May I call the meeting of the Parsippany Troy Hills Board of Education to order on June 23rd, 2026. In compliance with chapter 231 public law 1975 entitled Open Public Meetings Act, adequate notice of this meeting has
been provided as specified in the act in the following manner. A meeting notice was published in the newspaper and on Excuse me, and on the district website on January 7th, 2026. In addition, the notice of the meeting was posted at the municipal building in the schools and a
copy of the notice filed with the Township Clerk and transmitted to the other newspapers on June 16th, 2026. The Daily Record, The Star-Ledger, Parsippany [laughter] Focus, Tap into Parsippany, Patch, and the district website. This regular public board meeting is
being video recorded as per bylaw 168. The recordings of these meetings will be available on our district website and our video on the go YouTube channel. We ask that you please refrain from using student or staff names in your statement. Professionalism is expected at all times.
Please stand for the Pledge to the Flag. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> May we have the attendance roll call,
please? >> Mrs. Abraham. >> Here. >> Mr. Barrios. >> Here. >> Mrs. Della Fave. >> Here. >> Mr. DeVito. >> Here. >> Mrs. Mayor. >> Here. >> Mr. Shaw. >> Here. >> Dr. Wright. >> Here. >> Mrs. Chappell. >> Here. >> Mrs. Cogan.
>> Here. >> Okay, we are up to student committee reports, Mr. Mohamed. It looks like you are it tonight. >> Who? Good evening, everyone. Let's get started with the last Viking report of the academic year, starting with some student council updates.
The student council and class officer elections for the upcoming school year have been conducted successfully. Moving on to a few athletic updates. There are no upcoming games. The official start date of fall football is August 10th, while the official start date of all other sports is August 17th.
Everyone who wants to stay updated on Viking sports scores, achievements, and events should follow the Parsippany sports Instagram page. The handle for this page is @parhillsathletics. Continuing with some general updates. Athletic and student activity
participation fees still apply for the upcoming school year. Participation in high school athletics requires a one-time annual payment of $50 per student, while participation in high school student activities requires a one-time annual payment of $25 per
student. For students qualifying for the free or reduced lunch programs, the prices will be $30 and $15 respectively. Payments can be made on the Genesis student portal through the PaySchools digital software. Annual course final exams were conducted
over the course of the last week and this week, concluding yesterday. Senior families are reminded to clear all outstanding student obligations, such as any fees or fines, negative lunch balances, sports uniforms, equipment, textbooks, or any other outstanding materials.
The last remaining open campus and senior parking session will be held on Wednesday, July 9th, sorry, Wednesday, July July 29th at Parsippany High School. The program starts at 12:00 p.m., but attendees are instructed to arrive no later than 11:30 a.m. to sign
in and receive materials. This is because doors close at 12:00 p.m. on the dot. Attendance requirements for this session that have been mentioned in the prior reports still hold today. Graduation will be held tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. at the Parsippany Hills High School Stadium.
The dress code, rehearsal, conduct expectations, and other information and regulations outlined in prior reports still hold. Overall, this has been a very successful school year for Parsippany Hills High School with increased and abundant strides in academics, extracurriculars,
and athletics. While the year may be coming to an end, the Viking spirit that drives our innovative spirit, persistent vigor, and community-oriented ideals continues to remain as potent as ever. That concludes the Parsippany Hills High School report for this meeting. Thank
you. >> Thank you very much. Are there any questions? DO YOU have any questions for our student? Thank you very much for filling in these last few weeks, and I hope you have a great summer. >> Thank you. You too. >> All right. Is there any correspondence to come before the
>> No correspondence. >> Do we have any unfinished business? You know, I have one, but I forgot to get it ready, so hold on 1 minute. Okay. Um Uh Mrs. Chappell and I will be providing
a memo uh regarding procedures for board member request for information. Um it was >> prepared in collaboration with uh Paul Pinerro, the NJSBA, and Miss Golfillan, our attorney. It's in response to numerous requests that the
administration has received um from board members, which is, you know, taking up a good deal of their time, and the memo just is a review of the proper way that board members can make those requests. So, that will come out tomorrow, and obviously, if there's any questions,
um Mrs. Chappell and I will be glad to answer them. It's nothing new. So, it's just a kind of a recap of everything. Um, and I don't believe there was any other unfinished business. So, we'll be up to committee reports.
Um, let's see. I don't believe you two have anything, right? Dr. Wright, do you have a report? >> I do. Um, I have a report from teaching and learning committee which um met on June 8th. Um, it's held over from the
last meeting. Uh, present were myself, uh, Mrs. Della Fave, Mrs. Abraham, and Dr. Mulrooney. Um, uh, the committee uh reviewed summer assignments. So, like assignments that students are getting for summer work, summer reading at the middle school level, and then reading
plus other uh subjects at the high school level. Um, uh, one thing we noted particularly about that is that the summer reading has a good combination of common reading experiences, but also a great deal of student choice which um by empowering students to select things
that they'll be interested in um looking to create buy-in um and excitement around those reading choices even as it's required. Um, I would especially the next item in the on the in minutes um encourage uh the board to click on the link that's shared in the minutes um
under district-wide interventions and funding. I thought this was a really, really helpful um uh spreadsheet that kind of uh lays out many of the ways that we as a district are intervening um when
students are uh maybe not achieving in the ways we are hoping to or maybe even are just on the edge um at different levels and what that looks like. Um, uh, I just think it's a you know administration did the work to put this together. I think it's a really useful
one to see what those interventions look like. I encourage you to review it. And we also talked about the administration is assessing each of these programs. And that was really interesting. And the rubric is
the kind of general rubric that administrators are using to assess these programs is also included in that spreadsheet. And that was really helpful to understand how not only like where are programs happening, but how are these programs being conceptualized and reviewed.
Something that TLC and this is related to the kind of goal um in connection to the board goal we have of ensuring that scores particularly math but also other scores
are headed in the right direction and paying attention any inequalities with it. We had asked for information on absenteeism. And we Dr. Mooney put together collated some data from the school performance reports. We are happy
to say that as a district we're significantly under the state average on chronic absenteeism. But we did identify kind of a few areas that might be beneficial to dig deeper in and see you know how the how different um
issues are driving absenteeism for different schools and different populations. And where is might be a problem where is not a problem. And if there are opportunities for targeted intervention. And that's going
to be a line of longer term project that TLC is going to be looking at into the next year. >> [snorts] >> And then another question we had and discussed was determining mastery levels. So at the elementary school the report cards which elementary report
cards final one comes out tomorrow I think. You know we it's a approaching standards, meeting standards, exceeding standards, not traditional grades. And so, what does it What does meeting standards actually
look like? Um, and specifically around like our math curriculum, um, because there's not with our we use the Savvas um, envision program and there there isn't a a Savvas doesn't tell us what meeting standards looks like. Um, and
uh, so, uh, kind of figuring out like, well, how do we do that? It turns out we have a group that, you know, in the adoption of the curriculum, uh, teachers and leaders get together and they kind of rigorously assessed, well, what does it mean for Precipity to meet
these standards? Um, and our standards is um, that uh, 80 to 100 percent kind of uh, is that a raw score or percentile score? I don't remember. Um, percentile score is meeting standards, which in um, my own review of the data
is significantly above the average for the ways other school districts uh, define meeting standards. I found, um, kind of looking around that many districts call 65% uh, 65th percentile um, or 65 6% achievement as meeting
standards. And so, we're, you know, this kind of shows that we're setting a really strong bar at the elementary school and that if students you know, maybe those who are in the 65 to 80 who wouldn't be getting any additional support in other districts are going to
be eligible for those programs, which goes back to the excellent spreadsheet I'd encourage you to look at. So, kind of looking at like that might be something that would get focused in that what I need period. Um, so, I thought it was a like a really I was like, this is a great meeting. I learned so much. That's the thing.
That's it. Thank you. >> Do we have any questions, Mr. Shaw? >> Um, in terms of the mastery, um, is it dependent? I'm guessing there's no state standard, right? For what is achieved exceeding standards.
Are districts going by bell curve or something or we don't know? >> I don't know. The district I mean that the state says these are the things people should know. >> Right. That's it. >> Dr. Maroney. >> Because we do a these are standards based approach. To meet the standards is
80 to 100. Okay. In the past where students Well, we all went to school where you know, we used a letter system then. The biggest adjustment is people are expecting like A's or how they get exceeding standards. But to get exceeding standards you have to go beyond those standard
requirements. And everything that's in the curriculum is the state appropriate grade level requirements. So, if students are 80 to 100 they're going to meet the standards. To get exceeding standards the teacher would have to recognize that the student has mastered these skills and we're going to give them stuff above the grade
level. >> Honors. >> Yeah. Right. >> Honors courses. >> It's in the classroom. Differentiating the classroom and giving them material that is above grade level and that's how they get exceeding standards. >> Do we do that right now? >> We do. Yeah. >> Okay. Cool. Thank you. >> Sure. So, yeah.
>> Thank you. Um Does anybody [clears throat] over there have a committee report, Mrs. Abraham? >> No, I didn't have a committee report. >> A question for Mrs. Dr. Wright? Then >> Keep going. [laughter] >> Um sorry about that. Uh No, we I just
wanted to say thank you Dr. Maroney for providing us this really impressive inventory of the programs, these opportunities, the platforms, the summer programs, the funding streams. It was really a tremendous amount of information that gives us a look at the
activity and the investment into these programs. And I really do look forward to understanding the intervention what which of these interventions produce the best outcomes? The most growth in the subgroups, which should be expanded, which closed the achievement gaps, and if there are any
that failed to move the needle. So, I'm wondering if in the future um if we ever did a subgroup-by-subgroup analysis, we'd be able to find out uh which interventions um were used by the subgroups, the cost, the measurable academic growth, etc.
Um the graph that we were given uh not the graph, I'm sorry, the um the goal that we had with this information it gave a lot of information about programs, but a lot of I I wanted to see a little bit of clarity on the actual outcome, so I just
don't know if um in our role if it's we don't typically evaluate whether a particular intervention is uh implemented correctly. Um I think that's administration's responsibility. Our responsibility is just to make sure
the students improved or whether the district achieved the goal. So, I'm hoping in the future we'll see a stronger focus on the measurable results instead of more than the operational details. Um on the mastery, I just had a question
about whether are we asking um how do we know a student has truly learned a skill and the evidence that helps us make that determination? Um I wasn't sure if we were so much concerned about percentages or of just the meeting standards that are
determined um to see if we can truly say that a student has mastered a skill and whatever evidence it is to make that determination. Um I want to go back to one item Oh, I was really grateful to have the graph that
was provided by the New Jersey School Performance Report, and I did send an email. I'm hoping that Ms. Benos will be able to share it with you um the link to the NJ Performance Report, and there was a short YouTube video on navigating the charts because they can
be a little complex. Um, I can honestly tell you it was a little confusing to me because at face value, um, the percentages can seem off, but Dr. Maroney gave us a lot of clarity on that. So, thank you. Um, chronic absenteeism is something that's calculated very specifically
uh with specific formulas to determine if students are in that category and the way that the graph had listed it, it says that we had 500 students or 7.3% that were calculated to meet the criteria for chronic absenteeism.
And the graph further broke it down by race, ethnicity, gender, and student groups, which is a great score. I think we should be very very proud of that. It is very telling, um, that chronic absenteeism has reduced by half since 2021 from almost 15%
Um, as far as I'm hoping all of you will spend time on that um, graph and whatnot. Um, the way that it was understood to me was that the example we were given was the multilingual learners. So, I was able to go back into that uh NJ performance
report and see that out of our 7,000 students, we had about 609 that were in the multilingual learners category and out of that, 97 were meeting the criteria for chronic absenteeism and that's where that percentage comes from. So,
I think the missing data for me was that demographic, but I was able to find it in that um, in that performance report. So, I do encourage you to play around with it a little bit and um you'll be able to see what we saw. And
last but not least, I just wanted to mention something. Um, I just had a quick question because on the subject of i-Ready. I know that we had briefly discussed it that there
is a uh fairly recent lawsuit going on with the Curriculum Associates, which is the parent company for it. But it's not I just wanted to clarify that it is not anything that has to do with any program usage
in case anyone wants to email or anything. Uh it seems like a fairly new development. Uh we can't figure out anything that's going to happen to it until these cases uh shake out. And um I think it was just because the company allegedly
uh could be saying that they were well, the lawsuit is saying that they were allegedly collecting student data without notice. But again, I don't think that we have anything to worry about. I think it's more of a privacy issue, not a program usage issue. So, I didn't want anybody to be
worried about it. I was just wanting to bring it up because it was public knowledge and uh and I think it's something that, you know, things are going to come up every time we use a lot of uh technology. And it's just something that we have to look
out for. I don't think that there's anything fairly to be um concerned about in that regard. But I just wanted to make a note of that. And I thank you, Dr. Wright, for this detailed minutes um so that we can spend more time
deep diving into the data. Appreciate it. Thank you. >> So, just for the the board's clarification that the lawsuit really pertains to the the release the unauthorized release of certain information. It's a class action suit. Parents um are certainly
uh able to join that class action suit. There's also opt-out provisions um and that information is readily available. But that's something that a parents do for their own children. That's not something that the district would be doing. >> Thank you for that clarification. >> Okay.
Um Ms. Abraham, there were a few things in there, but I just want to touch up on two, and we could always bring your other questions back to the committee structure. Uh there was a question about how we measure mastery of a standard. We have to remember that we have
our teachers who are doing the assessment, who are very well trained in the standards, are very well trained in assessment, and they are determining for the standards-based report card based on myriad evidence. It could be homework assignments, quizzes, tests, whether or
not that student has met proficiency in that standard. And that conversation is also supported by the supervisor who is working with them as a grade level to determine what types of things become our evidence of a standard. So, I
I that is getting into the teacher work specifically. So, it's not something [clears throat] that um I would ever want us to be measuring. I leave that into the hands of the teachers who are working with the students, who are much more well versed on what the students need and how they're performing.
Um I also want to talk cuz there was a theme of how we evaluate intervention programs. Uh so, Dr. Maroney and his team, whenever they're looking at resources, materials, whether they're a general um ed program, whether it's an instructional support program, special
ed program, they have a criteria by they evaluate the effectiveness of research. I know that there's a lot of the effectiveness of the program. I know there's a deep dive into some of the literature that's out there on the program. There's the input from the staff, um primarily the teachers. So,
that is a natural process of the curriculum revision cycle that is is living and breathing continually, and we do afford our teachers the opportunity to continue to provide feedback on the effectiveness of resources they are using because they are the ones who are actually boots on the ground using it.
So, I just wanted to clarify those two points in particular. >> Okay. Mrs. Mayor, you had a committee report? >> I do. Um I have [clears throat] two actually. Um On June 16th, human resources met. Myself was present, Mrs. Shapelle, Mr.
DeVitto, Mrs. Cogan, Mr. Ricker, Dr. Chase, and Mrs. Benos. Um we discussed some confidential personnel issues, uh TSS organization. Um the committee discussed the current organizational chart for the technology
services [clears throat] and solutions department and current job descriptions. Uh school security, the director of school security will be will be removed from PHS into a more centralized location. A new hire will be recommended for
approval to fill the opening at Parsippany High School. Uh assistant principal athletic director search, a committee was formed to interview and select a new assistant principal athletic director for PHHS. The recommendation will be on
the agenda for approval. Excuse me. [clears throat] Open positions, all open teaching positions for the 2026-2027 school year have either been filled or have recommendations submitted for approval. We currently have positions for a school
nurse, a school RN, a school nurse, a behaviorist, an assistant field hockey coach at PHHS, a maintenance position, four long-term subs, and five professional paraprofessional positions. In comparison to recent years, we're in
very good shape to begin the school year in the fall. And that's that report. I also, I'm sorry, have a reading from critical issues. Um
the superintendent's evaluation. The Board of Education views the superintendent evaluation as a most important factor in the Board of Education superintendent relationship and very significant in helping to drive our district forward.
The superintendent's evaluation for the 2025-2026 school year has been completed in accordance with NJSA 18A colon 17-20.3 utilizing the New Jersey School Board model to accomplish this.
That's it for me. >> Any questions for Mrs. Mayor? >> Uh question on the HR report. >> [clears throat] >> Um and if this falls into an area which needs to be held in closed session, please let me know. But I just
was curious about the um the school security being moved to a central location. >> [clears throat] >> What was the um Pardon me. Sorry. Um what was the idea behind this?
>> Just because it's a security matter, I'd rather talk about it in closed session. >> I figured as much. Thank you. >> Okay. Did we have I think those were all the committee reports, correct? Did we have any liaison reports, anybody? Want to give? Mrs. Mayor and
Miss Chappelle, we we attended a school board. Did somebody want to >> That's right. There was Yeah, they were talking about budgeting and and everybody is over the the cliff and it was there was one speaker who was like the voice of doom.
And then they had the Westfield superintendent um, about how their district was able to, you know, kind of get themselves out of a bad situation by moving their election, and they talked about all the, uh, things that they did, but he's
forecasting they're going to have a really hard time coming up. Um, there really wasn't anything discussed that we didn't already know. You know, there were just a lot of people just listening, and, you know, commiserating, yeah, it's tough, you know, the budgets
are hard. But, um, everybody's Every district is doing the best that they could do, basically. >> Right. >> Do you have anything you want to add? >> No, I think that's exactly what I heard as well. Um, in addition to that, there was, um, they were stressing, you know, how important it is to have,
uh, to work together well, and making sure that you can deliver for your district, and that takes work as a board, and we've talked about that, you know, how do we, you know, grow and, you know, be able to work together better, so we can help our district. Um, so
it's, um, something that, uh, again, was comforting to hear that this is something that other districts are, you know, thinking about as well. >> There was also, I'm sorry, there was also discussion about health care, and a lot of districts were talking about doing what we're doing,
um, and how expensive it is, and it's only going to get worse. So, that was a big discussion. >> Yes. Doesn't help to know that we're not alone, but >> Yeah. >> You know, there are many districts trying to to figure this out all at the same time.
Um, I just want to say congratulations to all the graduates and students moving up. Well, I know many of us have been to most, you know, several ceremonies, and each of them have been unique, and clearly show how proud the staff and students are of their hard work that
they have put in all year. So, we have, you know, tomorrow's graduation ceremonies, and then, um, there was also a shared services meeting today between the school district and the township. So, those, you know, meetings are continuing and we're looking forward to
making progress with that. Um I believe that's it for liaison reports unless anybody stops me. So, now we are on to the approval of the regular and executive minutes of June 11th, 2026. Can I have a motion, please?
Mrs. DellaFave. Um second, Mrs. Mayor, roll call. >> Mrs. Abraham. >> Yes. >> Mr. Barrios. >> Yes. >> Mrs. DellaFave. >> Yes. >> Mr. DeVito. >> Yes.
>> Mrs. Mayor. >> Yes. >> Mr. Shaw. >> Yes. >> Dr. Wright. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Chapelle. >> Yes. >> And Mrs. Cogan. >> Yes. >> All right, we are up to superintendent's bulletin number 19, Dr. Chase.
>> Okay, um last week uh several of our senior interns interns had the opportunity to meet with Congresswoman Nanalilia Mejia along with Mayor Desai and um our Council Vice President Dia Patel. So, this was a great way for our interns to speak to somebody who's
actually in government and learn firsthand about public service, government, and leadership. So, um that was just a wonderful experience and I want to thank our internship advisors for for all the work they do on that program. You had mentioned that we have a lot of graduation things happening. It's really
unbelievable that tomorrow's the last day of school. Um it feels like it went by like that. We've been to several moving up ceremonies. Uh today we had to relocate the middle school one. We were Dr. Mulrooney and the team were watching the weather like it was a stock market. Um there's no doubt we would have
preferred to have it at Central um I mean outside at the normal time, but what we were trying to do was moving it to the afternoon hoping that the weather would clear up. And once we did that and we realized that it would rain all day long, we just
were overpowered by Mother Nature. So, it went off without a hitch. It was great. Students seemed happy. And tomorrow we have the high school graduations. Dr. Maloney and I will be at He will be at the high at the Hills. I will be at the high. And I know some of you will be
in attendance, too. So, it's another enjoy enjoyable day. And just as we close the staff close the year, I just want to thank the staff. There's so many people who work so tirelessly to make this district run as efficiently as it does, whether it be transportation, buildings and grounds,
the administrative support, our leaders, our teachers, our paras. I could go on and on and custodians. I could go on and on and on. And I just want to sincerely thank everybody and and bring attention to all the wonderful work that happens here in the district. And wish all of our graduates congratulations. And I
hope everyone has a wonderful summer. >> Thank you. Are there any questions on the superintendent's bulletin? Seeing none, we'll move to the secretary's report, Dr. McCue. >> So, the finance areas are motions 28 through 38. It has the board secretary
report and the treasury report showing that all accounts are in proper positive balance. >> Yes. >> Can I add something? I also have superintendent's bullet items number 1 through 43, addendum items 44 to 72, and a read-in.
>> Okay, are there any questions on the secretary's report? All right. Um there's a section for new business, but I don't believe anything is to be brought forward. >> I just >> Sorry. You first. No, you first. >> I just had a question. I know there was
a follow-up, maybe it was unfinished business, but how does the next year enrollment look like? And especially enrollment by grade out of curiosity. >> I didn't I didn't hear the last part of that. >> I said enrollment and enrollment by grade look like starting next year.
>> I I don't have those figures on me right now, but we can definitely send them over to the board. >> Okay, thank you. >> Mr. Vito. >> I believe I just correct me if I'm wrong is I believe this is this Dr. McHugh's last regular meeting? >> Oh. >> So I just wanted to acknowledge Jim,
thank him for his service to the district and wish him well in his next endeavor. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you, Dr. >> Um okay, at the this time if there is anyone who would like to address the board, we're at the hearing of the public. You can come up, sign your name
and address in the book at the lectern and state your name for the record and please address the chair. Each person will have 3 minutes to speak to the board. It would be helpful if you would like to address the board to please come up now and sign in so you're ready when the first speaker is finished. As a
reminder, we are video recording this meeting. If you are a student who wishes to speak, we ask that you not provide your home address but rather give only the name of the town in which you live. If you are a parent wishing to discuss a specific matter pertaining to your child during this portion of the meeting, you
may request that the board temporarily suspend the video recording. Alternatively, please consider speaking privately about the matter to the superintendent after the meeting. Speakers should refrain from using specific student or staff names in their comments and are referred to by law 168
for further information regarding the videotaping of our meetings. Is there anybody who'd like to speak? Okay. Seeing none, we will move I'll close the hearing of the public and move to the roll call vote on superintendent's
bulletin number 19, items number 1 through 43 with addendum items 44 through 72 and read-ins. May have a motion? Mrs. Abraham and a second, Mr. DeVitto. Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Abraham. >> Yes.
>> Mr. Barrios. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Della Fave. >> Yes. >> Mr. DeVitto. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Mayor. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> [clears throat] >> Mr. Shaw. >> Yes. >> Dr. Wright.
>> Yes. >> Mrs. Chappell. >> Abstain on number 56, yes to everything else. >> And Mrs. Chogan. >> Yes. >> All right, at this point we need a motion to go into executive session um
for the CSA um evaluation finalization and action will not be taken at the conclusion of this executive session. Dr. Wright makes a motion, is there a second? Mr. Shaw, all in favor? >> Aye.
>> Aye.