Hello and welcome to the Monday, August 25th, 2025 Hillsboro Township Board of Education meeting. In accordance with the state's Sunshine Law of New Jersey, adequate notice of this meeting of the Hillsborough Township Board of Education was provided on January 8th, 2025 to the Hillsboro Peacon and the Courier News.
Uh, Mr. Eard, if we could please take role. Mr. Davis, here. Miss Jackson, Miss Craig, here. Miss Lenny Beater here. Mr. Lee here, Miss Nurse here, Miss Stats here, Mr. Hill here, and Mr. Marine
here. We have a quorum. I will now take a motion to move into executive session. Whereas the Open Public Meetings Act, chapter 231, the laws of 1975, provide that a public body may exclude the public from the portion of the meeting of which the public body discusses certain matters for which confidentiality is required as permitted
in section 7B of the act resolved by the board of education in Taj Hills in the county of Somerset, the state of New Jersey as follows. The matter to be discussed is a HIB appeal. and matters discussed in executive session shall be disclosed to the public when the need for confidentiality no longer exists. Can I get a motion in a second? Second.
All in favor? We'll be back around 7:30. Thank you. Hello and welcome back to the Monday, August 25th, 2025 Hills Township Board of Education meeting. Uh we are now back from executive session. Uh Mr. Eert, if you could please take role.
Mr. Davis here. Miss Jackson. Mr. Craig here. Mr. Lonnie Beer here, Mr. Lee here, Miss Nurse here, Miss Stats here, Mr. Rio here, and Miss Marina here. We have a quorum. Let's stand for the pledge of allegiance.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to it stands one nation indivisible. We have no Oh, no. We do uh we do have a couple correspondents. We'll acknowledge
the correspondence as listed. Um there is no uh board president's report. So, we'll move on to the superintendent's report. Thank you, Mr. President. Uh couple brief things for my superintendent report tonight. And one of the things is something that the Hillsboro community is going to hear
from us on a monthly basis. And I want to make sure that everybody is aware of our redistricting efforts that are going to take place for 2026 2027. If you heard our last board meeting, you know that uh Mr. Joel Handler, one of our assistant superintendent, is the
point person. It's a team effort, but he is spearheading that charge and is trying to organize our thoughts and make sure we move forward. So, I want to inform everybody in Hillsboro of two things. Redistricting is indeed happening in the 2627 school year. We
are looking to uh around spring break let people know if they will be switching schools but redistricting certainly does mean that some students who are going to certain schools in 2526 will be going to different schools in 2026 27. So Mr. Handler once a month is
going to be giving the community uh an update as to where we are and what we are doing. Uh today is a very short update. Some other months are going to be a little bit longer but Mr. Handler I will kick it over to you. Sure. Um so just an update uh of where we stand right now. We've completed a comprehensive um room analysis across
all six elementary schools. Um we've definitely determined that some of the schools are at capacity or above capacity to some extent. Um so the assessment was based on detailed room utilization data, careful accounting of spaces and we looked at also spaces that
are dedicated to specialed self-contained um programs. So now we're actively looking um with our transportation department based on the calculations of what each school could um comfortably contain and um so now
we're working with transportation department and looking at zones to try to see how we can adjust those attendance zones. The goal is to achieve equalized student populations across each school that prevents overcrowding. So some schools have more capacity to hold students than others do. Um, so our
goal is to see if we can kind of maximize our space without overcrowding anyone based on uh borders and uh drawing redistricting lines. So we anticipate reviewing these findings with the administration over the next couple of weeks and we'll have more uh detailed
options later this fall. Thank you, Mr. Handler. And as I said, we will be reporting out on this uh every month. Uh some months are going to be much more detailed than others. One of the things we're focused on right now is the start of the school year. So redistricting efforts are going to kick right back in after we get that started.
Mr. Handler, thank you so much. And again, we will be reporting this out to the Hillsboro community once a month moving forward until that job is done. Um, item two on my superintendent report is uh twice a year we have to report out uh the data from our student safety data
system. Uh that goes to the state. Uh it then has to be uploaded and then verified. So, um, that is what is on the display behind me right now. What I'm looking to do as superintendent is look at this more longitudinally to see where we have spikes and where we might have
uh things that are uh getting better. Uh, but this is a comprehensive look at all incidents of violence, vandalism, substance, weapons, HIV confirmed and other incidents leading to removal per school. The one thing I am proud about when it comes to our student uh safety
data system reporting is that uh suspensions due to fighting at our uh high school this past year dramatically decreased uh I don't know the exact number but it's around 80% and for the entire school district our suspensions due to fighting overall we're down 60%
uh from all of our schools and I think that's due to the hard work of not only our administration but our new safety and security efforts under the leadership of David Stoko. So what I will be doing for the board members edification is I'll be comparing these six months to you know the past two or three six months and see if we are
moving in that right direction with the uh data that I know about fighting along with other similar data here as well. Uh it is a requirement that we report this out two times a year. So I'm just making sure that we have done that here and I'll report out to the board of any um data findings that I find when I do that
comparative analysis. And then the uh the bigger part of my superintendence report today is from Dr. Lisa Rabimus who is going to be uh again a state requirement that we report out to the public our uh results for the NJGPA and the access test for ELLs and
this is her first presentation to the public of Hillsboro. So good luck Dr. Rabimus. You're going to do a great job and if you could just uh take it away from this point that'd be great. Thank you Mr. Holy. So good evening everyone. Tonight I will be reporting the results of the NJGPA and access for
English language learners state assessments that were administered this past spring. Statute requires New Jersey graduation profic proficiency assessment or NJGPA to be administered to all 11th graders.
The NJGPA measures the extent to which students are graduation ready in English language arts and mathematics. The ELA component is assigned to grade 10 standards. The mathematics component is aligned to algebra 1 and geometry
standards. The New Jersey board state board of education establishes the score that determines if a student is graduation ready. This year, students continue to need a minimum score of 725 in English language arts and mathematics in the
NJGPA in order to be considered graduation ready. Students who do not meet the minimum score of a 725 on each component of the NJGPA will receive targeted instruction and will retake the components for which they are not yet
graduation ready. If after the fall administration students do not meet the minimum score requirements, they may meet a designated cut score from an approval set of substitutes tests which will be shared
with districts in October 2025 or complete a portfol portfolio appeal. So based on the NJGPA spring results, 94.1 of the class of 2026 is determined to be graduation ready in English
language arts. In mathematics, 83.6 of the students of the class of 2026 are deemed graduation ready. As you can see, the scores, the 2025 scores are within one point of the 2024
scores in both ELA and math, and the district continues to exceed the state average percent of students determined as graduation ready. This also means that we are well below the not graduation ready percentage as compared
to the state, which is where we want to be. This graph compares the 2024 and 2025 NJGPA results. While they are separate cohorts of students, we are holding steady in
the percentage of students who are graduation ready in both ELA and math from year to year. This next graph displays graduation readiness on the NJGPA by ethnicity and race. To project to protect student
confidentiality, the sample size for reporting results is a minimum of 10. As such, some subgroups are not being reported tonight. A slightly lower percentage of our black and Hispanic Latino students are graduation ready in
ELA than the district percentages. and a lower percentage of our black and Hispanic Latino students are graduation ready in math than the district percentages. Students who are not graduation ready will be identified for support prior to
retesting in October. Once we receive confirmation from the state board of education of the menu of alternative assessments, we will be able to determine how many students have already met these graduation requirements. A look at our graduation readiness on
the NJGPA by program shows a lower percentage of our students with IEPs are graduation ready in both ELA and math than our general education students. Additionally, a lower percentage of students who are economically disadvantaged are graduation ready in
math than our non-economically disadvantaged students. Again, students who are not graduation ready will be identified for additional support prior to retesting in October. Additionally, as a reminder, to protect student confidentiality, the sample
sizes for reporting results with less than 10 students are not reported tonight. So, our key takeaways, Hillsboro Township Public Schools continues to demonstrate exceptionally strong overall performance um on our NJGPA scores in
ELA and mathematics, significantly exceeding state averages. Additionally, the data identifies clearly specific subgroups, particularly students with IEPs, multilingual learners, and economically disadvantaged students who require targeted
interventions um to enhance their graduation readiness. The next assessment I'll report out on is the access for English language learners. The assessing comprehension and communication in English state-to-state
or access is the assessment for English language learners in grades K through 12 to assess their English language proficiency. The results of the data inform our instruction for our English language learners, now known as multilingual
learners. The proficiency levels shown on this right side of the slide range from entering through reaching proficiency. When students reach an access for L's proficiency of 4.5 or higher, which falls between the
expanding and bridging, they are exited from our English language learning program. If additional multiple criteria support that decision, they are exited. This table displays the performance of our multilingual learners in our ESL
program on the access test. This past spring, 114 students were tested. As a reminder, to protect to protect the confidentiality, this data was combined for reporting purposes.
Additionally, students, as I mentioned, exit from ESL when they achieve at least a score of 4.5 on the access for English language learners and they achieve multiple criteria to support that decision. Again, 4.5 is between
expanding and bridging proficiency levels. That's the presentation for this evening. you did it. Congratulations. Thanks. Um the big takeaways that she mentioned there is that we are doing a good job um educating our students, but we also
continue to see those gaps in certain areas that we have seen over time. And Lisa, that's one of the reasons why I'm so excited to see you in this role. and and I I'll say this very qualified that if anybody has any questions for Lisa after I'm done. She's been here seven weeks and uh you have an excellent
background from being a supervisor, middle school principal, director of special services focused on special ed uh that you and I were starting to have some con real conversations about how we can best support those students and close those gaps. So I look forward to that work over time. We don't have all the answers right now, but do any board
members have any question for Dr. Rabimus while we're concluding this? Thank you, Lisa. You did it. Thank you, Mr. President. That concludes my superintendent's report. All right. Thank you very much. Uh we
will now move on to committee reports. Uh we can first move to HR. Thank you. Um the HR committee met uh this past Wednesday, August 20th. Um we
first um were presented with revised job descriptions for interventionists and content specialists. Um the uh revisions were needed to reflect um best practices and the current workload um of those
jobs. Um we uh were given information about um exit interviews from the second half of the school year. um those were combined with the first um so we also revisited um exit interviews
from the first part of the year and then moving forward um the uh that information is going to be shared towards the end of uh the school year as opposed to two different times during the year. And finally, we had uh a
discussion about a uh concern regarding a new hire. And that was it. Great. Thank you very much. Um Miss Jackson is not here tonight, so I will cover the minutes from the education technology committee uh on
August 12th. Um three of the four members were present. Uh so the items discussed the first was the concurrent enrollment agreements uh and discussing the agreements with Ryder, TCJ, Satan Hall and RBCC. Uh
there was a a a lengthy conversation around enrollment fees which I think Dr. Rabimis is going to follow up with us on that information. Uh but the committee unanimously agreed to move those forward for the full board's consideration tonight. Uh we did review the revised
course proposals for education and training one and 2 CP um and those are moved forward tonight and then the revised curriculums for al algebra 3 trigonometry which also is moving forward. Uh we then just talked about some meeting dates. Uh and we got
a preview of the presentation that was just given to us now. And I think the last uh item was on book adoptions and there was some discussion about providing copies of the books to the committee members um to each committee member. So they had a chance to review
those uh before the meeting. Um and then there was a discussion on on the one course uh race in the United States. um hasn't been offered in quite some time and we had a high level conversation really in general about if a course isn't offered for a while, how
do we ensure that if we choose to offer a course again, how do we ensure that the teachers are prepared to offer that? That's not obviously not a course you could just jump in and say, "Hey, Miss Smith, just teach this course. Go for it." So, in general, uh potentially some
future discussions on um you know, putting courses on a on a you know, non-active status and reviewing them before they're offered again. So, that'll be a continued discussion within uh the committee as we move forward. Uh and then a very uh good detailed
conversation about artificial intelligence in the classroom. Um uh that went on for a good amount of time, but we got a lot of detail on how how the staff is using it, how students are allowed to use it, and some discussion on if we need to make any adjustments to the student handbook on
on the use of AI and education. So, it was actually a fairly thorough and and detailed meeting. Um and that's the end of that. So, we will move on to operations. Thank you, Mr. Davis. Uh we met on Friday, August 15th. Um all
of the board members were present to virtual to uh in person and uh the primary conversation had to do with uh our attorney representation
and uh there were three firms that were being considered and we took time to interview each one. They joined us virtually kind of like in a Zoom meeting and um one of them will be
on the agenda this evening uh to move forward in that representation. Actually two of them in in different ways. uh rather lengthy conversation about uh when we rent our facilities to other agencies, to public agencies, uh should
we require uh security or different kinds of security concerns. And it's one of these things that just sounds obvious on face value until you start cooking it around and then it turns out, oops, wait, that's more complicated than we thought. But so that is will continue to
be on the conversation because it's an important issue. Um we have uh our audit is coming up for the 2425 year. So far our auditor has no
uh recommendations or or reports to make and so that's good news. and uh full day kindergarten uh facilities conversations were were also on the agenda. Uh and one of the primary issues there is
bathrooms. You if you're going to have all day kindergarten, you you have to have facilities suitable for the kids. And uh Mr. Eert gave us an an interesting piece of information that uh
our school district's bond rating has been upgraded and so I guess that will have benefits down the road assuming it stays up there and that was about it. Thank you. All right. Thank you. And we had no
topics so we had no governance meeting uh this month. All right. So we will now move on to the first public comment period. We very much welcome input from the public. During board meetings, there'll be two 30-minute periods of time. The meeting is open for public comment where the members of the public are invited to comment which they may do if they're attending in person. During the first
public comment period, members of the of the public may comment about any items that are listed on tonight's agenda before the board votes. During the second public comment period, members of the public may comment on any school or school district issue that a member of the public feels may be of concern to the residents of the school district. As per bylaw 0167, before you state your
comment, you'll be asked to write your name and address. There's a three-minute limit on public comment. Please understand that our public forums are not structured as question and answer sessions but rather offers opportunity to share your thoughts with the board. An instance where the board believes there's a misunderstanding or inaccuracy the board president or superintendent will address the comment. There may be times the member of the public makes a
comment or ask a question about personal or hiring decisions. Kelly note ne public meetings act and the privacy rights of public employees encompass their operate the board discuss personnel issues in public session. Okay, seeing none we will close the first public comment period. Uh any comments by the board before we
continue? Miss stats. I just want to clarify or ask a question when about the education committee meeting. Um was it that there were was the uh racism course wasn't offered or that there was enough wasn't enough enrolled enough signs? So,
it's been offered once, but I don't Yeah, the course in question ran the semester after it was created, I believe, in the fall of 2020, and it hasn't run since that time. Um, because there hasn't been, I think, sufficient student interest and it's kind of gone
by the wayside. So, the conversation kind of happened like what do we do with courses like that? I I just want to make sure people are aware that it was students could sign up for it. There just wasn't enough. They could have. Yeah, they could have signed up. Yes, that's correct. Thank Thank you for
clarifying the question. Okay. Okay. So, we will now move to the approval of minutes. Motion to approve regular minutes. Uh 72825. Can I get a motion? A second. Second.
All in favor? Okay. Oh, you're going to abstain. Okay. Thank you. Okay. So, we have two abstain. Three abstainates. One, two, three, four, five. Mr. Lee, Miss Lanny Peter, and Miss Nurse all abstinct.
Yeah. So, we have five. So, we can accept that. Okay. We'll now move on to the action agenda. Okay. As for the board's consideration to approve the following motions in the area of education, uh motion to approve travel related expenses, affirming the
superintendent's HIV determinations, approving staff being paid by fiscal year 2026 IDA preschool grant funds, the submission of the ESA grant application and accepting funds for fiscal year 2026, approving concurrent enrollment
agreements, the revised course proposal for education and training 1 and 2 CP. P revised curriculum for algebra 3 trigonometry. Uh funds for the TCJ PDSN educator inquiry project grant. Uh the long-term suspensions of students whose
names are on file in the office of superintendent and the one walk-on item. I have a walk-on 11.10 recommend that the following that following an appeal case number HHS 202425038 be affirmed.
That's not clear. be affirmed. Uh, can I get a motion in a second? So, move. Second. Any discussion by the board before the board votes? Seeing none, we'll move to roll. Mr. Davis,
yes. Miss Craig, yes. Miss Navigator, yes. Mr. Lee, yes. Miss Nurse, yes. Miss Stats, yes. Mr. Hill, yes. And Mr. Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. In the area of human resources, I'd ask for the board's consideration to approve the
following motions. Resignations and retirements, appointments, revised appointments, rescending appointments, transfer and changes in assignments, change in employment status, group changes, leaves of absence, coaches for 2526,
volunteers for 2526, the auxiliary athletic event pay rates for 2526, the master schedule supporter, homeless liaison, school counseling department stipen positions for 2526, mentors and buddies for 7526 6 and seven period
coverage extra science lab coverage extended media center hours uh stipen payment for earning a doctoral degree extra coverage for 2425 which was missed uh ESY staff and summer work for 2025
and summer camps for 2025. Can I get a motion and a second? Second. Any discussion by the board for the board votes? Seeing none, we'll move to roll. Mr. Davis, yes. Miss,
yes. Miss Lenner, yes. Mr. Lee, yes. Miss Nurse, yes. Miss Stats, yes. Mr. Hill, yes. And Mr. Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. In the area of operations, I'd ask for the board's consideration approve the following motions. Monthly bills, line
item transfers, financial status, monthly financials, the 100 county educational services agreement. Approving board attorney retainer agreement with the Bush Law Group for the 2526 school year. Approving attorney agreement with Fogerty, Hara, Lepira, Cherry LLC for special education
services for the 2526 school year. Approving out of district placements for 2526. Accepting additional funds from the state of New Jersey. accepting a donation and approval and disposal and sale of obsolete equipment. Okay, I get a motion to second. So move second.
Any discussion by the board for the board votes? I I just have one thing and I you know with talking to uh and Mr. Marini just a little bit. I I think it was partially due to my
recollection or lack of correctly recing, but I thought when we had talked about um looking at a board at a law firm before that we did it as um the
full board. Uh and you know, Mr. Marini had helped fill me in about why that might have been the situation then, but I am going to abstain tonight on that 13.6 six just because I think it's a conversation that we should uh bring back to the full board about something
such as the hiring where it's the p the group that is representing all of us as a board um that we might I would like to hear other people's thoughts on whether that should be a full board um selection and just going through the process a little bit more. just
thank you. Um well technically we could do that now right as a full board discuss it. Sure. I guess the the only thing that I would suggest too because Miss Nurse to your point
that there could be other things out there that even other board members want to discuss uh as a full board. So, I know um I did recently send out to you from Monica Brown like a pre-talk about the board retreat. So, if anybody has any questions about, you know, what
comes to the full board versus what comes to a committee, that could be something that we discuss at the upcoming board retreat as well. I just don't want to put pressure on the board that you have to figure this all out right now. If it's a board dynamic thing, which we have questions about, there's a mechanism that we have soon to uh to talk about those kinds of things,
too. Okay. All right, seeing no other comments, we can move to roll. Mr. Davis, yes. Mr. Craig, yes. Miss Lanny Beater, yes.
Mr. Lee, yes. Miss Nurse, yes. Except to abstain from 13.6. Miss Stats? Yes. Mr. Hill? Yes. And Mr. Yes. Motion passes. And just a follow on comment, and I made this point to you.
the the lawyer group representing us is kind of at will. So, if we choose to change that at any point in time, we're not committing to a year's service or anything in that regard. So, um we have somebody to represent us under under an agreement now and we will we can have those discussions as often as we choose.
All right. Uh yeah, then we'll back back to comments from the public. We very much welcome everyone from the public. During the board of meetings, there'll be two 30-minute periods of time that the meeting will be open for public comment where the members of the public are invited to the comment which they may do if they're attending in person. During the second public comment period, members of the public may comment on any school or school district issue. The
member of the public feels may be of concern to the residents of the school district as per law 0167. Before you say your comment, you ask provide your name and address. There's a third minute limit of public comment. Please understand there are public forms not structured as question answer sessions rather offers opportunities to share your thoughts with the board. In instance where the board believes there's a misunderstanding or inaccuracy, the board president or superintendent will address the comment.
There may be times a member of the public makes a comment or ask a question about personal hiring decisions. Kindly note the public meetings act the private rights of public employees and cumbers there do not permit the board to discuss personnel issues in public session. Seeing none we will close public comment. Uh open up one more time to the board if there's any comments or
updates. Can I can I make a comment first? I don't want to step on any board members. Um we started new staff orientation today. Uh Dr. Rabimus and Mr. handler were the the main point people for that. Not only did they do a wonderful job, but what an outstanding group of
professionals that we have hired this year. Uh not only were they attentive and smart when they needed to be, but they had a good time, I believe, and really enjoyed themselves. So, they have three other days this week where they're going to be coming. And one thing that we are doing new this year that we haven't done before is uh Thursday
afternoon, we're bringing three buses here to Alton Road. We are loading up all the new staff members. Mr. Handler, myself, and Miss Poval will be each on a bus, and we will be tour guides for an hour and a half through Hillsboro where they're going to visit all nine schools,
see the more populated areas, see the farmlands, see the sours, get around, and also maybe find a place or two to eat. So, um, I'm really proud of the work that, uh, Lisa and Joel have done with this, but I'm also really looking forward to working with an outstanding
group of professionals. Um, and tomorrow we are having uh as a little break during the day for 15 minutes a rock paper scissors tournament as we have for the past couple years and the overall winner will play me for a very important trophy which those of you are here you can see it. It's up on the stage right
over there. Um, but I'm just really looking forward and excited to the new uh school year with staff all coming back next Tuesday and then students coming back next Thursday. Next time you hear from us as a board, school will be back in session. Now I'm done. All right,
Miss Nurse. Um, I just unfortunately I was out of state at our July meeting, so I know that it was a very active um meeting and a lot of discussion with budget. Um, and I just I wanted to throw my two cents in. I know that a lot has been posted on
social media. We received a lot of emails. Um, and you know, I got my tax bill for August 1st, my estimated taxes, and I did probably with what many people did, and I knew I wasn't exactly right, but I just did it anyway. And I
multiplied it by four. And then I looked back to see what I had paid last year, and I knew I'm like, wait a minute, that can't be right. So, I, you know, made a call to Mr. Eert. Um, and I also, and this is what I wanted to recommend, I
made a call to, um, the tax collector's office to make sure I was doing my math correctly. Um, and so I asked what I paid last year and what I'm going to be paying this year. And not only did I ask
that to see the total increase, but I asked specifically what were my school tax portion was last year and what it was this year. And my school taxes were raised in between
$7 and $800. Um, which was very much on point to what was presented. Um I know that we used um a budget of or something around $500 versus like on a five or $600,000. So I you know I did simple
math and and divided per $100,000 and and estimated that way and it was very accurate. Um so it just if you think that you your number seems a little high, I I would definitely recommend making those calls. Um, I know that
you've heard from many of us that we struggled to make that decision. Um, and it and it was a struggle and it was something that we didn't want to do, but the choice was to, you know, for me the choice was to vote yes or to watch our schools fail, which also um, makes our
community fail. But really, I just encourage you to make sure you have the right numbers. And I I believe my total taxes went up. I'm sorry I didn't bring the numbers today, but I think probably in between 11 and $1,300.
So, when people from other political groups within our town try to point the finger at the school district, it very much saddens me that we are not more in a partnership. Um, and I've mentioned
this before with the township council, but 700 roughly $1,700 was school, but that still leaves $3 to $500 that was not part of the school taxes. So, um, if
everyone who really wants to know the significance of how much school taxes actually went up for them, I I definitely recommend making those phone calls because it was very helpful to me and I think I was pretty much on top of the information um, for those past few
months. So, I just really really recommend doing that. Thank you. Thank you for your comment, Miss Stats. I I just want to clarify that I really don't think it was a choice between you know our schools succeeding and our
schools failing. Um we did have that in between option where that this definitely would not have resulted in our schools failing would have gone uh we would have saved uh whatever what would have been cut and also add more to that. So I don't think it was that dire
choice. Well, that was why I said in my opinion, in my opinion, that's what the choice I had to make. Any other board members? Yeah, I just as a small comment. I did speak to a handful of people the last couple of weeks and everyone just multiplied their Q3 by four and freaked
out and I'm like, don't do that. Reach out, have the same conversation. Um, on your bill it says do not multiply by four. That's not your total. So, I missed that. But yeah, listen, it's you see the number and you get sticker shock and you your brain shuts down and then you just you go to the base
instinct of times this by four. So is what it is. Uh I think people if they follow your advice they can find out the exact number and change from the previous year uh from the township. So good. All right. Seeing no other comments, uh I think
we'll then take a motion to adjurnn. So moved. Second. All in favor? I. All right. See you next time. Thank you.