Time is 7:00. The meeting is being called to order. Public portion of the meeting begins. The New Jersey open public meeting law is enacted to ensure the rights of the public to have attended 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 business administrator, board secretary and has called notice of this meeting to be published by having date, time, and place that are posted at the municipal building communicated to the Herald news the record and file with the
clerk of the bar. Roll call please. Joseph Carr absent. Alice Clevho here. Michael Doyle here. Jennifer Aaron here. Abigail Goff here.
Erica Moi Colzan here. Anthony Paloo here. Gazelle Vega here. Marco Tottero absent. We have a quorum. Please join for the flag salute to the flag of the United States of
America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible and justice for all meeting regulations. During each regular meeting, two opportunities are provided for citizens to ask questions and to
make comments. During the first opportunity, early on the agenda, the meeting is open to the public for the purpose of addressing items listed for approve on this agenda only. The second opportunity occurs just prior to adjournment when citizens may address any subject matter that is pertinent to and or directly related to the operation
of the school district. Persons wishing to speak must upon being recognized rise state their name, address, and subject matter. Comments and questions shall be addressed to the board president or the presiding officer and shall be limited to five minutes per person. The board may or may not respond to issues raised
by members of the public at the time they are raised, but will provide a response if and when appropriate. The board has members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals with speaking. Please note that the board will not respond to comments regarding students or board
employees in light of the privacy rights held by those individuals. Moreover, the board discourages comments about such individuals and will not be responsible for such comments. Members of the public who choose to speak during the public session should carefully consider their comments since they could be held
personally liable for any statements they make. Finally, please note that in accordance with district policy, the board will not officially comment or respond to any matter mentioned unless it can confirm that the matter has been first brought to the attention of the appropriate school personnel in an
attempt to resolve the issue. Public issue. I mean public be heard. Agenda items only. Seeing no one, entertain a motion for the approval of minutes for the June 24th, 2025 regular meeting, both public and private.
Motion. Motion by Miss Goff. Second, second by uh Miss Art. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. Carr absent. Mr. Cubbyho.
Yes. Mr. Doyle. Yes. Miss Aaron Trap. Yes. Mrs. Goff. Yes. Miss Moy Cultan. Yes. Mr. Paloo. Yes. Mrs. Vega. Yes.
Mr. Chapter. Motion passes. Thank you. Correspondents. I don't believe you've had any uh reports. It's my pleasure to hand the floor over to our new superintendent, Mr. McNelli. Floor is yours. Thank you. Good evening, members of the
board of education, staff, and community members. It's my privilege to present my first superintendence report. As I wrap up my first week and a half in this role, I want to take a moment to share a few brief updates. It's been both an informative and enjoyable start, and I've already learned a great deal about
Hawthorne School District and community. From day one, I've been met with warmth and positivity by our staff, families, community members, and board members. It's clear that Hawthorne is a town where people take great pride in their schools and community. My priority has been getting to know our administration
and to better understanding the personality and culture of every building. The early interactions I've had have only affirmed what I already believed. Hawthorne is filled with dedicated student centered professionals who are deeply committed to our mission. I also wanted to share some updates in
regard to programming and technology. Um, our extended school year program is underway and off to an excellent start. Mr. Sarah has done an excellent job ensuring a smooth and positive opening. During my visit, I observed smiling students, the first that I've met in this district, um, that are actively
engaged in their learning, supported by staff that clearly cares deeply about their success. In addition to these visits, we've been focused on a number of key summer initiatives. We are reviewing performance reports, which we'll discuss tonight, evaluating our academic data, and preparing for,
believe it or not, our upcoming inservice days for staff, and new teacher orientation. We're also looking closely at program opportunities to ensure that our students have access to meaningful and enriching learning experiences across all grade levels. From the technology perspective, we made
significant progress this summer. um several key enhancements in terms of infrastructure supporting instruction and ensuring system readiness for the upcoming school year. Um our security systems have improved across the district in terms of security camera
service. Our vape detectors have been installed. Our internet bandwidth has been improved to ensure peak efficiency for staff and students. A new PA system at the high school is near completion. And we're starting to change out the Chromebooks and ordered some new projectors so that we're prepared for
the school year. Um, as I look ahead to the 2526 school year, I'm excited to build upon Hawthorne's proud tradition of academic excellence, strong community engagement, and a positive school culture. I bring over 23 years of experience in education
as a teacher, building administrator, and district director. And I'm eager to use that background to support the continued growth and success of our schools. Um, in just a short time, it's clear that Hawthorne is a district grounded in purpose, pride, and people. I'm honored to serve as your
superintendent and look forward to partnering with all of you as we work together to provide the best educational experience for our students in Hawth. To conclude my report, I'd like to introduce Dr. Trabona, Miss Mrs. Ashenbrand, and Mrs. Smith, who will be presenting the results of last year's
NJGPA, New Jersey's graduation proficiency assessment and assessment. Um, the NJGPA is a statewide assessment administered to our 11th grade students and serves as a graduation requirement. The results that we receive provide valuable insight into both individual
student readiness and broader instructional trends across our schools. In addition, they will share an update on LEDA access for ELL's, which is the annual assessment administered to students identified as English language learners. Um, I just wanted to share
that upon receiving the results, Dr. Dr. Bona, Mrs. Ashenbrand, and Mrs. Smith immediately dove into a detailed data analysis to better understand our students performance in areas for continued growth. Um, as a side note, they happen to enjoy data analysis more
than most people enjoy a cup of coffee on a Monday morning. Um, and that passion shows in their insights they'll be sharing tonight. And overall the good news is we have some positive outcomes to report and the presentation will highlight both the strengths and the strategies we'll continue to implement
moving forward. So welcome to Dr. Tabona, Mrs. Ashen Brand and Mrs. Smith. Thank you. Data is Oh, you guys know that you're here all the time. Um, can we sit over here? You could sit. There's printouts in front of you or you are more than welcome to turn around and look on the
big screen. That's how exciting it is. Bring the popcorn. Bring the popcorn. are so many. I know. Come on. This is round two. Miss. So, finally, we are here with smiles on our faces and about to share what we've
been what I've been promising for the years that I've been here that the steady um chipping away is exactly what's seen now into bigger things. And I I keep going back to that snowball analogy. And so many times we bring the snowball analogy in a bad sense of like
the snowball effect it's coming down at us hard. Well, in this sense that snowball is coming in a good sense. We can finally see it and we're going to have that biggest snowball in Hawthorne for time to come. Um as uh Mr. Minionelli shared with us NJGPA, we know
that's the 11th grade graduation requirement. Uh students must sit for that in order to graduate high school. They need to become graduation ready in order to do one of the alle cart options that I've talked about for many years. They must sit for this at their junior year. If we have an entering senior that
has not sat for this coming out of state or for whatever reason from another district, we have to seat them in their senior year as well before doing any other options. With that being said, it's um basically a culmination of the ninth grade algebra 1 and geometry
standards and 10th grade ELA standards um where they're just honed in in your 11th grade course through either algebra 2 or English 11 to see the results. Um as always, our English scores are high. We're 88.6% graduation ready. Um we are
above the state which is awesome which we have significantly have been above the state for the past several years and we have continued to show an increase in that. Um math we made a huge jump this year which we have not seen numbers in math in high school in the 50s since
I've been here. So this is a huge jump. We went from um we were in the 40s last year. We were in the 40s last year high 40s I want to say around 47 48. Bonnie will have the details. Um, but for the first time, what we're doing is we're seeing that we got to that 50% mark for
math. So, what that's telling us is this cohort of students, our 2026 graduates, they were sitting in sixth grade when schools closed in COVID. So, they were in the middle of their pre-alggebra year or that first start of pre pre-alggebra where they're going to decide whether or
not they're going on to the track of algebra 1 and 8th grade or the majority of these students took algebra 1 and nth grade. So two of their years were the core foundation of what they're being tested on. So we're finally seeing that gap decrease. And what we're noticing is
that you have to chip away little by little. And if we don't chip away little by little, it's we're not going to you can't just look year to year without looking deeper into it to see these bigger pieces. I brought Bonnie and Ashley along today a because this is the
heart of their work 612. um a testament to what they've been doing and on the ground running, but really um they take pride in tracking their students year to year to year. So, we're going to show you and tell you a little story about this data from 2023, that first year
postcoid as ninth graders into the 2025 where we're at with that. Um I'll finish it out with some WEDA scores and just to give you a sneak peek into October which I shared at CNI. Um, literally I believe
it was June 27th or 28th that NJSLA data was released and we have seen tremendous gains in all of that data which would be presented in October. October we were going through that. Additionally, we saw our highest gains in the middle school
with almost doubling almost 100% gain in doubling their amount correct in certain math scores. So, our mask scores in the middle school are approaching close to 50% as well isolated per grade level. So, I just wanted to just say we're in a different trend now. We're on the other side of that snowball. We're coming down
and we're having fun with it. So, I'm going to turn it over to Bonnie. And you talk about data. That's fun. This is my favorite. Um, all right. So, good evening everyone. Thank you for having me here tonight, Dr. Trabon and all of you guys. Um, so as Dr. Traona was mentioning when we really look at
our scores over the last three years that's really where we see our biggest growth. So I present this data in a couple of different ways just for our different kinds of learners in the room. So if you look at the number of students graduation ready dating back to 2023 um you'll see that um this is the first
column is not graduation ready. you're going to notice that number steadily declining um especially by percentage. Um and the number of students graduation ready, you almost see that inverse effect where um we had 71 students not graduation ready and now this year we
have 91 students. Now um one of the factors that Dr. Tribona mentioned was that we have to have um some seniors um sit for this exam and we also have some out of district students sitting for this exam. Um and so when we look at uh the just some of the differences in
those numbers. Um when you look at the 2025 excluding out of district students, these are the ones that we are teaching day in day out in our classroom. Um so then if you go over to the um right side of this table, you're going to notice that Hawthorne pass rate is steadily
climbing from 44 to 48 to 54%. And then when you look at the students that we're seeing in our classroom every day, we're actually at 56% pass rate. Um which is incredible. Um, you're also going to notice that the differential between our
state passing average and the Hawthorne passing average is shrinking, meaning we are catching up to the state or we're we're improving at a faster rate than the state is improving, which is something to be very proud of. Um, and that last row, you know, because we do
like to see, you know, good growth, and we're going to dive into our subgroups next. Um, but just when you do look at our general ed population, um, we do have a 68% pass rate there. Um, so we're actually exceeding the state average by 4% in that category, which is fantastic.
So certainly something to be proud of, um, while we continue to focus our efforts for some of our subgroups. All right, so moving along, I'm not very good at clickers, but just for the more visual people in the room. Um so the yellow line indicates the number of
students not graduation ready from 2023 to 2025. So as you see that line is trending down. Um and then the green line is trending up which is great. That is our number of students who are graduation ready. Um so we're having a complete flip-flop from where we were a
couple years back. So that's just a little visual to support our data from our prior slide. And then just another way to see how we are catching up to the state and surpassing them with our general ed population. You can see the blue bar represents Hawthorne, the
yellow bar representing the state. So in 2023 that gap was bigger and then in 2024 it started to shrink. 2025 significantly shrunk and then as you can see with our general ed students outperforming the state average.
Um okay so on this slide what we as Dr. Mona mentioned, we look individual students, not just as a whole grade level. What are our trends? So, I went back um a couple of years to when these current juniors, well, now rising
seniors, took their NJSLA in their freshman year. So, yes, they were coming out of COVID. This was their first year of the Hawthorne High School experience for them. Um, and so what you'll see here is that giant yellow bar of these
students their freshman year who took algebra 1. And those were the students who were not considering meeting the expectation on the NJSLA. Well, when you fast forward two years, that bar has shrunk and the blue has increased showing that students who were not
passing meeting the expectation in their freshman year are now meeting that expectation. So that growth we've had even from ninth grade tracking these particular students has been very significant with the pass rate of their algebra 1 exam only being around 20%.
Now their pass rate on the GPA was 57%. And 85 individual students made gains from their raw score on the NJSLA to their raw score on the NJ GPA 13. Yes. Out of only 130 something.
Yes. So 60% of students made gains. So then this is our um subgroup data which I just want to throw out there um that information to the right is very critically important in understanding this graph. Um because it looks like by
and large our subgroups are underperforming because they only have you know under 50% in many cases meeting the expectation. But it's important to realize how this is like the math person in me kicking in. It's important to realize how many students we're looking at in each of those subgroups. Um so if
you take for example, you'll see that there's, you know, 50% pass rate for uh the Asian subgroup. If you look over to the right, there are only four students um who took the test who identify as Asian. So two of the four had passed. So, it's just important to see um when
we have a 50% pass rate on a subgroup um we want to keep in mind how many students are we really looking at um because we can you know obviously look to support those students further but it's just important to have that information when examining the data. We go deeper into this a lot of times
you'll realize they tell you not even to report on anything that's n under 10 because it could be identifying in a sense. Um so for this we just want you to see that we are doing things but it's important to note that um it's not considered statistically significant if
you're your data group is anywhere under 10 or 15. So that it's not a good uh predicted predictor predictably predicting. So, just to highlight some of the interventions that we've been working on um over the last three years, um we've
been making major changes to our math instruction at the high school level. Um not only in what the curriculum looks like, but the curricular resources that we've been using. Um you know, we're in we've been rewriting curriculum steadily. We're in the process of doing algebra 2 right now and geometry will be
on next year's agenda. Um, we've been adapting our instructional approaches, taking a more traditional approach out of the classroom, using more hands-on, real world applications, making math meaningful to our students. Um, more reflective of what they see on the NJGPA, although not teaching to the
test. This is where we want them to see that math in the real world is useful. Um, we've also been very strategic in purposefully infusing NJGPI release items. This is like untapped potential where we know what they ask on the test. Um, so it's important that we're
exposing our students to these types of questions day in and day out. Um, additionally, we are in the process of constructing a new course um, which is called Foundations to Algebra 2, which will be launching this fall. Um, and we are also working on our students who are
rising juniors. Um, we adopted a freshman math lab this past year to target students who we know have uh weaker foundational skills in algebra to better prepare them for their upcoming years. Um, and finally, one other thing to note that we did this year, now this is not reflective of this particular
data that we're reporting on today, but just something else that we've been doing is we're running a senior math lab. So, we take our students that did not pass NJGPA junior year, pulling them into a small setting um during a study hall period if they've opted not to take
a math during their senior year. We provide them with some additional support in completing their portfolio and also giving them some last push to um sit for the NJGPA in the fall. And I just want to note that of the nine additional students that passed last year in the fall administration of the
NJGPA, four of those nine students um were students that sat for the math lab course. Um so that math lab definitely is helping. The other five students were enrolled in a math class where they were getting um their preparation for NJPA in that class.
All right. So just some notable achievements for math and then I will wrap it up. Um our average passing score. So the average passing score in general, I'm sorry, the passing score in general is 725. Our average passing score for our high school juniors was
730. So we are again not just passing by the skin of our teeth, but we are solidly having an average passing score. We had 20% of students increase from um their NJSLA score to their NJGPA score by over 20 points. So that's significant
growth for a lot of these students. Um, of the six students that increased their score by more than 50 points, um, they five of them were, um, classified students or ML students. So, these are some of our students making the biggest
growth um, from freshman year to junior year. Over a three-year period, our pass rate for economically disadvantaged students increased by 10%. Our pass rate for Hispanic students has increased by 6.4%. and the state passing average has increased by 3% while the Hawthorne
passing average has increased by 10%. So again, well outshining um the gains of the state which we're very proud of. Just some final notes, I guess. Um so what we noticed when we really disagregated all this data is that the
proper placement for students in courses is so critical. 100% of our students in pre-calc passed the NGPA. 95% of our students in algebra 2 honors passed the NJGPA. Um we then said there's this
group of students that we need to better support the lower performing students. And so thus this creation of this foundation of algebra 2 class um which is based around our key concepts that we know are addressed on the NJGPA. And we also know that the math lab that we implemented this past year um we're
going to continue to implement this year to hopefully get a few more students in the fall to pass through this pathway as well. All right, without further ado, I will turn it over to Miss Smith to share her glowing report.
Thanks. Yes. So, I'm I'm the closer with ELA. Um, the way that I approach analyzing data is actually the same tactic and strategy that I used when I used to teach my kids Shakespeare. uh when you're analyzing, you know, a huge monologue from a character and it just seems really overwhelming and there's
all this detail, you know, you have to zoom in and zoom out at the same time. And that's kind of the uh theme of this presentation both when it comes to analyzing these math and ELA scores and kind of, you know, getting the big takeaways. So, just returning to this slide for a second um to remind, you
know, we're back to ELA now. Uh 88.6% graduation ready, which I know is, you know, looks really strong and we're happy to say that's been consistent over the past three years. we've been hovering around 90. Sometimes it's 90, 89, 88.6. Um, for the past three years, so we're really excited about that. Um,
but just looking at that alone, I don't want, you know, the past three years, I don't want people to assume, oh, you know, some are strong, some are good. We're just going to, you know, keep keep the journey going. And there's actually a lot of growth when you dive down into that number. So, I don't want that number and that consistency to be
misleading. We've actually made some major gains as well within that good news. Um so here is our NJGPA ELA performance by subgroup this year in 2025 the current juniors that uh took it. Um again the end values are there. I know Bonnie you know frontloaded it very
well so I won't go into the significance of that. Uh the takeaways here is that we're happy to report that you know the vast majority if not all of our subgroups are doing very well. Um it's not just you know one subgroup or a couple. we are succeeding across the board and I feel that that is a
testament to the work of our department. Um we've been focusing on a couple subgroups specifically that I'm going to highlight in a moment. So seeing those gains and those numbers um is you know really encouraging. So an overview and I promise I won't read all of this but some of the intervention strategies that
we employed for the past three years that have kind of culminated um to into this moment is we as a department have really focused on developing high quality skills-based assessments. Um anyone who's a former humanities teacher, I was a former English teacher. We love our content. We love our books.
We love our stories. Um and what we love about teaching our subject is providing those authentic learning experiences for students. We want them to love to read and love to discuss. And when teachers hear, oh, we're, you know, we're focusing on data and and skills, you know, they think again kind of what Miss Asher said, you know, we're teaching to
a test. And so, we've really worked hard as a department over the past three years to really come together and find a way to bring in that creativity, keep those authentic experiences, but marry it with skills-based assessments and how that actually there it could be a really creative process. So we've collaborated
um and we developed through you know modeling formative summitative and EMPAS our end of parking period assessments together and creating guides and examples that we now share with everybody. It's actually encouraged people to go beyond those EMPAS those you know those midterms and finalsesque
assessments and now have it you know permeate everything that they're doing throughout the year. Um and we've been bridging on with data days and things like that. So, that's been going really, really well. And I think our department has realized, oh, here's how they how those two things fit together. We're not teaching to a test. Um, when we dove
into the data as well, specifically breaking down the types of questions our students were struggling with the most. Um, and again, we did this with data days as well, there were a lot of patterns when it came to vocabulary and language conventions as well as reading non-fiction, you know, reading
comprehension with non-fiction specifically. So, again, as a department, we work together. We did a curriculum rewrite to infuse mandatory vocabulists um and teaching strategies for you know vocabulary specifically um and again marrying those thematic novel
units and teaching those stories but making sure we're building that critical vocabulary as well. Um teachers through professional development became very familiar with NJSLA questioning terminology. So not just vocab that they should know to answer the questions for critical reading but also the kind of vocabulary that the questions are using.
you know, when they're asking for things like inferences, um, if they're saying, you know, what is the author implying? You know, sometimes, especially at the middle school level, they don't know what those words are actually asking them. So, teachers are, you know, infusing that into their assessments and their activities, so they're really exposed to it, um, by the time they're
taking it on the NJGPA. Um, we had a big push for writing for the past three years and especially this year. I would say this one was, you know, that that was a big focus for us throughout our professional development and our department meetings because what we realized is in looking at our
curriculum, we were preparing students, you know, to be strong writers when it came to long-term essays, right? Because we're thinking of preparing them for college and beyond. So, they have a week or two to write a paper. And yes, that is important because writing is a process and that there's skills in that
process for sure. But then they're turning around on the NJSLA and the NJGPA and they're expected to answer a prompt 40 minutes, figure out a thesis, you know, figure out the organization of it really quickly. And when we were talking as a department, we weren't
necessarily prioritizing that kind of writing, at least not on a consistent basis. So both with curriculum rewrites and also working together to kind of align uh both vertically and you know within the grade level teening we have decided on infusing you know those short-term writing assignments and what
they look like and covering the types of writing as well because for example they have narrative writing they have RSTs where you're working with you know um those are research simulated tasks where you're working with sources to incorporate and things like that. So the breadth, you know, the variety of writing and also that process
specifically we're getting students exposed to. Um and not just in junior year but earlier as well. Um oh the last thing I want to note about writing is we also had the addition of AP seminar two years ago and actually this junior class was the class that took it when we first
introduced it we infused it with English to honors as some schools and districts had done that. So this class in particular of the NJGPA data um is focusing on the majority of those kids that were taking English took AP seminar. So it's a larger number than you know currently where AP seminar is
now you know an elective AP course. Um AP seminar has been a great addition to our you know school program. Kids are getting hands-on experience with, you know, analyzing sources, sifting through information, um, you know, supporting their claims with evidence, and working with non-fiction texts as we mentioned
before. And also, that AP is offered in 10th grade, so they're getting that earlier in their education in humanities. So, that's been a great addition that we think played a role um, in some of the success. Lastly, um, one of the, uh, subgroups that we've been working with, you know, the most and
trying to see what can we do to support these students is, uh, what we did with our ML support in ELA. So, small group ELA classes for ML students are now taught by a certified English teacher who is also a certified ESL teacher, Mr. Tom McKinley. Um, so what's great is he
is teaching the English curriculum, but has those ESL strategies. So he's delivering the information and you know presenting the information in a way that is really supporting these students because at the end of the day these students were coming in and they're learning English the the first level of you know comprehension and then they
have to know for English you know the symbolism and the figurative language and the hidden meaning when they're trying to learn the first meaning. So it's been really great that they've had Mr. McKinley um and he's teaching you know all the grade levels at the moment for MLS or most of them depending on the year. So that that's been a really great support system.
So, I mentioned some of these, just the overall notable achievements. Yes, we've been consistently hovering 90, a little bit below graduation ready the past three years, surpassing the state average this particular year by 9%. Which is awesome. Um, but the two the next two bullets are the ones I feel the
most pride for. Um, the fact that 86.8% of our Hispano Hispano Hispanic Latino subgroup, excuse me, uh, past ELA, you know, that's high. That's fantastic. Um, and when we were looking at the data in the past, QAC and all those things like that was a subgroup that we really wanted to ensure that we were supporting
and we had an opportunity, you know, to to show growth. Um, so I'm happy that panned out. And then another one we're really proud of, 69% of students with IEPs passed ELA again compared to 56% last year. So math, that's 13%.
13% in one year. So not even across the years, but in one year. So we're really really, you know, happy about that. that um and there's been a lot of professional development but differentiation you know accommodations and you know there's it's not one thing you know that is necessarily leading to these gains it's it's a combination of
everything um so really happy to report all of that the last thing I want to dive into and those last two bullets are going to kind of um be shown visually in the next slide is again the 90% looks great but what I really want to show is the improvement within that 19 uh the
90% so just as As a recap, um, for the NJSLA, what they take in freshman year and the NJGPA, just a comparison for a little bit, the scoring, the 650 to 850 is the same. The cut score, the graduation ready score is 725 for the
NJGPA, 750 for the NJSLA, but the tiering in these levels that you're seeing, that's pretty consistent. Um, so what they, you know, the bottom bar, 650 to 700 is considered scoring a level one. Level two is 700 to 725. Level
three is 725 750 and so on. So when you're looking at the next slide, I want to show you again the zooming in and zooming out. I have a spreadsheet of all the, you know, students individual scores and I was amazed at how these kids are jumping. I had a kid that I was just looking at 759 and they got a
perfect score. So they're jumping, you know, 50 points. And going back to that actually the the floats themselves 32% of all students so almost a third of our students jumped by 50 points or more. That means they're not just increasing their scores they're jumping tears. Um
which is which is wonderful. So in looking at this this particular class in 2023 when they were freshman the high school inherited them. It was pretty evenly distributed level one level two. But if you look at the chart on the side that gives it you know the end the
numbers. So 25 students level one, 31 students level two and so on. Um a very few students out of level five which is that 800 to 850 range. Um but then you see again those bars how level four which is pretty high right and is
obviously meeting expectations 77 kids and 35 kids are you jumping to level five. So the numbers really flip um and we have very few kids at the level one or level two by the NJ GPA of the junior year. So from freshman year to junior year, they've jumped so much. And yes,
we're doing great with the meeting expectations and the graduation ready, but this I look at this and say they're growing. Whether they're already meeting expectations or they're they're, you know, really really struggling, they are moving. Um, which is the most important are successful students. Yes,
everyone is being challenged. Everyone is growing. um which is the goal and that's why you know in ELA we are yes we are riding high on these lovely numbers but we are certainly not settling um or being complacent we are you know when I share this with the department they're going to be so excited and they're just going to be more motivated to keep
pushing so I think that wraps up ELA and I'm going to shift back to Dr. This is two seconds. So again, the WEDA access is given anywhere between February um and April, the end of April,
um basically the score reports come in in the beginning of June. That's why we're reporting it now to meet it. It kind of doesn't fit with why we're doing this, but districtwide they get measured in five different areas. And in each area, they get a one, two, three, four, five, or six. Those areas are then
broken down into oral language, um, oral fluency, reading comprehension, and then it's given out an overall score. In order to exit LED, you need a 4.5. They typically say you should be in an ML program anywhere from 3 to 5 years if
it's if you're succeeding properly. Um, when we're reporting, I know this is a little small and blurry. You'll notice I only have certain subgroups up there because some of our subgroups are less than 10 and we can't report on that as it's identifiable. But of this, we're looking at students that now exited B.
So we have 18 students score a four or higher. Um and we had four student exit with scores above 4.5 and 14 students could possibly exit when we leave in September based on the WEDA model. And
what you need to realize is that of these students, we had 116, 37 of them were new to Hawthorne last year. So we had 37 new entries last year that brought us to 116. Now, did we have some exits? Yes. Like it's a very transient
population, but realizing that we had to test language proficiency on students that we met in September. Of these 116 districtwide, we had 30, I believe it was 32 or 33 entries. all over the summer in the course of the school year and you have to test as long as they
come in within two weeks left of the administration period. So we have student come in in March, start in Hawthorne and we're literally giving them a state assessment the next day. So it gives you a little perspective and that's it. We are done. Any
questions? I don't have a question but I have a comment. I I have sat through many of these and I'm always riveted by your data, Dr. Cona. It is truly riveting. Um, this is the most optimistic and truly heartwarming
presentation of this kind that we've seen. Well, get ready for October because I can't wait. Okay. And I mean, I've seen it in other districts. Some I know Erica and I will often watch other districts meetings. I watch my own where I where I teach. I watch their meetings. Um, this type of growth is is astonishing and I we cannot
thank you all enough. I mean the staff is amazing. They are the impleers but you guys are the visionaries and and really the support for them it is tremendous and and we don't thank you enough and this is like I can get choked up. It's it's we've seen small gains
always gains invite them here and I will prepare you like Matt comes into my office all the time right now and literally I have like spreadsheets color coded. He must think I'm a nut. Literally, that's what I've been doing for two weeks. But we got in
such um it's almost like um we're on a high right now because like we got this data. We're finally seeing it. The work that we put in last year when we took away lesson plans and put in those data days like I was saying we cannot wait to share this with the staff because it's
them. And we kept saying like just stick stick it out with us and I kept saying that just stick it out with us. It's coming. Yeah. And that's why I'm saying it. You're in the thick of it and you're like, "Okay, we're changing doesn't mean anything." But now we track
it. We're starting to see that. So we we're all just like it's such a great like turning point. Well, thank you. Thank you all. I mean truly this is this is really I mean you don't have to be a data person to see how tremendous the growth is here.
you know, the math has always been um and I think that's a statewide probably nationwide uh trend, but this is this is so amazing to see. We're just starting to see kids get used to the shifts that we made in the instruction. Yes. And that that idea of if it starts in
kindergarten and then first grade and second grade, you're not reteing the procedures. So, if we're shifting our instruction, it makes a lot of sense that you're not going to see this effect until it becomes more like routine. It's kind of like medicine. The first day you take it, you're like, "All right, maybe they feel better, maybe a little bit."
And then like all of a sudden, it's said that when you like when you change like the physics first and then that you can't analyze it. You can't you can't. But th this jump is really huge. Thank you. Thank you all. We're open to the beginning. It is the beginning. We're open.
I think what makes it more commendable is that uh you know, like you stated, you're dealing with students that are brand new to Hawthorne and they're not even coming in as freshs, right? I mean I've met a couple that coming in as junior junior senior in that and that's what I think has
opened our eyes a lot into and it's not a knock on really disagregating the data but it's it's so important to look at if we're trying to measure our success then we need the people that are exposed to it are out of districts nothing wrong they're in the environment that they
need but we need to have our educators not be defeated by looking at data that is skewing it so we have to pull out those outlers Not to say it doesn't mean it, but to show where the work's actually being seen. Got a question. As far as the split in the high school, I think at some point
it was almost 15 non-white. Do you know do you know if that's changed? Um, I believe I can pull it up while when um when we're in the course of this, but I believe we're we're we're continued to surpass that and that number becomes larger. Like I believe we've tipped where our
majority may have been Hispanic. I think we just tipped that in the last bunch that we did for the performance report, I think, from last year. If not, we're very close. But we're definitely not quite below 50%. Thank you. Another question. Uh at what
point if they do do these uh do these numbers make it into like the you know those ratings that are out there like school better schools.org you know that I don't know all and what happened with that. I know a lot of them are just they pull from the
performance report and they pull from the scores and and uh Mr. Ellie may better serve on this question, but a lot of those are getting like not accurate pieces. And the problem with it is
people see it and believe it. And then when you read the star, it's like this data was from a third of something that was like a third in 1999. Like so if we get one, I'm posting that all over the place, right? But I don't know what what makes us eligible
for that. Sometimes it's paid stuff too. It's the same formula they use for the budget for this for our funding. It's unknown. What's unfortunate and I agree with you. I mean it's one number and it's full story, you know, but those of us that are in the real estate industry, you know, it's a seller.
It's the first thing they post, you know, it's on all of the It's a seller. I'll look into that. We'll we'll find one that we're going to get on. I'll buy one. Another question. um besides supporting the you know the work that's currently being done and I know there's usually a
dollar amount tied to it attached to it what else can we be doing as you know as a district from a funding perspective that could augment that uh effort funding wise right now and and I don't ever want to say this we're okay from this point with what we have and I I
know we're not okay overall but like in the curriculum and instruction point we are good right now we're we can maintain because a lot what we are now is we need time and what we're doing and we're looking at how can we yes we have to pull people
out of the classroom sometimes but if we can work with these teachers is better than any program that puts a dollar amount on it we just need to continue this collaboration I have teachers in my office today that are doing standards work and their fourth grade was going okay we're looking at the data we're
saying what do we need to change we don't want to change that much because we have huge gains right now what needs to be tweaked so A lot of it for now is just time and the people present. So I mean you're talking $34 an hour incurricular work. I can't second Dr. Moore um because the
humanities you know our professional development has really been in house for the most part um especially on the high school level you know it's me sharing a lot of my resources and then you know staff are sharing their like again it's become a really collaborative atmosphere but we need the time you know built into the schedule. I only get department
meetings once a month and sometimes those are you know necessarily substituted for other things you know HDA and things like that um and then professional development days are obviously you know as much as we can but are also more spread out so it's just finding time for sure so we're looking at a lot of purpose
well a lot because a I did cut some of my PD budget we don't know what title bounds are coming in so we have two factors there but that's always been my mantra standing here saying like I'd rather have the time to work with the teachers and and have the teachers and the people over any kind of product that we can buy.
Like we our staff has the brain power. We just need to all get in the same room with a large enough chunk of time and they need to see this. They need the motivating, you know, it's discouraging. Like you get there and you're just like, how many times can I do this and not see the gains and that that's going to
discourage it discouraged us. So I can't imagine the true front line. This should be like the open presentation. Well, we're going to have something out there for opening day out there for the public. Everybody, we're gonna like talk about tweaking and like publicizing. We're going to figure out what like our best percentage is for
like a a tagline article out there. I'll get misyron. We'll get something added to tap into like for like sor like something to tag it. Yeah. Because like I said, this is true, I promise. But data can say anything you want,
right? Maybe we look at redoing the calendar and building in some AP. Yes, we well that was one of the things that uh Mr. Vanelli and I had spoke about when we've done some of our transition is like where what do we need? And a lot of what I say is we just need like tie
in. Like we went back to in the past four years when the Mondays they weren't staying every Monday and I'm like wait a minute it's in the contract we have them. We need to keep them and not I'm not doing it to be whatever but it we have such valuable time and you have to be here till 3:30 on a Monday.
Unfortunately I'm going to keep you till 3:30 and I'm going to make it purposeful and that's what we've been trying to do. My district does one Tuesday a month because that's our meeting days is a half day PD day. The kids who only want a half day schedule and we stay 430. I mean, I I definitely think that's
something that financially is one of the best things we can build in to support ourselves. Y and we have talked going back and forth. Um but so much of the reflection from the teachers, especially elementary, is across the building, the time with the
other first grade teachers, the time with the other fourth grade teachers. Right. So that's huge because the other PDS you're either being proactive trying to at the beginning of the year, we have to learn it. Exactly. But when you do it more frequently and listen, I think the once a month I think even Ponic has scaled it
back. I I don't think we have 10 now. I think we have maybe five sporadically monthly and more so in the second half because we're we're overloaded in the first half September, October, November. And then it's like all right, we'll see you next September building and and you know the community it would be a little bit of a learning curve for the community too because of a
daycare and but if we are thoughtful about how we roll it out and maybe we can provide some afterare opportunities for the younger students or something I think if we build it into the culture and you know make it a priority I I think it's doable. Awesome. Yeah, ju just as encouraging as
the gains, it's it's also very encouraging to know that what we have in place, you know, it suffices, you know, so from our end, you know, we we'll do the best that we can to be protected from a financial perspective so that we can, you know, continue to not have that be a
setback like right now, we've gotten that ball rolling. Last time we were like this was right before like that's why moneywise we're good over here. I actually have a comment question. So, um, I was actually here last year when
you did this presentation as a parent and a community member and the gains are extremely extremely it it brings happiness, right? Especially being a parent that has kids
and within the district. Um, so I I do look forward to next year and the continued growth. Um but my question is with regards to the targeted ML support. Yes. When did that start? So that started in the high school. That's only in the high school. So this
is particular to sorry this is the first year. Yeah. So this this was the first set of students that had taken a teic. So we were lucky enough that back two years ago we used title three funds to do a supplemental ML teacher. Unfortunately our title three I'm sorry
title one we had enough in it. Our title one funds diminished. We couldn't do that. Mr. McKinley then was that person also had an um language arts ELA certificate. We needed an ELA teacher. That's when we like all of a sudden the light bulb went on and we're like wait a
minute. Um and we started doing this. We had piloted it in the middle school once when we had the double teachers. Unfortunately, now financially we don't have the double teacher. So it's only at the high school. Okay. At the elementary, which I will speak to later, what we're doing is we're
training all of our teachers in sheltered instruction. so that they're given the tools because we feel in K1 and two it's more important for them to be in their phonics lesson than to be pulled out double high intensity. So we're keeping the ML students with their
regular sheltered instruction trained teacher during phonics and then pulling out for supplemental ESL support which a then I can do some targeted support with students that need additional. Okay. Okay. Perfect. And then with regards to the WEDA, you said that we'd
get an updated like updated information in October. Is that correct? No, no, no. The rest of the stuff. So for WEDA, you have the whole thing is when we get score reports to a district, I have 60 days for QAC to report it to the board. Okay.
So it was either throwed on this, we're halfway back in August. I love you all, but I don't think you want to hear me in August. Right. September's too late for our 60 days and then I'm back in October with the reports that come in for the next one. So it's kind of like mishmash that it whenever the reports come in I have 60
days to report. Got it. Got it. Okay. And then the WEDA is only for No, that's all. So that has everybody that's like K to 12. Okay. So and it's normal in K one and two that we don't have kids exiting out of that because if they have the oral language
and comprehension they would be identified universally. Right. So we more likely to see the exit when we have kids in the program for a consistent three to five years. Okay. Are the best ones to measure. Okay, perfect. I I look forward to the ML support. Um especially in the high
school and the elementary school because like you guys mentioned, the Hispanic community here is growing a lot and you know, we we want to make sure that that we're targeting everyone. And one of the things that we realized is that we sent some of our BSI teachers in in this thing in the elementary to the sheltered
instruction and that it's it's good teaching strategies. It's good for all of your kids. So, we're getting like a a bang for your buck. We're paying forward through title three, but they are getting solid kind of those modifications that you should be using on every student, not just those that have issues.
So, what's going on in the middle if Sorry. No, go ahead. Middle school now that we don't have the dual teachers, what are they doing? So middle school is it's the same thing. 6 through 12 has always been there's two ways that you could do it. So for MLS you either need to have a high intensity program which is normally ranked K to
five where they have two periods per day taught by an ESL teacher. Right? We were finding that to be too much out time of the mainstream where they're learning a lot of their interactional speaking. Right? The other model is you do sheltered instruction where you have basically you you have an ESL teacher
teach them one period of ESL support and then their content area teachers are trained in strategies to support the ML teacher. So that's always been 612. Okay. K5 we realized we put that sheltered instruction training in because we thought it was more important for the student to be with their grade level
peers learning phonics with their peers. If we're teaching a first grader how to read, doesn't matter if they know English or Spanish, we're still reading sounds. So that's why you you just said something uh to one of Jazelle's questions about
we don't have the money for that anymore. The title ones the way that we had I thought it was dual teachers or something in the middle. So in the middle school we had we what we did was we paid through title one when we had extra funds and we had a floating ESL teacher. Okay.
And that teacher went between the middle school in Washington which had our highest populations and were title one targeted. Right. As our title one dropped, we had to eliminate that position. So we don't have that extra support that we were bringing in. One person teacher
in the high school level. So we have three teachers districtwide. ML we have one who is Roosevelt and Jefferson, one Washington, which is our largest population, one teacher, half Lincoln,
half high school, which has a huge load. That's Miss and then what supported that was we were able to have Mr. McKinley teach English so it counts as one of their supports. Yes, that
stretching. Yeah, we had to be creative financially to meet the needs of the students to the best of their ability while only having three teachers. And I commend you guys because and you have to think that traveling and
students that technically need two periods per day. You have to think outside. I think even if we had more money, there's nobody out there with that search. So that's a whole separate issue. If we were looking for someone actively, it would be difficult to fill a spot. So we're very lucky to have the three or however many people
we have four on four on recordification and the unique Mr. situation with the dual ser that's very desirable and we found that you know we looked like wow and that's you know we tried it out
exactly exactly that that title funding is crucial right we've already talking so from what I've heard and I've shared um title one funds have been allocated to the state the state is not releasing them again this is what I read up on in my knowledge the
state is not releasing them in fear of the federal government may ask for them back. Federal government has not released title two through four funding. Five, we don't get five. That was that bill that came out two weeks ago on June 30th that he did not pass um that the
president blocked the dissemination of that. So, as of right now, we have nothing. We're starting to talk of what this can impact because we have um about if you go by FTE three and a half positions that are funded out of title
between across three schools. So this is a conversation we've been having. One last thing because I guess you can't hear thank you enough. Um thank you for the presentation and also all the hard work to get us here. So, I know we heard this with our curriculum
and instruction committee meeting with Dr. Chabona. We It was like one of our best meetings, but our first one with our new superintendent, and it was so excited. Like, it's been mentioned already, but for the public, for anyone that's out there on YouTube and watching, these are
really significant increases. I've only been on the board for four years, but it's been the most encouraging and exciting one. And we'll just call you all the dream team, right? and we we are excited to see what's ahead. So, thank you again. The admin groups
that I didn't want to save that to general comments just in case you guys leave at the end of the meeting. So, thank you all so much. We really appreciate it. Thank you. Yes. Thank you once again. This reminds me of I saw a post out
there that u it was on a thread where um a social media post on a thread where we're uh college students that are participating at the college collegiate level are being recognized and some of the comments were you know don't necessarily believe the hype you know as far as like what we can't deliver as a
product you know I think you know even from this perspective right not just on the athletic end but on the uh curriculum end it's there's a lot that stay in the welfare. All right. Thank you ladies. Appreciate
that. Uh moving on, Miss Goff curl instruction, please. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. Pursuant to the recommendation of the superintendent of curriculum instruction recommend the following resolutions CI1 through CI6 on page three. Continued on
to page four and CI7 on page four. On behalf of the committee, I move second. Second by Miss Vega. Any discussion? Alex, I have a question. Um, regarding
CI3, so that is the tuition for the county technical institute. We have 220 students at $10,864 per student for I'm just reading it for the public for a cost uh total cost of
2,390,80 I is that has that tuition been updated because it looks like the $10,864 per student and this is a general question maybe you might not have the answer but that was the same cost for the 23 24
school year. So, has there been any change or increase or is that still the same amount? I know there was a reduction this year or it it stayed the same or was it was it a temporary reduction for that one year or it was over 11,000
before the reduction three years ago? It was but but then there's usually been an increase. So, there was no increase this year for the upcoming school year. Um that's the amount that uh say county tech gave us. Okay. All right.
It must include some sort of reduction if you this was what it was in 2023. So then this there has been no increase. Yeah. That was a $500 deduction but I didn't know because usually they increase it every year. So I know that still the highest that we've ever paid
and 220 is an estimate. Doesn't even include 2 students is an estimate, okay, of who because they don't they tr the high school doesn't truly know who's going until they just don't show up on September whatever day. So that number is somewhat fluid and
then if we overpay, they give us the money back the following year. But I think your recollection is on point. The reduction that we had was only a couple hundred dollar and it was marginal. I just wanted to
the numberion. Not even busing. It's worth three hashing, right? So 220 students that that equates to $2.3 million and it doesn't include our transportation, right? So you put 50 students on a bus and you
do the math on how many buses that means it. And we were so happy about the data. Still happy. We're very happy about the data. I'm so happy I have that to hold on to. Go back to that slides back up. Put them back up. Anybody else? Um, I did want to say something. Uh, Mr.
Kho, I just want for anyone who's looking on or or possibly looking at the agenda. Um, who's not here in person or maybe is here in person that I just want to to explain. CI6, the non-public textbook. This money throws flows through the district. It is not
Hawthorne public schools money. It's not part of our budget. we are not having to use our money. Um, this is money that is flowed through our district to these districts for the purchase of these items of these nonpublic items. That does come up every year.
They're larger numbers um just so that the general public knows it's just how the state accounts for money. They flow it through the the town and then it goes to those districts. Great. Yeah, thank you for that. Worth noting. Anybody else?
Roll call, please. Mr. Clehjo, yes. Mr. Doyle, yes. Miss Arantra, yes. Mrs. Goff, yes. Miss Monkey Cultan, yes. Mr. Paloo, yes. Mrs. Vega,
yes. Mr. Carr, absent. Mr. Tottero, absent. Motion passes. Mr. P personnel, please. Thank you, Mr. Flamito. The following resolutions are
pursuant to the recommendation of the superintendent of schools. P1 and P2 on page four, P3 through P11 on page 5, P12 through P18 on page six. On behalf
of the committee, I move second. Second by Miss. Any discussion? Go ahead. the usual comments. There are several new hires on here. So, welcome to Welcome if you're watching. We look forward to joining our team. So, quite a
few positions, non-instructional aids, buses, parros, guidance counselor, teacher with student disabilities. I don't want to miss anyone. Teacher assistant. So, welcome.
I have a question. Could you remind me of 10. Um, it says guidance counselor hired to fill a vacancy created by the resignation of Olivia Wagner. When did she uh resign? I don't It's on the same agenda. Is it?
It's above it on page five. Maybe you have It's on the update agenda. You did you print that one out? Okay. Thank you. Appreciate that. Yeah, that just didn't Yeah. Yeah, that's okay. Thank you. Anybody else?
I I mentioned this um a while back about possibly putting start dates for teachers when they resign or retire um for different reasons so we can thank them for their years of service. Um also
so we know as a board and the public knows if we're having an issue in an area for example middle school special education if there is I'm not saying there's an issue using example if there's a high turnaround rate. I would like to know. So like I don't know when
we hired this guidance counselor. I want to say this recently, but I don't know. So I'm not going to say that. Is it a possible a possibility? We don't need a a month and day, but is that something we could do? I don't
know. I've asked prior um if that's possible. I would like to thank them. Also, again, I'd like to know if there's a problem area. Um, and it would just be it would be helpful
to then see if we need to look into something. I actually second that if we can get that like behaviorist for example. Really hard to find a behaviorist. I mean, it might be possible, but logistically maybe it's it's a lot it's a lot to ask on the
I don't know. I I wouldn't be on the burdensome, right? I mean, but it's a good point. Yeah. And it wouldn't have to be for like ev everything like if it's a maternity leave, I don't need to know. It It's just uh
resignations and retirees, you know. That's all. It's just a thought. Thank you. Something to consider. Thank Thank you for that. Anybody else? No. Roll call, please.
Mr. Doyle, yes. Miss Arantra, yes. Mrs. Goth, yes. Miss Miyan, yes. Mr. Paloo, yes. Mrs. Vega, yes. Mr. Carr, absent. Mr. Club,
yes. Mr. Taro, absent. Motion passes. Mr. Finance Administration, please. Hang on one second please. Sorry I sprung that on you.
Pursuant to the recommendation of the Superintendent of Schools, Committee on Finance and Administration recommend the following resolutions. Starting on page seven, F1 through F2
and over to page 8, F3 through A5. I motion moved by Mr. Paloo. Second. Second by Erica. Any discussion?
Can I ask what F1 is for? Yes. Um, thank you. Um, occasionally the state raises the amounts of money that uh we have to do
extra purchasing work for. Okay. Um, for instance, it used to be 44,000. Anything that was above 44,000, we ei had to either had to go out to bid or we had to um purchase through a cooperative
that had gone out to bid for those types of items. Okay. Um and for things that are um within below 15% of that threshold, we have to have at
least two quotes before we can buy a object or service. So those amounts have been raised. Um now the two need two quotes for I think $7,900 and above.
Okay. And this gives the business administrator um the ability to approve purchases that are within you know below these thresholds. Okay. Thank you. Okay.
I have a question Mr. um for F4 the um changing of the number of teaching assistants from the teachers college to an as needed number. So are we scaling that? were actually increasing teachers because we found that the quality of
individuals that are coming in the service pair of professionals have been really great person. That's what I was hoping. I was hoping we weren't going in the other direction. I love a good collab with the university and I mean we've had such positive experiences. So that's great to hear.
Ditto comment. It is such an exciting program and awesome to hear that it's helpful and we're increasing it for our district. Anybody else? No. Roll call, please. Miss Aranch, yes. Mrs. Goth,
yes. Miss Moi Cult, yes. Mr. Paloo, yes. Mrs. Vega, yes. Mr. Carr, absent. Mr. Clea, yes. Mr. Doyle, yes. Mr. Tataro,
absent. Motion passes. filled in for Mr. Carper, please claims this month. Um, who reviewed claims this month? I don't know. Mr. Um, he I didn't get any inquiry or
discussion on that. Okay. Moving along with the agenda, Mr. Doyle, builds the grounds, please. Thank you, Mr. Cleo. Pursuant to the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the committee on buildings and grounds recommends the following
resolutions. On page nine, we have BG1, BG2. Going over to page 10, BG3 through BG5. On to page 11, BG6. On behalf of the committee, I move second.
Second by Miss Fega. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Miss Moki Kulza. Yes. Mr. Paloo. Yes. Mrs. Vega. Yes. Mr. Carr. Absent. Mr. Cleavo. Yes. Mr. Doyle.
Yes. Miss Aaron Trap. Yes. Mrs. Goth. Yes. Mr. Tero. Motion passes. Thank you. Mr. You want me to move the bills? I just don't want there to be any. Is it okay?
If you haven't reviewed them, I don't think it I think it needs to be I mean I read I read through them went over them. Oh, maybe I didn't. I'm lying. Just kidding. Do we have to table it or we have to
can't just leave it? We have to make a comment. Yeah. 13 years. It's the first time. I don't know. So So nobody looked at Well, They only only go to jail to one
person. No, they're in the board. Then I did it. Yeah, then I did review it. If we all got it on this agenda file, then I did look over all of them. I'm sure you did. I know you did.
So I don't put it. Is that okay? I think it is. Yeah. So, we're going to go back to clean then. M claims, please. Yeah, page nine, please. Okay. Um,
in accordance with NJAC 6 A 23 21 B C3 and C4 uh CL-1 approval of the July 2025 bill is recommended that the board approve the billis for
the month of July 2025 second second by Miss Vega discussion roll call Mrs. Yes. Miss Moy Cotton. Yes. Mr. Paloo. Yes.
Mrs. Vega. Yes. Mr. Carr. Absent. Mr. Clehjo. Yes. Mr. Doyle. Yes. Miss Aaron Trap. Yes. With reservation regarding um PCTVs
with funding as we all know how I feel about. Mr. Tottero absent. Motion passes. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Wson. Uh, moving on to committee lays on reports. Mr. Par is not here. So, no legislative
finance and administration. Uh, we met um we did not have an official agenda. It was more an opportunity to uh have a meet and greet with our incoming NBA Sandy Cali. Um,
that's that from that end. Mr. Do you have anything for buildings and grounds and policy, please? Sure. Policy, we have nothing but buildings and grounds did meet on July 8th. Uh, our summer projects are all well underway. All our schools. We had a broken baseline over at the LMS that's
been in one of the girls bathrooms that's been prepared. Um, today actually was our inspection for our buses. Hopefully that went well. Want to see how that was. Uh, talked about our boiler maintenance at all all of our schools. Uh, and to stay on top of that.
Um going over our m referendum projects, make sure that we've uh dotted our eyes and crossed our tees and check doing the final checklists. Um and we also had discussion about what grants may or may not be available for future pro projects and how we can go
about obtaining those grants. Uh we also had some con concrete and asphalt paving going on uh at the various schools. concludes my report. Thank you, Mr. Doyle. Mental council less on impersonalities.
Thank you, Mr. Clio. A few things um regarding the council and the townthorne is having a hometown hero banner program to honor our veterans and active duty military. You can get the information on
the burough website. The banners due the end of August, but the banners will be throughout town. We see that in a lot of communities. So, I'm happy that we're doing that in the community. A few other reminders from the mayor and council.
There are the town events, the concerts at the band shell, the farmers markets on Sundays. Save the date. Our Hawthorne Day will be Saturday, September 27th. And last but not least, at the July 9th
meeting, our burough engineer reported that there is construction was supposed to start on the hockey rink. I know that's been a big topic for years here. Um but there is a delay unfortunately um
due to unexpected financial hurdles um with the international tariffs as the burrow has been paying for the boards and material to be stored at a facility in Canada. So update from the council and also for us
um the delay has nothing to do with the board of education. It is due to storage for the boards. The next council meeting will be Wednesday, July 23rd at 7 p.m. And regarding personnel,
there are still a few vacancies I believe that we're looking to fill, but as you can see on the agenda, we hired several people. So, we are excited about that. That concludes my reports. Thank you, Miss Trap, Miss Golf, Kurt
Lim instruction, and uh we still have superintendent search committee. So, We can hear that one. Um, I was not at the meeting. Uh, but Miss Multipolson graciously took notes for me. I'm so sorry to have missed. If I had had access to this data
beforehand, I would have been out. Um, the data, the NJPA data was reviewed. Um, there's been a 10% increase in two years. Um, they're also tracking third grade data in ELA. They went up % in 2024 and 51% in 2025.
Special ed scores are reported by their home address, not school. That's important because we do have special populations in certain buildings which make certain buildings special ed heavy so that that data flows to the home school which is important to note. Uh the standards based report cards,
there's PD this summer to tweak the standard grade report card using the Google form that Dr. sent out to all the elementary staff to ask for feedback and they'll be working on that as well. and the team has already met once and the strategic plan will be updated and
posted on the website. Thank you. Um I'd also like to nonse but just remind my fellow board members that Kelly um did ask us to complete our board evaluation by today and only four people have done that at this point. So
it does take a minute um to do it but it is it is important and valuable data. Thank you for the reminder. That is all. Thank you, Miss Wy Bolson. NJSBA and P PCSBA, please.
Uh, I have nothing to report on either. They're very quiet over the summer. Thank you, Mr. Beloo. Anything for HEP CPAC and PTO's, please? I don't. But what I will like to just do a little PSA and say that um you know
all of these organizations are very you know uh intricral part of of our education here and um they require people to volunteer your time. So if anybody um would like to help out whether it's with the PTO or have CPAC um I'm sure they would really appreciate
that and um you know enjoy your summer but when September comes around if you can get involved we'd really appreciate it. We're all volunteers up here, too. So, anything you can do to help out would be appreciated. Thank you. And they all have Facebook groups. And they all have Facebook groups.
That's you can follow along. Um, you know, and and a lot of times that's where I gather my information from as well. Um, from people posting there. So, that's important. That's a good plug. Yes. And they're working through the summer, too. I think I think LMS has their clothing drive coming up, a used clothing drive. So,
very appreciative for them like Mr. Boo said. And uh I'll just chip in if we can. Uh that concludes that end of it. Uh moving on to public be heard. Anybody wishing to speak?
See no one. We'll move on to general comments. New business, old business, please uh state what that is. And uh we can start down by um Erica. You want to Yeah. Um just a couple things. So, LMS,
even though it is summertime, these PTO moms are amazing. On, this is my favorite. August 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th, you can drop off um clothing in front of the school. They'll have a tent up. Uh they're doing
a clothing drive, which I always love cleaning out the boys closets that time of the year to get ready for school clothes in September. And they also are doing starting today. Nope, just kidding. Starting a couple days ago, uh little a Little Caesars pizza drive. So
you can order ahead and it's like kind of like a frozen pizza from Little Caesars you can throw in the oven. Um and that's on their um sorry Lincoln Middle School's PTO page on Facebook. So I just wanted to add that in. And
then all the schools are doing school supply kits, so you don't have to do crazy school supply shopping where people are like hitting you with carts to get the last pencil at Target or wherever else. Um, and educators get 20% off at Target.
Got to love that week. It's my favorite. But the school supply kits, I believe we do make a small percentage off of every kit we sell. Um, and it's customized to your child's grade. So, literally everything comes in a kit. It's delivered to school. You don't have to
worry. You don't have to fight anybody for folders and green notebooks that are three subject specific. It's all done for you. So, I love that. And I and I, like I said, I I want to say I'm 99% sure I've seen it on all the uh PTO
pages, but they're all doing it now. So, it's really great. And um welcome to our new superintendent on his first meeting. Thank you. A week and a half in and here you are ready. Um but I'm so happy that you've hit the ground running and it seems like
an amazing start. So I hope everyone enjoys their summer. Um and that's it. Thank you. Um yes. So, continuing with the updates from the school, I know that Jefferson is having
their ice pop social tomorrow for all kindergarteners from 1 to three, incoming kindergarteners. So, if you have an incoming kindergartener going to uh Jefferson Elementary from 1 to 3, uh you get to meet um the other students, the other parents, as well as the
teachers. Um I did it when my daughter was in incoming kindergartener. It's amazing. you get to meet um the teachers as well as your child goes in feeling a tiny bit better that she knows some of the students that are her classmates and
you know future friends. Um I would also like to say welcome to our superintendent. Welcome. Welcome. We're excited to have you here. Um and I know we've said it before within this meeting, but I'd like to say again thank you so much to our a team. Um, you guys
are absolutely amazing and I am looking forward to the continued growth. Thank you. Uh, I just want to piggy back off of what Mr. Paloo said with our PTO's and and all our fundraising and have specifically have the Aland Education
Foundation. Um, Aland Education Foundation does not uh they they raise money for the entire school district, for all the schools, all the students. Um, and they are constantly challenged with getting volunteers. Uh, we've been blessed over
the last several years to have uh some steady leadership. Um, some of which who no longer even have children in the school district, but they're they're still donating time. So, as was previously said, enjoy the summer. But, uh, when we when we kick back into gear in September, strongly consider a
joining he and b maybe thinking about getting involved a little bit more on the leadership side and it's a worth worthy call. Worthy goals. Thank you. Yeah, thank you for that. Uh, that includes project graduation as well, right? It does. I would like to just highlight something
that I believe is brand new. Um, it was for the first time that I've seen the NJC all academic team. Um both of my children were homeless. I'm a very proud parent. Um there were around 80 high school Hawthorne High School students
who were recognized in this post and the criteria was that you were an athlete and you maintained a 3.75 GPA or higher out of a four out of a four point scale. um which I think is amazing and I you know we we had met we spoke with Mr.
Minelli briefly Miss Aaron Trout and myself about highlighting students. This seems to be a more organized like actual thing through NJIC which is great but um any opportunity that we have to celebrate our own students I think is a great opportunity but this this is a
really uh great I think honor to honor the the student athlete because that's not an easy task to undertake. Um, so congratulations to all 80 members of the NJIC all academic team. How many? There's about 80. I mean, I just did 27 27
student athletes that have and it's earned that all grades. I see freshman on here. I see seniors on. So, it's definitely well dispersed. Um, and I'd also like to once again, as the mom of a newly graduated senior, I guess now he's technically college
freshman, um, I can't thank the Hawthorne school community enough. I mean, truly the magic that Hawthorne is. He really it's you can't describe it and you get out what you put in. He is a student that took advantage of every opportunity and made connections with
students and teachers and joined clubs and did things in the community and played sports. But it's thanks to the community uh who who offered those things to him. So deeply appreciative as as a newly graduated mom as always. But it's really something you don't know
until you know until you go through the the you know that last hurdle um and you see your student getting into schools that all of these other people getting into all of these other towns and having all these other opportunities more so actually truthfully the opportunities he
had with that that the Hackinack University the the co-op there he met an unbelievable doctor she's the head of emergency medicine for Hackinack and now they have like a friendship so um truly grateful to everyone who's taken the
time to to influence that that grade and all of our students but nonetheless I just wanted to make sure I said thank you one more three general comments. Okay. First, I believe leadership camp is before our next meeting. So, just a reminder to the
public, it's Friday, August 15th for incoming middle school students, sixth graders, the whole week. Well, it's the whole week. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Graduation. Graduation 15. So, it's that whole week in August. Just a reminder to sign up if you haven't yet. Right.
Um Second, I wanted to thank our interim VA Pat. Is it is it correct that it's your last meeting? Yes, this is my last meeting. So, thank and then Sy's going to take Yes, Sandy, welcome. We're so happy
you're here. But Pat, uh you've been a wealth of knowledge and experience for every question that we've thrown at you. So, I wanted to say thank you for that. Um, I was super impressed because you just hit the ground running and jumped in and really answer everything so
thoroughly. So, thank you what you for what you've done for us in the interim. You're welcome. Thank you. We need to thank yourself and of course and last but not least, of course we everyone's saying it, but we
are so excited to have our new superintendent. So, welcome again and uh we look forward to working with you for years and years and years. Thank you. So excited that you're here and it's great um in the Pate County community.
Um so many people I see outside of town are just like so excited for you as well and and they really compliment you and it's nice to hear good things out there in the world but that we can't believe he's there and you guys are so lucky. So, we do feel very lucky.
Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. Um, no, first off, I'm going to say thank you to Erica for stepping up with the bills. I just looked at my phone and Joel Carr did send a message to so you know that he texted during the meeting and said he reviewed the bills
and everything was in order and he did recommend that uh, you know, we move forward and pay them. But Erica, thank you for for stepping in. Um, I would also like to, you know, welcome you, Matt. Um, I also have heard, you know, a lot of positive things. Um, so it's it's
not only big f shoes to fill, but now it's also your own shoes that you have to your reputation is out there. So now you have to continue that. Um, and Pat, thank you so much again. Um, you know, you stepped in at a very difficult time for us and you did a tremendous job
helping us through that and now you you've given us a little bit more time so that Sandy can get acclimated here. So, thank you for that as well. Um, welcome Sandy. We're looking forward to having you on board as well. And since our three uh presenters are still here,
I will also make a comment from a uh non-educator because we have some educators up here. From a non-educator and somebody who's been out of school for a little while. Um, I appreciate the presentation. I think it was extremely well done. It was easy easy to follow
and it was very encouraging. And I love the fact that you guys are working to um collaborate and teach each other to be better teachers. Um because like you said, without you know extra programming and things could change, you're teaching
teachers to continue to educate everyone uh to the best of their abilities and you can see it in the data. So I appreciate the presentation and all the hard work you guys have done. That's all. Thank you. It was my treat to uh
you're going to it was my treat to uh kick off uh uh tenure with us uh with this with this board meeting. So yes, absolutely welcome to you uh saved in San Die. We had the opportunity of of engaging with
her a little bit at the uh last week at the finance committee and it seems like uh she's a great person and she has a good mentor. So We're glad to know that that's the case. I want to echo sentiments for Pat. Pat,
I've been on the finance committee 12 years. Understand the importance of a BA. You pinched it that the moment that you came in. It was February. Not an ideal time, but you just not only did you make, you know, keep us from not, you know, drowning, but you've added
some value. I've learned a lot from you this these couple months. We're very appreciative of your dedication and commitment to uh what it is that you do. I also similar to what Miss Goff is saying at this point all my kids have graduated from the school system. Uh but
uh you know the the the the benefits keep on coming. My son Xavier played golf senior here at the high school. Mr. Cul was the inspiration for that. Uh even though he only did golf for that one year and yes we do have a golf team and the kids are doing fantastic. Uh
Xavier has been able to benefit from uh you know from that experience. He's working as a caddy and uh last month he was he was one of the recipients for the caddy scholarship um organization that they have. Besides it being a generous donation that that he got for uh college
tuition. There's a leadership program that's uh also attached to it. So again just the the the benefits keep on coming. So very appreciative to the Hawin public school system. Last but not least, want to plug in the sports camps. Um, you may have seen uh ads floating
around. We have a football camp, soccer camp, and a basketball camp. Uh, they're they're sponsored by the high by by the school district. Um, not all of them are high school. Some are for I think the soccer one is from like first grade through 8ighth grade. Uh, but the cost
is inexpensive and it's a good experience for the kids. So, definitely want to plug those in. Glad that they're doing they're doing that. and you know hoping that that continues to be the case. Uh with that just want to wish everybody a good rest of the summer. We have
private session coming up so be resolved at the Halton Board of Education committees and executives. Yes. I have one comment please. I got a call from John Ferrero, who's the new S County Executive Business Officer this afternoon to say
that the state is wanting us to change where we put that additional expense money that we were allowed to have the taxpayers give us. Um, and so I said to
him, we had just um done calculations to to determine that the projected state health benefits increase would probably yield about 600,000 in unb unbudgeted
additional expense. So, we would have no problem in moving that money from our facilities costs to our health benefits expense if that would satisfy what the state wants to do. Um, it's it wasn't
exactly clear from my conversation with John. He said he had been on call a call with the state for several hours. It wasn't really clear to him what the state was doing, but we had to reply by
July 18th about how we wanted to move this money. And there's a possibility that we could ask again for that 734,000
that we originally asked for. Um but he wasn't clear whether that would come to pass and but if it did there might be a due date for the end of July. So there might be some updates coming on what
were what's happening with the additional expenditure and tax incentive program that the state has offered. So there may be an addition and there may there may be an option to appeal it. Is that
Well, it's it sounded like there might. Yeah. John said if there was that option, then we would most likely have to have a another advertise for another budget meeting
for a public hearing on it. So, it's I sent emails to the state email address that John suggested. I sent uh any questions and things, too. So, I did
that about 4 o'clock this afternoon and we'll see. What line item does that sit in right now? Currently, right now, what we did was we took that 300 I forget the exact number amount and
just put it in uh three facilities lines. Um some services uh supplies and um and our hope was that we wouldn't have to use it and that we'd end up with
being able to put it back into our maintenance reserve. Um John saying now the state has changed their mind and they want the money to be spent on
instructional salaries or benefits. And I said, "Well, benefits, we really it's we're going to need it for the benefits." So, I uh sent that information to the state that
it was we just had to move the money. We're going to move it out of facilities into benefits. We struggled so much trying to figure out how much to increment it. Had we known that the health benefits is going to be what it is, we would have got we would have got the whole enchilada at
that point. But anybody else? Yeah, I'm extremely um confused and um trying to refrain from saying what I really want to say, but um that's very difficult for me. Anybody
knows me? Can you re uh uh repeat what his title was? Um John Ferrerero is the new Pic County Executive Business Official. So he's the kind of side report for the business
administrator. Just like um Matt reports to the executive county superintendent, the business administrator reports to the executive county business official. Um and there's kind of been somewhat of
a revolving door in safe county for the um executive business official. And because this is um additional money that they let us go after the out for the taxpayers without getting a vote, they
can tell us what we can do with the money. and the fact that when we put it back into maintenance reserve, it's there for our emergency purposes when something happens like it did this year and which may happen again next budget season and now we're going to be handcuffed because we have to expand
instructional funding. So, it's also a health benefits too though. It's, you know, we're kind of going to be in a rock and a hard place. And every district that is in the state
health plan will be in that same hard hitting that nugget of uh facing a 32% increase in premiums in January. I think we only budgeted for we budgeted for depending on on our one
set of plans 20% increase and on the other ones a 16% increase. So it's effectively almost a double the one where we budgeted the 16% the educator's plan that's the majority of our our
district's plans. Um, so we're likely January 1 going to be faced with having to come up with additional money. Um, we're in some ways fortunate that we
already have half of it that we really had planned on really not using, but it looks like we're going to have to use it. And you have to and you had to notify them before July 18th. Before July 18 there
before July 18th. Yeah. We had to say yeah we're going to use it for some sort of salaries or benefits. So um you know but bottom line
money is funible interchangeable. You know, we do during the year you see a transfer report, transfer reports. We do transfer the budget among the different accounts. And we're allowed to
do that as long as you don't um transfer more than like 10% between group certain groups of accounts. So So I'm sorry. I'm gonna keep going. I'm with you. So you have to notify them, which we
did. of what we plan on using the money for. We may be able to go back out and now after the fact get more money from the taxpayers as long as we tell them where we're allocating that. Could we also say that we're possibly going to use that for benefits, but we don't know
what the benefit increase is going to be until January? Is that correct? Yeah. And I've kind of drafted if we decide to if the state allows it and we decide to go forward with it. I've
drafted a plan that yeah, we need 650,000 would be for benefit benefit increase and then the remainder would go for um additional power professionals because
we always seem to need more power professionals for, you know, IEP driven needs. So, uh, so, but I'm waiting to hear from both John and the state. I mean, you saw this
afternoon, you know. I'm sorry to keep asking you more and more questions, but this will be the final one. So if we do go after, you know, out for more money and we get the extra money and then in January we're lucky enough that they don't raise 32%.
Then we would just have to utilize whatever is left over at that point, we could move it around. Okay. Or just, you know, end up at the end of the year you have surplus that can be put into the maintenance or capital. That's going up.
Yeah. A matter of how much we We we already budgeted 16%. And we do have 386 or whatever that was. Yeah. So So right now we're probably look we're looking at like a 300 and something thousand shortfall. Shortall.
So um and we always underbudget our revenue. We underbudget extraordinary aid. And so during the year if more more revenue comes in than we expected there can the board by resolution can bring
some of that revenue into the current budget. You know, the downside is then it's not there to be carried over into surplus to the next year. And every year we're planning on having $2 million worth of
surplus flowing into the next year's budget. Okay. So, the and the state aid has been reduced, but they're allowing us to go to our local taxpayers. No, they still haven't. She's saying that it's not definite yet. No, I know. But what I'm saying but state has
been reduced. Yeah. Yeah. But that's a fact though. Yeah. The state aid that we that the state has they allocated ours has been reduced. Correct. We can go after our local taxpayers to get more more funding. Yeah. because under their complicated
uh calculations they don't think our local c taxpayers paying the share that they should which they didn't approve when we submitted for that additional increment while the art NJ educators health plans
at the same time so to clarify are they telling us this with What? So, it's July 15th. By the 18th, are they suggesting it or telling us what to do or
John told me that I had to uh tell the state that I wanted to use the money for either instructional salaries or um benefits. Tell me.
Yeah, they're telling us. And of course, well, I had that I had to tell the state that that's what I was doing. Yes. And this is new this month because I'll call this afternoon. Yeah. Earlier this month, the state budget passed and there was that 31 or
and I'm not sure in my mind maybe there's some relationship that with something with, you know, in the state budget that's, you know, making them revisit what I
mean, we've got we had the approval letter from the state. Yeah. Yeah. We're seeing school districts file bank for bankruptcy acur developments. you know, it didn't sound like they had
taken the money back or, you know, because we've sent the information to the town, the town's collecting the taxes to pay us. So, these are state level decisions, right? I know you're saying that a county level
person contacted you, but yes, the representative of the state. Okay. So, like it's not just the same county. other counties are getting the same directive with the same it has to be benefits or salaries. I assume so. Yes. Because he John said
he was on a phone call with the state about this. Like first he called to give me a heads up around noon time that something was happening and then um later on in the afternoon he sent me an
email saying uh that um we needed to do something. So I sent him an email back asking him exactly what had to be done and his response was, "You got to ask
via an email to the state email address where we had sent the original application for the additional expenditures." So I did that. I sent them an email asking, you know, what um
could we increase back to the 700,000 that the board previously approved. Right. We're changing the parameters of what we need it for because they're making us. We need more. Yeah. So, we'll see. Okay. Um keep you updated, but it's breaking
news. It's It's going to be fun right up to your last day here. Right up to the last minute. Uh okay. And thank you for that, Pat. One last thing, uh Mr. We were expecting to have him here for
uh this meeting. Uh he's retired. He's worked with the district for the last 10 years. He came on with uh Dr. Sper, a true professional. Those of us that have sat with him in negotiations, he's he's second to none. So, wishing him a happy
retirement and uh hopefully he hears this. All righty. Private session be resolved that the Hawthorne Board of Education committees an executive session to discuss exempt matters pertaining to personnel. Be further resolved that is anticipated that executive session will be for 45 minutes
duration and that public action may not be taken. Be the result that the minutes of the executive session will be made available upon the determination by the board that disclosure of the minutes will not detriment the effect any rate or interest of the board and the need for confidentiality no longer exist.
Entertain a motion. Motion. Second. Motion by Miss Scott. Second by Mr. Paloo. Discussion. Roll call, please. Mrs. Dagga. Yes.
Mr. Carr. Absent. Mr. Cleico. Yes. Mr. Doyle. Yes. Miss Aaron Trout. Yes. Mrs. Goth. Yes. Miss Monkey Cen say
Mr. Poo. Yes. Mr. Tatera absent. Motion passes.