Dr calino here Mrs Fano Mr Palama here Mr Peto Mr Rapaport here Mrs Kate Mrs Smith here sorry Miss
zerman Mr doy here Dr modra Mr brookhouser Miss Patel here Pledge of Allegiance States of America stands
na indivisible for all open public meeting notice the New Jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public and to have advance notice of and to attend the meetings of any public
bodies which are at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provision of the act the Montville Township Board of Education provided a public notice of this meeting which included the time date and location that was posted at the Montville Township
Municipal Building all Montville Public Schools the Montville Public Library the Montville Township Board of Education administrative office building the district website and advertised in the Daily Record and the Montville tap into the board's official newspapers on
February 2nd 2025 our high school representative report hi everyone um as always we'll start off with the past so with sports the boys varsity basketball team finished their season with a 21 to6
record the boys varsity ice hockey team finished their season with a 9121 record the girls varsity basketball team finished with a record of 9 to6 Varsity wrestling ended off with a 20 to6 record
all winter sports have now ended and the spring Sports will be starting their first practices on March 10th on to the school related subjects girls flag football had a meeting on the 21st of February for their spring season the mental health initiative invited all
students and staff to come to the media center classroom during both halves of lunch on February 26th to meet Jamie and her therapy dog Joanie everyone learned what therapy dogs do for their community and how they get certified tickets for the spring musical
big fish have been on sale throughout the past 2 weeks the musical will be performed March 6th through 9th in the auditorium everyone in the community is encouraged to attend the international concerns Club hosted a Chick-fil-A fundraiser night on February 26th from
2: to 9:00 p.m. FBA members had a guest speaker Jake kovalic come to speak to them on the 27th Mr kovalic spoke about his experiences in the business world and gave advice to all members of the club
now on to the present this morning mths Deca left to go compete at Hara in Atlantic City for the State Career Development conference they will return on Thursday the class of 2025 is now collecting pictures and videos of the
class from kindergarten through senior year to put together in a video montage this video will be shown at the senior Sunset scheduled for June 9th all submissions are due by April 1st and now on to the Future on March 7th mths will
be hosting a college fair which will be an exciting opportunity for students to explore opportunities for their future this Saturday March 8th mths will be an SAT testing site next week fpla will also be heading to haras in Atlantic
City for their state leadership conference they will be gone from March 10th to 12th during this time all Juniors will also be taking the NJ NJ GPA or a New Jersey graduation proficiency assessment that's it thank
you thank you very much Dr Gorman yes uh well you just point pointed out the SAT testing site so that's exciting this is the second time we're offering it this year and then we're going to hope to build up on that in the future future so it's great that we're able to offer these tests here at our home base here and have kids a little bit more
comfortable as opposed to having to go to other schools so that we're really excited to be offering that thank you for that so today is Woodmont day so Mr Esposito and I wearing our read Across America ties Dr uh Dr Seuss ties uh I had a chance to go into some third and
fourth grade classrooms and talk to the kids and and read to them it was so exciting and and uh interacting with them it's just a great day I know some other administrators and some board members made there as well and also other Town officials as well so it was it was a great day very exciting for everybody and we're just going to
continue this well into the evening Mr espito thank you Dr Gman and thank you members of the board uh we appreciate the opportunity oh sure so so I apologize so again thank you Dr Gorman and thank you members of the board uh we' like giving us an
opportunity to talk about one of our favorite topics with school so I'm going to introduce the stars of Woodmont latest video Woodmont Willie and Woodmont Wanda no time for pie the sequel to Woodmont Willie and the idle of Amore guys would you like to come up you're they're going to present to you
about our our video program I also like to introduce Mrs Tony and Raj Miss Brianna orus and Miss Danielle an tunz who are adult coordinators for our videos all right gu start
Woodmont school has been creating videos for the past 11 years you can find us on YouTube at PAW the wild cat our channel was created in the June of 2014 wow that's almost as old as me we have posted 51 V videos many of which
are annual end of the year videos and are much anticipated Valentine's videos we have 653 subscribers and have almost 15 50,000 views our view ship reaches all corners of the world from people in
the United Kingdom India Canada Australia Brazil Spain Italy South Korea Germany Philippines Denmark Pakistan Egypt Vietnam Mexico turkey and
Belgium while we love it when people like And subscribe to our Channel what we love most is making our videos from the cost to the props to the the music and dancing each year we try to outdo the last our videos offer a glimpse into
our school to share how unique we truly are to be a part of our videos we must follow our school's Paw's promises teachers select students to exhibit kindness hard work and good citizenship our end of year videos
include the entire School traditionally fifth graders are selected to be featured Lip dubbers lip dubbers are responsible for practicing their part and planning out their costume filming has become a schoolwide event that everyone looks forward to in June each class selects a theme dresses
in special outfits gathers props and practices our teachers work together behind the scenes to mix music coordinate filming edit and promote our Productions it is truly a collaborative effort and a labor of love let's take a look back to see how
far we've come [Music] Care Baby by the way because CL Al if you feel like a
room without roof clap along if you feel like happy happiness is the truth clap you know what happiness is
[Music] you with a burning love yeah I'm [Music] you get away
[Music] every when you were in love I played around I all [Music]
together [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] like the sweet and
[Music] morning I think it's really fun all your friends and that it's a good tradition that we do every year I think the Woodmont videos really help build morale
and a sense of community at Woodmont and it gives everyone an opportunity to be involved and see what great students we have here at Woodmont about Woodmont videos is I feel like it takes a really good big impact on Woodmont because a lot of students love this kindergarten
to fifth grade we all enjoy these things and it also it's so exciting to take part in in all of them and I really hope that Woodmont can make more videos in the future thank you and goodbye wild [Applause]
cats just to add a few closing comments um I've been in this district for 10 years and so we you did the first video before I started and we were using in the earliest videos that you saw we were
using cell phones and um you know our technology wasn't that great over time we got better with editing we started mixing music teaching ourselves how to do a lot of these things um with the support of the MEF and our PTA we have
um been able to get editing software uh we cameras that are GoPros that really help enhance our videos and every year we try and see what we can do next and they they've really evolved
over time um not sure if everybody knows but last year Brianna and I spoke at texo down in Atlantic City and um our PD session was called cultivating School culture through video uh so we were able
to present to a wider audience uh how we make our videos and what it's done for our school and during that while we were preparing for that we sent out surveys to the community to the parents the students the teachers and just to um see
what everybody was feeling about it and it was very positive uh haran spoke about how many countries the video reaches that's because our community sends that to their par um families that live overseas so that's why we're hitting that wider audience um and
something that we've noticed that when especially when we watch the videos they serve as a video yearbook for of a lot of our students so in those V First videos we look at it and we say oh those kids are in college or and they get to go back and see they have that proof of
you know maybe they don't they don't take a yearbook with them or they didn't purchase a yearbook but these are on YouTube and it's live and there for them to use um and then we we've come from in the beginning staff and um just members
of the school Community were a little reluctant to join now we have full Buy in uh I don't know if you noticed JJ was in our last video JJ from it he uh came and we pied him um he's actually in a couple scenes so we invite David tubs
was also in our last video uh Sandy Schwarz was in our last video so we we try to invite everybody if you want to be in a video let us know our next one will start production in June um I want to turn it over to Danielo who helped us
kind of come around she's our young blood um so she knows what's trending and and she helps Brianna and I with what the younger population wants to see Hello so I started working at Woodmont about like four years ago and I had my
first look at a Woodmont video production of the 2022 lip dub and after witnessing that I thought all right my colleagues could use a little bit of young youthful soul to this and I knew that my background in technology and
social media could seriously up the game for future Productions um so what did I do I came into Mr Esposito's office with a fullon presentation of PowerPoint slides themes
transition and I mapped out a r a route and it was like directing a Hollywood Blockbuster up to the tea um as newbie on the team into the school I can H I can honestly say that these videos work a little bit of magic transforming not
just the students but the staff too they help create a school culture that's not just positive it's contagious there's something about seeing everyone come together and have fun that really brings the whole SCH Community to life and there's nothing else to it so thank
you it it got to admit it was a heck of a pitch I mean I I really got a feeling of being a producer listening to uh Daniel when she made her pitch I think for my final point the most important thing why these are so important to us uh it was touched on a little bit by Tony Anon by one of our students in the
video but I want you to keep in mind that each one of these videos is actually a piece of history and thankfully due to the power of YouTube they'll always be there and when our children become adults and they're having their own families and they want
to reflect on their school days how amazing is it that they don't have to try to dig up boxes or find crates or look for photo albums they can just now go to YouTube Type in pause the Wildcat and pull up a multitude of videos and they can say these were my friends this
that was my principal uh these are my teachers this was my school and it just brings back a a flood of memories and connections uh I mean of course it does a great job promoting what we do here at Woodmont at the mville Township Public Schools but I think the the better meaning what has great deeper meaning is
the fact that our children now have have a record that they can go back to and I think that is so impactful and I know talking to our alumni our older students who you know are in high school and college they've come back to us and every every couple of months we put out
something new they it just triggers a conversation and and a moment of hey let's go back and watch these and hey do you remember this do you remember that and and that's very powerful and that's a wonderful thing to do so we deeply appreciate that the board and the district has been so supportive over the years in and are promoting our mission
and it it just really means a lot for us and we'll continue to do them for as long as we're on board because they mean so much to our students and our staff so we thank you very much beautiful job uh Dr calino and I were just talking earlier this evening about the the beauty of the neighborhood
schools is each one has their own culture and each one does something special woodmon is known for the read Across America and also these videos and it's just wonderful we had them both in one day and you could show show this we pass the videos around to the board we pass them on to everybody we see who the
007 stars are of this year's uh you know video so it's just wonderful stuff and exactly like you said now we have a treasure Trove of these video libraries of all the past things and it's just wonderful to see so congratulations we look forward to many more in the future uh can I just make a may I make a
comment so first thanks for coming I thoroughly enjoy your videos um and I always wondered how they got made and now I know and just talking about a flood of memories that first one
smile brought back a flood of memories for me um of people and people that have passed on so um it thank you and yeah if I could say just I think
some of those later videos Almost had like a little bit of an MTV vibe to it and uh but um you said it was just a you performance type thing major production and I think in that resolve it does kind of tie into the whole Performing Arts
type of thing and um it gives you a sense of doing these types of things and if I remember correctly I thought I read that three Woodmont students are in Big Fish this week is that correct yeah so yeah that's I think a lot of that as a carryover where you get the Performing
Arts bug in you and you know there you are so um you know good work and keep on with it right so we're gonna take all these Emmy Award winning people screen yeah OTs AV
that sign's got J [Applause] all right Woodmont students I know tonight's a school night you got homework so you're allowed to leave if you wish thank you everybody for coming out if you want to stay you're more than welcome
to all right just moving along uh I just have two announcements just sharing our our medick program uh medli uh enrichment that is uh things that we're offering uh throughout the uh school year for the medick students as well as we're going
to be offering more and more during the summer they successfully finished math games for grade uh grade two students across the district had a blast learning math through games we were offering four new courses through this whole W winter session gamified geography math games
for grade two math games for grade three and coding Bill the juggler came to all five of the medick programs parents and students LED that we offered a special program during the medick hours and we're looking to offer a couple more this year holiday medick was also a success that was over the different
holidays and we've opened it up this year for rashash Shana devali and teachers convention and there's still room for Eid and spring break uh if people want to sign up for that and we'll run medick during those sessions as well
at the high school level something that's happened that's relatively new uh and we've been doing it probably for the past two years or so more colleges are coming to the schools and interviewing students on the spot and give them inst instant decisions so not all the seniors
decided TOA upon uh to act upon the acceptance but at least these were offered by these schools so just this year Alone um we had Drew University come we had six students participate uh all were accepted and about uh $38,000
in scholarships were offered on the spot right there seat in Hall we had seven uh students participate and uh again scholarships between uh 30 25 and $35,000 uh fdu had five students applied
four were accepted on the spot one was deferred NG NJIT nine applied nine accepted quinac four students applied three accepted one was awaiting a decision Montclair 10 students applied 10 accepted Mammoth five applied five
accepted rampo 11 applied 10 accepted one awaiting a decision and Caldwell College had two students applied and two accepted and they were offering up to $40,000 in scholarship money so again not every student takes advantage of all this but it's really nice to know it
takes the pressure off knowing you're instantly decided upon and more colleges are doing that we're going to be inviting them in and it's just another uh another measure of success with our school system and that's my report thank you Tom anything from the business office no
report okay moving on to section g committee reports uh Finance Karen uh thank you Joe um we met shortly before tonight's uh meeting we went through items on the upcoming 2526
budget and um I I just I just have to note um how thoroughly the business office and Mrs slunt goes
through uh the prospective budget she takes it line by line stretching every dollar and squeezing every nickel um to make our budget work and I I'm saying that I know there's no one
here in our audience but I do know that people watch I want people to know that year toe we just don't you know Turn the Page and this year's budget becomes next year's budget within you know some increase the
lines are being evaluated very very carefully um and I I I I want everybody to know that uh a lot of work goes into creating uh each Year's budget and I am very appreciative to Mrs Lunt and her
business office thank you uh curriculum um there's a meeting coming up I believe on the 25th uh policy John's not here uh Communications Caitlyn you want
to sure um we met on February 26th and went over the various communication methods that the district uses such as mle moments the superintendent column Community connections and we were able to see the back end of the website where you can tell where our um email
newsletters are being opened all around the world so that was very cool to see and how quickly people open them um within the first 11 minutes there was over a thousand people had already opened up the mville moments to read it so that was um good feedback to see we
are looking into new platforms to broaden our communication including being able to share videos and remain ADA Compliant because thrill share does not allow the video sharing right now um after the successful pilot of Google Classroom we're moving towards that
instead of using schooly and we're looking to roll out I Mill which will be an initiative to allow us to capture the great ideas and programs that we have throughout the district um and then we discussed the new software Gaggle and how that has been implemented in the
schools and the feedback we've seen from that just a follow up on that so yesterday we sent out a letter to the community about Gaggle go guardian and the other tools that we monitor the digital platforms as the students are on uh we hope that clarified a lot of the
questions that were out there last week uh rumors ran a muck at the high school about what was going on and that and it was all rumors so we just felt we had to just clarify a little bit more about what we're doing currently and what we have been doing for years um so I know
it's still relatively new we're all getting accustomed to this but all these measures are being put in place for the safety of the students thank you uh Safety and Security CHR go ahead uh yes so uh Christine asked me to do the readout um
for our meeting we met on February 19th and uh a lot of these issues or a lot of these items that we uh we went through have been discussed in uh other reports so I'll just go quickly through them uh first we did talk about the
hiring of the uh special law enforcement officer as the sleo for the elementary schools and that the he started on February 19th and uh he's going to be doing a rotation through all five schools on a on a random basis or as as
needed basis um so with the addition of that SLO plus the the ones in Lazar and at the high school and the SRO and the normal police patrols there's there's a uh very large presence of of uh police
around our district around our schools so they're always visible um no matter where where we're going on in our in our schools uh we also talked about the security VES vestibules um and we talked about that the Valley View Valley View vestibule is
is near in completion and then uh uh the high school Woodmont hildale and Lou Mason will be completed over the summer uh under evaluation is a new visitor ID system uh that's going to be installed
at the schools is to help streamline the process of getting people through the security vestibules and and into the schools uh uh if it's appropriate for them to come in um the visitor ID system is going to be something similar to uh
what you may have seen at a uh uh uh gated communities uh like in Florida whatever you take your your driver's license put into the machine they'll scan it and then uh it will let you in um if if if you're uh uh approved to to
to to come in so as that gets uh uh fully evaluated and any issues are worked out then that will get rolled out uh uh in the coming months um we also did talk about the uh the gagle software but as as uh Tom just
mentioned that email went out on on Monday that pretty explained what is what is happening with that that system uh other than that we did talk about other issues about what we could do in the future um is uh
uh let's just look through my notes uh there a lot of it did deal with uh uh security training and tabletop uh exercises with the police to train the administration on what to do in certain situations or emergency situations so
people are better prepared to to handle them um yeah and that's that's the report thank you Mike um going on to delegate liaison Karen school boards uh so on February
7th um I sat on the nominating committee the nominating committee selected five board members uh candidates uh for a slate of officers uh which includes the president the vice president of County activities the Vice
President of Finance and the vice president of legislation um this will uh on May 10th that will conclude my term um and it certainly has been an immense honor and experience of
a lifetime to serve as the association's president I will remain an officer um as the immediate past president after that time uh the elections of the rest of the officers will take place at the May 10th
delegate assembly the association put out a press release uh regarding uh new white paper uh the committee on educational opportunities for the career focused learner issued its final report New Dimensions in
Career and Technical education the report is the result of six months of research discussion and review by the committee which was charged with reviewing and updating the work of the 2008 18 task force on educational opportunities for the
non-bound learner there were 29 recommendations that came out of the report I would encourage you to if nothing else just skim it um it really does show how far we've come and how far we need to go for those youngsters that
don't want to pursue a college career um the uh Association held its second new board orientation on February 21st through the 22nd and I did have an
opportunity to make some remarks to the new board members on February 25th I was uh very excited and thrilled to attend the governor's budget address um it truly is a a democracy at
work it was very inspiring uh and as uh Dr Gorman put in his weekly update I also listened in to the attorney to attorney general plen discussion on uh federal education
updates it was uh very very informative and very it was reassuring um the uh General is certainly on top of what's Happening uh and understands it
uh uh well um as as he should as our attorney general um just want to jump in right there just the one point that he made was they always have to be reactive they have to wait until certain things are are done and then they could launch a
lawsuit or react or do something like that so they can prepare schools or the communities for whatever may be coming but they always have to wait and then they could take action depending on whatever it is yeah that's a very good a very good point Tom um and we've been
hearing that from our own attorney um so thank you Steve um I think that concludes my report I'll have a couple of other things later on regarding uh some offerings to municipalities from New Jersey school boards but I'll do that during General board discussion and
I just wanted to just say Karen's done an incredible job being the president uh she's so active she made it a personal goal to get all all 21 counties and uh you don't realize how long New Jersey is until you try to get to all 21 counties and get all the way down there but she did that over the course of the year uh
she you know has gone to the State of the State es by Governor Murphy uh several years now and uh she's been a lot of different events that I attend and then she's attending and all these different things and she always does it with a smile so I want to thank you for that I know it's very tiring you also
have a full-time job and you're a volunteer On The Board of Ed and you're doing this so it's there's a lot you stacked up there so um I appreciate that and you you helped put monville on the map there so thank you so much for that thank you thank you Karen that's very generous um School Board Association
Morris County Michael no report can I ask you guys something uh the next meeting for Morris County School boards is I think April 2nd yeah and it's in at Morris nolles it's in person not hybrid want a carpool
I'll drive I'll be there I'll tell you yeah let's let's uh let's let's work that out let's carpool no we have three of us I mean that's that'd be great you know what day of the week that is I think it's a Wednesday was that a joke that was not a
joke I think it's a Wednesday um uh Edge Services Commission there is a meeting next Wednesday at 6:30 uh drug awareness um they're going to have a meeting with the administration two members of the council are going to meet to discuss the pilot program that meeting will take
place next week as well and the next DAC meeting will be on the 11th at 7 o'clock John is not here uh Le is on steer Hill uh they haven't had a meeting but they will be having a meeting on March 11th it'll it'll be virtual uh but the
um the students have been working on a play The Wizard of Oz and uh I plan to attend on March 8th thank you Caitlyn Valley View um the next meeting is virtual on March 19th that's it thank you than you
uh Woodmont Mike the next meeting is virtual on March 10th um lazar's next meeting I have down here is Thursday March 13th at 7 pm. uh high school and no report thank you uh Section 8 public
participation for any items on the agenda up say your name there we go good okay uh since I'm the only one here I um just wanted to uh oh sorry Hannah Jinx what do I need to say address 8 boot naav uh and I have three
children at William Mason and one home with me I have fifth grader third grader and kindergartner um I just wanted to express appreciation for the email about Gaggle um am I saying it right Gaggle um I do not Envy year all's position and
everyone behind the scenes making decisions as far as security goes in this day and age it's really scary as a parent to be handing my child a Chromebook and to hear the horror stories but there's a reason why those stories make it into the media because they are the not the norm um and so I'm well
aware of that I thought the the initiate like the uh initial email and the initial presentation of the changes was helpful and informative um I did see the the backlash on that and it I understand it happens and there's confusion and stuff like that
but um as someone who tends to be an overc Communicator I liked the follow-up email and I also felt like the follow-up email was helpful and informative and um there's never going to be a perfect system but I really appreciate all of the efforts that you guys are all going to and am supportive of that
so thank you thank you so much and thanks for coming out and commenting in the past and and thank you for the uh the Valentine's cards I got from the from the children they they were beautiful so yeah that was actually a kindness in part of a kindness initiative at William
Mason um I know John's not here tonight to do that but in February our uh school counselor Miss gorgia put out a kindness uh challenge for the kids and it was like hundred kind things they could do over the month and write a note of appreciation to our superintendent was one of them so that was awesome thank
you made my day made my day actually made my year so I got I'm holding on to him so well what the conversation we had at home was he probably doesn't get a lot of thank you so we should probably do that I might hold on to them for next year too so moving on to consent resolutions I to
n can I get a motion so moved second thank you uh any questions about section I section J section K section
L section M section N I get a vo Mr Palama yes Mr Rapaport yes Dr
calino yes Mrs Smith yes Mr doy yes I just want to comment on uh section L we have one retirement we have Pam Gray she's a dedicated and compassionate kindergarten power professional she's at Cedar Hill school for nearly 20 years
throughout her career she has played an invaluable role in supporting Young Learners fostering their growth and creating a warm nurturing classroom environment her patience kindness and unwavering commitment to Student Success have left have left a lasting impact on
countless teachers Children and Families dedication to Cedar Hill school will be greatly missed but our Legacy of care support will continue to inspire for years to come so we wish her well section P I don't think we have to
go back into Clos session section Q old business and section R General board comments yeah um so like I mentioned earlier um you know we belong to the aces program the Alliance for competitive Energy Services this is a New Jersey school
board's program and they are we are now going to invite municipalities to join Aces they never had before or didn't extended invitation before um but it's a way to save on energy costs so um
they'll be getting an invitation to join so hopefully further discussion will ensue and then just um I feel really proud to be served on the MTH Board of Education and you
know reading Dr Gorman's uh weekly update this past one it's just it's amazing we had teachers come from other districts to watch our teachers implement the new amplifi system and they were so excited to talk
to our teachers then you hosted Dr Gorman a think tank of about 12 superintendents which is you know bringing people together like that is uh wonderful things can come out of it um you know and then finally you
mentioned you had been to the uh attorney general's U discussion Zoom meeting so thank thank you these uh meetings are extremely important we probably had about 20 something visitors and we had another one a few months back at hildale as well
so to see these other people from other schools come in see what's going on they're so appreciative of that and it's just a great way to interact with other colleagues because a lot of teachers don't get out uh as much because they're so dedicated to what's going on in the classroom so these are very worthwhile
opportunities and the superintendent you know after you get all the you know uh you know venting out of the way you know you try to solve the problems because we're all up against the same issues so uh and and honestly a couple of them are maybe turning into some uh fruition uh
we might be able to bring in some students that maybe for special ed for some of the programs we have here we're talking about some busing Solutions some ways to maybe uh save some money too so we'll see yeah well thank you for taking the time to do that and the other superintendents as
well thank you any other comments um section s public participation for any items not on the agenda seeing none yeah motion to adjourn so moved second don't have a