Good evening everyone. Now you are. That's better. Good evening everyone. Sure. Mrs. Balomo here. Mrs. Carrero here. Mrs. Gandhi here. Mr. Hyatt here. Mr. Alonsky here. Mrs. Mendes here. Dr.
Msgitz here. Mrs. Seawart. And Mr. Cohen here. I'm going to attend this. They have to Your mic is like crackly.
Try again. Better. Yes. All right. I'm going to point everyone to our agenda for the sunshine law. This meeting was advertised pursuant to the open public meetings act um statement of videotaping being since this is our um board meeting it's public there will be a videotaping
of it and it's available over our um our board and the uh the township website and that we'll have a a period of two opportunities for public comments um for the public to get up and speak. One in the beginning of the meeting and one toward the end of the meeting. And then
finally, since we are on school grounds and our school policy is no smoking or vaping on school grounds, please be assure, please be sure to sort of follow our public rules associated with that. Would everyone please stand for the pledge of 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. Thank you everybody. And pursuant to our agenda that was published, we will be going into an
executive session immediately uh in order to uh address matters of personnel and attorney client privilege. We expect that this will take about 30 minutes. Can I have a motion to go into exec? Miss Gandhi, can I have a second? Miss Carrero. All in favor? I. Anyone
opposed? Thank you. We will be back in about 30 minutes. Ready? Keep the momentum going. Not All right, it's really good. I thought was increasing on Saturday and I apologize for being a committed
switch. lift them up. All right, maybe I have to lean in a little more. Thank you. Good evening everyone. And again, as I said before, I apologize a few minutes longer than we expected. We wanted We switched them.
All right. Is this any better? Good. It's got to be the wine. All right, we're going to get started. Mr. Mrs. Balomo here. Mrs. Carrera
here. Mrs. Gond, Mrs. G Mrs. Gandhi here. Mr. Hyatt here. Mr. Alonsky here. Mrs. Mendes here. Dr. Msquitz in the restroom.
Uh Mr. Cohen here. Okay. Thank you. Okay. We're going to get started with our agenda today. Um we had already done um the first part. So we're going to start with um staff. Thank you. Good evening everyone. As you know, each month we recognize staff
members with uh staff certificates for respect. I'm going to call up we have several members from Marbor Elementary School. Um so as I call your name, if you could just come up and stand right here to my
right, your left, and um I'll just read an email that we received. um our staff members who are recipients of those certificates at Marboro Elementary School, Marcy Bayer, Scott Brady.
Okay, Lori Girardano again. We're batting a thousand here. Um, Amanda Hegel. Did they know that they were getting this? Did they get the email? They did. School
counselor Michelle Muro. Okay, they'll be here with us in spirit. I I'll read an email that we received to the principal. Dear Mr. chats. As our daughter prepares to move on to middle school, I wanted to express our heartfelt thanks to you, the
administration, and the entire staff for the care and support given to my daughter throughout her time at Marboro Elementary School. This school year, under the guidance of Mrs. Bayer, Mrs. Gardano, we've seen real progress in her confidence and willingness to engage.
While academics continue to be a challenge, the patience, encouragement, and structure of your team has provide that they provided have has created an environment where she feels safe and supported. One of the proudest moments of us was seeing her perform a solo act
in the school talent show, something we never would have imagined just a year ago. That kind of courage is the direct result of the nurturing foundation you and your staff have helped build. We are especially grateful to Mrs. Muro and
Mrs. Hegel for their dedicated support over the years, as well as Mr. Brady, who has worked patiently with her and made learning feel more manageable and less intimidating. Having had both our daughters attend Marbor Elementary School, we've seen
firsthand the consistency, compassion, and care that define your school community. We leave with gratitude and admiration for all you do. Please give them a hand. And the next staff respect certificate goes to Francis Lesamese.
Fran, you can stand up here and be embarrassed while I read. This came in. It was a handwritten letter. I'm writing you an old-fashioned letter rather than a text or email because I feel the situation warrants it. Last week, so this was this was
received in late May. Last week, when out to dinner with a group of school nurses, I began to choke without hesitation. Fran began life-saving abdominable thrust with thankfully a positive
outcome. While it was and still is a very unsettling and sobering experience for me, I was hoping that Fran could be and should be recognized by the board at some point. Well, now is your point. I believe she is certainly deserving of
the district's recognition. She has no idea I am writing to you or making this request. Now she does. This harrowing experience happened on May 20th. Thank you for considering my request with love
and gratitude. Absol absolutely amazing and thank you for that for the work you did for that person. All right. Uh Mr. Malone will be right along. We are at student recognition.
Okay, typically in June we take a break from student recognition, but we have a very special team joining us today from Robertsville Elementary School. Um, we have Robertsville's principal here, Mr. Garitano. Do you want to come up and
share the good news? All right. So, it is my absolute pleasure to recognize Arya Kadakia, Waramoon, and Hamsini Kusamanchi, and also Mrs. Farabono, who are team turtle. These brilliant students, and they're right here, place in the top three.
Yeah. So, they placed top three in the state level of the NJSBA steam tank challenge where they devised a device to prevent turtles from being caught in commercial fishing nets. So, I'm going to turn it over to Miss Bonos and give you some more details and then the girls wanted
to come up and present uh their great work. Thank you very much. Good evening, Mr. Cohen, Mr. Balone, members of the board. I am thrilled to be here tonight advocating and facilitating team turtle as they navigate through the New Jersey
School Board Association Steam Tank Challenge. For those of you who are not aware, the New Jersey School Board Association puts out a steam tank challenge every year that encourages students to work collaboratively to identify and develop innovative
solutions to real world problems such as climate change, the environment, and communities, state and globally. It inspires these students to become our next generation of entrepreneurs, inventors, scientists, engineers, all
making the world a better place. There are three levels of competition. We qualified for the regional, then we presented at states only to find out on June 3rd that we are in the top three.
We do not know which one. and we were invited to the New Jersey School Board Conference in Atlantic City in October where these girls will be continuing to innovate their design and present. And without further ado, let's
give a warm welcome to team turtle. We're good. just gonna Good evening and welcome to Team Turtles presentation of the TED Cubed. I'm Ur and did you know that turtles are still endangered today? Since the 1970s, there
have been efforts to protect the turtles, but more can be done. That's where Team Turtle comes in. Thank you. My name is Hamini and I couldn't agree more. To be more specific, the keeridly turtle can only be found in the Gulf of Mexico, now
America. And there are less than 8,000 today. How sad. Even with legal TD protection laws and innovations, these turtles are the most endangered species of all turtles today. But don't worry, Team Turtle's here to save the day.
Thank you. Thank you, Homsini. I'm Arya and I can't wait to share our innovation, the trifecta of turtle deterrence, the teed cubed. The turtle excluded device has already been innovated with size and material. Our initial design, the
speaker net, added the sound of a predator of a turtle as a deterrent. We were thrilled with what we did and after doing more research, getting more information, and meeting with subject matter expert Liz Clark, who is a marine biologist at Mammoth University, we realized we could advance our product
further. Thank you, Arya. We also learned that the best sound for keeping the turtles away isn't the sound of its predator, but the sound of low frequency like a vessel motor. So, we innovated the speaker net to add sounds of vessel motors. We also innovated the bars of
the TD to now be made out of out of a metal mesh like this. Next, we innovated the rest of the bars. We learned that turtles are also sensitive to light. So, one bar will emit sound and another will emit a pulsating red light to alert the turtles
to danger. This is our new development in our innovation to improve our product. Lastly, we continued innovating the metal bars by adding a third deterrent descent. We learned that turtles are afraid of sharks. We also learned that you can easily purchase shark tissue on
Amazon. I guess you really do learn something new every day. Well, we figured it out and realized our third bar could emit the scent of sharks. I just know that when turtles smell this bar, they're going to be thinking, "Yikes! Danger!" Our trifecta is
complete. Team turtle to the rescue. Since the 1970s, there have been efforts to protect the turtles. Since 1987, the TED was required by law to be used on all commercial fishing nets. There have also been numerous adaptations to the
size and materials of the TED. The Flounder, Parker, and Wheatless TEDs are a few examples. But it's still not enough. As long as the camperly turtle is in danger of extinction, we will continue to innovate our design by adding the scent of sharks
in addition to a low frequency sounds of motor vessels. The TED cubed will surely make a difference. We even we even thought about innovating our design further by adding a motion sensor. This motion sensor would be equipped to the net and would emit a
sound as well as a pulsating red light to alert the turtles of danger. Before we end, we just wanted to say thank you for listening to our ideas and presentation of the TEED cubes. We look forward to advancing our idea to save as
many turtles as possible. I'm just a girl who loves turtles. We're so excited to represent Marbor at the New Jersey School Board Association as Steam Tank finalists. What is really most remarkable is the
steam tank challenge. I facilitate, I can guide, I set up the meetings for them and facilitated the zooms, but this design and innovation was really all the brilliance of these three students. And so, can we give them another round of applause because they are just
remarkable. And Atlantic City, here you go, Mr. G. That that was absolutely amazing. And and I love the the image of the Pearl. I think I think Mono say the best when
she said innovation because you you really thought outside the box. You saw things that trained professional who may have masters and degrees beyond the imagination has not thought of and you've thought of those three things and
how exciting to put that on paper and bring that idea forward in that in this steam challenge. Congratulations to you. I'm super excited. I have been monitoring and tracking your progress through this and I keep on getting reports on how well you did. to find you
are moving on to the finals in October and it happens to be my first conference. I'm really excited to be able to say see that's our school and that's what we're doing. So I know you're going to have at least
eight if not more really loud voices cheering you on. And all right so congratulations team. I have one question for you. Who came up with the name? Excellent name. I love it.
You guys, you guys, you guys rock. So, thank you so much for doing what you're doing. This is just great. Congratulations. Anyone else want to answer? I just want to say one thing. Who knew that you could find shark skin online? So, thanks for letting us know
and congratulations. It was on Anyone else? Congratulations and thank you for being here tonight. Great job, ladies. Okay. Um, we're going to move on to our next item on the agenda, which is
student impact. So, student impact, we have a short video for you as the school year comes to a close. The June student impact captures the endofear traditions and achievements of students across the district. Enjoy the video.
Heat. Heat. Thank you for that. Um, and Last item for the school year is artwork on display. The artwork on display was shown as you walked into the board meeting today. Um, just as a brief overview, sixth grade
applied art students learned about artist Gustav Climpmp and created birch tree paintings in the style of his work. Seventh grade applied art students learned about symmetry and in art that was created name uh name art mandelas.
uh eighth grade applied art students learned about color theory in order to make their color wheels. So, thank you to uh Memorial Middle School for their incredible year in their art classes. Thank you for that as well and great
work on the on the art display. Okay. Um moving along there. You have some announcements? I do. I have uh several announcements for today. The first one is on the agenda for this evening. you'll see uh an agreement uh
for our before and afterare program with the YMCA. Um we had negotiations. Mr. Caravello and I met with the YMCA. Just for a little context, I think I mentioned this at a prior board meeting. I did meet with parents. I put it out there and um
provided parents the opportunity to meet and or speak with me to gain some feedback, right, with our first year implementing the YMCA. And I did take the feedback from um many family members. Um so thank you. I see
some of you in the audience who actually met with me and took the time to do that. Um I do appreciate it and I am happy to report. It's like anything else, right? Every little thing that you wanted and requested. Maybe not everything wasn't included, but the big ticket items were
one of the big ticket items was service during delayed openings. The YMCA will provide service during delayed openings. While we only had two this past year, um they impacted some of our families and we are happy to report that the YMCA did
listen to our request and they will be providing service for delayed openings for next year. They also froze their rates for the most part. The only rate that increased was the daily drop in rate. So, uh this year was $20. it went up to 25 which is what our previous
provider was charging for several years. So they're really while it's a slight change for next year um all of the other rates are unchanged. Um we also have ensured that our secure vestibules are being used for uh exit
and entry and the YMCA has assured us and we've also checked in to be sure that is happening at every single location. So, um, that's my update on the YMCA and the board. Uh, it is up for board approval this evening.
Just one quick question on that. Um, on the drop off openings that will occur at all the Y locations or I know at one point we talked about a central location. Yeah, good question. So, uh, we had an idea of possibly um, using a
central location. Um the YMCA said we did not need to do that and it will be at its regular location. So um essentially if the school is on a two-hour delay, they will be on a two-hour delay. So they will be providing service. Thank you. You're welcome.
Secondly, um we had our first staff member AI committee meet. Um thank you Mrs. Gross for pulling that together. Um, we had several staff members come together and provide input on artificial intelligence and um, how that's going to
help shape our school district for next year. Um, we also went out with a an all staff survey to uh, gain some of their insight on questions, concerns and um, some of the professional development that they are seeking um, in the realm
of artificial intelligence. So uh, more to come on that. Um, again, we have our first staff member uh committee has already met and we will work throughout this summer which will also fold into our three-year technology plan. So, I
will come back to the board with further updates. Um, also community members, um, look out for an email from us in the future. Uh, we will be reaching out to you if you would like to provide your input on artificial intelligence and technology. Um we're we're looking to
pull u stakeholder input from from many different individuals across the the school community and the greater community. So please uh keep an eye out for a communication on that. Can I just ask a question on that one? And thank
you. That's that's great that they met. when they come back with the level of professional development, do you have a vendor for example effective prompting or AI hallucinations? If they come back, do you use a vendor for that? We do. We
actually for our first meeting, we we utilized um an artificial intelligence. They're not just artificial intelligence vendor, but a vendor we have used in the past for teacher professional development who also is proficient in artificial intelligence and its use. um
and it's best practice. So, we've already engaged um with with that individual company and uh but we're always open to to looking at others and and Mrs. Gross and I are keeping our eye on I'm sure um sessions at school boards
will continue uh for artificial intelligence and we will continue to look um as things come in. I'm constantly sending her things, she's sending me things and we say, you know, is this something we want to look into? Um, so we'll we'll have a wide array of of uh resources that we can that we can
look toward doing this work. Thank you. Any other questions, comments? Thank you. You're welcome. Um, one thing I'd like to mention and bring to the forefront as we it's now June. Um, next month starts our extended
school year program that will go from July 7th through August 14th. The hours will be 8:45 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. Um, somewhat related to that um oh, I'm sorry that that is a 4day uh Monday
through Thursday. Um so somewhat related to that is um the school district hours for all employees um for the time period of July 1st that's July 1 through August
8 contractually um the uh mtea secretaries who um fall under the mtea collective bargaining agreement um uh our 12-mon secretaries in our buildings have negotiated a 4-day work week during that time period, July 1st through
August 8th. Um, now that ESY is also 4 days, um, our just as we did last year, our 12-month employees will also be on that same schedule from July 1st through August 8th. Please know and actually one of those Fridays, so it's six Fridays and one of
those Fridays is July 4th. Um, so but please know that should anyone need anything, I'll say on any given day, we're here for you, right? We're not uh getting an extra day off. Um, we're still here.
We're working. Um, many of our 12-month employees work outside of their school day. Um, I think our board members can attest to that we are all accessible when needed. Um, so if there's something needed, if a parent needs to come in and and and it's a Friday in between that
time period, we'll make that happen. So if they have a meeting, they need they need some assistance from us, we are happy u to serve. Um, but we're we're staying in alignment with many of the school districts around New Jersey, staying in alignment with the ESY program, and staying in alignment with
our MTA secretaries. Um so from the period of July 1st through August 8th uh MTPS will be on a Monday through Thursday work week. So I appreciate you bringing that here so
um just for clarification when you say it's 4 week I'm correct not say so you're basically working a full week during your four days. It's not You're getting paid for 5 days and
working week four. You're getting paid for five days and you're working. Correct. Yes. You're extending the day but extending. Yep. Our staff members um they regularly do that anyway. Uh but yes, they will be uh held accountable for a full work week. Um it just will be
condensed into four days instead of five. Great. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other questions or comments? And the last um item I'd like to bring up is and and board members feel free to weigh in on
this one as well. Um first, thank you for your attendance and participation at our year-end events. We had uh and continue to have um fifth grade moving up ceremonies, kindergarten ceremonies, end of year ceremonies, and yesterday we had two very successful middle school
graduations. Um, I think we had record board attendance, at least in my time here. Um, we had to find extra seats for people and, um, it was really nice, um, to see the participation from the board to celebrate our students and to show
our school community that we are all in this together and we support our students and are very proud of the accomplishments they've made for this year. So, thank you for that. Thank you. And I I want to just I want to thank all the board members for attending not only the middle school
graduations were just great. Two of our board members actually had graduates. Um so even more special there just be on stage and see the smiling faces really. But I want to just also thank
our principles for also including members, but the feedback really today. I didn't know We haven't such I just want to say I appreciate it, Mr.
Geritano. Um, I'm going to the Robertsville moving up ceremony tomorrow, but it was so nice to get a whole list from you and just we were trying to like see who could attend where. So, Mr. Cohen did reach out to say, you know, who can attend. And so it was nice that we were able to kind of,
you know, if not everybody could be there midday, um, play off and kind of say who was going. And also, I just want to say, yes, shout out to our middle schools. And I just want to say to Mrs. Seawart, who had a fellow eighth grade graduate, and I did, too. The ceremonies
were beautiful. It was nice for the whole board and everybody to be there on stage. So, um, they're beautifully done, and so it was nice to be there. I'm just going to add um I echo your sentiments as well, but I wanted to say thank you, Mr. Bologn, for being open to
the board suggestion of us attending the fifth grade moving up ceremony and thanks to all the principles that um even though it hasn't been done in the past, they were open to um including us in that. And um you know, I was there for the Dugan one um and Mr. Paglier did
an amazing job. Um I was at the Defino one today and Dr. Stratic has always did an amazing job. So, I want to thank you for really coming on board with us and getting the principles on board. I think it was a a wonderful experience for everybody. So, thank you. I' I'd like to add to that. I've
actually been going to the moving up ceremonies for years now um between Abbott and Dugan and I've seen a lot of our fifth grade classes um move on and I find that elementary school graduations are the mo are some of the most profound memories for our kids because it's like
entering a new chapter of life and uh it was really nice to see that this year. So, thank you for that. And of course, last uh yesterday at the middle schools, those children all seem like such little adults ready for their next big move to high school. And it was um eye opening
hearing them speak about moving on to all different high schools because they're all coming from one place and going out and hopefully they remain connected. That was just an awesome thing. There are parts of their speeches that actually took note of like a playlist.
Yes. That I'm going to try to figure out how to incorporate into my future comments. So, it was a great experience. Thank you. And and before we conclude on this, I just want to say congratulations to all of our students who
graduated, whether it was kindergarten, whe And our middle school kids are now high school students. Congratulations. I'll conclude with congratulations. All right. Wait, can I just I'm gonna
add one more thing. How amazing was that choir in middle school? Both of them like incredible. I just Yes. Right. And the bands. Yes. No other announcements for me. I just want to make a statement this evening.
I just want to let everyone know that many are exceeded expectations and that um we want to thank him for his service and his leadership this last year and we look forward to success.
Thank you for your excellent work. Okay. Um to Mr. Yep. So all abstracts are run and all have privileges in good standing. Thank you.
And then we are now to presentation on Charles. Yes. Thank you. You want to talk? I'm just going to pass around. Okay. Good evening everyone. Thank you for having us tonight and uh welcome the
Chartwells team here to present tonight. I'm excited to have with me my area director Scott Tibido, our regional dietician Amy Britain, and our regional executive chef uh Chef Guy.
Next slide. So, we wanted to come tonight and talk a little bit about a few things involved with the lunch program. Uh, the National School Lunch Program overview, commodities, breakfast, something that's new next year across the district, and
what's new for lunch next year. We got a lot of new exciting ideas, food items, and uh programs coming across the uh district. I'm going to pass it on to our regional dietitian Amy. So, I'm going to give a quick little
overview on the National School Lunch Program. So, National School Lunch Program is a federally funded and federally regulated program, but it's administered at the state level. So, all the reimbursement uh is handled at the state level and they're also responsible for the enforcement of whether or not
we're following the rules of the program. Next slide, please. uh national school lunch program actually started during world uh war II because they were finding that um soldiers were getting declined for service because they were seeing a lot
of health issues coming from nutritional deficiencies which were much more common back then because they had not started fortifying some of the key foods in the food supply yet. So in response to that they started the national school lunch program to ensure that uh the the
children across the nation were getting uh nutritionally sound meals during the school day and they started fortifying some foods as well. So national school lunch program has grown to now a program that serves over 30 million uh children each year. Next slide please.
So um the way that the lunch there's a lot of reg rules and regulations to the lunch program but on a fundamental level it is organized according to food groups for lunch every day USDA requires us to have a grain offering fruit offering
vegetable milk and a protein source. And then they've set forth a number of rules around each one of those food groups. For example, the grains now have to be 80% or more whole grainrich grains, which we do a lot of like white wheat
blend uh breads. Uh so fruits, um we always do fruit every day, but there's a limit on juice. So at the elementary level, we can do juice no more than twice a week. Uh for vegetables, they've put in a requirement for vegetable variety. So they actually
have categorized vegetables into subgroups and we have to ensure that we menu vegetables from each subgroup each week. Uh milk is restricted to low-fat milk only. We are required to have a variety of milk choice every day and
there always has to be an unflavored milk available. And then finally our protein foods are highly regulated as well and we are required to only serve outside of raw meats. The only meat products we can serve are ones that have been basically
certified in the amount of meat and protein that they provide that meets the USDA requirements. So, it's very regulated on what meats we can serve and the portion size we can serve. Um, oh, sorry, one more thing on that slide that was higher up. The other thing I wanted to mention here that's
fundamental about the offer versus serve program is something called uh I mean sorry about the national school lunch program is called offer versus serve which is a concept developed by USDA that says we are obligated at lunch every day to offer a full meal that
consists of all these food groups, two servings of vegetables of fruit. But they recognize that students are not going to always want to take all those foods. So students are allowed to decline two food groups um and we can still count that as a lunch. The only
thing they have to take is they they always have to take a fruit or vegetable and then three three components and then but what that could mean is that you can see some kids come through the lunch line that will have like really full trays if they take everything that's offered. Whereas you could see another
student walk through that just has a slice of pizza and an apple and that would still count as a meal in USDA's eyes because of offer versus serve. Next slide please. So this next image here is what is
called the USDA meal pattern. And this is something else that's strictly followed and evaluated when the state agency comes out to do administrative reviews. And what this basically says here is it's showing the minimum required quantities that we have to
offer each day and across each week in the national school lunch program. So um we we can exceed it but we can never go below these minimums. And so it ensures an appropriate portion size for students every day. We also have nutrient
standards which you'll see at the lower the bottom portion. Um, and USDA has actually set guidelines up for the amount of calories and sodium and saturated fat that gets evaluated when the state agency comes out to do reviews of the program.
And we have some new regulations coming into effect in the coming year. There's a new sugar limit. So, moving into next school year, there is a limit on the amount of sugar that is allowed to be in yogurt, cereals, and flavored milk. Um, and the following year they're going to have an additional limit on the amount
of calories that can come from added sugar. In addition, they've also started restricting the amount of sodium. So, they're really trying to do their best to make sure these meals are are healthy for the kids. Next slide, please. So, this is just showing you an image. This
is straight from USDA showing you what a complete meal looks like, pulling it all together and relating it to USDA's uh food guidance system called My Plate, which is advocating for everyone to make half their plate fruits or vegetables. And the National School Lunch Program
supports that. Next slide. And I didn't want to close out this little overview without just raising awareness of the fact that there is many more regulations that go into the National School Lunch Program that we
are responsible for monitoring and supervising as your food service provider. Um, so there's a lot more to the program than just the menus and the food purchasing and the staff. We have all of these regulations here. I won't go into all of them, but
I'll just call out a few. So, for example, um USDA has highly regulated the snacks and the drinks that we're allowed to serve uh in the cafeterias and even little things like uh the little, you know, we do sell little bags of chips, but if you've ever bought like
a box of chip bags for your kids at home at the grocery store, the ones that we serve are actually a special version of that that have like less fat. So, you can't even get what what we serve, you can't even get it in the store, these like reduced fat versions. Um, and same thing with like little ice creams.
They're less sugar and less fat than the regular ice cream bars you would buy at the store. Um, and that's that's a quick USDA overview for you. Yep. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Amy. Now,
we're going to transition a little bit into talking about commodity based meals with Chef Kai. Yeah. So the uh the traditional thought process between uh for what we do with the entitlement that comes every year.
So if you guys don't know, the state actually subsidizes some of the program by how many meals we're serving. They actually use a formula and there's a dollar total that actually comes in and there's a couple of different ways that we can uh move through the products. Uh
the first way is is a USDA program called uh just Brown box. And that's basically what it is. They're products that come in in brown boxes. There's no label. We don't really know where they're they're coming from. The the government is actually contracting those out and that's what's coming in. Then we have something called um further
processed or NOI, which means net off invoice. What that means is we're taking those commodity entitlements. We're bringing them to actual commodity vendors, our our real vendors that you see every day, and they are actually using their program and their products, and we're getting credit based off of
that because we're actually moving some some dollars there. And then the one I really, really, really am very excited about is our Department of Defense produce program. So, the uh Department of Defense actually buys all of their produce and all their items for the Navy and it gets put onto ships. And so we're
bringing into some of that buying power and we actually get produce that comes in. So we're getting fresh fruits and vegetables coming in from the government taking that entitlement dollars. So we're get we're seeing things like broccoli, cauliflower, snow peas, tomatoes, cucumbers, fresh apples,
apricots, uh you know, the list goes on. And they're coming in and the students are eating that every day, which I'm really excited about. So what we're doing is we're transitioning from this commodity-based meal program. What we did this year was we maneuvered all of our entitlement away from Brownbox. We
don't know where it's coming from. I don't know what the allergens look like. They could be uh turkey breasts that come in, but they're from multiple vendors all through the year. I don't know how to track that. The school doesn't know how to track that. Vinnie doesn't know how to track that. Amy and I are very concerned about those things.
So, we're moving away from that completely. We're moving into items that we know with vendors that we know that you guys see every single day. and we're going to fresh fruits and program uh and and vegetables. We feel that that is the best option for Marville School District. And if you can go to the next
um slide, please. So, what you could see is here's the reason why our vendor partnerships are pretty vast. So, you can actually see some of these things that you're buying every single day in in the stores. We're getting our chicken from Tyson. We're actually getting our beef from Tyson. They're they're great.
Um Hormeell does turkey and pork products. Kelloggs and General Mills. You guys see them every single day. The great thing about this is they're it's the versions of commercial products but formulated for K12. So to Amy's point, less sugar, less sodium. There's uh a
drive to more cleaner labels. We actually had a a vendor supplier summit that we just took uh Scott and I attended in May. And what we were learning from top to top is that all of the products that we have in K12 right
now have no artificial dyes and nothing that that what's being going on right now that we're talking about. We have food that's secured from all of that. And so I'm really proud of the partnerships and and what we do. And the great thing about it is I get to te to test all of the new products. So
everything that's coming out to the forefront and what we're looking for, they're coming here. I'm looking at them first to get into into our schools in New Jersey, but they're all coming from everything that you guys shop with every single day. Next slide, please.
And I'm going to bring this right now for to to Vinnie so he can actually talk a little bit about more what's going on. So, these here are some of the items we were looking to uh bring in next year. There some of our new uh fruit smoothies, freshmade pico deayo. We're g
we're going to be making our own fresh pickles. Uh just just to go through some of them. I mean, the one that I'm most excited about is all the uh fresh fruits and vegetables, home muscle chicken, homemade pizza, and then the fresh
salads and parfets, which is one of the things that we actually piloted o over one of our uh elementary schools. And it was a big hit. I mean, to be honest with you, I didn't really expect it, but it went off very, very well. and it was, you know, exciting to know that we can continue that going into the uh next
year. Next slide. So, now we're going to talk a little bit about breakfast. Finally, we got it across the whole district. So, we we we uh we had one of our schools last year, uh Frank Defino Central, which was
selected, and uh we did a little pilot there. It it it went pretty good, but we need to uh continue to work on that. We we're looking to bring in some obviously some better product, but uh the great news is it'll be districtwide next year.
That's what I'm most excited about. Uh we're as far as implementation, we're still working together uh with Mr. Caravello and and the principles looking to sit down and figure out exactly how we'll roll it out. We're going to have a lot of communications out to the
families uh via email during the summer to make sure they're aware. Uh YMCA uh morning care students are allowed to participate. And uh the only other thing is really just why we do it. I mean it
just to think about it improves focus, memory, and test scores. You know, it helps a child start their day, you know, not hungry. How many kids are, you know, sometimes they're in a rush in the morning just jumping on the bus and now it gives them an opportunity to really
have a breakfast and and feel excited and and uh and and and just ready to go for school. Next slide, please. These are this is one of our new items that we're going to look to have the uh waffle Monte Cristo. Uh we're also going
to have a uh uh French toast casserole just to give you a little idea of the vegetables. Uh what's going to happen next year as far as what's new in schools. Next slide please. These are just a list of some of the new items that we're going to be rolling out
across the whole district. So you're going to see we obviously see we have the Thummans. Uh the grilled chicken Caesar salad and wraps were some of the items we did this past year. Uh the buffalo chicken salads, turkey BLTs, the chicken cheddar ranch, uh the
shrombololis and the cowzones have been something we've done at the middle school for quite some time, but we've now are looking to offer that also at the elementary level. Uh another great thing is a lot of the snacks and and
beverages options are going to be organic. There'll obvious be an aloc cart item, but at least it gives parents an option to select that if they want. Uh the uh organic valley uh honest the honest apple juice, the Annie snacks,
all organic. So kids will uh enjoy those. Thank you. And this is just a little picture sample of what some of them will look like. Thank you everyone.
Thank you so much, Vinnie. Thank you. So that picture of those lunches, so that's actually what's going to be served at the elementary school levels as well as well as the middle school levels. Correct. Correct. So does anybody have any questions for Vinnie and his team? Yeah, I do. Um,
first of all, thank you. I've gotten had the pleasure of working with you in many different capacities, whether it be getting the kids the snacks for their birthdays or working together for school events, and you always go above and beyond. So thank you Vinnie for that. Um secondly I want to say um just watching
this process take place um and your interaction with the community the parent group and the student groups at the schools and getting feedback I think proved paramount in making this beautiful plan. Um and I think that the feedback from the students that I've heard a ton of whether it be you know my
kids or kids um in you know that I interact with is that they love the buffalo chicken and that they really enjoyed these new options. We just did a uh a nice uh tasting on the uh on the popcorn chicken and it was a big hit. Thanks for coming up. And can I have
more? Can I This will be This will be an option every day next year. Thank you. Yes. And I heard the sauces were great, too. Yes. And the sauces. Yes. Thank you. So again, the reason why we wanted to do this was just we've never really had a full overview of how the school lunch program works in Marorrow, what we
offer, what's new. Um the breakfast program is something new. So last year we were mandated by the state for DeFino. This year we were mandated for Robertsville Memorial, but as you know last year we said we're going to pilot the one that we have and then roll it out districtwide. The the only thing is the
implementation. We we're trying to figure out now logistically what's the best implementation whether it be before the bell, during the bell um and how that would look like from a logistical standpoint when the kids are coming into the school. Um but again I have two more
questions. I'm sorry. Um my first question is I know that there was discussion about organic milk options. Is that something that's coming across the table anytime soon? It'll be there September first day of school. Awesome. And then uh lastly, is there any plan for education for students about making
better choices? I know that we said that there is the offer versus whatever I forgot what. Yeah. Um, but I feel like some of the younger kids don't have the knowledge to make those choices when looking at all of the options. Does Chartwells um do any type of student
education or have any programming that's rolled out for teachers? Yeah, we can talk. Well, we do have a discovery kitchen program um which can be run in a couple different ways. You know, a lot of times it's done almost as
like a tasting event in the cafeteria, which is a great way to get the kids to tr to have an opportunity to try new foods, especially if you're going to bring them on to the menu. But if we do it during the lunch period, then you can be limited on like how much education you can do. Sometimes what we do is do
it um I don't want to say assembly, but like I want to say assembly style where it's like we pull like a whole grade level down to the cafeteria outside of service and do a little bit of a bigger presentation that way. I mean, that's something we'd be happy to get together. Um, I think it just depends on the
district interest and support, you know, because you're pulling kids from class to do something like that. Um, or if you have a wellness committee, that's something that would be a great initiative for the wellness committee to take a look at because there are opportunities out there for like integration of nutrition education into
the to either as enrichment or part of the curriculum. I mean, there's a lot of fun ways to look at that, but I I think if you have a wellness committee, it'd be a great like focus for a meeting topic. Thank you. And again, and before we take any more questions, I just wanted to say
um you know, Charles has been phenomenal here and um you know, I know the concerns that Mrs. Balomo brought, Mrs. Gandhi brought uh to me. When I went back to them, it was like night and day. They just took it and ran with it. there was no hesitation on trying to meet our demands and meet our our concerns with
some of the food we were offering. So, you know, thank you for that and everybody on that team is a rock star when it comes to administering the food program here in Marboro and we love the feedback. Thank you. One other Oh, sorry. I just wanted to touch on Mrs. Balma. Thank you for bringing up um we
also have that in our health curriculum. So, um, we can certainly, um, I know Vinnie is here, um, as as this Vinnie said, Mr. Palro, uh, goes above and beyond. So, I know, you know, you're from Chartwells Corporate.
Um, you need to really understand that this gentleman here is he feels like one of ours even though he's yours. Um, and he treats us that way. So, I'd love to partner with you and some of the resources you have and and kind of help tie in our curriculum so we can so we
can help educate our kids. Another great program is the food committee meetings that we have at all the school. Uh we have three per school per year and that's a great way to get the kids involved too and we're you know occasionally we would love to have
somebody attend and be nice. Thank you. Um, so a few things, you know, as a parent, it was actually really nice to hear that the food that we buy at a supermarket versus what is given in our schools has less sugar, less sodium,
which I wasn't aware of. So, thank you. That's that's really good information to share. Um, second, I can attest to Vinnie being very accommodating. Before I became a board member, I had come to a board meeting uh many years ago and had one of the things I mentioned is that we
needed some more vegetarian options made available for kids and he I think you immediately did that. Um it's it's been a big hit. Thank you for that. So thank you for that. And the only thing I would say for this I mean great options but I would like to see a little bit more of
that vegetarian stuff kind of implemented as well. Okay. We're incorporating the uh new nuggets uh that we have. Uh, I apologize. Morning Star. Morning Stars. They're part of our program. Perfect. Yep. All great stuff. Thank you so much
for doing this and thank you for being accommodating to even like one parent making a request, which again I was back in the day and you helped. So, thank you very much for that. Thank you, Sue. And then, I want to thank you too, Vinnie. He is
so accommodating to I have talked to so many parents that have would comment contact you about a child needing gluten-free whatever and you're you just take care of the situation right away. So thank you so much for everything you
do and I love the presentation today. It was really an eyeopener. So thank you so much for being here. Thank you. I'm just going to second what Mr. So balone said about Vinnie cuz I know Vinnie for many many years now back to the early 2000s and he's simply amazing. Everything he does is amazing. He really cares about
this place. This is his own kitchen, his own home. It's home. Yeah. So it's home for him. So thank you Vinnie. Yes. So I just want to say so everybody knows cuz he doesn't probably brag about himself but for the last three years I've nominated him for director of the year
in the Mid-Atlantic which is New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York. and he won it two years ago for that entire area. So we definitely gets recognized for the great job that he does it here Marorrow for you every single day. So I just
wanted to point that out because I know he will not do that. So I want to know why we don't have him as director of the year for all three years. Yeah. Yes. Who will follow? I I just you know see if there's any other comments.
So first this is my first being exposed to this district. So, you know, I didn't have any real experience with you, but boy, feedback and the reaction people had to what you were doing, how well they really received
meals and services. Thank you so much because that made it extremely easy for me last month when it came time to do my rules for your agreements and contracts to say, "Hey, I have no res." So, I appreciate that. Um, I just had a couple of questions and again because
I'm not so familiar with it. One is we Maybe sometimes maybe we can do a tour of the cafeter. Yeah, no problem. To see it in action worth, right? Um because that that would answer my question like you said on the
transitioning from commodity based meals to you know more onsite prep, you know. from scratch. I assume that you mean you do that all on site here on one of the schools. Yeah. Each school location does each school location does their own scratch cooking. That's great. And I and
I want to pick up on the with the education to our students, you're buying you're using products that every parent uses in their home every single day. the more that they see that you're using it. It's a level of confidence that they
have the same knowing that I'm making them know what we're doing in our schools at home. And then um the other question I had was just the breakfast program. I know we're following out district
Um, does that mean that it's available to any student who walks in that day? Correct. Or do they have to sort of previously sign up and if they sign up, they get breakfast, but if they don't sign up, there may not be breakfast. That's that's details that that we were talking about, Mr. Yeah, that's so that's all part of the logistics of how
we want that. If it's if it's before the school day starts, it's usually just a drop off method. But if you do something where it's breakfast during the bell, there's going to have to be some type of signup sheet or something, some roster to know which kids are getting breakfast and when. But regardless, all students
will be allowed to participate. Yeah. Okay. So, we'll just have to make sure that and that's something Yeah. We're going to meet with all the principles together to see what model works best for everybody because the middle school model might be a little bit different than the elementary one.
Thank you very much. Okay, just one more. I was going to talk about it later in my security u speech, but during my I did security tours of all the buildings I'll be talking about later, but I went into many of the kitchens. I have to tell you, the kitchens were spotless. Everything in its place, everybody, you
know, they were all there working. It was during the day, the regular day. Nobody knew we were coming in and they were amazing. They were spotless, amazing, clean. You couldn't see a piece of dust anywhere. It was really great. Thank you. I just have a comment about um actually and thank you for this. It
was eye opening. I mean my kids have gone through the the schools here and I've seen it in action and to your point it is very clean because I've I've been here before. Not your thing I think more for the district. I just want to say that um helpful on the systems itself to
pay for the lunch right and so I just want to say that that's I think we I know we use pay schools and then we can and we pay that way. I just want to say on that point um tied to the lunch super helpful there too. There's uh the ease of auto debit because when they want to
buy things all day um and you can even set a little timer to end at the end of the year. So I was able to schedule when it will stop charging me. And so I just want to say shout out to the district too for um allowing us to have that flexibility. So thank you. Unless you're
my son and he buys people lunch but it's yeah that happens too. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. I apologize. Last thing, we are going to do a tasting just before school starts. This way we'll have all the product in
house and uh you'll enjoy it in August. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Have a good night everybody. Yes. So, um I sent over the last couple days, I've sent you a couple of correspondents regarding
from our bond council. Uh just some information for us to discuss just to get you a head start on so we can hammer down a an election date. So, we did have our referendum kickoff meeting on June 10th. It was Michael, myself, um the architect, the engineer, uh bond
council, Laura Bishop communications, and we really dove in really dug into basically what's the next steps for the process. Um what are the timelines? What do you need from us? How do we want this to look? Um, some of the things that were
touched upon were so, uh, the communications company is coming to Robertsville and Asher this week to do some sort of video for the website that they're creating and building for us. Um, once that website is ready for a draft, they will send to us for review. Before that even gets published, we have
to give the okay for that. Um, the architect basically received the preliminary approval letters for so the PEC letters for the project from the state. So, we are okay with that. We're just waiting for a final letter from them, but we are able to proceed with,
you know, the the resolution from bond counsel. Bond council basically was actually put together an analysis for us that I sent to you for basically the success rates of referendums for months. um we really picked his brain on it and
he b actually basically said he said you know December while it seems like a good idea he goes it just has every district is unique in itself for when it comes to referendums but December just has the worst success rate. Um so he figured that he
he was trying to pivot away from from us selecting December and that goes to the point that you raised too about maybe December is not the best one. Um the highest success rate was actually was April but that was only 10. Um so the quantity is not there. So when you
actually look at the numbers it really looks like January and November are the highest success rates but the most frequency seems to be September and and November when it comes to success rate compared to quantity.
Um, so when we were discussing it, we we thought, you know, based on some of these numbers, November is the way to go. I think, um, if not, then January. We're never going to make the September deadline. I believe he said in his correspondence to us today that if we
were going to do the September deadline, you'd have to do like a special meeting and it would be a big rush almost. Um, so if we do want to do the November deadline, we would have to get the resolution that he sent to us as a sample on the July agenda for approval. Um,
and then he also made up a good point about financing as well. So he said whether we take a short-term note or a long-term bond is really going to depend on when the election is. And if we take the November one, we will actually get the money before the calendar year closes out. And then when the budget
gets cycled through by July where we budget for to pay off that loan, you'll pay less interest than if you would have waited for December to get the approval. And then by that time the budget pro the budget approval may have passed already. Um and then you might be waiting 18 months instead of six months and you'll
be paying interest on 18 months instead of six months to pay off the um the loan. So that was a good point as well. But we also thought um from a savings perspective, just having it in November will save us about 50 to 60,000 on all
of that those costs that we talked about the last meeting when it came to the election cost. So that's something to to basically put back in or not even have to shell out and we'll just do it in the general election. Um the reason we tried to stay away from the general
election is because of the frequency and the of how many voters come out and also the nature of the election. It is a governor race. So it is it is a bigger one where this may we were afraid that this may fall on in the shadows as as not really being a topic of where people
will want to learn about or be interested in. So, um, but I think that's that's the best bet. And I think from a fiscal standpoint, that's the best savings for us is just not having to shell out all of that money, especially when we're already doing other stuff that that we're trying
to basically promote this. Thank you for that. And thank you, by the way, for sending the correspondence because that was super helpful. Um, well, you said the resolution. you'll probably talk more about next steps and I don't even want to chime in yet. Yeah. So the um so the next steps really are
so that sample resolution he sent to us that would be on the July 22nd meeting for approval. That is basically the res resolution that needs to be approved by the board so he can send everything to the the county office for the ballot for November. And right now I know when I
was asking the questions um sorry about that in the last meeting I slapped this. Um, we're on track though, right, for November still. We're okay. I was concerned of running out of time. Yep. So, we would have to approve it in July to get it on for November. That's the latest we could possibly do because I
believe he said um for the general election, it's 74 days, but for special elections, it's actually 60 days. So, that's why he said like the September one, unless you do a special meeting, you're never getting on for September. So, we have time for November, it's 74 days. Okay. And then the other piece is
I know you had a good meeting um on the 10th and that's great. What um for the Laura Bishop firm is there a road map I know you said about the website being created and I know you had some other information just for everybody's
knowledge. So they're getting um feedback from Robertville and Asher principles. they're going to get like a couple of testimonials when it comes to like what they're experiencing in the in the schools and the classrooms without without air conditioning, especially at this time of the year. Um because I know the end of this week is going to be a
little bit warm. Um they're going to put a video together. They're really going to come to myself, my building and ground supervisor was also on the meeting as well. They're going to come to that for us for the more in-depth knowledge to really give them to put on the website. They're going to basically
design all of the advertisements that need to be going out. They're going to design a video the web page. They want to put together a committee of stakeholders maybe from the communities of Robertsville and Asher um administrators. I believe it was some board members but they said normally you don't operate a board as a board as a
whole. So the way we want to pass through that committee into the board would be something where we would we would report out each meeting or we would have events. I know they said that they wanted to host an event possibly in the fall. Um, I think they said October or September where they would have almost have like a a town hall and it
would be held virtually or public or in person depending on what we preference. They just said virtual might actually reach a lot more people that can't come out here and ask questions. So, it might actually create more exposure that way. I just know we're not too keen on virtual meetings, but we might hit more
households or send a message or a joint, right? because a lot of times I'll broadcast something that'll be in person but there's a option for like a hybrid approach where they can do both because I agree that not everybody can make it but virtual only is like
but they would run that and orchestrate that as well. Um and then I know we had discussed if we want the full board to attend we would just have to post it as a as a special meeting for for referendum purposes. Okay. I know you're looking at me for more questions. No, I just wanted to make
sure. Is there I know you had sent uh a ton of information which was helpful. Is there um anything else from the board right now that you need or you're just going to update us in the meetings? I know we talked about you did send us communications by the way over the last few days just saying are there other
things that will come along the way or we're going to you're just going to send as we get them? The only thing that you'll see that we don't have yet part of the part of the the team is a financial adviser. Um, normally even through EIP, um, I know in EIP we had I believe Andrea Khan who served as our financial adviser and they're the ones
that's actually secure the funding for us, whether it be a note or a bond. Um, so that's that's the only piece. I've reached out to two or three for a proposal to see what they would they would offer us depending on the size of the referendum. So that's the only other piece you may see on the agenda in July
is to approve uh a financial adviser for the referendum. And then note versus bond, right? because in the last meeting you talked about we we could pull from this to pay or whatever it might be. Does that a formal vote? Uh no, it just really that that comes under the guise
of us whether it can be a short-term loan or a long-term loan. Um if it's a note, we're going to do a short-term loan and if it's a bond, it's a it's a long-term loan. It just it depends on the timeline of securing the funding and when we're able to pay it back with the the reserves that we withdraw withdraw.
So you never want to just secure a note, have a payment date, and then we don't have we didn't withdraw the funds yet for for reserve. So it's just really a timing issue when when it's approved and when we can expect the funding. Okay. Thank you.
I just wanted to say thank you uh for doing your research. I know you suggested the December back when because you thought it would be a better option and then you actually did research and you're like that's not. So I think I'm pretty sure that the community also
appreciates that. So I just wanted to say thank you for doing that and being transparent. They were very much in that any way that they can help support. So we need them to be part of our communication strategy to get the
message out. The same is true for parents. I want to say the same is true for our teachers involved. Whatever we need to do, please make sure you think about
this whole communication strategy. We've got a great event coming up in September model and we should think about how tomorrow that we are going to be there anyway. Yeah. And I think um we are going to try to once the school
year starts again, our heavy outreach to all all those organizations, whether it's Michael or myself, we're just going to speak to it, whether it's, you know, someone from one of our committees that comes out to speak with us on the referendum and the importance of it. And then Marorrow Day is definitely an event
that is going to help us spread the message on on why it's needed. I even thought as much as putting a tent up with an air conditioner in there and hoping it's hot out. and saying this is how our children feel. But um I just think we
Yes. Um we just we we have a lot of avenues to to explore when it comes to spreading this message, but we also have a lot of work to do. So great. Well, excited to see the work that's happening this. I just want you to point out don't forget the senior citizen component
because that's a very important piece so that they feel part of the community. So if we make sure the um they're notified of the need of the true need and I will be happy to help with that.
Some of that actually started. Yeah. So, we're actually So, the the sign out front, too. We've I've already talked with the township administrator to try to utilize that to promote it. And then when we start doing the blast of um materials, I mean, it's going to be everything from we'll do blast to
promote the events that we have like the town halls. We'll do blast to promote just the actual referendum. Um what we've learned in the past is is pumping just like a small index card with tons of information. No one is going to want to read. No one's going to want to spend time on understanding. So we really need
to just be like a bridge to allow them to access more information or ask questions. I think you learn the most when you ask questions rather than just, you know, getting a mailer. Um, so I think that's the avenue that we really need to approach here is more of that
that onetoone uh setting or that that setting where it's live in person. They can ask questions and feel why it's needed rather than just reading why it's needed. Any other questions? Yes. So I actually So Sue Levy,
she left. Okay. Mesh Gandhi Good evening. Uh my name is Matash Gandhi and I'm a resident of Marorrow. I stand before you tonight to address one member of the board, Danielle Blommo. On June 6th, you launched a calculated and damaging attack on me and my family
across multiple social media platforms. You made false defamatory claims accusing me of spreading misinformation to the media simply because I shared an article outlining how you voted against an investigation into the Marbor Board of Ed's response of an alleged
molestation case. Let me make this absolutely clear. I did not contact the media. I did not seek them. I did not seek them out. Nor did I reach out to them or do they or did they reach out to me at any point. Your accusations are baseless, malicious, and documented.
Additionally, in other public statements, you criticized County Clerk Hanland's support for Garden State Equality, New Jersey's largest LGBTQ plus organization. You have repeatedly expressed your opposition to DEI, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and publicly made comments against the LGBTQ
plus community. As a member of the board of ed, you took an oath to protect every child in this district. Yet, you've chosen to make divi divisive, hateful remarks that harm the very fabric of this community. It is clear that your actions both on social media and in public forums contradict the values that
should guide a person in such a position of responsibility. Your post was not about defending truth or standing up for what's right. It was a petty and vindictive attempt to silence me, intimidate me, and discredit my efforts. It was an attempt to create an atmosphere where others too might be
discouraged from speaking out against your actions. But you failed. I will not be silenced. I will not be intimidated by your lies or your threats. Thank you to the rest of the board for allowing me to speak tonight. First of all, no one allows you to speak. It's public comment and everybody
has the right to speak. Second of all, Matach, you wake up every single morning. You're here till 9:00 at night with your children obsessing over me by name. There's several people in the audience who can attest to that. It has
become a crazy wild just obsession with myself all over the place. It's gotten to the point where the authorities have been contacted. You are a danger to myself and to my family and the things that you say and do scare every single member of
my family. I have asked for security against you because you are wildly obsessed with me to the point where every day 24 hours a day you are speaking about me by name. I ask you to stop. I ask your wife Adidi who is
sitting on this board to stop. You have completely attacked every aspect of my life and it is completely inappropriate and myself, my husband and my children are asking you to please stop obsessing
and harassing me and my family. Thank you. Anyone else? I have no one else on my list. Is there anyone else in the room like public? I'm sorry. I don't know how much test did this. All right. My daughter figured it out. I
couldn't. All right. Hi, my name is N Kadaka from Morganville. Good evening. Um, I just wanted to take a moment to speak about two things. First, I want to congratulate all the students uh who are moving up this year. It's such an exciting time. My own daughter will be heading to Memorial this year and we're absolutely thrilled for this next
chapter. Um, I also want to take a moment to sincerely thank the incredible teachers and staff at Robertsville. Over the past five years, they've not only nurtured her growth, but also challenged her to always do her best and become the best version of herself. Uh, we're truly grateful for the care, support, and
dedication that they've shown. I know Mrs. Bono had to leave, but I especially Mrs. B in addition to the rest of the teachers, Mrs. Bono has been amazing over the past few years that we've got to uh know her. Um the second topic I'd like to speak on is the technology
committee policy. Um now there's nothing more exciting than reading policy documents um especially tech uh policy but I'm really thrilled that we're formalizing this committee and putting a strong framework in place. With that said, I do have some comments for your consideration. Now I know Mr. Balone
earlier in his um I guess communications or whatever that section was did talk about a couple things that that's going on. So some of this might seem a little redundant because I didn't know what you were going to say. First, while Mr. Balone is appropriate leading the charge on developing and executing the plan, I
would want to see if we could add an optional use of external consultants or service providers, somewhat like a CIO as a service. This gives a district flexibility to bring outside expertise when needed, especially for long-term planning or when internal capacity is stretched. Of course, we would have to
go through a normal budget policy uh and transparency reviews. In addition, um I want to call out the language around adopting the plan based on emerging technologies. This is such a forward-looking approach uh that will ensure that district is up to date and
not followers. On that, I'd like to propose the idea of establishing a dedicated emerging technology review group. While the technology plan already includes flexibility to adjust based on new developments, having a formal group tasked with monitoring, researching, and
advising on emerging technologies would strengthen this approach. This group could include obviously district staff, instructional leaders, IT professionals, and community members um or industrial um industry adviserss. um and they would serve as a cap advisory capacity to the
technology committee right um it's the role would be to identify technologies with potential educational impact you know AI obviously AR VR adaptive learning platforms or and even uh cyber security u to make informed recommendation for further explanation exploration or pilot programs um having
this will ensure that new tools that we're not just reacting to change but we're prepared for the future uh while staying aligned with the district goals um equity standards and budget realities. I have eight seconds. Okay, I'll be quick. However, while many technologies are still emerging, in my
humble opinion, artificial intelligence or AI is rapidly becoming a standard operating practice in education. Um I recommend that AI be called out explicitly in the technology plan as a as a dedicated focus area. I suggest a plan to include guidance on best
practice for AI use in education educational and administrative context, acceptable use policies for both students and staff, ethical and privacy considerations, professional development for educators and administrators and
strategies to help students understand. I know I know you had a staff uh uh uh meeting earlier, but this is to help students understand and effectively use AI tools as part of their learning experience. Done right, this could be a big opportunity for us uh to lead rather
than play catchup. Uh thank you and I apologize for reading. I had a lot of notes here, so I just wanted to make sure I captured everything. But thank you. Thank you, Mr. Jackie. Congratulations to you and your family and your daughter. That's great. Thank you also for recognizing the teachers of such an
important component to what she was able to do with her team and thank you for recognizing that and then also just thank you for the feedback on the policy. Um you made some really good suggestions and things that I think some may have been contemplated in the context of what we can do with the
advisory board that we have advisory committee and where else we can sort of like continue to build on this. I really appreciate the the insight and the fact that you took the time to look at it. Other further anyone else if they want to comment. Yeah. Can I add something? So, uh we will have a communications
update later in the night. One of our primary focuses now is exactly that engaging community members for the advisory. And one of the priority so I serve on both the advisory and the communications committee is technology. So I know uh you're obviously an um
technology professional. So, be on the lookout for that if you'd like to contribute or know of other people in the community. I think if we could get the word out and get that spread because I I agree 100% it's important. Uh, and thank you for recognizing the Robertsville teachers and Mrs. Bono who comes to every meeting and is a fabulous
educator. So, thanks. Um, thank you for your feedback. Uh, Mr. Kadakia, you should know we we actually do have um an emerging technology um group in terms of staff members. However, I do like the idea of possibly
expanding that out to the community. So, we do have a vetting process. Teachers come. We have they they run through Mrs. Gross and then we evaluate um through our budgetary process um some of the emerging technologies that are coming down the pike. But I do like the idea possibly leveraging um the advisory
committee with with uh other stakeholders in the community. So, thank you for the feedback. I I have questions, but I guess I'll wait for your update, Chad, from the technology committee about the plan, the path forward. I'll wait for your update and then I'll ask then. Oh, no. My
update's on the communications. Okay. There no update on the tech piece. Have a tech update? I didn't see anything. I just didn't meet the policy. Okay, that's fine. Okay. Okay. I'll wait then for the
conversation after policy. Uh Scott Somaya Malro. Uh good evening members of the board and Mr. Bologn. I'm here this evening to discuss an important topic that affects all children of the district. It's my understanding that kids in the elementary schools get 20 minutes to eat lunch, which is frankly minimal. I have
firsthand knowledge that it could take up to 10 minutes just for kids who are buying lunch to grab their food. By the time they return to their tables, they barely have enough time to eat it. This is exactly why I think the district should look into extending lunch period by an additional 5 to 10 minutes. The
easy answer would be to shorten recess, but recess is an important part of the day for kids to develop social emotional relationships. Admittedly, I don't know what the right answer is. And while I fully understand that this matter falls outside the formal role of the board, I raise it here so that other parents who
may share their who may share similar concerns can also bring it to Mr. Malone's attention. I have complete trust in Mr. Malone's ability to address this in a thoughtful and appropriate manner, and I do not raise it to pressure or force any action. Rather, I appreciate that this podium and microphone give parents like me the
opportunity to speak not only to the board and administration, but also to fellow parents across the community. Remember, full bellies lead to clear minds that can focus on the task at hand rather than being distracted by how hungry they are because they didn't have enough time to eat. Thanks.
I I don't really have any comments. 20 minutes does seem like a very short time to to eat. So, I can investigate that for you and we can come back. I can work with the principles and see what we can do. I don't know if anyone solved the problem yet, but This is a very
important point. So, thank you. Anyone else? It is in the high school. I would just say the lines are very long to buy lunch and then by the time if they buy lunch and then by the time they sit to eat, they don't have a ton of time either. I'm with you. I understand that it is. My my kids pack their lunch because of that. So, no one's solved it
in the high school yet. No, I you know, to our graduates who are going off to high school, the secret is try to find the lunch first and start standing online or find the table closer to the door. That's the secret that Mike has shared with me. Thank you very much. Anyone else want to
speak tonight first round of public comments? I have a comment. I am just going to address the comment that was made towards me uh by Danielle. You want us to close public comments first or do you want to uh this is addressing the comment that
Danielle just made. one the person that came up Mr. Gandhi, he is a taxpaying citizen who has a right to express um the reasons why he supports or does not support a candidate.
And that's exactly what he was doing when Danielle was going to abandon the board of ed and run for county clerk. He was expressing his opinion. However, Danielle launched an a false
um social media campaign against him, basically saying that he reached out to media, etc. as a BOE um member and as a candidate
for county clerk, you don't get to attack a voter for expressing their opinion, for sharing information. That's number one. Number two, the falsehood that Mrs. Education and you're talking about she
sits there and talks about how people are attacking their families, attacking children, which again is falsehood. There is no merit to anything that's being said. Um I know this is the board of education meeting. I understand what
this is. You decided to attack another I mean this is not the first taxpaying citizen that has come here and spoken against you. You did the same thing with in the past. We are not allowed to talk about social media interactions. Mr. So I'm asking you as the defending this is
not on the agenda. Miss Gandhi has the floor. Finish your comment. and I'd be happy to let you respond, please. Thank you. Exactly. Um to sit there and attack someone and then to openly at a board meeting
say that a taxpaying citizen for expressing why he does not think you are a county clerk candidate and then saying you're obsessed with my family. You're obsessed with my children. There has never been you are obsessed. You wake up
every single day and you think about me every single day on Facebook. You write about me. You post about me. You're obsessed with me. I've asked Mr. Balone several times to please control you and protect my family. I have a chance to respond. I have a chance to respond. I
have a chance to respond. I'm not done addressing. This is out of control. This is wild. This is a targeted and personal attack against me and my family. You are out of control. I am here for the students of you are here to attack the
board of ed to go to county clerk. How much could you be about the children you got here? I am here for a respond. Every single day I put in hours and hours and hours for the students of
Marorrow. Adidi, your sole purpose and your husband. You come to the microphone and you attack me every meeting. First it was Mrs. Seawart. Last year it was Mrs. Mendes. This year it's me. Why are you here? To attack other board members or to get things done? Because every
single time we come to these meetings. I sit here with an agenda to get to work and you and your family come here to attack me as a person. You are talking about social media that has absolutely nothing to do with this board of education. It is time to focus on the
children, get to board business, and stop coming here to launch personal attacks on me, the person. Because I am here to volunteer for the kids. I don't get up there to launch attacks on you. I come here to follow the agenda, which is what we are supposed to be doing as
public servants and volunteers to this community. Enough is enough. It needs to end. It's every meeting. It's getting old. People don't want to listen to this, Adidi. They want to know about what their students are going to learn and what their town is doing in their
schools for their children. The end. generate another But it's the public. You are the only one that's attacked Mrs. Menddees. Miss Gandhi. You You Please
move on. All in favor? Mrs. Balomo. Mrs. Balomo. Mrs. Carrero. Here. A roll call. Roll call vote. Oh, you said here. Say
here. here. Oh, okay. Mrs. Gandhi back here, Mr. Hyatt here, Mr. Lansonsky here, Mrs. Mendes here, Dr. Msquitz here, and Mr. Cohen here. Thank you everyone. We're back in
session. We are going to continue with our agenda. communications. Uh, superintendent report. I don't have any communications. Uh, the superintendent's report, the HIV harassment, intimidation, bullying report from the time period May 16th,
2025 through June 12th, 2025, we had two incidents reported. Thank you. On meeting days, our next meeting is July 22nd. It will be a regular meeting. And then there we have 19. I'm going to move for approval of
minutes meeting the May 20th meeting which is also a regular meeting and executive session. I have a second Mrs. Carrero. Yes. Sorry, what was that? I'm kidding. Mrs. Gandhi,
yes. Mr. Hyatt, yes. Mr. Alonsky, yes. Mrs. Mendes, yes. Dr. Msquitz, yes. And Mr. Cohen, yes. We have 10 10 cops here.
Yep. So, this is the submission of the secretaries and business administrators report and the payroll certification for the month of May 2025. Yeah. So, the building and grounds committee um met on Friday, June 10th, and we did
a walkthrough of Abbott Early Learning Center and Marorrow Elementary School. At Abbott, we reviewed the finished generator um and we saw the components that were installed inside the building as well. We also did a tour of the playgrounds at Abbott to see which one we got for the
the recreation improvement grant that 88,000 that we got approved for. We saw the playground that we anticipate on on uh changing out. We also saw the preschool playground that was redone last year. I know some on the committee have never seen it. So, we wanted to show them how we made it ADA accessible
and how it looked. Then we went over to Marbor Elementary School and we reviewed some of the rooms that have had the split units installed already and are operational. And then we saw some of the rooms that did not have it and it was not on yet. So that is scheduled to be done in the middle of July. I believe
they're just waiting to hook up a couple of more uh rooftops on top and I believe it's four to every rooftop. So they're just waiting to to to basically connect those to have the whole building up and running. So, the whole bill building
will be up and running by September. Um, but they needed a couple of weeks extension to get everything finished and have more materials come in. Um, and then we did plan on going to more stuff in the fall, some more schools, and I know now on the agenda on the list will go to some of the cafeteria serving
lines, but then we also discussed some of the projects that are not finished. So, Dugan's exterior doors are going to be complete probably by the end of July. They'll be working during ESY on second shift, sometimes in first shift. And Asher will also have their their sewer
pump house replaced over the summer, too. So, that's a lot of the stuff from this year. And then next year, um we talked about some of the projects that are going to be happening with the the district-wide asphalt repairs. Um of course, our referendum, turning attention to that, but we'll we'll
probably go back out at a later date to see some of the items that were done before before school starts. See you. Yeah, just echo what you said and the the systems that you put in was a great great idea, great systems. The way it didn't impact greatly into the building
structure, they had their own units on the walls there. It was like Brian said, it was like we walked in right away. We said we knew right away that room was not on and turned it on and boom, had air conditioning in minutes. I have something to say. Um, thank you again for that update. It was really
good. Um, and thanks for everything that you're doing. My question is this is a board committee and shouldn't Mrs. Balomo being the chair of buildings and grounds because I've noticed every single meeting you're giving an update. I'm just trying to understand because I know there were
concerns that she wasn't on a lot of um committees but then she can't fulfill this responsibility of giving an update on the board meetings. So, I'm just curious why you're giving an update. Mrs. Palomao is the chair and she was in attendance and
she she read the last write up and I gave her a write up also but she's just not here so I I stepped in and gave the update. Okay. Thank you. Can I just ask a question on the the pavers um for Memorial? Vin, I know you were going out
for um you said something Vinnie about the bids for the pavers for Memorial how you had to go back kind of and redo that. Just is there an update on that? I know we installed the um tables outside in the courtyard and it was nice for the kids to go to lunch. Just curious where
that was. So, we've those tables I believe were provided by the the PTO. Um so, the plan was to change all of the pavers out and do a perimeter drainage system in there. The problem is the the bids were just coming in way too high. We bid it out three times. We had to reject it three
times. So, what we're doing right now is we're we're looking at an alternative to try to raise them ourselves and clean them. But we also are using the budgeted funds just to address the drainage issue. So we're looking to just on co-op or state contract just to address the drainage issue. And then when that's getting
addressed, we'll do a lot of work in the house when it comes to like the pavers or restaining them or or powerwashing them and stuff. Thank you. Yes. And when I said we, I meant the memorial PTA. We uh worked with the families and they raised the money for the tables. Yes. Thank you for the update.
Hold on. Uh, Miss Carrera is going to read that. Miss Carrera is going to read the communications committee update. Thank you for preparing this update, Chad. I mean, Mr. Hyatt. Um, the communications committee met last week to discuss new content needed for the
board section of the district website. We are working on that. Is this good? Okay. We're working on that and working to do a more complete highlight recap of our meetings which will be sent out to the township weekly
in a weekly email with a link to the board website for additional information. Part of that will include initial outreach to begin recruiting adviserss for the advisory committee. The initial focus for what for that is the four key areas identified by the advisory committee and those include
safety and security, crisis management, technology and community relations and communications which will be important as we move closer to vote on the budget referendum. The plan was to get all of these new updates and content ready to start rolling out this summer. So, we are fairly close and on track there.
Otherwise, we're working with the administration to support their communication effort however needed. The end. No, I just wanted to say I think the communications team has been doing great. I see like a lot of posts on social media about all the positive
things that our schools are doing and I know that um Mrs. Gross and Mr. Balone have a big hand in this. So, um, and also involving the township to get the word out. I know it's a new year and already in month five, we're already doing a lot of great things to kind of
re do the outreach to the community. So, I I want to say what an incredible job your um the communications committee is doing. So, thank you so much for all of that. We had our uh latest curriculum committee meeting on June 13th. Mrs. Gross discussed the funding for optimal
comprehensive universal screeners, the focus grant which MTS was awarded pursuant to uh PL 2024. Starting with the TW 2526 school year in September, all New Jersey
school districts must use universal screeners to gauge student achievement of key literacy skills in alignment with New Jersey student learning standards English language arts and JSLA ELA. While the district currently utilizes
various screeners and data collection methods, the focus grant will support the implementation of a state approved screener and pro provided targeted professional development for the staff. The district's grant application has been approved and has been uh awarded
$17,70 to support these efforts. We also discussed the title one power program growth. The overall growth was 41 points in reading and 58 points in math. The program also did a great job in engaging both students and families.
Uh the this program is uh presently administered at uh Defino and Robertsville. Thank you. Any comments or questions? Moving on to policy. We had our last policy meeting on June 3rd. Um we discussed a few policy. One
was 6162 which is corporate sponsorships. And I know um that we're looking to vis we're going to revisit this policy in July to align with um the superintendent's plan for public and private partnerships which was great. Thank you Mr. Balone for bringing that up and um ways of how Hello. going to
speak into it. No. Hello. Oh, here we go. Um, you know, ways we can actually generate um additional funds for our school for our district and how we can get um local businesses involved. So, thank you very
much for bringing that um to the policy committee. Also, we have um examined um policy 5200, which is attendance because we need to uh make sure that uh we regulate in order to address chronic
absenteeism and inform our parents um better. And then um there has been a continuous conversation on parent organizations policy. Uh Mr. um Cohen gave us a quick update on how it was brought up at the last um parent
organization meeting that they have at the um district office. So, we're going to keep them informed uh of the updates that we're making, getting feedback from them. It's a lot about partnerships with the parent organizations because we really do appreciate a lot all the stuff that they do they they do for our
district, for our schools. Um so we want to make sure that uh when we update the policy that we have and we keep them informed and um there are going to be additional policies discussed at the next meeting um which is uh 9200 9150
and 9180. Um and that's the only update for policy committee. Thanks additional comments on policy. Sure. Uh safety and security uh committee did not meet but however um
Mr. Bologn invited me to join in on a um a security tour of the schools. Uh was hello I'm back was conducted by Mr. Thomas Gambini who is a school he's a school security expert for New Jersey Department of Education and we did a
tour of all our school buildings uh to do a security assessment. The group consisted of Mr. Balone Tama director of security our principles of each school. I had custodians of each building as well as officers of the Marbor Police Department and Mammoth Prosecutor's Office. Mr. Gambina was very impressed
by our entry vestibules, procedures and security protocols and use the expression outstanding many times throughout our inspections. We were also given the opportunity to observe a shelter in place during which some of our staff members were given the opportunity to observe as well. I was very impressed by the actions of our
staff as they executed the drill. Our n uh our drill, our 911 and police response systems were tested as well. I would also like to comment all our buildings looked amazing as if it was the day one of school in September. Shout out to our amazing head of
custodians staff. You know, I'm very proud to serve in the district that takes security so seriously. would like to thank Superintendent Balone, assistant superintendent Morgan Gross, and our business administrator Richard Karella for the unwavering support of board security recommendations that we put forward as a board. Uh we will we'll
be discussing further and a full debriefing. It's my recommendation that we bring Mr. Gambino to a security um to executive session in the very near future so he can give his full report back to the full board and I think that would be very helpful for all of us. It was it was amazing experience I tell you
all just to see the shelter in place and to see the the the it's like a army drill. You everybody knows exactly what to do and to see how it gets done is I think everybody should really once once uh on the board again see get a chance
to see it. So thank you uh Mr. Balone for giving the opportunity We did. We we visited all eight schools. Uh Dr. Gambino actually mentioned most schools only invite him in for a few. Um and he was quite happy and impressed that we invited him to all of our
schools and the level of consistency that he saw um across our schools he was very impressed with. than the fact that he got to see every single one of our buildings. So, um our community should be proud and feel safe um that our our
students and staff and school community are uh the safest that they can be. is probably the highest most important thing. So, thank you for that. Thank you to your team who
pulled that off along with our council wants to come and earlier. We'll do an early executive session. So, here Yeah, he should just say not too early. The 6:30 was like rough, but
sorry for working. Any other questions for Mr. Security or anyone else? No, I just wanted to agree that you said Mr. Cohen, if we could have that happen, maybe normal executive time, but either way, if we could have him come and give the full report, I think that would be super helpful.
The committee reviewed uh um planned revisions to the special education summer curriculum which will include updates that align more closely with the general education curriculum as well as continued development of supplemental supports with many of the special class programs. Special services
administration also provided updates on the ESY program extended school year. A total of 164 students are enrolled in ESY and specialized reading services. The ESY program will run from July 7th
through o August 14th operating Monday through Thursday at Dugan Elementary School. In addition to academic instruction and social skills programming, students will also receive instruction in science, gym, and music. Specialized reading will be provided one
day per week during the ESY day, which runs from 8:45 to 1:15. Additional updates include plans for summer evaluations and meetings, as well as a scheduled presentation on district programs at the August Board of Education meeting looking ahead to the
2526 school year. Committee meetings have been scheduled for October, January, March, and June. Thank you, Dr. Any questions or comments for Dr. Thank you. That concludes our committee report. We're up to financial and
business operations matters. Sure. The superintendent of schools submits the following resolutions for approval. One, transfers. Two, list of bills. Three, secretary monthly reconciliation reports.
Four, travel. Five, harassment, intimidation, bullying report. Six, security drills. Seven, award of bid Chromebooks. Eight, award-f Chromebook cases. Nine, public law 2015, chapter 47. 10, end of
year transfers. 11, American Red Cross. 12, lead testing statement of assurance. 13, purchase of two vans and related services. 14, purchase of four buses and related services. 15. Approval of extension of agreement
with Transportation Consulting Services LLC. 16. ESCJ contract purchase Allegiance Trucks DBA Mid-Atlantic Truck Center for Repair Parts for Buses and Vans for the 2526 school year. 17. NJ State contract
purchase Johnson Controls Fire Protection for Fire alarm repairs, burglar alarm repairs, and related services for the 2526 school year. 18. ESCJ contract purchase Allied Fire and Safety Equipment Company, Inc. for fire
sprinkler repairs and related services for the 2526 school year. 19. ESCJ contract purchase Spruce Industries for Custodial Supplies and Related Services for the 2526 school year. 20. ESCJ
contract purchase AM Inc. Building management systems for maintenance and related services for the 2526 school year. 21. ESCJ contract purchase inline air conditioning for HVAC repairs and related services for the 2526 school
year. 22. Sourcewell contract purchase flooring concepts of New Jersey LLC for Patcraft Shaw carpet floor covering and related services for the 2526 school year. Number 23. ESCJ contract purchase
Hann and Floor Covering Corporation for carpeting, flooring, and related services for the 2526 school year. 24. Omnia Partners contract purchase USA Building Maintenance for roofing, siding, gutters, and related services for the 2526 school year. 25. Omnia
Partners Home Depot pro for maintenance supplies and related services for the 2526 school year. 26. before and after school care program agreement for the 2526 school year. 27. Transfer of current year surplus to maintenance
reserve and capital reserve accounts. 28. Contract renewal year 2 comprehensive custodial services for Marorrow Township School District. 29. Approval of 2526 school year breakfast and lunch prices. 30. Award of bids
special education related educational services. 31. Approval of agreement, Oxford Consulting Services, Inc., ESY. 32, Approval of agreement, Oxford Consulting Services, Inc. 33, Approval
of agreement, United Therapy Services, ESY, Summer Speech Therapy Services. 34. Approval of agreement, United Therapy Services, Speech Therapy. 35. Approval of agreement, NJ MJW Physical Therapy
LLC, ESY. 36. Approval of agreement, MJW Physical Therapy LLC. 37. Approval of agreement, MJW Physical Therapy LLC, ESY, Summer Physical Therapy Services. 38. Approval of agreement, MJW Physical
Therapy LLC. 39. Approval of agreement, MJW Physical Therapy LLC, Summer Physical Therapy Evaluations. 40. Approval of agreement, MJW Physical Therapy LLC. 41. Approval of agreement with Biata
Home Healthcare, Inc. for the provision of nursing service for case number 936 for the 2526 school year. 42. Approval of agreement with Biata Home Healthcare for the provision of nursing service for case number 972 for the 2526 school
year. 43. Approval of agreement with Biata Home Healthcare for the provision of nursing service for case number 974 for the 2526 school year. 44. Approval of agreement with Biata Home Healthcare for the provision of substitute nursing
services for the 2526 school year. 45. Approval of agreement all Care Therapy Services LLC ESY Summer Occupational Therapy Services. 46. Approval of agreement All Care Therapy Services LLC Occupational Therapy Services. 47.
Approval of agreement. All Care Therapy Services LLC Occupational Therapy Services LLC. I'm sorry. ESY. 48. Approval of agreement all care therapy services occupational therapy services. 49. Approval of agreement all care
therapy services LLC. 50. Approval of agreement Denise Aloyio MD LLC for the provision of neurodedevelopmental comprehensive diagnostic evaluation services for the 2526 school year. 51. Approval of agreement Freehold Child
Diagnostic Center Inc. for the provision of psychiatric evaluation services for the 2526 school year. 52. Out of district placements for the 2526 school year. 53. Tuition students for the 2526
school year. 54. Home instruction. 55. Approval of agreement educational services commission of New Jersey special education tuition. 56. Approval of agreement, Mammoth Ocean Educational Services Commission for Educational
Services. 57. Approval of agreement Mammoth Ocean Educational Services Commission for BCBA services. 58. Approval of agreement Leone Educational Consulting LLC. 59. Renewal
of district insurance policies for the 2526 school year. 60. Approval of facilities use fee schedule. 61. Acceptance of the 25 2025 funding for optimal comprehensive universal screeners comprehensive award. 62.
Recognition of parent organizations. 63. Approval of agreement with JMI Enterprises for the 2526 school year. 64. Approval of transportation agreement case number 9812526 ESY.
65 approval of transportation agreement case number 981 2526 school year. 66 ESCJ contract purchase Wolfington Body Company for repair parts for buses and vans for the 2526 school year. 67
ESCJ PEPPPM and New Jersey state contract purchase turnkey technologies for technology and security supplies and services for the 2526 school year. 68 amended resolution contract renewal year
three food service managed company contract 69 New Jersey state contract purchase Sioka Ford of Flemington for purchase of a Ford truck for the 2526 school year 70 ESCJ contract purchase
Neielson Ford for purchase of a Ford SUV for the 2526 school year 71 NJ state contract purchases I so move I read the whole agenda good Yay. And you're still alive. I read the whole agenda.
You're lucky I got this lovely voice. Just kidding. I knew exactly. I know you knew it. I knew you knew that. Can I have a second, please, Mr. Lansky? Any discussions? I just like to say it's it's nice to see
the our program and receiving tuition students for that. So, I know that was a a goal of ours and I think Mary Elizabeth is gone, but congratulations on that. Thank you. Any other questions or discussions or comments for this? Go ahead. The um before we vote, so item
number 52, the out of district student placements, we just need to adjust an amount. So for case number 947, the extraordinary services 1 to18, the amount should read 49,500,
not 45,000 for the tuition rate and then 8,250 for the ESY rate, not 7,500 250. Any other discussions on this? I had Yes, I had a couple and I know we
just went through like 70 of these, so I just circled a couple of questions I had. The first one is on item number one, but really just in general, there's a couple of places where we had reallocation due to higher than budgeted for whatever reasons it may be. Just a
question on that piece. when it comes to reallocation, you know, due to higher than budgeted, just saying it wasn't not you, just asking in general forecasted, right? Or sometimes due to raising costs or so forth, you have to pull from somewhere else, right? I just wanted to
make sure of that. Yeah. So where wherever we have excess um usually we pull from to cover for a shortage in this scenario like the large one at that's the substit ever since we have that expanded uh sick leave law. It's very hard to determine how much
substitute cost you're going to need. So we try to budget an increase each year, but unfortunately sometimes we just need to pull from other areas depending on if someone goes out on leave or temporary leave and we pull from if you'll notice the the salary lines and put that into
the substitute lines and still using um leveraging ESS at times. Correct. Correct. Yeah. Okay. Correct. Yep. Okay. And then my other question was on item number 15 which is the approval of
extension of agreement just for those who are not reading it with transportation consulting services. So we talked about it says here that it's needed just through July 21st of 25. Just from now until July is all we
needed for. So, our new supervisor is starting July 21st and technically as of June 30th, we will not have any supervisors down there. So, we were just asking for coverage during our ESY program for a few days in July until our new one starts. Okay. Thank you for
clarifying that. Sorry, I'm just going back through my notes now. Number 29, which is about the school year breakfast and lunch prices. I don't remember all the pricing off the top of my head. Just curious to know, are these the same? Did they go up? I
know there was I saw like premium versus nonpremium. So, did they fluctuate? So, I believe they all went up a quarter. Okay, thank you. And then let me just go back through. I think that was all I had.
Yeah. And then there's one in here on just the transfer or the allocation just I'm going back through it now. I have to go back and find it in all the pages I was just circling. Give me one second. Okay. Number 27 which is just the
transfer of current year surplus to maintenance reserve and capital reserve accounts. Is that just a an overall approval that when you need to transfer, we're just saying you could transfer if needed? Is that correct? Yes. So, I have to set my thresholds in June. This way,
when we do our audit and we find out what our surplus is, I can go up to that amount because if I shorted myself and I had more, I wouldn't be able to put it in because we didn't have the the resolution in place. Okay. So, it looks like it's up to a million and into a capital reserve account and in the by
the end of the year, it can go up to two million. Is that what that's saying there? Yes. Okay. So, actually it's saying maintenance reserve can go up to a million and capital reserve can go up to 2 million. Yep. And that's because we want to pay capital reserve for the referendum approval. Absolutely. And so
then throughout the year then you're saying when transfers have to be made it can go up to 1 million or 2 million depending on the type of account. Correct. Right. So this is all depends on the the end of the fiscal year. So whatever our bottom dollar is in our surplus is left, we can now play the game of transferring to capital reserve,
trans transferring to managers reserve, building our surplus base where I show you in the budget. That's like the starting base that we use for our budget. So this just gives us the the flexibility to be able to do that. Okay, very helpful. Thank you. No other questions for me.
Thank you. Mr. item number. Sure, Dr. Msquitz. Um, yes to all except for on travel. Um,
under board members Danielle Balomo to attend the spring school law form. We can't hear you, Sue. I'm voting yes except for on travel the section where it says uh board members Danielle Balomo to attend NJSBA spring
law school forum. I voting no on that. Okay. Thank you Mrs. B. Mrs. Carrerero. Yes to all except number four on travel. Uh no to line item seven under board
members Danielle Balomo to attend the spring school law forum. Mrs. Gandhi. Yes to all um except for under number four travel under board members. um line item I guess would be one under board
members um saying no to that. Mr. Hyatt, uh yes to everything. Uh under board members, I'm sorry. In order yes to the second leadership and abstain
from my item. Got it. Yep. Okay. Mr. Alonsky. Yes. Mrs. Mendes. Yes. But I have a question after this. Do I ask it now or after? I'm sorry
because it's now it's come up and now I have a question. I'll vote yes and then I'll come back. Okay. So, yes, Mr. Cohen. Yes. Second item first item for members. you have a question.
I did. I've I haven't seen this happen, so I'm going to ask Mr. Gross. People can vote how they want, and I'm not here to say if it's right or wrong, but I do want to know then how we, you know, we uh for whatever reasons, it's not my business why people voted no or
abstained or yes, just what do we do then in the future? are we I I just want to make sure we're not setting a precedent of we're stopping a board member or whomever from a level of professional development. So, I I've never seen that happen. And so, I'm just bringing it up to say people can vote
how they want, but and I don't have to agree or agree, but that that's my stance on it is that professional development is encouraged. And let me just add to that. Um,
professional development has been denied or I shouldn't say denied. People have voted no for professional development. Some with reasons, some without reasons. I don't think anybody on this board is saying professional development is not valid. I think when we look at professional development, let's look at relevant to the role that the board member plays. I'm just going to leave it
at that. But I think the statement that it's never happened before it it's happened in recent months. So I'm only speaking on what my statement was was for a board member because I know that people had comments about a level of professional development. It's definition of it. I'm not saying that. I'm only speaking I haven't seen it
happen for a board member. That's my only statement. I understand people had comments. That's all. And I don't It has happened for board members. What I'm saying. I haven't I don't remember that. That's why I'm asking. Okay. It happened in February and I think in in March as well. I I don't want to get into this. I think we all voted for why we voted for
this. No, I didn't even ask why people voted a certain way. Go ahead. Yeah. Um and I know people have I believe other people other people have abstained from this also um from the equity expo because that's something that I definitely remember. So, I'm voting no
on this conference due to a consistent pattern of misinformation and political manipulation by the requesting board member. She has blocked others or tried to from attending equity focused events based on false claims, misrepresented information during board discussions to support her agenda and inserted herself
into meetings in ways that discourage open dialogue and alternative perspectives. Given her track res record of distorting facts, I do not trust that her attendance would serve on the board's best interest or that we'd receive a fair or accurate report from the event. Professional development should be rooted in good faith and this
request is not and this was denied from equity events and other things that have happened even beyond here that we will not get into. Um, but yeah, I don't trust the information. Um, and I don't know if it would do us any good if this
one person went. Thank you for your statement. I I wasn't asking. It's not my business why people vote a certain way. So, I know you shared that and you had that written statement. Again, just to clarify my own. In this instance, I saw that the votes tallied indicated the board member
could not attend. In other instances that you had referenced or that were referenced, people could have abstained, right? Including myself at times, what I'm saying is is that in the instance this board member now can't attend, which didn't happen in the last instance. So that's the part where I was
just asking certain questions of like what happens in the future. That's all I was asking because you were able to attend. Correct. Absolutely. But what if more board members voted no to inequity? No, no, you're right. I'm only referencing that people can vote however they want. I was just asking what happens if this I I just don't want I
just want I understood your reasoning. I wasn't asking but that's why and yes I abstained from one and I and I acknowledge that it just it didn't pass. That's why I was asking what happens now. That's all. So I guess she can't attend. It's not that
votes no to attendance. It doesn't mean it's a question of whether or not the board is approving the reimbursement that session. Thank you for clarifying. So, so the board member can still go. I can pay for myself. Correct. This is
whether or not it Thank you. And thank you for the clarification, Mr. Gross, because that's where I was like, what happens now? If it didn't pass here again, I abstained from a previous vote, it still passed. So, in this instance, I just want to make sure board member can
still attend. They just have to pay out of pocket is what you're saying if they would like to attend. We're we're just approving the cost. Thank you for clarifying. Any other questions or comments on the next one?
Sure. The superintendent of schools submits the following resolution for approval. Number one, interscolastic athletic competitions fall sports 25 2025 2026 school year.
I so move. Thank you. I have a second. Any discussions? Mr. Carell, please. Mr. Alonski. Yes. Mrs. Mendes. Yes.
Mrs. Carrero, yes. Mrs. Gandhi, here. Mr. Hyatt, yes. Dr. Msquitz, yes. Mrs. Balma, would you like to vote on
curriculum matters? Okay, Mr. Cohen? Yes. All right, moving on to personnel matters. Hi, would you read personal matters? I'd love to. It's it's not 70 items. Uh personnel matters. The superintendent
of schools submits the following resolution for approval. One, retirements. Two, resignations. Three, employment uh certificated staff. Uh four, employment instructional assistance. It's a lot though.
Uh five, employment school aid. Six, employment maintenance mechanic. Seven, reemployment certificated staff. Eight, transfers, reassignment, and amended salaries. Nine, speaking closer. Sorry, it's hardest to turn these pages.
Nine, transfer support staff. 10, transfers noncertificated staff. 11, reassignment and transfers certificated staff. 12 stipened additional duties confidential administrative assistant nurse or 13
nurse substitute caller stipened 14 lead counselor stipened 15 lead nurse stipened 16 lead mental health stipened 17 stipen genesis and online program support 17 oh I'm sorry I read that 18
extracurricular activity and adviserss which is three pages is uh 19. Teacher Saturday school discipline program 20. Assistant Saturday school discipline program 21 substitute assistance Saturday school
discipline 22 after school detention. 23 substitute after school detention. 24 summer nurse work sports physical documentation protocols. 25, summer nurse work, review of allergy and
medication documentation. 26, child study team evaluation and meetings. 27, teacher summer IEP meetings. 28, special services evaluation coordinators. 29, 2025 extended school year program certificated staff.
30 2025 extended school year program for students with special needs specialized reading teacher. 31. 2025 extended school year program instructional assistant. 32 2025 extended school year special
education program substitute certificated staff. 33 2025 extended school year special education program substitute instructional assistance. 34 2025 extended school year program school
monitor. 35 2025 extended school year special education programs, substitute school monitors. 36 2025 summer work bus drivers. 37 2025 summer work bus attendant. 38. 2025
summer work substitute bus driver. 39 substitute teachers. 40 substitute nurses. 41 substitute instructional assistants. 42 substitute school monitors. 43 substitute bus drivers. 44 substitute bus attendant. 45 paid
medical disability leave. 46 unpaid leave of absence. 47 amended resolution leave dates. I so move. Thank you. And I have a second on this.
Thank you. Any discussion on this item? Will you call? So I just have some some readins for this section. The first one number 37 um we have to add someone under 2025
summerwork bus attendant. So a name to be added is uh Lisa Camarada. So she'll be added to that list for approval as well. Um she was she was not on the original list. So we have to add her for approval. So that's the first one.
Item number 37, 2025 summerwork bus attendant. We're adding uh Lisa Camarada. Is that the same rate? 2133. Yes, at the same rate. For number 29,
2025 extended school year program certified staff. For um two names, so they're on page 45. Sylvia Carney, instead of 1.5 hours of prep, it should be five hours of prep.
And that's in total for for ESY. And the amount should be changed to $2,965. Which name is that? I'm sorry. I miss Sylvia Carney. Sylvia. Okay, thank you. And then the same thing for Eileen O'Driscoll. So, it should change from 1.5 hours of prep to five hours and the
amount should be $2,965. And then one more uh number 26. Again, another name needs to be added to that list for child study team evaluations and meetings. So, uh, Karen Petracola, who is not on this
list, whose position is an LDTC, should be added to this, uh, this motion for an hours not to exceed of 70 for a not to exceed amount of $5,99.50. Can you give us the
Sure. Carrie Anne Petracola LDTC and that's it. Just in discussion, I just want to reference uh a past item. I know that it's not discussion here, but I do have to leave. Um, while I was outside giving
a harassment report to the police officers, I was retaliated against in this meeting by my travel being voted down by Dei Gandhi, Jenna Carrero, Chad Hyatt. Um, that is a right as a board member um, for me to be able to travel and do professional development. Um, and
I just want it on the record that while I was outside dealing with the attacks that I just suffered, um, I was retaliated against in this meeting by taking professional development opportunity away from me as a board member who has had the least amount of opportunity, um, to do professional
development and have taken the time off to clear my schedule for June 26th. And now I will not be allowed to go to that uh, because of their no vote. So, thank you. You're allowed to go. You just have to pay for it. And you voted no to other people's as well. Your your travel got approved and you're saying to me that I
can go to the professional development, but I personally need to pay for my professional development that's allotted to board members while you spend an excessive amount of money on factual information back with the board as do I. And I'm not having this conversation back and forth here. Thank
you. We're not having a back. All right. We have to do a I just wanted on the record that I did not vote no to retaliate against anything. I I stated my reasonal I wasn't retaliating. I was voting no. You're on record for expressing that. Thank you.
We have a roll call, please. Roll call for personnel as amended. Mrs. Carrero. Uh yes. Mrs. Gandhi. Mr. Alonski. Yes.
Dr. Msquitz. Yes, Mrs. Mendes. Yes, Mr. Hyatt. Yes. And Mr. Cohen. Yes. Yes. 6. Okay. Before we move on, Mr. Balone, do
you have retirement comments? I do. I have retirement comments for our three retirees. noted in uh item number one under personnel and the first one is uh our comments for Mrs. Yasmin Ali. Mrs. Yasmin Ali has faithfully served the children of the Marbor school district
as a speech therapist for the past 25 years. She has worked at Frank DeFino Elementary, Robertsville Elementary, and the David C. Abbott Early Learning Center. For the duration of her time here, Mrs. Ali worked exclusively with the preschool and kindergarten students.
Her specialty is developing strong articulation and communication skills, establishing the foundation needed for students to excel in their academic career. She noted that one of her proudest accomplishments is the relationships she has developed with students and their
families. She is held in the highest of respect by her colleagues. They often seek out Mrs. Ali for suggestions and guidance. In retirement, she's looking forward to spending time with her family. In particular, Mrs. Ali is looking forward to helping her son and
daughter-in-law care for their newborn. Mrs. Ali also looks forward to traveling with her husband, including an upcoming trip to the Galapicos Islands and the Amazon Basin. In closing, Mrs. Ali shared that she will miss the Early Learning Center, her
second home. Her experience and dedication will be greatly missed. We all wish her a very happy and healthy retirement. Congratulations, The second comments are for Andrea Denora. After 27 years of dedicated service to our district and the middle school,
Andrea Denora will be retiring from her role as a school aid. Throughout her time with us, Andrea has been a constant presence, forming meaningful connections with both students and staff. Her work, primarily assisting students and helping to supervise the cafeterias, has been
marked by a steadfast commitment to ensuring a safe and respectful environment. She carried out her responsibilities with enthusiasm and a commitment to our children. Andrea now looks forward to a new chapter in Arizona where she will be
reunited with her sons and daughter-in-laws and begin her well-earned retirement. We extend our heartfelt thanks to her for her nearly three decades of dedicated service and we wish her happiness, good health and
fulfillment in the years ahead. And finally, comments for Kimberly Jacobs. Mrs. Jacobs was hired as a school bus attendant on March 3rd, 2014. During her years of service, she has proved to be conscientious, proficient,
and thorough in the performance of her duties year after year. Kim's commitment to the well-being of the children of her roots has made her an asset to the transportation department. She will be missed for her upbeat attitude, personality, and adaptability. These
characteristics have made her a stronghold in the transportation department and an excellent employee. She went above and beyond to make everyday special for the children placed in her care. Kim would have books and toys on her bus daily for the children
to play with. She and her driver worked with a family to fill out the necessary paperwork for a make make a wish foundation to see a child's dream come true. Mrs. Jacobs has earned the respect of the parents, children, and her peers
throughout her years of service. We hope that Kim's retirement years are are happy, healthy, and fulfilling. Mrs. Jacobs will be missed by everyone in the transportation department. Congratulations. Thank you, Mr. Mo, Miss Ali, Mrs. Dora,
and Mrs. Jacobs. Congratulations. We wish you all the best in your next journeys and thank you for your combined 63 years of service to our school district. Um we we will all miss you. We appreciate your your time today.
All right. Um moving on to the next item. We're up to policy development community relations. Miss Carrero, would you read that? The super the superintendent of schools submits the following resolutions for approval. One, second readings. I so
move. That's the Oh, do you want me to read those? They're on here. All right. No, they're fine. They're they're on. All right. Um, can I have a second, please, any discussions on item number one,
second policy readings? My question was not on the policy. It was just on the after if it's voted yes for the district technology strategy, which I like. I know we revise it, what will happen next, right? Because there's a lot of
like key takeaways in there that are going to happen, but that might not be for this conversation. So that's okay, too. There's just some things like to implement in there. I think you had like your threeyear plan, I think, was in here, too. I'm assuming the tech committee is going to meet and review
it. That's just what I'm asking like what will happen after. I think it you know just my perspective you can jump in but I think the next step is Mr. Malone and the school district leadership sort of puts together the component of of
what's in the policy um and brings the technology committee and the board together. And you know what I like most about this policy is that it sort of elevates the importance of technology to a committee of a whole approach rather than just a technology committee. So it
really does allow us to have sort of input from everyone whether you're on the tech committee or not. Right. Perfect. Thank you. That's what I was looking for just what will happen. Thank you. There is no tech committee. It's the full board at the meetings. There is no committee meeting. Correct. Yeah.
It's a hole. It's a hole right now. Yes. We're rolling off. Yep. Thank you. Okay. Can I roll, please? Sure. Mrs. Mendes. Yes. Dr. Msquitz. Yes.
Mr. Hyatt. Yes. Mr. Alonsski. Yes. Mrs. Carrero. Yes. And Mr. Cohen. Yes. All right, we are up to liaison reports. Um, please combine your your liazison
reports with your school reports if you don't mind. Um, up first is Freehole Regional High School and Abid Miss for us. Yes. Filling in for Annette. So, thank you Mr. Messinger for Freehill Regional. Uh, their board meeting was
held last Thursday. They also recently had their spring awards ceremony. Exciting news that graduation at Marbor High School will be June 25th at 4:30. It will be the first event at the new football stadium. Um also approved a new 5-year labor
contract with the teachers union and hired a new athletic director at Freehold Burough High School. Moving on to Abbott. Throughout the month, uh they've hosted a variety of celebrations and parties to recognize the students. Field Day was May 29th and
it was a huge success. The PTO collaborated with the gym teacher to host a day of fun activities. On June 9th, the PTO hosted the annual spring fling. Students enjoyed spending an evening at school playing games with friends and family. And the chick
hatching program is always a huge success. Students loved caring for the eggs, playing with the hatchlings, and learning about their growth, development, and care. Thank you, Mr. Pero. Thank you, Miss Mendes. The next one will be Marbor Education in Dugan. Uh
Gandhi is not present at the moment, so we're going to skip over that. Um I'm going to go on to the next one, which will be Marbor Township and Middle. Sure. Sure. Thanks to Glenn Franco from the township. Marorrow Swim Club will have an open house on June 21st from
noon um noon on um more information and flyer will be on the township website. Uh MHS and all Freehole Regional Schools celebrate graduation on June 25th. Plan for extra traffic from about 3 to 6 PM and avoid the area to vicinity of Marorrow High
School at that time. Please note that the rec camp begins Monday, June 30th. Expect extra traffic in the area of Winrist Road near the rec center during drop off between 8:30 and 9:00 a.m. and pickup between 2:30 and 3 p.m. Especially the first week as parents and campers acclimate to the drop off
process. Marbor Day will be held on September 7th. Sponsor and vendor applications are now available. And from Marbor Middle, from Miss Milwaukee, thank you to the staff, parents, and PTO for another great school year. The June events were fitting celebrations of the school year,
and we'll end with an ice cream party planned for this Thursday. We're looking forward to September and already planning school events, including the open house for incoming students on August 22nd and 25th from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. Congratulations to the incoming eighth graders who will be our next class of peer-to-peer and conflict
manager student leaders. Have a great summer. And from Lauren in the PTO, the eighth grade dance took place last week at the Grand Marquee. We had over 300 students attend and the kids had an absolute blast. They danced the night away and had so much fun with the DJs, activities, and photo booths. There were
tons of giveaways, prizes, and favors. The kids wrapped up the night with cake, cookies, ice cream, and Sunday bar and cotton candy. Plus, they went home to the most delicious and beautifully decorated edible flavor favor. Thanks to our eighth grade committee members who worked so hard over the last six months to plan and ensure these kids made
memories that last a lifetime. But they didn't sleep for days after all that sugar. No, that's Last week, all eighth graders also received the keepsafe blanket. Hope they enjoyed cozing up it with it for years to come. Stop by the front courtyard at MMS this week and check out a special sign for our
graduates. Congratulations and best of luck to the class of 2025. Many thanks to our MMS families for the fundraising efforts throughout the year. Your support allows us to give back to our kids, staff, and school, and we are so grateful for to the community. Looking forward to another great school
year in September. Thank you, Miss I. I have an addition to that that's not on there. Um the um Marboro Middle School uh chorus and the band, the jazz band uh
had gone to Hershey Park for a competition and they came home with many many first place winners as well as the uh they had a soloist that was a winner. So, I'm very proud of um Marbor Middle
as and I also have to I have to compliment Mrs. Nooki. Um a number of the kids got sick on the bus ride home and she put on her grandma hat. This is coming from from parents that she put on her grandma hat and took care of all of
her little cherubs that were in her on her bus. So, thank you, Mrs. Noi for being so kind and worrying about all of your girls and boys. Thank you for for raising that school. I was just talking to Mr. We heard the
graduating class for the middle school graduation yesterday. Be great if we can get the six and seven. You know, and and on on that note, I have to say Marboro district, the school district as a
whole, we we excel in the three A's, academics, athletics, and the arts, whether it's music or um art art. the and you know it's it's such a pleasure to be able to be out there and when I meet other people from other towns and
when I talk to people that I know you know from the state and so forth and I'm so proud to be able to say that I'm a part of the Marbor school district because we just we just excel in everything and I'm so proud of these kids they're great and I and I'll just add and that's because we have an
administration understands the importance of the arts is when you go you look at the arts there's not a there's not a CA for the arts. There's not a statewide assessment that you're going to hear Mr. Balone talk about about the arts, but yet we care about the arts here and we make sure that our
kids have the right, you know, have the opportunities they deserve, whether it's music or art art or or theater, whatever, whatever portion of art it is. We, you know, so thank you again to district for understanding that importance. That's a very good point because, you know, in difficult budget times, some of the first programs that
get cut are arts, right? And it's great that this did not even put that on the map for us to consider. Thank you very much. That just, you know, moving along. Next one is the New Jersey School Mouth County School Board
Association. Yeah, I don't really have much of an update in Mammoth County because they're sort of on a hiatus, but I did notice on the website they updated their schedule for the new school year. So, the first meeting will be October 7th. Um and they'll they'll have the topics and
locations uh when registration opens up and registration will open up in August for the county meetings. So, uh for Asher, um June has been an exciting month to wrap up a great school year. Our gifted and talented students participated in their sci-fi convention at Marbor Elementary School. Our band
concert was a huge success, followed by our renowned PTA carnival and color run. The year was rounded out by some important and fun fifth grade activities including our grade five brain show assembly and barbecue moving up and an
ice cream truck. Uh we are looking forward to field day tomorrow which will actually be tomorrow. Um and final grade five clap out on Friday. Congratulations to all our fifth grade students and parents who had their moving up ceremony today, as well as the teachers and staff
for another fantastic year. Have a great summer. And I want to add um the principal, the vice principal, the PTO, um all of the fifth grade teachers there and the moving up ceremony was it went off without a hitch and those kids were just so filled with joy and you could
tell they have so much respect for those administrators and teachers in that building. So again, thank you for allowing us to go to those moving up ceremonies. I I have nothing but the utmost respect. My kids went to Asher and um I've known the principal for many years and I love that school and I thought they did an awesome job. So
thank you. Thank you. Yes. Um for NJSBA, let me go to my notes. Uh there was an article uh on June 16th, which was yesterday, from NJSBA about chronic absenteeism. So I thought it
would be interesting to talk about that for a minute since we talked about that in our policy meeting, too. Um so New Jersey legislators will consider legislation on Monday that would establish a statewide task force focused on reducing chronic absenteeism in schools. Right now, there are about 15%
of students statewide that were chronically absent from New Jersey schools during the 2324 academic year. This task force is going to study some root causes of why this is happening. They're going to discuss best practices and recommend ways to promote family
engagement according to this bill. A report will be due to the governor and legislature in six months after the task force convened. So, I thought that that was interesting that they're looking at that. Um, when it comes to Memorial, we uh, Mr. Pacificico and the school staff
would like to thank students and families for a great year. Uh, summer dates to keep in mind. Fall sports physicals are due by August 15th. Physical forms can be dropped off in the main office. Fall sports are soccer, field hockey, and cross country. Take a
look at the MMMS website for more information. The incoming sixth grade open house will take place on August 22nd and the 25th from 9 to 11:00. More information will be um emailed over the summer. Uh from our PTA, our eighth
grade dance was last week and it was a huge success at the Grand Marquee. Thank you to everyone that helped and to our vendors that were wonderful and amazing. Um and thank you to the PTA. Um, just so you know, they also want to thank the
PTA that served on this past school year's board. And we want to now welcome our new PTA. And so there will be some that are remaining in the same. And then there's a new um person. So our president will be Ivonne Lattis, our
vice president will be Fiona Chan, the treasurer will be Jane Grinberg, recording secretary Marissa Krauss, and corresponding secretary will be Chandisha. We do have some committees that will be led. The spirit wear will be led by Brienne de Santos, eighth grade committee by Jackie Masarello, and
the fundraising committee by Doris Swark. I just want to say the PTA is wonderful. I will miss it so much because I'm no longer here. But anyway, just a side personal note. Um, and that was it for me. Thank you. Last of the PTAs. Absolutely. It is my
pleasure to be here. This will be nice and quick. Robertsville closes out an amazing year with the fifth grade moving up ceremony tomorrow. We are proud of We are proud of our students accomplishments and efforts. We thank our PTO for all their support as well as our parents for
sending us such amazing kids. Lastly, we extend a heartfelt thank you to all the teachers who supported the growth of our students. We look forward to a restful summer and welcoming our students in September. Best of luck in middle school fifth graders. And they actually had an amazing field day um that I got to go on
the bounce castle and help kids get up the the ladder. So, that was fun. Um thank you all at Robertville for a wonderful year. As you can imagine, the month of June has been a whirlwind. The entire year has flown by so quickly. Our kindergarteners entered through Marbor
Elementary School doors in September 2024, not know not knowing what to expect. And now they will be walking out on Friday, June 20th, 2025 as first graders. They proudly celebrated Flag Day with happy and patriotic songs. They
and they all knew every single word. The audience of parents and grandparents smiled and cried seeing how their babies have grown and matured in 10 short months. Next, we had to follow up with our fifth graders who learned how to read, write, and do math in spite of co. Who would have guessed that everything
would have turned out just fine. The fifth grade moving up ceremony was a huge success. Moms, dads, grandmas, and grandpas, aunts and uncles attended the beautiful outdoor ceremony. The mug muggy weather did not deter Morell's students from having a blast today for
field day. End of year parties will be celebrated and then exactly at 10:04 5 p.m. on Friday, the teachers and staff will be turning your kids one grade older back to you for the summer. We wish you all a happy, healthy, and safe
summer. And from scope, there are no new updates at this time for scope, but they would like to wish everyone a wonderful, happy, healthy, and safe summer. We look forward to upcoming ESY activities, especially fun moments like the ice cream truck visiting the students. Stay
tuned. Thank you, Dr. Blitz. And I will on behalf of both CPAC and the team reports. So for CPAC, um CPAC co-leaders met with special services on June 9th for a quarterly meeting. topics we discussed, they were ESY and the back to
school packet information. Reminder that ESY will be from July 7th through August 14th and information regarding teachers and supplies should be going out by special services very shortly. Continue to check the CPAC Facebook web page throughout the summer for resources and webinars. And thank you to all the
parents, Marorrow Public Schools staff for their support during the school year. have a great summer and we're looking forward to a wonderful 2025 2026 school year. So, thank you for submitting that and behalf of um um we had an amazing fifth grade moving
up ceremony today. Thank you to our PTO and the fifth grade committee for beautifying our gym and making this a special place to celebrate this important milestone. Tomorrow we're charging ahead with field day. Please send us some well wishes that the sun comes out. But either way, fun will be
had by all. On Thursday, we have our last community event of the year with ice cream social organized PTO from 1:30 to 3:30 on the casino playground. And we end we end the year with our annual clap
out on Friday celebrating our fifth graders as they walk through the halls of the one last time. Our students and staff will have will line the hallways and clap and celebrate our incredible fifth graders. Thank you, Mr. Stratic, for submitting that. Okay, that
concludes our liaison reports and we are up to old business. Anyone old business? Mr. Lanski, as I uh mentioned last month, I'd really like the board to get together and have a conversation on on the amazing work we
did this year with respect and pick a theme for next year. Um, maybe we can start that conversation tonight. I know it's late. Real quick, throw some things around. But I'm looking towards kindness. I think kindness would be a great followup to respect. It kind of follows the same path. Gives the
administration a good footing to work on. I like to hear from administration as well what they feel and all of you. So, kindness. I I like going with kindness. I think it was also a theme with all of your speeches at the uh eighth grade
graduation. So I I think it's the perfect next step now that I agree. I think you've done some pretty amazing work with the respect pillar. So I would support that. I agree too. And one thing when we talked about the year of respect, it came up in a policy meeting that you had brought that idea up and
Mr. Bologn was there and he was agreeing with you and then you kind of ran with it. So I agree with kindness. I would say that to continue that you then Mr. and shared with us some things that you were implementing for the year of respect. So, I know you'll go back to
your team and come back, but I think that would be great. Like, what are the things that we're going to do like caught being kind or like campaigns that we're going to do? So, you had some really good stuff for last year. So, if we could just do the same, I'm with it. Digital comments.
Mr. What do you think? I love the idea. Um, so yeah, playing on on uh this year's uh year of respect, it'll be a year of kindness. Um, we we're looking forward to having our second annual community unity, which could also tie
into that nicely. Um, and um, you know, if there are any other new and innovative things that we can do around kindness, I know we we had done it many years ago and I'd love to bring it back and and uh continue on our pillars, right? we have that that's our next
pillar that I think dovetailes nicely um out of respect. I I thought think it was great how respect and kindness was mentioned multiple times at both graduations and everybody Brian your speech your speech really hit on it as well as the student speeches. So
everybody got it and I appreciate that. I think it's I think it's whatever we do and continuing with that this theme um builds on no matter what it builds on not only what's happening in the classroom but what should also be
happening at home. So I'm total favor of continuing with it. Um I love the year of respect. I'm going to enjoy and learn a lot more about the year. So thank you. This sounds like a great way of sort of, you know, continuing on on representing
and reflecting on our students. So, thank you. Um, any other new any other old business? New business. I just have one thing. So, starting for July 1, we're going to change the
process how we do board travel. Um, I know it has been mentioned in the past, but what we're going to do is if you want to attend something, you're going to tell me I'm going to put you on an agenda. Once it is approved on an agenda, you will sign yourself up and
you will pay for it yourself and then we will walk you through the process of submitting for reimbursement. I think it's just easier rather than keeping it on a master sheet or figuring out who's on what PO and going to what. I think if you want to go attend something, you
will get approved, pay for it, submit us the backup to get get reimbured for it, and we will put you on a on a bill's list to get reimbured, similar to how we do for when we go to to conferences. I have a question. And we will have to if you want to get reimbursed, we're
we're going to have to write it up. So, you have to provide a a write up of what you attended. you have to provide receipts for um registering for that training and yes it has to be approved before so when you
that's why I said you have to get approved first and then once you get approved at a board meeting you can pay for the training and register the registration date of the training and the payment of the training needs to be dated after board approval it cannot be
before or yep the same day it has to be after Okay. And and you have to write up your summary, too. Yes. For clarity, is this process the process you apply for all travel across the district or is this the process you're applying for?
I'm applying I mean, we have it for when we attend conferences overnight, this is how we handle our travel. Um, but when we go to things that can can take a PO that's unique just for our positions, we will do it that way. But since there's a lot of trainings that multiple board
members can attend at the same time, it is easier this way to just have you register for it and then reimburse because the way it goes now is I have to keep track of everything that comes in and then I also need to sign up on the school board's website for everybody and then they also want a PO number
associated with that sign up. So, just to keep it simplified and just have just basically like one unique PO number for say um a specific board member that wants to go to something that could just be a running total for you for the year to hit it against rather than just all
these different purchase orders. So, this this policy change you will you have to communicate that to the NJSBA so that they know or I wasn't sure to just register ourselves. I before us a note
that comes back and says you must contact your business administrator to register. There are some that require the BA to register us and then some we can just register for on our own. There are times that I just if you remember I just went I was like I'll just do it myself but I but there
are some in those instances I guess we should come to you if it's I'll figure out that logistic piece and if there's ones that need a proxy register then I will continue to do it. But I guess from the standpoint of just being able and then this also eliminates the delays that we had when certain people couldn't
get on to um a training or certain people couldn't get registered in time. So I think that will help simplify the I just want to say to your point it it doesn't solve for that though because in that case we missed the cut off because of the approval timeline of the meeting
which I understand right we can't control when the meeting is versus like when the registration opens I guess word of advice for us is register earlier or get it on so come so let me ask you this we come to you tell you we want to
attend we email you we want to attend something, you'll add it to the agenda, right? Is that how you'll do it? Yeah. Then when it gets approved next day, hypothetically, we can go in and register ourselves and then do all the other stuff. Is that correct? And if you're have having trouble registering,
then I would assist you. Okay. Thank you. All right. So, you'll have to definitely walk some of us through that process. This does not apply to the annual conference. the convention. Well, the conventions I I handle the registration, but that all
all that information comes out to you um after approval where you'll be able to go to their website and see what hotels are offered and again you'll be able to register. Yep. Okay. Thank you. Um I have one item also on the new business. Um Mr. and I
had an opportunity to meet recently with the PTO's and PTA leadership um at their year end meeting and one of the items that um Mr. Balone brought up was a conversation about the liaison reports um and how to you know ideas about how
to potentially um you know address them going forward with our board agenda. Um there were some recommendations and I would say um it was and chime in at any point but I think there there were recommendations that came from within the room um about delays on reports
about whether or not they were um you know whether or not there's any new information that was being shared here that is not already being shared in other ways that the PTO's and the organizations are sharing them with their with their community. Um and you
know Can we improve them and make them better? Um, and I think some of the recommendations that came from the room and and through conversation was to there were a couple of ideas. One was to potentially submit the the monthly
leazison reports and we'll include them in the agenda like we include other items and then we don't have to read them complete um item within the agenda itself. Another opportunity was for actually when we invite the to present
on student impact or um we have other presentations that we can include the PTO PTA in that presentation we get presentation from them so we get to hear what they're doing we get to see who they are and their leadership and get them to be a part of the overall school
experience for us um and then there were some thoughts about also including some links to Facebook pages or website pages where we can get you know provide more access to and things like that because logically things change or sometimes not every report includes all the events
that everyone's doing. And this would be by providing these links we would be able to sort of share a much more accurate or more timely level of information with people because the links are there and the information on their websites. Um, I'm going to pause there and say, did I
miss anything or did I or did I paraphrase or characterize anything? No, I think you I think you hit on all of the points. I think it's um it's it's fair to say that we uh fully appreciate everything that the PTAs and PTO's
um MEF scope um are doing. Um and we had this discussion where it was uh we determined that the goal we we asked the question what is the goal of the liaison reports at the board meetings and um there was a a discussion
about if the goal is to inform the community then maybe they should stay the way they are but we unanimously around the room determined that that was not the goal. the PTAs, PTO's, MEF, scope, they do a
really good job in communicating to the community on the upcoming events and perhaps you know what's going on. So they don't need any help with that piece. Um we we determined that um
recognition really was what our goal was. So, if that is our goal, um, we I liked all of the ideas actually and and we we we at that meeting, uh, all of the presidents, thank you for attending that meeting and and providing
your input. Uh we told them we would have a discussion here at the board, figure out what the board um determined to be the best path forward and then um they seemed pretty amendable to kind of any and all of these suggestions, but we told them we would come back to them
with uh a report on on how the board where the board landed in terms of the discussion. Um particularly maybe I don't know. I I kind of like the aligning them to the schools coming. Uh but then again, I like it written out in the agenda so everyone can see it. So,
you know, just open for discussion. Yeah, I think we can do a combination of both if you'd like. Um I don't want to speak for Michael or Mr. Alonsky and Mrs. Carrero, but we can as a if the goals recognition, we can as a communications committee figure out how we can do that more directly. So, it's
not just buried in an agenda, but it's buried in a highlights recap that we want to start moving forward with the PTO's, PTA. So I think we could support both of those things. But if you like as a communications committee, we could take that and figure out how we make those live a little more creatively than
this 80page agenda that nobody re I shouldn't say that. We have a few we have some very engaged community members, but including a lot of them still with us tonight. So thank you for that. Um but most people don't don't go through this agenda. So um we can think about that. But I I like where you're
going. If if if the goal is to recognize them and and showcase the great work that they are doing within the schools, we're not doing it justice in this in my opinion. So, um yeah, a couple of of thoughts on it.
Um yeah, so you're right. the PTAs and PTO's do a fantastic job of communicating out um to their schools and they could even broadcast it. However, I don't know how every single school does it. I could tell you about Robertsville. I could tell you about
Memorial, but I can't tell you every. But for I like the recognition here how we do it because it lets other people in the community know all of their great work. To your point and to Mr. Hiatt's point it will get lost in a 59page
agenda. Not saying we shouldn't include it there too. The more you know more information is great. Um I know we talked a little bit about social media. Um and I think that I see it being communicated differently. I think there are some schools that I believe submit
some information to the administration office and it gets posted to their Instagram or so forth. And I do see that great work. But it's I think it's just let's do more to promote that. So maybe we could tell them did you know that you could submit like your end of year
because I think maybe not everybody knows they could do that. Um I don't see a need to take it out of here only because we're publicly sharing this great work. But if if they felt like it wasn't necessary then that's okay too. But I don't want to lose sight of their
great work and promoting them across the board in multiple ways. That's all. So happy to still read it here. I have a deep connection obviously with Memorial, but I think let's do more on social media getting their events out there and
all the other cool ways. Okay, go on. Okay. Okay. Um, that's a a great thought. um you know the PTO's and PTAs get the information out that they're having an
event but we can share the wonderful things that have happened at the event and I think that that's the piece that you're talking about that um even today with Mr. Lansonsky that they didn't mention about the um Hershey trip and
but since I knew about it I was able to share that piece but if Mr. Lansonsky wasn't talking about it, I wouldn't have had that piece to add. And he, you know, he added all the other uh stuff that they they've done and all the excitement. And I think that's important
for the district, you know, for others to hear because um say for instance at um uh Marbor Elementary, they had that dog that came pig pig the pug and um he
uh you know when I spoke about it other parent other schools said oh how cool is that you know maybe let's have you know put this into our you know um you know our list of things that we'd
like to have in the future. So and granted PTA people hear you know share information with each other but other people won't necessarily hear that. So I think your suggestion you know keeping some of the excitement in is really
important. I'm kind of on the fence. I I I don't mind reading it. I mean it's it's nice to read. just like to see the things but some of the things we do say also in the past. We are saying things that happened already that they could maybe we could show on a screen or or do a and
communications um maybe keep it to what's coming instead of what happened and then when they do their like I like the idea of them presenting here at the monthly meeting when their school is here and then they then they could talk about all the things they've done in the past. So maybe we can come kind of half
and half, keep it to what's coming and let them present what they did when they come here and we can maybe, you know, find a midpoint of that midway, right? Or just or or to that point, keep them keep it how they have it, right? Giving us the information. I'm with you though
that they also should present here. I think that's great, too. Um, but their school may not be recognized, right, monthly, and then we're missing out on some of those cool things that they're doing. So, I love amping up um all the great things that they do um in the school. So, I'm okay with leaving it,
but if they all said no, I mean, I'm fine either way, but I don't want to lose sight of recognizing them every month. However, we do that. those ideas. Agreed. We have a hybrid approach. I'm okay with a hybrid approach. If you know one school, hey, I
would rather there's something going on and I'll submit it not on a monthly basis. Maybe I'll submit it on a quarterly basis if that's what the approach that they want to take but I would like to come and present. I mean I want to also think about it in that regard. But I know you know some of the things that were that were expressed. I
don't remember which schools or anything like that. I just remember, you know, one school saying, well, you know, we forgot to put that in our report, but we do it. And now it seems like we don't do it because the other school reported they did do it in their own report. And, you know, it sort of becomes more of a
compare and contrast rather than a report out because they forgot. So, you know, I don't want anyone to feel that anyone's not doing what, you know, other tools are doing because quite frankly, they're all doing great things. Yeah, for sure. And and one thing I just want to say that um was not in my report, but
I do want to mention is tomorrow morning at 8:30 there's an award ceremony here at Memorial, but then they also give out certificates from the school recognizing each PTA member. I cannot say if that's a standard practice across the school
district, but it is a really nice practice um to recognize them also. So just putting that out there, too. So any way we can amp up recognition. I do like though to your point, Mr. Cohen, of hearing all the cool things that are happening across our schools monthly,
but that's just my own thing. No. Good. Good evening, Adam Pollock Marorrow. Um, okay. Um, no offense, no one reads the agenda. No one's watching these meetings. It's like they get like 450
views. There's 4500 students in our district. We're not communicating well to the people. Whatever you guys think's happening with these liaison reports, it's not having the impact that you guys would want. I agree with the sentiment
completely, but no one's even watching these meetings. And who's gonna know what Val just said about what's happening tomorrow morning? The other lunatics that are watching this, I just checked there's 23 people currently watching. So like none of those people
are like changing their schedule for what's happening tomorrow morning. I'm just like little like just reality check. So I definitely think that there's a better way of communicating with the PT, you know, the PTO's. Maybe send out the liaison reports to the
community. That might be an interesting idea. Like because I like hearing what's going on with the other schools also, but I I don't know. It just it is not an effective way of communicating what's going on in the school. It would the
social media post would get way more. And I also would be interested to know, Mr. If you could find out how many people are actually downloading the agenda from the emails you send because you have to click the thing and then it has to download. It's the only way to see the agenda. Like how many people are doing that? Like I don't think a lot. So
I mean take that in consideration. There's only three people from the community even here. All Dugan people by the way. I'll just uh claim that. But um we're the only ones still here. Um,
how much time I have? Um, I guess you guys don't see the irony of talking about like respect and kindness and all of that stuff like about like the year of respect and everything when like we have to take
10-minute recesses to have people stop yelling at each other on the at the board meeting and like people I don't know. It's it's a weird thing. I would look inward on that a little bit like I think it's a little strange for
us to be saying the year of respect was was so good like and but like we're not doing what you know adults should be doing in representing our town. It's like a lot of things that go on here are like embarrassing. I'm glad honestly
only 23 people are watching and I'm glad this isn't uh being represented more broadly. You guys are doing such good work and the only thing that's going to be remembered about this meeting unfortunately is the back and forth and the nonsense and that's all that's going to be talked about. It's not nothing
else that you guys talked about is going to is going to be brought to the attention of the community and that's the sad part and I think you all have a responsibility to know that and not fall prey to some of these things that are going on and the divisiveness that's
what's going on. And I I know I I think I'm speaking on behalf of the other two family people that are here from the community. Like we're not here to see the nonsense. We're here to like, you know, talk about the school, do the referendum stuff, be better, you know, go a lot of ideas coming through. It's
just like, I don't know, play to the audience a little bit as opposed to maybe the community or what's going on on on Facebook and social media. And and um just remember why people elected you. And I I'll say this again because I I've said this many times, but like don't
embarrass the town, please. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. P. Um for Scott Somayro I just want to say about Miss Yasmin the speech therapist who is uh retiring in October. She was my son's speech
therapist for the last two years at Abbott and I can't say enough kind words about her. We love her. She has done wonders for my son. I'm sure she's done wonders for other community members and students and uh I wish her all the best
in her new chapter and Masleto. That's it. be left out. Uh Robin Borenstein Marboro. Um all right. Yes, we all want to go home. I've got stuff to finish up for this uh the end of this school year. Anyway, but I just wanted to echo what um Mr. Smaya
just went ahead and said. My boys actually had Miss Yasmin when they were at ELC. Loved her. Absolutely amazing. So, she's definitely going to be missed um in the district. So, but I hope she enjoys her retirement because it is
because it is definitely well-earned. Um I do just want to go ahead and give my feedback, I guess, on the liaison reports because I write them. Um there definitely has to be a better way of doing it. They're timeconuming
sometimes and we want to get the word out. We want the community to hear what's going on, but going ahead and spending time to prepare them and knowing that they're sometimes not going anywhere is really difficult. I mean, I
can go ahead and say just today I was at field day all day, rushed home after, you know, helping with field day, cleaning up and whatnot. rushed home to go ahead and do the liaison report and then quickly had to go ahead and then
make dinner and then come here. It's difficult to go ahead and know that we're working so hard on doing these and that sometimes it's falling on deaf ears sometimes. So, I think that there does need to be a better way. Perhaps a newsletter can be
done, you know, if we want to do like a monthly newsletter and send out via email or something. I know sometimes like the spotlights are done like that or something. Um perhaps people are reading the emails. That might be a good way of going ahead and checking well are they going ahead and actually opening the agendas or whatnot. Are they looking
at the emails? And if we're noticing that that's happening, perhaps doing some sort of newsletter um you know might be helpful. I know with like the PTAs and the PTO's I mean we're I can only speak for one school obviously. I can't speak for the for all of them. Well, two because I'm on the board for
one but not the other one. There's a weekly eblast that goes out with all the information that's every single week. It's not the information isn't coming from here. The information is coming directly from the PTAs, the PTO's and
and whatnot. So, I I don't know what another good resource would be, but if we're going ahead and spending our time, we would definitely want it to, you know, people to hear it. So, thank you and good night.
I appreciate that. Thank you for the work you do as well. Can I ask a question then to that point? Oh, well, wait. Do you want to close public comments then I'll ask a question? Yeah. Motion to close public comments. Second, Mr. Hay. All in favor?
Anyone against? Thank you. I just had a quick comment because Miss Borenstein's perspective was super helpful, right? Because all of us have different experiences. I sit on the PTA so it's super easy for me to get a couple of texts, hey Val, cover these
things and I know the inner details and workings because I'm on it different from like if Miss Borenstein writes it up. So um I know I had mentioned and we talked earlier at around whatever earlier today about the amping up or how we can leverage our social media work
even more than all the good work that's being done. So I know I mentioned that so that would be helpful. But Mr. Cohen, then in your next whenever your next PTO meeting is, I just I'm not there. So, however they feel like we're getting that information across like you were
saying is super helpful. I think whatever their perspective is because for Miss Borenstein to say it's an extra task or a newsletter might be an extra task but sounds like a good idea or them posting everything on social med on their page might be an extra task. I
don't want it to be more work for them. So, however they feel like we're appreciating and recognizing them, that's I'll go with. Thank you. And I think Okay. I think social media next meeting.
Okay. Any other session on the that all in favor. Anyone opposed?