I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the andice that was lovely [Music] thank you school's in session now pursuant to the open public meetings
act adequate notice of this meeting has been provided as follows by having the time date and place of the meeting posted on the bulletin board in the administration building January 8th 202 5 by sending a copy of the meeting notice to The Star Ledger newspaper and
the local Source on January 8th 2025 and by filing a copy with the township of Hillside and Hillside Public Library January 8th 2025 roll call please board member egii
present board member hardgrave present board member estrera absent board member Horton given here Dr Howard board member of Kai
here board member Parks here board member Shapiro here president best present and Mr estrera yes [Applause]
present you have a quorum we have a quorum thank you okay so I will turn it over to our superintendent there's a lot of uh festivities this evening it's always about the students
peace and blessings good evening everyone good evening everyone good to see good to see everyone make sure everyone's ready this evening as you can tell our babies our Scholars from AP Moos I don't want to
call them babies get them upset at me our Scholars from AP mois Early Childhood Center are here and this month of February is theirs so for the next 10 minutes we're going to be blessed with their performances their work and for
those in the audience and who are watching why do I have one of our Scholars sitting next to me on the day is because while his classmates or his peers are doing some unique performances several of our students are demonstrating their coding and after
they're done coding they're going to to demonstrate and show what they've done in 10 minutes 10 minutes so I want you just be prepared so as they're doing their work he's folus up here taking notes and getting his code on and I believe there's some more students in
the back corner that are also coding so let the show begin Miss palag and team come forth [Applause] [Music]
I've got peace peace peace in my heart I've got peace peace peace in my heart I've got peace in my heart that is where it's got to start I've got peace peace peace in my
heart I will jump for joy every day I will jump for joy every day I will jump for joy just like every girl and boy I will jump for joy every
day I will wait for what I believe I Will Wait For What but I believe I will I believe that we all live inace I willit for what I
believe I will clap clap clap clap my hands I will clap clap clap clap hand I will clap clap my hands till all people understand I will clap clap clap clap my
hands I've got peace PE peace in my heart I got peace peace peace in my heart I got peace in my heart that is where it's got to start I got PE PE PE in my
[Music] heart e [Music] let's give our students another big round of applause you know at that age they're usually nervous but they're not
nervous they can come up and do whatever they want to do because they have no fear right they have no fear before I introduce myself I would like to say good evening to each and every one of you good evening Mr Glover good evening
Madame President best and good evening to all the board members my name is Victoria pal Millard I am the proud principal of AP moris Early Childhood Center and just a few you know just giving you a few things about our AP
Mars we have presently in our pre3 for fif first grade and kindergarten classes 623 students and we're growing that's a lot right we also have a daily average percentage rates of 92.4% our prek registration just FYI is
open now it's going to close on March 10th however next week on March 5th we have an evening registration from 4: to 6 that's for our prek 3 and4 new registrations for the 204 25 26 school
year this is our vision statement for our young scholars they are inquisitive imaginative and enthusiastic Learners who achieve academic success they develop critical thinking social and emotional skills through Cooperative
learning and productive play and fun as you heard them say earlier positive learning experience create lifelong learners who are caring independent and independent thinkers that contribute to the community now let's go to our Educators
they are inspired by all Scholars to succeed academically and socially a strong professional community of teachers staff and administrators who collaborate to create nurturing School environment with rigorous instructional
standards data is frequently analyzed and instruction is continuously examined and implemented best practices I'm sorry best instructional practices last but not least what can we do without our families and our community they're vital to our success
for our skyers the partnership between home and school is valid the families and Community are actively involved in the school activities and decision making family members are given an opportunity to develop academic knowledge to support the needs of our
Scholars academic goals well 100% Mastery right no brainer and math and Ela grade level standards in order to a achieve those standards our goals we follow and we focus on the 3s and the 3sr standard
skill and strategy our practices are all aligned to our district priority goals beginning with attendance and celebration now without prek to first grade class students how do I get to school who
brings them to school do they walk do they take a cab he said no do they get on the uh School Bus yeah but somebody got to bring them to the bus stop right so with that said it's the parents it's the Guardians that's responsible for
bringing our students our Scholars to AP Mars Childhood Center and because of that we celebrated for the first time this year parents who had 100% students who had 100% attendance but for the parents for bringing them to school and
as you can see on the screen to our left that's the celebration we had over a hundred parents on our first celebration and we will be doing that every marking period we also celebrate students and how do we do that we make sure that students in classes are rewarded with 10
or more days with perfect ascendance but our goal 95% attendance and as I mentioned earlier we're right there attendance celebration along with our districtal operational excellence Excellence you can see the celebration we had in those two
screens to the left is with the parents and to the right is with the students as Mr Glover said we have one of our Scholars up on the top over there look at him look over there look and we are in partner Student Success with scratch junr coding program
part of our district goal Student Success and as you can see on the screens they are working carefully and they're working in the back putting a code together just to show you the scratch Junior uces students to coding in fun interactive ways our first grade teachers are integrating and all
coding into content areas and just as a tip our kindergarten students are now being integrated for the 25 26 school year so that's coming out also we're having a special family scratch coding night on March 20th and you're all
invited professional development well professional development is important because in order for our teachers to be successful and to make sure that our students are successful staff members take part in a book study focus on building capacity and resilience each teacher received one of
these books a group of teachers were able to group up and present how they can Implement resilience strategies and striving during the times of anxiety doubt and consent challenges we believe
in building teachers capacity to lead weekly staff recognition well in order to make sure that our teachers know that we appreciate them and we want to make sure that we lift up their Spirits we shout them out weekly shout out to staff members for their dedication and achievements boosts morale and creates a
positive School culture to assist in reten to assist in in retention and again engaged Workforce these are some pictures that we post up by our time sheets or our actually our Bo and also we have a honey
shout out area where we post all of our teachers and different shout outs for each and every one of them every week now this is the first our prek ambassador program our prek AP Mars and Early Childhood Center has been chosen as a model school for Creative
curriculum and teaching strategies in fact we are the only school in the state of New Jersey that has been modeled and is currently part of this program and this is building strong
foundation for our youngest Learners just a few sample pictures of our prek ambassador program models we have one of our prek classes just on the floor just doing a you know outside the classroom just reading to each other and also building with Legos one of our
other prek classes Scholastic read real Mentor program mentorship program connecting students with reading mentors fostering a love for reading and building a library at home again District goal is
partnership family reading challenge Foster a love for reading across the school Community families participate in Reading challenging logging reading books together and also an open door policy at AP Mars Early Childhood if any family wants to come in and read to our
classes and our students they're welcome to come building partnership partnership without Hillside High School collaboration with Hillside High School students to create a life-size Story characters and as you
can see here these are some of the few characters that they created and it's going to go throughout the school students will begin to be ify Our Story characters in our Auditorium and also an art mosaic form in an art mosaic form math and literacy night was taking
place last week and we had over a hundred parents and Guardians each family received books site word sets and math strategies to practice with their Scholars at home again District goal is our Student
Success data driven results as you can see based on our attendance as we just mentioned we have monthly increased 100% class attendance um attendance of 100% or more uh where they have to have six days or more and then they will get 100%
attendance and for our academics grade one Link at math more than double the percentage of students at or above the Benchmark by beginning of the year to Moi middle of the year K1 dibble's literacy results steadily is growing
with a 10% increase in students meeting The Benchmark and we're still growing reading reward Student Success I'm see rewarding Student Success achievement this is just some of the pictures that we took before um uh during the attendance so if they have
100% attendance we give a Friday night or Friday afternoon sorry and they will go down to the gym and we would just reward them with just a free play time and they love it now for the grand finale are you ready for the coding was that 10 minutes maybe
less okay are we ready 10 less than was it less than 10 minutes okay so in less than 10 minutes our Scholars were able to code a program just for you are you
ready and once they are next to a board member we would like to turn the Chromebooks around so we can show our parents our Guardians and also our online audience thank you very much I hope you enjoyed
AP Mar's Early Childhood presentation thank [Applause] you principal p p can you just speak a little more about the scratch Junior coding program for those who in the audience may be
interested in learning how long the students have been coding and what it's actually a partnership with who is a partnership with thank you scratch Jud and coding has been going around for about for a year with our school we started last year with our first graders they were so successful in
addition to that we started again this year and in addition now we were so successful in that that we brought it back so that the kindergarten school discon sty code and that's why in our family coding night we're going to invite kindergarten parents so that when they come into first grade or
kindergarten they'll have at least a heads up in terms of what the coding program looks like oh I'm sorry our partnership is with I apologize our partnership is with Amazon boot up I'm sorry
nervous thanks that was the first thing give a round of applause once again to all of our students at AP moris Early Childhood Center now I know if I leave them up here they'll stay all night teaching I know I
know let me I'm G show everybody board members if you don't mind taking the laptops and turning around so Miss Palmer I'm sure some folks want to know what grades are represented tonight so you might want to share that all first
[Applause] graders haveen okay thank you so much thank [Music] you as our young scholars are making their way back to their seats I just want to say that so I was
in a meeting a couple days ago and someone said to me you know there are a lot of adults who are afraid of technology I just want to kind of put that challenge out there if you're nervous about technology look at our five our five and six years old sixy old children as they're doing at work coding
is challenging and they're mastering at a young age already let's give a round of applause once again to our babies Madame President if you don't mind I'm just gonna give our parents and our babies a chance our Scholars excuse me our young
scholars if you need to leave we understand because it's important to nourish them as well as go home and read to them read with them read to them and listen to them so if you leave we don't
mind I want to make sure I give you that opportunity we are about to so I know again to our parents can all the parents in the room just stand up real quick all the parents in the room that should be just about everyone but all the parents in the room parents thank you for bringing your
children out tonight allowing us to educate them you know so often you I hear the the Rumblings and the tones throughout our community as sometimes that's what's happening in the schools and while everyone's not logging on and checking our board meetings these are
live and they live forever and anyone can go look at them but the true Testament is what happens in the classroom every day and if the kids weren't learning something they wouldn't have the confidence to stand up here and do what they just did family math and literacy night was an overwhelming success that was an
opportunity for you also to see what's happening the books that are children are bringing home as an opportunity for you to also engage with them so please share the word spread the word let everyone know that there are things happening in the classroom that make your children love coming to school here in Hillside Public Schools it's not just
about the superintendent or the teachers it's also about you and I thank you and I appreciate you so next I would like to bring forth our high school student representative Mr Cole the mic is yours sir thank you good evening everyone good
evening first I'd like to apologize for being late um so I am my name is O Cole I am the Board of Education representative for Hillside High School and I'm here for the purpose of letting the Hillside High School
students voices be heard in recent weeks Hillside High School has had events that have allowed for students to come together and have a good time some of these events were student council's Wing off and Cupcake Wars where students had the ability to come after school to try wings and
cupcakes made by teachers and other staff members and vote for what they felt deserve to be the winner these events were very successful and had students asking for when the next events would be held one event that students are clamoring to have returned is the
student versus faculty basketball game this event has been longstanding a longstanding favorite among students and staff alike while other students versus faculty events have been approved in other buildings the high school has has been denied the opportunity of Hosting
this type of event the students versus faculty basketball game has approved has been approved in the past to the biggest morale has been proved to be the biggest morale boosting event that strengthens student teachers relationships and greatly improves the climate and culture
of the building this event is organized by the student council but provides a chance for other student groups to be involved the art Club creates the signs the dance Department assembles and h a half game routine and the TV production creates a hype video athletes play
cheerleaders cheer and the alumni return to campus campus to reference the event and to name a few to name a few as stated earlier this is a long-standing favorite event for the student body staff and HHS alumni please advise what
steps must be followed in order for for this beloved event to return to Hillside High School the student council takes it upon themselves to decorate the hallway to make the school more lively welcoming and promote a positive School culture and environment they spend hours after
school decorating the walls on both the first floor and the second floor unfortunately some students feel as though they should take it upon themselves to remove and tear down these decorations if anyone were to offer a solution as to what we can do to discourage students from tearing down
these decorations it would be greatly appreciated students are expressing their frustration with those who feel as though uh they should pull down Pull fire alarms when there's no fire or those students who trigger the smoke alarms to go off resulting in a whole
schoolwide evacuation and disruption in instruction being delivered students are eager for there to be meaningful and deterrent consequences put on these offenders if anyone were to be able to uh add anything or suggest anything to
solve this problem it would be greatly appreciated thank you [Applause] Mr Cole thank you for your report and I thank you for also expressing how the students frame their questions towards
you so that you bring them back to the community I do know that there are several of you at the high school are pretty sharp-minded and coming up with some positive resolutions to some several of the things noted I know recently recent conversations I've had with some of your peer groups have
already begun to generate some very positive suggestions and I think as you continue to communicate that with your administrators as well as with the rest of the students who may sometimes be off track um you will come to some healthy resolution so we're going to begin the
superintendent report for this evening board members you all have a copy if you would like to follow along in addition to some other documents staff who are in the audience you should also have a copy of a couple doc that were put out and there's also some documents up here for those who may have missed
it our mission our vision always remain the same never change because it's a focus and our North Star and how we are going to make sure we ensure world class education for our students new Pathways new possibilities
new Pride I think it's essential that we continue to mention that word new Pride especially in the climate that we are currently living in nationally when there there's such divisive words language and energy geared towards so many pride is a key word pride is a word
that speaks to a unifying sense of accomplishment and belonging pride is something that should never be taken for granted pride in what you wear how you feel what your community looks like so I believe that we're on the pathway to new Pride doesn't mean that we didn't have
pride before but sometimes we have to refresh and restart and that's where we're at today I recently did a panel discussion with a group of fellow superintendents and one of the questions that came forth was what is your why and my why doesn't
shift my why you saw tonight my why is these young scholars these children that we are responsible for educating it's the reason why those days sometimes you don't feel like getting out the bed you still say let's go it's the reason why when you're fighting traffic and the
roads and the what the meteorologist says it's going to be icy out you say it doesn't matter I got to get there it's the reason why when we get to this space and we're tired we may have a cold or whatever else is going on we think about them it's the reason when we go to the grocery store to for those that still
shop at Walmart Target and any other place that establishment but you think about what can I get from my students I recently received a call from someone that says do you have a need for coats for some of your Scholars you always put your Scholars before you put yourself sometime
that's the reason why if you don't have if you have not defined your why cannot articulate your why sometimes it's okay to refresh restart and renew our priority goals are driving force principal Palmer Gillard already kind of outlined how the work of what's
happened in AP moris and all our schools aligned to this never will I say we're perfect but I definitely believe that we are on that path to make sure that our students are successful I received some good data a couple weeks ago um our high school recently was received notice from
the New Jersey Department of Education that it has been removed from status now with that removal goes a little bit of those funds that we were getting but that's okay that means that the high school space is doing the things necessary to make sure our students are College and Career ready I
receed some additional news in regards to our students demonstrating success in their extracurricular activities I'm going to mentioned a couple in a little while so the primary focus is always to make sure our students are College and Career ready that's the that's the first and foremost priority our student
well-being engaged Workforce operational excellence and partnership I think this attaches to our why I live by these I saw one of my teachers today in the district wearing his shirt I think it was at AP MO when I was over there we have shirts that have
students first our core values are outlined on them um again that's what we live by changed up the slides a little bit this month so the word cloud looks a little different one of those is to promote
reading what's the last good book you read what's the last article you read I bet you if we put a chart I ask you to draw a chart and say how much time do you spend on social media versus how much do you spend reading a
book I think the reality is that we understand that social media does provide a lot of information and keeps us connected globally however good books can connect you to so many components of the world for those of you that were able to pick up this document here I'm going to
just read a figure it's a data point it's interesting that this comes from neuros pychology neuros pychology children who read 20 minutes a day five days a week are exposed to 1.8 million words in a school
year I'm GNA say that line one more time children who read 20 minutes a day five days a week that means we give them the weekend off are exposed to 1.8 million words in one school
year I just want you to think about that figure it's important that we make sure our students are reading and making sure that our students are developing to a space where we don't even think about standardized assessments we think about pushing them well
beyond our immigration policy or our immigration procedures for the hillside public school district has been on our website just want to remind you that we're still following that thus far we have been in a good space and all staff members have been adhering to the expectations of the
district and we will continue to do so let me just reiterate I say that because our children are going to be protected here as long as I'm the superintendent and we're going to make sure that we communicate with our communities that represent so many different nationalities in parts of of our country
parts of the world that we're not want you to feel like you cannot come to school and continue your education the month of March what I I love about every month in our calendar year here in the United States there's something we can celebrate I don't need to read each one
but I just want you to think about it um we've done a great job of celebrating our students and then there always something we can celebrate the month of March is the month that we're going to continue to celebrate our students as well as several of our women speaking of celebrating women one of the women that
we that was celebrated today if Dr Wilson can stand and Dr madora I believe you see both of you can you both stand today well Dr Wilson why don't you come up and explain what happened today I'm I want to take the Shine from you Dr Mador please join Dr Wilson speaking of celebrating women
could you just acknowledge the beautiful woman that we celebrated today absolutely good evening everyone so today we were fortunate enough to have our black month program and we extended the honor of celebrating our board president mrwan Bess who received the
Shirley Chism award for leadership for her dedicated service to the Hilla community and to the Board of Education congratulations again thank you Dr Wilson beautiful performance that was under your leadership and your team and I know you had your hand in it because
you're are mcing Dr madora we thank you you did a great job your students are to be commended I believe there's a several recordings out there that if you didn't get a chance to see it it's out there new Pathways new possibilities new Pride here's the here's the here's the
Northstar for every student that attends Hillside and many of our students will enter in prek and exit and 12th grade in fact we have a low transient rate we have students that enter at different points in time but they usually stay in our district and it's important that you
they stay and I'm gonna tell you why it's important in a few minutes however I want you to understand that part of our strategic focus is to make sure you understand what's the portrait of a hillside graduate what's the portrait of a hillside graduate a hillside graduate is more
than just one component of the work they do in the course of a day it's not just about them participating in extracurricular activities it's not about them just coming to school our students we want them to make sure that they become out resilient communicators that they are contributors that they are
leaders that they understand what it means to have skill sets that are varied that they're critical thinkers but that happens with a lot of grow great work done by several people to make sure they walk out with those skill sets ready for postsecondary
College and Career this is going to be how we frame our strategic work what is the portrait of a hillside graduate congratulations are in order so this is where I get to celebrate and give accolades this is the fun part
today I started my day at the high school and I had a chance to do something for the first time in many many years um for those that don't know our principal the high school principal Terry ward has been battling some things keep them in your prayers please um but
he's battling and um he's he's a true reflection of the Comet spirit and Comet pride and so in his absence I had a chance to announce to the valid dictorian and salutatorian for this year's Hillside High School class of
2025 and I'm going to tell you something to see two young men begin to cry was powerful not because I made them cry but it was powerful to how much this meant for them and to them and then I got a chance to call the parents and
talk to the parents and you know the superintendent called in the middle of the morning first thing in the morning it's like what did he do what what's wrong and that hearing the voice of the parents over the phone was equally rewarding the portrait of a hillside graduate is a student that's dedicated
the Val dictorian said to me he said Mr Glover this is emotional for me because when I was prior to covid I was a BC student he said during covid I realized I need to get my act together and since
then he's done just that so much so that Mr Anthony Sana is the valid Victorian for the class of 20125 [Applause] so then the second student the
salutatorian I called him down and we I've I know these students and so I said do you are you nervous about seeing me he says I'm good I know I'm I don't do anything wrong and I said what do you plan on going to college what do you plan on studying and
both of these young men said they plan on studying engineering Anthony Anthony said Computer Engineering electrical and the next scholar said electrical engineering and that's because Hillside High School
prepared them and our salutatorian is Mr Benjamin pck that's the portrait of a Hillside High School graduate and we also have that high school that athlet High School the
cathlon or the cathlon team that has been doing great things over the years and once again Place third and they are competing in the States this Saturday this Saturday the F yeah shout out to them they're going to represent
I'm not worried about it and then of course and I'm just touching a little bit of it but then I've interviewed this young lady I've watched her grow up since she arrived to us from the country of Jamaica of course she brought her talents to Hillside she's breaking
records she's going to definitely go on to college and be a we need to remember she's a good student good human being Miss J Dean bachela and she will be competing this weekend also um in the
meets so that's our students at the high school and there there's so many more so here's how I'm going tell you how you follow and keep up go to the website the Hillside High School website our district website then I said you know I have to
recognize my babies across the excuse me my Scholars across the district so shout out to all the students who made The Honorable for a second markting period parent teacher conference just took place shout out to my students at Dean G Taylor Academy for those that don't
understand we've been investing in leader and me and leader and me has allowed all of our students to rep to demonstrate their leadership skills and so during the month of January there were about six students if I'm not mistaken principal Graham six or seven students that the leadership exemplary
award so congratulations to them we talked about family literacy math in lit night AP Morris reflex math if you have not seen reflex math it's a way of improving our students math fluency and our students at Ola Edward Community School received significant award her
and looker elementary school shout out this is a national competition and they came in second as you can see I know it's a little small I said National I didn't say local I didn't say State national congratulations to my students at her and looker Elementary
School now this is what I'm expecting to see people sign up for save your money don't go do painting SI for the month of March go to Hillside innovation academy and go to the youth art month activities taking place on March 6 and 13th sign up is important congratulations and shout
out to those students as well W Shine the Light on them today they they they did their thing kudos to the excellent work of the over at w i last night they had their um parent teacher conferences and I heard parents walking out it's very interesting
sometimes when you hear parents chastising their children about getting your life right so whatever you're doing over there to make sure the parents arew keeping their students to get their life right um keep it keep it going Dr Wilson and team thank you very much everyone should know this
expectation by now we'll keep it moving but based on what I'm seeing and hearing and talking to the students I think we're going to hit that goal miss PG we'll see so some key important aspects that I want to bring
to your attention I think it's important that you hear lunch applications and unpaid lunch balances a lot of times people do not like when we send those nasty letters or when one of my staff members is on you about paying your bill however it's important you understand that I want all kids to eat for free but
that's just not the real of Life 72% of our students are receiving free or reduced lunch but we still have some significant balances and they're growing please contribute to what you need to do to make sure that that bill is reduced we have a Scholastic partnership where students are receiving books this year but they're also receiving
mentoring some mentors are in the room right now next week we have another mentoring session next week's gonna be a powerful week I can't wait to tell you about the six but next week we have a mentoring schedule that's students from the high school and some of our community members who are adults local
um First Responders will be coming in and reading to our students and our next book distribution will be just before the Easter break the spring break which will be April 14th I'm we'll pass the budget conversation for a second for those that have been keeping up with our Governor's initiatives especially around
education one of those big ones is the cell phone ban policy unfortunately this is going to go into effect he's even put allocated some funds grants to make sure districts that are interested in Banning cell phones can do it in a very helpful way I've
already talking spoken with several of our students you know they're not happy about it and I know the parents are gonna probably even put up more of a push back however we're going to do this in a way where we are respectful of the expectations and the mandates put forth
to us the district has to put forth the artificial intelligence policy the board will be reviewing policies over the next two months before we get to final read and have them available parents who are watching parents in the audience this is an important announcement Google education which we utilize in our
district is required that all of our students in the district complete a parent permission form every single student that's 3,000 students and that's because of our access and and New National requirements that have changed this is not just
Hillside you can opt out however you saw that great work our students were just doing on the laptops and they coding they won't have access to that so so it's no longer to worry about being afraid of Technology our system is strong however over the next few weeks you're going to start hearing a lot of
notices please make sure that you have Comm complete the permission slip form you'll be able to go on Genesis and Genesis will guide you through it it's a probably takes you less than about three minutes there's some reading that you need to do but make sure that you are filling that out High School graduation
requirement if you have not done the financial aid man mandated meeting you know which allows our students to graduate please do so and I'm going back to our literacy priority goal our literacy priority goal I want you to see couple things I just
said I shared this article with you I'm going to give just keep on referencing it for the next couple of minutes I'm going to read something getting your child to read is not always easy however allowing them to read High interest material asking them questions to help them interact with the text and modeling
that reading can be fun is a great start I went through a couple facts I'm just going to go through these facts again I spoke to you about the importance of reading for 20 minutes five days a week reading helps Foster empathy children are exposed to different ideas and
cultures reading improves critical thinking reading increases knowledge of correct syntax and grammar also builds a robust vocabulary students who read for 20 minutes a day score significantly higher on standard ize
assessments and reading or having children read independently before they go to bed to help them relax and wind down from a day it also allows you to help them go to sleep a little faster if you do it right Society social media streaming services and accessible communication
make technology the most prominent tool of our lives however one way to take a break from technology and digital overload is by reading reading is important for the mind and the Soul it challenges your mind and keeps it Sharp actively charging the imagination there are many genres of literature such as
fiction non-fiction biographies mystery comics and poetry reading is not at all limited to those in pursuit of high academic achievements everyone has the right to books whether it is for their education or for Pure enjoyment reading can open your mind to A Whole New World or bring light to the world right in
front of you so go ahead pick up a book that strikes your interest and open the first chapter you never know what it might bring you I'm not going to stop emphasizing the importance of reading one of the models that I live by is that education
is the great equalizer I'm asking that you continue to emphasize reading with your children at home and to anyone else in your community we've made a significant investment that will not change I'm a math person my degrees in statistics I believe in I love math but
I understand that if I don't have the skill sets to read those other subsidaries might not be as successful so please continue to emphasize reading strategic plan timeline just so everyone can see it I won't necess read every single one the
goal is by July 2025 we H have a blueprint of our strategic plan that we put in your hands and lives on our in a digital format budget meetings budget process [Music]
so we're required by the state of New Jersey statute to make sure that we present a budget for approval to the board and we have specific dates I want to just share with folks that today March February 27th we received
our preliminary budget allocations for the 25 26 2025 2026 school year there's going to be some challenges I'm not I'm disappointed in the most recent decision and we will have budget meetings to discuss it the
community will know over the next week and a half two weeks Dr I can hosts our board business administrator myself and my team will finalize some things we've been working for almost a year now preparing for this day so we're good in
the sense that we know what to do what I want to assure the community is that I'm not going to stop and making sure that we're moving towards Innovation so there may be some some tough decisions that come over the next few couple weeks however I'm confident that we're going to be very good in making sure all the
things we promise you as community members as taxpayers we continue to hold true and steadfast for our students not to say we're not going to have some tough decisions but we are definitely going to meet our budget budgetary obligations and we're going to put forth
a balanced budget that is healthy for our district and our students the dates that you have in front of you March 19th we have to prepare a budget for the New Jersey Department of Education review between April 24th and early February we have to make sure we have our community meetings
we're going to have ours hopefully in April either a couple days before spring break or right when we get back from spring break then then we will have a board a budget to present to the board for approval since we have November
elections you can see there in the calendar there are certain things we have to any conversation about a potential increase in taxes will be discussed the cap is 2% districts that want to go above 2% will have to get Department of Education approval and
other approval we're trying our best to make sure that we hold stead fast but just 2% just no 2% is the cap before we go into public comment Madam president I just want to make one thing clear to our community a lot of
times when we have these sessions I believe in public comment because I believe the voice of the people is important I just want folks to also remember that everything we do is live and always remember etching the heads of everyone who's watching or listening and one of the things that came out of this budget process is that people pay
attention to us nationally and people are paying attention to Hillside because currently we're involved in about six or seven different National initiatives that have brought a lot of Spotlight to us good Spotlight both from the student
perspective and the adult perspective and a lot of times when people want to partner with us they go back and look at events that we host they look at our board meetings they look at conversation about us in the newspaper and they make decisions do they want to partner with us I'm going give you an example of one
partner right now we've been talking to Apple education has been talking with us for about a month and a half now and Apple education is very very serious about partnering with Hillside I can't even begin to tell you the great resources that will bring to our
students as well as job opportunities I'm not talking about Apple the store in the mall I'm talking about the executives I'm sharing this because when we have public comment public discourse is essential it helps us get
better let's keep it discourse because when people see that we are not connected people make decisions about who they want to partner with and our kids deserve us to demonstrate what it means to have positive proactive and
healthy discourse thank you Madame President have a good night thank you superintendent clever um first before we move on to public comments I just wanted to again express my gratitude and thanks uh for
the award that I received earlier this afternoon um when I first was made aware of this award I honestly looked at it and I'm like is it sent to the right person because I wasn't quite sure it was supposed to be me but I was very um
once the excitement settled beca I began to become very grateful and thankful for all of the opportunities all of um the times that people have poured into me whether it was um a word of encouragement a prayer um even
constructive criticism all of this helps me to become the person the leader um that I am to not just the board but to my family to my work um colleagues so I'm just truly thankful for the opportunity
and um it I'm just thankful for every relationship that I have formed because it it helps to continue to help me grow to a better person so thank you Hillside and thank you Dr Wilson thank you uh Mr Glover for the
opportunity um thank you so as we move on uh first may I have a motion to go into public comment in favor I I residents are requested to State their
names addresses and subject matter in the event it appears the public comment portion of the meeting May exceed 15 minutes the presiding officer May limit each statement made by a participant to three minutes duration issues raised by members of the public may or may not be responded to by
the board all comments will be considered and a response will be forthcoming if and when appropriate the board asks that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals when speaking specifically comments regarding students and employees of the board are
discouraged and will not be responded to by the board students and employees have specific legal rights afforded by the laws of the state of New Jersey the board Bears no responsibility nor will it be liable for any comments made by members of the public members of the
public should consider their comments in light of legal rights of those affected or identified in their comments and be aware that they are leg responsible and liable for their [Music] comments Angela Lawler 54 hurden Street good evening um first I would like to
ask a question in regard to the FASA and the requirement for graduation because there's some misconceptions out there um that you can opt out of this is that true go ahead I'll get to okay okay
um and then I wanted to ask a question in regard to the state aid did Hillside receive an increase or a decrease and what would that be and then my third question is motion 21 on labor I see that we are um awarding someone
$112,000 um stien sorry I couldn't think for uh a grant manager so my question is what are the requirements to for that person do they have to apply for x amount of Grants and how many grants do we currently have and what would that
dollar figure be thank you [Music] agenda I'm not gonna pass up this microphone you know that yes you come on Anthony Salter 528 Chapman Street a couple of things I want to do publicly at my first chance to do it
congratulations Miss hardgrave Mr as Mara Mr oai President best and vice president Horton given congratulations um next item in Hillside when you walk in the front door there's
a a plaque of Mr Robert Jones who was a pillar in the hillside Community he has since passed on he was a former board member the plaque in his honor is worn out and it's really an embarrassment for
a person with all his accomplishments to be forgotten like that and we cannot forget somebody who has been a role model for myself and other people to step forward and give community service so if there's any way that you can refurbish that plaque or take a look at
it and do something different it would be greatly appreciated by many of us in the community Comcast is the cable provided for a Hillside and in the Comcast agreement it is stipulated that the township gets
onethird the mayor's office gets onethird broadcasting time the council gets onethird broadcasting time and the Board of Ed gets onethird broadcasting time so the performance tonight and the past performances in this meeting should be
broadcast live and if it's not live it should be tape where people can see it on a continuous loop during the board meetings to better educate our public because you have a lot of good things going on and I know that people can come back and look at the meetings but it's nothing like people seeing the actual
meeting in in real time so it's been an ongoing issue I don't know if the township is allowing the Board of Ed to live up to the contractual agreement but it's not up to the township it's an agreement that Comcast has with Hillside
when they first came to Hillside one more thing um the potential tax increase that you may have i' like for you to think about it long and hard and if it's necessary you have to do what you have to do last year I mean yeah last year
the township raised taxes 6.2% which was a definite hardship and I want to commend the board for not raising taxes I think it's five out of six years if I'm correct six out of what is six out of
seven years so I just wanted to thank you for that it's good to be here good to see you thank you Mr Mr Salters yes quick question if I was can you give me the last name again Mr Robert what was the Robert Jones and the location that the plaque
is currently you first walk in where Hill the high school high school sorry that's the fall of honor where the National Honor Society is evening shatia Davidson 216 Williamson
Avenue um I guess my topic is uh my son he goes to Hills High um about almost two weeks ago was an incident where he was suspended for three days because he was his teacher to said that he was vaping I'mma just this is public so you
you have the right to talk about your own science want to make sure you want to talk about the case I do because I reached to the superintendent's office about a week ago and I haven't heard anything back um I was told that this would be handled at the high school I tried to handle it with the acting
principal so I just want to know if I'm going to get a response back and who can I speak with about the incident I won't go into details but who can I speak with about the incident and possibly you know with his days missed and the suspension be um resend it
so in the back Dr braier can you raise your hand okay and he's located at the high school or at the board Dr bra is at the board he's the director of curriculum and instruction okay and he's also the one who is the executive over
the high school okay thank you you're welcome motion to close public comment that [Music] all in favor I
answer so work backwards again M Davidson thank you for your comments Dr bra would make sure he supports you you could even have Sor sub appointment with him or talk to him this evening as far as the plaque at the high school for Mr Robert Jones we will take a look at that collectively and make a decision to
support the concern and will of the people people as far as the challenge with Comcast that's been going on for time since I've been here that I've been hearing this and we've tried to make some Outreach we'll try
again when it comes to the waiver for fastup so there's a couple things parents do have the ability to sign out of it but it's essential that before they sign out of it the guidance and I know this has been happening because I've asked this previously the guidance
team and guidance um school counselors need to make sure they're having a conversation with their parents about the importance of it there's some financial implications behind it as well I know in this day and age right now in the climate of our country there's some reluctance to fill out a lot of forms however I say this if your children
students have any intentions on going to college they may want to definitely fill that out and it's kind of late if you think start thinking about state aid so I mean College assistants state aid I'm not prepared to give the number number there some things the Board needs to
hear but at the March meeting you'll know because we have to have our community for and I'm also in the process of making sure all the numbers are right so we just received it this afternoon so we're still unpacking a little bit thank you and the last one the grant manager so I'm happy to say that Hillside roughly receives about
well a little over $2 million in Grants one of our larger grants is our mental health Grant which is about 1.25 that we received but with all of our grants so that's we have now grants some of them are very small we just received three more that the board's going to vote on tonight but
with all of those grants come requirements and the requirements are pretty vast in paperwork in fact about three weeks we're goingon to be receiving another $10,000 Grant right which you'll be joining me with at in um Central Jersey and Ying so those grants
require us to manage them and they are quite extensive in managing um especially the ones that have NJ dooe um support so it's about nine I might be short Changers but we're over $2 million in Grants that we receive across the district not just the high
school thank you you definitely can um so I work at Seaton Hall so I'm assistant director eof the enrollment and I deal with students when it comes to their FAA NJ dreamers Daka students
so it's important that students do fill out their FAA because the financial aid packages are going out and when it comes to state aid that's already out too so that's you know your NJ tag your hea so when you are filling out your FASA let's say FAA and hea date so whatever you're
submitting to FAA you're going to wind up seeing that on your hea account so it's important that students do fill out their FASA because that's the only way they're going to get their financial aid package and then when you know monitor monitoring the students make sure they are put in the school code because if
they don't put the school core that they want to go to school at they won't get a financial aid package so it's very essential that they do it because I Hound students down day by day okay but um it does give the students a breakdown let's say they want to compare financial
aid packages with a different School let's say NGIT Sean hall or cane they have that option to see what schools giving the most money right and then also seeing how much state aid they're going to get because you stay inside New Jersey go to school you do have that um
NJ tag that's all thank thank you board member Parks um if you're finished are you done okay great so now we'll move on to committee reports vice president Horton given good evening
everyone good evening thank you still don't worry is everybody awake no welcome all right I'd like to ask um board membership
hero Finance the finance committee met on February 24th and we discussed agenda non-agenda items including um various projections for the budget thank
you I'd like to ask board member Eric okay can you report out on education no buildings and grounds I'm sorry the committee met for buildings and grounds and discuss items in regard to approving a proposal for the contract
of the multi-purpose room at De Taylor as well as discussing electrical services electric service upgrades at Hillside High School thank you I'd like to ask uh board member
Howard Dr Howard would you mind to certainly good evening the education committee met this Monday February 24th to discuss uh agenda items 1 through 19 specifically uh the approval of field
trips and the recommendation to propose several upcoming programs to include INSP Financial thank you Dr Howard I'd like to ask board member Hargrave would you do labor ation
please good evening um the committee met on uh Monday February 24th and we discussed items 1 through 38 on the labor agenda thank you and I'd like to just
make one correction for the education agenda there was one item that was added for line item number 19 okay after the committee meeting thank you board president thank you vice president Horton
given now we will move on to Executive session may I have a [Music] motion uh all in favor be resolved pursuant to the open public meetings act that the Board of Education Mee and Clos executive session at this
time to discuss matters relating to Personnel pending litigation labor negotiations contract negotiations and attorney client privilege the board will reconvene in public session at the conclusion of the closed session the matters discussed in
closed session will be disclosed to the public as soon as the need for confidentiality no longer exists we shall [Music] return I've been carrying