Good evening and welcome to the Galloway Township Public School District. This is the um regular meeting on September 8th in accordance with public law 231. Both adequate and electronic notes of this meeting was provided to the press, the GI Township Municipal Building, and the district website on January 12th, 2025.
May I have a roll call, please? Mrs. Chester, Dr. Parmentor here. Miss Laria. Mrs. Avery here. Mr. Dace here. Mr. Jentiel here. Mrs. Hermanale here. Dr. Basher Blau here. And Mrs. Carmen
here. Can we all rise for a flag salute led by Dr. Basher Blau? I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all. Thank you. We do have approval for minutes this meeting from our August 11th, 2025. Can I have a motion to approve those minutes? So moved. Is there any board comment? May I have a roll call, please?
Or do we need a roll call for that? We don't. I'm gonna abstain on that one. Uh reading of communications. So, as attached, we received a letter from uh Gowi Township Police Chief, Chief Hendrickson, uh in recognition of
our support of National Night Out. I have to say that over the past few years, um you know, each year it just continues to grow in leaps and bounds. And it's certainly a pleasure to to be able to support uh Zagawi Township School District. Um it's you know a great night to connect with our
families. We provide them some of that early information such as the district calendar, free and reduced meal applications and this year um with a lot of changes in administration um they even got to meet the new principal of Arthur Rand. So um it was a it was a great night had by all.
Thank you. Moving on to presentations, please. So, at this time, uh, Miss Napoli, our director of curriculum instruction, is going to be joining me on the floor for our New Jersey student learning assessments presentation, as well as access for L's and New Jersey dynamic learning maps. Uh, all required
by the state and uh, allows us to provide an opportunity to to let you know a snapshot at least for the 2425 school year. And then after that, we're going to have a short uh, video from Mr. Be's backyard. Um and at that time I'll explain a little bit more about um that
video and how it came to be. So All right. As as required, switch them. That's all right. We're we're going to tag team. We're good. Um, as required uh with the state, one of the things we do is we certainly share our spring 2025 test uh administration results. As
mentioned, this is a variety of different test results from last year. Um, Miss Napoli is going to take the lead with this presentation. You can see them all listed up there from NJSLA, our access for L's, really our ML learners, and then also dynamic learning maps, um, which is a very small population of our
special education students. Probably about 1% of the student population actually participate in the DM. Um, but we also report out on on their participation and results as well. So, without further ado, good evening everyone.
We're going to start today with a look at dynamic learning maps. As Mr. Santelli mentioned, this assessment is given to a small percentage of our students and they're are scored throughout the year on
variety of different assessments that are adaptive just for them. And there are four different levels that they can score in. So we want to share with you the results that we had for this past school year. So this is a chart again as we mentioned it's a very small
percentage of our population that lists the number of students at each of the different levels and the percent passing. It is a very rigorous test for some of our most needy learners. As you can see, there's a highlight in
seventh grade in ELA and math when you look at those percentages. Next, we're going to spend a couple minutes looking at our access for L's data. These are our multilingual learners. These children tend to be in the school district less than six years
to participate in this assessment. So, there are six different levels that they can score, six being the highest. Students who tend to score a 4.5 or above will exit the program and go back
into the regular population and no longer receive ESL services. So at a glance we can see from kindergarten through 8th grade the students percentage of scores across the five levels.
Typically if a student would have scored a level six they wouldn't be in the program anymore. And then a quick summary slide shows how long students have been in the program. You can see for example students in year
one. We had just under 30 students at that level last year down to kids that were in the program for six years and there was only a couple kids in the program. It's normal to see more
red on the left and more green on the right because the longer they're in the country and the more that they actually participate in services, their scores tend to continue to increase. So, it just takes time for them to learn English.
Next, we're going to spend some time looking at the NJSLA data. NJSLA is scored on a fivepoint like rubric level where both four and five are considered passing in the state of New
Jersey. It mentions on the slide about district factor grouping that data is not available to us like it used to be in the past which kind of allowed us to compare how we did to similar school districts. So we are comparing across
every school district throughout the state of New Jersey. So first we're going going to look at participation. These are the counts of the students. We have very high participation rates. Almost every child takes the test. The only reason they
wouldn't take the test is really absence. and we make every effort to allow opportunities for students to make up over several days. Now, we'll take a look at the English language arts data.
This is kind of a quick snapshot from grades three through eight. We are looking and comparing students from the state of New Jersey, how they did this past year compared to Galloway. Again, it's comparing all different
levels across the state. Then we can take a look at this data and compare kids over time. In this set of data that you'll be taking a look at grade by grade, it represents different students. So if we look at third grade,
we look at the kids who attended Galloway schools or the state of New Jersey schools in 22 23 and were third graders. Then we're looking at a new group who happened to be third graders in 2324
and then another group who were third graders in 2425. There will be a series of slides that you'll see a cohort as kids move through Galloway. So you have a slight increase between 23
24. When we look at grade four, it's a similar experience, there was some growth. Fifth grade. Sixth grade. Seventh grade little increase.
Eighth grade little increase. Now the next set of slides are cohorts. So this is the same students in different grade levels. So last year's fourth graders, we are comparing how they did when they were in third grade
compared to how they did in fourth grade. So as a district, you can see a nice bump when you look at the yellow um graph. Only about 20% of the kids passed. We doubled that when those same students
became fourth graders. We can take a look at similar kinds of graphs looking at the same group of students from third to fourth to fifth. This is showing third through sixth over the years. Same group of students
last year's sixth graders. last year's seventh graders and last year's eighth graders. Next, we want to take for just a moment take a look at subgroups. We can see we evaluate students and look at the data
in many different ways. One specific area we take a look at is ethnicity. whether students were economically disadvantaged, they qualify for free and reduced lunch and our special education population. So at a glance, these are
all our students and you can see by the colors how the different subgroups performed. Our data is very similar to the data across the state in this area. So, some of the data doesn't look as
great as we wanted to, but here are some highlights that we wanted to share. One, one thing we noticed when we looked at the data, our commitment to students over time really seemed to show results. We compared students who were newer to
the district compared to students who have been with us for a long time. For students that have been with us for over five years in Galloway, they have a 10% boost in scores compared to kids that just came to Galloway. And although the passing percentage
overall for us was 33% in the area of ELA, 66% of the students improved from prior years. So twothirds of our students improved even though a smaller percentage about onethird passed. We
only have so much control of how they come to us but we can impact growth and this shows that we are doing a good job with growth. Another area we took a look at were students who came to the district somewhat recently
and we compared their scores before they came to Galloway to ones that were with us last year. 85% of those students showed growth. So that's a very high percentage. So when you come to Galloway your scores can go up. That was
exciting news. I'll share for a few minutes some of our math data. We're going to see similar things. I'll go through it relatively quickly. So, this is a big picture across third grade through 8th grade including algebra 1 and our percent
passing compared to the state. Algebra 1 looks nice, which we do do well, but we are being compared at the state level to students that take algebra 1 in 9th grade. So, it's not the perfect um fair
comparison, but we do perform well. Now, we're going to take a look at again different students over each year, third different third graders over the last three years. Overall slight improvement,
slight decline and you can see kind of grade by grade the comparisons. Eighth grade in general, if you even noticed at the state level, only about 20% of the students in eth grade across
the state are passing this test. Part of that is because we pull out our most advanced students, the algebra 1 students, and these are the rest of the students. This is algebra. Now, for cohorts, same thing. We are
looking at last year's fourth graders and comparing them to when they were in third grade. third through fifth for last year's fifth graders. Now sixth,
seventh, and eighth. Like we looked at for ELA, you can see subgroups. We use the same colors that we used for ELA. and some highlights for math. We saw similar things that we saw for ELA. It's
close. ELA beat me out a little bit, but 9% of our students um there was a 9% increase for students that were in the district five years or more compared to students that were recently in Galloway.
And again, although the passing percentage overall was only 32%, we double it when we look at the percentage of kids that are improving. So once again, almost twothirds of the students are showing decent growth.
And when we take a look at how students compare when they come from other districts to Galloway, 82% of those students are showing growth. We also want to take a few minutes and look at science.
You can see how our fifth grade students over time scored compared to the state. We're pretty close last year, almost on par with the state. Same in eighth grade. Once again, this
includes all students. 20% of the kids less than 20% of the students in the state are passing the science test. So, we're not that far off. And then you can see subgroups for both fifth grade and eighth grade science.
So we wanted to highlight a few of strategies that we're using to continue to try to support our students across the curriculum. So in the area of ELA, one thing we identified as an area of focus was that students have been
struggling with reading in general. No surprise. And what we met with a group of people in conjunction with a leader in literacy across the state of New Jersey and
identified a program. It's we call it EUFly. It's from the University of Florida Lit Literacy Institute that all of our KTO2 students this year have are going to be taking a very specific phonics program that is very well
um identified as being successful that if students keep with this program and teachers use it to fidelity they see amazing strides with students. So that is something new that we're working on this year. In addition to that, we
continue to unpack the new 2023 standards. We've continued training in MTSS to try to support students in being able to differentiate and give all kids what they need.
Additionally, in terms of some instructional supports, we have made some specific changes related to intervention, tying teachers and providing more professional development to get to the
individual needs of those students. And we've realigned some of the reading intervention supports. For example, at the middle school, we kind of broke down reading and writing to give kids double the amount of time in ELA at the middle school to try to help support them as well. So, we're kind of hitting it from
both ends, K to2 and the middle school. And there's a variety of different programs available to us that we're using to help support them. You can see those names there. In the area of math, similar things, we continue to work with
students and helping them it based on their needs in small groups. We're targeting supports with our intervention teachers. We have coaches in both ELA and math that are making a difference. And when we look at professional development, we've been
looking at programs to truly build their numeracy. Students need more and more support with number sense. So that's an area that we continue to work toward and working at looking at data across the curriculum to make better instructional
decisions. And you can see a variety of instructional supports that are available in mathematics. For our multilingual learners, we have targeted supports for them as well. We focus on reading, writing, listening, and speaking. and that is
what they are assessed on when they take that access for L's test. We have integrated supports. We have u a model where we do some pull out instruction and also push in so that the students get additional supports when they're
with not with their ESL teachers and some of the recent resources that we've been purchasing that were identified at ESL conferences. We're always looking for the best resources we can to support these children. Mr. Santelli always talks about how
everything is aligned and everything is connected. This slide shows that our main focus kind of connects to especially our first goal where we're looking at making connections especially within the context of MTSS
and INRS. I know there's a lot of letters in alphabet soup in education, but all of these resources are meant to help support meet the individual needs so that there's multi-tered systems of support and when kids need additional
help, the intervention referral services frameworks will help continue to support our students. Climate and culture is always important that uh the curriculum department spent today we're meeting with different uh
schools every day. Today we happen to meet with all the staff at Roland Rogers period by period and we talked a lot about what we're doing academically but we also spend some time talking about climate and culture because without that nothing else is even possible. and we're
always looking for ways to connect community resources to meet the needs of our kids. So across the curriculum some programs we do have daytime intervention especially really K to8 we have extended
school year for special ed. We had some wonderful um activities this year with our summer enrichment camp where we did some special training in literacy and math um and STEM that happened in the mornings. There's supplemental instruction, social skills. We continue
to expand our preschool to get the kids in early so we can help them and send them on their way up through the grades. And then you can see where some of our main focus has been related to professional development and continues in these areas that are connected to
those goals that we were talking about on the last slide and continued the support structures through things like our coaching. We have three preschool coaches now. We have two um TLFs, teaching and learning
facilitators. and we continue to use our professional learning communities to support our staff along the way. All right, so we're going to switch gears for a second as we wrap up our presentation. One of the things that came out um late in the summer was where
we're headed. Um and uh this was a little bit of a surprise, I have to say, for all of us um in New Jersey. uh whether administrators or even people at the county office. This was something that um we weren't really prepped for. Um and and one of the things that there
there's two pieces to the puzzle. One is NAPE and that's a national assessment of educational progress. It is federally mandated and that is through a selection process. So, uh, the information that is here is just really to let the board and public know that we were selected, um, whether you consider that lucky or not,
um, for, uh, both Arthur ran fourth grade and GTMS 8th grade. Um, it's not really a choice for us. That is something that we're going to have to adhere to. Um, so we are going to be participating in our our NAPE assessment. But then there's also
changes in NJSLA adaptive. Now again, this is what I was referring to that was new and kind of a surprise for us. But I also have a glass half full mentality with this because this is I think what we've really been pushing for over the years as educators. Everything that Mrs.
Napoli talked about is a standalone summit of assessment. It's given basically within a couple weeks. It's how you perform on that given day closer to the end of the year. this potentially and there's a lot of unknowns because it's so new but this new NJSLA adaptive
test new this year may and I mean it you know very loosely because we don't know much about this but may allow for us to truly measure the growth of our students more like a benchmark test. So ultimately we do have uh some hopes for
where we're heading. Um and it's our hopes that you know with the training that's coming up, you see the training that's going to be occurring uh on September 17th and then some frequently asked questions that we recently just got. We're really unpacking that. So
also, you know, also Pearson will no longer be the, you know, the vendor. Uh Cabrium is is going to be taking his place. And so there's lots of changes, a lot of things we're going to be learning and as we go. Um, so that's that's kind of the work we're doing right now. But I think when you see the adaptive piece, I
want to make sure everybody understands the adaptive piece allows for students to be measured where they are. So for instance, if they're in, let's say, fourth grade, that language arts assessment or that mathematics assessment may start at a fourth grade level. It may even start at a third
grade level. And then as students respond to questions, the test will adapt to how they're responding. So it starts to identify their strengths and weaknesses within the curriculum. Those types of benchmarks are much more
powerful than a summitative standardized test that we just reported on. So, it's our hopes that, you know, for the future of, let's say, state testing and and all the things that we're going to be able to start utilizing some of these these data points through the adaptive test in
the future to be able to make better decisions not just for our staff, but based on our curriculum and pacing guides and and even other formative assessments that we use. Okay. So, uh with that, I just want to thank Mrs. Napoli and her team. Um, I can tell you
this that this data that you just saw, it's preliminary data basically. Um, there there is going to be additional data that's going to be forthcoming. That's usually when our reports go out to our parents and we send our letters home with them. Um, but I can tell you I know I she won't admit this, but I know
she probably spent nights and weekends um putting a lot of this together. Um, and you know, I thank her for that uh and her team because it's a lot of work as you can see to really try to go through that information. uh put this together so we can uh report it out in a
timely fashion to the public and the board. So I appreciate your efforts with that. So thank you very much. And with that, Mrs. Carman, that concludes the presentation on state testing. Thank you. Is there any questions for Mrs. Napoli or Mr. Silly? Hi, I have um just a a question. Um I know
that you had indicated first. Thank you. That was a great presentation, very thorough. I appreciate that. Um I know you had indicated that we used to receive um similar district data and information Um on the NJ school report card there are performance reports and downloadable Excel files. Are there ways to recreate
some of it so that we would get a feel for some of the similar districts to see if we are on par with them and similarly districts that are the predominant districts that are sending to Galloway what those pass rates are so we can get a feel of what that growth looks like.
Absolutely. It usually does it used to come to us it like very specifically as this DFG report but we do we also ask around and try to get things but eventually when the school report cards come out but they tend to come out in April like almost a year after the test
happened but we do look at that data when it comes out but we also try to find out as much as we can from the neighboring districts once everything is posted. Absolutely. Okay. Thank you Dr. department. Hi. Um, Miss Deoly, thank you for that
report. I am curious about the subgroups. So, I noticed that the um, black, African-American, and economically disadvantaged, they did the poorest. Does your data show where you can drill
down to see what the deficits are, why they did so poorly? want to talk about the how you how you dig deep when the when the individual test scores. So with NJSLA we get limited um data.
It's a very big level test. So we do have some and it doesn't come out yet for this year but we have some information that comes based on the standards that give us a little bit of information more globally not by subgroup. However, since we don't get
what we need through that test because it's not really meant to give us high meant to give us highle data, not the specifics, we use a variety of our own internal data where we can still pull out subgroup data to identify yes and drill into the specific needs of
students in both ELA and mathematics and we absolutely use that to support our instruction. Thank you. Okay, do any other questions at this time? I just have one. Thank you very much for that presentation. I I'm curious because
I just the charts. Do you have numbers that go with those charts? Because I didn't see numbers. Do we have numbers with the charts? Because I'd like students. Yeah. Whatever. Whatever you base it on the students, the you know the 1% is that what it is.
Yeah. So the total number of kids for each of those charts like that's giving that's student participation but do you mean on the graphs that I was showing? Yeah on the graphs. Yeah. All of them came from like I had I start with my Excel spreadsheets and
then I make each of them into graphs. So I also have charts that have by grade level. That's how these graphs came to be. But you can see by grade level like the percentage of kids that pass in each
but you want to know how many kids pass as opposed to just the percentage. So you're just go okay. All right. We do have charts of that information that we could share. Okay. That'd be great. Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you.
I think we have one more presentation. Mr. Centilli? Yes. One more uh presentation. So, at this time, Miss Summers, will you join me down here? I saw you uh were able to join us tonight. So, come on down.
One of the things um and and we're we're extremely proud to be able to present and and we shared with the board um if you had an opportunity to take a look at the bulletin, we did share the full um version of this uh video um for Mr. Be's backyard. Um and and this is going to be the trailer. The full video is is well
over I want to say 25 18 minutes. All right. So I was thinking 23 minutes for some reason. But this is about three minutes long. This is what I call the trailer to a great movie, right? But if you want to see the full version, we're going to be posting that online. Um a lot of work has gone into Mr. Be's as everyone knows. Uh and one
of the things that we did was we partnered with SRRITC and Stockton University. And that partnership with the help of Patty Weekes, also even partnering really with the New Jersey Department of Education and a variety of other organizations allowed for us to utilize Mr. Bees because it is truly an
outdoor classroom really like no one has in this state. I'm not just talking to the county, but actually probably really in this state. So because of that opportunity, they wanted to utilize uh our space uh to create and generate in partnership with us as Galloway Township
School District a video that can be used whenever they provide professional development and all the things that that constantly go on in education. Um and and this video will be shown statewide, not just through Stockton University, but through the uh New Jersey Department of Education supporting our science
curriculum and that work that goes into sustainability as well. um they know that they can't probably replicate Mr. Be's, but the idea is to let everyone know that they can start with just a small space and they can continue to have that grow from there and and give children an opportunity to get outside
and and tie it into the curriculum. But I want to allow for you to share a little bit more because I know how passionate you've been with with making this come to to fruition. Yes. Um, so Steve Feedler pitched the idea of doing a professional uh video of
it. Something I've wanted since probably 2015 or so for sure. And uh, so when he offered that, I went approached Steve and said, "Would we be able to do that in partnership?" Because I also do some educational development for Stockton
with Patty Weekes. Uh we actually presented it at a workshop I did for 15 educators um for they were under a climate grant part of that program and so we showed the trailer for it and then gave them
access to the full video. Um as you know I'm passionate about Mr. Bees. It's my baby I like to say. uh but it's a partnership with also educators of Galloway and all the support I've had from administrators through and the
community uh as well and organizations like the US fish and wildlife air trading uh the green team uh for Galloway uh they all support us and our program and I felt for years that is a
model for other schools that anyone can do what we've done here. Does it help to have ponds? Yes. Um, but most schools have those ponds put in the retention detention basins that are required when
you build. So, a lot of school districts have them. And a point Eric Trading made in the video was that not only can schools use it, but communities that have these detention basins can let them
become naturalized around it. like we have a trail around it and it's full of wildlife uh that kids um don't get to see. So, um to have it come professionally took uh he took over
three hours of interviews and whittleled it down into 18 minutes. And then the trailer that you're going to see is even the other fine points that are made that um gives you a taste of and an overview
of it. So, I'm super proud of it and everyone that has um supported it. And you can hear the kids excitement when they videotaped it cuz um they caught a a snake caught a frog and one of the
Stockton students caught that and the kids got to see that and so there's all kinds of excitement uh around that. Um, and it really shows that the kids teaching other kids about their local ecosystems. So, it's my pet peeve that
kids know what elephants, tigers, and giraffes, and all that are, but they have no idea what's in their backyard. I've literally had kids say to me while we're out there, the Malard ducks got up and flew from one pond to the other and
said, I didn't know ducks could fly. And I was like, that's why we started Mr. Bee's backyard classroom, cuz it really gets kids excited. And when you get them out in nature, they'll learn to take care of it and why it's important to
care for as adults. And that's my hope that we can do this for other kids in the state of New Jersey besides Galloway kids. Well, thank you very much. And uh while I don't have popcorn for everyone, this is the first time in public we're going
to be showing the trailer. So, we're excited and we hope you enjoy it. Would help if I turn on the sound. The water that came off all the rooftops spilled into this district. Welcome to Mr. Be's backyard classroom
in Galloway Township, New Jersey. That was the drainage basin for Reeds Road School. So, all the water that came off all the rooftops spilled into this drainage basin. I believe that when the middle school then was built, this basin was built and one basin kind of flowed
into the other basin and they just kind of sat here as drainage basins and uh no one really bothered with them. Nobody ever came over here until I had hired a teacher, Guy Buckaloo, who was my sixth grade science teacher. And you would
find a guy over here, uh, collecting samples of water. He would catch frogs. He would bring back snails, any thing that floor and fauna that he could find to show the kids in his science class that, you know, look what's existing
right at our our back door here. You may be wondering if something like Mr. Be's backyard classroom could be replicated elsewhere. This is a model that can be done anywhere. And when you see the kids get
out in nature, just exposing them is what is going to take care of our plan the climate because they learn what is unique in their own backyard. you know, I typically would part school gardens and healthy green initiatives. Um, you
know, and and that is there's great work. Again, there's tons of value in that. But one of the things that I find unique here, we had took some often times they're mowed and there's really kind of a habitat desert. So we
try to to maintain it as a storm water, you know, its primary purpose is storm water, but also really you can enhance the areas around it, shrubs, trees, and actually create some wildlife habitat, which in a lot of detention bases that's not the case. It's really a remarkable experience to
have something like this in their backyard between these three schools here. It's really a joy. snakes and turtles and frogs for the first time and actually getting a chance to touch them. Pulling the snake out with the frog and
the kids seeing that kind of thing that this is what happens in nature. The school habitat projects are unique in that it creates an opportunity for, you know, kids to learn about um nature right in their schoolyard. Uh appreciate
it. uh they have that nature fest which is kind of a way for kids to learn a little bit more about you know what's going on here whether it's you know uh reptiles or amphibians or the food web or whatever it is and a kind of appreciation of of what's here right in
their schoolyard. Mr. Be's backyard classroom a learning environment since 2010. When you see the faces of the kids and you see what they learn etc. It makes it worth it. They're doing the research. They're learning about it. And then
they're teaching their peers. Even an urban school can put a picnic table out, can uh, you know, can put some potted plants out. There there are ways to make this work for really every school everywhere.
[Music] All right. So, we hope you enjoyed and again, thank you for the continued support and thank you to uh to Debbie and and all the volunteers that continue to come out to really help make that an
a true outdoor classroom. It's it's truly been remarkable being able to be part of it. So, thank you. Debbie, I just want I want to say thank you. I mean, you have really poured your heart into this. I remember the very first year when everybody came to us and
I was on the board then and it has grown so much and every nature fest and the kids get more and more excited. You have done such a great job and and all the volunteers, it's just amazing. So, thank you. If I can say Mrs. Summers, you've done a
great job. I can remember when it opened. I can remember the kids from Reeds and Roll and walking over and looking for frogs, snakes, etc. It's a great project. Thank you. I've been to Mr. Bees a couple of times
um for the events and it was great to see the students out there. They were excited and also engaged. That's what I really like that they were engaged about what they were doing and they were excited to tell you about their projects and what they were working on and how it worked and the backstory and then um
sometimes they would cut each other off in chiming in but the engagement was really nice to see. Thank you. came up with It's really great. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[Applause] Okay. While Mr. Actually, until he makes his way back up to the stage, we'll open up the uh board meeting for public comment on agenda items only. Are there any comments on agenda items only, please? Okay, seeing none, we will move on to
the superintendent report and the attorney's report, please. Oh, sorry. Okay, I'll jump in and do the attorney's report first while Mr. Santilia signing in. Since the last time we spoke, I've had the opportunity to work with the
district, welcome the new students, and um do some policy matters, some contractual matters, some employment matters, some student matters. Thank you. Thank you. Moving on to Moving on to student enrollment, please. So 6.2 is student enrollment. Just an
FYI as attached. No votes needed. Curriculum instruction, please. So, at this time, we're looking to approve items 7.1 through 7.2 as listed and attached. Can I motion approve items 7.1 and 7.2? So, moved. Second. Is there any board comment?
May I have a roll call, please? Dr. Parmentor. Yes. Mrs. Avery? Yes. Mr. D? Yes. Mr. Gentiel? Yes. Mrs. Hermanau? Yes. Vice President Basher Blau? Yes. And President Carmen? Yes. Moving on to finance and
facilities. Mrs. Nixon, please. Thank you. We did have a finance and facilities committee meeting tonight. Um Dr. Vasher Blau can provide an update. Uh yes. So um there were no questions on the bills list but we did have a variety of topics that we um went through which are noted in the committee report. Um
one of the updates was on the ESA title grants. Um there has been extension of those grants um in October which is good. Very good. Any questions for Dr. Basher? Okay, moving on.
Thank you. Items 8.2 through 8.23 are up for your approval. Can I have a motion to approve items 8.2 through 8.23, please? So move. Second. Is there any board comment? May I have roll call? Dr. Pmener? Yes. Mrs. Avery?
Yes. Mr. Dace? Yes. Mr. Gentiel? Yes. Mrs. Hermanale? Yes. Vice President Basher Blouse? Yes. And President Carman? Yes. Moving on to personnel. Item 9.1 is a uh motion to approve the superintendent's contract. I
hope you all had a chance to read the letter. And can I get a motion to approve item 9.1, please? Actually, no. Oh, no. You're going to turn it over to me. Oh, I'm going to turn it over to you. So, sorry about that. So, for 9.1 for the superintendent's contract, we first
have to open it up for a public hearing as required by law. Um, we're just, this is now the time for anyone that has any questions about the contract, please come up to the podium and ask any questions. Is there any public questions or on for
hearing? Seeing none, seeing none, now you can move to 9.2, which is the contract. Thank you. Can I have a motion to approve item 9.1, please? 9.2. Uh, 9.2. So move.
Is there any board comment? May I have a roll call, please? Dr. Prevent. Yes. Mrs. Avery? Yes. Mr. D? I must abstain. Mr. Gentiel, yes. Mrs. Hermanale,
I abstain. Vice President Basher Blau? Yes. And President Corman? Yes. Moving on with personnel, please. So, at this time, we'd like to move items 9.4 through 9.8 8 as listed or I'm sorry 9.4 through 9.9 as listed and
attached. Can I motion to approve items 9.4 through 9.8 please? So move 9.9. Why are we doing I'm sorry. Can I have can can we repeat the motion please?
Sure. Motion to approve personnel items 9.4 through 9.9. Thank you. And do we have a first and second? I'm sorry. It was moved. Dr. Pormaner. Yes. Mrs. Avery.
Yes. Mr. Dace. Yes. Mr. Jensil. Yes. Mrs. Hermanel, yes. Vice President Basher Blau, yes. And President Carman, yes. Do we have any new hires this evening? Okay, moving on to policy, please.
So, there was no um policy committee this month. However, there were uh second readings of bylaws andor policies that are listed uh and attached. So, at this time, we're looking to approve for second reading items 10.1 through 10.21.
Thank you. Thank you. Can I have a motion to approve items 10.1 through 10.21, please? So moved. Second. Is there any board comment? Uh yes, since we're on bylaws. Um so there was already 17 bylaws with the
school that I could find. How many of these bylaws are new? That's my first question. Um and the ones that are being added, all of them, he said they're all new. Okay. Yeah, these are these are all new, hence the second reading.
Okay. Um so the comment is um at the school board meeting on July 14th we had board meeting and um I had asked to please reinstate the board comments at the end of the meeting to the president. Um and I sent an email after that after
the meeting on 717 asking and request and requesting for a response as to um why those comments were taken out under what bylaw they were taken out under. So, what bylaw, since I haven't gotten an answer yet, it's the third email I've sent. It hasn't been really answered.
Um, so I'm asking what bylaw you used to stop doing the board comments at the end. Can you answer that question? What number is that? 164. Okay. Because you didn't answer it in the last
I answered your email twice. So, please don't misrepresent. I read it and it didn't. So, please acknowledge that I've answered it. So, let me finish. You may finish. You didn't you answered it, but you didn't answer it. In other words, you didn't answer the the question that I asked. You you tiptoed around it. And
you said you can make comments at each section when you do policies, but you didn't say anything about the ending comments. So, I have come to two conclusions. either, and I don't think it's the first, let me just preface it by saying that, uh, President Susette, because I think you're very smart, but
either you are just inept and shouldn't be in that position if you can't answer the question appropriately, or number two, you just tiptoed around it and didn't want to answer the question. So, that is my second response to that because I had to send two separate
actually three emails to get an answer that I still didn't get an answer to until right now, until you just gave me the 1.64 64 bylaw. Thank you for that. The second thing I asked about was the um policy 5517. I've been waiting for an
answer on questions that I had in the July 14th meeting from the chairman. I did ask you to forward that to her. I think that's Brenda. And I still haven't gotten any response on that as well. Brenda who? I'm not Brenda. Belinda. Sorry, Belinda.
Um I still haven't got an answer on that either. Um, and I would really just appreciate a little bit more um, clarity um, letting us know exactly what it is that we're talking about. Sometimes when we ask these questions, rather than me
having to email three separate times, when I asked the question the night of the meeting, I still couldn't get an answer. It It's really frustrating. It's really I mean, it's very frustrating being on this board and not getting answers the way that you need them. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Is there any
other board comments? I have one question. Yes. On the bylaw 6 0164. I'm sorry. Say it again. The bylaw 0164 it says about uh comments at the end of the meeting. How's that
described here? I I'm looking at it now. How is it interpreted? Amy, can you help? Bylaw 164 doesn't have comments at the end of the meeting. Bylaw 164 just says the superintendent in consultation with the board president shall prepare the
agenda. Oh, so it's an agenda item, but it doesn't have to be withdrawn. Correct. Doesn't have to be on or doesn't have to be on or off. It's it's so the board can decide. Right. So at the end of the meeting before we adjourn, can somebody say I
have a comment to make? Absolutely. Okay. Just make sure after every section we ask for comment. No, I just went of a board comment at the end of the meeting as as I explained to Mr. Doesn't have to pertain to the agenda itself. Well, at the end, no, it doesn't. Right. Okay. That's what I was exactly.
I would also add at our last meeting, um, in fact, I think Richie had asked to make a board comment. I did ask Yeah, I mean, we roll with that. Okay. I think Miss Herman, as I explained to you, you're always free to make comments. It just doesn't have to be on
the agenda as such under old business, new business. So when you say a motion to adjourn, we can say like to make a comment. Can I make a comment? Exactly. Okay. Well, I do appreciate that, but I will say we had two meetings where you said that we couldn't make comments at the end because you decided it. So, so I
don't know like I'm confused. That's not accurate. You did you did No, it's on It's on the video. It's on the video. So, I'm just wondering what's going on. Don't make me look like an idiot, please, cuz I'm not. I move to call the motion, please.
Thank you. So, do we have a meet? Do we have um are we at 10.22? Is that where we're at? I'm sorry I lost. And we have a first and a second. So, we're at roll call now. Yes. May I have a roll call, please? Dr. Permener? Yes. Mrs. Avery? Yes.
Mr. D? Yes. Mr. Gentiel? Yes. Mrs. Hermanel? I abstain. Vice President Basher Blouse. Yes. And President Carman. Yes. Moving on to new business item 11.1, please.
I have to read it. Okay. Okay. But is is not 11.1 something different? Okay. So, there's a mentoring plan on there, but I I do have an issue that I've spoken to Mr. Santilly with and
it's regarding hiring new teachers and specifically special ed teachers and for those positions that are currently open. I would like to make a motion to give Mr. Santilly hiring authority because if he finds a candidate before the next board
meeting, he'd like to be able to move forward with that. So, I'd like to make them to make a motion for any positions that are currently open to give him hiring authority and then moving forward any new positions we would revert back to board approval. Does anybody have any questions about
that? Can I have a motion to approve that? So, move second. And that would be 11.2. So, I'm asking for a motion for 11.1 and 11.2. So, Jim, you would you had first.
Did you first? Okay. Was there a second? Thank you. Can I have a roll? Is there any board comment? May I have roll call, please? Dr. Permentor. Yes. Mrs. Avery. Yes. Mr. Dace. Yes. Mr. Gentiel. Yes.
Mrs. Herman. Yes. Vice President Basher Blau. Yes. And President Cararman. Yes. Informational items, please. So 12.1 is the board calendar as attached um with the remainder of the year. Um if there's any updates, we'll certainly update the board um both via
email and through the next board meetings. Uh special events are listed for 12.2. We do have a variety of events. U most notably our back to school nights. If any board members do want to attend back to school night, please just uh contact my administrative assistant, Miss Harris. um that way we
can pass on a courtesy to our building administration letting them know that you'll be in attendance. We also have a board of education table. Um so we will be there to be able to disseminate information like district calendar and other needed uh information to our community. A few other events obviously
911 uh we'll be celebrating this week but on September 11th um you can certainly join at Patriot Lake. Uh and then of course the uh Veterans Memorial Park uh is having a celebration on September 13th. And then of course Ed Foundation, we don't want to forget they're huge events and huge supporters
of helping uh supplement um needs within the district. So Education Foundation golf tournaments going to be coming up on September 18th. And then the designer purse bingo right here at GTMS on October 17th. Don't wait because it does tend to sell out.
That concludes thatformational item section. Thank you. At this time, we'll open up the board meeting for public comment. Is there any public comment this evening? The board values and welcomes comments and opinions from residents. The meeting will now be open for public comments. Three minutes per person. Please, if
your questions pertain to litigation, student or personnel items, please see the superintendent after the meeting as the board does not discuss these matters in public. Depending on 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. Please come up to the podium, state your full name and address and sign in. I don't know if that's on He's coming right behind you though, right? That would take more than I can
do. you know, uh, I'm Susan Kgettis, by the way, and you know that I am the first person to come and support public education, right? And to praise what is happening. I'm the first and a believer. And my son was on the website all year,
right? And how proud I was of that. But I'm going to say this before I get shouted down and being told not to say it. This school has failed my child. Okay. I am distressed.
I am disappointed. The hate speech that happens at these board meetings cannot be tolerated because it infiltrates the entire culture
of the entire school and community. There are people here who get to speak and what they are saying is biased. It's discriminatory and it should be immediately shut down. I have removed my youngest child who is
transgender from this district because they are not accepted here. They are not supported here. They were an outcast here. And I've been ghosted by folks who came
in and met with me and saw my face and gave me tissues, but did not respond to my needs. It is not acceptable. It's not acceptable. I am so pro-life that I love transgender
people. I don't want my child to die, but that doesn't mean you don't respond to me and you do not deny a free and appropriate public education because this person had an IEP and I am
requesting even I had to do a unilateral placement. I am requesting that the support continues, but it cannot happen here. And it pains me. It pains me to say that because I see all of these wonderful
things that my child doesn't get to experience now, but brother got to be on the website and brother got to do all these wonderful things and get into a magnet school, but my youngest cannot be in this space. And I'm doing this so they can remain on
this planet and continue to live and know that they are worthy of dignity, worthy of an education, worthy of being accepted, worthy of going to the bathroom without having to justify it.
But we deserve to have the support. And what has happened here is wrong. And there's a code of ethics, right, for schoolboard members. It should be read every single meeting. and shut this down. I should not have to file for due
process to get a return to an email or reply to an in-person meeting. And I know a lot of people cleared out this summer, right? So, there was a gap and I took care of business. I took care of my family, but this was not okay.
And I know that once I file for due process, I can't talk again. So if there's an executive session next meeting, right, I want you to know and to see my face and to know that this was not right and we did not indoctrinate and these people did not indoctrinate.
This is just how it happens. This is the world and this is how people are and they're just honest. They're just honest and being themselves and they deserve to be able to get a free public education and be a part of things that are
wonderful and not be an outcast at 11. Right? And now I've got to go home to that person and take care of business for that person and make sure that they know that they are loved and they are worthy and they will get an education. But it shouldn't just be my responsibility.
And I know I've taken up more than three minutes, but I want you to see me because this probably will be the last time you see me, right? What's the point of being here? What is most important about public education is everyone is all in.
So how do we do that sincerely really in real life? How do we make sure that everybody feels like they belong here? Thank you for listening. Thank you Mrs. Gettis for those comments. Is there any other public comment this
evening? Seeing none, we will make make a motion. Oh, I'm sorry. If you could come to the microphone, state your name and address and sign in. And please keep your comments to three minutes, please. Sure. My name is Gary Hermano. I'm a
resident of Galloway, New Jersey. I have to agree that every child should get a decent education and I don't believe any child should be singled out or bullied or picked on or excluded in any form or fashion.
But I also believe everyone has the right to their own opinions and this is a country of free speech. And I also don't believe that anyone's child trumps anybody else's child and that anyone has their has the right to push their views
on anyone else's child. I raise my child. Parents raise their children, not the school board, not the schools. And so when someone gets up here and they say, "I'm upset with you. You
haven't done your job." Because and and that hate speech is being spoken here. Hate speech is not being spoken here. People are coming here and they're all speaking their truths, what's important to them. People don't all agree and they come
here to discuss this. We have a school board that was elected and they are doing the best jobs they can. They don't all agree, but we're doing the best they can because we are in a democracy. We are in a a democratic republic.
And that's the way it works. It is a fair and balanced system where it's not perfect, but it's the best we can do. There's always going to be people that are upset. That's why we have school boards. That's why we have voting. Thank you.
Thank you. Is there any other comments this evening? Seeing none, can I have a motion to adjurnn? So move. Second. All in favor? I. Meeting adjourned. Thank you. No comments. Do you have any comments?
No. Meeting adjourned. Thank you.