begin this meeting of the malw 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 live streamed for viewing purposes only anyone wishing to view the meeting May do so via Zoom the webinar ID is 83011 65799 and the required password is is
70613 all right I call this meeting to order roll call please Mr clam Mr Copan M Avan Aro Mr D Silva here Mr Denise here Mr Gallow here Mr use here Mr
karski Miss Jansen here Dr Mor here adquate notice of agenda of this meeting has been provided to the Ridgewood news and the record specifying that the m board of Education will meet on February 19th 2025 in the administrative offices 60 Ridge Road
Mawa New Jersey a copy was filed with the Township Clerk uh salute to the F flag Excuse Me Miss uh Ting jansson would you lead us I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all right um we do require an executive session in the beginning of the meeting today so I need a motion to recess to exact Mr Hugh second by Mr Denise uh we
should be back in about 15 minutes thank you how are you we're going Tock we're going Tock in the beginning everything everything you said hang than
sorry how are good yourself hey I'm sorry I'm good you're good e e e e e e
e e e e e e e e e e
e e e e e what did you say I know all right all right I need a motion to reconvene to public Action meeting Miss Ting jansson second by Miss Mr Gallow
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 three minutes if you're here representing a group please identify yourself the group and
your position in the group if you are here as an individual please provide your name and address this section of public participation will be limited to 15 minutes um in this particular case please specify the resolution you were referring to in your question all right
I need a motion to open the meeting to the public Mr Gallow second by Mr D Silva all right we are officially open to the public all right seeing no one come forward at this time motion to close the meeting to the public Mr Copan second by
Mr Gallow all right our Mawa student representative report who is patiently waited today sorry about that thank you um okay so first we have that the SGA executive is doing a not and kindness
campaign make sure your microphone on uh a noting campaign yeah where students fill out a Google form in order to send a classmate or teacher a note Anonymous or if they want to be named it's their choice and then honors and APR classes
are going to the met on MAR March 4th and preparing for the musical anything goes which will be um performed from March 27th through the 30th um Winter Guard just took first place in the Scholastic Regional Class A at Lakeland High
School uh named Kaleidoscope of guards and they were they will be competing this Saturday at South Brunswick High School and a small exhibition will start um being installed this week opening at the end of next week in the T3 Gallery the theme is
relationships while students in all grades have submitted artwork um the Indoor Winter percussion has a competition on Saturday it's their first competition at West Milford High School and deca States will be going through March 4th to the 6th in Atlantic
Atlantic City and lastly banned has a competition on March 18th at West essic High School thank you great thank you very much than great night thank you all right our superintendent report for this evening Dr Toro thank you
you we have a PowerPoint of course so there's a couple things um I I this is a brand new slide you guys haven't seen before we have our strategic plan oh this one go
commercial um we have our strategic plan meeting and I see some community members so I am speaking to you strategic plan meeting number two number two our first strategic plan meeting uh we had over 70 um participants community members
um administrators board members and teachers we we were able to receive some great feedback along the lines of points of strength and areas to consider for growth to build our strategic plan our next strategic plan meeting is scheduled
for February 27th that is um the theme of that is hopes and dreams what do we want to see Mawa be contain possess provide to our students in the next 5 years so in 2030 what do we want Mawa schools to really
look like sound like and feel like um this is something that we're going to go off the script for a second this is a celebration of our Sports um our MAA High School boys and MAA High School girls varsity basketball team just made
it into States um and it's great but here's the challenge on February 27th we are hosting the first round of states for both the boys and the girls team at 5
and seven uh at Mawa High School um that being said you know here's here's the thing I know that we have a ton of different activities that goes on that go on in the district um but the last
thing I want is our community to have to pick and choose go out and support the the the boys and girls team teams um in such a high level playoff situation or come to a very important strategic plan
meeting I'm not saying that we have to do this this is a suggestion if by chance the board would like to consider changing the date um I was able to engage with Matt Lee today just to see his availability as of right now March
12th um he is available we don't have to finalize it tonight I just want that to be something for you to think about and consider um so the community is able to take part in both um supporting our kids and the athletic side but also
supporting our kids through the strategic planning side so if you guys can just let me know um maybe if that date works by tomorrow I can Circle back to Matt and then what we could do is we can inform the community um along the
lines of um the change in date I did check with all six schools to make sure that that does not conflict with any events that are happening within the schools because the last thing I want to do is change it for one event and then somebody has to deal with the decision
for another so we're doing our very best as you know we do we have a ton of events that are going on but for something like this it's worth a consideration I was just I was just ask Mr jva um straw poll of who can make it
on March 12th you might have the problem you need AUM I no 5050 I can be there at 7 I may not be able to stay the whole wait so Chris you can't attend on the 12 maybe okay it's a
possibility Poss okay we start or s six uh six so all right everyone check Janine cannot okay so at this point we could have four board members not be able to attend m is do we need it is it's a quorum meeting correct Tom it's a
publiction meeting it doesn't have to we could just do the plan without the board agenda the only reason why it's been a board meeting is because all everybody shows up this is not in replacement of a meeting this is an addition to I know
but but does it run like a public Action meeting if we didn't do the uh roll call and the formal board meeting and we had board members sit at different tables I think we'd be a comprise yeah so we we've only we've only done it that way because more than five people want to be
there if there fewer than if there are fewer than a forum then we don't it doesn't have to be right okay and we can check can check with Tristan then as well so okay and if they can if they can make it then there'll be a regular meeting if they can't make if they can't
make it if everybody if we decide that it's not going to be a full meeting the people have said that uh I can't go or I don't think you can't go so we have to be clear about that we can't have so why don't I guess why don't people get back to Mike in the next day or two just to
confirm uh if you have to check schedules and we'll take it from there okay thank you all right um the msf is having its annual Gala as you all know um this this is Cino Royale
as the theme um they've had this theme in the past it was a tremendous event as you all know the M schools Foundation is a parent volunteer organization that raises money um to fund uh teacher-driven Grant programs that seek innovative ideas that really energize
the academic um and creative side of our students so I ask everyone to consider taking part in the M schools Foundation the tickets are on sale now um and I know that we've been sending information out out um through our email
lists one of my favorite days of the year I know Ben's is MAA day um in the school level it's especially at the elementary level K through3 I I felt the same way it's already the 100th day of school wow um our students celebrated
the 100th day of school students were able to reflect on what they've learned since their first day of school um they dressed up they celebrated and they even took part in the George was Washington Red Carpet walk to Showcase their attire
where students adorned 100 items on their shirts it was great to see everyone having so much fun I strongly suggest you look at our social media Accounts at the elementary levels I know they're all posted different things that are happening at different schools so it
was really great to see the kids um dress up and and really stru their stuff on the on the red carpet it was you could see how excited they were walking in all of our kindergartens days smarter that's right
uh speaking of kindergarten last week our kindergarten students took part in a concert for families performing five songs Mrs Silverman's class created Len Meadows song to The Beatles All You Need Is Love all kindergarten students put on a great
performance and their fans were filled with pride during the morning show I just add on real quick absolutely so you can see that that middle picture um Mrs Kaufman who is our vocal teacher at the elementary level um she invited
the parents to take pictures before they performed so you can see the parents rushed the stage it really was an awesome um just great spirit in that room that day it was it was really something wonderful so it was great to
see their teachers up there alongside their students seeing along as well so thank you to our kindergarten teachers our students and Mrs cman and and speaking of Performing Arts uh Mara High School had the coffee house
chamber concert um our 2025 Coffee House chamber concert took place in our Mawa high school media center and was extremely well attended by the Mawa Community the large group picture shows um all of our musicians who participate in the evening and small group picture
is an image of our current seniors another great performance by our performance performing arts program and this is for Ramapo Ridge congratulations to the following rampo Ridge and some ma high school students
who were accepted to the 2025 njm that's the north Jersey school music association intermediate region band we have Sophie Wong 8th grade OBO first chair Andre Lennox 8ighth grade Alto
saxs Stanley woo 9th grade tenor saxs and Jay bolara 8ighth grade euphonia so congratulations to all of our students as always our performing arts program is a huge point of Pride for my Law School
District that's okay thank you droro um now uh Mr lamb do you have a report for us this evening yes Dr Mory just uh a couple of things uh uh we're in the middle of the uh budget season planning the 2526
budget a couple of the key dates coming up uh Tuesday uh February 24th the governor gives his uh budget address for the state's budget uh next year which uh includes the education budget how much state aid we get and then two days after
the governor's budget address the state aid numbers for next year are release we're eagerly awaiting those and then on Wednesday March 5th uh we will have uh a presentation regarding our preliminary budget and the board will be voting to
approve the preliminary budget of course the final budget is not approved until the end of April but uh those are those are the steps in the process and then outside of the budget just wanted to give a shout out to Greg Romero and our
facilities team they've done a great job on snow removal this year to get our schools open uh sometimes uh delayed opening which is better than being closed for the day at you know unless you're a kid who wants to go slay riding but uh they've done a fabulous job
getting our our uh snow removed and the town's DPW has also done a great job of uh removing snow and putting ice melt down so our buses and cars can get here safely so thank you to all of that thank you very much Mr lamb um our
assistant superintendent Dr far do you have report this evening with slides I'm sure yes I know that the the board and Community um appreciates the visual we believe in showing and telling so uh
February 2nd was Joyce Kilmer day here in MAA uh to celebrate a concert by some of our schools musicians took place at the M Public Library um which featured music connected to Joyce Kilmer's poetry if you can attend or watch the live
stream from the library itself you can watch the videos on YouTube I'll list some of the featurers soprano Valerie Gonzalez Clarin nettis Daniel ker pianist Craig ker along with Gabriel Anker violin
Elijah spies Viola Andrew Jans cillo and members of the MAA High School treble choir Sarah Anderson Mary Ed e Kinski Alexandria Lisa ASD Morales
Kira sisian Evangeline schals and this was all directed by Miss Mor F so incredible performances by a sold out and enthusiastic crowd all the music was composed by Tim Miller
awesome indeed he's a new Thunder par oh even better we have an alumni uh Spotlight um Bara Narayanan she is a recent graduate she currently attends New Jersey Institute of Technology where
she recently presented her research at the honors interdisciplinary Research Forum her presented research focused on the integration of artificial intelligence and oncology diagnostic systems examining how AI Technologies such as machine learning and deep
learning can enhance diagnostic accuracy and efficiency in healthcare Vara is a computer science student at nj's honor college uh we are so proud of her continued success if I can add if you remember
correctly I think it was two or three years ago Vara was a part of our first internship and externship experience that she worked at the um orthopedic surgeon center after for K I apologize but she made that presentation to the board if you guys remember that she was
one of the first three individuals that took part in our externship experience and what's so awesome is before uh VAR graduated she had a lot of Opp options ahead of her uh she had a full ride to NGIT so it's it's wonderful
to see how great it's working out for her so far and we're at that time of year where we are announcing um retirements we have three retirement announcements this evening um agenda items 19 a see list
Miss Ellen Mahoney Mr Ted lesby and Miss Sher bounds so first you'll see here um Miss Ellen Mahoney has given 40 incredible years of shaping young minds and nurturing countless students we want to thank Ellen for her dedication to the
children of M Public Schools currently she teaches kindergarten at Lena school and she has taught kindergarten her entire career here in mawa beond the classroom Ellen has been invaluable to her colleagues offering wisdom kindness
and unwavering support she's been a trusted resource for parents always ensuring each child was met with care patience and encouragement though we will miss her dearly we are so happy for her as she steps into this next chapter of her life may her retirement be filled with joy
relaxation and all the wonderful things that she loves she has certainly left an indelible mark on her lenti Meadows and family as many of you know Ellen was spotlighted last spring and while she plans to travel in her retirement um she
had share that the weirdest part is obviously going to be uh not setting up her kindergarten classroom in August she is the first teacher to U be in the school building um and also if you remember she teaches with her younger sister so on the kindergarten team so
that is also going to be um a a new new different beginning for her so we wish everyone all the best she she did y you'll see here Ted lesby has worked
as a custodian in MAA for 28 years five years he served as the night custodian at JK and 23 years as the head custodian at MAA High School in this capacity he is responsible for overseeing the custodial staff and ensuring that the school's facilities are maintained in a
clean safe and functional condition he has taken pride in maintaining our building for students staff and families his strength is his ability to understand the overall multifaceted 247 operation of his high school and the need to facilitate various venue setups
for academic athletic and co-curricular activities and on top of that uh if you know Ted you know he's just a great guy uh Beyond his custodial duties Ted has been recognized for Serv as a veteran the school Community has honored him and other Veterans for their service to our
nation in his retirement uh Ted if you know anything about Ted he loves going on cruises so he will be going on cruises with his wife Louise who is also a former a MAA employee uh and he plans on fishing and hunting in his free
time and lastly we have Miss Sherry BS who is an instructional PA professional and has been an instructional PA professional for the last 25 years in our district uh she currently serves as a par professional at Joyce Kilmer school Miss Bal has been a pillar of
support for students and teachers alike uh over the last 25 years her patience and advocacy makes such a difference in helping children feel included and confident every day she demonstrates unwavering dedication to the classroom each day with her ability to connect with students provide
encouragement and create a positive learning environment that has left a lasting impact on countless young lives JK is going to miss sher's southern accent and her warm smile in her retirement Sherry plans on visiting uh her family back in her home state of
Arkansas and after Arkansas she hopes to get uh to Europe in the coming months so we wish Sher uh you know great happiness in her retirement as well and lastly with all of those retirements we're going to have to fill
those vacancies so you can see here High School is hosting the Bergen County educator job fair uh typically this job fair I think for the last 5 years has been an annual tradition in our County uh it will be taking place on Saturday April 5th at MAA High School from 10:00
a.m. to 1:00 p.m. so if you know anyone who is interested this flyer has been going around LinkedIn we've been asking neighboring school districts and districts uh around the county and area and local colleges to post this flyer on
their uh their respective social media sites so if you can get the word out uh you can see through the QR code is an opportunity for potential Educators to register for the event so we're excited to be hosting and that is my report for this
evening thank you thank you Dr Fair all right um I have just brief report this evening I think since our last meeting we had Lunar New Year so happy Lunar New Year to all the families in our district um including Miss tting Johanson who celebrates Lunar New Year
uh so uh that was actually all I had for today um so um let's move on to board committee reports do we have reports this evening Mr Denise Mr Mr Denise policy
committee no not a policy oh okay okay oh you're going to report on Bergen County okay thank thank you John on January 30th I attended the Bergen County School boards Association a virtual winter County meeting uh Patrick
Fletcher was introduced as the new County Superintendent Mr Fletcher was the superintendent of Riverdale High School District for Riverdale uh school district for 20 years uh before that he was the business
administrator and superintendent in Glenn Rock School District for 14 years and was the president of the beran County Association of school administrators uh Ambrose Ducket was the guest speaker he's the assistant
Commissioner of Education um he recommended that the school board's plan for state state funding for this year to be flat or slightly decreased uh qac will continue to be
every three years even for high performing school districts and the board evaluation software program is being revised to make it more us all right thank you Mr we will wait eagerly
for that for the board evaluation software program that's what Rick is thinking thank you Mr Denise thank you for attending on our behalf uh any other board of committee reports this evening Mr Gallow so just briefly um before tonight's meeting the uh finance
committee met um to begin the review of the 2526 budget and as Tom said we will be voting on the preliminary submission at our next board meeting on March 5th and uh following that we'll have three meetings um where Tom will be doing the
spotlight U budget presentations that we've done for the last couple of years that Spotlight um Personnel Transportation Health Care um out of District placements Etc and sort of building to the the final budget
resolution that'll be on our agenda for April 30th so great thank you very much Mr Gallow uh any other commune reports this evening okay board member remarks Miss Ting jansson just in addition to it
being Luna New Year the high school is having a celebration tomorrow from 6: to 8 and all students and community members are welcome and just to add addition thank you to miss bounds who's been a absolute star for my daughter's classroom um she really is just a very
special person who offers that extra assistance for children who need it so very thankful for her being in her family's lives thank you any other board member remarks I texted to Trista and Ben they are available on the 12th
just look at and also I just want to share um my echo uh Janine's comments about Cherry BS we I've known her for 25 years since she was started in the district she's uh we first met her when she was a Betsy Ross but she's followed a bunch of
students through their careers through um Mawa to the point of graduation in fact and I think she's J J but she's with a student who started at Betsy Ross ccle over again she's an
incredibly generous and um uh warm hearted a person who really just loves kids and that sort of that inner energy and power and passion and focus on kids really just enabled her to really be a contributor to a number of our students
we wish her the best time thank you very much uh Mr cin just a little self-promotion if you guys would just indulge me for a second um last week I had the honor and privilege of escorting a member of the Harlem
Wizards around to our 4 K through 5 Broadway came in LA and um if you've ever sat through if your children have ever sat through these assemblies um the kids were incredibly engaged uh Broadway did a great job and personally I just
want to thank all the administrators at the four schools for opening their doors to him um the class of 25 Project Graduation is hosting the Wizards on March 8th at The Ridge at 6 o'clock so if you haven't got your tickets please do it is one of the more popular events
uh in the community over the last several years and I expect it to sell out well I'm hoping it will sell out um so please if you haven't got your tickets Please do har.com thanks thank you Mr thin all right should we move on to Old business um
let's take 17 a through D we have minutes from several meetings uh Mr lamb uh roll call please Motion in a second oh yes motion
sorry about that uh Mo motion Mr Gallow second by Mr coflin uh for 178 through D 17 a through D Mr copin yes Mr the Silva I have
tostain on C and yes Mr Den yes Mr Gallow yes Mr use yes Miss Janson yes On A and B andain on C and
D Dr uh yes on a c and d and abstain on B you all right thank you very much uh all right let's take new business now uh we have a through S this evening uh I just like to thank our uh people who've
made donations to the district on r and s s um but we'll take a through S I need a motion on the floor Mr Hughes second by Mr C roll call Mr L Mr coplin yes Mr D
Silva yes Mr Denise yes Mr Gallow yes and I'm sure I'm supposed to OB obain on something but I on some check number got I didn't get my Post-It not we will remedy that you from those
Mr use yes M Janson yes Dr Mor yes all right at this time let's take our new business Personnel that is 19 uh we often take our retirement separately um and in this case we have uh a
considerable uh amount of years of service to our district so uh we do thank Ellen Mahoney Theodore lesby and Sher bounds for uh their contributions and their longevity uh in the model Public School
serving our students um so we will take 19 a b and c I need a motion on the floor Mr Gallow second by Mr Hughes Mr lamb a b and c 19 a B and C
thank you Mr coplin yes Mr dilva yes Mr Denise yes Mr Gallow yes Mr use yes M Janson yes Dr yes all right now we will take 19d to FF
19d to FF I need a motion on the floor Mr copin second by Miss Ting Janson all right d to FF Mr lamb please roll call Mr copin yes thank you to all the volunteers Mr
dilva yes I think I have to on stand on Mr Denise yes Mr Gallow yes Mr use yes M Jon yes Dr yes all right public
questions or comment public participation at board meetings is in accordance with bylaw 0167 at this time members of the public may ask questions or make a comment on educational issues or School matters of community interest it's a matter of fairness you're asked to limit your
questions to no more than one and your remarks to no longer than three minutes if you're are here representing a GL 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 this section of public participation will be limited to
15 minutes uh I need a motion to open the meeting to the public Mr dilva second by Mr Gallow all right we are officially open to the public all right seeing no one coming forward at this time U motion to close
the meeting to the public Mr copin and second by Mr Hughes all right we do not require an executive session uh so I need a motion to adjourn Mr Denise and a second by Mr Hughes we are adjourned for the evening thank you everyone for
coming this evening can I just double check can I just double check no right