Regional School District is hereby called to order. This meeting is called in conformance with the Oakland Public Meetings Act with adequate notice provided as follows. Notice sent to the Bronson County Times in the Times of Trenton on September 16th, 2025. Notice
filled with the township clerk filed with the township clerks of Chesterfield, Mansfield, North Hover, and Springfield Townships on September 16, 2025. Notice of the annual meetings advertised in the Burlington County Times in the Times of Trenton on January 7th, 2025.
We complete a roll call. Mr. Figs, present. Mrs. Bond, present. Mrs. Apple, present. Mr. Armamente, present. Mr. Bucks. Mr. Norwood here. Miss Janice here. Mr. Zimmer
here. We'll now stand for the pledge of allegiance followed by a moment of silence. Has any board of education member received schoolboard related emails and/or correspondences that have not yet been shared with the superintendent?
All right. Uh at this time, the board is going to enter executive session uh for the discussion of our military leaison position. If I can get a motion to enter executive session. Make a motion to go into executive session. I second. All those in favor? I. All opposed? extensions. All right. Uh we anticipate
returning in 30 minutes approximately 30 to 40 minutes to resume the meeting. [Music] All right. Um, can I get a motion to return from executive session? Make a motion return from executive session. I'll second that. All those in favor?
I. All opposed? Abstensions. Right. Return to the regular meeting. Mr. fix really quick just to make sure that uh Miss Williams has my arrival since I was uh not here at the opening. Thank you. All right, Dr. Zuckermanman, if you have
any updates from your superintendent report. I do. Two quick things as soon as I find them or I will spitball them. Nope, here they are. So, uh, earlier this week, Northern TV came out with their first episode for
the 202526 school year. Uh, the this these videos capture what is happening not only the high school but around the district. Included in this episode is a really nice video about the synthetic turf project and the and the first Hall of Fame video. We are working to conduct
interviews with all of the Hall of Fame inductees to allow them to explain the impact that Northern Burlington has had on their lives. This episode um will be posted on our district website and also broadcast on our social media accounts as well. So, I certainly encourage everybody to take a look at that.
Earlier this month, the federal government entered a shutdown. While the government is in a shutdown, we will not be receiving our impact aid payments. Late last week, Napus informed us that we should not expect the pay that we should not expect the pay payments and
we also found out that the office of impact aid was uh subject to the reduction in force and only left one employee who is the director. While we do not know how long the the shutdown will last and we do not know for certain what this will mean for the impact aid
funding once the shutdown ends, we do expect a delay um in the in the distribution of the funds because the federal government has to be fully up and running before that is distributed. We do have our reserve accounts that are in place. So I do not expect any
complications at this time but just wanted to make sure that everybody was aware. Are there any questions? How long can we last without receiving those payments based on our reserves? Mr. Williams. Yes. So, we, as you know, do not budget
all of our impact aid. We um budget about I think we budgeted 1.5 million and so we have about three million in reserves. So, we could get through that year if we had to get through our reserves. So, so finishing up this school year, no problem. Okay. Thank you. a question about the staffing at that
office. Is is that a significant issue to contemplate moving forward if it's not restaffed or or how how does that work? I do know that they have worked to automate the payments. So I I can't tell you I mean not being in that office the
the um the impact I do know um from the the involvement when people have questions the the staff is distributed to different states. So, we may have a delay in in receiving communications, although I'm not I really don't have information enough to to know how that's going to impact their distribution of
funds. Thank you. Any other questions? I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Dali for his uh student representative report. Uh good evening for any newcomers who weren't able to attend the summer board meeting. Uh my name is Yousef Dagley.
I'm this year's student representative to the board of education uh for this school year. Um, and I'm just going to give you guys some news uh for the past month that's happened. Um, for our No Place for Hate, um, our No Place for Hate hosted the annual Hispanic Hispanic Heritage Month, uh, providing mu uh,
music, infographics on the screen, um, daily announcements, and decorating the hunger hallway. They also planned for the week of respect to encourage students to treat each other with uh, kindness and respect as well. And then our mindfulness club, uh, they the students kicked off the year by participating in some mindful station activities. These included like zen
coloring, board games, sticker stations. Uh the mindfulness has also participated in a nature walk to the uh ecology center behind the school. It's like explore the trail. Uh the this month the uh interact club uh has started a sock drive in which students bring in new
socks to donate to the Trenton area soup kitchen to distribute to the homeless. Uh socks are the number one requested uh item in homeless shelters. So by donating new socks, students are greatly helping out the community as a whole. And they also participated in wishing cranes project in which they folded
origami paper into cranes to be donated to hospice patients as well. Uh our FFA club as well has uh all summer students and staff were preparing items in the greenhouse and taking care of the animals. Students have also participated in the form fair in the summer to show off their skills and also recently held
their fall plant sale where they able to sell large uh variety of plants including uh beautiful mums as well. uh our class 2027 in addition to their uh homecoming decorations uh having them already. The class 20 2027 is in the
middle of their first fundraiser uh the NB garden flag with our school logo. And our uh for our yearbook, our yearbook staff has been hard hard at work proposing a theme for the book. Like they've been selling ads and getting the first pages to be submitted and ready to go. Uh they're also promoting to sell
the book with early early bird pract uh pricing until January. Uh our marching band, our marching band has been performing at football games in the halls on Friday mornings and competing in the marching band competitions as well. Uh at the competition on October 4th, Northern Burlington placed first and won all caption awards. Uh best
music, best visual, best overall effect, best color guard, and best percussion as well. So that's uh that's a good win for us. Uh, and also for the Northern Burlington uh MSA, the Northern uh Burlington MSA has recently hosted it clothing drive where they raised over $1,000 worth of clothes resulting in uh
10 bags full of clothing and shoes uh to the Le Lad, which is like the law enforcement against drugs. I'm pretty sure it's held in uh Boarding Town Middle School and High School area. Uh they also hosted a fundraiser uh in collaboration with Watermelon League uh week where there was over a total of
$2,000 raised as well as t-shirts given out to members of the club as well. Thank you. Here's a quick question. Wow. Um, Mr. Dagley, uh, you had mentioned that you guys were doing sober, I think
is what you mentioned, and you're doing with Trent Soup Kitchen. Um if depending on how that how successful that is. I know there's also a uh a charity that operates at Mount Holly a little bit closer to home that has asked for that in years past that if uh you know depending upon who's running that and
how it splits um they could certainly use some help as well. I got you. I'm I'm in touch with like the president of that club so I could try to give that suggestion see if they can follow that as well. Maybe we'll catch up after the meeting. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Uh Mrs. Mrs. Williams, if
you'd like to go over your BA report. Sure. Um, next week is the New Jersey School Board Association workshop in Atlantic City. U, myself, Dr. Zuckerman, and a couple board members will be in Atlantic City to um partake in the
education that is offered down Atlantic City. Um, tonight, as you know, we are conducting the um interviews for the Chesterfield vacancy. Um, as Dr. Zuckermanman mentioned um the impact aid office is shut down but annually we are
required to collect impact aid forms from our students to identify our military military connected students and that is how our impact aid um is determined. So tomorrow October 15th we will start our um application and we
will collect applications to October 31st. So it's imperative that we identify who our military impact aid students are and receive applications. Um so we will continue with that process. Um on this month's agenda, you'll see a um agenda item for a p uh
to enter a um class action suit for powers school for the um data breach that we that occurred last year. Um, looking ahead, we um will begin to plan for our 2627 budget in November and we'll start discussing our priorities
for our 2627 budget in our November um finance committee. And lastly, um all of our facility projects are progressing well. There's a lot of movement out front for the auditorium. The turf field is in use. We've had our first football
game and soccer games. Um everyone is loving it and very anxious to get on the field. Um they are lining they began the process of lining the track today. Um it was wet so they were marking things out but we hope to have the the track lined by the end of the week.
That's it. Um do you have any idea um possibly if the auditorium project will have cover as it goes through the winter? I know that's one thing we were um you know when we did the tour um that was a question.
Uh we had a meeting today and things are progressing well. So we are very hopeful and we hope that the weather cooperates to get us there. That would be a big determination in how far how far and fast the project progresses through the winter. A big part of that is the the erection
of the steel which is anticipated for early November which is a good sign in that direction. All right. Uh there's no other questions. Item 3.03 is consent agenda item for the approval of the H reports. 3.04 is consent agenda item for the
approval of the superintendent reports. Uh for committees, I will so uh the policy committee met on September 29th. I will go over the meeting minutes for that. Um we discussed the most recent uh
alert 235 from Strauss Esme. Um we reviewed 26 policies. Um there were several that the the board is continuing to review at future meetings just to cl get some clarifications. Um a number of them will be put forward on the agenda for first readings um that are more
typically just language updates or changes to uh state statutes. Um, we additionally discussed some of the uh policies that were recommended to the board. Um, we had a discussion on the cell phone policy as Mr. Zimmer had request. Um, made sure those were up to
date and that um, they were encompassing what we needed them to and that they agreed with each other. Um, we additionally uh, had a discussion involving the public comment section um, and ways we were looking to to handle that going forward. Um, we had updates
on the artificial intelligence policies and um how how they're being how it's being updated and how it's changing uh frequently. Um there is a committee of
teachers um reviewing best practices um to ultimately make recommendations to the board. um many of those will be connected to the curriculum committee, but um it may involve us having to review that AI policy um and keep it up
to date um as things continually change. Um, we had further discussion on the board transparency policy um and how some of its uh subsets um are tied into other policies and um want to move forward looking into potentially
updating those other policies to incorporate instead of having unnecessary overlap um and potentially update a couple of the policies that would be affected. Um so that's still on our table for our our upcoming meeting this later this fall. Um looking ahead,
one of our discussions was on the use of facilities and the policy we have for the the new turf field um and the different communities and community members uh looking to use it andor outside outside members uh of the public. So, um, with that and included
also the potential for a scheduler, um, to make sure that it's all properly organized, um, which obviously would tie in some of our other committees, but it does affect our policy 7510 on our facility usage. Um
in addition um we discussed um some of our athletic and co-curricular activities and making sure those those two aligned for uh how the students were affected by it depending upon their enrollments um and homeschooling. They were a little bit uh they didn't quite
match up um word for word. So they were uh corrected um to be more in line. Um and then we had anticipate having another meeting come November, December to review uh several of those policies that we were in the process of that we had questions on and wanted to further
update the language for. So um moving forward with the Strauss SMA recommendations and getting some clarifications where needed. Uh anyone have any questions for policy committee? No, but Mr. Figs, I do have something and maybe we kick it back into the policy committee. um with the the volume
of changes that we see coming from Strauss SMA and do do we want to potentially examine what alternatives are? I I know I've heard from other districts that they use uh New Jersey Schoolware Association as a policy provider. Okay. Maybe that's something that's worthwhile for us to investigate
to see if it's a bit more steady and not as uh the changes aren't as minimal as what we do see in those changes from from Strauss maybe as an option. I don't know what the process looks like. Yeah, that's so we can see what the their output looks like in the comparison between the two and how they release
their updates. Yeah. What's the difference between Strauss Esme and New Jersey school boards? Is it a different group? Obviously, it's a different group. But yeah, strame is a law firm providing the updates whereas school boards I believe they have attorneys, right? They they Yeah, they have attorneys. So,
it's so it's just they're two different perspectives on it. Both trying to just stay up to date on current statutes. Is is there any like difference that you're aware of, Dr. Zuckerman, between the two. Have you ever worked in a district that uses the New Jersey school boards?
I have not, which doesn't mean they're not better or or not. Um should we end up moving in a different direction, we would have to read all of our policies that which it's just a job. I mean, again, I'm not saying it can't be done. It's just something just to kind of keep in the
back of our head. Yeah. From what I have heard, um they will shepherd us through that process. um if it's something that we would want to explore. It's there's there's a fee associated with obviously right for their time but an option as we were going down to to the
schoolboard convention. It's a great opportunity people too. I have a question about that. Um are there fees with Strauss Edmond and is there fees with the New Jersey Board Association and is there a major difference between those fees?
There are fees. I have no idea what what either of them are off the top of my head. Um, but I mean, but we can we can certainly get you that information. I have a question also. So, I I agree with Joe. We should probably talk about it, especially if we're we're saying there's a lot of minimal changes with
our current something that's um more steady. It's probably in the long run going to be cheaper if we're paying stout for all these like wind. So, I I would like to potentially explore that. I mean, I think it's worth Go ahead. Sorry. You know, I I was just
then say um I have boards that use both. I have no idea both. Sorry. I do have boards that use both. Um I don't know uh anything about the difference in cost. My understanding is that they're pretty similar in in the
output, but honestly, I I don't ever see that side of it. I only see it when you guys adopt it at a um at a meeting. So, but I can certainly ask other boards that I know of what their experience has been, and I'll do that. I have a question um on our policy.
Where would I find the AI policies that we're reviewing? Would it be under operations or program? There are there is one AI policy that
has already been adopted. Um and I can I can share that out with not only you but also the full board. uh we are we are still working on some others as well and what I mean by some others there's a group of teachers that's together um as part of our academic advisory council
and they are looking at at artificial intelligence um providing not only um their feedback for recommendations which I will also bring forward to the policy committee andor the curriculum committee as well cool I'd love to share them thanks
so uh for reference Frank as off top my and 5701 deals with it and 2365 is acceptable use of generative artificial intelligence in the policy. Yep, that's the academic integrity um former formerly plagiarism.
That one references using AI for for your academic integrity for students. And then 2365 is the acceptable use of general AI generator of AI. Yep.
All right. Um, moving forward, uh, Mrs. Bond, did you want to do curriculum committee? Uh, we could do that next. That would be great. No problem. All right. Uh, for delegate reports, um, Mr. Bucks, did you want to give your brief update?
I will. Actually, uh, I I was able to find a message from New Jersey School Board Association, so I'll just read that so I stay on on message here. Um, so it reads, "At a meeting held on Friday, October 10th, and I'm sorry for everybody and for the public as well. This is my update for the New Jersey
School Board Association. Uh, I am the delegate. This was a message that was released to all school schoolboard members. It says, uh, at a meeting held on Friday, October 10th, the New Jersey School Board Association Board of Directors voted to remove President Tamisha Smith from the office. The vote
19 in favor, four opposed, was taken following extensive and candid discussions. Ultimately, the board made this difficult decision based on the officer's code of conduct with the best interestes interests of New Jersey School Board Association, our members, and the integrity of our mission at heart. The board of directors determined
Miss M. Smith violated the code of conduct, which holds every officer to the highest ethical standards, and they are required to sign upon taking office. Specifically, the board of directors determined Ms. Smith violated file code 8250C, which states, "I refuse to surrender my
independent judgment to special interests or use my position or title of office for personal or financial gain or for the personal or financial gain of others. The board of directors adhered to New Jersey School Board uh New Jersey School Board Association file code
GO/8206 which states if the board of directors determines an officer has violated the code of conduct for officers or the conflict of interest policy and the facts known and the interest of the association warrant removal from office, the board of directors will act to
remove the officer from their office. um goes on then to say, "Additionally, the board's determination is limited to Miss Smith's role as president and a member of the New Jersey School Board Association Board of Directors. It does not affect her qualification for or ability to serve as a member of her
local board of education. For the immediate future, New Jersey School Board Association's immediate past president, Karen Cordelino, will assume the role of president. Dr. Corino is firmly committed to New Jersey School Board Association and the continued
success of New Jersey's public schools. That is my update. I don't have any other information and I hope that was useful for the board. Thank you, Mr. Bucks. Uh Mr. Arminente, if you'd like to give an update for BCSBA.
Yes, thank you. Uh we had our uh September Burlington County meeting. Um and I was honored to be able to join and and and get some updates. I'll be brief. Um biggest one was uh Naja Haskins who's the uh administrator for that team uh
spoke a little bit about workshop 2025. Um the the two big things that came out of what she wanted people to remind them was avoid the conference center. If you're parking down there, park at the hotel and take the shuttle. Uh, and then also that you if you're going to take
any of the mandated trainings that we have to take, be sure that you pre-registered for that so that you don't show up there and aren't able to get in. Um, they talked a little bit uh Justin Wright who's our field service rep that represents um from New Jersey school
boards. Uh he gave an update on that currently right now there's three new supers in the Burlington County area. There's five districts working on plans, meaning their their district plans. Um, there is new also new executive coaching
that's available for board presidents and board vice presidents uh if you're interested in taking any of this executive coaching through New Jersey school boards, but there is a fee associated. So, please be aware of that. Um, and then uh also a reminder on census information to just remind our
districts to to do that. Um, last but not least, um, we had a really great presentation from the Maple Shade BA, uh, Michael Blake, and he focused a lot on rising health benefits and RX cost
where average across the state of New Jersey for health benefits for the schools is going up by 30% and RX costs are going up by 60%. Um, had a healthy debate with him around that. he had some information that wasn't quite true, but um it was a great
presentation that if you uh I think they posted it, you can go look at and see some of it. And I know um Jamie's speaking to spoken to us a little bit about how that's going to impact us. And that's my update if anyone has any questions. Frank, could you repeat those percentage those percentage increases? Health RX
benefits on average. So that's going to be your your medical benefits are going up by 30%. Across all districts or the state health benefits plan on average. On average. Okay. And then the RX cost benefits. So that's going to be for prescription drug
prescription part D piece um is uh 60%. Is that cost to the employee or cost to the school? To the school. Yeah. Well, I mean, and there's obviously an implied cost of the employee as well going up depending upon how much they're paying into their plan,
which plan they suggest. Miss Williams, I'm assuming we have um because we had a HIF, right? The health insurance. Say that one more time. We have a we have health insurance fund, right? So, are we getting any forecasts from them yet?
um our health benefit representative um broker will be at our finance committee in November to discuss um the impact. So those rates are really high for school health benefit. Um we are going to fill an impact but we're not thinking as high as those. Yes.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Armene. Um I don't have any legislative updates at this point this evening. Um moving forward I believe we are ready for the student safety data system hip self h self assessment presentation.
All right. Good evening. We this is our byianual presentation about student uh safety data report and there are we came back in the spring and we presented like halfway through the school year and so what we're presenting to you are are the the numbers from the the entire um
school year last year and a couple categories violence harassment intimidation bullying vandalism weapons and substance abuse we'll present these uh as we're going through and this is my little piece here about the middle school some things that we have in place. Obviously, our goal is to
reduce these as much as possible. Those kinds of things aren't good. We want to uh put programs in place to reduce incidences. So, number one, our our our student rep made some reference to week of respect as all schools are across New Jersey. We observed the week of respect the first week in October. Variety of
activities where we promote again treating one another with respect as as the name suggests and things we can do to improve the climate in the school. Our faculty and staff are trained in school safety procedures. We do our our bimonthly safety and security drills and a variety of other things related to making sure our school is a safe place
in that regard and we plan those in conjunction with the Mansfield Township Police. We have our two SRO's which are are a tremendous resource for us and they help us, you know, determine how to do the plans and other other information like that. Um, we have a climate
committee. Our goal there is to examine, you know, what's the feeling in the building. We want a positive climate. We want to do things that going to make make the building a nice place for both our students and our staff to come in. And we have different activities and different things that we we do throughout the year that are planned by our climate committee to promote that.
Um our no haste, excuse me, no place for hate program. We've been doing that for several years. I believe this is our fifth year that we've been recognized as a um as a school district that that qualified for that. And we have again schoolwide expectations. You see them around the building. Be ready. Be respectful. Be responsible. We put push
those in in all of our classes and then we we look to break them out and how that looks in each of the classes and then we recognize students for doing good things. That's some of the things that we do in our building to make sure that we have as few as possible safety uh issues to report to you. Turn it over
to Dr. McCann. Um so you'll see a lot of the same programs and activities happening at the high school. Um a few things to highlight in addition to doing week of respect um kind of across the board as you heard from Dr. Karns. We've been really looking at at times where we have some subset of our building testing but
not the entirety of our building. How to create programming that is most meaningful for the students that are not testing. Um so we're bringing in some substance use training during PSATs to have assemblies for some of our ninth graders. Noticing that um certainly coming into high school is just a bit of a shift from being in middle school. Um
so we'll see some of that programming. Our Renaissance program promotes student recognition. They have like a smart cookie award and some other awards based on uh different characteristics we're hoping students exhibit. Um, our No Place for Hate group did a focus on Hispanic Heritage Month. We're also going to be doing a pledge signing. So,
the big paw prints that we take pictures by, the students reading the pledge in home room and if they commit uh to all the things that it stands for, they sign off on there. Um, we do student meetings. Um, I met with the student council officers in September to kind of talk through what's the feeling in the building, what are things they're looking to see. Um, and we also put out
surveys for them. In terms of staff, we also have a climate committee that meets monthly. Um, we have safety and security drills. Um, and then we have a security team. Um, our two security guards are working with us to ensure that, um, when there's vape alarms, uh, that are in all the BA uh, bathrooms that they're going
off that we're responding to those and making sure, um, that we're doing our best to minimize substance use that's happening in the building. Um, so you see this chart, this chart is a summary of the district. Um, I think things to note kind of trends year-over-year. So you see in each of
the categories um high school and middle school numbers um kind of across the board. Um if you have specific questions about specific trends and can see those small numbers over there, we're happy to to speak to those. I I have a couple questions. So are the
are the numbers relative meaning like we're at October of from last year? Yep. We're not right. Okay. Um are we concerned about the fact that there was a trend a pretty significant
trend increase from 23 24 to 2425 and do you have any feedback on whether that trend is continuing or do you find that it's balancing out? I mean in total almost every single
thing went up from 23 24 to 24 25. um in every category or just about every portion for the most part. Do you think that that's continuing? Is there any rationale behind it? Right. 23 24 look really low. Um
just curious what are you guys are you seeing any trends that are concerning to you coming into this year? I mean Vi violence is up pretty high in the high school from one year over the other. I'm just curious if you're
No, you were doing great. Um, I I would say a few things. One, I think this is how much are kids willing to tell us in advance of there being issues, right? And so, how do we create a space where students come to us and let us know before there is something that could potentially happen. Um, I think in terms of substance use, we do have concerns about that. And in addition to the vape
detectors and calling students down, we're looking to address students that are repeat offenders in that category and bring in some counseling services in addition to the counseling that we already um have in the building that will hopefully u make it so that students who are caught um using a substance are not then repeat offenders.
Um so we have looked at that. Um those are just a few kind of thoughts. Are you seeing an impact of the stop it app? Like are people are students using that? Yes. Is right. So, I think there's like some students that um give really long
piece of information but want it to be anonymous and it makes it really challenging to follow up on. Some students provide us really good information that we're able to follow through on. Um it really just depends on the student. I would say the nice thing is that we're able to write back. So, if they write something to us, we can say like, can you give us more information or can you tell us who might be able to
provide us information? Um but I think at least in the high school it's kind of a mixed bag of what we get from it. helpful. February Tuesday and do Do we know? It looks like we had a a 22
to 23. We went down 23 to 24 and now we're back up. Do we know what potentially in 23 24 were there programs that were in place that drove that down or that's before my time? Anybody else want to stir guess
across the board? I think to Frank's point like 22 23 we were pretty high in all the categories. 23 24 we went down pretty significantly and now we're ticking back up. So I'm curious what what happened like is there something that we implemented? I think you know I think the statistics are great but it
would be nice to kind of see the trend lines in this like if we could put this on a a trend chart and then if there's things that we did in the years where we see a dip can we get those back um to kind of get this going in a in a in a better progression. Yeah. I mean,
I think statistics are great, but it's like, okay, what what do we do with without context? I mean, 23 24 almost looks like an anomaly to me. Yeah. I mean, I would also I mean, I would take out 2020 and 21 because it's going to look funky, but it, you know, I think we need to figure out how to drive
these numbers in the right direction versus, you know, seeing statistics. Yeah. So, but if I look at 22 23, right? 4 to2 that's 50%. Um, so while they're small numbers, there there may be bigger, you know, in the violence in 22
to 23, you went from 23 to six. So, there's pretty big ditch, right? Like that's a reported two out of over 2,000 students. So you say it's not it's half it's 50%, but it's like you look at a percentage of our total population four out of 2,000 over the course of an entire school year versus two over.
Yeah. No, but it's the relative to incidents, right? So if all right, substance abuse 64 to 27, right? You're down 50% there again. So some something positive happened in 23 24 that I'm just trying to understand like how do we so for the for the substance in 23 24
that was when we started with the vape detectors um which could have been some sort of a deterrent um and then obviously then we're still working on on f like um improving that that process. Um so I think we can we can always get better. I think as Dr.
McCann said um if the program that she's uh that she's discussed with me and that I will be bringing to the to the um curriculum and finance committee about the the the multiple offenders I think is is certainly what we want. It's education to try to prevent the
continuing behaviors. I'd like to add to that and first of all thank you so much for your work that you do in our schools and being so diligent about this. Um I we don't I want you to keep reporting. I think that's important. I don't think we want to
stifle the reporting because of the numbers that we do see. I think it's good to address it and make sure there's disciplinary action or counseling services better. So, I just hope I you know that we encourage the continued
reporting of accurate statistics and if I may also and I believe I know the answer but I'm going to kind of prompt this. Are the number are these the number of individual incidents or number of students involved? Individual incidents. So it could be a
the same student having multiple offenses. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah. So a little bit more of a breakdown at least provides a little more context for why some of those numbers are what they are. there isn't a comparison to like a previous year to see uh the differences but um a little
bit more clarity. Um so then this is just a summary of confirmed HIPS. You'll see on the next slide where it compares the number that were reported as HIPS uh compared to how many were actually confirmed. But this is the number of cases um that our HIP specialists investigated and confirmed to meet the criteria for a HIP. Um, so
there's the investigated numbers compared to the confirmed numbers for high school and middle school. Can Can we go back two slides? I had a question. Yeah. Um, I thought I saw fighting. Yeah, there we go. Um, assaults of physical nature versus fighting.
Could you explain that? Assault is one-sided. So, one student is the aggressor, the other student is not an aggressor. Fighting both students physicalation. Thank you. Um, and then this is just month- over-month HIP data. So, you can kind of see, it doesn't look like there's any
months where there's a substantial spike um, and what the numbers look like, but you can just kind of see how many were reported versus how many were confirmed as a breakdown. Um, so then kind of the last component is that we're asked each year to do a self assessment and there's a set of criteria that you go through. You work
with a panel of folks um, on a zero to three scale. How are you doing based on the criteria? Um, so each year we do that, check to see what our scores are. Um, we earned a 66 out of 78 based on the rubric. Um, and then that, uh, score is submitted to the DOE.
Any questions? Yeah. Does the score report does it, um, ask you to include like all the programs that we provide here at the school and you know um, do we ever get any feedback from the state on our report or it's just a numeric? Okay. Yeah. I mean, I think it is a good
opportunity to look at what the like bar is that the state is asking for and kind of discuss where we're at and what things we can do to to hit threes in some of the areas where we're like a two. Um, so I think it's useful in that way, but it's just us evaluating and then submitting. So this is So when you say rated on a scale of zero to three, this is our
assessment based on school on state standards or Yeah. So the state has a list of criteria that you go through. Yeah. any uh any concerns on um been we've been back for five weeks approximately. Any trends that you're concerned about
that you're noticing and in any of the categories or or not? I mean sub substance use is a thing in high schools where certainly the vape detector is going off and we are searching students and we have had some students that have you know um been sent out to be tested. Um so that's always
something that we're we're working on. I think that's part of the reason why we're looking for what other uh methods can we put in place to make sure that students are getting the education and some of that already exists for even students who have an initial offense. Um but just some additional things to help support. I think we've heard that from families as well is like, can you give us more to help make sure our students
are in a good place? Can where does vaping come in this like if you go to a slide? So on the on the one slide it shows a summary it it was there this incident of substance of vaping in the 29 in one of
those. So typically it becomes the 17 substance possession drug parapia like have on their person or something like that. Yeah. So that's the biggest Yeah. Yeah. And I just wanted to share with the full board I I inquire to see if we can get the the full report that was
submitted to the state just so we can have a a closer look at it. For sure. I think that would be great. Thank you. Yeah, that'd be great. I have I think one last question. Do we ever dig in and do an analysis of let's see identification are so do we
have I'll say repeat offenders that I guess skew these statistics. Do we look at where if we have a particular population that drives some of these statistics? And it's kind of a loaded question because I've been given
anecdotal evidence, right, that there are, I guess, certain individuals that I guess continue to be an issue. And is that something you guys dig into and is that something that we can address or something the board can do to support addressing that? Um,
any any perspective on that? So, I would say yes. I think our counseling team is instrumental in determining what students they recognize because anytime a student receives some sort of consequence, they're being looped into what that email chain is and then they're helping us determine what the plan of action is. For some students, it's that this isn't the appropriate setting for them. For some
students, it's that they need additional counseling services or there's, you know, other plans that we put in place to help make sure they're supported. Okay. Yeah. All right. Thank you. Thank you very much. Mr. Lee, could you please check if there's any public comment on agenda
items? Items on the consent agenda are believed to be items of routine Oh, sorry. No. Items on the consent agenda are believed to be items of routine nature requiring no discussion and which are to be voted upon a single roll call
vote to the board. Any single member of the board may have any of the items on the consent agenda removed and placed on the other part of the agenda for discussion merely by indicating prior to the vote to be taken on the consent agenda. Items removed from the consent
agenda are identified by an asterisk and will be subject to discussion by the full board. 6.02 02 is approval of the regular meeting minutes from September 8th, 2025. 6.03 is approval of the executive
session minutes of September 8th, 2025. 6.04 is approval of the financial report of the board secretary for July 2025. 6.05 is approval of the treasurer's report for the month of July 2025. 6.06 is approval of the budget transfers
for the month of July 2025. And 6.07 107 is the resolution of the board regarding the budgetary major account fund status. There any questions or comments for section 6. Section 7.01 is approval of the bill
list for October 14th, 2025. Any questions or comments on section 7? Section 8.02 is approval of board and staff travel. 8.03 is approval of professional services for legal services. 8.04 04 is resolution to
participate in a class action lawsuit. 8.05 is approval of Loheed Martin social impact grant funds. 8.06 is approval of textbook disposition without sharing. 8.07 is author authorizing the purchase of national natural gas supply services
for public use on an online auction website. And 8.08 is authorization for submission of comprehensive maintenance plan. Are there any questions or comments in section 8? Okay. Section 9 uh 9 we will come back
to 9.02 which is a non-consent agenda item. 9.03 is approval of out of district placement. 9.04 is approval of out of district placement extended day program. 9.05 9.06 and 9.07 are approval
of out of district placements. 9.08 is approval of home instruction services. 9.09 9 is approval of option 2 for the 2526 school year. 9.10 is approval of the New Jersey Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired. 9.11 is approval
of additional trip locations. 9.12 is approval of overnight trip for wrestling. 9.13 and 9.14 are approval of non-resident tuitions. Are there any questions or comments on the consent agenda items in the section 9?
Right. Um 9.02 is non-consent agenda item approval of additional high school field trip destinations. Can I get a motion for 9.02? Make a motion to accept 9.02. I get a second.
Does anyone have any uh questions or comments on 9.02? Uh all those in favor? I I I All opposed abstensions. All right. Resolution passes. All right. I'm resuming the consent
agenda items. Section 10. 10.02 is approval of coaches for 2526. 10.03 is approval of additional class coverage and 10.04 is approval of additional work assignments. Are there any questions or comments on section 10?
Yeah, for the for the approval of the coaches, um I don't am I reading this right that William Wilbert will be the wrestling head coach for the girls, but he rescended as the assistant. Are they replacing?
He Well, I know he was assistant on what was the boys team and they separated the teams out and so he rescended as that position to become the full head coach position. Got it. Thank you. Good job. Thanks. on top of my stuff there. Right. Any
other questions or comments for section 10? All right. Now, we have no items in section 11 this evening. Section 12, 12.02 is approval of leaves of absence. Any questions or comments for section 12.
Right. Section 13. Uh 13.02 and 13.03 are approval of resignations. 13.04 is acceptance of retirement. Any questions or comments for section 13? Right. Section 14. 14.02 is approval of
job description. 14.03 is approval of supplemental stipens. 14.04 is approval of classroom observation. Any questions or comments for section 14. All right. Section 15. 15.02. Yes. I'm sorry. No problem.
Can we go back to the um to retirement? Yeah. So, uh, 13.04. 1304. Yes. Um, is that in alignment with whatever we've got in terms of notification and contractual terms. She is she is, uh, fulfilling the contractual obligations with this as
well. Okay. Thank you. Even though it's on the date we receive it, not necessarily the date the board that the board um approves it. So, this is the the November 30th date is 60 day. It's that it is I think just
over the 60 days or it's right around it's right at the 60 days. One of the two. I I can go back to my notes. Okay. In my office and get back to you. I only asked that because I thought we had a longer um notification period around retirements. Uh 60 days for um or ending contract for
uh the instructional staff. Okay. Thank you. All right. Um, consent agenda items in section 15. 15.02 is approval of the submission of the HIB self-evaluation report for the school year 2425
and 15.03 is approval of the safety and security plan changes. Are there any questions and comments in section 15? We have uh no items in section 16, no items in section 17, section 18, 18.0 02 is approval of use of facilities for NJ
Power School user group and 18.03 is approval of use of facilities for the NBC band boosters. Any questions or comments on section 18? Yeah, if we're in a class action suit against power schools, then we're approving the New Jersey Powers School
to use the school. Am I missing something there? So the the powers school users group is the um the school district users. It is not facilitated by powers school. It's essentially like a group that that helps one another with
any problems and learning about things and so on. Okay. But no power school association going up aside from the name of it. No. Got it. Thank you. All right. Uh can I get a motion for the consent agenda? I'll make a motion to
accept present agenda. I'll second that. Mr. Williams, if you can please do a roll call vote. Mr. Figs, yay. Mrs. Bong, yay. Mrs. Applegate, yay. Mr. Armament, yay. Mr. Bucks, yes. Mr. Narwood,
yes. Mrs. Janice, yes. Mr. Zimmer, yes. Thank you. U if you could please comment. Ladies and gentlemen, this meeting will now be open to the public for comments. Please note that the board is here to
listen. The public comment period is not designed to be a discussion accordingly. Please do not expect the board to respond to your concerns and questions this evening. We take your concerns and questions very seriously and want to have sufficient time to allow our administration to process and research issues if need be. We will however
respond to your questions and concerns at a future meeting or have the proper staff member get back to you at the appropriate time. Also, please note that if your questions or comments pertain to litigation, students, personnel, or negotiations, we would ask that you see the superintendent after the meeting since we do not discuss these items in
public. Please keep in mind that the public comment session is an opportunity for you to share your opinions and remarks with the board and it is not a question and answer session. We also recognize that our community may be polarized on some issues. We want our schoolboard meeting to serve as an example to our students that each member
of the board and community can deal with controversial issues in a civil manner and demonstrate mutual respect for everyone's views. In that spirit, we ask that all speakers please address their comments to the board directly rather than the audience. And all speakers and members of the public show respect for
others views and maintain civility during the meeting. Please state your name, municipality of residence, and group affiliation. If applicable, comments will be limited to 3 minutes per person and the total comment period to 30 minutes. Only those who have signed up on the public comment signin sheets will be allowed to speak this
evening. The individual time limits will be enforced so that as many members of the public who wish to speak may be allowed to do so. Uh Luke Klein. Good evening. My name is Luke Klein. I live in the township of Mansfield. Um I have been for this board a few times
now. So, I'm following up again looking for a response since you say you will respond. Uh, had a meeting with Mr. Figs, Dr. Zuckermanman, and your solicitor back in June. Mr. Figs responded at the beginning of August,
stating that investigation would be conducted into the allegations I made against your administrative staff for the failure to protect students and of this community. Um, I was told by Miss Hodgees in the meeting that I would get whether it was founded or not founded. I understand we're not going to be
entitled to the particulars and the details of your investigation, but we are entitled to an answer of whether the allegations were founded or not. I've yet to receive a response. You stated that it would be concluded sometime at the end of August and you had to wait till the full board acts on it. I also
brought to you another tension, another matter that I hope was forwarded for investigations about the conduct of Dr. McCann and retaliating against us. We've noticed that the policies did change for the school sick notes. So, we
appreciate that. So, there's some action, but again, her conduct was inappropriate. So, I'm here again. I was told we get a response. I'm still waiting for a response to the record request for the video that if you had to provide a legal reasoning why you
wouldn't provide it. So, I'm being pushed to the point where I have to obtain an attorney and that if you lose that, you also responsible for my attorney's costs, which I'm sure she will advise you. So, again, I'm asking for the legal reasoning why you didn't provide the record.
And that's it. Thank you for your time, guys. All right. Uh that concludes public comment. Um at this time we will be entering executive session. Um we will be conducting uh a vote after executive session on our schoolboard member
appointment as well as our representative of the military community to the board. Um that is the only business that will be conducted after the executive session. Um, executive session is anticipated to uh take a while um and 1 to two hours uh just for
for everyone's information. Uh can I get a motion to go into executive session? Make a motion to go in executive session. I will second. All those in favor? I. All opposed abstensions. Right. Thank you. [Music] Making sure. Oh, my mic is live. Frank,
yours wasn't now. There we go. All right. You ready, Jim? Nope. When you're ready, let me know down. Yep. All right. Uh, can I get a motion to
return from executive session? Motion to return. I'll second that. All those in favor? Opposed? Abstensions. All right. Um, all right. Uh, non-consent agenda
item 22.01 is approval of schoolboard member. Um, can I get a motion to open 22 or for item 22.01? Motion. Second. All those in favor? I
I. All opposed extensions. All right. At this time, I'll call for nominations for the school board member appointment for the Chesterfield seat. So, uh, I have a nomination and I want to start off by saying that, um, I think
all the interviews were absolutely excellent and, um, I think the board has a tough decision to make. And it is my hope that since this is fulfilling a one-year term that everybody that showed up today um remembers that it's a
one-year term and that they put their applications in before the end of June for next year if they want to continue or if they want to uh take the seat from whoever does ultimately get it. But with that being said, I'm going to uh
nominate Mr. Zuzio for the Chesterfield seat on the board of education to to replace Mr. Spence. And I need a second for the nomination. Second. I second. All right. Any other uh nominations?
All right. Um Mrs. Williams, if you will please do a roll call vote. Um please vote. Uh, yay. Have a discussion. So, you can Yes. I'm sorry. Um, I want to kind of uh reiterate some of the things that that Kevin said, you
know, it's great to have this many candidates come out. Um, and I think again, Kevin, what you mentioned is that, you know, we hope that that next year that that we see, you know, some names on the ballot. Um, I think what was most important to me was that the theme through everyone's answers was
this desire to serve. And that's that's important to me, right? Because that's why I'm here. I know that's why we're all here, right? It's because of this desire to serve. And I think once you feel that call, um I I want to make sure that this isn't discouraging to to those
that um that aren't being selected tonight because it really is important. and whether it's serving here at the school board or serving wherever else in the community, I think it's really important. So, um I I hope this is not discouraging to to anyone that's here tonight. And that's it. Thank you.
Well said. Yeah, I would agree with that. Um I mean, it's just the fact that we received seven applications is astounding. Um even our attorney said she's never heard of a school district that has received seven applications for an open seat. Um it just shows the the commitment to our community um that that
the school's blessed to have. So um again I again reiterate um absolutely amazing have having all of you out and we appreciate every bit of your time. Just remind everyone to state a reason support of your uh Miss Williams if you
can do a roll call vote. Uh please respond with yay, nay or abstain. Um, and please provide your your reasoning for your vote. You ready, Mr. Pigs? Uh, yay. Um, as I mentioned, I was impressed with all the candidates. Uh, we really appreciated Mr. Zuzio's or I
really appreciated Mr. Zuzio's, uh, commitment to the community and his experience he brings. Um, through his experience in the schools with security and with seeing all the different schools and how he operates in each of those and found that be really valuable.
uh here at Northern. Mrs. Bond, uh thank you very much. Um I just want to reiterate what everyone else has said, but it's been a real honor and pleasure to meet all of the candidates tonight. So, thank you for making your time to be here, and it is just
absolutely heartwarming to hear um this genuine desire to serve during this time. Um, but I I do want to um support the vote for um Ben Zuzio. Uh and it's his connections within the community and
reach within the community and also his knowledge of schools um that really uh stood out in my mind. Thank you, Mrs. Applegate. Yeah. Again, I just want to re reiterate what everybody said. Thank you everybody for coming out. Uh my nomination is also for Mr. Zuzio. um
for similar reasons. So, Laura and Mike um really really deep connection to the community um passion to serve um and I think he'll do a really great job. Thank you, Mr. Arm Mente. Uh having sat next to Jerry for the last
two years, I can say that he would be very proud that all of you showed up with the desire to represent Chesterfield. Um yeah, he would be proud. Um, I uh vote yay with uh Ben Zio. Um, I've known Ben
for quite a while. Uh, I think his commitment to children, teachers, the community, and um, his sense of desire to serve will really uh, benefit this board. Thank you, Mr. Books.
Yes. Um, and in the, uh, the sphere, I'm not repeating too much of myself. I think really what struck me was uh one of the answers to one of the questions when we asked why um why did why did you not um file a petition for the for the
election this year? And and the answer was that you know there was a need and an opportunity and it was something that I could I would and I want to do and and that really kind of resonated with me. So
Mr. Narwit. Yes. Um, again, thank you all for coming out. This is I've been on the board for well 10 years now, and this is the most we've ever had someone come out for any type of uh nomination or I mean,
interviews. Um, I agree with the nomination. Um, the answers and just as we were talking, every said, the background is well-rounded. It's um it's just going to be a benefit to us here at the board.
So, uh and to the students. Thank you, Mrs. Janice. I want to thank everyone again. Everyone did an excellent job and it was definitely a very tough decision because so many of you did well. Um but I will be a yes because of knowledge and past
experience and um desire to serve the community. And lastly, Mr. Zimmer. So obviously I'm a yes. Um again I can't thank you all enough for coming out. Um
it's it's more of the total package. There wasn't one specific answer. Um you know it varied from debt to the school board uh to filling the need and uh having pride in the community. Um, so there wasn't any one thing, but you
know, it was enough to convince me that I thought it was the right uh the right call at this time. So, I'm a yes. Thank you. All right. The board has selected Mr. Benjamin Zuzio to build the Chesterfield
seat. That's all I know. Yep. Uh item 22.02 is approval of representative of the military community to the board. Um can I get a motion for 22.02? Make a motion open 22.02.
I'll second. All in favor? I. All opposed abstensions. Uh, can I anyone please like or make a nomination for the military community member? I'm on a roll. Why not?
Um, I'd like to nominate Master Sergeant Robert Mareski. And second that. All right. Um, all those or I'm sorry, would you guys uh any discussion or I guess discussion or commentary before the voting
commentary? All right, that Miss Williams, will you please do a roll call vote? Sure, Mr. BS. Uh, I'm a yay. Mr. Maresky um has a steady and stable position um on the base which allow continuity uh on
his representation to our board and he has a lot of contacts and and positive uh influence and sees a lot of military families on base which are both incredibly valuable in that liaison position for our board. Mrs. Vaughn.
Yes, I'm a yay also because of the continuity and how important that is in this position. Um I also thought uh his own personal experience with his own children um was really valuable um and can serve the role and also his um
relationships that he's had on base since 2018 I think was also really a strategic sort of um pin in it for me uh for his candidacy. Thank you, Mrs. Applegate. Uh, also, yay for me. I think similar reasons, strong reach in within the
military community. I think he understands the needs of kids transitioning um into, you know, high school from different from different areas um and his obviously continuity within um the district. Thank you, Mr. Armamente.
Um yes, and I think similar in theme to what others have said, he's been here since 2018. strong commitment to the community and a desire to remain in the community. Um his understanding of 504s and IEPs and and what that means to a
transitioning student into the community um was very telling and I think he'll make a great member of the board. Thank you. U Mr. Books, I am going to abstain. Uh I missed the first interview and we don't have enough
information to make a choice. Thank you, Mr. Norwick. Uh, yes. And excuse me. Uh, pretty much every everything said so far, continuity, his reach, he wants to be here. He's he has the special ed
background or he knows all about that. So, these are very important things that we come across that we need help. Um, especially someone has a great understanding of special ed. Thank you. This is Janice. I'm the guest as well. um for his many years of
experience and uh uh with his experience with uh special education. Thank you. And then Mrs. Zimmer, uh I'm a yes. And the things that I'm going to say in support of him doesn't mean that the other candidate didn't have these qualities as well, but I felt that, you
know, his children in the district, he was personable, he was concise, and overall I thought he would be a good candidate to sit on the board. Thank you. All right, with that, Mr. or Sergeant Master Marcheski is appointed to the military
position of the board. Uh, future dates, the schoolboard workshops coming up. Uh, November, we'll have buildings, grounds, finance, and board of ed. Um, old business, new business. One thing I'll bring up briefly is I know we have a policy meeting come up coming up. Um,
I know our policy had a discussion back and forth about the public comment. Um, 3 minutes versus 5 minutes. I know I've pointed out that I tend to let most of the speakers uh move past three. However, it's uh conducted to have the three minutes in there in case you had enough people show up where you needed
to limit it. Um one of our discussions though was allowing people to speak after the signin sheet has been fulfilled. Um allowing anyone else who'd like to come up and speak. One of our concerns with that though is if you allow people to go, you have to be more
strict on the three minutes because if we know there's two speakers on the list at 3 minutes, but there's enough people in the crowd where more people might want to speak, I'm going to have to be more firm with the three minutes. So, if anyone has any further thoughts on that that they would like to provide input to
the policy committee for our next meeting, let us know what you think. Um, I know everyone we hear the complaints about the three minutes, we hear about not people on the sign-in list. It's just a matter of trying to balance those to make sure that if we let anyone speak that that maybe we have to be more
strict with three minutes. So, just food for thought. Um, that meetings is coming up in November, December. So, put some thought into it and let us know prior to that policy committee meeting what we might want to do going forward there. Um, anyone else have any other old or new business they would I just want to ask one question about
the three minutes and the signup sheet where the signup sheet do people know that they're supposed to sign up like do we make that clear that you know it's it's in the agenda under the public comment and that like if you read the thing public comment for people who signed up and it's over there but I
don't yeah I mean I that's that would be my my only concern that somebody expects to talk and then doesn't realize that they were supposed to sign out. Yeah. I mean, maybe that's before we open the meeting officially. Maybe say if anybody does want to talk,
go sign up now. That that's easy enough. That's not even an official board thing. Just so people realize it exists. It could also be that when is uh there anybody for public comment who has signed up? Is there anybody in the audience who wanted to talk who didn't sign up? Right. That can we can also say that too. I mean, I don't I don't know what the
genesis was of the signup sheet here. Um, but I've certainly seen other districts and other governing bodies where you don't have to sign up. So, it's a question of I guess what what are purposes of that? The purpose is really for documentation for notes or for for the minutes as far
as who has signed up and where are they from. Okay. Just because sometimes when somebody speaks into it, then you may not understand. You may get their spelling wrong. And is it as simple as asking to sign signup sheet after they make their comment? In more tumultuous times, we did have people trying to come back and
forth to to public comment. And then you got a lot more difficult of like who's going first, who's not. So that that was obviously we don't have those times right now, but that premise you set for reactive, be proactive, be prepared for it, right? But maybe Yeah, that's why it was
officially started is because you had contention at at mics and people Yeah. trying to re I we could always move to to change the rules in in the middle of a meeting if if we come around and we have a meeting that's you know filled and contentious right we
can we can make a motion right at the beginning to say hey listen you know whatever that motion is that it's strict three minutes or an announcement and have to sign up in order to keep order we can certainly do that too there's a lot of options here I think it's just a question of what do we want to do yeah I think I mean for I think a great
way just to start even in November is because it's free meeting it doesn't affect anything is just to make before we start meeting brief announcement. Anyone who's here to speak, there is a sign in sheet for both agenda items and just open public comment. I think that's a great way to start. It can take effect without doing anything to our policy.
Yep. Right. My feeling has always been if somebody's going to come out here and sit through the meeting, we should listen to them. Yeah. Yeah. That's what we're trying to do. We're just trying to make No, no. I wasn't saying we weren't. Just saying that, you know, I forgot to sign a sheet. Now I can't talk. Yep. Absolutely.
Afford as many opportunities as we can. Absolutely. Yeah, if you're coming out. No. Uh, any other new business? Just one other um I don't know if we heard from everybody. Is community relations is everybody okay for Thursday from 6:30 to 7:30? I think we said
y I think that was the that was the one that I think most people said out of the options. If so, then I will resend I'm good currently. I will resend out the agenda with links uh tomorrow this for that meeting for Thursday evening.
All right. Yeah. I just wanted to bring up two items uh just for the board. It would be nice if we could maybe um all make a donation of uh brand new socks to support the student um collection here at the school. And then I was also thinking about
Yeah. the student report this uh this evening. He says yeah. And then the other thing, I didn't get to do this, but um when I was speaking to Jerry's sister, um they didn't want flowers or anything, but they were asking to see um
if if you know anybody wanted to make a contributions to make it to the Chesterfield Fire Department, which Jerry uh was very much involved in and his family. So, I'm willing to take up a collection our on our behalf and I'll send you my Venmo and please just feel free to give what you can and uh you
know they're always looking for donations. Um and it would be nice to do in his memory. It I kind of got away from me in September. So, um I'll contact you guys about that. Any other item? All right. I get a motion for adjournment.
Motion for adjournment. A second. Second. All those in favor? I I all oppose extensions.