Now 7:03 notice of tonight's meeting has been provided in accordance with the opening methods of notice the recording of the agenda on the school website. Mr.
Mr. Brown here sorry Mr. Mr. Vice President Thompson >> here. >> President >> here reflect that this moment did contact me
earlier. expected to arrive. >> And our student rep is not here. Mia is here, but Ara is not. A is at um the Yale admitted students day. She's currently deciding where to go. She was accepted to both Yale and Harvard. So,
she has to currently make a decision between the two. So, she's at the Yale admitted student. We're very excited. Clearly, very excited for her. That brings us We have no publications tonight. So that brings us to item. Comment on agenda item.
We do have one member attendance. If you wish to speak, please step up to the podium. Provide your name and address. >> Okay, seeing none, we'll move on to item 1.5, board member comments. Any comments from board members on agenda related?
We will move on to item 2.1, approval of consent agenda items. I have a motion second. Can we have a roll call, please? >> Yes. >> Mr. Brown. >> Yes. >> Dr. Mester. >> Yes. >> Mr. Park.
>> Yes. >> M. Rabana. >> Yes. >> Mr. Yes. >> Mr. Siguel, >> yes. >> Vice President Thompson. >> Yes. >> President Lee. >> Yes. >> Please let the record. Miss Moment has
arrived. Um that brings us to item 4.1. Dr. Caros. um report today. Uh first I'm going to start with the annual HIP grades. This is the harassment, intimidation, bullying um grades that we report annually. Um, if you recall back in
October, we submitted these uh a self assessment to the state and basically the state uh reviews a self assessment um and then analyzes that with some of our with our SSDs with our student uh data and uh information system um to make sure that you know everything
checks out and then they populate these grades for us. Um so these grades are posted on our district website. Um and uh something that we uh we kind of look at and review throughout the year. Um so
happy to report in terms of HIB and uh you know uh the the work that we've been doing in the schools uh in terms of programs and initiatives um that is impacting our grade and we are seeing an increase in our grade. Um the grade uh our grade
this year was for the district was a 71. Um uh this is out of um the total grade you can receive is a 76. So we're at 91%. Um and then compared to last year, last year we were at 79.4%.
Um and these grades are actually for the 24 25 school year. So we're talking about last school year's grades. Um the biggest change in the scoring was in our HIB procedures and investigations. Um over the 242 school year, we did a lot
of work in cleaning up our procedures um and making sure consistency across the schools um and um keeping a better track of our our reporting. Um as well as uh we've seen an increase in especially the
middle school in the programs and initiatives around hib and uh the different the different um hip related incidents. We've been focusing on the types of incidents and then providing uh programming and initiatives to support those areas.
Um so we these will be posted on our district website um with a cover sheet that explains how the HID uh grades are scored and you know just the whole process of it. Okay. And then in October uh we'll once again go and report the self- assessment grades and then in
April we'll get these reports. So all right um a few other items to highlight that I quickly wanted to highlight. Um, first, um, I wanted to congratulate our student reps, and I'm sure Mia maybe will speak a little bit more about this
in her report, but, um, our two student reps, uh, put together a women's expo for the first time. It was the first women's expo we've had at Lun High School. Um, and they did it. The two of them really took it on and did a great job. It was a great morning. Um, I had
the honor of speaking in front of the the women that were there. Um, I did a keynote, 10-minute keynote. Um, and it was it was just an amazing opportunity. Um, and just wanted to congrat I'm congratulating you, not talking about the event, so I'll let you talk about
the event while while I congratulate you. So, they they did a great job putting it together. Very well. Well done. Uh, we over spring break had our trips to Greece and Germany that all arrived safely back to the US. Um, Germany a little delayed, but they came
back. Um, we had a great time both trips. Um, you know, this is this was my second trip abroad with our students. Um, and even before my experience, but I've always heard from the principles that attend and the staff that attend that our students receive so many
compliments from tour guides, from bus drivers, from uh director, from tour directors, even from local people that meet and interact with our students and how well behaved, how respectful, and how much they just appreciate seeing and being part of other cultures. Um, so,
you know, it was great to see them, especially, you know, taking them to Greece and being part of that was very special for me. I got to see them, you know, really dive into my culture and, you know, use words that I, you know, I speak Greek and seeing them speak Greek was just a very nice highlight for me.
Um, last week we had our LMS musical for the first time. We've had a musical at the middle school, which was really exciting. It was absolutely phenomenal. I don't know if anybody here went, but it was they did such a great job. It was so nice. Um, and you know, we had we had a little bit of a gap in terms of
musicals because we have elementary musicals, but then we have the high school. Um, so this is a great way to help feed into that high school program and help build on uh the skills that our our students have. Um, I do want to thank the LMS home and school association. Um, they provided because
it was it was unbudgeted and it was something that they wanted to support. So we we kind of gave them that opportunity but um they provided the stipen they donated the stipen for the external music uh teacher. So this was
uh we hired someone externally to help direct the musical part of the musical. Um we had our staff who have experience running plays but not necessarily uh the music piece. Um and home and school donated the stipen for that person. Um
so we appreciate that because we wouldn't have I mean we that having that person on board really helped bring the musical along. And then some upcoming events we have uh Friday is pocketbook bingo at the high school big
the high school home and school and then Saturday is the high school is the uh elementary school the ACS gala. So I will be mcing the bingo uh pocketbook bingo on Friday and masquerading at the ACS gala on Saturday. It'll be a nice
nice weekend for the for my household, for the Caramanas household. Um, and finally, uh, I did want to announce that today we heard that we received from the, uh, national, um, American Music Foundation,
we have received a national recognition, um, and we are considered one of the best communities for music education. So, we received that award today. um out of a thousand schools nationwide um rece a th a th a thousand schools nationwide received this award 54 are from New
Jersey so 54 districts out of 600 were received this award and we were one of six in Bergen County so only six districts in Bergen County and we were one of them so it was really exciting you know the work that we do I I constantly say how uh honored and proud I am to work in a district that values
the arts as much as we do um you see districts cutting left and right in first thing they cut are programs like the arts and I really appreciate that uh Leonia is a district that you know continues to push that forward and allows those opportunities for our kids. And that is my update for this meeting.
>> Some great news. Thank you very much. >> That brings us to item 4.2. Dr. Nissen off. >> Uh just a few just a few things to report this evening. Uh first, we still awaiting uh confirmation of approval of
our budget from the county. There uh there's a brand new school uh county school business administrator and um there's a number of districts that we're we're with a number of districts that are still waiting for that approval. So, I don't anticipate any issues, but it is
getting down to the wire for for us in terms of advertising, but we're all ready to advertise for our meeting on the 5th where we'll approve uh have our budget hearing and ultimately approve the the budget. I do want to uh express
my apologies for a few flawed slides in the presentation. More than a more than uh more than one, a couple of flawed slides in that presentation. Um but I I want to reiterate that the most important things which was the uh impact on taxes that uh was said that's
correct. So um and that was 5.8% on the general fund and 5.6% on the overall tax levy uh are the are the correct figures. Uh there yes we had backwards the uh
interest and the principal payments on on on one slide as well. Um so I yeah my apologies for that. Um since last meeting I had the opportunity uh with Dr. Carammanis to tour all three schools
and uh you know so I've kind of walked through just about every space in the district. uh it's really helped me to get a good understanding of of the facilities, some of the needs, got to meet more, you know, many more staff as well. Working on several initiatives, uh
including, you know, looking at workflows and efficiency in the business office and we're at, believe it or not, we're working on closing out uh the school year, beginning that process now. And lastly, I've also had the opportunity to meet a number of
stakeholders in the community. I've met formally with the burough administrator. I've met with the construction code official, the fire code official as well. Uh as as well as a few others. So, it's been busy uh having fun and uh
enjoying the process. That's my report. >> Thank you very much. I will say uh one thing that we both forgot to mention um the one of the items on the uh consent agenda was related to the termination of a contract
for the science wing. Um you know the there was if you Google the contractor you'll you'll see why we had to terminate that contract. Um we are working as hard as we can and Dr. is working as hard as he can
specifically to get us get us a new contractor and get us back on track as soon as possible. Um I've I've asked for a date to open the science wing and it's TBD. Um we we're going to figure out a firm date so we can give a realistic
expectation to families. Um but we are working on it and I just wanted to make sure that the board knew that it was not in our bingo card this year but here we are. >> If I could just you know, add to that, thank you for reminding me about that because we're uh the impact for the
board is this. Uh beginning tomorrow, we're going to start the process of going out to bid. We'll be advertising by the end of the week. Um depending on the timelines, we're going to want to approve that bid as soon as possible. If it lines up nicely with our meetings coming up in
May, that would be great. If it doesn't line up nicely and it pushes things back a week or two weeks, um we may uh consult with um President Lee and perhaps schedule a special meeting just
for the purposes of awarding the bid so we can keep the project uh on on track as soon as possible. And we would just need a quorum to that meeting. >> Yeah, I I would fully support that. Um we've been waiting a long time for those labs to be repaired. It is absolutely
unfortunate the situation that's come up because that that is absolutely nothing that the school district could have ever any kind of control over. Um and and just for the board's understanding and for the public that might be listening there there was without getting into detail um an issue
came up with the contractor themselves um that required us to separate from uh from any future work with them. So I I would absolutely support it and we need to get those labs fixed and back into shape and operating. So yeah, we were
kind of riding on a high for a little bit knowing that the project was going to be starting. So this is this is a a big blow and tough setback. So I support it and would ask the board members if they're able if we need it um to please try to make room in your schedule if we have to have a special meeting to
authorize a contract. And I just want to clarify publicly just just for the record that the reason we're recommending terminating this contract is really for our own convenience for reasons that we believe
will lead to um the proper completion of the project. That's the reason I can support that. Okay. Thank you. So, that brings us to our student representative, Mia.
>> Um, to start, there's NJSLA testing coming up April 28th, 29th, and 30th. And boys track and field just broke the school record for the 4x 200. And today the electronic device committee comprised of students, staff, and parents at the high school met for the
first time today to talk about next year's phone policy. And as well for the women's expo, we had over 60 students in attendance with women um in different fields, a lot of them being moms for students at the school in finance, cyber security, and healthcare, all giving
advice. And we ended up having a lot of girls reach out about exterships and getting contact info. So I would say it was a success. And with Dr. Karamano's help, it went great. Thank you very much. Um, for the the discussion for the electronic device committee, can you give maybe a little
bit of a insight into how those discussions went? You don't have to you don't have to give up any secrets. Well, we went through like the policy book that was distributed and then we just went through um like perspectives
of the teachers and then the parents and what it really means from banning the schools bellto bell and like what that means for school or if it's like if it would be full day or if it would be like class time only. >> I mean obviously your feedback's going
to be absolutely important you know in shaping the policy. So we >> and that's kind of you know where the state has left it off is the state is deciding now if it's going to be full day um or bell like period by period. Um
so the the state and which is why we haven't made much traction as a board because you know we're still waiting on that state guidance to determine if it will be you know to clarify their original legislation language. So we'll see. I'm glad the committee met though.
It's good good progress. Okay, thank you. Um, so that brings us to item five point. Um, item five, our committee reports. First committee is education. Miss Thompson, >> our committee had uh a really productive meeting last week where we talked about
a number of things that um our school administrators are making um great headway on. Um we spoke about next year's trips, which I think are on the uh agenda for approval. uh they're very exciting and uh we also spoke about uh the
measures that have been identified for uh selecting uh into future gifted and talented programming. So that's very exciting progress uh that uh the district has made with the the committees that they formed. Uh we
discussed a new streamlined HIB format uh which will hopefully um you know highlight the the really um important information in the HIPS versus um just having pages and pages of narrative.
And then um we you know we we often speak here about um we often get questions about the tremendous costs of sending um some of our special education students out of district. So, we we spoke about
potentially um innovative ways that that more students can stay in our district, which would be um wonderful for those students and their families and also, you know, very helpful financially for us since that's a a tremendous cost for the district.
>> Thank you very much. >> Uh that brings us to finance and planning, Miss Troy. Yeah, sure. Uh, we haven't met since last board meeting. Um, likely to have a meeting prior to the final budget hearing on May um May
5th, May 6th. >> Okay. Thank you. And that brings us to 5.3 policies, which is myself. Um, we, as Dr. Carmanos mentioned earlier, um, we did meet on March 30th. It was a relatively short meeting um because we
have no um policy updates that have come out from Straw Sesmme which is our provider um for updates um and manager of our policies. We did have a brief discussion on some that may be coming down the pike in terms of hygiene management which I think is chapter 7420
um sick leave which is chapter 4432. And then we did discuss briefly um the lack or well the lack of any any guidance from the state um in terms of the cell phone policies. Um we are eagerly waiting those so that we can get into a deep dive and discussion on our end as
the committees um both on both on the staff level and student level um meet and um you know prepare their guidance for us too. Um so we are we're ready we're waiting. So, and that brings us to board governance. Mr. S.
>> So, we didn't meet actually in person. However, we were able to touch base offline on various district requirements, annual requirements. We aligned as a committee on the approach, next steps, and then those next steps and action steps were then relayed to
the rest of the board on Monday. So, we're looking forward to having some updates at our next live meeting. Thank you very much. Okay, that actually with all the consent agenda items that brings us down to item nine, new business. We have 9.1
um HIV investigations and decisions. Can I have a motion and a second? Motion, Mr. Sagel and a second. >> Mr. Zepkco, uh can we have roll call for that, please? >> Miss Choy, >> yes. >> Mr. Growl,
>> yes. >> Dr. Meester, >> yes. >> Miss Melman, >> yes. >> Mr. Park, >> yes. >> Miss Robbana, >> yes. Mr. Zepka, >> yes. >> Mr. Sagal, >> yes. >> Vice President Thompson. President Lee,
>> yes. >> Okay. Thank you. That brings us to our second public comment section. Um, anyone from the on non-aggenda items. Anyone from the public wishing to speak, please provide your name and address. You'll have two minutes to speak. >> Okay.
>> Okay. Okay, seeing no one from the public, um we'll move on to the next agenda item, which is board comment on non-aggenda items. Any board members, any comments? Okay, quiet group today. Um seeing no
board member comments, that brings us to item 12, executive session. Huh? Okay. Okay. Um so that brings us to item 12, exe executive session. Um we do expect to be in executive session for an
extended period for um an hour or so. Um so for those people watching online um and for our student representative here tonight um we do appreciate you being here but we do need to go into executive after which time we will come back um take a vote on personnel and then
adjournment. Um so again about an hour. Can I have a motion to go into executive session please? >> Motion. >> Dr. Mester in a second. >> Second. >> Um Mr. Park. All in favor? Any opposed or abstensions? Okay, we are in a
>> Okay. 7:26 or 10:26. We're we're back in in and open. Um, can I have a motion on personnel? >> Motion. Dr. Mester. Second. >> Second. >> Miss Melman, can I have a roll call or roll call, please? Yes,
>> Mr. Growl. >> Yes, >> Dr. Mester. >> Yes, >> Miss Bellman. >> Yes, >> Mr. Park. >> Yes, >> Miss Rabana. >> Yes, >> Mr. Zepka. >> Yes, >> Mr. Sagal. >> Yes, >> Vice President Thompson. >> Yes, >> President Lee.
>> Yes. Motion pass. Thank um can I have a motion for adjournment? >> Mr. Seagel and a second Miss Thompson. All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed or abstain? Okay. Okay, we are