been here for 11 years as the principal. So, yeah, I I think for me it's just being a part of something, being a part of the team. Uh we're all very different, but um but we we get along and, you know, we support each other. >> Every morning I'm inspired by these
children. Their energy, their willingness to support and grow with one another is contagious. >> The people I work with makes me come back every single day. I hire a very unique and special educator and that permeates throughout the building. I have the easiest job in the world
because I have the hardest working teachers in the world. The thing that makes Scopland Middle School so great is truly the people. It's the students. It's the staff. It's the community members. It's the parent involvement. It's the investment in making it a better place. >> I come here for the students. I love the
kids here. They are amazing. They're the best part of my day. They're the best part of my week. That's why I do what I do. >> I'm proud to be the superintendent of Rockway Township Schools and we are thankful for all the support we have from our community. >> I truly believe in an educator being
able to make a difference in the world. It's so important to have a positive environment for a child to come to. And teaching at Dwire is special because we don't have walls. >> I think social emotional learning is
very important. It gives us a chance to discuss our emotions and give kids a chance to practice that emotional dialogue and that helps the whole child. If you've never taught at another school and you come to Birwood, you honestly
never want to leave Birwood. You walk into this building and it's a family. We're all together. We're all happy. you were smiling. Nobody's cranky or miserable. We're here together for each other. >> One of the things that I love the most about this position and this job is that I get to work with students of all ages.
Now that we house preschool students here, I see every single student in the building from preschool all the way through fifth grade. And I get to work with them on a deeper level, on a way that inspires them not just to be confident in themselves, but in what
they love. After teaching for 25 years, I can't pinpoint one moment of time that is a story of why I come back every day. Any good lesson makes me feel alive. Going to the soccer games, the football games, seeing my students outside the
classroom. I want the kids to feel at home and I feel the more comfortable that they are, the relationship that we build together, the better they're going to do in class. Not not only enjoy their time in class, but also take risks. It's a really great environment here at KDM. My co-workers are great. The
students every day, they make me laugh. One thing that I really work on in my classroom is growth mindset. I did have a student that came in and really didn't like math. They were really negative self-talking, saying that they can't do this. And so, basically throughout the whole year, we worked on just changing
that mindset. One of the things that I'm really hoping to teach them more than anything else is about kindness and you know being good friends to each other. One of my most favorite success stories is a particular student when you know he would come into the classroom even right first thing in the morning his head
would be down on that desk. I've tried to instill intrinsic love for school, intrinsic love for education. And over time, I've seen him pick that head up and that's why I do what I do to have a kid come in and their school's a happy
place for them and they want to come. So, we used to always start off with a growth mindset and we do a lot of lessons about how we are able to do things that might seem hard, like a harder task. And I think that if we really teach our kids to be resilient
and show grit in the face of a harder task, then all the other academic challenges that they're faced with come a little bit easier. >> Our goal here is that every child is as comfortable in class as they are at home. And if they're ever in trouble, they're ever concerned or worried that they have the tools available to them to
be successful and to help each other be as successful as we know they can be. We have really seen over the years an incredible increase in their emotional maturity and in their abilities to deal with issues both in the playground and in the classroom. And I really believe
it's because our district's focus on seal over the last several years. >> I am the steam teacher at Copeland Middle School. I really love to see the growth and the change to the students. And what I really focus on is teamwork. So the kids are always in teams. We want
to make sure everybody's feeling comfortable communicating their ideas. I want kids to come to school and feel like this is their second home. I want them to come into my classroom and feel comfortable, feel like they can be themselves. They may not come here and love math, but I want them to at least
enjoy coming to math class. Years ago, I had a sixth grade student who was absolutely petrified of mathematics. And I worked so carefully with her. I gave her extra help just to have her overcome this fear and it was fabulous to see
that aha moment when she finally got it and that is why I do what I do every day. >> So my name is Jackson. >> My name is Mia. My name is Mariah. >> I think what awesome is about being in Birchwood is the um the like artwork
that's on the walls. Like in school they have this like art thing where you go downstairs and like paint a wall with the art teacher. >> My favorite is recess. My favorite thing
is reading and just doing a bunch of fun stuff. We get to do puzzle of the day and it's really fun. We get to watch videos at the end of the day. My name is Carly and I am in fifth grade
and I go to DVL. >> Yeah, my name is Rehea. I'm in first grade. >> Being at DVL is awesome because all the teachers here are so great and so nice. >> I like the teachers here. They make it awesome here. She teaches well and then
she teaches us stuff which we have never learned. >> My favorite subject is probably math because I like all the challenges. My favorite special is art class with Miss Takis. Plus, drawing is my favorite thing. >> What makes DBL unique is that everyone
is so kind to each other and everyone cares about each other. >> My name is Quink. I'm in the fifth grade. >> Hi, my name is Arya. I am in second grade. >> What makes our school awesome is all the teachers we have here. They help us every day. All the janitors keep our
school nice and clean. all my friends that helped me since kindergarten and everybody just helps us here because we are a really good community because of my friends, the teachers and the principal. Like we read a book and then we do a project based on what happened
in that story. >> Math is my favorite subject because the teachers always help us and it's fun but it can be complicated but it's still really fun. My favorite teachers are probably all of my teachers cuz I got really good teachers. They have fun activities to do
and their stories. My first grade teacher got me into reading and she got me into chapter books in Juni V. Jones. My favorite subject is science. In science, you do lots of experiments and I think experiments are very fun. Every
day I'm like happy at school. When I came into sixth grade in Copeland where everything was new and different for me, Mrs. Heath, she was especially really kind to me, she still talks to me even though we don't really see each other that much and she gives me so much good
luck for all the things that I do. One teacher that made me feel special and cared for was my seventh grade LA teacher. I used to just like like reading and writing and she really helped me understand and make that subject more fun.
I think the wire school is awesome because you can make a lot of friends here and there's good teachers. Math is my favorite because like you can learn different things like times, plus minus. No matter where you come from or no
matter what you like look like, people will be friends with you and welcome you into this school. One word to describe this school is probably heart. Honesty, empathy, acceptance, and respect and trust. This is probably one of the most special
places I've ever worked. It is the staff, the teachers. Uh they are loving, they are caring. The energy here is just great. It's wonderful to work with a group of men and women who truly love what they do. Their heart, passion, and soul is for students, and to see them
succeed. I try to find a way for them to want to be here. Even if they're sad or even if they don't want to get out of the car in the morning, if I say, "Hey, let's go wander in the library." And they bounce out of the car right away, which actually happened, then I've done something right that I have found a way
to make them feel like this is home for them because that's kind of how I feel. I love the kids here. They are amazing. They're the best part of my day. They're the best part of my week. That's why I do what I do. >> So, my name is Jackson. My name is Mia. My name is Mariah.
>> I think what awesome is about being in Birchwood is the um the like artwork that's on the walls. Like in school, they have this like art thing where you go downstairs and like paint a wall with the art teacher. My favorite is recess.
My favorite thing is reading and just doing a bunch of fun stuff. We get to do puzzle of the day and it's really fun. We get to watch videos at the end of the day. >> Our doors are always open. We are truly a family here. Our kids are just
everything. >> If you've never taught at another school and you come to Birwood, you honestly never want to leave Birchwood. You walk into this building and it's a family. We're all together. We're all happy. We're smiling. Nobody's cranky or miserable. We're here together for each
other. Birchwood is very special because it is truly a family atmosphere. Students come back year after year. There's multi-generations that have attended Birwood. It is truly a loving community. It's such a wonderful place to be. I commute an hour or more every
day and I've been given the opportunity to work in another district, but I've been here 7 years and I will drive that hour because the community, the parents, the teachers, our principal are incredible. We're just so happy to have such a loving, nurturing community that
is so vested in our school. We are family and once a bulldog, always a bulldog. I truly believe in an educator being able to make a difference in the world. It's so important to have a positive
environment for a child to come to. And teaching at Dubire is special because we don't have walls. >> Our mantra we live by is no walls, no limits because being a school with no walls uh provides our students a great
sense of community. You just know you're walking into a special place when you come through our doors. >> I like to tell people that when you're here, it's like learning at home. You're in your kitchen, but you still know what's going on in the family room. It builds like this, you know, camaraderie
amongst not only the students but also the faculty that work here. We call ourselves a Dwire family. Mr. McGovern, he seldom calls us a school and we really all live by that. We treat each other like family and we emulate that for the kids.
>> I think the wire school is awesome because you can make a lot of friends here and there's good teachers. Math is my favorite because like you can learn different things like times, plus minus. No matter where you come from or no
matter what you like look like, people will be friends with you and welcome you into the school. One word to describe this school is probably heart, honesty, empathy, acceptance, and respect, and trust.
I have been teaching art here in Rockaway Township for 16 years. I think social emotional learning is very important. It gives us a chance to discuss our emotions and give kids a chance to practice that emotional
dialogue and that helps the whole child. I get the privilege of going into every single class once a month where I do a guidance lesson. The best part of my job is when one of them is having a tough day and then they feel better and it's because of me. >> The people I work with makes me come
back every single day. I hire a very unique and special educator and that permeates throughout the building. I have the easiest job in the world because I have the hardest working teachers in the world. Every student who goes through Rockaway Township School District will graduate from Copeland before they go on to high
school. And we have an opportunity to instill core values into our students, helping students develop into future leaders into being positive role models and citizens in our community. >> I am the steam teacher at Copeland Middle School. I really love to see the growth and the change through the
students. And what I really focus on is teamwork. So the kids are always in teams. We want to make sure everybody's feeling comfortable communicating their ideas. >> I want kids to come to school and feel like this is their second home. I want them to come into my classroom and feel comfortable, feel like they can be
themselves. They may not come here and love math, but I want them to at least enjoy coming to math class. When I came into sixth grade in Copeland, where everything was new and different for me, Mrs. Heath, she was especially really kind to me. She still talks to me even
though we don't really see each other that much and she gives me so much good luck for all the things that I do. One teacher that made me feel special and cared for was my seventh grade LA teacher. I used to dislike like reading and writing and she really helped me
understand and make that subject more fun. Years ago, I had a sixth grade student who was absolutely petrified of mathematics. And I worked so carefully with her. I gave her extra help just to have her overcome this fear and it was
fabulous to see that aha moment when she finally got it and that is why I do what I do every day. >> We are making sure kids are prepared for the future and that means making sure that they have access to technology.
Every single classroom has interactive boards. Kids get a Chromebook in the fifth grade. >> They work as a team towards a common goal. They overcome challenges. We connect with the community through our concerts which are very well attended. Vanta Copeland is truly an all-inclusive
experience for all of the students here. >> I try to get everybody involved so that they can make a positive impact in the future. I teach US history and I come to work every day excited. I get the opportunity to mold the next generation.
>> The thing that makes Copa Middle School so great is truly the people. It's the students. It's the staff. It's the community members. It's the parent involvement. It's the investment in making it a better place. >> Our core values are the same as Rockaway Township. Heart, honesty, empathy,
acceptance, respect, and trust. So we can focus on particularly on being kind >> by being kind to a friend, helping them out, helping teachers, be nice to them, be respectful and don't interrupt the teachers. >> And everything we do, we try and relate
back to our core values. One of the things we are working on right now is positive behavior system. I don't like to address anything negative in my office because I want kids to be able to trust me and to be able to come down as a leader of the building. So, we're really working on being kind. And yes, academics are important, but one of the
main things for us is that we raise good kids. The main message is to be kind because above all else, we want our kids just to be kind. >> My name is Carly and I am in fifth grade and I go to DVO. >> Yeah. My name is Rehea. I'm in first grade.
>> Being at DVO is awesome because all the teachers here are so great and so nice. >> I like the teachers here. They make it awesome here. She teaches well and then she teaches us stuff which we have never learned.
>> My favorite subject is probably math because I like all the challenges. >> My favorite special is art class with Miss Takis because drawing is my favorite thing. >> What makes DBL unique is that everyone is so kind to each other and everyone
cares about each other. If I had to describe our building in one word, I would say we're a little unconventional. We're always trying to have our teachers and our students look at other ways to achieve success. And for every student, that's different.
There are other ways that we can really show student growth, student success. >> I'm not trying to be cheesy or anything. It's it really the staff here um we have built a family. And I think that says something about the building and the and the and the community that we foster here at DBO. And I'm really grateful to
be part of that. >> Being outside in the morning at bus duty and having kids coming up and just happy to see me, teachers who I now share personal connections with because I've been here for 11 years as the principal. >> After teaching for 25 years, I can't pinpoint one moment of time that is a
story of why I come back every day. Any good lesson makes me feel alive. Going to the soccer games, the football games, seeing my students outside the classroom. I want the kids to feel at home and I feel the more comfortable that they are, the relationship that we build together, the better they're going
to do in class, not not only enjoy their time in class, but also take risks. >> So, yeah, I I think for me it's just being a part of something, being a part of the team. Uh we're all very different, but um but we we get along and you know, we support each other.
What really resonates with me about the school is that we put more value in developing personal growth versus comparison to others. Whether it be a difficult learning task or a challenging learning experience, they learn to persevere and we can bring out something in themselves that they might not have
seen before. >> It's a really great environment here at KDM. My co-workers are great. The students every day, they make me laugh. One thing that I really work on in my classroom is growth mindset. I did have a student that came in and really didn't like math. They were really negative
self-talking, saying that they can't do this. And so, basically throughout the whole year, we worked on just changing that mindset. Just because we can't do something right now doesn't mean that we're never going to be able to do it. And that's what I teach all of my students.
>> My favorite teachers are probably all of my teachers cuz I got really good teachers. They have fun activities to do and their stories. My first grade teacher got me into reading and she got me into chapter books in Juni B. Jones. >> My favorite subject is science. In
science, you do lots of experiments and I think experiments are very fun. Every day I'm like happy at school. >> We identify the interests of students. You know what motivates them so students feel more comfortable and confident in their learning environment. Moving on.
Good evening, Rockaway Township, and welcome to the April 15th board meeting. Uh, I'm going to call the meeting to order at 5:36 p.m. Could I please get an attendance roll call? >> Mrs. Anderson >> here,
>> Dr. Gorman >> here, >> Mrs. Messi >> here, >> Miss Richardson >> here, >> Miss Torren >> here, >> Miss McGiri >> here. >> We have a quorum. >> Thank you. The New Jersey Open Public Meetings Act was passed to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice and to attend the meetings of
public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed and acted upon. In accordance with the provision of the act, the Rockway Township Board of Education has caused notice of the date, time, and place of said meetings to be published in the daily record, the STAR ledger, and be
posted in all schools in the district, in the municipal building of the township, and the township library. Does any board member wish to object to the conduct of this meeting for the purpose as stated in the public notice? All documentation and materials considered by the board of education as
part of this agenda are available for public review and comment. Members of the public are invited to come to the board of education building off Green Pond Road during the regular business hours of 8:00 a.m. to 400 p.m. Monday through Friday if they wish to inspect any of the referenced items. Can I
please have a motion to wave the pledge of allegiance until uh public session? >> So moved. >> Seconded. >> Can I get a public session to clarify? >> Oh, sorry. Second public session. Thank you. Can I get a show of hands, please? >> Great.
We're now going to move into our new board member interview, resolve that in accordance with the open public meeting, open public meetings act, the Rockaway Township Board of Education, >> close session. You're reading the close session resolution right now. >> Oh, I'm sorry.
>> It's a little misleading. It's very >> Yes, it's right next to one another. Sorry about that. Okay, that's okay. So, we're going to open up the board member interviews. Disregard what I just said about the close session piece. So, what we're going to do is the interviews will be held out here in public. We have six questions that each of us will ask the
uh candidates one question a piece. Um, do we invite them to come up to the podium? >> Yes. So, you can call them one at a time and they'll come up to the podium. >> Okay, perfect. Um, Rachel, do you want to start? Okay, great. If you could come up. Um, and first before I
>> Oh, did you want to make >> Oh, do we want to do them one at a time? >> Yeah. >> Oh, okay. All right. Russ, come on up, too. Sorry. My fault. >> I'm I'm sorry. What are we doing? >> We're going to question them individually. So, I said one person at the podium. >> Yeah. >> Okay.
>> You want to know one question? >> Yeah. Do you want to back and forth? Take turns or discretion. all six questions to one and then all six >> oh let's do one let's do one and one so that we we'll go right through it so what I'd like to do is first if you guys could come up to the podium each give us a little bit of background about
yourselves and then um we'll do question number one >> it's not fair on >> no I live on limber >> oh yeah >> you look familiar >> um I'm Rachel Brooks I've been here before I just saw a call for a I think
you know at the end of the day it's important when people go through the process and they take on a position especially here at the board of ed it's important to understand the commitment and so when I saw the opening it was slightly disappointing and I'm just here to help if needed. >> Great. Thank you. >> If you guys could speak into the
microphone so just for the YouTube streaming for a thank you. Sorry Megan. >> No that's okay. Thanks so much. >> Uh I'm Russell Nadiger and uh basically the same thing. Uh I I grew up in Rockway. I split my time between living in Green Pond and living in uh
Morristown. Uh so, you know, I've been a part of the community of Rockaway Township for 39 years. Uh and now that we live here and my kids go to school, I want to be a part of a little bit more part of their education. And uh I feel
that you can't affect change or complain about the way things going if you don't at least put yourself in a position to uh affect that change. Great. Thank you. So, the first question that we have is, "What do you perceive as the primary role of a school board
member and how does your personal why align with the district's current strategic goals?" So, first things first, we don't get involved in day-to-day. That's your job, Doc. Um, it's really just here to assist and make sure that there's anything that
the district needs for us to do in terms of resources, staffing, funding, all of that stuff. It's really not that important for us to get involved in the day-to-day. We really shouldn't be. Um, I don't have a personal agenda. My kids have I have four boys. They've all gone through K
through eight here in Rockaway Township, KDM and Copeland. Uh, I still have two at the high school, two in college. Um, we're almost done. That's crazy. Um, but again, like I said, I'm just here back potentially to step in and plug and play help wherever I can.
>> Thank you. >> I I don't have a personal agenda. Um, my daughter's in first grade going into second grade at KDM and my son will be attending kindergarten at KDM. Uh, so I want them to have the best of the best.
Uh, and it is not my job to sit here and dictate how Dr. Corver or Dr. Dr. Gorman does their job. It's to assist them in what they need to do. And it's also about accountability both on their side and on our side to make sure that we're
doing what we can that's in the best interest of our children's education and the community. >> Great. Thank you. >> Okay. I'm up. In New Jersey, school boards must navigate a 2% tax levy cap
while facing rising costs. What would your biggest priorities be when reviewing budget information provided by the business administrator? >> I think the most important thing to remember is that the school district needs to function, right? So, unfortunately, this is a business. On
the contrary of what people may want to think, the students are our clients. It's our responsibility to really look at the operational costs. Most importantly, you have so many fixed costs. I think what a misnomer is in a lot of our township municipal budgets is
that your health insurance, yikes, um, and payroll is that's a fixed cost. There's really not too much we can do about it. Those are contractually obligated. Um, and it's also important to look at your surroundings and understand what our teachers and our
staff need and our students need to be successful and then to move on to our regional high school which is ranked pretty great, right? So, we want to make sure we're giving all of our students the same resources and tools as those other local neighboring municipalities
are. >> So, I've I've sat on both sides of of the table uh when it comes to contract negotiations. uh I've sat on your side of the table uh and I've sat on my side of the table where it's I want I want I want and then
your side of the table where it is well what's feasible uh what can we do without harming the pocketbook pocketbooks of our kids' parents right because ultimately if mom and dad can't keep up with the tax
levies they're going to leave and if nobody's in that house, nobody's paying taxes and then there's a shortfall. So, I think that there are
ways that we can accomplish our goals, but it may not be by necessarily traditional means, but they will be legal means. So when it comes to budgeting, right, we have to hold as a board
our our employees accountable to make sure that they're providing processes and uh executing things the way that they should be within that budget. >> It's like a dance. >> Are we on number four?
Sorry. New Jersey school districts often face debates regarding statemandated curriculum such as the NJ SLS. How do you balance your personal convictions with the legal obligation to follow state law and the diverse views of the community? >> Well, a lot of that stuff is tied to
funding, right? So, the reality of it is the law is the law and I think this Rockway Township has always done a fantastic job. um the board now, boards prior doing that balancing act and making sure that we are doing what we
have to do, but also doing what's in the best interest of our students so that they are learning and that they truly are prepared to move on to greater, bigger, and better things. >> What Rachel said, uh the the law is the law. I I do fire
inspections and and ultimately my goal is to make sure that that business owner follows the law, right? Uh because if they don't and something happens, their insurance company's going to go like this, right? So, if we don't follow the law and the board doesn't follow the law and the school district doesn't follow
the law and something happens or somebody gets, you know, a rock in their shoe about something, uh, then they're going to come back and ultimately the responsibility is not only going to fall on the board of education, but it's also going to fall on the board members too, right? And our duty is to make sure that
we give our kids what they're supposed to have. I'm four. Sorry. Board decisions are made as a collective body, not by individuals. If you are the lone dissenting vote on a major issue, how do you support the board's final
decision once you leave the meeting room? >> I think at the end of the day, it's important to have your own opinions, to express them, to have constructive dialogue. Just because you don't always agree with somebody doesn't mean you can't see their side of the, you know,
the other side of the coin. So the reality of it is if if the board is in agreeance on one thing and you're a lone vote on the other side, you can go out there and to me it's at the end of the day the the majority rules. So just because it's not something I was 100% in
agreeance with doesn't mean that I'm not going to go out and support and make sure that we have the tools and resources and the administration and staff has exactly what they need to execute. >> Thank you. >> You you have to you're allowed to have an opinion. uh just because I
necessarily disagree with a with a process or a procedure or a policy that wants to be put in place uh doesn't mean that you're entitled to subvert that. Um you can disagree with things while
supporting them at the same time. And if you can't be that way, then you shouldn't be in public service in my in my opinion. Um, I I can disagree with Megan on something. Um, but we're all
adults. Uh, being an adult, have civil conversations and explain your reason why because there might be something Mr. Corber is explaining that or wants to do that. We don't see the whole picture, right? There's a bigger picture to everything. Um, so if you have that
conversation, maybe you change somebody's mind. And having that openness to have conversations even though you may disagree is bigger than what you are as an individual in supporting the board as an entirety.
Um, as a board member, you will have access to sensitive information regarding student discipline, staff evaluations, and legal strategies in executive session. If a community member or close friend pressures you to share
the real story behind a controversial and confidential decision, how do you respond while maintaining both community trust and your legal and ethical obligations? I think it's important just to be straightforward with people. You know, the answer is just is exactly what it
is. That's confidential. I always try to get people to understand from a perspective of if that was your situation or your child and someone was coming to me, would you want me to share? No. Um, and again, you take an oath, you sit on this table and you get a lot of information about very, very
vulnerable people. These are our children and it's it's just not an appropriate thing. And anyone who knows me knows I'm never afraid to just say no. >> You're going to I what I'm going to do is I'm I'm going to tell them, listen, this is confidential in nature right
now. I'm not allowed to speak to this. When the time comes, we will put out a press release or I will be able to tell you, but until then, don't ask me about it. uh people see more of the bad things that
you do than the good things. So if I try to keep my buddy on the up and up and keep them keep them in the know, um that that's just going to erode trust with parents elsewhere and they're going to
be like, "Oh, well, we can't tell him anything. Why are we going to do why are we trust them to do anything? He just spills the beans to Johnny or or Jane." Um, and that's more damaging than trying to keep a friendship. And if you're truly friends or close with somebody,
they'll understand, listen, you're in a position that, you know, you need to be discreet and you need to remain confidential and, you know, you're going to respect that as that person's friend or or, you know, close acquaintance. Um, or you're really not that type of
person. What is your philosophy on the relationship between the school board and the superintendent? Where do you draw the line between oversight and micromanagement? >> Well, you can't micromanage, right? That's what we pay him to do. So, the
reality of it is you have to be constructive. You have to have conversate. Again, everything's about communication and execution. So if the superintendent needs the board to execute on someone, I expect him to communicate all the necessary information for the board to make that educated decision. If we need the
superintendent to possibly execute on something, we need to have that constructive dialogue, good, bad, or indifferent. There's no micromanagement. It's just communication. I'm a big believer on just communication. The more you talk, I always say sometimes overcommunication isn't such a bad
thing. Um, but you can't micromanage. That's what we pay him to do. we pay him to run the district. >> What Rachel said, uh, my subordinates at >> Yeah. My my subordinates at at work um
know that I entrust them to go do what needs to get done. And if they need help, they become stuck, they need advice, whatever, they know I'm there to help them and guide them along the way. I'm not here to do Mr. Corpor's job. I'm here to help him and guide him along the
way. If there's something that he's stuck on, if there's something that he needs the board for and needs our support, as long as it's ethical, legal, and within the best interests of our community and our students, I'm I'm
behind it a thousand%. Um, we're here to make sure that our kids get the best education that we can provide them. Um, and if we don't communicate with the administration and
as a collective come up with what we have with the goals that we have to meet ethically and legally and meet the standards, um, you know, we're failing to do our jobs. Uh, and to me, the standard is the bare
minimum. Meeting the standard, congratulations. you've done nothing. The standard is down here. We should be up here. >> Thank you. So, that completes the six questions that we had written down. Um,
one of the questions that I have for you guys, uh, is you only said six. Sorry. Uh, and I'm just so you know, I'm going to open it up to everybody else if they have additional questions in just a second. Um, is I want to make sure that there's a clear understanding of the
time commitment here. Um, We everybody at this table puts in a lot of time which I know that you all understand. Um but I guess how how do you envision managing the time commitment and everything else and being
able to be present for meetings for events when you can be things like that. >> So I think my track record speaks for itself. I understand it. I've been here. Um, someone recently asked me what out of the two roles as a councilwoman and a
board member, I have to say my most fulfilling time was always as a board member. And I don't know if it's because it was more tangible, right? There's these little people and they need your help, right? So, there was always that. And the reality of it is I'm just a person when I commit to doing something, I commit to doing something. And I think
something is barring me from doing it that I cannot control. It's one thing, but the reality of it is you're either gonna raise your hand, you know, stand up or shut up, right? >> Thank you. >> My schedule's pretty pretty flexible. Uh
I work 24 hours on, 48 hours off. Um I I get paid to sit around and wait for something to explode. Um, so I if I'm unable to be present for the day or outside work needs to get done
outside, I have 24 hours where I sit around and basically do nothing and I'm able to get that work done. Um, unless there's an emergency meeting, the schedule is pretty set. So, if I if uh my shift falls on a day of the meeting,
uh you know, it's a simple swap, simple vacation day, whatever. Um you know, I I've been in the community a long time. I haven't been as involved as Rachel has, but my kids are just starting to
become involved in the community, and I want to go on that journey with them. I coach softball and and kickball. Uh, so I'm trying to be as involved and as present as possible. >> Thank you. I'm going to open it up to everybody
else. Do you have any other questions before we get to >> Madam President, before we continue, I just have to ask a couple of qualification questions of you both? >> Absolutely. >> Um, I know that Russ you spoke to about it, but you are both citizen and resident of the school district, correct?
>> Yes. >> And have been for at least a year to now. >> Yes. >> Correct. And you're both able to read and write. >> Yes. >> And you're registered as voters? >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> Statuto requirement. >> Do that. >> I was gonna get there, Jackie.
>> That was my >> I I was watching you. >> Uh does anybody else have any additional questions? >> I guess I know Rachel, you've said you've done this before, but I was in your position. This is how I got onto
the board. Um, do you have any questions of us like before you continue with what else? I mean, we need a lot more than a Wednesday night meeting. So, I was just wondering, do you have any questions about our commitments or anything about a board member responsibility before we
move past this stage? >> I don't uh I've sat on an executive board for the fire department. >> Microphone. I said I don't I' I've sat on an executive board for the fire department and I've sat on the executive board for um my local union. Uh so I I don't
really have very many questions. It's uh probably same animal, different shape. >> Anybody else? >> Lisa, you're mulling. I am. >> Somebody else go first.
>> Well, I'm mulling too. >> I mean, we can we can mull as I understand it. This is the truly awkward part where it's liberation happens in front of the two candidates. >> Okay. >> Do we have any comments, Jamila? >> I'm ready. Yeah. Yeah, I'm ready.
>> Go for it. >> Okay. with the everchanging of school districts and curriculum um policies, how do you feel with the like comfortability of the changes that are
being made and being outside of a school district um not working in a school district or I know your children are just starting in the school district but being on committees where we are looking at curriculum or policies or the safety within a a school. um how do you feel
comfortable sitting on those committees and so >> getting comfortable with that? >> So I I'm a licensed fire instructor level two in the state of New Jersey. So that's equivalent to a a master's level class. Um so I do adult teaching. My
wife's a teacher in Chadam Township as a as a gym teacher. Uh so I do have exposure to this stuff. Uh and my job is safety, right? I go around and I inspect not these schools but I inspect schools
that my friends children go to. Right. So to me safety is the utmost importance. Uh and and I I take that quite seriously. Um you know I I get into it with some of
the board of education members at town at the town. I do inspections in uh because money essentially it comes down to to money. Um the one thing that I am not willing to skimp on is the is the safety
and the education uh of our kids. Um you know it goes back to accountability with the with the budgeting right there should be a plan 5 10 15 30 year plan right? We should have schedules on when things should be replaced. Uh we should
have maintenance schedules and stuff like that and that stuff should be built in and we should account for the everinccreasing costs of you know inflation and what have you. Are there unexpected things like a war that's going to drive stuff up. So you know hey
we're going to spend an extra $30,000 in fuel oil this month because the price of oil went up 300%. Is that outside of our control? Absolutely. But there are things that we can do to lessen the blow to to that stuff. And I
and I feel that's what the board is here to do is hold the people that we entrust to run our school district accountable and they're there to hold us accountable at the same time saying, "Nope, we have to do this." The New Jersey Department of
Education is coming down and saying we have to do this. If uh the Department of Education says, "Hey, we have to teach script and it's going to cost us $47,000 and we don't have it in the budget." Well, guess what? We're gonna have to find it. And we're going to have to come up with creative ways to find it to make
sure that our kids meet that standard and get what they're supposed to have. >> So, I I'm not sure how much the committees have changed. Um, but I think all of the committees bring a different aspect of the, you know, putting the different aspects of the district under
a microscope, right? But then also prioritizing at the moment, you know, to Russell's point, right? We should, we have to have plans. You can't just say, "Oh, your budget year is this year and that's it." And we never look forward. So, the reality of it is sitting on those committees unless they've drastically changed. Um, we've done it.
I think they're they're great committees and I think it's super important to spend that time outside of the big table to sit down and kind of look at those things under a microscope just that thing and so on and so forth in those different aspects.
>> So I have a question. It's specifically for you Russ, but Rachel you can feel free to answer it as well. Russ, you've brought up um a couple of times I caught non-traditional means or creative means for raising money or helping with budget funds and stuff like that. Do you have some examples of what you mean by that?
I noticed you also said non-traditional but legal. >> Yes. >> I was just curious about where that falls. >> No, we can't we can't, you know, we can't open the Rockaway Township Board of Education marijuana dispensary, right? That would be some people would probably smile at that, but that'
probably be extremely frowned upon. I >> I mean like you we would have to sit I would have to sit down and look at the budget, right? Um it's when I said same animal, different shape. Um you know, I understand the rules. I understand that
there's committees, right? Um but it's still going to be a learning process for me as to >> what we're allowed to do and what we're not allowed to do. Um you know, and I come from the world of grants, right? We love grants in the fire service. Uh
writing a grant right now. It's all fun. Um so I I'm guessing that it's similar in the educational world that we can go out and we can get grants for things um not necessarily just for educational use
um but for we can get grants for infrastructure, for our boilers, we can for our windows, for things that we need to make sure that our kids uh are comfortable. And when it's 12 degrees outside, it's not 12 degrees inside. So they have a nice good learning
environment. Uh that's the kind of creative thing that I was talking about or and you know or fundraising, you know, getting together with our PTA or PTO and saying, "Hey, this is the thing that we really need.
We have to prioritize this. what can we do together to make sure that uh we can kind of partner together and come up with that shortfall, right? We're short $15,000. You know, is there a way that we can do something together as the
board of education and as the PTO to make up that shortfall to get what our kids need? >> Great. Thank you. >> Yep, I'm ready. >> Okay. >> Okay. To be blunt, this has been a discussion regarding an appointment for
the remainder of 2026. Is it your intention to run for the unexpired term of two years? >> I will not. I'm just here to help and fill in a spot, plug and play if needed.
>> I I had planned to run in November. >> All right. Thank you. I have a comment. I think we should make it an eight member board and have both of them. >> You don't want an in passion, Jackie. That's correct. Ask for motion.
>> Yeah. So, it's similar to the way that you would of um point board officers, you make a motion for approval of a particular person. That motion typically does not require a second, but in this case, I think you probably should have
one. And if you open the floor for any other nominations, you can do so. But the first nomination that is listed is the first nomination that will be voted upon. At which time if that receives a majority of the members of the board,
you do not proceed to any other nominations >> the same way that you would president. >> Um how we have done it in the past is we took that vote in order of the um applications as they came in. >> If that's how you've done it in the
past, then I would follow that procedure. Yes. >> Okay. So it wasn't it didn't require >> motion. Check Check the policy, Megan, just quickly just to make sure. But >> check the policy. Okay. I said what I got first. I was going to check what I got first, but it didn't require we didn't we didn't make a motion. We just
took the vote in that order. >> I just want to be certain. What I'm speaking to is the Robert Rules of Order process. >> Your policy, >> the most recent edition. >> Lisa has it in her brain. >> I did not bring that book with me today
though. Lisa got it for Chris. >> So Lisa, what you're saying is essentially if Russ's application came in first, it would be we would vote. >> I don't know who came in first. >> No, no, but I'm using I'm hypothetically Jackie's got it on her computer. It's easier. >> That's how we conducted the interviews
in the past. That's how you know >> um Rachel's came in first. >> Okay. >> Um hers was received on the 29th and Russell's was received on the 10th. >> Okay. Um, so assuming that that is the course of action, that's the order that you would go.
>> But let's hold for Jackie. >> So then that would not require according to our policy, it would not require a motion. We're just taking it in >> in order. So Jackie, leave me. You tell me what I'm doing. >> Um, no, I don't.
>> I'm sorry. Sorry, >> you're fine. I'm setting up my it's my vote. >> A roll call vote will be conducted on candidates in the order in which the candidates were nominated with the second. If there are two or more vacancies, each vacancy shall be filled by a separate election process. The first candidate who receives the votes
of the majority of those remaining board members will be elected to the vacancy. It doesn't specify anything other than that. >> That was the language that was the language that was in there. >> You guys tell me. Can I make a motion that we conduct it how we have in the
past and take it as the order in which it came in? >> Well, my question is has that been in breach of Robert's rules to Jackie? >> So, it's not so much in breach of Robert's rules as it is you'd have to take a motion to suspend your policy and adopt a practice this evening because your policy says conducted on candidates
in the order in which candidates were nominated >> with a second. >> If we feel strongly we can I would I would >> I can do it. I'm going to need a minute though if we're going to do that. >> If we feel strongly about putting into practice. >> Yeah. Suspending the policy and
following the prior version. >> I >> I think we just we took as the nomination to be it's almost a self-nomination because that was the order in which it came in. >> I I public nominate the candidate. Is that >> nomination? So, it says, "In considering
candidates who have expressed an interest in vacancy, the board may interview candidates in public or executive session, which you've just done. The board must vote to appoint a candidate to vacancy in public session, and there are no decisions made in executive session, which you've also done." >> I'm reading this as I'm too, so I
apologize. >> No, that's >> in the event interviews are no, >> it just says a roll call vote will be conducted on candidates in the order in which they're nominated with a second. There are two or more vacancies. They'll be filled by a separate election process. The first candidate receives
their votes as majority of the remaining board members is elected to fill the vacancy. In the event no candidate receives a majority, another election shall be conducted between the two candidates receiving the highest number of votes. It says nothing else about who makes a motion to nominate or second. >> It's incredibly helpful.
Okay. So, do we want to suspend our policy in favor of the old practice or are we moving ahead as policy and Robert's rules according? >> So, the Robert's rules reflects your policy which is that the order in which
the motion is made. >> Right. >> It's the practice that is different than that. >> Right. But in order to follow that practice, we would have to again make a motion to suspend the policy and do the whole >> that would be rewriting the right. You'd have to suspend >> you don't rewrite the policy. It's a
temporary temporary for this evening and voted for this. Got it for this evening. >> Yes, understood. >> What would be the advantage of that? >> So why do we need to do that? >> Just to I guess honor past practice, but I don't want to. But can we >> we'll just nominate the person who do
what we're >> honor it by just nominating that person who vote on them first. >> So the two options as they stand as as explained by Jackie are if we follow the policy and and do it um regardless of past practice follow the policy's
verbiage. It would be that Allison would open the floor for nomination of said candidate. >> Someone would then nominate said candidate and then a vote would be taken on that candidate. If a majority is determined that candidate is successful, we end it there. If that candidate is unsuccessful, then it would be an
opportunity for someone to make a secondary nomination. >> I feel that's probably the best way to go. If you want to change it, we can change it. >> We don't need to change it for us. >> So, what the what the policy says is that a roll call vote will be conducted on candidates in the order in which they are nominated. That is all that it says as it relates to nominations.
>> Who makes the nomination and the order in which nominations are taken is based on what's not written in your policy but is in Robert's rules is how you do your president which is you open the floor for nominations nomination for
person one any other nominations nomination for person if we want to change the policy in the future we have time to do that >> yeah my my intention is not to change the policy and maybe that was just how to interpret it but I you know how I am
about policy I love polic Absolutely. >> Not a problem. >> All right. So, so somebody >> So, I would like to leave it as >> I'm opening for nominations. >> You're opening the floor for a nomination. Yes. >> I'm opening the floor for a nomination.
>> I would like to nominate Rachel Brooks. >> Do we have any other nominations? So now we need a roll call vote on the nominations you have. >> Can I please >> I need a second because the policy specifies a second on the >> nomination. I second Rachel Brooks. >> Okay. She was right.
>> So then I need a roll call vote, please. >> Miss Anderson, >> yes. >> Dr. Gorman, >> yes. >> Mrs. Mezik, >> yes. >> Mrs. Richardson, >> yes. >> Miss Tor, >> yes. Miss Mcgiri, >> yes, >> we have a successful candidate.
>> Excellent. >> May I say something, Russell? I just want to acknowledge that what you did tonight was really remarkable. I would like to support you in your endeavors in running again in for the November election. Um, the way in which you would
go about that is to kind of you have to get signatures from a certain amount of people. You go to the board of elections. Um, I do want to invite you to come to some of our board of ed meetings prior to that. I think that, um, I think it's wonderful that you want
to be part of our community and I think it's admirable that you want to be in your kids' lives in the capacity that you've set out to. I do think that it from experience, it's really hard to jump right in as fast as we need you to. And so strictly speaking from my
experience, if you give yourself that window to to learn everything that you can at our future board meetings, it it it's only going to help you as a board member. So >> thank you for >> I'd like to steal one of your answers and say what Noel said.
>> Truly, thank you very much. And >> I appreciate Noel is absolutely right. >> We all appreciate that there's people here to step up. We appreciate it. >> Thank you both. >> Thank you both. Thank you. >> Have a great night. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. So now I can read.
>> Now we can go to >> Yes, you're good to read now. >> Resolve that in accordance with the open public meetings act, the Rockaway Township Board of Education will meet in our wonderful students as they were walking by. And I'm so happy and pleased to say that when I walk through these halls and talk to these students in
these six different schools, I see students that are learning and having fun. And to me, those are two very important qualities of a very, very effective education. >> Birchwood is very special because it is truly a family atmosphere. Students come
back year after year. There's multi-generations that have attended Birwood. It is truly a loving community. It's such a wonderful place to be. >> Our core values are the same as Rockaway Township. Heart, honesty, empathy, acceptance, respect, and trust. So, we
can focus on particularly on being kind. What really resonates with me about this school is that we put more value in developing personal growth versus comparison to others. Whether it be a difficult learning task or a challenging learning experience, they learn to
persevere. And we can bring out something in themselves that they might not have seen before. Stony Brook is an amazing place. It really is. And I think anybody who joins us, whether it's full-time or visitors in the building just for a day, uh, you know, I think echo that sentiment. Our staff is second to none. They really put
the kids first all the time. And our students are exceptional as well. It's a wonderful school community. Our PTA is incredibly involved. Everything we do is well attended. back to school nights, our events, and we have a very involved school community both academically working handin-hand with our teachers,
but also I think for extracurricular as well. >> Every student who goes through Rockaway Township School District will graduate from Copeland before they go on to high school. And we have an opportunity to instill core values into our students, helping students develop into future
leaders into being positive role models and citizens in our community. Our mantra we live by is no walls, no limits because being a school with no walls uh provides our students a great sense of community. You just know you're walking into a special place when you come
through our doors. What keeps me coming back here every morning? Hugs from kids. You know, I love being outside in the morning at bus duty and having kids coming up and just happy to see me. Teachers who I now share personal connections with because I've been here for 11 years as the principal. So yeah,
I I think for me it's just being a part of something, being a part of the team. Uh we're all very different, but um but we we get along and you know, we support each other. >> Every morning I'm inspired by these children, their energy, their willingness to support and grow with one
another is contagious. >> The people I work with makes me come back every single day. I hire a very unique and special educator and that permeates throughout the building. I have the easiest job in the world because I have the hardest working teachers in the world. >> The thing that makes Scopland Middle School so great is truly the people.
It's the students. It's the staff. It's the community members. It's the parent involvement. It's the investment in making it a better place. >> I come here for the students. I love the kids here. They are amazing. They're the best part of my day. They're the best part of my week. That's why I do what I
do. I'm proud to be the superintendent of Rockway Township Schools and we are thankful for all the support we have from our community. I truly believe in an educator being able to make a difference in the world.
It's so important to have a positive environment for a child to come to and teaching at Dubire is special because we don't have walls. I think social emotional learning is very important. It gives us a chance to discuss our
emotions and give kids a chance to practice that emotional dialogue and that helps the whole child. If you've never taught at another school and you come to Birchwood, you honestly never want to leave Birchwood. You walk into this building and it's a family.
We're all together. We're all happy. We're smiling. Nobody's cranky or miserable. We're here together for each other. One of the things that I love the most about this position and this job is that I get to work with students of all ages now that we house preschool students here. I see every single
student in the building from preschool all the way through fifth grade. And I get to work with them on a deeper level on a way that inspires them not just to be confident in themselves but in what they love.
After teaching for 25 years, I can't pinpoint one moment of time that is a story of why I come back every day. Any good lesson makes me feel alive. Going to the soccer games, the football games, seeing my students outside the classroom. I want the kids to feel at
home and I feel the more comfortable that they are, the relationship that we build together, the better they're going to do in class. Not not only enjoy their time in class, but also take risks. It's a really great environment here at KDM. My co-workers are great. The students every day, they make me laugh.
One thing that I really work on in my classroom is growth mindset. I did have a student that came in and really didn't like math. They were really negative self-talking, saying that they can't do this. And so, basically throughout the whole year, we worked on just changing that mindset. One of the things that I'm
really hoping to teach them more than anything else is about kindness and you know being good friends to each other. One of my most favorite success stories is a particular student when you know he would come into the classroom even right first thing in the morning his head would be down on that desk. I've tried
to instill intrinsic love for school, intrinsic love for education. And over time, I've seen him pick that head up and that's why I do what I do. To have a kid come in and their school's a happy place for them and they want to come.
So, we used to always start off with a growth mindset and we do a lot of lessons about how we are able to do things that might seem hard, like a harder task. And I think that if we really teach our kids to be resilient and show grit in the face of a harder
task, then all the other academic challenges that they're faced with come a little bit easier. >> Our goal here is that every child is as comfortable in class as they are at home. And if they're ever in trouble, they're ever concerned or worried that they have the tools available to them to be successful and to help each other be
as successful as we know they can be. We have really seen over the years an incredible increase in their emotional maturity and in their abilities to deal with issues both in the playground and in the classroom. And I really believe it's because our district's focus on
SEAL over the last several years. >> I am the steam teacher at Copeland Middle School. I really love to see the growth and the change to the students. And what I really focus on is teamwork. So the kids are always in teams. We want to make sure everybody's feeling comfortable communicating their ideas.
I want kids to come to school and feel like this is their second home. I want them to come into my classroom and feel comfortable, feel like they can be themselves. They may not come here and love math, but I want them to at least enjoy coming to math class. Years ago, I had a sixth grade student who was
absolutely petrified of mathematics. And I worked so carefully with her. I gave her extra help just to have her overcome this fear and it was fabulous to see that aha moment when she finally got it and that is why I do what I do every
day. >> So my name is Jackson. >> My name is Mia. My name is Mariah. >> I think what awesome is about being in Birchwood is the um the like artwork that's on the walls. Like in school they have this like art thing where you go
downstairs and like paint a wall with the art teacher. >> My favorite is recess. My favorite thing is reading and just doing a bunch of fun stuff. We get to do puzzle of the day
and it's really fun. We get to watch videos at the end of the day. My name is Carly and I am in fifth grade and I go to DVL. >> Yeah, my name is Rehea. I'm in first grade. Being at DVL is awesome because all the teachers here are so great and
so nice. >> I like the teachers here. They make it awesome here. She teaches well and then she teaches us stuff which we have never learned. >> My favorite subject is probably math
because I like all the challenges. My favorite special is art class with Miss Takis. Plus, drawing is my favorite thing. >> What makes DBL unique is that everyone is so kind to each other and everyone cares about each other. >> My name is Quinker and I'm in the fifth
grade. >> Hi, my name is Arya. I am in second grade. What makes our school awesome is all the teachers we have here. They help us every day. All the janitors keep our school nice and clean. all my friends that helped me since kindergarten and
everybody just helps us here because we are a really good community >> because of my friends, the teachers and the principal. Like we read a book and then we do a project based on what happened in that story. >> Math is my favorite subject because the teachers always help us and it's fun but
it can be complicated but it's still really fun. My favorite teachers are probably all of my teachers cuz I got really good teachers. They have fun activities to do and their stories. My first grade teacher got me into reading and she got
me into chapter books in Juni V. Jones. My favorite subject is science. In science, you do lots of experiments and I think experiments are very fun. Every day I'm like happy at school. When I came into sixth grade in Copeland where
everything was new and different for me, Mrs. Heath, she was especially really kind to me, she still talks to me even though we don't really see each other that much and she gives me so much good luck for all the things that I do. One teacher that made me feel special and cared for was my seventh grade LA
teacher. I used to just like like reading and writing and she really helped me understand and make that subject more fun. I think the wire school is awesome because you can make a lot of friends here and there's good teachers. Math is
my favorite because like you can learn different things like times plus minus. No matter where you come from or no matter what you like look like, people will be friends with you and welcome you into this school. One word to describe
this school is probably heart. Honesty, empathy, acceptance, and respect and trust. This is probably one of the most special places I've ever worked. It is the staff, the teachers. Uh they are loving, they are caring. The energy here is just
great. It's wonderful to work with a group of men and women who truly love what they do. Their heart, passion, and soul is for students, and to see them succeed. I try to find a way for them to want to be here. Even if they're sad or even if they don't want to get out of
the car in the morning, if I say, "Hey, let's go wander in the library." And they bounce out of the car right away, which actually happened, then I've done something right that I have found a way to make them feel like this is home for them because that's kind of how I feel. I love the kids here. They're amazing.
They're the best part of my day. They're the best part of my week. That's why I do what I do. >> So, my name is Jackson. My name is Mia. My name is Mariah. >> I think what awesome is about being in Birchwood is the um the like artwork
that's on the walls. Like in school, they have this like art thing where you go downstairs and like paint a wall with the art teacher. My favorite is recess. My favorite thing is reading and just
doing a bunch of fun stuff. We get to do puzzle of the day and it's really fun. We get to watch videos at the end of the day. >> Our doors are always open. We are truly a family here. Our kids are just everything. >> If you've never taught at another school
and you come to Birwood, you honestly never want to leave Birchwood. You walk into this building and it's a family. We're all together. We're all happy. We're smiling. Nobody's cranky or miserable. We're here together for each other. Birwood is very special because it is truly a family atmosphere.
Students come back year after year. There's multi-generations that have attended Birwood. It is truly a loving community. It's such a wonderful place to be. I commute an hour or more every day and I've been given the opportunity to work in another district, but I've
been here 7 years and I will drive that hour because the community, the parents, the teachers, our principal are incredible. We're just so happy to have such a loving, nurturing community that is so vested in our school. We are
family and once a bulldog, always a bulldog. I truly believe in an educator being able to make a difference in the world. It's so important to have a positive environment for a child to come to. And
teaching at Dubire is special because we don't have walls. >> Our mantra we live by is no walls, no limits because being a school with no walls uh provides our students a great sense of community. You just know you're walking into a special place when you
come through our doors. >> I like to tell people that when you're here, it's like learning at home. You're in your kitchen, but you still know what's going on in the family room. It builds like this, you know, camaraderie amongst not only the students but also the faculty that work here. We call
ourselves a Dwire family. Mr. McGovern, he seldom calls us a school and we really all live by that. We treat each other like family and we emulate that for the kids. >> I think the wire school is awesome because you can make a lot of friends
here and there's good teachers. Math is my favorite because like you can learn different things like times, plus minus. No matter where you come from or no matter what you like look like, people will be friends with you and welcome you
into the school. One word to describe this school is probably heart, honesty, empathy, acceptance, and respect, and trust. I have been teaching art here in Rockaway Township for 16 years. I think
social and emotional learning is very important. It gives us a chance to discuss our emotions and give kids a chance to practice that emotional dialogue and that helps the whole child. I get the privilege of going into every
single class once a month where I do a guidance lesson. The best part of my job is when one of them is having a tough day and then they feel better and it's because of me. >> The people I work with makes me come back every single day. I hire a very unique and special educator and that
permeates throughout the building. I have the easiest job in the world because I have the hardest working teachers in the world. Every student who goes through Rockaway Township School District will graduate from Copeland before they go on to high school. And we have an opportunity to instill core values into our students,
helping students develop into future leaders into being positive role models and citizens in our community. >> I am the steam teacher at Copeland Middle School. I really love to see the growth and the change through the students. And what I really focus on is teamwork. So the kids are always in
teams. We want to make sure everybody's feeling comfortable communicating their ideas. >> I want kids to come to school and feel like this is their second home. I want them to come into my classroom and feel comfortable, feel like they can be themselves. They may not come here and love math, but I want them to at least
enjoy coming to math class. When I came into sixth grade in Copeland, where everything was new and different for me, Mrs. Heath, she was especially really kind to me. She still talks to me even though we don't really see each other that much and she gives me so much good
luck for all the things that I do. One teacher that made me feel special and cared for was my 7th grade LA teacher. I used to dislike like reading and writing and she really helped me understand and make that subject more fun. Years ago, I
had a sixth grade student who was absolutely petrified of mathematics. And I worked so carefully with her. I gave her extra help just to have her overcome this fear and it was fabulous to see that aha moment when she finally got it
and that is why I do what I do every day. >> We are making sure kids are prepared for the future and that means making sure that they have access to technology. Every single classroom has interactive boards. Kids get a Chromebook in the
fifth grade. >> They work as a team towards a common goal. They overcome challenges. We connect with the community through our concerts which are very well attended. Vander Copeland is truly an all-inclusive experience for all of the students here. >> I try to get everybody involved so that
they can make a positive impact in the future. I teach US history and I come to work every day excited. I get the opportunity to mold the next generation. >> The thing that makes Copeland Middle School so great is truly the people.
It's the students. It's the staff. It's the community members. It's the parent involvement. It's the investment in making it a better place. >> Our core values are the same as Rockaway Township. Heart, honesty, empathy, acceptance, respect, and trust. So we
can focus on particularly on being kind >> by being kind to a friend, helping them out, helping teachers, be nice to them, be respectful and don't interrupt the teachers. >> And everything we do, we try and relate back to our core values. One of the
things we are working on right now is positive behavior system. I don't like to address anything negative in my office because I want kids to be able to trust me and to be able to come down as a leader of the building. So, we're really working on being kind. And yes, academics are important, but one of the main things for us is that we raise good
kids. The main message is to be kind because above all else, we want our kids just to be kind. >> My name is Carly and I am in fifth grade and I go to DVO. >> Yeah. My name is Rehea. I'm in first grade. >> Being at DVO is awesome because all the
teachers here are so great and so nice. >> I like the teachers here. They make it awesome here. She teaches well and then she teaches us stuff which we have never learned. >> My favorite subject is probably math
because I like all the challenges. >> My favorite special is art class with Miss Takis because drawing is my favorite thing. >> What makes DBL unique is that everyone is so kind to each other and everyone cares about each other.
If I had to describe our building in one word, I would say we're a little unconventional. We're always trying to have our teachers and our students look at other ways to achieve success. And for every student, that's different. There are other ways that we can really show student growth, student success.
>> I'm not trying to be cheesy or anything. It's it really the staff here, um, we have built a family. And I think that says something about the building and the and the and the community that we foster here at ZBO. And I'm really grateful to be part of that. >> Being outside in the morning at bus duty
and having kids coming up and just happy to see me, teachers who I now share personal connections with because I've been here for 11 years as the principal. >> After teaching for 25 years, I can't pinpoint one moment of time that is a story of why I come back every day. Any
good lesson makes me feel alive. Going to the soccer games, the football games, seeing my students outside the classroom. I want the kids to feel at home and I feel the more comfortable that they are, the relationship that we build together, the better they're going to do in class, not not only enjoy their
time in class, but also take risks. >> So, yeah, I I think for me it's just being a part of something, being a part of the team. Uh we're all very different, but um but we we get along and you know, we support each other. What really resonates with me about the
school is that we put more value in developing personal growth versus comparison to others. Whether it be a difficult learning task or a challenging learning experience, they learn to persevere and we can bring out something in themselves that they might not have seen before.
>> It's a really great environment here at KDM. My co-workers are great. The students every day, they make me laugh. One thing that I really work on in my classroom is growth mindset. I did have a student that came in and really didn't like math. They were really negative self-talking, saying that they can't do
this. And so, basically throughout the whole year, we worked on just changing that mindset. Just because we can't do something right now doesn't mean that we're never going to be able to do it. And that's what I teach all of my students. >> My favorite teachers are probably all of
my teachers cuz I got really good teachers. They have fun activities to do and their stories. My first grade teacher got me into reading and she got me into chapter books in Juni B. Jones. >> My favorite subject is science. In science, you do lots of experiments and
I think experiments are very fun. Every day I'm like happy at school. >> We identify the interests of students. You know what motivates them so students feel more comfortable and confident in their learning environment moving them forward from one learning experience to
another. Every morning I'm inspired by these children. Their energy, their willingness to support and grow with one another is contagious. >> One of the things that I'm really hoping to teach them more than anything else is about kindness and you know being good
friends to each other. One of my most favorite success stories is a particular student when you know he would come into the classroom even right first thing in the morning his head would be down on that desk. I'm trying to instill intrinsic love for school, intrinsic love for education. And over time, I've
seen him pick that head up. And that's why I do what I do. To have a kid come in and their school's a happy place for them and they want to come. >> Stony Brook is an amazing place. It really is. And I think anybody who joins us, whether it's full-time or visitors
in the building just for a day, uh, you know, I think echo that sentiment. Our staff is second to none. They really put the kids first all the time, and our students are exceptional as well. It's a wonderful school community. Our PTA is incredibly involved. Everything we do is well attended, back to school nights,
our events, and we have a very involved school community, both academically, working handin-hand with our teachers, but also, I think, for extracurricular as well. Inside school, I really try to be involved in as many things as I can. My children also go to school in this district at one of the other schools and I'm really proud of what we put forth
for our children. Anytime we can bring togetherness and have us all work together, both in our community and out, it's really going to help everyone raise their own level of abilities to really increase the success of our community. So we used to always start off with a growth mindset and we do a lot of
lessons about how we are able to do things that might seem hard like a harder task. And I think that if we really teach our kids to be resilient and show grit in the face of a harder task then all the other academic challenges that they're faced with come a little bit easier. Having students in
a classroom that's smaller where you get to meet their needs specifically rather than in a bigger classroom you can build more of a rapport and relationships with them. I like them to become successful not just academically but also social emotionally. >> My name is Queen. I'm in the fifth grade. >> Hi, my name's Arya. I am in second
grade. What makes our school awesome is all the teachers we have here. They help us every day. All the janitors keep our school nice and clean. All my friends that helped me since kindergarten and everybody just helps us here cuz we are a really good community. >> Because of my friends, the teachers and
the principal. like we read a book and then we do a project based on what happened in that story. Math is my favorite subject because the teachers always help us and it's fun but it can be complicated but still really fun. >> I've always wanted to be a teacher. I
think the reason why I wanted to be a teacher is because I think I had really good elementary school teachers. Rockway I thought was really interesting because I feel like it is a small close-knit community, but I also felt like there's a lot of different opportunities in Rockway. I like how there was five
different elementary schools, but I also like how I felt like that I fit in with the Stony Brook mentality. The Stony Brook mentality is something where we all feel and have the same idea of supporting students. the kids understand that everyone makes a mistake, everyone has a bad day, and I think that it gives
the opportunity for kids to grow and not feel like penalized. I love that we have a great principal. I love the teachers and the morale. As soon as I started coming up here, since I am from South Jersey, I felt welcomed and included right away. >> My name is Dr. Richard Corbett and I am
the proud superintendent of Rockaway Township Public Schools. I was just waving to some of our wonderful students as they were walking by and I'm so happy and pleased to say that when I walk through these halls and talk to these students in these six different schools, I see students that
are learning and having fun and to me those are two very important qualities of a very very effective education. >> Birchwood is very special because it is truly a family atmosphere. Students come back year after year. There's multi-generations that have attended
Birwood. It is truly a loving community. It's such a wonderful place to be. >> Our core values are the same as Rockaway Township. Heart, honesty, empathy, acceptance, respect, and trust. So, we can focus on particularly on being kind. What >> really resonates with me about this
school is that we put more value in developing personal growth versus comparison to others. Whether it be a difficult learning task or a challenging learning experience, they learn to persevere. and we can bring out something in themselves that they might not have seen before.
>> Stony Brook is an amazing place. It really is. And I think anybody who joins us, whether it's full-time or visitors in the building just for a day, uh, you know, I think echo that sentiment. Our staff is second to none. They really put the kids first all the time. And our students are exceptional as well. It's a
wonderful school community. Our PTA is incredibly involved. Everything we do is well attended. back to school nights, our events, and we have a very involved school community, both academically working handin-hand with our teachers, but also I think for extracurricular as well.
>> Every student who goes through Rockaway Township School District will graduate from Copeland before they go on to high school. And we have an opportunity to instill core values into our students, helping students develop into future leaders into being positive role models and citizens in our community. Our
mantra we live by is no walls, no limits because being a school with no walls uh provides our students a great sense of community. You just know you're walking into a special place when you come through our doors. >> What keeps me coming back here every morning? Hugs from kids. You know, I
love being outside in the morning at bus duty and having kids coming up and just happy to see me. Teachers who I now share personal connections with because I've been here for 11 years as the principal. So yeah, I I think for me it's just being a part of something, being a part of the team. Uh we're all
very different, but um but we we get along and you know, we support each other. >> Every morning I'm inspired by these children, their energy, their willingness to support and grow with one another is contagious. >> The people I work with makes me come
back every single day. I hire a very unique and special educator and that permeates throughout the building. I have the easiest job in the world because I have the hardest working teachers in the world. >> The thing that makes Scopland Middle School so great is truly the people. It's the students. It's the staff. It's the community members. It's the parent
involvement. It's the investment in making it a better place. >> I come here for the students. I love the kids here. They are amazing. They're the best part of my day. They're the best part of my week. That's why I do what I do. I'm proud to be the superintendent
of Rockway Township Schools and we are thankful for all the support we have from our community. I truly believe in an educator being able to make a difference in the world. It's so important to have a positive
environment for a child to come to and teaching at Dubire is special because we don't have walls. I think social emotional learning is very important. It gives us a chance to discuss our emotions and give kids a chance to
practice that emotional dialogue and that helps the whole child. If you've never taught at another school and you come to Birchwood, you honestly never want to leave Birchwood. You walk into this building and it's a family. We're all together. We're all happy.
We're smiling. Nobody's cranky or miserable. We're here together for each other. One of the things that I love the most about this position and this job is that I get to work with students of all ages now that we house preschool students here. I see every single student in the building from preschool
all the way through fifth grade. And I get to work with them on a deeper level on a way that inspires them not just to be confident in themselves but in what they love. After teaching for 25 years, I can't
pinpoint one moment of time that is a story of why I come back every day. Any good lesson makes me feel alive. Going to the soccer games, the football games, seeing my students outside the classroom. I want the kids to feel at home and I feel the more comfortable
that they are, the relationship that we build together, the better they're going to do in class. Not not only enjoy their time in class, but also take risks. It's a really great environment here at KDM. My co-workers are great. The students every day, they make me laugh.
One thing that I really work on in my classroom is growth mindset. I did have a student that came in and really didn't like math. They were really negative self-talking, saying that they can't do this. And so, basically throughout the whole year, we worked on just changing that mindset. One of the things that I'm
really hoping to teach them more than anything else is about kindness and, you know, being good friends to each other. One of my most favorite success stories is a particular student when you know he would come into the classroom even right first thing in the morning his head would be down on that desk. I've tried
to instill intrinsic love for school intrinsic love for education and over time I've seen him pick that head up and that's why I do what I do to have a kid come in and their school's a happy place for them and they want to come.
So we used to always start off with a growth mindset and we do a lot of lessons about how we are able to do things that might seem hard like a harder task. And I think that if we really teach our kids to be resilient and show grit in the face of a harder
task then all the other academic challenges that they're faced with come a little bit easier. >> Our goal here is that every child is as comfortable in class as they are at home. and if they're ever in trouble, they're ever concerned or worried that they have the tools available to them to be successful and to help each other be
as successful as we know they can be. We have really seen over the years an incredible increase in their emotional maturity and in their abilities to deal with issues both in the playground and in the classroom. And I really believe it's because our district's focus on
SEAL over the last several years. I am the steam teacher at Copeland Middle School. I really love to see the growth and the change to the students and what I really focus on is teamwork. So the kids are always in teams. We want to make sure everybody's feeling comfortable communicating their ideas.
I want kids to come to school and feel like this is their second home. I want them to come into my classroom and feel comfortable, feel like they can be themselves. They may not come here and love math, but I want them to at least enjoy coming to math class. Years ago, I had a sixth grade student who was
absolutely petrified of mathematics. And I worked so carefully with her. I gave her extra help just to have her overcome this fear. And it was fabulous to see that aha moment when she finally got it. And that is why I do what I do every
day. >> So, my name is Jackson. >> My name is Mia. My name is Mariah. >> I think what awesome is about being in Birchwood is the um the like artwork that's on the walls. Like in school, they have this like art thing where you
go downstairs and like paint a wall with the art teacher. My favorite is recess. My favorite thing is reading and just doing a bunch of fun stuff. We get to do
puzzle of the day and it's really fun. We get to watch videos at the end of the day. >> My name is Carly and I am in fifth grade and I go to DVL. >> Yeah, my name's Rehea. I'm in first grade. >> Being at DVL is awesome because all the
teachers here are so great and so nice. >> I like the teachers here. They make it awesome here. She teaches well and then she teaches us stuff which we have never learned. >> My favorite subject is probably math
because I like all the challenges. >> My favorite special is art class with Miss Takis. Plus drawing is my favorite thing. >> What makes DBL unique is that everyone is so kind to each other and everyone cares about each other. >> My name is Queen Kern. I'm in the fifth
grade. >> Hi, my name is Arya. I am in second grade. >> What makes our school awesome is all the teachers we have here. They help us every day. All the janitors keep our school nice and clean. All my friends that help me since kindergarten and
everybody just helps us here cuz we are a really good community. >> Because of my friends, the teachers and the principal. Like we read a book and then we do a project based on what happened in that story. Math is my favorite subject because the teachers always help us and it's fun but it can
be complicated but it's still really fun. >> My favorite teachers are probably all of my teachers cuz I got really good teachers. They have fun activities to do and their stories. My first grade teacher got me into reading and she got
me into chapter books in Juni V. Jones. My favorite subject is science. In science, you do lots of experiments and I think experiments are very fun. Every day I'm like happy at school. When I came into sixth grade in Copeland where
everything was new and different for me, Mrs. Heath, she was especially really kind to me. She still talks to me even though we don't really see each other that much and she gives me so much good luck for all the things that I do. One teacher that made me feel special and cared for was my seventh grade LA
teacher. I used to just like like reading and writing and she really helped me understand and make that subject more fun. >> I think the wire school is awesome because you can make a lot of friends here and there's good teachers. Math is
my favorite because that you can learn different things like times plus minus. No matter where you come from or no matter what you like look like, people will be friends with you and welcome you into the school. One word to describe
this school is probably heart. Honesty, empathy, acceptance, and respect and trust. This is probably one of the most special places I've ever worked. It is the staff, the teachers. Uh they are loving, they are caring. The energy here is just
great. It's wonderful to work with a group of men and women who truly love what they do. their heart, passion, and soul is for students and to see them succeed. I try to find a way for them to want to be here. Even if they're sad or even if they don't want to get out of
the car in the morning, if I say, "Hey, let's go wander in the library." And they bounce out of the car right away, which actually happened, then I've done something right that I have found a way to make them feel like this is home for them because that's kind of how I feel. I love the kids here. They're amazing.
They're the best part of my day. They're the best part of my week. That's why I do what I do. >> So, my name is Jackson. >> My name is Mia. My name is Mariah. >> I think what awesome is about being in Birchwood is the um the like artwork
that's on the walls. Like in school, they have this like art thing where you go downstairs and like paint a wall with the art teacher. My favorite is recess. My favorite thing is reading and just
doing a bunch of fun stuff. We get to do puzzle of the day and it's really fun. We get to watch videos at the end of the day. >> Our doors are always open. We are truly a family here. Our kids are just everything. >> If you've never taught at another school
and you come to Birwood, you honestly never want to leave Birwood. You walk into this building and it's a family. We're all together. We're all happy. We're smiling. Nobody's cranky or miserable. We're here together for each other. >> Birchwood is very special because it is truly a family atmosphere. Students come
back year after year. There's multi-generations that have attended Birwood. It is truly a loving community. It's such a wonderful place to be. I commute an hour or more every day. And I've been given the opportunity to work in another district, but I've been here
7 years. and I will drive that hour because the community, the parents, the teachers, our principal are incredible. >> We're just so happy to have such a loving, nurturing community that is so vested in our school. We are family and
once a bulldog, always a bulldog. I truly believe in an educator being able to make a difference in the world. It's so important to have a positive environment for a child to come to and
teaching at Dwire is special because we don't have walls. Our mantra we live by is no walls, no limits because being a school with no walls uh provides our students a great sense of community. You just know you're walking into a special place when you
come through our doors. I like to tell people that when you're here, it's like learning at home. You're in your kitchen, but you still know what's going on in the family room. It builds like this, you know, commodery amongst not only the students, but also the faculty that work here. We call ourselves a
Dwire family. Mr. McGovern, he seldom calls us a school and we really all live by that. We treat each other like family and we emulate that for the kids. I think the wire school is awesome because you can make a lot of friends here and there's good teachers. Math is my
favorite because like you can learn different things like times, plus minus. No matter where you come from or no matter what you like look like, people will be friends with you and welcome you into the school. One word to describe
this school is probably heart. Honesty, empathy, acceptance, and respect and trust. I have been teaching art here in Rockaway Township for 16 years. I think social and emotional learning is very important. It gives us a chance to
discuss our emotions and give kids a chance to practice that emotional dialogue and that helps the whole child. I get the privilege of going into every single class once a month where I do a guidance lesson. The best part of my job is when one of them is having a tough
day and then they feel better and it's because of me. >> The people I work with makes me come back every single day. I hire a very unique and special educator and that permeates throughout the building. I have the easiest job in the world because I have the hardest working teachers in the world.
Every student who goes through Rockaway Township School District will graduate from Copeland before they go on to high school. And we have an opportunity to instill core values into our students, helping students develop into future leaders into being positive role models and citizens in our community.
>> I am the steam teacher at Copeland Middle School. I really love to see the growth and the change through the students. And what I really focus on is teamwork. So the kids are always in teams. We want to make sure everybody's feeling comfortable communicating their ideas.
>> I want kids to come to school and feel like this is their second home. I want them to come into my classroom and feel comfortable, feel like they can be themselves. They may not come here and love math, but I want them to at least enjoy coming to math class. >> When I came into sixth grade in
Copeland, where everything was new and different for me, Mrs. Heath, she was especially really kind to me. She still talks to me even though we don't really see each other that much and she gives me so much good luck for all the things that I do. >> One teacher that made me feel special
and cared for was my seventh grade LA teacher. I used to dislike like reading and writing and she really helped me understand and make that subject more fun. Years ago, I had a sixth grade student who was absolutely petrified of mathematics. And I worked so carefully
with her. I gave her extra help just to have her overcome this fear and it was fabulous to see that aha moment when she finally got it and that is why I do what I do every day. >> We are making sure kids are prepared for
the future and that means making sure that they have access to technology. Every single classroom has interactive boards. Kids get a Chromebook in the fifth grade. >> They work as a team towards a common goal. They overcome challenges. We connect with the community through our
concerts which are very well attended. Vanda Copeland is truly an all-inclusive experience for all of the students here. >> I try to get everybody involved so that they can make a positive impact in the future. I teach US history and I come to work every day excited. I get the
opportunity to mold the next generation. >> The thing that makes Copa Middle School so great is truly the people. It's the students. It's the staff. It's the community members. It's the parent involvement. It's the investment in making it a better place. >> Our core values are the same as Rockaway
Township. Heart, honesty, empathy, acceptance, respect, and trust. So we can focus on particularly on being kind >> by being kind to a friend, helping them out, helping teachers, be nice to them, be respectful and don't interrupt the teachers.
>> And everything we do, we try and relate back to our core values. One of the things we are working on right now is positive behavior system. I don't like to address anything negative in my office because I want kids to be able to trust me and to be able to come down as a leader of the building. So, we're really working on being kind. And yes,
academics are important, but one of the main things for us is that we raise good kids. The main message is to be kind because above all else, we want our kids just to be kind. >> My name is Carly and I am in fifth grade and I go to DVO. >> Yeah. My name is Rehea. I'm in first
grade. >> Being at DVO is awesome because all the teachers here are so great and so nice. >> I like the teachers here. They make it awesome here. She teaches well and then she teaches us stuff which we have never
learned. >> My favorite subject is probably math because I like all the challenges. >> My favorite special is art class with Miss Takis because drawing is my favorite thing. >> What makes DBL unique is that everyone is so kind to each other and everyone
cares about each other. If I had to describe our building in one word, I would say we're a little unconventional. We're always trying to have our teachers and our students look at other ways to achieve success. And for every student, that's different.
There are other ways that we can really show student growth, student success. >> I'm not trying to be cheesy or anything. It's it really the staff here, um, we have built a family. And I think that says something about the building and the and and the community that we foster here at ZBO. And I'm really grateful to
be part of that. >> Being outside in the morning at bus duty and having kids coming up and just happy to see me. Teachers who I now share personal connections with because I've been here for 11 years as the principal. >> After teaching for 25 years, I can't pinpoint one moment of time that is a
story of why I come back every day. Any good lesson makes me feel alive. Going to the soccer games, the football games, seeing my students outside the classroom. I want the kids to feel at home and I feel the more comfortable that they are, the relationship that we build together, the better they're going
to do in class, not not only enjoy their time in class, but also take risks. >> So, yeah, I I think for me it's just being a part of something, being a part of the team. Uh we're all very different, but um but we we get along and you know, we support each other.
What really resonates with me about the school is that we put more value in developing personal growth versus comparison to others. Whether it be a difficult learning task or a challenging learning experience, they learn to persevere and we can bring out something in themselves that they might not have
seen before. >> It's a really great environment here at KDM. My co-workers are great. The students every day, they make me laugh. One thing that I really work on in my classroom is growth mindset. I did have a student that came in and really didn't like math. They were really negative
self-talking, saying that they can't do this. And so, basically throughout the whole year, we worked on just changing that mindset. Just because we can't do something right now doesn't mean that we're never going to be able to do it. And that's what I teach all of my students.
>> My favorite teachers are probably all of my teachers cuz I got really good teachers. They have fun activities to do and their stories. My first grade teacher got me into reading and she got me into chapter books in Juni B. Jones. >> My favorite subject is science. In
science, you do lots of experiments and I think experiments are very fun. Every day I'm like happy at school. >> We identify the interests of students. You know, what motivates them so students feel more comfortable and confident in their learning environment,
moving them forward from one learning experience to another. Every morning I'm inspired by these children. Their energy, their willingness to support and grow with one another is contagious. >> One of the things that I'm really hoping
to teach them more than anything else is about kindness and you know being good friends to each other. One of my most favorite success stories is a particular student when you know he would come into the classroom even right first thing in the morning his head would be down on that desk. I trying to instill intrinsic
love for school, intrinsic love for education. And over time, I've seen him pick that head up. And that's why I do what I do. To have a kid come in and their school's a happy place for them and they want to come.
>> Stony Brook is an amazing place. It really is. And I think anybody who joins us, whether it's full-time or visitors in the building just for a day, uh, you know, I think echo that sentiment. Our staff is second to none. They really put the kids first all the time. And our students are exceptional as well. It's a
wonderful school community. Our PTA is incredibly involved. Everything we do is well attended. Back to school nights, our events, and we have a very involved school community, both academically, working hand in hand with our teachers, but also I think for extracurricular as well. Inside school, I really try to be
involved in as many things as I can. My children also go to school in this district at one of the other schools. And I'm really proud of what we put forth for our children. Anytime we can bring togetherness and have us all work together, both in our community and out, it's really going to help everyone raise their own level of abilities to really
increase the success of our community. So, we used to always start off with a growth mindset and we do a lot of lessons about how we are able to do things that might seem hard, like a harder task. And I think that if we really teach our kids to be resilient
and show grit in the face of a harder task, then all the other academic challenges that they're faced with come a little bit easier. Having students in a classroom that's smaller where you get to meet their needs specifically rather than in a bigger classroom, you can build more of a rapport and relationships with them. I like them to
become successful not just academically but also social emotionally. >> My name is Queen K. I'm in the fifth grade. >> Hi, my name is Arya. I am in second grade. What makes our school awesome is all the teachers we have here. They help us every day. All the janitors keep our
school nice and clean. All my friends that helped me since kindergarten and everybody just helps us here cuz we are a really good community. >> Because of my friends, the teachers and the principal. like we read a book and then we do a project based on what
happened in that story. Math is my favorite subject because the teachers always help us and it's fun but it can be complicated but it's still really fun. >> I've always wanted to be a teacher. I think the reason why I wanted to be a teacher is because I think I had really good elementary school teachers. Rockway
I thought was really interesting because I feel like it is a small close-knit community, but I also felt like there's a lot of different opportunities in Rockway. I like how there was five different elementary schools, but I also like how I felt like that I fit in with the Stony Brook mentality. The Stony
Brook mentality is something where we all feel and have the same idea of supporting students. the kids understand that everyone makes a mistake, everyone has a bad day, and I think that it gives the opportunity for kids to grow and not feel like penalized. I love that we have a great principal. I love the teachers
and the morale. As soon as I started coming up here, since I am from South Jersey, I felt welcomed and included right away. >> My name is Dr. Richard Corbett and I am the proud superintendent of Rockaway Township Public Schools. I was just waving to some of our
wonderful students as they were walking by and I'm so happy and pleased to say that when I walk through these halls and talk to these students in these six different schools, I see students that are learning and having fun and to me those are two very important qualities
of a very very effective education. >> Birchwood is very special because it is truly a family atmosphere. Students come back year after year. There's multi-generations that have attended Birwood. It is truly a loving community. It's such a wonderful place to be.
>> Our core values are the same as Rockaway Township. Heart, honesty, empathy, acceptance, respect, and trust. So, we can focus on particularly on being kind. What really resonates with me about this school is that we put more value in developing personal growth versus
comparison to others. Whether it be a difficult learning task or a challenging learning experience, they learn to persevere. and we can bring out something in themselves that they might not have seen before. >> Stony Brook is an amazing place. It really is. And I think anybody who joins us, whether it's full-time or visitors
in the building just for a day, uh, you know, I think echo that sentiment. Our staff is second to none. They really put the kids first all the time. And our students are exceptional as well. It's a wonderful school community. Our PTA is incredibly involved. Everything we do is well attended. back to school nights,
our events, and we have a very involved school community, both academically working handin-hand with our teachers, but also I think for extracurricular as well. >> Every student who goes through Rockaway Township School District and will graduate from Copeland before they go on
to high school. And we have an opportunity to instill core values into our students, helping students develop into future leaders, into being positive role models and citizens in our community. Our mantra we live by is no walls, no limits because being a school
with no walls uh provides our students a great sense of community. You just know you're walking into a special place when you come through our doors. What keeps me coming back here every morning? Hugs from kids. You know, I love being outside in the morning at bus duty and having kids coming up and just happy to
see me. Teachers who I now share personal connections with because I've been here for 11 years as the principal. So yeah, I think for me it's just being a part of something, being a part of the team. Uh we're all very different, but um but we we get along and you know, we
support each other. >> Every morning I'm inspired by these children, their energy, their willingness to support and grow with one another is contagious. >> The people I work with makes me come back every single day. I hire a very unique and special educator and that
permeates throughout the building. I have the easiest job in the world because I have the hardest working teachers in the world. >> The thing that makes Scopland Middle School so great is truly the people. It's the students. It's the staff. It's the community members. It's the parent involvement. It's the investment in
making it a better place. >> I come here for the students. I love the kids here. They are amazing. They're the best part of my day. They're the best part of my week. That's why I do what I do. I'm proud to be the superintendent of Rockway Township Schools and we are
thankful for all the support we have from our community. I truly believe in an educator being able to make a difference in the world. It's so important to have a positive environment for a child to come to and
teaching at Dubire is special because we don't have walls. I think social emotional learning is very important. It gives us a chance to discuss our emotions and give kids a chance to practice that emotional dialogue and
that helps the whole child. If you've never taught at another school and you come to Birchwood, you honestly never want to leave Birchwood. You walk into this building and it's a family. We're all together. We're all happy. We're smiling. Nobody's cranky or miserable. We're here together for each
other. One of the things that I love the most about this position and this job is that I get to work with students of all ages now that we house preschool students here. I see every single student in the building from preschool all the way through fifth grade. And I get to work with them on a deeper level
on a way that inspires them not just to be confident in themselves but in what they love. After teaching for 25 years, I can't pinpoint one moment of time that is a story of why I come back every day. Any
good lesson makes me feel alive. Going to the soccer games, the football games, seeing my students outside the classroom. I want the kids to feel at home and I feel the more comfortable that they are, the relationship that we build together, the better they're going to do in class. Not not only enjoy their
time in class, but also take risks. It's a really great environment here at KDM. My co-workers are great. The students every day, they make me laugh. One thing that I really work on in my classroom is growth mindset. I did have a student that came in and really didn't like math. They were really negative
self-talking, saying that they can't do this. And so, basically throughout the whole year, we worked on just changing that mindset. One of the things that I'm really hoping to teach them more than anything else is about kindness and you know being good friends to each other. One of my most favorite success stories
is a particular student when you know he would come into the classroom even right first thing in the morning his head would be down on that desk. I've tried to instill intrinsic love for school, intrinsic love for education, and over time I've seen him pick that head up and
that's why I do what I do to have a kid come in and their school's a happy place for them and they want to come. So, we used to always start off with a growth mindset and we do a lot of lessons about how we are able to do
things that might seem hard like a harder task. And I think that if we really teach our kids to be resilient and show grit in the face of a harder task, then all the other academic challenges that they're faced with come a little bit easier. >> Our goal here is that every child is as comfortable in class as they are at
home. And if they're ever in trouble, they're ever concerned or worried that they have the tools available to them to be successful and to help each other be as successful as we know they can be. We have really seen over the years an incredible increase in their emotional
maturity and in their abilities to deal with issues both in the playground and in the classroom. And I really believe it's because our district's focus on SEAL over the last several years. >> I am the steam teacher at Copeland Middle School. I really love to see the
growth and the change to the students. And what I really focus on is teamwork. So the kids are always in teams. We want to make sure everybody's feeling comfortable communicating their ideas. I want kids to come to school and feel like this is their second home. I want them to come into my classroom and feel
comfortable, feel like they can be themselves. They may not come here and love math, but I want them to at least enjoy coming to math class. Years ago, I had a sixth grade student who was absolutely petrified of mathematics. And I worked so carefully with her. I gave
her extra help just to have her overcome this fear and it was fabulous to see that aha moment when she finally got it and that is why I do what I do every day. >> So my name is Jackson. >> My name is Mia. My name is Mariah.
>> I think what awesome is about being in Birwood is the um the like artwork that's on the walls. Like in school they have this like art thing where you go downstairs and like paint a wall with the art teacher.
>> My favorite is recess. My favorite thing is reading and just doing a bunch of fun stuff. We get to do puzzle of the day and it's really fun. We get to watch videos at the end of the day.
My name is Carly and I am in fifth grade and I go to DVL. >> Yeah, my name is Rehea. I'm in first grade. Being at DVL is awesome because all the teachers here are so great and so nice. >> I like the teachers here. They make it
awesome here. She teaches well and then she teaches us stuff which we have never learned. >> My favorite subject is probably math because I like all the challenges. My favorite special is art class with Miss Takis. Plus, drawing is my favorite
thing. >> What makes DBL unique is that everyone is so kind to each other and everyone cares about each other. >> My name is Quink and I'm in the fifth grade. >> Hi, my name is Arya. I am in second grade. What makes our school awesome is
all the teachers we have here. They help us every day. All the janitors keep our school nice and clean. all my friends that helped me since kindergarten and everybody just helps us here because we are a really good community >> because of my friends, the teachers and
the principal. Like we read a book and then we do a project based on what happened in that story. >> Math is my favorite subject because the teachers always help us and it's fun but it can be complicated but it's still really fun. My favorite teachers are probably all of
my teachers cuz I got really good teachers. They have fun activities to do and their stories. My first grade teacher got me into reading and she got me into chapter books in Juni V. Jones. My favorite subject is science. In science, you do lots of experiments and
I think experiments are very fun. Every day I'm like happy at school. When I came into sixth grade in Copeland where everything was new and different for me, Mrs. Heath, she was especially really kind to me, she still talks to me even though we don't really see each other
that much and she gives me so much good luck for all the things that I do. One teacher that made me feel special and cared for was my seventh grade LA teacher. I used to just like like reading and writing and she really helped me understand and make that
subject more fun. I think the wire school is awesome because you can make a lot of friends here and there's good teachers. Math is my favorite because like you can learn different things like times, plus minus.
No matter where you come from or no matter what you like look like, people will be friends with you and welcome you into this school. One word to describe this school is probably heart. Honesty, empathy, acceptance, and respect and
trust. This is probably one of the most special places I've ever worked. It is the staff, the teachers. Uh they are loving, they are caring. The energy here is just great. It's wonderful to work with a group of men and women who truly love what they do. Their heart, passion, and
soul is for students, and to see them succeed. I try to find a way for them to want to be here. Even if they're sad or even if they don't want to get out of the car in the morning, if I say, "Hey, let's go wander in the library." And they bounce out of the car right away, which actually happened, then I've done
something right that I have found a way to make them feel like this is home for them because that's kind of how I feel. I love the kids here. They're amazing. They're the best part of my day. They're the best part of my week. That's why I do what I do.
>> So, my name is Jackson. My name is Mia. My name is Mariah. >> I think what awesome is about being in Birwood is the um the like artwork that's on the walls. Like in school, they have this like art thing where you
go downstairs and like paint a wall with the art teacher. My favorite is recess. My favorite thing is reading and just doing a bunch of fun stuff. We get to do
puzzle of the day and it's really fun. We get to watch videos at the end of the day. >> Our doors are always open. We are truly a family here. Our kids are just everything. >> If you've never taught at another school and you come to Birwood, you honestly
never want to leave Birchwood. You walk into this building and it's a family. We're all together. We're all happy. We're smiling. Nobody's cranky or miserable. We're here together for each other. Birwood is very special because it is truly a family atmosphere. Students come back year after year.
There's multi-generations that have attended Birwood. It is truly a loving community. It's such a wonderful place to be. I commute an hour or more every day and I've been given the opportunity to work in another district, but I've been here 7 years and I will drive that
hour because the community, the parents, the teachers, our principal are incredible. We're just so happy to have such a loving, nurturing community that is so vested in our school. We are family and once a bulldog, always a
bulldog. I truly believe in an educator being able to make a difference in the world. It's so important to have a positive environment for a child to come to. And teaching at Dubire is special because we
don't have walls. >> Our mantra we live by is no walls, no limits because being a school with no walls uh provides our students a great sense of community. You just know you're walking into a special place when you come through our doors. >> I like to tell people that when you're
here, it's like learning at home. You're in your kitchen, but you still know what's going on in the family room. It builds like this, you know, camaraderie amongst not only the students but also the faculty that work here. We call ourselves a Dwire family. Mr. McGovern,
he seldom calls us a school and we really all live by that. We treat each other like family and we emulate that for the kids. >> I think the wire school is awesome because you can make a lot of friends here and there's good teachers. Math is my favorite because like you can learn
different things like times, plus minus. No matter where you come from or no matter what you like look like, people will be friends with you and welcome you into the school. One word to describe this school is probably heart, honesty,
empathy, acceptance, and respect, and trust. I have been teaching art here in Rockaway Township for 16 years. I think social emotional learning is very important. It gives us a chance to discuss our emotions and give kids a
chance to practice that emotional dialogue and that helps the whole child. I get the privilege of going into every single class once a month where I do a guidance lesson. The best part of my job is when one of them is having a tough day and then they feel better and it's
because of me. >> The people I work with makes me come back every single day. I hire a very unique and special educator and that permeates throughout the building. I have the easiest job in the world because I have the hardest working teachers in the world. Every student who goes through Rockaway
Township School District will graduate from Copeland before they go on to high school. And we have an opportunity to instill core values into our students, helping students develop into future leaders into being positive role models and citizens in our community. >> I am the steam teacher at Copeland
Middle School. I really love to see the growth and the change through the students. And what I really focus on is teamwork. So the kids are always in teams. We want to make sure everybody's feeling comfortable communicating their ideas. I want kids to come to school and feel like this is their second home. I want
them to come into my classroom and feel comfortable, feel like they can be themselves. They may not come here and love math, but I want them to at least enjoy coming to math class. When I came into sixth grade in Copeland, where everything was new and different for me, Mrs. Heath, she was especially really
kind to me. She still talks to me even though we don't really see each other that much and she gives me so much good luck for all the things that I do. One teacher that made me feel special and cared for was my 7th grade LA teacher. I used to dislike like reading and writing
and she really helped me understand and make that subject more fun. Years ago, I had a sixth grade student who was absolutely petrified of mathematics. And I worked so carefully with her. I gave her extra help just to have her overcome
this fear and it was fabulous to see that aha moment when she finally got it and that is why I do what I do every day. >> We are making sure kids are prepared for the future and that means making sure
that they have access to technology. Every single classroom has interactive boards. Kids get a Chromebook in the fifth grade. >> They work as a team towards a common goal. They overcome challenges. We connect with the community through our concerts which are very well attended.
Vanda Copeland is truly an all-inclusive experience for all of the students here. >> I try to get everybody involved so that they can make a positive impact in the future. I teach US history and I come to work every day excited. I get the
opportunity to mold the next generation. >> The thing that makes Copeland Middle School so great is truly the people. It's the students. It's the staff. It's the community members. It's the parent involvement. It's the investment in making it a better place. Our core values are the same as Rockaway
Township. Heart, honesty, empathy, acceptance, respect, and trust. So we can focus on particularly on being kind >> by being kind to a friend, helping them out, helping teachers, be nice to them, be respectful, and don't interrupt the teachers.
>> And everything we do, we try and relate back to our core values. One of the things we are working on right now is positive behavior system. I don't like to address anything negative in my office because I want kids to be able to trust me and to be able to come down as a leader of the building. So, we're really working on being kind. And yes,
academics are important, but one of the main things for us is that we raise good kids. The main message is to be kind because above all else, we want our kids just to be kind. >> My name is Carly and I am in fifth grade and I go to DVL. >> Yeah. My name is Rehea. I'm in first
grade. >> Being at DVL is awesome because all the teachers here are so great and so nice. >> I like the teachers here. They make it awesome here. She teaches well and then she teaches us stuff which we have never
learned. >> My favorite subject is probably math because I like all the challenges. >> My favorite special is art class with Miss Takis because drawing is my favorite thing. >> What makes DBL unique is that everyone is so kind to each other and everyone
cares about each other. If I had to describe our building in one word, I would say we're a little unconventional. We're always trying to have our teachers and our students look at other ways to achieve success. And for every student, that's different.
There are other ways that we can really show student growth, student success. >> I'm not trying to be cheesy or anything. It's it really the staff here um we have built a family. And I think that says something about the building and the and and the community that we foster here at ZBO. And I'm really grateful to be part
of that. >> Being outside in the morning at bus duty and having kids coming up and just happy to see me. Teachers who I now share personal connections with because I've been here for 11 years as the principal. >> After teaching for 25 years, I can't pinpoint one moment of time that is a
story of why I come back every day. Any good lesson makes me feel alive. Going to the soccer games, the football games, seeing my students outside the classroom. I want the kids to feel at home and I feel the more comfortable that they are, the relationship that we build together, the better they're going
to do in class, not not only enjoy their time in class, but also take risks. >> So, yeah, I I think for me it's just being a part of something, being a part of the team. Uh we're all very different, but um but we we get along and you know, we support each other.
What really resonates with me about the school is that we put more value in developing personal growth versus comparison to others. Whether it be a difficult learning task or a challenging learning experience, they learn to persevere and we can bring out something in themselves that they might not have
seen before. >> It's a really great environment here at KDM. My co-workers are great. The students every day, they make me laugh. One thing that I really work on in my classroom is growth mindset. I did have a student that came in and really didn't like math. They were really negative
selft talking saying that they can't do this. And so basically throughout the whole year we worked on just changing that mindset. Just because we can't do something right now doesn't mean that we're never going to be able to do it. And that's what I teach all of my students.
>> My favorite teachers are probably all of my teachers cuz I got really good teachers. They have fun activities to do and their stories. My first grade teacher got me into reading and she got me into chapter books in Juni B. Jones. >> My favorite subject is science. In
science, you do lots of experiments and I think experiments are very fun. Every day I'm like happy at school. >> We identify the interests of students. You know, what motivates them so students feel more comfortable and confident in their learning environment,
moving them forward from one learning experience to another. Every morning I'm inspired by these children. Their energy, their willingness to support and grow with one another is contagious. >> One of the things that I'm really hoping
to teach them more than anything else is about kindness and you know being good friends to each other. One of my most favorite success stories is a particular student when you know he would come into the classroom even right first thing in the morning his head would be down on that desk. I trying to instill intrinsic
love for school, intrinsic love for education. And over time, I've seen him pick that head up. And that's why I do what I do. To have a kid come in and their school's a happy place for them and they want to come.
Stony Brook is an amazing place. It really is. And I think anybody who joins us, whether it's full-time or visitors in the building just for a day, uh, you know, I think echo that sentiment. Our staff is second to none. They really put the kids first all the time. And our students are exceptional as well. It's a
wonderful school community. Our PTA is incredibly involved. Everything we do is well attended and back to school nights, our events, and we have very involved school community both academically working handin-hand with our teachers, but also I think for extracurricular as well. Inside school, I really try to be
involved in as many things as I can. My children also go to school in this district at one of the other schools and I'm really proud of what we put forth for our children. Anytime we can bring togetherness and have us all work together, both in our community and out, it's really going to help everyone raise their own level of abilities to really
increase the success of our community. So, we used to always start off with a growth mindset and we do a lot of lessons about how we are able to do things that might seem hard like a harder task. And I think that if we really teach our kids to be resilient
and show grit in the face of a harder task, then all the other academic challenges that they're faced with come a little bit easier. Having students in a classroom that's smaller where you get to meet their needs specifically rather than in a bigger classroom, you can build more of a rapport and relationships with them. I like them to
become successful, not just academically, but also social, emotionally. >> My name is Queen K. I'm in the fifth grade. >> Hi, my name's Arya. I am in second grade. What makes our school awesome is all the teachers we have here. They help us every day. All the janitors keep our
school nice and clean. All my friends that helped me since kindergarten, and everybody just helps us here cuz we are a really good community. because of my friends, the teachers, and the principal. Like, we read a book and then we do a project based on what happened
in that story. Math is my favorite subject because the teachers always help us and it's fun, but it can be complicated, but it's still really fun. >> I've always wanted to be a teacher. I think the reason why I wanted to be a teacher is because I think I had really good elementary school teachers.
Rockaway I thought was really interesting because I feel like it is a small close-knit community, but I also felt like there's a lot of different opportunities in Rockway. I like how there was five different elementary schools, but I also like how I felt like that I fit in with the Stony Brook
mentality. The Stony Brook mentality is something where we all feel and have the same idea of supporting students. the kids understand that everyone makes a mistake. Everyone has a bad day. And I think that it gives the opportunity for kids to grow and not feel like penalized. I love that we have a great
principal. I love the teachers and the morale. As soon as I started coming up here, since I am from South Jersey, I felt welcomed and included right away. >> My name is Dr. Richard Corbett and I am the proud superintendent of Rockaway Township Public Schools. I was just waving to some of our
wonderful students as they were walking by and I'm so happy and pleased to say that when I walk through these halls and talk to these students in these six different schools, I see students that are learning and having fun and to me those are two very important qualities
of a very very effective education. >> Birchwood is very special because it is truly a family atmosphere. Students come back year after year. There's multi-generations that have attended Birwood. It is truly a loving community. It's such a wonderful place to be.
>> Our core values are the same as Rockaway Township. Heart, honesty, empathy, acceptance, respect, and trust. So, we can focus on particularly on being kind. What >> really resonates with me about this school is that we put more value in developing personal growth versus
comparison to others. Whether it be a difficult learning task or a challenging learning experience, they learn to persevere. and we can bring out something in themselves that they might not have seen before. >> Stony Brook is an amazing place. It really is. And I think anybody who joins us, whether it's full-time or visitors
in the building just for a day, uh, you know, I think echo that sentiment. Our staff is second to none. They really put the kids first all the time. And our students are exceptional as well. It's a wonderful school community. Our PTA is incredibly involved. Everything we do is well attended. back to school nights,
our events, and we have a very involved school community, both academically working handin-hand with our teachers, but also I think for extracurricular as well. >> Every student who goes through Rockaway Township School District will graduate from Copeland before they go on to high
school. And we have an opportunity to instill core values into our students, helping students develop into future leaders, into being positive role models and citizens in our community. Our mantra we live by is no walls, no limits because being a school with no walls uh
provides our students a great sense of community. You just know you're walking into a special place when you come through our doors. >> What keeps me coming back here every morning? Hugs from kids. You know, I love being outside in the morning at bus duty and having kids coming up and just happy to see me. Teachers who I now
share personal connections with because I've been here for 11 years as the principal. So yeah, I I think for me it's just being a part of something, being a part of the team. Uh we're all very different, but um but we we get along and you know, we support each other.
>> Every morning I'm inspired by these children, their energy, their willingness to support and grow with one another is contagious. >> The people I work with makes me come back every single day. I hire a very unique and special educator and that permeates throughout the building. I
have the easiest job in the world because I have the hardest working teachers in the world. >> The thing that makes Scopland Middle School so great is truly the people. It's the students. It's the staff. It's the community members. It's the parent involvement. It's the investment in making it a better place.
>> I come here for the students. I love the kids here. They are amazing. They're the best part of my day. They're the best part of my week. That's why I do what I do. I'm proud to be the superintendent of Rockway Township Schools and we are thankful for all the support we have
from our community. >> Good evening, Rockaway Township. Can I please have a motion to come out of close session? >> So move seconded. >> Show of hands. >> We are coming out of close session at 7:37 p.m.
>> Will you please rise for the pledge? We live in a world that we >> flags my head. A >> you can stop the presentation. >> A this music Thank you, A.
>> Good evening, everyone. Uh, Dr. Corbett, do you want to kick it off? >> Sure. I would love I would love to kick it off. And Madam President, the first thing I'll say is what a crowd we have tonight. I don't know that we've had this kind of turnout from the other elementary schools. Just saying. KDM,
you stepped up to the plate. Great turnout. Thank you. And you know, this board of education loves to recognize students because that's why we're here. We're here for our students and we care about them and um it's it's wonderful to see so many
smiling faces. But when they come up sometimes they get a little nervous, so they don't smile quite as much. So students smile from ear to ear. And all you have to do to make yourself smile is just think of cookies, which you will have shortly. We will have cookies for
you. So, without further ado, I'm going to uh ask Mr. Rollins. Where's Mr. Rollins? Is he Did he make it tonight? Where is he? Mr. Rollins, >> where'd he go? >> Oh, there he is. >> Brian, >> are you hiding or what? >> I am.
>> I'm going to ask Mr. Rolls will come forward to to begin the pro and um when you're done speaking the board members will come up front if that's okay. >> But I believe are we starting with autism acceptance or we I believe so if that's okay. >> Yep. >> Yeah, that is y agenda.
>> So if I could at this time invite our uh autism acceptance we have uh some of our autism teachers, >> Mr. Conra. Yeah, we're just going to move this a little bit. >> Right. So, this is uh year 24 of our
program uh in Rockaway Township. Uh, and we've been using this quote for for quite some time. When we first started doing these presentations, it was uh, we wanted to try to raise awareness. But now in 2026, I think everybody knows somebody whether
it's in their neighborhood, in their school, in their family that has autism. So, we're we're well beyond that. With awareness comes knowledge. So, you have some knowledge. And then we moved on to some presentations. With knowledge comes understanding. And we're kind of at the with
understanding comes acceptance. So we're going to uh we we have a presentation tonight which will give some background about autism our program and uh what we did as an initiative this year to raise
understanding and acceptance. >> Uh so what is autism spectrum disorder? Uh it's a broad range of challenges categorized by social skills. uh repetitive behaviors, speech and non-verbal communication and the challenges are different for everyone. So that's why we call it like a large
spect spectrum. >> Uh awareness versus acceptance. Awareness means you know it exists. It focuses on the symptoms and what is perceived as wrong. Acceptance, it focuses on the individual and it identifies the strengths and
complexities. Awareness opens the door, but acceptance is what changes lives. Acceptance means actively creating communities where every individual with autism receives the support they need to thrive in their daily lives. Uh, autism prevalence has increased
384%. Uh, examples include 1 in 29 in New Jersey, one in 31 nationwide, and one in 100 worldwide. >> So, this was our uh our initiative at KDM this year. We asked uh our teachers
at KDM and a few student teachers if they uh would volunteer to uh come and sit in in our class, do a a walkthrough, an autism acceptance walkthrough. And we had uh we had a good response. We
had teachers from kindergarten through fifth grade and three student teachers. And we just wanted to open the door to show them kind of show off what our students are capable of doing, the quality, the quantity of work they do, the methods
that we use to teach it because uh applied behavior analysis is the way we teach students with autism. We wanted to show that off and then we wanted to show the the relationship between the students and the staff members. Uh
and then we interviewed them through a Google form to get some feedback as to what they they observed. >> You can go back. I said you can go back one slide. Thank you. Um so what we Dave created a Google form for the teachers
to highlight some of the things about what they saw in our classrooms. And the first question that we asked them was what did they notice? What did they see? What did they learn about the students within our programs? Because many of the teachers in our school, they see our students on a day-to-day basis in the
hallways, but it might have been the first time they've ever seen them in their classroom and what they are doing on a day-to-day basis and how they learn differently than the general education classrooms. So these are some key words that were pulled out from their
responses and you know you can see all the words that they came up with but some of the ones that I think are really highlight our program for the students that people observed what they are determined they are thriving they are inspiring and they are motivated. The next thing that we asked them about
were what did they observe about the methods of instruction that they saw within our classrooms and the methods of our instructional materials and things like that. And there were a lot of words that everyone came up with throughout their observations. And now mind you,
these observations are only 15 minutes long. So, you know, we had to cram a lot of information at everyone who was looking at our rooms. But these are what they pulled from those brief 15 minutes in our rooms that our methods are structural structured. They're intentional. They have a plethora of data. They are organized. They are
consistent. They are predictable. And they are measurable, which is really highlights what our program does on a day-to-day basis. And the final thing we asked them about were the staff. What did you notice about the staff that are in our rooms? How do you see them interacting with the
students and how they are delivering instruction to the students in their individualized curriculums? And what the our teachers who observed noted were that the staff are patient, they're well trained, they're knowledgeable, they're encouraging, they have a shared respect,
and they have a strong rapport with the students that they're working with. And then we threw the the previous 30 slides together and and the intent at the beginning was just to make a you know a visual slide that you know looked cool. But really what what came of it
was taking a step back, if if we were to put seasoned educators together and say what what do you think a class that is run well where the students are thriving, the students are learning, the staff are well trained, what what would
that look like if you were to describe it? Uh I would bet that this would be your list, you know. So that is really just you know hats off to everybody involved uh you know the power professionals who
work with our kids the teachers the administrators uh you know like I said this is year 24 of our program not every district in the state in the country has a program like this and it it really is something that that we should be proud of uh because
really this this is us And these are just some closing thoughts about teacher comments. Um, it was enlightening to see the growth of every student throughout the school year. Another teacher wrote, "I was impressed by how natural the students and staff interacted with each other." Um, and
another one wrote, "It was meaningful and insightful to witness a strong, positive relationship between students and staff, which create a safe, supportive, and trusting space for learning." Some additional comments from our fifth grade mentors include, "People should get to know all their classmates and
understand who they truly are. My friends like to have fun and learn just like everyone else. One thing I learned from my friends is to try and see things in a different way and try to understand how they process different thoughts. When students have a reason to be invested, they work hard to succeed.
Thanks for the opportunity to visit." The classroom had a supportive atmosphere that the students positively responded to. They were focused and motivated throughout the session. And further closing thoughts, seeing the data collection and graphs brought it all together, the clear visual evidence
of student growth highlighted how much the students have learned. The structure, routine, and positive relationships support both academic growth and student well-being. One final closing thought from one of our fellow educators really pulled it all together for us. It's easy to
overlook the level of dedication, patience, and hard work the staff pour into supporting our incredible students. In return, these students offer powerful lessons in respect and acceptance. They show us what it truly means to embrace individuality and celebrate being beautifully unique. The students in our
classes are a reminder that there are many different ways to learn, grow, and succeed. We just thought that was a great ending for everything. >> Okay. Okay. Sure. Yeah. Just here you guys can see these are some pictures of our students in our current program and the video we played before were a lot of
our former students that are some of them are now in the middle school, some of them are in the high school. But here we are today. Mission accomplished. Understanding and acceptance. One more. >> So, one more slide, one more announcement to put out there. Uh, and I
had to write it down because it's it it's too good to try to memorize. But, uh, in the art world, a mosaic is a piece of art created by combining individual, diverse, and unique pieces of tile. Each piece serves a purpose in completing the overall image. Each work
of art is unique. No two are alike. Our classes are made up of diverse parts just like this. Our student, staff, school community, interactions, methods, and curriculums are the pieces that create a unique atmosphere in each classroom. Therefore, no two classrooms
are alike, and each piece is celebrated and important in the overall success of our students. So, coming uh in fall 2026, our program will be uh rebranded, renamed, and it'll be known as the Rockaway Township Mosaic Program.
Jump it, Bryce. Awesome. Thank you. So, I I love when our board of education has a great great personality and they asked if I needed tissues in advance of my recognizing our students, but I'm going to power through. Thank you
though. I appreciate the support. So, in that sense, first Dr. Corbett and the board of education, thank you for inviting us to se celebrate this special group of KDM students. The KDM Student Council continues to serve
as a meaningful voice for our students while modeling leadership, empathy, and service to others. Over the course of this year, their efforts have had a positive and visible impact on our school community and beyond. Through the
season of giving food and coat drive, student council members not only organized collections but also created and displayed student design posters to promote awareness and participation. Through partnering with our PTA, the
students collected over 600 cans of food and 36 large plastic bags containing clothing. Their work helped foster a spirit of generosity while supporting families in need. During the holiday season, students
further strengthened community connections through holiday caroling, spreading joy in school pride. They also seasonally decorate the school to enhance pride in their educational learning space. Our February Super Bowl canned food drive paired with student
led board morning board morning announcements showcased their ability to lead schoolwide initiatives with enthusiasm and purpose. Their efforts increased participation and reinforced the value of teamwork and giving back.
Most recently in recognition of paraprofessional day which was actually over our break but we celebrated um due to our large number of staff assistants today actually the student council demonstrated gratitude and respect by creating letter templates for students
and staff to thank our staff assistants. This initiative highlighted the importance of appreciation and helped reinforce a culture of kindness and acknowledgement within our school collectively. These initiatives reflect
the KDM Student Council's commitment to leadership through service. Their work not only benefits those in need, but also helps cultivate a school environment rooted in compassion,
responsibility, and community engagement. I'd like to extend my sincere appreciation to Miss Crispino for her dedicated leadership and guidance as student council adviser. If you could come on up, Miss Crispino.
I would also like to thank our KDM student council members for your enthusiasm and commitment as well as their families encourage for encouraging them to address needs and make positive changes in our community. And with that, board
of education, Dr. Corbett administration. We'd like to quickly recognize these well-deserving students. >> Oh, she did. Okay, great. So, you could Miss Christina.
Emma Abara. Liam Abara. Adeline Allert, great job. L Albert, oh, you're going to stand up. So, if we could once they come up, if they could come down and shake the hands of the board of education, we'll get a
picture at the end. That would be greatly appreciated. David Alvaringa. David might not. Okay. Mattaline Blada. Yeah, Brooke Burmeister.
There she is. Great job, Brooke. You're right. Sophia Kalma Mara, Michelle Cruz, Alexa, Claire Mandelbomb, Gab Gabrielle Martis, Macy Mccomish,
Kase Meredith. Yeah, Kase. Kase Samuel Norman. Come on up, Sam. >> Emily Pierce. >> There she is. >> Emma Popkcover.
>> Ja Ralapali. I'm still working. Christian Randazzo, Ayana Roman, Tristan Ryan, Eloise Smith, >> Margaret Schneider, Maggie John Thomas Lucille Sprout Lucille
Ava Stranos Ava great job Anthony Trentost Serena Valz, >> Samantha Wilson and Alina Yarish. I just wanted there are some students
that were unable to make it. I just want to recognize real quick is Johan Harris, Mark Picaro, Zavon Stevens, Abanu Adib, and Oh, AVENUE MADE IT. ALL RIGHT. GOOD THING EVERYONE. It's all good.
I get that. Thank you again. >> Okay, we're going to get students. You're coming forward forward. I have a gap right here. I promise I'll be in three, two, one. Thank you.
Thank you. We got it. All right. Before be uh we break for the milk and cookies. >> We have >> Before we break for the milk and cookies, we have one more recognition.
Um may I ask is Joseph here? Shivas. Where's Joseph? Very heroic young man. Come up here, Joseph. Come on. Come on. Stand here. Joseph, um, the board of education has a proclamation to read to Joseph. So, I'd
ask uh, President McGregor if she would be kind enough to read the presentation. >> This is a resolution of the Rockaway Township Board of Education honoring Joseph Sheus as a 2026 Morris County unsung hero. Whereas the Mars County
School Boards Association in collaboration with the New Jersey School Boards Association recognizes unsung heroes from each high school and school district in Morris County to celebrate those whose character and impact define the heart of our schools. And whereas
the Unsung Hero Award honors students who make outstanding contributions to their schools and communities but are often overlooked by traditional recognition programs. students who have h who have modeled good citizenship, a spirit of quiet strength, and the heart
of a hero that inspires others. And whereas these unsung heroes may have organized community programs, selflessly supported their peers, or achieved significant academic success while overcoming difficult personal challenges, disabilities, or language
barriers. And whereas Joseph Sheibus has overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles to reach their full potential, serving both the school community and the community at large as a beacon of resilience and integrity. And whereas on
Thursday, March 5th, 2026, Joseph Shivas was formally recognized for these achievements at the 2026 Morris County Unsung Hero Awards Ceremony held at Hanover Park High School. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Rockaway
Township Board of Education officially recognizes Joseph Chivus as an unsung hero of Mars County and the Rockaway Township School District. And be it further resolved that this resolution is presented to Joseph Shivus as a sincere
token of the Rockway Township Board of Education's congratulations and best wishes for continued success as they continue to lead by example. Congratulations. >> Uh, Joseph, can you have the right
uh, Joseph, you have to give a speech. Did you know that? No, I'm only kidding. Don't worry about it. Do I have to come back? Want me to get it open? >> Well, in recognition of all our wonderful students, Madam President, I
think they deserve cookies. What do you think? Yes, >> absolutely. >> How about we have a 10-minute recess for cookies. Help yourself. And all those cookies have to be gone in 10 minutes. >> Thank you. My name is Dr. Richard Corbett and I am the proud superintendent of Rockaway Township Public Schools.
I was just waving to some of our wonderful students as they were walking by and I'm so happy and pleased to say that when I walk through these halls and talk to these students in these six different schools, I see students that are learning and having fun. And to me, those are two very important qualities
of a very, very effective education. >> Birchwood is very special because it is truly a family atmosphere. Students come back year after year. There's multi-generations that have attended Birwood. It is truly a loving community. It's such a wonderful place to be.
>> Our core values are the same as Rockway Township. Heart, honesty, empathy, acceptance, respect, and trust. So, we can focus on particularly on being kind. What really resonates with me about this school is that we put more value in developing personal growth versus
comparison to others. Whether it be a difficult learning task or a challenging learning experience, they learn to persevere. And we can bring out something in themselves that they might not have seen before. >> Stony Brook is an amazing place. It really is. And I think anybody who joins us, whether it's full-time or visitors
in the building just for a day, uh, you know, I think echo that sentiment. Our staff is second to none. They really put the kids first all the time and our students are exceptional as well. It's a wonderful school community. Our PTA is incredibly involved. Everything we do is well attended. Back to school nights,
our events and we have a very involved school community both academically working handin-hand with our teachers but also I think for extracurricular as well. >> Every student who goes through Rockaway Township School District will graduate from Copeland before they go on to high
school. and we have an opportunity to instill core values into our students, helping students develop into future leaders into being positive role models and citizens in our community. >> Our mantra we live by is no walls, no limits because being a school with no
walls uh provides our students a great sense of community. You just know you're walking into a special place when you come through our doors. >> What keeps me coming back here every morning? Hugs from kids. You know, I love being outside in the morning at bus duty and having kids coming up and just
happy to see me. Teachers who I now share personal connections with because I've been here for 11 years as the principal. So, yeah, I I think for me it's just being a part of something, being a part of the team. Uh we're all very different, but um but we we get along and you know, we support each
other. >> Every morning I'm inspired by these children. Their energy, their willingness to support and grow with one another is contagious. >> The people I work with makes me come back every single day. I hire a very unique and special educator and that
permeates throughout the building. I have the easiest job in the world because I have the hardest working teachers in the world. >> The thing that makes Scopland Middle School so great is truly the people. It's the students, it's the staff, it's the community members, it's the parent involvement. It's the investment in
making it a better place. I come here for the students. I love the kids here. They are amazing. They're the best part of my day. They're the best part of my week. That's why I do what I do. >> I'm proud to be the superintendent of Rockway Township Schools and we are
thankful for all the support we have from our community. >> I truly believe in an educator being able to make a difference in the world. It's so important to have a positive environment for a child to come to and
teaching at Dubire is special because we don't have walls. I think social emotional learning is very important. It gives us a chance to discuss our emotions and give kids a chance to practice that emotional dialogue and
that helps the whole child. If you've never taught at another school and you come to Birchwood, you honestly never want to leave Birchwood. You walk into this building and it's a family. We're all together. We're all happy. We're smiling. Nobody's cranky or miserable. We're here together for each
other. >> One of the things that I love the most about this position and this job is that I get to work with students of all ages. Now that we house preschool students here, I see every single student in the building from preschool all the way through fifth grade. And I get to work
with them on a deeper level, on a way that inspires them not just to be confident in themselves, but in what they love. After teaching for 25 years, I can't pinpoint one moment of time that is a
story of why I come back every day. Any good lesson makes me feel alive. Going to the soccer games, the football games, seeing my students outside the classroom. I want the kids to feel at home and I feel the more comfortable that they are, the relationship that we build together, the better they're going
to do in class, not not only enjoy their time in class, but also take risks. It's a really great environment here at KDM. My co-workers are great. The students every day, they make me laugh. One thing that I really work on in my classroom is growth mindset. I did have
a student that came in and really didn't like math. they were really negative selft talking saying that they can't do this. And so basically throughout the whole year we worked on just changing that mindset. One of the things that I'm really hoping to teach them more than anything else is about kindness and you
know being good friends to each other. One of my most favorite success stories is a particular student when you know he would come into the classroom even right first thing in the morning his head would be down on that desk. I've tried to instill intrinsic love for school, intrinsic love for education. And over
time, I've seen him pick that head up and that's why I do what I do to have a kid come in and their school's a happy place for them and they want to come. So, we used to always start off with a growth mindset and we do a lot of
lessons about how we are able to do things that might seem hard like a harder task. And I think that if we really teach our kids to be resilient and show grit in the face of a harder task, then all the other academic challenges that they're faced with come a little bit easier. >> Our goal here is that every child is as
comfortable in class as they are at home. And if they're ever in trouble, they're ever concerned or worried that they have the tools available to them to be successful and to help each other be as successful as we know they can be. We have really seen over the years an
incredible increase in their emotional maturity and in their abilities to deal with issues both in the playground and in the classroom. And I really believe it's because our district's focus on SEAL over the last several years. >> I am the steam teacher at Copeland
Middle School. I really love to see the growth and the change to the students. And what I really focus on is teamwork. So the kids are always in teams. We want to make sure everybody's feeling comfortable communicating their ideas. I want kids to come to school and feel like this is their second home. I want
them to come into my classroom and feel comfortable, feel like they can be themselves. They may not come here and love math, but I want them to at least enjoy coming to math class. Years ago, I had a sixth grade student who was absolutely petrified of mathematics. And I worked so carefully with her. I gave
her extra help just to have her overcome this fear and it was fabulous to see that aha moment when she finally got it and that is why I do what I do every day. >> So my name is Jackson. >> My name is Mia. My name is Mariah.
>> I think what awesome is about being in Birwood is the um the like artwork that's on the walls. Like in school they have this like art thing where you go downstairs and like paint a wall with the art teacher.
>> My favorite is recess. My favorite thing is reading and just doing a bunch of fun stuff. We get to do puzzle of the day and it's really fun. We get to watch videos at the end of the day.
My name is Carly and I am in fifth grade and I go to DVL. >> Yeah. My name is Rehea. I'm in first grade. Being at DVL is awesome because all the teachers here are so great and so nice. >> I like the teachers here. They make it
awesome here. She teaches well and then she teaches us stuff which we have never learned. >> My favorite subject is probably math because I like all the challenges. My favorite special is art class with Miss Takis. Plus, drawing is my favorite
thing. >> What makes DBL unique is that everyone is so kind to each other and everyone cares about each other. >> My name is Quink and I'm in the fifth grade. >> Hi, my name is Arya. I am in second grade. What makes our school awesome is
all the teachers we have here. They help us every day. All the janitors keep our school nice and clean. all my friends that helped me since kindergarten and everybody just helps us here because we are a really good community >> because of my friends, the teachers and
the principal. Like we read a book and then we do a project based on what happened in that story. >> Math is my favorite subject because the teachers always help us and it's fun but it can be complicated but it's still really fun. My favorite teachers are probably all of
my teachers cuz I got really good teachers. They have fun activities to do and their stories. My first grade teacher got me into reading and she got me into chapter books in Juni V. Jones. My favorite subject is science. In science, you do lots of experiments and
I think experiments are very fun. Every day I'm like happy at school. When I came into sixth grade in Copeland where everything was new and different for me, Mrs. Heath, she was especially really kind to me, she still talks to me even though we don't really see each other
that much and she gives me so much good luck for all the things that I do. One teacher that made me feel special and cared for was my seventh grade LA teacher. I used to just like like reading and writing and she really helped me understand and make that
subject more fun. I think the wire school is awesome because you can make a lot of friends here and there's good teachers. Math is my favorite because that you can learn different things like times plus minus.
No matter where you come from or no matter what you like look like, people will be friends with you and welcome you into this school. One word to describe this school is probably heart. Honesty, empathy, acceptance, and respect and
trust. This is probably one of the most special places I've ever worked. It is the staff, the teachers. Uh they are loving, they are caring. The energy here is just great. It's wonderful to work with a group of men and women who truly love what they do. Their heart, passion, and
soul is for students and to see them succeed. I try to find a >> Thank you. During the course of the board meeting, the Rockaway Township Board of Education offers members of the public an opportunity to address issues regarding the operations of the Rockaway Township public schools. The board
reminds those individuals who take this opportunity to identify themselves by name and address and to limit their comments to items listed on the agenda and/or items directly related to the operations of the school district. Issues raised by members of the public
may or may not be responded to by the board. All comments will be considered and a response will be forthcoming if and when appropriate. The board asks that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals when speaking. Specifically, comments regarding students and
employees of the board are discouraged and will not be responded to by the board. Students and employees have specific rights afforded by the laws of New Jersey. The board bears no responsibility, nor will it be liable for any comments made by the members of the public. Members of the public should consider
their comments in light of the legal rights of those affected or identified in the comments and be aware that they are legally responsible and liable for their comments. In accordance with board policy 0167, public discussion is limited to 15 minutes with a threeinut
limit per member of the public. The board president shall have the right to modify the length of public discussion as she deems appropriate. Can I please have a motion to open public comment? >> So moved. Seconded. Show of hands.
Do we have anybody for public comment tonight? >> Okay. Can I please have a motion to close public comment? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Show of hands. Thank you. Moving on to communications.
We have several communications that we received uh since our last meeting. Do we have any additional communications? >> We do. We have a few. Um, so we have a title of the email policy change in regards to return to of math tests to
students at CMS. Um, from in Ernie Deafuente. Um, a second email uh with the same heading also from Ernie Deuente. And then we also received, sorry, my pages are getting stuck together. um
board member interview close session question mark from um Miss Dana Tabodella and those are the only additional correspondents received. >> Great. Thank you. Can I please have a motion to approve the minutes? >> So moved. >> Second.
>> Can I please get a roll call? >> Yes. >> When you're ready. >> Sorry. >> No, you're fine. >> Mrs. Anderson. >> Yes. >> Dr. Gorman. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Mazic. >> Yes. >> Miss Richardson. Yes, >> Miss Torren. >> Yes, >> Miss McGiri. >> Yes. >> Motion carries.
>> Thank you, Dr. Corbett. >> Thank you, Miss McGregor. >> The district administrative team looks forward to providing the final update to the board regarding district goals and the strategic plan, which we will present following my board report this
evening. And also this evening, the board of education will approve Miss Vanessa Waxman as the principal of Kathine A. Dwire Elementary School effective July 1st, 2026. The hiring. Wait, hold on. She hasn't been approved yet by the board.
>> Okay, so um the hiring committee identified Miss Waxman as the most qualified candidate from a large pool of applicants. I wholeheartedly concur with their recommendations. So we congratulate you, Miss Waxman. I know she'll say a few remarks after the board officially approves her. Uh last night's
CPAC meeting focused on transitioning to middle school. The import this important meeting was well attended and the feedback from participants was very positive. The department of student services will once again be hosting the community wellness fair on May 7th.
You hate that hyperlink there. A please that has the flyer there. Uh May 7th from 5:30 to 7:30. There it is. Fly 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Copa Middle School. The event will provide parents with a plethora of information and students with many fun activities. Everyone's
invited. So, where is that? Uh, just want to show a few just a couple. Yeah, there it is. All right. There there's the flyer, which we'll be distributing to the community. But what I really like is you got to have face painting and we'll go balloon art. A lot of stuff going on there. And then go down one more second page of the flyer
for the wellness fair on May 7th. um it illustrates all of the vendors that will be presenting at or available at the community wellness fair. So, we encourage our parents and anyone in the community to participate.
And some news from our school. Before spring break, Birchwood third graders enjoyed a memorable field trip to a live performance of the growing stages. At the spring break, kindergarten and first grade students received instruction on dental hygiene.
Second grade students listened attentively as students from Morris Hills High School read to them. Fifth grade students also enjoyed an engaging visit to Copa Middle School where they learned about the exciting activities and opportunities available to them when they begin there in September. The
Birchwood Running Club is also in full swing with students enjoying the beautiful spring weather. The DBO PTA hosted their talent show showcasing students who performed with confidence and creativity. Following spring break, the monthly student recognition assembly was held
celebrating students for their achievements, effort, and positive contributions to the school community. Additionally, DVO proudly kicked off and celebrated the month of the military child recognizing and honoring the strength and resilience of military connected students and families within
the community. DBO also welcomed students from Morris Hills Varsity Club. They read to the DBO students. This month, Dwire celebrated the arrival of spring with their Sherman Hoffman Wildlife Sanctuary Outreach Program,
providing each home with a personalized environmental assembly made possible through the Clean Communities Grant. KDM Elementary students enjoyed several meaningful events. For example, fifth grade students hosted an outstanding
literary food truck festival. This innovative event reimagined the traditional book report, transforming it into an interactive and highly engaging experience, creatively showcasing their outstand understanding of literature
through themed food trucks. Students participated in an exciting assembly hosted by the Sussex County Miners Club which generated enthusiasm for the upcoming reading challenge that encourages students and families to read together. This will culminate in a
summer celebration at Miners Stadium. The BMX assembly showcased impressive tricks and performances. More importantly, it emphasized the importance of making responsible choices, reinforcing our commitment to supporting both academic and social emotional development of our students.
The KDM PTA hosted an exciting book fair. And to recognize the Girl Scouts 114th birthday, the KDM Girl Scouts led the morning announcements. Overall, these experience reflect KDM Elementary's dedication to creating a
well-rounded educational environment that promotes creativity, engagement, and student growth. At Studybrook, after school, clubs are in full swing with the chess club set to begin next week, offering students an additional opportunity to build strategy and critical thinking skills. In
addition, students recently demonstrated their creativity and business skills through the Treps marketplace. As part of this project-based learning program, students developed their own businesses and proudly launched them at the April 9th event, which was a tremendous
success. The PTA and student council also continued to work together, this time partnering on the Dollars for Dogs fundraiser to support creature comfort pet therapy. Second grade students delighted
audiences with the performance of it's a jungle out there highlighting their hard work and enthusiasm. And it was a great performance. I was there. They also enjoyed a special visit from members of the Morris Hills Varsity Club, some of whom were Stony Brook alumni who spent time reading with the students and
fostering connections with uh all the students at Stonybrook. Finally, excitement is building for the book fair which kicks off on April 28th. Culpin Middle School congratulates students, staff, and volunteers involved in the highly successful production of
Spongebob the musical. The performance highlighted the tremendous talent and dedication within the school community and the performance was absolutely outstanding. I hope you had an opportunity to go. If you're not, you missed a great show. The Interact Club
uh hosted a group of local senior citizens who were welcome to enjoy both the musical and they shared a meal here and um which also by the way I think it reflects the school's commitment to
service and community outreach. The spring athletic season is underway with the baseball and softball teams opening their seasons uh yesterday actually on April 14th. Fifth grade students from all five elementary schools are currently visiting CMS as
part of their transition to middle school. These visits include meaningful support and participation from the eighth grade gate students who have helped welcome and guide their young peers while working alongside the teachers and administrators to ensure a
smooth and positive experience. The Copa Middle School PTA encourages all parents and guardians to visit their new website where a list of upcoming events as well as opportunities to volunteer can be found. I would also like to provide a um
HIV update. So if you just click on the title there because that will take you to the original form. It's a hyperl. So u that indicates that currently we um have six HIVs investigated, zero were confirmed this
evening. 17 HIV investigations are on the agenda for approval. Of the 17 on the agenda for the approval this evening, six are confirmed. Thank you very much. That is my report. So what we will do now is uh we will move on to an
update regarding district goals. And I I I think I will tell you we timed this um we have a lot to cover. We have a lot to cover. There's a lot going on. So we we tried to be efficient with our time and we will get to the point. But um I
think you should get comfortable over there >> probably. While everyone's getting a seat, um I will say this that uh throughout the course of the year, I provide the board of education during these meetings with an update regarding our district goal of
strategic plan. Towards the end of the year, we give the kind of the the final I give the final or we give the final update regarding the goals and the strategic plan. Usually, we do this in June. This year, uh we decided to do it a little bit earlier um because it
should it should frankly coincide with my evaluation. So, to the board members, um I just concluded my evaluation today. You'll get an email in 48 hours. Um, I added a goal six to my evaluation because although there's only five goals
in the district, goal six on that tab has a only for the purposes of linking this presentation to the evaluation. That's the only reason why I did it. So, thank you all. So, next slide, a I I want to give credit to um this great administrative team that
we have. Um, this this is not a one-man show here at all. By no means at all. Um, these are the people below my name that do that do the work day in and day out. And um, I sit in my office. I mean, I try to get out of my office, too, but
they they they are always coming and visiting or calling, which is what I love. I I like to I get lonely in there if they don't. And they come in and visit me, and they always keep me informed about what's going on. So, I really want to thank this very uh dedicated and talented administrative team that we have. Next slide, A,
please. So, here are district goals. I'm not going to read each one of them, but there there are five and they're they're on the front page, the first page of every agenda. So, every time you get a a board of education agenda for a meeting, those goals are up there. And there they are. These goals are established by the
board of education, usually during the summer, usually during their their board retreat. And my job as superintendent is to um meet these goals. That's my job, right? The the board doesn't tell me how to do it. They just tell me to do it and
I can't do it alone. As I said, we have a great administrative team. So there's four and five. Um and also in red you'll see those are the people that are primarily responsible for those goals. So I do delegate. Obviously I can't do it all. So I delegate it. Um and we're
going to now rotate through the the administrative staff who will present on the goals that they know best. Next slide, please. Okay. And here's the strategic plan which we started in 2023. It goes to 2028. Here's the the the keys on the right, ongoing, complete in
progress. And we will comment on those also. And you will see that many of them will always be in progress because you'll never complete them totally. Uh there's one that is in is actually one, excuse me, many of them are ongoing because we'll never complete them in in
totally me. Many are complete. There's one actually that is in progress. That's culture 4 and that refers to creating a comprehensive code of conduct applicable to all schools. So we are that will be in effect uh September 2026. Next slide
please. And with that I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Ganella who will talk about academics and Mrs. Petroski who will talk about student services. >> Good evening everyone. Thank you Dr. Corbett. So, our first goal was
increasing NJSLA proficiency in grades 4 through 8. Uh, a couple key points that I'd like to highlight. Uh, we're continuing with our data reviews and our deep data dives. Um, with our curricular alignment, specifically with super kids
and and I uh our common assessments and benchmarking going very well in the district. Uh, Dr. Corbett at the beginning of this school year instituted a district-wide instructional plan highlighted by teacher walkthroughs. So,
as I've said in many presentations, Dr. Corbett is everywhere. He's in every building. He visits classrooms. um you know and and this year he's really highlighted working with the new teachers to the district not only um
walking through their classrooms but providing actional actionable feedback to those teachers. So thank you Dr. Corbett. Um we also instituted a new teacher roundt uh Monday afternoons uh
where we uh work with Harry Wong's book the first days of school. What's been really great um about this program is obviously coaching and working with new teachers, but almost all of our district principles in one way, shape or form um you know have presented and worked with
the new teachers um in this platform. So kudos to all those folks. Um our I Ready instructional rounds uh have been have been going great with our champion teachers. Uh something that I'm very happy about with our culture of data is
adding another universal screener uh for dyslexia with our literacy tasks. So I would like to highlight that our data is transparent. It's given to parents in real time. Um and this is something that I know is near and dear to the district
but also near and dear to me. Uh making sure that we catch uh every student um who is at risk for dyslexia. Um, Miss Petroski and her team have done an amazing job with uh the link intervention manager and streamlining
the RTI processes. Next slide. Uh would also like to commend Miss Miss Waxman in her current role as supervisor of MLL just continuing ML training at Dwire and expanding that training uh
comprehensively at Copeland. Um the something that we're very proud of is our QAC action plan that was based on the 2324 data. Once the 2425 data was released, uh we were taken or should have been
taken off the action plan in September. However, there was some mix up in paperwork at the state level. We did not get that information until March. But the data the new data was so promising and and the growth was promising that the action plan um was taken away. Next
slide please. So our next goal is uh ensuring uh 100% assessment and ensuring that uh you know our instructional practices and curriculum is streamlined across all of our schools. So as I mentioned earlier,
we are implementing our I Ready end of unit assessments, our super kids benchmarks in grades K to two, magnetic reading and grades K to three and link it and teacher generated assessments uh throughout the district. And all of this
data is available um on the link platform. And now I'd like to turn it over to Miss Petroski. >> Thank you. All right. So, in working towards goals one and two that focus a lot on academics, pulling it out from
our strategic plan, we really try to focus on applying practical and proactive solutions to help address early intervention um as well as special education needs. Really trying to fill the gaps of some of our struggling students before they require special education. So, we worked hard this year
to streamline the RTI process and provide all of the support through the tiers. Uh RTI stands for response to intervention and that's part of the plan that we use here in Rockaway to support our students. Um we brought in districtwide linkit intervention
manager. It was piloted at Stonybrook last year. This year we're excited. We rolled it out everywhere. I also had the opportunity today to sit in on all the grade level meetings here at Copeland talking specifically about how RTI was working this year and what our plans for
next year were looking like. Very exciting. We added an additional reading specialist both at KDM and Copelan which is a huge benefit directly for our students. And we instituted monthly RTI lead team meetings so that we could sit
around as a core team and talk about what's going well and what do we need to improve on each month. Uh in addition to academics, improving the climate and culture across all of our schools is a large focus and that's our goal three of the district. So we
continue to offer prevention is key which is a mental health service. This year very exciting we were able to bring in the comprehensive adolescent program known as CAP here at Copelan that Mr. Bayer will give a little bit more information about that on a future slide. We are continuing with our
district's social emotional learning program known as Character Strong. Uh tonight we are hoping to approve an agreement with NJ4s which offers tier level of support for mental health services uh here in Rockaway Township
schools and transitioning supporting students through their transitions uh from fifth to sixth grade or 8th grade up to high school continues to be a large focus. So, we have our grade level uh transition meetings between fifth and
sixth grade teachers as well as the child study team. Uh and then last night we offered a special presentation for our parents of students with IEPs on helping them to get ready for their transition up to Copeland Middle School.
Uh back to you, Mr. So, as a district, we're always working to strengthen family engagement through academic presentations. Uh, we had a great evening again with family math night with over 300 uh parents and and their children. MLL night is once again
being offered this year. Uh, I I'm super excited for author night, family literacy night next Thursday with Jay Cooper. he's visited or is visiting almost all of our schools uh so far. Uh completely engaging. So if you come next
Thursday, not only will you get a great presentation, but we're going to draw together, which is going to be a lot of fun. Our parentmies linked to district curricula. Uh March 25th, we had grades 3 to five reading and math. April 29th,
which is coming up, uh grades K to2 reading and math. and the ever important uh preventing the summer slide and and this is extremely important. Uh you're going to receive strategies and how to support your children during the summer months. Mr. Elder,
>> thank you. So, uh I'd like to talk about how we balance uh the use of technology in the school district. I know that there's a growing concern about technology kind of supplanting the education, but I believe here in the Rockway Township, um we focus mostly on
the instructional aspect of instructional technology. To that end, a lot of the uh technology that we have in place has been put uh has is being used to um provide support and uh guidance rather than replacing uh the process
that the teachers do. Um that being said with regard to the use of technology um digital citizenship is actually embedded throughout the entire steam uh the elementary library and steam curriculum that was um done recently. Uh kudos to
uh Alfonso and the curricular team for getting that accomplished. And we also uh make sure again once again that technology uh is engaged engaging in direct student learning. We like to think that um the technology supports
and the teachers lead. And with that, we'll move on to culture with Mrs. Anita West. >> Next slide, please. >> Good evening, everyone. So, I am the district anti-bullying coordinator and I would like to start as always by talking
about the four prongs. I'm not going to read them. They are listed there as well as the HIB website. All four prongs must be met for an incident to be a confirmed harassment, intimidation, and bullying case. If something is not an affirmed HIV, it
does not mean it has not met a code of conduct violation and it can be handled separately from an HIV investigation. Uh just to bring attention to parents, three confirmed HIVs for one aggressor will lead to a corrective action plan
for that student. Next slide, please. This year we have continued to utilize Hipster. We are in year two and we're finding the new platform much more userfriendly to use. Um it has reduced human error significantly. Uh last year
we sent one district counselor and myself to Strauss Esme training which is a comprehensive HIP training. This year we were able to send all the other district counselors and administrators to that training as opposed to turnkeying. We do have to hold two ABS meetings a
year. My goal is four. We had one October 13th, December 16th, February 11th, and we're actually having one next Tuesday. Uh we are revising the climate and culture surveys. Drafts were due to me today. That's what we'll be going over next Tuesday. For those of you who
have taken the surveys year-over-year, it's usually anywhere between 10 and 15 questions, and it's the exact same survey every year. It won't look much different, but we're just trying to revamp it so it's not the exact same survey. We have continued and expanded upon our system of re review
specifically to discuss complex cases and we have maintained a standardized communication process. Next slide, please. These are our data by the numbers. So last year's data is the full year. We had a total of 109. We have it split out investigated split out by
school. The second column number confirmed, percent confirmed. This year's data, to be clear, is through March 31st, 2026. Just to have it ready for this slide, we are at 88 investigations at this point. 88 concluded investigations
uh with only 19 confirmed as opposed to 40 so far. That is a decrease in 15% of confirmed HIVs. Although we are on track to have investigated more cases, our confirmed cases are dropping which is a positive
trend. Next slide please. These are the data by the numbers. We have five for race, four for sexual orientation, three for gender, one for mental, physical or sensory disability and six for other distinguishing characteristic that can be anywhere from tall, short, fat,
skinny, etc. whatever color of the hair, style of hair, any other distinguishing characteristics that makes a child unique that could be addressed under that characteristic. Next slide, please. So, we did do a characteristic comparison between last year and this
year. Again, this year's data is through March 31, but right now we have 69 that are unconfirmed, but if you notice in all areas but one, we have seen either no change or a decrease in the characteristics that are being addressed. The one that we saw an
increase in from 1 to four was sexual orientation. If you could please go to the next slide. So just to announce advertise for anybody who's free next Wednesday, we are having an HIV listening session scheduled here at 6
p.m. I will be co-presenting. And what I mean by co-presenting is following our attorney Jacqueline Morazy. Um there is a market increase in elementary schools in the last few years. matters are being addressed. Last year, I said with a new principal, we saw an increase at DBO.
That did show a decrease this year. This year, we have an increase at Birwood. Um, and again, as of March 31, and some of them are on first read tonight, we had 12 open HIVs. Um, I do have a hot offthe press
announcement before I pass the baton. At 3:58 p.m., the official district and school HIV grades were released. Dr. Corbett will report on them in detail at the next meeting, but for anybody who is interested, these will be replacing the
current data of 2324 first thing tomorrow morning. At this time, I'd like to invite Mr. Bear, principal at Copeland Middle School. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss West. This year at Copeland Middle School was has been highlighted by a focus on leadership,
service, and supports and intervention. And what you're seeing on the screen right now is a list of clubs, activities, initiatives, programs, and interventions that um that were offered this year at Copeland Middle School. Those new are are noted by an asterisk new to the 2526 school year. In terms of
leaderships, we're excited to bring back for the second year three new three clubs that began last year. They were piloted last year. Unified Sports, which is a program that partners students with disabilities with stu with students in the general education arena. They come together, they compete in sports. It's
been an excellent excellent experience for our students. We dine together and lead for change. Again, we're two new programs that we brought in last year that are studentbased programs. Leadership uh in terms of leadership this year, we brought in the Interact Club. Interact Club partners with the
local Rotary Club of Rockaway. They do phenomenal work. They engage in all sorts of uh leadership and service opportunities uh fundraisers and uh you know uh collection collection item collections. It's been a great opportunity for our students to get involved in in the school and in the
community. Uh the Interact Club ran a Malala fundraiser this school year. Also collections for Baby Bundle, Nourish New Jersey, Toys for Tots, and and the local Oscar animal shelter. Uh, Interact Club also partnered with local senior citizen
homes and we were excited, as Dr. Corbett mentioned earlier, to invite local senior citizens to view to view to view Spongebob the musical and also share share a meal here with our students at Copeland Middle School. Um, back around uh Valentine's Day, all of our students participated in a
Valentine's Day cards uh activity where they sent uh Valentine's Day cards to students at St. St. Jude's Hospital. was an excellent experience for our students. Just like DBO, we are we are um engaging in month of the military act child activities all throughout the
month of a April. And our gate students took the lead on our fifth grade visits this school year, which was an excellent opportunity for our eighth grade students to get involved on a leadership experience, but also for our fifth grade students to learn from from our eighth grade uh students who are going through
it right now or have gone through it the past few years. terms of supports and interventions. Um we mentioned earlier the CAP program. The CAP program is known as the comprehensive adolescent program and it's a partnership with a center for evaluation and counseling. It's been an excellent intervention that
we brought in this year for our students who are who have the most challenges with our code of conduct and our behavior expectations here at Copeland Middle School. Cougar Climb is an academic intervention program that was new to this school year. It it's it's targeted for students who struggle in
ELA and math and may have earned a failing grade during quarter one, two or three, and they have an opportunity after school to attend this program and earn back a passing grade um after successful completion of the program. We continue with our prevention is key groups, uh boys and girls groups and
social skills groups that meet after school. And this year we were able to offer a quiet lunchroom for all three grade levels. um which again is a great opportunity for for many of our students who may struggle um in the large lunchroom. On that note, I'll invite Dr.
Corbett to come back up. >> Uh communications communicate with the board is extremely important obviously and the community. So, uh we publish education matters on a monthly basis which provides the community with a lot of insights in terms of what's happening uh regarding
the curriculum, human resources. Miss West puts out her human resources bulletin which keeps the staff uh informed about openings, procedures and the like. School websites are updated consistently. Link it uh Mr. Canella will be talking about that a little more
thoroughly and of course social media my new Instagram account. So if that's that's just a way hopefully to reach out to people and keep them informed about what's going on in the community. Thank you. One of the big things that we do this
time of year is the fifth graders from all of our elementary schools come up to the middle school uh for a tour uh and and a visit. Uh while the students are having fun with Mr. Bayer, Miss Champagne, um Mr. young. The fifth grade
teachers are meeting with the sixth grade team uh to articulate uh on those students and ensure that that they are being set up for success in their sixth grade school year. Uh a big part of that is streamlining the data that that
teachers receive. So the link platform does just that. It makes all data easily accessible not only to parents um but also to the teachers. Uh, one of the great parts of this job, I always knew in my time here how wonderful the Copeland teachers are, but it's been
great working with the elementary lead teachers and all of the teachers at the elementary school. The ideas, the resources that they have are are second to none. And almost all those resources are uploaded in our grade level drive so
teachers in each building can can share ideas, share resources, so all of the kids have access to the same education. Next slide, please. Um, as Dr. Corbett mentioned, uh, the elementary uh, code of conduct is going to be an area of
focus this summer and and launch next school year. Uh, Mr. Bayer and his team and a committee of teachers put together a comprehensive code of conduct in the 2324 school year and Miss West has been working on the comprehensive staff
handbooks. All the information consolidated in one spot and completely transparent. So increasing community involvement is so important as Dr. Corbett mentioned some of the great things have been going on is our academy nights author day
which again I just can't reiterate so engaging so much fun um you know and that idea came out of our ed committee a few years back and you know it's now taken you know strong route in the district so great please come out next
Thursday to to meet Mr. Cooper uh Mr. Bayer spoke about the afterchool clubs, uh, family math night with over 300 participants, uh, Miss Petroski and and their CPAC meetings, the third annual wellness fairs coming up, and you Mr.
Bayer and his team brought in Copelan graduate Cornell Thomas uh, for our students this year as well. Great job. The district is not short on service learning opportunities. uh every board meeting uh our principles kind of give a
you know a view as to what's going on in the buildings. Uh Trep's marketplace is alive and well. Uh so much fun. Uh our science fairs, our Earth Day cleanups, our sock drives, uh what's sock drive is probably one of my favorites because Dr.
Corbett drives around the district loading up his pickup truck with with socks. So it is it is quite a sight and just to see that type of buyin from our students and families is just really a great representation of our community. Next slide please. Now Miss Slam to
infrastructure. >> Oh Mr. Hler for infrastructure. >> Thank you. Uh so I just wanted to talk a little bit about how technology impacts the operations of the district. Um when it comes to uh how technology supports operations um what we have been working
on uh has been uh upgrading all the schools uh we've done these middle school and one of the elementary schools last year uh ongoing we're going to be tackling all the other elementary schools and administrative buildings to ensure that the wireless the cameras and
the servers are up to date and uh and replaced. Uh we have been working on reorganizing IT closets. That doesn't just mean cleaning up. That also means doing things like consolidating and making sure that things like redundant
power is in place and making sure that uh we're not repurchasing equipment that we don't need to purchase. And then finally, we have been taking a hard look at our cyber security uh ensuring that we are we we've begun following the um cyber security rubric and are planning
on further cyber security audits to make sure that student and staff data is safe. Um when it comes to enhancing techn security aside from the uh cyber security initiatives that we're doing we have implemented a new attendance management system um that allows us to
know who is in what building at all times for their safety as well as ongoing camera audits and installations that we're doing across the elementary schools and administrative uh buildings. So we're expanding that scope and we are updating them with much more high
resolution cameras. So, uh, we have a lot of that and that's on top of all the other, um, processes that we do on a yearly basis. And with that, I'll move on to, uh, Mrs. Slang. >> So, you've heard a lot about um, curricular and educational programs and
how we're moving forward, but one of the most important things that I'm here to confirm is that we have space that is safe, healthy, and supportive um, so that our staff can teach, our students can learn. Um, so going hand inhand with that, we have our long-range facilities plan. We did a full update of that plan
in the 2425 school year and each year we will make amendments and changes as needed based on emergent issues. Um, and then we have our district maintenance plan which is newly created this year. Um, the district maintenance plan creates a guide a guideline for a maintenance team. Um, it covers cyclical
repairs and projects that need to be conducted every year. Um, and it accounts for processes for dealing with emergent projects as they come up. Um, this is in tandem with our ticketing system and it just gives them a little bit of a framework and some checklists and advice on how to remain compliant,
make sure everything is functioning properly. Next slide, please. Um, buildings grounds just a highlight of some of the things we've completed this year. Um, we had our district-wide flooring project which um, we enhanced a lot of the flooring across all schools and locations. We had a bleacher replacement at CMS which has added some
seating and has um, I've heard a lot of really great things and good feedback on that. um KDM, we had our window replacement. Um we had our CMS audio upgrade, camera replacements, as Mr. Elder referenced across the district and our phone replacement, which was the full system replacement across the
district. Um we also conducted an audit of our security internally. Um so all the shareholders that are involved in the buildings, we went through um our plans, our systems, what we could improve. Um that data feeds into our long-range facility plan. And our next step is to involve a third-party audit
which we will coordinate in consultation with our insurance brokerage to doublech checkck what we've come up with and uh get a fresh set of eyes on it. Next slide please. Uh district improvements at CMS. We had um this is in addition to our capital projects and plan projects. This is what the maintenance team is doing throughout the year. So we replace
uh windows at CMS. Um we had water system repairs done. We had uh several pipes that are were aging out. Um had some issues. So, we've been systematically replacing those. And we had a projector installation, which the music department was very pleased with. Um, and I believe they utilized it for
the Spongebob musical. Um, district improvements at the elementary schools, KDM, we had a little bit of a faceless lift on the overhang. Um, some repointing and just repairs to that. Um, and we also repaired a fence that was damaged during the winter season um when we were plowing. Uh at Birchwood, we
continued our painting project that has moved through the building and really has enhanced um not just the aesthetic, but the feel of the building. Um and we also did a major repair to the refrigeration unit. Um has a brand new condenser and is uh operating at peak performance. And over at DBO, we did
several HVAC um evaluations and repairs to ensure that that system is running accurately for both cooling and heating. Um and you know, this is this is where the efforts go. So big kudos to our maintenance department. Um, it's been a marked improvement. And now I will turn
it over to Dr. Corbett. >> Community outreach is so important. As I said, it's part part of the effort to to not just include the community, but make sure that we're transparent. Transparency is extremely important. Communicating with all the stakeholders extremely important. uh PTA general
assemblies. We bring the PTA together at the board office three times a year uh to discuss items particular to their their group but may have a influence or effect or maybe may be beneficial for others to hear. So they come together
the three academy nights uh that Mr. Ganella talked about avoiding the summer slide the HIV listening session that Miss West reminded everybody about April 22nd uh education matters and of course you know another another uh thing was the Spongebob musical with the seniors.
We were happy to have them here. So these are just ways that we try to uh include the wide community into the district including the seniors next. All right so here are the goals again. And I'm going to go back. Oh, before we go back to where we started from, just two points I want to make unscripted because
we got one minute left. Um there there are two manuals, very important manuals under um consideration right now. The first is the the parent student handbook is being written now by the principles in the district. Um and what we're doing
is we're combining everything from Copeland and the elementary schools into one handbook. uh um which I think is going to be a more convenience and more insightful informative for parents and Miss West is now currently working on the staff handbook which is really very
very important. So um those efforts are underway now and they're almost complete. They have to go through committee first and then they will be approved by the board and implemented uh in September. So as you see here are district goals. Again I started with this slide. I'm going to end with the slide except I'm putting check marks.
Now, the reason why one isn't checked is because we don't get our grades, our performance scores back until like August. We anticipate we're going to go up 5% across all grade levels, but I really can't put a check mark there. But I think that that's been accomplished or that I will anticipate that being accomplished. And again, the check marks
in two, goal two, goal three, we've goal four and five. Um, I think I think the team has very successfully met these goals. Next slide, please. Same thing with the strategic plan. same slide you had at the beginning except now I'm bringing it back from the beginning to
the end. Um and the culture number four is the one that's ongoing but however I mean in progress but it will be completed. What's the matter? Oh infrastructure yes because infrastructure one uh the
referendum is uh kind of um right now it's it's not in motion. I'll say that. Uh next slide please. Okay. So that's it. I want to thank this wonderful team to my left. I want to really thank them for for all their work.
It's great working with them. So, and thank you to the board of education for all your support. Thank you. >> I didn't say it. I said >> I said market. >> Okay, >> moving on uh to recommended for board
action personnel. Could I please have a motion to approve personnel items? >> How do we Sorry. Sorry guys. >> Do we have any committee reports for tonight? >> Does Megan have >> No, I That was my report. >> That was your business. That was your
report. >> I yield my report. >> You report. >> I yield my report. >> Thank you. Sorry. I have a quick report from the ad committee. Um, Mr. Ganella, Miss Waxman, Dr. Gorman, Miss Torren,
myself, we met virtually on Monday night from 8 to 9 pm. It was a meeting that really just focused on the AI policy. Um, we want to get it right. So, we're still in that process. U, Miss Waxman has been meeting with a team of
administrators and teachers to get their perspective. So, we reviewed the feedback from their surveys. Um we've learned that we really need a balanced approach. The teachers want to return to more handwritten exercises to um so one
there's the new move there's the new policy where students have to learn penmanship. So there'll be a focus on that but also in the middle school they're going to roll back some of the digital lessons and handwrite more so that they can take ownership of the learning. But then there's going to be
uh beginning in fourth grade probably lessons on digital citizenship and proper use of using computers, their digital footprint. And then um the debate right now is at what age we introduce students to AI and the proper
use of AI because it's there. So um we also discussed Jay Cooper and his upcoming visit and again thank you Miss Waxton for all you've done to set that up. We appreciate it. feedback has been great. So, hope you all join us Thursday.
>> Thank you. >> You go. >> Okay. Uh for community outreach, the only thing was just as a reminder that we will be having our meeting on um April 29th. >> So, yes, that means you Noel. >> Yes.
>> Okay. Thank you. Um, for safety and security, um, I met with Mr. McGovern and Dr. Corbin on March 27th, and after going through the entire safety and security plan on my own, I came to this meeting with several questions that were all answered. Uh, we walked through some
areas that required updating and discussed some scenarios that could happen in an emergency. Aside from some updates and a few tweaks to the process of procedure, this plan seems to be pretty solid. Um, I plan to meet with the entire um, safety and security committee. um and bring them all
together to review what was discussed at the meeting with Dr. Corbett, Mr. McGovern, and look forward to working with the new supervisor um which I don't believe we have quite yet. Right. >> No, I do not. >> Okay. Um and as this person, whoever it
may be, begins his tenure to ensure that our students and staff feel safe and secure in their buildings and confident that their district is ready for whatever comes our way. And as far as operations, Miss Slam covered the majority of it, but I do have one thing to add. Um, as our supervisor of
facilities has retired, we are working to find a replacement. Interviews will be held in early May. In the meantime, Mr. Angelo Palumbo will be working as a consultant for the district. He is a retired buildings and grounds director with very strong knowledge and experience, and he will guide our staff
during this transition. >> That's it. Uh we had a scheduled policy committee meeting um at the beginning of April. I had to cancel that for personal reasons, but uh we do not have a scheduled date.
I would love to get that on the calendar. May I do that now? Is that okay with everyone? >> Yeah. >> Is there a date next week or the week after? >> No. Not next week. >> Not next week. Done. How about the week
after? We could do Tuesday evening, Wednesday evening, Thursday evening. >> Tuesday's tough for me. >> Tuesday. Done. Gone. How about Wednesday evening, Thursday evening? >> Can be virtual. No, you have something.
>> Community. >> We have community hours. >> Wait, you said the 29th already. >> 29th. >> I heard it. I heard the 29th. >> You heard it. >> I was like, I thought I heard the 29th. How about the 30th? >> I can't do the 30th. >> 30th at all. No, >> I'm good. Okay. You can though. >> I can't.
>> Okay. You can't. Okay. >> No worries. Um, how about we were trying to get it before in the next um >> That's okay. Do you want to try the first Friday the 1?
>> Nope. Okay, that's fine. Um, how about Monday the 27th? >> Is that Memorial Day? >> Monday the fourth. >> April 2. >> April. Sorry. Going back April. >> We're going back to April 27th. >> Going back to April. >> So, what date are you looking at? >> April Monday, April 27th. We can do
later evening post bedtime. >> Yeah, I can do a post bedtime. That doesn't always work, but 8:00 p.m. >> I can get I can throw that in there. You can make it work. I can have it. >> I don't want to be the bomber. You guys, this is a You can meet I have a PTA
general assembly on April 27th. >> Oh, you do? That's right. It's a big one. So, but again, the three of you can meet and we can talk. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> You know, that's okay with you. Sure. >> Okay. >> Yes, absolutely.
>> Work for you? >> 27th. I can 27th. >> I can make it work. Yeah. >> 27th work for you. >> 27th time. Yeah. >> Was 8 okay the other night? >> 8 work for you? >> 8:00. Yeah. >> 8 o'clock. >> 8:00 p.m. >> 8:00 p.m. Not a.m. >> I'm walking out the door at that time.
>> He declined my invitation. >> Please. Me, too. But >> I mean, maybe you want to do on the 29th. >> No, no, no, no, no, no, no. 27th works. 27th. Everyone good? 27th. >> All right. Thank you both. I appreciate it. >> Any other committee reports?
>> Yep. >> Okay. I think we're all caught up at this point. So, >> now you said 8 o'clock, right? Sorry. I did. Yeah. Thank you. >> Moving on to personnel. >> Yeah. Um and before we move the section, we have one minor change. Um A7
the start date is listed as 51526. We are amending that to 41526. >> So if we could note that change and move the section as amended. >> Absolutely. So can I please get a motion to move the personnel section as amended?
>> So moved. Seconded. Okay. Can I please have a roll call vote on that, please? >> Mrs. Anderson, >> yes. >> Dr. Gorman, >> yes. >> Mrs. Mesi, >> yes. >> Miss Richardson, >> yes. >> Miss Torren, >> yes. >> Miss Mcgiri, >> yes.
>> Motion carries. >> Excellent. Thank you. And now, Dr. Corbett, I believe Miss Waxman has been >> Oh, the whole thing. I was distracted. >> It passed. >> Yeah, it passed. We're good. The whole thing. >> So, Miss Waxman is actually the going to be the principal as of July. First
officially officially say a few words. >> Congratulations. Just thank you very much. Um I'm a bit overwhelmed still. Um but thank you for the opportunity for me to be here tonight. I'm incredibly honored and
excited to come back to the Dwire School community, not as a student and not as a teacher, but as the building leader. It's where I started, and it's just home. Um, I look forward to looking into relationships, building these relationships with teachers further,
students and staff, and of course, the families that make everybody at Dwire know that you're home. Um, thank you for your trust, and I look forward to the next year of being your principal. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Vanessa, you're not allowed to cry.
That's Brian's thing. >> Poor Mr. Rollins. Second or third time tonight. >> Oh, okay. Miss Hall, did you want to did you want to present or did you want to do that after the meeting? >> Yeah. To her.
>> Thank you. Congratulations. >> Okay, moving on to HIP determination. Can I please get a motion to approve the HIP section? >> So moved. Second. >> Second. >> Could I please have a roll call vote?
>> Mrs. Anderson, >> yes. >> Dr. Gorman, >> yes. >> Mrs. Mesik, >> yes. >> Miss Richardson, >> yes. >> Miss Torren, >> yes. >> Miss McGee, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> Excellent. Thank you. Section C, education. Could I please have a motion to approve the education
recommendations? >> So move. >> Second. >> Second. >> Could I please have a roll call vote? >> Open to >> Oh. Oh, my apologies. We're going to open the bottom of seven. Yes. Y
>> uh in in accordance with board policy 0167, public discussion is limited to 15 minutes with a three minute limit per member of the public. The board president shall have the right to modify the length of public discussion as she deems appropriate. Could I please have a motion to open public comment?
>> So moved. >> Second. >> Can I please get a show of hands? Do we have anybody for public comment on the education section? Could I please have a motion to close public comment? >> So moved.
>> Seconded. Could I please get a show of hands? >> Can I please get a roll call vote on education items? >> Mrs. Anderson, >> yes. >> Dr. Gorman, >> yes. >> Mrs. Mesi, >> yes. >> Miss Richardson, >> yes. >> Miss Torren, >> yes. >> Miss McGee,
>> yes. >> Motion carries. >> Could I please get a motion to approve special education recommendations? >> So moved. >> Seconded. >> Thank you. Do we have any public comment
for special education section? No. >> Could I please get a roll call vote? >> Mrs. Anderson? >> Yes. >> Dr. Gorman? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Mesi? >> Yes. >> Miss Richardson? >> Yes. >> Miss Torren? >> Yes. >> Miss McGary? >> Yes. >> Motion carries. >> Thank you. Moving on to administration.
Could I please have a motion to approve administration recommendations? >> So moved. >> Second. Do we have any public comment on administration recommendations at this time?
>> Okay. Could I please get a roll call vote? >> Mrs. Anderson, >> yes. >> Dr. Gorman, >> yes. >> Mrs. Mesik, >> yes. >> Miss Richardson, >> yes. >> Miss Torren, >> yes. >> Miss Mcgiri, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> You finance. Could I please have a motion to approve finance
recommendations? >> So moved. >> Seconded. >> Do we have any public comment on the finance section? Could I please get a roll call vote on one question? Um, so who went and signed the bills? You. >> Oh, yes. I'm sorry. I did. I went and
signed the bills. I recommend that we go ahead and approve them. >> Sign them. >> Okay. >> Thanks, Lisa. >> Mrs. Anderson, >> yes. >> Dr. Gorman, >> yes. >> Mrs. Messi, >> yes. >> Miss Richardson, >> yes. >> Miss Torren, >> yes. >> Miss McGiri, >> yes. >> Motion carries.
>> Thank you. Could I please get a motion to approve policy recommendations? So moved. Second. >> Do we have any public comment on policy? >> Okay. Could I >> Is there There's no roll call. Could I get a roll call vote on that, please?
>> Yes, you can. Uh, Mrs. Anderson, >> yes. >> Dr. Gorman, >> yes. >> Mrs. Messi, >> yes. >> Miss Richardson, >> yes. >> Miss Torren, >> yes. >> Miss McGiri, >> yes. >> Motion carries. I apologize at that. >> No, that's okay. >> Yeah. Yeah. Uh, in accordance with board
policy 0167, public discussion is limited to 15 minutes with a three minute limit per member of the public. The board president shall have the right to modify the length of public discussion as she deems appropriate. Could I please have a motion to open second public comment? >> So moved. >> Seconded.
>> Show of hands. Do we have any public comment, general public comment at this time? Could I please get a motion to close public comment? >> Smit. >> Second. >> Show of hands.
>> Thank you. Old business. >> Just a reminder that the next meeting May 6th is the budget presentation for the final budget. So, we encourage everybody to attend. Um, and because I yielded my report today, I get extra time.
>> Absolutely. I will know that >> any other Yep. Go ahead. >> Just wanted to uh put another reminder that I will not be at the next meeting due to the um 4th annual Nancy Hellborg memorial recognition. Ceremi >> I think we should present a perfect
attendance award before that meeting. I said we should present your perfect attendance award before that meeting. >> Right. I don't know. It's only been my nine years. >> Nine years of no >> mis meetings. >> Yep. Oh well. >> Great.
>> Uh any other old business? >> I know it's been said many times, but uh I did get a chance to go to the Spongebob musical with my daughter and it was phenomenal. Absolutely phenomenal. She loved it. I've never let her watch the show, but the show itself was enough in itself and the kids did an
incredible job. It was beautifully done. you never would have known it was a middle school show. So >> kudos to everyone on stage, everyone backstage. It it was absolutely absolutely wonderful. >> Yes. >> Uh just to go back, the Rockaway Township Substance Abuse Alliance,
please look them up on the website. They're doing amazing amazing amazing things for our kids. And please, if you can support them in any way, that would be great. >> Great. Thank you. any new business? I would just like to say I know the our
autism teachers left already, but um I would just like to thank them for their work as not only as a board member, but as a mom to two kids on the spectrum. The work that we're doing in this community or that they're doing in this community is exceptional and um I'm really proud proud to have them in our
community. So, if there's no other new business and we don't need to go back into executive session, could I please have a motion to adjourn the meeting? >> So, moved. >> Seconded.
>> Show of hands. Tonight's meeting is adjourned at 9:16 p.m. Thank you everyone. >> Thank you. >> We were so busy. We were so busy. >> Come on. Did you get it? >> What?
>> I see. >> That's like Yeah, I do have one in here cuz I haven't been there before. >> Yeah, I know. For the record, we did not >> picked a dollar. We keep we