Good evening. Thank you all for coming. We do have a quorum, so we are going to begin. And this is Jersey City Board of Education meeting of Thursday, 06/26/2025. Let us begin by the pledge, please. I pledge allegiance to the flag Okay. Okay. We don't need that much. Thank you for me. Okay. Miss McKenzie, please. Good evening. This meeting is being held in conformity with the Open Public Meetings Act. We can't hear you. This meeting is being held in conformity with the Open Public Meetings Act,
NJSA 10 colon four there six at six. Proper public notice of the meeting was caused to be sent to the El Diario La Frenza newspaper and posted on the district's official website. Public notice was also delivered to those persons requesting that such notice be given to them. The public has been advised that the board meeting may be viewed live via the district website at www.jcboe.org. I will now take the roll call. Trustee Blunt? Here. Trustee Ioffe? Here. Trustee Morris?
Trustee Mohammed? Present. Trustee Patel? Present. Trustee Viszabella? Present. Trustee Schneider? Present. Vice President Tisdale? Here. President Velasquez? Here. We have a quorum. Thank you very much. Okay. As this is, the caucus meeting, let us begin with the committee reports, please. Anyone volunteers or okay. Yes, miss Ioffe? Hello. I'm ready with the finance facilities report. Meeting took place on June 17. The report is as follows.
The finance agenda items and just so you know, I've summarized the categories. I will not be listing the, specific agenda items, but they will be listed in in their categories. Recurring finance agenda items included, the acting school business administrator went over the monthly recurring agenda items, noting the following from 10:01 through 10:12. Reports of checks issued prior to board approval and cancellation of claim warrants are available through the month of June. Board secretaries and bank reconciliation reports are available through the April, with the executive controller working to close all bank reconciliations as soon as possible.
Monthly payroll budget transfer and bills and claims reports are through the month of May. Monthly certification of funds is available through April. And the contracts purchases and co op program purchases over the bid threshold are available through the month of June. In the category of transportation, transportation section includes recurring items of approving emergency transportation routes and cancellation of transportation routes as needed. Standalone items include approval of interlocal services fuel agreement with the city of Jersey City for diesel fuel and gas. This item was on the agenda last month and had to be pulled because the
agreement was not available. The agreement document is now provided and attached in board docs in your agenda. Contract award for student transportation, summer routes. Also, approval of parent parental transportation for a special needs student, which will provide a parent with a daily stipend to drive their child to, the out of district school as needed. And finally, approval of rejection of bids in a student transportation private and parochial schools if the bid substantially exceeds the cost estimates. Then we have the audit and accounting services. Annual audit services.
Board is being asked to approve annual audit services with Lurch, Vincy, and Bliss to complete the 2425 annual audit. Also, approval of professional accounting services with Donna Hugh, Yiranda Doria, Dumpkins LLC for twenty five, twenty six year to represent the district in the collection of federal payroll taxes and tax filings. Agreements are attached on board docs and your agenda books. In the food services category, which includes items ten nineteen through ten thirty one, they include contract awards for bread, milk,
dairy products, groceries and canned goods, frozen foods, as well as halal products, also paper goods and cleaning supplies. Additional contracts include the renewal, of the produce delivery margin, refrigerator and freezer repair services, degreaser and power steam kitchen ventilation systems repairs, equipment repairs that are exclusive of refrigerators and freezers, and a contract award for direct delivery fees for miscellaneous food products. The last item in the food services category pertain to a sixty day extension for the current vendor for the duration of the bidding process as needed in order to
prevent any lapses in service in the event a different vendor wins the bid. In the security and software category, security related items include contract awards for CCTV repairs and system inspection and repair in fire security IC system. Technology and software related items include the approval to renew contract, systems 3,000 on a limited basis with a reduction in cost, providing services for hosting, licensing, data access, view, and backup.
This system will run concurrently with a new link software until the data is fully synced. Other software items include contract renewals for link, which is the new web based financial cloud based HR management system for our district, as well as, contract for PCC dash IT annual software license. In the medical insurance and claims services category, they include approval sports of sports medicine physician services, which provide physicals for the sports games for student athletes.
Additionally, we have contract awards for the following insurance services, self insured medical claims administrative services, the stop and loss carrier, dental, student accident, excess workers' compensation, property casualty and liability, public officials surety bonds insurance, and there is a consent item for seventy Bright Street insurance pertaining to a currently vacant building pending further decisions about its use. Last item in that category is workers' compensation ninety day contract extension for third party and managed care cost containment services.
In the labor agreements, we have the approval and memorandum of agreement is attached in in the agenda books and on board docs. And finally, in the finance category, we had, a miscellaneous item that is not on the agenda. There was an early childhood budget update provided by the director of the Jersey City Public Schools early childhood department director, doctor Ruth Cummings. Cummings Hippolyte. Whereas she explained to, to the committee that as per the Department of Education, there will now be a 25% deduction in the budget in the early childhood budget.
I'm so sorry. Deduction in the budget in the carryover from the previous year. The total amount of the carryover for the early childhood was 23,600,000.0 from the prior year. However, the district has only been approved to use 12,000,000 from that amount by the Department of Education. This 25% deduction leaves the district with a shortfall resulting in vacancies for pre k teachers. This will also necessitate a reduction in the privately contracted pre k providers. In May, the Jersey City Public Schools Administration and early childhood department had a meeting with the
representatives of the Department of Ed to go over this budget with the DOE subsequently acknowledging these cuts and the resulting shortfall that our districts will have to contend with. Ultimately, this will likely result in a significant reduction of the early childhood related budget line items in the fund 20 secondtion of the district's annual budget for the coming school year. That concludes the finance portion of the agenda. In the facilities agenda items, we have a monthly recurring item, which is the approved payment to DCO Energy and CHA.
There is no payment due to CHA at this time. Payment to DCO is, as always, via the Energy Savings Program, Wilmington Trust at no extra cost to the district. The contract renewals and facilities include brick refractory services, flooring repairs for various schools, gas, oil, electric, heating unit ventilator system services, and HVAC. And this is pretty much the end. Window and door glass replacements replacement services, generator inspection and repair service, pool operator service, and repair and maintenance of floor machines.
Contract awards include the apparel for the non instructional maintenance department, roofing repairs as needed, and finally, Mount Vernon Group Architects, which is the architectural services for bathroom renovations in PS Number 5. And this item, doctor Lewis, correct me if I'm wrong, is supposed to be paid through the SDA funding at no cost to the district. Correct. That's it. Thank you. That concludes the finance and facility report. Thank you. Thank you, trustee. Are there any questions regarding finance and facility? I'm sorry. Can you repeat that? No. I was asking if there were any questions regarding finance and facility from any other
trustees. Okay. Here and now let's move on. Miss Iofia, are you going to proceed with policy? So, doctor Schneider was kind enough to lead the policy, committee for this past month. Oh, there's great way. Were available. We were on all at graduations. Doctor Schneider, do you have that report? Are you ready? Yes. I will, take this report. So the committee met on, June 19. Unfortunately, many people had conflicts, so it was a smaller smaller group than usual. We addressed three topics, JCVoE policy number 30 two-sixteen, dress and grooming, policy 9,163,
spectator code of conduct, and some further discussion on, policy 133, education education of dispute. For the first one, thirty two sixteen, it's gonna be a first reading of proposed revisions. It's come to this district's attention that there are discrepancies in our policies describing the dress code between instructional and non instructional staff. Changes to this policy will align the two. This mostly, the changes will be for the instructional staff. The second one is the spectator code of contact. Again, this is the first reading that'll take place tonight.
We were presented that that basically we need to update our policies to align with the NJSIAA, the New Jersey State and their Scholastic Athletic Association, which encompasses the spectator code of contact. Basically, the updates include disciplinary policies for inappropriate behavior of spectators, such as parents. There have been a few incidences incidents in New Jersey. So this updates that that it follows a progressive discipline process. And we need to be aligned with that as we as we move forward for the our students to participate in the NJSIAA activities. And then finally, for the policy zero one three three,
both attorneys, mister Pushnick and our board attorney, mister Rivera, spoke up about this policy and both feel that it's not, in our interest to continue to have this policy. It's something that we'll discuss again in August at the next, meeting. Really, the proper place to, educate the labor disputes and and grievances is through all our collective bargaining agreements. It this one, one, I think, causes a lot of confusion. And there are other pathways, in applicable federal laws as well. To their knowledge, other districts don't have this policy. And we didn't have this policy until 2022 when we adopted it as part of
a comprehensive, update to our policies. And it wasn't really one that was discussed, at that time. We haven't used it. So, right now, the recommendation from both attorneys is that we remove it. But this was, again, gonna be discussed further with more board trustees in August. So Thank you, Doctor. Schneider. So the recommendation is that the policy zero one three three be revisited in August at the August's board meeting, not that it be removed tonight. Is that correct? That is correct. Yeah. Are there any other questions regarding, the policy report from doctor Schneider? Okay. Here and then, can we move on to you,
trustee Mohammed? Yes. So I have three. I have the, student focused forum and also special education and student life and personnel services. So I'm gonna start with I'll begin with the student focused forum that was held on Tuesday, 06/03/2025 at 6PM in Room 1 R. And the agenda was, opening remarks, air quality survey, identification referral and evaluation process for special education services, summer reading, and promotional policy. Five. So the community outreach these notes actually were written by,
the executive assistant, Anne Byrne, and I just am relaying them to everyone. Anne because I think she did a great job of, taking notes. So the community outreach meeting held on Tuesday, 06/03/2025, at 6PM in Room 1R was attended by 30 parents and community members. Please find the meeting agenda and sign in sheets attached for your reference. And parents were receptive to the information presented and to learn of the location of summer reading information and BOE policies on the district website. Time was allotted at the end of the session for questions,
and board trustees along with staff remained afterwards to address individual concerns. During this time, they referred parents to the appropriate staff or departments for further assistance as needed. Below are some of the comments and questions raised during the meeting that may, warrant warrant further discussion. So inadequate communication at the high school level between school and parents, not having sufficient staff to teach courses in high school. Learning from a screen is difficult for many students. There is not enough support. More initiatives for high school students to transition to the workforce are needed.
This includes partnerships with colleges and businesses. And some of the questions were, are there opportunities for students to work in the summer? Are there summer programs in which high school students can participate? Parents don't always have always know about the initiatives, partnerships, and programs that are available in the high schools. And parents expressed thanks for the opportunity to learn and to be heard. The next meeting will be virtual, and in August, they requested that the presentation be put on the district website or shared with the attendees. And the sustainable Jersey City presentation of air quality was shared,
and the special education review for identification referral evaluation process was shared as well. So the next steps, I think, should be is to review policy on communicating to parents about students being at risk of failing at the high school level and how information about student volunteer initiatives or job opportunities, and publicize any programs available to high school students. So that was the forum student focused forum. And I'll move on to, special education. The agenda topics were LYNX update, business, staff staffing updates,
end of year school updates, regional day school, A. Harry Moore, 11 action items, and the good of the order. We started with the action items, and there are 11 of them. So it's approval to the contract with Bergen County Special Services, approval of partnership with Hudson County and, Hudson County Enterprises, approval of payment of tuition, approval to con approval to contract or share for shared time vocational and transitional services, approval to contract with Bergen County Special Services, nonpublic, Approval to payment of tuition,
another, provement approval of, of payment of tuition for end of school year. Approval of, fiscal year twenty twenty five twenty six file storage agreement, approval of payment of tuition, approval of music therapy externship program, and approval to accept and create out of district contracts for Project Search twenty five to twenty six, twenty twenty five to twenty six. So the leaders integrating network knowledge supports, which is the links. Update well, I was with Megan Costigan. She,
spoke about the June public service announcement, which is about transition planning with Mei Ling Chong and, Jacqueline Mataliano. And that is a PSA, which is available on the website, and I also attached it to the report. The HATS update is, 74 students are enrolled. And we also saw, the LINCS highlights for 2024, 'twenty five. And they reviewed it was a review of the Jersey City's tiered system of support mathematics and language arts intervention. And then, students are able to use voice typing and read aloud features using the Kami app.
The Kami app also allows students to interact with documents, worksheets, and other digital resources and integrates with platforms like Google Classroom, Schoology, and Canvas. The goal of using Kami is to create a comprehensive and interactive learning environment for students and teachers, primarily focusing on digital documents, assignments. And Excelis, they use Excelis as well, an Internet based learning platform that is used in credit recovery for students with IEPs and who are considered at risk. And then, I put this in here because I think it's really important, for anybody who goes back and look at the notes and does this,
chairs this committee in the future. And it says, Why SEL in the classroom? So the reasons are, due to an increased number in of students with depression, anxiety, and stress, increase in mental health needs, and students who are experiencing or witnessing trauma social emotional learning in the classroom. That's why, social emotional learning is in the classroom. And some of the, programs were reviewed, the Choose Love Movement curriculum for all teachers, kindergarten, grade, 12 to grade twelve, and Second Step for students K to five, assisted, technology program,
the children that have their physical education, CAST music therapy, and CAST art therapy. They focus on how music and art therapy promote social and emotional learning, crisis prevention intervention training for 95 staff in 2024 and will continue to train more in 2025 school year. A preschool supports overview. Collaborative consulted teacher c c programs, the CCT program, was overviewed. Teacher pro teach program was overviewed. Creating Creating Happy and Motivated Pupils for Success or CHAMPS was overviewed.
Community Based Instruction or CBI. Project SEARCH. And then the public service announcement for, June is, attached to this email this, report. And then, also, they discussed fun Friday and department outreach collaborative events that have occurred. In the business, with Carrie and Galaise, New Jersey School Based Health Services or, NJSBHS or also SEMI, which is a Special Education Medicaid Initiative, reimbursements are at 215,000. This amount is lower than last year due to changes in the state formula.
We reviewed the NJDOE initiatives and the IEP management system, the deaf and hard of hearing, program, Spring Into Speech. And then for staffing updates with, Dina Kosk, spoke about the CPAC meeting. Also, DLM wrap up for 04/07/2025 to May, thirtieth, twenty twenty five. 333 students tested across 18 schools with the support of 62 teachers who received ongoing professional development from September to March. Results are received in August and shared with Doctor.
Fernandez. End of school year updates, with Tracy Pettiford, she spoke about the program Achieving Independence Motivating Students, also known as AIMS. And this year's theme is Where We All Become Stars, and the calendar will be available in July for July. Regional Day, Principal Colleen Henry spoke about the summer school in her extended year, which starts on 07/01/2025. They're all ready. And for staffing for twenty twenty five, twenty twenty six school year, the staff is still working with the district to fill positions,
to make sure they have full staff. At A. Harry Moore, their highlights were the list high school students, at the Grouse Nichols, building had a documentary as part of the CTE program for the media production team. And there were two showings, and the premiere was on April 10. They also had the prom dress and suit giveaway. It's the second year partnering with the We Care Movement to provide suits and dresses to high school students who were attending prom. And the Gross Nickel LIFT parent, Parent Informal Informational Session on April 16 at the LIFT program partnered with departments,
companies on campus, and in the community to make resources avail more accessible to high school families. Some families received DDD and DVRS and guardianship application assistance. The preschoolers participated in a sensory friendly taste testing activity. The therapy dog program is still in effect. Becky is still on a firm mission to, spread smiles with visits about two, times per month. The Easter Bunny visit, the PTO sponsored egg hunting and decorating event. And the major events at A. Harry Moore on April 30 were the autism acceptance.
May 22 was the prom. June 13 was graduation. June, July 1 to to the twenty ninth will be the extended school year. July 17 is the tropical tropical carnival event at 10AM, and that was the good of the order. That was special education. I also have, what is this? The, student life and services. If you give me one second, I can pull this up. I'm sorry, Chelsea. But I you said you were gonna move on to student life and services. Student life and services. I appreciate it. Any questions before she goes on with special education? Okay. Go ahead. Okay. I can okay. So for student life and services,
on Tuesday, 06/17/2025, director Candace Caro, along with supervisors Arthur Williams, Takiyah Williams, Jay Garcia, Elsie Jimenez, and Benjamin DeFranco, shared a presentation to outline 15 highlights of the student life and personnel services department's programs and services that support students, staff, and families for student success. The end of the year presentation summary is attached and highlighted the district's notable suspension rate decrease of 23% for the '20, okay, twenty twenty four-twenty five school year and 39% when compared to twenty twenty two-twenty twenty
three school year. The decrease is a reflection of the success of behavioral interventions and restorative practice practices through the department's programs and initiatives, like the Saturday Rejuvenation Program, enhanced participation as the program expanded to eight new sites and served seventeen oh six students as of June 2025, and expansion of the access to trauma informed mental health, support, resilience programs from Project Resilience, which is 3,879. Wait. Yeah. 879,000
$3,879,106 grant for four years from, SAMHSA, funded initiative and AWARE, Bridges to Resilience is a 3,000 $3,379,006 four year, I think that's supposed to be a three year grant. Provides mental health services to more than 2,500 students across the Jersey City Public School District. Districtwide Mental Health Service Awareness Day from the department coordinated an initiative, with Words Matter and Action Matter to force a meaningful dialogue and awareness centered on
the impact of social media and technology on mental health across the school dish school community, a revised code of conduct, implementation of a trauma informed approach to better address, student needs through structured intervention responses using a multi tiered system of support, the launch of the Compass Community Resource Guide, which connects families with essential community resources and support services, and strengthened the anti bullying interventions through interventions and supports. One hundred and sixty reported HIB were unfounded,
and ninety nine reported were unfounded so far for the twenty twenty four-twenty five school year. Enhanced school counseling services expanded the role of each of of the role and reach of school counselors, providing students with increased academic career and personal support. Successful cultural college and career day career day events students gained exposure to diverse career paths and celebrated cultural diversity, promoting inclusivity and encouraging cross cultural understanding. The adult education program
exceeded the state goals for student educational function level and all levels of adult based education and English as a second language enrollment and exceeded the state's expected two eighty one student enrollment, target, with Ferris actual enrollment being three twenty nine students, Dickerson actual enrollment, two twenty three students. Also, the Education Center at Ferris High School's furniture was updated to suit adult learners, which helped retain, retain and recruit,
students. So, then you have 50 mental health wellness specialists. So, 50 Jersey City public school members earn a certification as mental health wellness specialists through the Thrive Alliance Group to promote wellness and success across schools. There's also been TICE trainings, which is, trauma informed skills for educators, and tips, which is trauma informed, informed sorry. Trauma Informed Skills for Parents. And school leaders, which is, they have the TICE Leadership Institute. So overall, eighteen ninety nine district staff have received training across four schools,
and that's, public schools four, five, six, and thirty. And 24 parents have been certified since 2024 in February 2025, with a third session planned for July 2025. CASPER, the CASPER program worked toward and achieved a balanced budget for the twenty twenty four-twenty twenty five year to continue to offer a revamped program focused on multidimensional enrichment, and supports students' physical health, emotional well-being, creativity, and social skills. BARC expanded the staff members who receive alerts for school staff to proactively respond to potential
student safety concerns to promote a safer digital environment. BARC monitored twenty two thousand two hundred and thirty four students, addressed eighteen eighty one issues with seven eleven incidents related to self harm or suicide ideation. And finally, with the Ignite, U-turn and wellness clubs, 187 high school students completed Ignite U-turn summer credit recovery courses, with nineteen seniors able to graduate due to completion of completing their credit recovery courses.
Wellness clubs were held in 17 middle and high schools. 604 students attended at least one meeting. And for the HIB update for May, 30 total incidents, nine founded, 10 unfounded, 10 inconclusive, one some founded, and zero no perpetrator. And that's dead. Any questions for, miss Mohammed with regards to that report? I do I have one. So in in something in your report somewhere in the middle, you said that, the hidden reports of found cases were, I don't remember the exact number.
My question was, is that number of found cases up or down from last year? Do we know that? So let me go back. The Hibs are 160 reported Hibs were unfounded, and 99 reported were founded so far. That's from this this year. Right? Ninety nine? Yes. For the 2024. So I was wondering if we knew what the difference was between this year and last year. Oh, I'm I don't have that number right now. But Miss Candace do you have? What's the reason I'm here?
At this, there has been a decrease in the number of suspensions and hips. Unfortunately, miss Cacaro is not here, but there is a decrease in the number of hips. And so the reason that I asked is because I was wondering if the, the decrease was the result of the trauma informed therapy that we're providing for the students. Well, it's hard. And, you know, in research, we don't do correlation, but there seems to be a trend, a correlation. Maybe not the cost, but there is a correlation, between the increase in trauma informed practices,
restorative practices, and a decrease in suspensions, a decrease in founded hips, and an improvement in attendance. Thank you, doctor Fernandez. To the chair. Just, maybe this would help, so the end of the year. So so the suspension rate decrease was twenty three percent for twenty twenty four, twenty five and the for the school year, and then thirty nine percent when we compare it to twenty twenty two, twenty three. Well, it's just nice to see a decrease. I was just wondering if we knew what the correlation was.
It really doesn't matter as long as it's going down. Yeah. It's trending in the right direction. Good. Miss Noemi? I can go. Okay. So, right now, I'm gonna present the curriculum and instruction report. We'll start with the two agenda items that were, added. They are just basically asking 872873 asking for approval of tuition payments to the Hoboken Board of Education. They're not included in the initial report. So this is, kind of really summarized, so you're gonna have to kind of look inside of the agenda that someone understand
it. Sorry. And if you have any questions, we have mister Wayne and doctor Fernandez who can assist. So we met on Thursday, the nineteenth at 12:30, and the curriculum committee was there. And we started out with, instructional screening, which is resolutions. I'm not gonna read the exact numbers, but eight zero four instructional screening and digital literacy tools are used to amplify MCAS DIBELS screening for schools PS thirty four and twenty. So this is a universal early literacy screeners under New Jersey tiered system of support, and it's for it's a grant in the amount of $14,352
and only two schools were eligible this cycle, which is why it's thirty four and twenty. So Rutgers and NJGOE will provide consultation throughout the use of the program. 805, the Mayan digital platform renewal, literacy, resources for summer reading, book of the month, and cultural awareness. It's a district wide access, continues usage from 02/2014. A total cost of $164,996.76. Curriculum updates and instructional materials with revisions for items,
eight zero six through eight twenty eight and eight thirty three and eight thirty four. Revisions across multiple subjects, new courses. This is listed too, but there's actually four. I don't recall what the other two are, but culinary arts two would be one of them, and then middle school fashion design for MS 40 for the CTE course. These are not new funds being requested, as the stipends were preapproved in board meetings ranging from October to February, as noted in the agenda book. Mystery of Science platform for k through five costs $44,070
covers 26 elementary schools throughout the districts, and it's aligned to, the New Jersey standards, for science instruction. Perfection learning for AP history, dollars 10,872 for AP US history, government macroeconomics, and human geography. Newsletter data license, dollars 431,890. It reached 10,000 plus students this particular year with five twenty one teachers. Leveled articles, standard aligned quizzes, and teacher dashboards. So it's in reinforcement for students and what they're doing already in the classroom.
Assessment and advanced placement support PowerSchool subscription renewal cost $256,984.27, which is an assessment platform for midterms, final, and AP evaluation modules. The Alberto IO AP practice resources is $26,575 with 1,500 seats, that were occupied throughout this year. It's used for AP math, science, and ELA, social studies, and world languages. Start Early Literacy Assessments is grant funded for $74,530
It's curriculum based measurement screening non, non New Jersey schools or NJTSS. That's probably the wrong acronym. Sorry for that. Professional development initiative, Sound World Literacy Training, $10,400 for k two teachers. It aligns with science and reading initiatives. This is what they've already been using. And benchmark advancement PD, dollars 9,300, new hires and teachers moving grades. It's a scale down due to internal coaching capabilities. So grants, donations, and school support, Lincoln High School, the RWJ Hospital is giving them prompt support in the amount of $3,910.30.
McNair academic, also from RWJ hospital, seniors use and prompt support in the amount of $2,625. Ferris High School Donors shoes, tools for ELL learners, $578.08. Ferris High School, Whole Foods, Filled A snacks, different kinds. Innovation High School, NJCU is the donor, dual enrollment tuition, up to $26,620. ROTC j junior ROTC activities and student honors, condensed honorarium, dollars 500 for each student, student leadership recognition,
and McNair, at, high school junior ROTC field training yesterday to the twenty ninth. This is a ratification at Fort Dix. 25 cadets excuse me, and two instructors at the cost of $700 this is being submitted as a ratification due to the timing. It was not submitted for May because the invitation was received late. I confirmed that with doctor Fernandez. Mental health and student wellness bring change to mind clubs, sponsored Glenn Close Foundation. Five high schools, mental health awareness via peer leadership. Those peace packs now delivered 25,
delivered 25 peace packs, and they're coming in August. Contents tools to promote emotional regulation and trauma support. Project Resilience and Safe Schools training grant, is to Trauma Informed Institute, July. Apple grant courses with NJCU, 21 counselors and psychologists, play therapy, trauma informed support. This starts next Tuesday well, Tuesday, which would have been June 24. Health services and therapy contracts, private duty nursing, RFP, went out in the amount of $300,000
Support for students with disabilities and high medical needs, occupational therapy and PT services, RPUS, I mean, related services under student IEPs. Ruckus clinicians will provide the services. Cognitive behavioral therapy in 12 schools. Funding source Bridges to Resilience and Project Resilience, which sifted, from the title. Donations of items and awards, Barack Obama's school February memorabilia. PS eleven is getting the Eileen Schimmel award. Furniture is also being given out to,
the Brennan Center and Jonas' Shoes. Wait. From the Brennan Center and Jonas' Shoes. The specifics are in the in in the resolution. Bilingual and ESL program highlights, anti bullying, and safety curriculum rollout includes safe touch, consent, boundary education, and it's done through parent notification sessions, teacher prep beforehand, and complies with NJ State student safety requirements. DOE childcare contract template submission, action form eight sixty nine, submission to the NJ DOE via homeroom system. Clarification, no local edits were made.
Multilingual intake center, year end round report. Total placed students, fourteen seventy five. Access scores used to assess readiness for program exit. The hours for the summer will be August 18 through the twenty eighth, 8AM through 1PM, 1PM through 6PM, Monday through Thursday. Throughout the 2526 school year, the hours will be starting in September 4, 03:45PM through 06:45PM, Monday through Thursday, and the recognition event will be May 16 at the Great Cliff. A hundred and thirty well, it was May 16,
I should say, at the Great Cliff. And a 130, guests were there, and it was said to be wonderful. So the Seal of Biliteracy Achievements, NJDOUEC is recognized, a 188. And the languages were Arabic, French, Hindi, Mandarin, Dari, Greek, Marathi, Persian, Urdu, Spanish, and those were the languages. Wait. There were others as well. I just put etcetera. But anyway, Global Seal of Bioliteracy, 104 juniors, sixty six eighth graders, and it was published on a district wide newsletter and website. It recognizes internationally transferrable bilingual proficiency.
Professional development for bilingual ESL and world languages. Recent workshops is the DLAG NJPSA, FEA Multilingual Summit, and the CAL workshops. Upcoming July 1, at Central office, the CAL and SIOP observation protocol call for admin training. 2025 summer program packet will be distributed to the board members to include general and specific education, high school credit recovery, and summer enrichment. Summer school has already began and will run until the July. The board members are encouraged to visit the various sites throughout the summer.
Please let doctor Fernandez and mister Wayne know if you'll be attending any of the sessions. She will, she, being doctor, Fernandez and her team, will send out, a list of the sites, locations, and times that the summer program is meeting. Any questions? Yes. Through the chair. You you are the chair. At presently, he's the chair. Doctor Fernandez, when should we expect the list of the sites? I don't know if if you send them to us already. Summer school? Yes. It's I actually have the email in a draft. I'm sure you do.
So it will be going out, tomorrow morning or later this evening, but I have it in a draft already. And they started today. Right? Yes. And and this okay. And and until what's the date? The June, July. Starts, and the high school program runs through August 8. It's more days to accommodate the need to make up the credits. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? No? I'm done. Okay. Okay. Thank you, everyone. I mean,
these are very thorough reports. And I know that, you know, some of us are saying, oh my god. When do they stop? But it is important for us to, be report out to the public. In as much as they may be on the website, everyone doesn't go on the website, but everyone, is entitled to know the information. So this is just another way that we bring the information, not just to, the people here, but to the public. And they are our stakeholders.
They really need to know what is being done in our schools on a daily basis and what is the future's projection. So thank you so much. And, doctor side Snyder, I wanna thank you for that thorough I know this was your first time, and very good. Thank you so much. I think now we have all had an opportunity because even, miss Rosabella has done some as well. Right? You've done some report. So we've all had an opportunity. Next time, you'll be the chairs
of these committees. Thank you so much. And, any other questions? Through the chair, I just wanna say I appreciate because in the beginning, I said, please don't make me a chair because I was very scared of the report. So it's it's I'm grateful to have spent this six months learning before that Thank you. Okay. We'll take that into consideration. But then you have to let your chair on the committee not to be absent. So thank you very much. Everyone, I will take motion to adjourn. Motion by doctor Blunt and second by oh,
the other way around. The motion by mister Morris and second by doctor Blunt. All in favor? Meeting's closed. Thank you. Thank you all for coming, especially the many, administrators that we see out there. Thank you so very much. We are going to begin our meeting, our regular meeting of 06/26/2025. If we can all find our seats, we will begin with the pledge. Please stand. Please stand. Thank you. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America
Are you singing, doctor Fernandez? You don't have. Okay. Miss McKenzie, would you please have roll call? Yes. Good evening. This meeting is being held in conformity with the Open Public Meeting Act NJSA 10 colon four dash six at Sec. Proper public notice of the meeting was caused to be sent to the El Diario La Prinza newspapers and posted on the district's official website. Public notice was also delivered to those persons requesting that such notice be given to them. The public has been advised that the board meeting may be viewed live via the
district website at www.jcb0e.org. I'll now take the roll call. Trustee Blunt? Present. Trustee Ioffe? Here. Trustee Morris? Present. Trustee Mohammed? Present. Trustee Patel? Present. Trustee Rezabella? Present. Trustee Schneider? Present. Vice president Tisdale? Here. President Velasquez, we have a quorum. Thank you very much. Okay. Before I hand the program over to doctor Fernandez for her report and,
and her program, I wanna quickly go over as I do every month. This month, I am going to introduce, books whose author is a student that graduated from Ferris High School many, many years ago. His name is Robert Gassija. And not only has he written many books and his books are bilingual, he's also an illustrator and many other books. He is a student that was born and raised in Jersey City of Puerto Rican
parents. After graduating from school here, he went to, school in New York, school of the arts, and then he went on to writing books for children, especially summer books, which are quite important for the children our children to read during the summer, and also illustrating books, with, information on people like, Mandela, Martin Luther King, Maya Angelou, and many other, not just celebrities,
but, notable people of many other cultures. So if you ever principals and any teachers that may be out there, if you ever have an opportunity to get books into your library, make sure that you get books of those, students that have already gone through our system. Let's highlight what we, our products, that are out there, making us look good and shine on a daily basis. Thank you. Now doctor Fernandez. Good evening.
Good evening, trustees, president Velasquez, vice president Tisdale, colleagues, and the community. As we share every month, attendance is extremely important. It is crucial for academic success and the overall well-being. It forces social and emotional development. It helps students build strong academic foundations, and it increases their ability to graduate on time and succeed in life. Let's be realistic. We all must go to work,
and it is it's something that we learn early when we must go to school. It's beneficial. So to this evening, we, acknowledge two schools for their attendance during the month of May, and that is the first school is the Cornelia f Bradford School, p s sixteen, if you would come up. Trustees, if you would join me in presenting the award. The second school with excellent attendance for the month of May is Academy one.
Trustees, please don't go too far. Today, we recognize parents who support our schools by volunteering and working with the administration and teachers to make their school community successful, a better place for all students. In the words of Helen Keller, alone, we can do so little. Together, we can do so much. So this evening, I would like to present a small token of appreciation and recognition to certain individuals
who are always there for our schools. When I call your name, if you would come, and we're gonna do, like, a graduation line all over again. We got to practice. We shake it was about 2,000 hands that we were shaking last week. So, okay. So, at this time, it is my pleasure to start with the Frank r Conwell, school number three. And Are we doing this again? Yeah. We'll have a conversation. Well, thank you. Congratulations.
Thank you. It's stand in the middle. So we could okay. Okay. From middle school four, we have Luz Roca. Thank you. Luz. Yes. From PS number five, we have Paola Martinez. Here here you go. This is for you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Good morning. Good. From PS number six, Jotham Wakeham School, Rosemary Nunez. From middle school seven, we have Sujane Colaso. Accepting the award is Principal Varnasquez.
Congratulations. Thank you. From PS number eight, Chelsea Treeford School, miss Maria Brito. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. From from PSC eleven, Martin Luther King School, we have Angel Ortega. Thank you so much. Thank you. From PS number 12, we have, Phoebe Farag. PS 14, we have Jatun Maldonado. Okay. P s fifteen. No. That p s fourteen.
I'm sorry. It's Magda, Colesman from p s fourteen. Is Magda here? No. PS 15, Jatuan Maldonado. Accepting the award is principal Terry. Congratulations. 16, Cornelia f Bradford. The parent is Rica Noland. P s seventeen. Joseph h Bresinger. We have Giselle Gonzales. P s 20, doctor Maya Angelou, Cecilia Gonzales. Yeah. P s 22, Deneen Ratley. P s 23,
We have Cassandra Adams. PS 24, we have Mary Jane Milo. Okay. Mary Jane. PS 25, Joanna Kalug. PS 26. We have Sakia Edwards. Sakia Edwards. P s 27. Anjani Rana. P s 28, Chris McAuliffe. We have Brigid Fujioka. Yes. P s 29. Latoya Howard. P s 30, Violet Robinson. P s 33 Jewel Sabaland.
Sablan. P s 34. We have Marika Moraine. P s 37, Jennifer Figueroa. PS 38, we're unable to come, and it's Levitt, Calvantinas, PS 39. We have Monre Smith. Middle school forty, we have Christina Handy. Accepting the award is principal Salgado. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Thanks. PS forty one, we have Zoe Williams. Regional day, we have Zachary Amor.
Academy one, Narsine Badernia. Batania. William Dickinson High School, Yvonne Garcia. Presenting the award is vice principal. Thank you. Thank you so much. At James j Farris High High School, Abdul Islampour. Oh, and Zakiyah Islampour. Both of you. Thank you so much, Tiffany. Thank you so much. Forgot the microphone. Infinity Institute, Smitha Veron Comenica Vieronma Chaney. Innovation High School, it's mister James Nelson,
but accepting the award, doctor Dooley. Thank you so much. Thank you. For Liberty High School, we have Patrick Raisin. Patrick. Patrick. For Abraham Lincoln High School, Melissa Baker. From doc, doctor Ronald Lee McNair, academic high school, Christina Park, Henry Snyder High School, Paula Pellegrin. From Glenn d Cunningham, we have Manasa Maca McCullough and Sai Pritam Ayalabani.
Okay. From the Danford early childhood side, Amy Kamadas. And from Infanti, Bayai, Healy, Nalik. And from Westside Early Childhood, Kelly Garberas. Parents, thank you for everything you do for all of our students all the time. Thank you. Thank you, trustees. As we continue with the evening, trustees and the public, Classes ended on Tuesday for the 2425 school year. Together, we have navigated the challenges and celebrated the successes that have shaped this year.
Parents, thank you for your unwavering support, partnership, and trust in our schools. Your involvement is crucial to the success of our students, and we deeply appreciate your collaboration. Thanks to the board support, the district had a very successful year. Our teachers have delivered instruction guided by the New Jersey student learning standards to prepare students for academic success. They have also provided social emotional support in many different ways to help our students
become happy, resilient individuals capable of facing adversity, challenges, and emerging triumphant. We had students who excelled on the athletic field, the arts, academic, and intonish international competitions. The Jersey City Public School proudly pursuing a four year degree, 240 students pursuing a two year degree, a 107 graduates initiating enrollment in a trade or technical school program,
and 44 graduates entering the military. Since we partnered with Yonkers in Jersey City in the fall of twenty twenty three, we has made a powerful impact on our young people. We've launched a vibrant college readiness and access program in Jersey City public schools where Wi Fi works closely with over 200 students currently from Lincoln and Dickinson High School. Beyond that, their for all programming has reached even more students through the FAFSA app completion events
and essential college access workshops, opening doors for students citywide. Wi Fi will add Ferris High School in September and Snyder hopefully in the spring. Through our partnership with NJCU, their JC arts program will take classes at the universities At the university. The students will be amazed at the beauty of the campus in the middle of our city, and the classrooms are coming along beautifully. I was able to tour the facilities last week.
We will have a ribbon cutting in mid September for the trustees to visit the program. We also, this year, opened the middle school CTE program at Middle School forty. The Jersey City Public School District has been able to partner with RWJBarnabas and the medical center to offer individual family and group clinical and nonclinical counseling in a total of 6,900 therapeutic encounters and,
were provided and included consultation with individual and family appointments and group crisis and group sessions and crisis intervention. That is in addition to all our social emotional programs within the district and the trauma informed practices. Despite the national shortage, the HR department has made significant progress in hiring certified teachers since last year. Each teacher underwent a comprehensive training session during orientation to familiarize them with the curriculum,
ensuring that they are well prepared for the school year, and we've offered support at the school with mentors. The district continues to award the Road to Higher Education Scholarships. These scholars this scholarship is awarded to students to help them achieve their academic aspirations in at Hudson County Community College. This scholarship award affords the recipient a voucher for $1,500 to use on college related
expenses after a success successful completion of first year of their first year at Hudson County Community College and a check after the success and completion of the second year. So in total, a qualifying student would receive $3,000 in scholarship to use, as they see to further their education. A number of recent graduates have qualified for the scholarship commit, commitment for this coming year,
and these students will receive their check if they maintain 12 college credits each semester and have a good academic standing with a minimum of a b average. The district lost this year $998,000,000 in state aid and but, nonetheless, it continues to invest in our students and facilities, and it went so far as to, assign 22,000,000
in capital outlay to invest in facilities throughout the district. But let's keep in mind, our buildings are old and, how expensive it can be to have any work done in the building. For example, a roof could cost as much as $2,000,000 or more. We also learned that the district would lose 25% of the preschool carryover funds. That equates to a $5,900,000
reduction that will negatively impact some of the the liberals for our early childhood program. Nonetheless, we are not canceling any classes, and classes will remain at the current 15 to two, a teacher and a paraprofessional. It means that we will have to, cut at another end but not impact the classroom. I want to, publicly thank our incredible staff. That means every employee in the district for their commitment to our students' growth and
the we well-being. And it is truly inspiring. Their passion for education, resilience, and tireless efforts to make the buildings ready have made an impact on countless lives. As we look forward to summer, I encourage everyone to take time to rest, recharge, and enjoy time with loved ones. For our students, I hope this summer brings opportunities for discovery, reading, and continued learning express experiences. A special congratulations to all our graduating seniors.
We are immensely proud of your achievements, and we wish you the very best as you embark on your next adventure. Wishing everyone a safe, restful, and joyful summer. Thank you, trustees and president Velasquez. Thank you, superintendent Fernandez. I must say that, we had a marathon of graduations, and most of the trustees were present at most of them. Thank you so very much for, not just supporting the district,
but supporting the team. Thank you so very much. I also want to congratulate, two of our trustees whose children also graduated, and they're moving on to greater things. Aidan Resabella graduated from number thirty seven school, the son of trustee Resabella. And he's moving on to McNair. Kudos to him. And also, we have Benjamin Ioffe, the son of trustee Natalia Ioffe, and graduated from Infinity.
And he's moving on to Fordham University. Kudos to him. To both of you. Thank you so much. Yes. We did congratulate all of the parents all of the time, as we, went up to, greet them on your behalf. But, you know, these are parents that are not just being a parent out there, but they're also working on this board on behalf of those parents. So thank you, ladies. And now we're moving on to public comments. If our attorney, mister Rivera,
will please read the preamble. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. This is the public comment statement. All speakers must adhere to the three minute speaking rule. The clock shall not be stopped. Speakers will be called to the microphone to speak in the order that their requests are received. All statements or comments shall be directed to the chair. It is the expectation of the board that comments will remain positive and focus around the best interest of the students and the district as a whole. The board will not condone comments that can be perceived as harassing, insulting,
threatening, or lacking in respect or civility. The chair reserves the right to, a, interrupt, warn, and or terminate a participant's statement or comment when it is too lengthy, b, interrupt and or warn a participant when the statement or comment is abusive or obscene or may be defamatory, c, request any person to leave the meeting when that person does not observe reasonable decorum or presents themselves as dangers to others in the building. D, request the assistance of law enforcement officers in the removal of a disorderly person when that person presents, prevents, or disrupts a meeting with an act that obstructs or interferes with the meet with
the meeting, including threats by words, actions, or objects. Call for a recess or adjournment to another time, and f waive these rules when necessary for the protection of privacy or to maintain an orderly operation of the meeting. Thank you. Thank you. Now, miss McKenzie, if you will call on we have just three speakers. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Our first speaker is Belinda Gote. You have three minutes. And I probably need less than that. Good evening. I'm here once again. Norma, I wanna know what your observation was on a library opening.
Has nothing to do with how Resideo treats my child. Why is it that Kansas opened the hip, never let me know? But yet, when did the school question my child? When your child is suspended, aren't you to call the parent to come in to get suspension paperwork, not send them home at the end of the day? You suspended my child for being defiant because she did not wanna speak to you. She's rather, speak to mister p, but yet, oh, you're defined you're being suspended. Wrote on paper, she was on the phone. I heard the whole conversation on the phone because the clerk had me on the
phone. So whatever Resideo is or what she got going on targeting my child and excluding her, something has to give. I've reached out to you, miss Reed. I guess never gave you messages. Enough is enough. When is when is anybody gonna see the bigger picture here? Have yourself a good afternoon. Next. Janine. Janine Blair. Hello. I'm coming to address issues regarding security and how they're handling the children at Lincoln High School. I've reached out at one point to Dejean Marvis when there was an incident with
my daughter and the way that security handled her, holding her down, pinning her on her back on top of a radiator, and that went nowhere. Next, we have another security guard there, which addressed the young lady's, excuse my mouth, as bitches. Every time that she sees these young ladies walk in, she doesn't get along with them. Again, that has been brought up, and nothing done about it. Next, we have an incident where security got into with my daughter, where another child and her were arguing, where they're trying to say in the video he didn't push against the wall,
which he did. Then he told her to go get your father, go get your mother. Nobody's not gonna do anything. What I need to know from the board, is this the way that your security is supposed to handle 14 year old kids? That's what I need to know. Then you get the police involved where they slammed my child on the ground where he lied. He's about six five, and my daughter is maybe about five feet to say she punched him in the chest. Well, I have videos of what happened. She never did that. So then they tried to have her arrested. When we get there, my child was in handcuffs based on a lie from your security guard.
And then again, it all wants to be swept under the rug. So I need to know from somebody on this board, when are you gonna do something? When are any of you on this board gonna open your mouth and say something is wrong with this district? Something is wrong with the way our children are being treated? Time and time again for over a year, I came here to speak about bullying, and we still have parents coming in saying the same thing. Nothing's happening. We bring issues and concerns to you, nothing happens. It gets swept under the rug, and everybody's sitting here looking silly like they don't know what's going on. But you don't do nothing to address the issues that's plaguing our children.
Nothing. Nothing at all. You sit here. Remember, board trustees, as parents in the community, we vote y'all in. You need us. We don't need you. We don't need people that's gonna sit here, hear us time and time again, and do absolutely nothing. So at the same time that you have this energy and not listening to us, doing anything to help our children, please remember that when you need our vote. Because I'm gonna do every and anything that I possibly can to make sure some of you members never sit on another board ever again in your life. Thank you. Next, Gary Easterling.
Who is this? Gary? Easterling? Is that who you call? Yes. Is mister Easterling here? I don't Let's see. They're getting Oh, they're getting okay. Mister Easterly? Okay. A little tall here. Good evening, everyone. Doctor Fernandez. We can. You to the Italian Your your your mic is not on. Hello? Okay. Good evening, doctor Fernandez. To miss Velasquez, to to everyone here in their respective places. I just wanted to stop by and give a public thank you to doctor Fernandez and the entire,
nominee negotiating committee as they sat with us, the local twenty two sixty two, to, come to some agreement to get a contract done. And I just wanna thank you that we did things amicably, and you were very professional in your efforts. And, we have a contract. And so thank you. Thank you. Thank you for all your hard work, and we are going to, be in a place where we can do our due diligence as a local to make sure that we are part of the concerted effort to provide a safe,
healthy, clean working environment where the kids can be nurtured. Okay? So thank you again. I won't take up too much of your time, but I just want wanted to come by and publicly thank you for the work that we did in private and, the success we have with the contract. So thank you again. Thank you, miss mister Easterlin. Okay. Do the chair I know there's one more person, but did she not sign up? We don't have a list. One more person. Not sure. You did what? I'm sorry? I thought you followed up, ma'am. Okay. Your name? Please come up to the podium and say your name.
You signed up with with signed up online on the website at 11AM this morning. My name is Mona Eng. Your name is? Mona Ng. Please spell it so that we could get it correctly on our records. First name, m o n a. Last name, n g. Thank you. You may you may begin. Okay. Good evening, president Velasquez, fellow trustees, and superintendent, doctor Fernandez. My name is Mona. I'm a proud parent of, of, student at PS five as well as a board member of our dedicated PTA, a member of Jersey City Together. I'm here to express strong support for agenda item 11 o seven,
bathroom renovations for PS five. For too long, the bathroom at PS five and numerous other Jersey City schools have been in a state of disrepair. It's due to a lack of necessary funding from the FDA FDA and, unfortunately, the broader pattern of negligence from the state. Our school our school's facilities have deteriorated significantly. I hope all the states can agree that, to support The architectural services provided, contract, and, to, actually finish the necessary renovations for the bathrooms,
at PS PS five and hopefully many other schools along the pipeline. Thank you so much. Have a good day. Thank you. Okay. Is that it? Okay. We will move on then. Doctor Fernandez, would you like to comment on some of these? Before doctor Fernandez begins, let me just be very clear. We are here to listen to all concerns of everyone. Everyone is important to this board. All of everyone. Everyone is important to this board. All your concerns are important to us. But once you've expressed your concerns, allow the district,
that being doctor Fernandez, to answer. And, if you can't listen, then that's okay. Do not comment on it from be from up there. Please do not. If not, we will ask you to either put it in writing or some other means of communication. We're not going to entertain interaction here. If you still are not do not agree with the answer given to you, you still have an opportunity to use other venues,
whether it's in writing or ask for an appointment to see doctor Fernandez in person. Whatever you want to do, however, right now, we'll answer the issue at hand right here. Thank you. Thank you, president Velasquez. To the parent from, miss Ng from thank you for acknowledging, we we wanna invest in our schools. Funding has been an issue, but we are committed to improving facilities. PS number five celebrated the hundredth anniversary a few years back.
And, you know, I tend to say 100 year old buildings come with beautiful woodwork, but a 100 year old plumbing and electricity that was an afterthought. So, we are committed, and, hopefully, with everyone's support, the state will see the need to improve buildings. To mister Isseling, in 2262. It was a pleasure negotiating, coming together, listening to everyone's, point of view, not always on the same page, but we reached an agreement,
and it was a negotiation that, you know, it went both ways. So, we value all our employees, and that's why when I was talking about, the staff, I meant everyone because it is not the teachers in the classroom, which are very important, but it's everyone else that surrounds our students with support. The question of security, the parent who came, miss Blair, I saw her speaking to director, Snelling. Any security issues,
mister Snelling will be able. The police arresting individuals, it's decided by the police. We cannot tell them who to arrest or to or what to do. And the other parent, I have attended close to 20 graduations in the last couple of weeks, and it's, I know that issue with that parent has been addressed by director Watkins Williams and director, Kakaro. And schools will investigate
incidents where there are allegations. It is not just because of the parent. It is because if we feel that there may be, a possibility of a conflict or may be perceived as bullying. And if the parents said it was our child was bullied, we will investigate. School administrators, teachers have the the right and the responsibility to meet with students, ask questions, and investigate in a situation. Thank you, president Velasquez.
Thank you, doctor Fernandez. Any of the trustees would like to speak? Trustee Thank you, madam president. First of all, I just wanted to, congratulate you and everyone who's on the negotiation, contract. I know doctor Fernandez spoke regarding, the, security situation, but because my name was implicated, I just wanted to respond. People need to realize what the job of the trustees are. Our job, is to obviously hear complaints or whatever it is from the community and do the best that we can to try to adjudicate them. But and and I think that we we have two books two books full of accomplishments
that we have done and continue to do every month. Mhmm. And for you to come here and, you know, threaten and, oh, we're not gonna vote for you. Okay. That's what the electoral process is. Either you're happy or you're not happy. You vote up. You vote down. But please don't come and and say that we're not doing what we're supposed to do just because it implicates your kid. The real question should be not what security is not doing, but the real question should be is why is it that your child is always, a matter with the security guards? This is not the first time that this has happened.
Every time your kid is not innocent. So at some point, we need to try to figure out why is it that your kid is always implicated in these security issues and police issues. So maybe it's not the district. Maybe we need to start looking at our own homes to make sure that we're doing what we're supposed to do before we send them out to the board of education. Listen. I we spend tireless more than enough time to do all these different accomplishments. And if you're gonna judge us based on one incident or two or three incidents and not every line item in this book that these trustees and myself sometimes sit
and go over and over for the past two years to make sure that this district is running appropriately and you wanna accuse us of not paying attention to a couple of issues, then so be it. But don't come here threatening saying that we're not doing a good job just because your issue didn't get rectified or adjudicated in the time frame that you wanted to get, rectified in. Anything that has to do with the police, police do not lock people up unless they have probable cause of reasonable suspicion. So if they were arrested, they should have been arrested. Thank you, madam chair. You're welcome. Okay. And and, we did clarify initially that we were not going to have this.
You can always continue to write to us as you do, and we will answer again via the superintendent, who is the head of the district. I would like to let, on that note, know that we we receive a lot of a lot of emails with concerns of parents, and we and some of us even get phone calls. We take it serious. We do understand your concerns, for your children, but we also understand the concerns for all children.
And we cannot engage in certain issues because it's an ethical matter. Therefore, we do when you write to us, when anyone writes to us, we make sure that we answer, that we've received it, and that we will pass it on to the superintendent in hopes that it gets addressed. Maybe it's not addressed in the manner that you'd like it to be, but, nonetheless, that is our duty. From that moment on,
you need to continue and and I know you're the only one here, but I'm not just speaking to to you alone. I'm I'm speaking in general. You know, from that moment on, you need to continue to find other means of making sure that your issue is addressed. Okay? I respect every call I get. I respect every email I get. And I know that the trustees here do the same because they've all either contact me, or and somehow,
we we hear everything that's going on out there. But there is a protocol, and we must follow it, or we will be in ethical danger. Okay? Yes. To the chair, I just wanna comment too, not on this topic, but on, facilities in general. Yes. Just to show that here's an example, PS five bathrooms. It's a project. I think it's been long needed, anyone who's been in that school. But that's this is the project life cycle. It takes, you know, a year and a half to two years for these projects to even get life if they're funded. Right.
So it's gonna be another year and a half before these things get done. I just want, you know, to educate the public as well that these things do take time, but we have a road map. We have a plan. There's a lot on the wish list. But, you know, we're gonna make progress as we can. So, bear with us. Thank you. So chair. And thank you, Trustee Morris also for those words. Yes, trustee Afa. Okay. So as, trustees, we sit here, and we're advocates for the students. Children are in the forefront here. And we have, an issue with with where I understand that doc,
director Snelling is very well aware of, some of the problems that are in the security of this district, where this city is small. Everybody knows each other. Problems have occurred, you know, maybe in passing. But people remember faces, right, and people remember actions. So, when people have jobs as a security guard in a public school, I think it is very important that they take very seriously the trainings that are offered through the department of,
student personnel services where they can understand the traumas just like I had in my report. So social emotional learning is in the classroom because of the traumas that the children are seeing. And the children are not the only ones seeing these traumas. Like, as an adult, we see the traumas too, and we see the traumas happening to the children. And not only that, that strikes a fear where someone might be afraid of being attacked by a child. So the reaction's gonna be different, especially when you're put in a position of securing. It might have as a police officer where they're put in a position where they
have to be protective, and they don't if if someone is upset, we don't know how upset they are. We don't know what damage they can do. And when you're socially emotionally charged, you don't yourself might not understand what you're gonna do. So I think in a suggestion for security, when we have children who are upset, I think that there should be someone in the building that's called maybe a CIT or maybe even you could create a different person. The job for this person individual to come out and address the student,
where they're taken off to the side and, cared for in a manner that in a manner that's gonna be respectful to the security officer and the student so that we don't have this conflict where there's physical altercation between security officers and students or even a police officer and a student. I'm gonna go back to myself. I've I myself experienced police brutality when I was a kid. It's not a it's not fun. You know, your life you're you're afraid for your life.
Whether you were right or wrong, you're afraid for your life at this point. So I don't think that when you're going to school, someone, any student, whether they're defiant or not, they should not be fearing their life. Conflicts can be resolved. It's just a matter of us taking time and just breathing, maybe, or even removing ourselves from the situation and making, director Sterling's job a lot easier so that we don't have these these type of situations where, students are being arrested or even hurt or even a security officer is hurt or
officer is hurt. Madam chair. Thank you, trustee Afaf. But, doctor Fernandez, is there training and protocol in place prior to the arrest or the call you have? Going to ask to speak. So we have at the school Mhmm. The high schools, the comprehensive high schools all have mental health clinics within the school. So, at Snyder, we have the Tigers Den. We have the the Bark Lounge at Ferris,
at Lincoln. We have the Lion's Den. So there are services there. Additionally, our security officers, just went through training on trauma informed practices as well. So they are trained. And there are some school you know, we don't call our first reaction unless there's a weapon or something of that magnitude, we don't immediately contact an officer. We do have resource officers in the high schools.
They're there. They work every day. And it's more preventive than re reaction. However, in a building that has a thousand students, it's something can escalate and put too many people at risk. So but we do train them. They just went through training a a couple of weeks ago. I I was just reporting on that. So is is the serious that, like we can do a training, but how serious are we taking it is is the is the matter. Like,
are we imp how are we implementing it? How well are we really, really saying, like, I wanna change this the way that things are going? And now and sometimes our fears override our training when, you know, you're you're afraid. So it's I think there's a lot of work that needs to be done as far as, with There's always room to grow and be better. However, do remember that our schools have cameras in the hallways. So many times, we see the incident. Security sees the incident.
And if it's getting out of control, they will call the police for support. So, many of these things are recorded. Sit chair. I just, wanted to say, one more thing. As we went to graduations and, I saw, like, children getting awards. And it just ruffled my feathers a little bit because, I don't know how to say this any other way, but to get to the point. So we have children who've been in our schools for from pre k all the way up to twelfth grade. And then you have a child that comes in three years and wins all the
awards. But the children that are here for twelfth grade from pre k to twelfth grade, they're they're been excelling. I think there's needs to be a change where if a child is awarded an award, they at least should have been how can I say this? So if you go from pre k to twelfth grade, you've been in this city. You've gone through the struggles of public school. You've gone through the struggles of the city. But if you come here and you're just from another city, you come in and excel over a child who has maybe, like, three points under you, and you just wipe them out. And then you does anybody understand what I'm saying here?
Yes. But Okay. So it's like I I just really don't agree with that at all because that also goes onto the person's social emotional, plate as well. So where you're working so hard and you've gone through the struggles of public school in Jersey City, and then here comes someone knocking you out and winning all these awards before you. I think that I I I just have a Well, there are different awards. There, the principal, award. There are different awards based on different criteria. The salutatorian and the valedictorian are based on numeric average.
So the highest and second highest, it's just numbers. It's not personality. It's not, I get that part. I'm just saying, say I you were here. But from pre k to twelfth grade, you were working hard. You you had the struggles of Jersey City. You had the struggles of public school suspensions, and you see your friends getting lost and behind and, you know, losing their lives and losing freedoms and, you know, going to jail. And then here someone here I come. I just came from, New York, and I sit on the same thing as you.
You tutor me, and here I am excelled over you. And I get the awards, but you don't. We can explore certain awards and based on a different criteria, that would require a little research to, you know, determine before we commit to anything. Good to hear. And I think that's something that should be taken to committee and and addressed, you know, so that we could have the time to actually even even if you wanna bring it to our next, retreat so that we can have time to thoroughly go through it.
And all of us will have an opportunity to input to have input. Okay? Thank you. To the chair? Yes. So first of all, good evening, everybody, and thanks for having me. Congratulations to all the graduates, pre k k all the way up to high school, and best of luck to you in whatever endeavor you pursue moving forward. And also congratulations tonight to all the parents for the awards that you received. With regards to anything related to facilities, I wanna say to any parents who have concern, anything that comes across the agenda related to the facility that is presented by the
superintendent is gonna get a yes. We understand that the builders are a 100 plus years old and some of them 50 years. So that won't be something that we're arguing over in terms of improvements with regards to facilities. In terms of some of the comments that were made specifically by the trustees, I just wanna kinda add a different perspective. So as an educator in the building, I will say this. I think that what trustee Mohammed mentioned in terms of trying to sometimes get an individual to, who is not necessarily a part of the team to come and deescalate the situation
could work in some instances. However, in other instances, sometimes the situation is so big, you don't have time to to react in that regard and try to get somebody that's gonna soothe and stroke your ego. I think sometimes what happens in schools is and if we look at the dynamic of our city, all of the schools are not exhibiting the same issues or the same problems. And just based on the report that we heard earlier, we see that there are efforts that are being made specifically with the mental health care and therapy that students are getting that are helping deescalate some of the issues.
The question is, are all of the students who may need these services actually seeking the service to get the assistance that they need? Right? So when we come to school or when parents send their children to school, we have to understand that the school primary the school's primary focus and job is to educate, not to retrain, not to do all of these things that some of our children come and unfortunately lack because they don't get from the household. Unfortunately, as the school, we deal with those issues, and we do the very best that we can in those instances.
In some areas of the city, some efforts may need to be increased in order to provide some students with more services or more support services in order to kinda deescalate a lot of what is happening. Additionally, I'll say this, this, that when security guards are dealing with issues and situations, nobody, I don't think, gets up in the morning and says, I'm gonna go to school and harass x, y, and z. Now that may very well be the case. But in some instances, some of these security guards and and other personnel are being disrespected on a regular
basis by the children. And I don't know who is who it is or what's going on. I'm just telling you what goes on. And as a result and what happens is you have a human reaction to the situation. Just because somebody's an adult doesn't excuse them from responding to a situation. And I think that if we all, in a sense, like, you know, just work together and stop thinking that we have certain authorities to do certain things. When you bring issues to us, we're gonna listen, but we're gonna give it right back to doctor Fernandez. What are you doing about this? What can we do about this?
And so on and so forth. So I think that those are some of the things that if we kinda sit down and really listen to each other, we can come to some sort of solution. As far as the participation award that I just heard you talk about, trustee Yip Mohammed, I'm gonna have to completely disagree. Right? When we're talking about academic accolades, the question really is for the student, how bad do you want it? I'm not opposed to this one student getting 20 awards if that one student worked in order to demonstrate that this is what I show.
So as far as the student who has been in the district from pre k all the way up to grade 12 and has done well, has not been recognized for his or her achievements and or attendance, if you will. The question really for that student is if you wanted an award, did you understand what the criteria was? I wouldn't be opposed to us looking at, adding additional awards, but I would not want us modifying anything just to include somebody because you've been in the district for so long, and you're at graduation, and now you didn't get an award.
But I do understand the concern and the point that you raised. However, taking nothing away from the student who transfers into the district, why shouldn't I get it because I excelled? Thank you. And the award is the certificate the diploma? Yes. The the one point you're missing is I said that maybe that student helped tutor that student that excelled over them. So if I tutored you and you excelled over me, then you get the awards, but I still worked very hard. So it was what you did. Exactly. And then again,
that's something, as I said, that we can bring to either the retreat or in committee so that we can, go into it thoroughly and all participate. Okay? Thank you very much. Madam President, my final comment regarding this issue. You know, I I with all due respect, to my colleague, Trustee Mohammed, I just don't Listen. We we're we're the we're a large district. And based on the community activity that we have in our city, based on a lot of the aggression and hostility that goes on outside the four walls of each one of our
schools. It is almost impossible for any security, sometimes even the police, to be able to get any of our scholars or non scholars under control as it pertains to policy and procedure. What I have to say in regards to leadership and the security aspect is we have one of the most qualified directors over our security that I believe in the state of New Jersey through all the board of educations. He's has police experience. He's worked in prosecutor's office. He's currently working on his doctorate. And not only that,
but he's implemented so many trainings for our security, not just in the problematic schools, but for all of the security throughout the entire district. And in in addition to that in addition to that, you can provide training all you want, but it is the it is the leadership's responsibility to make sure that it's implemented. And I have to say that I see our director going to different schools. I see our director, being hands on with the security, being hands on even, with working with the police department. So the training is not the problem. The problem is the agitators that the security has to deal with after they obtain
the training. When you have a problematic issue in schools or any entity where you have an instigator that constantly instigates and constantly gets into trouble and constantly and it becomes repetitive, then it's not the institution or the structure. It is the it is the the the cause of the problem is right in your face. And that is where we need to address the issue, not the organization or the structure or the policy. It's who is violating the policies and procedures that are already been on the books
that have a problem following directions and following these procedures. And maybe we do need to relook at how we discipline and how we act on disciplinary actions as it pertains to violators of our policies and procedures. But let's not get carried away and talk about that it's our security and our our our policies and things of that sort that could be the issue. We always look at that aspect. That's the first thing we look at is the policy procedure and how we how our security guards are trained. We never look at the aspect of the agitator and why they're not complying with
the procedure that's already in place. To the chair, I think that, trustee Morris just explained what I just said just with a little bit more aggression. I said the same exact thing you said. You just took it the wrong way. Oh, I didn't take anything the wrong way, and I'm not aggressive. I'm speaking very plainly. We can we I didn't say anything about doc director Snelling and not being able to do his being Did you hear me call your name? I said I I did Okay. Both trustees. I'm not recognizing either of you right now. We can always discuss this in closed session or in another meeting.
Thank you so much for your input. Trustee Morris, please. Thank you both for your input. Trustee Morris, please. Thank you both for your input. Trustee Morris, please. Please. Thank you both for your input. All of your information and all of your, what you're saying is, recognized and respected. But I think, again, we we, this team, needs a retreat where we can address all these issues because and as much as they need to be brought here, it needs to be clear amongst us as well. So, I think, sometime in the summer, we will have another retreat.
Thank you. Now let's, continue. I'd like to, before I ask the young lady to, give us a report. First of all, thank you for coming. You're supposed to be home. You are no longer in school. So this shows the level of responsibility on your behalf. We appreciate it, and that's exactly the kind of role models that we ought to be for you. So thank you for being here, and thank you for representing, your colleagues on this, board. However, before we go to you, my dear,
let me, just say how much, miss doctor Tisdale, okay, is being appreciated, in this community lately. He is being honored. And, doctor Tisdale, you want me to say this? You better listen. He ain't listening. He ain't listening. He's being honored. He's presented with, on Thursday, July, he's going to be presented with what award is this? Some kind of scholarship? No. No. Inspirational male honoree. He's an inspirational male. Alright. Kudos. And, and then
on July 19, he's being honored as with the Diane j Byrd Scholarship at the Diane j Scholarship Banquet. So, again, we appreciate you. We're very proud of you, and, you know, we wish you much success and continued, okay, appreciation by your community. That speaks volumes. That means that you are doing the right thing within the community. When the community recognize you, that's the best recognition of all. You're welcome.
Now oh, yes. To the chair Trustee. Mine is quick. I just wanted to thank, all of the teachers for this past school year and then also thank all of the parents that came here to get awards because, all the parents that came up here most likely contributed in a really huge way. I knew one of the parents from PS thirty seven, wonderful orchestrated festival of the stars for us, which means the entire school district out in Hamilton Park. So just thank you to the parents that really step up and come out to the schools and facilitate all of the special events that the,
students get to participate in. And thank you to the teachers that, really plug in with the kids and allow this to happen. So just grateful for this school year and the summer that's coming up. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, trustee. And now, our student, Martina. First of all, I wanna say thank you so much. I'm so honored to serve among all of you. I haven't written, like, a full report, but I wanted to touch up on two things. First, we began with a scholarship initiative. A little after my election, we I spoke in the citywide student council meeting,
and I gathered the information about the types of, scholarships that the students wanted to see. A little after that, I, presented the report to, all of the trustees at the board meeting. I just wanted to ask, where are we at with, like, the scholarship initiative? The scholarship initiative? That will be reviewed. We haven't made any progress with it yet. Okay. And then, for the second part, I haven't, presented it to all of the trustees, but I did speak to doctor Fernandez about it. And it was the,
Orthodox Christmas one. Orthodox Christmas is celebrated on January 7, and it's a holiday that's not recognized by the, Jersey City Public School District. So as I was speaking to doctor Fernandez, she did say she was able to take Orthodox Christmas off starting 2027, but, I'm graduating in the year of 2026. So I was like, I kinda wanna see my work in progress. So if it's okay with you, can you guys try your best to put the action in effect in the year
of '20 You know, our Christmas is January 6. I think that's the the the they they, ride. They come together. And I've been asking for forty something years for this district to give us January 6. And when I was a teacher here, what I did was and I'm not asking you to do this. What I did was, I made sure that I took a personal day on the sixth and that I my daughter was home from school on the sixth, and we celebrated our Christmas. So I'm not asking you to do that,
but I'm saying, you know, we we sometimes have to do some unorthodox things. Okay. It's are you done, hon? Yes. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you for your information. And now I believe we are ready to go to closed session. So first of all, it will be ninety minutes only if we need it. I will take a motion motion, trustee Morris, second by trustee Blunt. All in favor?
Oh. I'm sorry. Are you going to I'm sorry. She has to read. Go ahead. Pursuant pursuant to the open public meetings act, NJSA 10 colon four dash 12. The Jersey City Board of Education will now be going into closed session for the purpose of discussing matters where confident the individual privacy rights Mhmm. Or a matter involving the lease or acquisition of property or pending or anticipated litigation or contract negotiations. The matters discussed in this closed session can be made public at the time the
need for confidentiality I'm sorry. No longer exists. I'm sorry. Would you please start again? Because our trustees were busy, and we couldn't hear you. Okay. Thank you. Pursuant to the Open Public Meetings Act, NJSA 10 colon four dash 12, the Jersey City Board of Education will now be going into closed session for the purpose of discussing matters where confidentiality is essential, in particular one or more of the following. To protect the confidentiality of individual privacy rights for a matter involving a lease or
acquisition of property or pending or anticipated litigation or contract negotiations. The matters discussed in this closed session can be made public at the time that the need for confidentiality no longer exists. It is now 08:14. We said ninety minutes. Yes. Maybe. So we will be going. All in favor of going into closed session? Aye. Okay. We'll see you. Foreign compliance with applicable laws and regulations. Therefore, I approve the contract for a period commencing on 07/01/2025 through 06/30/2026.
A signed copy of said employment agreement should be forwarded to my office. If there are any changes to the terms of this agreement, you will need to submit a revised employment agreement to me for review and approval prior to the required public notice and hearing of such changes. Please be reminded that the contract for this position must be submitted annually to the executive county superintendent for review and approval. After approval, please forward a signed copy of said contract to my office. Sincerely, Melissa a Pierce,
interim executive county superintendent. Thank you. If there is no other discussion, then let's vote, please. Through the chair, if I may. Is there anything, mister Rivera, that could be said on record with regard to the process that has been followed, prior to agreeing? When I press the ears, it goes off. I apologize. I'm sorry. Yes. So Yeah. Is it I just wanna make sure that whatever is possible to acknowledge to the public from what the board has gone through the discussions and the superintendent's, you know, explanations, whether the fact that the all the processes for compliance purposes have been followed,
including interview processes, so on and so forth, and the deadlines. Sure. Absolutely, Trustee Aufe. So, without getting into specifics, because a lot of this is covered by personnel and closed session exemptions, there was a process where numerous candidates did send in, their resumes or applications for the position. It was reduced down to a small pool of three candidates which were reviewed by the administration, and a recommendation was made through the personnel committee, for the, appointment of Doctor. Francine Luce, to take the position. That discussion was,
held, and then today in closed session was further discussed, where I can say now because the board is about to vote on it, that the board, was in support of that. So we're coming out now to formalize that vote, and, why we thought it was important to read the letter from the county superintendent was just for everyone to know, including the public, that we've gone through the process, in a transparent manner by sending the contract to the superintendent prior to, getting the board to vote here for review to make sure that it conforms with all legal standards, not only with respect to the salary,
but the benefits and everything that goes with the contract in terms of the legal language. So I'm I'm confident, along with general counsel, that the contract, meets all the legal standards, and the process has been done fairly and appropriately. Okay. Now we're voting, and we are voting on the position itself, the contract given to doctor Luce. That's what we're doing. Through the chair, just to be clear, are we voting on the 12 o eight, that one item, or the entirety of 12 o eight? Just that one item? Got it. That one item right now.
Okay. Thank you. Is that it? Correct. You're voting on 12.08, the business office item, which has just one item to appoint the new business administrator. Okay. Yes. Trustee Schneider? Yes. Trustee Patel? Yes. Trustee Morris? Yes. Trustee Mohammed? Yes. Trustee Ioffe? Yes. Trustee Rosabella? Yes. Trustee Blunt? Yes. Vice President Tisdale? Yes. President Velasquez? Motion passed. Now we can pass. Now you have a second. You can say thank you.
Yes. Okay. Now we will continue with the rest of the, items, the agenda items. Where are we? Okay. Seven. Motion. Okay. Any discussion? Trustee Blunt? Present. Yes. Trustee Ioffe? Yes. Trustee Morris? Yes. Trustee Yeah. Ma trustee Mohammed? Yes. Trustee Patel? Yes. Trustee Rosabella? Yes. Trustee Schneider? Yes. Vice President Tisdale? Yes. President Velasquez? Yes. Motion passed. Thank you. Item eight, curriculum instruction.
Eight zero one Eight seventy two. Items eight zero one eight point o one to 8.73. Mhmm. Motion. Motion. Second. Discussion. Call the vote, please. Trustee Snyder? Yes. Trustee Patel? Yes. Trustee Morris? Yes. Trustee Mohammed? Yes. Trustee Ioffe? Yes. Trustee Rosabella? Yes. Trust trustee Blank? Yes. Vice president? Yes. It seems that when one of us clicked, the other one goes off. President Velasquez? Yes. Motion passed. Okay.
I've been complaining about this. Thank you. Items, special education nine I'm sorry, but these things keep going up. Stop it. To 919. Motion. Motion. Motion by, by trustee Afa. Oh, you know you broke. Second. Second. Second by trustee Morris. Discussion? No. None. Call the vote, please. Trustee Isabella? Yes. Trustee Ioffe? Yes. Trustee Schneider? Yes. Trustee Mohammed? Yes. Trustee Patel? Yes. Trustee Blunt? Yes. Trustee Morris?
Yes. Vice President Tisdale? Yes. President Velasquez? Yes. Motion passed. Thank you. Finance, that's item ten, ten point zero one to 10 please excuse me. 10.47. Motion. Second. Okay. Moved by, a I mean, miss Ioffe. Second by mister Morris. Any discussion? Through the chair. Yes. I just wanna, clarify something. I already spoke to doctor Lewis about this. We're in agreement, and she understands. So just so that everybody is clear,
between now and the rest of the year, I will be abstaining on the same things I've abstained on for the duration of my time here. And you understand why we talked about that. Thank you. What was that? You were real fast. I'm sorry. I didn't catch half of it. I said that I already spoke to doctor Luce about, Item? Item 10, o, three, and four. She and I understand one another, and we came to an agreement. And she understands that I will be abstaining on these as I have been in the past regardless of the recommendation from the attorney and or anyone else on this
board. So so abstaining means you don't care which way it goes. I don't have enough information. Let's call the vote, please. I just wanna clarify. On this new agenda, it's saying ten thirty and ten forty four were pulled. Do we have to pull them out of the motion or whatever? They pulled ten thirty. Yes. And ten forty four. So Move move with those two. I have to pull. Right. Yes. Okay. I just wanna motion in a second. Okay. We need Okay. Motion for finance, 10.1
o one to 10.47 without 10.44 which was pulled and also 10.3 which was pulled. Okay? So those two items are pulled. Now, let's have another motion on the finance motion. Second. Okay. The same. Now any other discussions? Please call. Trustee Mohammed? Yes. Trustee Ioffe? Yes. Trustee Visabella? Yes. Trustee Blunt? Yes. Trustee Patel?
Yes. Trustee Morris? Yes. Trustee Schneider? Yes. Vice President Tisdale? I abstain on ten zero three and four, and I'm gonna vote yes to the rest. And President Velasquez? Yes. Motion passed. Facilities, eleven point o one. Nothing is pulled here. Right? To eleven point eleven. Motion. Second. Motion by, miss, Iofe. Second. Second by mister Morris. Any questions? Any discussion? Please call the vote. Trustee Iofe? Yes. Trustee Schneider? Yes. Trustee Rosabella?
Yes. Trustee Mohammed? Yes. Trustee Patel? Yes. Trustee Blunt? Yes. Trustee Morris? Yes. Vice President Tisdale? Yes. President Velasquez? Yes. Motion passed. Yes. We can't hear you. I'm sorry. Before I call the twelves, I have a question with regards to, how do we address what we just voted on, which was the, BA. My recommendation is you motion for the twelves, 12 o one through 12.18 with the exception of 12.08
regarding the business administrator appointment, which was already voted on. Okay. Thank you. So motion for 12 o one to 12.18 with the exception of 12.08, which we've already voted on. That was for the business administrator. Motion. Motion by mister Morris. Morris. Second. Second by doctor Tisdale. Any discussion? Discussion. Please take the vote. Trustee Patel? Trustee Patel? Yes.
Trustee Mohammed? Yes. Trustee Isabella? Yes. Trustee Ioffe? Yes. Trustee Blunt? Yes. Trustee Morris? Yes. Trustee Schneider? Yes. Vice president Tisdale? Yes. President Velasquez? Yes. Motion passed. Yes. Okay. 13. Item 13, the legal. 13.01 to 13.05 motion. Motion. Second. Motion by trustee Patel, second by trustee, Morris. Discussion? Call the vote,
please. Trustee Mohammed? Yes. Trustee Patel? Yes. Trustee Schneider? Yes. Trustee Gulager? Trustee Gulager, 14. What's the number? Yes. Trustee Morris? Calling you both too late. Go ahead. Trustee Morris. Oh. Yes. Trustee Rosabella. Yes. Trustee I O'Fee. Yes. Vice President Cisdale. Yes. President Velasquez. Yes. Motion passed. Thank you. Okay. And now, item 14, policy 14 o one. Motion, please. Doctor Blunt. Second. Oh, I'm sorry. Mister Morris.
Motion. Doctor Blunt. Second. Discussion. Chair? Yes. I just have a question. This says for, updated and revised policies. This does not include January that we said it was gonna be okay. It doesn't include 0 January. That is gonna be revisited. No. Alright. Should we please have To to the chair. No. It does not. There's only two policies here. The one on dress and And the one on the spectator code of conduct. And to the chair, one comment, as we look at the dress and grooming. It was brought to, attention earlier by a member of the public that maybe we wanna look at thirty
two sixteen to be a little more, gender neutral. Gender, just because it calls out male personnel, female personnel, for diversity's sake. The dress code policy, just we can look at it and maybe policy and see what the right verbiage would be so that it aligns with some of our other policies. Take to the policy committee. Yes. Okay. So we will address that in the policy committee in, in August. Okay. Thank you. Through the chair? Yes. So there will be another revision in August or this is just still the first reading? So you're asking for an adjustment to the policy before the second reading?
Got it. To the policy. Yeah. Before it's a policy. Did did you wanna Clarify that, doctor? No. I just I'm not sure if if we can make the changes as part of the second before the second reading or we need to make a bigger revision. I'm not sure how I'm sure. And I understand the issue. So right now, you're voting on the first reading just to introduce it. If there is a consensus, meaning majority of the board that wants to make a change like this, then that will be a substantive change, and it would start it over at the first reading level again. And we do one, two readings. If not, and it remains as it is,
then it would just be voted on the second reading in August and proceed without the change. But we don't know if there's gonna be a consensus, so I think I think you should move it forward as it is right then. We don't we can't table it until the next meeting then, because You can, but the board may not wanna make the change that that doctor Snyder is proposing. So why slow it down unless you But can we at least have discussion to make sure whether or not we want to? Through the chair? What if we reach a consensus now? Because if we move it to committee, then it'll still be just four people making a decision. So if you reach a consensus now,
we'd have to modify Right. And then and then amend and vote two votes on the fly, just like we did with the Okay. The changes will be can you please Yeah. So, the member of the public highlighted, you know, that some of our language here, you know, acceptable attire for male personnel, acceptable attire for female personnel. We we may want to use more gender gender neutral, verbiage and focus on, more professional dress and more general, thing versus, you know, specifically calling out male,
female since, we wanna be gender affirming wherever people lie. And that's aligned to some of our other policies. So it's just something that somebody brought up, and I think it's worth at least considering. And I'm okay just tabling it and taking it to the committee if it's, you know, something we wanna look at. I'm I'm fine with that. If it's fair fair, you know, it's worth at least discussing. Yeah. Madam Chair, I just I just wanted a little bit of clarity. So you're proposing that we remove the wording male and female, correct, and replace it with what?
Professional attire. I today, I'm not not ready to propose specific changes. I just think it should be looked at so how we, come across when how we, look at it from a gender neutrality standpoint versus calling out specific, but But what else would you call it? Through through the chair? Yes. I'm sorry. It would just be taking out the gender. So, like, for four, it's set for three, it says acceptable attire for male personnel, just acceptable attire I'm just I'm sorry. To the chair. Madam president, I'm just confused. Sorry. I'm sorry.
And this is nothing, against you, doctor. What's his last name? Schneider. I just don't understand what difference it makes. Like, what exactly is still giving a directive. Right? What difference does it make if you call it we have males and we have females in the district. Through the chair What difference does it make what we Through the chair. We also have people that are nonbinary. We have we so in order to make it inclusive, just taking out the the gendering so that everyone can feel Do we have nonbinary bathrooms? Yeah. Yes.
The, miss Aiolfi. Okay. Miss Aiolfi? Through the chair. Yes. I agree with, both trustees on both of my sides. And, also, I mean, it is pride month still. You know, we can at least be cognizant of, things that our children care about. And I don't think it would be a huge change because, personnel, staff, they use their own common sense and their supervisors also. So all the attire listed here, it is appropriate attire as per the state requirements that is meant for both male, female or whatever gender.
And so subsequently, if we simply eliminate those gender restrictions and put all personnel and continue to list those same appropriate attire, that's it. It's really we're doing the same thing. We're just taking out the, you know, the categorical if you are this, then that. Right. That's it. And ultimately, people will continue to follow the same rules and regulations and policies as per the state requirement and as per their code of conduct. And I agree. But I like the the attorney to give us more feedback. I just have a question. Go ahead.
I just was wondering if there is the policy as it's written, is there staff complaining about the language? To the Chair. Go ahead. Just and I believe, Trustee Schneider mentioned this in his report earlier. But the discussion that we had in the policy committee was that the reason we were proposing the revisions that we are tonight to policy number 3,216, dress and grooming, is because that policy pertains to or applies to teaching staff members.
The reason this issue came about is because the companion policy to 03/2016, which is 04/2016, applies to non instructional personnel and support staff, And there were inconsistencies between the two policies in terms of, appropriate attire, what was acceptable and not acceptable. That became an issue for some principals who were attempting to enforce 3216 against their teaching staff members who would say, well, no, that that's not in our policy.
You're confusing it with the non instructional policy. So these changes that were proposed for this evening were meant to bring the two policies, in sync with one another. So if we're going to now start addressing another concern brought to us by the member of the public, which I fully understand, we're going to have to look at both policies and do that through the committee process. So my recommendation would be that we, that we, table this Both of them. Table this for this evening and then look at both policies four two one six
and three two one six in the policy Member of the committee. Thank you. Who on the staff that's in the No. The document. Thank you. Do the chair? Yes. I agree with, mister Pruchnick. I recommend that given the level of discussion we had just on this item and that there are other policies that we should look at if we're going to make a change like this. And I don't recommend we do these things on the fly. We need to really think about it and work through committee, as well as the administration making recommendations. We table this policy, which is 14 o one. Right. The second the other policy,
I don't see a reason to table that, but just table this one. So if there's a motion there needs to be a motion to table, which takes precedent over the pending motion, to table. And then if it succeeds, the only the other item you can vote on and move forward. Just identify table it to the August meeting. I'll follow-up. Motion to table. Alright. Second. Okay. Motion to table this policy 14 o one, the thirty two sixteen. I second. Okay. But we were discussing on a motion that we already had.
Yeah. Motion to table takes precedent over a pending motion. Okay. So if that if it now you call the roll or have discussion, then call the roll, and that will then modify the motion. Is the we're gonna call roll for, for tabling the motion. Okay. For tabling the okay. Very good. I see it. I don't have it in here. I didn't I didn't have it. That's okay. Okay. Would you please repeat, doctor doctor Snyder? Would you please repeat what your motion is? And can we please? We wanna get out of here.
Please. Go ahead. Alright. Motion to table, 14.01, policy number 3216 on dress and grooming. For further? For further discussion in command. Okay. Second. Okay. It's been moved. And second? Just to make clarification, it's fifteen o one, not fourteen. I'm sorry? No. It's fourteen. We just now we're we're we're taking, roll on that. I mean, call roll on that. Okay. Uh-huh. Okay. Hold on. If there's 4 just to clarify, it's +1 4011 and +1 4012.
2. Okay. We're on the fourteenth, not the fifteenth. Okay. But we're only tabling +1 4011. +1 4012 is remaining if the vote is successful. Okay. Okay. Trustee Perezabella? Yes. Trustee Schneider? Yes. Trustee Mohammed? No. Trustee Blunt? No. Trustee Ioffe? Yes. Trustee Morris? No. Trustee Patel? No. Vice president Tisdale? No. President Velasquez? Yes. I know. It did not pass. It did not pass? No. Okay. Okay. Do the chairs for the original motion and second are go back and remain.
And now you can have discussion further on it or call the roll on both fourteens. Yes. Through the chair, if I may, just as continuing this discussion, I find it very sad that, you know, our colleagues wouldn't even allow an opportunity for further discussion. Like, this isn't set in stone. All we're asking for Mhmm. Is just additional dialogue amongst ourselves. The fact that you're not even willing to give it a chance just makes me sad. Thank you. To the chair, and we're still the same way about the budget. No. No. That was uncalled for. But, you know, I I have to agree that we you know,
when we don't agree on something, we should come bring it back to the table and discuss it. And even if our if we don't change if it doesn't change our minds, at least there is clarity, And, we need to take into consideration, that we are working for a very diverse district. Diverse in every way. Yes, Afa. To the chair. Yes. I think that that could become very this conversation could get very,
legal. Mhmm. That's why we have attorneys. And dangerous at the same time because, there's no staff that's complaining about that, that that language of the gender at the time. Now if a staff comes up with a gender with the issue of the gender name, in the in the book, then I think it should be discussed. However, we should just vote on what we were originally gonna vote on. And then if staff have a problem with the the the gender in the book, then we we address it.
But does this only pertain to the staff? Does this not pertain also to the students? No. It's staff. Only the staff? Be related to the staff. I still okay. I still stand by by my vote. Madam President, with all Go ahead. Yes. With all due respect, well, this is the same policy that's been in effect last year. Right. We didn't have any problems. The year before last. I just think that we've already voted no. And I think that we should move on. Okay. Because we've already voted It already went down. Okay. Got it. Through the chair, if I could just point something out. Our students are permitted to wear gender neutral uniforms for that specific reason is to
make sure that everyone is equitable and comfortable and don't have to compare one another to to one another based on what they are able or are forced to wear. And so in that sense, we are already fulfilling our obligation to our students in giving them that space. Whereas when it comes to our staff, we are very specifically, you know, identifying them as per gender. So our students are already in that different space. So that I just wanted to make that distinction. Thank you. Very true. So now,
I'm sorry. I I think that I was just gonna say I think that, you know, trustee Mohammed is right. The conversation as it is can get very back and forthy based on this is not, this is a personal a personal thing. Right? And so each person has to make their decision based on their own value and so on and so forth. And I think that in sometimes in trying to be inclusive, we can, do things that are not necessarily you nobody's complaining about this. Someone from the public who the policy doesn't even affect has a a concern about
it. And so now we're sitting here having a conversation about changing language based on something that no one in the district has had an issue with. And so I think that when we consider what people are wearing, people dress based on their feeling anyway. Okay. And and we're going to move on. However, let me just say that with regards to, you know, how we as a team have discussed many things, whether, it's somebody from one community or from the other, if we bring that in, we've always addressed it because it's somebody in the community.
So in as much as it only affects the staff, I think it it's important to listen. That's it. Can we move on, please? And just in closing, one last thing. Yes. We were we you were already motioned. Yes. We did. And it was It was voted down. Right. We've already voted. It we there's nothing could be changed. We already No. I don't think we have a form. I understand. And I don't think that it's that we want to change it anymore. We just wanted to, you know, communicate what's going on out there,
and we do listen to the community. When one trustee brings it in, we listen. When another trustee brings it in, we ought to listen as well. Thank you. And, yes, now we're moving on. Did yes, Tia. Through the chair. I I know. I realize we're voting on it now, but can the attorneys look into it further just because they are still a protected class? And as, doctor Tisdale and, trustee Mohammed said, the legality. So I just also want to argue on the other side.
They they are a protected class, and if someone says that I am, a trans man, trans woman, non binary, however they identify so while we are voting on it, if we could just also take a look a deeper dive into it, into what other districts have done or in order to I'm sorry. We have a couple of other conversations here. Please hold that thought. We have not voted on it. We didn't vote. Exactly. That's what I'm saying. But we voted we, motioned to for the change. To pay right.
We we That was it. And we said, no. We don't wanna table it. We wanna move on. Period. So what's happening Go ahead. The chair. Trustee Do that chair just for clarity so we all know where we are, and I know it's late. We are now with a motion and a second on fourteen o one one and fourteen o one two. And there's discussion on that item that the board's free to have about whether you are in support of it or not, or anything you wanna say. That's where we are now. It still has not been voted on, the two policies. Go ahead. I'm gonna clarify. Trustee. I said I know we are going to take this vote now.
We we've already decided we're not tabling it. But can the attorneys later do a deeper dive just to make sure that we are not, going against a protected class? That's all I'm saying. Because they still are a protected class. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Now I think we've discussed it to the fullest. Let us move on with the vote. Trustee, Isabella. No. Trustee, I fee. Got it. So if we're voting on the fourteenth, I vote no on policy 3216 and yes on the rest.
Trustee Schneider. So no on fourteen point o one dash one. Yes on, fourteen point o one dash two. Trustee Mohammed. Yes. Trustee Patel. Yes. Trustee Belong? Yes. Yes. Trustee Morris? Yes. Vice president Tisdale? Yes. President Velasquez? No. On fourteen point o one dash one. Yes on the rest. Motion passed on both. Okay. Now fifteen Who's calling? Other business. About me. +1 and +1. Motion. Motion.
Moved by trustee, Morris. Second? Second. Second. Second by doctor Blunt. Discussion? Please call the vote. Trustee Morris? Yes. Trustee Patel? Yes. Trustee Schneider? Yes. Trustee Rosabella? Yes. Again. Trustee Blunt? Yes. Trustee Ioffe? Yes. Trustee Mohammed? Yes. Vice president Tisdale? Yes. President Velasquez? Yes. Motion passed. If there's no other discussion, may I have a motion to adjourn? Motion. Motion by trustee Morris. Second? Second.
Second by Whoever. I'm I'm sorry? Closed out. Okay. Hold. Go ahead. You, have comments about I just wanna step think we're gonna make a decision with doctor Luce. Okay. Can we I'm sorry. We have a motion by doc by mister Morris. And who seconded it? And then we're gonna give you enough. I did. Okay. And second. Now okay. You have a minute. I also wanna wish everyone a happy summer because we will not see each other until August. Thank you.
And then also, doctor Hernandez, I think to honor certain people like you did tonight was an excellent thing. And and every weekend, you always surprise me every meeting, and I wanna just say thank you very much what you're doing. And doctor Luce, be well and be blessed. Thank you so much. Any other comment? Okay. Thank you. Congratulations, doctor Luz. All in favor. Hi. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Meeting closed.