##VIDEO ID:Gu84wRAX8bQ## even good evening welcome to the matachin Board of Education meeting do I need to speak louder oh my good evening welcome to the Matan Board of Education meeting for January 28th 2025 if we could stand for the flag salute please my pleasure delg to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible Li and justice for all thank you so much notice of the meeting please miss alevic I hereby make the statement to indicate compliance with the open public meetings act known as chapter 231 of the public laws of New Jersey 1975 which became effective 90 days after enactment January 19th 1976 notice that this meeting was given by providing the location time and date of this meeting and posting the same on the front door of the Board of Education offices by delivering copies to the burough Hall in the matachin public library the home news and Tribune The Star Ledger and by filing a copy by the burough clerk as prescribed by this law thank you so much roll call please Mr bot here miss cheum here Mr derflinger here Mr glasberg here Dr Johnson Marcus here Miss Colleen she's advised us she won't be here today thank you very much Mr lifon here miss thresa said she was not going to be here today Dr spner here Mr SS here thank you so much Miss Ali evich next we turn to Dr kaputo to tell us a little bit about some fun stuff we've got going on today thank you madam president yeah first up today it's a musical season so the Edgar school music drama club proudly presents Finding Nemo Jr a musical adaptation of the 2003 Pixar film we invite everyone in the audience to join us here at matachin high school Friday and Saturday at 7 o'clock and Sunday February 2nd at 2 o'clock Marlin an anxious and overprotective clownish lives in the great Barry Reef with his kid Nemo who longs to explore the world beyond their anemon home when the when Nemo is captured and taken uh to Sydney Marlon faces his fears and sets off on an epic adventure across the ocean with the help of lovable lovable characters such as the optimistic Dory laidback sea turtle crush and the supportive tank gang Marlin and Nemo both of a come overcome challenges on their journey to find each other and themselves tonight Karen Levens and Emory Gordon uh we'll preview our show with a performance of just keep swimming [Applause] wonderful hey Mr Grumpy gills life's full of little spills don't throw your f up in disgust oh what's the floating there not going anywhere so wish your tail and Di on in and trust that if you just keep swimming just keep swimming life is in all that room just keep swimming just keep swimming what do we do we swim Right singing singing now that songs going be stuck in my [Music] head look there's a tin hey that looks interesting Dory trying to stay on task it says P Sher 42 while be way Sydney Dory you can read wait that's the mask yay I can read yeah but now what we don't know how to get so we follow our gut but just keep swimming just keep swimming everything will be okay see just keep swimming Mo your tail and sure enough to find your way oh sometimes things look bad the moment is gone and what do we do we just keep swimming on two P shman 42 follow we away Sydney I remember what he said he's shman 42 all of be I don't know what who cares I remember again peace German 42 W of be City peace German 42 w Sher 42 all of stop awesome wonderful thank you thank you so much for that wonderful preview Friday and Saturday evening as well as Sunday afternoon check them out what a wonderful performance thank you Karen Emory appreciate it they're like we're gone we got more rehearsals to get to all right Dr Caputo we also have more excitement we do we're excited each year uh we participate in the state teacher of the year program the governor is Educator of the year and Ed Services Professionals of the year um and around this time of the year midwinter we think it's a great time for both the board to see those winners and to get a chance those winners to come out and be recognized in front the community by the Board of Ed so these are some of our best Educators um a rigorous process at the schools and we're really happy to present them to you tonight so um on the agenda I'll take you through in the order so from Mo school we have our Governor's educator the year Jennifer [Music] [Applause] Coran thank you so much um I want to thank my amazing coach co-workers and my wonderful new principal Jen as fores um Moss is a very special place and we are really lucky over there um I always tell people I have the best job in the world and I really do um I am very honored to be able to teach in the same esteemed District that I grew up as a student in um and what it means to be a bulldog is very important to me and I try to pass that along to my students every day thank you so much wonderful thank you so much for all you do for our littlest Bulldogs our ed services professional of the Year from Moss school is Pam [Music] [Applause] Malone thank you I feel honored to receive this award I love working at Moss school I love our new principal Jennifer wonderful thank you thank you so much Miss Malon our Campbell School Governor's educator of the years Jennifer [Music] Pasqual good evening it is an honor to stand here tonight recognized as Campbell School's teacher of the year and I have a few people I'd like to thank um first I'd like to thank the Board of Education our Administration and our community for your ongoing support of matou and teachers it's thanks to your commitment to the growth of teachers that I've been able to continue my own education and professional development with which has enabled me to make the classroom a more enriching environment for my students to my fellow teachers especially the fourth grade team thank you for always being willing to collaborate and work together to make Campbell School a great place for our students to learn to my students the reason I'm standing here tonight thank you for challenging me um you inspire me and you make me excited to come to work every single day their curiosity energy and seeing um all of their growth makes teaching the most rewarding job in the world in my opinion um my students are the future and I'm so privileged to be a small part of their Journey um and thank you for teaching me just as much as I hope I've taught you to my family both Canadian and American um who are my biggest cheerleaders I want to say thank you your unwavering love and support has been my constant throughout my career thank you for your patience your understanding and for always believing in me even when I doubted myself this award is a true Testament um to their sacrifices and their unwavering support in belief in May and lastly to my co-teacher of the past seven years and last year's teacher of the year Lindsay Omar um her dedication to students at Campbell has always been inspiring to me while our working relationship has changed now that we're no longer co- teing I continue to Value her insights her support and her friendship um this award would not be possible without our partnership and thank you to Lindsay for being an amazing colleague and especially friend um this is a this recognition is a tremendous honor honor and I'm deeply humbled and grateful I'm surrounded by so many amazing people who make uh me a better teacher and I'm so thankful to be a part of this community thank you thank you thank you for your beautiful words I love the Baton passing of Governor's educator of the year I love that great work our Campbell School ed services professional of the year is Amy [Music] bendra thank you so much I love being part of the matachin community and especially the Campbell School Community I feel incredibly supported by the the staff that I work with the teachers I work with and I love working with the students and their families I feel like being part of this school community and this overall Community has given me a lot of freedom to come with ideas and do a whole wound approach with a lot of students and give them supports in the best ways possible so I really love being part of matou awesome thank you thank you Miss VRA for all you do for our students our Edgar School Governor's educator of the year is Caroline [Music] Ford in true Caroline Ford fashion I forgot my paper on my dining room table so I will be reading from my phone um before I'd start I'd like to say that my incredible brilliant kind students uh insisted that I speak for a full 10 minutes I won't be doing that um but I would like to take a quick moment to share a few thoughts reflecting on my time as an educator in this district one thing stands out the magic that happens when students take risks watching a student feel safe enough to share a wild answer or brave enough to write their first draft no matter how messy that's where real learning begins and honestly I'm constantly inspired by their courage that same Spirit of risk-taking is possible for me too thanks to the unwavering support of Administrators board members like yourself and yourselves I teach English and colleagues their encouragement gives me the freedom and confidence to try new strategies engage in meaningful and sometimes challenging conversations about the world and truly see students as individuals with unique stories and unique potential in fact risking is what got me my job here in the first place N9 years ago the district took a chance and hired a recent College grad with no classroom experience about outside of student teaching just 3 days before the school year started thanks for that Dr Pudo of course none of this would be possible without the amazing team that surrounds me every day I'm inspired by colleagues who encourage me to take on new lessons experiment with new tools and new strategies and push the boundaries of what's truly possible in the classroom teaching often feels like juggling a million things at once and my colleagues are the extra hand that that helps me keep everything in the air and remind me to laugh through the chaos so here's to learning from mistakes cheering each other on and never forgetting how fun and meaningful this work is at the end of the day thank you for the honor bra thank you I think your phone served just fine H your phone and served just fine our Edgar ed services professional of the year is Mary Joel Pullman [Music] [Applause] I okay all good um good evening to the board my colleagues and everyone here I have been a parah for 22 years this is not something I ever thought I would do um but it has been one of the best experiences of my life I am grateful for all of the people I work with who are exceptional and I am also glad for the children I have met over the years not only have I helped them but they have helped me I'd like to end with a quote something that I try to convey to my students trust yourself you probably know more than you think you do trust that you can learn anything Melinda French Gates thank you wonderful thank you so much what a great [Music] quote from mouan high school our Governor's educator of the year is Ann Leghorn aralo hello hello um okay thank you for inviting us to attend the meeting tonight uh I was shocked um but honored to receive this year's Governor's educator of the Year award at MHS uh the real honor came in knowing that it was my peers who nominated me um recognizing the work I do alongside them for our students uh so while I am receiving the award for my work it isn't done in a silo I'm lucky enough to work collaboratively with some of the best in the business my work for RTI at both MHS and Edgar rarely if ever uh takes place alone I came to this district four years ago I met a lot of incredible teachers all working towards the same goal to support students in both reading and writing they welcom me into their classrooms uh they allowed me to bring a different perspective on how to do flexible groupings use new strategies they're really always open when I say you actually have this like new thing we could do instead of that thing um and they always are responding to students needs alongside of me so while the work we do isn't easy um the best part is that we don't have to do it alone sometimes in teaching it can feel like you're on an island once you close your door and it can particularly feel that way for reading Specialists or other singular areas but I'm lucky enough that I never feel like that here uh there's always other teachers and administrators there for me to work with teams for me to be a part of and folks asking for my thoughts on something um it reminds me that we do this together for a common purpose the students uh so congratulations to all the other educators of the year as well I personally taught alongside Miss Ford um and I completed the 2-year OG program with uh Miss Pasqual and they're both incredible Educators who deserve their own accolades so I appreciate being in a community where I can be myself and be fully accepted um in the classroom and in the school so I appreciate this opportunity for my Oscars moment uh and I look forward to everything that comes next so thank you thank you thank you for your Innovation and Madame President um the matachin high school ed services professional of the year is not able to be here tonight but we still want to recognize her and that's Mrs Christina th nice thank you so much thank you to all of you we really appreciate all of you being here and the dedication that you pour into all of our students every single day thank you again so very much just want to say those are some of the most thoughtful speeches that I think that we've heard in in many years or in my time on the board so thank you for the time that you put into that and the words mean a lot for us to hear and for the public to hear thank you we got a good group Mr lesberg really good group all right all right at this time the meeting is open to the public we understand if you're not going to stay and you know just absorb all of our things but indeed public if you have any questions comments and we will not be offended if you sneak away quietly right now we understand you got to get your your rest before tomorrow's excitement thank you again for coming out and [Applause] congratulations all right um just seeing no public comments at this time we close this section Dr kaputo do we have any presentations tonight no presents T no presentations tonight um Madam president all right no present either all right at this time we move to reports at this time as president I do not have a particular report so we turn to you again Dr kuto any superintendent report tonight no report for me tonight all right wonderful moving to our committee reports the order is all off now go down the line maybe go down the line all right who has met Mr glassberg would you like to kick us off sure yeah we the construction committee has not met um but we are meeting publicly our meeting is on February 24th in the uh matachin High School library at 7M everybody's welcome to come and watch our commit committee at work uh and hear from some of our professionals we'll be meeting uh privately prior to then um just some things remember to go to metuchenschools.org click on the referendum updates you'll see some uh updated notes there two we look ahead as at the project there are some newer photos that have been added there it also has all of our public meeting dates that are going to be uh kept throughout this calendar year um and we should have some more um important updates soon regarding um next year's schedule and things like that so look look forward to that soon thank you thank you Mr glassberg any questions for Mr glassberg sorry we do all the reports first oh sorry just kidding sure all good uh no report go ahead I do have a report uh curriculum met on Tuesday January 21st um the first topic that we discussed we were provided with an update on our qac evaluation the on-site visit is scheduled for February 12th so we we discussed some of those nuances and and details there uh we then discussed some new curriculum and texts that um Dr Caputo and and Dr Herzog are seeking our approval we revised the K to2 physical education and health curriculum so we reviewed that the updates emphasize aligning the qac requirements um of us and also highlighting interdisciplinary connections we are utilizing the district's updated textbook recommendation form for our first recommendation of a sixth grade La text called front desk um we then discussed some new midyear hires that will require mentorship so we looked and reviewed those recommendations and then in line with our work on AI we are working on implementing a new AI policy and AI plan um a lot of work around this um going on including many professional development that's being pre-recorded um supports for staff and parents we're also um looking to compensate staff to begin working on these goals so a lot of really really important AI work happening right now in curriculum and our next meeting will be February 18th thank you thank you Mr derflinger and I I want to uh kind of start over over here on the end because while some of our committees have not met as yet because we've just reorganized um I want to make sure that each of the committee chairs gets the chance to put it out there in the public either when we will meet next so if you could each share when your committees will be meeting so that we can then uh move from the committee reports uh sure uh the equity committee has not met we are uh just reassessing the next step for the committee uh in partnership with the administration uh and in service of the community given our current context and we will be meeting uh February 18th thank you Mr bot and policy policy has not met we'll be meeting on February 18 thank you and Mr sus Finance Finance is not met we will be me meeting on February 3rd same time as construction and miss clean's not here same time as extra curriculum wonderful thank you so much and since Miss sha is not here we won't have a student board member report so at this time is there any old business any questions oh sorry were there any questions got to start making notes on these things uh so any old business any new business all right wonderful and now I'm moving to approve the meetings the minutes of the Board of Education meeting uh January 7th special business meeting January 7th 2025 special business meeting 2 January 7th 2025 board meeting roll call please no second okay I will get it one day I promise you will absolutely will is there a second derer get your groove on marus got comments or questions any comments or questions on the special business meeting one two or board meeting all right now Ru call okay thank you Mr bot yes Miss cheum yes Mr derflinger yes Mr glassberg yes Dr Johnson Marquez yes Mr lton yes Dr sner yes Mr sus thank you motion carries thank you so much Miss alich all right meeting is open to the public at this time on any topic was that all right seeing that at this time we move to the recommendation of the superintendent of schools at this time sorry often times it may appear to members of our audience that the Board of Education takes action with very little comment and in many cases unanimous vote before a matter is placed on the agenda at a public meeting the Administration has thoroughly reviewed the matter with the superintendent of schools if the superintendent is satisfied that the matter is ready to be presented to the Board of Education it is then referred to the appr appropriate board committee the members of the board committee work with the administration and the superintendent to ensure that the members fully understand the matter when the committee is satisfied with the matter it's presented to the board of education for discussion before any final action is taken only then is it placed on the agenda for Action at a public meeting so we move to Personnel items a one through I'm check his physical copy to make sure a one through 20 um is there a second Mr glassberg and now what questions or comments questions or comments comments yeah good if I could um just because Miss sahell is on this list as retiring and for anyone that's not aware she's worked in the district for 20 years she's a tremendous resource to students she serves tirelessly and selflessly so um it's going to be a sad day when she leaves the district for many many special needs parents so I just want to take time to recognize her cuz she's so much more than a line on the sheet she's a wonderful asset to the districts absolutely miss her dearly thank you Mrs cheet uh Dr kabudo also was gonna interrupt me but you be beat him to the punch he's got some stuff too so but we love Mrs seratelli so we are happy to pour on the appreciation yes I'll do that after you vote just to make sure have to okay all right so now I asked for a second you second listen y' Mr bot yes Miss Cheeto yes Mr derflinger yes Mr glasberg yes I know I Dr Johnson Marcus yes wonderful Mr lifton yes Dr spner yes Mr sus yes motion carries Dr Johnson Marcus if you uh a second before we move on from Personnel absolutely as alluded to miss chetam said so well since 2005 uh Mrs Sarah Telly has been a part of very fabric of mouin quilt as she closes this chapter and begins this exciting journey of retirement we want to take a moment to congratulate her and express our sincere appr appreciation for all she's done over the years her dedication hard work care concern and passion have made a lasting impact on the many students colleagues and families she's worked with throughout her career she's been a collaborative partner and has served on multiple building and District level committees and has also taken on leadership opportunities such as serving the capacity of president of the power professionals Association we will miss her and best of luck to her in her next chapter thank you so much Dr Caputo and I will Echo all of those beautiful sense events Mrs sahell you are an institution here and you will be missed indeed and now I move to Mr sus for finance like to move items B1 through B7 is listed on the agenda wonderful is there a second Mr lyton any questions or comments seeing none roll call please miss alevic Mr bot yes Miss chetam yes Mr derflinger yes Mr glasberg yes Dr Johnson Marcus yes Mr lifton yes Dr spner yes Mr sus yes motion carries Dr Johnson margas if I may I should have said it during the comments in the number seven on the finance were items that were part of the referendum um that are being paid for just in a in a different manner but um using funds from from the referendum is that right yep funds from the referendum so I just wanted to point that out uh as a separate item there thank you wonderful thank you m Mr glassberg as always for keeping us on top of our tools with respect to construction and our spending all right next up we have Dr spner with policy I'd like to move items one through five on the agenda please thank you very much is there a second Mr sus any questions or comments about the policy items Mr sus yeah a question for Mr harvier I think one of the items is a trip for the has been to South Jersey that's not policy you're ahead of the curve oh look at that hold strain yeah sorry all right so we're hold the question comment and are there other questions SL comments for policy items one through five no well I'm sure I'll make a comment you want to make a comment I do also this one on for it go for it actually uh Dr Herzog sent out um the AI plan yes which was mentioned by Mr der I encourage everyone to take a look at it's very very good yes um I think the PO I think we voting on both the policy and we're voting on the policy the policy is vague most of the details is in the plan and the plan is quite detailed indeed it is do take a look at that well done thank you excellent comment comment Mr we we're affirming your comment we said it I said excellent and you said Thank you so we are all on board Madam president um just as we're talking about um Che um see uh because there's some conversation around some of the items in four should we still move that forward the items in Number Four were all discussed by the board last executive session yeah and they're voting on them today it's they're different items from the Clos session item correct correct correct but thank you for raising it and making sure we were good I appreciate that Miss Ali evich is waiting with baited breath for this roll call okay I think we might be at Ru call are we yeah go ahead y all good for sure for sure can I make a comment no yeah of course um I'm just um letting you guys know the 2526 school calendar have it in front of you so that's what you're approving just have it in front of you that's it thank you confirming yall are good yeah do we do we want to mention what's different from this was shown at the last meeting I think there's only one slight change Dr Caputo there was um calendar was never shown it was discussed discussed sorry right so we didn't have a vote on it yet right but the change you alluded to was just the placement of the fifth inservice day normally we have four inservice days next year because of a tradeoff there are five in service days and it was the it was originally uh recommended for the Friday in febu a Friday in February it was moved back to a Friday in January connected to the MLK Junior day off on that Monday in January any other comments on the policy items one through five fantastic thank you so much Miss Alo roll call please Mr bot yes Miss chetam abstain Mr derflinger yes Mr glasberg yes Dr Johnson Marcus yes Mr lton yes Dr spner yes Mr sus yes motion carries thank you so much now I turn to Mr drifer for curriculum thank you I'd like to make a motion to move items D1 through nine as listed on the agenda please wonderful may I have a second please Mr lton any questions or comments about the curriculum items he did raise his hand first Mr Mr sus you you sure have the floor question on the trip for the Jazz Band to W no I'm sorry that's old business now you I've been waiting to make that joke for I see that I see that you you were just like let's go it's a mark Brothers J from I highly recommend Duck Soup which is what it's love that mov well there's an open public session I can go up there and ask about anyway uh I mean the the cost seems pretty expensive for the bus and they also that doesn't include for the cost for a truck does the Jazz Band I understand the marching band needing a truck and I know we tried to give an old bus to the marching band but they couldn't use it so they really need a bus and a truck can we get any way to cheapen that I mean it's over $1,000 dollar and you throw the truck in that's going to be like $2,000 we can do a little more due diligence and make sure they need the truck but as of today our conversations up to this point they do need the truck yes you can't you can't put the equipment be safety issue this isn't the marging band I understand yeah the Jazz Band still has some equipment it would be a safety issue if you put that stuff on the on the bus m c does that answer your question yes and well we look into it for it we'll look into it again thank you Mr harier uh Mr L did you actually have a comment or you just wanted to get that J in there all just make a chair give it to Mr Su I want to make sure you have your time if you needed some I just I'm just not sure so did we are we deferring that item based on or are we voting on it and M and M get information you know the bus we can wait I mean the the truck we can wait I think we should approved the bus though well your concern is the truck correct yeah I think you know we can wait the bus we have to lock in the bus and there's no cost listed by the truck anyway correct the truck would be the rental cost okay and and our driver but aren't Madame President are are we would we potentially not approve it aren't we just going to approve it anyway and they're going to do the best that they can to I I asked the question that that's fine with me just do the best yeah they're going to they're they're going to see whether we really need it believe that but they they decide that they need it for space and safety reasons we're going to prove it anyway so believe that is the consensus so we don't need to wait on we look into um getting the best deal we can keeping safety in mind right absolutely wonderful any other comments on the curriculum items in particular no all right so we're at comments so now we're at roll call Mr bot yes Miss chetam yes Mr derflinger yes Mr glasberg yes Dr Johnson Marcus yes Mr lton yes Dr spner yes Mr sus yes motion carries thank you so much M alich uh this time the meeting is open to the public on any topic seeing none we move to announcements and and now I believe that the tradition has been that the newest member of the board does the announcements Mrs J I'm sure Mr bot was happy to pass the torch to you so the floor is yours Mrs cheetah okay thank you um we don't have too much but with C of the Campbell Elementary School and the Moss PTO right now they're in the middle of spring X um signups they still need to fill five more classrooms so anyone that's interested can reach out to the PTO or can refer to Dr C's recent Friday 3 for more details um there also is uh the readathon fundraiser that's off to an amazing start they are well over say well over but over $10,000 in donations so um it's really gone strong and then finally they are also forming a staff appreciation committee um with that I'm going to move over to Edgard midd Middle School um right now they are working towards the fatherson top golf event that's going to occur on March 25th um in the lookout for registration details coming soon um they're also looking for gently used middle school appropriate books to expand the classroom libraries um again you can find out more information from the Bulldog brief of where to drop off any of those gently used items and then um they're also working towards the motherdaughter brunch event that's going to be occurring in early February from there just heading over to matachin high school um so the matachin high school environmental Club hosted a coat drive from December 9th to J January 9th collecting two large bags of 17 Gently Used winter coats for donations to Jersey cares the Coates will be distributed to those in need helping to keep the community warm while reducing Landfield waste and conserving resources Additionally the environmental Club is running an ongoing collection of used markers pens and single use batteries for recycling through the end of the year um and these collections do contribute points towards the sustainable Jersey for school certification so other schools are um encouraged to participate as well um but good work going on at Matan high school and that is all that I have awesome thank you so much Mrs cheum got the first one done nicely thank you all right um at this time I believe I'm supposed to then out right yeah they're not going into executive okay good good just making sure all right folks and I also want to be mindful that it is Lunar New Year this Wednesday so so I wish all of our families who are celebrating a wonderful and a happy uh festive season uh celebrating the Lunar New Year and also it's Black History Month starting on Saturday so go learn some things y'all um with that we are adjourned for the evening wait I got to make a move make a motion I gotta move I got to make a motion I move that we I motion make a motion to ad to adjourn the meeting is there a second Mr der linger all in favor have a wonderful night folks nice job thank you for Maring with good job I will write this down next time oh yes of course yeah oh my Lord