Good evening and welcome to the Gall Township Board of Education meeting. Today is Monday, October 13th, and this is a regular meeting. In accordance with public law 231, both adequate and electronic notice of this meeting was provided to the press, the Galloway Township Municipal Building, and the district website on January
12th, 2025. May I have a roll call, please? Mrs. Chester here, Dr. Prime, Miss Laria, Mrs. Avery here, Mr. Dace here, Mr. Gentiel here, Mrs. Hermanau here, Dr. Dr. Basher Blau
here and Mrs. Carman here. Can we all rise for a flag salute led by Mrs. Herman now, please? I aliance 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. Thank you. This evening we have a moment of silence in memory Mrs. Vicky Hood, former Galloway Township Education Foundation member, Galloway Township Education Member, and Greater Egg Greater Egg
Harbor Regional High School District board member. Mrs. Hood will be remembered as a devoted member of the Galloway Township Ed Foundation, where she played a vital role in organizing the people of the year dinner for many years. She also served with distinction on the boards of education for both Galloway Township and the Greater A
Harbor Car Harbor Regional High School District. Her dedication touched countless lives, leaving a lasting legacy of leadership and an unwavering commitment to supporting students and education. A moment of silence, please. Thank you.
We do have approval of minutes this evening evening from the September 8th uh 2025 meeting. Can I have uh everyone approve the meeting minutes? We do need a first and a second for that. Can I have a first to approve
those meetings? So move second. Any board comment? May I have a roll call, please? Why is there Mrs. Chester? Abstain. Why is there not a box? Mrs. Avery, yes. Mr. D, yes. Mr. Gentiel, yes.
Mrs. Hermanale, yes. Vice President Basher Blouse, yes. And President Corman, yes. Moving on to presentations, please. So, at this time, I would like to introduce our student council president, Anthony Marmo, uh, who's going to be
giving his, uh, first update of the year. So, welcome, Anthony. Welcome, Anthony. and just speak into the microphone so we can hear you. Okay. Okay. Thanks. Um, hi. Thanks for having me. Um, so first I would like to cover what we have done
out of school. So before we even had our first meeting, uh, I attended with my vice president Trinity Kilroy. We attended the September 11th memorial service and I also attended uh the
veterans memorial service as well. Uh we haven't done much out of school at the moment. Uh that's just about it to my knowledge. But in school we've been working uh very diligently. Uh first of all we've worked on our pretzel sales.
uh we start wanted to get that as soon as possible um to start raising money for student council. Um we have been working uh for different in school events. So we have
many spirit days in mind including a spirit week that will be happening uh the last week of October as well as we will be uh going on to the news broadcasting system for the school GMTV and we will be having a presentation for
breast cancer awareness and we will be also be selling ribbons pink ribbons we've been making those and on top of that we are also working with um our principal, Miss Junker, to work
on other school events we hope to be hosting. Uh we mainly we would like to bring back the talent show. Uh in the past we had that and last year many students had said they would like to bring it back. So our hope is we can get
that rolling as an afterchool activity one day. Um, and on the Saturday the 18th, we will be taking part in the Galloway cleanup and
we'll be cleaning up part of the of the town to raise money for our student council. Thank you, Anthony. Do you do you need anything from us at this time?
Uh, at the moment I do not think so. Okay. Well, if you do, you're more than welcome to come back. We're always here on Mondays once a once a month. And for this meeting, we do want you to be a part of it. So, if you have something to say, if you have a question, just get Mrs. Chester's attention and she'll get
my attention. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Susette, may I say something about the young man? Of course. I was very fortunate to attend the 911 ceremony and to salute the Veterans Day and the speech that
that gentleman made to salute the Veterans Day was unbelievable. You would think he was an adult and he was just great. He had everybody standing and thinking about him and to salute the veterans and everything. He was he did an outstanding job.
I'll say that now instead of waiting till the end of the meeting. So that's wonderful. Thank you. Thank you, Anthony. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Okay, moving on to presentations, please. Yep. Okay, good evening. Um, so first and foremost, uh, one of the things that we
are going to, uh, kick off, this is a multi-part presentation. Uh, it's one of our mandates with the state of New Jersey. It's for our student, uh, safety data, um, system. It's SSDs, as you know, we love acronyms in in education. Um so this is yet another one. Um and it
also includes our harassment, intimidation and bullying data. Um so again mandated by the state of New Jersey twice a year we have to report out on this data and ultimately what you're going to see tonight primarily is for the 2425 school year. So you have to
think back to last year and it's mainly the second half of the year. Um our staff is also going to be talking a little bit about uh total numbers for the year. uh and then also a self assessment uh report that we also complete and submit which the board will
take action uh on tonight as well. So two people that are going to lead us in this presentation um are our director of student services, Mrs. Suzanne Tawson, and also our supervisor of student services, Mrs. Jennifer Leven. So I'm going to be turning it over to them and
they're going to walk you through the presentation. Thank you, Mr. Santilly, and thank you, Anthony. I do hope to speak as eloquently as you just did to everyone else. So, thank you very much. Um, as Mr. Santilli said, we are here to present our student safety data system as well as our hip grades. So, I'm going
to present to you the information that we report twice a year um to um the state. So, as Mr. Santilly said we do present the information the information you were going to hear tonight and see tonight visually on the screen is from last uh the report period
2 for the second half of the school year. So from January 1st 2025 until June 30th 2025. These dates you we'll continue to report this information twice a school year. These are the dates for this current school year for 2526. You'll see us again. Our first report
period will end in December. You'll see us again probably in February. and then again you'll see us next time this year again. So we are looking there's very specific categories that we need to report to the state of New Jersey twice a year and we're looking at violence, vandalism,
substance abuse or substance offense and weapons offense. So that's the first um four rows that you're looking at. And then second in that middle section is our confirmed HIPS, alleged HIMS. And in the Galloway School District, we are allowed to have preliminary investigations for our HIPS with our
principal discretion. So, that's included in there. And one excited part exciting part that we're going to look into um and talk a little bit about for Mrs. Leven and I was getting to know the trainings and programs and all the wonderful things that are happening here in Galloway that we're doing to support
the anti-bullying rights law and support our students, families, and teachers um for anti-bullying. So, this is just a full year report. We wanted to include this so you can take a look at the report period 1 which when we're reporting on report period 2 we might forget about. So we're including
report period one here for you. Report period 2 as well as our total numbers. Can you go back one more second? The most exciting number on here is the 328 programs throughout the course of the school year that we are doing in our buildings um for our students, for our
staff, and the number of trainings that we're providing. Um and all of that is to just make everyone better. So as a reminder the definition you know when we have to make decisions on hib confirmed alleged and what um when we
have to make those decisions there's very specific criteria that we have to consider every single time we make this decision. So we just wanted to ensure that you have a reminder of the things that we're looking for when we're talking about hip. It's not easy. It's not an easy decision. Um there's many
factors that you have to consider. Also, the HIP criteria. For us to truly deem it to be a HIB, you have to have all three reasons. Um, it has to be if you're missing any one of those criteria when you are reviewing any of the
information, it will not be considered a HIB and it will fall to the code of conduct and be handled at a building level. For our school district, these are our HIV investigators. We have one designated at every building. These are the first responders in in in addition
to the principal or the vice principal that are investigating all of the HIPS. Um and of course our school safety committee, our school safety and climate teams are reviewing the HIPS. They meet throughout the course of the school year to really discuss and analyze patterns
that are happening within the building. We're looking at the things that happen in middle school because there are middle school children. We're taking a look and considering all the ways that we can make ourselves better and looking at the nature of the confirmed HIPS. And then once we get this information, we're
looking to provide lessons in the classroom, whether it's certain classrooms, whether it's certain grade levels, we're looking to provide that information again to make everybody have a better understanding of HIPB and anti-bullying efforts. This was the exciting part for Mrs.
Levens and I to take a look at all of the wonderful things and time and energy for the programs and the trainings that are happening here in Galloway. I'm not going to name all these, you can read them for yourself, but zones of regulation, nurture heart approach, all
of the spirit weeks that we get to participate in through our families and our community and our staff. Um, having those community alliances with the police and having the community alliances with other agencies within within Galloway has been really a great
way to recognize a collaborative effort to make Galloway even better. And then our trainings, we put time and energy into our staff to ensure that we are training everyone from volunteers to substitutes to our new staff orientation. making sure that everyone
is aware of the critical policies and procedures that are important part of our programs. So that is it for the SSDS report. Okay. You want the clicker? All right. So now we're going to go into our school self- assessment and hip
grades portion of the presentation. Um so every year we present to the board our um self assessments that we take. After this presentation we will submit these scores to the department of ed and
then um they will respond back you know in a department of men ed timely manner uh what our official grades are for the year. So what our school safety and climate team does is they take all of our information from that year. They take
all the programs, all the trainings and they do this comprehensive um self- assessment and there are eight eight sorry elements that they look at with the self assessment and they go through each one and they look at our trainings.
They look at our programs. They look at our reports and they look at the investigations and how they are done. And they fill this out and then it is scored. It is scored each section is scored on a score of 0 to three and then the highest total you can possibly receive is a 78 and you have to provide
documentation for all of these scores. Okay, so this is just an overview of how our district has scored for last year. Um, as you can see, we were really excited because a lot of our trainings and programs, um, that is where we really scored the highest. And our total
score for the district anticipated, because this is not official, is a 76 out of 78, which we were really, really proud of. And if you look, our score for the last year was 75. So, this shows growth. We did improve from the last
school year to last year. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Thank you both very much. So that incl uh concludes our uh formal presentation. Um if anyone has any questions, I did want to touch very briefly on another component of the work
that comes out of central office and of course student services that I just want to remind everybody in the public and the board about. Um, but if if the board has any questions in regards to the HIP self- assessment um or the presentation itself, uh, now would be the time. I just want to say thank you guys for
all your hard work. I know you put a lot into that. I know the staff puts a lot into that every year. So, thank you. Um, yes, I have a question. Yes. Okay. So, uh, I'm looking at the HIV report that you have that we usually
just pass and, um, I was curious um, maybe somebody can answer this. if you have a yes for HIV and then a yes for the other code of conduct. And then when I was reading it, it basically said that um so the alleged offender, there would
be a parent conference, there would be a student conference, there would be a follow-up with CST, case manager, and then a follow-up with mental health specialists. I'm trying to wrap my head around that because, you know, it says sixth grade. We got an ID number for the kid. Doesn't say the kid's name, of
course. Um, so you figure the child's about 10 or 11, 11, 12. So why do they need a mental health specialist if they are like is that the first time, first offense, second offense, third offense? How does that work? And I know it goes
to the state. So how does that work? So what you're looking at does not go to the state. Um, that's for board approval. U, every case is different as well. So for instance, right now, what you had just referenced was it mentioned CST referral. Um, that could be a student of course who is already going
through the process of of being evaluated through a child study team. Um, and that's, you know, for everybody out there, CST is a child study team. Um, but ultimately, every case is different. Every situation is different. We're lucky enough in this district to have mental health specialists um here
uh to help support our students. Um, that's in addition to school counselors. Um and ultimately again case by case depending upon the the situation itself with the offender with the victim those are services that we can provide to our students to help them make better
decisions moving forward. So I guess to when does the mental health specialist come into the picture? Does it have to be a specific situation or is it in every case that they have yes and yes? It's I wouldn't say that it's in every case. Um, I think it's really just
contingent upon the type of engagement that took place. So, for instance, um, I'll use an example that could actually be where a victim is going to benefit from the use of of having time with a mental health specialist um, mainly because let's say they are, let's say, a
potential victim um, to a bullying incident um, that now has created them to have school anxiety, school phobia um, and and is not wanting to ride the bus. Maybe that's where it occurred. Maybe it's happening in the cafeteria. Those things that are going to be put in place are going to be able to help
support that child to be able to get past that. Okay. But what if it's this isn't the victim though. This is the person accused of it. I'm just using that as an example. The list goes on. As I said, every case is going to be different. So, it's case by case and contingent upon the situation itself that was investigated.
Okay. And one more question. I notic you have a lot of training, which is great for the parents. I mean, for the teachers and for the students. Do those parents get to have any of that training that the kids get and the teachers get? I know I asked that before in meeting. So in terms of the formal training that
you saw, um like we use public school works for instance or we actually do a lot of training with our anti-bullying specialists that are here within the school. Um Mrs. Tossen also serves as the anti-bullying coordinator um now as well. We provide a lot of training for
our staff, but in terms of parents, they don't receive the same training. However, we do have open and honest conversations around the criteria and that is why that slide was important for us to include tonight because the law is very specific and a lot of our
conversations are around the difference between conflict and true bullying. And the anti-bullying law is very specific to meeting all of those criteria where oftentimes a parent may very loosely use the term well my child's being bullied. Now, we're not going to say that they're
not being bullied in the sense of meeting the criteria, but oftentimes it may be conflict where it may not be true bullying in terms of the way the law was written, but that does not mean that we won't address it with the code of conduct through another means to be able to make sure that it doesn't happen
again, right? But you would think even more so why the parents should have the training to teach to show them the difference so that they would understand. Well, I think that those are again open and honest conversations around, you know, just normal parent contact that we would
have. So, if a parent had a question around the anti-bullying law, if a parent had a question around, you know, why did it not meet the criteria, whether I mean any one of us right standing right here can have that conversation. Our anti-bullying specialist can have the conversation. I can tell you any administrator in this
room can have that conversation with them. and our staff is also trained and oftentimes we'll also have the conversations with parents. I don't think that it's a uh it's not such an issue that every single parent would need to be trained in the anti-bullying
law because of how complex it is, but when the need arises, we're open to those conversations and making sure that they truly understand the true criteria. Okay. So, the answer is though just no. They don't get the training. No, like I said, they do not get trained like u anyone else. No. So a follow-up
question to that, Steve, is during the parent student, you know, staff meeting is the is it explained to the parent at that time what the difference is and and what HI is and what the bullying laws are? Are they is it explained to them at
that time if they're brought in or a conversation is had. I just want to be clear. So like for instance, if um like the student ID numbers that you see, it's part of the law. The conversation absolutely has to take place there. We we're this very strict um guidelines in terms of really the timelines in terms
of the investigation, the reporting to administration, that then reporting to the both offender and victim that investigation is going to take place. Um even down to me reviewing each of the cases after the 10-day uh completion of the investigation. If they need 10 days,
um I have two days to review and then also approve or even ask follow-up questions before we finalize that case. But I what I want to know absolutely is if the conversation with the parent it's explained to them what the law is and what
the parameters are for it being bullying. Absolutely. It has to be part of that conversation. That's what I want to make sure. And that criteria is going to be hit every time. Okay. Um we do have information of course on our website and it's also in the parent handbook if anybody wanted to delve. But you know you're talking about a policy
and a law. If I'm not mistaken this policy itself is over 30 pages long. So, you know, it's not something that we're just having everyday conversations with, but when a need arises, absolutely. Okay. Thank you. Yes. Um, I actually did want to mention that it has been requested in the past,
particularly with special needs families, that there be a parent training over HIV. So, I don't know if that's something that that we're still trying to figure out, but um we actually um one of the things we did do is in the past, and we can revisit it through CPAC, we actually had
conversation um around uh the law, around conflict versus bullying. I actually recall that happening. Um I think that we had it um I want to say a year or two ago, but it was it was a conversation I had with the previous director. Okay. So, um but that's a great place for that
conversation to start. Um, and of course with, you know, our director of student services here, um, I know that that's something that can certainly happen there as well. If you want to speak to that, Mrs. Thompson. Yes, definitely. Um, I'm glad you asked because we are going to revisit and re-engage our families through CPAG.
Myself, Mr. Moly, and Mrs. Levens. shortly, hopefully within the next two weeks, parents um of students with a disability will be and 504s will be receiving um an email, a broadcast, a blast from us just kind of re reinviting everyone and provide to um have an
engagement and conversation. We're hopefully going to be having a meet and greet in November so that you guys can come and meet us and then at that time we can talk about an a survey of needs for the families and if that is one of them we can uh write that down and ensure that it happens. Great. Thank you.
Yes. Um, one more question. So, just to throwing this out there as a thought, would it be something that could be considered for like an FSA meeting? It seems to be a lot of confusion when it comes to HIV law and how that works. So, throwing that out there, something that one of the things that we can do also, I
mean, I meet with the district FSA. Um, so I can talk to them about, you know, how we can get that information out. I don't go to each of the school FSAs, but when they, you know, any administrator from the building level that is there um can certainly also have a conversation around that. So, it's not a bad idea, but next uh meeting we have at the
district level um you know, we can certainly discuss that as well. And other things that I've done in the past that we can do to help is really just I'm all about, you know, the marketing side of things, right? So, we could tell the story about the difference between conflict and bullying and we can create
a short little PSA on that. um because I don't think that that's a heavy lift and I think that that's just a one pager that can be on the website. Um it can also be pushed out to families as needed. Um and there really is a difference there and that the criteria is what's important and that's the way the law was written. Doesn't always hit
all of the criteria, but that does not mean and this is usually the conversation that happens with parents. That does not mean that we don't address it. it just gets addressed through code of conduct and we want to make sure we remediate that so things like that don't happen again whatever it might be verbal
physical or whatever. Okay. All right. Thank you. All right. So, one of the things I didn't want to lose sight of and we typically talk about as well um through student services are our summer initiatives. And I just wanted to remind the public and also the board that we
had a a you know pretty strong summer this year with with all the programs we had in place. But more importantly, the partnership that we continue to have with Cooper Levenson's Let Us Eat, Please, the ability for us to provide free food um for our families that are in need throughout the summer. Uh we
arranged for four pickups this year. We actually added a fifth as well. Um and that all came through the food bank and also through the work of Cooper Levenson. In addition to that, a couple years ago, and this is our third summer in doing so, we partnered with Stockton Sustainable Farm. And one of the things
that we do is we go out to the farm, basically pick up whatever produce they have. We're not picky. Whatever happens to be growing at that time, they load us up. And this year, I can tell you that we we couldn't fit any more in in our our transit van to come back here each
week. Um, so I know they were super proud of that partnership. We certainly were as well. Um and the other thing that we did in addition to that uh and and actually going back to that for a minute, we are working right now towards continuing that partnership with the
food bank. There's an initiative right now that we're waiting for finalization on. More information to follow. Um but there's going to be another partnership that's going to allow for the continuation of of providing some free services and free food to our families. Um, in doing so, Stockton Sustainable
Farm also told me, "Hey, we've got the green houses here," which I didn't realize, but apparently they're going to be growing um not just in the summer, but also all year, weather permitting, of course, within the green houses as well. But we're going to continue that partnership and once we get that
information, we'll certainly share. And then for those that aren't aware, our Mckin Vento families are families that would be considered homeless under the Mckin Vento law. And also what we did was we used um funding that we had to basically purchase care packages. And
the whole idea behind this is that obviously it was an opportunity for us to really try to uh focus on the things that we we all know we've been to the store. You know what you know what it's like to go shopping these days, but more importantly trying to identify items
that are needed um by families on any given day and especially those items that tend to cost a little bit more money when you think about it. So, we wanted to put care packages together and we made sure that we got those care packages in the hands of those students who would qualify also under Mckin Vento
and that's something else that we continue to do uh this past summer. So, I just wanted to remind everybody of that and again, you know, thanks for the continued support with those initiatives as well. And that concludes our presentation. Thank you.
Thank you guys. And while Steve transitions back up here, just want to say thank you to Amy and her firm for continuing work with the Let's Eat Please um initiative and to Steve who's really expanded those initiatives since he's gotten within our district and it's
really great for the families. So, thank you. [Music] And at this time we will continue with the superintendent's report and the attorney's report please. All right. At this time we'll do our attorney's report with our solicitor Amy
Halco. Good evening everybody. I was very happy to present today on multiple topics at the instaff uh presentation professional development day. So I was very excited to do that. I gave three presentations. In addition, since the last time we've talked, I work on I've worked on some
student matters, staff matters, and contractual matters. Thank you. Thank you. Is there any question for the solicitor? Okay, moving on. All right. At this time, item 5.2, 5.3, 5.4 4 are allformational items and 5.5
is here for approval for the submission of the self assessment to determine our HIB grades for 2425. Thank you. Can I motion approve item 5.5, please? So moved. Second. Is there any board comment?
May I have a roll call? Mrs. Chester? Yes. Miss Laria? Yes, Mrs. Avery. Yes, Mr. D. Yes, Mr. Gentiel. Yes, Mrs. Hermanau. Yes, Vice President Basher Blau. Yes, and President Carmen.
Yes. And at this time, I realized I forgot public comment on agenda items only. At this time, are there any comments for agenda items only? Okay, seeing none, can we move on to curriculum instruction, please? All right. So, at this time, we're
looking for a motion to approve 6.1 through 6.4 as listed and attached. Thank you. Can I have a motion to approve items 6.1 through 6.4? So moved. Second. Is there any board comment? May I have roll call?
Mrs. Chester? Yes. Miss Lauria? Yes. Mrs. Avery? Yes. Mr. D? Yes, Mr. Gentiel. Yes, Mrs. Harmonell. Yes, Vice President Basher Blau. Yes. And President Carmen? Yes. Moving on to finance and
facilities. Do we do we have a meeting this week? Uh, yes. We met prior to the board meeting. Uh, we reviewed a bunch of items that are listed in the attached report, including updates on the HVAC um progress and also updates on the audit. Is there any questions for Dr. Basher
Blau? Okay, moving on with finance and facilities, please. Thank you. Items 7.2 through 7.23 are up for your approval. Can I motion approve items 7.2 through 7.23, please? So moved.
Yes. Second. Thank you. Is there any board comment? Yes. I must abstain on uh bills list page 39. School specialty LLC PO number 60593
PO number 60594. Yes on everything else. Thank you. Is there any other board comments? May I have a roll call, please? Mrs. Chester, yes. Miss Lauria, yes. Mrs. Avery, yes.
Mr. Dace, yes. Mr. Gentiel, yes. Mrs. Hermanau, yes. Vice President Basher Blau, yes. And President Carman, yes. Moving on to personnel, please. So, at this time, we have a resolution
to accept with regret the letter of intent to retire from the following Goway Township Public School staff. So, we have two staff members, uh, Anna Marie Michelle and Terry White. Anna Marie has about 25 years in our district
as a food service worker at Arthur Ran and also Terry White, a food service manager, 13 years of service at Smithville School. We certainly wish them their best in their retirement. Absolutely. Can I have a motion to approve item 8.1? So moved. Second.
Is there any board comment? May I have a roll call, please? Mrs. Chester? Yes. Miss Laia, yes. Mrs. Avery, yes. Mr. D, yes. Mr. Gentiel, yes. Mrs. Hermanau,
yes. Vice President Basher Blau, yes. And President Carman, yes. At this time, we're looking to move items 8.3 through 8.11 uh as listed and attached. Can I motion to approve items 8.3 through 8.11, please?
So moved. Second. Is there any board comment? May I have a roll call? Mrs. Chester? Yes. Miss Lauria? Yes. Um, do you have an abstension, Miss
Laia? Do you have an abstension? Oh, from is this 8.6? Abstain. I believe she said she abstains from 8.6. Is that correct? Correct. Miss Mrs. Avery. Yes. Mr. D.
Yes. Mr. Gentiel, yes. Mrs. Hermanau, yes. But I abstain from 8.6. Vice President Basher Blau. Yes. And President Carmen, yes. Do we have any new hires here?
I do believe we have some new hires. I'm looking out in our audience here. Um, first, let's see. Uh, John Gallammore, where are you? There's John. John, welcome on board. He is our new network and system administrator. He'll be
starting in January. So, welcome John. [Applause] And also a warm welcome to Madison McGloin. Uh she'll be working as a mental health crisis counselor. So, welcome Madison and congratulations. [Applause]
Welcome to both of you. I believe that's it. Okay, moving on to policy, please. Was there a policy meeting this month? Yes, we did meet this month. Um the report is of course in the agenda. Um we have six policies that are up for a first and only uh reading and then we
have um an additional six policies that this is the first reading and there will be a second reading. Okay. So, any questions for Mrs. Chester? Um yes. Um Belinda, I do still have a question on that 5517. I'm wondering if you guys are going to
be uh put trying to put that back on the um agenda at any point. And if so, um I know I sent about three questions. I was just looking to see if I could get those answered. Um the specific questions um when you have time, I'd appreciate it.
Okay. Um the policy is still tabled. We're still discussing the policy, so that's why it's not back on the agenda yet. But um yeah, once we're done with No, I know it's not on there, but are you going to be looking at that again or No, still under discussion. Okay.
Is there any other questions for Mrs. Chester? Okay, moving on with policy, please. All right. So, there's two uh sections here for approval. So, first is to approve items 9.2 through 9.7 as listed and attached.
Can I motion to approve items 9.2 2 through 9.7, please. So moved. Second. Is there any board comment? May I have a roll call, please? Mrs. Chester, yes. Miss Lauria, yes.
Mrs. Avery, yes. Mr. D, yes. Mr. Gentiel, yes. Mrs. Hermanau, yes. Vice President of the Sherl, yes. And President Carman, yes. At this time, we'd like to approve items
9.9 through 9.14 as listed and attached. Thank you. Can I motion to approve items 9.9 through 9.14 for first reading, please? So moved. Second. Is there any board comment? May I have a roll call, please? Mrs. Chester,
yes. Miss Lauria, yes. Mrs. Avery, yes. Mr. Dase, yes. Mr. Gentiel, yes. Mrs. Herman, yes. Vice President Basher Blau. Yes. And President Carman. Yes. Moving on to new business, please.
So, under new business, items 10.1 and 10.2. Uh, looking for a motion for approval as listed and attached. Can I motion to approve items 10.1 and 10.2? So moved. Second. Is there any board comment?
May I have a roll call, please? Mrs. Chester. Yes. Miss Laria. Yes. Mrs. Avery. Yes. Mr. Dace. Yes. Mr. Gentiel. Yes. Mrs. Hermanale. Yes. Vice President for Sheriff Blouse. Yes.
And President Corman. Yes. Moving on to boardformational items, please. So, the board calendar is listed up uh and attached for the board. Um that has not changed. Uh special events are listed under 11.2. A couple to note. There's quite a few going on, but FSA meet the candidates
nights coming up on October 15th. Um that's going to be starting at 6:30 right here at GTMS. Of course, come out and support the Ed Foundation uh designer purse bingo. Um that is this Friday. Doors open at 6 o'clock, start times at 7. And then a variety of other
events happening uh throughout the different schools. You can see from steam nights to all of our winter concerts that are going to be kicking off here in the district. We certainly appreciate uh the board and the public's support at all of these events. Thank you. Those were justformational
only, so no vote is needed at this time. I'll open up the meeting for public comment. Is there any public comment at all this evening? Yes, if you can come to the microphone, please. The board right up here in the front. The board values and welcomes comments
and opinions from residents. This meeting will now be open to public comments. Three minutes per person, please. If your questions pertain in litigation, student or personnel items, please see the superintendent after the meeting as the board does not discuss these matters in public. Depending upon the nature and complexity of your
questions, the board secretary may ask you for your contact information so that someone can get back to you with a response. As a reminder, this is a public meeting and all comments should be appropriate for a public setting and made in a respectful manner whenever you're ready. Hi, Rosemary Goldberg Township. Excuse
me. I'm addressing this board this evening as a former Galloway School board member, a retired Miss Goldberg, we if you could just go closer to the microphone. Okay, perfect. Thank you. You're welcome. Um, a retired school teacher here in the Galloway School
District and a concerned citizen. I am here tonight to apologize to the school board for applauding after the mother addressed the board on behalf of her transitioning child at the last school
board meeting. Why did I applaud? There was nothing said to celebrate. She blamed the school board for having to remove her child from a Goway school because of the hostile environment of the school board. What a sad outcome.
There are nine members on this board and I've served with six of you. I don't recall any parent complaining about a hostile school board. The educators of this district work very hard to provide a safe and inclusive environment. This
is a public school system. All children of diverse backgrounds attend these schools and are accepted. These are not private schools. The students who attend public schools are taught to coexist to
tolerate of the be tolerant of their differences. Unfortunately, some adults seem to have failed in mastering that skill. Having served on this school board and having received the training in Trenton, it was stressed often in the two-day workshop that our primary
concern concern is the students that they receive a quality education from qualified teachers and the board provides a reasonable budget. This school board has never exceeded the 2% cap. Lastly, I would like to address the
incorrect information shared by a public speaker in August meeting that the 10 to 24 year olds do not consider or commit suicide. This is the second leading cause of death among this age group.
First is accidental deaths and second is homicide. I mean third is homicide. I am grateful that the state is being proactive rather than reactive in addressing this issue. May I suggest the state requirements of the duties and
responsibilities of the school board members be revisited by this board. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Goldberg. Are there any other comments this evening? Yes, if you could just come to the microphone and state your name and sign
in, please. Hello. Uh, my name is Brian Walters, um, gallery resident. Uh just wanted to state that um I'm sure maybe some of you know but some of you don't. October is uh National Disability
Employment Awareness Month. Um apparently he's been in here for 80 years now. And and the reason I'm I'm bringing that up is um I won't go into details, but my son um has some disabilities, has gone through the uh
school system since uh pre preschool up through high school, land county special services, etc. And he was fortunate enough to get a job here at Gway roughly eight years ago. uh very I want to publicly state I've
been very grateful for people that have helped him out along the way. It's it's it's a roller coaster ride with somebody with disabilities and trying to find a job along the way. So I just want to publicly thank the the board and and also all his um supervisors along the
way and people that hired him very great very grateful. Um, with that though, a lot of that happened uh with perseverance of myself and my wife getting him to apply to certain jobs,
etc. And it it it kind of dawned on me like I'm not aware of like I know Stockton has programs that promote people hiring disabilities, casinos do, some of the major employers, but I didn't really
get that with maybe some of the schools that that are out there. I mean, what what what better environment would it be to hire somebody, especially since you bring them up with their all their life teach, you know, you have special education, all requirements with that.
Uh, and then when it's time to get a job, you're there, but you're not there. I mean, Stockton has programs. You go through all these agencies and Stockton say, "Okay, go to Stockton. Go to casinos. Go over here." Um, so, so that was my question. Is there anything that
we can do to maybe promote hiring people with disabilities within the school system? I don't know if there's something out there now. I'm not aware of anything. Maybe I may just don't know anything about it. And if there's something I mean, I could volunteer my time to try to help that out. Uh
whatever whatever it is to do that. Um I again I don't know if there's anything out there now that you have that that that can help people with with disabilities. Mr. Mr. Walters, I think maybe you can reach out to Mr. Santilly personally and he can have a conversation because I'm
I'm I just don't know what's out there and available, but Mr. Santilly certainly would. Yeah, we could certainly keep the lines of communication open. Um, you know, we're open to brainstorming. Um, I've had recent conversations with Stockton University around a variety of different topics. So, um, we could certainly find
out what they have and and kind of just keep again these these conversations going to see what we come up with. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Is there any other public comment this evening? If you can come to the microphone and state your name and please keep your comments
to three minutes. If you could also sign in as well. Set a timer. Set a timer for three minutes. We on here. Yes. My name is Gary Hermanel. I'm a Galloway resident. I was here at the last school board
meeting when that parent made some, in my opinion, some obstantiated unsubstantiated allegations. And regardless of what they were, the word hate was thrown out there. thrown out there. And
you have to be very, very careful in this social climate that we're all living in when you start throwing around words like hate. We're living in a tinder box in this country. The president was almost assassinated twice. ICE agents are getting shot. A lunatic
went to a church and shot up innocent people. Speak the devil's name and it could show up. We don't need to raise tensions in this room. When someone disagrees with what
is right for a child, that is not hate. Right or wrong, that is not hate. And when it comes to suicide, God forbid, there are many things that can
contribute to that. And this is something I don't like to talk about, but I know something about suicide because at the age of 13, I killed myself. I I was getting bullied in school to
some extent. But the reason I wasn't getting along in school was because my home life was not good. I don't like to talk about it because I don't like to badmouth my parents. They're not even here to defend themselves.
But my life at home was miserable. And that made me easy prey for the students in school. But more than that, it took down my self-worth, my self-respect. It hurt my self-esteem.
And when you have young children that are thinking of suicide, you should look first at the parents and at their homeline and not automatically start accusing their
fellow students or grown-ups they have never met who only want the best for them. It is nine times out of 10 their home life that causes them to be unhappy. And I just want people to know that
it is never a good idea to throw around the word hate. All the people on this board are not hateful people. They have their different reasons for being here, but they all believe that they're helping. And so, as the one woman said, when
someone gets up here and they start throwing around the word hate and they start advocating that these people not be allowed to speak at board meetings and people applaud for that, I find that very disturbing. And so, I'd like to, you know, I'd like
to think that people understand this and learn from it. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any other public comments this evening? If you could just state your name and please keep your comments to three minutes. There's also a sign-in sheet,
please. Good evening. My name is Kelly Grace. I've been a U Galloway taxpayer for 34 years. Thanks everybody for coming out on this nasty night. I just wanted to take this moment um
because of what was said and what you all know of what's been in the uh the past month of terrible things that can happen when people take it upon themselves not to get the help they need and they act out.
We can't have the violence. Mr. Gentilly, I know your heart is close to this. Anytime there's any kind of act of violence anywhere um especially in a school system, you always speak up. I just want to commend two of the board
members that in a time of fear and when people speak out, there's a risk in that. whether it's a risk against their false accusations against them that their livelihood may be at
jeopardy. I want to commend Jenny Laura and Ethyl Harmon because they've been brave enough in a time where there's a lot of fear for people to speak up. And it's not about hate. I haven't seen one
comment come out of them about hate. It's all about including the parent in order to help the child. And and and that's really what it is about, including the parent. And if there's a lack of parental going on,
then the school probably already knows that. And whatever your protocol is for that, if it is a strict one in order to help your children, the children that are having issues, then I commend you for that, that you reach out to the parents. But there's got to be an end to
violence. And where it where it starts is in each every one of us that we make a decision to not be fearful to speak the truth and to share it with all those I've told you before about my cousin who
was transgendering and he was an adult and we accepted him in our family where his family his immediate family ostracized him. My father and I his cousin all of us welcomed him. But I bring Richard up because of the fact
that when he did transgender late in his 60s that he developed a disconnection from we who accepted him and we take that as he didn't find happiness in the end anyway.
So when you take an adult who's fully aware of what he's doing and compare it to a child who is not at a mature level yet and I understand parents concerns they get mixed signals from those in the
medical field that if you don't do this you may be harming your child that they may harm themselves and I don't think that that maybe they have reached out to full full extent of where they could get their Thank you, Miss Kelly. It's three
minutes. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Thank you. Is there any other board comment this evening? Seeing none, is there any board comments? Okay. Do we have executive session this evening? We do not.
We do not. So, can I have a motion to adjurnn, please? Second. All in favor? Can I make a comment? I asked for board comments. You didn't say anything, but absolutely. I guess I didn't hear that.
Um, I just want to thank the people that get up and and stand and have something to say on either side of the aisle. It's important. It's important to speak your minds and say what's on your hearts. And the board here all works very hard to try to do the right thing. And I'm just
grateful for the community. And I'm glad that more people are coming out and realizing that, you know, that we could have a better situation in our public schools if people were just braver and did the right things. And I think that's coming and I'm really grateful about that. And I just want to thank the board
for all that they do. Thank you. Thank you. Is there any other board comment? Seeing none, can I have a motion to adjurnn? So move. All in favor? I meaning adjourn. Thank you so much.