WEBVTT

METADATA
Video-Count: 1
Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=JB-QX58ieC4

NOTE
MEETING SECTIONS:

Part 1 (Video ID: JB-QX58ieC4):
- 00:02:00: Meeting Called to Order, Roll Call, Flag Salute
- 00:03:46: Public Comment Rules and Procedures Explained
- 00:05:25: Public Comment 1: Concerns About Special Meetings and Budget
- 00:06:36: Public Comment 2: Special Education Services Concerns
- 00:08:04: Public Comment 3: Questioning Special Meetings and Finances
- 00:10:14: Going into Executive Session to Discuss Confidential Matters


Part: 1

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All right. Good evening everyone. >> Good evening. >> Evening. >> In accordance with the open meeting act NJSA 104.6 Six. An important notification of this meeting has been provided by advertising the record and the Herald News posting notice in the

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board of education administration building and filing notice with the city clerk to ensure accessibility. Interpreter services are available upon request. Please submit your written request at least 24 hours prior to the board meeting to the school business administrator, Dr. Steven A. Lewis at

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steven lewishackschools.org. I hereby call to order the special meeting on Monday, May 18th, 2026 in the Panavano building at >> 6:16 p.m. >> 6:16 p.m. Miss Aashra, can you please do a

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roll call? >> Miss Olafra, >> present. >> Miss Amza, >> present. >> Mr. Carol, Miss Absent. >> Miss Gilmore, >> here. >> Mr. Jones >> here. >> Miss Pringle, >> present. Mr. Stein

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>> here. >> Vice President Martin is absent. >> President Harris >> present. >> Thank you. Please stand for the flag salute. >> To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it

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stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please remain standing for a moment of silence. Um, as we have recently just lost our athletic director this past Friday, Mr. Gordon Whitney.

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Please be seated. Okay. So, tonight is a special meeting which means we're going to start with public comments first. After public comments, just so that the public understands, we will stop recording as we're going to go into executive session

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and there is no action being taken after executive session and we'll close the meeting right after that. Um, so here we go into public comments. Public participation shall be governed by the following rules. One, if in person, a participant must sign the sign-in sheet and be recognized by the presiding

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officer and must preface comments by an announcement of his or her name, municipal, municipality of residents, and group affiliation if applicable. Two, each statement made by a participant shall be limited to a threeminut duration during the public session. Three, all statements,

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questions or inquiries shall be directed to the presiding officer and any questions or inquiries directed by participant to another board member shall be redirected to the presiding officer who shall determine if such statement, question or inquiry shall be addressed by the presiding officer on

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behalf of the board or by the individual board member. And four, all board and or acting superintendent responses to questions or inquiries shall be held until the end of public participation. At this time, we open to the floor to anyone in person who would like to speak. If you like to speak, you just

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step forward to the and you can sit at the front. >> Hi, Cindy. You're right. um parents of of a few students here in this in the school district. My question today is why are we having so many meetings? If you guys are claiming that we're in a

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budget deficit, I've had people in my inbox already ask me what's going on. Why are we having another special meeting when we had one on the 6th? We had a meeting on the 13th and now we're having a meeting today. There's a few meetings last month and before that with

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everything started since January in regards to death. That's my main concern. Um we still haven't heard any solution in regards to special services and parents are concerned including myself on what's going to happen next year and the class sizes of each student

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and are they going to have a full-time para for IEP kids that's including my son cuz he's going to be going and by my understanding there's a lot of kids in that classroom not only for him but also other kindergarten class that they will

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need that second Yeah. >> Yes. Um my English is not that great. I more understand that I speak. But if I need help, I ask Cindy. It's okay. She for me. Okay. My son. I have two kids. One is five years old.

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Another one is high school special education. So like I just spoke with my son. is crying because um I think next year he doesn't have electives two of them that TV show another one it was a music I

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believe where two of them are done so I keep coming for the meeting via person also is I don't see any like change or anything like you know um he has been in speech therapy three times a week now they once a week and he really didn't

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speak that much and with that speech therapy it helped He give a lot to improve. Um you know a special service is really important for him and just devastating now that he lo his service and you know he's being in special

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education since he was three years old because he's a person at this and that's helped him a lot to improve but looks like the meeting is went to nowhere because you know we keep coming but I don't see any results. So that's my my

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biggest concern. Thank you. Anyone else in person would like to speak? >> Right, we're going to move on to online. Good evening. This is Bridget speaking and I have been watching the last couple of meetings and special meetings. The

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question I have is why do we continue to have these special meetings when we're supposed to be on a budget management? This is a cost to the community that is a cost to the lawyer to pay him.

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And every time we have one, he's getting paid out of that budget. So, my thing here is why do we continue to have these meetings? If you're going to talk about budget management when it comes to the financial uh situation, the

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second is to let the community know. If you want to look at finance records of board members, please open them. Go back, see how they voted, see who voted for what. Because when people come

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always seem to always um how could I say it want to read something to make themselves feel good. The feel good is because they know how they actually voted in the past. There are multitude

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of them sitting on the board who've been here for a while. So go back Oprah financial records, see how they voted and what they voted for and then you might understand how we got here. Thank you. Have a nice evening.

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So, at this time, public comment session is not closed. Um, just so that the public is aware, yes, it's a special meeting, but as you can see, we do not have our attorney present, nor is our superintendent. There's a lot of people not here except for board members. Um, we cannot discuss what it is that we are

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discussing in executive session. Um but it can be regarding personnel. Um it it's it's about personnel. That's all I can say. Um but that is the most that we can get into about that. Um other than that,

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um I do not have an answer to your special education question. As you can see, we don't have our staff here to answer that. So by our June meeting, I hope that that answers your question. Um,

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and that's pretty much it. All right. So, we're going to move on into executive session. Be a result that the Hackas Board of Education determines it necessary to meet an executive session on Monday, May 18th, 2026 to discuss legal personnel, student related

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matters, HIV reports, negotiations, and other confidential matters. And be a further result that these matters will be made public when the need for confidentiality no longer exists. Can I have a motion to go into executive, please? >> So move. >> Motion by Trusty Stein and a second. >> Second.

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>> Second by Trustee Jones. All those in favor say I. Anyone opposed? Any abstensions? All right. Thank you all members of the public. Um, as I said before, this meeting will be stopped recording and when we leave executive

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session, the meeting will be over. All right. Have a good night, everyone. Thank you. Thank you very much.