Roll call. >> Miss Gastelano. >> Mr. Karo >> here. >> Dr. Hayden >> here. >> Miss Gunderman >> here. >> Miss Morano >> here. >> Mr. Walsh >> here. >> Mrs. Zayn >> here. >> You have a quum. >> Join me in the flag salute. >> I aliance 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. >> This is a public meeting of the board of education of the bureau of new providence. Adequate notice of this meeting has been given in accordance
with PL1975 chapter 231 in that a notice was made in conformance with se section 13 of the act. Whenever the business of the board requires it to convene to close session, the session will begin no later than 9:30 p.m. At the conclusion of the need for close session, the board
will reconvene to the public portion of the meeting. At that time, the board will complete any business that it may be before it, and the public will then be given an opportunity to be heard before the meeting is adjourned. Good evening, everyone. As I sat down to
prepare for tonight's meeting, I found myself reflecting on the news events of the past few weeks, some of which have been difficult, even heartbreaking to witness. Like many of you, I felt a range of emotions. Confusion, frustration, concern, and more than anything, I found myself thinking about
our students, what they're seeing, how they're feeling, and how they're trying to make sense of a complicated world. Our students are looking to us, the adults in their lives. They're watching their teachers, their principles, their families, and yes, even us as a board. They're
observing how we respond, how we treat one another, and how we lead during uncertain times. What we model for them now will shape how they navigate challenges and opportunities throughout their lives. Now more than ever, it is important to communicate with your children. Ask them what they're
thinking, what they're hearing, and how they're feeling. These conversations won't always be easy, but they're incredibly important. When we help our children understand their emotions and give them the space to express themselves, we build their resilience. And just as importantly, we remind them
that they're not alone. For the sake of our students, our schools, and our community, I hope that we all continue to lead with empathy, integrity, and clarity. That's all I have. >> Thank you, Miss Cicero. At this time, it's my pleasure to introduce our new
student rep for the 2025 2026 school year, Ariel Brener. >> So, my name is Ariel Brener. I'm a senior student at this amazing high school, and I was recently appointed class president. Um, thank you Dr. Zeroli, Mr. Henry, and the board of
education for allowing me the opportunity to be at the New Providence High School Board of Education um, student representative. I greatly appreciate this opportunity and look forward to sharing the high school reports each month with you. So, we start off on our first day, August 28th.
It was a great start to the year. A lot of positive feedback on the start of the year from the student body. Um, the Walls of Pride project courtesy of the PTSA. Um, it's a new look around the school. A lot of people like it. Um, we had back to school night, Thursday, September 18th. Great turnout from our
parents. Um, our peer leaders, we had a club fair earlier in the day. Um, it took place during the last block of all our freshman students and, uh, our new students. All of our students led the club fair and showcased all of our co-curricular and non-sponsored club offerings. There's a lot of really cool
posters there. Um, fall play auditions have wrapped up, so clear your calendars for November 21st and 22nd. We eagerly look forward to seeing our fall play students in mid- November. Um, for the marching band update, the Pride and Class uh the Pride and Class had their
first performance at the home football game of the year on Friday, September 12th. The band sounded amazing and the color guard excelled as well. We are very excited to see their second performance tomorrow evening. Um students had a PSAT on Wednesday, October 1st for all sophomores and
juniors. Um actually it's upcoming, my apologies. Um and um our week of respect is coming up on October 6th to 10th. Um and the theme is character education. It it'll be released soon.
>> Updates. >> Uh some club updates. And to clarify, clubs haven't really gotten off the floor. We had a club fair today. Um, so more or less it's just the STEM club and TSA, which had amazing accomplishments over the summer. Um, this summer the
STEM club sent 56 of its members to the national TSA conference in Nashville, Tennessee. TSA, the Technology Student Association, is an organization consisting of over 300,000 active members participating in various STEM challenges from fashion from fashion design to software development with
around 10,000 students attending the national conference this year. The New Jersey state delegation was led by one of our own, Karina Pang, acting as the state president for New Jersey at the national conference. The club found much success at this year's conference, placing second animatronics, building a
self- flipping book to be integrated in libraries, third place in virtual reality simulation, building a family vacation experience in VR, as well as four other top 10 finishes. Very impressive. Um, very fittingly, Miss Fence, one of the STEM club advisers,
was named New Jersey TSA High School State Adviser of the Year. Both the STEM club and the computer programming club have already hit the ground running with a diverse leadership team comprising uh consisting of both experienced seniors as well as ambitious underclassmen. Both clubs plan to expand into even more
prestigious competitions like the international science and engineering fair, USA computing olympiad as well as the other science and humanities symposium, the computer programming club given its previous uh successes in international capture. uh the flag style
competition such as Carnegie Melon's um Pico CTF has begun planning to develop its own competition to train middle schoolers. Overall, the club's participation, progress, and prestige have all increased due to efforts and support from advisers, student leadership, and
the board. Uh all the science related clubs, thank you for your continued support. So, just a rundown of some of the student achievements. Um, Karina Pang, Rom, Lucas, uh, Lazarus all earned second place in animatronics. Trevor Fornov, Sebastian Marcato both earned
third place in virtual reality realization. Anna Bankova, Hazel Chen, and Sean Krueger earned seventh place in systems control technology. Um, Cristiana um, Kuriki, Lisa Yachina, Zoe Lazarus, and Amber Lou earned 10th place
in board game design. uh Elizabeth Bigum, uh Cleo Rossman, Matteo Gosher, and Matthew Chen earned fifth place in high school teams presentation. Sebastian Marcato, Rahm, Hazel, and Karina also earned ninth place in high school teams multiple choice. And we had about 56 high
schoolers in nationals this year with a total of 10,000 people attending that conference uh which ran from June 27th to July 1st. Um and now I'm going to move to the eight national merided students. Um that includes Matteo Astra, Adam Ardull, Ren Aurora, Troy Fouch,
Kayn Han, Suana Hangarani, Maggie Louu, and Sebastian Marcato who all got recognized for their um amazing scores in the PSAT the following round um the previous year. Um and in specific, Sebastian was accepted into the New Jersey Governor's School of Engineering
and Technology. Um it requires a high school nomination and has a 15% acceptance rate after nomination. um he developed research on cyber security um and the paper is going to be published in the E. Um the paper is
being presented at the MIT URC on October 11th. So overall very impressive from our students and in terms of athletics, fall sports are doing great and there's overall a very electric feeling in student sections. Um so girls soccer is currently 52 and one. So five wins, two
losses and one tie. So far, they are pretty young team with a lot of sophomores, but they have some good results from tough teams and are competing pretty well. Um, the goals are being made. Um, they're coming from a range of different people. So, the team is like overall is pretty strong. Um,
boys soccer is killing it. They're 4-1 and one. They recently tied Westfield and they can compete with the best in the state and but they're a bit sad about the recent injury as some of you guys know. Um cross country teams are both a good of mix uh a good mix of returning experienced runners and also
some new runners. Um they competed well at invitational meets over the last three weeks with consistent improvements in PRs across the board. There are solid core of seniors through sophomores that should all run under 20 minutes in the later races. Currently their number one runner is Tai Iikita who has improved
dramatically from freshman to sophomore year. For the girls, they have a handful of senior leaders who are all backing up the number one runner, Alex Hudson, who recently scored in the top 10 of a couple of races against big teams. They're hoping to score in the top five at the sectional meet. So, good luck to
them. Um, in terms of football and cheer, football is currently 3 and 0. Um, they had a super great start to the year, lots of points scored, and people have been staying at the games like never before. um singing, cheering, and the cheer team also looked fantastic. Um
for girls volleyball, they were seven and three. They had tournament on Saturday. Um and their senior night is on Monday. The dig pink game is on October 13th, which is for breast cancer awareness. Um girls tennis, they were recently at counties and doubles got
fourth and third out of about 19. Although they described it saying, "Oh, we didn't do so well." I said, I said, "Out of 19, you guys did great." Um, so a little bit of a pivot from previous accomplishments. I want to recommend this board, uh, commend this board for doing an excellent job in responding to the
issues of the students. From the ground, I can report that the new phone rule has provided the exact reinforcement we need in the classroom. And although many students won't admit it, it's made a hugely positive impact in our everyday studies. This ranges from students laughing and conversing during lunch to
students staying focused the whole class. You wouldn't think playing cards at lunch is such a rare thing until you've stepped into our cafeteria. Um, but to wrap this up, I want to thank uh thank you again the board for affording me this opportunity and I look forward to sharing the great things going on at uh NPHs throughout the
school year. Thank you. >> Thank you so much, Ariel. At this time, Miss Yugiro for our enrollment report. >> Thank you and good evening. Uh at Allen W. Roberts, we currently have 588 students. At Saltbrook, we currently
have 598 students. At New Providence Middle School, we currently have 392 students. At New Providence High School, we currently have 657 students. This brings us to a total of 2,235
students. We also currently have 39 students in out of district placements for a grand total of 2,274 students. >> Thank you. Uh at this time, I'd just like to bring to the attention of the
board, which I did speak briefly with each of you about uh building consensus around moving forward with our softball fields at Salt Brook School. Um so I'd like to thank Mr. Corangelo as well as Kelly Awe uh who is a community member
who's very involved in the PAL for bringing this forward to myself and Mr. Ta. As many of you may know, the current diamonds at Salt Brook School are not being utilized by any of our high school programs and they haven't been for many years. However, they have been utilized
by the PAL um as well as the recreation department. And so as such we have not been maintaining them but New Providence DPW has been. Uh due to the fact that we have not been utilizing them and maintaining them the fields athletically
for nearly almost two decades have gotten to a point of repair uh and improvements of of many repair and and improvements. Um so at this time we are recommending that we regrade those
fields um to allow the surface water to drain off of the diamonds. Um we also are looking to include new dugouts and benches. So currently right now the benches are not long enough to service a full team using the field. So, we are
recommending that the bench length is corresponding with the actual dugout so that the entire team can utilize the bench during the course of the game. Um, we're also looking to fence in these dugouts as well with a metal roof structure so that we could protect the
team um from the elements, you know, during any type of game and clearly delineate that that's where the team is and sits. Finally, uh the last thing that we're looking to do is we're looking to set up foul line fencing because currently there is no foul line fencing. So, what we're proposing is
that we allow for uh Kelly Away as a community member and a large part of the PIL to start fundraising, which as the board knows we did here at the high school as well in order to get these repairs done. It will total probably
about $43,000. The infield will be about $11,000 and the fencing would be about $10,000. Um, we are hopeful that if we can raise those funds rather quickly, we can start that work in mid November. However,
Vinnie has assured us that in the event we don't have the funds by mid November, we would be able to complete the project in early March and be ready for the softball season. The reason why we're eager to accept this um opportunity for
volunteering to donate money to the fields is because the sport of softball in town has become more popular over the years. We for many many years, probably 15 years, have only had a varsity level softball team. But we're hopeful that with the help of our youth groups such
as the PAL as well as the recck department, we could really start to build out a love of the sport. Uh, currently PAL hosts middle school students there and are playing other middle schools that have an actual team that's sponsored by the board. So, we're
hopeful that we could grow the program so that eventually we could have a JV team at the high school and possibly even a freshman team. Um, Mr. Ta, did I miss anything? So, at this time, we just want to build consensus with the board that you're
okay with allowing for the donations and the volunteering of Kelly with her team. Um, and hopefully, you know, they are able to raise those funds rather quickly, but if not, we have our contingency plan that we could do these repairs also in early March.
Okay, great. I'd also like to just add um and thank Kelly um as well as our our next um parent that's going to be presenting with me on the anxious generation. I think it's really important to recognize those community members that really devote their own
time to do good things for our students. So I think Kelly, thank Kelly for putting the time in and for bringing this to our attention. And before we even begin, I do thank Deb Merrick who will be presenting with me tonight briefly on the anxious generation.
So, as as I've mentioned to the board, um as a part of one of our strategic goals, which is bringing awareness, mental awareness around the use of technology to all of our constituent groups, meaning our teachers, our students, as well as our parents and
community. We have started a book read on the anxious generation and we have about 87 of our teachers and staff members that are reading that book along with me and the administrators. here. If you have not yet previewed the anxious generation, I have a very short
video and I'm really hoping that our audio works right now where Jonathan height who is psychologist who wrote this book and um I think it's about 2023 that it was published goes through. Okay, it's not going to work. goes
through um the reasons why you know he thinks it was so important that post the pandemic he gather research and data on the generation right many of them of whom are in college right now were
really born with technology in their hands and um I am very honest and I'm very okay with saying this as a parent myself of a high schooler we didn't know any better right and many parents parents at that time were putting iPads
and cell phones and iPhones right in front of their children and didn't know the impacts of it. So this book really takes us through that journey and on the back end it's a really a call to action on things that we can do to help the current generations who are also facing
you know their daily lives with technology 247 and ways that we can raise awareness around that. So, as I said, this is directly aligned to strategic planning goal three, which is to strengthen the go uh district's commitment to students mental health and well-being through a comprehensive
social emotional seal framework. You can see the key themes and how uh they are aligned to the themes that evolved from the strategic plan. And under objectives, objective number two specifically, we're looking to educate students, staff, and families on the
impact of technology use on mental health and implement strategies to encourage mindful balanced use of digital tools. This is also one of the annual board goals of the curriculum, instruction, and technology committee. And you could see here directly aligned
to strategic goal three and we're looking to promote digital wellness. So by March 2026, we're looking to develop and deliver a district-wide digital wellness initiative that includes at least one student workshop per gradeband, one professional development
session, and one family engagement event, all focused on mental health impacts of technology and strategies for mindful balance digital use. You'll see this evening in partnering with Deb Merrick as well as Danielle Garulo that
we're even going to have more than just one family engagement where we're going to bring our community together. So, moving forward, the idea is that again there is a book club happening. Our teachers and our staff are engaging in that as well as the administration
and we're looking to engage the community in that as well with three evening events. We have read through chapters 1 through three and now we're currently working on chapters four through seven. At the back end and here is our timeline. At the back end of each
segment of the readings that we're doing, I have put together a Google form where I collect information. This just isn't working. where I collect information um and I think it's really important that I'm collecting
information um by using checklists as well as open-ended questions for our teachers as well as our administrators because that will give me a ton of qualitative data that we're able to use in December as we bring this all together.
So with that, I am going to pass it over to Deb and she's just going to go through how we are going to include our parents, students, school, and community >> and it's a little weird that I'm looking at a screen and none of you just pull the mic down just a little bit. Yep. Perfect. Um um but what I would say
first is that I think what New Providence High School has done so far, the district has done so far with doing like doing the book club itself and going to phone free schools is a phenomenal first start at uh at making great collective action here. Um one
thing I want to point out is is that our kids ages 5 through 18 spend 25% of their time in the classroom. So that other 25% of their waking hours. So that other 75% we need to we would like to
teach them how to use technology in a mindful and intentional way so that they we can have our kids understand persuasive advertising that they can prioritize human connections that they can build relationships they can learn healthy coping strategies they can get
enough sleep. So some of those basic things. So what we'd like to do is have a three sessions. The first one will be October 15th. I think we're pretty close to committing. Um, and it will be an introduction to the book. We'll show you if we love you to read it. You can get
at the library. You can order on Amazon, but if you haven't, please come anyway. We will summarize the book and his findings and recommendations. And we will have a panel of experts that are parent coaches, psychologists, um, local experts who have implemented some of the
strategies like wait till 8th uh, etc. So come to that and then we will break it up session two into age appropriate. So an elementary school focus on November 11th, a middle school and high school focus on November 13th. And in those sessions, it'll be more of a a
brainstorming and a prioritization of and and action steps that we think we can all take. And then we'll get back together in session three in December and we'll summarize the things that we found through the teacher survey through our session two with the community and
what our students are saying as well. And we invite our students to come to that third session as well and we can talk about and prioritize and figure out what our next steps are. >> Thank you Deb. And I just want to point out that we had a long conversation about how we would like to include
students. And we felt that for session one and for session two, we did want to keep that to our parents, our teachers, and our community because we feel that possibly some parents are going to be more comfortable without their children there truly expressing how they feel the
use of technology has been a disadvantage or maybe even an advantage for for their children. Um, but we do think it's important that the students have a voice. Um, I did not plan that with Ariel tonight. I just found out as he walked in that he was going to talk about us becoming a phone-free school at
the high school, but Mr. Henry and I have already started to talk about surveying the students. And so we will use that information during session three to start coming up with some ideas on what we could continue to do as a school and then to also give strategies
that parents can implement at home. I cannot say enough about Deb and Danielle and their passion and desire for this work. Um they truly have uh engaged me and made me excited about as well. And so I just want to thank you guys very
much. What we would hope to get out of this at the end, myself, Deb and Danielle, is that there's a common understanding that there's awareness as well as reflection in our conversations as well as my conversations with the faculty who have signed up to do this
book read. It's really important that as adults we're also reflecting and not only just as an adult using technology, but as a parent with children that we have allowed to use technology. And
there's there's no blaming here, right? We're not blaming anyone. We're not looking for anyone to think they need to defend the reasons why they may choose to do certain things around technology with their children. We're just looking to bring awareness to that and being
able to truly self-reflect about that. I would say the other thing I would add was is that some of the changes that he recommends are difficult to implement by yourself and that's why it's really important to bring a community together to have collective action on this.
We also, as we said before, are looking to have some actionable takeaways. Uh we always know it's very important to have a partnership between school and community and in order to truly have a culture shift as Deb was just expressing we do need to come together as a
community. You may have heard of these chapters wait till 8. There's a very strong chapter in Summit. um a mom is leading that and it's having your children wait until the eighth grade to get an actual iPhone because there are other options out there for you to be
able to be in touch with them without them having the access to social media and the like. Um and then alignment of supports. So I'm hopeful that we will be able to get all of this done. I'm very excited about the work that we're doing.
I'm very happy that we have 86 staff members across the district K12 that are engaging in this work um and are serious about it as I'm reading their responses to the Google forms. So, more to come and I'm hopeful that some board members will become be able to come on October
15th as well as the other evening events that we have. Thank you, Deb. Okay, one last thing that I I'm sorry I have a I have a long report tonight. One last thing that I just like to bring your attention to that was in your binders is um the professional
development uh PD overview that Mr. Keaney put together for you. I'd just like to have Mr. Keiny speak briefly about our PD from August. And I think it's really important as this is our second year where we're offering the four days of early dismissal professional development that the board
understand how we're using our professional development program to build upon one another throughout the year to have truly sustained professional growth. >> Thank you, Doc. Excuse me, I've been waiting a while. Thank you, Dr. Zeroli. So, as you know, we had two professional
development days before the start of school. This year, we designed our professional development days around the five-year strategic plan, around our professional development plan as a district, around our school and district goals, and some state and district initiatives. So, we had a whole variety
of things that we had to address. We had some success this year in allowing our stu our teachers to design their own professional development, their own professional growth based around a number of required workshops that we provided. plus some choice workshops and some optional workshops. So they had
choice in developing their own professional growth uh within the constraints of what we were providing for them. It was met with overwhelming success. We had tremendous feedback as you can see from the presentation I provided for you. Uh we had a lot of tremendous feedback from uh from the teachers. One of the most popular ones
being the strategic plan workshop that we did which is going to be excellent for us with our consistent messaging moving forward. it's important we get everyone on the same page with regards to our strategic plan. So that was really very successful. Uh we did have a a high energy gratitude giveaway
designed by the queen of gratitude giveaways, Dr. Zerpolley. Um but that really gave a lot of energy for the start of the school year. Um and that allows us for October the 13th now to really develop some of those workshops and move forward. So as Dr. Zerolley uh
suggested we are sustaining that professional development movement and providing workshops for our teachers in October on the anxious generation on the executive functioning at the middle school that we did a uh we introduced during the professional development on the DAC work we're doing on the
questioning techniques on magic school all that sustained professional development building on what we did in in August moving forward into October so thank you very much for giving us the opportunity to design that it was very success successful. Um, and in all the 35 years I've been here, I have not
quite seen the energy that I saw just before the start of school. So, that was excellent. So, thank you for the opportunity. >> Thank you, Mr. Keaney. And I saw that uh Kelly Aquay did come in. If you just want to raise your hand for the board, uh we did build consensus around moving
forward to fund raise the money for the Salt Brook Fields. And we'd just like to thank you for um spearheading that. Um, at this time I would like to recognize one of our prior board members, Rebecca Kiglio. Um, unfortunately we've tried several times
to get her to a meeting um that just hasn't quite worked out for her. So I would like to read um the resolution um in recognition of her board member Rebecca. Whereas Rebecca Kiglio has ended her service on the board of
education of the Burough of New Providence after faithful service over the last six years. And whereas the members of the board of education are cognizant of the fact that Mrs. Kiglio has greatly contributed towards the welfare of the children of the burrow by
her energy and sincere application to all matters which have come before the board. And whereas Mrs. Kiglio has served as curriculum instruction and technology chairperson and committee member, personnel management and communication chairperson and committee
member, New Providence Alliance Board representative, New Providence Education Foundation board representative and government relations and board policy. Now therefore, be it resolved by the board of education of the Bureau of New Providence in the County of Union that
the personal and collective gratitude and appreciation of the members of the board of education are hereby extended to Rebecca Kiglio for her loyal and untiring dedication to the community and they do hereby publicly commend her for the excellent example she has thus
presented to the present and future members of the board of education. approved this 25th day of September, 2025 and signed in order and signed by the order of the New Providence Board of Education. I just want to take an opportunity to thank her for her six
years of service on the board. Um we also have this other plaque for her that says presented to Rebecca Kiglio, New Providence Board of Education member 2019 to 2024. On behalf of a grateful community, the New Providence Board of Education presents this award to you in
recognition of six years of dedicated public service as a member of the board of education. The children of the b of the bureau have benefited immeasurably from your knowledge, wisdom, and tireless efforts on their behalf. The members of the board of education hereby
extend to you their sincere personal and collective appreciation for your loyal and faithful dedication to the community. Motion. >> I have a motion. >> Joe, second. >> Second. Stacy.
>> Roll call. >> M. >> Costelano. >> Miss Gara. >> Hi. >> Dr. Hayden. >> Hi. >> Miss Gunderman. >> Hi. >> Miss Morano. >> Hi. >> Mr. Walsh. >> Hi. >> Mrs. Zayn. >> Hi. >> Okay. At this time, I'd like to invite Jillian Shadis, director of counseling,
up to present her college visit tour. Glad it's not just me. Thank you. Glad it wasn't just me. Okay. Good evening and thank you for allowing me to continue to Oops. I didn't even
know I hit the mouse. All right, I'm gonna restart. Good evening and thank you for continuing to allow me to get out of the office over the summer and spend that time visiting colleges. It's rewarding and not just for the sunshine, but for my own personal growth and of course
bringing back insights for the new Providence community. This year I traveled farther than usual to look at schools that many of our students apply to, schools with low admissions rate. So, in other words, the schools where students really need to bring their A+
game. Tonight, I'll give you an abbreviated peak of some of these campuses. And while the board has the full report of all the colleges in their hands, um it will also be available for anyone else who would like to access it on the board of ed website in the near future.
For my first leg of travel, I visited eight Southern California colleges in four and a half days. Pepperdine, Caltech, UCLA, USC, UC Irvine, UC San Diego, and UC uh University of San Diego and San Diego State. My goal, obviously,
was to get the inside scoop on how on earth students actually get admitted into these selective colleges. And spoiler alert, I wasn't as successful as I might have hoped. However, um admissions reps were uh largely
unavailable or inaccessible in my opinion um intentionally so at a lot of these colleges even though I of course reached out ahead of time with the exception of Pepperdine and USC student ambassadors who were the ones doing the presentations and tours. And one other thing that I will mention that was
different this year than um in many of the previous other summers, only one school out of these eight actually offered dorm tours um because everything is now available as a virtual tour instead. If it were my kid and I were traveling across country, I would really
want to see where they're going to live. Um a lot of parents I spoke with agreed, but the students did not seem to care one bit. Um apparently that just means I am an elder millennial. It wasn't all sunshine and uh low
humidity this summer. I did hit some thunderstorms um when I went with the directors of counseling from Cranford and Union. We road tripped to State College Pennsylvania for an indepth program specifically for counselors hosted by Penn State in late July. This
program was much more detailed than your typical student tour and gave much better insight into the admissions process as well as a heads up on some key changes I'll highlight for you toward the end of the presentation. Back to Southern California. First up, Caltech. Now, this is a place with only
980 undergraduates, and I think it's because they're only admitting unicorns. Students who are obsessed with STEM, people oriented, and athletic. Yes, that is right. They want students who can solve complex equations, hit a home run, and still carry on a dinner
conversation. In short, they want STEM students who can communicate with everyone. Can you explain rocket science to both experts and 10-year-olds? If so, this may be the place for you. As for academic requirements, just to even apply, you need four years of math,
including calculus. And if you want to apply restrictive early action, which is their version of early decision, but it's not binding. You have to finish calculus, calculus, chemistry, physics, and all of your standardized testing before your senior year, which is not
something that a lot of our students do. Beyond academics, Caltech values tenacity, resiliency, and curiosity, which need to come across in your essays, your letters of recommendation, and your activities. And a little inside info from the tour guide, a big part of
Caltech culture is apparently not sleeping. Um, but if that on top of the requirements doesn't intimidate you, folks here really did seem like downto-earth geniuses who somehow make theoretical physics look casual. Next on my tour was the number one
public university in the country for eight straight years, UCLA. This is a school that's also looking for students who engage in their community and show a genuine passion for what they care about, but they had a little bit of a broader range than their neighbors in Pasadena did. As part of the University
of California system, UCLA does not consider SAT or AT scores at all for admissions or for scholarship purposes, and demonstrated interest doesn't factor into their decisions. I asked about average GPA. They wouldn't give one. They wouldn't even give a range. But
they did say that outofstate students need higher grades since instate students are given preference. Duh. That much I knew. What I didn't know though was that UCLA has a huge transfer population. 35% of students there start at a community college. And this was reiterated many times during the
presentation and the tour, suggesting that direct entry is not the only way to be a Bruin if UCLA is your dream school. Overall, once on campus, they emphasize blending interests and taking a multid-disciplinary approach to your studies. In fact, undeclared is one of
the most popular and encouraged ways to apply. They want you to explore first because they have so many niche majors and opportunities that you wouldn't necessarily even be aware of until you get there. But if you're interested in something like engineering, business education, or any of those specialty
schools, they do suggest that you apply directly because transferring in later is difficult and sometimes impossible. One of the things I really appreciated and genuinely felt from my tour guide and the students that I chatted with on campus is their work hard, play hard culture. They're masters of balance and
they report that there's not much of the academic toxicity you often see at other competitive schools. Overall, I got a really positive vibe from UCLA, and I don't think it was just the sunshine. Visiting the University of Southern California definitely held a lot of
firsts for me. It was the first time I saw so many sports trophies in one place, including eight Heisman trophies, which I'm told is a lot. Um, it was also though the first time I had to be dropped off outside of the gates of the college, show government ID, and go through a metal detector just to step
onto campus. It also was the first time I introduced myself to an admissions rep after the presentation to be told, "Oh, hi. We don't do one-on- ones with counselors." And he ran off. Okay, so clearly USC is literally and figuratively on the opposite side of town when it comes to surrounding
communities and vibes, but the campus and programs do speak for themselves. Despite having 47,000 students total, it is designed to feel like a smaller liberal arts college because they have more schools and departments than any other institution in the nation. and students build their connections within
those smaller communities. USC is private, but 48% of undergraduates are from California and 25% are international students. The highest percentage of international students of any college in the country. And while I'm far from a math person, those numbers do demonstrate just how
competitive admissions are for out ofstate students. So, how does one get admitted? While the admissions rep may have been a little less than personable one- on-one, his presentation was nothing short of theatrical, probably the most enthralling of any college that I've ever visited, while telling me
really next to nothing. They want students who will thrive. They say territory managers will dig into school profiles to understand applicants in the context of their schools and that the application process is designed to discover each student's story and how they'll take advantage of the
opportunities at USC. So, how exactly do you demonstrate that ability to thrive? Not a concrete example was provided. And it also seems to change yeartoear based on campus needs, which that part isn't unusual for admissions. But theatrics and promises aside, I walked away mostly
with just factual information about admissions requirements and statistics and a list of celebrities, kids who attend or graduated from there instead of any real insight, unfortunately, as to how to make yourself stand out in the crowd for admissions. One of my biggest surprises this summer
was the University of San Diego. I didn't know much about it beforehand, and not a ton of our students apply, but it fit into the travel schedule. And now it's actually one of my favorite schools that I've ever visited. Aesthetically, if you're familiar with High Point University, think of it as like the California mission style version of
that. It's consistently ranked the number one most beautiful campus in the nation. Every facility is totally modern thanks in part to benefactors like the CEO of Clorox and Ray Croc. Anybody know who he is? Founder of McDonald's.
Their new student wellness center is absolutely jaw-dropping offering fitness, nutrition, counseling, and everything. And it's all included in tuition. Um whereas at many other colleges, this is an additional cost. USD, which to be clear is different than the University of California, San Diego
and not affiliated with the UC system, is on the smaller size of mid side of midsized and describes itself as a contemporary Catholic institution that seeks to educate the whole person, mind, body, spirit, and soul. It's a residential campus with a core
curriculum individualized to each student and a strong focus on experiential learning. Admissions here are still competitive, but they're approachable. The acceptance rate is around 50% and while instate versus outofstate breakdowns aren't public, there's definitely more opportunity for
New Providence students here compared to most of the other California colleges I visited. About half of admitted students have a recalculated GPA between 4.0 or and 4.49 on a 5.0 scale though and the school's test-free and emphasizes the
individual embracing the holistic approach to admissions. The buzzword on this campus is change maker. USD seeks students who make a positive impact through leadership, social justice efforts, community service, special talents or faith commitments and who carry their passions close to the
surface. I honestly fell in love with this campus and everything that it had to offer. And for anyone who might be worried about the Catholic affiliation, it's just one very small part of the experience. Plus, they modernize that aspect uh with courses like Jesus in Hollywood that sounded pretty
interesting. Moving forward, if there are students who are interested in uh schools in Southern California, I will uh definitely encourage them to take a good look at USD. I I really can't say enough about this school. While I tried to highlight a variety of
schools tonight while planning my summer visits and looking at California, I did notice obviously that the majority of our students applying to schools in California are aiming for the UC system. So, I pulled some overall data for you. Now the overall app number of applications to UC schools granted is
not huge for us. So I didn't include every campus in order to make sure the data stayed private. But these are the top five campuses to which new Providence students apply. UC is not particularly forthcoming with acceptance rates. So I used uh data from
college kickstart website which I found to be fairly reliable in the past. And the orange bars on this graph show the 2024 outofstate acceptance rates. And the green bars show New Providence's acceptance rates over the past five years. As you can see, we're actually
doing better than average at UC Berkeley and UCLA, which are two of the more competitive campuses. UC Irvine has the fewest New Province applicants of these, but the highest acceptance rate overall, which suggests students might want to broaden their horizon horizons beyond
the name brand recognition if they're interested in UC schools. And they could potentially uh make friends with Peter the Anteater over at UC Irvine. He's their mascot. I didn't just make that up. Back home on the east coast, as I mentioned earlier, my visit to Penn
State was much more depth because specifically it was a counselor event. Presentations came from each of the colleges that make up the university and panels covered residents life, the honors college, and athletics, just to name a few. In addition, of course, to an in-depth dive into admissions. It was
actually my first time on campus, which might be surprising given that Penn State is consistently one of the top three schools our students apply to, but I've never actually had to convince students to apply to Penn State and therefore had never really traveled out to Happy Valley. You might be aware that University Park,
which is the main campus, has become increasingly selective. One key takeaway from this program, outofstate students who want University Park really must apply early action by November 1st because after that date, they say the likelihood of admission drops significantly as they look to take more
in-state students during the regular round. So for any students out there working on your Penn State application, set that deadline date to November 1st. That said, Penn State also offers many two plus two programs, which is two years at a different Penn State campus
and then a transfer to University Park if GPA requirements are met. A Penn State diploma is a Penn State diploma. It does not say the name of the campus on it. But I will say after visiting the small city of a college, I understand why University Park is so appealing to
our students, even someone of my elder millennial status. During the admissions process, Penn State recalculates four different weighted GPA for every applicant. The overall GPA, a math GPA, a science GPA, and a GPA that includes humanity, social
studies, and arts altogether. They do admit by major, and some of those GPA are going to matter more than others depending on what it is you're applying for. Most of our students, at least in the past five years or so, have applied to Penn State for business. And there's
a major change to that application process for the fall. Students now must apply directly to the Smeil College of Business if they want to enroll in one of the 10 business majors. No longer can they enter by starting in the Division of Undergraduate Studies, which in the
past has tended to be a little less competitive. They've made that business program a direct admit program. So, you have to meet those admissions standards right off the bat. And there's no longer that back door in, so to speak. At least for the next year, Penn State
is optional, but they're one of the only either the SAT or the ACT. So, those wishing to have scores considered should self-report only their highest test score date. Penn State also offers a summer program for students not yet fully admissible to their programs.
Saying yes to being considered for the summer program improves chances of admission, but doesn't give you any less of a shot of being admitted to your first or second choice major. rather it actually gives you a third chance of getting in. There is no merit aid for the summer program though and quite
frankly they were very forthright in stating there's not a ton of merit money given overall and their recommendation to students who need more than they're offered financially is to strongly consider the two plus two pathway as the satellite campuses are definitely cheaper.
Lastly, Penn State has a revamped AI assisted find your fit tool on their website, which is a fantastic resource for students exploring majors or campuses. Not only does it help direct the exploring student, it also clarifies distinctions that might not be obvious, so students can make informed decisions
when applying to programs. For instance, they have two data science majors, one in the school of science and one of in the school of information sciences and technology. And that tool will help un help you understand the difference between them. I actually found that it's a great place for any undecided student
to start whether or not Penn State might be a good fit for them. Um, it had a lot of great features to kind of help assess what a likes or might want in a in a major. Sure. It's not a surprise that New Providence students are much more successful at Penn State than at the UC
schools. Penn State publishes one overall acceptance rate which includes all their campuses and both in and out of state students and it's been reported at about 50% for several years in a row now. Looking at our students, 59% have been admitted all across campuses across
all campuses over the last five years which exceeds the overall Penn State admissions rate. In addition, Penn State also has a counselor portal which for the past two years they've updated to let us track the major and campuses that our students
apply and are accepted to. About threequarters of the accepted app accepted applicants from the classes of 24 and 25 were indeed admitted to University Park. Business, as I mentioned, is the most popular school followed by the division of undergraduate studies. Though I am interested to see if and how those
numbers may shift since the latter is no longer that pathway into the Smeal College of Business anymore. Okay, quick recap. This is my eighth year in New Providence, my sixth summer visiting colleges because COVID and over that time I have counted I visited 69
colleges. As some of you may know, I like to take a lot of notes and the problem with that is there's a lot of information for someone with a short-term memory of a goldfish. So, for the past couple of years, I've been trying to find a way to make this information more searchable and more
accessible, not just for me, but for our entire counseling team. And spreadsheets haven't been cutting it. There's just way too much detail. So, last year, the admin team was introduced them, which allows you to update it questions using AI. I actually have
the link here, and then I realized Drs. Earthly logged in. So, I'm not going to actually be able to show you the program without doing a whole two-factor authentication. So, I will skip that. But when I did create this notebook LM College uh for my visit notes, I learned that there's a 50 document limit. So, I had to cut it down to the last five
calendar years, at least for the moment, which is 48 schools. But I can type in which colleges have direct admit nursing programs or anything of the sort and I'll get a quick answer along with the exact location of the information within those source documents that I have uploaded. You can definitely ask more
nuanced questions as well. I've tried things like which is the best college for students with learning differences, but I have found that when you have this many documents for um those broad questions, it'll take a good five minutes to run before coming up with a response. Ideally, I would love to
include the college representative visit notes. Um, those are the visits where they come here to New Providence and the counselors and I take notes while they they speak with the students. I'd love to include that in something like this as well. So, that's either going to require a different platform or combining documents, which I'm going to
continue to work on, but I found it's been a great help thus far in pinpointing specific answers that I vaguely recall learning about, but that my goldfish brain can't quite remember where that was from. In closing, I want to sincerely thank the board for allowing me to continue to
do this each year. These summer visits are more than just an opportunity for me to get out of the office and see some campuses. They really do give me the insight that I need to support our students, guide families, and help our counseling team stay informed on the constantly evolving world of college
admissions. Thank you. I'm happy to take any questions from the board. Have you been noticing over the last couple of years an uptick in the number of kids applying to these virtually impossible apparently California schools to get into? >> I wouldn't say that there's a a
particular uptick over the last couple years for those schools, but in general there's an uptick in students applying to more schools, more reach schools, more everything because of maybe not for the University of California system, but generally because of the ease of the common app. So they're saying why not?
But I'll throw my my hat in the ring and we'll see what kind of happens. But I wouldn't say the numbers for UC have gone up significantly. >> Thank you, Miss Shadis. >> Thank you. At this time, I declare a public hearing on the student safety data system for
incidents that occurred during reporting period 2, January 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2025. Mr. Ugaloro. >> All right. Thank you. The school district is required to publicly report all incidents of violence, vandalism,
harassment, intimidation, and bullying twice a year. Reporting period two, as you just heard, is for all incidents from January 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2025. During this reporting period
of harassment, intimidation, and bullying, zero incidents of weapon possession, one incident of violence, one incident of vandalism, and two incidents of substance abuse.
I'm also going to share harassment, intimidation, and bullying investigation statistics by school for this reporting period. There were two HIV investigations conducted at New Providence High School during this reporting period, neither of which were
affirmed. There were two HIV investigations conducted at New Providence Middle School, also neither was confirmed. There were two HIV investigations conducted at Saltbrook Elementary School. Again, neither of which was affirmed. And finally, there
were seven HIV investigations conducted at Alan W. Roberts Elementary School during this reporting period, none of which were affirmed. All of our HIV investigations were completed within 10 school days as as is
required by law. And the nature of these HIV allegations were the race, color, gender, gender identity, gender expression, and mental, physical, or sensory disability of the alleged targets. The names of our anti-bullying
specialists who led the investigations during this reporting period are Mr. Chrysatello, who was at New Providence High School at the time, Miss Wittenberg at New Providence Middle School, Mrs. Quacowski at Saltbrook Elementary School, and Mrs. Feliciano Allen at
Allen W. Roberts Elementary School. The nature of the school's response to these incidents was both disciplinary, which included detentions, inschool suspensions, and out of school suspensions, as well as educational and
restorative interventions and supports. These included student safety plans, conflict resolutions, student and parent conferences, and individual individual student counseling. Throughout this reporting period, there
were trainings conducted and programs implemented with the intention of reducing incidents of harassment, intimidation, and bullying and prom promoting a positive school culture. These included education of staff and students on district HIV policy,
mandatory training on HIV law and policy for our anti-bullying specialist, training on social media and cyber bullying, instructional activities in our health curriculum that focus on bullying, peer relations, and conflict resolution,
social emotional learning activities, and week of respect and red ribbon week activities that occurred in October. Thank you. >> At this time, I declare the public hearing on student safety data system for reporting period number two, January
1, 2025 through June 30th, 2025 closed. Now is an opportunity for the public to be heard on specific agenda items only. Seeing no one, I the public I declare the public portion of the meeting closed. I need approval of minutes for
the August 14th special meeting. Can I do it while we're all here? Um, this business meeting on August 25th and the closed session on August 25th. >> Second. >> Roll call. >> Miss Castellano.
>> Miss Karo. >> I. >> Dr. Hepson Hayden. >> Hi. >> Miss Gunderman. >> Hi. Morano. >> Hi, >> Mr. Walsh. >> Hi, >> Mrs. Zayn. >> Hi. >> At this time, uh, Mr. Walsh, finance actions. >> I would like to move items one through
nine as listed on the agenda. >> Second. >> Did you want to talk now, Lauren? Did you want to >> I just wanted to bring to the board's attention item number five. This is also a part of one of our board annual goals under the finance committee where we are
looking to have more electronic payments um for parents uh to use um at all of our schools. So we are looking to update that. Of course we will also always have the option for them to write a check and cash when appropriate. Uh but we did
find that we wanted to update our systems in order to have more efficiency for parents and payments. >> Roll call. >> Miss Gelano. >> Hi. >> Miss Karao. >> I >> Dr. Hayden. >> Hi. >> Miss Gunderman. >> Hi. >> Misso. Hi.
>> Mr. Walsh. Hi. >> Mr. Zay. >> Hi. >> Mr. Walsh. Facilities. >> Like to move item num number one as listed on the agenda. Amanda, >> I think the only comment here, Bern, is uh
the we had a meeting the other day with uh with Jim and went through the um with the Union County program ending. We went through the costs and the costs are I think for the next 10 years, I think we think we'll save 15 to $20,000 a year.
So, this is good for the district and uh cheaper in the long run. So in 10 years though we will have to make a decision around what we do around that. >> So Mr. Ta if we were to remove the solar panels at even in 10 years does that require redoing the roof at that point?
>> Um at the high school middle school will uh require repairs uh because the supports go in through the the roof at Roberts. No. Um they're set on top of the roof. Um we did review the options of right now. Um, the Union County
Improvement Authority does offer that they would take the system out of service and also take it off the roofs and repair the roofs back to warranty. Uh, but to Joyy's point of view, when we look at the useful life of what the solar panels have now along with the savings that we're receiving with the
electric, it makes sense for us to keep it. And then down the road, we'll have to decide if we either uh replace them ourselves or we go out for a lease purchase agreement with another vendor. Uh, but that's something to look for down the road. >> Great. Thank you. Uh, roll call.
>> Miss Castellano. >> Miss Kicaro. >> Hi. >> Dr. Epson Hayden. >> Hi. >> Miss Kenderman. >> Hi. >> Miss Morano. >> Hi. >> Mr. Walsh. Hi. >> Mrs. Zayn. >> Hi. >> Dr. Empson Hayden. Education. >> I'd like to approve items 1 through six
as listed below. Second. Um, our biggest thing is that we have gotten through all of our curriculums. They are all done and approved, all 26 of them. Um, so thank you to Laura and Donna for helping us plow through all those and our fearless leader, Mr. Keiny, for guiding us in the right
direction. Um, everything else is business as usual. >> Thank you. Roll call. >> Miss Castellano. Hi. >> Miss Karo. >> Hi. >> Dr. Hayden. >> Hi. >> Miss Gunderman. >> Hi. >> Misso. >> Hi. >> Mr. Walsh. >> Hi. Mrs. Zayn >> I
>> Mrs. Gunderman personnel >> yes I'd like to move to approve items one through six as listed >> um and I do know that Dr. Zerly would like to make a mention of a retirement that is on the agenda >> yes I would like to congratulate Mr. Non
no who is a physical education teacher at Allen W Roberts school Mr. know has been with us for over 25 years. Um he started as an athletic trainer here at the high school before he became a physical education teacher. I know that he's going to be sorely missed by the
students as well as all of his colleagues. Um he has always been the type of colleague that will help you out to do anything engaging students constantly and so we will miss him but we miss we wish him a tremendous amount of luck in the next steps in in his
chapters. Thank you. Roll call. >> Miss Kelana. >> Hi. >> Miss Karo. >> Hi. >> Dr. Eson Hayden. >> Hi. >> Miss Gunderman. >> Hi. >> Miss Morano. >> Hi. >> Mr. Walsh. Hi. >> Mr. Zayn. >> Hi. >> Mr. Walsh. Board policy.
>> I would like to move item number one as listed on the agenda >> and my comments are in the second reading. >> Roll call. >> Miss Galano. >> Hi. >> Miss Karo. >> Hi. >> Dr. Hayden. >> Hi. >> Miss Gunderman. >> Hi. Miss Moreno. >> Hi,
>> Mr. Walsh. Mrs. Zayn. >> Hi. >> Committee reports, curriculum, instruction, technology. >> Nothing. Finance. >> Uh, yeah, we met on Tuesday. Um, the only item of note is Lauren and Jim are working with the architects to look at
using the additional bond proceeds uh or funding I should say to um to look at the cafeterias and gymnasiums and the respective schools to see what we can do from an air conditioning perspective. They'll come back with options to our committee and they'll bring the full board looking to potentially get things moving in November to work on that in
the summer of 2026. So, that is underway. >> Great personnel. >> Um uh we would just like to thank um everyone who participated in the back to school night video. That was one of our board goals uh for the year. So, it's exciting. It's taken care of in
September. um all of the organizations including our PTAs, PTO's, PTSAs, boosters. Um it was such a great night and um I know from being a parent sitting in and watching it. Um several of the teachers were like this is the
first time they've ever done a video. It was really great to have all of that in one place. So to all of the organizations who sent a representative to film, thank you so much. We really appreciate it. >> Thank you. Um, old business, nothing.
New business, anyone? No. Now is an opportunity for the public to be heard on any item at all. Seeing none, I need a motion to recess to close session for personnel matters, legal, and student matters.
Jeff, >> Stacy. Okay. >> Thank you.