##VIDEO ID:2TcuHKxZB88## e e e e e e e e e November 19th the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business direct affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provision of the act the kinan board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published in the Suburban Trends on January 21st 2024 posted in the kenalan public library filed with the burough Clerk and posted on the district website Miss Francisco we call the board Please Mr manger here Mrs Leonard Mr Myers here Mrs Pella Mrs Portman here Mr petracelli he be late Mrs Donaldson here okay there is no closed session needed at this moment please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance routine matters we have approval of the minutes for the October 15th regular meeting can I have motion to approve motion second any discussion on the minutes okay see none M Francis we pull the board Please Mr eanger yes Mrs Leonard Mr Myers yes Mrs Pella yes Mrs Portman yes Mrs Donaldson yes Salone hi everyone so I would just like to share some accomplishments of the students from the halls of kelan public schools so we'll start off with K Cisco K Cisco continues to celebrate a fantastic fall season with great events and Community Partnerships we had a schoolwide bunny project for 3 weeks in Keel that entailed our classes caring for a bunny family Melody and her three babies classes were responsible for caring for the bunnies and learning about rabbits during the process at the end of the experience we held a schoolwide election day where students ultimately voted on naming Melody's three babies marshmallow Snowflake and Oro we kicked off November with parent teacher conferences and our book fair coordinated by Kesha thank you to all of our teachers and families for this great collaboration on student progress also we started our after school art Club sponsored by Kesha and it has been so successful across grades K 2 that we have to expand and offer two full sessions per grade level two days per week after school next our theater Club is also underway as students have been cast in our Disney Junior production on Frozen with performances scheduled to take place on Saturday January 18th in ke thank you Kesha for making this program possible we held a beautiful Veterans Day singal along in ke on Monday October 11th all prek to second grade students participated and learned about the importance of Veterans Day and gratitude for the service of our veterans we are also creating a hall of Heroes in our downstairs hallway in Keel featuring pictures and blurbs about our veterans and active military personnel we welcome all submissions as we honor them and their service to our country thank you Kesha for sponsoring our Supermarket science assembly on November 12th and lastly from Keel we are very excited about our Partnerships with the PRM in the high school PRM mentors and social Outreach Club are routinely visiting Keel to engage with and support our students in their learning including social skills we are excited about our Thanksgiving feast with the PRM social Outreach Club tomorrow Kon high school students are also eagerly reaching out to explore teaching and learning at the elementary school it is very exciting that they are so eager to support our ke students and staff I'd like to move on to Stonybrook now Stony Brook held their Halloween parade on October 31st thank you to all of our families for attending our Halloween parade and for hosting all of our classroom parties our students had a great time also Stony Brook School held its Veterans Day assembly on November 4th to honor honor and recognize our local veterans it was an honor to welcome relatives of our Stony Brook staff and students as well as veterans from Cedar Crest parent teacher conferences were held on November 4th 5th and 6th thank you to our families who attended and to our staff for all all of their hard work next our fall Scholastic books book fair was held on November 4th through the 6th thank you to Kesha and to all of our parent volunteers also thank you to Kesha for hosting pizza and bagel lunches for our students during our minimum days of school next the Stony Brook Art Club and chess club started November 13 we have had an overwhelming response to our clubs with over 165 students attending thank you to Kesha for making our clubs become a reality Stony Brook recognized school psychologist week thank you to Mrs Kleiner for all that you do thank you to miss Basinger for implementing the PRM to Stonybrook dear younger me project PRM students created posters and wrote letters to the students at Stonybrook sharing words of encouragement and positive thoughts these posters and letters are lining the hallways for all students to see Stony Brook's students will now create posters and write letters to the students at K Cisco next the kindness crew held its first secret underground Spirit day for fourth and fifth grade students the students dressed as teachers and the teachers had to guess who they were it was so much fun seeing our students dressed as their teachers thank you Mrs Tango for your assistance with this day and lastly we are looking forward to the next few weeks leading up to winter break moving on to PRM on Friday October 18th our eighth grade students participated in the pep rally at Kon high school we thank the administration and staff of KHS for letting our students be a part of this spirited event the prm's principal Forum was held on November 23rd a recording is available on the PRM website the PRM student council executive board had launched with Mr mango our student council advisers and the PRM administrators on October 30th our student council members Shar their insight and perspective on a range of topics and at the meeting the PRM student council held its annual Halloween costume contest on October 31st our students demonstrated outstanding creativity and Imagination with their costumes next parent teacher conferences were also held on November 4th and 5th and lastly we had an assembly to honor local veterans on November 13th we thank our social studies teachers and all the people who made this event possible the PRM HSA provided outstanding support and resources for this event and lastly for KHS the Colt Chronicle newspaper won seven awards from the Garden State Scholastic press association's annual conent including third place for overall print excellence and Honorable Men mention for overall online Excellence arushi Kumar Christian carmichel and Owen fernstrom also won individual awards for their work next in October KHS held daytime and evening College fairs for students and parents hosting close to 120 colleges combined next the fall drama the internet is distract oh look a kitten took place this weekend at KHS and was enjoyed by the school and greater Kinnelon Community the class of 2025 will be celebrating together with the senior brunch tomorrow next the KHS student council will be hosting the Powderpuff football event tomorrow night at 6 p.m. on the tur field and all are encouraged from the community to attend the seniors and freshmen will be competing against the sophomores and juniors it will be a fun night for all and La lastly I'm very excited to share that I will be running for a position on the njasc student council state board in December thank you all Thank You Salon okay right now we're uh going to open up the the uh microphone for public hearing and comment on the superintendent uh amended employment contract we've uh renegotiated with the Mr mango an extension of his contract and that's been um advertised for the last month so if there's any public comment they you are welcome to come up to the mic now is there anything online Jay any emails or anything okay seeing uh no interest in that we'll move on to the superintendent update all right thank you Mrs president welcome everybody thank you salani best of luck on that uh appointment we have you you know we're in your corner so thank you all of our families that are here tonight welcome you know it's the holiday season I know there's quite a bit going on but um two years ago or actually two and a half years ago during the interview process with this board with this exact board we discussed having more Community input having our students your children more involved at board meetings so this is what we do this is typical um typically three times a year we recognize full Sports and then throughout uh full Sports winter sports in Spring and then throughout the year when there's certain accolades as you will find and you know why you're here we do this I promise you when it's over we're going to take a recess and everybody could go home we understand go home and enjoy enj the night um and then we'll conduct our regular board business so um with such a big crowd I'd be remiss if I just didn't give you some of the district news and for our parents especially back in Keel it's important to know what's coming because trust me it goes quick um so there are some items that we have that I think is important for you to know in our new gym on the far side of our building um we have an issue right now with our gym floor uh that gym floor was replaced in 2017 uh we noticed there's some buckling again I did touch on this during the preliminary budget hearing in last March so all those videos are online on our district website if you'd like to view it um it's a moisture issue last November I thought on the side of the building it was more about the wetness and the rain and that historic rain uh that we had and then this year we're dry as a bone and it's still an issue so what we're finding is that there's piping so when that construction was built there was pipes underneath we have a company coming out my fingers are crossed next week to determine is it a blockage or what have you we don't know and truthfully I'm not going to pretend so I just wanted to get that out there because that could impact our winter sports programs our Recreation which is our community but we are on it we recognize it and um we're moving forward but I wanted to share that information under the B section tonight there is a job description for approval uh for a K5 Lead Teacher in each of our elementary buildings at each of the grade levels we recognize that our elementary staff do quite a bit um and there is a need for some leadership per grade level to act as liaison between staff grade levels uh department chair Mrs tados and then Mrs ala and Mrs utel is building Administration so uh assuming confidently that later on tonight that passes Mrs utel and Mrs ala will advertise with Mrs tdos and they'll conduct their interviews and we have a fine staff as you will know uh in those two buildings and I'm I'm confident we'll have more than enough applicants uh I board goal this year is a cell phone free environment and that's a parent survey so I'm going to it everybody in here will receive it believe it it doesn't matter to me the grade level so all I ask is that you please participate uh that information will come back to the board and drive decision making for us as we go forward about cell phones or removal of cell phones or however that looks we have taken steps in our buildings and over the last two school years but this is a little bit more so please I promise you won't for you just take the time and take it if you have any families that you're friends with please share that information with them uh we are also sending out for PRM and KHS an elective survey right now we do have a position that we were not able to fill due to certification uh that was our former wood shop for those of you that are north of 50 like me um or in today's age it's called industrial Arts so we have that program here we have it uh the finances available we just weren't able to find a candidate so I want to have more information discuss from our students your children about what are some programs they might be interested in so we do have a very you know solid survey with tons of options for our students and a a goal of ours as a board is to then add a second elective program to be shared between the middle and high school so that's all coming um in an effort for retention look we're all community members here we hear things we see things we know things right so um historically we've lost some students annually year-over-year to uh private or Catholic uh I would put our Academic Program here up against any deple um Del Barton Pope John any day of the week our staff our resources our facilities up against them no disrespect to anybody in those buildings fine folks but they can't compete with us academically I know historically it stems from Athletics so we're looking at how do we retain our students and share with them and showcase our programs so salani our student rep discussed that in October where we brought down our eighth graders for Spirit Week to have them experience that next week our eighth graders will come down and spend a half a day in the high school and then we're looking at exposing them more to Future pep rallies here in the high school as we get into winter and spring so we offer a lot and I would say to anyone who's here if you have a child who's in eth grade and you're on the fence or a neighbor who has a child in eth grade you could send them our way send them Mr manga's way Mr sud's way more than happy to have a conversation with them about things um and last but not least another board goal is uh consolidation of the middle and the high school bus routes right now our bus routes are not as efficient as we could be and when I say efficient I mean capacity Wise It's also an issue as far as programs and sustainability of budget we are looking at making more of a middle high school campus feel um in offering elective programs to our eighth grade students here in the High School not for high school credit but just as part of our elective program and I'm also looking to maximize staff between the buildings with similar and Mirror Image certifications that'll help us because you as you all know cost goes up and does not go down and as a district we're beholden to to Transportation cost increases which have gone off the chart literally since covid Health Care increases just the same we're looking at another 10% increase this year and then just cost of living in our cbas with our staff so it's my job to look at every possible Avenue to be efficient fiscally programmatically and instructionally and then of course on top of with our facility so uh more to come from there but these are just nothing's written in stone we're just putting it out there Mr shivas and I have had a conversation with Transportation multiple and this is what we're looking at at the same time for those parents here with the with our little ones starting school at 9:20 really is late if you come to think about it so while Keel and Stony Brook W part of the initial District goal I'm looking at that and I'm I'm communicating that to the board and to our staff and Mrs utel and Mrs ala so expect after the New Year let the holidays Go by a communication from my office to our entire Community about what we're looking at in a very rough draft form moving forward um and obviously we'll have more than enough time to have meetings if if necessary so folks um understand if there's any any questions but um at this point District news is over I've talked enough you're not here to hear me um so this is the best part of our meetings trust me looking ahead three weeks from now December 10th we have a special Boe presentation I can't go any further than that right now um we have full Sports recognition and then we have an absenteeism survey which is coming out next week but Mrs Thomas is um going to be discussing some things with the board uh in the future future so with that Mrs ala we're going to start with you ke school will work our way up and um Mrs ala the floor is yours good evening everyone thank you so much for joining can everyone hear me okay excellent so good evening thank you so much uh for coming out tonight this is really about you know an evening of celebrating success so thank you so much to our Board of Education as well as Mr mango for enabling us to do this tonight and of course our students families and staff for making this all possible so if we can start again we have some nice uh groups that we're recognizing tonight in Keel it's multifaceted which we're super excited about uh Mr horat and family are you here this evening I'm not sure if the horat family is here um as well as Mrs santagato if Mrs santagato if you can come to the front please with me so we just wanted to be able to share so the horck family they approached me during back to school night this year and had this really fantastic concept and idea of having a buddy bench at Keel school and really the resounding message and theme Here is it's important that children recognize when someone needs a friend someone to lean on someone to support them and so while we've historically had one in Keel it's literally 20 plus years old so they approached and said we would love to be able to bring this to Keel so the family literally as a family project went and bought all of the materials as you can see here and they as a family spent weeks constructing this bench together for Keel school I mean how incredible so then not only did they construct it this is Hazel here um in our photo not only did they construct it but then they reached out to me in October and said Mrs o the project is done and we are ready to bring it to Keel so in partnership with Mrs santagato our amazing art teacher um we came up with this idea especially as a give back and a legacy for ke and really the district as a whole having the kindergarten students literally leave their handprints in Keel and actually so every single kindergarten student in Keel worked with Mrs santagato they all had a hand literally in painting the bench as you see here uh with Hazel um our kindergartner as well and then if we go to the next slide here you'll see the finished product which is outside right now ready for installation um which will be happening within the next week and Mrs Santa B again really facilitated the students being able to paint it um and every single kindergarten students um handprint is literally on that bench so thank you to the horck family and really it just goes to show that this is really what it's about as community service looking at things from a big picture and the fact that this family thought of this approached me when hundreds of families were visiting back to school night and said we have this amazing idea we want to bring it forward and this in you know in an 8 to 10 we period this is the awesome Legacy that they've left for our community as well so really beautiful um and just so excited to recognize them this evening so thank you horuk family and thank you Mrs santagato again for adding so many pieces to this amazing project and making it possible so thank youate you and so next I'm sorry Dr I have to have you come up here I know you don't want to be in the Limelight but I need both you and Mrs santato here because it's really important and again as we're talking about celebrating Student Success and staff success that's really what this is all about and so we have Mrs santagato and Dr bot here and really over the past several years I would say right they've seen a need in our school specifically across prek-2 really the need for our students to be able to regulate regulate their emotions how they're feeling having somewhere to go during the school day if they just need a movement break and so without anyone asking without anyone saying anything at all our two masterminds here both of them they collaborated and they literally between art and Dr bot having her physical therapy background they got together and they created Five push walls four in total in Keel it was a labor of love as well as one next door in the Cisco Building so again our teacher teach and staff if students just need a few minutes to take a breath just need a place to go and move and walk around now just again just through putting their minds together collaborating on this project we now have this in Keel and again just really outside the box and and it also ties in with our full values and a lot of the messages that we share with students every day about being here being present supporting each other so again it really just it is physically now in our school halls and it's just a really beautiful thing so thank you so much Mrs santagato and Dr bot you guys are amazing and it just speaks to our amazing [Applause] staff you guys are amazing thank you okay and so next we're up to our student recognitions if I can have Miss tinny our amazing school counselor join me as well as one of our PRM students Savannah mango s Savannah if you can come up and join us awesome so really as you heard to in our update from Keel this evening from our awesome student representative what we talked about and what really has just happened organically part of as our district and school goals but organically really in our community it's been a beautiful thing over the past few years to see that our high school and middle school students want to get involved at the elementary level and they've now taken it upon themselves to reach out to me at various times Savannah's one of them who reached out to me in August on her own and said look Mrs o I would love to help your teachers set up their classrooms I'd love to get involved with students and to be able to support the learning that's taking place in Keel school so Savannah reached out she started when was it end of August Savannah came in joined us end of August was in classroom supporting teachers and then also taught many lessons to our students during the bunny project so again it was just a really phenomenal Outreach and I have KHS students too at the same time reaching out and wanting to get involved at keil Miss tenny's had our PRM mentors coming down tomorrow we have our social Outreach Club so again it just really speaks to the amazing work that our middle and high school students are bringing down to Keel and it's becoming where we on a weekly basis have our students down supporting so Savannah I'm not sure if you want to say a few words or Miss Tenny but feel free to share some of your experiences but again it's really an example we want our students to be getting involved and so keep on reaching out to our middle and high schoolers keep on coming down we are so excited to have you thank you Mrs ala so I'm part of njhs National Junior Honor Society and I thought of a great way to get in my hours is by reaching out and you know really helping and I love kids I babysit my neighbors and I've had four rabbits before so you know handling so handling you know baby bunnies was honestly a little nerve-wracking but also pretty easy and the kids were so wonderful and they were so engaged and I'm so happy that I have gotten the opportunity to help you with that to help you know kindergarten teachers with um help like setting up their classrooms and I'm really glad that this happened and thank you for making it happen yep and thank you Savannah for making it all possible and really being an excellent example for us in Keel and PRM so again thank you so much and we had fun a lot of fun okay and now we're here and Miss tinny is GNA help me we have our brand new initiative this school year called our Keel koala kindness Awards which we are really excited to roll out specifically because of the fact that we every day in Keel we focus on our respect we have our full values we really want our school to always be a family environment and one that really is about consistently being model and exemplary citizens so that's always our focus and so we have 15 students this evening who we are really excited to recognize and celebrate for their amazing contributions to Keel school on a routine basis so miss tinny is going to support me as I name our students if we can have you please come up to the front and join Mrs Owen Miss tinny so that we can celebrate you and then take a picture together at the end we would love that hi everyone it's so great to see so many of you here um this is a really wonderful thing that is about to happen with these kids this is our first group and in a world where you could be anything be kind is an old saying and these kids really exemplified that so we're really really proud to be giving these Awards out tonight so thank you and thank you so much Miss so we did also give the certificates out during the school day so we have our Keel koala kindness keychains that we're going to be sharing with our students this evening so when I say your name please come up come on up and join us we have first and foremost Troy alesandro come on up [Applause] Troy amazing Troy come on up perfect okay next up we have Harper cie Harper come on [Applause] up okay next we have Sawyer colins Sawyer come and join [Applause] us Finley Cony [Applause] Finley Ro fast [Applause] Romy Conor hakeim come on up Connor Isabella nopachai [Applause] Owen merlucci [Applause] Benjamin Miller cersa ' Conor Jason odza Madison auton come on up Nathan papendick Michaela Partridge and last but not least Grace ronsky so I proudly present to you our first set of ever keel Wala kindness award recipients our students are amazing and it really shows thank you all so much for being so great so our students and Miss tinny and myself we're going to come up and take a picture using the backdrop if any families want to come and take a photo at this time we would love to do that before we then go on to Stonybrook so again thank you so much and congratulations to our students thank you are you excited I know there's a lot of people I don't know if we took one thank you once again and Mrs utel with Stony Brook ad oh my don't know those little ones good evening everyone and welcome thank you so much to all of our families for coming out I am here tonight to take a moment to honor our Stony Brook student council students so just to give you all a little background our advisor of the program Mrs West has been running this program for several years and it is an honor to watch her interact with your children every Monday morning she is instilling them leadership dedication and a true Community Reach to their school she is teaching them how to work together she is teaching them how to better the environment that they come to every day and really making them see that they are a true family and on those Monday mornings it is wonderful to see the collaboration so far this year they have really participated in so many collaborative ideas but I first want to take a moment if you can please join me in giving a round of applause and Mrs West if you can please come up to join me [Applause] so every year in the beginning of the year Mrs West sends out her notice about the elections that will be held and our students do such a wonderful job of really choosing a platform to run on working with something within the school how to better the school community and then they actual true elections in their classrooms where all of the posters are hung up the speeches are read and then the secret vote is taken and then we have our student council Representatives we are fortunate enough to have two students represent each home room and it is an honor to see them they participate in a lot of things that people may not be privy to knowing so this year started out with our Hol rating decorating contest where they worked with a partner and then our school voted but then the the second biggest thing comes in our lunch company mashos meets with our student council students and they actually get to sit and share their ideas about what they like about the food what they don't like about the food and what they want changed and when I tell you they are honest Mrs West they are honest and mashos loves it but it gives This Is Where Mrs West and I get to see their true character they are respectful they take ownership of what they want to see each and every day in their lunchroom for their their students their classmates and they talk just in that language they say my classmates and I don't like this my classmates and I would like to see more of this when they worked last year to get rid of Gatorade Gatorade was gone when they wanted more Naked drinks a week later the Naked drinks were in the cafeteria so they really have enacted change but it's because of Mrs West she sits there and talks about what leadership looks like and she instills with them what it looks like as they move on to PRM and that's where she really truly makes a huge impact she talks about how do you start at our age level at Stonybrook to make a difference not only in your school Community but in your community so there are so many things that she runs with the rest of the year but the biggest is the end of the year when they take their trip with mayor Freda and they go to the DPW they sit in the judges Chambers they meet the council and they go to the DPW itself and they get to see actually how their Community works so it is an honor tonight for me and Mrs West to honor our Stonybrook student council 2425 students so students if you are here when I call your name if you can please stand first and then parents we will have all of them come down afterwards to take a group photo so if I can have each of you stand when I call your name we have for our third grade Talon Modi Alexander santalis Emerson Selby Nicholas Krauss Nicholas SoDo Raphael osomo yam Julian diori Samantha hus Parker Halk gelri sharer Blake Kyle Brock and Dyan Gentile third grades please give them a round of applause I ask that you remain standing and to now our fourth grade student council representative Augustine osamo yyam Matteo arasco Tommy kotay Grant Rosenberger Decker Jefferson Jacob levit Vita Perez Ava Simone John biasini and Laya zenowitz give them a huge round of [Applause] applause and last but not least and Mr mongan I do have to tell you this is an incredible fifth grade group that you are getting so fifth graders I hope that you continue to take this challenge As you move on in a few months to PRM as student council representatives to our fifth grade students Sophia Maris Claire de Jagger Jackson Reed McKenzie Clooney Victor simov Emily magnan L LA peel Austin mosera GI Pepe Byron Singh Chris banado and channy Markley [Applause] so parents I want to also thank you for all of your support for your early Monday morning drop offs at 8:00 a.m. thank you for everything that you do to support the leadership qualities and those characteristics that we work so hard to instill in our students and as we know kindness counts at Stonybrook and Mrs West I personally want to say thank you for everything that you have done to run this program and she makes it more successful each and every year so students I'm going to ask you to please come up first and then families if you would like to join us for a group picture against the backdrop you are more than welcome come r like I at all the thank you that's awesome thank you I know thank you thank that's it that's sure okay at this time I would to call out Mr Monga and Mrs josephes for PRM pillars of character good evening everyone it's so wonderful to see so many people come out for this because the accomplishments that we're talking about here tonight I mean they're so meaningful and even that much more when we get to share it with all of you Mrs yoses and I are very fortunate to work with the amazing and dedicated staff that we are and that sets a tremendous tone in our building and then beyond that that as you look at our students we are so incredibly fortunate to work with them because the character that they bring into our building that they show every day really sets an amazing tone as well and these are things the accomplishments that we're going to talk about tonight are not things where students are setting out to get accolades you know they're not doing what they do for the purpose of recognition they're doing what they do because it's part of of who they are it's part of the value that you all the values that you all have instilled as parents and uh it's part of just again who they are and what they show us day in and day out so we are so incredibly proud of our pillars of character um we are going to recognize them now and what I'm going to ask is when your name is called please stand and then at the end after we've recognized each of our pillars of character across all of the pillars uh we'll call you down for a photo as well we'll begin with the pillar of trustworthiness this is awarded to students who are honest loyal and follow through on what they say they will do these students can be relied upon in any situation and their integrity shines through in their actions and their interactions every day the following students receive the pillar of trustworthiness in the first marking period Tia chaan and Catalina Coello please stand the pillar of respect is awarded to students who are considerate of others feelings are courteous to others are accepting of differences and treat others how they would like to be treated they let those around them know their words and actions they let other they let those around them know that their words and actions are valued the following students receive the pillar of respect in the first marking period Jack eisener John Joseph fza and Stella fry the pillar of responsibility is awarded to students who consistently try their best persevere when they face challenges demonstrate self-discipline and are accountable for their words and actions they set a positive example for everyone with whom they interact the following students receive the pillar of responsibility in the first marking period Please join me in welcoming Joseph deck Anushka meta perar and Cole [Applause] Murphy the pillar of fairness is awarded to students who uphold the rules of Good Conduct are open-minded when encouraging when encountering new situations listen actively to those around them and treat others fairly they model exemplary conduct in their interactions with those around them the following students reive the pillar of fairness in the second marking excuse me in the first marking period Franchesco [Applause] paresi the pillar of caring is awarded to students who are kind and compassionate in their actions in their interactions with others the way in which they carry themselves makes PRM A warm and welcoming place to be the following student received the pillar of caring for the first marking period congratulations to Annabelle [Applause] wble the pillar of citizenship is awarded to students who make choices that protect the rights and safety of others demonstrate the qualities of being a good Community member and cooperate well with others simply stated their actions make our school and Community better the following students received the pillar of citizenship in the first marking period Christopher gabis Jenna levit Amara Naidu and Jake [Applause] Pepe congratulations to all our pillars of character for the first marking period students if you would please come down and we'll gather for a picture in front of the backdrop and parents uh please feel free to come down and take a photo sh e and next Mr suda will be presenting for Kenan high school thank you Mr mongan it is my absolute honor to recognize Tang Pandy if you could please walk down here terang [Applause] terang is a multi-talented and very humble student at KHS he is a member of our KHS state championship bowling team he is treasurer of our executive student council he's a National Merit commended scholar in his spare time he helped for over 60 hours especially needs students in addition to this he shares his talents academically he has shared his studies with high school and college students at national conferences including students from around the world he has presented at the E MIT undergraduate research technology conference 2024 on the MIT campus sharing his research paper a hybrid approach to drug interaction prediction using knowledge grass and gradient classifiers he has also presented at the bio it World Conference and Expo in Boston and at the Cambridge future scholar and research course artificial intelligence in healthcare biomed sensors signal processing and machine learning it is quite uh a body of work that terang has produced in in three short years here at kenalan high school it is truly an accomplishment and also earlier this year there was a knock at my office door and terang walked in and handed me this and as you can see in the right hand corner he wrote a book and I'm like looking at him because I know how busy he is and I talk to his counselor Mrs G who mentioned to me that she also said terang when did you find find time to write a book and his response quote it was summer I was [Applause] free so I was truly touched I've never had a student present me with a book and also with one of our counselors and I open the page and says thanks for having my book to Ryan Pandy and then I I paged through it and as a former history teacher in English teacher I'm fascinated because it's called Roman philosophy's ancient wisdom for today and I love it he he basically analyzes three five different philosophers but I go to the page of acknowledgement and I'll just read some of it briefly and this is acknowledgements first and foremost I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to my father Vic Ram Pandy and my mother lyanna Pandy a special thanks to my Latin teacher Mr Danielson whose passion for the language and the wisdom of ancient Rome inspired me to embark on this journey so it just tells us a little bit about what it means to uh our teachers to touch our students on a daily basis and then one of the final acknowledg I'd like to thank everyone who has supported me on this journey whether mentioned here by name or not this book would not be would not have been possible without all of you thank you speaks to his humbleness and a couple excerpts from the book and I am fascin I love Marcus aurelus and not just for Gladiator the movie but I love Marcus aurelus as a former history teacher and his stoic philosophies and I his meditations and all the great things that he has said and how they're applicable today but he set up his book in a really remarkable way so what he does he will quote a philosopher he will analyze it and then he'll say let's explore this quote through an example it's genius very applicable so the quote that I selected that I like from Marcus Aurelius the impediment to action advances action what stands in the way becomes the way I don't know if you ever heard that before but it's it's it's amazing and he follows with this quote by aelius highlights the importance of challenges in one's life and their contribution in growth it states that the individuals should not view any obstacles as barriers or roadblocks but they should consider them as opportunities to grow even further and that OB the obstacles will pave the way toward success here aurelus once uh once reminds us that challenges and difficult test are opportunities for growth then a paragraph or two down let's explore the quote through an example consider a student who is working on a complex academic project here instead of viewing the test as completing the project as daunting and feeling frustration which would hinder the progress the student should view the task as a way of promoting self-growth so throughout the book it's examples like this that he encapsulates he cites he analyzes all those higher order thinking so I just I'm blown away by this and I just can't thank terang enough for his contributions through his studies in computer science artificial intelligence machine learning student Council serving as a volunteer becoming an athlete within our bowling team a championship team and a vital part of that so just thank you so much Tran for all that you've done if Tang's parents would like to come down and take a picture feel free for [Applause] and the book is available on Amazon I I copy and paste the picture all right thank you there Mr suda and thank you to rang family and uh for those of you who made it this is that time we're going to recess for about 10 minutes I realize we're we're much lighter now in the crowd than we were so folks you're free to go home do whatever it is you want to do about 10 minutes we'll reconvene Mr shivas has a short uh brief presentation and then it's just board business so thanks again thank you for coming have a great healthy happy and safe Thanksgiving thank you e e e e e e e e e go ahead and get started Mr have one more presentation okay Mr shivas are you ready good evening everybody Happy Thanksgiving I'm Vinnie shivas the district supervisor special projects and part of my role is to uh involve serving as the anti-bully coordinator for the district tonight I'm here to present the district self assessment report based on our adherence to the anti-bullying Bill of Rights during the periods of July 1 2023 through June 30th 2024 the report evaluates each school on eight core elements with a maximum score of 78 points I'm pleased to share that our school perform very well as we did last year with scores ranging from 72 to 78 the assessment helps us identify areas for improvement and also highlights our strengths going forward we will use the Bill of Right self assessment as a guide for professional development and training initiatives for both students and staff to ensure continued compliance with the anti-bullying Bill of Rights uh brief overview the uh the different elements they have the first element deals with the HIV programs and approaches that we have towards those programs elements two and three they deal with training of our staff and uh on our policies and procedures element four deals with the curriculum instruction on Hib element five deals with the appointment of personnel into various HIV positions around the district and element 6 7 and8 deal with procedures investigation reporting uh of hivs throughout the school year so on the uh on the uh screen behind me you can see how each school did KHS got 78 out of 78 points PRM was 72 Stonybrook 75 Keel 77 and the district average was 75.5 out of a total of 78 points which I think we'd all agree is very very good um and brief comparison to last year last year we at a 74.5 average so we went up one point you can see PRM improved by two points Keel improved by one point and high school also improved by one point while Stony Brook held even so the uh one point at KHS and Keel and the two at PRM made up for that one point in average growth uh from last year to this year do anybody have any questions okay thank you everybody have a great night thanks Mr shivas okay moving on to committee reports we'll begin with Finance facilities and securities Mr Myers yeah excuse me yeah so we did meet um on November 13th um talk about a number of things that are actually on the agenda for approval today but I'll just sort of go through um we talked to uh we heard from a company to come in to give a proposal on changing the audio and in systems for the auditorium here just what was entailed um what we could do with what we could do without uh just kind of heard their vision for the um uh proposal nothing to vote on now just just an initial look just a look um we talked about uh a life vac purchase which is a a choking prevention um the quote was requested um for that we talked about the Cisco Cisco exterior door locks which are also on the agenda um there's an UPG to the lens uh system for plunger like actuators for lockdowns um District Safety and Security we discussed that um we talked a little bit about the ski club what could happen uh in the future there nothing nothing finalized yet but we're just discussing um we heard a positive uh scheduling for the win uh winter Recreation and meeting updates uh heard a bit about the bond refunding um from Mrs Francisco KHS risers which are also on the agenda um we talked about uh the roofing project for Sony Brook and Keel replaced uh damage wood there's only minor minor amounts coming out of that so that was really surprising and happy news for that um discussed the gym floor as Mr mango mentioned and the cell phone survey and that was about it thanks J so was eight how much was the bond refunding we're going to save 850 is that right saved we saved about $900,000 over the remaining life of the bond and um we only 90,000 a year 990,000 a year and our ch orders were under 30,000 so like 15 per roof so it was incredibly small like we those roofs were the roof replacement was excellent so really good news on those two fronts was excellent okay um you're gonna okay so the Personnel meeting met on November 14th um we had a very intense um interview process but we're really happy to say that we have a new headed and assistant baseball coach so we are um at the kolan high school for the boys so we are they sorting things out and trying to get things set for winter and then get be ready to hit the ground running in the spring there are two two people were found to be the co-directors for the spring musical so we're excited about that um we also have found two advisers for the KHS ski club and to advisers for the ability awareness Club um we talked about the lead team teacher job descriptions uh at the K to5 level we also talked about how the um minimum wage has gone up so for some of our positions here in District we needed to raise the wage on that as well um we talked about the cell phone survey and um that was pretty much it it was a great meeting so you want to take Ed now education okay so now I'm going to talk about education and Student Activities um we had a presentation for a potential curriculum um that was discussed I know today in uh citizens advisory we talked about the Lead Teacher K through five job description I'm going to talk about that a little bit more in depth now because it's more applicable to education um so we're really excited to provide a little bit more leadership and um resources and answers immediately to our K5 teachers um and then they'll field any questions or things that those teachers are needing and kind of triage those up to the principales so I think it'll be wonderful those teachers will also be involved in our teacher mentorship program which is really going to be wonderful um we added two advisers for the ski club two advisers for the ability awareness Club um we added a KHS robotics Club I did want to say we are taking you know a deep dive looking at all the clubs that we have at both PRM and the high school right now because I do know um that we have had some students come forward wanting to start new clubs and we're happy to do that but we just want to make sure that we're making use of all the clubs that we currently have and making sure that we kind of remove any that aren't up and running um and two actually were just removed the Web Master and sad um the sad club I know was a big thing when I was younger but I think the kids just aren't into it anymore so we're happy to move with what they want to do um we talked about the cell phone survey draft which I think is a great idea and I would encourage old parents to get involved in um Mrs Thomas spoke about digital citizenship week which I think is phenomenal someone in our citizens Advisory Group brought this forward and um this another reason why we love our citizens advisory we're always getting great ideas and talking with the parents in the community and um Common Sense Media hosts something called digital citizenship so we talked a lot tonight about what it means to be a good citizen within our real life Community with the pillars of character but we don't really stop to think about what it means to be a good citizen in the virtual world in the digital world and what our responsibilities are to be kind to the people around us and you know what we need to do so I think it's just bringing awareness and I'm excited about that Mrs Thomas so thank you very much for bringing that forward um we talked about our esy dates uh we also talked about how our report cards are revamped to better align with the New Jersey standards so parents might have seen that with the um kto five report cards that just came out for marking period one that was it okay thank you policy Jonathan thanks um I just I was sitting looking at my notes and I apologized I thought I had shared the notes and I'm not sure if it actually went so apologies for that thankfully the only thing on that made it out of the policy committee for first reading tonight um sorry I I looked up and I lost my spot um has to do with the coaches and um just amending the current policy that said you have to have at least a substitute certificate to be a coach um which is not required so we're amending that policy to take that out so that's on the agenda for first reading that's the only policy that made it out of committee the committee did meet we did um talk through a whole lot of different things in most of them generated at previous meetings so we did talk about um offering refunds to ad advanced placement students who achieve a high level on an AP test we also discussed the reason that's not out yet as a policy um for the full boards because we were talking about whether that should be for anyone or if that should be somebody who's taking more than one test or more than three tests or more than four test because some students do take five six AP tests um and you know the potential is that we have over 400 AP test seatings this year and almost every year so potentially that could be a large number um of refunds all for a good thing if all the students achieve a four or five um but that would be that would be big so we're still talking about that we're seeking input from board members that's why I mention it now we were also talking about attendance a lot about the attendance um policies that came up at previous board meetings um just aligning and Mr sud is doing a lot of work trying to align the handbooks with the existing policies making sure that all the language and all the timings are the same sometimes they're off by five minutes 10 minutes this way that way just making sure they're all clear um and then that'll come back through the committee and off uh committee also discussed senior launch privilege and extending that to other students and the feeling of the committee was it's a senior launch privilege um and there are some other reasons associated with that along the lines that they have they have driving privileges um and otherwise it becomes a nightmare to track students coming in and out um I think those are the important things um and we looked at a lot of the Hib stuff so that goes along with the presentation we just saw that um you know every month we we see these reports um and I've Echo what Kelly just shared about digital citizenship um that a lot of Hib although it's the same nomenclature you know it exists online um and it's a new world out there and um yeah that's all I'm going to say thanks for listening thanks Jonathan um delegates school boards Association anything Mike no I don't have anything okay uh Morris County anything from Morris County School boards their next meeting is the fourth but um there's just a lot on the artificial intell all across the board the one thing that I would mention um with regard to the the overall it's not just moris County but they need an alternate for the Morris County for the njsba um board of directors there's an unexpired term so anyone would be eligible to apply for that position it's runs from January 25 to May 2025 in the absence of the delegate you would just sort of fulfill those duties um if anyone is looking to grow their uh in their of r s or has some free time come January Mr petracelli just kind of thinking who has a lot of experience motion but if you if you want um if you haven't received those emails I have those I can forward them to you if you're interested so thank you Jen would love that I'm sure I would draw the motion um any legislation anything um I just had two two things one uh with the outcome of the election I'm not sure if there's going to be a federal department of education um although I did just see on the ticker that a nomin a name has been floated for nomination at the federal level um this is just a reminder for uh New Jersey parents of high school seniors that one of the graduation requirements is now completing the FAFSA which I don't think is available yet December 1st okay so um whether or not the young person is intending to go on for further educ it is a state law that you have to complete the FAFSA so for each student oh yeah yeah great okay so you have to do before by what's what it's a graduation requir before graduation yeah so I guess before graduation or before you get the list assign or okay yeah Morse County Educational Services anything January is the next meeting that I can attend okay um community relations Le on you guys didn't meet right no we did not meet for community relations um we're talking within our committee um just different ideas on revamping it and making it more effective and productive we do have a liaison meeting um tomorrow tomorrow afterno all right um K cares anything Carl so there wasn't me last month but I wasn't able to attend so I'll try to catch him next one yeah okay and uh we really still nowhere with KF so all right petitions and hearings of citizens for agenda items if anybody has anything they'd like to bring up uh regarding agenda items you may come up at this time okay anything online no okay all right we have agenda items a through D I'd like a motion for roll call block vote on agenda items a through D motion for Block vote second okay discussion on agenda items a through D did you do we want to amend uh yeah the one I don't know I don't remember what item it is do you remember so I would like to um for item number 13 under it's uh sorry it's Personnel so section B13 is the um co-curricular list which is attachment D um I would like to postpone the approval of the Robotics stien and refer that back to the education committee so can I have a motion to postpone the approval of the robotic St motion to postpone second okay any uh any other discussion on agenda item on that any discussion on that postpone okay all right so can I have a vote on the postponement Mr Eiser Mr Eiser yes Mrs Leonard Mr Myers yes Mrs Pella Mrs Portman Mr Petrelli yes Mrs Donaldson yes okay any other discussion items for the block vote on agenda items a through D yeah I I just have one thing Jean I want to say publicly just so everybody knows knows that uh I'm not going to be able to vote for Dave's contract so just so you know I don't know if anybody very many people in this room remember this except for me uh but we went through something similar about five years ago about extending the superintendent's contract early um we had a lot of discussion about it and I committed to a lot of people both publicly and privately that I would not vote to extend the superintendent's contract early so you know in the in the spirit of you know following through on what you say you're going to do I I'm I'm not going to be able to vote for for that so I just want everybody to kind of know that that's my rationale and what number is that Mike that's B4 B4 okay any other discussion items anyone okay all right see no more discussion can you pull the board please sure um Mr Isa manger yes Mrs Leonard Mr Myers yes Mrs Pella yes Mrs Portman yes Mr Petrelli yes to all no to be for Mrs Donaldson yes did you get Mr Myers you okay yes Tom okay fast forward to okay so now we have Committee of the whole no business for committee of the whole any unfinished business for anyone no nope uh new business does anybody have any new business nope nope okay correspondents do we have any correspondents any emails Jay no any correspondence okay all right we are to petitions and hearings for non-agenda items does anybody have anything for the board okay nope all right board member comments um Mr eer just want to say it's awesome seeing a packed house with all the wonderful kids uh and the young people all that they do um I just want to also wish good luck to the PRM robotics club that they have three teams going out to Mount Olive at 8 o'clock in the morning on Saturday so wish them well and uh happy holidays to everybody and enjoy the meals with friends and family Kelly um I just want to say that I know that when we invite the students to come and do the accolades it really makes our night a lot longer but they're so my favorite like I just love them I loved seeing the itty Bitties from Keel come tonight and be celebrated I I loved hearing about the Buddy bench um I think that it's so important to celebrate kindness I know that we're here for academics and sports and Performing Arts and um but the thread that weaves all those things together is kindness and it's just so important to be celebrated so I love that we do the pillars of character and and the kindness Awards um and the student council I think it's phenomenal um there is so much going on at the schools right now it's really hard to pick out any one thing but um as salani presented earlier there's just amazing things happening at each and every school and I'm just so proud you you know to be part of it um and it was just a really great meeting tonight so thank you to everybody Jen um always follow Kelly and Echo what she says um but I I just wna um highlight I think you know we heard about so many um beautiful moments of character and kindness and generosity and I just think it's a great reflection of the community we live in um the families that live here and the staff that comes and works here and um I'm very appreciative of it and uh I don't think it goes unnoticed but it's great to celebrate thanks Chen Dana I wanted to say thank you to the staff and the teachers who were able to um make the Veterans Day events in the schools possible I think that's really beautiful so thank you and and my most sincere gratitude to everyone who served so including to Mrs Donaldson who served in the Coast Guard um and just just to wish everybody a happy and blessed Thanksgiving with their families that's all thank you thanks Dan Carl um yeah just I also will Echo everyone else uh it's great to see all the recognition um I also like the Buddy bunch I thought that was pretty cool new addition it was exciting to drive up and pick up my kids the other day and see that in the in the parking lot um and also just Happy Thanksgiving that's it Mike um so I I'll just add thanks to uh all the presenters tonight so Mrs Ola Mrs utel Mr manga Mrs usiis Mr suda and you know all the administrators and everybody who support the kids and make reaching all those great achievements so thank you all for for doing that and I'll say Happy Thanksgiving as well Dave do you want to say anything yeah you know I Echo what everybody else says but it because it's this time of year um and another big ticket item I'll come at a character just happened with me personally at the table here um I'm grateful in more than one way that the good Lord gave me this 52 years in change my parents my grandparents my wife and my daughter and I believe life is about timing and um to breathe the good air every day above ground's a good day and a positive day we're fortunate to be where we are this is a great board I feel lucky to be here to be with this group of admin team here Mr suin who represents our association in our community um I'm enjoying it in my 50s I can't say that in my 40s but in my 50s I'm enjoying it so thank you to everybody and I hope everyone has a fantastic healthy and happy Thanksgiving God bless um I'm I would like to thank Kesha for their um donations to the clubs for our elementary schools I think that's really amazing and I know I've talked about this but I'm really passionate about getting our kids off of digital devices and getting them doing things and this is kind of another step in that direction so I really appreciate the support of Kesha and all our hsas to offset the costs to the district for some great um initiatives that we're doing for our kids and kind of an extracurricular fun way um so I appreciate that and it doesn't work if the staff can't do it and of course they're amazing so thank you to the staff and the admins that oversee it and you guys bring your ideas to the board and we work really collaboratively and I it's it is as Mr mango said it's kind of fun so they're long meetings that we have but there's a lot of thinking and collaboration and I I really do enjoy them so I really appreciate all the out- of the-box thinking and a lot that's going on behind the scenes that's really because of our staff and because of the fellow board me Members so I'm really thankful for that and for the opportunity to kind of support you guys as your president and I really am honored to be in that role and um yeah have a great holiday with your family and uh we'll see you after Thanksgiving for one more meeting before the holidays motion to adjourn second okay me over thank you oh all in favor