to call the meeting to order. 6 o'clock. You please stand for I allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Root of egress. In the event of an emergency, all people may exit right or left from this room and proceed to an exit door. All doors will open from the inside. Open public meetings act. The Open Public Meetings Law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the
meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon. In accordance with the provisions of this act, the Hilton Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published in the North the North Jersey record Herald News. the board's official newspaper. On August 2nd, 2026, notices
of this meeting indicating date, time, and place were posted publicly on the door of the main entrance to the school and filed with the municipal clerk of the city of the Burough Hill. Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Cerna >> here, >> Miss Gado, Mrs. Fischer
>> here, >> Miss Garcia, Miss Gatlin, >> here. >> Mr. Gusman, Mrs. Johnson, Mr. Williams >> present. >> And Mr. Kleta >> present. >> No presentations. I have a motion to
open the floor hearing of citizens on agenda items only. >> Motion. Miss Cerna. >> Second. >> Second. Mr. Williams. All >> favor. >> Any opposed? The floor is now open to agenda items only.
Anyone online? All right, seeing no one in the audience, no one online. We got a motion to close. >> Motion, Miss Fischer, second is Cerna. All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Floor is closed at 602.
We have a motion to accept correspondence. >> Motion, Miss Cerna. >> Second. >> Second, Miss Fiser. Roll call. >> Yes. >> Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Sona. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Fisher.
>> Yes. And I just want to say one thing about um um Mrs. Moer with regret. I worked with her for a long time. She's a great person. Okay. >> [laughter] >> Okay, moving along. Mr. Dallas, [laughter]
>> yes. >> Miss Mr. Williams, >> yes. >> And Mr. Kleta, >> yes. Miss Johnson is here. Step out for a minute. Okay. Do we have a motion to approve prior
minutes? Motion, Mrs. Cerna. Second, Mr. Williams. Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Serna, >> yes. [clears throat] >> Mrs. Fischer, >> yes. >> Miss Gatlin, >> yes.
>> Mrs. Johnson, >> yes. >> Mr. Williams, >> yes. >> And Mr. Kleta, >> yes. Thank you. All right, moving on. Committee reports. My report will be very brief. I just want to welcome Mrs.
uh Dr. Melissa. Uh she starts finally with the new year. I hope that everyone is looking forward to a good start to the school year and gives her the grace to come into the new position and uh make the changes that are necessary. I also want to thank uh Mr. Mendes for
stepping into the role uh for the last month or so and keeping the building running and getting the building ready. That's the end of my report. With that, give it to Dr. Melissa for her. >> Thank you, Mr. Getta. Mine is not as brief, but uh since taking on this role,
I've received a very warm welcome from the entire administrative team, administrative assistants, the buildings and grounds crew, technology staff. Um everyone has been wonderful, so I couldn't have asked for a warmer welcome. I would also like to thank Mr. Mendes for his work as admin superintendent. He really made this
transition easy, which is great. So, working with everyone during this time has been a pleasure and I'd also like to thank the board again for putting your confidence in me so that I can lead the Hilton School with you. As we start the new school year, I would like to remind everyone, every decision I make and will
make will always put students first. I will be guided by the district mission to prepare students to be healthy, active, productive, and well-rounded thinkers as well as responsible community members. I promise to be open and honest and about how decisions are
made. I will also focus on the well-being of our students and staff and will work to manage our district budget responsibly. um for updates over the course of the summer. What we've been doing in my big two and a half days so far, no, but with everyone's support
over the summer, we have been working on safety and security upgrades. Our priority is to keep staff, students, and visitors safe. We're currently reviewing all building safety measures across the district. I look forward to working closely with the local police department and partnering with them to ensure that the schools are secure and ready to
open. Um, I'd like to build strong community connections and we'll be reaching out to the parent teacher association as well as hosting two in-person meet the superintendent events during the week of August 17th. For anyone who can't meet those, I will do an online webinar that'll be recorded
and posted on the website for any information you may miss if you can't come and join me. Um, I'm also excited to work with our teaching staff. I will be meeting with the education association tomorrow to focus on shared goals and to start the year on a
positive note so that we'll be working together. Um, one of the things that we're going to shift towards that parents should keep and families should keep their eyes out for. We're going to move towards an online portal for all opening documents. I know we already use the real-time parent portal. So, we'll
be utilizing that a little more extensively and parents will receive information about that. There will also be a screencast or video webinar as to how to do that and computers will be available in the school for families who would like to use a computer if it's not compatible with their mobile device. Um,
looking ahead with the new school year around the corner, I really am excited to meet our students and families and to welcome everyone back and to start off on a positive note with everyone. So, thank you. Thank you, Mr. >> Do we have any questions for Dr. Mo?
Next, uh, Mrs. Austin. >> Thank you. So, majority of my report is, um, a recap of our finance committee meeting. I believe I emailed that out to our board members. A few things have been updated since then. So, I'll recap
everything about the finance committee meeting and then I'll interject on some of the things that has, you know, come to fruition since then. So the finance committee team did meet um to go over the current financial status and district operations and updates. Um I
also was my watch took me a minute to >> um we also discussed the transportation aid update. We received our notices um on extraordinary aid. Um we looked at the differences of what we will be receiving this year versus last year. there is a decrease but we know that
with extraordinary aid things do fluctuate fluctuate depending on the um special education population and the service related services that are needed in those areas. We also talked about the transportation aid that the district um receives on an annual basis, how those
reimbursements are distributed, who are they for, and the difference in um payout between what we receive with aid versus what the district contributes and um to cover the transportation for non-public um students that attend our
who live in our um district. In addition, we talked about the Barber Street um gate incident that occurred on July 19th and approximately 3:00 a.m. Um we did have um a incident where a car
ran into the gate. So it is in the process of being repaired and that was an early morning. We did we do have a police report so we're going to continue to um work on getting that repaired before school started. Um we also discussed some preschool renovation um
projects wish list um and um upgrading the replacement in the bathroom tile, putting new classroom flooring and hallway um updating hallway flooring that is um in the works. We're discussing it with the architect and
more than likely we won't get to that project until next spring. We also talked about the preschool budget um where we are as far as salaries and employee employee benefits and also the overall budget increase um that the state had given us this year. We looked
over our monthly financial reports. We discussed the food service program operations. We discussed options for the food service food service program that we're going to look into. We also discussed which was an update in our renovation part um project for the
border. We were in the works of getting um information regarding the asbestous that needs to be removed in our building. At the time of the finance committee we were um in process of doing a bid to do the work because the actual
quotes that the district received was over the bid threshold. We weren't anticipating that. So today we did have our bid opening. Our attorneys got back to us really quick on um reviewing the documents. So we are awarding it to the lowest bidder so that we can get this
project um moving in the right direction. So and for the consideration today we're asking the board to um approve two brothers as the lowest responsible bidder so that we can move this project along. And there possibly Dr. Melissa will let us know about some
of the restrictions to the building. um next week that during the asbestous removal. Okay. Uh we talked about the special education staffing the um LDTC um um teacher, the disability, the um
consultant that we may need. We talked about our federal um programs and we're waiting for approval from the state on that. we talked about the next step in the um in all of the uh monitoring and um permanent superintendent onboarding
but since then Dr. M is still here so that is naring board at this point and we discussed um other areas where the district could save on cost and that will be our adjective for the rest of the school year. So that is
the summary of my report. If there any questions on the agenda items, I'll try to answer those for anyone >> who needs more clarity. >> Any questions? >> Just I just had one um question regarding the asbestous removal. Knowing that what happened at Manchester, they
had to close the building and they did asbestous removal and because we're getting so close to the time the school is going to open and where that boiler is um in conjunction with the cafeteria and whatnot. um how quick can we find out how what our timeline's going to be?
>> So the uh speesus um consultant is very optimistic that we are allowed 10 days but he's very optimistic that this will be done in five days. The project at Manchester went very quickly ahead of schedule. So I'm anticipating that too. The vendors who were interested in
bidding for the project came out and looked at the property and looked at the areas of concern. So we do have a viable plan in place but we all know with construction things going to happen but we are positive that we are going to be able to have the bu building open again
the last week of August. >> Okay. If if I may also add um in working in partnership we have prepared for all of the summer staff to be working remotely at home so they're equipped with technology to continue their daily responsibilities even though they won't be present in the building. Thank you.
>> Any other questions? Moving on to personnel management, Mr. S. >> Um, we have a few resignations. A best a secretary, chief uh secretary to the chief school administrator, an ELA teacher who has taken a position closer to home and your custodian. As for
appointments, we have and new hires. We are approving a replacement for Mrs. Stevens as well as a substitute school nurse to provide reliable coverage as needed. Uh we also have on the agenda the shared service um technology
agreement with Manchester as previously stated um we would like the new superintendent to review not only this but um all the other agreements that we have as shared as far as appointments for the 2026 2027
school year we are appointing John Griffin for as treasurer of school Lenny's um we are also appointing ing a breakfast aid at $23 per hour along with cafeteria and playground aids for $25 per hour. We reached a successful
agreement between HPS and the burrow that brought our costs down by 40% giving us a contract uh our district can afford. Having the SRO on school grounds from 7:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. will hopefully make traffic go a little
easier for parents. I want to thank uh Chief Danielle and the Burrow VA Mr. Ramadan for a great conversation. We also extended our gratitude to officer Funes for her service. She will she will now be supervising the SRO's for both
Manchester and Hen Public School. As a reminder, the SRO's are burrow employees, not the school district's employees. So, placement within the building is handled by the burrow. Regarding the district assessment, we secured a $5,000 discount while 30,000
was originally brought, but our final cost came down to 25,000. We were currently we are currently trying to negotiate with him to stay on a little bit longer so that we can fix the master schedule so everything is balanced. Um for as for administrative and
district goals roles, Superintendent Mendes and now our new superintendent will be serving as a representative for the assembly board of directors, the New Jersey school board of associations insurance group, chief equity officer, title officer, section 504 officer and
ADA officer. As uh we are also approving a maternity maternity leave for one employee regarding extra hours and rates. We are approving additional hours for staff members to assist with the student students during graduation which was opened up to the teachers
after receiving no responses from me. Lastly, seeking approval for personnel to organize, separate and distribute curriculum materials for EA ELA and mathematics during the summer at the rate of $54 per hour for up to two hours
each. That's it. >> Any questions? All right, moving on to curriculum and technology. Mrs. Garcia, >> on the agenda today, we have to for science program for grades six, seven,
and eight workshop for gardeners superintendent after care program and also the certified angels at school. Lastly, the Head Start
start of the preschool. Um, having resources for them if they are in need of any special education resources. >> Any questions? >> Moving on to policy and public relations. Mr.
Williams. >> Um, policy committee met the full committee with Mr. Mendes and we spoke on a cell phone policy that needs to [clears throat] be um implemented and
hopefully that was passed out to the new superintendent. Um so that we can start working on that. Uh I plan to meet with her and hopefully bring Miss Fisher so we can start revising some of the uh older policies
as well. I wanted to give her some time because obviously she has a lot to do. public relations. This Saturday is Hen Day. So hopefully some fellow board members can uh be out there up front and
also superintendent as well engaging with the public fac. >> Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Williams? >> Thank you. Moving on to security and safety. Mrs. Johnson. >> All right. July 20th we had our meeting
several items um two which one uh the SRO Mrs. Sa brought up already and also the damage gate the VA brought up that um we briefly discussed the district emergency virtual learning plan. Um,
our student safety data system report has been successfully submitted to DJ I mean, I'm sorry, NJOE. And in addition, our committee was introduced to the Runh High Fight, which is an active shooter response program.
Um, this is a free training program brought to our attention by Commissioner Williams. Um the program is taught by the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness and is available to administrators and other stakeholders to prepare for emergency situations. Um Commissioner Williams
will provide additional information about that. Update us in the near future. >> I have some dates. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Yeah. Um the most recent come up is Saucus. The hours are 8 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and they have multiple dates.
September 22nd, 23rd, 24th, and 25th. And it's also sponsored by FEMA. And it's a good way for non-law enforcement uh officials and administrators to see the things that go into that planning and preparation for
that active shooter. So, it's a really uh good lens to that uh activity. >> And that's any questions? Questions? community engagement. Um, Miss Bardo is not here. Miss Garcia, do you have
anything again like Mr. Williams said, Hen Day is Saturday and there was a national night out yesterday, so a lot of community members out there. So, they had a pretty good turnout. >> Uh, Jazz Fest tomorrow >> and a jazz fest tomorrow at Wall Street.
Correct. Y >> finance and physical plant, Miss Cerna. I'll copy and paste it. >> That's a shared report. [laughter] >> State and community. There's no update. Um, Mr. Board attorney, any report?
>> Uh, no, just what I shared before our pre- tornado meeting that was canceled. >> All right, that concludes our reports. Any questions from the board on anything that was discussed yet? Uh, do we have
>> I just didn't see it. >> You have any questions on any of the agenda items under policy and management under section 7? Anyone any questions? >> I have one question. >> Yes, Mr. regarding personnel and management. >> Yes ma'am. >> Um we have an addendum here which is the
revised motion for item 722 creation of job and job description. Is that regarding the secretary and is that regarding the position that Miss >> Yeah. This is the secretary position
to come forward to part-time. We um revising the position as part. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other questions? All right, seeing no questions, we have a motion to move item 7.1 through 722.
>> Motion, Mr. Johnson. >> Second, Miss Cerna. Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Cerna, >> yes. >> Okay. U Mrs. Fischer, yes. Miss Garcia, >> yes. Miss Gatlin, >> yes. Mr. Leman, >> yes. >> Mrs. Johnson, >> yes.
>> Mr. Williams, >> yes. >> And Mr. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> Do we have any questions under section 8 curriculum and technology on the six agenda items? Any questions? >> Seeing no questions, I have a motion to move 8.1 through 8.6.
>> Motion, Miss Cerna. >> Second. >> Second, Mr. Johnson. Roll call, please. [snorts] >> Mrs. Cerna, yes. Mrs. M Fischer, >> yes. >> Miss Garcia, >> yes. >> Miss Gatlin, >> yes. >> Mr. B, >> yes.
>> Mr. [snorts] Johnson, >> yes. Mr. Williams, >> yes. >> And Mr. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> I do have a question on policy. Um, from our my talks with Dr. Muska, um, I was on the committee for several years before
taking this position. We voted on a lot of these policies. Do we know that they were updated in what is on the ones we've been voting on for the last four years now? Because some of them it when I'm scrolling through I can get specific policies later. It doesn't look like the stuff that we're voting on is getting
updated into what is on our website. Could be wrong, but I just want to make sure that because that seems like maybe that's where the disconnect is because we've been following the Strauss SMA request out to Mr. commend us to try to get a point of contact from uh Smith ask so
that way we can >> uh iron that that out. >> Yeah, I'm talking about the ones we've already voted on though. So everything we voted on in the past that doesn't seem like it made it to the updates on our website. So all the stuff that we've updated since like say last year that we voted on it doesn't it it may be there.
I could be incorrect. I just want to make sure if I don't know who we have to check with. >> Well that is what um Dr. Melissa and I would do. We have contact states. Okay. And we'll make sure that we kind of follow up with policy committee to read
these, you know, take a notebook >> and to ensure that what's online >> matches what we have. We have a policy books, but we need to make them more accessible online. So, understood and we're working on that. >> Thank you. >> Do we have any questions on section 10
safety and security? >> Seeing no questions. We have a motion to move 10.1 through 10.6. Motion. Mrs. Cerna. >> Second. Mr. Johnson. Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Cerna. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Fischer. >> Yes. >> Miss Garcia. >> Yes.
>> Miss Gatlin. >> Yes. >> Mr. Dman. >> Yes. On all items including 10.1 and 10.2. For the record. >> [laughter] >> I think I would recommend usual recruit yourself from 10.2. >> Excuse me.
>> Recuse yourself from 10.2 because you're part of the bro. I recommend that. >> My vote is yes. >> Okay. >> All right. Yes, >> Mrs. Johnson. [laughter] >> I mean, we have counsel here. I'm sure that, >> you know, if he wants to say it's a conflict of interest, I mean, I'll be
more than willing to. [laughter] >> All right. Um, >> I did share with Mr. Guzman before the vote that I would recommend abstaining from 10.1 and 10.2 based on his employment. >> Would you say it's a conflict of interest? >> The vote is yes. [laughter]
>> Okay, Mrs. Johnson. >> Okay. Um, for one and two, I refuse and yes, everyone knows. So 10.2.1 is Okay, Mr. Williams. >> Yes,
>> Mr. Getta. >> Yes. And I would like to point out on 10.2, um, just because it wasn't recorded, uh, the last meeting. Um, for anyone that's putting out, there's been some bad information given out. Again, the district does not hire or [clears throat] recommend who is the
actual officer. It is not our purview. Our contract is simply for the cost for the service. The bureau has been gracious to have a supervisor in that position for several years. uh due to everybody's cost restraint that was the decision of the bureau to move forward with a different person. Again, we can't
tell the burrow who to send here. So, we just agreed on price only and to continue the service. So, want to make sure that that is clear that we did not in any way step outside the bounds. It was a just a decision on dollar amount with the district and to continue the
service. And again, yes, >> thank you. >> Um Mr. President, >> yes, sir. I just want to thank this board for renewing the shared service agreement for a school resource officer. Um I commend you and the vice president for the work you did because um
sometimes these type of communications I see fall apart between the school district and the burrow and you folks and not allow that to happen and you ensure that we do have a bonafide highly trained law enforcement officer in the school serving our children. So I thank you and this entire board uh for
supporting uh the short service. and and there was no difficulty in negotiating. They were >> we were done in what 15 minutes, 20 minutes max. >> I mean those are hard decisions and >> but the fact of the matter is that we will have a trained school resource
officer here. So very very happy to see that as a resident or last. Thank you. Do you have any questions on 12.1 through 12 44?
[laughter] >> All right, seeing no questions, we have a motion to move those items. >> Motion, Mrs. Mr. Cerna >> second Miss Garcia roll call please. >> Mrs. Serna uh recuse from 13. Yes sir.
Yes. >> Mrs. Sish. >> Uh yes. >> Miss Garcia. >> Yes. >> Miss Gatlin. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Johnson. >> Yes.
>> Mr. Williams. >> Yes. >> And Mr. Ketta. >> Yes. Smith recusal from 12.34. >> Do we have any new or old business from the board? >> Mr. >> Yes. So, I just want to um personally
welcome aboard our new superintendent, Dr. Mary Melissa. She um she definitely stood out [clears throat] for 40 candidates that we went through got down to 210 and down to one. So we uh personally welcome you aboard and we
look forward to working with you. Um one thing that we want to implement um is uh the CRG group is the group the critical response group that's who does all the layouts for all the schools in the state of New Jersey. I'm sure Dr. Melissa is familiar with them. Um we want to bring them in to do a tabletop
exercise with all our staff as it pertains to hostile intruder coming to our school or an active shooter. Um so Sergeant Fun is already working on that project and uh we look forward to you know starting the school year out getting everyone on board especially as it pertains to safety school
administrator. Um, so I just want to put that on record. Business and anyone else on the board, new or old business. Can you under old business already? Can you sh on 76? Can you mark mine as a refusal for that
one? I missed it on the list. So 7.1. Yes. Everything else refusal on 7.16. Sorry about that. Do we have a motion to open the floor a hearing of citizens on it school operations?
>> Motion, Miss Garcia, second is Cerna. All in favor? >> Any opposed? [clears throat] Seeing none opposed, four is open. We start with crowd and present. Anyone? Anyone online? All right. Motion closed.
>> Mrs. Fisher second. Mrs. Cerna. All in favor? >> Any opposed? None opposed. Floor is closed. All right. That brings us to executive session. We have a motion to go to executive session.
>> And ajourn from executive session. >> Motion. Miss Cerna. Second. Mrs. Johnson. All in favor? >> Yeah. Roll call. Sorry. >> Hold on. Before the roll call, this fisher is correct. You have to indicate whe action. >> Okay.
Executive section with action >> okay with action taken. >> Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Cerna, >> yes. >> Miss Gado, >> yes. >> Mrs. Fischer, >> yes. >> M Miss Garcia, >> yes. >> Miss Gatlin, >> yes.
>> Mr. Governor, >> just to be clear, so we're going to go into an executive session. Action may be taken >> when we come out. >> When we come out? >> Yeah. But do you know how long we're going to be there? Approximately >> at least a half an hour. >> At least 30 minutes.
>> At least [laughter] >> Mr. Williams. >> Mr. [clears throat] >> Yes. >> All right. Executive session at 6:32. So no action was taken and we apologize for taking longer than the recommend the
estimated 30 minutes. No action was taken as a result of executive session. We have a motion to adjurnn. >> So moved. >> Miss Fisher second. Serner. All in favor. Number ster was active.