Hollyy Academy and the US Marine Corpse
students and parents participated in scholarship and FAFSA workshops both during and after school hours we held a Black History civic roundt with community representatives and celebrated Black History Month with an icon day and Islamic heritage events the Woman of
Wisdom breakfast was another enriching experience eighth graders received guidance through counselor tours and participated in read across America in school 14 instant decision day and a series of visits at various schools for selection
process helped facilitate their transition to high school we promoted health and wellness through monthly fitness nights for students and parents as well as hosting variety of autism awareness month events including game day and a breakfast featuring daily encouraging codes monthly highlights
included trips to Deote and L'Oreal as part of our NAV program presentations by the CPA Association and a local credit union and collaborations with the Elizabeth Police Department focusing on student safety the Bad Lani Merurl and Bike Safety Campaign engaged 10th grade
driver education students in walkability audits while the UC STEP and mental health presentations offer vital support for our students well-being we also celebrated initiatives promoting nutrition months and events that support
that foster community spirit including a positive retreat and random acts of kindness the Boa Zen was foster was added to the guidance suite for a calming atmosphere avid walkthroughs provided valuable insights during school visits and we
organized a prom dress giveaway to support our students in need additionally we planned trips to colleges such as Princeton NJCU TCJ UTI and William Patterson as well as visits to colleges fairs at Woodbridge High
School and performances at King University our students ventured to the Washington Liberty Science Center as part of our educational experience the autism program also organized friendly outings to Stop and Shop a bowling alley and a mall scavenger hunt our skill life
program engaged students in creating recipes and helping them to wash clothes for the school community finally we conducted panorama school culture surveys for students and parents and held monthly diversity events fostering an inclusive learning environment
districtwide Elizabeth Public School student athletes and their families attended the Athletic Winter Season Sports Award on April 2nd to celebrate the remarkable achievements this season all Elizabeth Public School juniors shared the opportunity to attend the college fair on April 9th at Dun Sports
Center the college fair was a great opportunity for juniors to speak to colleg's representatives about applying to college and getting some extensive information they may need in the future a proactive prom safety campaign will be hosted for all seniors at theirmies after spring
break in addition to the events at JC Christian Bush Finance Academy and districtwide our individualmies have many wonderful experience to highlight wonderful events admiral William Hoy Health and Public Safety Academy had a phenomenal month
with EMT students passing their NREMT exam and receiving EMT certification frank J cigarell Academy is organizing their annual relay for life where students raise money and stay overnight at the school walking around the building in honor of those who are
fighting cancer or have passed away from it john E the White Tech Technology Academy is focused on a no one eats alone celebration while also planning their upcoming senior events alexander Hamilton Preparatory Academy is celebrating its 100year sentinel
celebration and is visiting different middle schools to teach younger students about various subjects jbj STEM Academy celebrated Women's History Month by hosting a special brunch for all senior girls and presenting at the district board meeting to highlight Elizabeth
school's name after influential woman additionally Thomas Jefferson Arts Academy participated in Skills USA a worldwide competition in showcasing students work and they proudly took home the first place award additionally on
April 11 and 12th Thomas Edison Career and Technical Academy welcomed students with special needs to the cosmetology room offered them a variety of services these these events highlight the strong sense of community and the commitment of our schools to support their students that's all I have for tonight and thank
you thank you Commissioner you covered a lot that we couldn't say because we can't be everywhere but we thank you for um covering all what's happening in our high schools and in our community i think it warms um our hearts as commissioners to see the work that's happening not only in our schools but in
our community and the energy that our um our staff and our students are exemplifying in our in our district it's it's incredible and I could remember um getting here 12 years ago and wanting to do that and wanting to see more of that in our community and I think it's finally come to fruition and we have
tons of room to grow and continually becoming um even better than where we are today so thank you for that and thank you for joining us this month and um for being our student representative we appreciate you great job let's give her another big round of applause
all right next we want to hear from our committees our special education committee with our chairwoman um commissioner Elelliana Chevis thank you Mr president a special education committee met on April
3rd at at noon at 12 the committee discussed the events scheduled for the autism awareness month including a self-care day at the Thomas Edison Career and Technical Academy for our students parents and CPAD member on April 10 and 11 our cosmetology students
provide services that include manicure facial and haircut to parents parent had the opportunity to enjoy SNAS and refreshment prepared by the culinary arts students all four grade through sixth grade students district Y had the opportunity
to participate in the autism asset bookmark contest do I think everybody had one bookmark uh where student has the opportunity to promote the understanding and accept of autistic individuals the winning entry will be on us in May and displaying our
website lastly an autism sector month calendar filled with daily activity was shared on the district calendars parents workshop including guardianship presented by the Union County Surret office on Wednesday March 26 additional events including Saturday
autism awareness events on Saturday at Warinango Park on April 5th saturday soccer athletic clinic Nicholas Murray Bullet school number 23rd saturday recreation program at George Washington Academy School number one saturday Special Olympic celebration
Special Olympic bowling and the oncoming Special Olympic track and field schedule for Saturday A Sunday April 27 in Old Bridge New Jersey the final event for the school year will be a pattern resource fair that will be announced shortly and will take place at the Dawn
Sports Center the committee discussed the stat of the district budget that has been submitted to NJ DOE on March 19 and this force underway to address the 37 back and se position lastly the committee finalized the reviews of the
CPAT policy and refer it to the legal committee for future discussion thank you thank you Commissioner next we have our negotiations committee report presented by chairperson commissioner Jerry Jacobs thank you Mr president the negotiations
committee met on April 4th the committee reviews that the US Department of Education and Secretary of Education's March 28th letter advising of the recession of extensions of the liquidation of ARP funds the district
had filed an application for late liquidation on July 4th July 1st 2024 and was approved in the amount of $16.2 million to complete facility improvements for unit ventilator replacement and ventilation upgrades at
22 district schools the ventilation projects have continued to progress and during the period July 2024 through March 2025 Elizabeth has paid 11.5 million leaving an outstanding balance of 4.7 million the committee discussed
remedies sought by the New Jersey Department of Ed and their strategies community to to district statewide to recoup recession amounts owed to the district i also would like to add that um during my comments during last month's meeting when we were adopting um
our budget we I'd mentioned the fact that we were anticipating cuts next year not this year um relating to our title one title two title three funds as we can see um as happened we are now faced
with that dilemma this year it is encouraging to see that um the state a states ag has joined 22 other states to sue the US Department of Education to recoup these funds because of the fact
that at that time we had gotten approval from the US Department of Education to to continue to spend these funds these funds were also part of our ESIP program that we initiated in 2021 to improve the uh ventilation systems in our schools
and of that nature due to supply chain error uh supply chain backlogs after the pandemic um is one of the reasons why it was pushed out um I'm glad to report that u Mr milanes and along with Mr
kennedy and um Dr hugo Meyer um are all still on track to get these projects complete completed for our children but it just uh makes us all aware of the precarious situation that we are in um especially when it comes to um our
funding from the federal government i think it's also important for us to keep our eye on the ball and making sure that even though we're serving our high performing students we don't forget about our lower underperforming students as well uh thank you Mr president
thank you Commissioner Jacobs at this time we will hear from our school properties committee report from our chairperson Vice President Maria Carella school properties committee met on April 7th uh 2025 the
committee was provided with an updated an update on the status of the ESIP ventilation projects school number six school number 18 Hamilton Edison and Edison annex are complete and operational school number
four 19 will have switch gears installed over Easter break which will make them operational school number 12 will be operational in the fall of 2025 school number five will have abatement completed over the summer of 2025 and
expected operation at the end of 2025 the committee also requested a report on the status of all current projects the committee was briefed on the assignments of subcustodians thank you thank you Vice President um next we'll
have our ED management committee presented by our chairperson Commissioner Stephanie Pastana thank you Mr president the Educational Management Committee met on April 8th 2025 at 4 PM the superintendent presented to the committee the 2324 school performance
report including a district performance comparison to other large urban school districts as well as comparing performance to the previous school year 2223 the Elizabeth public schools outperformed other large school districts in various metrics including
ELA growth and performance math performance on the NJ GPA SAT participation additional metrics in which the Elizabeth public schools outperformed other large urban districts include advanced placement enrollment and exams
CTE enrollment students enrolled in algebra and geometry students earning seal of biiteracy graduation rate percentage of ESSA targets met or exceeded that concluded our meeting
thank you Commissioner Pistana our legal committee report by our chairperson Commissioner Rivera so the committee met on April 8th 2025 the committee reviewed the revisions of the CPAC policy and regulation provided by the special education committee the police policy
will be presented at the board meeting the committee was provided with an update regarding current residency investigations thank you thank you Commissioner and our final report for the evening finance and accounting committee report by chairperson uh
Commissioner Jacobs thank you Mr president uh the finance and accounting committee met on April 10th uh Chris Rosano the consultant from Acrasure spoke to the finance committee members about the 2425 health benefits program
including paid claims for health prescription dental and vision coverages the finance committee discussed recommendations by the insurance broker for the renewal of health insurance coverages for the 24 2526 school year which we which will be finalized at the
May 7 2025 board meeting i also like to take this moment to thank uh Mr bzano uh Mr modid from Aquaore for uh helping us navigate um the health insurance marketplace as many other districts have
suffered unfortunately suffered pitfalls in being able to keep their health insurance um expenses in line especially considering the fact that after COVID and in this day and age health insurance um costs and claims have risen
exponentially but the great work that they have done as consultants has kept us in the clear and I'm grateful under their leadership along with Mr kennedy Mr mahaltra along with Dr hugo Meyer thank you so much thank you Commissioner at this time we'd
like to go over our claims list are there any questions for the board on tab 9 seeing none hearing none uh Mr kenny please add tab nine to the agenda tab 10 to 10m are there any questions or comments
mr president I had a question sure the resolution about a school bus evacuation drills how we generate this data um the vendors send the numbers to our transportation department or they need
to complete any specific form to need to be submitted yes um Madam Superintendent thank you Mr president yes the um New Jersey Department of Education provides specific forms that have to be completed so the vendors are completing those
forms and submitting them to our department and then in turn our uh transportation department is conducting the drills at all of the schools in our district um Mr president and Madam Superintendent to follow up on what Commissioner um
Chavez mentioned how do we is it a computerized um form is it a handwritten form that they have to do how do we know it's accurate how do we know it's reliable it's valid based off of what is it just ver Oh go ahead continue i
will gladly provide that information for you i believe it is um electrical information that's entered on a system but I will definitely confirm that for you can you also confirm do they go with a scan do they scan it to see that this is the exact bus they're saying that they're doing to make sure it's valid
and it's correct i will include that as well certainly and when will will we know the response uh definitely after Easter break we have a lot of folks that are on vacation so certainly upon our return roughly around April 29th to 30th no problem absolutely um I just I want
to make the comment thank you Commissioner uh Batlus for followup because that is my question i I I know the protocols we had in our um transportation department but sometime coming the challenge when we talking about vendors and most of the concerns
that we receive sometime from the community is about vendors thank you thank you so board resolution school evacuation bus drills is tab 10 tab 10 A um we have a resolution presenting bilingual multicultural education month
tab 10 we have a resolution presenting Asian Pacific American Heritage Month tab 10 C better speech and hearing month tab 10D Kindness Awareness Month um you saw them on the schedule of uh a very
busy May uh Tab 10E National School Nurses Day thank you to all our nurses tab 10F National Teacher Appreciation Week please celebrate our teachers um tab 10g special education week mr president yes could I stop you right
there i actually just want to uh highlight special education week i know that I was talking to our special education um director Dr oh and he has a whole bunch of things planned so it continues on a lot of gifts and so it's going to be nice to see also between May
11 and May 17 um specific highlights to our special ed students continue thank you tab 10H uh payment for unsick use days tab 10 I payment for unused vacation days tab 10 J requisition for
taxes um tab 10 K a resolution appointing Fred J miller Incorporated to provide marching band uniforms uh just a question were we getting new uniforms
yes Mr nero we are um the last time the second time in uh 2017 is that correct was the last time that the marching band received uh new uniforms um and they certainly have earned absolutely to have those replaced
absolutely wonderful proud of 20 years before that yes that's why I said that's a quick uh small gap can I ask a question uh oh maybe a comment um the superintendent made a comment saying that they certainly earned it i definitely agree with that do we have
something that we can say that they should be getting it is it like a every 10 year thing every five year thing or is it whenever we believe that the uniforms need to be changed it's really based on the wear and tear of the uniforms uh the uniforms are sent out twice a year to be properly dry
cleananed um however as a result of the multiple performances difference um clearly the u supervisor keeps us informed with regard to the condition of the uniforms okay thank you so I think it's really based on the uh the product
correct i I would like to talk about that in private because um the color guards get new uniforms every single year for their different things so I'm not saying that I'll talk to you in private about this absolutely looking forward to it thank you
tab 10i um whereas a due process petition was filed with the department of education office of special education programs and referred to the office of administrative law OAL docket number EDS 2023-35546 and whereas the parties have
reached an amicable agreement pursuant to the terms of the settlement agreement now therefore be it resolved that the board of education approves a settlement of the above caption matter subject to terms of settlement agreement uh that's tab 10
l I believe and uh 10M consent for transfer of liquor license and that is it the resolutions for a lot of the events happening in the month of May were presented in the March
meeting at this time the president requests a motion to go into private session to consider matters under the open public meetings at uh specifically uh for discussion of legal matters specifically to HIB appeal uh workman's compensation
RB JR and JFA and legal settlement of EK board authorization matters agenda report 5B use of facilities boards and board self-evaluation the board will reconvene in public and make formal action Mr kenny can we have a roll call to go
into private i move to go into private i second motion has been made and properly seconded roll call please barbosa yes bathos yes carvalo yes chevrises yes
jacobs Marino Ortega yes pastana rivera yes neron yes i want to thank all our directors for attending this evening and joining us for this meeting thank you for your attendance and participation items to be added to the agenda
yes we have uh to add to the agenda a resolution settlement agreement EK versus the BOE a resolution settlement of workers compensation FA a resolution for settlement of workers compensation
NG we have authorization report 5B and we have an approval of the Elizabeth Board of Education 2425 self-evaluation mr president yes can I also u make a motion to unt tab 2A
please and add it back onto the agenda okay Miss Kenny can you add tab 2A back to the agenda the entirety got a vote on that first i seconded that motion to bring back to that
2A Barbosa yes carvalo yes chevrises yes marina Ortega yes kabas Pastana yes
rivera yes neron yes uh superintendent would you please present the HIV report thank you Mr president pursuant to board policy 5131 harassment intimidation and bullying and New Jersey statute 18A 37 the results of
each investigation shall be reported to the board of education no later than the date of the next board meeting following completion of the investigation and include any services provided training established discipline imposed or other action taken or recommended by the chief school administrator since our last board of education meeting on March 18th
through April 9th our school counselors school-based social workers and supervisor of anti-bullying have completed 70 HIV investigations of these investigations 28 were founded for HIV as per New Jersey law there were 31 males 57 females 70 regular education
students and 18 special education students that were the alleged victims there were 51 males 53 females 89 regular education students 14 special education students and one non- studentent that were the alleged offenders of the 28 cases founded for HIV four cases were founded based on
race and national origin one case was founded based on color one case was founded based on sexual orientation two cases were founded based on gender one case founded based on gender identity and expression two cases were founded based on mental physical or sensory
disability and 22 cases were founded based on other identifying characteristics of the services provided and actions taken for these investigations there were 19 school development lessons trainings 58 counseling sessions five behavioral interventions 12 referrals for
outpatient mental health treatment 10 changes of classroom four changes of school placement five administrative counseling sessions 17 in school detentions 48 parent conferences three referrals to outside agencies one professional development training 16 out
of school suspensions and 10 cases are continuing to be monitored the HIV statute further requires that at the next regular scheduled meeting after board members receive the initial report of HIV investigations that the board issue a decision in writing to affirm reject or modify the superintendent's
decision pertaining to the 54 cases that were reported to you at the last board meeting on March 18th in order for you to do so the investigation summaries from those investigations which were reported to you at the last board meeting have been provided to you prior to this evening and this completes the
April U HIV presentation thank you thank you Superintendent may I have a motion in a second to approve the entire agenda any additional items mr president I make a motion to um approve the entire agenda i'll second
that the motion has been made in property seconds are there any questions or comments seeing none hearing none roll call please barbosa yes carvalo
yes with an abstension on tab 4B and tab five chevresz yes jacobs
Marina Ortega yes and Pastana yes t Rivera yes with an abstension on tab five page four and
yes with an extension abstension on tab 2B tab 4B tab five page two and tab five page one okay so the full agenda plus the added items has passed
thank you okay everyone um thank you for this evening may I have a motion to um adjourn madame President madam oh it's late tired tired i apologize Mr
president president Neon I make a motion that's a blooper moment right it is y'all can run that back at the end of the year yes we will we'll keep that for December the things you won't know motion has been made and properly
seconded roll call please barbosa in my ear yes good night and happy Easter everyone carvalo yes good night happy Easter chevrises yes happy Easter everyone jacobs yes good night
happy Easter marina Ortega yes good night happy Easter everyone kavas Pastana yes good night happy Easter everyone rivera yes good night happy Easter non yes good night happy Easter and happy resurrection Sunday enjoy your
holiday take care everyone