We're going to come up and shake hands. just like It's really funny. All right. Good evening everyone. Welcome to a meeting of the Central Regional High School Board of Education. Please be advised that this and all meetings of the board are open to the
public and media consistent with the open public meetings act and that advanced notice required therein has been provided. Meeting was also posted on the board of the 910 campus, sent to the courier news, Star Ledger, Express Times, and the Hunter County Democrat and sent to the clerks of Delaware
Township, Eastwell Township, Flemington Burough, Ragington Township, and Remington Township. The public will have an opportunity to be heard as shown on the agenda. Can I get a roll call, please? Second here.
Miss here. Miss Greg here. Dr. here. Mrs. here Mrs. Rosel here and Mrs. here. Please join us in the flag solution
of the stands nationy andice for all. Okay, Leslie, you'll read the mission statement. Central is an innovative educational community dedicated to the intellectual,
social, and emotional safety and growth of all students while fostering curiosity and promoting wellness. We aspire to create powerful learning experiences, establish strong partnerships, and serve as a as contributing members of society.
Thank you. I would like to move items five and six, which are the minutes for the May 19th and the June 5th meetings, both the meetings and the executive session minutes. Can I get a roll call, please? Do I need a second on that? Skip that
Thank you. Uh, roll call, please. Mrs. Dugen. Yes, Miss Gong. This is the 19th. Miss Gray. Both. Yes. Dr. Halpern. Yes. Miss Kelly. Miss Laccasta. Yes. Mrs.
Peterson. Yes. Mrs. Rothell. Yes. And Mrs. Santangelo. Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Uh next up we would like to just recognize that we received correspondence um by the board and it will be maintained in the office of the
board secretary. Next up I would like to move to the se uh superintendence report. Thank you Lisa. Good evening everyone. It's so nice to see you all and I look forward to seeing many of you on Thursday as we celebrate 573 seniors
class of 2025 at our graduation ceremony. June is always a whirlwind for us. We have been busy this month with smaller graduation celebrations such as the ones we recently held for Aspire, Achieve, and our multilingual learners, as well as a pinning ceremony for our biomedical
science academy seniors. And two weeks ago, we had an almost threehour awards ceremony for seniors that boasted close to $200,000 in scholarships. I've been reminded daily of how supportive our community is of our students. Thank you
to everyone who has participated in these special events for our students tonight. I am thrilled to continue to celebrate our students and staff and I thank the board for supporting these bianual public recognitions. Before I ask Mr. Brandt to begin these recognitions, I would like to provide a
few additional updates. First, I want to give a very brief update on transportation. As you know, we are not moving forward with a shared services agreement with Flemington Raritin School District. We are continuing to discuss the split of our assets. Thus far, the discussions have been going well, and I
appreciate their attention to the time-sensitive nature of the split. I want to assure everyone that we will have transportation for our extended school year and the regular school year. Next, I wanted to give an overview of a few items on the agenda ahead of each
committee's report. This month we are continuing with some annual organizational items such as approving our staff evaluation instruments and appointing professional providers and vendors. You will note multiple renewals within our operations and transportation agenda as well. On our personnel agenda,
I'm very pleased to be able to recommend multiple contractual appointments for your action as we are close to being completely staffed for the 2025 2026 school year. In the policy committee this month, we continued with review of
the 2000 section of our policy manual to allow me time to further investigate and gather input on questions from the month prior. You will see the counseling services policy on for a first read approval. I know there were some questions about this, so I want to make sure everyone knows that this is the
Strauss SMA policy. I thank our counselors who provided input to me on this policy proposal. We will be utilizing parts of the current policy within the department handbook and potentially a future regulation revision. Similarly, we have two policies,
resource materials and instructional media center on for action tonight and I thank our IMC staff for their input. These are not required policies by Strauss SMA but they are important to our district's operations. However, we needed to update the language from
library media center to instructional media center and thus they are on for first read approval. As the board's policy review and updates continue to prompt much internal board and public discussion and interest, I'd like to take this opportunity to remind everyone about some of the district's
achievements. I think it's important to keep these things in mind as any part of discourse about the district. And for me, this is perfect timing as the school year comes to a close and we are about to celebrate some additional student and staff achievements tonight. The
district's primary goal in 2024 2025 was fostering a welcoming school climate and supporting student wellness. To that end, the district implemented collaboration between health and PE and counseling to develop overlapping student wellness goals. Each grade level
created a mission statement and we will use this to guide curriculum writing and lesson activities this summer. The district reviewed internal security structures with a focus on security coordination as well as student attendance and truency. This included a new security coordinator position not
only to respond to student safety concerns and crises, but also to identify proactive measures the district can take to prevent incidents. We strengthen our relationships with external safety agencies such as Ritton Township Police Department and the Township and County offices of emergency
management. The district's second goal focused on its instructional priorities. Through this goal, the district revised its multi-tered system of supports handbook and framework. This included embedded resources for staff and formalizing the three tiers of supports
and interventions. The district also solidified its instructional priorities focused on guiding professional learning for teachers and other staff. These are identified in observations as well as informal walkthroughs. This work continues to provide the leadership team
with data to create the next year's district professional development plan and the accompanying professional learning. The district also shared best practices with our sending prek to 8 districts in an effort to align the goals and priorities. although those school boards ultimately have control
over their own priorities and focus. The third goal established by the board was to broaden inclusive programs and to ensure students sense of belonging. Implementing this goal included the creation of a framework for the care committee utilizing committee and group
structures that exist within the district which continues to be a priority. The district also implemented student leadership lunch discussions with me and our principal Mr. grant to discuss student experiences at Hunter and Central. The district reviewed its climate and culture data with multiple
stakeholder groups to receive meaningful feedback and create actionable plans that can be implemented and incorporated into the 2025 2026 district goals. We have worked with student leaders to ensure co-curricular activities have equitable access to financial financial
excuse me resources for their competitions and trips. The fourth goal focused on community engagement and connectedness with the intent of strengthening partnerships with families, community members, businesses, and local organizations to expand its reach and to collaborate on
projects and opportunities for students. The district created a communications plan for the school year. This included starting and now maintaining district social media accounts to provide more avenues of information for families and to engage with the community. In the recent climate and culture survey,
stakeholders reported more satisfaction with the increase in communication efforts. Under this goal, I'm also proud to mention that our communications office received two honorable mentions from the National School Public Relations Association in their 2025
publication and digital media excellence awards competition in redesigned website and in the video in-house category for Central TV's introduction of HCRS video to eighth graders and their families. So
congratulations to Miss Simagala and her team for their excellent work. The district also re-engaged with the Chamber of Commerce to expand its reach to the business community which has resulted in multiple leads for the workbased learning sites and businesses offering leadership opportunities for
students. You will see some work-based learning sites for approval this evening. In fact, work-based learning will continue to grow as more students learn about the program's availability and as more magnet programs begin to integrate the internship course into their final course for each respective
academy. The district also streamlined the administration and oversight of co-curric co-curricular activities while looking for potential collaboration opportunities with community businesses and organizations. For example, the Play It Forward Club is now partnering with Safe Harbor to
provide afterchool activities at their early learning center. While I understand expressions of criticism at decisions which people do not agree with, I hope we can all appreciate the tremendous progress the district has made and continues to make and strive to work in a respectful and
collaborative manner with a focus on the students first. As we look forward to the 2025 2026 school year, I anticipate having proposed district goals for the board in July. I have also begun the process of setting up for strategic planning next year, hopefully beginning
in this fall. I will now ask Brunwin Downey, one of our student representatives, to provide her report. I thought it would be apppropo for Bronnwin to present prior to the student recognitions so her peers could witness an example of all of her hard work. I'll
pass it over to you, Bronwin. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. My name is Bronwin Downey, and I'm the student representative on this board education. Today, I will be sharing updates about Central students as we close out the school year. First, both the choir and
instrumental music programs had their final concerts on May 20th, 28th, and 29th with the final instrumental concert saying goodbye to our longtime band director, Mr. Kenny. Students were also given opportunities to showcase their artistic talent in the Thespian end
ofear showcase, the Triam Sounds of Summer Showcase, and the Art Showcase with seniors commended for their commitment to the fine arts throughout their years at Central. Many students were also newly inducted into the Thespian Society on June 11th, where they delivered a Shakespeare sonnet for their family and friends in order to
join the troop. As spring sports come to a close, Central's teams have been very successful these past few weeks, with the girls flag football team becoming big Central Conference champions, a feat even more impressive when you consider that this is only the second year that this sport has been offered at Central.
Girls softball has also been extremely successful by beating Kingsway Regional 5-2 in their semi-final game and becoming state champions on Friday in a 4-in win against 4-1 win against Watung Hills. Students also proved their academic successes these past few weeks
with NJSLA testing for freshman and juniors, the STEM showcase with groups like the Science National Honor Society and robotics team displaying a wide variety of science topics in the in the commons and living history night which was held by the Roap Honor Society where
students performed, played games and made crafts with family, friends, and community members with topics from Vikings to the history of ice cream. Students in the biomedical science academy had their pinning ceremony on June 10th. And finally, seniors have also been able to make the most of their
last few weeks as high schoolers through senior sunset, which had to be rescheduled when the rain wasn't quite as bad, and the senior awards ceremony, where students were given over $185,000 in scholarships to fund their future
education journeys. Many students are currently still celebrating their prom weekend weekend right now as senior prom was being held at Steel Stacks in Pennsylvania last Friday and graduation will be held on June 19th on Steuart Field with the advanced music groups providing music for the morning. Thank
you all again for your continued support for student voices throughout the school year and beyond. And I hope you all have a great summer. Thank you, Bronwin. The board of education would like to recognize our two student representatives, Bronwin Downey and Eric Johnston. We would like to thank them both for their commitment
and dedication and their consistent participation this year and extend our best wishes to them in their future. We really appreciate all of your hard work and it was a pleasure to have you both with us. Thank you again. Yeah. And Bronwin, I really wanted to thank
you and Erin for embarking on the student representative journey with us this school year. It's been a highlight of my year to work with both of you and I believe we've learned so much together about how we can strengthen the process even more next year. So, thank you again.
Okay, I'm going to now ask Mr. Brandt to come up as we continue to celebrate the successes of our 2024 2025 school year. And I'll ask you all if we can go to the front row so that we can watch the students as they're honored.
All right. All right. Good evening, everyone. Uh I'll keep I'll stay brief because we have the students and staff members here to celebrate. Thank you very much again for the time that you give twice a year. As uh Miss Kangalloi Hay mentioned, this is our b by
celebration and recognition for students and staff members for some outstanding work. Um and this we are celebrating folks. Our last time we did this was back in December. So, this is a just a touch here of the great things that have taken place since January up until
present and including this past Friday night like Bronlin mentioned uh with the state championships in in softball. So, it is an exciting time of year and I am happy to introduce three people tonight. Uh Dr. Hall's Dr. Matt Hall is going to
be introducing those uh getting recognition in curriculum and instruction for our co-curricular activities. Uh, Miss Christine Moss is going to be up here. And then for athletics, Mr. Jesse Spencer. Uh, I ask all the students and staff members, if
you don't mind, after you're going to come down here when called upon and walk across and, uh, get recognized here by the board. And then, if you could please return to your seats so that we get to celebrate with each other all the way throughout and then stay until the end
of this part of the meeting. So, I'm going to pass it over now to Dr. Hall. Thank you, Mr. Brandt. Uh, I'm Matt Hall. I'm the director of curriculum and instruction. And as part of that role, it's my privilege to uh to invite up
some of our students who have just uh done some outstanding things uh that are related to our curriculum program here. Uh so I will invite um folks up and while they're making their way up I'll share with uh with the audience here uh
their their achievement. So we'll start with uh Isabelle Schroeder. Isabelle could you come on up please? So, congratulations to Isabelle who was accepted into the prestigious Governor School of Engineering and Technology at
Ruckers University. This is a highly selective summer program that brings together some of New Jerseys most talented high school students to engage in rigorous academic coursework, cutting edge research, and real world engineering
challenges. Admission to this program is a remarkable achievement and a testament to Isabelle's outstanding academic ability and passion for STEM. Congratulations, Next, we'll invite up Angelina Albanesey's.
Is Angelina here? If she's not, we'll celebrate anyway. Angelina is one of our ninth graders who earned second place the second place poetry award at the Warren County Young Writers Competition for her poem The
Love of a Stranger. Congratulations, Angelina. We'll invite up next Katherine Conington. Is Katherine here? Excellent. Katherine's also a successful young
writer who won at the Warren County Young Writers Competition. Uh she earned an honorable mention for her poem Bottled Violets and then she went on to win gold in the New Jersey State Teen Arts Festival for that same poem.
Congratulations. Don't get too comfortable because we'll invite you back up in a minute. How about Laura Weineard? Is Laura here? And Central took a lot of awards at the Warren County Young Writers Competition.
Laura won first place for her short story, The Devil Inside Us. Congratulations. All right, it's time to recognize Katherine again and Cassie Lincoln. Is Cassie here? So, Katherine and Cassie advanced to the
state level at the teen arts for their creative writing. Terrific job. Okay. So, next we have uh some musical recognitions. We'll start with Adriana Lo L Piccolo.
No, Adriana. Okay. Well, I'll tell you about Adriana's accomplishment anyway. Adriana was selected to perform with the All State Mix Choir, which involved rehearsing in Atlantic City in November during the teachers convention. And then
the All State Mix Choir performance took place at the end of the convention in the Boardwalk Hall. The choir also performed in November at the beautiful NJPAC Center in Newark. Congratulations
Next, we'll invite up Matteline Car Carvalo, AnnAise Guerrero, and Carly Pin. They're seniors, so yeah, talent quite talented seniors. Um, and
we're all were selected through a rigorous audition. uh process to perform with the All State Treble Choir. They had two rehearsals in early February at Ruckers and then rehearsed and performed at the NJMEA conference in Atlantic City
from February 20th to February 22nd. The weekend culminated with an amazing performance at the NJPAC in Newark. They work incredibly hard and are incredible representatives for our music program here at Hunterden Central. Congratulations, Matteline, Anelise, and
Carla. Okay, so six more students. We have Abigail Black, Anelise again, Brooklyn Hopkins, Adriana Lo Piccolo again, Carly Pin, and Luke
Schnow. All seniors, I believe. So, this group of talented musicians um recorded and submitted a very challenging audition um and were selected from over 400 students from all over the state um to perform at a
beautiful concert in Monroe Township uh back in January. Okay. Next, we're gonna um we'll let's see. Max Kenny, is Max here?
Senior. Okay. All right. Max also very talented senior. Um who was selected um to the All State band and performed at the NJPAC Center as well.
Okay. And how about our treble choir? Samantha Alaro Bazison, Devin Ames, Charlotte uh Bine, C Sienna Delusia, Caroline Elder, Anelise Guerrero, Lana Henderson,
Chelsea Reese Leaput, Haley Loveland, Carly Pere, Sarah Sack, and Alexa Sanchez. this group. Come on up. Based on their performance at the
Hutterton County Teen Arts Festival, the Treble Choir was accepted to perform at the state teen arts festival in Middle Sex Community College on June 4th. Congratulations and well done. Good job.
Okay, so next I will pass it over to Miss Christine Moss who is going to share some of the accomplishments related to our activities programs. All right, I have uh quite a sampling of the accomplishments of our activities groups. So, I'm going to call the entire
group up and then talk to the specific accomplishments of each student. So, first up, chemistry Olympics. So we had 21 students participate in the 36th 37th annual New Jersey Chemistry Olympics.
All right. Emil Tenny, Sebastian Azizi, Avery Fulton placed second in the chemistry nomenclature event. Sam Mujiri, Ian Whites, Phil Cassantev placed first in that same event. And then Sam Mujeri, Ian Wentz, Phil
Consensive, Alex Sutetchnney, Brandon Lahoo, Gavin Snider, Fisher Majesh, and Marcus Simonelli placed first in the overall team awards. Congratulations Now, a few students actually can stay up for this next one. We're going to call
up the Science National Honor Society. Might have some few people join. Yeah, they hosted their first ever STEM showcase this May in the Commons and had over a hundred students sharing various STEM projects. They also participated in
the science bowl. So, great job. We might have some overlap here as well. The Environmental Society, any overlap? Nope. All right. So, members of the environmental society participated in their annual tree planting ceremony.
This is the third year of a budding tradition for the club in partnership with the Raritan Township Environmental Committee. That's the only pun of the evening. That's it. All right. Good job. Environmental Society Model
UN. No. Well, Model UN did some amazing things this year at their Hershey conference. Uh, El Bishoff, Niti Ready, Arya Row, Emily Manuzi, Tanishi Desai, and Subash Derba were all recognized for their
outstanding participation and they were selected as premier delegates and for their respective model UN committees. Additionally, Subash and Niti were recognized for their outstanding research papers. So, congrats to them. All right. Up next, our speech and
debate team. There we go. They participated in countless competitions this year, placing in several. want to give a special shout out to the 13 members of the Hunter Central speech and debate team that competed in the
national qualifier tournament. This was a tournament that um you attended over Memorial Day weekend. So they also gave up a little bit of their break. So I appreciate that. Uh we qualified the following students. Sarah Banzo, uh Alex Utuchetsy, Arya Raalo, Nidhi Ready,
Subash Derba, and Veratoria. So congratulations Sorry. All right. Uh 100 central Youth and Government. Youth and Government. So we might have at their annual conference, their annual state conference, they won the outstanding delegation award. We also
have several specific student successes of note. Uh Navnet Yadelli and his team won the crisis co-op research competition and Ian Jane and his team were runners up. Uh Navnet also won the outstanding states award.
that we have a few more. All right. Uh Shelby Manning received the best brief award and the premier advocate award in courts. Nidi Ready also won the premier officer award. Alexis Chen and Lindsey Chundy are working on legislation with state
representative Andrew Zicker of the 16th district. Liz Hitchcock's bill was passed in both chambers and was signed into law by the youth governor. And we are very excited to announce that Jason Pi was elected as the 2026 youth governor for the state of New Jersey. And he'll actually lead next year's
annual conference. Thank you guys so much. Congrats. All right. All right. We're going to move over to our thespian troop. Any thespians? Thespians? Yeah. Come on up.
So, we have a couple different things to talk about with our thespian group and their success this year. So, where are all the seniors? Okay, there we go. All right. They participated first in the Speech and Theater Association of New Jersey Governor's Award competition
in January. Uh these students received the highest ranking of accomplished at the competition. That's Cali Aversano, Ryan Bastau, Piper Burkowitz, Molly Briggs, Lindseay Brun, Charlotte Bin, Cal Colatin, Anastasia Felman, Kayla Finelli, Josh Fischer, Sam Gavin, Aiden
Goodman, Caitlyn Osborne, Carly Pine, Madison Rimbus, and Casey Shindrren. In addition, Brunwin and Anastasia were finalists in dramatic pairs, and Casey and Leia Rosa took fourth place in the same category. Members of the troop also
participated in the Bucks County Playhouse Student Festival, where our students took took home many of the top awards of the day, including best dramatic ensemble for Steel Magnolia and best comedic ensemble for Who Am I This Time. Sam Gavin and Casey Shungren also
won the Chameleon Award for Excellence in Acting. And Evelyn Nia won a student director award. Congrats. Take a bow. our marching band and full orchestra group. Marching band, marching red
devils. This is another group of students who took time during their spring break uh to attend an event representing Hutter in Central. So the marching band and full orchestra were both invited to represent us in the parade performance in Disneyland Park and they also performed in Disney California
Adventure. All instrumentalists also participated in a Disney Imagination Campus workshop that was called soundtrack sessions where they experienced firsthand the role of student musicians in a recording studio and actually got to play along to some Disney movies. So congrats
All right. Um, there might be some people that say our jazz band and our jazz combo, jazz band and jazz combo. Uh, jazz band was one of the groups that participated in our Hunton County Teen Arts Festival and they actually won most
outstanding performance in the large instrumental ensemble group. Our 100 central jazz combo also participated and they won outstanding performance small instrumental ensemble at the 10 county state teen arts county teen arts. They both then went on to represent the county at the state teen arts festival
the beginning of June. And then as part of state teen arts, Anastasia Felman and Casey Shungren also received top scores that qualified them. Uh they're seniors, so we're just going to give them a round of applause. We have uh two volunteering clubs and organizations that we wanted to call out
tonight. So, Key Club and Interact. Any representatives from Key Club or Interact, you can come up together. So, our Key Club has devoted over 10 hours of community service to the Flemington Food Pantry this year. and our Interact Club has devoted several hours of community service to the Hunter
County Library. So, we appreciate your service. They're kind of blended together. Yeah. Oh, yeah. We got two more groups. All right. So, want to call up our performers, stage crew, uh, pit crew from the musical and
the 910 play. Anybody who participated? Yep, they're on it. Musical and 910 play. All right, we hope you all got a chance to see it, but our musical was a rousing success success. Uh, over 140 students
participated in this year's musical Hello Dolly, whether they were on the stage, in the pit, or on the technical and construction crews. We want to give a special shout out to Why did I put so many S's in one sentence? What was I thinking? A special shout out to our student directors and choreographers, Cali
Aversano, Cal Colton, and Lucy Williams. We'd also like to say thank you and congratulations to the 910 play for their performance of Lost Girl, which was an immense success. Thank you so much. Take a bow. All right, thank you so much. We're
gonna call up our athletic director, Jesse Spencer. Okay, we're gonna switch it up so we don't look like we're just going to shake the hands as you go. Is that good? silly, but now I can't see. I'm like,
oh, the light is real. Hello, and thank you very much for allowing us to take a couple minutes to recognize some of our outstanding athletic performances over the winter and the spring, both team and individual. So, I will try to run through these as best I can. Um, so I am
going to start with our girls lacrosse program and come on up. Okay. And uh just go stand. Tonight we have uh representing our girls lacrosse program Emily Steyberg, Katie Schwarz, Maggie Scally, Amelia
Seamurray, and Emma Shin. All right. The uh they were the 10 Warren Sussex County Champions. They set a school record for most wins in a season at 20. And Emily Steinberg finished with a 58% save percentage was the backbone of our
defense. Maggie Scally recently academic all-American. Kaden Brandt set a school record for most goals at 250 in her career and she was also selected to the All-American team. Um,
Jelly Schnell also hit her 100 career goal mark and they had an outstanding year. Made it all the way to the semi-finals of the sectional state tournament and dropped one to Westfield, but they were 20 and three overall and just had an outstanding year. Congratulations to you guys.
Come back here. Next up, we are going to recognize our girls softball team. up. And uh as you know, we did have a senior heavy group this year. So they are but representing our softball team tonight,
Jessica Yip, Lindseay O'Donnell, and Isabella Iicangelo. And uh so they were the central group four sectional champions and they are the group four state champions in
softball. Congratulations to you guys. Congratulations. All right. Next up, we are going to recognize our unified basketball team. And I'm know that they are represented by one of our members of our coaching staff and on our one of our supervisors
here at Hunter Central, Mr. Reb Holtz. and our unified basketball. They are the back-to- back group A state champions. They are congratulations.
All right. All right. Next up, representing our girls basketball team, Bethany Ramos. Beth Bethany Ramos, she was selected to the first team allconerence team this year and she was also uh selected as a member
of the New Jersey Basketball Coaches Association all county team. Bethany Ramos, congratulations. representing our boys bowling program, Lucas Reid. Lucas was selected to our first team
allconerence team. He was the high game high series at the Skyland Conference Invitational Tournament. Took second high series at the 101 Sussex Championship. Was uh 16th overall season. uh uh average bowling average
and was also ranked in the top 30 in the NJSIA individual tournament. Congratulations, Lucas Reed. Congratulations. Now up our central cheerleading squad representing our cheerleading team this this year or tonight also our head coach
Miss Lauren Mataglia who's in the back there with a new member of their family Cade. All right. to the uh representing us tonight, Lily Morrison, Lexi Fatu, Amelia Peron, and Natalie Bannon. Thank you.
They were the 101 Sussex traditional runnerup, first place in large varsity traditional, first place large varsity game day, and they were the overall 101 Sussex champions for game day. They also were
had a top 10 finish at the UCA nationals in Florida and they were the state champions in the group four traditional, the large varsity and the mega varsity game day state champions.
Congratulations and Central cheerle girls flag football team. Great turnout. Yeah. All right. Hunter Central's second year girls flag football team coached by Connell Joyce. Coach Connell
Joyce. Coach Beam joined us this year. Fantastic. And our girls flag football team. They were they had an undefeated regular season. They were the Big Central division champions. They were also the Big
Central sectional champions. And we had six student athletes named to our allconerence team starting with Khloe Brunner, Angelina Tenori, Georgia Kuriki, Vanessa Tanki,
Katie Gray, Jordan Moran, and Angelina Tenori. And Angelina Tenori was also selected to the Phil Sims North South State All-Star game.
state champions. Congratulations to them. Congrats. All right. All right. And next up, winter track. Boys and girls, come on up. All right. We had a few uh individual accolades
here, so I will A couple of them aren't with us, but I'm going to read them anyway. So, Molly Dmer was a 3200 meter sectional champion, and she set the school record in the 32 meter. Also, Ryan Shalley, he was our pvolt
sectional champion. And tonight, our allconerence team, first team all conference for our girls. You raise your hand when I say your name if you're present. And that is uh I'll start with Isabella Rothell, Olivia Cyber,
Casey Kinsley, and John Connley. They're our first team all county for our boys and girls track program. Congratulations to you. Congrats. Congrats.
Next up is next up board meeting. Thank you very much for having us. It was awesome. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Great job. All right, we
should shift this. Good. Like this. You got sign. Yeah, I'm I'm a little taller. Have fun. Thank you board members. Thank you so much again for allowing us to take time in this meeting to honor our students
and staff. That was amazing. and Lisa and I will work on our awkward hand shaking placement for for the December meeting that and last on my report um which is in stark contrast to what we just did but there is the hib and suspension report on there for you and I
will have some hibs for you in executive session. That concludes my report officially, Lisa and I'll hand it back over to you. All right. Thank you, Jessica. Madame Chair and Madam Superintendent, sir, are the seniors still out having fun or are they just This is optional.
Okay. Um at this time, we're going to have our first residence forum. This is for um action items on the agenda only. We will have a second residence forum at the end of the meeting. So, if anybody would like to come up and speak now on the action items, they can do that at the podium. Please state your name and
your municipality. Uh my name is Ted Hoff. I'm from Ryton Township. I'd like to talk at this time about uh policy 2240 controversial issues. I spoke about it
last month, but um now I've reread it once again. I'm actually more concerned than I was last month with it. Um, I guess my my biggest concern is
uh telling teachers that they cannot teach the students in their class how to evaluate competing theories or competing ideas.
They're only allowed to say it's my opinion and I guess a thousand flowers bloom uh in the classroom. It's not which is kind of strange because in the preamble to the policy it talks about teaching critical thinking skills and how to
evaluate uh controversial issues. So you would think you'd want to teach people how to go about evaluating competing explanations for something. Um, maybe I'm particularly sensitive this because I've spent uh, you know, 30 years teaching methodology, social science
methodology at University of Michigan, Ohio State, and the National University of Singapore. Um so I'm used to teaching you know Carl Pauper's insights about how uh you need a mark you need a marketplace of ideas and you
need to develop research designs for uh testing alternative theories uh for things but if if all you come away from the class going well you know my teacher has an opinion explicitly in the policy it states that a a teacher may only ex express something as her
opinion which doesn't seem to be very pedagogical to me. I mean, you want to teach students how to uh differentiate among opinions and why one opinion might be superior to another opinion. I mean, certainly the most obvious example that comes up here is Holocaust denial. I
mean, do you really want some kids to say the Holocaust never happened and other kids to say, "Oh, yeah, it did." Because but the teacher said it's only her opinion that it happened. Who knows? I mean, basically the only thing you come away from on controversial issues
in policy 2240 is peak students coming away saying, "Who knows? I don't know whether the Holocaust happened or not." Um, you're not actually advancing the discussion of controversial issues with
the way this language reads. I said last time that um I would have been happy to see this as one of the policies that you delete uh not bother and none of you pointed out on I think it was the religion one no on the philosophy one or maybe it was
on this one of you pointed out last time that um it's demeaning and belittling to tell teachers not to promote racist discourse in their class. Couldn't agree more. But I'm thinking, then why are you telling them this, right? That you don't
look, you're not you're not you're not allowed to actually help students come to reasoned judgments about controversial issues. You're only allowed to have a discussion that ends with indecision. I just don't I don't think it's very
good teaching at all. I mean, you can think of a whole range of other issues that would be controversial that I'm sure you would hate to have end with your son or daughter coming home to you and saying, "Hey, we learned today that African-Americans might be genetically inferior to white Americans.
Hey, we learned that white people are genetically superior to people of color. Hey, we learned that it's possible because the teacher said it's only her opinion. It's possible that um you know genetic differences uh account for intelligence.
After all, we have a book out there, the bell curve, right? There's there's a u I think as the language you used for this was um informed and thoughtful or thoughtful and sensible people. Well, a lot of people think the bell curve is a sensible book, right? I mean, it's been
empirically refuted for 20 years, but still out there. So, again, I I ask you again tonight since it's coming up for the second reading to consider getting rid of this policy altogether. Um, what do I have? 29 seconds. Let me
just ask a question. I noticed that the legal fees went from 75 to 125K. So, the question is why? I guess we'd like to know what the 50K is for. One thing I noticed since coming here in September is I there was never an
attorney here. So I imagine now it's like a thousand bucks a night whenever the attorney comes. And I'm wondering why is the attorney here? That's never been explained to us. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, my name is Christina Leah and I'm a
resident of Raritton Township. I have one student who graduated from this high school and I have two students who are currently enrolled in this high school. I'm speaking tonight in regards to the now second reading of the policy revisions to policy 2110 2240 and 2270
for the philosophy of 100 central regional high school controversial issues and religion in schools that's up for the second reading. I ask that the board vote to not approve these policy revisions in response to the many concerns expressed by both parents and students at the previous meeting. The
promised explanations and elaborations in the board newsletter were not provided sufficiently and did not state anything further than what was said during the meeting. The public's concerns should not be dismissed and left unanswered from a board member from board members who are public servants and whose mission is serving the best
interest of all students. Eliminating the entire philosophy section of the philosophy policy and reducing it to the bare minimum educational standards that students will achieve the state learning standards in all grade levels is ludicrous. That's not philosophy. That's literally aiming for the bare minimum of
educational goals with no supporting elaboration on why that's the best you want to do for our students. I'm still stunned at the elimination of the language and the controversial issues policy that removed the statement that the board believes racism, prejudice, and bias are unacceptable in our school and community. Why would you not want to
have that included as an explicit value from the top down with zero tolerance? Especially considering the HIB report still includes racism as a metric that students can be bullied for, which again shows up in the metrics. I know some of you like to frequent local Facebook
groups and see firsthand that racism and bias are boldly present in our community. Your desire for silence and eraser on this topic speaks more loudly than the remaining words left in this policy. My career is in a heavy policydriven industry. What wording is
included conveys intention. What wording is removed conveys intention. What wording is absent conveys intention. We the public can see the intention of the board to remove guardrails, guidance, and create ambiguity for the teachers and students on these important topics.
Who decides what is controversial? What is versus what is someone else's normal lived experience in regards to race, sexuality, religion, and gender? The fact that the board has intentionally added language that topics must be approved if outside of the course
curriculum is ideologically concerning that you put your implied values over student education. Thank you for going on record with your ideology with these policy revisions so that we as voters can make an informed and intentional decision in November.
Thank you. Is there anyone else interested in speaking at this time? Okay, seeing none, we'll close out the first public forum and we'll move on to our organizational items. Items 1 through eight represent our
yearly agreements as shown and described on the agenda. With that, I would like to move those items 1 through eight. Can I get a second? Second. Thank you. Any comments on these action items? All right, seeing none, can I get a roll call, please?
Mrs. Dugen. Yes, Miss Gong. Yes, Miss Gray. Yes, Dr. Halpern. Yes, Miss Laccasta. Yes, Mrs. Peterson. Yes, Mrs. Rothell. Yes. And Mrs. Santangelo. Yes.
All yes. Motion carries. Thank you. And with that, we will move into our committee report readouts, starting with student life and program committee. Leslie, thank you. The committee met on Thursday, June 5th from approximately 6:00 to 7:00 p.m.
Present at this meeting were myself, Sue Dugen, Rebecca Peterson, Lisa Santangelo, Jessica Kangelosi Hay, and Mary Pat public. We did receive a question from a board member ahead of our session, so thank you for that. And we did not receive any
additional questions before tonight's board meeting. At our committee meeting, we reviewed our annual staff evaluation tools, including our teacher evaluation system. We also welcome welcomed news of a German exchange student joining us
next year, and reviewed two new club proposals, Athletes with a Purpose and Flourish, which is focused on service and support for girls and families. We discussed the renewal of our NJSIAA athletic membership and our work-based
learning sites for our achieve program, helping special education students build life and job skills after graduation. And with that, I would like to move items 1 through 4 on the agenda. Second.
Any comments on the action items? All right, seeing none, can I get a roll call, please? Miss Gong, Miss Gray, yes. Dr. Halpern, yes. Miss
Laccasta, yes. Mrs. Peterson, Miss Mrs. Rothell, uh, yes, except I'll recuse myself. Um, for item number two, club number one. Um, Mrs. Dugen. Yes. and Mrs. Santangelo. Yes. All yes. Motion
carries. All right. Thank you. With that, we will move into our operations and transportation committee. Jessica, thank you. The operations and transportation committee met on Tuesday, June 10th with Ellen Halporn, Sandra Gong, Lisa Santangelo, Jessica Hade,
Heather Spitzer, and myself in attendance. Um, as of 12 pm today, I've not received any questions or comments regarding the agenda items with items 1 through 4 and 15 to 23 uh as standard organiz organizational
items that are approved annually or monthly in order to conduct the day-to-day business of the district. As it pertains to capital and maintenance funds approval is sought to award the 1112 locker conversion and the transportation repaving project.
Appropriate 242 2425 unexpected unexpended budget amounts to the capital reserve account. Refund capital reserve and maintenance reserve accounts with balances unused from previously approved projects. We are also seeking to move forward with the SS SSP architects
updating the long range facilities plan with the state. Approve the purchase of a 54 passenger bus. Increase our budget legal limit to authorize SSP architects to provide services as they pertain to the rear athletic field access road and an update to the administration
reception area. We are also graciously accepting a donation from Brenda Bian Gamba for art supplies as listed in the agenda. With that, I'd like to move items 1 through 23. Second. Any comments on the action items?
Seeing none, can I get a roll call, please? Miss Gray? Yes. Dr. Halpern? Yes. Miss Laccasta? Yes. There's I apologize. There's
Oh, wrong wrong committee. Got it. Yes. Mrs. Peterson, Mrs. Rothell, yes. Mrs. Dugen, yes. Miss Gong, and Mrs. Santangelo. Yes. All yes.
Motion carries. Thank you. All right. With that, we will do the personnel committee, which met on Tuesday, June 10th. In attendance were Jessica Kangalosi Hade, Heather Spitzer, Claudia Gray, and myself. This month, as the agenda shows, we have 34 items to move,
which include resignations, contractual appointments, curriculum writing, revised agreements for staff, appointments of various staff positions, and leaves of absences. The committee did not receive any questions. With that, I would like to move items 1
through 34. Can I get a second, please? Second. Any comments on the action items? All right. Roll call, please. Dr. Halpern. Yes. Mrs. Kellogg.
Oh, sorry. She wasn't here. Miss Laccasta. Yes. Um, I would like to recuse myself from item 29, but yes. For the rest, I just want to make a revision. So it's it's item 29, professional services,
item six for Leslie Lacassa. Okay. Um, Mrs. Peterson, yes. Mrs. Rothell, yes, but I will recuse myself from number 20, item 15. Mrs. Dugen, yes. Miss Gong,
Miss Gray, yes. And Mrs. Santangelo. Yes, with exception to um item 29, professional services, specifically item nine as it relates to professional development course that Leslie and I are both taking for the New Jersey School
Board Association for Presidents and Vice Presidents. Okay. Okay. Um, yes. Motion carries. Thank you. All right. Next up is the policy committee. Becky, nice short agenda. Um, which is probably a relief after last week's fif month's
uh 15 minute readout. We have the next two sections of the manual are the 3000s and the 4,000s which are teaching staff members and support staff. Um, these are really administrative heavy review um sections obviously because the board really does not get in the weeds with um
the day-to-day operation of the teachers, classrooms, things like that. So, um, what the decision was with in conjunction with the superintendent was to put both of these sections together next month. A lot of the policies in each section kind of are companion
policies anyway. Um, so probably after graduation, I'm going to guess. uh Superintendent Killosi Hayden, her staff is going to be reviewing the list of non-mandated policies that are discretionary for them to look through and see if they still align with uh the
current practices of the district. And um we've also identified a few that need an update uh that policy vendor updates were missed at some point. So we will be doing that next month. So all that is left for this month is pretty light
work. We have a um counseling services policy update from came out in February 2024. Um and I will just defer to what Miss Kangelo Cade said about um the communication with the counseling staff and getting this ready to roll. Um so we
can finally go ahead and adopt this. Uh we have the policy 2435 NJSIAA random testing for intercolastic athletes. Um, this is a policy we need to have as part of our membership with the NJSIA. And then we also have 24 I'm sorry,
policy 2530 and 2530.1, which again you'll um I will just defer to Miss Angelo C. Hayes report um talking about we're basically just updating the language to be what we actually call the library, the IMC
rather than the LMC. Um so with that we also just have our second readings. Um three policies for second read the 2110 philosophy of 100 and central and 2240 controversial issues as we uh went into
great detail on last month. Those are policies of unknown origin that we are using our um policy vendor language and policy 2270 religion in the schools. We missed the board missed at some point over the last
few years two updates to that. So those are being updated to align with the requirements from the state and federal department of education. And we have seven policies for abolishment. And if you have any questions on those, I will refer you to
um last week's news, last month's newsletter. Um there will be a link in this month's committee readout to the committee readout from last month if you have any questions on that. So with that, I will move items one, two, and three.
Second. Any comments on the action items? So, let me just uh repeat what I said. The policy 2110, the philosophy of Huntington Central Regional High School um to make this
policy just a reflection of our current mission statement leaves me somewhat empty or cold. I I prefer the original statement that we have currently for policy 21000
which uh is up for abolishment. Strategic planning while it was described as prescriptive it actually had a lot of direction that I think the board and the superintendent can use. In July, we're going to look at district goals and I think towards the end of the
year, as the superintendent mentioned, we're going to look at strategic planning. So, I think that policy should remain until we are done with this year's strategic planning. Thank you. All right. Any other comments on the action items?
All right. Seeing none, roll call, please. Miss Lcasta. Yes. Sorry. I'm sorry. I have a question. You were just You have to tease it out. Mrs. Peterson, yes.
Mrs. Rothell, yes. Mrs. Dugen, yes. Ms. Gong, so yes. So yes on um J1 for J2 number one no that's policy 2110
with all due respect to my policy committee members yes for the other policies 2240 2270 for section J3
no on policy 2100 yes on 2 through7 Seven. Thank you, Miss Gray. Yes, Dr. Halpern. Yes. On um
Excuse me. Just let me do the nose. No on all the all three of item two. 21 10 2110 2240 2270. All no. And on the third item, J 31210,
no. The rest, yes. Thank you. And Mrs. Santangelo, yes. Majorities, yes. Motions carry. All right. Thank you. And I just want to note that all the committee report minutes will be included in our new monthly newsletter, which is going out tomorrow as we
continue our commitment to transparency. With that, we will move to additional business. Um, we have a liaison report from Jessica Rothell. Um, so I'm the liaison to the Hunter County ESC board. Uh, I attended their reorganization meeting on Tuesday, June
3rd. 15 new directors were appointed and annual operations were approved. Very similar to to how we do things here. Um, one key item I wanted to point out though is um, they're fundraising for a pavilion for their adult special needs clients for outside learning space. Um,
so that they have a cover for that space. If anyone is in interested in supporting, please reach out to me and um I can put you in contact with the correct person. Okay. Thank you. Um additional board business. This is where if anybody wants to request anything discussed in our
next upcoming committee meetings, they would do that here. Yeah. I I would like to have uh some discussion in committee meetings about the use of the blind CC in our emails. I find it ambiguous and I can provide some
more information about that that when the blind CC's are used when um we want to avoid uh an inadvertent reply all or when we want to um not have a quorum but the person receiving it any board member doesn't know who else actually gets
those emails. So I want each of the committees to be able to talk about how to make sure that it's really clear who's getting what and what is can only you're only getting yourself versus other people are getting. Okay. Thank you. We'll let you know which committee
that goes in. Um all right with that we will u move into our final residence forum. This is for any general topic. Um if anybody would like to come up and speak you can do that now. Good evening everyone. My name is Fiona
Burchell and I am a freshman at Central Regional High School. I'm here this evening to discuss a matter that is near and dear to me. The termination of George W's employment as a teacher here. My US History 1 teacher is one of the main reasons why I love coming to
school. He is very funny. He engages the class, makes learning history fun, and he deeply cares about his students and their education. I remember when I came into class one day with a hole at the bottom of my backpack. I told Mr. Wentz as a joke, and yes, he did laugh, but he also
helped me fix it. He used his own thread and needle to sew my backpack together without wanting anything in return. This is the first time any teacher actually went out of their way to help me with a problem that was not schoolwork related. Now, has anyone in this room ever had their teacher do something like this for
them? If you have, you can surely understand how meaningful and kind this one act was. Mr. Wentz makes my days better, and I am always looking forward to his class. So, when I heard he wasn't going to be coming back next year, I knew I had to do something. I will not just stand by and let an amazing teacher
leave so suddenly as if he were so easily disposable. Mr. Wentz is great at listening, has a great sense of humor, and is very kind. These are just three out of amazing traits he has. So imagine how much he could help and support incoming freshmen. I remember how
nervous I was when I began my freshman year, but having a teacher like Mr. Wentz made all the difference. According to the Learning Policy Institute, 49 states plus the District of Columbia employed an estimated 365,044
teachers who are not fully certified for their teaching assignments and 30 plus states plus the District of Columbia had published data on vacancies with 41,920 unfilled teacher positions. These estimates indicate that at a minimum
46,964 positions were either unfilled or filled by teachers not fully certified for their assignments, representing about 1/8 of all teaching positions nationally. Mr. Wentz has earned two bachelor's degrees in social studies and special
education from Centinary University and Ritan Valley Community College. The termination of Mr. Wentz's employment is unnecessary and a complete waste. Would you rather have an uncertified individual teaching your students or a certified professional teacher like Mr.
Wentz looking out for and educating your children? The answer is clear to me. Therefore, I respectfully request you reconsider the termination of Mr. W's employment here at Huntington Central. Thank you. Thank you very much. Um, hi. Wow. Um, I'm Grayson Bryce from
Raren Township. Um, this is probably going to be like 10 seconds maximum. I just wanted to clarify something. Um those three policies uh that you said were from unknown unknown origins um were carefully written by groups of parents, students, and teachers. And the
reason that they weren't um Strauss Esme policies is because they're tailored specifically to the needs of this school. Um that yeah, that's pretty much it. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, my name is Nikki Bryce. I'm the mom
of Grayson Bryce who was just up. He's a junior here. Uh Raritton Township resident. And just to follow up on what Gray pointed out as well, um the policies where you mentioned their
unknown origin, two well one thought and one idea. The thought is, is that really relevant? Why does it matter if it's a policy that was put in place at some point in time that
serves the school community in some way? Let's say the policy goes back decades and we don't have good recordkeeping of who wrote that policy, who drafted it, who was involved in the revision, the
finalization. Was it a huge group of stakeholders? Did it include input from students, parents, taxpayers, teachers, administrators, but does it matter? Like I I'm failing
to see the the relevance of if a policy is of unknown origin, is that enough justification or any justification to get rid of it? And if it is, then I would suggest that you
institute a new policy for some kind of better documentation and recordkeeping. If you feel this is essential to keeping your policies, then I write it down. I mean, make a policy
to document that if it's going to have some potential effect for getting rid of policies or parts of policies at any point in the future, whether it's the next school year, as the board turns
over decades from now when it's a completely different school community. Um, so I just ask that you give that some thought and um hopefully that will I don't know paint a little clearer
picture in the future. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right. Is there anyone else that would like to speak? Good evening, Christopher Stadulus, Clinton Township. I'd first like to thank you for the excellent work you're all doing. Being a school board member
can be a thankless volunteer position. You generally only hear from people when there is a problem, but rarely hear praise. I support the right of community members to redress their grievances in this limited public forum. However, just because you have the right to speak doesn't mean that what you are saying is right. I recently read several news
articles and opinion pieces and tap into that claim that the sky is falling in central. In my opinion, this is an attempt to drag others through the mud and discredit anything they say or do simply because the authors don't like the fact that their pals lost the majority and can no longer focus this
district solely on their ideological beliefs. Their goal appears intended to demonize, degrade, shame, and control public opinion while promoting their own ideologies as if they are the moral compass of the community. One opinion piece in particular caught my attention.
The author and community member is apparently a teacher of Soviet and Russian history. He claimed that the central board reminds him of the Lennist Soviet Union. Ironically, he suggests that there are six board members who he labels the gang of six and he claims to
vote in quote lockep monolithic style. The author then stated that the board members who he personally disagrees with are like the bolevixs of Eure. Essentially, he is calling the six board members the epitome of Russian Marxist. He also suggests that there are three
independent board members. Ironically, these three board members seem to vote in lockstep monolithic style. In fact, one of these three independent board members appears to rarely know what she is vote even voting on and simply tries to echo the votes of those two other board members. Based on the author's
choice of words, voting is only monolithic when done by board members he doesn't like. Interestingly, the author and others who in 2025 suddenly made it a habit to come to all board meetings appears to speak in lock step with the three independent members of the board.
It almost seems like the board members are seating their pals in the crowd to create artificial drama. I won't go into all of the uninformed statements in the author's opinion piece. The author of this op-ed forgot one of the most important rules. When you point one finger at someone, three are pointing
back at you. I did some research and came across many news articles about the author of the op-ed comparing this board to Russian Marxist. One article about the author is titled quote n US saxs American professor for sexually
harassing student end quote. N US is the national institute excuse me national university of Singapore. I will leave copies of the article I am referring to for the record. According to this article, the university began an investigation to the professor who is the author of this hit piece comparing
six board members to Marxist. The university appointed an official COI committee of inquiry. The COI's report said that the professor, who was 61 years old at the time, offered quote, offered and drank alcohol with the student and admitted to making offensive remarks about certain parts of the
student's anatomy. The student also allegedly reported that the professor pulled the student forcefully toward him twice, which the student resisted. The professor denied pulling the student to him, claiming that he simply placed his hands on her on the student's shoulders. The COI also found that the professor
sent a sexual text message to the student. While the professor claimed it was a mistake and the messages were meant for someone else, the professor did not clearly inform the student that the texts were meant for someone else or apologize for sending it." End quote. The COI determined that the professor
and member of this community who is suddenly and intimately concerned with the business of this high school failed to act with quote propriety, respect and decorum in relation to the student end quote and declared that the professor who was in a position of authority quote
sexually harassed the student in physical, verbal, and written forms ultimately dismissing him from employment end quote. This is the same individual who is clearly trying to ruin the characters of members of this board. In my opinion, the op-ed's characters character ensures that his statements
lack credibility and tap into support of him calls into question the news outlets credibility. They seem to be trying to stir up controversy where there is none. This is unfortunately nothing new. The op-ed op-eds and articles like them are nothing but hyperbolic rhetoric aimed to
create fear and panic in the community and to assassinate the characters of your neighbors who have volunteered significant time to serve their community. The sudden resistance is an effort by these members of the community, perhaps in concert with certain members of the board, to smear fellow board members and to make the
normal work of the board seem controversial. Unfortunately, their smears have been painted with a broad brush. They don't seem to care that they are de litig delegitimizing the work of the district by painting it in an artificially negative light which has obscured the good work of the board,
superintendent, staff, and students. I will end by noting the danger of the uh hyperbole of the bad actors in this room. Our president was also assassinated just assassinated almost a year ago and just this weekend Democrat lawmakers from Minnesota were shot in
cold blood. We are at a point where people are being shot over policy differences. When you lie and smear and create fear like you're intentionally doing, you're putting a target on the back of every person in this room. When you take your criticism out of reality and intentionally stoke fear, you are putting everyone in danger. Thank you.
Yeah, I'm sorry. You're out of time. Thank you. I'm over. Stop the lying. Stop the smears and end the dangerous rhetoric. Do better. Thank you. That's I'll That's good evening, Reverend Vernon Williams Rarden Township. Uh as has been said, uh
the the process for your policy changes leaves out the public. When you introduce even for the first reading, you've already made up your mind. Why not invite the public in before you get to that point? um uh you
know as you mentioned uh policy number 2411 counseling services that it lacked two updates uh after having been updated in um August of 2022. However, you
didn't just add the updates. You essentially struck the basic language from the from the counseling services such as uh the philosophy uh the philosophy and theory uh of action where it says we recognize that
socialization has been compromised by global challenges. Students require support to develop emotional intelligence and to understand the power of community. If counseling services department establishes strong, compassionate, and supportive relationships that fuel
trust, empathy, and kindness among and within individuals and in our school community, presents opportunities and resources that are tailored to the unique needs and aspirations of each student and empowers each student to grow, to endure, uh to be authentic, and
to be uh true to themselves. Then each student will engage and thrive developing agency through self-awareness, mental health, independence, and reflection. Do you no longer believe that? Is that is that not no longer your philosophy? Uh you struck out relationships where it says the
counseling department will provide an uh a welcoming and culturally responsive empower environment to promote student agency regardless of values, beliefs, abilities, sexual or orientations, gender identification, expressions and racial, ethnic, religious or national
background. To that end, counselors would get to know each student and family and address their unique needs. That is important. you struck that language. Um you you you struck a section that talks about empowering each student. Um the counseling services
department will empower each student to identify and apply their individual strength in all aspects of their academic, personal, social, and college career development. Students will resolve conflicts, develop relationship,
access uh access resources, and develop a sense of agency. You've strucken all of that out of the policy. How is that just simple updates that you missed? This sounds very ideological and it is very disturbing. It would be
appreciative. We we I invite you to uh allow the couns the the community uh and those stakeholders who have uh a specific uh interest in this to come and be a part of uh as you do your policy uh up updates. Uh and so if that is the
case then why not what is the what is the concern with allowing the public to have some input into what you are changing because what you are changing is very dangerous to what is occurring. Secondly,
President uh uh Sant Santangelo, you have the attorney here. I wonder if the attorney uh is aware that in the process of selecting the new attorney that the person one person uh
from the board who has action against the board was part of selecting the attorney. I wonder what the attorney's uh recommendation would be to you if that were known to to them prior to you know uh if he was attorney at time prior
would that would would he see that as a conflict of interest? It seems awful uh strange that we have uh a city member of the board who was part of selection of the attorney and the attorney uh uh what what their ethical response would be to
the board. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else interested in speaking? You know what? I I'm just going to make one quick comment with regard to that. We already addressed that issue with regard to the conflict of interest. We cleared that with the attorney. So, we
already addressed that. It may appear that way to you, but everything we do, we make sure we're doing legally. So, we've already discussed that. Thank you. All right. With that, we're going to close out the residence forum and we are
going to adjourn into executive session uh for approximately 45 minutes with no action taken afterwards. Can I get a second? Second. And a roll call, please. Miss Laccasta, yes. Mrs. Peterson, yes. Mrs. Rothell,
yes. Mrs. Dugen, yes. Mrs. Gong or Miss Gong, yes. Miss Gray, yes. Dr. Halpern, yes. And Mrs. Santangelo, yes. All yes.