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being called to order. Time now at 7 p.m. Public portion of meeting begins. New Jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the rights of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their

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interests is discussed or acted upon. In accordance with the provisions of this act, the business administrative board secretary has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date, time, and place thereof posted at the municipal building communicated to Herald News the record and filed with

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the clerk of the burrow for dawn. Roll call please. >> Mr. Art >> here. Mrs. G >> here. >> Miss Multiolson here. >> Mr. Paloo >> here. >> Mrs. Spone here. Dr. Vega here. >> Mr. Carr >> here.

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>> Mr. O >> here. >> Mr. Taro >> here. >> Everyone please rise for pledge. >> To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisibley

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andice for all. >> Thank you. 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

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purpose of addressing items listed for approval on this agenda only. The second opportunity occurs just prior to adjournment where the citizens may address any subject matter that is pertinent to and are directly related to the operation of the school district.

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Persons wishing to speak must upon being recognized rise, state their name, address, and subject matter. Comments and questions shall be addressed to board president or the presiding officer and shall be limited to 5 minutes per person. The board may or may not respond to the issues raised by members of the

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public at the time they are raised, but will provide a response if and when appropriate. The board asks that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of the the other individuals when speaking. Please note that the board will not respond to comments regarding students or board

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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

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carefully consider their comments since they could be held personally liable for any statement they make. Finally, please note that in accordance with district policy, B the board will not officially comment or respond to any matter mentioned unless it can confirm that the

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matter has first been brought to the attention of the appropriate school personnel and attempt to resolve the issue. That being said, before we begin the public portion of tonight's meeting, I would like to take a moment as president of the Horththorn Board of Education to

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acknowledge the concerns, frustrations, and emotions that many members of our school community may be experiencing regarding the the difficult excuse me, the difficult budget decisions made throughout this year's budget process. First and foremost, I want to p the

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public to understand that these decisions were not made lightly, casually, or without extensive review and discussion. Over the course of many months, the board of education, administration, and finance committee spent countless hours evaluating every

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aspect of the district's budget in effort to preserve educational quality, student programs, staffing, safety, and operational stability while also remaining fiscally responsible to our taxpayers. This year's budget, excuse me, this

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year's budget presented one of the most difficult financial challenges our district has faced in many years. While there were several contributing factors, the overwhelming financial burden created by the unprecedented increase in healthc care costs placed extraordinary pressure on the district's finances.

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Despite receiving additional state aid, those increases were simply not enough to offset the substantial rise in health care expenses, contractual obligations, transportation costs, utilities, and other operational expenditures that continue to increase beyond the

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district's control. The reality is that healthc care cost increases alone consumed a significant portion of the district's available financial flexibility, forcing the administration and the board to make difficult decisions that no one wanted to make.

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Every effort was made to exhaust exhaust alternatives, review efficiencies, utilize reserves responsibly, and minimize the impact on students, staff, and programs before considering reductions. Throughout this process, our

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focus remains centered on maintaining the integrity of the classroom instructions, protecting student opportunities, preserving school safety and security, and ensuring the long-term financial stability of the Horththornne public schools. While we recognize that

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some decisions may not be universally agreed upon, it is important for the public to know that these decisions were made based upon what the board and administration believe was necessary to responsibly manage the district both today and into the future. We also

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recognize that the very real human impact these decisions can have on employees, families, and our broader school community. These matters were approached thoughtfully, professionally, and compassionately by the administration. Whenever possible, efforts were made to

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reduce direct impacts throughout retirements, reassignment of opportunities, attrition, and other accommodations. To the members of our community who are attending tonight, I want to sincerely thank you for your engagement and participation in the process. Public

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input and community involvement are important parts of public education and local government. We respect the right of every resident, parent, staff member, and stakeholder to express their opinions and concerns. At the same time, I respectfully ask that tonight's

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dialogue remains constructive, respectful, and mindful that everyone in this room ultimately shares the same goal. providing the best possible educational environment for the children of Horththornne while balancing the

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financial realities facing our district and community. These are not easy decisions, nor are they they decisions any board member takes pride in making. However, leadership sometimes requires making difficult choices in order to protect

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the long-term stability and future success of this district as a whole. On behalf of the board of education, I want to thank our administration, staff, teachers, parents, and community members for their continued dedication, professionalism, and commitment to the Worth public schools during a

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challenging budget season. At this time, public be heard. Agenda items only. >> Seeing no public, >> we were confused by that meant. >> Sure. public be heard. So it's anything pertaining the first portion is anything

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pertaining to items on the agenda and then at the end there'll be a second public be heard session which is on any general comments. So if there's anything public be heard pertaining to the agenda now is the time.

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>> Can I ask a broad question like our budget decisions on the agenda for tonight? You can go to mic if you want. >> State your name and sign in. >> So, okay. Hi, Steve. Uh, 339 Dbridge Avenue. My

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children attend Washington and Lincoln schools. Um, and thank you so much for your comments there. Um, I guess pertain to what you said since that's on the agenda. My my my comments have to do with that. >> Sure. >> Um, all right. So, thank you for the

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opportunity to speak tonight about the importance of keeping fourth grade band as a part of the school curriculum. I know there are many different uh many difficult decisions facing schools in general right now. And I appreciate the work that goes into balancing budgets, schedules, staffing, and student needs.

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But I want to speak specifically about why curricular fourth grade band matters and why replacing it with an extracurricular club or something along those lines is not an equivalent substitute. Uh for many students, fourth grade band is their very first opportunity to discover music in a meaningful hands-on

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way. It is often the entry point that opens the door to creativity, discipline, confidence, teamwork, and a lifelong love of learning. And to relate this to what we're talking about now, I feel like um the context is that some of these um budget decisions affect

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staffing and because of staffing changes, that affects what the curriculum what what is offered through the performing arts program. At 9 or 10 years old, students are at a unique developmental stage. They are eager eager to try new things, capable of learning foundational skills, and still

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open enough to discover passions they did not know they had. If you remove access at this age, many students simply will never begin. And I noticed when I came in here looking around the room, we have pictures of Haw Performing Arts. And I know that we're all sensitive to this and we we we want the best for our

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students. So, but I think this is an important um aspect to hear. Um but one of the biggest reasons curricular band matters is access. When band is a part of the school day, every child has the opportunity to participate. The instruction happens right in school, worked out amongst the

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teachers hired in the school district. The furthest a child has to travel is down the hall and parents do not need to be flexible with work or afterare to make sure that that this can be facilitated. Our curricular program says that music education belongs to all students, not just the students who have

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the time, resources or support system necessary to participate in after school activities. Curricular band is structured sequential instruction. Students learn music literacy, technique, listening skills, collaboration, perseverance, and performance skills in a consistent

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environment with regular instructional time. It is education and not simply enrichment. A dedicated, specialized, expert teacher drives this program by enabling all students to achieve their goals. One teacher carrying the load of general and instrumental music at our

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elementary schools will on its own diminish the quality and accessibility of the entire music program. An afterchool club by nature cannot replicate that structure or any kind of substitute that we decide on. Attendance fluctuates, instructional time is

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reduced, students are tired after a long day of school. participation becomes optional and inconsistent. The program naturally shifts from comprehensive learning to casual participation. And while clubs absolutely have value, they serve a different purpose. Clubs

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supplement education. They shouldn't replace it. I hope that we as a Hawthorne School District, all of us, continue to support the values our children learn, the skills our children develop, and the access open to them through curricular music education.

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THANK YOU. HELLO EVERYONE. Good evening. Um, I'm going to start by saying that my name is Kiara Garry and um I'm here representing Washington Elementary School. >> So, as I stand here, are you can you guys hear me? I'm tall. Sorry. All

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right. Well, as I stand here, >> I'm wearing a couple different hats. >> I'm sorry. Just state your address to >> So, I am protected by Daniel's law, so I won't be stating my address. It's confidential and it's private. Thank you. As I stand here today wearing a few different hats. First, as a mom, as a

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parent in this district, I'm always looking for the amazing things that this district is doing to help support my child as he grow as a learner, a thinker, athlete, and especially an artist. My son's personality screams stage. Whether that's on the basketball

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court where he thrives or performing in a school play, I'm always searching for opportunities that allow him to express himself creatively and confidently through the arts. Now that you know a little about me as a parent in this district, let me speak to you as PTO president of one of the best elementary

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schools in this district. And yes, I said it. If you know me, then you know that my Wildcat pride is unmatched. In this role, I help advocate, plan, execute, and create opportunities for children and teachers through the support of fundraising hardworking

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families. Families are willingly giving their time, money, energy because they believe deeply in children, and giving children special experiences that help them grow. I stand here tonight to do exactly that as I

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advocate for fourth grade band. Band, arts, music, education are not luxuries. They are necessities. Unfortunately, programs connected to the arts are often the first thing discussed when districts face financial challenges. I understand that balancing a budget is difficult

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work and I know important decisions have to be made, but I also believe that we have to carefully consider what is lost when we take opportunities away from our children. The truth is, I could stand here all night and tell you and quote statistics about how music education improves academic performance, confidence,

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discipline, attendance, and social emotional growth. But I honestly think that everyone in this room already knows all of that. What I want you to think about here is the children. The students who have been excited to about doing band since they

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were in kindergarten. the children who finally see their chance coming to participate to perform belong and discover a passion that they carry for the rest of their lives. I understand that this is a decision and

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a discussion about moving ban outside of the school day. While I don't know much information about it, I do know that moving ban outside of the school day does not create equal access. It limits access over time. that risk slowly phases out the program altogether.

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I now come to you wearing another hat, my administrator hat. I understand that decisions may already feel in motion, but I also know that decisions can be revisited when the community speaks up. Our children deserve that reconsideration.

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I respectfully ask that this board rethink this cut and table it for further discussion. There has to be another way. And finally, I come to you tonight as an educator. It is heartbreaking to know that the week before teacher appreciation week, many dedicated educators received non-renewal

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letters stating that they may no longer have jobs in this district. These are not just employees. They are people. They are parents. They are mentors and individuals who deviate themselves and children every single day. And I know firsthand what that feels like. Families

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are paying attention and many residents were unaware of these proposed changes because of the lack of communication and transparency surrounding proposed budget cuts and programming changes. It was not until community conversations began taking place this week that many families even realized fourth grade band

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was at risk. In just one day, hundreds and as a matter of fact, over 600 of residents signed a petition asking the board to go back to the drawing board and reconsider the elimination of fourth grade band. That alone shows how deeply this community values the arts and opportunities for children. I am a proud

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resident of this community and I care deeply about the future of this district. I believe our schools should continue to be places where children are not only academically challenged but creatively inspired. As we prepare our school for our school play this week, if you're not busy, you should come and

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hang out at Washington School. We'll be performing a Lion King. These kids are stepping onto a stage with excitement. They're nervous, but they have courage. And most importantly, they have pride. I cannot help but to think about how many children discover who they are through

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the arts. I am one who a product of performing arts education from fifth grade to 12th grade. For some children, music is not just an activity. It is their safe place. It is where they feel successful and it is where they finally feel seen. Years from now, our

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children will not remember every worksheet they completed or every test they took. But they will remember the feeling of holding an instrument in their hand for the first time. They will remember the concerts, the applause, the practice, the friendships, and the teachers who believed in them through

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their place, who helped them place music in their hands. Somewhere in this district right now and in my house, sorry you couldn't get my address. But there is a third grader counting down the days until finally they get to join band next year. A child who has waited

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years for that opportunity. a child who may discover confidence and passion or even purpose because of band. I urge you to reconsider this cut and continue investing in opportunities that help our children grow, connect, and thrive.

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Please do not let this first lesson that we teach our children about the arts is that it's expandable. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Anyone else? >> Come this way. Yeah, it's better than the side. >> My name is Jack Lur. I live on Van

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Winkle Avenue 319. Uh I'd like to reinforce what I've heard uh from the previous speakers. I stand here as somebody who began studying trumpet in the third grade in a New Jersey school and it changed my life. Um

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I proceeded to study all through and I can still remember some of the songs I played as a student. Um I did want to ask a couple of questions about the agenda. Um you have a list under um

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personnel P1 uh but I can't see the list of the positions that are not going to be filled because I don't have a a way to press a button on the on the paper here. I I did look at that list. U are these

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positions that are associated with a particular school. It's not indicated in any way. just lists for example music instructor could you clarify something about that and then secondly I

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had a question I'll just put this out as well under uh T 17 there's a reference to a report entitled renewal of administrator and supervisor

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contacts for the school year submitted uh under separate cover. I was unable to find a link for that or any place on the uh board of education website. Is that public information or is that something that is because it's personnel related

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not available? So those are my two questions for you. I'll sit down and appreciate any response you might make to that. Hello. Good evening. My name is Hope Foley. I'm at 106 Mland Avenue. As a mom of a third grader who has had

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his heart set on playing the drums next year, I'm not sure exactly. I haven't broken the news to him yet, and I hope I don't have to. Um, but yeah, that's um It's not going to feel too good coming as a um coming from his mom and coming

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from um also an educator and having to basically tell him that he can't do this like his older brothers were able to do. Once again, I'm really dreading that conversation. So, I'm hoping we can we can really find a way and it's really all about maybe, you know, working with

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all of us in this room um including like saying, "Hey, this is a possibility and reaching out to us and maybe finding a way, right?" This is about finding that way. Um, and maybe it doesn't have to go that way. I'm hoping that we can, you know, listen to all of us. We might find some ideas and once again work towards a

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different solution, a solution and not um, you know, something obviously that's going to um, to devastate obviously everybody in this room and others because we are here for the moms and the dads right now who are at softball games and lacrosse games that couldn't be here

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tonight. So, we are speaking on their behalf. Um, I also have an eighth grader who had an amazing band experience in Washington School. Um, and in Lincoln school. Uh, his um, my heart was full when he came home the other day. He

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said, "Mom, I'm going to sign up for marching band." And I was like, "Oh, wow." Um, this is a kid who doesn't really want to do anything with other people. So, this was huge. Um, and once again, my my heart was just completely full because he's like, "Mom, I want to

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join this to be to make more friends and to be a part of a family and to be something that's bigger than him. And I have to think that these programs starting at fourth grade and in fifth grade and building help make that possible for them because that marching band is an amazing experience. I'm so

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thrilled that he's going to have the opportunity. Once again, I am thinking obviously all of us here about those kids who might not get that. We might not catch them at the right time. So they'll want to do that obviously later um in their experience here at

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um speaking of that same eighth grader um he was also um very fortunate enough to be a part of the path and the network program. He um once again um hated school. This was the kid in COVID who pretended he he missed 17 classes

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because he made a pretend screen that he was there. So, um, yeah, and I was shocked when I saw the attendant. I was like 17 and I was there. I was in, we were all in the same house. I was there. So, yeah, he pulled that off. But, so he really hated school. Um, but um the that

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network program completely changed him. He was like, "Mom, I'm going to go to the the Edgar Allan Poe um theater show." And I was like, "Oh, oh, wow. This is like shocking for this child, but it opened up so much for him. I can't even explain it. It was just the

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most beautiful beautiful thing. Um I'm not sure. Um like these things, they they do come at a cost, but I can't tell you how valuable personally they've been to me and I know everybody in this room and the kids who might never even have those opportunities. Um we were talking

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about the Lion King before and a pride and we have a pride here. Um there are so many wonderful parents in this room. We've dedicated hours and hours to um our show on Thursday. Shameless plug. 7 p.m. Um, if you want to come take us out the door. Um, but we spent hours and

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hours and to see the magic that these kids can do. And as parents, we love doing this and this is on our own time. But there's also things too. For example, talking about a club after school. My questions are this. Will there be buses for the kids who would need a bus situation home? Is it going

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to be accessible to all? I was late coming here today because one of the parents were they were running late from work to get them pick them up from that um from our rehearsal that ended at 6:30. So it's difficult with the club and while the parents have to say no because of their schedule it's not for

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the children. So that after school is um is it really going to be available for everybody? And obviously um parents have to make that choice and they don't have to make it if they can just do come in class, come in school. It's there for them. And once again that's so valuable

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um because so many kids couldn't be a part of our after school activities because obviously parents and working and other children's schedules. So um and that could be also um kept in mind. Um, will and if this this con if this afterchool band program exists, will

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they be allowed to participate in concerts at the school? That's a question I have. Can they play with the fifth graders, which is super fun for them? Um, will those same opportunities be made available are some questions I have. And again with the gifted and talented program um if that program gets

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incorporated into um a teacher's curriculum um will the staff be compensated for writing that curriculum? When will that curriculum be written? Um um how will the children be um chosen for the program? Will there be training

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for all the teachers if all are required to incorporate that into their daily um you know um agendas and obviously other curriculum needs that need to be met. Um and once again also to mention what Kira mentioned too this came really as a shock and a surprise and I'm hoping you

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can work with all of us here to help once again like find a way find a way we can get creative we can get together we can work with you. So we're looking forward to doing that. Thank you so much for your time. Hello, I'm Aaron Brown with 97 Ray. I am the mom of two little guys at Roosevelt

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kindergarten and first grade. And I just wanted to give a quick testimony of band from Hawthorne public schools in my life. I started in fourth grade a flute player, went all the way up to drum major of Hawthorne High School and then I got scholarships to Montlair studied

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music education and then I took it to all over the world. I went I performed in Asia, Europe and South America and then went to South America and brought instruments down to a slum community

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and taught band two kids, little kids in this community in order to >> just make their just bring this to their lives and this changed so much. I remember a kid's house burning down and she grabbed her trombone and came to me

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and said, "Senorita, I I saved my trombone." Um, so band, my brother also grew up here, did the same thing. He went to Northern Africa, did the same thing with music in in the community that he lived

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in there. So band music does so much and I'm thankful for the music education that I had here in Hawthorne and I want my kids to have the same. THANK YOU. HI. UM, I'M AMY JONES. I live at 118 North Drive. Um, I apologize. I don't

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have a formal statement written and I don't public speak very often. >> Um, but I am a former Hoff High School band member. I am a mother of a child at Jefferson school um who has grown up around music his entire life. We've been involved with the Cavaliers. My husband writes high school, college marching

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band for a living. We have traveled around the world because of music and music is so important in our family. Um and my child cried yesterday when I told him that I had to leave his baseball game early to come here tonight to fight for his music program. Um he has wanted

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to play the drums because his godfather is a professional drummer and he for his birth he received a drum even before he could hold his head up. Um and he has wanted to do that forever. And when he started kindergarten at Jefferson it really cemented his desire to be in the

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band when he met Mr. Sheridan and saw the band and everything that they do. Um I understand that everything has a monetary cost. Um but what about the cost to our students? You know, we know that music education is known to improve cognitive development in students,

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reading, language, the reasoning skills and their emotional intelligence. Music can solve so many problems. There are music therapists that have have healed people with music. And it is such a shame to think that we're going to lose

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part of that. Um, you know, I think these losses seem to outweigh the monetary cost. So, I very much hope that we can find a way fourth grade man in this district and continue to grow the arts program in Hawthorne rather than take it away.

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Thank you. Hello all. My name is Deja Maddox. Um, again, I wasn't planning on speaking tonight. I'm at 180 South Avenue. I am a mother of two uh twins at Washington School who absolutely love music and I

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also stand here as an arts educator myself as a dance teacher for over 15 years in another district. And I am speaking because I was sitting at a staff meeting today talking to other arts educators about how important it is to have a pipeline to get to me at the

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high school. And I fought for years in my district there to get other dance educators and arts educators who would feed to me. And so I think it's really important when considering these type of cuts, not only as an advocate for the arts and a lover of the arts as I am,

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but also to understand what excuse me that does when you get to the high school level and also what that does in considering a school like PCTI and taking a lot of the residents from here. So, I think it's really important that we advocate for the arts and an arts

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education, but I think it's also important to remember that a pipeline to middle and high school is very important for the success of a program and also for the kids ability to reach higher levels in arts education. Um, so please think about that as we reconsider these

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cuts. Thank you so much. I'm Paul Der of 54 a.m. I think I was here some time ago. >> Um I have a whole statement. I just want to say that it's not meant

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to be an attack. It's not me to I just I think it's a more breast tax approach to what we're dealing with here from my perspective. Um, so I'm I'm speaking today about the decisions made to cut several educator positions within the district. As of

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now, based on my understanding, we can use terms cuts or readjustments, whatever is the most appropriate. Um, the fourth grade music education program, the Hawthorne High School media specialist or librarian position, high school Spanish, math, and I believe science are all to be readjusted in this

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round of budget cuts. Uh, despite the assistance of Governor Cheryl, according to the New Jersey Department of Education, the Hawthorne Public School District was awarded $4,127,430 in the fiscal year 2026 state budget. And this year she is proposing 4,375,76

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which is an increase of 6% or $247,646. And despite a 7.42% tax hike with surging health care costs of up to 30% and despite hiring an academic coordinator to cut down on the use of daily subs here at the high school, this district finds itself with roughly a $ 1.9 million budget reduction if I'm

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correct. Uh so to call it $2 million a $2 million deficit, I struggle to see how cutting five teaching positions is the best course of action. Uh on average, the starting salary for each position is approximately $65,000 plus approximately $60,000 in benefits,

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making each educator a roughly $125,000 asset to the district. The true true salary range could be anywhere from $59,810 to $11,215. And senior teachers can make north of $11,000, but that's a minority. Uh by cutting

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these teachers, averaging each one to a district asset of $130,000, this would be a roughly $650,000 difference. There are however roughly one and one half dozen administrators working throughout the district, each making between $120,000

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to $200,000 plus $100,000 in benefits. This makes each administrator a roughly $300,000 asset to the district. In essence, one administrator is worth roughly three teachers. Why cut into teacher staffing and academic programs when there is a clear bloat at the

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highest levels in the Lawren Public Schools District? If our motto is creating future generations of leaders, would the best course of action not be to lead by example? I do not believe that the district should be maintaining administrative bloat while cutting teachers and programs. I believe it would be impossible to argue that one

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administrator is more valuable than three educators. Three educators is three subjects, almost one whole department, and can make up one half of a child's daily schedule. I challenge the board of ed decision to cut these positions. Why did we need to hire an assistant superintendent for a district of our size with a starting salary of

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$159,000 per year plus benefits? Why do we have a principal and two assistant principles at Author High School when Lincoln Middle School has comparable enrollment numbers but only one assistant principal? Why do we have a humanity supervisor and a STEM supervisor when senior teachers can be the supervisors of their own respective departments? All of these people make

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full administrative salaries plus benefits. I can understand one, two, one or two of these things happening at the same time, but not all of them at once. Administrative cuts would not be ideal, and I'm not advocating that anybody lose their jobs, but it would not it would be more conducive to individual student

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success to cut administrators. I understand that districts around the country are facing devastating healthcare increases of up to 30% and that cuts do need to happen. I only criticize where the cuts are being made. I do not pretend to know more than the average educator or schoolboard member. I speak now only as a concerned citizen,

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one who happens to have a great knowledge of this district and its educators. And of all the educators I've spoken to, the majority see it the same way as it's laid out in this letter. That is the benefit of spending time in the classroom, both as a student and a staff member. It's the best way to have the pulse of the day-to-day students and

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employees. Perhaps we would benefit from having school administration that spends more time in the classroom solving two problems with one solution. As an instructional substitute teacher in the district at all three levels of education who has suffered from a lack of district communication, as well as a Roosevelt Elementary, Lincoln Middle,

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and Hawthorne High School alum, I'm passionate about seeing my hometown school district being run in the most efficient and cost-effective ways possible. With this round of cuts, I do not see cost effectiveness or efficiency in the best way possible. Data data driven results is not conducive to student success. Thank you for your

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time. ANYONE ELSE? All right, moving on. Approval of the minutes. April 21st, 2026, regular meeting, public and private. April 27th, 2026 budget presentation public.

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>> Motion. >> Second. >> Motion by Mrs. Goff. Second by Miss Colson. Discussion. >> Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Goff, >> yes. >> Miss Multi Cultson, >> yes. >> Mr. Paloo, >> yes.

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>> Mrs. Spone, >> yes. >> Dr. Vega, >> yes. >> Mr. Carr, >> yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Miss Art? >> Yes. >> Mr. Taro? >> Yes. >> Any correspondents? >> Seeing none, moving on to reports. Our

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student council representative report Jonathan Barbari. >> Good evening. May is here and the warm weather is slowly trailing behind. But with the warm weather comes the long awaited summer where only one where one school year ends just for another start

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back in two months. Spring sports are slowly fizzling down for the 2026 season and I have many new and exciting things to report. First of all, congratulations to the girls track and field team for winning the title of the 2026 NJIC

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Colonial Champion Colonial Champions on April 27th. I would also like to mention Julia Corpix and Skyler Reed for winning first place in the PCCA Championship on May 6th. Our flag football team had their senior night on May 5th while also

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winning their game 40 to zero that same night. On April 29th, the baseball team played in a pediatric cancer fundraising game in Waldick, Waldwick, where all players wore yellow shoelaces to both show support and raise money for the

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cause. I would also like to congratulate senior Aiden Baird for being named Bergen Record Athlete of the Week for the week of April 26th. This month, clubs have been hard at work to end out our year. The dance and

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theater programs held their night at the Oscar showcase on May 8th, showing off their best performances of the year. Then the next day on May 9th, the dance team went to the Starbound competition. And I'm pretty sure they got first place for >> some I wasn't sure I wrote this before

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that, but >> on May 19th at 7 p.m. the music and arts department have their final performances in the spring concert where we will hear performances from students from choir, band, and guitar as well as sing Here Now, and Moonote. The band will also

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welcome a guest composer Joshua to perform his own piece. Also that night, we will honor the graduating seniors and will award the John Phil Sosa and National School Coral Awards on

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May 21st. The art show will be held in the HHS courtyard and main hallway where pieces from all HHS art classes will be displayed will be displaying their work from the year along with dedicated displays for each of the student art

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honor seniors including myself. On May 1st, the HHS auditorium held the LMS theater production of Beauty and the Beast Jr. with over 60 students participating. The high school library media center will highlight three important national

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events this month. Jewish American Heritage Month, Asian Pacific Islander American Heritage Month, Mental Health Awareness Month, and Mental Health Awareness Month. For each theme, the library offers faculty instructional materials and resources and engages

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students with library books, library book displays and bulletin boards,formational materials, daily morning announcements, posted flyers, social media postings, and relevant books. With this being my last meeting, I would like to thank all of you for welcoming

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me into this position with such open arms. It really means a lot to me to be respected and listened to with such attentiveness as you have all have shown me this year. you were al so patient with my occasional stutters and long pauses due to my previous issues with public speaking. But since the beginning

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of the year, I feel like I have I was able to grow in a way alongside all of you in at these meetings. And as a student of HHS myself, I would like to thank you as well. We really do appreciate all the support you give us, even when something even when it's something as simple as showing up to

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watch a sporting event or to see a play. In all, HHS has has had quite the year with many highlights to have brought up. Summer is just barely out of reach. And for one last time, I thank you for your time and attention and look forward to hearing about your next meeting from

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whoever comes after me. Thank you. >> It's time to attend report. Good evening everyone and thank you Jonathan for your final report. You're certainly going to be missed. You're my st first student rep upon coming into this district and couldn't ask for a

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better representative of the students of this district. And to kick off tonight, I know we have a lot to talk about and as part of what you mentioned prior, all of the concerns that you have, I'm going to give my superintendent report and I'm going to answer as many of the questions that you brought to my attention. Um but

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to kick it off we have two events that we u want to call attention to. The first is uh the recognition of Mr. Jonathan Barbarizi. Um and Jonathan was one of the very first students I actually met here in Hawthorne. I knew right away that he was a special kid.

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He's smart, candid, thoughtful, deeply committed to this school community and thankful to all of us. Very, very funny. Uh Jonathan represents the best that Hawthorne High School offers. And throughout this year, he served as the board representative, with maturity,

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with professionalism, and with insight beyond his years. He has consistently provided thoughtful updates, offered the student perspective with honesty and confidence, and represent his peers with distinction. I'll also say he is involved in everything. He takes a ton of APs, and he stays here with us until

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8 or 9:00 once a month. So, I know that's a lot and we appreciate you very much. I'm very excited. Um, when I say that, he represents some of the best that Hawthorne has to offer. We had so many kids that went to amazing universities for next year or going on to great careers. Jonathan, after us

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talking this over many times at the board meeting as to where he's going to go to college, he finally decided he's going to go to Iowa State and major in engineering. I think he deserves I just say it's been a pleasure to know you and I'm going to miss you a lot and um really proud of all that you've

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accomplished and I look forward to hearing about everything that you're going to do down the line. Um and at this time there's actually a resolution in the agenda that I'm going to read to the public. Whereas Jonathan Barbaresi has served as a student representative to the Hawthorne Board of Education during the 2526 school year. And whereas

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it has been his responsibility to voice the student perspective at public board meetings. And whereas he has been diligent and conscientious in attending meetings and contributing thoughtfully to board discussions. And whereas he has conducted himself with poise, professionalism, courtesy while

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listening attentively to discussions regarding the governance of this district. And whereas he has presented informative reports on events and initiatives at Hawthorne High School. And whereas he has achieved high honor role in every marking period throughout his high school career. And whereas he

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has distinguished himself through participation in LMS track and track and field uh HHS track and field cheerleaders class council, heroes and cool kids, chair club, cheerleading, student council, national honor society, and Italian honor society. Now

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therefore, be it resolved that the Hawthorne Board of Ed education expresses sincere appreciation to Jonathan Barbaresi for his outstanding service and extends its very best wishes for continued success. Congratulations, Jonathan. And on behalf of the board of education, I will present you with a

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certificate. So, thank you very much. And this says uh Jonathan Barbaresi is hereby awarded the certificate of appreciation and recognition of the valuable contribution made towards the cause of boarding education Hawthorne community as the Hawthorne High School

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student council representative to the board of education for the 256 school year. CONGRATULATIONS. Thank you. Now, we also have uh the recognition of our retirees. So, any of our retirees, I see a couple of you here. If you can come up to the front row.

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Not all of our retirees were able to make it, but I still feel it's important that we recognize them. So I'm going to give a little bit of insight which came from uh their supervisors within their building and on the district level. First is Mr. John Brown who was unable to attend tonight. After many years of

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dedicated service, John Brown is retiring from the Hawthorne public schools. As a valued custodian, John took great pride in maintaining a safe, clean, and welcoming environment for students, staff, and the entire school community. His hard work, dependability, and positive attitude made a lasting

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impact on everyone who had the pleasure of working with him. We thank John for his years of commitment and service to the district and wish him a happy, healthy, and well-deserved retirement filled with new adventures and time with family and friends. Mr. John Brown. >> Next, we have Mrs. Terresa D. Deranimo.

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This is written by the administration at Hawthorne High School. It is both an honor and a and a bittersweet moment to recognize the retirement of Mrs. D. Geronimo, our outstanding library media specialist at Hawthorne High School. For many years, she has been far more than a media specialist. She's been a teacher,

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mentor, and trusted guide for countless students. The HHS library is not just a space for those who have ever been in it. It's a beautiful environment for our students to learn. It's an experience shaped by our vision, energy, and commitment to creating a true hub of learning and connection. Mrs. DJonimo's

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professional knowledge is exceptional. She's helped students navigate research with clarity and confidence by focusing on three essential pillars. Knowing what you're looking for, where to find it, and how to search effectively. She breaks down complex processes in the manageable steps, preparing students for

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the demands of college and beyond. At the same time, she has led our school community and understand the challenges of misinformation and the evolving role of AI, ensuring both students and staff are equipped for today's digital world. Her work with students is both personal and impactful. Whether guiding seniors

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through the research process or supporting them one-on-one with citations and structure, she brings patience, clarity, and expertise to every interaction. Mrs. Dano has also been a dedicated collaborator, working closely with teachers and administrators to support instruction across all

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content areas while celebrating the diversity of our school community through thoughtful programming and events. as an avid novelist of both fiction and non-fiction, a presenter at NJCC Technology Summits and Expo, and a recipient of the Unsung Hero Award from

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the New Jersey School Boards Association. She has made a lasting impact on education at every level. Most importantly, she has created space where students feel welcome, supported, and inspired. Mrs. Deronimo, your impact on HHS is lasting. On behalf of our entire

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community, thank you for your dedication and commitment to excellence. Congratulations on your wellearned retirement. You'll be deeply missed and your legacy will always remain a part of HHS. This is the second time that I'm able to recognize Mr. Cheeto Figaro. Um he was

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one of the first employees that I met upon coming to my first board meeting. He was the guy that let me in the door and showed me where the auditorium was. Um and he'll be retiring this year. Congratulations to Cheto on his retirement after 25 years of dedicated service as a maintenance custodian for

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Hawthorne public schools. Cheto's hard work, commitment, and positive spirit helped make our schools welcoming places for students and staff each day. His dedication and reliability will truly be missed. Wishing Cheto a happy, healthy, and well-deserved retirement. Thank you,

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Cheto, for all that you've done. Thank you. >> Congratulations to 26. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you very much.

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>> Yes. Thank you very much. Next, I'd like to recognize Mrs. Bar Barbara Mulvy. Um, and this was written by Mrs. De, her school principal. Miss Barb Mulvy has been a dedicated pair professional at LMS for many years, making a lasting impact on countless

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students and staff members along the way. Throughout her career, Mrs. Mulvy has built meaningful and caring relationships with students, always encouraging and supporting them to reach their full potential, both in the classroom and through after school activities. Beyond her work with students, Miss Mulvi has played an

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important role in creating the positive culture and climate that makes LMS such a special place. Her fun-loving spirit and memorable staff competitions from the chili cook off to the meatball and cookie competitions brought laughter, connection, and camaraderie to the LMS

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community. Miss Muly's dedication, compassion, and energy will truly be missed by all who have had the pleasure of working with her. Bon voyage. Miss Movie, our LMS cruise director, colleague, and friend. Wishing you health, happiness, and many wonderful adventures in your well-deserved

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retirement. >> Thank you for everything. Next we have Mr. Antonio Cordinova. Congratulations to Antonio on his retirement after 25 years of dedicated service to HHS's ninth league custodian. Your hard work, dedication, and commitments to students, staff, and

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community have truly made a lasting impact. Wishing you a happy, healthy, and welldeserved retirement. CONGRATULATIONS. >> Thank you so much. >> Congratulations. >> So, next we have Mr. James Romeo. Congratulations to James Romeo on his

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retirement for Hawthorne public schools. Thank you for your years of dedicated service as a groundsman caring for the athletic fields and helping maintain repair the district's bus fleet. Your hard work and commitment beyond behind the scenes help keep our schools and transportation running smoothly every

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day. Wishing you a happy, healthy, and welldeserved retirement. Next, we have Mrs. Julie Schmidberger. In celebration of her well-deserved retirement, we honor Miss Julie Schmidberger for her years of dedicated service as a paraprofessional in the district. Throughout her remarkable

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career, she supports students at the elementary, middle, and high school levels, contributing her expertise expertise to a wide range of special education programs. Miss Schmidberger consistently embraced new challenges with professionalism and care, also placing the needs of her students first.

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Her strong work ethic, reliability, and genuine compassion made her an invaluable presence in the classroom and a trusted colleague among staff and administration alike. Community of Hawthorne was truly fortunate to benefit from her dedication, knowledge, and unwavering commitment to student success. Her impact will be felt for

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years to come, and she leave she leaves behind a lasting legacy of kindness, support, and excellence. We thank Miss Schmidberger for her extraordinary service and wish her all the best in a happy and fulfilling retirement. And lastly, we have Miss Don Torpi,

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which was written by Dr. Drosski. Don Torpy has been an invaluable member of our child study team whose compassion, professionalism, and collaborative spirit have left a lasting impact on our school community. Throughout her career, Dawn has consistently demonstrated a deep understanding of student needs an

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unwavering commitment to advocating for what is best for every child she serves. Her expertise in evaluation practices, program development, and case management, combined with her thoughtful problem solving, and strong communication skills has made her a trusted resource for students, families,

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and colleagues alike. Beyond her professional accomplishments, Dawn will be remembered for her kindness, positivity, and support she brought to those around her each day. Colleagues described her as caring, collaborative, and always willing to lend a helping hand. She has built strong relationships with families, supported her teammates

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with generosity and encouragement, and cross a welcoming environment wherever she worked. Dawn's dedication and warmth have meant have made a meaningful difference on the lives of countless students and staff members, and she will be be sincerely missed. We thank Don for her years of service and wish her all

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the best in her well-earned retirement. So, just a couple notes before I speak to the budget. So, as we move to the end of the school year, we already have celebrated many outstanding events across our district. We still have many exciting moments ahead. We mentioned a couple of the plays are upcoming this week. Um, I encourage all families to

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regularly check our school and district calendars for detailed uh details regarding concerts, moving up ceremonies, graduation celebrations, and other important year activities. I also want to thank and congratulate everyone that um supported the CPAC color run uh this past month. We were fortunate to

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have beautiful weather and it was clear that everyone involved had a wonderful time while supporting an outstanding cause. A special thanks goes out to our CPAC co-presidents and members for organizing such such a successful event for their continued support for their schools and students.

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Now on to the budget. So tonight's meeting also includes the reappoint of district staff. Um, in the last budget meeting that we had last month, we talked in great detail as to the reason that we're in the current budget situation that we're in. Um, and as you know from reading the news, this is not

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something that's just limited to Hawthorne, but districts across all of New Jersey. Um, across the state, unprecedented uh, financial pressures driven by healthcare costs, transportation expenses. I know it was mentioned that healthcare cost is just a

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piece of it. Transportation has gone up, inflation, and increasing special education obligations. Many districts are facing reductions in staff and programming as they work to close significant budget gaps. Ross, as mentioned, are anticipated yet a 30%

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increase in health uh benefits costs, which comes out at $2.6 million. Um, with combined inflationary pressures, transportation increases, and rising special education costs, we are forced to make difficult decisions in order to present a responsible, balanced budget.

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Working closely with administrators in the board of education, our goal is to approach these reductions strategically. And as you all know, I am a first year superintendent here in Hawthorne. I came from a couple of other districts in the past and experienced very difficult financial situations in the past. And

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when I say it was an all-in effort with the administration and board of education to go through this process responsibly, um it was really on a very high level that we worked together to make sure that we landed in a good place that's going to support students going forward. And with that being said, for

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all the concerns that I'm going to be addressing in a few moments, I do understand that for different parents, it's going to be more impactful when you see that there's cuts in terms of staffing or programming. Um while we believe we met that goal, any reduction has an impact. We were

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able to absorb some of these reductions through attrition whether we had resignations or retirements. We have also worked to support effective employees. So I've met with many of these employees along the way and um we understand that there's a human aspect to this because it's their livelihood.

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It's uh taking care of their families. So, I'll tell you that each one of the administrators and myself in meeting with them have random letter letters of recommendation. I've used some of my resources in other districts to try to set them up with interviews in other districts because um and I'm going to

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say this again in a couple minutes is any cut is a back. It doesn't matter what it looks like and from what perspective. Um I also want to acknowledge parents and community members who have advocated on behalf of their students. I'm a parent myself of a 13-year-old and a 10-year-old that's in

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another district that is experiencing even higher cuts than what we're experiencing here in Hawthorne. And I can tell you it's something that's very impactful to me as a parent. So I respect where you're coming from. Uh no reduction is made lightly because ultimately any reduction affects our

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students in some manner. That being said, um I know that one of the things that was brought up was the uh the afterchool club that we're trying to put together for fourth grade students. For every single cut that we took in consideration, we tried to backfill it

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in some manner where that student population wouldn't be overly impacted, which I'll talk about in greater detail in a moment. We also as we look at our 27 and 28 budget which is already writing it on the wall that there is going to be an increase in healthcare uh

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benefits we are budgeting responsibly that hopefully will be in a place that if we have the opportunity to bring back some of these positions we will have we'll work to get to that point. Um, Hawthorne has always been a district that has been uh prioritizing serving

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students and I'm very very happy to be a part of it. Even in my first year with everything that we've experienced from a financial perspective, this is an amazing town with great support and I'm certain that we'll be able to work through this together. Um, so that being said, I'd like to address a couple of

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the concerns that came up in regard to um, I wanted to first talk about transparency. So, as I mentioned in my report, as you go through this financial process and you get the state aid, which always comes in a little bit late, um,

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and as we're looking at our special education costs and transportation costs for the next year, um, it it's an evolving process to determine exactly where our cuts were going to land, especially when we're trying to make we're taking in consideration the human

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aspect of it where we we have a resignation or retirement that we can put in place in lie of cutting an employee. then we wait till those come into come to our attention so we're not cutting district employees. So the transparency piece of it, we really need to ensure

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that we're 100% finalized before we put it out to the public that these are the specific cuts that we have in front of us. In regard to the music program, um, again, this was in conjunction with the administration, with the board of education, and our purpose in making our

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cuts this year was how can we be responsible and strategic in our cuts without eliminating a whole entire program. And I can't speak to some of the other things that were on the table that we were going to cut, but what I'll tell you is it's it wasn't just we're

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going to reduce. it would require us to cut such things as early intervention on some level for students. So, when we're looking at the music program, I look at it and someone mentioned it earlier tonight that um we're looking to supplement, which is not enough, and I

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agree with you, that's not enough to to uh support a whole entire fourth grade program. But based upon where we were at budgetarily, all we could do was say, "We're going to keep the fifth grade band in place. We still will have a K through five program that we will

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continuously look at, look at the fourth grade curriculum, see if we can enhance it. But on the back end, if we can provide an opportunity for our fourth grade students to have access to an instrumental program that will take place after school, then we will put that into place. Um so again it's not a

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cut that any of us really wanted to embrace but it was something that was in lie of more um drastic cuts that would disrupt uh classroom instruction. So in regard to the 1A program I know that came up that's a new program that's

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going to come into place next year which is really identifying students that we can provide a higher level of rigor on the middle school level where they'll have a pathway that will go into the high school. That's a program that we're actively working on right now. We will have curriculum writing that's going on

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throughout June and into July. And the question came up as to whether other teachers would be trained on what the 1A program is. 100% that's part of what the process in place currently working on the rubric for it also. And again, that'll be another transparent another

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level of communication that will go up out to parents so that they understand what are the qualifiers and what is the program going to look like going forward. in regard to administrator cuts that came up. Um what I'll say is that I came from and people hear this come out of my

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mouth a lot is I came from Wayne which was a large you know highly successful academic district in which we had a lot of administrators in place and when I came to Hawthorne the first thing I noticed from our administrators is they are very dug in on a daily basis doing

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more than sitting at their desk or putting out emails to parents. They're in classrooms, they're supporting students, they're counseling students, they're working with parents. So, the level of work that they're putting in on a daily basis is what's contributing to the success of our students in the

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district. Um, so did we take in consideration administrator cuts as part of this process? The answer is yes. And as a product of that, which is is on the agenda tonight, we had to cut our director of counseling, which is a difficult decision to be made. So, where does that go from there?

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because I know one of the things that came up was the assistant superintendent position which was put into place. So our director of education, Dr. Trabona, who is going to another district and being promoted. I just want to give you an idea of what she was doing prior to leaving. So, she currently oversees K

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through2 instruction, district professional development, uh, state and federal grants, ESL services, gifted and talented, basic skills program, district testing, 504 oversight, federal grants, the district improvement plan, chronic absenteeism initiatives, the five-year

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educational plan, staff PDPs, teacher mentoring and orientation, district data man management, licensing compliance, student teachers, nursing services. She's the affirmative action officer. She also is responsible for 50 evaluations and per 14 summitive

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evaluations on an annual basis. That right there is more than what a typical director of education would do in another district. So when hiring and moving to an assistant superintendent model, it was a restructuring restructuring of the administration as a product of the fact that we're losing an

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important director in the director of counseling. So now the new assistant superintendent is going to inherit all of those obligations and responsibilities in addition to we'll be spreading out the responsibilities that come with the director of counseling which the new assistant superintendent

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will be taking on a lot of that role in addition to and I'm just going to point this out because it is public knowledge is that the that decision to hire an assistant superintendent in lie of a director of education actually came under budget from what the position was in the past. So when I say that every

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decision was made in a financially responsible manner based upon the like crippling budget that was in front of us, we didn't want to it to be in lie of your child's education. administrators are the ones that are really driving to ensure that your students are receiving

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top-notch education, ensuring that student uh teachers are doing what they should be doing in the classroom and receiving the support necessary in order to be great instructors in the classroom, making sure that your students are successful. So, I will go on record and say that we made a cut

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from the administrative perspective. We made cuts from maintenance, custodial, teacher, um non-instructional staff. So, it wasn't limited to just one um particular area. It was brought up in terms of transparency in terms of the

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personnel that were cut. I'll talk to that very specifically. So, um we did the media center specialist position at the high school which is was a difficult cut for us. Again, what we're hoping to do is to u back channel that to support it in the future. in the immediate f in

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the immediate future we're going to provide teacher coverage uh duty non-paid in which that area will continue to be open for student support and down the line my hope is to have maybe potentially a part-time person managing the media center because it is

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a uh a place that we want to keep keep up to date and make it a welcome place for our students. Um there was a LMS teacher that was on there from the math perspective. we're able to absorb that from within. Um from

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the LMS perspective, we had a computer teacher that we were forced to rip. Um in lie of that elective not being offered because we have two computer teachers there. We're going to offer an elective um of dance which I think is a great alternative where our students

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will be able to receive a different option in terms of an elective that will take the place of that position from the special education position. um that occurred at Roosevelt in which we had two smaller sections that were able to combine into one. Um from the Spanish

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position on the elementary level, I wanted to talk about what that looks like from the state perspective. We're required there's grade bands of K through two and three three through five in which we're required to provide exposure to um foreign language on the elementary level. We're going to

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continue to do that. It's just that like many other districts, we're going to be moving to online component that we feel very strongly about in which students it's more of a self-paced process where they'll still receive that exposure and fulfills the mandate of the state from

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the fifth grade perspective that is a the elementary instructor is at Jefferson I think many of you heard that we're combining sections and moving it to a class of 24 students and what I'll say is that across the state of New Jersey when you talk about the upper

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elementary levels many of them are averaging mid20s in terms of um that contingency of students and I also feel comfortable for it because it's the year before they're moving on to middle school where they're going to be put into classes in which there's going to be more students and just comparatively

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because I always look at the where the other elementary schools are in terms of numbers Roosevelt currently will have between the four sections that they have there about 22 to 23 students and Washington will have 24 students also. So when talking about making responsible cuts to move it to one section rather

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than have it be 12 and 12 made sense. We discussed the instrumental music from the director of counseling perspective. That's one in which it's going to be absorbed by mostly the assistant superintendent. >> Um so I believe I talked to most of your

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items. What I'll say is that anything that I missed out on, I'm going to be watching the video. I will reach out to any other concerns that came up. Um, at the end of the day, this is not anything that any of us wanted to go through. And my hope is that we'll be able to work together going forward. The work doesn't

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ever stop here. You You have an amazing administrators. You all know that. You all know that you have amazing teachers. So, the work that we're going to put in going forward to support the cuts that we're putting in place and make sure that your kids don't miss out on any experience. It might look different, but

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it's um we're going to put the effort in to make sure that they're not missing out on anything that they potent that they've had in the past. Um so I appreciate you coming here and speaking tonight and as I mentioned um if there's anything I missed, I'm happy to reach out to you at a later time and that will

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conclude my superintendent report. This time we'll move on to committee and leazison reports. Starting off with legislative, Mr. Carr. Uh >> no legislative report this evening, Mr. Thank you. Finance administration Chris. >> Thank you, Mr. President. The uh finance

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committee met on May 5th at 5:45 p.m. Uh the uh meeting was uh in person on the agenda was the uh food service RFP. Uh prior to our former prior to our former interim VA pack, the district did not

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negotiate guarantee amount from our food vendor. Our current guarantee amount with Ponian is $20,000. The purpose of the RFP is to have the guarantee amount in the upcoming five-year contract. Advocate will present the options to the

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ad hoc committee this week. The finalized proposed summary sheet is attached. Uh CSA reviewed the superintendent reviewed the updated list of staff not being renewed and part reduction in course. Uh these would be reviewed in detail on the personal

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committee. That concludes the report. >> Thank you. Moving on. Council leazison personnel. Miss Art. >> Thank you, President. Regarding the council, a few reminders. This Sunday, May 17th, is the mayor's

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walk for wellness. Second reminder, the annual Memorial Day service is at 12 noon at Burough Hall with the parade following at 1:30 on Memorial Day. And another going on in town. The Hawthorne Health and Wellness

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Fair is Saturday, June 6 from 10:30 to 1:30 at the library. Regarding personnel, we met on Tuesday, May 5th, and we very thoroughly and thoughtfully reviewed all of the reductions in force and non-renewals on

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the agenda tonight. My reports, >> thank you. Curriculum instruction, Mrs. Scott. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Uh the curriculum and instruction committee met last Tuesday. Um the first item of business was the middle school math

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program that we are currently using which is envisions. We had previously discussed that we would stall um a new implementation of a program both for fiscal efficiency and because we were transitioning in a new assistant superintendent as Dr. Davona would

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really be the driving force in that. However, um one of our uh super visors Miss Ashenbrand had already done the leg work to look at some programs. Um she looked at all the districts in Cay County specifically. She tried to

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identify which of them had made the most pro progress um in the NJSLA area of math. She then backfilled that with um which program they were specifically using. She reached out to the companies that she got the information from and then

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she formed a committee of the entire math department. They did this over the course of two days. They then voted on the top two to hear their sales pitches. The two were Ed Gems and Midschool Math. They then used a rubric in the final phase to compare the two, and Mid School

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Math was the clear front runner. Miss Ashenbrand then went back to the company um and asked if they'd be willing to provide a one-year pilot at no cost, to which they agreed. So, she brought that to the committee. Um they are going to also provide professional development and they host a conference at no cost to

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the district for the first year. If all goes well they also have a grade five program. Uh Little Falls has been implementing this program for the last two years. So Miss Astron is going to speak with them. She priced out the consumables and other products and it's comparable to what we're paying now. So we do have to kick in the money uh when

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that's due. It's comparable to what we were paying for envisions. We're thankful Miss Ashen Brand for for really following through on that. um and and following through efficiently. The next item of business was the 1A rubric. Miss Aston um and Miss Smith, both of the

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supervisors have been working diligently to create the rubric from both of their perspective points. They want to be transparent as possible about what the qualifiers are for the rubric. So, there will be students because there will be students that don't get in, we want to be clear with the parents what the criteria are.

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There's one question right now about the rubric. um they had intended on using the NJSLA scores and while that's still the intention because NJSLA is changing and is now intuitive and so they're not sure how much of a part that will play in the rubric um if that will not be

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used they'll use other forms of benchmarks instead uh for all subjects we're um looking at past NJSLA scores if current NJSA scores won't be used um we are cognizant of the fact that older scores may not be as valid so weighted

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in the whole group spring ready diagnostic um will be used for rising sixth grade students. They're looking at the standardsbased report card. Um there is a habits of mind section on the 1A rubric that is not academic based. It's

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more uh work ethic based. Um humanities is requesting a writing sample. So Miss Smith is working on that. They're working on a blind sample scoring that they'll be using. They feel they look at it as a holistic rubric. If a student do not get in. There is an appeal process that will be listed on the website once

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it is finalized. Um there are other accelerated courses for children that do not get into the 1A program. So there are other accelerated classes individually if you're not in that 1A track. We then talked about the list of the current list of AP

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offerings. There are some areas um where we would like to see improved scores. So we're talking about ways to improve that. Um there are some uh summer trainings that we've discussed sending teachers to. We also looked at the AP hub with which

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both supervisors maintain. It is where they list all the current criteria for summer work and things. It's accessible to parents which we liked. Um I I have a college student so I know that while they are young adults and they are responsible, it's nice for parents to have access to something that's not in a

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Google class. So the AP hub is a website that parents can go to and are directed to once a student gets into an AP course. We also discussed summer assignments, something that we brought up uh in the past. Um uh Mr. Minelli shared that he supports

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worthwhile summer assignments that promotes engagement. Uh right now it's primarily an ELA assignment that's available for students. um there but uh it was shared that there is more of a statistically significant slide in math over the summer. So we're working on

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ways that we can keep those skills um high. I has the ability to do summer work, but there is a back-end component involved in it. Someone has to monitor that the work's being completed and making sure that it's being completed correctly so that a student's not doing

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incorrect work for the whole summer. Um so they're going to talk about it administratively and get back to the committee by next month's meeting because we'd like to put out the summer assignments obviously before it's summer. Um, and then it was shared that

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they are looking for a uh platform that would allow teachers to sign up for space in the media center at the high school. So basically sign out the media center as a teacher and the teacher would take the class there. Um, and all of the heritage months will be maintained by Mr. Fister and Miss

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Pasual. Miss Dano does a lovely job of promoting different various things each month. So Mr. Victor and Mal both would be taking that on. The committee did bring up that um potentially if we would look into stipening that or making that some sort of a duty or we're giving a little bit of extra money to a teacher.

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Um as we understand how Mr. Fister and Miss are doing so many other things and that was it for the CNI committee. >> Thank you. Moving on NJSBA PCBA. >> Uh thank you Mr. President. So for New

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Jersey school association. Um, sorry, Harrison Silver, who is our legislative advocate on the New Jersey school boards, um, asked that we would consider adding a resolution um, in the

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near future, urging relief from rising public school employee health care costs. Many districts are already doing this. Um a template was shared with us with the NJ with us the NJSBA to ask our um

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superintendent and um BA to have this on. So I'm just going to read a really quick excerpt from it. uh just it it needs it needs to stop somewhere and it sounds like it's going to increase next year and there's you know there's got to

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be a limit or we need the appropriate financial aid to keep up with the healthcare rising costs. Um he als they also suggested uh writing a letter from the board and sending that to the governor's office and local um

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community I guess like our mayor and our local people as well as the governor to help them um they're spreading the word to their people but then have us also participate. Uh so it says whereas at the at a time of continued fiscal

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uncertainty and mounting challenges local boards of education from across the state of New Jersey continue to suffer under the growing crisis posed by the rising health cost health benefits and are desperate for relief. And it goes on and on and on. There's about 10

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where is um basically begging for help um and to put a cap on these percentages that we are getting increased. So that's for NJ SBA. Um Pate County was uh last night

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was our meeting. It's the last one for the school year. Um we were able to recognize that the state county teacher of the year who is a STEM teacher and engineering teacher out of Manchester. She was there and um did an amazing job. Uh she's a great teacher and I was very

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proud to have her um representing state in the New Jersey. she'll now go on to be the New Jersey hopefully New Jersey um educator of the year. And uh we also discussed um update from the New Jersey School

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Board D board of directors um and of course our own Kelly Mitchell was there who presented um she mentioned that we were in second place for our board credits to become a certified board. um >> our board was second place. So we have

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9.5 credits and it's 16 to become a certified board. So I think that should be our next goal. >> Um that's it. Thank you. >> She actually told me u hopefully after our next uh board goals meeting that should hopefully put us at that point

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where we can get the >> that would be awesome >> be accredited. >> Thank you. >> Thank you Mr. Paloo. He cack PTO's. >> Thank you Mr. President. >> Uh, I'll start with Washington School. No, I'll get I'm good. My eyes are just

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they brighten them up a little bit. Thank you. >> No, Washington School. I just want to mention, which was already mentioned, um, Lion King is going to be presented on May 14th at 7 p.m. There is a flyer on their Facebook page if anyone's interested in finding out a little bit

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more information there. Roosevelt PTO uh is having a yard sale on May 16th. Local vendors and residents can rent space or a table to sell their items. It's 9:00 am to 2 pm at Roosevelt School. $25 for

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a space. Um and you can book your space by May 14th. Again, for uh I think that's this Saturday, May 16th. Um LMS PTO I believe it's a threeonree basketball tournament with the sixth,

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seventh, and eighth graders. It's 6 pm doors open. There's going to be a snack stand. Tickets are only $3 if you want to be a spectator and go um check that out. And then Hawthorne High School here, PTO um project graduation is a

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very expensive um endeavor. It's about $25,000 every year, but it's really important for the the seniors to have a, you know, a really um great last event. Um and it's, you know, a way to keep our

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kids safe. Um, so there is going to be a um a $10 per ticket raffle and the $500 gift card will be for Soho Day Spa. So again, it's a $10 gift ticket if you can

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um purchase one of those to help support Project Graduation. And then I'm just going to round it off, but I got a lot here to say for the U CPAC color run, the eighth annual color run. I want to start by thanking um Mayor John Lane and

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the um Hawthorne the Burough Hawthorne P County Sheriff Department Thomas Adam but that's not it. Thank you. Um and Hawthorne Volunteer Ambulance Corps for volunteering members of the Hawthorne NJCAC for putting on the

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event. the uh Hawthorne High School National Honor Society student volunteers and also the uh Hawthorne Boy Scout Troop 85. Um also want to recognize sponsors. There's different support levels. One supporter was um

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Acura Reserva, our bronze supporters, our own Alex and Olga Cojo of Solar Realy and Lone Depot. Um, also the doctor's office in Millland Park Valley Hospital, Betty N. Um, Doran, Dorothy

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Lesley, Jeff Franle Photography, DJ Frank and Joe Osborne. And then our silver level was in Sierra Supermarkets. And our platinum level, thank you to the Hawthorne Police Department and the State County Sheriff's Department.

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The final figures for the color run are not in yet, but it's unofficial registration and walk-ins put the number of around 200 participants, which is probably one of the best years they've had in a very long time. So, thank you

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for everyone who participated. Um, a big congratulations also, you know, to the color run. Again, it's the 8th annual 5K color run walk, which is hosted by the NJCPAC. Um, I want to announce some of the winners. In the men's uh division,

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first place Aiden Downey. Second place, Jahir Roma Ramos. Third place, Brian Emery. And in the women's division, first place Danielle Soloway. Second place was Stephanie Donatello. Third

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place was Bailey Rosario. Um, a competition was also held with each of the schools and um, $200. Uh this the school participating with the most staff was going to receive

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$200. The um the numbers came in at two from Roosevelt, two from Jefferson, um two from the high school. Oh, I'm sorry. Let me start again here. I'm sorry about that. Um Roosevelt had two staff.

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Jefferson two staff. Honor High School and the Bear Cave had four staff each. Um Lincoln had seven staff and Washington school had seven staff. >> Wow. >> So there is a tie and I think in lie of uh a runoff

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they are going to split $100 um each and again congratulations for those who participated and to those two schools that are splitting. As always CPAC wants to thank everyone uh in the community that supported this event. Um and I'd

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like to personally thank Dr. Amanda Hooper and Robin Crawford who put in endless amount of time not only running this event but running CPAC over the many years. So >> thank you Robin. >> Thank you

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for tonight. >> Thank you. >> All right. Buildings, grounds and policy. Dr. Vega. >> Uh thank you Mr. President. Grounds and policy met this month. >> Okay. >> Moving on. Action items. Curriculum instructions. Mr. Scott.

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>> Thank you, Mr. President. Pursuant to the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the committee on curriculum instruction recommend the following resolutions. CI1 and CI2 on page five. CI3 through CI7 on page six, CI8 through

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CI14 on page seven, CI 15 through CI 24 on page 8, and CI 25 and 26 on page nine. On behalf of the committee, I so move second. >> Second by Miss Arch.

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Discussion. >> Roll call, please. >> Miss Mo, >> yes. Mr. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Spone. Um, yes. But I recuse myself from CI3 to CI9. >> Dr. Vega.

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>> Yes. >> Mr. Carr. >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Miss Art. >> Yes. Mrs. G. >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Moving on. Miss Aaron. Personnel. >> Thank you, President. The following

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resolutions are pursuant to the recommendation of the superintendent of schools. P1 through P7 on page 9, P8 through P16 on page 10, P17 through

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P22 on page 11, P23 through P32 on page 12, P33 through P36 on page 13. on behalf of the committee as

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>> second by Mr. Carr. >> Discussion. >> I have a few comments. Um, again, best wishes to the retirees that are here on this agenda. Um, I also want

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to congratulate the staff on here who have reached their milestones and are receiving their increase in longevity. also to echo President Taro and our superintendent sentiments. While there were some challenges um that we

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discussed that that are on this agenda, it is nice that the administration is doing what they can to help staff members as mentioned before. And uh lastly, I'd like to thank all of the

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community members who shared comments regarding this section of the agenda. Uh your voices are valuable. Thank you for sharing. >> Any other discussion? >> Roll call, please. >> Mr. Paloo, >> yes.

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>> Mrs. Phone, >> yes. >> Dr. Vega, >> yes. >> Mr. Carr, >> yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. Mr. Sanra, >> yes. >> Mrs. G, >> yes. >> Miss Multicolson, >> yes. >> Mr. Tutaro, >> yes.

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>> Finance administration, M. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Pursuant to the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the committee on finance and administration recommends the following resolutions uh F1 through F3 to F4 to A5.

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15868 behalf of the committee. I shall move. >> Second, >> second by Mr. Paloo. >> Discussion. >> Seeing none. Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Stone, >> yes. >> Dr. Vega, >> yes.

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>> Mr. Carr, >> yes. >> Mr. Fo, >> yes. >> Miss Aron, >> yes. >> Mrs. G, >> yes. >> Miss Multicult, >> yes. >> Mr. Paloo, >> yes. >> Mr. Yes. Moving on to claims, Mr. Wson.

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>> Yes. Thank you, Mr. President. In accordance in accordance with NJ 6A 23-2 col 11 BC3 and sorry B C3 and C4

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sem-1 approval of the May 2026 bill list. It is recommended that the board approve the bill list for the month of May 2026. >> Second. >> Second by M. Cleo. >> Discussion.

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Seeing none. Roll call, please. >> Dr. Vega. Yes. >> Mr. Carr. >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Miss Art. >> Yes. >> Mrs. G. >> Miss. >> Yes. >> Mr. Paloo. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Spone. >> Yes.

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>> Mr. Petaro. >> Yes. Buildings and Grounds. Dr. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Pursuant to the recommendation of the superintendent schools, the committee on buildings and grounds recommend the following resolution. BG1 on page 15

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and BG2 on page 16. On behalf of the committee, I so move second. >> Seconded by Miss Wilson. >> Discussion. >> Mr. >> Yes. I'd like to once again um thank the community and thank the administration

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and the staff just for seeking these opportunities to make to get payments in to revenue schools have very few ways of making money. Um and when we air conditioned this auditorium the hope was that would be somewhat of a money maker

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and this evening there are two um two feebased applications for this space. I sat in here last year for graduation for our own high school and it was actually cold. Um, so it is a nice space that that we can use and again we air

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condition it for our students and for the staff and for our own production purposes but the hope was it would be a revenue maker and I'm always happy to see you know even though it's a couple thousand dollars it's it's a nice little bit of money. So thankful to all those

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opportunities. >> Second that uh there's very driving resources for the school district and that's one of them. So second >> I just want to clarify that BG2 is for the barricade. Correct. >> Correct. >> Okay. So we are renting that space or

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leasing only because it houses our students. I don't think I didn't see somewhere in it where it actually specifies the barricade for the public unless I missed it. So thank you. Roll call, please. >> Mr. Carr, >> yes.

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>> Mr. >> Yes. >> Mro, >> yes. >> Mrs. G, >> yes. >> Miss Coulson, >> yes. >> Mr. Paloo, >> yes. >> Mrs. Phone, >> yes. >> Dr. Vega, >> yes. >> Mr. Petara, >> yes.

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>> This time, public be heard. Members of the public may ask questions or make comments on educational issues or school matters. Good evening and thank you for affording me the opportunity to speak. My name is

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watch and thrive and mother of a fourth grade student at Jefferson. I'm here to express my strong concern and opposition to his decision to combine class at Jefferson. This approach was attempted previously when the students

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were in second grade with two teachers and unfortunately it did not serve them well. At that time many of the children felt behind academically and the learning environment suffered as a result

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in the combined classroom. Students were often placed in inappropriate testing conditions. Some children were forced to take tests sitting on the floor or sharing limited desk and chair space. This alone created unnecessary stress and distraction. Even

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more concerning, some students were accused of looking at their classmates work not out of dishonesty but because the physical setup made it nearly impossible to maintain proper separation.

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Additionally, maintaining order in an overcrowded classroom appeared to require frequent redirection and was very chaotic. The classroom environment dominated by raised voices and constant

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discipline is not conducive to learning particularly for young children who need structure, calm and the ability to concentrate. The combined class was a disservice to these secondary students and it was a disservice that has carried

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on through third and fourth grade. They are now older. The academic expectations are higher. The material is more complex and there will be one less teacher than there was in second grade. Implementing

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the same structure in fifth grade will not correct issues. It will magnify them. Fifth grade is a critical year for academic development and preparation for middle school. And these students deserve an environment where they can succeed, not simply cope.

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We are cutting teachers, combining grades, yet according to the March 24th agenda, spending $9,000 on accommodation. We should be putting our children first. They are our future.

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I respectfully urge the board to reconsider this decision and prioritize classroom conditions that support learning, fairness, and assessment and the overall well-being of our children. Our Jefferson students deserve better

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than a repeated experiment that has already shown harmful results and failed. Thank you for your time. Hi, Cara Gary. I represent Washington School. Uh, just two things I wanted to touch on. Um, I don't think that it was

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clear about this supplemental program that's going to be put in place for fourth grade band. So, just wanted to know if there could be a little bit more of an explanation. We just heard that it's going to be a program, but there's no clarity as to what that's going to look like and how they there won't be

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barriers for kids who cannot do that because they're already committed to things. Um and then I also um heard a lot about curriculum and I really um stand here as an educator and as a parent in this district acting asking and really encouraging that you try to

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get some type of support or or sound back or feedback from families and parents um that are in this district that have a lot of knowledge about curriculum, who's helped write curriculum, who sat at tables with leadership and superintendent to help

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pick curriculum. um these are our children and I feel like we should also have a say so in what uh curriculum looks like as far as uh ELA and math. I also feel like um we should do another look at the math programs that were selected for middle schoolers um and

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also uh pour in uh elementary school uh into that search as well because I do believe that we're also due for a new math curriculum. Thank you. I also like to leave this petition with you of over 600 signatures of people that you reconsider. Uh, cut it for

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great Oh, I thought your picture >> from 12 Metro Vista Drive. Um, I just have to say I'm not a great public speaker. I get super nervous. So, um, I apologize for that. Just going to read off just something

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little. Um, good evening. My name is Mary Beth Ko and my two children attend Jefferson School and are currently in fourth and first grades. On Monday, May 4th, you all received my email regarding my concern about the proposed plan to combine the two fourth grade classes

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into one classroom with one teacher for the 2627 school year. I understand that personnel matters cannot be addressed at the this time publicly. However, I do want to state in public my disappointment and concern that this potentially will be happening to the

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same group of children again. My son's grade has unfortunately endured this combining of classes in second grade during the 2003 2004 school year and it was not successful at no fault of his two teachers at that time. I know that your time is precious and that there are

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many issues and concerns that you are hearing about tonight. But I ask that you please reconsider this plan for September. I also just want to state I think the number may be incorrect but it's 24 students. It's actually from what I believe is 27. So just wanted to

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put that out there. Thank you. Ashley Verden, 95 Sherman Avenue. Um, I grew up here going to Jefferson Elementary, Lincoln Middle School, and Haw High School. My husband went to Roosevelt, Lincoln Middle School, and Hawthorne High School. We've seen a lot of eb and flows over the years. I

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remember being a kid and the budget not passing again, busing getting cut, having art on a cart, and I just remember our parents fighting very hard and coming to all these meetings even when discussions had already been had, decisions were already made. I currently have a first grader at Jefferson and an

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incoming kindergartener next year. And while some of these things don't currently affect my child directly yet, it will have a bigger effect on you when you have a child who is directly impacted by something that is either being cut or classes being combined for

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your grade. Um it was so wonderful not only to hear from the parents but also the board that I am sure a lot of thought and effort and number crunching went into all these decisions. It is not an easy decision to make and every cut was probably very difficult. Um, however, as people have mentioned, we

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have a bunch of parents in this room who probably do are a wealth of knowledge, wealth of resources, and I know sometimes having too many cooks in the kitchen is a little difficult, and there's a reason why we have um officials to make these decisions, but I would strongly urge there to be some

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more opportunities for parents in the community to be involved in being able to work on these decisions earlier before it gets to this point. There there's a lot of trouble not only in our district in so many districts because healthc care is just it is an impossible

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situation. I have colleagues my husband's a high school teacher and coach in another district. This is not just for us. Um I have colleagues in another district an elementary school completely closing. Full sports programs are being completely cut. Um, but I do often hear in situations like this when

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your particular situation is not as bad that, you know, these are just small issues that you should see what it's like in other districts. And I just want to urge the board and families that by making these what seem like small little changes, we start to accept this as what

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the standard is and the bar gets set a little bit lower. Right now, it might be one grade of band. It might be one class getting combined of only 27 students, but over time this sets the standard and the culture for what we accept as

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acceptable for our students. And I just hope that as as we already know that next year the healthc care situation is only going to get worse, >> that it might be another thing next year. It might be another um teacher. Um so as a I'm an occupational therapist. I

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worked in a school a private school for 10 years. My husband's a high school teacher. I've seen what it's like when there's no contracts for teachers. I know that it is difficult on all ends and that numbers are numbers and they don't lie. However, we have such a willing and knowledgeable community that

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I think if we can maybe pull together some um you know groups that we can come up with some brainstorming um that people are very much up for the opportunity to have that time to share their their thoughts to come up with not just an alternative but maybe a a

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solution that helps meet the numbers standard and the standard for our our children which I think we should set very very high. Um, again I, you know, being here since I was a little kid, I've seen eb and flows. I know this is going to happen. Um, but again, we had people fighting

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very, very hard for us. We have people on TV, you know, saying, "Save the music." Right now, there might not be a lot of that and it's up to us to do that. And even if this room is not filled here, there are a lot of parents who care very, very deeply, but we have a lot of commitments. I think you will

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see people come out if given the opportunity to work on some of these issues from a grassroots level. So, I just wanted to make sure that all of your further decisions are met with a lot of care and thought um especially if it were your child in that situation.

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Um, and especially here, I didn't think I would end up back in the town that I grew up, but maybe this would be my child fighting up here one day for this. So, um, please just give this some thought and care. Please before you make any final decisions, please try to consider that there are people here who

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have ideas who if given the opportunity maybe would wanted to share them and might have some some resources to share. Um but that is all for me for tonight. Hi, I'm Tova Margaruchi, 11 terrace. Uh, I have a few questions. Um, the first

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being the online language learning. Does that come with any sort of instruction like an outside monitors or someone who oversees what will happen or the teachers to facilitate the learning

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of a foreign language? Um, what is the future of the PE program at Jefferson? Um, I know our PE teacher is leaving and I haven't seen a posting for her position. So, is that something that's going to be cut from somewhere else?

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Um I am a fourth grade and a second grade parent at Jefferson and those two sections are very small which leads me to believe that what you what's already been done once to my second grader my

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fourth grader who's you know when he was in second grade is going to be done again in fifth grade and then after that where does it go? Does it do we just magically figure out how to bring a new teacher in or is my second grader then

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going to be in a combined class for fourth and fifth grade? So, what is the future of bringing in a new teacher to Jefferson so that that doesn't trickle down to both of my both of my children?

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Um, since we are comparing class sizes to Washington and Roosevelt, do Washington and Roosevelt change classes in fifth grade? That is something that's currently in being done.

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>> And so, how will our students be able to compete not only educationally, but just functionally? you know, if this is an important item, you know, important thing for them to get used to changing classes, how is Jefferson going

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to be able to compete on that level? Um, and I guess as a parent, we just kind of want to be a part of this. This is, you know, we don't want this to happen. We don't want our children combined. It was a social disaster. It was a educational

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disaster. I have heard that our test scores don't show that, but I can assure you that my child now has an IEP and IP4 private tutoring. So, his test scores reflect that uh in third grade, not what went on

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in second grade. Um, are we going to be as parents or is there going to be some sort of discussion, some sort of I don't know, how do we find out what this is going to look like to do to the detail? What is our

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dayto-day for our children going to be like? Um, we'd like to hear the plans as parents, you know, just it's out there. Having to hear about it and talk about it and be concerned and be panicked over this because it was such a disaster last

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time um has really been unnerving to a majority of us. I'd say all of us. Um, and I guess just what is the the whole future of Jefferson? Can it sustain if

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its numbers are going to eb and flow like this? Because there is no reason why my two children were somehow born into small sections. If that happens again, what would be the future of Jefferson School? Thank you.

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All right. So, I'm gonna again I'll attempt to respond to all the concerns that were brought up and if I missed out on something, I'm happy to reach out to you individually. And what I'll also say is that the insight that you're giving me as an uh first year superintendent,

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for some of you that do know me, I would like to hear more. You talk about having a say in your child's educational experience. I'll be the first one to meet with you and have a discussion and to hear your ideas. So, understand that that's always an open invitation. Um, in

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terms of the fifth grade class at Jefferson, I know there's a pass there. Um, I can't speak to it in specifics as to how it impacted your individual child. I appreciate you sharing that. And, um, I'm sorry that was your child's experience. And the goal is definitely

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not to replicate that experience in fifth grade. Um, what I will say is that when we're looking at budget cuts and specific teachers, we did look at the Jefferson group because we had a group of 12 and 12, right? Um, when you look at other schools across the state and

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you look at um the other schools, Roosevelt and Washington, the numbers would be very similar in their fifth grade experience of 22 and 24. So we are looking to have similar experiences for students across the three schools.

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Someone had mentioned about the exact number not being correct. So for each one of our elementary classes, we have a specific amount of regular education students and then for a portion of the day we have pushin from our special education students into those

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classrooms. It's about half of the day. Um so on any given day though that 22 24 and 24 could increase to 26. What I'll also say is any new um any new uh parents that register in our district

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that's going to be part of the consideration which a couple of months ago we approved a policy that when we're placing students in school it's based upon programming siblings but also class size. So, at no given point in this

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upcoming year, we'll be working to ensure that those numbers don't increase more than where they're currently at. And again, I understand that there's a past year and a far deal, but what we're looking to do is make the best of the situation in which we're in. Um, in

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terms of the music program, I'm going to be very forthcoming with that. the thought in terms of creating an afterchool program in which I've had some conversations with administrators as to what it means what it should look like. We don't have an exact plan yet

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and I'll be honest with you that a lot of it it's going to be based upon the personnel that we put into place. My hope is that when we post the position we have internal music teachers that are interested in facilitating the program which they're really the experts as to what it should look like for those

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fourth grade students. So I would be working with them directly to determine what's the most equitable accessible program that we can offer the three elementary schools so that um I understand it's not perfect equation because kids have stuff after school but what can we offer in which they'll still

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have the option if that's something that they want to prioritize after school hours. Um, so I mentioned about the the two special ed students pushing into um Jefferson. In terms of parents being more involved

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in the community, again, that's something that I'm very much um supportive of. When it comes to administrative cuts or excuse me, uh, staffing cuts, which I hope we are not in that place next year. And again, we're looking at the budget very carefully to ensure that we are not in that place. That is something that is an

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internal process. we wouldn't be taking input from uh the community as to what is the best cuts to be made. That's the administration and the board of education and myself in making those decisions. And again, it's a a very careful and strategic process.

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Um you mentioned about like the the bar being set low, right? I can promise you when I'm in this position and my experience in terms of being in other districts is that the bar will never the bar will and continue to be raised to a

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higher level because I do see the opportunity that exists in this district. I recognize the parent uh the level of support that we receive from parents, the outstanding board of education that we have, the amazing administrators and teachers. So regardless, you're seeing cuts and you're getting worried about what that

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means for your individual student. We are working on the back end and some of you are saying, "What's that going to look like?" I'm telling you, we're working on it right now to make sure there's no hiccups because of these cuts. My goal while I'm superintendent here and working with my team that share the same ideals as me is that we are

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always raising it to a higher bar whether you're student special education, whether they're an AP student or whether they're regular education student. And there's nothing that is a must for me while I'm here. And I'm telling you that that's something that your administrators and teachers will also be supporting along

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the way. And I know that's a lot of language and I think the proof is in the pudding. Um my hope is that going into next year you'll see the level instruction that's going in your child's classroom is really above and beyond. Um so in terms of the online language uh

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program which is something that we're going to be using for our K through five students um it is an interactive program that's similar to like a my path sort of program where they progress and are measured as they go through it. We have something similar in district in our

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Irey program where is based upon the students understanding of the language. If they are accelerating and understanding, then they move to a higher level. Really, it's really a self-paced program. That being said, the teachers in the classroom have already started piloting it and we're offering

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additional training to the teachers so that they can monitor the students progress as they go through the program. Um, I know there was questions about the Jefferson program going forward. the the PE position in terms of the resignation

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just came to our just added to the board. It is something that's going to be posted so that's not going to change. Um test scores always something that we're going to work towards. Um and the whole future of Jefferson like

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when I look at where our elementary schools are and I think a lot of you are elementary parents here tonight. I think our elementary schools are in a really good place and they're only in a place in which you're heading in the right direction. And again, I understand cuts sometimes get in the way of that. But as a collective group, it wasn't my sole

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decision to make any of these cuts. I think you understand that when working with the administration, we said, how can we be strategic in a manner that's not going to disrupt the instruction that's going on in the classroom? And so the understanding is that regardless that we have this in front of us, we're

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going to continue to work to provide a high level of instruction to your students. And if you're not experiencing that or you have concerns, then you reach out to your building administrators or myself and we'll work with you to ensure that your child is receiving the support that they need.

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>> I just want to touch on one more thing. Maybe you could expand upon it. Uh for those that don't know, and and I'll defer to Matt to to speak to this a little bit more. uh the process in which it takes in which uh the time in which we are given to create the budget

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because I know that there is a sense of community effort on how we can collaborate and and surely we would genuinely appreciate that and I just want to make sure we're clear because if you don't know there there is actually a limited window not governed by us but by

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the state in which we actually have to provide that back. It is truly unfortunate because I assure you and I I think I could speak for behalf of the whole entire board that if that time was allowable to all of us to expand upon a

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a more community-based effort that we can include that uh we would surely do that. It is I I believe about a twoe window. I think last year was less than that right >> 12 days >> two weeks. So just imagine it's two weeks that we have to drum up

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essentially coming up with how to effectively manage the district with these rising costs, these rising transportation costs and then fit that into this equation to to still try and

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give our children and by the way most of us up here our parents first. Okay? And I'll expand upon that under my general comments, but just want to give you the sense a twoweek window to manage a

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significant significant budget for our children. And we would love that opportunity to do that within our community if the time was allowed by the state to do so. So if you did not know that, I just wanted that to be clear because I don't know if that was truly

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understood. It's literally we had two weeks, two weeks Sorry. >> So that said, we will move on to general comments, new business, old business. Starting on my left, Mr. Paloo. >> Thank you, Mr. President. I just want to

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make a correction to my um my seatback color run because I neglected to mention that um the director of special programs and our own superintendent both participated in the run. >> Um I didn't say it was fair to cut you guys out. Thank you. Um, and then I'd

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just like to again thank the retirees for their time and dedication to the district. Um, especially those that were in the special uh ed department because um that's always near and dear to my heart. Um, as far as the band goes, my

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children were both in band, marching band, and now that they're out of high school, they're in rock bands. Um, so I can definitely understand where you're coming from. Um, and then I will just conclude with saying Jonathan Thank you for your time and dedication to this

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board and always keeping us uh informed of what was going on um in the school. Thank you. >> You stole my my comment. I'll start off with my thank you. >> Uh great job this year and congrats

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especially on Saludator, right? >> And it it has been exciting. I know is noted everything that you do for the community, but to see it again through through your eyes has been great. So, best of luck to you. Um, few more comments. I wanted to mention

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the thorn chamber of commerce. It was approved during the buildings and grounds on the agenda on June 20th at the high school field. The Cavalos are going to be performing here in Hawthorne. They perform all over the country and the world and it'll be great

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to see them in our in our town. Um, and last but not least, I wanted to thank everyone up here uh for their kindness to me during the last few months when I was out on disability. I'm grateful and

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proud to be part of this team. So, thank you all for >> Yeah, I miss you, too. I know it's been tough few months, but but thanks again. And one last comment um to Zoe Peean. I apologize for not being able to be here

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last month for youth night, but she did a great job. So, I just wanted to give a shout out to her. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Um I wanted to comment on the performing arts exhibition that I attended on Friday. Um

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it was an absolute breath of fresh air. There were about 36 different performances by our students. Uh my daughter was in one of them. She's no longer in the class. She was in the class last year with Miss Sonia, but it had such an impact on her that she did uh they did a little group number. Miss

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Sonia welcomed anyone who wanted to do a performance. Um I did share with the board not my own daughter's performance but one of the other performances that I was just so touched by um some of our students. It really really was wonderful. I also want to bring to the

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attention of the community and to the board members that you'll see the eight graduating seniors who also received varsity letters. This is the second year that the performing arts uh gave out varsity letters. Miss Sonia really was the driving force in that. I didn't

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check every single Pay County school, but I think we are among very few if any. The only one I can find that does something similar where you approve certain number of in the various performing arts for a varsity letter is Pic Valley Regional High School. Um so

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it's really exceptional that we have this for our students. Um because traditionally varsity letters are reserved for athletes um or band members, but now we have another avenue for our students to receive varsity letter. They get it on the night this night on Friday. They are always beaming

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with pride. The students who were getting this second one get a little chevron to acknowledge that it's their second varsity letter. Um, it's really wonderful. It's a really wonderful uh new Hawthorne tradition and I want to thank Miss Sonia. It was a wonderful addition to the Hawthorne community.

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Again, my daughter did not have her this year, but she had a very big impact on her. She lets children be who they are. She helps them find their way there. Um, so very appreciative to all of the teachers here, but just wanted to highlight that. I'd also like to uh

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formally request that we consider this resolution that Miss Moy Coulson brought up this evening. I ask that she share it with us that we get it onto the next board agenda. Um specifically, I'm speaking about the the uh >> healthcare. Um additionally, I'd like to

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to implore the community um to do the same thing. Contact the legislators. Well, I think we can all agree no one wants to cut anything. Um, $2.4 million of our budget is going to just the increase of benefits. Not all

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of the benefits, just the increase of benefits. $2.4 million. Um, it's it's it's insane. It's actually my mind can't wrap around it. But you as citizens, we have a voice as well. Um, I plan on

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reaching out independently to local legislators and to the governor. uh some I don't know what but something has to be done um because it's not sustainable to the point that this may continue next year is really something that I can't even think about. Um, I'd also like to

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say that we didn't speak about necessarily, but I'd like to just point out that this board chose to go to the highest point possible in in increasing the tax levy, which was not something that we

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did lightly. It was not something that we thought we'd have to do. I've been on the board the longest and it's the highest number that I've ever had to approve, but we did it to protect and preserve as much as we could. And I said it last month. I will defend that

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decision to anybody because I don't we don't want to make cuts. Um so it's the balancing act of of raising and also reducing. It's it's impossible to to to make everybody um happy. We know that some

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taxpayers are upset with the levy. We understand that. We are all of us up here. Um, but we did it. We literally went to the highest number we could. Um, and that's not something that we take lightly. But in any event, as a parent, I'm grateful to the people that sit up

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here um for every decision that is made. I know it is not taken lightly. Um, but again, do the best that we can. We're just regular people who are also parents. >> Thank you. >> Thank you.

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Abby ste some of my thunder. Um I agree >> to go to the highest tax levy and still have to make cuts that affect our parents and our kids is not anyone's ideal situation. Um I also have children in district. I grew up in district. I

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was in the band through high school. I get it. I totally get it. It's first recorders. You get through that then you get to pick your instrument and you're proud and you bring it home. I played it really not. So, it was kind of a gross trombone, but I was proud of it and I played it in fourth grade and I don't

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want to take that from your children, nor do I want to combine these classes, especially with the history you have. But what else are we supposed to do? Really and truly, like what else is there? Um, and I trust our administration to look at all the options and make those choices. We I

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don't make those choices. They do. They recommend these choices to us and we say if this is the best you guys can sometimes they go back to drawing board and try again but if this is the best you guys can do we're going to support it and that is it's it's a lose-lose. This is not a winning situation for

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anyone. If you think about your child's entire day and after school in our in our school systems, what makes takes the least impact away from their education and their test scores and their their well-roundedness,

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right? Mental health service, all these other services to me come first. Although I am arts to the to the fullest, right? I don't know another situation. I don't know how to fix it. And I wish I could Um, I wish our PTOs

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could help us. Like I understand you guys are trying to brainstorm and I appreciate that. And he's um our new super has had like coffees with the superintendent monthly newsletters which are been wonderful to get to keep us in the loop

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and invite you guys out so that in the future we know already next year is going to be even harder. So come, please, I beg you, the board pres the budget presentation's online right now. We sat here for two hours last month and

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the numbers are insane. I don't know where else we could have gone with this loss of $2 million. 15 staff members lost their job. That's not never okay. Nobody wants that.

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And I'm not going to compare us to other districts. You're right. Right. because this is what matters is here. But we're parents. I'm a special ed parent. I'm part of CPAT. I get it. I understand. Especially when a child struggles academically. Arts is where they go. We

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feel happy and comfortable. So, just know my hearts are with you and we didn't take it lightly. And hopefully we can fix this. But thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hello. Um I just want to take a moment

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to Thank you all for coming tonight. Like truly from the bottom of my heart, I am so glad that you came and you shared your thoughts and your concerns and your feelings with us. Um meetings like this are incredibly important and

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they are what shows the strength of a school district. Um, and even though there's different perspectives and different opinions, um, I want you to know that your willingness to show up tonight to listen, to ask questions, to

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get more information, um, and context, it just shows how much we all deeply care about our students, our schools, and the future of our community. Um, I just want to say that I appreciate your time. I appreciate your

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courage for all of those that said, "I'm not public speakers, but I'm going to do this anyway." Um, I really truly want you to know that tonight your voice was heard and that it was important what you did tonight. And I thank you,

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>> Dr. Thank you, Mr. President. Um, first and foremost, I want to say congratulations to Jonathan. Thank you so much for spending all of these hours late nights with us and talking about what's very very important to us all which is our district and I am very very

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proud to know that you will be going out into the world representing Hawthorne. So thank you and congratulations. Um, I know that our fellow board, this entire meeting has been about the budget and about what's going on in our

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district. And as Lisa said, I want to thank you all for coming out and talking to us. And we hear you. We do. I know that doesn't mean a lot right now because of the position that we're in, but we do hear you. Um,

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most of us are parents. I myself have fifth grader who's going into Lincoln Middle School next year. And I have a um two a three-year-old now who will be going into kindergarten. And I have a two-month-old that will be going into this district as well when the time

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comes. So all of these decisions do affect me. It affects my family. It affects my children as well. It's been said a million times, we don't make these decisions lightly. And we don't make them selfishly. We don't make them what best serves us and what best

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serves an individual person. It's what serves our community and our district as a whole. Um, with that being said, please, please, please continue to show up, continue to raise your voice, continue to be heard here in this arena because this is the time to speak up. We

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all want to be a part of the decision-making process and this is where it can start. We have our public be heard, our open our open mic where you can come up and and talk and and speak about your concerns and you have

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the people who need to hear it in front of you here. So, I do implore you to come and speak and tell us what your concerns are are and how we can make it better because at the end of the day, we want more cooks in this kitchen. That's the only way that we're going to make

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this district a better place for not only our students now, but our students in the future. So, thank you. >> It is uh first, Jonathan, thank you so much for being a great student advocate uh this year and I'm sure you got quite

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the civics lesson today. >> Uh my mother told me that I have I was given two ears and one mouth for a reason. I just want to let everybody know thank you for coming this evening and I can speak on behalf of the board saying that we were listening and it was very

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impactful what you had to say this evening. I thank you for that. >> Thank you. Just like my fellow board members have thank you for coming out. I want to thank you for coming out. I want to thank you for having the uh the guts to go and get in front of that microphone. That is not the easiest

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thing to do. I do want to encourage you to continue to come out. you know, we've had two budget meetings already and we were here, you know, presenting to an empty auditorium. Uh, and like Mr. Toto, our president explained, these decisions get made far in advance because that's

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the time that the state allows. They basically give you two weeks to they let you know, they surprise you with how much state aid you're going to have and they give you a two week turnaround as as to be able to make that decision. So, I would encourage you to continue to come out come out throughout the year.

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Uh, there's something that's important to you, get it get in front of that mic and just, you know, just state, you know, advocate for what it is that is important to you. Uh, but at the same token, uh, the advocation that you're doing and the passion that you brought here tonight, I want to encourage you that I want to encourage you to take

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that to a higher level. We are just administrators of stewards of what's been handed down to us, handed down to us. It's been said over and over and over again, and I one of the parents mentioned it, numbers do not lie. a number for you, you know, a number that

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I want to leave with you is that the 7.4 tax levy that we went up this year, which is historical, we've never gone that high. I've been on the board 13 years. The highest we've gone up ever was 4.9 last year. This year we're up to 7.4. There's people who are in fixed

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income, who have no kids in the school system, who are hurting, and any cent that goes up in that budget, that affects them. Yet, that 7.4% that we went up, 77%. So 77% of that 7.44%

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is just for the health benefit inquiry. It's unsustainable. So that passion that you that you have and you brought it here, we need to take it to the legislative level. It is not acceptable. It is not right. We're not happy with it. You know, the machine is going to break. The system is going to

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break. Public education is going through a crisis. We definitely need to, you know, I think um Paul Dur mentioned they Mikey Cher are legislators at the federal level. We can't fix it. We just get given that number, the health

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insurance benefit number. So, that needs to be fixed. So, one, I encourage you to continue to come out, advocate at a higher level. It needs to be done. >> It needs to be done right now because the because the budgets that are the numbers that are that are coming into

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place for next year, next year's budget are already being cooked. Some of them are already in place. So next year, if we find ourselves in a situation like this, what do you cut? Because unlike the federal government, we can't print money. We actually have to balance our

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budget. Just like those of you that balance a checkbook at home, it's got to zero out. You can't there's no other way around it. So we find ourselves in this situation next year, what gets cut. Uh you know, it's kind of it's kind of scary what the situation looks like.

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Uh but on positive notes, I wanted to commend the high school on their car show. Their fundraiser was fantastic, including the uh presentation by the uh rock band. I also want to thank our PTOs um including our uh high school PTO as

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they're retiring this year. Thank you to uh every single one of the PTO. Thank you for all you guys do just like us your parent volunteers who are putting extra extra time into uh uh the education system. So thank you very much including with those tanks that will include project graduation CPAC and

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heck. Um also want to thank our retirees and wish them well as uh they move on to the next stage of their lives. They've all had they all have had a meaningful impact on our district. the dedication to

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education, our kids, and my my kids included. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh I'll end and be brief. Uh you know, everything's been kind of said for me and I echo my other board members. Uh congratulating Jonathan. Uh

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we appreciate having you up here. It's been a pleasure. Best of luck to you in the future. Um I too um and directly affected by this. I was a parent that was affected by a combined classroom. So, uh, when I say I'm with you, I was

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literally with you. I was in that situation. And I do have a, uh, fifth grade student who is so proud, so excited to, uh, represent Jefferson at the open house next week and play her flute. Right? So when we say we're

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directly affected, you know, we are in this literally and figuratively, not just as elected officials, but most of us as parents in the same exact situations that you're in and what you're expressing. It is not easy to be able to face that and and

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have to make some of these decisions at the same time. I can assure you, you conversation's had with my own daughter, that's not going to be an easy one to make, right? So, um, we do appreciate it and as Mr. Gio said, you know, we

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encourage you to come here throughout the year. As much as I know that our time is valuable and we recognize that, but we would strongly, we would appreciate it. We cannot understand sometimes it's literally just us, we would love to have you here and express

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that. I know it's it's it's it's saddens me because we really would appreciate to hear the public opinion, right? what parents have to say because it doesn't have to be when a monument is monumental issue occurs but kind of along the way

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right if something comes up get to that mic express it you may not realize it but there have things have been things that have changed directly because of someone coming to the mic and sharing something with us so we do encourage it we'd appreciate it and hopefully we can

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do our best to hear your voices and do something about it but along the way unfortunately as we said some of these issues are just were not obtainable to make those changes within the in the duration that we had. Um so with that I don't want to belver the subject. I appreciate

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everybody's time. Thank you for coming out. It is appreciated and uh I will express uh request a motion to adjourn. >> Thank you. >> Seconded by Miss Moy Bolson who wants to go home. >> Discussion

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roll call please. Mrs. Golf, >> yes. >> Miss Coulson, >> yes. >> Mr. Paloo, >> yes. >> Mrs. >> Yes. Sorry. >> Mrs. Phone, >> yes. >> Dr. Vega, >> yes. >> Mr. Carr, >> yes. >> Mr. >> Yes.

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>> Mr. Trump, >> yes. >> Mr. Thank you everybody for coming out. Have a great evening.