##VIDEO ID:v_AGhRTitTo## all right roll call Mr Abate here Mr andrinopoulos absent Mr guso here miss pasamano here Mr pasamano Mr patronio here Dr sardino here miss Stella here and Mr valana here you have form sir thank you sir adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by the following means annual notice was sent to um the the Record newspaper Township Clerk and posted in the lobby of the town hall and board office setting forthcoming scheduled work meetings and public meetings of the board yes I I need a motion for the approval of the minutes from December 19th move it second second motion Mr pasano second Miss Stella roll call Mr Abate four Mr andonopoulos is absent Mr guso for Miss pasamano for Mr pasamano Mr petronio for Dr Scardino for Miss Stella for and Mr valana motion carries uh second we for meeting one of January 2nd I need a motion to approve the minutes move it second R call mrat for Mr andonopoulos is absent Mr guso Mr gusa here yes uh uh four okay uh Miss pasamano for Mr pasamano for Mr petronzio for Dr Scardino for Miss Stella for and Mr valano for motion carries thank you at this time we'd like to ask Drew banro our student representative for his report it's always nice to have you drew good evening to all and thank you for joining us here tonight since our last meeting the high school held a festive fund day on Monday December 23rd where all grade levels were treated to Hot Chocolate the student government Association Mrs AI Miss ringan and the PE and music teachers provided students with a festive sendoff in to the holiday break LHS held its annual instant decision day on January 17th providing seniors with the opportunity to meet admission counselors from various instate colleges complete their applications and receive a decision on the spot colleges in attendance included rapo College William Patterson University cenen Hall University Felician University Caldwell University and Fairland Fairley Dickinson University all schools in the district celebrated no name calling week during the week of January 20th where students and staff support the prevention of name calling or bullying in any form towards each other at the high school students were asked to participate in the various activities each day of the week including posting a quote by Dr Martin Luther King Jr on social media wearing a team jersey to school wearing tie-dye or peace signs wearing liner spirit wear and wearing a flannel additionally students were encouraged to commit acts of kindness throughout the day in order to promote a safe School environment this year's Linhurst High School Musical lame mels was announced over the summer on July 12th auditions were held in the choir room on Monday November 18th beginning after school and callbacks were held 2 days later on Wednesday November 20th a meeting took place for all cast members on November 21st with the first rehearsal being held shortly after the dates of this year's show are February 13th 14th and 15th and this year's cast is hopeful to take on the challenge of this notoriously difficult production and make it into the best production lur ever put on best of luck to them this concludes my report thank you you so much Drew and yeah that's a heavy LIF at play but I we look forward to it thanks so much for that um Mr demov the um the state monitor's report please I have reviewed the financial reports for the month ending December 2024 and support tonight's resolution that certifies that there are sufficient funds available based on the December financials to meet the district's Financial Obligations for the remainder of the 2024 2025 school year the administration continues to prepare the district's 2025 2026 preliminary budget which the board must adopt and and file in the county office by March 19th 2025 I have also reviewed and discussed the resolutions on tonight's agenda with Mr dorso and support his recommendations to the board that they approve all the resolutions on tonight's agenda that concludes my report for this evening thank you so much uh now for the board president report I don't really have a report I just want there's a couple things I wasn't able to do at the last meeting uh the one is uh to um in a very humble way uh thank the rest of the uh the board for allowing me to sit in this position I'm I'm happy to not only uh serve the community but but to be a participant with all of you and of course with uh my right hand uh Mr pasamano and um second I just want to just let everyone know one of the active things I'd like to do is is is create some direct uh things that I think the board should be working on of course staying within the scope of what we're Bound by both ethically and with the working relationship we have with the superintendent Joe and and James and the rest of his team so part of the things we're looking to do is continue to prioritize transparency and communication with the hope of focusing on academic Excellence uh maintain fiscal responsibility which we're doing and we're and some of the new Innovative things uh just for the for the community to know one of the things I'm seeing from from uh Mr dorso and his team are and the board is seeing uh coming into the this new year this the the annual year uh is innovation and entrepreneurial uh really uh mindset which we're very appreciative and of course we want to always support our our teachers and staff so again thank you all for allowing me to sit in this position um hopefully I I do the honor of what the the office holds and I I look forward to working with all of you and now for the superintendent report thank you Dr Scardino welcome everyone um as Dr Scardino said um as we look to finish this school year um the board and I along obviously with um Mr Heyman Mr demov and Dr Morel our assistant superintendent um we're in the process now of developing our budget our budget runs um does not run like a fiscal year like a typical fiscal year right T typically fiscal year starts January 1 our budget runs um our budget runs from July to June um for obvious reasons so um we're in the process now of of putting together our budget um which ultimately gets submitted um to the county and the state um in March um but like Dr Scardino said we are um developing several innovative programs for next year to not only save the district money but to bring Revenue back to our district so um over the the next two months February and March the board and I will be presenting many of those topics to you um and then ultimately there'll be a culmination when we present the entire budget um to the public and so um we look forward uh to that process and presenting all the Innovation that we have prepared for the following uh school year um moving along um I'm required to report out twice a year school safety data so if you look on page six um there's a chart there um that reports the data from September to December um and then in June I'll report the data from January um to June so um you could look at the data there one of the things I wanted to point out was that the last column of that that chart is trainings and programs were're required um to train obviously our students on our staff and so um our guidance counselors and principles report back to us the programs um that they do in the schools and we report those to the state and that's that's tallied in that column there um by by the next meeting in February I also uh plan to have the district calendar ready for the following school year um I had hoped to have it for tonight but there were some some last minute changes we're trying um to obviously get in our uh required number of school days but you know adhere to you know breaks and holidays and and and such so um that will be on approval for the uh February meeting and um we also had had hope to honor some of our student athletes tonight but due to some commitments and some games tomorrow and practices and then also um the the basketball team has a state game the week of February we want to honor our volleyball players who just won the um their state section um for the first time but a lot of the volleyball players play basketball um it's so um they they have a game tomorrow so they had a practice tonight and then um in February that's the week of the state playoffs so um we plan to honor um a basketball player who um hit a th000 points and then also the state uh girls volleyball uh Team um who won so we're going to do that um at the March meeting um and that's all I have for this evening thank you so much thank you Mr cor so now we're looking at some agenda uh public to be heard on agenda agenda items only since there's no one signed up we're going to move to the board discussion formal business agenda first up uh uh Mr petronzio and finance pursuant to the recommendation of the superintendent of schools the committee on finance recommends the following resolutions be moved forward for a roll call vote I make a motion to move forward Finance resolutions 1 through 10 to be adopted roll call Mr anything in the bill list I name mrop is Mr guso miss pasamano four Mr pasamano Mr petronzio four Dr Scardino four Miss Stella four and Mr valano motion carries next uh Miss Anna pasamano on education and curriculum pursuant to the recommendation of the superintendent of schools the committee on education and curriculum recommends the following resolutions be moved forward to for a roll call vote I make a motion to move forward education and curriculum resolutions one through three to be adopted second roll call Mr Mr Bate for Mr andrinopoulos is absent Mr guto for Miss pasamano for Mr pasamano Mr petronzio four Dr Scardino four Miss Stella for and Mr valano for motion carries thank you policy and rules and regulations Mella pursuant to the recommendation of the superintendent schools the committee of policies and rules of regulation recommends the following resolutions be moved forward for a roll call vote I make a motion to move forward policies and rules and regulations resolutions one through three to be adopted second roll call Mr abat Mr guso four miss pasamano four Mr pasamano M Mr petronio for Dr Scardino for Miss Stella for and Mr Rano for motion car safety security and health chairman Anthony guso pursu to the recommendation of the superintend of schools the committee on safety security and health recommends the following resolution be moved forward to a roll call vote I make a motion to move forward safy security and health resolution second roll call Mr for Mr guso four miss pasamano four Mr pasamano Mr petronio four Dr Scardino four Miss Stella four and Mr Bano four carries personel okay for for uh all the folks here visiting with us the Personnel packets are up here if you didn't get one and uh I'd like to ask uh Mr velano sure pursuant to the recommendations of the superintendent of schools the committee on Personnel recommends the following resolutions be moved forward for a roll call I make a motion to move forward Personnel resolutions a through M to be adopted second roll call Mr for Mr guso M miss pasamano four Mr pasamano Mr petronzio four Dr Scardino four Miss Stella four and Mr valano four does anybody have new business to discuss no then we're going to move to the public uh non-agenda items I didn't have anybody but I believe somebody would like to speak please the school district kind of dropped the on I don't know if it's transparency or you know speaking to other parents so Title One um remedial is not being given to the children of Washington Elementary School um it presents apparently a problem with teachers feeling that you know they need the program to be able to diversi the children's reading levels you have children in a classroom that is reading at maybe a third grade level and then you have other children that are struggling with sounds you know of certain letters and going through the motions of being able to read so when I sat down with my child's uh teacher she seemed very overwhelmed and that's when it was presented to me that we don't have remedial program in Washington now I was I could find out the information from Mr is because of the fact that the Washington does not fall into the percentage of free or reduced launch now as a taxpayer I find that a little ridiculous because if we're above a bracket then shouldn't the board now fill in with a budget of making sure that each school and each teacher has all of the support and all of the you know programs in such in every single SCH another thing that I feel is um in transparency I feel that a lot of parents didn't even know you know they weren't aware that signing your kid up for free or reduced lunch now this is kindergarten through second grade a lot of parents feel like oh I don't really want my child to eat school lunch so they don't fill out the form you know or you know for any reason but I'm sure if parents were more aware that their children would have more opportunities of state state fing yeah State funding State funding that they would have actually been more forthcoming into filling out that form and maybe in that aspect the the percentage would have been a little bit higher for Washington School to fall into that bracket you know I I was told that each elementary school was going to have the same type of curriculum throughout the district so that no parent would feel that another school is better equipped or better you know in any way of you know providing child's education am I wrong no well I mean as you stated I mean I answered a lot of the questions that you you know you presented in in the email that I sent you but um unfortunately you know we're we're bound to the state funding and the money that we do receive and so certainly um the buildings that receive that money do get Services above and beyond and that's the purpose of that funding so so hold on let me just finish so um you know I don't I don't disagree but you know there's a reason why the state fund schools you know at this time you know due to due to funding and and our budget we don't offer the the supplemental support to the other buildings but that's been um the case in Prior years too um when buildings did not receive that title one funding but I must say um I do disagree that um our building principles have done a tremendous job the last couple years um promoting and asking parents to fill out those lunch forms in fact it's part of their back to school presentation um each year and um I'm happy to report that in this year's submission of the budget I actually um informed um the board actually in work session our free and reduced numbers went up over a hundred students in this current year and it's because of the efforts of the principles and the secretaries and the teachers because we're pushing that message I think it's been like you said a long-standing practice that um for whatever reason families in the district did not feel comfortable filling out those forms but our fundings depended on those forms and we've done a really strong push the last several years to get people to fill out those applications and I will say buildings that did not Ed to qualify for that those funds are now qualifying for those funds so we are doing everything we can to promote that and get those out to the families person can go in front of you and say fill out this form but unless you give the information on why now the yes the principal did do so the form am only funding that is going to present for our children you know what I'm saying as a Bo to figure out where to cut what to do to make that every school has the same cular you know and that's a huge L that's a huge L For Teacher last year Washington school did fall into that criteria they didal to you is how do you stop parents from now to have their child into a SCH outside of the district that they are in because that kids no I mean thank you for your comment I think I answered your question you know several times but at this point um I I appreciate your comment I I answered your question unfortunately no matter what we do there's always going to be certain buildings that we get Title One funding I will never be able to stop that it just it's the nature of how the school funding formula works so um there will always be schools in our district that get more funds if they do not qualify that will be I could never change that unless every building qualifies and even buildings that qualify the funding is not equal to each building depending on the number of students how many students are free and reduced so this the buildings in our district that get Title One funds will always have programs that the other buildings do not and that's really the purpose of those funds and so um I will never be able to to correct that um we could certainly work as a district to make sure all our students have what they need but we always do that um a lot of the interventions our teachers are trained to give as well so um you we could certainly have further conversation outside of public comment but um for this point I I think I I answered your question I have a question so you're saying that it goes by per school are there any students right now who are supposed to be in a school who doesn't have a medial put into a school that does have remedial like do you have that right now that we don't we don't transtions for any children who need a remedial that are not in the school in which they District was no we don't we don't transfer students based on that our our teachers are trained to give supplemental supports to our students we offer a variety of different programs um in the classroom um so at this time no we do not transfer a student to another building if they receive Title One Title One Fund so in other words if uh this person's in Washington and the other Kos are either Columbus or Franklin right I think there the two so none of they're in their District that they're supposed to be in they're not like where they really live in Washington there's I mean there's always students that because if you're doing it for one you have to do for all well yes and no because um and Dr ml wants to make the statement as well but um there's always students that could live across the street from Columbus school but don't go to Columbus school because it's not just necessarily based on where you live it's based on class size when you come in right I could have a second grader or first grader move across the street from Columbus but if those classrooms have 26 students in them but Franklin has 19 I can send that student to the other building if it makes sense so and then they would get the remedial or something just because those those services and that funding again unfortunately is there is there any way that I know because you say it's a free lunch or whatever but isn't there any way that you can accom every school to have remedial because those kids need it I mean I don't think the cost would be so much because it's putting another why would why would the other school get it e e e e e no thank you that was that was wait a minute but wait a minute how many schools do we have now have remedial in it for like what she's talking about right now Washington doesn't no I'm not talking I'm talking about remedial programs because lunch for education to me it's still remedial because we used to have remedial in every school so why doesn't Washington have it but yet do all the schools have remedial or only Washington doesn't have it no right now remedial as Dr Morell said each building with their Title One funds can select and and and look to see how they want to spend those funds so I'd have to look to see which building is um okay so which each I'm yeah like we have intervent like there's some buildings that are using inter that are using their money to to give uh intervention so we have interventionist coming into the building so um I have to look see I understand about title one because Title One also goes to the to Catholic schools too so right now say right now I'm going to I want to know remedial right now need help right now the buildings that use Title One funds for interventionists have interventionists the buildings that are not receiving Title One funds do not have interventionists at this time certainly as a district yeah would we like to put interventionists in every building absolutely but right now we're not in a position to put interventionists in every single building do you have remedial in the Middle School do you have remedial in high school do you have remedial in Franklin School do you have remedial in Columbus school do you have remedial in Roosevelt School but do they do remedial yeah okay so so then it's Roosevelt half a day and Washington zero every other school a high school zero well it's a little different okay so but it's just really Washington that the kids are not getting extra help in remedial even though we have two self-contained classes and other things in that school you're still not providing remedial for kids who fall into that little Gap can I ask a clarifying question what I think what I heard uh superintendent D Corso say that our teachers are prepared to teach to every level of new need that our Stu students may have but correct but in certain situations we offer something additional for Title One programs so it's not that they're not prepared it's just there may be something additional added correct as the just to add I think one thing to mention as well and Jen I don't know in particular like what your child's academic needs are but it's a like a state mandate and I know you are taking on the mission of really making sure Lindhurst is presenting it in the schools the right way but mtss is a way that every teacher by law is required to meet the children needs so I could tell you in my classroom I have kids from IPS to no legal document with needs and I am required by law to put them through a system of interventions to meet their needs and that goes for gifted and talented kids who aren't often get ignored and then it goes for students on the other end who need the extra support so this mtss is a way for all the children at all different levels in the classroom to have their needs met and I think you know that's something parents thank you so may I ask what what is the resource that you're requesting so so can I just can I just stop you because this this form is not meant for a back and a forth debate and now we're starting to talk about her individual child so Mr Silva and I have had several conversations you could certainly reach out to me or your building principal we could further this conversation but there's a reason why it's public comment I think we've really addressed a lot of your questions and I think Dr Morell thank you gave a great explanation so you could certainly reach out to your building principal or myself to kind of further that conversation but we really want to avoid the back and forth because again now we're starting to talk about individual student and that's not really what this form is for so Joe just to say I you know I appreciate everything that you do do but like if children in Washington are falling behind or they need this instruction maybe you could look into something to maybe help to make sure that these kids are not missing something we can we can explore it as well motion toj sorry