Good evening everyone. Good evening. Please stand for the flag salute. the States of America to the republic which stands one nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all.
Please be seated. In accordance with the open public meeting act NJSA 104-6. Adequate notification of this meeting has been provided by advertising in the record and posting notice in the board of education administration building and
filing notice with the city clerk. I hereby call to order the regular public meeting on Wednesday, July 23rd, 2025 in the Hack High School Media Center at 6:16. At 6:16 p.m. Miss Astra, can you please
do a roll call? Miss Olston Balutra, present. Miss Amir Hamza present. Mr. Carol present. Miss Gilmore here. Mr. Martin present. Miss Pringle present.
Miss Harris present. Mr. Stein I'm here. We have a quorum. Okay. Thank you so much. At this time we are going to administer the oath of office to our newly appointed board member, Michael Jones. Please come up.
I, Michael Jones. I, Michael Jones, do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey. Constitution of the State of New Jersey. That I will bear true faith and
allegiance and I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same the same. And to the governments established in the United States and to the governments established in the United States and this state and this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people.
So help me God. we got. I state your name. I do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I possess the qualifications that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law for the office of member of the board of education prescribed by law for the office of
member of board of education and I am not disqualified as a voter and that I'm not disqualified as a voter pursuant to RS9 col4-1 pursuant to RS19 no 4-1 nor disqualified due to conviction of a
crime nor disqualified due to the conviction of a crime or offense listed or offense listed in NJSA 18A in NJSA18A col 12-1 12-1 and I will faithfully and I will faithfully
impartially impartially and justly and justly perform all duties of the office perform all of the duties of that office according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me God help me God congratulations Congratulations.
I think you're right. That's important. Thank you so much. Congratulations. So at this time um I know it's not normal what we do but because he um we have a new trustee trustee Jones if anybody wants to say anything this is the time if they want to come up and
congratulate or say any words to our newly appointed trustee [Laughter] that's rough crowd thank you very much I appreciate it everybody thank
I know you couldn't say no. Good evening everyone. I just want to congratulate Mike uh on being appointed at least sworn in tonight to the board of education. I also want to thank Miss Story, my first teacher for my best safety. I appreciate it.
Now I'm official. So Mike and I have known each other for a while now. We met randomly at a beer tasting when I happened to be working at uh one afternoon on a Saturday and Mike and I became friends and I think Mike is
a person who really loves Hackinack and I think he'll do the right thing for our city and for our students. So I want to congratulate you and encourage you to do your best here to support our our schools. I will. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. My Thank you.
Thank you. Right. Sure. Say something. This guy's been a special guy to me. Again, congratulations. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Love you, too. That it.
Okay. Um, be it resolved that the Hackasak Board of Education determs it necessary to meet in executive session on Wednesday, July 23rd, 2025 to discuss legal, personnel, student related matters, HIV reports, negotiations, and
other confidential matters. And be it further resolved that these matters will be made public when the need for when the need for confidentiality no longer exists. Can I have a motion to go into executive? A second. Motion by Trusty Pringle, second by Trustee Gilmore. All those in
favor say I. I. Anyone opposed. Excellent. Okay. Um, just for the public's knowledge, we should return around 7:45. Thank you so much. Okay. Can I have a motion to reopen to the public session? Motion.
Motion by Trustee Carol. Can I have a second? Second. Second by Trustee Stein. All those in favor say I. I. Anyone opposed? Excellent. Okay. So we are moving on in our agenda to approve the minutes.
Be it resolved that the Hackasack Board of Education approves the regular meeting minutes and executive meeting minutes of June 18th, 2025 and special meeting minutes and executive meeting minutes of June 24th, 2025 and the special meeting minutes of July
8th, 2025. Can I have a motion to approve the minutes? Motion. Okay. Motion by Trusty Pringle. Can I have a second? Second. Second by trustee Carol. All those in favor say I. I. Anyone opposed? Should I abstain?
Yes. Yeah. Abstain. Is it on? Can you hear me? Yeah. All right. Abstain. Okay. So, Mr. Jones abstains. Okay. At this time, we are going to have our presentation for the 2425 spring
NJGPA uh data from Miss Rosemary Marks, assistant superintendent, and Jennifer Lenuski. Did I say it correctly? Laneski. Laneski. So, sorry. Jennifer Laneski, director of curriculum and instruction.
Good evening, everybody. Good evening. Jen and I um are here tonight to to present our NJ GPA 2025 uh results and those are the results for the spring administration.
We are going to get started with an overview of NJGPA. What is NJGPA? It is the New Jersey Graduate Proficiency Assessment and it's administered to all 12th grade students as well as to any 11th and 12th grade
student who may have previously taken the test but not mastered the state graduation proficiency standards on that test. The test is designed to measure the extent to which students are graduation ready in both English and
math. Graduation readiness is then reported separately for each content component. And in ELA, it is uh aligned to the grade 10 standards. And for the mathematics component, the assessment is
aligned to algebra 1 and geometry standards. Thanks, Jen. Yeah, the NJ GPA includes multiple paths to success. So, what does that mean? students who take the test but don't get
to the minimum required score of 725 on each the um at math and the ELA component will have the opportunity to receive additional supports and those supports may include retaking the ELA and or math component of the
assessment the following summer or fall which is why some of them might still be 11th grade in the summer they have not moved on to 12th grade. Um, they need a designated cut score from a menu of substitute competency tests. And in
Hackinack, we offer the ACUPPLACER and they may also complete a portfolio appeal as part of that process to success. So, what are some highlights um that um give you an overview of what we do here at Hackinack High School? Specifically,
for those seniors who have not met the required minimum score of 725, they may be assigned to a senior lab specifically for ELA. ML and general ed students would be
included in that. um as well as special ed students. Um there's a collaborative um approach with faculty who get together to co-plan and specifically uh last year the high school guidance department worked closely with our ML
department thanks to director Monllo sitting over there who took a lot of time to go over supports um for our our MLL students to support their cognitive academic language development to ensure that strategies
like using visuals were being um used on a regular basis and also to support our counseling department and teaching staff with outreach to those students. Um, we offered Saturday acupplacer tutorials which provided for intensive
tutoring sessions specifically in math as well as small group tutorials um that provided for one-on-one tutoring with the math math teacher during the school day, usually at lunch or during work release time as well as portfolio appeal
support. Now, Jen's turn. Thank you, Rosemary. So, we're going to join me on a little journey through data here. Um, what you see here on the right is everything that we are going to be discussing data wise. This includes aggregate data, so our data across the
district. But then Rosemary is going to speak a little bit more about the disagregated data that we have um by program and race. And then I will talk about our student intervention strategies that we have in place. But something that Rosemary and I wanted to bring to your attention is that you may see an asterk in some of these upcoming
data sets that we're about to share. And that is because the population or the sample size is smaller than 10. So it's a state requirement that we do not report out exact numbers on smaller sample sizes that are fewer that are 10 or below. Anything greater than 10, we
can report out on and share those exact numbers. Um, so that's why you may see an asterct and that's designated underneath those data sets. It should only appear appear once. So here's our overall participation rates across the district. As you can see, Rosemary shared before earlier that
we test 11th and 12th grade students. The majority of students that you will see that large sample size is our 11th grade population because that is who the test is designed to target. We do have a sample size for grade 12. Those are students who chose to take the test once
again or they could have been as you can see in ELA there is a larger 12th grade sample size because our ML students are exempt from taking that if they are in 11th grade and they have just arrived to the United States right and they have been designated as needing that
exemption right um because of their language needs so that they then have the opportunity to take that assessment the fall of their 12th grade year so that's why that you see that population there probably for grade 12 in ELA. But you can see we have very high
participation rates of 99.5% in both ELA and math. But just kind of take a note of the sample size in general. So you can compare it when we do our um progression over the past uh over the um past three years. So here's
our spring 2025 results. This is what you've been waiting for. You can see here we have very strong results in ELA and the map is an area in need of support for our students. Um if you take a look there we have both percentage and then we have the count in parenthesis.
So that's the total number of students along with the total sample size that we have there. So that's the data and the information that you see there. 80.5% of our students demonstrated graduate graduation readiness in ELA while 33.8%
of our students demonstrated graduation readiness for math. So here are the trends that I was talking about. we have a progression over 3 years starting in 2023 to 2025. You can see here that we have made
steady growth um in both subject areas. But notice here the sample size. This is something I kind of want you to take note of that our sample size starting in 2023 for that class was much smaller comparatively speaking to the to the other samples that we have in 2024 and
2025. But what you can kind of see here is that still the percentage of graduation readiness in both math and ELA have remained the same. Pretty much has been steady with a slight increase. What this shows us is that instruction pretty much
has remained the same, right? Because it's holding steady. So that's something just to kind of take note of and just a little bit of an insight that we did want to share with you and bring to your attention. Regardless of the sample size, the proportion right of percent of students who are graduation ready has
pretty much remained constant with a slight increase we see here um in 2025. All right. So comparison to the state for ELA, we are on par with what is happening across the state. 81% of
students in the state are graduation ready in ELA. for math. Like we said before, this is an area in which we will need to address um in the future. All right, Rosemary, here you go. Thank you.
I have to take my glasses off so I can see the screen now. Um so we'll get started with our disagregated results for ELA and you can see um by racial category where we are. I'm not reading these to you, but you could see and um
the multiple categories does not exist. Again, Jen mentioned earlier that if the sample size is too small, it's insufficient. And so, we don't have a bar for that. And for math,
we have three categories that were actually uh where we had enough students to report. And as you can see, um the results are there. And as Jen mentioned, math is uh a priority area for us as we move forward to address the needs in
math. Um so now taking what we just saw and breaking it down by program and by program refers to students who qualify for special ed 504
and or ML um learning as well as economically disadvantaged. And what I will say to that is some students may fall into multiple categories. So the numbers may not all account for 100% if
you try to do the math. But um specifically with special education, of the 73 students in the program, 76.7% met graduation readiness standards.
the 504 students of the 20 students 95% and you could do the math on that one. For the ML learners, of the 72 students um who took the assessment and were in the ML program, seven out of the 72,
23.6% met the graduation readiness benchmark. And for the economically disadvantaged, of the 258 students in that program, 79.5% met graduation readiness.
On the right side of the screen, oh, go back. That's okay. Thanks, Jen. On the right side, these are the number of students who are nonprogram eligible, which simply means in that first category, the 384 are what
we would call our general general ed population. not in that uh special ed category. The same for the 504. They are not in 504 and not in the ML category for the multilingual learners as well as 199 who
took the assessment and are not economically disadvantaged. On this though one highlight you can see there that on the left side of the economically dis of the 258 students who are in um who qualify as economically
disadvantaged 79.5% or just about 80% met graduation readiness which is very similar to those that are not economically disadvantaged where we had 199 students and 82%. So,
in terms of proportion, um, the percentages are just about there. Thanks, Jen. And as far as ELA results by program, again, these numbers here for ELA, you could see that 77% of our special ed
students met the graduation readiness standards. So, we really are u very happy about that and again working towards that in math. in 504. That's the 95%. And basically, you could just see across the screen. It's just um a visual
for the bar graphs um showing us the numbers that we just looked at. In math, we have 73 students who took it who were special ed and 6.8% of the 73 were graduation
ready. Of the 504, 30% were graduation ready. Of MLS's, 23.6% which very similar to the ELA number. And of the economically disadvantaged students, 33.1%.
On the right side, you have again just the overall general ed population who don't fall into any of these program categories. And once again, the results specifically for math. just bar graphs showing you
and we this slide clearly shows us we have a lot of work to do here. Um, sure I can. Okay, if you like. All right. The notable noticings. Oh, I just touched on the economically disadvantaged who really performed at just about the same level as the
non-economically disadvantaged students in both ELA and math. for special education, those students who were graduation ready in ELA was a rate of 77% only four points behind our general ed students. And 95% of our 504s
were graduation ready in ELA, while 92% of our black or African-American students were graduation ready in ELA, which is even higher than some of the other subgroups. And now, Jen, my partner here is going
to talk about the intervention strategy. Yep. So, to address what we we had seen in that data that we just shared with you, um we have several slides that will outline the event intervention strategies that we will be putting in place for the upcoming school year. And you're going to see that they are going
to be subject specific perhaps um subgroup specific specific. So, um everything is outlined in the next couple of slides that way. So, in ELA and math, there are what we talked about before are alternative pathways that students can take who do not demonstrate
graduation readiness. So, as we said before, they can retake the ELA or math components of the GPA in the fall or the summer. Um, they can also meet a designated cut score on a menu of substitute competencies tests. Um, for what we do here in Hackinac, we uh
provide students the opportunity to take the ACUPPLACER assessment and the PSAT is also another assessment that would qualify for this category. Or what students could do is they could could complete a portfolio appeal process and engage in that process where that's more
of a work sampling type of pathway for them. So again, students have a lot of different options here if they are not demonstrating readiness and they would they would work together along with their families and our guidance staff to help support them in choosing the best pathway that works for them. Um for for
ELA and math, um one of the things that we're going to start to talk about at the secondary level is embedded embedding scaffolded practice in argumentative writing, reading comprehension, algebraic reasoning, and problem solving every day into tier one instruction. So, that's something that
we're going to really be beginning to dive into. But what I really want to bring attention to is what's underlined here for all subject areas is to begin to really truly examine the standards and discuss what the student work expectations are associated with
demonstrating proficiency. What are those look fors? And that is should be happening every day when we're talking about the questions that teachers are asking, when we're talking about the assessments that they're designing, even the objectives for their lessons, that should all be standards driven and
focused, but also what is that expectation for students and what does mastery or proficiency look like. So that's really the work ahead, that's the foundation of what the work at the secondary level will be based on. So, here are some more intervention
strategies for math and ELA. Um, progress monitoring for mastery of standard deficiencies highlighted on the evidence statements that were provided by the the state based off of um NJGPA results. Um, we will in special education targeted small group
instruction using a platform called reading plus in ELA. um for our multilingual population, small groupoup instruction and analytical writing. Again, using another piece of another um assessment um rubric here, the WEDA writing rubrics that's tied to our
access assessment um with a focus on structure, claim, evidence, and that academic vocabulary, right, associated with those processes. Um, we have ELA for our multilingual population. Again, reading benchmark assessment analysis and progress monitoring with a focus on
central idea, key details. And again, that academic vocabulary associated with central idea and key details. for math targeted small groupoup instruction. We have the Alex platform that is an adaptive platform, but there's also standard specific practice that can be
used for skill bolstering and the use of manipulatives to strengthen the understanding of conceptual skills, especially in algebraic reasoning. That is one of the most powerful tools that we could use in our in our math classrooms. And we look to do that in ELA and math for multilingual
students. progress monitoring for mastery again of standard deficiencies highlighted on those evidence statements. Um and then pending receipt of title funds. These are some activities that we will engage in for ELA targeted small group instruction using the platform read 180 for um math
science and ELA the analysis of math growth data growth data by teachers to address skill strengths and areas for additional support and ELA and math after school tutorial sessions. So that's what we plan to do moving forward based on the data that we had presented tonight. And that's the end of
our presentation. So if you have any questions, thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. You're welcome. No questions. No questions. Move board. Oh, one.
Sure. Go ahead. Or first of all, thank you. It was very detailed. Yes. Um there was a slide where on ELA the Asian scores were present but then for math the sample size was too small. So
does that mean some students might have been absent the day they took math? So then you had enough for ELA but not enough for math. So um Yep. So that's what it is. We have like a difference in that. Um but let me take a look at that. Chris, are you able to bring that up on the screen so I
could just kind of take a look at that again to see which slide? The math slide ELA results by race. So that was like midway. And then on the next slide is math results by race.
Which one? So for the Asian group, we had results for ELA, but for math the sample size was too small. So, does that mean maybe they were offered on two different days and some kids were absent on that day or they may not have needed to take it
for math, right? Because if we take if we think about they they got their score in PSAT so they didn't need it or um they got the 725 the first time they took it or higher. So, in 11th grade.
Yes. Okay. The math bench. Got it. Not the ELA bench. So, then this includes 12th graders. Got it. Yeah. Okay. Mhm. Because the number of the sample in general for that is a very small sample size, right? Mhm. Thank you. You're welcome.
Any other questions? Any other questions? All right. Excellent. Thank you, Rosemary, and thank you, John. Thank you so much. All right. So, uh just moving on before we get to the superintendent report, I just want to give a couple recognitions, a couple
things that have been going on. Um over the past 30 days, uh there has been a great deal of discovery, recovery, adjustments, especially while operating at times with one less team member. Um I do want to thank sincerely our acting
superintendent, Miss Andrea Oats Parchment, our assistant superintendent, Miss Rosemary Marx, acting business administrator, Miss Linda Gastra, our HR human resources, Miss Ojetta Towns, our board attorney, Mr. Jason Nunamacher and so many more behind the scenes to
mention for stepping in to fill in the gaps while continuing to fulfill your regular responsibilities. Your dedication and efforts do not go unnoticed. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Um this month we also held our board retreat where we engaged in
productive and positive discussions around board and district goals. I appreciate the collaboration among board members, acting superintendent and central office administrators. We will continue our discussion at our next board retreat which will happen in
August at the end of August. Lastly, I would like to acknowledge and formally congratulate one of our own Hackinac alumni and English teacher on being officially sworn in as the mayor of Hackinack earlier this month. We are incredibly proud of you and look forward
to working with you and the newly elected city council in support of our schools. Congratulations. And in case you didn't know, his name is Mr. Cassine Gains. I apologize I didn't mayor. Yes, Mayor uh Cassine Gaines. Um
so now with that said, we are going to mo move on to our superintendence report with Miss Andrea Oats Parchment. Good evening everyone. Good evening. Our enrollment for this period of July 22nd, 2025,
5,129 students plus 100% attendance were not in school. uh the HIV report uh we had a total of six cases, one was founded, five
unfounded, two are still pending and that's the HIV report. I also would like to add that we are very proud to announce that Hackasac schools is the recipient of a $24,000
grant as part of the schools for trees program. And a special thanks to Rich Delveio, our science supervisor, Josh Cohen, who is a community partner, Shantel Campbell, our former grants
coordinator, and many other staff and community members to make this happen. I also want to thank Miss Laneski and Miss Markx for their presentation. And this summer we have a many extracurricular summer activities and
programs for our students to enrich their experience during the summer. We have SEAL at the middle school, common academic afterchool program at the middle school, ML STEM, kindergarten orientations, extended school year at
Hackinack High School, the middle school and Parker School, and book reading challenge at Fairmount School and Hiller School as well has many things uh occurring. Uh we are making plans. We are very
busy. Yeah, I know a lot of people say, "Oh, you have the summer off." No, we don't have the summer off. We're either opening or we're either closing and we're making plans to have a smooth 2025 2026 school opening for our students and
staff. In other words, we are busy. Um, finally, as I continue to transition in this new role and we all continue to transition, I I do want to thank God and I also want to thank all the administrators who have collaborated
with central office so that we can have a smooth opening school year. We're working together um to make sure that everything is in place. I especially everyone is committed to this and but I especially want to acknowledge the
members of the Hackinack Association of School Administrators. I I have to say they've been collaborative and really have partnered with us and really have been a big help to central office. Um and especially
also to Linda Aastra and to Rosemary Marks and to all the people in central office. Uh, thank you um for your hard work. You want me to Is that Is that the end of your report though? Public? No, not yet. Okay.
Okay. But that's the end. That's the end. That's the end. Okay. Perfect. Okay. So, now we're going to move on to public comments. But before we go into public comments, uh, we do have some questions that were at the June's meeting that we did not get an opportunity to fully answer because we
had to do some research. So, Miss Oat Parchment will be answering some of those right now. So, I am responding to the items that fall under our jurisdiction and that we are allowed to respond to publicly. So, mainly anything dealing with education
or questions that I can ask. So, uh Mrs. Huge asked about the interview process for principles. And I wanted to say we have administrators, we have teachers and a school community partner like from the PTA to serve on the interview
committee. Uh we conduct a first interview and from that interview we select the top two candidates if applicable to participate in a second round of interviews. The final candidate or candidates are referred to the
superintendent who ultimately recommends the candidate of choice to the board of education for approval. Uh Miss Cooper uh she asked about the ranking of Hackinack High School and Hackinack
Middle School. Uh we are not the lowest nor are we the highest, but there's information from US News World Report. uh we're right there in the middle. Um and uh a lot of things are considered especially test scores as you've seen
the the amount of people who take AP in the high school. All of that is considered when we are ranked. Um so I wanted to respond to that. Um Miss Cooper also asked how much does the district pay toward charter schools?
That figure is 7.9 million that we paid to charter schools for our students to attend. Uh Mr. Jackson asked about the elementary report card and had some concerns about the report card. I spoke to our curriculum director and there will be a
team and I hope Mr. Jackson will be on that team. But we're going to look at the report card to see um look at the issues that he addressed and to see how we can um make it clearer for teachers to use or maybe it may entail some
modifications. Uh he also mentioned horizontal collaboration. Well, that is our PD focus for elementary horizontal collaboration. You you will see a lot of that. Uh, Miss Sylvester, um, Miss Sylvester asked about family
engagement and better communications. I'm just going to share a little bit, a sneak preview, but that is going to be one of our district goals, uh, family engagement. Uh, Miss Garcia asked about budgeting a year in advance, and that's
too early. Unfortunately, but fortunately, the budget process begins in November for the upcoming school year. November um the NGA, DOA, the New Jersey Department of Education issues a budgeting calendar to which we must
abide and so it is early because by February or January we are presenting that information to the board of education. Um Miss Punaeka asked about supplies, tissues, notebooks and pencils for students. Um this will be
communicated with the principles. I know the teachers have a budget of 175, but um uh we could look at that in the future. And finally, I just wanted to leave with this. Um Miss Bridget Rucker
said, "Consider the children, Andrea." And we all must consider the children. Every decision that we make should be based on the best interests of our students. So we will consider the children and that's
my report. Excellent. Thank you so much. Okay. So on to public comments. So 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 officer and must preface comments by an
announcement of his or her name, municipality of residence, and group affiliation if applicable. Two, each statement made a part by made by a participant shall be limited to three minutes duration during the public session. Three, all statements, questions, and inquiries shall be
directed to the presiding officer and any questions or inquiries directed by a 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 behalf of the board or by the individual
board member. and four, all board and/or acting superintendent responses to questions or inquiry shall be held until the end of public participation. At this time, public comments is now open to anyone here live in person if anybody wants to come
up. Okay, we will move on to online. Anyone online? Sure. Hello. Yes. Can you hear me? Yes. Um, good afternoon, good evening. This is Reverend Carolyn Davis. Um, I just
want to um I'm very happy for the report that was given tonight about the test scores. I had a conversation with our acting uh superintendent. uh as a proud Hackinac uh graduate I have always been concerned
about Hackin how Hackinack was perceived and I've always felt that uh our students our faculty and our school did not get the recognition they deserved um mainly because it was such a diverse um town and many things affect the scores.
So it asked her about uh trying to actually uh delve more into those scores, what affects those scores and especially to show especially how our ESL students um when they come in that does affect the the scores but how they um with uh proper and good teaching and
learning the language, how they progress through the years and how those scores increase. So um I'm thankful for that. I don't want to take more of the three minutes. I'm thankful for that. Thank you, assistant superintendent um acting superintendent uh Andrea um Parchman and
also um to uh Rosemary and to Jen I'm sorry if I'm not saying everybody's names correctly um but I just thank you for those reports um Rosemary Marks and Jen uh I don't know your last name there the person who presented those reports I'm pleased for that because I I for one
um I'm always always proud of our students and when I hear People talk about Hackinack school scores not high. Um I'm just glad to hear that report. I felt it was important for if no one else understood the people in our district understood why our scores are the way
they are and can see it more thoroughly. Thank you very much. Thank you. Anyone else online? Nope. Anyone else back from the public? Okay. So, at this time, public comments is now closed. We're going to move on to
our committee report. Um, and we're going to start with personnel with our chair, which is trustee Emma. Thank you, President Harris. Um, the personnel committee met last week. Uh, and I would like to offer for
consideration items A1 through AJ. Um, however, I would like to highlight um a couple of things for the public. Um first of all uh one of the job descriptions um that you see um in uh
section or item Z1 um the position of part-time technology assistant. Um we really just wanted to highlight that for the public as it really is a wonderful opportunity for high school seniors, college students, recent graduates. Um
they would be ideal candidates for that part-time uh position. um it would really involve um assistance with our technology department, our fabulous technology department. Um and so I did want to highlight that um for folks um
as well as um item HH um and really a huge uh thank you to everyone who is involved in the process of um the uh negotiating the collective bargaining agreement between HASSA and uh the
district. Um, a huge thank you um to uh everyone on HAS's team, to um acting superintendent Parchment, uh to assistant superintendent Marks, um to um our acting uh our um assistant BA uh uh
Miss Agostra. Um a huge thank you because that that really was a lot of work. Um and so we're we're really pleased to offer um all of these items A1 through AJJ for consideration. Okay. So we have a motion from Trusty Amraza.
Can I have a second? A second. Okay. Second by Trustee Martin. Um Miss Aashra, can you please do a roll call? Miss Olston Valaputra. Yes. But abstaining from E4 and E7.
Miss Emmerhems. Yes to all. Mr. Carol, yes. Recuse myself from D3, J5, K2, K10, L1, L2, L3, and L5,
P1, and A1. Can you say that again just in case, please? Sounded like a bingo card. Let's try that again. Did you get it or you want me to say it again? D3, J5, K2, K10,
K10, L1 to L3, then P1 and A1, A1. Sorry. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Gilmore. Yes to all. Mr. Martin,
yes to all. I'll recuse myself to uh JJ. Miss Pringle. Yes to all. Mr. Jones. Yes to all. Mr. Jones. When we conferred earlier, you had advised me you wanted to abstain.
Right. That was on CC, right? Are we Is this part of that? Correct. So, I'll be abstaining from CC 1 through uh six, excuse me, seventh. And sorry, I realize I fell into this. That's why I'm here. And uh and DD, I believe you had mentioned to me earlier.
Yes, correct. Yep. That would be DD 1 through three. Sorry about that. Okay, Miss Harris, yes to all. Mr. Stein, yes to all. Motion passes. Thank you. Okay. Excellent. Moving on to policy and
our chair is Trusty Pringle. Good evening everyone. Um for policies this month we really don't have anything new. However, I would like to offer our
second reading for last month's meeting which was policy number P1320 which the duties of our school business administrator/board secretary. So that's that and that's it for policies this month.
Okay. Excellent. So, we have a motion from Trusty Pringle. Can I have a second? I'll second. Second by Trustee Arma. Any discussion? Okay. Uh, Mr. Aasha, can you please do a roll call?
Miss Olston Balaputra? Yes. Miss Hamza? Yes. Mr. Carol? Yes. Miss Gilmore? Yes. Mr. Martin? Yes. Miss Pringle? Yes. Mr. Jones? Yes. Motion passes. Oh,
Miss Oh, Miss Harris, I'm sorry. Miss Harris. Yes. And Mr. Stein. Yes. Okay. Okay. So, now we are moving on to curriculum and our chair for curriculum is Trusty
Pringle. For curriculum, I would like to offer C1 through C25 highlighting C13. Um motions to approve the participation
of the high Pac cheerleading students as the cheerleaders will be attending camp at Lake Bin Mau camp in Pennsylvania from August 20th through August 23rd, 2025. Can I get a Oh, that's it.
Is that it? Okay, perfect. Hey, so I have a motion from Trusty Pringle. Can I have a second? Second. Okay. Second by Trusty Carol. Miss Astra. Roll call, please. Miss Alustin Balutra. Yes. But I must recuse myself from C14.
Miss Emerson. Yes. Mr. Carol. Yes. Miss Gilmore. Yes. Mr. Martin. Yes. Miss Pringle. Yes, Mr. Jones. Yes, Miss Harris. Yes,
Mr. Stein. Yes. Motion passes. Excellent. Moving on to finance and our chair for finance is Vice President Stein. Um, before we take a vote on the resolution for finance, I'd like to read
the following statements. As chairman of the finance committee, I just wanted to take a few minutes to specifically explain resolution C21 and C24.
In case anyone is wondering why we are increasing budget expenditures for the school year that just passed, these line items were previously underbudgeted,
meaning the final vendor payments for these necessary services were much higher than what was originally budgeted. um budgeted or uh expected
just to like your own family budget. Uh these does not happen all the time. However, New Jersey law requires that when the board work makes payments to a
vendor exceeding $44,000 in a contract year, a separate board resolution must be approved specifically authorizing the payment. For whatever reason, under the
leadership of a previous board, there was never a resolution presented to the board to approve the excess payments required to fully pay the vendor, but the payments were made anyway
as a result of the due diligence of our acting superintendent and acting business administrator and the board's consciousness and active review of all budget items.
It was recently brought to this board's attention that payments were previously made to vendors over $44,000. While the initial budget expenditures
were approved, the excess payments were never approved by the board. We have confirmed that the services were provided and necessary for the students, but the difference between the original
approved expenditure and the final payment was never spec specifically approved by the board. In conclusion with our acting business administrator, independent auditor and board counsel,
this board part of our due diligence is now simply approving the increased budget expenditures for the services previously provided so that we
are in full compliance with New Jersey law and I'm prepared to offer D1 through sorry D20 20 uh for consideration by the
board. I'll second. Okay. So, we have a motion from Trusty Stein, a second from Trustee Armsta. Miss Aashra, can you please do a roll call? Miss Alustin Balotra. Yes. But I must recuse myself from D3.
Miss Emra Hamza. Yes. I'm sorry. I have to recuse myself from D2. I'm sorry. Okay. I apolog Mr. Carol. Yes. Miss Gilmore. Yes.
Mr. Martin. Yes. Miss Pringle. Yes. Mr. Jones. Yes. Miss Harris. Yes. Mr. Stein. Yes. Motion passes. Okay. Excellent. Moving on to
facilities. And that chair is Trusty Martin. Okay. I'd like to um motion E1 through E1. Uh pretty much standard. Um yeah, that's it.
That's it. Okay, I second. Okay, so we have a motion from Trusty Martin. Can I have a second? Yeah, a second. Second by Trusty Pringle. Miss Aashra, please do a roll call. Miss Alustin Balutra, yes to all. Miss Ammer Hamza, yes. Mr. Carol,
yes. Miss Gilmore, yes. Mr. Martin, yes. Miss Pringle, yes. Mr. Jones, yes. Miss Harris, yes. Mr. Stein, yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Okay, moving
on to community relations and chair for community relations is Trusty Gilmore. Hi, good evening. Um the community relations committee did not meet in July, but our next scheduled meeting is August 7th um where we will begin um
full uh community health fair planning mode. Um our community health fair is planned for November 1st at the middle school. So we're really excited about that. but also in in tandem to the health fair, we do want to plan our
first town hall. Um because the community community relations committee wants to hear from the community about what's important and what things you would like to see happen. So stay tuned for more to come on that. Um we're looking to plan that around um September
about around the back to school time. Thank you. Excellent. Okay. So there are no other committees at this moment. Any new business? At this time, we'll have our second public comment where individuals may address the board on agenda and school matters of community interest for one
minute. Anybody here from the public that would like to speak? I see that there are none. Anyone online? Okay, there are none. Moving on to board comments. Trusty Austin Balucha. Go ahead.
Uh, thank you to everybody and all the hard work. I know that the the past couple of months have been um had some some ups and downs. I just appreciate every all the work that people are putting in to to move us in a direction that we always
knew that we could go. So, I just want to say thank you to to everyone who's contributing to these efforts. Okay. Trusty Gilmore. Uh, just want to say um I can't believe it's almost August, but in the month of
June I had I had the opportunity to attend um the Hiller's fourth grade moving up ceremony, um the Hack Middle School graduation, and the high school. Um, so each one of those were um so special to me, especially, you know, being able to
walk across the bridge. Um, once again, um, I haven't done so in I'm not going to say how many years, but it was truly an honor, um, um, to do so. Um, and I just want to congratulate all of the graduates and everyone have a safe evening and get home safely. Thank you,
Trusty Pringle. Um, it's summer. I mean, Um, I want to say thank you to um ACT. It's on. Can y'all hear me?
It's on. Hello. Microphone check. Okay, that's better. Okay. Um Um, everyone doing an amazing job in the main office, administrative office. Um,
Andrea, um, like this is great. I just want to speak from the heart like this. The board for y'all to know at this very moment the board is like a joy to go to committee meetings. It's a joy to come and go into executive session. We may
not all agree on everything, but it's not combative. Um, and it's just great. Like, I don't know. It's just great. We're we're trying to get things done the best that way that we can. And to let you know that all we're working as a team. Um on
a personal note, I just want to share that next 11 days or so I'm going to be a grandmother for the first time. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. I'm talking about it because it's a proud mode. Huh? Twice over.
Well, yeah. I was going to get to that. So, um I have an older daughter. She's 31. Uh she lives in Virginia and she's having twins. Somaya and Harrison. So, just pray for uh that everything
goes well on August 4th. I'll be out there and I'll post pictures when she allows me to, but I'll I will share I will share pictures with my friends and stuff. Yeah. So, I'll be grandma. So, yeah, that's it. So, everyone, I'll see
y'all next month when I'm a grandma. Thank you. Good night. Good night. Uh Trusty Jones. You guys hear me? I just like to thank the board for being so welcoming and I have a lot to soak up and I appreciate
everybody's patience with me. Thank you. That's it. That's it. I like it. We're not used to that. Yes. Trusty Carol. Yes. Um good evening. I'd like to uh
welcome Trusty Jones also. Um, executive director of human resources, Danielle Diaz. I'd like to welcome you as well. And, um, thank you to our acting superintendent,
Linda, and Mrs. Marx for doing and the whole the whole staff, the whole um, central office for this transition period. They're doing a countless countless number of hours and hard work.
I commend you guys for that. And um that's about it. Summertime. Everybody have fun, be safe, and have a good night. Okay, Trusty Martin. Yes. I'd like to uh just uh echo what
Trustee Carol said. Uh welcome to um Trustee Jones. Um welcome, Miss Diaz. We're looking forward to working with you guys. Um things are moving in the right direction. Uh uh it been a busy summer
thus far, but it's trickling down as we move along. Uh to our acting superintendent and our um acting BA, you're doing a fabulous work. It's it's just unbelievable uh how you uh coming
together. and also to uh Miss Marx. Uh the three of you guys are our team and uh the district is very lucky to have you. Also to our leadership, our president, thank you for keeping the community
um up on uh information. Thank you for keeping us up with uh information and and being open and and making sure that we have everything that we need. without your leadership and working collectively
with our attorney as well as our administrative office. This is where we are. That's why we where we are today. So again, thank you to all of you guys and uh have the rest of the great summer. Thank you, Trusty.
Um I also just wanted to um echo some of the comments of Trusty Martin, Trusty Carol. Uh first a huge congratulations to Mike to our newest board member. Uh we really look forward to being a board of nine and working together so collaboratively. Um again um you know I
I just want to now thank our our formerly I can say acting business administrator uh Miss Aastra. Congratulations and um and a huge thank you for all of your hard work. Um and you know a lot of people don't see what
happens behind the scenes. um how tirelessly um uh uh Miss Parchment and the entire team at central office are working on behalf of our students first and foremost. Um they really care about the
district. They care about the staff. Um and I really appreciate all of their time and efforts um that are put in in keeping us updated as a board. Um and really to um Vice President Stein's
comments um you know there there's a lot that has had to be updated and and improved upon protocols that need to be put in place and a lot of that is due to the hard work of acting superintendent Parchman and um acting business administrator um Agastra. So a huge
thank you for for really helping to to set us up in in in for success. Um and uh again, thank you to Rosemary um and to uh Miss Laneski for your wonderful presentation, keeping us posted on what's happening. Um congratulations,
Miss Diaz. Um welcome aboard. Um and um and I think as someone else had mentioned earlier this month, we had a wonderful celebration here at the high school with the installment of the new city council, which is very exciting. Um, and so we're really looking forward
to working with the new city council. Um, and it really just echoing that there's been so much collaboration across the district. Um, and everyone is working so hard. Um, not only in central office, but all of our administrators across the district, all of our
teachers, um, all of our our secretaries, our custodians. Um, it's just a wonderful team effort. Um, and so thank you all for all of your hard work. um and enjoy the rest of the summer. Okay. Thank you, uh Vice President Stein.
Thank you, Madame President. Uh first of all, I'd like to again welcome Miss Davis as our Diaz HR director. Diaz Diaz.
Diaz, I'm sorry. Um, same same for um, welcome to the Hackinack family. Um, from what I've been told, you will do an excellent job. I hope you live up to that.
uh to our director of curriculum and Miss Marx. Uh I want to tell you what a wonderful presentation it was. It shows how far we've come but it also shows how far we
need to go and I know that under your leaderships um we will attain those goals. Um, we are at a point in our board's life
where transparency is utmost. And we hope by comments that were made tonight that uh you will start to see more of that transparency. Whether it's good, whether it's bad, we
will be open to public. And last but not least, Mr. Jones, um, with your community ties, serving on on boards in town, being a business owner
in town, having kids in the school system in town. I know based on your reputation and based on our meeting that you will do an excellent job on this board making sure that we live up to
those standards and that your kids get the education that they deserve and it starts here on this board. So thank you and that's my comments. Okay, great. Thank you. All right, I'll be brief. Uh so I just want to welcome
our new HR um director, Miss Danielle Diaz. Like to welcome our new trustee, Trusty Jones. We can tell that you are fully committed as you are here on your birthday. So happy birthday to you, sir. Happy birthday.
No better commitment than that. Um, I also just want to shout out again, um, central office for just being there, being transparent, giving us the playbyplay in terms of what's going on and how to fix things
and what are we going what the next steps are going to be. We all appreciate the input. We all appreciate the updates. Um but but what stands out to me the most is that when requests are made they are done immediately and the biggest thing is our packets. I don't
think we have taken anything this large in a very long time. But these are the things that we need in order for us to be informed and in order for us to show transparency to the public that we are getting all the information before voting on anything. So thank you. Thank you for being on top
of that. Um, I also want to thank my board members for implementing and coming together and following through with policies and changes and really supporting what it is to ensure that our
district is running to ensure that we're doing our job correctly for our students. Um, there's a lot for us to learn and we are all taking it day by day, but I appreciate everyone's patience. I appreciate everyone's input.
Um, and we are staying with our with our focus, which is stay focused. And if we remain with that motto, we will be all right. Um, and last but not least, I wanted to thank the HASSA negotiations team. I have never been part of the a
negotiations team, and this was by far, I've heard the fastest negotiations we have ever um been a part of. Took what, three meetings? What? Two. First the first one was a you shake hands and you say hello. Okay. Right. So the first one was just
an introduction. Uh but it took us you know essentially yeah two meetings and it was great. It was cooperative. I mean there were smiles, there was laughter there. It it it was a little lengthy but it was very productive. So I just want to thank the HASA negotiations team for
that. Um it's a great introduction and it makes all of us know that we all have the same vision and the same purpose which is um for our students and the district. Um and with that I will conclude um with an endurement. Uh can I have a motion to close?
Okay. Motion by trusty Stein. Can I have a second? Second. Second by trustee Pringle. All those in favor say I. I. Anyone opposed? Thank you. Have a great evening. Stay safe. Enjoy your summer. Thank you.
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