Please rise for the flag salute. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please remain steady
for a moment of silence for the men and women of our armed services. Thank you. The notice requirements of the open public's meeting act of the state of New Jersey have been satisfied by the inclusion of the date, time, and place of this meeting and notice of regular
meetings adopted by the board on January 5th, 2026. Such schedule and notice of meetings is posted at the municipal building, the Mount the Mount Olive Library, the board of education offices and the six schools was submitted to the daily record for publication on January 6th, 2026
and was filed with the clerk of Malof Township on January 6th, 2026. I direct that this announcement be entered into the minutes of this meeting. Roll call. >> Mrs. Aquino, Mrs. Brent here. Mrs. Fitzgerald >> here. Mrs. Melendez, Mrs. O'Neal,
>> Mr. Orzillo >> here, >> Mr. Petri >> here, >> Mrs. Faggera >> here, >> Dr. Gordano >> here. >> Thank you. >> There's the final. >> So Neil is here. >> Look at that.
>> Mr. Peachy, approval of the of the minutes. >> On the recommendation of the superintendent, I move to approve 2.1 to 2.4. >> Second. >> Question or comments from the board? >> Seeing none, roll call. Mr. Petri, >> yes. >> Mrs. Fitzgerald, >> yes. >> Mrs. Brent,
>> yes. >> Mrs. O'Neal, >> yes. >> Mr. Orzillo, >> yes. >> Mrs. Faggera, >> yes. >> Dr. Gordano, >> yes. Communication petitions to this from the superintendent. >> No. >> Board. Seeing no, we're moving right along. We're going to jump right on to
the superintendent report. >> Hi. At this time, I would like to invite Mr. Kevin Moore, our director of human resources, for some special accolades to staff and students. Thank you, Dr. Bania, board of education. It's my privilege to be here tonight uh representing the human resources department for the district.
In order to celebrate two members of our school community, one is a student and one is an employee um that both of them did some pretty extraordinary things recently and we felt it that necessary to uh celebrate them. We have both
building principles here tonight and and I'll leave the I don't want to steal their thunder, so I'll leave them to tell the story of of Matt Riner and John K. John K is an employee. Matt Riner is a senior at the high school. We'll have uh Mr. Gorilla. Why don't you come on up
first? Sure. And speak about Mr. K. Thank you very much, Mr. Moore. Good evening, Dr. Ban, members of the board, members of the community. It's my honor to be here this evening to talk to you about a special member of our Mount Olive Township community. On January
23rd, during a very busy lunch period in the school cafeteria, a fifth grade student began choking and was in immediate distress. Without hesitation, Mr. John K quickly responded, performing the Heimlick maneuver, successfully assisting the student and helping to ensure his safety. His quick thinking,
calm demeanor, and willingness to step in during a critical moment made a tremendous difference to our community and definitely to that student's life. Mr. Kay's actions reflect the very best of our school community, care, responsibility, and a commitment to looking out for one another. While custodians work tirelessly every day in
this district behind the scenes to keep our schools safe and welcoming, on this day, Mr. K's presence of mind and decisive action truly made a difference. We're incredibly grateful for Mr. K and proud to have him as a a part of the Tinsro Road School family and the Mount Al Township School District family.
Please join us in thanking and congratulating John Kay for his remarkable actions and for the care he shows for our students each and every day. Perfect. You got a picture? >> I got a picture. >> Wonderful. All right. Congratulations. >> Congratulations, >> Mr. Stanberry.
>> Yeah. >> Thank you, Mr. Moore. >> Yes, sir. >> Always a pleasure. >> Always a pleasure. >> All right. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Um, it's a great pleasure to be able to present this special recognition to one of our students of Mount Olive High
School. On February 11th, as he was leaving his place of work, he saw some smoke and then eventually fire. And without hesitation, this gentleman with bravery and courage entered an animal shelter, the One Step
Closer animal shelter up in uh Andover, and rescued somewhere around 36 to 38 dogs. And um he had the wherewithal to be able to find a bolt cutter because all of the kennels were padlocked and he
had to go through one at a time um putting his own self in danger while rescuing you know some pretty amazing um animals that were a part of that that rescue center and uh we couldn't be more proud of him. Uh joining us this evening
are his mom and uh father uh mom and dad. Big round of applause, Mr. and Mrs. Riner. His counselors are here, Laura Cook and Amanda Weaten. All right. Fantastic. Our vice principal of people services
here, uh, Robert Felman, also here joining us this evening. And, uh, it gives me a great deal of pleasure to present this special recognition on behalf of the board of education and the administration at Mount Olive High School to Matt Riner. Come on up, Matt.
We're good. >> All right. Thank you everyone. >> Absolutely. Come on. >> Congratulations. >> Yeah. Come on in. All the pictures, all the people. >> Perfect. >> Awesome. >> Awesome. Great job.
>> Great job. >> Mr. M. >> They're all here. >> They're all We can read that out loud. They're here. You want me to read it? >> We'll read it. Want to read it out loud or? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> You want to do it now? >> Okay. Sorry.
>> Um, we have one more uh student to honor. Excuse me. Um, it's a resolution of the Malab Board of Education honoring Colin Roco Ronco. Sorry. As a 2026 Morris County unsung hero. Whereas the Morris County School Boards Association in collaboration with the New Jersey
School Boards Association recognizes unsung heroes from each high school, school districts in Morris County to celebrate those whose character and impact define the heart of our schools. And whereas the Unsung Hero Award honors students who make outstanding contributions to their schools and
communities, but are often overlooked by traditional recognition programs, students who have modeled good citizenship, a spirit of quiet strength in the heart of a hero that inspires others. And whereas these unsung heroes may have organized community programs, selflessly supported their peers or
achieved or achieved significant academic success while overcoming difficult personal challenges, disabilities or language barriers. And whereas Colin Ronco has overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles to reach their full potential, serving both the school community and the community
at large as a beacon of resilience and integrity. And whereas on Thursday, March 5th, 2026, Colin Ronco was formally recognized for these achievements at the 2026 Morris County Unsung heroes award ceremony held at Hanover Park High School. Now,
therefore, be it resolved that the Mount Olive Township Board of Education officially recognizes Colin Ronco as the unsung hero of Morris County and the Mount Olive Township School District. And be it further resolved that this resolution is presented to Colin Ronco as a sincere token of the Malav Township Board of Education's congratulations and
best wishes for continued success as they continue as he continues to lead by example. Congratulations, Colin. >> No, not here. Dr. Banji just said he was here. Sorry. >> Sorry. We'll make sure I'll make sure his mom and him get that. >> One of us will.
>> Super. Just to let everyone know, we are um we have to do a parent hearing um roughly when they get here at 7:00 or when something happens, we will have to go to close session around that time. Um it shouldn't be that long and we'll jump back into our regular meeting. Uh in the meantime, uh we're going to keep
plugging away. Anything else, Dr. Ban? >> That's it. Thank you. >> Super. All right, moving right on to personnel committee reports. Personnel met tonight. It was myself, uh, Dr. Bania, Mr. uh, Petri, and Mr. Moore. Uh, we went over a couple things.
We had a presentation by VSAT, which is our veteran school. Um, oh, I just had, hold on, just had a brain freeze. >> Advisory. >> Yeah, veteran staff advisory team. Thank you. Um, and Dr. Stephanie Tarnaski presented an update on the committee of the latest programming involving uh the
veteran staff advisory team. Um basically it's it's uh senior staff members over 20ome years of of of service in Mount Olive and uh they they built this robust program over the past three years. It's pretty impressive. It's culture building. They're there to help new staff members when they come in
help themselves. Um great ideas they had with she talked about um one member's retiring. they thought about doing um a support system for helping people when they're on the process of retiring, how to help guide them. It's just really great that that we do this. A lot of it was done through her PhD program when
she was getting her uh her PhD. Um and she's continued that in the school. So, we were fortunate to have that. Um Mr. Moore presented the committee with a professional improvement memo that went out to all district level uh administrators, the formatting um and issuing of administrative, teacher, and
non-certificated members pips. Um, I will let everyone know that the board of education, and I think it's made clear to Dr. Bania and and her administrative staff, um, to quell anyone's anxieties about this, um, a PIP, someone should be going on a PIP in March, um, and looking
to be non-renewed, uh, in May. Um, a PIP really should be, if it's going to be implemented at the beginning of the year or towards the end of the year, continuation into the following year. Um, we want to give our teachers and our staff members the opportunity to correct anything we identify that they need to correct on. Um, so I want to say that from the from the horse's mouth. Um,
people don't have to be uh um up in arms or or nervous about that. I think this board has shown before that that we're not going to tolerate the 11th hour of of a staff member being brought to a personnel committee or to the full board saying um they're not going to be renewed and nothing's been done to try
to help that staff member. So that's been uh uh sent out and explained to everybody. Um um RSVP3 update. Uh it's called Responsible School Violence Prevention, Preparation, and Protection. It's an app. It's anonymous that people around the county can report to the sheriff's office if if they've heard of
um something in the community of a someone's going to cause harm. Um something of that nature, something very significant that they need to anonymously report it to our uh um our our local law enforcement or the sheriff's office. And then the sheriff's office would then go to the local municipality police force and have them
look into it. Um what we have happening here in Mount Olive is um we're getting notices and and and the sheriff's office and Mount police office has made our administration aware of you're getting uh that this teacher has uh said something not nice to another teacher or student kind of those things are sent to
them. Um it's a waste of the police time. It's it was a waste of them to even reach out to our our local. So we ask the uh whoever's doing that, whoever staff is using this really use it for what it's really for. um for emergencies where you hear something's gonna happen or you hear a rumor um and it's anonymous that you know something bad is
going to happen and and people are going to get hurt. And then um school wellness solutions uh we discussed a proposal um for uh professional development summer retreat for admin with executive leadership one-on-one coaching throughout the year. We thought it was a great idea um once we get the more
information. So look for that in the next couple uh board meetings that will be on the agenda. Uh there is money in title two for it. So that's what's that's what we're looking to do um um with Mr. Moore and Dr. Bania thought be great to you know coach our our our admin staff throughout the year with
outside people not just us. So um we have a lot to get to in close session which I cannot talk about publicly so we'll do that at the end of the night. Uh did I miss anything Mr. Petri? >> Dr. Ber any questions or comments from the board? >> Thank you.
>> Finance and operations Miss Fitzgerald. >> Okay. Can you hear me? All right. There we go. Uh, finance and operations met on the 3. The entire committee was present. Um, a couple highlights from the meeting that were discussed. Um, number one, um, there's a change. There's been a change to our legal notice publication
requirements. So, you guys may know that historically, uh, when we have a legal notice update. Um, we post those in a newspaper. We pay dollars and we have to actually post those in the newspaper for everybody to read. Um, that is no longer the requirement. It actually just needs to be posted somewhere very visible. So,
what we've created um on our Mount Olive website is a drop down at the top. It's very easy to access for everybody that says legal notices. And at any given time, you can click on that drop down and see those. Um but if you were a fan of the newspaper, we're sorry. That's how we're planning to uh save some
dollars. Um and we're just going to go completely digital there. Did I miss anything on that? Does that make sense? Okay. Um, and then the next item, which um, given the temperature, it's hard to believe, but uh, we did have that major storm, two major storms in the past two
months. Um, anytime that we have a storm of that magnitude, it it costs dollars. It cost dollars in salt and labor and time. Um, but the good news is that FEMA actually offered some um, opportunities for to us to take advantage of reimbursement. So, we're getting several thousands of dollars back from FEMA um,
because of those winter storms. So, good news there. Uh I hope we have no more winter. Um and then um finally uh we were made aware of an issue that is happening in the district and um in the state around wire fraud.
So what is happening is that a lot of school districts are finding themselves victim to different types of wire fraud. Some of our unfortunate neighboring friends upwards of $750,000. It is a big problem. Um we ourselves did have a much smaller scale issue as well
where we were sent um a wire that we were supposed to pay. It looked exactly the same and it um went to a different link and it turns out that one of our vendors had had their email hacked a month prior and that's how we ended up uh the victims of wire fraud. Good news is as of today all dollars are recouped
which is great. Um it's one of the fastest. We were told it was going to take three to four months. It is done. So, um, we are very happy that that was not an issue, but knowing that it is a reoccurring issue statewide, districtwide. The business office has put together a process and procedure to
triple check to make sure that in any of the large um amounts that that is not something that is easy to do. It is shockingly hard to do as it is, but we are making it even harder, not just in wire transfers, but in any amount of money that's changing hands. Um, do you want to talk to any of that? I feel like
anything else there. Um just just that you know we did have procedures in place but um the this particular instance you know at the time we believed our protocol is to verify all banking instructions. So at the time that this
occurred we believed that uh banking instructions were accurate. Uh once uh we became aware I contacted uh the bank valley bank um the police department our insurance company. Uh we filed uh
we filed uh song >> actually perfect timing perfect timing um filed all the um proper reports and um I would like to thank um Mr. Karifi and the Mawa the MWA excuse me that's by
me the Mount Olive Police Department who jumped into action immediately and secured our funds almost immediately. Um, we received today a certified check via FedEx uh for all but $2,000 of the
amount and we will um be going after uh the vendor's insurance to secure the balance of that. So, I just wanted to thank everybody uh who was involved. And to emphasize uh Mrs. Fitzgerald's uh point, we did update our SOP, internal
controls um and additional documentation to ensure that something like this will not happen again. Thank you. >> Okay. All right. And any questions on that before I move on to the last? >> I have one real quick. Mich, so just so
everyone understands, we contact our insurance just out of precaution. We did not submit a claim to our insurance. >> No. Well, we have cyber insurance. Okay. >> Um we're part of uh SAFE which is a joint insurance fund. There are about 300 school districts >> uh in the state that um participate with
SAFE and we do have uh cyber insurance that um would have covered us. >> Would have but we didn't we didn't have to use that. We recouped all the money. Right. Okay. >> I went through I began conversations you know it was reported but there's um you have to make action. Okay. Correct. Thank you. I just want to make sure
clarify that. Thank you. >> Anything else on that? Okay. Um, last item I just wanted to go over quickly was um, issues with the dome. I'm sure of you may have heard over the past month or two. Um, we've had some lights that are out in the dome. We are working on that. Um, so we
will be replacing those, but then also the bathrooms. Um, just to give you an idea of the volume that the dome serves. On any given Saturday, uh, about 2,000 people will just roll through our restrooms. Um, they were never meant to handle that. So, we are having some
issues there. Um so we will be um you know making sure that they are getting cleaned more often. But long term um this is a situation where the the dome does make us money but over time it is going to need to be updated because uh we get so much use out of this. Um and a lot of it was never meant to hold this
many people. So that will be a very long range thing that we'll be looking at. Um but as of right now we are taking care of the bathroom situation and the light situation. 2,000 people on a Saturday you guys. It's wild. That's all I have.
>> Comments for the board. >> Thank you, Miss Fitzgerald. >> Curriculum and technology. Miss Faggera. >> Good evening, everybody. The CNT committee met on March 3rd. Uh we had a rather long meeting uh starting at 5:30
here in the conference room and all members were present. We did have some special guests joining us. We had um all of our ELA and math adviserss Christy McFarland, Jen Mastriani, Brienne Deviko, Brian Mate, and Dr. Krider was also in attendance. Um Dr. Krider
provided an overview of the recent district-wide phone outage and uh localized internet issues that occurred at the high school. We also got a tech update. We had u midyear academic progress from all of our supervisors.
They shared the um progress including departmental initiatives and student performance on benchmark assessments and I ready and link it. Thank you again to all of them for the wonderful presentation. Um we also discussed NJQAC instruction and programming scores. The county sh
the the county shared our district's preliminary score. We had a discussion on our gifted and talented programs and Mr. Rodriguez hosted parent information sessions regarding the G&T identification process. Identification
is now available on our district website. Uh we Dr. Bania shared an overview of the district's graduation rate data and explained the difference in how the state and federal government calculate the rate.
Um Mr. Karify has developed a proposal for the youth leadership and public safety program which is an interactive educational program consisting of students in grades six through 8. Um this would provide an opportunity for
the participants to gain knowledge and experience in the field of public safety personnel and first responders. Something that uh we're all very excited about coming to our district. We were also informed of a Kidsville publication. Dr. Bania shared that the
district has been approached by Kidsville News. Uh this is a fun family newspaper that promotes education, reading, and good character traits for children in grades K to six. And Mrs. McDermott and Dr. Mastriani will review the resources and make a final
recommendation on this. Um some other topics that we talked about were dual enrollment. Mrs. McDermott shared updates on conversations that she had with CCM and with Berkeley College. Um, unfortunately, we have some road some
roadblocks there. There the new adjunct requirements now require that a master's degree in the content area um, which is hindering our dual enrollment courses. We also discussed the eighth grade field trip. Uh, we discussed the possibility
of future overnight field trips and Mrs. Wilky has developed a parent survey to gauge interest and determine potential financial assistant needs. So you can look for that uh coming soon. And our final topic of discussion was the Spanish sequence. Mrs. McDermott
explained that Spanish 4 is currently only offered as Spanish for honors due to past enrollment trends and scheduling constraints. >> Question of comments from the board. >> Can I have a question? Can we look into how many
>> eighth graders are being recommended to jump a year to like Spanish two or French two uh just to get an idea of how often that's occurring? >> Frequency. >> See those numbers? Yeah. >> Yeah, >> absolutely. >> Good point. >> Any other questions or comments? You writing that down there, Dr. B? Just
making sure. Anyone else? Thank you, Miss Faggerero. policy and governance. Government I said govern governance. Sorry, Mr. Melendez. The floor is yours. >> Hi. Uh the policy committee met on
Monday, March uh second, but I have a just a comment and observation. The minutes uh need to be uh reflected up to date. Miss Jenna Quino is not anymore part of this committee. Um instead of her is Miss Beth Figera.
Uh the policy committee review recent legal changes including the Mammud versus Taylor case and the freedom to read act. Uh the district forms to ensure alignment uh with these new legal changes were reviewed also and approved.
Uh policies and regulations updates were discussed as well for the following specific areas. uh resource materials, library resources, inappropriate staff conduct and acceptable use. Thank you. Any questions or comments
from the board? Seeing none, thank you. Sub board subcommittees and parent teacher association leaison reports. Does anyone have a report? I know CPAC is meeting tomorrow. Anybody?
No. Oh, look at that. >> And there's no board presence report. Oh, keep plugging away. Public comments on action items. Members of the community may comment on any action item prior to the board discussion. Please state your name and address for the
record. All comments must be respectfully presented. Abusive or obscene comments will not be tolerated. I ask you come up, present yourself. We'll we'll do is to the board president. Um, ask your questions. We'll write it down. We'll give everyone opportunity to ask their questions. We'll close down public comment and then
we will respond as best we can and if we don't have the answers for you right now, um, someone from the administration will get back to you within a day or two. So, come up, say your name and address for the record. Action items and action items only. Martin Wells Muller, 25 Woodrest Avenue,
Bud Lake, New Jersey. Uh, my first question is what is a PIP? you used a terminology that's obviously not common to me. I like the little clarification what a PIP is. Um, and you know, one of my questions today about was regarding the cyber fraud that took here in town. I'm glad that you covered it in more
detail. Um, you know, in the past I I pointed out to the district how this happened in another school district in town where they lost over $3 million. >> Yes. And I brought that to the past board president summit back in November of last year saying, "Hey, we should notify people in the district to be on look at this." So my question is, has
this happened before? Was this the first time? All right. And number two, I I'm glad to hear that we have policies and procedures moving forward. And number two, so based on the statement that was made today, you're saying the police department recovered the funds, but not
the full amount of funds, >> Karen. >> All right. And so the question is, who recovered the funds? Was it the police department? Was it Valley National? Or was it an insurance policy? All right. Um, and you know the goal is this is that you know I was actually surprised
on the bill list that it didn't show this event happening. I know you're talking about here but anytime money is journaled in and out of an account it should still show in the general ledger of what you guys are doing. That's called full transparency and disclosure. So the fact that I'd like to see for
next month or later on this month that you show that it happened cyber incident happened money went out and then that you received money back in in the purpose of it. This is what's called checks and balances. Um I my comment was originally going to be that hey how come it's not on the bill list? Why wasn't it being shown and hoping that it is done
later on? Because transparency um is essential to maintaining control. All right. And this is what's for the district and anytime it involved money. Now I do know that the thing was well over $250,000 this transaction. So it wasn't a small transaction and that to me was
surprising that it it it it didn't get caught. But like I said, I don't do this for a living. We know another town got hit with $4.7 million. They recovered$ 1.9 million of that and they lost $3 million. Um, so I'm thankful that what happened to us was on a small scale. I'm
thankful that we do have some type of insurance to cover this. But like I said, the full transparency disclosure, it should be shown in the books and records. But I do like also want to know what a PIP is. But >> no, I'm going to wait. We'll wait for everyone else to close it down. Then
I'll answer everything. Mr. Anyone else on on action items and action items only? Seeing none, closing it to public comment. Um, a PIP is a personal improvement plan. It's something that a staff member, whether it's a teacher or power professional would go on um in any
way, shape, or form. Could be a teacher methodology or or classroom uh management, anything like that that the administration feels that that teacher needs to work on. Um, cyber fraud. This is the first I'm aware since I've been on the board for almost 20 years of a cyber fraud. Uh the district years ago,
years years ago was uh uh uh we had fraud um with with our with our insurance with our healthcare insurance. That was years ago. I I think you're going back to 200 8 n somewhere in there. Um
the insurance policy did not recover this money like I said and and and Miss showing said it did not go through our insurance policy. I will leave it up to you, Miss Fitzgerald. Miss showing that the police recovered that for us, right? >> Can can I respond to the other questions? >> Absolutely. Um >> the dispersement was approved by the
board on February 9th. It was on the bill's list. It was um set up there as a payment. So, um we cannot process any type of dispersement without it flowing through uh our financial software. Um so, you can be sure that the board
already approved that purchase order. Um, when the fraud was discovered, I contacted Valley Bank who notified their fraud department and they began to work immediately on to contacting the
fraudulent bank account. At the same token, I contacted the Mount Olive Police Department. Um, an officer along with Mr. Karifi um took my statement. I provided them all the documentation I had on it and they immediately reached
out to the bank, froze the account and was and secured the funds immediately. The dispersement was $257,000. We received a check today for $255,000. uh the balance. We will work with uh the
vendor's insurance company because uh as of right now, from what I'm told, it was our vendors who whose email got hacked. >> Thank you, Michonne. I think that covered all those questions. >> Super. Um Miss Fitzgerald, motion for
consent agenda. >> So moved. >> So we're going to do a consent agenda from 6.1. Do you want to make that motion, Miss Fitzgerald? >> Yes. Upon the recommendation of the superintendent, I'd like to make a motion to approve uh via consent agenda action item 6.1 all the way down to
10.5. >> Anybody need a second? >> A second. >> Thank you. >> Here we go. I'm sorry. Made the second, >> Mr. Orzilla. >> Okay. >> Questions or comments from the board? >> Seeing none, roll call. >> Mrs. Fitzgerald,
um abstain on items 8.10 10 and 8.11. Yes to everything else. >> Mr. Orzillo, >> yes. >> Mrs. Brett, >> yes. >> Mrs. Melendez, >> abstaining 8.2. Anything related to Angela Sanchez and yes to everything
else? >> Mrs. O'Neal? >> Yes. >> Mr. Petri, >> abstain from 6.4 to 6.7. A yes to everything else. >> Mrs. Faggera. >> Yes. Dr. Gardano
>> at seen on anything that has to do with substitutes or substitute rate of pay. Yes. To everything else. >> Okay, >> we're good. >> Thank you. Super here. >> Yeah, I don't think the parents Mr. Mr.
Crey No, no one's here yet for our close session, are they? Okay, we'll keep plugging away. >> Kim, >> public comment. Students, parents, employees, and community members may comment on any item of interest pertaining to the Mount Olive School, excuse me, pertaining to the Mount Olive School District. Please state your name
and address for the record. All comments must be respectfully presented. Abuse or obscene comments will not be tolerated. Once again, I ask you to address your questions to the board president. We will wait for everyone to ask their questions. I will close public comment and then we will address those questions. And what questions we can't
answer, someone from the administration will get back to you in a day or two. So, come up. Please state your name and address and ask away any rumors we can dispel, any questions we can answer. >> As always, it's always me. >> Welcome back, >> Martin Wells Muller, 25 Woodrest Avenue,
Bud Lake, New Jersey. Um, good evening. I want to briefly raise two additional issues before I read a letter. First, the recent student protest related to ICE enforcement has raised many questions within the community. Students certainly have the right to express themselves, but it's supposed to be
during their time and not class time. >> So, but the >> Did it go out? >> Pay the bill. Okay. >> No, no, no, no. We're in the middle of it now. Might as well. >> Yeah. There we go. All right. I may have to
start over. I'm not sure where I I >> You left off, just so you know, you left off at student protest concerns in the community. >> All right. Uh, and what I want to find out is who organized and who authorizes the protest. Um, and reason being because as a state statute is not
supposed to be organized or put together by any staff members in the district. Um, I know that, you know, we all like to have our our our battles in school and stuff like that, but there's appropriate time for certain things and class time is not one of them. Um, so I'm hoping to find out if we can get
from the board uh who facilitated during this. All right. And and who was involved from the administrative staff doing so. All right. And then I also was I was sent a few messages from some parents and they said why were teachers asking kids if they wanted to go to the
protest in some of the classes. All right. Were the additional students that weren't originally part of the 15 punished for accountability for missing class and what were the consequences? All right. And we're now this also happened in one of the classroom where kids that were outside protesting were
banging on the windows in a classroom by the back gym area during class time to to rally the kids up. And the kids that were banging on those windows were they also held accountable. All right. Secondly, all right, I like to also talk about the delay in filling open requests. Now, I currently don't have
any out there right now, but I know two people do in this town. I also am aware of the lawsuit that you guys just settled regarding open requests. So the open public records act exists to ensure transparency in government when requests for records are delayed without a clear explanation. It undermines the public
trust and respect I'm respectly asking for the district to explain why these records have not been produced and when the public can expect them. With that said, I'd like to read another email, a letter I have to put out here. All right. Over the years, I've encouraged our board of ed to go out for
RFPs, a request for proposals. Well, in doing so, we've done that to ensure we have the best possible vendors, costs, and and and things at light. Now, I'm going to talk about a touchy subject. To me, this is about professionalism. It's not personal. All right. Last time when
we had our superintendent search, we only looked internally. Okay. What I'm going to encourage the board and ask the board to do that it's always okay to kick the tires and look externally. at the same time giving our current superintendent the same opportunities to apply for the job to make sure that we
have the best of the best in our town. Now, I'm not trying to belittle anything that anyone has done now in the future in the past, but like I said, when you have the top jobs in the district, this even includes administration jobs, which are not protected by union, that we should also from time to time go out and
make sure that we have the best possible people working in our district, because the end of the day, this is our tax dollars that represent um for our dollars to represent to protect our children. So what I'm asking the district to do is to consider going out for superintendent searches and even
administrative searches from now into the future just as we do at RFPs. It's just a prudent business manager that should be addressed. Um and that's kind of all I have at this time. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else?
>> Closing the public comment. >> Oh, hang on. We got one. Come on up. Oh, I'm sorry. Come on up. >> Hi, how are you? My name is Angel Dana and I live in Normandy. Um, I think for me as a mom is so important that the
school protect uh the kids identities. I don't know why they want to knows who person uh create the protest but I think as kids or adults has the same right to speak their mind and we
request that the school protect our kids. >> Hi Sally Stala uh Fairmont Road Flanders. um just want to say that um following Angie's words that um just want to
protect the children and they have their own constitutional rights and I believe that what the school did and the board did and I know that they were um trying to balance between their policies but also allowing the children to give their
rights to um voice their opinions and I know that it wasn't just against ICE, but there was a representative there for ICE and allowed a nice um debate to occur between both both sets of parties
so they could hear both sides. So, thank you to the board. Thank you for allowing that. I really appreciate it. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> And I'm sorry, I I just forgot something that is important for me is to not expose or kids in social media. I think
it's not okay because when you post that kind of stuff in social media, you create a stuff in a school with the kids. Uh kids start like maybe bullying the other kids that is in the protest and I think they're just pressing their
minds. It's um I want to appreciate the the school that allowed the kids to do it. is important for their future that speak their they speak their mind but I think we have to protect our kids in social media >> with the other kids and the adults.
>> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else? >> Now closing to public comment. Um we'll start off uh with Mr. Wells Muller. Um it was a studentled protest.
Number one, there was no adults that that initiated it. No adults that um said, "Let's do this." Um it was organized by students. They did meet with their building level principal to discuss what they wanted to do to discuss with that building level principal on the parameters uh of what
they could do. Um it was flown up the chain of command. Uh the board knew that this might be coming. The students were thinking about doing something like this. I think the end of January, February sometime, I think Dr. Dr. Banjo first reported to the board to let us know that you know students are feeling this way. Um we immediately contacted
our board attorney to make sure what parameters um you know students had a right to do this and what ways could they do this. Uh Dr. Banjo worked with her building level administrators uh to make sure that it was done in the in the least disruptive manner. Um whether we
like it or not, students have a right to to speak their mind. Um whether it's a subject we like or subject we don't agree with or or like and that we do agree with. Um, unfortunately that that's what we have. What they can't do, a student has every right, and I'm not telling students to do this so no one get mad. A student has a right to go to
their teacher in a respectful, calm manner and say, "I don't agree with my grade because X, Y, and Z, or I don't agree with this homework assignment, X, Y, and Z." In a respectful way to have that debate. We want our kids to have that debate. We want our kids to think and say, "I don't agree with this because X, Y, and Z." Doesn't mean I
don't agree with it. Doesn't mean I don't think it's a bad thing. You know, I I don't think, you know, enforcing our immigration laws as a person is a bad thing to do. I I think it's we need to enforce our laws just like our local police officers and our local law enforcement, everything. I I don't think that this was what what it was. I think
people have some some major concerns. We all should because we all have our own opinions about things. I don't think this was a a a a studentled protest what happened and I'll let Dr. Banjo speak out a little bit more of it was really something profound that these students took upon themselves and it could be any subject matter. I mean, would we have
this conversation if the students did this about their lunches? I don't think we would, right? It's just that's unfortunately this is a hot topic right now in our in our in our society and and and it led to this, but it was in no way to demean any law enforcement agencies or demean any any of the work they're
doing or it wasn't the rumors that Dr. Bania led it. Um, it was all her idea. um is just it's just hearsay and quite frankly rude and obnoxious and you can't stop we can't stop to answer the two lady's question we can't stop people from posting only the their those admins can stop people from posting
unfortunately um but we will do our best to protect our students and the identities of the students um and you know what I'm you know what what what disappoints me most is not the people who post things like this or post hearsay um it's the people who follow up and just take that as the truth so what
we're asking the community to do is if you hear something pick up the phone and Call the building administrator. Call Dr. Banjo. You don't have to post on social media and get into a monthsl long arguments with people. Just pick up the phone and call. It's not that hard to do. You'll get it from the horse's mouth or come to the next board meeting. I I'll tell you the honest Scott truth as
long as it's with the parameters of the law. And I can do that. No one no one's trying to hide things here. Um there's just it's just a misunderstanding what people think this board of ed has the power to do and what we can do. We're not council members. We have different set of rules we have to follow. And I just encourage everyone in this town if you hear something and hear or say and
it doesn't sound right, pick up the phone and call the building principal. Pick up the phone and call Dr. Bansia. That's what we should be doing. Yes, you can contact the board of ed member, but we're going to tell you, contact the board of ed, contact, not the board of ed, contact the building level administrator, contact Dr. Bansia, right? We're going to hear you. We're
going to listen to you and we're going to give you the best advice on how to get the answer you want. Right? So, so I just pray to God people start to get that. I mean, this was insane. I mean, we have now students that are fearful. Uh there's a lot going on still that this board is going to be addressed in
close session with that we have to address that that that this raises other concerns for this board and now has to address. Um so that answers that. Dr. Vaner, would you like to say anything more about that? >> Certainly, I would like to echo your sentiments, but I think two things I would like the public to remember. We are a student first district. Every
conversation that we have, whether it be as minuscule of, you know, days that we we want to celebrate as far as activities wise, as well as going up to policy, are questions that we always start with. Is this what's in best interest of our students? And that's going to be the the motto that we have
in every meeting, in every conversation. And that was what was taken in this as far as this incident was concerned, right? And we are very proud of the fact that students have a large voice in this district. They have the ability to not only engage in conversations with their teachers, they have regular opportunities to engage with their
conversations with the mil building administration as well as central office administration. MCD and I meet with high school students and middle school students on a monthly basis to ensure their voices are heard and based upon those conversations we engage in conversations with the um building level
administration to make important changes and share ideas. And second part of that is as a board and as a district we are very transparent. You know as documented from our constant communication the outreach that we do with families that we are th those two things we are very
proudful and I think that is certainly reflective in the action that took place on that day. Thank you. >> Super um um uh f we did not Dr. Maner correct me if I'm wrong. No we have no that that teachers asked students if
they wanted to join. We have no proof of that. We have no >> I would have to follow up on that. I my knowledge of that >> right that I my was that not happened. Okay. So we can follow up on that. We'll ask Miss Wilky and you can ask Miss Wilki >> and I know Miss Wilki was asked that and based upon my conversations with her she was it was not brought to her attention
but she followed up with the staff. >> Uh no students were punished because it was a planned uh student activity. Uh obviously if students we don't allow students just to get up and walk out of school. Um they would be have consequences if they did that. That's called cutting. Um, so you know, >> well, I didn't want to talk about the
date on a little bit more, but the parents who spoke out at the microphone, they indicated as far as what transpired in that activity outside was pretty impressive as far as students from different sides who engaged in I want to say respectful conversation and debate.
Um, and I kudos to the middle school um, staff and counseling department because what they engaged it was a community circle. They formed a circle and they um stood in a circle and they shared their ideas and I want to say that they probably behaved better than most adults I ever saw. So certainly now surely now
they're behaving better than so kudos to those students and certainly this I was present along with the entire you know Miss Wily was out there along with Mr. Karifi. There are no students banging on windows so I'm unaware of what that's in reference to. >> Um I can make that I can say that from
being having a firsthand account. I was there the entire time. That was going to be my second question. Thank you. Um and and and can we explain the delay? Is there a delay in Oprah requests? We have by law miss we have time frame. >> There's correct. There is one OPER request that's outstanding right now and
it was responded to requesting a twoe delay to gather the information because there was a lot of information that was requested. >> Super. Okay. Thank you. Um um as regarding to encourage an RFP, RFP is not I don't think that's what you
meant. I understood what you meant, but an RFP to go out for. We're not losing our superintendent. Yeah, it's a vendor. You request for professional service is more like a vendor. It's not something we would do with admin or superintendent. We certainly wouldn't get anyone here to hire if we went started doing that every year. Uh no one
would come to work for us. Um education is different like that than the public sector. Um and to the uh the the women, I I addressed that we we have an obligation to protect our students. uh names will never be released. Um first of all, it's against the law. We can't release
students names, nor will we ever allow anyone to have access to those student names. So, if they came up here and just started mentioning student names, we would never say who they were if they're right or wrong or indifferent. But, but it is it's becoming a growing problem for sure. Um and something this board's going to have to address down the road.
Anyone anything else for anyone else? Super. Any old business? New business >> board comments. Mr. Petri, >> uh just want to say if in the in the district or in the town if there's some
doubts about Dr. Banga, you have my full and utter support. That's it. >> Thank you, Mr. Petri. Miss Melendez, >> um I forgot to mention before, but the high school uh parents association have the spirit wear right now uh online. So
feel free to go to general manolife marauder h spirit wear over there is very easy to place the the order and is open all year. Uh I thought that was only seasonal but no it's open all year
and also uh Dr. Bang uh you have my support as well. Miss Brett, >> I just really want to thank the businesses in the community because you're seeing a lot of the PTO's asking for support and again it's the community
and the small businesses are really contributing. Absolutely. >> You know, Cold Stone in Flanders just to mention a few barbecue pit I know that Sandy's Liquor is doing certain things. It's just a >> lot of fundraisers. >> The support is outstanding.
>> You're absolutely right, Miss Brett. >> That's a great fun. It's a great fundraiser for S. >> Holy moly, guys. >> Miss O'Neal >> be raking it in. >> Oh, please do. >> So, um it's the 250th Celebration of
America and All Veterans Memorial Park is having a celebration um that they would like the school to be as involved in as they want to be. So I do have she asked me uh Charlie Urman
who is the uh organizer of the event um did ask me to give you all a letter which I could not print before I got here but I will be sending it to all of you and any any
school teacher organization the girl scouts the football team they're they're all on board to um participate It is going to be on May 24th from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. and the
evening will be a candlelight vigil at All Veterans Memorial Park. So, I'll send each board member, but if anybody in the public is interested or any teacher wants to know anything about it, they can ask me or um
Charlie Man who is the organizer. Hey, super. >> Do you need the time was 4 to 8:00 p.m.? >> Yes. >> Okay. And I was also unable to print out that letter. I tried today, too, and I wasn't able to either get it to print. >> Anything else, Miss O'Neal? >> That's it. >> Super. Thank you.
>> Thank you, >> Miss Fitzgerald. >> Okay. Uh, just congratulations to um I believe wrestling has had some very big big wins recently, so congrats to them. Also, robotics, I know, had a big competition this weekend. Um, and Mount Olive had a great showing. So, um, kudos
to them as well. Also, do not forget to get your Freaky Friday tickets. Those are on sale now. And that show is the 19th, 20th, and 21st. >> Mr. Arzilla. Um, ditto to everything everybody said. Congratulations to our two local heroes here.
>> Correct. >> And on the note of, you know, the current environment and the heated debates that are going on, it starts here in the community. If we can't be together as a community, this is
where it starts and this is where it ends. So I I I I just beg, same thing as you said, especially with this social media nonsense, to to just just cut it out and just, you know, >> remember these are children. >> I know. And these are children. Correct.
So that's all I have to say. Thanks. >> Thank you, Miss Vera. Just to tie on to Mr. Orzo's sentiments, I want to commend our heroes. It's very refreshing to see the good deeds and brave acts that are being done and that, you know, focus on the good in the
world. So, thank you to all of you. Um, and I also want to say thank you to Miss Benter um as well as farewell. My prayers are with your family and you will be missed from team 64. Um, just want to I'd be remiss uh for our retirees, a couple of of of we have
some long- serving staff members. Um, you know, uh, Miss Marvin is just off the top of my head. Um, let me pull up that list. Congratulations. Uh, you all will be missed, uh, for sure. Um, but we have, we went over in personnel, we have some, and I should have mentioned that we have some long-erving staff members
that are going to be difficult to replace. So, congratulations. Um I think I got another 10 years so that happens for me but if not longer but that's all we have. All right confidential session resolve that the board be in
confidential session for the purpose of discussing negotiations personnel matters attorney client privilege pending or anticipated litigation confidential pupil matters. Be it further resolved that the matters discussed in confidential session be disclosed to the public when the reasons for confidentiality no longer exist.
action may be taken. We are in close session, folks. Everyone have a good night. We're just going to Boom. >> Word. >> Word. >> All right, we're good. Uh, motion. Uh, we're back from close session. Roll call. Miss showing.
>> Mrs. Aquino. Mrs. Brett here. >> Mrs. Fitzgerald here. Mrs. Melendez here. >> Mrs. O'Neal. Mr. Orazilo >> here. >> Mr. Petri here. >> Mrs. Sigara, Dr. Girardano >> here. >> Um, we have two uh resolutions, two
motions to approve 7.2 resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent to terminate the employee of employee ID number 9567 effective March 22nd, 2026. And then resolution um
7.21 21 resolve that the board affirms the finding that allegations of HIV were unfounded in case number 303115 CMS 01272 026 heard during executive session and
be further resolved that the parent shall be provided with a written decision informing them of the of the deposition disposition and their appeal rights. Need a motion. So >> moved. >> Second. >> Second. Roll call is showing.
>> Mrs. Fitzgerald, >> yes. >> Mr. Petri, >> yes. >> Mrs. Brett, >> yes. >> Mrs. Melendez, >> yes. >> Mr. Orzillo, >> yes. >> Mrs. Faggera. >> Dr. Gordeno, >> yes.
Resolutions pass. Motion to adjurnn.