All right. Good evening everyone and thank you for coming. Please be advised the public has been duly informed of this meeting in accordance with chapter 231 of the public laws of 1975 by posting at least 48 hours in advance a notice on the bulletin boards in Stevenson and Church
Hill schools. A notice to the township clerk. A notice to the Herald News and the Progress. Now, please join me for the pledge of allegiance. 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. Before we turn it over to Superintendent Gupta, I would like to thank the HSA for their fundraiser that took place just a couple weeks ago. It was a huge success.
We appreciate all the community members that came out and helped support uh the HSA. As you all know, the money goes right back to the children of Fairfield in both districts. And you know, I've said it once, I'll say it again. When you talk about an organization that runs
multiple functions throughout the year and donates north of $100,000, I think they should be commended. So, we greatly appreciate our HSA. Um, and we're going to miss the the two members that are going out, Cynthia and Camille. We
appreciate everything you've done. So, thank you very much and thank you to the community. Ryan, if you would. Just a quick update. I know we're all here to honor the uh Cardinals of the month. So, some of you may know at a previous board meeting, we approved Dr.
Tribuko to be the principal at Church Hill next year. Since then, Mr. Santana has resigned. So, a lot of people have been asking what's going on, all that stuff. I just want you guys to know we do have a plan in place. Um, I'm working with the board. We are finalizing that. It does require the county to be
involved. So, we do have a plan and I promise we will let you know as soon as things are finalized. But, we do have a plan in place. Don't get nervous and we're not withholding information. It's just we're waiting for things to get finalized. So hang in there, stay tuned, and we'll we'll get that information out to you. Okay, without further ado, time
for Cardinals of the Month. Dr. Shrio, principal of Stevenson. Okay, good evening and welcome. Tonight we're here to honor the Stevenson School Cardinals of the Month. A cardinal of the month is a student who goes above and beyond to make Stevenson School a
better place for all by demonstrating characteristics such as respect, kindness, caring, and things are like that. Um, so sorry. Um, tonight we have um some teachers here to present the
awards. We have Mrs. Fulo, Mrs. Major, Miss Supa, Miss Lisa, and Mrs. Mayor, one at a time. We're going to begin with kindergarten, then first, second, one at a time. So, I
am here to represent kindergarten this evening. I'm excited. So, Cardinal of the Month, first one chosen was Juliana Caseia. Would you come up if you're here? [Applause]
For first, for first grade, we have Leila Noah. If you're [Applause] here, that's my girl. Good girl. For second grade, we have Anthony Shavell.
[Applause] come over here. And for second cardinal of the month of kindergarten is Everett Lean. [Applause] February's first grade cardinal of the
month, Luchia Fiti. [Applause] And for second grade, Juliet [Applause]
Ferinus everybody can see ahead. And for kindergarten March cardinal of the month is I'm going to try this my best. Tula [Applause] Fabricator. March first grade is Brendan
Blumenthal. [Applause] And March 2nd grade is Rita [Applause] Abdelatif. April for kindergarten. Masimo Pera. [Applause]
March is first grade is Alina [Applause] Mets and April second grade is Avery Avery [Applause] Mosso. And finally for May, the last
one, Cecilia Capola. [Applause] and May's first grade cardinal of the month, Mariela [Applause]
Pontrella. And second grade, Rosa [Applause] Scazafabo. How about a big round of applause for all of our Cardinals of the month? I'd now [Applause]
like I'd now like to invite Mr. Guptton board down for a group picture. Yeah, I think so. Oh yeah, just one, two, three. Smile. [Applause] Before we move on, we just want to take a second and thank all the parents and
grandparents that came out. It's been a long time since uh the board of education has allowed something like this to happen for to honor the kids both in Stevenson School and Churchill schools and we think it's really important and a special thank you to the teachers that came out this evening taking time out of their busy
schedules. Dr. Tribuka, we we greatly appreciate it. For those of you that would like to stay for the remainder of the meeting, you're more than welcome, but we're going to pause and have a one minute intermission for those that would like to depart and carry on with the rest of their evening. So, thank you very much, and we look forward to seeing
you again. [Music] Have a good one. Thank you. [Music] Oh my god, Danny's going to be bigger than you soon. Way to go, man. High five. That's it. I
love the suit, too. I'll see you later. [Music] Really? We did that purposely to be honest. Yeah. So, you can't follow along. I'll follow. I'll go on my phone.
Okay. Well, thank you all for staying. We greatly appreciate your time. Ryan, thank you again for announcing everyone and and uh we greatly appreciate it. And now we're going to turn things over to our business
administrator. All right. Okay. board committee reports. So, right now, as the year kind of comes to an end and we're winding down, uh the committee chairs are scheduling appointments to kind of finalize everything at our in
our at our next meeting. So, you can expect a committee report from each of the committee members uh next month at the June meeting. Um, so with that being said, other than the HSA, we're going to
move on to public comments on agenda items only for any of Absolutely. Whatever it is, we're changing. Normally, we would say no, but since he's wearing a suit, bring him on up
here. Come on up here, Anthony. Oh, yeah. Come on up. Great. You can come right over here. Move back. Hi, my name is Anthony. I want to thank
my teacher, Miss Mayor, and Dr. Tribo for announcing me for the assemblies each year. That's it. Well done.
Well done. Thank you very much, Anthony. Great job. Absolutely. That was great. Great job, Anthony. [Music] president. Thank you. Have a good night. Have a
good night. I It must be the name. Must be the Must be the name, Joe. Must be Must be in the name. Uh not going to say much more than that. Yes, for sure.
Um with that being said, public comments on agenda items only. For those that have any comments on agenda items, if you if you don't have an agenda, if you can share it with Mrs. Pury in the back just for a moment so she can read through it and see if there's anything
she would like to address or I'll tell you what I I'll do. We'll bring that up again towards the end of the meeting. So, if someone would like to share it with you, they can. And if you have any questions, we can address it then. Okay. Moving on. Starting off with finance. Oh, yeah.
Okay, it's different. It's a different day today. Okay. Finance page four. The following finance motions are made at the recommendation of the superintendent of schools. Anything placed on this agenda items 1 to six will be voted upon in one motion. Uh motion items 1 through
six. May I have a second? Second. Roll. Miss Chandoli. Yes. Mr. Fiti. Yes. Miss Street. Yes. And Miss Dasca? Yes. The following organizational resolutions are made at the recommendation of the superintendent of schools. Anything placed on this agenda, items 1 to 15
will be voted on one motion. I motion. May I have a second? Second. Roll call. Miss Jolie. Yes. Mr. Fiti. Yes. Miss Street. Yes. Mr. Deep. Yes. The following contract motions are made at the recommendation of the
superintendent in schools. Anything placed on this agenda, items 1 through five, will be voted upon in one motion. I so move. May I have a second? Second. Roll call. Miss Chandoli. Yes. Mr. Fei? Yes. Miss Street? Yes. And Mr. Depest?
Yes. The following grant motion is made at the recommendation of the superintendent of schools. Anything placed on this agenda, item one, will be voted on in one motion. I have a motion. Second.
Melinda. Motion. Andrea. Second. Roll call. Miss Chandoli. Yes. Mr. Fei. Yes. M. Stre. Yes. And Mr. Dascal. Yes. The following administrative motions are made at the recommendation of the superintendent of schools. Anything placed on this agenda items one through
four will be voted on upon in one motion. I so move. May I have a second? Second. Roll call. Missulli? Yep. Mr. Fiti? Yes. M street? Yes. Mr. Yes. Okay. Buildings and grounds. The
following buildings and ground motions are made at the recommendation of the superintendent of schools. Anything placed on this agenda, items 1 to three, will be voted upon in one motion. I motion items one through three. Have a second. Second. Roll call. Miss Chandulli. Yes. Mr.
Fiti. Yes. M. Stre. Yes. Mesca. Yes. The following personnel motions are made at the recommendation of the superintendent of schools. Anything placed on this agenda, items 1 through 11 will be voted on in one motion. I motion. May I have a second? Second.
Roll call. Miss Chandulli? Yes. Mr. Feedy? Yes. M street? Yes. Mr. Deasto? Yes. Okay. Curriculum. The following curriculum program motions are made at the recommendation of the superintendent of schools. Anything placed on this
agenda, items 1 through four, will be voted upon in one motion. I motion items one through four. May I have a second? Second. Roll call. Miss Chandoli. Yes. Mr. Fei? Yes. M street? Yes. And Mr.
Destro? Yes. Policy. The following policy motions are made upon at the recommendation of the superintendent of schools. Anything placed on this agenda items one through two will be voted upon in one motion. I so move. We have a second. Second
roll call. Miss Chandoli? Yes. Mr. Fiti? I abstain in those. Miss Street? Yes. And Mr. D Pascal? Yes. Public comments on non-aggenda items. Just come up, state your name for the
record and your address. Christina Priori, 148 horse neck. Um, last month with the budget was discussed about like adding a guidance counselor, a few par professionals, and I know like the special education budget also increased. Is there a chance that like
the guidance counselor maybe there should be like another BCBA because of their growing special education department having the one BCBA to be in charge of all the students in both schools sounds like a lot to put on just one person if a BCBA maybe there could
be a possible second BCBA um that could possibly help as much as the paras do need someone to kind of try to stop the behaviors from happening so maybe the one-on-one aids wouldn't as necessary to have just a
behaviorist there as well. Yeah, we at some point we know those positions are going to have to be added if the trend continues like this. Right now we don't need it. We have had to outsource some of the things and if you get to a certain amount of outsourcing like we did the previous year, you might
as well just go ahead and hire and we did a school psychologist so that you don't have to outsource. So we are looking at that. Currently we don't need that extra person but again if the trend continues we will be looking to expand that. Perfect. Thank you. Anyone else? Hi Alisono 7 Southampton Drive. Um I
know I've mentioned this at a previous board meeting or two. Um but I can't help but notice that we've had an exceptionally rainy spring. Um, and I know we all acknowledged going into spring that that was going to potentially be a challenge. And I think collectively the staff, the students,
the parents are all doing our best. I know Dr. uh, Mr. Gupta, you're out there all the time with your umbrella. The teachers do a phenomenal job trying to use their umbrellas. Um, I mentioned once before and I realize I'm representing a bit of a personal opinion, but I know we tried different approaches at the start of the school year and we kind of landed on what we
felt was the most efficient and effective protocol, which I think on an average day works very well. Um, I do think with inclement weather, we find it's challenging. Um, and my concern lies primarily in Stevenson where we have a lot of young children, many of whom still need assistance getting into
and out of the vehicles. And I know we've discussed that there may be short-term, midterm, long-term plans, but I think as a community, we'd be interested in hearing what may be possible. Um, you know, we've even had people saying, should we just buy a bunch of tents and we'll just all roll up with tents? Um, I I just think it
would be helpful to hear if there are possibilities. I know there are safety concerns. I know there's obviously um contingency plans based upon what we're doing with, you know, the areas around the school building, but I think if there's an opportunity to re-evaluate and either have kind of an alternative protocol that we could put in place, not
only in rainy weather, but even in, you know, if we have a bad winter next winter, um I think that would be appreciated. And at least speaking on my own family's behalf, but I know a lot of parents that I've spoken to, particularly parents of Stevenson children, they'd be willing to accept an elongated dismissal process if it meant
the children weren't being subjected to the bad weather. So, a a couple of things we've looked at and we're always evaluating. So, we're going to continue to do that. Um, obviously in some districts that have this situation where they don't have the busing, all the parents, their space where all the parents park and
everybody walks with their umbrella, they get their own kid and they go to their cars. We have issues with that because obviously everybody's coming from one direction and the exit's the same direction. So, we don't have that ability. But we have what we have looked at and we've considered is possibly having an um what's it called? An awning
sheltering. Yeah. On that sidewalk, which would be wonderful. It's it's very expensive. Um We are looking at that. The option of keeping the kids inside, it would just take way too long. The the traffic backs up far as it is to extend that time for the pickup would cause
issues not just with our with our schedule, but also with traffic in the community. So, we are looking at that. Hopefully, we can do the awning, but again, we'd have to we're looking at that. That's that's a major project. Yeah. after your last um comment at the last meeting, Wall-E and I reached out
for Arco uh roofing, which actually just did the roof over at Church Hill, and they've been here, I think, once or twice, and met with Wall-E in regards to an awning system in the front. And with the grant that we received for uh for the recreation with the recreation grant
we received to rehab the back, we actually thought about possibly incorporating something there as well. So, we are diligently looking at this process. Unfortunately, everything is just so very expensive. You know, uh an awning in the front of Stevenson, which
would be no more than 12 ft wide and approximately 60 ft long, can be north of $150,000. Yeah, I appreciate it's not a simple problem and I know that there's definitely complexities to how we approach it. Um, I just think that if we could take an opportunity, particularly
maybe over the summer to think about, especially in the short term, if we don't think we're going to be able to do the construction projects, if that's direction we're thinking of going in, um, you know, what options we may have. Um, I appreciate there's always a trade-off, right? Um, and I'm sure if you ask around different people will
have different opinions, but I do know there's a growing sentiment again mostly in the Stevenson community where the children are a lot younger. Um, that parents are saying they'd be willing to kind of do what it takes that means the process is longer, whatever we have to do to try to help limit the amount of
time the children have to be. Just keep in mind if the process is longer, it also traffic and other things. Traffic is one concern that we have, but obviously our teachers are contracted to a certain time. So if we elongate the pro process and don't have the the teach and and nor would we ever ask teachers
to stay 10 or 15 or 20 minutes longer than their contracted time. So there there's a lot of contributing factors on why some of the things that you're bringing up we have thought about discussed in detail and just unfortunately it's what we have right now is what's best and we will continue
to evaluate and see what we could do to make the process uh a little smoother when inclement weather you know comes upon us. Yeah. And it's acknowledged I think given the circumstances we're in. I think we are doing the best and I've seen the teachers out there. They've all got umbrellas. They're trying to huddle
together as many kids as they can. I know everybody's working through it. I don't think it's the tents are a quick shortterm fix, but then we thought about what if there's a windstorm. Yeah. Now you have a potential 10x10 pop-up tent that's blowing 30 feet in the air and
landing on, you know, kindergarten, you know, for f first and second graders. So, I mean, that that would have been a quick fix. We talked about buying 10 tents a couple hundred bucks, but you know the when you think about the the risk and the reward and you know
potentially harming a student, it's Yeah. Yeah. I think all I'm requesting is that when we have a bit of space maybe over the summer, we can continue to explore options and absolutely if there's a protocol that we can land on, I think the community would appreciate that continued interest. And then I know
I mentioned this a while back, but I'll maybe try to raise it again. I know in some other communities um they've been successful in securing grants that um look at water resiliency. So given that we know we're in a challenged flood plane, we know that a lot of the
concerns when we tried um in the past when there was, you know, consideration of building on to Stevenson, there was a lot of concern from the surrounding community that they were worried about the potential implications to flooding. I think if in a long-term solution, and now I'm talking years out, I know this is not anything in the short term. Um, I
think if there's an opportunity to maybe partner with the community, see if there's an option like that that would allow us to build maybe some water retention that would actually help the surrounding community, but then also give us some additional funds to support whatever we look at. That might be something worth exploring as well. Thank you. Thank you.
Anyone else? Public comments, non-aggenda items. Frank, anything? Next meeting be resolved that the next meeting will be held in person on June 12th, 2025. Public work session beginning at 6 PM followed by executive
session with public session resuming at approximately 7:30 p.m. at the Fairfield Municipal Building. May I have a motion for adjournment? Second. Second. Roll call.
Yes. Thank you all. Have a great night.