Welcome to the July 10th, 2025 meeting of the Hamilton Board of Education. I'll read the open public meeting statement. The New Jersey open public means law is enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend any meetings of public bodies at which their interests may be discussed
or acted upon. In accordance with the provisions of this act, the Hamilton Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting be published by having the date, time, purpose, and place thereof published in the Hamilton Gazette in the press city posted on authorized premises while the role.
Mrs. Faronado, Mrs. Burns, yes. Mr. Mr. Huyo here. Mrs. Donio here. Mrs. Fallon here. Mrs. Hunter here. Mrs. Pratt here. Mr. Folio here. Mr. Shipion
here. Mrs. Skolo here. And Mr. Lions here. for the flag to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for
all. Yep. All right. Uh first we're going to have a brief ceremony. I'll welcome our new falls representative Matt Mr. is going to swear you in tonight. So, Mr. Stay right here. Please raise your right
hand and repeat after me. I state your name. I, Karen Pratt, do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support that I will support the Constitution the Constitution of the United States of the United States and the Constitution the Constitution of the State of New Jersey the state of New Jersey and that I will bear
that I will bear true faith and allegiance true faith and allegiance to the same to the same and to the governments to the governments established in established in the United States the United States in this state in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people to help me God to help me God
I state your name Karen Pratt do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I possess that I possess the qualifications qualifications prescribe by law prescribe by law for the office for the office of member of member of a board of education of a board of education and that I am not that I am not
disqualified as a voter disqualified to voter pursuant to law pursu to law nor disqualified or disqualified due to conviction due to conviction of a crime or offense of a crime or offense listening statute listening to statute and that I will faithfully that I will faithfully impartially and partially
and just to perform and just to perform all the duties of that office all the duties of that office according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability congratulations thank you [Applause]
all right thank you being on school board is hard being on two school board school boards is even more difficult so we welcome you and thank you for being here with us um we'll go over to uh Mr. Ramsey for his report. Uh thank you, Mr. Lions. I'd like to uh
begin by thanking our supervisors, administrators, and board of education members for their extraordinary efforts as we continue to collaborate and prepare for the upcoming school year. The summer programs throughout the Hamilton School District have already
started for many of our students. These programs include credit completion and a plethora of advanced placement classes at Hamilton High School. the highly successful summer excel program for title one students at Hamilton Middle
School achievement academy at the war soy elementary school and extended school year throughout the district. Our students and teachers are working extremely hard and all these programs are absolutely essential in helping us meet the academic and social needs of
our student body. Received some good news uh earlier this week. I was reviewing the 2025 advanced placement test results. Uh they just came back and I'm proud to report that 267
exams were taken by Hamilton High School students in 15 different subject areas. And 13 out of the 15 subject subject areas, our students had higher mean scores than the state and global
average. So, our students performed better than the state and global average in 13 out of the 15 subject areas. For 13 out of the 15 subject areas, Hamilton High School had a higher percentage of test takers who scored a three or
greater on the AP exam. Uh, both better than the New Jersey and global percentages. And overall, we had 90% of our exam scores a three or higher. And that's the highest rate in the last five
years. And if you're not familiar with the advanced placement test and the scoring, a three or higher is considered a good score and you could get credit in college when you, you know, begin. So, you know, congratulations to our
students for all their hard work and to our teachers. And, uh, that's all I have for you. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Mr. Ramsey. We'll go to board member comment. I We'll call on Mrs. She's trying first because it's her first board meeting. So, Mrs. D, I'll call on you first.
Oh, I get to do the the update first. Awesome. So, I just wanted to talk about two things on my mind. Um, recently I read a book called The Anxious Generation. I'm not sure if anyone has read it. I actually have a copy of it.
Um, it's by Jonathan Hate. If you hate to read, there's a lot of podcasts about it as well, and I've listened to several of his podcast. Has anyone read it? Anybody read it? Right. It's a good book. It's it's a very good book. Um I don't know that I agree with everything in it,
but it talks a lot about the challenges in education today, mental health, uh challenges with students, and it kind of outlines how we got here with the great rewiring from 2010 to 2015. But what I
think is very interesting is that and John please feel free to chime in. Um but what I think is interesting is that there seems to be a culmination right now that's happening in a lot of communities, states, school districts
where there is seems to be a change happening um in that how parents and schools are rethinking education. And a couple of thing things that he points out is that technology is not all bad.
You know, this is there is a place for it in in the school districts, but basically rethinking how we use phones in districts. And I know that um a lot of states are going to cell phone bands,
not just during instructional time, but during the entire school ban. Um, and I know that can be controversial for some because of security issues, but it's definitely something that I think we need to start to talk about more because
I do think that there is a turning point where um, teachers, parents, grandparents, you know, you're seeing a lot of challenges that are directly affected and I I I just highly recommend this
book. If anybody would like to borrow my copy, um, Mr. Ramsay, I'm planning on getting you a copy because I I do think it's really helpful. So, I don't know if that's something that we'd ever have like a discussion or a community engagement just to see what people think about that because I do think that it is
a movement out there and more people are going to be requesting more limits to how we approach phones specifically in our schools. Um, I don't know if you would agree with that. Just one thing on that. So I I read that
book. Uh Anthony Angelozi from the camp education association recommended it to me and so I I did read it. Um a lot of what it talks about came up in our strategic planning sessions spec specifically around technology and sort of maybe limiting technology in certain
places. Um on the topic of cell phones, it's an interesting thing. Earlier today, I was invited to stop out and see the Blue Devil football team while they were, and I'll touch on that during my report, but while I was in there, I observed that they had a a rack hanging
up on the door that were every player, they had numbers, and you dropped your phone in where your number was. It was loaded with phones. There had to be 60 kids in there working out, and everybody had their phone in there. And I I was pretty surprised to see it. Uh, and it was 100% participation. everyone had
their phone app. I suppose they probably didn't have a choice, but um I thought that was kind of interesting, right? But it makes you think um one thing I looked at recently, I come across it in my day job actually, there's the state of Texas has some stuff that actually puts the
power in the hand of parents where there's some collaboration between school districts where parents uh you know there's an app on a phone and the parents can go on and limit the kids use of the at school specific at school. It's a partnership with the school
district. It's an app that's on the phone that makes that permits the phone to work on campus, but the parents can sort of turn up or turn down the amount of usage based on their choice, right? It makes it a parental choice, which I know is something I've heard a lot about from people in the community. So
it's an interesting idea and I think that one thing he argues is that delaying smartphones like getting your kids phones but delaying smartphones but also that it needs to be you know that there are parents and teachers that feel this way but like nobody wants the first to be the first
to say hey this is what we're going to do but the other thing that I thought was very interesting is um he talks a lot about playbased childhood and versus the phonebased childhood and I couldn't could not be more proud of our district right now that we're adding playgrounds
in that what the skills that children learn on a playground and just negotiating some of those things. So, it's very interesting. I think our teachers and our staff could have a lot of good information for us around this topic, too. So I I just really hope that
we talk about that more especially because I know so many of the states are moving towards phone free schools and that could potentially I think we need to get ahead of that. Um the other thing I wanted to talk about is similarly
um tonight on the agenda we are passing the second reading of the AI policy which is something that all of our schools are required to have. But I was talking to a parent who is at um I think her daughter's at Kingsway and what they
have done as a district is not only do they have their policy but they actually have almost like an AI playbook. And she said, "Oh, well in our district we have like literally a red, white, and blue and or not red, white, and blue um the
traffic the traffic light red yellow green. Thank you. I'm I'm still in Fourth of July mode. I can explain a lot. Go ahead. But anyway, and I'll pass I'll pass on some information that I gathered from her just this afternoon. But it's more
of a a collaboration of showing basically in every classroom there is, you know, a traffic light that basically says green this assignment you can use AI. yellow, you have to get approval for this assignment, and red, absolutely
not. And there's a lot of engagement, and they have this little AI playbook that teaches the family members what is acceptable in what ways. And I thought it to be very helpful. And so, I don't know if our I'm sure some of our teachers are doing that, but maybe we
could have again a more collaborative approach on that because it's not going away. And I'm sure if we took a poll here um by a show of hands, many of us are also using it as well. So just knowing that that's another area um and
letting making sure that parents know that we do have this policy. And that's it. Aren't you glad I went first? Second. I'm not as long again. Um, so I just wanted to say this was my first time as a schoolboard member um,
attending the graduation on the other side and I think it was wonderful to see. I think everyone did such a great job, our administrators, our teachers, like the efforts um, moving in, she would be in, she would be out. I feel like everything was very well planned and um, I'm very appreciative of that.
Especially being my first year, I didn't want to get any calls. Um, so other than that, I wanted to welcome Karen and um I don't have any committee reports. Thank you. Welcome to Karen and no committee
reports and congratulations to those um accepting new positions tonight. Okay, speaking of that, on pages 10 and 11, you'll see uh the names and positions of our new hires, and we welcome them. We look forward to new
ideas. new events, new beginnings, new things that they bring to our district and um it seems like we have all hands on deck so far. So, so far so good. So, look at pages 10 and 11 and we welcome
them. Uh, speaking of graduation, I thought it was even though it was inside um and it may have caused a problem here or there, it was it was just well received and uh I was so happy with the senior walkthrough. I was so glad that
so many seniors um did that and participated and I think the teachers uh appreciated it too when they saw the seniors walking back into their classrooms. And I thought um I don't know who did it. I know was on Facebook, but they put a sheet of paper in the
middle of the doorway and they had young students going in one door and out of the other door where the seniors coming. It it was just all inspiring. It was really really really a a good end and congratulations. There were so many things for the seniors to do, so many
activities and they really they really really took advantage of everything. Also, um I know that school is out but it was a happy coincidence. I think that um in um fourth grade and fifth grade, the
fourth grade uh spelling be winner was Juliet Wilson and her brother on the fifth grade spelling be. I just thought that, you know, that was like something that you don't usually see happen, but I I just thought that was worth mentioning. And I
can't believe it's July 10th already, but you know, we're ready. We are ready, willing, and able to start a brand new, wonderful year. Oh, that's all I have. Thank you, Mr. Thank you, Mr. Lines. I'm going to keep it short and sweet tonight. No report for me.
All right, moving on. Mr. Cle, no report this evening on board issues. I'd like to welcome everybody to come out to the Feast Week. It's the 150th anniversary. I know John's going to go in a little more detail of what's happening here at our district with the 150th anniversary of the Mount Carmel Society, but it's a great week. If you're out there, come on
down to Hamilton next week. It's going to be a real lot of fun. That's my Mr. Ship. Yes. I read a book this week. Uh the Nike shoe catalog was very nice. Uh interestingly, Michael Jordan hasn't
played in 30 years and he still has sneakers coming out. I just don't understand it. But they're quite lovely. I I have no report this evening and uh that's my report. All right. I just have a short 360 page report
this evening next time. Welcome Mr. Pratt. Pleasure to meet you and no report for our our meetings next week. Thank you Mr. Smith. I too want to welcome Mr. Pratt and I
reiterate what Miss Fallon said. Welcome all new hires. You'll love it here. I appreciate the warm welcome. I really do and um I'm looking forward to taking back some concerns and ideas and
collaboration back to my own board. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Um all right, so few two few short things for me. Um first again just I I'll thank the the board for their hard work uh in participating in graduation with the staff and the students. Uh, a lot of
board members come during the day to participate in photos and to help out with a lot of the different things that we're doing to get ready as well as participating in graduation night. It is I feel like at least for me as a board member, I feel like I'm just as nervous as some of the students uh while we're
out there. Everyone wants it to go off perfect and it always does. That's a credit to our staff and the hard work that they put in and the kids and the hard work they do practicing. Um, we've got a lot going on here at on campus over the rest of the summer. Um, one
thing is National Night Out will be here at Hamilton High School on August 15th. That's at 6 PM. Uh, please come out. It's a great event. Uh, we will be the school district will be out here. Uh, all of our administrators will be here to answer your questions and talk to you
about all the great things that are coming up in this school year. It's a great place to come and talk and meet the leadership team at your schools and ask questions if you have them. Uh we have some nice giveaways. You can engage with the board members as well and talk about the things that concern you at your school district. So definitely be
out there. Uh this Sunday, as Mr. talked about, we will be hosting uh the kickoff, one of the kickoff events to this year's 150th anniversary of the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Festival uh with the drone show which will be uh on
campus here at the Hamilton High School football field. Um we're looking really forward to that. So, give you some details about that. Uh the drone show begins at 8:30. Uh we'll have the concession stand open. volunteers there will be selling dessert and drinks and
other things. So, please uh come and enjoy some things to, you know, all the money you donate to that will support education and the good things that go on here. Uh the drone show, you can see it from multiple places on campus. Uh the Mount Carmel Society has been putting
out information about that on their channels and social media, so stay tuned for more information. Uh the best seat in the house is likely in the football field in the stadium, but you can also watch from your car in most of our parking areas. You'll be able to tune in
to a radio station and listen to the program uh and the audio narration during the event. There's also fireworks that that go on while the uh drone show is happening. So, this is a really remarkable thing. It's it's South Jerseyy's largest drone show and it's
also kicking off a big week in Hamilton. So, we're really proud our student council uh students as well as some of our student athletes will be involved in volunteering that night and participating. Uh also, if you haven't uh seen online in social media, you can
see I have one on a number of users have them on. Uh the district has t-shirts available, you can visit uh hamilton1150.com, any of our social media pages or showcase sports to get yourself a
commemorative t-shirt. uh the $20 and a portion of that goes directly to fund educational programs here at school. So if you're looking for a momentto from festival week, definitely get yourself a Hampton High School t-shirt uh
commemorating festival week. Few more things. Uh want to give everybody a little bit of an update. You'll see around campus, especially down near the ECC in the west, we're doing some work on our retention area, retention basins and things like that. I won't get too
deep into the concept of why and how we have to have such storm such a a large amount of storm water management, but we live in an area that's governed by the New Jersey Highlands Commission and there are rules and you have to do something with the rainwater that falls on top of your buildings in in this
area. So, what you're seeing is the appropriate uh infrastructure and drainage that has to be in place. Uh it looks really rough right now, but in a few weeks, you'll won't even realize that the work went on. So, it's just ugly right now, but in
doing the summer while the kids aren't around, but once school starts, it'll look perfect. Uh that work is proceeding on schedule as we need it to be. Um, also want to talk a little bit earlier this week. Our hybrid uh turf field for soccer was laid down. Uh, we'll have
more to share about that, some video content about that process. It's a really exciting story to tell at our partnership with the Tundo Turf Farm and some other uh folks that helped make that a reality. So, more to come about that at an upcoming board meeting most
likely in August. I'll also touch on, you know, I had the fortunate opportunity this morning. I had a quick turnaround invitation to stop over and see the football team. Uh, Coach Lancetta had a visit from a gentleman named Justin Hines, who's interestingly enough the defensive line coach for the
Seattle Seahawks and is a former player for Coach Lancetta at Rowan University and a New Jersey native. grew up in North Jersey and played at Rowan and has coached in college and now coaches at the Seahawks and donated his time today to spend a day with our Blue Devil
student athletes and it was really great. I only stopped in for a minute to say hello. Um, and they went right to work. They were they had about 30 seconds to say hi to me and then they were outside doing the things that they do. But it was really exciting and the
energy in the uh locker room while the boys were working out and getting ready to go outside today was really something and uh I'm really excited for their their upcoming season. As I left that the uh fieldhouse this morning and was looking around campus, I saw the field
hockey team, both soccer team and a number of other teams out there practicing and working out and you know I put put an editorial on the paper last week. Even though we're not teaching kids right now, there's a ton of things going on. There's kids here every day very early in the morning. There's kids
here in the evening. The band is practicing. There's a lot going on. Kids are working real hard to do the things they need to do. Staff's here during the day working real hard doing curriculum, getting ready, uh, keeping their rooms ready, doing all the things they need to do. So, really exciting about a lot of
the things that are happening. That concludes my report for this evening. Now, we'll go to the first public comment. This is the two There's two public comments in the board meeting. Anybody that wants to talk to the board, you come up, give your name and address and talk to us. I don't see anybody.
There'll be a second one at the end. So, if anybody has something they want to say, we'll go to the printed agenda. I'll take a motion on finance items number 1 through 45. I'll note, however, that item 13 and item 16 will be withdrawn. So, we'll be voting on items
1 through 45 with the exception of 13 and 16. I'll take a motion. Motion. Mrs. Fallon first. Mrs. Hunter second. Mrs. Baronado. Yes. Mrs. Burns. Yes. Mr. Foyer.
Yes. Mrs. Donium. Yes. Mrs. Fallon. Yes. Mrs. Hunter. Yes. To Woodford items 1 through 29 with the exception of 13 and 16. Mr. File. Yes. Mr. Shabon.
Yes. Mrs. Skola. Yes. Mr. Lions. Yes. Motion carried. I'll entertain a motion next on personnel items 46 through 75 with the note that item number 52
and item number 72 specifically employee initial RD will be withdrawn. I'll enter a motion. So moved. Mr. Chino first. Second. Mrs. Granada. Second. Roll. Mrs. Baronado. Yes. Mrs. Burns. Yes. Mr. Koya.
Yes. substantial from the number 51, please. Mrs. Jonio, yes. Mrs. Fallon, yes. Mrs. Hunter, yes. To order items 57 through 71. Mr. File, yes. Mr. Shepone, yes.
Mrs. Scholar, uh, yes. Abstain item 55. Mr. Lines, yes. With abstension on 49. Motion carried. Next, we'll go to program students miscellaneous. I'll take a motion on items 76 through 85. Motion.
Mr. Koya. First, second. Mrs. Hunter. Second. Roll call. Mrs. Baronado. Yes. Mrs. Burns. Yes. Mr. Koya. Yes. Mrs. Donio. Yes. Mrs. Fallon. Yes. Mrs. Hunter.
Yes. To order items 76 through 85. Mr. Fa. Yes. Mr. Shepang. Yes. Mrs. Skola. Yes. and Mr. Lines. Yes. Motion carried. We'll go to the addendum. I'll entertain a motion on
finance items 86 and 93. Motion. Mr. Fa first. Second. Mr. Second. Roll call. Mrs. Baronado. Yes. Mrs. Burns. Yes. Mr. Koya. Yes. Mrs. Donia. Yes. Mrs. Fallon. Yes.
Mrs. Hunter. Yes. To voter for items 86 through 90. Mr. Ma, yes. Mr. Shafone, yes. Mrs. Scola, yes. Mr. Lions, yes. Motion carries. All right. This takes us through the post agenda in the
agenda. Now is the second uh opportunity for public comment of the meeting. Anybody who wants to address the board, you can come up to the microphone, give us your name and address. W. Hello everybody. Uh my name is Sean
Duffy. Um I would like to thank everyone here. Um, I was just hired um for the new position as the orchestra music teacher. Um, I'm like super excited to be here. This is like my dream job. Um, seriously, I've been a a private music
teacher for seven years. Um, I mostly work with young children. Um, I teach guitar, bass, piano. Uh, mostly strings. Uh, so this is like awesome. I have a two-year-old, so I'm like so excited to get kind of my foot in the door here.
Um, but other than just thanking you guys here today for hiring me, um, I would really like to commend this district for building its music and arts program. Um, most other districts that I
know of in the area are getting rid of things. Particularly my job is sort of a vanishing thing right now. Uh everywhere I look um there are people are getting
fired for as uh orchestra teachers. Um the strings you know violins are sort of being taken away from most other districts. and the fact that I'm here on the ground floor building up this
program so that more string instruments can be put in the hands of children. I'm so excited to be here. So, thank you guys. Um, and I'm I'm happy to be here. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Hi, my name is Elizabeth Kramer. Um,
I've had the pleasure of working in this district for the last few years as not only a one-toone aid but also a registered behavioral technician. Um, so I've got to learn a lot from watching the amazing teachers that we already have in this district. And I've had the pleasure of working with the awesome
students that we have as well. Um, so I just want to thank you all so much. Thank you Mr. Ramsey, President Lions, Vice President Koya, and the rest of the board members for this opportunity to um start my journey as a kindergarten teacher and kind of take off in this
career. Um definitely very excited to teach, but not only teach, but to continue to learn. Um I definitely feel that, you know, as educators, we're always learning and learning from the people around us who do wonderful things. So, thank you so much. I really appreciate this.
Thank you. [Applause] Hello. Um, uh, I'm Anthony Effinger. I just want to say thank you very much for the opportunity. I'm very grateful and thankful for it. Um, I graduated from Hamilton in 2018. I just completed a
long-term substitute position at the elementary school. I really enjoyed my time there and um, very excited to get started with this game. So, thank you everyone. [Applause] Hello everyone. Uh, my name is Nicole
Barrett. I actually just got married and my new name will be Nicole Cresenzo. Um, but this is my ninth year teaching. I'm so excited to live in this town and now teach in this town and make my nice commute. I'm very excited for that. Um,
I have had the pleasure of teaching special ed, gened, so I'm excited to kind of do all of that together. Right now, I'll be at the ECEC building. Um, and I'm just very excited to start this journey and I can't wait to uh live here and be teaching here as well. So, thank
you all very much. [Applause] Excuse me. Uh good evening everyone. Uh my name is John Atrada. I've been a special education teacher for seven years. I am truly honored and very very
excited to join the special education department at the Warren Soy School. I look forward to making positive relationships and a meaningful impact with my students in this amazing district. Thank you so much for this opportunity and for your time tonight. Thank you so much and have a great evening.
Thank you. Jennifer Greco Capacio, 351 South Grand Street. Decades ago, at a July board meeting much like tonight, a novice teacher appeared on the agenda. She had recently finished student teaching at West and was offered a position. She
would spend the next 22 years guiding, laughing, and loving the students in her self-contained setting. They would teach her as much as she taught them. Flash forward today where she I have devoted literally half of my life to the students at OS. I've come become
refueled with a new enthusiasm to take on the role of the preschool intervention and referral services teacher. I stand before you tonight full of gratitude. The opportunities the district have provided me to educate, advocate, and lead have prepared me for
this change. I appreciate the experiences and the individuals who helped me grow into the educator I am today. Especially Dr. Tro who saw my potential pass possible tears every now and again and placed her consistent
trust in me. I look forward to using and refining my skills to support our youngest learners at the ECE. Thank you. [Applause] All right, that's everybody. Okay, I'll
take a motion to adjurnn. Mr. Second or all in favor? I All right, thank you everybody.