Good evening everyone. Please Good evening. Please stand for the flag. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice
for all. >> Please be seated. In accordance with the open public meeting act NJSA104-6, 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. To ensure accessibility, interpreter services are available upon request. Please submit your written request at least 24 hours prior notice to the board meeting to the acting school business administrator Linda Agastra at l
aostastra at hackinacschools.org. I hereby call to order the joint regular public meeting on Wednesday December 17th 2025 in the Hackinack High School Media Center at 6:18 p.m. Miss Aashra, can you please do
a roll call? >> Miss Alustin Balaputra, >> present. Miss Emma >> here. >> Mr. Carol >> present. >> Miss Gilmore >> here. >> Mr. Jones >> present. >> Mr. Martin >> present. >> Miss Pringle >> present. >> Miss Harris
>> present. Mr. Stein >> here. >> And also present with us tonight are the following districts from Rochelle Park and South Hackinack. If you can please acknowledge that you are present. Vice President Christina Miss Christina Holtz. >> She's running late. Trustee Miss Elaine
Marino absent. Trustee Michelle Jacobs absent. Superintendent Dr. Sue Dobble >> present. And vice principal Nicole Centino.
Thank you. >> Thank you so much. Uh again, I just want to acknowledge and welcome our ascending districts here tonight. Uh we do have some uh members that are absent but others will be arriving shortly. So thank you for joining us this evening. Uh at this time we have our student
presentations and we are going to hit it off with the Hack High School Chorus. >> Good evening everyone. My name is Julie Platty. I am the chorus teacher here at the high school. This is my 15th year here at Hackinack High School and it is my joy to present to you the honors
chorus. This is members of the honors course are in the front row and combined with the mixed chorus. They're in the second and third rows. Uh the first piece will be presented by the honors chorus. It's a very brief uh welcome to the holiday season sort of. Um but I
wanted to say a word about the second piece. Um, hene matov is in Hebrew and I just wanted to make sure that you all know that the translation means look at how good it is when people live together in peace. And of course, we've taken
class time to talk about um places where there isn't peace in this world and where it's needed so badly. And of course um the Hanukkah night mass shooting in Australia is he is heavy on all of our hearts. So, it's not just
Hanukkah, it's not just Christmas, it's not just winter, but it's a hope for peace for all of us. And then we finish up with our annual sleigh ride. >> Merry merry Christmas and a happy new year.
Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. With a merry, merry, merry, merry, merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas and a happy new year. Happy new year. Merry, merry, merry, merry, merry
Christmas and a happy new happy year. la. La sheet in your heart. in my heart. She's in your heart.
La La in my shepher in my I love your heart.
I la your Just hear those sleigh bells jingling ring ting tingling. Come on, it's lovely right together with you. Giddy up. Giddy up. Giddy up. Let's go.
Last look at the show. We're riding in a wonder. Giddy up. Giddy up. Giddy up. It's grand. Just hold your hand. We're gliding along with the song of a wintry fairy land. Our cheeks are
together and sing together with you. There's a birthday party at the home of far. You'll be the perfect ending of a perfect day. When we sing the songs we
love to sing without a single stop at a fireplace while we watch the chestnut bomb happy. Nothing in the world can buy around the coffee and the pumpkin pie.
be like a picture by these wonderful things are the things we remember all through our lives. These wonderful things are the things we remember all through our lives. Just hear those sleigh bells jingling,
ringing, tingling too. Come on, it's lovely weather for slay right together with you. The snow is falling. I call you lovely weather for you.
Up, giddy up. Let's go. Let's look at the show. We're running. Giddy up. Giddy up. Giddy up. Just hold your hand. We're along with the song of a wy fairy. When our chicks are
singing together and singly weather right together with you weather forest slay right together with You slay ride.
Thank you so much. That was amazing. Um, now we have our new initiatives at the Hackinac High School presented by our principal, high school principal, James Montasano, and the Hackasak High School students.
>> Tough act to follow >> presentations again. So, just welcome to the board of educations. I know it's a very busy time of year, but thank you to our own board of education for having us here today. Uh the Roshaw Park Board of Education and South Hackinack as well. Uh we truly enjoy and appreciate your partnership. So, thank you. Um tonight,
it's just an uh opportunity for us to show some of the new initiatives that we have at Hackinack High School, mostly in the STEM department, but I think you're going to be pretty impressed with our best asset, which is our students. Uh just some quick introductions. I am Jim Aasano. I'm the high school principal.
Uh, with me tonight is Patty Lozano, who's the grade 12 assistant principal and her assistant, her daughter. Um, Bob Greenwood, who's the 10th grade assistant principal, and Celso King, who's the ninth grade assistant principal. Initially, we were
asked if we wanted to do the singing tonight as an administrative team. However, I think this was a slightly better choice by us. Um, again, to let our little shining stars, you know, kind of lead the way for us. Additionally, we have some wonderful director supervisors who kind of help make the wheels go. Um,
with us tonight is Rich Delveio, our STEM supervisor, and I see Marcela Monloa, director of world language, ESL and bilingual. So, tonight u we have an op we have some pretty cool things I think going on at the high school. As a former science teacher, it always amazes me to see how
fast technology really is kind of, you know, leading the way when it comes to some of our new science initiatives. Uh you're going to hear from probably our most important asset, which I see all the time, is our students. You're going to hear their passion when it comes to some of these new courses. One of them is advanced topics in science research,
AP environmental science, which obviously is pretty appropriate, you know, nowadays. Uh honors bilingual program, and obviously architecture. if on your way into close session or on on your way out, they have some of their projects and a microscope set up of some of their work. Um, you're going to hear
some, you know, pretty interesting things. But without further ado, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Dovecio. I told him he has like a minute. >> Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Monosano. Uh, good evening, board members. I literally am going to do this in a minute. Um so these new initiatives uh came about over
the last uh one or two years and uh Miss I'm going to give you a quick overview of the program. Miss Parchman always challenges us to know what our why is. So as a department we got together and we came up with three why statements. Um and these these courses that you're going to see tonight are thematic and they're missiondriven. So the first uh
students as thinkers. So we want our students to to become scientifically literate, to participate in our democracy, to become critical thinkers, reason scientifically, but also we want to make a commitment to scientific research. So Dr. Keeler is going to um bring his scholars up and go through
some actual authentic research that they're doing and sharing with the scientific community. Second, we um we agree we want our students to be leaders in equity. And on June 15th, 2020, our board passed a resolution grant to racist teaching and equity. Uh we believe that the legacy of disparities
in STEM education both in education and in uh careers can be disrupted when our students um see that. So you'll see uh Mr. Santa Banz and his educator uh his um students come up and talk about the honors bilingual program. And finally uh
not finally, there's two more um students as environmentalists. So New Jersey was the first state in the nation to commit to climate change education in code. Um, and we have climate change education in all of our curriculum, but also we wanted to have coursework that specifically highlighted that. So,
you're going to see uh Miss Weir and her scholars talk about AP environmental science. And lastly, a commitment to getting uh students access to uh highpaying careers. And the CTE department, you're going to see uh Miss Raza is not here, but her students are, and they're going to tell us about the
uh architecture fair that they had last year. And if we have it again this year, everybody will be invited. It is right here. So, uh, thank you so much. I'm going to bring up Dr. Ben Keeler. I don't know if he's going to tell you, so I'm going to add him. He has a PhD in neuroscience running our research club. So, uh, Dr. Keeler.
>> Yeah. Great. It's his birthday. >> Good evening. Would you believe I'm turning 25 today? It's um, uh, my name is Benjamin Keeler and, uh, as Mr. told you I used to do biomedical research for about 15 years before I became a teacher. Um I really enjoyed
that research and I wanted to bring it to our students here in Hackinack. Um and so with Mr. Dvcio, we began working on this class. Um and we wanted to bring students um an authentic scientific research program to help them navigate scientific literature and also to allow
them to design their own personal projects that they were passionate about. Um the scope of the program starts with them learning the basic uh techniques that we do in the lab. Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, thank you. Um the basic techniques that we use in the lab and
how to read scientific literature. Then they begin designing their own projects and that's where they are right now. Um later on they'll start collecting their data and analyzing it. And then at the end of the year they're going to present their data as a written paper. Um, and also they're going to present it in
Philadelphia at a symposium hosted by E-Clo or sorry, the E-clo Institute, which is actually run by a former alumnist here at Hacksac, Dr. Alana O'Reilly. Um, last year there were six students in the class and I have their posters up here. I was able to bring them over here
so if you want to get a closer look at them. Um, this year our projects range from cancer to behavior and neurode divergence. Um, we have a student doing a design project uh related to engineering. Then we have another student looking at aging and
reproduction. But I think it's way more interesting to hear from the students themselves. So I'm going to bring up uh three of our scholars. Um, first we'll start with Asana Garcia. >> Hello, my name is Yana and I'm a senior. I took this class due to my fascination
with science research and when I saw this class, it felt like a sign I needed to take it. In the future, I would like to get my MD PhD in hopes to become an immunologist, which is what my project revolves around. My project is specifically involved with cancer
research and its links to the immune system. The human body has both an adaptive and an innate immune system. Researchers have been studying the innate innate immune system in hopes of strengthening it due to the fact that it is the body's first line of defense. I
will use the Dros Drosopila melanogaster or the fruitfly to learn how to strengthen the innate immune system hopefully helping cancer patients in the future. Hi, my name is Winnie and I'm a graduating senior taking Mr. Keeler's research class. I chose this research
class because in the future I hope to become a pediatric oncology nurse and I thought that this class will help me provide with new research skills I'll be useful in the future. For my independent project, I'll be using the Josophila Melanogaster fruitfly and experimenting with specific supplemental vitamins and
the effects they may have on fruit flies with breast cancer strains. specifically monitoring how the supplements affect tumor growth through essays like ovary detection and gene mutations. >> Lastly, we'll hear from Neil. >> Hi, my name is Jana Neil. Um, I enrolled
in this course because as an aspiring doctor, I wanted early exposure to scientific research. I've learned how scientists form questions, design experiments, and analyze data and translate results into something that can help people. I also wanted to challenge myself beyond my regular science classes and start building the
skills I'll need in college and medical school, such as critical thinking, data literacy, and scientific writing. My project focuses on whether improving sleep quality can enhance memory and learning in Drosophila flies with brain cancer. To explore this, I plan to test different sleepreated conditions,
including temperature changes, light exposure, and food intake before sleep. The use of Drosophila flies as a model provided by Mr. Killer's class have been beyond helpful in understanding how certain brain cancer mutations affect cognitive function. They set the bar pretty high. But again,
I think our futures and obviously great hands with, you know, this is just a microcosm of, you know, who's in the class, but I don't know if they know it yet, but at the end of the year, they actually present their research paper or their research projects to the administration. I understand about 10% of it even being a former science teacher. But honestly, it's wonderful
just to listen to their passions and just to kind of watch them in action and actually to, you know, view their experiments firsthand. Um, next we're going to bring up Mrs. Weir who is our AP environmental science teacher and she's also our governor educator of the year
and she loves when we talk about how embarrassing she is, but she's wonderful. >> Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Very appreciated. Um, so yes, I am Brook Zir. I've been here for seven years at Hackinack High School and this is my third year teaching AP environmental
science. Having not had it in the school for about 10 years, it was my job to basically revive it and we've built it up a decent amount in the past three years. So to put into perspective, last year we only had seven students in the class and this year we have 22. So we've built it up hopefully maybe two sections
next year. We'll see. Um thank you. Sure. But so the purpose of the course is we want students to be able to think critically about what's going on in the environment through the lens of human impact. That's kind of the major focus
of this course. So some of the skills that we want the kids to be involved with is being able to first identify and analyze environmental issues natural and humanmade. Evaluate what are the risks associated. So how does this impact us
in the future and for future generations? And ultimately proposing solutions. That's a really big focus of the course is yes these problems are happening and some of them might not be completely reversible but what can we do to mitigate the issues or try to advance
ourselves to be able to live with the new normals. So beginning of the year we get into the basics of what happens in the world. How does the environment work? How do species interact? What are some of the major processes that happen in the environment? And then the end of the year we get into actually what is
the human impact? How does it affect our waterways, our you know farming practices, um climate change? What is that? What is global warming? And we always relate it back to Hackinack which is sorry really awesome because we have so many resources here that we can
actually use to mark changes in the environment. So some of the things that we're able to do um we've been able to make some really good connections over the past two years. Last year we added on top of the Hackinack Riverkeeper who always lets us go on a river tour comes
into the classroom to talk. We've done some river samples and we've able to actually like test some of the qualities of the Hackinack River. We've also partnered up with the Department of Environmental Protection and last year we were able to go on a field trip to see their water resource management and learn a little bit more about macro
invertebrates and just get their hands on some actual data. So enough from me. um a lot of labs that we're going to be talking about. Um and I'm going to bring up my first student, Lizelle Napoleon, who this is his he's in the class this year. He's been in the class for about three months and he just wants to talk a
little bit about what uh good evening. My name is Liza Napoleon and I'm a junior in Miss Sier's AP environmental class. Um, four months into this course, I've learned um to write sharper with sharper focus. My F FRQs show it. Fewer words, stronger
claims, and enough detail to matter. That discipline has made me a better argumentative writer and a better prepared college student. I plan to become an ecologist in the future, and this class feels like feels like real training and not busy work. Um, the course blends guided notes and
collaborative work, and we also have very interactive labs. In a recent lab, we studied soil science using samples we collected around town. Um, we analyzed to determine sand, silt, and clay content. Then measured paracity and
permeability and nutrient availability. Um, from this I learned how soil texture shapes um soil behavior. For example, clay rich soil tends to hold more nutrients while acidic soils usually depleted in nutrients. As we connect
this to climate change and its local impacts, I'm becoming more aware of how environmental issues affect my community and how I can um play a role in environmental solutions. Okay. >> Z was in my class last year.
>> Hello. Good evening. My name is Zatie Lopez and I was Mr. We were a student last year in her AP environmental science class. So I have a short little blurb, a little story um and I will further discuss it. So last year I took uh college prep environmental science
which here in Hackasak High School is one of the most standard and basic classes that we took. And at first I thought it was a silly class that I took to fulfill my junior year a science requirement. Um and I wasn't planning on taking it seriously. But little did I know um of my opinion on environmental
science would soon to be changed. Uh Miss Zir uh the instructor, she enlightened me to the importance of keeping our planet healthy through recycling, knowing the dangers um that humans pose to the environment and the benefits of composting to repair the soil to repair the soil and many other
topics uh that will soon to be discussed. Um the class was so impressive that I jumped to the opportunity to join AP um advanced placement uh when given the chance. Uh taking the AP environmental uh science uh may have shortened my lunch period in
half but it didn't shorten the amount of knowledge that I gained or the uh appreciation that I have for Miss Zir who truly believes in her students. Um it was totally worth it and if I could start over I would have started with AP to begin with. Um the highlight of environmental science was the trip that
we took to the co-ed cruise of the Hackinack River tour where we learned the history of the river and how it's maintained itself um and the importance of the meadowlands here today. uh mir um I'm sorry another memorable
activity that we did was the by catch lab where every year 1 million of the fish are killed when accidentally caught by fishermans uh which is further called by catch. Uh we were challenged to design a net that limits the amount of extra fish caught and focus on the
targeting fish the one that we're supposed to get. Um you are now looking at the winner of that lab. As you can see, my name is on the red star. Thank you. Um, Miss Deir took our in-class discussions and supplemented it with
outside of the classroom instruction um, further taking us on our uh, field trips uh, which then further expanded our knowledge um, with real world experiences. In closing, AP environmental science helped me change my world by viewing and helping me to
become more aware, more attentive of what the impact is on today's environment in our world today. Thank you. One of the interesting things I found out just tonight is that they took samples from around town. And one of the samples they took was from Mr. King's
backyard. This man spends more time landscaping, seeding, power seating, doing this. And they said his was the worst around. So, my good buddy, it's time to hire a landscaper. Uh, this next one really is, it's pretty
remarkable how far we've come in such a short amount of time. We have a principal advisory committee that was started a few years ago. Um, and you know, sometimes you don't really see the forest for the trees, so to speak. And some of the feedback that we got from our students really was amazing. And one of the key things that we listened to
our students and we heard was that ESL kids and bilingual students do didn't have the opportunity to kind of transition into honors tracks. And you know what it really did break our hearts because we thought we were doing a great job and we failed miserably until we listened to them. Uh Mr. Delveio, myself and the rest of the administrative team,
we really just kind of worked with the staff. The staff were beyond, you know, uh welcoming and trying to get this track involved. And I think this is really one of our home runs that we started. And to tell us about it, I think is one of the most important things. One of our students, Ashley Martinez, and Mr. Santavan is one of our he's our
bilingual honors biology teacher. >> Let's see. Good evening. Uh >> oh. Well, I'm Mr. Mario, class of 2000. I'm the um bilingual honors bi biology teacher here at Hackinac. So what is
bilingual honors biology? It's pretty much the same exact curriculum as honors biology where we follow the college board preap lesson plans which were which were created to be academically challenging while fostering independent and collective work.
How did we get here? While it was an evolution uh for the services towards our our multilingual uh population with one constant, the multilingual population has been increasing in the past few decades and continues to increase. In the 1990s, we offer ESL science. In the
2000s, we offer ESL biology and inclusion classes. In the 2010s, when I came along, bilingual biology and now in the 2020s, honors bilingual bio. But who better to tell you about this class than one of my former students. So, let's
welcome Ashley Martinez. Thank you so much. My name is Ashley Martinez. I'm a senior and I took this class when I was a freshman. I plan to study economics and international or international business. And today I'm going to talk about the class and my personal experience. But first, what
does that look like? A typical unit in honors biology will start with data collection on a given phenomena where we will be tasked to find patterns and conduct order analysis. As you can see the topics will range from protein
synthesis to DNA mutations leading to an explanation for biodiversity. One thing I will never forget is how we were asked multiple times to create personal models to think about our thinking and revise our models into
final product using poster papers or computer programs. One project I will always remember is how we found out throughout Google Maps that there were less trees in Hackinack. For example, this is Clay Street in 2012
and in 2022. We figure out that in 10 years, Hackinac had lost at least 2,000 2,000 no I'm sorry 200 trees and none were replaced. And the main question bea became why are
there less trees in Hackinac? To answer that question, our class conducted a research on tree benefits. Hackinac as a watershed, urban development, city politics, history and redlinining, relevant climate change
topics and effects on the ecosystem. Through the lessons, we were asked to create initial models which we revised again and again until the end of the unit to finally have a visual model to answer our main question. We found out that the city politics and
non-involvement of citizens what was the reason for having less trees as you can see here. So we decided to do something about it and we used everything we learned to
create a proposal for tree planting at our campus which I believe was instrument instrumental in having more trees at our school. This is actually my group's um proposal tree and I think we did a pretty good job. As I can see around the school, there are many trees
we propose and I feel pretty proud about it. And to finalize, I would like to emphasize that this class provided me with opportunities such as expanding my academic potential. It was an opportunity to grow and learn useful skills such as critical thinking,
analyzing and understanding complex data, and other skills. These skills, I was able to translate them and use them in honors AP classes I took and I'm currently taking. Not only that, the honors bilingual classes allows this ESL students with an aspirational mind
demonstrate their full intellectual intelligence without a language barrier. Thank you so much. >> And to bring us home, uh, we have a new course. Of course, we hired a new teacher last year after retirement. Uh we were very worried cuz, you know, filling some of the industrial arts and
the CADs and the architecture is not easy. Not only did we find a home run, but we also found a female, which is really opening just more and more doors, you know, for females in, you know, the some of the traditionally male-dominated classes. Uh unfortunately, she's taking her masters tonight because she is that
much of a go-getter. Um but to talk about it tonight or summer for students. >> Okay. Oh, this is a bit tall. Oh, okay. All right. Damn. All right. Okay. She's a little tall. >> All right. Thank you. Okay. Um good
evening. My name is Michaela Saviette. >> I'm Dustin Damry. >> And I'm Devon Damry. And ooh we are excited to present Hackac High School's architectural program which includes a level one two and three. As students our mission is to challenge
ourselves to imagine new ideas, work together and bring our designs to life using tools, models and digital programs. We use a variety of tools and programs and resources including manual drawing tools, Autodesk for Revit, Photoshop and um CAD. Our classroom also
includes multiple 3D printers that we use throughout the year. Our course topics range from 2D and 3D drawing, CAD, computer, computer-based design through Revit, architectural drawings, model building, interior design, graphic design through Photoshop, structures, and climate
change. I will pass it on to the architecture 2 students. Thank you. So I'm Deon Damry and I'm a second year architecture student and last year we did our midyear architectural showcase and it was about environmental design and also climate change. So what we did
is that we went through a a tough process of analyzing our school's environment and also just making models that also that yeah and also making u models that helped us
like propose new ideas for our school. So as you can see there are two um student examples right over here. So on the left you can see an environmental haven that was um produced by two or three students. Um as you can see it's a sustainable community housing for
displaced people in our community. And then on the right you can see a student designed a filtration roof. And this roof was um used to collect rain water and to be more efficient for our um for our community. And for our final project we were um tasked to create and propose a new
addition to the Hackinack High School. Um, and this was through um through the abandoned lot that's right next to the tennis courts. And as you can see, we studied the area. We studied the sun cycle as well so we can get more um more information about the area. And so then we can propose our best ideas for this
little space that we have over here. So after working hard for two months, everybody was able to create their models and showcase that through our final architectural design showcase that was held in the library. And this was a very community active um event for our school. And I think it really opened the
doors for everybody to just look at our ideas and also give us feedback on what should be um what should be proposed for our school and what should also be just I guess shown for our um administrators. So, as you can see here, it's a video.
>> Very interactive event and also very active for our students. Everybody. So, as you can see for me and Dustin, we created a new addition to the high school and it will be a hospital wing. And what we're doing here was just trying to add a new addition to the school and a new area for students to
explore the medical field as we are already in a medical area. Um, seeing as the hospital's over there like literally around the corner. So um what we did is that through our design process we made a conceptual design first drawing as you can see right over there like right
under real model and then what we did was we brought it to Revit so we can get a more realistic sense to it as you can see all the way in the top left and we also created the interior design um for our um our new model um so you can just see what would be on the inside of the
um hospital wing. So, as you can see at the top, we have our first floor plan. And we just kind of made a more lab-based, interactive, career-based um classrooms just to get students into a more interactive workflow and instead of the class just
like just doing a lot of like lecturing and presentations up in class. I think we need to do more a lot more um interactive based work that's also exposed to careerbased jobs. And on our top we have um our second floor is classrooms that we designed to reinforce
the things that we learned inside the lab to create a better understanding of what is to come on the next level. >> Here's our physical model that is over there if you want to check out that. So not only we made a unique design also
our students we also they also created a lot of good ideas and good presentations to kind of show the unique side of architecture. And as you can see right here we have uh Hackinack um study cove kind of like the drop in we have on our basement floor but it's just more
specific and uh kind of centered. So, it's like a relaxation, study, social interaction place where students can work and on assignments and study and exams and stuff. Here we have is a tennis/golf
um locker room. So, we have 3D rendered views for our um interior design and also our physical model. And here we have is the architecture wing. As you can see with the the in interior design, we have a lot of um a
lot of introduction to new things that students are not very experienced or not very exposed to in our um classrooms right now. And you can see with the floor plan is using a lot of kind of using effectively the space and just bring a lot of opportunity to a lot of
students. So our program um consists of future architects, engineers and designers and they also include a lot of program skills that kind of translate to career based skills but also personal and real
life skills like presentations, collaboration and teamwork that's worked a lot during the class and is shown as we do a lot of presentations around our year and it just builds up the life skills that people are going to use later in their
And yeah, that's it. I think they nailed the presentation part uh of their skills. Yeah, I hope. Yep. So, I hope tonight that you were able to see I think one thing that really comes through in all the different groups is just our passion and just the engagement that the students have and not only, you know, making
Hackinets High School better, but also making the surrounding environment better for our school in our school community. uh if we could just give maybe a round of applause to not only our staff but our teachers and that concludes my presentation. I will say that was truly truly amazing. I would love to just give another round
of applause to our students. You guys truly I was blown away by everything and and I just started writing down just a few things that you guys had mentioned. Some of you said you love the challenge, that the bar is set high, that this is real training, not just busy work. Um,
as a teacher, we like love to hear that, right? Um, you know, the honors bilingual biology that truly is so inspiring and amazing and I love how you presented so well and I didn't realize that you do these projects in Spanish
and all the terminology is all in Spanish. That alone is impressive. Um, and by the way, the young man who's wearing the hackag versus everybody shirt, you gotta make sure you hook it up with the full board. Give us the details on that. Um, honestly, >> they'll pay for it.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, >> with their own money. >> Yes. Yes. Yes. On the record. For the record. Um, but thank you so much. That was amazing. Thank you again. Um, I also wanted to Oh, sure. Andre, you have some you
wanted to say something? Okay. Yes. Um, I also just wanted to acknowledge uh one of our sending districts from Rochelle Park who arrived. Um, Miss Christina Holtz who is the vice president at Roshell Park. Welcome. All right. Um, and now at this time we
have our student report from Zoe Gonzalez. Good evening. On December 17th, our guidance department hosted instant decision day for our seniors. Over 20 schools participated, offering students the opportunity to be accepted on the
spot and wave their application fees, as well as receive instant scholarship offers. A special thank you to the HHS guidance department staff for the collaboration in helping to facilitate this event. Our student council is facilitating a spirit week for our HHS
community. This holiday event will be taking place daily until the holiday recess. Finally, our winter sports season is underway. We wish all our winter athletes good luck this season on their ventures. All right, thank you Zoe.
Y and um before everyone leaves, I just want to wish all of our students and staff a great holiday and a great break. Um I always say disconnect so that can you can reconnect. Okay, so use that time wisely. Uh, at this time we're going to move into executive session. Be it resolved that the hack unless I'm so
sorry, Andre, did you want to say something now? >> I'm going to say my comments later for the students, but I still it was excellent. I'm so impressed. I learned a lot and I'm just really, really proud of you and I see a future and a hope. Uh,
but before we go into executive session, I wanted to acknowledge Dr. Superintendent Dr. Sue Denobly for her years of service. She will be retiring effective uh December 31st. And we just wanted to thank you for your service
to the Rochelle Park educational community and for your collaboration with us and with me and we are going to miss you. Um all the best to you. >> Yes. Thank you. Be it resolved that the Hackinac Board of Education determines it necessary to
meet an executive session on Wednesday, December 17th, 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 confidentiality
no longer exists. Can I have a motion to go into executive? >> I'll motion by trusta. Can I have a second? Second by trustee Gilmore. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Anyone opposed? Any abstensions?
All right, it is 7:02. We will try our best to be out by 8:00. Thank you. Hey, good evening everyone. May I have a motion to reopen to the public? Motion by Trustee Amarza. Can I have a second? Second by Trustee Jones. All those in
favor say I. Anyone opposed? Any abstensions? Okay, so we are back. It is 9:04. We're moving on to the approval of the minutes. Be it resolved that the Hackac Board of Education approves the regular and executive session meeting minutes of
November 17th, 2025 and special meeting minutes of December 8th, 2025. Can I have a motion? >> A motion. >> Motion from Trusty Gilmore and a second. >> Second. >> Second by Trustee Carol. All those in favor say I. I.
>> Anyone opposed? No. >> Any abstensions? Okay, moving on to our superintendence reports and that will be our acting superintendent, Miss Andrea Olds Parchment. Good evening everyone.
Our enrollment report for as of December 11th, uh we have 5,13 students. Um you can also see and broken down by school and our attendance is
96.63% the average. uh residency cases received six 13-year to date, two verified and three year to date,
four unverified for November and 10 year to date for harassment, intimidation and bullying report. We had two cases founded, 12 cases unfounded for a total of 14
cases. Three are pending and two, one had a preliminary determination of not HIV. I also want to thank Mr. Montasano and the Hackasak High School team and our wonderful and talented students for the
presentation. I was uh very impressed uh with the level of of work uh that we saw that they are participating in in their classes and we have a bright future with our students. Uh the high school pep
rally I had a chance to attend one part of it. It was exciting. I arrived during the time of the dance presentation. The students were outstanding and so dancing with the star contestants cannot even compete with our students. What I saw it
was wonderful. I also attended the middle school winter concert. It was excellent and the program has grown tremendously with so many more students participating in the arts. It was
wonderful. Um, I think it's important to mention some of the business of school and what we've been involved with. During the last past month or probably two months, we have met all of our deadlines for the various
reports that we have been required to submit. It's been very very busy and challenging, but I want to especially acknowledge our special ed director and the special services department, our
student information systems department, our assistant superintendent, Markx, our acting business administrator, Agastra, our technology director, and the entire central office staff and also our school administrators for all that they
provided so that it was a team effort so that we could meet these deadlines. It's been very busy and I just wanted to acknowledge them. Uh happy Hanukkah to everyone who celebrates. Merry Christmas. Uh happy Quanza. And I will
say that we're approaching a new year. And with a new year, there's always hope for a new beginning. And so I wish everyone hope and a wonderful happy new year.
That's it. I forgot. I'm sorry. I forgot one more thing. The high school had an instant decision day and students obtain a total of just for today 2.1 million today in
scholarships. So just >> board noting you. Uh so we are moving on to 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 officer and must preface
comments by announcement of his or her name, municipality of residence, and group affiliation if applicable. Two, each statement made by a participant shall be limited to three minute duration during the public session. Three, all statements, questions or 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 inquiries shall be held until the end of public participation. At this time, the floor is open for public comments if anybody here present would like to speak.
>> Good evening. >> Good evening. >> My name is Christian. I'm here as a stakeholder and a parent and a parent of two students at Jackson Avenue School. Oh, thank you. Thank you. At Jackson
Avenue School, one of them went an IEP. I'm here tonight because I'm deeply concerned about the decision to transfer our vice principal, Mr. Julio Morel, to the middle school. What makes this decision especially difficult to understand
is that the board is led by someone who knows personally what it means to raise a child with an IEP. Because of that experience, I expect decisions that pri prioritize stability, consistency, and emotional well-being of students who rely on predictable
routines and trusted adults. Last year, when our principal was absent for an extended period of time, Mr. Morell became the steady leader our children needed. He was the face the students saw every morning and greeted them with wart and reassurance for
children with special needs. That daily consistent made a real difference. Mr. Morurell who was also present for our parents. He spoke with us outside the building, listened to our concerns and helped families feel supported when leadership felt unstable. Now we are being told that Mr. Morell will be
transferred without a clear explanation to the families the most affected by this decision. I'm left asking how am I supposed to explain my child that the adult they trusted the leader who guided them every day will suddenly no longer be there for students with IEPs. Abrupt
change is not minor and it can be this confusing, distressing and disrupted to their progress. I would also like to highlight and question how a new vice principal will work with an absent principal. I understand that change must be come to Jackson, but I reassure you Mr. Morell
is not a problem. is part of what has been working. This decision feels disconnected from to our community. And I would also al also like to state while us the parents and the students may hear other administrators, we listen to Mr. Morurell. I respectfully but firmly ask
the board to reconsider this transfer in the best interest of our students. Thank you for your time. Good evening uh board members. My name is Revana Hadinata. I have two children here in Hakazak district. One is in high
school and one in Jackson. Um, I'm here to speak on behalf of the voiceless students as well as parents and stakeholders of Jackson Avenue School. We come before you with deep concern regarding decision
to transfer Mr. Morell. Mr. Morell has been a stabilizing force within our school community. His leaderships provides consistency, trust and sense of security for students, teachers and staff.
At a time when our school needs steady leadership more than ever, the removal of such leader raises serious concern among families. Mr. Mara is not only assistant principal by title
but a visible, engaged and deeply committed educator. He is present every morning and afternoon greeting student families during arrival and dismissal. This daily interaction matters. They create a welcoming environment,
strengthen relationship and ensure student feel seen, supported and safe. His presence sends a powerful message to our children that they matter. Beyond daily duties, Mr. Morell
consistently supports school events, works collaboratively with the PTA. I'm a PTA members. I was on the board too and he always there helping hands with no question.
and respond to the family with professionalism too, compassion and respect. He leads with integrity and empathy, fostering a culture of accountability,
kindness, and mutual respect throughout the building. His leadership has helped Jackson grow stronger, more connected, and more unified as a school community. We respectfully request transparency
regarding the rationale behind this transfer. As parents and stakeholders, we believe decision that significantly impact our children's learning environment should be communicated clearly and
thoughtfully. Transparency build trust. Trust is essential to healthy partnership between families and the district. Sudden leadership changes creates uncertainty particularly for student who rely on fam
familiar trusted adults. So we strongly urge the board to reconsider this decision and to return Mr. morale to Jackson Avenue School where his leadership has proven effective and
where continue to make meaningful differences in lives of our student. Thank you. >> Hi, good. How are you? U my name is Erica Livingston. Uh my daughter has been a student at Jackson Avenue School uh for
the past four years. I too would like to speak in regards to the suggested transfer of Julio Morell. Mr. Morurell has been the glue that's held Jackson Avenue School together during repeated periods of absent principal leadership.
I speak on behalf of many students, teachers, parents, stakeholders, taxpayers, and concerned Hackinack voters when I respectfully ask that the board reconsider the decision to transfer Mr. Morell. Mr. Morurell is the
leadership of Jackson Avenue School. If signatures are required for petition, I'm fully prepared to organize one. uh please advise how many are needed and I am confident that I can easily secure those signatures um before the next
board meeting. I would like to highlight some of the many contributions he's made during his time there. First and most importantly, Mr. Morurell has always made me feel welcome. Um he's approachable. He makes you feel heard,
respected as a parent, and responsive. if he doesn't have an answer, he's going to make it a priority to find the answer. And that's something that wasn't available before he was there. Um, he's the building leader who
constantly prioritize and participates in parent engagement as a mission, not an obligation. Um he's worked to support children's literacy by providing free books by attempting to bring students to the
board of education meetings and showcase their talents even when it was discouraged. He continued to advocate for students and families and fought to do so to do what was right um even when he was discouraged. Mr. Morell has personally supported parent volunteers,
bringing coffee, lunch during school events, showing appreciation and respect for our time and efforts. He created Jackson Avenue School's first talent show, which he continues. He gives students an opportunity to take pride in skills beyond the classroom. He
regularly attends events, supports PTA meetings, afterchool events, again, which is rare in our administration. Under his leadership, Jackson Avenue has achieved the highest NJSLA math score in the district for the elementary schools and saw a reduction in chronic
absenteeism, two measurable indicators of positive school leadership. Despite what many of us know to be a toxic environment for work for employees, Mr. Morell has remained focused on student success, often with visible support from
many. Jackson Avenue School has a gold standard in leadership with Mr. Morurell as vice principal. Removing him would be a disservice to the students, family, and community. He's tirelessly supported. Thank you for listening, and I do hope I can support him and the
students in any way I can. >> Thank you. Thank you. Good evening board. >> Good evening. >> My name is Betatina Thomas. I am a mother of a current student at Jackson Avenue School as well as a child who
attends Fanny May Meer Hillers in the special education class. Main thing we are here for which I'm sure all of you are aware by now is Mr. Morell. Um he has been a
meaningful person. He has built meaningful relationships with the student staff and most importantly the families. We trust him with our children. When we see him there at drop off, there's nothing more relieving to
see him there. We know that anything we have a concern on, we can call him. He we have seen positive outcomes in student behavior, school culture and what he most is proud of is the NJSLA scores. They have it has gone up
significantly since he started and as everyone in the community is obviously not available to be present. I am here to speak on behalf of them as well. And a few of the concerns they had was has anyone from the board come to any of the
staff, students or families and asked us what the feelings of the community is before you guys made this decision. And it's just one thing that we're asking is that somebody from the board just come to the school for half a day
to just see the interaction that our children have with Mr. Morell when they see him. It's a high five. It's a hug. It's anything that you see our children with him. You know, during drop off and pickup, Mr. Morell is the only person
administration wise that is there every day consistently interacting with the students and family. The one thing that we ask is that you guys just pause. Do not move forward
with this transfer. Just listen to us as families and protect what is working. We as a community are asking for discussion, transparency, and the opportunity to work together before irreversible harm is done. Thank you.
Good evening. Good. Good evening everyone. My name is Jessica Roas. I'm um just like everyone else here, I'm speaking on behalf of Mr. Moral. Um I am a proud alumni of this of Hackinac High School and I remember seeing Mr. Morale
around the school when I was a student, but now that now as a parent of two students at Jackson A, I truly understand the kind of leader he is to our children. Mr. Morell is not just our vice principal. He is the true leader in
our building. He is part of our children's daily lives. He knows their names, their faces, their struggles, and their successes. He shows up every single day with genuine care to our children. And our children feel that he
is the only um administrator administrative present at every event, every celebration and every moment that matters to our kids and and to all the parents. When our students look around, they see a familiar face, someone who makes them
feel safe, supported, and valued. That kind of presence cannot be cannot be something that I am more proud of. When we are in the middle in the middle of the school year, a time when when children especially need stability and
consistency, change at this time will create uncertainty and other students deserve and our students deserve better. They deserve the comfort of knowing that people who guide them and protect them will still be there tomorrow. He is the
heart of our school. He represents who we are and what we stand for. For the sake of our students, our families, and our entire school community, we strongly ask that he remains with us where he belongs. Thank you.
Hello. Sorry. I can't. >> I'm so sorry. Hello. Uh, my name is Glattis Tuya. I have two kids who attend Jackson Avenue. I am here today at this board meeting to explain how deeply disappointed I am I was when I learned
Mr. Morel was going to be moving from Jackson. I am not the only parent who feels this way as many are of us are here tonight to show our support to him. Whenever you see Mr. Morell at Jackson School, I immediately feel welcome and more importantly the I feel the children
feel value and love. If you have ever witnessed his interactions with the children and I believe many of you have not, you would see the smiles he brings to every child at Jackson. Mr. morale. He is an outstanding male role model for
our children at Jackson. The children light up when he's around and he tr it truly feels like he knows every single child in that building by names. Last year he stepped up when our principal was absent and this proved that he had proved that
validity and leadership when our school needed the most. It feels unfair to relocate him without fully considering the impact this will be on our children's. They will be left heartbroken and without a possible role model who has been a lasting difference
in their daily life. I urge you to please think about the children at Jackson Avenue School and the well-being of our community. Thank you. Jackson Avenue. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Hi. Uh, good evening everyone.
My name is Joffrey Karansa, Hakasan president. I'm the father of two childrens going to Jackson Avenue School. One is the second grade, the other one is in the third grade. And I have a little one who's going for a special education out the Hakasa
district. I'm here with my children because uh Mr. Morel cares about us as as a a community. I'm also um the father of another ch another child who is now a young adult.
I haven't been in Hakasan for many years with my children's studying in the Hakasan school district and I I thank to uh from the bottom of my heart to everyone how however you guys doing for our kids education what I don't like it about
this processes you guys taking decision with without tell parents um is the is the attempting to move Mr. Ulio Morel with um without say anything to the community. And this point in the
school year when we as the Jackson Avenue community are very upset where he is living without just reason uh the community of parents the children's and the Hackerson Avenue school do not want him to leave. My
childrens are very sad because their favorite teacher is leaving. It will be a very difficult holiday season for them and for us to have a deal with with this too especially with another person coming to
fill his position without any purity and knowledge or or guans I haven't see our principal for about three weeks maybe uh what can I expect with a new vice principal
uh when they won't be a principal to guide him. So kindly ask to the board to considering this the his transfers. He's a true leader in our Jackson Avenue community. The only one who interacting
with kids and us as a parents. Thank you. Good evening everyone. As a Johnson parent, I support of Mr. Morel. He's been with us for four years. He's part of the family.
He traced our children as if they were his own. I think he would he want to stay on Jackson Avenue with us. And I would like to support Mr. Murad to stay on Yson Avenue.
>> Excuse me. Can you state your name? Excuse me. >> Oh, sorry. My name is Elio Chavis. >> Gracias. >> Good evening everybody. I'm Mr. Morell. Um Mr. Morel, assistant principal at Jackson Avenue School. So, I'm just
going to grab the mic because I have a bad back. This is difficult. So, Mr. I'm the assistant principal of Jackson Avenue School. First and foremost, thank you. Thank you. First and foremost, I want to thank uh
the board. I want to thank the community for providing this platform, especially the Jackson Avenue school commi community. This is epic for the Jackson Avenue school community to raise their voice. This is a community, I think it was stated before, that genuinely do not
raise their voice. Um, they need a voice. It could be a language barrier. We are over 80% Hispanic in Jackson Avenue School and they need a face in Jackson Avenue school. Um, so for them to come out, I want them to give themselves a round of applause because
this is epic. Give yourselves a round of applause. This is epic. And thank you. Thank you for the kind words. Um, this isn't really just about me tonight. This is about a community that needs us right now. Dr. Whiting, who has I I give
her all the kudos and praise. Your leadership is outstanding and I thank you for the meeting you had with me today. Um, wherever I'm I am, I'm going to serve as the Hackinack community because it's not just Jackson Avenue school. I serve as Hackinack. Um, but we need consistent leadership in
Jackson Avenue School. Um, our staff, our students need us to be present. Our staff and students need us to be fully committed to servicing our students. I was shocked on Friday when I got the news that I was going to be transferred.
And just to be clear, I do not want to leave Jackson Avenue School. Just to be clear, Dr. Whiting is not that I don't want to go to the middle school. I was there 5 years and I love middle school, but I do not want to leave Jackson Avenue School for that sole purpose. I
think Jackson Avenue School needs a face that looks like them, eats like them, talks like them, and can communicate like them. Today, I had a meeting with uh not just uh Dr. Whiting, but I also met with Mr. Co, and I shared with Mr. Co because
we're all being displaced my support. I fully support if Mr. Kad is going to be at Jackson Avenue School. I fully support him because it's not about either one of us. It's about our community. Um the one thing that has been consistent, that's the message that's been given to
me that I want to leave tonight is that there are members of our community that have fear. They have fear in their heart. I don't know where the fear comes from, but they're afraid to speak up. for my wife at home, my kids, but also especially for those that have told me about their fear. Please let go of that
fear. We need every single one of your voices for Jackson Avenue School to continue to thrive. I am proud to be Jackson Avenue School vice principal. If that's the way that I end my career, beautiful. But I'm here to serve as a community. Thank you very much. Good evening everyone.
>> Good evening. >> Um, my name is Stacy Wilkins. I am a teacher at Hackinack Middle School. Um, I'm also the PTA president, so I'm kind of speaking on both ends. All right. I am tired. My colleagues are tired. Our
students are tired. We are tired of being gaslit. When will your actions back up the promises you keep selling us? The middle school is seen as the school that needs the most support. Yet, every year you shake the foundation,
leaving every single person there embracing for impact. Four years ago, Dr. Whiting was brought to the school to help build stability and create a strong foundation for us to build upon and showcase how great a school we really
are. Unfortunately, the first year one of our assistant principles was moved to a new position within the district mid year and the start of rebuilding a new foundation began. Take two. The second year decisions and mistakes were made
that led us to lose another assistant principal and getting a new one mid year. New cracks in the foundation that needed to be repaired with hiring of our dear Mr. Kyato. Take three. The middle
school is split with a new principal undermining all the hard work Dr. Whiting had put in the two years before trying to build stability. more cracks in the already shaky foundation. The new principal is here for one year and the
middle school is back to one building under Dr. Whiting's direction, leaving her to repair the broken foundation of the building yet again. Take four. We start the school year with a solid administrative team that has
been working together for over a year and a half. Each building rapport with the students and staff just for our foundation to take another hit. Mr. Coyato has made his mark on the middle school. As the fifth grade assistant
principal, he was the first person our fifth graders met at their orientation. He earned their trust and his office has become their safe space. Transitioning from elementary to middle is difficult for students, but Mr. Coyato has made
that transition easier for them. He is their lifeline and decisions are being made to strip that from them. He is a big part of their foundation at HMS and here we are again bracing from impact from the attack on our foundation. How
is transferring Mr. Coyato in the middle of the school year supporting HMS. What is the benefit? What was the purpose of Dr. Whiting being moved to the middle school if every time she worked to build a sturdy foundation, decisions are made that make her have to start all over
again. We can only be as strong as our leadership. And every year, our leadership is is dismantled brick by brick. You don't build a foundation by constantly removing the people holding it together. And you don't get to act
surprised when everything begins to crack. Thank you. Anyone else from the public? Okay. Can we go for online? Thank you. Hello. Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Hi, this is Julie Platty, Hackinack High School chorus teacher. You heard from me
in person earlier today, about three or more hours ago when the course performed. And um after 15 years of teaching, this is the first time I've ever spoken at a board meeting. Um I am asking today for the board to please
consider allocating funds to replace the HVAC system for the Hackinac High School music rooms, especially for the chorus rooms. As you may know, that room has no windows. So, we are completely reliant on the HVAC system for our ventilation
and our heating and cooling. In my 15 years, the air conditioning has not worked for more than a few days per warm season. That's 15 years of basically baking in a brick oven from typically
midappril till graduation. one year after the graduation ceremony, the temperature in the chorus room was over 100 degrees and then again until around the end of September. Now, that's pretty bad, but the heat had always been fairly reliable until this
year. Now, the heat is not working correctly anymore. When the heat is on, it gets close to 80° in there. And if the blowers are turned off, it gets down to the low 60s. So most mornings either
Adam is Sufi who has got to be our school's most valuable person easily a million times over. He deserves all the praise in the world. He either beats me to it and comes in or I text him in the morning to come in and he has to go into
the back room and climb up a ladder to reach into the ceiling to turn on the blowers. And then a few later hours later, I text him to ask him to come back to shut them off because it's 75 or 77 degrees in there. And then he comes back and shuts it off. And then for the rest of the day, the temperature slowly
goes back down. And we repeat that pattern every day. It's not a great situation. We're cold, we're hot, we're never comfortable. Um, and it's such an old system, it's impossible to get the right parts. So
when something is fixed, it breaks again. in a matter of days. Um, so I ask you for your consideration to be able to find money in the budget for that expenditure. Um, and I very sincerely thank you all for your consideration and
wish you all the happiest of holidays. Thank you. >> Yeah, thank you. >> Good evening everyone. and Shauna Shortrich, Hackisac resident and teacher. Um, good evening members of the board. I would like to take a moment to
recognize the outstanding um the presentations that I witnessed earlier on. Isana's research on cancer was both powerful and um inspiring. Her dedication to understanding um this
disease gives me hope, especially as so many of us are personally um affected through close relatives and friends who are currently battling cancer. I truly pray that her work one
day contributes to finding a cure. Um, I would also like to commend Devvin and Dustin Damre um for their architectural design um for their architectural design project.
They represented their work with confidence and professionalism. um their vision for a hospital wing and a study cove was um you know really well student centered and I must say perhaps
next they can take on a studentled design for the bathrooms in the school. Um these students were not my personal scholars. um as an elementary education teacher, I'm proud to um you know listen
to their meaningful research in science technology. It's it was very inspiring and this is what the future looks like in Hackinack and I again I pray and hope that Isan is able to find a cure for
cancer and I'm hoping that that the Camry brothers will be able to come up with a great visualization for not only the women's bathroom but also maybe the boys's bathroom. I haven't been in boys bathroom but maybe the women's bathroom, the girls bathroom could get an upgrade.
Thank you. have a wonderful holiday. >> Thank you. >> I'm I'm sorry. Before we go to the next online person, can I have a motion to extend the meeting past 10:00? >> A motion. >> Motion by Trusty Jones. Can I have a second? >> Second.
>> Second by Trusty Pringle. All those in favor say I. I. Anyone opposed? Any abstensions? Okay, you could go on for online. Thank you. >> Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Hi, this is Jessica Cruz. I'm the Nelly K. Parker PTA president, a middle school
teacher, Hackinack community member. Um, tonight I am speaking on behalf of my current and former Nelly K. Parker parents who are saddened about the
changes of the transfer between Mr. uh Julio Morell and Mr. Coyado. Um first of all, I want to give a huge shout out to the parents from Jackson who spoke. Um it sounds like Mr. Morell is doing a fantastic job at Jackson and um to my
point uh I think Mr. Coyo is doing a fantastic job at the middle school and I think it sounds like we already know that they should not be swapped and that this transfer uh is going to affect a lot more than we've realized. Um this
week actually I was uh confronted by a group of Nelly K. Parker parents who have some had a couple middle school students and some will have fifth graders next year. And one of the things that comes with being a PTA president who also works at the middle school is
my fourth grade parents come to me and go, "So, the middle school?" And they want to know my opinion and what it's like and what fifth grade is like and whether or not they should send their students to the middle school or consider a charter school. And
Mr. Coyo. Um the par one of the parents answered before I could and she said what a fantastic uh experience she had had at the middle school with her fifth grader who is there right now uh with the communication from Mr. Coyado and just
helping the students feel comfortable and at ease being there. Um and unfortunately these other fourth grade parents in the same breath were told that he is now going to Jackson and um how saddened that the fifth grade
parents are that this transfer is happening. This transfer affects students and staff who have a rapport with these two administrators who seem to be doing fantastic jobs of where they are. Um, also with the middle school, you know, we're constantly hearing all
of the things that the middle school needs to do better and this is a situation where the parents have bonded with this administrator and feel confident in this administrator and now both of these two administrators are going to be swapped and those relationships are going to be severed.
And I just ask the board to consider that this affects those families and also that the world that we live in right now, a lot of families are living in fear and the fact that these communities at Jackson and at the middle
school have bonded to these two people and that we are taking away that certainty um is just something that I don't think is in the best interest of children and again um I just ask the board to
reconsider. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hi. Hello. Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Yes. Hi. My name is Jessica Stan. I am a
longtime Hackinack resident. Speaking on behalf of my seven-year-old second grade daughter that attends Jack Jackson Avenue School and I have to say that when it comes to Mr. Julio Morell, that
man is the glue to our schools. He's the glue to the families, to the children. He's the liaison, a leader. When Mr. Moran was not available, he
stepped up and he stepped right into play. We value him. He values us. He makes us feel welcome. The devastation will come if he is transferred. How do I explain to my sevenyear-old how
does that affect us as a family? Because at Jackson Avenue School, that's what we are. We're a family. And for some of those children, that's the only stability that they have. So, I'm asking you to please reconsider,
to please take our words into action. There's volumes on top of volumes endless that can be said about him. So please at this time if it can be postponed or reconsidered please do that because at
this point in the school year right before Christmas break this will be most hurtful not to only to ch to the children but also to the families. Thank you. >> Thank you.
Hello. Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> All right. Hello. My name is Philip Broofphy. I'm a teacher at Hackinac High School. Uh good to hear you all. Um I would like to call on behalf of the
Muslim Student Association. Uh the last time I called in, it was just for a minute, so I didn't get to really uh articulate everything. Um I want to shout out some specific students and and uh people that helped
to facilitate it. um Michelle Aro from Machinos, um Patty Lozano, the vice principal at the high school, and specifically uh Mark uh sorry, excuse me, Ayan Mudasir,
Muhammad Muhammad, and Marbo Mammut Mamat Kulova. the three of them together, so sorry about the pronunciation, um were really instrumental in making everything come together. Uh so I really want to shout
them out. And uh between helping to create the Jamaal prayers on Friday and the halal options that now exist at uh the high school uh in the high school uh cafeteria, I think it's uh extraordinary
what they've done. So yeah, just want to shout them out and uh that's it. Thank you very much for your time, Mike Jones. Have a good night. Talk to you all soon. >> Hello.
>> Hello. >> Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Excellent. Good evening. My name is Yalda Tiveras, a proud teacher at Jackson Avenue School. I am the fourth grade bilingual teacher there and I come
to you to speak on behalf of Mr. Morell. I've been at Jackson Avenue School for 5 years now and in my tenure at that building, I have seen um inconsistency with uh administration.
Mr. Morell came to us when it was my second year at Jackson. And since then, I've seen nothing but a face. I've seen nothing but support. I have seen nothing but a genuine person that not only cares
for the students, for the communities, for the community, but also for us, for us, the teachers, for the people that come into that building each and every single day and see those beautiful smiles. Mr. Morell is an outstanding
leader. Um, I have had the pleasure not only to see him as a leader, but also to see him as a teacher. Mr. Moral took some time out of his day every single day last year and he walked into my third grade classroom and we made magic.
Mr. Morel and I are a dynamic mathematical team and I just want to share that out of my 15 students, nine met NJSLA scores, four approached and two partially met. We started with an
empty slate. We ended up with superstars. We knew that we just were the resource to bring those children to their full potential. As a bilingual teacher, I see every single day, day in and day out, how the multilingual
community is shattered. Um I have been here at um Hackinack for eight years. I came from Hiller's school where there was stability and always an administrative face and when I moved to
Jackson and for me to not see that it was a little disgruntling but I made it work and Mr. Morurell has made it work. He's made it work for us. He has made it work for the children. He has made it work for the parents. He has always made
it work for the community. I really hope that the board takes into consideration all of the uh people that had come forth to you to speak on behalf of Mr. Morell and you reconsider your um decision to transfer him over. Thank you so much for
your time and you all have a wonderful holiday season. >> Thank you, too. Good evening. My name is Michelle Tvarez, uh, resident Hackinack, and I just wanted to I apologize. I am late to the meeting, so if this was discussed
already, I do apologize for that, but I just wanted to take an opportunity to thank the board of education and thank the district. Um, today was instant decision day for our senior students in the high school. And I can proudly say that my son was accepted to every
college that he applied for. Last year, my daughter was accepted to every college that she applied for. And for the community that don't know, instant decision day takes a massive burden off of seniors who are stressed and concerned and worried about if they are
going to get accepted or not accepted. and not many schools in many districts do an instant decision day. So, I just want to thank the board of education and the guidance department and all of the high school teachers and administration for a fabulous job. Thank you.
Okay. Is there anybody else from the public that would like to speak that's in person? All right. At this time, the public comment section is closed. We are going to move on to our committee reports and resolutions. We're going to start with
personnel and the chair of personnel is Trusty Emmer Hemsa. The personel the personnel committee met last week and I have items A1 A through
O to offer as well as a walk-on resolution item P for consideration. Uh that resolution item P. Be it resolved that the Hackinstack Board of Education upon the recommendation of the acting
superintendent of schools accepts the following transfer for the 2025 2026 school year. Uh the name is for Donna Petran Wall. the position of acting principal non-tenurable
from location um director of ECDC to the location of Jackson Avenue School um to be effective January 5th, 2026. Okay, so we have a motion from Trustee Amrahems. May I have a second?
>> Second. >> Second by Trusty Gilmore. Miss Aostra, can you please do a roll call? Miss Olen Balutra. >> Yes to all with the exception of D1 and D2. >> Miss Abrahamza. Yes to all. Mr. Carol.
>> Yes. I recuse myself from the B. >> Miss Gilmore. >> Yes to all. >> Mr. Jones. >> Yes to all. the exceptions B1 and D2. >> Mr. Martin, >> yes to all, except section uh D1 D2.
>> Miss Pringle, >> yes to all except for D1 and D2. >> Miss Harris, >> yes to all. >> Mr. Stein, >> yes to all. >> Motion passes.
Okay, moving on to policy and chair for policy is Trusty Pringle. Um, for policy, I'd like to make a motion um for B1 B2. Um
there's nothing new actually for policy general. >> Yeah, there's no there's nothing new no first readings for today. Um B2 is just given the first reading follow
following from last time and so I'd like to for a motion for >> Okay. >> Okay. So we have a motion for Trusty Pringle. Can I have a second? >> Second. >> Second by Trusty Jones. Mr. Aostra, can
you please do a roll call? >> Miss Alustin Balutra. >> Yes. >> Miss Amar Hamza. >> Yes. Mr. Carol, >> yes. >> Miss Gilmore, >> yes. >> Mr. Jones, >> yes. >> Mr. Martin,
>> yes. >> Miss Fringle, >> yes. >> Miss Harris, >> yes. >> Mr. Stein, >> yes. >> Motion passes. I'm sorry, but I have quick question in regards to the personnel. Mr. Carol, would you say it refused from D1 or
>> all all of B? All of D. >> No B. >> Just wanted to confirm. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. So, moving on to curriculum and the chair of curriculum is trusty Pringle.
Um, I'd like to make an offer to motion C1 through C14. um with highlighting C14 um which uh just explains the purchase of plan Dreambox learning reading
platform from Discovery Education to be implemented into Hackinch High School for the 202526 school year to be paid from grant funds. Um again I I would like to make a motion for C1 to C14.
>> Thank you. Okay. So, we have a motion from Trusty Pringle. Can I have a second? >> Second. >> Second by Trusty Jones. Miss Astro. Roll call, please. >> Miss Olston Balucho. >> Yes. >> Miss Emmerza? >> Yes. >> Mr. Carol?
>> Yes. >> Miss Gilmore? >> Yes. >> Mr. Jones? >> Yes. >> Mr. Martin? >> Yes. >> Miss Pringle? >> Yes. >> Miss Harris? >> Yes. >> Mr. Stein? >> Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Moving on
to finance and chair for finance is vice president Stein. >> Okay. I'd like to offer uh D1 through D14. I'd just like to call attention to D
number five, which a is a $3,000 grant from the Rotary Club of Hackinack. Uh, and this is for uh toiletries, clothing, food, and uh school supplies
uh to help meet our students needs. >> Thank you. So, we have a motion from Vice President Stein. Can I have a second? >> A second. >> Second by Trusty Pringle. Masha, roll call. Miss Austin Balutra,
>> I'm sorry. I have a question. D2 is the bill's list. Is the bills list the bills list that ends December 8th or is there bills list that goes beyond December 8th? >> The bills established on the Thursday before the board meeting.
>> So there's been no addition to the one that we that we saw in committee >> and the committees I I believe they have added after that. It's the one that was emailed the Thursday before the board meeting. Are you saying that we didn't receive the email or are you saying that it's
not here in our packet? >> I don't have the email or it in my packet. I have the one from Tuesday, December 9th. Sure. >> Okay. Just just to be clear that there
is a motion on the table. So we continue on with the vote. Correct. Don't make a motion to draw accepted. >> No. >> Oh, let's try that again. So, Miss Aasha, can you please do a roll call?
>> Miss Alustin Balutra. >> No. >> Miss Amra Hamza? >> Yes. >> Mr. Carol? >> Yes. >> Miss Gilmore? >> Yes. >> Mr. Jones? Sorry, I'm a little bit confused. So, is was it this information
that we didn't get or >> So, the number that's there is the same number that was motion on the table. Motions on the tables to approve D1 through D14. Okay. Okay. Yes. And I'll abstain from D2.
>> I'm still voting. >> Yes. To all except for D2. I'll abstain. >> Okay. Mr. Martin, >> yes. >> Miss Pringle, >> yes. >> Miss Harris, >> yes. >> Mr. Stein,
>> yes. >> Motion passes. Thank you. Yes. Pardon my interruption. I need to clarify my vote. My no was to D1 attachment D2.
I'm agreeing to everything else >> just not to D2. >> It's resolution D1 but the attachment is D2. >> Attachment D2. >> And can you have mine reflect that as well?
>> Sure. Okay, moving on to facilities and the chair of facilities is Trusty Martin. >> Yes, I would like to motion E1 through E5. Highlight E2. Um, this board is very happy with our
share service program. City the this board is very happy with our share service program with the city and and mayor and council. Because of this program, we were able to expedite this project as at a reasonable cost.
Also, I'd like to uh add to the share service program came in just in time. The sock you see around the school property is part of the share service program. So again, so again I the entire board and director
of building and grounds Juan Feliz better known as Pablo and our tech director Alex would like to thank the mayan council for working with us as we work with you. So with that say I would like
to motion E1 E5 again. Second. >> Yep. >> We have a motion from Trusty Martin and a second from Trusty Carol. Mr. Aasher, can you please do a roll call? >> Miss Alustin Balutra. >> Yes. >> Miss Amraham. >> Yes.
>> Mr. Carol. >> Yes. >> Miss Gilmore. >> Yes. >> Mr. Jones. >> Yes. >> Mr. Martin? >> Yes. >> Miss Pringle? >> Yes. >> Miss Harris? Yes, >> Mr. Stein. >> Yes. >> Motion passes.
>> Thank you. On to community relations. And the chair for community relations is Trusty Gilmore. >> Good evening. Last night, uh, some of the members of the community relations committee had the opportunity to participate in the city's final focus
group for the comprehensive bicycle and pedestrian plan. Um, being um, led by NV5. Um, I believe that having the board of education involved will give um a different um lens to the bike plan as it
relates to the safety of our students and community members. Um, so it was a really great um meeting. A lot of ideas came out. So I think we are well on our way um to having a comprehensive bike
bicycle plan and Hackinack. Um just stay tuned. Thank you. Thank you. Uh so for other committees I would like to report the joint board of ed and city meeting met last week. Um as Trusty Martin had
said we are still exploring shared services. Uh and so far we have been able to collaborate on salt and not salt that we eat but salt that we put on the floor for the safety of our students and this weather. Um also we have we were
able to collaborate on the train wire as he had stated the fixture and we have been able to have great communication and support in getting that done. Um also we thanked the city for also supplying box lunches for our students
in a time of need when some additional aid was not given to our families. So we thank you and we continue to collaborate with the city for shared services. on to our second public comment portion where individuals may address the board on
agenda and school matters of community interest for one minute. Anybody in person that would like to speak? Okay, I see that there are none. Anybody online? Okay, let's go with online. >> I do have something
under >> Hello, this is Philip Brophie again. And I just want to chime in and come in complete support of the bicycle plan that will hopefully be implemented in Hackinack. And the Hackinack High School
bicycle locking area is very much uh in need of support. So, anything that could come of this that would help out with that area. uh kids are hard up to find places to
lock up because they wind up filling up almost the entire racks and then have to go beyond and find other creative places to lock up. So yes, I completely completely agree with this and uh I I was at the the city council meeting
where I spoke at that as well regarding this. But yes, anything to to bring more awareness and safety to the students of Hackinac who ride their bikes and often share bicycles with their families. It is of vital importance and completely
essential. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Okay, so at this time we're going to close public comment section and Vice President Stein, you have something? >> Yes. Uh I'd just like to under old business
um there seemed to be a misconception about uh what I had indicated about charter schools. At no time did I indicate that this board should sue the
state. I know that cannot be done. Um, our taxpayers are burdened with close to $7 million in monies that we pay out of our budget to charter schools.
What I am asking this board to consider sometime in the near future is a resolution to the state indicating that any community in the state that has is
funding charter schools that that burden of expense be passed on to the state to the various charter schools. Okay, thank you. And now we are moving
on to board comments. Anybody wants to volunteer? >> I'll go to get it up. >> Trusty Pringle. >> I don't want to speak English. >> Okay. Um, I would first, um, like to
thank the Hackasac chorus and their chorus teacher for coming out. Um, they sound amazing. They were wonderful. Oh my god. Um, Mr. Delveio, Mr. Keeler
um all the students which were soon to be our uh future doctors, our future ecologists, our future biologists um especially um our bio our bilingual
biologists. I want to say to um our future architects, engineers, and designers. Um you guys are going to come back to Hackasack and rebuild when y'all get these jobs. I hope. Um
I also like to thank um Zo Gonzalez for her student report. Um, and I also would like to thank um the parents for coming out and those who called on the phone um that felt the need to speak out for um
Mr. Morel. Um, merry Christmas, have a blessed New Year and good night at Just Oalra. >> Good evening. Um,
as always, I thank Superintendent Parchment for her hard work and her team's work. Um, I want to specifically highlight the finance team, Mr. Astra and our consultant,
but most importantly, I want to highlight some of the legal work that has taken place with Mr. Nunamacher. It's been a tremendous amount of work that that he has done on our behalf and it and and it is
appreciated. It is appreciated. Um shout out to Parker School for the Censory Santa program. It's a something that was near and dear to my heart. My son and I struggle with Santa and I really appreciate them for sponsoring that program. I echo the sentiments about the
Hackinack High School students that were here tonight. Our students are awesome. Um, it was just great to see get a glimpse at some of the things that are happening, especially in our STEM programming. I also had an opportunity to see our Hackers High School students perform at the Quanza celebration at
Fairley Dickinson University. It was awesome and moving. Um, I hadn't been to a Thanksgiving Day game in a minute. So, it was an exciting experience to have. Recently on last evening we attended the some of us attended the city council
meeting where among a lot of exciting things that happened of the late Nick Picialo and his writing partner Maryanne Di Maria who produced many of the musical theater presentations here at
the high school over several decades were uh received a commendation from the city um as a reluctant participation in some of those productions. It was life-changing and lifeenriching. I mean, granted, my other option was to
take my mother's class, but um I was truly enriched by all the experiences I had as a Hackinack student. And while I was reluctant to have those experiences, it enriched my life in a tremendous way. It was great to see Mrs. D. Maria and to
see the work that she's done and with Mr. Pallo, the work that he's done, honored over the decades. Um, I believe that's it. Happy holidays to everyone. Thank you for coming out. Thank you to all the parents who came out to to hear make your voices known to us. Have a
good night. >> Since we're raising hands, anybody else want to >> go ahead Jones. Um um so I definitely want to shout out the chorus. That was a incredible presentation. Um really all the
presentations um that came up today. First of all, I want to shout out Zoe, also my tablemate who's up here with us every month now. Um and also for Rochelle Park and South Hackinack being being here tonight. Um the presentations were incredible. Um I mean everything
from the from the science angle as well as the uh the architectural angle. I think um you know obviously shout out to all the teachers and all the administrators involved. Shout out to the hackath river keeper for always being involved and kind of getting our kids out there cuz one thing we have in hack is we have meadow lands. We have a
river and that's something that I think our kids kind of can can get an experience with that uh that other towns don't. Um also to the bilingual honors uh biology program that was incredible. Um, and it's just every time I every meeting I'm still new a little bit. Not not anymore,
but but every meeting I I learn something new that's going on. It like blows me away. And um especially the science aspect and the the architectural aspect. I was on the zoning board uh for the last 12 years before this. And the plans that I saw up there, the site plans, the physical model, um that looks
like it came from a legitimate developer. I mean that and that's our kids doing that. And that's that's incredible. So really just shout out to everything that they're doing here and those programs. Um that's really advanced stuff and it's really impressive. Um
shout out to winter sports. Um somebody brought that up especially bowling and we did take home a win over Dwight Mar today. Um and then really I ju I really just want to shout out all the parents, teachers, and everybody that came up and spoke. I mean, that's it's vital and
that that just coming up and and and and saying those things and and speaking your your peace is a super important part of this process. So, thank you. >> Okay. All right. >> Trusty Martin. >> Thank you very much.
>> You're welcome. Uh it was a real pleasure seeing our uh students excel in the presentation that was presented to us to uh tonight. So I take my hat off to the building leaders and the uh teachers. You recognize their
strength and encourage them to reach their goals. Good job to all of you and especially to our students. Also, um I want to thank uh Miss Julie Brad, our chorus director,
and the um our course director and the performance that uh you and your students gave to us today tonight. It was um it's always a pleasure hearing from you. Uh keep up the good work and uh this board was always behind you.
Um also, um this board, we always encourage everyone to come out, come to the mic and speak. Uh you have done so uh tonight. We appreciate hearing from you. Um we did listen to you.
Sometime it goes your way, sometime it doesn't. But this board do listen to you and uh sometime we have to make the uh best decision that we feel is is for the district. So um don't get discouraged. Please continue on coming out and uh we
will continue on listening to you and and um working with our community and students. Again, thank you. Have a good holiday and we'll see you next year.
>> Okay. Thank you, Trusty Gilmore. >> Um, >> good evening. I wanted to first uh thank the honors and mixed chorus for your wonderful performance. Is nothing like hearing sleigh bells to get you into holiday season. Um, thank you uh to Dr.
Kaylor, Mr. Delveio, and Miss Wire. Um, the advanced courses that were added are absolutely amazing. Um, I was especially impressed by um the twins with the um medical wing. Um, you know, capitalizing on being so close to the hospital is
amazing. I would love to see that come into fruition. Um, what else? Um, oh, and and and I thank you for um I forgot the the gentleman's name that called in about the Muslim community.
Um, oh, Phil Brophy, thank you. Um, thank you again for highlighting um that change to support our Muslim community. Um, everyone needs to feel welcome and and included in their environment and that definitely um makes that more um
accessible. Um, and that's it. I just wanted to wish everyone a happy Hanukkah, a merry Christmas and a happy Kwanza. Have a good night. Oh, and a happy new year. Thank you, Trusty Amrazza. >> U Thank you again uh to Miss Flatty and
the Honors Qu uh chorus um for their beautiful performance. Um obviously their message of um peace and hope is especially important right now. Um a huge thank you to Mr. Montisano and his team um here at the high school um for
all of the really wonderful presentations. Um, thank you and and happy birthday to Dr. Keeler. Uh, thank you to Miss Sire, um, Mr. Santanis, um, Miss Rosa. Um, all of the students,
Isana, Winnie, Jana, Lzelle, Sadi, Ashley, Michaela, Dustin, and Kevin. Um, and, um, also just really to highlight all of the wonderful collaboration that is happening. Um, you know, a huge thank
you to our send our sending districts, Rochelle Park and South Hackinac. Um, and again to reiterate, um, what acting superintendent Parchman said, um, congratulations and thank you to Rochelle Park, Superintendent Denobyl, um, on her retirement. Thank you for all
of your service. Um and again uh thank you to it's it's really wonderful to see the collaboration with the the city on so many different initiatives from shared services um to the honor that they give to as as trustee Austin
Balipuchra mentioned to um our staff and students um and there's many more opportunities to collaborate and really to to Ashley's point um in her presentation where she was talking about um the loss of trees You know, that was
another collaboration between the city and the schools on the recent grant that we were awarded to uh the shade tree grant um to to plant over 200 trees across the district and the city and our parks. Um congratulations to our amazing
high school seniors um who received wonderful news on Instant Decision Day, as well as the $2.1 million and counting, I'm sure, in um scholarship offers. Um, and again, um, just to reiterate what Trusty Martin said,
obviously, you know, for all of us here, you know, we really value, um, what everybody is saying and their feedback, their comments. Um, it's not always easy to make decisions, but we definitely want to hear from everyone. Um, thank you to our team, our acting
superintendent, our acting business administrator, everyone at central office. Um, and thank you to everyone else here on the dis. um all of my fellow trustees, our board president, our board attorney. Um you know, it's it's definitely a pleasure to work
together. Um and a huge thank you to all of our teachers and our administrators, our custodians, our secretaries, everyone who helps keep the district running. Um and wishing everyone very happy holidays, happy Hanukkah, uh merry Christmas, happy Quanza, and a happy new
year. Thank you, Trusty Carol. You thought I forgot about you? You were hiding. I saw you. >> Uh, again, thank you to um Rochelle Park and South Ainac representatives. Um,
high school chorus, outstanding performance. Um, the new initiative presentation was outstanding. It was I'm always talking about how um Hacksac High School has so much to offer
in classes and programs that um it seems like every week I'm even amazed by the different things that we have to offer here and um it was nice to hear from the students and how engaged they are in these programs and these classes um and hearing their perspective and seeing
their experiments and everything. I thought that was really great. Um I like to say Oh yeah. And um this week we had a shop with a cop at Target for 10 of our um less fortunate families
where um an officer went out and shopped with uh some of the students from our district and um it was nice to see uh Miss Petron Wall um Dr. Gallana
and Miss Saran come out and represent also. That was nice to see. And that's about it. I just want to wish everyone a happy and safe holiday and good night. >> Thank you, Vice President Stein. >> Oh, thank you. You're welcome. >> Um
there's so much that took place tonight. Uh first of all, I'd like to thank Miss Plotty and uh the chorus. uh every year they sound wonderful.
Uh the student presentations tonight um it's amazing what we and what we as a board uh offer and what our students and our
teachers do on a daily basis. Um, we saw those presentations tonight and just phenomenal, really phenomenal. Um about two weeks ago we had our fall
sports coffee hour and one of our students and please forgive me I forget his name. Uh there was a special presentation that night where he made a commitment to the University of Southern
California to attend as an athlete. Uh to everybody here in the room and those listening on board, uh we wish you all a happy Hanukkah,
happy Quanza, merry Christmas, and a happy new year, and a healthy and safe new year. Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay. Uh, so I want to thank our ascending districts who came out
tonight. Rochelle Park, South Hackinack, we love to see you. Um, and we definitely want to showcase our students more often. So definitely we look forward to seeing them in the future again. Um, shout out even though they're not here at the moment, but I hope that
they they listen to this at the end. Um, to our Jackson Avenue um, families. You know, it is true. It is monumental for them to come out um as a predominant school with Spanish-sp speakaking
families. Um as a child of immigrant families, I know how difficult it is for families to come out and speak on behalf of their children, especially with the language barrier. It's it it it was truly moving.
Um unfortunately, we're not able to discuss personnel matters. Um, as our, you know, my board trustees, um, board members have said, you know, we do make very difficult decisions. We do take a lot, um, into consideration
when these decisions are made. I want to thank uh, Zoe, our student representative, for her report. as always, the Hackasak High School chorus, Miss Plotty, um, for doing a wonderful job as always, just kicking it off for
the holiday season. Again, shout out to our high school uh, high school students with their presentations. I mean, really, one of the callers had mentioned that the future does look bright in Hackinack. And, you know, as I had mentioned before, some key words that
just stood out to me, they love the challenge. Um, the bar was set high. This is real training, not just busy work. So, you can tell that the students are highly invested in the projects that they are doing. And hey, listen, maybe even those projects might even spark
some reality in the the medical wing, you know, or um even with the trees that that was presented. Um, again, I was very impressed and inspired with the honors bilingual program. Again, as a Spanish coming from a Spanish- speaking
family, it is just wonderful to see that when there's a need, we make it happen. We listen to our students, we listen to our families, and it becomes a reality. Um, with that being said, uh, because it is we're ending a year
and starting a new one, I always like to reflect and think about things that we have done, right? we should always look back and say okay what things did I I accomplished and what things do I need to do next for the new year. Um so there have been a lot of significant changes
that has happened so far in our board. Um we've had we started the year with some trustees who had stepped down. um after they stepped down, we were able to appoint two new um board members or trustees who are now officially will be
uh sworn in in January. One who will be reelected in January as well. And I hope everyone will join us on January 7th for the reating of Trustee Austin Balaputra, Trusty Jones, and reelect uh
what is it called? >> Return the comeback of uh Trustee Carol. >> Don't call it a comeback. >> Don't call it a comeback. Um I >> I also want to thank and excuse my
voice. This has been a two-month ordeal. I can't get it together. But um I would still like to thank um my board members uh trustees for your commitment and willingness to serve our community. Uh there have been many meetings. There
have been lots of discussions and I just thank you for your promptness for your opinions and support throughout throughout this entire time. Um the board of education hasn't been the only thing that has seen a transition. We've also experienced
transitions in our central office um with the appointment of our acting superintendent, Miss Andrea Oats Parchment, with the change of our acting um business administrator, Miss Lenita Gastra, along with several shifts across
central administration and within our school buildings. Uh and throughout this time, the board has also taken its fiduciary responsibility very seriously. We are also also following up and up to date on all mandated board trainings
which reflects our commitment to strong governance and accountability. Since these changes, we've have also worked closely with central offi office to establish board and district goals which are posted on our website. as a
result also the improvement of stronger collaboration and working with the city council as we head into the holiday season um which is literally a week away folks okay so students and staff can be excited about that um I do want to wish
everyone a restful and recharging break whether you use it to celebrate a holiday whether you just use it to like I had mentioned before disconnect so that you can take that time to do what you need to do. Um, I want to
thank the community, staff, students, and families for always supporting the board of education. And I look forward to seeing everyone in the next year. Have a great evening, everyone. And can I have a motion to close our meeting?
>> Okay. Motion by Vice President Stein. Can I have a second? >> Second by Trusty Pringle. All those in favor say I. Anyone opposed? >> It is 10:33 p.m. Have a good night, everyone.