We are late. I know by two minutes. Thank you, Mr. Dilla. This meeting of the MA Board of Education is open to members of the public to be physically present. Members of the public that attend will be asked to follow the same procedures as all other visitors to our schools. Those procedures can be found
on the agenda page of our website. Additionally, the board meeting will be livereamed for viewing purposes only. Anyone wishing to view the meeting may do so via Zoom. Webinar ID for this meeting is 863-27306227 and the required password is 737894.
I call this meeting to order. Roll call please. Miss Yamoto >> Mr. Mr. D. Silva >> here >> Mr. Kesmarski Mr. Coplin Mr. Alo, Miss Stavinro,
Mr. Houston >> here, >> Mr. Hughes >> here, >> Mrs. Ting Jansen >> here, >> Dr. Morphy >> here. Adequate notice of the agenda for this meeting has been provided to the Ridgewood News and the record specifying that the MA board of education will meet
on January 21st, 2026 in the administrative offices, 60 road, I think it's the 22nd, Mala, New Jersey. A copy was filed with the township clerk. Salute to the flag. Mr. Dilva, would you lead us, please?
>> Ladies and gentlemen, please rise. Place the flag to our nation. Your right hand over your heart. Repeat after me. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all. All right, we're going to um recess to executive session in the beginning. I need a motion on the floor. Mr. Hughes, second by Miss Ting Jansen. We should be back in about 10 15 minutes. >> Thank you. >> Going back.
>> We were here before. >> Yeah. >> Oh, Mike asked. So I said, "Yeah." >> Shall we? >> Hopefully be a quick >> Was it? Oh my god. It was right in the middle of the heat wave.
>> They're set up for like 90s. >> Not a lot of shade. Not a lot of air condition. >> No. >> Okay. Yeah, perhaps we could reduce the number of chairs set up
>> for public. I mean, >> so >> but you know what? As soon as we do, >> then they all come. >> But could you imagine standing room only at the board meeting? That would be like All right. Motion to reconvene to public
action meeting. Mr. Dilva, second by Mr. Hughes. All right. Agenda questions. Please limit your questions at this time to resolutions under new business on this agenda. As a matter of fairness, you're asked to limit your questions to no more than one and your remarks to no longer than 3 minutes. If you're here
representing a group, please identify yourself, the group, and your position in the group. If you're here as an individual, please provide your name and address. Please specify the resolution you are referring to in your question. All right, I need a motion to open the meeting to the public. Mr. Dilva, second
by Mr. Houston. We are officially open to the public. All right, seeing no one come forth at this time. Motion to close the meeting to the public. Miss Ting Jansen, second by Mr. Hughes. All right, we don't have a MA student
representative report this evening. Uh, superintendent report. Dr. Doro. >> Yes. Uh just very brief a couple updates. Um now that we're in the summer, there's been a number of things that have taken place. Um and all the different departments are working extremely hard. The summer programs are
coming to a close. Um we will have a presentation of the different pictures and updates at our August our second August meeting. Um but they were extremely successful. um since uh the school year ended, we were able to have successfully have our and hopefully I'm
not taking Mr. Heramoto's uh thunder here. Uh the bond sale was that part of your >> was last time. >> Okay, good. But but we were able to get the proceeds for that. So, we're now in a in a position of moving forward uh with the different projects. Mr. Uh
Romero has done a great job of creating the schedule and starting to work through the bids for the roofing projects that are going going to happen during the summer in three of our schools. Um we got a chance to meet I'll speak for Mr. Coplin. Uh Dr. Fair and I
got a chance to meet with the community relations committee the other day and in our effort of continued uh communication with our community and transparency of the referendum. We're in the process of building a website. so the community can follow the work that's being done with
the referendum. Our hope um our our our tenative launch is going to be at our September 15th meeting uh with our our website that's going to be uh ongoing us building um that website. Um Mr. Houston was there with us as well that we got a
chance to talk about strategy of what that website should uh should entail, the different projects, the timing, the schedule. We'll talk to the finance and facilities committee about ironing out um our our current schedule of projects yearbyear and uh put that up there as
well. Um our new principal um has Miss Wood has been uh in since July 1st, but it's feel feels like she's been here for a couple months now. She came in and she's doing some some great things with the team. She got a chance to meet with some of the different
stakeholders around the district whether it was informal or formal, meeting with the MSF, uh I'm sorry, meeting with the sports boosters, meeting with the HSO, and I know she has a schedule of that she's going to meet with a number of the other groups prior to the school year,
and she has some exciting ideas uh for the upcoming school year of bringing the community in and and making sure that that she connects with all of the people involved. So, a lot of exciting things that are happening in the choir this summer. It's extremely productive and and a lot of the a lot of the
departments are working extremely hard. Um, >> we might be having a homecoming bonfire. >> Um, this a little early to share that, Mr. Dilva. Um, but what I can say is it's an interest and there's a number of different groups that we have to clear
that with, but yes, unofficially that's one of the ideas. Yes. Which I'm very excited about. Um, but I can't make promises. So, I want to go on record by saying that. >> My mic is off. >> Okay, you let me right into >> I'm not sure about that.
>> Um, and last but not least is our 18 to 21 year old program. There's been a lot of progress on that. The space is cleared. Thank you to Mr. Romero and his team. Uh, we met with Lan on the design. Miss Rizzo um has played a a huge role
in making sure that that space is not only just going to operate um in a successful way for the kids, but it's going to be a point of pride for us. Um and so we're finalizing those designs. We're hoping to go out to bid in August for that work. Again, I'm going to keep
saying it. Um our goal is to walk our our students into that space sometime in the spring. Um, so there's a number of things that are going on around the district utilizing the referendum funds immediately. >> Great. Thank you, Dr. Dora. Um,
assistant superintendent report. Dr. uh, Farah, do you have a report first? >> Yeah, I I don't have a formal report, but um, to just echo some of the items that Dr. Voro mentioned, uh, our, uh, two summer programs, uh, summer booster, they're closing this week, as well as
our extended school year. and our kindergarten kickstart and our campign Ignite programs begin next week. So on August 26th, right before uh we start for the school year, we will be able to present uh some items related to the success of our summer programs and we'll
be able to provide some previews and to some great things happening uh or planning to happen for the fall. >> Great. >> Thank you very much. >> Um our uh business administrator, Miss Rojo, do you have a report for us this even? >> No.
No, Mike pretty much gave a great update on everything. So, >> thank you, Miss Your Mojo. At least I didn't skip her this time. So, that's a good thing. >> It's a plus. >> That's a plus. All right. Um, I have no
report this evening. Hope you're enjoying your summer. Uh, board committee reports. Any reports this evening, Miss Jansen, for policy? Yeah, just to mention that there's a list of policies um for first reading and there are three for second reading. So if you
want to reference those >> I I think we may are we going back to Dr. report. >> Sorry >> a little addendum to Dr. Okay. Addendum. Thank you Miss Jans the policy. >> Yeah I do. So, um, this is something
that we're going to have to talk about a lot in in in all seriousness. Um, something that is at the state level, just so we're we're aware, um, that we have policy currently for, uh, for cell phones in our district and internet
devices. That's policy 2363. That policy at the state level is being abolished. The new policy that we're going to present to the policy committee for review, which is a mandatory policy, is 5516. I often don't talk about policies here, but this is something
that the obligation from the district is to communicate to the community. This is not going to be the only time that we're communicating. All the schools will be sharing with the families what the cell phone policy is. Just so we're all aware and so the board is aware, it's a called
a bellto bell policy. Cell phones are not allowed to be out during the school day from the start of the school day when the bell rings to the end of the school day when the bell rings. Now, I know that that's going to cause some questions and some concerns with the families along the lines of being able
to contact their children. Um, please know that the administrative team has been working extremely hard of uh creating communications and protocols for each of the schools that's going to be shared with the parents. I believe the um not only uh in the summer before
the school year starts, it's all also that that clear protocol is going to be on the portal before you get access to your schedule. It's going to be in the student handbooks and it's going to be communicated to the students when they come in uh the first week and also going to be shared at back to school night
along the lines of the shifts and changes. What I can tell you is it is not a huge shift from K through 8 where the shift is going to occur. is going to be at the high school that originally or historically the high school has been allowed to utilize their cell phones
during lunch and passing time. That can no longer take place in a bell-to bell expectation. Again, that's the law so that we don't have any leeway there. That's the way that that we have to operate as a state. Um, but I just please know that we're committed to making sure that we communicate that
with the parents um, clearly prior to the school year and then continue to support the students on how to navigate the school day underneath that type of policy. >> Um, Mike, one quick question on that on Belltobell. Um, when kids leave campus,
does that change our bell to bell? I'm just curious. >> Yeah, that's a good question. So our seniors have those senior privileges >> of going to lunch that obviously they are allowed once they leave campus they are allowed to utilize their phones. >> Okay. >> Um there's also a carve out that um if
by chance they're on field trips >> we have the ability and we can speak about this at the policy level to talk about are the kids allowed to utilize their phones on field trips? Are the kids allowed to utilize their phones in extracurricular activities? So, that's all stuff, you know, I don't want to
make any firm decisions. That's something that we'll talk about with the policy committee, but um what we're going to have to utilize um I know that um Miss Pepetti is going to uh email the policy committee. We need to have a policy meeting prior to our second
August meeting because we're going to have to put this on an agenda for I just received the alert today. Um, we're going to have to put it on the policy um on the agenda for first and second reading. The second meeting >> of August 26. Yeah.
>> Yeah. Okay. All right. Very good. >> All right. Well, exciting stuff in the policy world then. >> You see the list here? >> It takes a while to read. >> Everything's exciting in policy. >> Oh, boy. Rick, that's like that's a statement.
>> Everything's exciting in policy. I love it. Uh, it is the rubric of what we do. Yes, Mr. Dilva. Agreed. >> Um, were you done, Miss Jansen? All good. >> Yes. Okay. Any board member remarks at this time? >> Uh, Miss Jensen, >> I'll take it.
>> Just want to thank all the teachers and the administration for all the summer activities. My kids have been participating in some of the camps. They're excited about Camp Ignite, one of them, next week. And I know the kids um really like that. And we created our own program this year. So, very
exciting. Um, but the kids are happy to be out of school but back in school. So, thank you for all that effort. >> That's good to hear. Firsthand experience. Excellent. Thank you, Miss Jansen. Um, all right. Let's um go to
new business then. Other let's take 17 A to Boy. Can I find it here? Is that we Z or we Huh? >> Oh, BB. There we go. couldn't find it. Thank you. Uh 17 A to BB. Motion on the
floor. Mr. Hughes, second by Miss Ting Jansen. Uh roll call, please. Miss Yamoto. >> Mr. D. Silva. >> Just to piggy back on what was said earlier about Mr. Romero being busy. There are uh 10 bids that we're awarding
tonight. So, you know, we got that money what two weeks ago, right? >> About two weeks ago, we already have 10 bids that we're awarding. we're we're hitting the ground running. So, I think that's, you know, it's important for the for the community to see that we're, you
know, not wasting time to do what we're supposed to be doing with uh with the money they've entrusted us with. And uh we're we're running Mr. Romero all over the place. So, >> yes, >> Mr. Houston. >> Yes. >> Mr. Hughes.
>> Yes. >> Mrs. Ting Jansen. >> Yes. >> Dr. Morphy. >> Yes. >> All right. Let's take 18 new business personnel. Uh let's we have 18 A through H. I need a motion on the floor. Um Miss
Ting Jansen. Second by Mr. Houston. >> Okay. Roll call, please. Misso. >> Mr. T. Silva. >> Yes. >> Mr. Houston. >> Yes. >> Mr. Hughes? >> Yes. >> Mr. Sting Jansen? >> Yes. >> Dr. Morty?
>> Yes. >> All right. Public questions or comment? Um, at this time, members of the public may ask questions or make a comment on educational issues or school matters of community interest. As a matter of fairness, you ask to limit your questions to no more than one, and your
remarks to no longer than 3 minutes. If you're here representing a group, please identify yourself, the group, and your position in the group. If you're here as an individual, please give us your name and address. Motion to open the meeting to the public. Mr. Dilva, second by Mr.
Hughes. You're officially open to the public. Seeing no one come forth at this time, motion to close the meeting to the public, Mr. Houston, and second by Miss Ting Jansen. All right. Uh, no need for another executive session. Motion to
adjourn, Mr. Houston and second by Miss Jansen. Thank you all. Have a good evening.