Well, let's start. Um, Mr. Miller, can you let everybody in? I'll call the meeting to order. Please rise for the flag salute. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. 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. The New Jersey 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 interests is discussed or acted upon. In accordance with the provisions of this
act, the Hen Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published in the North Jersey Record Herald News, the board's official newspaper on January 15, 2025. 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 clerk in the municipality of Hamilton. Roll call, please. Mrs. Serna, Mr. Ketta, Mr. Here.
Mr. Gman, Mrs. Mr. Johnson here, Mr. Martinez here. Mr. Moxel, yes. And Mr. here. Mrs. Zo here. Okay. Can I have a motion to uh approve
or uh accept correspondence? Second. Uh moved by Mr. Martinez, seconded by Miss Puadra. Roll call, please. Mrs. Cerna? Yes. Mr. Kleta? Yes. Missado? Yes. Mrs. Johnson? Yes. Mr.
Martinez? Yes. Mr. Maxwell? Yes. Mr. Mr. Yes. And Mrs. Yes. Thank you. Okay. Can I have a motion to accept prior minutes? So move. Moved by Mr. Moscow. Seconded with Mr. Martinez. Roll call, please. Mrs. Cerna, yes. Mr. Ketta, yes. Miss
Gado, yes. Mrs. Johnson, yes. Mr. Martinez, yes. Mr. Moxel, yes. Mr. Ramadan? Yes. Mr. Zissa? Yes. Okay. Can I have a motion to open the floor to citizens on agenda items only? Second
move by Mr. Mosco, seconded by Mr. Martinez. Uh, can we do all in favor? All in favor? Okay. So, the floor is open if anyone would like to address the board on agenda items only. Anybody? Mr. Miller? No.
Okay. Can I have a motion to close the floor? So, second move by Mr. MCO, seconded by Mr. Martinez. All in favor? I Okay, let's move on to committee reports. Okay, so I will begin. Uh, good evening
everyone and thank you for joining us. I want to take a talk a bit about a school board's role in moving its district forward and assisting in all areas of progress. As we all know, a school board is meant to govern over a district,
which basically means we set broad policies and strategic direction, while management or administration carries out those policies in day-to-day operations. Understanding that each board member may vote yes or no to any agenda item, I
want to remind my fellow board members once again that we should be voting in accordance with our strategic plan. Elements of any five-year strategic plan may become dated or perhaps have already been achieved and a district may look to pursue other areas, but in general, all
the main goals on our strategic plan are broad and relevant enough to pursue at any time. In order to advance those goals, we need to allow the chief school administrator and school administration to manage the related operations. If we
tie their hands by voting down qualified and extensively vetted employee candidates, researched and recommended programs, and reasonable and competitive expenditures, amongst other things, we are not doing our job. We are in fact interfering with and hindering the
process of carrying out day-to-day operations. This amounts to a waste of the district's time, energy, resources, and expense expenses, not to mention that of external stakeholders. If we don't have staff in place to teach
our students, we will have to hire subs who are never ideal for long-term purposes or hire specialized staff from agencies or vendors, which will surely cost more than a salary, and they wouldn't even be our employees.
Moreover, what message does it send to our parents and community when our board is voting down qualified candidates at competitive and reasonable salaries in exchange for subs or vendors? And how much are we damaging the district's credibility by voting down candidates
who have been thoroughly vetted and approved by the school's administration, but then get can't get past the board. That kind of news travels within fields and people may just stop applying to Hamilton public school. And then what? And what about all the advisement and
literature and training from NJSBA and directly from the mouths of our fellow board members from across Bay County and the state and from school administrators themsel themselves stressing how important it is for boards to have a good trusting and collaborative
relationship with the superintendent and school administration. if only to advance the district and best serve our students who are our number one stakeholders. This doesn't mean that we trust blindly or that we don't ask questions. It means
starting with trust in the professional. It means starting with trust in the professional knowledge, experience and judgment of our school leaders and going from there asking questions and taking into account their answers. I am humbly
asking my fellow board members to please think carefully before voting no on any given agenda item and weigh carefully all the potential consequences of that vote. It shouldn't be taken lightly. If we tie the hands of our chief school
administrator, we are doing a disservice to our students and that is not okay. Let's please work together with our CSA and the administration to strive to make Helden Public School the best district in the county and in the state. Our kids
deserve that. Moving on, we had a wonderful eighth grade graduation last week and I want to thank vice vice principal Mr. Spazado, eighth grade adviserss Miss Fazini and Mrs. Cumberton and all the teachers and
staff who worked hard to make it a memorable memorable event for our graduates. We had a unique situation this year with three students tying for the position of validictorian. All three gave meaningful and heartfelt speeches and words of encouragement to their fellow classmates. It was a lovely
evening and once again I congratulate the class of 2025. I want to thank Miss Tara Capello for her service to HPS as one of our prek teachers for the past two years. We wish her the best in her future endeavors. Lastly, I want to thank Mr. Waka, the
administration, and all our teachers and staff for another successful school year. There were ups and downs, but in the end, students learned, grew, overcame challenges, and had some wonderful experiences along the way. I wish the entire HPS community a healthy,
safe, and happy summer. So, that's it for me. Before I turn it over to Mr. WA does anybody have any questions, comments, or concerns? I have one. Okay. What triggered this uh comments right now as far as what you're saying as far as the this um disservice
to our student because we've turned down certain voted sort of thing. Okay. So, it's a fair question. So, I'm sure you all received the letters that Mr. Waka forwarded us that he had to send to those two LLD candidates. As he
explained at our meeting, at our last meeting, those are highly specialized staff, you know, highly specialized teachers. Their salaries are going to be more than other teachers. We have to be
competitive. If we want to fill those positions, we have to be competitive. Um, now we have to start from scratch. Now, the administration has to start all over again because now we're down to teachers. We're down two positions. It's
July. It's almost July. You know why? Why were those I don't understand why those If I could jump in, my report is going to touch my my report's going to touch upon both these comments. So perhaps if I can give my
report then I can eliminate. Is that okay with you? Okay. Any any other comments or questions? Okay. I I have one. Okay. Madam President, I think it's highly inappropriate of you to sit here and lecture the board who are all duly elected members. We are not elected to
vote as you see fit or as the strategic plan dictates. You are elected to vote based on your conscience and based on the things that you feel are right. I'm not going to sit here and be lectured for no reason. I can vote however I want and everyone else here should be too. If
it if Mr. Waka extended job offers before asking the board whether or not those job offers are going to be. That is an error that happened on Mr. Waka's part. Just because the previous iterations of this board have constantly just said yes to every single thing that was brought before him, that is not our
problem. If that's how you feel you want to be a board member, that's how you feel you want to be a board member. But that doesn't go for everyone else in the room. It's very highly disrespectful to sit and lecture every single person because they didn't vote the way you felt. Okay. So, well, okay, fair. It's
not about how I want you to vote. It's about how a board is supposed to support the administration so that they can do their job. The the resources and the time that were spent finding those two, and that's just an example, finding those two candidates
now have all gone to waste. And it doesn't favor us that we couldn't pass those two highly qualified candidates, highly vetted. And the when we had our ethics training in January, Mr. Merino explained that
the position of the board is to support the administration and to help them do their job, their day-to-day job. We're not here to get involved in everyday matters. Yes, we vote. And that's how the process goes. First, the administration does their search. They
do their interviews. They do all the vetting. And then the board has the final say in the approval. It doesn't they don't have to come to us first and then extend. They can't extend it until it's approved. Wasn't that what happened? Well, that's what it's always I extend the contract, but it's pending board approval. So, that's going to
happen everywhere. Um, and then, you know, the board can choose to say yes or say no or it was just in response to Mr. Kleta's comment that he Mr. Raqqa shouldn't come to he shouldn't he should come to the board first before offering he didn't offer it you have to make an
agreement that you can come to the board with otherwise there's nothing to bring to the board we have to be supportive of our administration and we have to start from a place of trust and like I said it doesn't mean that you trust them blindly but you can't vote however you want I
mean there has to be a basis to it there has to be a good reason for voting giving you the reason for the past three months I'm sorry. The past three months, we've been giving you the reasons. We've been asking for things and you constantly ignore them. And then you talk about
trust. It's it's it's not for me to provide these things. I haven't interviewed these. Mr. Walk provides those things and he answered those questions. He answers the questions. He provides the information. President, I think she's talking about the audit that we've been requesting.
We still have to hire people whether the audit's here or not. We can't stop business because of one thing. We did not hire. We constantly hire. So that statement right here. No, but for that specific those two specific jobs that have been out of since November, one of
you guys October October November, that's not all I'm asking, it's not meant to be a lecture. All I'm asking is for board members to please consider before you vote no and before you decide, well,
we're not going to go with the recommendation that for of of heavily vetted, interviewed, you know, candidate, qualified candidates. Just think about the the consequences of that. Just think about how that will play out. That's all I'm asking.
I'm not telling you how to vote. I would never do that. I'm asking you to think about how it's going to play out and just consider it and and think how of all the consequences. That's that's all I'm asking. Okay. So, I will turn it over to Mr. So, I'm going
to give you probably the longest uh superintendent report I've ever given and I'm excited about it because I put a lot of thought into it. Uh but first, I want to say we have two guests here tonight. One's a Hailen grandparent. That always makes you a VIP guest. and the other for the first time ever, my
lovely wife Moren is joining us at a board meeting and I'm very happy she's here. Um, but the real reason is because our son is actually in Japan right now and so we have a short window where we can be like single parents again. Uh, so after tonight we're going to head right
up to Newport, Rhode Island and start a little like Airbnb vacation thing which my wife planned for us. Um, so that's the reason she's here. It's not because she just wants to see me. gorgeous to see you. We got two VIPs tonight. So,
thank you. So, I want to start things off on a more micro level, then kind of expand to more macro level issues. Uh, the first thing I want to bring to the board refers to the requests we have had for usage of facilities for local sports programs that are forprofit and those
that are nonprofit or nonforprofit. The request we had discussed the last few months about the Royals baseball and softball program to use the fields was sent to the policy committee. I sat in there with with Mr. Kleta and Miss Een forget who else is there. Uh and the policy committee reviewed the guide that
we have that informs us how much each program should be charged when they request the use of facilities. for the baseball program. The Royals, they were informed by me over the weekend that we will consider them a class two organization as per the chart that was
boarded approved and as because they are nonprofit. As such, the use of the field would be $150 for each time the facility was requested. I stated this to the Royals baseball director who was a former student of mine, and this was not a price they were they were comfortable
paying. uh if they can get a better field for a better price elsewhere then that's totally understandable right like why would it not be therefore as far as I see it uh this issue has been revol resolved and the only teams that will use our field area the grass field area next year will be our middle school
softball team our middle school girls soccer team and our middle school boys soccer team and then the kids using it just during recess so that's the way it's always been and that's where we're going to go but that brings another question now I I had for for some reason thought that the local soccer organization that
we were allowing um was using our gym as a local nonprofit. Um it was brought to my attention, maybe it started out that way, but it was brought to my attention that last meeting um by a board member that perhaps this was not a nonprofit. Um it was may very well be a for-profit
organization. As such, I've reached out to the director of the local soccer organization who quite ironically I also coached in soccer when he was a freshman at PCTI. I was the boy's freshman coach. Um, and I've asked him to clarify if he's running a for-profit program or if
he's running a nonfor-profit program. I've informed him that if he's running this program for profit, then our policy 7510, it states verbatim, the use of school facilities will not be granted to commercial or profitm organizations for
commercial or profitm purposes. That couldn't be any clearer, right? um in that event if they are if they tell come back and they say Chris we're we're forprofit I'm going to we're not going to allow that organization to host that HPS their facility HPS because that
would go against our policy. Um if it turns out that they say Chris here's the proof that we're not a we're we're nonprofit we're not for-p profofit then they will need to pay a $450 fee for each time they wish to use the gym. If they wish to come twice per week, then
our fee will come to about $900 a week. And if they want to use it for, you know, twice a week, uh, every week, that'll be about $3,600 a month. That's like more than most mortgages, right? Uh, I can't imagine that it will be cost effective for that organization to do
that. But at the same time, if the soccer program is for profit, then anyone else looking to, you know, build the soccer club and and generate funds out of it, right? They would have to find the site as well and and pay whatever the overhead or whatever the rent would be. Um, so, you know, waiting
for them to get back to me. I know it's summertime, the first week of summer, sometimes things are communication can be slower. Um, but you know, I I do appreciate how they interacted with our students. I do appreciate how they kept our gym clean. I appreciate how they use the equipment and we're always respectful. Uh but if they're forprofit,
then this is what we're just going to have to do. Um now, we do have another group that uses the facilities and is not charged. Uh this group is the Boy Scouts. And this begs the question, why is it that the Boy Scouts get to use the facility for free? So, I looked it up and Jeff could probably back me up on
this, but in 2002, the Boy Scouts of America Equal Access Act was passed into federal law. And this law requires that all schools that receive federal funding must also allow the Boy Scouts to use their facilities for Boy Scout meetings.
And girls Oh, so that's a I was looking. Oh, you ruined my whole next thing, Jeff. Um, so what I was going to say was that I couldn't find a law that shows the Girl Scouts also get that privilege, but I imagine as a board if we gave it to the boys, we'd want to give it to the Girl Scouts. So, if the Girl Scouts ask
to use our facility, we're going to look to say yes because I think that's the right thing to do. But you you ruined my punch line this summer. Um the third thing I want to talk about is what's going on this summer at HPS. U we have four programs running concurrently this
summer. Our summer camp and the Certified Angels program. And I went to the Certified Angels uh Gayla the other night. It was lovely. And our kids were the only our kids were the kids that were dancing and they dominated. They absolutely dominated. Um, but Mr. Toito and Mrs. Cabara, uh, she has a new last
name. They respectively do a great job uh, setting up a lot of great things for the kids in the summer program and the certified angels and the um, our summer camp, they both run out of profit, a slight a slight profit for our school. So, it's a great service we can offer.
Next week, we will begin our ESY program for students with special needs. Um, and this is a federally mandated program. and we'll also begin our boss program. Now, I really like the boss program. I think it's a great free service we offer to
our families. Um, and hopefully this won't be the boss programs last year, but this was a co program. It was it was it was not supposed to kind of stay as long as it has. Um, we did a good job, I thought, maximizing our reserves so we could give a truncated version of the
boss program and if state aid works out in our favor, then boss hopefully can continue. But, you know, it's going to be a year-by-year thing moving forward. Now, let's talk about personnel. You'll see on the agenda that we are seeking to hire two teachers that are replacing an art teacher and a retiring second grade
teacher. I've spoken about breakage a few the last few board meetings and the board has requested that we include the salary of the position that is being replaced. I want to thank Lois for helping to make that adjustment. And you will see that the art teacher we hired is sees about a $3,600
in breakage salary in our favor. Additionally, you'll see that the second grade teacher sees about a $36,000 breakage salary in our favor. Uh these two hires combined resulted about over $40,000 of breakage, but it it's actually probably even more savings at
the district than that. Um because I know that um of the two employees that are leaving, one of them clearly was on the family insurance plan and it just costs more uh and then one of them was on the the husband and wife's insurance plan. So um it it looks like the two people that are coming in are going to
be in even cheaper insurance plan. Um so this was a this agenda item sees very positive breakage with the district. Um we're going to keep looking for two special education spots that are not filled. Uh it's very likely we'll need to procure a vendor for at least one of
these spots. I'm I'm negotiating now with someone for one of the spots. Um kind of stuck at a certain number. Um and I may or may not get it, but it's just the that the the market value for highly specialized special education teacher salaries is higher than it is
for other spots. It's that's just the reality of it. Uh we you see we have a free school spot that is open due to Miss Capella resigning and that won't be that really won't be very difficult for us to to to find a hireer for that position and we're going to get the hire at a very you know positive cost for the
district. Um but it's just that the highly specialized special education search are going to be more difficult to procure. If we have to we go to a vendor we'll we'll pay more through the vendor than we would have paid. Uh but there's still, you know, 60 days till the start of school year, whatever it is, like
there's a chance we can get somebody. Uh so we're going to hope that happens. Um lastly, I I think it's the sign of a healthy district to always look to have some type of project on the horizon to address infrastructure. Uh because when
you neglect that for too long, it's never a good thing. In the past year, we completed a major expansion project. And I remember there's a lot of people in this room were there. But when I interviewed for the CSA position, there was four rounds of interviews. And in every round of the interviews, the question came up, what are you going to
do about overcrowding at held in public? What are you going to like? That was the one question that followed me through every, you know, stage of it. So the fact we were able to to cut the ribbon on on the expansion project we just did and the fact it looks lovely was a was a really good thing. Uh we also this year
completed completed a brand new playground overhaul with rubber carpeting and inclusive playground instruments installed throughout the park. And uh I firmly believe this was wellreceived by the community because you know when I go home from work I walk past the the playground there's so many
more parents this year that are playing with their kids in the playground than in the past. And I think it's because the play equipment is is better and the the surface is better. Uh it's just it's just a nicer place to be and and I think that you know if you ever come after school and you see how many parents are
there with their kids it's been a good thing and I think the board was really wise when they said let's hire one staff member to be there from 3:00 to 5:00 most days just to make sure if someone has a problem that there's you know a staff member there to help them out and I and I think that's made for a better user experience. Currently we have two
projects underway this summer. We started the remodel of the front entrance to buffer the security of the of the school. I think school security and I I noticed this in the the evaluation that board gave me. Uh that's something that I think everyone in district feels really comfortable that we're doing a really really good job at,
but I think this will even buffer that and augment that that level to another level. Um this project is also the reason though that we can't use the front doors this summer. Um so our de facto parentvisitor entrance will be by the fifth grade wing. It's kind of on the closer to the Lee Street side of the
building. Uh Bill was kind enough to work u with our custodians to move the the security officer's desk and computer and we put a phone out there for him. So uh he could call either the main office or he can call the whatever office that you know a vendor might come through or a parent might come through to get the
the parent or whoever's connected with where they got to be connected to. Uh and Jenny was also kind enough to put up signs around campus direct visitors to this temporary location. But like I said, we opened the angels today. We opened uh the summer camp today. No problems in the morning. Everything worked out pretty well. The other
project that has begun is an HVAC upgrade in the rooms in the center of our building that do not have windows that face the outside. Um this includes two classrooms and several offices. This project will allow air to come directly
from the roof, then be processed by the HVAC machines and then be filtered down directly into those classrooms. Um, this has been an issue that I've been wanting to fix since I got to Halen Public and what Lamea and I before her John Sarah Pegley and I would do we make what's
called the long-term facilities planning list of we we identify all the projects we we want to complete now or in the future. And this was always a priority that we wanted to touch, but it was never like the top priority. Other things kept going ahead of it. Um, but I'm glad now that because these rooms do get a little bit warmer and they don't
get that the same level of fresh air flow as the other ones. Um, we've I lame and I met when Germaine met with the HVAC installers. We asked them, we said, "Listen, we know how much teachers want to come early in the year and set up their classrooms. Is there a way you could do the the classrooms first and
then the office is second?" They said, "No problem." Um, they have their own portagons just like the people in the front security, they have their own portagon. So, they're not going to be kind of there's really going to be no interaction between vendor and employee and hail employee and student. It's just
they're just doing the work they have to do. Um, but I've been wanting to fix that for a long time. So, I'm super happy that's going to get fixed. Now, the other problem we're looking to address is the piping issue. Uh, simply put, these pipes were installed a very,
very long time ago, and they've gotten very old. If you want me to, if you any board member wants me to send you pictures of what these pipes look like when they dig them down, like it's it's it's really gross down there. Um, this past year the pipes became more and more of an issue and we've had to get it
fixed once. We need to get it fixed once for all because the threat of like the pipes bursting especially if it happens on a Sunday is a really something that scares me big time. Um, you'll see that we're looking to begin this process of addressing I'm sure will talk more about it in the finance and physical plan
portion of tonight's agenda. Um and I well my last item sorry my last item is it's a I want to share that I've received my yearly summit of evaluation from the board. Um I think it was a fair evaluation. I believe that we may get
more in depth about the evaluation uh during an executive later but I do want to publicly address three important points that I that I noticed from the evaluation. Um, it was stated that the board would like to see continued academic improvements for ELA and math at each grade level. I think that is the
exact sort of thing a really good board member would want to see and I agree that that's something that is also very important to us and our staff. Um, we should get the results of glass spring state tests probably in a couple weeks now. Um, and so once we get that, we're
going to extrapolate the data. We're going to share that with the board and then eventually we're going to come to a board meeting and we're going to say here's the data we got. Here's what we're looking to do to keep moving forward. Uh the second part of the evaluation I want to comment on is the board asked to have a standardized exit interview to give to staff that are
leaving us. I happen to think that's a really good idea. Um I will look to work with the administration team to create a standardized uh exit form or exit uh leaving form that we are comfortable with and I will then share the draft of this document with the board um so that
individual board members can give input. Um I expect that by September when we start the new year uh we will have this document completed and then if teachers unless they're retiring then we know why they're leaving right but if for someone that's leaving then not retiring we can give them that and I'll be happy to
share their results you verbatim with the board once we get that settled. Uh the third thing is that um the board is asking to provide more fiscal and budgetary information. Uh that's fair and it's something we've already looked to start doing and we're we're now actually doing because you look on the
agenda tonight, you'll see the departing teacher salary as well as the incoming salary on the board agenda. That's something that not only have we not done in the past, but I I can't imagine very few districts in the state of New Jersey do that, right? So that's a level of of of fiscal transparency that we're
providing that I don't think very many people do that. Uh but this is something that the board asked for. So, it's something that we, you know, did and LMA and Lois worked together to make sure that happened and now it's going to become the new norm. Um, and lastly, I want to thank all the board members for taking the time to complete the
evaluation. I evaluate one I evaluate two superendents. I evaluate the Verona superintendent and I evaluate the Northern Educational Regional Service Provider Superintendent. And I know that when you do this form, it's not like a fiveminute click thing. It's something you have to sit down and and and pay to pay attention to. So, I appreciate the
feedback and I want to use it to, you know, keep being better. So that's my report tonight. That's it. Thank you, Mr. Walka. Any questions for Mr. Walka? Okay. Thank you. Let's move on to our business
administrator, Miss Austin. Okay. Thank you, Madam President. So, we discussed already um about the staff um efficiency analysis. It is on the agenda today um resolution 12.22. I had the opportunity to meet with a
gentleman who has done this type of analysis at several districts. I didn't even realize we had them right in our back pocket when they came to um they worked with Manchester for the master schedule um two years ago when one of
our um um administrators was out and they were able to do some was able to do some um reworking of the schedule to better fit the student needs and also the district needs. So we're going to be using this gentleman not only for that also to look at all the staff members
from soups to nuts also um looking at um how we can move forward in the future for next year's budget 2627 he also will do a presentation and he did request that I know we discussed
last meeting about um making sure that the data is um pure and I said that to him and he said that it works best if it's that Okay. And then I think we discuss in the finance team once the results are um available we will look at it and then we'll look at it together
and then if there's any committee that wants to meet afterwards that data will be shared with them to see how we move forward. So that is um soon as we're ready to go he can start and and he said it will probably take about two to three
months to extract this situation. Okay. interest from the board. He called me. I said that if you as long as the board's cool with it, I'll give him, you know, the same master user access that I have for our student information system. Just go in, see what he wants. I said, "Do you want to come in? You need an
office." He said that uh, you know, he doesn't think he's going to need that, but if he needs to, then he'll do that. Yeah. Um, on the agenda also is our HVAC, um, HVAC bid opening that we had. Um, that is resolution 12.2. As you can see, we had three biders. Um, and the
lowest bidder was Central Pack. So, that is part of Mr. Walker's report today. They will start a different section of the HVAC um on selected classrooms. We also have our domestic pipe that is we're actually going to reject the bid
because two of the vendors, we have three lowest bid bidders. Two of the vendors um were not in compliance with the New Jersey law. So, we have to reject their application and the third lowest um bid bidder was over bid. So, we're rejecting it for two reasons and
primarily because everything um the third lowest bidder which we would have chose is over our budget. Why would they apply if they weren't going to comply the laws? Well, they were new. They were new. So, they they're new companies and they have really good references, but they haven't done public works at this
scope yet. So, the state has a division of consumer affairs that does vetting of all these public works contractors and approves certain dollar amounts. These two are still pending and they haven't been approved for this high. So, they should have known that they weren't approved for this much of a job yet. Um,
they've done it privately but not publicly. Yeah. So, they're in their applications a year from now they could qualify. We bet they could. They could be. Okay. Um, the other items that we have is our professional services. Um, these are the
RFPs that I we went out to bid in the month of May 12.4 to 12.7. We tonight we're appointing the security services to Arrow Security. Our school physician is Alli Medical Associates. The auditing
services is Wil Cox and Company is our same auditor. They were the lowest bidder. architect services, D carro, and the only one that's not on here is legal services. That was a little bit more. I received several applications. So, I'm still going through the process. Um, we
are going to um I'm going to put a grid or a worksheet up for you guys to take a look. This is um more of a important one. Not that all of them aren't because this is your board attorney and you guys can, you know, have an input on that
part. Okay. So, I'm not going to, you know, make a recommendation there. That will be for you guys to decide. All right. And then the last thing I talked about was the 12.22. And the other resolutions that are on the finance um agenda has to do with curriculum,
curriculum, software renewals. We have our child study team, tuition, and other services. And we also have other professional services that will be in renewed for this year. If anyone has a specific question about any of the resolutions, I can try to answer those
right now. When it comes to the finance, I have a question. Yes. So, for the pipes, um, so the three were rejected. So, does that mean that we're going to put out the bid again? We are. I had I'm sorry I didn't say that July 16th is scheduled. Okay.
There a lot of companies have to do that. There's not. So, there's not a lot that do this. So hopefully one of these those two will get approved for this scope by the time we go out to do. Yeah. I mean it's such a significant difference. It was in there and I think they just would like to be in the school
district but they do have to get their because the one came in really cheap or at Manchester it just could we chop the project up in half? No, no, no. You can't say thank you for clarifying the reason because I was a little confused because
the letter said it was like um material defects. It is a material defect. They need to be qualified for that amount. That's the No, no, that's the language. The verb. Yeah, that's the verb. All right. Thank
you. You're welcome. Any other questions? Ch I have one question for the project or the future project that Mr. Walker presented as far as the pipes and AC all these there's money allocated for that
already. Yeah, I was ready for you there. All the projects are in the budget budget from the Hback, the fire alarm, build the boiler, um pipes and the HVAC. So all of them are there. Here you go. And they're not considered capital, right? Huh? None of them are
considered capital projects. These are all capital. Okay. Yes. Anything else? Okay. Thank you, Miss Austin. The fire alarm company got the right hook.
Okay. Um, so now let's go to the committee reports. Uh, just go through quickly. Personnel and management. Mr. Martinez. Agenda items only. Curriculum and technology. Mr. Ramadan. Agenda items only. Policy and public relations.
Mr. Kleta. Nothing for this meeting. Security and safety. Mr. Kleta. Agenda item. Community engagement. Miss Pado. Uh, finance and physical plant. Mr. MCO uh went over the bills and Madam Ba went
over most of the items anyway. So agenda items. Okay. Uh state and county missed. Um, I just wanted to point out, um, if you guys got the email on June 17th, there
was a a report on the, uh, daily clips about the New Jersey residents that paid more than 18 million in school taxes um, last year alone. Um, so you're able to see where we stand on that and it's it's a pretty good price in comparison to some of the other schools if you guys
look at that. Um, the school board uh the for legislative updates um school board supervision mentoring mentorship pilot program was approved by Senate um and the and the assembly education committee. Um the
epilepsy and seizure disorder training was also approved and passed by the Senate and approved by the committee. And then IEP meeting guidelines and uh and working groups was also approved. And the IEP meeting is just um providing
guidelines that a parent must receive certain information uh two days before their IEP meeting. That's all I have. Thank you. Thank you. Um Mr. Merino, the only thing I have is under 7.4 is uh the the
recommended extension for Mr. Walka. Um as we discussed, it's um recommended. It's a model employment contract. There's been no changes to that other than just adding the the three years at the end. Um again, as was recommended to this district for prudent um fiscal um
and strategic planning purposes. But that's it. There's no other changes to it. Um I don't know if there's any questions or u just question. I feel one of the one of the points it says somebody maximize the five year uh the five or they reached
the fiveyear capacity or maximum allowed. Correct. So how will we bypass on that? This this gets this gets back to the five years. So so we can't go beyond we can give an extension up to five years. So you can never have more than five years in Florida. But has it
been given before? It has been. So, so this so so this is a recommended practice. Um like I guess like I mentioned the county superintendent um recommends this practice um because she thinks it's fiscally prudent not to get to the end of it and and negotiate a
brand new contract. Um the market is you know we talked about personnel and market prices market prices have changed. um she thinks this is fiscally prudent to do it this way to extend it at the end rather than get to a new contract. M a couple questions. Number one, um
reading over that item itself, can you tell me the date it was submitted to the county for approval? What date was this sent to Jeff? Probably. Yeah. So, I submitted after that that first meeting. It's impossible. That's not possible. It can't have been
approved before the actual meeting. The first time we talked about it, it's not a good The first the first meeting according to this, what's here in front of me says this was approved on May 13th. The first executive session that we had
was June 9th where it was discussed. This was she brought she brought this. Miss Drakeford spoke to me before in April and when I spoke to the board the first time. I I'm trying to remember if you were at that first meeting. We had a few people missing at the first two that
we talked about it. Um June 9th was not the first time we talked about it. Let me go back to the meetings. The first time we talked about it um and I think it was an executive session if I'm not mistaken, Mr.
um was we had two meetings where you explained this whole thing during executive session before June 9th. So the the meetings would have been uh April 30th and then May 21st was the
second time that we talked about it in executive session. So it was after the April 30th meeting and then June 9th was the third time that that we talked about it. Well, actually, I mean, we didn't talk about it with you, Mr. Marino, but yeah,
we spoke. Yeah, we spoke about it twice. So, yeah, April April 30th was the first one. And you said there's no changes to the contract. Um, is there a raise involved in the contract? There was just so there's no raise for the initial years and it's just adding on extended
extending it with with the same as the million. I'm asking you a specific question. the 3% raise. Thank you. There is a raise that is attached to it per year. You're also exhibiting to the board stating about
market rate has changed. You are absolutely correct. The neighboring district which has similar size just hired a principal superintendent. It's making less money than our current super uh chief school administrator. So you
are correct. The market has changed. I'm very uncomfortable that you're presenting it in a way that seems disingenuous where there is a raise. It is not no change. There was a raise negotiated. It was being presented as if there was no raise. It's being extended for not the
first, I believe the second time. It could be the third time that the contract being extended. And this is not a personal attack on Mr. Walker because we've had conversations plenty of times. I like Mr. Waka. I think he does a good job. This doesn't seem that was handled very professionally by the two individuals
who led this out. And it's very upsetting to the board, and I'll speak only for myself, so I'll take that back. It's very upsetting where again, it seems that decisions are consistently made prior to there being a consensus of the elected officials who were elected
to do this. So now we're in a position where potentially everyone's not in agreement and make everyone look stupid at a board meeting in public because now we have to all go and vote on something where there wasn't a consensus publicly me if I if I may like this to
to address Jeff or president like this this originated with me you know I really love being at Hamilton public school like Jeff's been probably a million different superintendent searches as the attorney for his districts um He know I haven't applied anywhere. You could ask Kathleen as well. I haven't applied anywhere else
because this this is where I want to be. Um you know it you're right it's a continuation of a contract. It's it's not a renegotiation in terms of like you know I'm not asking for any additional dollar bonuses on exactly for the contract to continue. And you know I I I
really hope you guys say yes. That's all. The question is is that um on April 30th we had executive on May 15th we had um the retreat. So, we didn't talk about any of that. Um, so May 21st and and
June 9th were the two meetings that we spoke about. This was already approved based off of this contract on the 13th of May, which means it was approved by the county before we even discussed it. So, why was it that we were going into executive and
wasting time and having conversation if you were going to do it anyway without without anybody saying yes? I didn't approve send anything to the county, but we did talk about it at April 30th. We were there, right? April 30th was the meeting.
We discussed it again. Approval from the state. We don't need our consensus. It's just asking for the approval from So, so Mr. Aford called and she recommended this. That is not her duty to call you and say to to give personnel
recommendations. That is not her duty at all. And then you have to bring it up with her. She can talk to her. She review she reviews budgets. So she was reviewing your budget before it was but the I guess the friendly the user friendly was posted into the newspaper. Um she said
that it was again I I'm repeating this. This is what we I brought to the board. Stop it for a sec. Can we move this to an executive section instead? Yeah, we could. Yes. If there's any want to talk about personal Yes, probably. If everybody agrees,
we should not want to do want to do it to the end though. Wait till the end and do it or we have to might not be a conversation. Well, is on the privy is anything here privy that we are
discussing personnel like if there's a personnel discussion right for executive. Okay. Well, that's fine if if you want to move it to executive session. Anybody agrees on that? Make a but then we have to make the vote. We have to make a motion. We might need to
go over the contract, discuss it. The clarifications are available right now since Mr. Martino is in the house. Um then what do we do with the vote? We table it until executive session. So let's go executive first. So we'll just do a motion to go for right now. Okay.
All right. Everybody agree with this. Make a motion. Make a motion. I'm saying motion. Motion to move it to person moved by Mr. Martinez, seconded by Mr. Ketta. Roll call, please.
Second to catch up. Okay, so we're done. This is um Miss Cerna. Yes, Mr. Kleta. Yes, Miss Krado. Yes, Mrs. Johnson. Yes, Mr. Martinez. Yes, Mr. Ram. Mr. Matzo. Yes,
Mr. Ramadan. Yes. And Mrs. Yes. Okay. Okay. So, we will take Mr. You have the right to be here. Does the board want me here? Yeah. Okay. My agenda.
George is in the Oh, he is. Um, Mr. Miller, can you uh and and Mr. Chrisman is there? Great. Okay. Okay. So, Okay. So, yeah. Personnel and
management. Mr. Guzman. So, where we're at, George. We're at the Okay, Mr. Mr. Martinez, go ahead. Let's move 7.1 through 7.9, please. Second. Can I have a second? Second.
Moved by Mr. Martinez, seconded by Mr. MCO. Roll call, please. Mrs. Turner. Um, no. For 7.1, 7.4. Yes, sir. 7.1 and 7.4.
Mr. Cola, with respect to 7.4, my vote is no. It's uh due to the way it was handled rather than just Mr. Walk out. Yes, everything. Mr. I'm going to respectfully
abstain from 7.4. Yes. To everything else. Mr. Guzman. I don't think he can hear us. Mrs. Johnson, I'll come back in. Okay. Because we can't table it on 7.4. I
don't think this was done properly. So, um, I'm going to take 7.4. Mr. Martinez, um, a lot of people think that this wasn't done properly. I've been doing this for a while. It's not about doing
it properly. I'm going to vote yes. It's about uh fiscal finances, money. It's not personal. Mr. Mat going to vote yes. Step 7.4.
Mr. Ramadan, may I seek a verification on 7.6 first, please? You have a question. Okay. What is your question Mr. Prod.6 verification
stipen that's a contractual uh collectively bargained agreement thing where if they have a certain amount of days where they're they're they're not absent over a certain limit then they get that Okay. Well, with respect to those, I actually
I vote yes on all of them. Mr. Zissa, yes on all counts. Can we go back to Mr. Guzman? Sure. Mr. Guzman, do you have Mr. Guzman, can you hear us? Yes. How are we doing? I was having some
technical difficulties. Greetings from Mexico. My vote is yes, absolutely. Okay. Okay. Um, curriculum and technology, Mr. Ramadan. Uh motion to move uh 8.1.
Second. Moved by Mr. Ramadan, seconded by Mr. Martinez. Roll call, please. Mrs. Cerna, yes. Mr. Kada. Yes. Miss Gado. Yes. Mr. Guzman. Yes.
Mrs. Johnson? Yes. Mr. Martinez? Yes. Mr. Moxel? Yes. Mr. Ramadan. Yes. Then Mrs. Essa. Yes. Okay. Okay. Security and safety. Mr. Guzman.
Like to move the items on the agenda, please. Second. Second. Moved by Mr. Guzman. Seconded by Mr. Kleta. Roll call, please. Mr. Cerna. Yes. Mr. Kleta. Yes. Mr. Dorado. Yes. Mr. Guzman.
Yes. Mrs. Johnson, yes. Miss Martinez, yes. Mr. MCO, yes. Mr. Ramadan, yes. Mrs. Yes. Okay. Mr. um sorry, uh finance and physical plant, Mr. Mosco. Like to
move 12.1 through 12.31. Second. Moved by Mr. Mosco, seconded by Mr. Martinez. Roll call, please. Mrs. Sa. No, it's 12.10. Mr. Kleta, yes, Mr. Dorado
from uh 1231 purchase order 500 431 and then yes, everything else. Can I just miss Cerna needed to abstain on one of the PO numbers?
It's 501109. And actually um let's finish this roll call and then I can tell you something. Okay. Um Mr. Desmond. Yes.
Mrs. Johnson. Yes. Mr. Martinez. Yes. Mr. Matzo. Yes. Mr. Ramadan. Let me make a just verification for the company that's going to provide the services for the evaluation of the services and employment. Does it present any conflict
of interest with the with the school? No. Do they have any affiliation with us? He does not have any um affiliation with anyone here. Any services they provide to us beside this? In other words, not that I'm aware of. Okay. Are you aware of something? No. No. I'm just
saying let me know. I'm asking the one to present the conflict of interest. No. So, yes, this is Yes. Um and I just want to go back to uh 10.1. I believe Mr. Goodman
needed to abstain on that. Was that the security? That's the cops looking in. Yeah, I'm okay with obtaining, Madam President. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Gizman.
Okay. So, new and old business. Does anybody have any new or old business? So, um I was going to talk a little bit about the initiatives um that I had circulated,
you know, um I this has been a really heated meeting and I think it would be best if we if I push this to the next meeting just so that um we can come at this from the the right place. I think these initiatives are really good.
They're really positive. they're um things that we can all work on together. Um but I want to come at it from the right frame of mind and I want everybody to be in the right frame of mind. So I'm going to I'm going to bring it up at the next meeting. Um
so any that was and that was the only thing. Let me make sure there's anything else I have for new and old business. Um no does any no nothing else for new old business? Okay. So we'll discuss Oh yeah, go ahead. Um,
you had you had mentioned the ad hoc committees and you had are those already picked out like the ones that we were making? Oh, yeah. That's what I was just I mean we can talk about it if you like. I just No, I just wanted to um Okay, that's fine. We'll talk about it. We talk about it in July and and um you
know there's no time frame on these. There's no deadline. Um these are all things that we can work on um you know as as we as we go along. Um maybe I'll send everybody the the committees, you know, via email just so that if you want to meet for the July meeting before the
July meeting, you can. Um but we'll we'll see. Maybe we'll just leave it for July. Okay. So, um let's open up the uh floor to citizens. Can I have a motion to open the floor to citizens? Second.
Okay. So, I'll say moved by Mr. Martinez and seconded by Mr. Colada. Roll call, please. All in favor? Okay. The floor is open to um citizens. Um just a couple of ground rules. Please
state your name, your address, and you have three minutes to address the board. Um so, um we'll start with people who are here. if anybody would like to address the board. Anybody online? Mr. Miller.
Okay. Motion to close. Okay. Second. Um moved. Motion to close. Moved by Mr. Martinez, seconded by Mr. Kleta. All in favor? Okay. So, we do have um a chief I'm sorry. We do have an executive session matter uh to to review. No
action will be taken. Um I'm saying like 15 20 minutes. Um so can I have a motion to move into executive session? Second. Moved by Miss Johnson, seconded by Mr. Mosco. All in favor?
We'll be here for that. Okay. Thank you. Okay. So, can I have a motion to adjurnn? Madam President, please real quick. Prior to going to executive session, I stated that you had authorized uh sending the attorney to send the contract for review. It was
proven that that did not happen. And I just wanted to say on the record that that did not happen and that I apologize for accusing you of something you didn't do. If someone else did it without the authorization, that's something going to be addressed later. As I said, I wanted to tell you publicly. Thank you. No,
we're not. We are. We're not. Thank you, Mr. Kleta. I appreciate that. And I do just want to reiterate too that you know nothing it was it's a best practice and nothing underhanded happened but I appreciate that. Um okay so can I have a motion? We did the motion right? It was
removed by Oh okay. So moved by Mr. Ketta. Seconded by Miss Prado. Favor. All in favor? All right. See you in July.