[Music] Hello and welcome to the Monday, October 13, 2025 Hillsboro Township Board of Education meeting. In accordance with the state sunshine law of New Jersey, adequate notice of this meeting of the Hillsbor Board of Education was provided on January 8th, 2025 to the Hillsboro
Beacon and the Courier News. Mr. Eckert, if we could please take role. >> Mr. Davis, >> here. >> Miss Jackson, >> here. >> Miss Craig, >> here. >> Miss Lanny Beater, >> here. >> Mr. Lee, >> Miss Nurse >> here, >> Miss Stats >> here,
>> Mr. Hill >> here, >> and Mr. Rainey >> here. And we have Mr. >> Mr. Lee. >> Mr. Lee. >> All right, we have a quorum. We could please stand for the pledge of >> allegiance to the flag of America
stands nation indivisible with all. [Music] >> All right. I would like to acknowledge the correspondences listed um for the board president's report. I
will read the following uh proclamation. Whereas New Jersey has the sixth highest rate of fatal youth drug overdoses in the the country due to inexpensive and highly pure heroin in New Jersey. And whereas opioid dependency can begin in just 5 days. And whereas 15% of New Jersey teens admit to drinking alcohol
for the first time before age 13 and 39% of New Jersey teens admit to smoking marijuana at least once daily. And whereas it is imperative that visible unified prevention education efforts by community members be launched to reduce the demand for drugs. And whereas the
National Family Partnership for Drug-Free Youth, the Hillsboro School District and the Hillsboro Milstone Municipal Alliance are sponsoring the National Red Ribbon Campaign offering citizens the opportunity to demonstrate their commitment to drug-free lifestyles. And whereas the Hillsburg Hunt Board of Education further commits
its resources to ensure the success of the Red Ribbon campaign and its 2025 theme, life is a puzzle. Solve it drug-free. And whereas businesses, government, law enforcement, schools, religious institutions, service organizations, youth, physicians, senior
citizens, military, sports teams, and individuals will demonstrate their commitment to drug-free, healthy lifestyles by wearing and displaying red ribbons during this week-long campaign. Now therefore, be it proclaimed that we, the Hillsboro Township Board of Education, do hereby recognize October
20th through 24th, 2025 as Red Ribbon Week and encourage the citizens of Hillsboro Township to participate in drugrevention activities, making a visible statement that we are strongly committed to a drugfree community. Okay. And that ends the board
president's report besides go Dodgers. Thank you, Mr. President. As part of my superintendence report tonight, um I have behind me the school self assessment uh for determining grades under the anti-bullying bill of rights. Uh by law, each of my schools have to do
a self assessment as to how they are doing related to anti-bullying measures and implementation. And believe it or not, it's a lot of work particularly on the people designated as the anti-bullying specialists. And behind me you will see the self- assessment grades uh which are reflective that we are
doing a lot of work in this area and this will be posted on our website if anybody would like to take a look at it as well. The numbers are within the range as to where we have been in the past and it is typical that we generally have high scores. As always we're looking to find as many ways to prevent bullying as possible and we will
continue to report on this uh each and every year. Additionally, small part of the superintendent's report today, I'm going to kick it over to Mr. Handler, who has a very minor update about redistricting and ways that we can engage with the community as we move forward.
>> Thank you. Uh in the topic of uh redistricting, we are going to be having three community engagement meetings um for the community to come out and uh discuss the district's uh redistricting plans. U one will be on Thursday, October uh 16th. That's this Thursday,
from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. U at Cafe Imanato, um which is right around the corner here on 220 Triangle Road. Um it's in Sweetite 225. Then we'll have a second one which will also be at Cafe Eminato um on Thursday, November 13th
from 1 to 3:00 p.m. And then finally, also on November 13th, we're going to have um one u meeting in the evening, November 13th at from 7 to 8:00 p.m. and that's going to be at the board office conference room. >> Thank you, Mr. Handler. And we as a board uh will take input from the public
at any time. You can always feel free to email us. But one of the things with the three meetings that we had, we wanted to have one meeting in the mornings, one meeting in the afternoon, and one meeting in the evening so that anybody who is interested can find a time of the day that works for them them. So we look forward to seeing you there. Uh and we
will report more about redistricting efforts at the later October meeting. And Mr. President, that concludes my superintendent report for today. >> Thank you very much. All right, we will move on to comments from the board public. We very much welcome input from the public. During board meetings, there'll be two 30-minute periods of
time that the meeting will be open for public comment where members of the public are invited to comment, which they may do if they are attending in person. Before you state your comment, you'll be asked to provide 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 offered as opportunities to share your thoughts with the board. In instances
where the board believes there's a misunderstanding or inaccuracy, the board president or superintendent will address the comment. There may be times when the member of the public makes a comment or ask a question about personnel or hiring decisions. Kindly note the open public meetings act and the privacy rights of public employees encompass therein do not permit the board to discuss personnel issues in
public session. Okay. Seeing no comments um any board comments before we continue? Okay. All right. We will now move on to the approval of minutes. Uh 8.1 motion to approve executive session minutes 92925
and 82 motion to approve regular meeting minutes 92925. Can I get a motion to second? >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> All in favor? >> Thank you. >> We'll now move on to the action agenda. >> Thank you, Mr. President. I'd ask for
the board's consideration of approval of the following motions in the area of education. professional travel related expenses, affirming the superintendent's HIV determinations for the attached cases, approving a lesson planner for work under the teacher climate and culture expansion grant, amending item
12.13 of the September 26, 2025 agenda, approving PSAT proctors for October 11th, the submission of additional grant application for Special Olympics Unified Champion Schools, accepting funds from Special Olympics Unified Champion Schools, and approving long-term
suspensions of students whose names are on file in the office of the superintendent. >> Can I get a motion? A second. >> Second. >> Any discussion by the board for the board votes? >> Seeing none, we'll move to roll. >> Mr. Davis, >> yes. >> Miss Jackson,
>> yes. >> Miss Craig, >> yes. >> Miss Landing Beater, >> yes. >> Mr. Lee, >> yes. >> Miss Nurse, >> yes. >> Miss Stats, >> yes. >> Mr. Ho, >> yes. >> And Mr. Marin, >> yes. Motion passes. >> Thank you. Thank you. In the area of human resources, I'd ask for the board's consideration of the approval of the
following motions. Resignations, leaves of absence, appointments, transfer and changes in assignment, science lab coverage, revised sixth period coverage, revised mentor assignment, revised bus driver hours, intramural and co-curricular advisors, and extra
coverage. >> Okay, I get a motion to second. >> Second. >> Any discussion by the board before the board votes? Seeing none, we'll move to roll. >> Mr. Davis, >> yes. >> Miss Jackson, >> yes. >> Miss Craig,
>> yes. >> Miss Lanning Beater, >> yes. >> Mr. Lee, >> yes. >> Miss Nurse, >> yes. >> Miss Stats, >> yes. >> Mr. Trillo, >> yes. >> And Mr. Marin, >> yes. Motion passes. >> Thank you. In the area of operations, I'd ask for the board's consideration to approve the following motions. monthly
financials, financial status, line item transfers, accepting donations, approving Perfect Your Words LLC service agreement, accepting the sale of a small bus through the interlocal vehicle sale agreement with Hunter County ESC, memorandum of understanding with a
county print shop, and a settlement agreement. >> Can I get a motion to second? >> Second. >> Any discussion by the board before the board votes? Seeing none, we'll move the role. Mr. Davis, >> yes. >> Miss Jackson,
>> yes. >> Miss Craig, >> yes. >> Miss Lenning Beater, >> yes. >> Mr. Lee, >> yes. >> Miss Nurse, >> yes. >> Miss Stats, >> yes. >> Mr. Ho, >> yes. >> And Mr. Marin, >> yes. Motion passes. >> Thank you. In the area of policies and regulations, I'd ask for the board's
consideration to approve the following policies and regulations from the last meeting that are now for second reading >> and abolishing policy 1648.15 for as a second reading. >> Okay, got a motion to second. >> Second.
>> Any discussion before we vote? >> Can I make a quick comment? >> Sure. And it's just me howling at the moon, but um just reading through these policy adjustments. I mean the here's this list of policies. I think there's nine of
them or 10 of them. And they're, you know, a couple of them are multi-pages long. >> It's hard a little hard to hear. Thank you. >> There we go. >> Thank you. >> I'm howling at the moon. um just these policies uh the these are all
examples of the types of things that descend upon us from Trenton and these are mandates their regulations their instructions their limits uh and some of them are you know
procedures for good practices and these types of things. the one uh about uh I guess it's educational policies uh statutory curricular requirements
uh you know it's it's it's a long list and you know embedded in this list are just all kinds of things you know that include you know we must acknowledge this group and that group and you know
Pacific specific people and this people and those people and uh it's just you know and for anyone who's interested it's just one more example of how it's really Trenton that runs the place and
uh so I'll vote for these things because there doesn't seem to be much of an alternative but uh the heavy hand of somebody is upon our shoulder says me.
>> Excellent. Thank you. Okay, seeing no other comments, we'll move to roll. >> Mr. Davis, >> yes. >> Miss Jackson, >> yes. >> Miss Craig, >> yes. >> Miss Lanning Beater, >> yes. >> Mr. Lee,
>> yes. >> Miss Nurse, >> yes. >> Miss Stats, >> yes. >> Mr. Heel, >> yes. >> And Mr. Marine, >> yes. Motion passes. We'll move on to the second public comment period. We very much welcome in any of the public during the board of meetings. There'll be two
30 minute periods of time. Then we be open for public comment where members of the public are invited to comment which they may do if they're attending in person. Before you state your comment, they'll be asked to provide your name and address. There's a three-inut limit on public comment. Please understand that our public forums are not structured as question answer sessions rather offers opportunities to share your thoughts with the board. And of
course the board in in 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 ask a question about personnel or hiring decisions. Kindly note the open public meetings act and the privacy rights of public employees comes therein do not permit the board to discuss personnel issues in public session.
>> Here she comes. Good evening. My name is Laca Gabberis, live in Hillsboro. Just wanted to give some updates. As you know, um, Red Ribbon Week is coming up October 20th to the 24th on 20 on the 22nd. Everyone is encouraged to wear red. If parents want to do that, parents, family, guardians,
like you know, join in the fun. Um, also just reminding you that yearbooks are on and for sale at at least at the middle school. Um, I believe at the high school too, probably other places as well. Um, there's a book fair going on at Aerys and HMS right now this week at Aerys.
There's a family night on Wednesday. Uh, you can also pick up your spiritware. And, uh, for the community in general, we're having a, um, a fundraiser at Chipotle on Wednesday, again, October 15th from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. You can use the online code 37B
D3 RV or show the the um the ad that's you can find us on Facebook. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. >> Okay, seeing no others, we will close public comment. Um, is there any comments or updates from board members? Mr. Ho,
>> I was just looking at the enrollment numbers. I just happened to open the two files and I was actually shocked to see that our district enrollment from September overall we're now 7,043.
>> That's correct. We dropped by 169 students and most of that came from well I guess there was like our elementary schools dropped by 161, ours went up by 35, HMS went down by 88 and the high school went up by 45, but the net was
169. And I'm just wondering um how that affects if at all redistricting efforts based on like this information whether it was like um if it's tallied with what what was that arcbridge had
created. So, uh, one of the things we have to look at when we are looking at the redistricting numbers is, uh, what the projected kindergarten class is, um, we're basing that on the current first grade population. Um, that's the best
number we can really go by. So in terms of populations will go up and down and we've seen that every year that usually there's um initially there's a spike because we get a lot of people who register but don't actually attend school or don't show up. Uh then the number will drop as year goes on it
tends to go back up again. Um I don't know if this really will affect we we will take a look again where our first grade class ends up um as we get closer to you know uh November December. I don't see that changing too much um in terms of what we're projecting for next
year. Um and in terms of Arcbridge, we're looking at their projections of what future developments are going to be bringing specifically to certain areas of the town um in terms of population growth. So, we're kind of taking that into account along with our current projected, you know, our current first
grade population is how we're kind of projecting what kindergarten will be next year. So, just to to follow up on that, S. So, we're looking at the real numbers that we have right now, which you did quote, but we're also looking at the projected developments that are going to be taking place between the next three to five years, and then like Mr. Hamler said,
and kind of guessing as to how many people are going to come in for kindergarten, trying to match that with the first grade number. So, all those variables are being taken into account, >> right? And one of the things that like I don't know if Arkbridge took into account because I don't they didn't have
a written report. It was more like graphs and charts. So there was like I don't remember seeing a narrative, >> but there is a larger profile throughout the United States of people having less kids. >> Yes.
>> And so I wonder if this is part of the trend that we're seeing that I wonder if it's captured in Arc Bridg's study. For example, although we're having new housing come online, those housing units may not
um result in the typical number of 2.1 kids that we've seen in the past. >> Yeah, they they are taking birth rates into account with the numbers that they have given us. Again, it's not an exact science. It's just the best projection that they can give us, but that is being taken into account. >> Thank you.
>> Any others? So, I will give a selfish plug here. The uh the girls soccer team uh has their county playoff game on Tuesday. So, we have nothing better to do at uh at 3:45. They just, if you looked at the nj.com article, was the upset of the year where
they beat Immaculata this past week, 2 to1. That's a team that almost beat the number one team in the country the week before. So, uh if you want to support the girls team, they play Immaculata again uh on Tuesday. So, selfish plug. I have two daughters on the team.
I'll be there >> tomorrow. >> It's t uh tomorrow. Yeah, tomorrow. Tuesday. Yep. 3:45 at Torpy, which is uh going towards Somerville. >> That's Any updates? >> Some updates from the high school so
far. I remember last meeting I mentioned the pep rally that was this past Friday. It went really well. There was a lot of involvement I would say. Um, we al student council also had a field trip to TCJ where we listened to a leadership seminar and then we learned about these
like K9 like this K9 therapy program. So, we're going to try and implement that into like some part of the school. Not that there's anything to um like we don't need therapy, but we want to bring the dogs to school.
We think it'd be fun. So, I'm working we're working with student council and the advisers and I are trying to work on that, but otherwise nothing really has been going on. Everything's going well. And our football team just won a game against Bridgewwater and one of our players is on a website. Have you guys
seen it? >> No. >> No. Well, I'm going to find the link and I'll tell you guys, vote for Andrew Schwarz on the football team because he's done really good this season. >> Awesome. Uh actually today we had the uh miraculous event for lack of a better
word of uh 20 hostages in Gaza being returned home and um many nations coming together to sign an agreement. I mean, all these really impossible events all seem to have taken place
today, and it's not something we should just let drift by unnoticed. >> Agreed. >> Good note. >> All right. Any other comments? If not, I'll take the motion. >> One one last comment. Yes. All the board
members, you have a red bag in front of you. I believe one of uh the person who came to speak talked about Red Ribbon Week and the township uh uh group uh township Red Ribbon Committee gave you all a little gift uh in honor of Red Ribbon Week. So, please feel free to use
all those. Those are yours to take home and uh and helping to practice a drug-free community. >> Awesome. Awesome. Thank you. >> All right. Uh given that Can we Mr. H? You want >> I was just curious um tomorrow's board retreat is that listed I was just trying
to find it. Is that listed on like our agendas? Not agendas, but like um the public's side so that the public knows that we're having a board retreat. >> You put notice, right? >> It was noticed. Yes. I don't know if it's
>> so but it's not listed on the website and so I feel just we've said in the past when we've had board retreats although they are meant for the board and we appreciate the opportunity to speak in public private >> I think still still important for the public to know that we are having a
board retreat. >> Sure we can put on the website we can update it. >> Appreciate that. No other comments. Okay. All right. Seeing no other comments, I'll take a motion to adjurnn. So move. >> All in favor?
>> Thank you. See you soon.