All right. In accordance with chapter 231 Laws of 1975 open public meetings act, this meeting is called to order to discuss regular board business. Please be advised that adequate notice of this meeting was provided to the online star ledger and the online observer. Notice
of the meeting was filed with the office of the town clerk and posted on the district website. Roll call. M >> here >> Mr. Perry >> here Miss Lindfel >> here >> Mr. McCo >> here >> Mrs. Pig
>> here >> Mr. Muso >> here >> President Paris >> here pledge of allegiance >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation
under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Okay. >> Approval of the minutes. >> Need a motion to approve the open meeting and close session from October 27th, 2025. >> So moved.
>> Second. >> Discussion. Roll call. >> Yes. >> Mr. B. >> Yes. >> Mr. Car. >> Yes. >> Miss Liz. >> Yes. >> Mr. McKenna. >> Not voting as it was absent.
>> Mr. Flores. Yes, >> yes. >> During the course of this meeting of the Carne Board of Education, members of the public will have an opportunity to address issues regarding the operations of the Carne Public Schools. The board
reminds those individuals who take this opportunity to identify themselves by name and address and to limit their comments to items listed on the agenda and or items directly related to the operations of the Carne School District. Each individual will have up to three
minutes to speak. Issues raised by members of the public may or may not be responded to by the board. All comments will be considered and a response will be forthcoming if and when appropriate. The board asked that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the
rights of other individuals when speaking. Privacy laws and regulations prevent the board from responding to or commenting on issues regarding students or employees of the board of education. The board discourages any comments regarding students or district employees, but
cannot prohibit such comments. Anyone making a public comment regarding a student or district employee does so at their own risk. The board is not responsible for any comments made by members of the public and accepts no liability for any such comments.
Seeing no observers, we'll move on to committee reports, athletics and student activities. Mr. Viscuso, >> everybody received a copy of this athletics report. I like to six student athletes for the month. We grow Ben for
football. Camille Davo for tennis. Colton Ricard Grits for soccer. Meen Williams Hernandez for cheerleading. Joshua Delgado for football and Maria Blegas for soccer. Congratulations to those kids.
>> Congratulations. Thank you. Curriculum and instruction. Dr. Boyd. Curriculum and instruction meeting met on November 18th. An impact grant was awarded to the district. It's $200,000.
It stands for instructional materials for professional advancement coherent teaching. The grant was written by Karen Pichin and Mercedes Alves. The funding aims to support New Jersey local education agencies in purchasing and
implementing high quality instructional materials for literacy to accelerate student learning and strengthen tier one instruction across all grade levels. Funds will be used to purchase highquality instructional materials for
English language arts and professional development literacy instruction. There have been updating for the Carney for the key program criteria that is Carney explores admission program. There are preschool family meetings planned
and each month there will be a different topic. Uh this is an effort to engage parents and really to retain our preschool students. There is also a video planned
Uh Monontlair State University has a day of computing. This was coordinated by Mary Gfredo, district supervisor for math and science computer lab hub at Montlair State, sponsoring an elementary
school day of computing January 15, 2026 on campus. Focus will be working with underserved students in grades three to five to introduce them to hands-on computer activities such as Ozobots,
Mackie Mackie, and 3D printing. Our district is excited to be able to send two students from each elementary school to participate in this program. That's it. >> Thank you. Next up, facilities. Mr. Suarez.
>> Yes, madam. Refer to Mr. Right. We have, madame president, we have two uh purchase pay apps to Paul auto construction for classroom improvement and culinary lab at the high school. We have another pay app for Marina Group for Roosevelt Boilers. And we have a few
proposals on the agenda today. >> Okay. Thank you. Finance, Mrs. Burke. >> Thank you. I'll defer to Mr. Cassio Wednesday. >> Thank you, Mr. Th. Uh on Thursday, finance did meet on Thursday and we had our auditor this chick present the audit
to the finance committee. Uh she's here tonight to present to the board the 2425 district audit. Uh after her presentation, the board will be um there's a resolution for the board accepting the audit. On tonight's agenda, we also have the mandatory
direct deposit for all new employees for the district. This will take effect January of 2026, but it won't affect any existing employees. Now, we also have a generous donation from ShopRight for Washington Elementary School for Ice
Cream Social for the student of the month. >> Thank you. Next up, negotiations, labor relations, and personnel. Miss Lyndon Fzer. There is uh nothing to report for negotiations, labor relations. for
personnel. Everything's on the agenda except that we would like to um recognize two requirements. Uh one is Kathy Kadina, elementary teacher at Franklin School after 30 years of service to the Carne Public School
System. And the other one is Anita Sohoff, English teacher at Carne High School after 19 years of service to Carne PUBLIC SCHOOLS. AND THAT CONCLUDES MY REPORT. >> Thank you. Next up, policy and
technology. Mr. McKenna. >> Yes. Uh technology did not meet this month. Uh we did have a good policy meeting. Um all of the new policies are listed on the agenda. I just want to take note and thank uh Superintendent Carnissowl. Uh we'll be adding two
additional options to dress and grooming of student uniforms. uh information will come out uh from the superintendent uh adding a a darker sweatpant for the younger grades and uh from the uh student board representatives. She got
input of an additional quarters for the high school. So looking forward to that. >> Great. Thank you. Okay. Next, do we have some presentations? >> Yes, we'll begin with the 2425 audit results and we have Miss Shik here to do that presentation.
>> Okay. Thank you. Okay, tonight we have the June 30th, 2025 audit. The audit was performed in accordance with General County and government auditing standards and the district was subject to both a federal and state single audit. I'll
just go over the numbers for you. Um I don't know if you have anything in front of you just balance sheet. I'll go through that. So um your four governmental funds, the general fund, special revenue bond, capital projects, and debt service. So the general fund is your operating fund. Um that's where
your main operating budget is included. So at June 30th, you had over $43 million in cash and cash equivalents and then fund total fund balances of just under $43 million. Of the $43 million,
um 40.7 was your capital reserve, which you did use 6.3 million in the 2526 budget, leaving you with 34.4. for for projects going forward. You had um four just over four million
in your maintenance reserve, 64,000 in adult reserve for your adult education program, unemployment compensation reserve for your unemployment claims of 9 just over 973,000. You had incumbrances, which are orders
that you placed in during the year, but the goods or services had not come in yet. So those POSs were committed. They just hadn't received the goods or services of over 2.5 million. You used um just about $36 million of fund balance in your 2526 budget to offset
taxes and balance the budget leaving you unassigned. This is a gap basis. So it's a deficit of 5.6 million. But if you add the final state aid payment, which was the state always defers till the f till July, add that back in, you actually have unassigned budgetary fund balance
of 3.2 million, which is the 2% you're allowed to have plus the unbudgeted extraordinary aid. So the 2% just so you're aware of the numbers 2% actually comes out to be two 2,777,000 and then you added back on just under
430,000 of unbudgeted extraordinary aid. Um I just want to note that you were able to put $12 million into capital reserve in June which is good. So, because I know you have some projects you're thinking about doing and part of the reason you were able to accumulate
the money is with your cash balances being higher than they have been in the past, you've been able to get a lot of interest income. You had interest unbudgeted interest income of over $1.7 million this year. So, that helps. The special revenue
fund, that's for your grants. The biggest grant you have in there is your preschool education aid. um your capital projects. You'll see you have 9.2 million in fund balance. That's primarily um for the Washington school HVAC project that was going on and the
Franklin roof project. And then debt service fund. You made your final debt service payment on your bonds in 2425. So you have no outstanding debt left. >> It's great.
>> Does anyone have any questions for us? And then your AMR, the auditor management report. That's the report. We just comment on certain items. We had nothing that audit recommendation this year. We just had some general housekeeping items that we reviewed with
the business office. And that was it. Anybody have any questions? >> Okay. Thank you, Liz. Appreciate it. And thank you to Juan for doing such a great job. >> Okay. Next. So, next up we have the 2526
uh chronic absenteeism school corrective action plans um to present to the board. Uh you can just turn in your chairs if you'd like and direct your attention to the screen. Sorry this one.
>> Yep. >> Thank you. So once again, each uh school is completing a corrective action plan regarding chronic absenteeism uh which we are obligated to do as per state requirements. if our chronic absenteeism
percentage rate is above 10%. So chronic absenteeism is defined as missing at least 10% of school days or approximately 18 days in a year for any reason excused or unexcused.
Uh why does this matter? We know that in terms of achievement, students can have lower academic achievement as a result of chronic absenteeism. They're missing instructional time. They're less likely to read at grade level and students are also four times more likely not to graduate from high school. Uh there's
also a social and emotional effect. There's a disconnection from school and weakened social skills. And chronic absenteeism is often linked to underlying issues like social anxiety, bullying, academic struggles or health problems which can further impact a
student's emotional state. This is the list of state excused absences as per the department of education in New Jersey. So these are the only reasons when an absence will be excused by the state. Unfortunately,
illness is not one of them. So the board we establish locally uh are reasons to excuse an absence. However, if it's not one of the seven listed by the state, it will still count against us in terms of chronic absenteeism.
So here I have our percentage rates by school uh from 2122 until the present time. I would direct the board's attention to the last uh two years 23 24 and the last school year 2425. Uh and that's when we started our
concerted effort last school year to reduce uh the number of chronic absenteeism and obviously there was a spike in chronic absenteeism postcoid. Uh but as you'll notice for every building, every school except the high school, we were able to lower that
percentage and in some cases um pretty dramatically uh through the efforts of each school in the district. So we're really proud of the gains that we made and we're looking to continue that momentum this year. The high school, as I said, uh we actually had a bit of an increase. So uh we recognize that
there's a a larger challenge there. Um and so we're looking to see if we can remediate that. So these are some examples of our district action plan. So even though we're not obligated on the district level to have one, it's the schools, we
do still have a plan in place so that we can assist and support each individual school in what they are doing to reduce chronic absenteeism. So uh some of the things we do, we provide resources to them as we come upon them. We have a district attendance team to help support
the schools. Uh we communicate directly with families in several ways. Uh we maintain close partnerships with community entities such as the police department uh when necessary. Uh we have mental health initiatives because we know that's one of the reasons why
chronic absenteeism can happen such as our wellness weeks and fairs, homework free weekends, additional counseling, excuse me, and stress management supports etc. But ultimately we do encourage our parents to keep students home when they are sick. So we reiterate
that with our families. If students are ill, um they shouldn't come to school. The right thing to do is to keep them home. This is all the other reasons outside of uh illness. So uh we're sending out a parent survey yearly. The survey has already been sent
out in all buildings. These are some of the questions that we ask. uh parents can answer anonymously and we also make sure we ask them if they are in need of any individualized support that we can then follow up on. Uh our district uh data analytics
manager, she's done an excellent job of putting together additional data resources for our principles. This is one example of um information that she's providing them by school where they can track their chronic absenteeism
uh especially by subgroup or program by grade. So they have that resource as well as a warehouse that uh she worked with linkit to develop. So, aside from Genesis, our student information system, this uh data dashboard uh which is
updated nightly, can also be used by the principal so that at a glance they can look at a grade level, automatically see how many students are chronically absent, then click on that color and get a list of those students, how many times
they've been absent, etc. So this is a snapshot by school of uh their current action plan for this school year. So we have considerations, some challenges that were noted especially through the parent survey and specific action plan um items that
they're uh implementing this school year. So for Franklin uh kindergarten has the highest absentee um rate for them at 36.1 and you can see the other grade levels which are the next highest for them as a school. Uh some of the
challenges they noted illness was the reason most cited for absences and you'll see that trend uh in the other schools as well and other uh reasons cited included school distance from home. So, uh, because of where we house our bilingual programs, uh, one of the
reasons if there was a family that their homeschool was not Franklin, sometimes the distance can impede them, uh, from coming to school, especially in bad weather, etc. Uh, their action plan, they do have a school attendance team. All of our schools do have one. They have uh
perfect attendance awards, individual home room and schoolwide incentives, letters sent home to parents along with phone calls, andformational videos created by staff and students in multiple languages. For Garfield School, uh kindergarten was
their highest percentage once again of chronically absent at 28% followed by grades one and six. They noted that dates that many students are absent um include October 31st, so holidays or before and or after a school holiday or
break. Uh other schools noted uh the same when they tracked the data. Uh challenges. Uh they did have a low parent response to the survey. Uh 20 parents reported illness or health issues as the most common reason that the child was absent.
and 76% of the respondents understand when a child will be considered chronically absent. So we actually saw a lot of improvement across the schools in parents being aware of what it means now to be chronically absent. So um theformational campaign that the schools
carried out last year is helping uh their action plan school attendance team. Parents are notified of their child's excessive absences and parent meetings are held. They have an attendance recognition program at schoolwide, grade level, and individual student incentives. They have increased
communication with parents before holidays or days before break stressing the importance of school attendance, family engagement nights with topics such as the Genesis parent portal and their attendance matters videos and signs posted around the school.
Roosevelt school uh students are absent due to illness, vacations or travel to another country where students some in some cases did not want to attend. So it's finding out the reasons why and working on that individually with students. Uh they did have a decrease
two years in a row of chronically absent students. 73% of their parents understand what it means for a child to be considered chronically absent. Again, that's increased, which is a good thing. their action plan. Communication with parents, which includes in-person meetings of students that are
chronically absent, as well as attendance hearings if applicable, quarterly attendance notifications sent to families, personal phone calls to parents of atrisisk students with five or more absences, increased uh student awareness of what it means to be chronically absent, and schoolwide
incentives. Skyler School has shown improvement over consecutive years. They're actually one of the schools we think may come out of this corrective action plan hopefully this school year. Uh certain subgroups such as special education students have
higher rates of absenteeism over over time. So they've found out and other schools have found that as well. Uh challenges they only had 100 responses which was on the lower side. Uh illness and health issues were cited as the top
reason students are absent. They have an attendance team to monitor attendance, causes, and trends. Uh, chronic absenteeism was a topic discussed at back- tochool night with families. They have monthly attendance contests by home room and grade level with incentives such as a dress down day, their March
Madness attendance challenge, monthly letters to parents, and connecting with students individually, and phone calls home daily for students with three or more consecutive absences. Washington School uh they have a consecutive decrease as well in chronic
absenteeism over the last two years. They've improved attendance from last year so far for the months of September and October this year. So they already are seeing the gains in comparison to last year. Uh the absenteeism rates rise on or around a holiday. They also cited
October 31st. Uh grades K1 and two have shown higher rates of absenteeism over time. uh challenges. 16% of their parents responded to the survey. 27.9% of parents cited illness or health issues as a reason for absence and 66.2%
of parents are still unaware of what it means to be chronically absent. So they are going to do more work with that to raise awareness. uh their action plan. They do have their school attendance team that analyzes and interprets data. Schoolwide attendance initiatives monthly and quarterly family
engagement workshops in person and virtual because they found that virtual is a needed option for their families when they surveyed them that highlight the importance of attendance and share strategies for overcoming barriers. Consistent communication with families. is a mentorship program where students
are paired with a mentor who checks in with them weekly to discuss student attendance and personal challenges. And then they do early morning check-ins with students with attendance issues with a counselor or staff member. Lincoln Middle School is another school
that we think hopefully will come out of this uh chronic absenteeism cap after this school year. Uh their eighth grade chronic attendance slightly is slightly higher than seventh grade. December, January, and April have historically higher levels of absenteeism. Uh again,
illness and health issues cited as the most common reason for a child to miss school. There's a small percentage that cited mental or emotional health concerns and family responsibilities or obligations. They have their school attendance team and data team that is monitoring attendance and identifying at
risk students. They're pinpointing specific initiatives during December, January, and April, such as their esports cl uh program, class trips to New York City, a new New Jersey Devils game, uh school dances. So, they're trying to incorporate specific events
during those times of year that they feel are most challenging and see if that entices the students to to keep attending school and being present. Uh increased students involved in clubs, sports programs, etc. as their absenteeism rate was lower than their
peers. Uh meeting with parents of identified students as early as September to discuss resolutions, counseling with individual students. Uh the principal and students lead videos with um stressing the importance of attendance. Uh and students who stay
under the chronic absenteeism threshold receive an incentive day at the end of each marking period. So, the high school um I listed the chronic absenteeism percentages by grade so that you can see what they look like.
Uh our grade 12 is the highest at 25.54%. Um decreased attendance again coincided with holidays and days before or after breaks. Uh challenge is definitely the response to the survey. Only 133 uh
responses were received. of those illness or health issues scored highest as the reason students were absent. Um they this year uh the district truency officer will be joining their bi-weekly attendance team meetings so that they can increase that
collaboration. Uh schoolwide incentives and engagement activities such as assemblies, contests or themed events will be expanded and provided monthly and the day before breaks. Again, similar to the middle school, they are increasing their parent outreach and
direct communication, including monthly perks with the principal meetings, uh, intensive outreach with atrisisk populations, such as special ed students through personalized interventions and staff training on how to support students to reduce their absenteeism.
They're distributing multilingual material explaining the importance of attendance. They are looking to increase the parent survey response rate by offering incentives for survey participation, hold in-person and virtual forums to discuss attendance barriers, and collaborate with community
organizations to reach families. Uh they also have a targeted intervention group for students with 5 to 10 absences during semester, weekly check-ins, mentorship offerings, resources provided, and then individualized uh action plans for students with 15 or
more absences where a staff member is assigned to that student individually to identify barriers, provide counseling, and establish goals with parents. So that's that concludes the presentation. Uh again, we're we were very pleased with the progress that we
made last school year. Um the schools worked very very hard on this. As you can see, they're really uh looking into their data, really identifying the kids. Uh the outreach to families has increased uh quite a bit and um they're looking to help in any way they can and
and it shows in the results. So, we're looking forward to another year where we can continue to reduce uh those rates and hopefully bring us under that threshold. um so that we don't have to complete this any longer but obviously we would continue what we're doing
beyond uh as well. Any questions? Okay. Uh now we're going to go to the next presentation which is just to introduce to you our student board representatives for this school year.
So, uh, I'm going to share some photos and a little blurb about our students, uh, which I'm proud very proud and looking forward to meeting with on a monthly basis, uh, to look to enhance and improve their experiences at Carne High School. The first student we have
is Annie Ludenna. My name is Annie Ludenna and I'm a junior at Carne High School. I have lived in Cardi my entire life and my parents are both from Ecuador. My favorite subjects include math and science. In the future, I would like to attend college to pursue a career in nursing, earning my BSN and
later hopefully obtain my MERS or doctorate. At Carne High School, I'm a member of the track and field team and participate in the winter and spring seasons. I'm also involved in various clubs like SGA where I am the vice president, science league, and French
club. Outside of school, I enjoy baking, volunteering with Red Cross, and traveling to new places. I'm excited to work with Mrs. Incarno and the board to make Carney High School a better place. Then we have Sarah Hill. My name is Sarah Hill and I am a senior. I am the
president of the student government. As I have always aspired to be a leader, I enjoy uplifting school spirit and volunteering in school and around the community. Also, I am involved in crew and became one of the senior captains. I've been fascinated by this sport as it
has taught me about teamwork and communication. After high school, I plan on pursuing premed studies. I love helping people and strive to do so in my future career in medicine. Furthermore, I look forward to working with my peers and the superintendent to improve our school.
Then we have Ashley Tvarez. Uh my name is Ashley Tvarez and I am a junior at KHS. I moved to Carne from Florida in 2018. I am very interested in auto mechanics and hope to attend a trade school and pursue this as a career after high school. I am also a member of the
esports club here at Carne High School which I really enjoy. I also love NASCAR and Transformers. Then we have Camila Rodriguez Suarez Netto. My name is Camila Rodriguez Suarez Netto and I am a junior in high
school. I speak two languages fluently and I am currently learning a third. I plan to pursue a career in chemical engineering and I am involved in both the engineering club and the library council. I am an A+ student and through my academic performance I have earned recognitions such as academic excellence
student of the month and marking period student. I serve as a peer tutor supporting students in English, algebra, and geometry. And I also assist my school's ESL classes. I volunteer at school and community events including helping at basketball games. I am a
proud member of the ESL Honors Society and I'm always looking for ways to support and contribute to our school community. And then we have Haley Felix Bueno. Hello, my name is Haley Felix Bueno and I am currently a junior in high school.
My favorite subjects are ELA and social studies and I am enrolled in AP language and composition as well as honors history too. After high school, I plan to pursue a degree in psychology and work toward a career in forensic psychology, driven by my passion for understanding complex criminal behavior
and contributing to justice through mental health insights. I am an active member of SGA and deeply involved in my school's musical program where I have served as the lead in the school musical for the past two years and have received multiple awards recognizing my performance and commitment. In my free
time, I enjoy reading, singing and shopping which allow me to express express creativity, relax and explore my personal interests. So that is our students. Um they are a pleasure to speak and meet with and there's already some things on the table
that they've contributed to changes that we're making. So I look forward to um giving you updates as we work with them throughout the school year. All right, that concludes my presentation. >> All right. At this time, I would ask uh
that the board approve part one personnel items A through K with the exception of B6, which will be a separate vote. So move >> second. >> Discussion. >> Roll call. >> Dr. >> Yes.
>> Mr. Bur. >> Yes. >> Mr. Perry. >> Yes. >> Miss Linds. >> Yes. >> Mr. McKenna. >> Yes. >> Mr. Schwarz. >> Yes. >> Mr. Mcuso? >> Yes. >> President Par? >> Yes. >> I also uh ask that the board approve
part one personnel item B6. >> So moved. Second. Discussion. Roll call. >> Dr. Boyce. >> Yes. >> Mr. Bur. >> Not voting due to conflict. >> Mr. Carrie? >> Yes. >> Miss Lindfelce? >> Yes. >> Mr. McKenna?
>> Yes. >> Mr. Sar? >> Yes. >> Mr. Mcuso? >> Yes. >> President P? >> Yes. >> I also ask that the board approve part two non-personnel items A through L. >> So move. Second. >> Discussion.
Roll call. >> The board. Yes, >> Mr. B. >> Yes, >> Mr. Perry. >> Yes, >> Miss Linda. >> Yes, >> Mr. McKenna. >> Yes, >> Mr. Schwarz. >> Yes, >> Mr. >> Yes, >> President. >> Yes. >> That concludes my report. Thank you,
President Paris. >> Thank you. Next up, report of the business administrator, board secretary, Mr. Fasia Lins. >> Finance looking for motion to approve C through E and G&H. >> So move. Second
>> discussion. Roll call. >> Dr. Boyd. >> Yes. >> Mrs. B. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kerry. >> Yes. >> Miss Pelson. >> Yes. >> Mr. McKenna? >> Yes. >> Mr. Suard? >> Yes. >> Mr. Biscuso? >> Yes. >> President Har? >> Yes.
>> Looking for motion to approve F. Payment of bills. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Discussion. Roll call. >> Dr. Boy. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Berg. >> Yes. >> Mr. Perry. >> Yes. Miss Lindfeld, >> yes. With the exception of check number
24583 to Ken Lindfel, Sir, as I have a conflict of interest. >> Mr. McKenna, >> yes. Except for any check made out to the Comcast Corporation as I have a conflict. >> Mr. Suarez, >> yes. >> Mr. Biscuso, >> yes. >> President, >> yes, with the exception of any check
written to Little Friends or Ken Lynon Felzer as I have a conflict. for part two facilities looking to motion to rule a request for permits. >> So moved >> second >> discussion roll call >> Dr. Boyd >> yes
>> Mrs. Berg >> yes >> Mr. Kerry >> yes >> Miss Linda >> yes >> Miss McKenna >> yes >> Mr. Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Looking to approve from A to N.
>> So move. >> Second. >> Discussion. Roll call. >> Dr. Boy. >> Yes. >> M. >> Yes. >> Mr. Perry. >> Yes. >> Misser. >> Yes. >> Mr. McCann. >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Mr. Mcuso?
>> Yes. >> President Harris? Yes, >> that concludes my report. >> Thank you. Any new business? >> We have no observers. So, motion to adjurnn. So, >> move second. >> All in favor?
>> I