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 e e
e e 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 walked through the 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 Birchwood 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 and the 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 Tony Brooke is an amazing place it really is and I think anybody who joins us whether it's full-time or visit us 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 inand 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 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 scopeland 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 be the superintendent of Rockway Township Schools and we are thankful for all the support we have from our [Music] 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 deire 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 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 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 [Music] come so we used 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 than 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 or 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 onal over the last several years I am the steam teacher at copela 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 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 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 DBL yeah my name is
Reya I'm in first grade being at DBL 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 cuz drawing is my favorite thing what makes Deo unique is that everyone is so kind to each other
and everyone cares about each other 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 as all the teachers we have here they help us every day all the janitors keep our school nice and clean um 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 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 and juny 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 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 the school one word to describe this school is probably hard honesty empathy acceptance and respect and [Music] 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 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 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 7even 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 deire 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 modery 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 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 hard 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 [Music] 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 I am the steam teacher at copela 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 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 talking 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 7eventh grade La teacher I used to just like 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 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 at a better [Music] place 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 by being kind to a friend helping them out helping teachers be nice to them be respectful and don't inrupt the teachers
and everything we do we try and relate back to our core values one of the things we 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 D yeah my name is Rea
I'm in first grade being at D 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 tus CU drawing is my favorite thing what makes deio unique is that everyone is so kind to each other and everyone one 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 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 this school is that we put more
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-talk 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 and juny 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 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 write 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 [Music] come Tony 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 inand 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 any type 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 than 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 with them I like them to become successful not just academically but also social and 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 gamers 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 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 CU I feel like it is a small close-knit community but I also felt like there was a lot of different opportunities in
Rockway like how there was five different Elementary schools but I also like how I felt like that I fit in with the Sony Brook mentality the Sony 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
Birchwood 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 Tony Brook is an amazing
place it really is and I think anybody who joins us whether it's full-time or visit us 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 involve School Community both academically working hand inand 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 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 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 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 [Music] community I truly believe 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 deire 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 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'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 [Music] come so we 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 than 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 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 districts Focus onal over the last
several years I am the steam teacher at copela 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 kidss 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 heal 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 DBL yeah my name is Rea I'm in first grade being at DB is awesome because all the teachers here
are so great 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 tus cuz drawing is my favorite thing what makes deio unique is that everyone is so kind to each other and everyone cares about each other
my name is quen k I'm in the fifth grade hi my name is Arya I am in second grade what makes our school awesome as 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 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 and juny B Jones my favorite subject is science in science you do lots of experiments and I think experiments are very fun I 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
7eventh 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 the school one word to describe
this school is probably hard honesty empathy acceptance and respect and [Music] 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 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 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 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 Birchwood is very special because it is
truly a family atmosphere students come back year after year there's multi-generations that have attended Birchwood 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 buld dog always a buld dog 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 deire 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 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 codery
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 the school is probably heart honesty empathy acceptance and respect and Trust I 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 copel 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 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 7eventh grade La teacher I used to just like like reading and writing and she really helped me understand and
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 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 Banda 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 scopel 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 [Music] 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 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 DB yeah my name is Rea I'm in first grade being at
DB 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 tus cuz drawing is my favorite thing what makes Deo 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 a 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 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 that 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 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 it's a really great environment
here at STM 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 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 juny 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 write first thing in the morning his head 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 [Music] come bony Brook is an amazing place it
really is and I think anybody who joins us whether it's full-time or visit is 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 inand 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 the other schools and I'm really proud of what we put forth for our children any type 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 us 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 than 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 and 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 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 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 cuz I
feel like it is a small close-knit community but I also felt like there was a lot of different opportunities in Rockway like how there was five different elementary schools but I also like how I felt like that I fit in with the Sony Brook mentality the Sony 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 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 Birchwood 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 ularly 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 Tony 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 and 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 inand 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 value vales
into our students helping students develop into Future Leaders into being positive role models and citizens in our community our matro 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 per 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 copel 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 [Music] community I truly believe in in 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 deire 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 bu 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 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'm trying to instill intrinsic love for school intrinsic love for education and over time 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 [Music] come so we 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 than all the other academic challenges Alles 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 or 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 onal over the last several years I am the steam teacher at copela 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 bre 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 at the end of the day my name is Carly and I am in fifth
grade and I go to DBL yeah my name is Rya I'm in first grade being at DB 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 Deo unique is that everyone is so kind to each other and
everyone cares about each other my name is quen 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 jamers keep her school nice and clean all my friends
that help me since kindergarten and everybody just 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 teacher got
me into reading and she got me into chapter books and juny 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 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's 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 7eventh grade La teacher I used to dis 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 matter what you like look like people will be friends with you and
welcome you into the school one word to describe the school is probably hard honesty empathy acceptance and respect and [Music] 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 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 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 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 in 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 deire 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 codery amongst not only the
students but also the faculty that works here we call ourselves a DWI 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 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 copela 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 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 a 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 [Music] 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 dbf yeah my name is Rea I'm in first grade being at DB is awesome because all the teachers here are so great and so 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 cuz drawing is my favorite thing what makes deio unique is that everyone is so kind to each other and everyone cares about each other I had to 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 say 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 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 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 and Jun 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 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 [Music] B Brook is an amazing place it really is and I think anybody who joins us whether it's full-time or visit us 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 inand 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 any type 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 us 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 than 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 so social emotionally my name is Queen K I'm in the fifth grade hi my name is Arya I am in second grade well 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 S 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 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 cuz I feel like it is a small close-nit community but I also felt like there was 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 Sony Brook m mentality the Sony 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 principle 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 Rockway 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 I've attended Birchwood 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 the themselves that they might not have seen before Tony 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 inand 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 mantro 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 Dy 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 scopeland 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 deire 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 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'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 e e 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 wood 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 oh good the microphone is on we have two very special special uh recognitions this evening um we're going to begin
we're going to flip it around a little bit actually we're going to begin with with the spelling be recognitions first we're so proud of all of our students that participated in the spelling be they did so well this year and because you did so well this year I have a special announcement right now because
the spelling be students did so well tomorrow you can sleep in that's right there going to be delayed opening because you guys did so well how you like
that pretty good right am I not the best superintendent in the world you better believe it thank you very much oh my phone's ringing now oh there it goes all right how about we begin with um uh Mr McGovern would you kick off our spelling
be recognitions please this is this is Rockaway Township calling me telling me this a delayed opening that was great as soon as you were saying it every phone in the entire room was going off we'd like to congratulate dwire family
would like to congratulate our four winners uh of the spelling be uh we were also fortunate enough to have the first place winner in the competition and the third place winner in the competition um a participant from our fourth grade was J Joshua cinello
Cohen from the fourth grade that will be back next year hopefully to defend and her title is Mia [Applause]
brienza fifth grade participant Kira [Applause] Richmond and the spelling be Champion Liam hagert from the fifth
grade I'll make sure they received their Awards good evening everyone congratulations to all our participants representing Stony Brook School uh fourth grade Kellen Miller all right 0 for one representing fourth
grade also miss Emily Weir all right moving on to Fifth Fifth Grade uh I know she's here Alexis weeger all right also fifth grade Mr arv bebington also our fifth grade chess champion just want to throw that in there nice all right and last but not
least Miss Ariana and Gomez Ariana all right thank you [Applause] all so many familiar faces hello everyone good evening all right uh representing dbo the spelling B our fourth first fourth grade uh representative is Philip
p our second fourth grade participant is Damen MCC dam is here what I saw okay moving on to fifth grade uh Gerard Kenfield here I know she's here uh she did a
great job I think she came in Forth yeah Amelia Ryan congratulations and lastly our last fifth grade contestant was Jace Gwyn thanks everybody okay we're so excited uh for all the students stud at Birchwood who participated this is the best we have
ever done so big shout out to all of our students great job first I would like to bring up Isabella casiero Dilla from fourth [Applause]
grade next up in fourth grade second place overall Alexander Pollock congratulation now for our two fifth graders who actually competed last year they're amazing um students uh we have Leia Bilbo
laa and we have Reagan dando congratulations good evening everyone congratulations again to all uh representing uh and I'd like to re uh KDM I'd like to recognize our students from Katherine D Malone uh first fourth grade shr
contata Sha Sha again from fourth grade Eloise Smith believe Eloise is not here she couldn't make it tonight our fifth grade contestant Isabelle
[Applause] Chang and Asha Patel from fifth grade as well congratulations again to all our spelling be students excuse me do we have time for a a group shot can I call
forward Dr thini and get a group shot here with everybody maybe with the board good great I'd like that could we ask all of the spelling be students to come forward for a nice group shot of everybody please and with the board in the background that'd be a wonderful thing yes don't be be shy come on forward we're not going to ask you how
to spell any words just come forward principles would you like to join your students up here look [Applause] we we're going to move along to the uh
to recognition of some very special students at Birchwood Elementary School I encourage all the students even those who just received the spelling be recognition stay around because after birwood we're going to have a short break and the most delicious cookies you've ever tasted in your life are right over there and you can have one
two or a dozen I don't care so Burwood Dr MOS would you come forward [Applause] please good even evening everyone thank you for joining us tonight as we
celebrate and honor birwood Elementary's outstanding safety patrol members this evening we proudly recognize these exceptional fifth grade students with the exemplary service award yay these students truly embody heart in
everything they do they go above and beyond to ensure the safety and well-being of their peers each and every day whether assisting students during arrival or dismissal or promoting hallway safety or ensuring a smooth and secure transition on and off the buses
which they do so well they serve as true Role Models our youngest Bulldogs absolutely look look up to each and every single one of them they get excited as they get older to wear that safety patrol vest one day we're so proud of their dedication leadership and commitment to keeping Birchwood safe um
I'd like to introduce Miss shenik she is our fearless leader who helps us every day and organizes our safety patrol students let's give her a round of applause and she's a fabulous fifth grade teacher as well and now we will call up each student individually to
recognize their service and thank them for making a difference at Birchwood School first upop we have Porsche abaza next up we have Leia Bilbo [Applause]
laa Riley [Applause] burnt Ariana Shapero
[Applause] Serenity [Applause] Coro Reagan
[Applause] dando Kathleen escal Rivera [Applause] Adriana
[Applause] Francis Ryan Casco Adavan [Applause]
manican he done Reagan marks Eileen Peralta [Applause] Martinez Michaela
[Applause] palot nille Pancho Dolores [Applause]
Palos Haley pantalona Madison [Applause] Portillo Daniela Rivera
[Applause] buan Ruby rosenbom [Applause]
Sebastian [Applause] Ruez Italy saso Riley
[Applause] centuro Christian salaso [Applause]
Jacob toriello Alexander [Applause] turos and lastly we have Addison Walker
[Applause] may we have all of our students who participated tonight and received this award come up for one pitcher and a big round of applause for everyone congratulations you than
[Applause] congratulations to all the uh students from birwood and their safety patrol all that they do to help and keep everybody safe we appreciate it and now we are going to enjoy some Gourmet delicious cookies so please help
yourself we'll break for about 10 minutes some cookies for everybody there should be none left in 10 minutes all those cookies should be gone thank you I know right do you know what I bet a bunch of these people are
CLE 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 birwood is very special because it is truly a family atmosphere students come
back year after year there's multi-generations that have attended Birchwood 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 Sony Brook is an amazing place it really is and I think anybody who joins us whether it's full-time or visit us in the building just for a day uh you know I think Echo that sentiment our staff is second to none and 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 inand with our
teachers but also I think for extracurricular as well [Music] 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 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 Sport 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 scopel 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 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 deire 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 is 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'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 [Music] come so we used to always start off with a growth mindset and we do a lot of lessons about how we are 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 than 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 or 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 and 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 onal over the last several years I am the steam teacher at copelan 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 DBL yeah my name is Reya I'm in first grade being at DBL 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 tus cuz drawing is my favorite thing what makes Deo unique is that everyone is so kind to each other and everyone
cares about each other my name is quen 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 jamers 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 there's stories my first grade
teacher got me into reading and she got me into chapter books and juny 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 when I came
into sixth grade in Copeland where everything was new 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 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 the school one word to describe this school is probably hard honesty empathy acceptance and respect and [Music] 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 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 paintt 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 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 Birchwood is very special because it is truly a family atmosphere students come back year after year there's multi-generations that have attended Birchwood 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 principle 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 [Music] 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 deire 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 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 codery amongst not only the students but also the faculty that work here we call ourselves a DWI family Mr McGovern he seldom calls us a school and agenda
Andor 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 asked that members of 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 it will be liable for any comments made by 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 01 6 7 public discussion is limited to 15 minutes with a 3 minute limit per member of the public the board president shall have
the right to modify the length of public discussion as he deems appropriate can I please have a motion to open to the first public comment thank you second thank you show hands please would any members of the public like to come forward Dana tabella 31 Omaha
Avenue last year at the February 14th meeting our current vice president Noel Anderson stated during the board discussion before deciding the calendar this year she wanted to make sure our language was inclusive and sensitive and to make sure that our oppress groups are
heard and have a voice so when I hadn't heard anything more on the subject I began speaking to community members throughout the year and on January 26th I started inviting and encouraging people people to attend tonight's meeting specifically our Italian-American population in Rockaway
township since I'm told by Rockaway Unico that we make up almost 25% of the population here if you weren't aware Italian Americans were oppressed they face racial discrimination job discrimination and violence my great-grandfather born in Shaka Sicily
came to the United States as a young boy in late 1891 during unsettling times in which Italians were being lynched the largest lynching occurred in 1891 when a mob of 10,000 people lynched 11 Sicilians in New Orleans Italians were also targeted by the KKK and Sicilians
were segregated in school italian-americans were also the lowest paid based on a 1910 Census Data Norwegians earned $13.20 a week Russian Jewish immigrants earned $12.71 a week black Americans
earned $106 per week and Italian immigrants were at the bottom of the pay scale being paid $10.50 a week later in history the FBI searched the homes of Italian immigrants and some were even put in interment camps because they were
considered enemy aliens right here in vinand New Jersey a mass protest against italian-americans was held in 1933 on Columbus Day October 12th 1942 attorney general Biddle removed the tians from the enemy alien list there's
a lot of history behind Columbus Day which is not taught in schools we are we now see in New Jersey that they have Incorporated the history of African-Americans through Amistad lgbtq history people with disabilities history and updated holocost curriculum to reflect history to be more accurate
which Rockaway Township just recently approved in our curriculum so I'm respectfully requesting that the history of Columbus Day and italian-americans also be accurately taught both New Jersey and the federal government recognize Columbus Day as the legal holiday Columbus Day should not be
cancelled or shared Italian Native Americans African-Americans and other groups of people have faced injustices and misrepresentation in history books indigenous people month is designated for the month of November since 1990 and Columbus Day is in October I'd like to
also see a motion made to include juneth on the school calendar since it's also a state and federally recognized holiday the local school board is not the level nor the place to change names of state and federal holidays these types of challenges should be made through the legislative process
and they have in 2020 Bill s 2970 was introduced to replace Columbus Day with indigenous people day but later it was withdrawn the Board of Education should not arbitrarily make changes to our calendar due to their own personal feelings and should use the holidays
established through the government and legislative process thank you thank you thank you [Applause] my name is Andre deino I'm president of the Italian-American One Voice Coalition representing over 80 Italian-American
organizations around the country we Nationwide organization that's specifically to defend Italian-American Heritage and culture you know it's interesting the last speaker spoke about the lynchings that occurred but really that was the impetus of Columbus Day in this country because after that terrible
situation that occurred in New Orleans they were afraid there was going to be war with Italy and to Plate the country of Italy and the Italian Americans that were here Benjamin Harrison declared 1892 the 400th anniversary of Columbus arrival as the first colum Day Columbus
Day as an atonement and apology to Italian Americans so Columbus Day has a significant meaning to ancestors all of our ancestors that went through that terrible treatment back then so if you're concerned about the oppressed people italian-americans have gone through that
now I compliment you for wanting to be concerned about oppressed people you know it's kind of deja vu I spoke at this codium a while while ago and I remember when you made the motion to preserve Columbus Day and we appreciated it back then I can tell you since that time though we've made a milestone
situation we knew that instead of fonting division by trying to get rid of Columbus Day and replacing with indigenous people's day or other days instead of fermenting that division work to unify people that's what you should do as we have done we have formed an alliance with the
Native American Guardians Association representing Native Americans across the country there are over 547 distinct tribes in this country and I have here a letter from the president of Naga Native American Guardians Association and I'm just going to read a brief part and I'll be happy to leave this as part of
evidence for you in your records honoring the motto educate do not eradicate the Native American Guardians Association stand proudly with the Italian-American community choosing to honor their great Visionary Christopher Columbus an Explorer not a conqueror he was not interested in Conquest but to
discover the first for the first time a Westerly sea route to the Far East thereby advancing trade Columbus ventured into totally unknown sailing out to sea as an Explorer putting his life on the line revisionists would have us believe that Columbus was the beginning of the end for American
Indians as he was cited for the mistreatment and exploitation of American Indian people these revisionist create the clash between the Italians and American Indians and have sought to create indigenous people's day in place of Columbus Day setting two minority groups against one another when in fact
the Italian and American Indian have L lived through atrocities committed against them in the true American history and and ethnocentrism applied against both groups collectively so that was a milestone opportunity for us to join
with them and we want to Foster unity and not division Columbus Day is still a Federal holiday and it should be recognized as such we want to celebrate along with Native Americans indigenous peoples on their own day but don't take away a day that's so important to
italian-americans that's really violation of the 14th Amendment you're changing for you're discriminating against one group for another so I urge this board to please again foment unity and not Division and please preserve Columbus Day in Rockaway as you did
before thank you thank you thank you Mr President May submit [Applause] this Ferdinando Palumbo to lever Court um thank you ladies and gentlemen esteemed uh board members I similarly
would like to Echo the first to uh folks who had spoken and I want to acknowledge though what you guys are trying to or what I imagine you guys are trying to do I don't want to put words in your mouth but I think we're trying to acknowledge a not so bright history right uh at
times challenging hard to look at history and um the lynchings in New Orleans have been mentioned twice but I think there are two important factors that are deserving of our attention uh Theodore Roosevelt was quoted at at the
time as saying a very good thing happened when those 11 Sicilians were lynched right um you know the at the same time that italian-americans were designated um enemy aliens in the United States uh we were the single largest
group of uh service members deployed in uh fighting the war efforts in World War II um Italian-American Heroes like Jo deio right had their property seized including a fishing boat as part of this uh history and I think very few of the
students in New Jersey and likely here would be able to articulate that right when I was in school we had to learn about um the Holocaust rightfully so we had to learn about the Civil Rights era and rightfully so but I think that this is a a very missing piece of America's
challenging to look at history and I think we would serve to Miss some of that if we were to delete Columbus Day or replace it um certainly I have no uh you know calms with sharing the day
or anything like that but I would urge you guys to to wonder you know a number of the students honored here today were Italian American would they be able to articulate that there was this history of Italians being treated and if they aren't we have to really wonder um what
are we teaching right and could we uh expand and the days that acknowledge people of multiple histories and ethnicities rather than limit that so I would strongly urge the board to please consider uh keeping Columbus Day the way
that it is um thank you very much thank you thank you I'm Dominic nicastro I'm a resident of Township for 24 years now but I'm also a past National president for an organization called Unico Unico is the
largest Service uh organization so far in the United States right now we have 6,000 something members and I'm also a member of the one voice Coalition with my friend Andre I ask you to please don't change the holiday it's an
injustice to Italian Americans and as you know 25% as you heard are residents here I started the Rockaway chapter I started the Denville chapter when I was President we got a Randol chapter going now everybody has their own holiday
please consider not to take ours away I passed a letter around at national office and they said they'll come up but you don't need a lot of people here you hear a couple of us talking to support it and we ask you to please support it please don't do that to
us okay and and and and that's all I could say right now but if you could consider consider it like you did a couple of years ago and you let it go and let it stay that's all we're asking we don't want to take away anybody others uh holidays we're not looking to do that but we don't want to have it
happen us either and I don't think anybody here would want I don't know what nationality everybody is but everybody's got a holiday you know so please consider not taking this away thank you [Applause]
good evening my name's Paul Mana I live at for Florence Drive uh the the mailing address is Wharton but it is a Rockaway Township address as you know we have seven different ZIP codes in this town I'm an Italian American and proud
of it I'm a member of Unico one of the founding members in in this chapter here in Rockaway and I ask you to be real serious in your consideration and leave Columbus Day alone those 11 members that
were lynched in New Orleans were innocent somebody started that rumor that they caused the problem and they broke into the jail they dragged those men out of that jail and hung every single one of them and it's the largest single lynching in US history nothing to
be proud of I feel that we're going to go through another lynching if you decide to take Columbus Day off your calendar and I hope and pray that you will see the light and not do
that thank [Applause] you hi Maria recupero ran off but I have a daughter who attends um School in Rockaway now I'm a history teacher so I wasn't really sure how I wanted to approach this I'm going to give you a little bit of a history lesson on
Columbus and how I kind of came to appreciate Columbus um when I was had just graduated college a woman handed me a book by um Mr loen which lies my teacher told me right I read the book I read the chapter on Columbus I was like could my grandmother have been wrong
like we had always celebrated Columbus and look at all of these awful things that are being written about him and so then I went to the World War II chapter and wait these are people who are still alive and I know these things didn't happen and so I threw the book out and I said this is a piece of junk who the heck would believe this and here we are
2025 and how many people quote this book or the book by Howard Zin who that book was voted the second least historical book by the social studies history Teachers Association and yet he's quoted
all over the place the national review which is a very left leaning magazine said that it's bad history right why because these historians right they aren't experts on Columbus I think as a
history teacher I have to teach 300 years of history in 180 days I can't possibly be an expert on everything that'd be impossible right so they write about all of these different time periods but yet they're not experts in any of them and what happens is we don't
listen to The Experts people like Carol Delaney from Stanford who wrote a book defending Columbus William Connell from Satan Hall Felipe fernander Ernesto from University of Notre Dame Patrick Connelly a Rhode Island historian
laurate Samuel Elliot Morrison Harvard PhD these are people who tra some of them traveled to Spain who read the actual documents from Columbus's time period and over and over again they tell us Zen loen they're wrong they got it
wrong and when these other men quote Columbus they'll use ellipses and as I read columbus' Journal because I'm like I need to see this for myself right I was always talk go to the primary documents go to the primary documents it's as I'm reading it I'm trying to compare what people like Zin said to the
actual journals and I'm looking at the days and okay there's part from October 12th and then the other part of the quote is from October 15th and it makes it sound like Columbus was saying things that he never intended to say right what
someone intends to say should be important how do we get to this point in schools you have textbooks that misquote Columbus now as a history teacher part of my job is to vet textbooks and so two years ago I was looking through textbooks in Savas which I'm sure you've all heard of as opposed to be a
reputable company I'm looking through the chapter on Columbus and the first quote I see is get gold for said to Columbus humanely if possible that all warning hazards get gold I'm like wait I've never seen that quote before and the quote supposedly was written to
Columbus in 1511 like wait a minute Columbus died in 1506 this is a reputable textbook that is quoting a letter sent to Columbus after he died I researched it and contacted people who I knew and we between us
found the quote Mr written to his sones seconds but yet here is a reputable textbook saying it went to Columbus and there's mistakes like this over and over again in the chapter so I'm going to give you guys some homework because ever being the teacher that I am right I
encourage you to read books by Carol Delaney and rapael Ortiz who have studied the documents look at Columbus because what we have learned and what a lot of us as social studies teachers teach the children is wrong
thank [Applause] you anybody else for this first portion can I have a motion to close to public comment so moved second show a hands please just as a point of clarity
because I think uh we kind of need to have that Clarity so one of the documents for this evening that's going to come up in a later section uh it states on on the 2025 2026 calendar that October 13th is Columbus Day schools closed staff and service so just so everybody's aware that when that portion
comes up that's what it St all you me so I just want to also because this is my last dra on the board and I just want to make sure that we remember our promise to the public that if we should decide to change something of that significance within the calendar that we will allow the opportunity for a listening session
or for the public to come forward and discuss it with us so I just want to make sure that we all remember that promise because I don't want to lose sight of that um because you know this is our community so thank you all right moving on to the uh the next portion here under uh excuse me
Communications only the one is there any additional no no additional awesome thank you uh moving on to approval of the minutes can I please have a motion to approve the minutes so moved seconded thank you can I have a roll call vote please Mrs Anderson yes Mrs KIRO yes
Miss mcgi yes Mrs mzik yes Miss Richardson yes Miss Tor yes Dr tomasini yes motion carries thank you very much Dr Cori can I please have your reports sure thank you thank you Dr tomasini um yesterday evening our CPAC provided an overview of the special education
programs in Rockaway township it was also an opportunity for the participants to meet the new assistant director of student services Rebeca Garcia about 13 people attended virtually and in person third Academy night occurred on Monday February 3rd here at Copa middle
school with the theme reading rocks K through 2 grades K through 2 that is and super kids uh due to weather conditions the February 6th Academy night was cancelled from our schools throughout February Birchwood students across all grade levels will
celebrate Black History Month learning about the significant contributions of black Americans the fifth grade student council is organizing a penny wars fundraiser encouraging all students to participate in a fund donation competition to support North porch an
organization that helps local women in need teachers and students are preparing for the njsla with great confidence and enthusiasm finally birwood is proud to celebrate our participants in the spelling B as we did tonight and the fifth grade members of the safe B Patrol
as they did tonight the dwire family had a great month of learning and giving back to the community the MLL Consultants continued work with our second third and fifth grades in developing strategies uh for teachers to use within
the classroom these academic discussions have proven beneficial in adding additional teaching tools seeds of service which gives back to the community has been a full swing with police go bags distributed to our Police Department the Rockaway soup kitchen was
provided soup through our Super Bowl of course collection and even the little furry friends were taken care of with the collection to support one of the local rescues excuse me KDM students completed their third mid year I ready Diagnostic and benchmark assessments teachers and
RTI teams will meet this month during data analysis days to monitor student growth student students participated in the great kindness challenge week where each day featured a different themes such as team up for kindness let your kindness shine kindness makes the heart
grow and power of kindness fifth grade students experience an exciting field day to the raron Valley Community College Planetarium where they learned about the consolations while participating in some fun and engaging activities to learn about the American
Democratic process the third grade class held elections the student council partnered with the PTA to host a coat drive that successfully procured over 150 coats and jackets of various side sizes for our needy neighbors the KDM Community is excited
to host the tre's marketplace which requires students to develop business and marketing plans they are now ready to put their business acument to the test with the public and everyone of course is welcome to participate during the week of TW
January 27th to the 31st stody Brook also participated in the great kindness challenge students received a checklist of kind acts and were encouraged to complete as many as possible throughout the week they also received the daily atome activity designed to spread
kindness within the community some of these activities included helping to set the dinner table or prepare a meal with the family calling a friend or relative just to say hello cleaning their room or playroom without being asked reading to a sibling or family member and creating or drawing a card for someone
special it was a wonderful week and the expectation is that kindness will continue to be a priority in Stony Brook fourth grade students demonstrated impressive mathematic IAL Mastery during the annual math Super Bowl to celebrate the achievement the winning Home Room was announced over the loudspeaker at
the end of the day the Super Bowl canned food drive was another tremendous success with nearly 400 cans of soup collected for those in need finally academic after school clubs are set to begin at the end of the month the last few weeks dbo and
students enjoyed the mass dancer assembly it was a fantastic experience that brought the community together in a fun and engaging way dbo also participated in the great kindness Challenge and they are committed to spreading kindness throughout the community the theme days were a great success filled with creativity fun and a
shared Spirit of compassion that made each day even more special from thoughtful notes and encouraging words to generous gestures and heartfelt connections everyone demonstrated the power of kindness and action the fifth grade student council
organized the canned food collection also and they were able to the goal of collecting 400 canned goods excuse me and at C CMS oh my gosh this is a bad night no it's a great night it's a bad
night for my throat good thing we haven't at CMS the great kindness challenge included students and staff doing as many acts of kindness as possible and showing that we all play a part in creating a bully-free and caring
School environment on Monday January 27th CMS acknowledged Holocaust Remembrance Day students were reminded to remember the values of kindness empathy and respect for one another the eighth grade snowball which is their spring formal a little early was held on February 7th
and it was a huge success as many of our e8th grade students enjoyed a night of dancing socializing and cotton candy on Tuesday January 28th oh my gosh but it rains of course thank you you're welcome on
Tuesday January 28th the seventh grade class visited the uh May Mayo Performing Art Center in Morristown to see the Mayhem poets and the sixth graders are looking forward to their trip to Medieval Times and that is my report but
I'm not done yet there's more there's more because the second part two uh pertains to hivs um current investigations there are 12 current investigations of hivs of the 12 six were
substantiated and six were unsubstantiated half and half the ones that were substantiated uh two had to do it race another one sexual orientation and the other three other distinguishing characteristic
this evening we have investigations for affirmation there's a total of five investigations that will be inir affirmed tonight of the five one was substantiated and that was for other distinguishing characteristic I also want to report this is on the agenda tonight to be affirmed by the board but
I want to um I want to mention it publicly also this is the student safety data it's called the evv RS um and it reports to the state all the incidences around the district regarding violence vandalism substance abuse weapons and
HIV so at Birchwood there were no violence vandalism substance or weapons um uh report reported or incidents it was one HIV that was confirmed at Copeland there was no violence and by the way this is
from September 1st if I didn't say it already to December 3 first so it's the first half of the year at Copeland no violence no vandalism no substance abuse no weapons there were a total of six confirmed hivs at
dwire there were no violence vandalism substance or weapons abuse there was one confirmed HIV at dbo Dennis B O'Brien there was no violence vandalism substance abuse of weapons there were five confirmed hivs at KDM kathern D Malone there was no violence vandalism
substance or weapons or HIV uh there was nothing at KDM boy it's like Utopia over there that's great stonia Brook similarly there were no violence vandalism substance weapons or hivs um and that is my report thank you
thank you very much Dr Corbett can I please have the business administrative report Miss L thank you Mr President uh the business office continues to forge ahead with the creation of the 2025 26 budget I believe this year will be challenging and that feeling has been corroborated by the county office and my
colleagues in other districts we've been seeing steady if not staggering ing increases for many of our fixed costs and our Revenue sources from the state and federal government remain uncertain at this time most recently I was informed by the county office that we would see an anticipated reduction in semi Medicaid special education funding
of approximately 40 to 50% when we received our allocation for the coming year I found our reduction was actually 80% I'm still awaiting a response from our Representatives as to why this occurred and I've heard many other districts reporting similar Cuts I do not believe this bodess well for the
coming state aid allocations or our federal allocations I will keep everybody updated on this matter as it develops and we will continue to focus on providing an effective responsible budget that prioritizes student learning I want to acknowledge and thank our maintenance and custodial staff for
under the direction of Mr Michael Martino for their handling of the recent snow and inclement weather uh thank you to their entire crew for keeping our staff and students safe they've been working very hard and their responsiveness has been very much appreciated I would also like to thank the maintenance for installing two new
bottle filling stations at DWI per Mr McGovern they were very much needed and I am sure very appreciated also on tonight's agenda under Finance we have the approval of our most recent bills list to highlight the expenditures on tonight's bills list will which make up the total amounts reflected
approximately $45,600 costs and approximately $28,155 and January 30th totaling to 3,668 577 and the remaining amounts can be attributed across a range of smaller categories including supplies Food
Service staff PD and travel Etc so ends my report thank you thank you very much M slam Mr ganella anything from curriculum tonight come on up excuse me Dr Corbett started it uh I was
fortunate enough to attend a lot of the events that um Dr Corbett mentioned in his report and I was speaking with Mr solazo we thought it would be a great idea to have Dr Corbett perhaps Dr tomasini Maybe maybe mayor Jackson
attend and participate in the mass dancer next school year um can't wait Rockaway Township continues to strengthen its partnership with Monclair State University through the Monclair State University Network for educational renewal program this initiative provides
professional development opportunities for teachers at all levels from novice to Advanced and offers the opportunity to earn a clinical faculty certification this certification enables teachers teachers to serve as cooperating teachers act as on-site mentors co-
facilitate Monclair state university courses become adjunct faculty and apply for various grant opportunities as part of our ongoing collaboration Rockaway Township has welcomed Educators and students from overseas most recently we had the privilege of Hosting students
and teachers from buusan University South Korea I would like to share a message from Monclair State highlighting their visit and before I do that I really would like to extend a thank you to uh Miss Vanessa Waxman who oversees
the Monclair State program and really does a lot of work behind the scenes to make events like this happen so this email is addressed to miss Waxman dear Vanessa I wish to take this opportunity to thank you for the outstanding
Hospitality time and patience Katherine a DWI Elementary School showed our guest from Buon University South Korea abuse on clinical interns especially enjoyed being among the students in their classrooms observing United States School settings and culture and being
given the opportunity to expand their abilities by interacting with the students one outcome of your willingness uh to share access to Katherine a DWI school is that Buon University is signing a contractual agreement with Monclair State University Center for
Education Innovation and strategic Partnerships to continue our cross-cultural relationship this agreement will bring 20 Buon University teacher education Majors to Montclair State every July for 4 weeks for what I am calling at this time the collective
for English language and American culture experiences it is my hope that Katherine ad DWI Elementary School teachers and perhaps students if available can be involved in some way with the students that will be housed just down the road on the Bloomfield Monclair campus Monclair state had a
successful visit with pus University because of your extended support and we thank you so this is just an example of the great things going on in Rockaway township uh I want to thank all of the teachers um who participate and write grants through Montclair State uh I want
to thank uh Montclair State University and Miss Waxman for making sure that these programs remain up and running and provide our teachers and our students with opportunities thank you everyone have a great night thank you thank you thank you thank you Mr G
all right moving on next to our agenda committee reports are there any committees that would like to report out I have Ed committee um the Ed committee met twice since our last meeting on January 30th from 4:30 to 6 o'clock in central office Dr Corbett Mr ganella
myself Miss torren Mrs Richardson and we had uh two guests Mr solazo and Miss West um our guests joined us for a portion where we t talked some about a proactive approach to building School climate uh hopefully to reduce HIV
situations and what were we going to do instead of just a reactive approach with the disciplinary action what can we do before that we've talked about what's actually happening there's Community circles in the classrooms there's the character strong Seal program acknowledgement of students who exhibit
positive character traits Dr Corbett said he plans to visit every fifth grade classroom this year going into it to remind them of um what kind of culture is expected of them moving into the Middle School uh we've talked about looking into becoming a no place for
hate school district right now Stonybrook is the only School recognized as such we also discussed possibly considering um one of our our board or District goals this year really focusing on that character
education the um another shout out to Vanessa she's been working really hard she's bringing our district an author day it's a common learning experience for all of the students in the district we're very excited for so R
Across America week is the first week in March and during that week There's an author Ana marose reesi she's going to be speaking to the students at each of the schools and then on March 13th everyone in the community is invited for a planned family night right here um
depending on the size we'll either be in this room or in the media center 6:30 again that's March 13th um the school calendar is approved we recommend that everybody um we recommend voting for that just so that
it's clear school will be in session this year on Election Day there is no longer voting taking place in the schools um upon teacher review parent teacher conferences will be returning back to November um there was a discussion regarding holidays and
inclusiveness we decided to keep Columbus a on the calendar the other discussion point that we wanted to um bring up with the board we did have a a gentleman speak last year and request that the holiday Eid be added to our
calendar and so I think we talked about it being really soon for this year especially because it falls L on the lunar calendar but we wanted to give Dr Corbin an opportunity to talk to the other schools in the area looking forward to next year about when that
when that holiday falls and how much of our demographics is affected with that holiday um the other piece there's a lot of curriculum up for review the teachers have worked incredibly hard the programs are rigorous they're fun it's exciting
um there's a lot of curriculum on there thank you to everybody who worked on it it was moved forward quite a bit because of QX that's a school monitor ing they're coming in soon so we also recommend approving that thank you thank you just
I have one uh question which holiday did you say that Eid it's the Muslim High holy day oh okay it's the end of their celebration of Ramadan oh and the other sorry I just didn't say the other date we met was February 6th that happened virtually because of the
snow EXC any other committees you you um the community outreach meeting met on a committee met on um January 29th we discussed um just recap of everything that has happened so
far with our referendum um consideration uh we decided that we needed to speak with the entire board along with our um uh not attorneys Architects and um
engineers and so at that point you know we'll continue our consideration with that being said that meeting was out of our normal cycle so I just wanted to confirm what days would be good going forward
for our meetings Tuesdays are always good as long as virtual obviously but yeah okay how about you I concur okay now this was much earlier than we normally meet so if I remember correctly 4:30 is the
earliest that we can meet correct 4:30 is a good time yeah 4:30 is good for me okay thanks 4:30 now I don't know if it will be the once a month or you know like we were at the last
every week but uh so basically Tuesdays are open correct y now for your operations committee when are you meeting for that uh I'm going to propose uh February 25th which is a Tuesday February is so Tuesday so I'm gone that day so don't worry about that one
okay all right so we'll get out on the calendar um with all being said I mean is everyone okay with let's see the next Tuesday that would be available is there anything going on on the 18th for
everybody I'm good I am good Dr Corbett the 18th yes of February 430 yes yep that sounds great to me okay so the next meeting for the community outreach will be February 18 4:30
central office and well actually it'll be hybrid so if anybody needs to attend virtually they can thank you and then from that point um I'll come up with a schedule and then we can discuss it all right thank you that's it thank you all
right so um did work on docs did not have a meeting uh but we're able to to get through the majority of the policy revisions for 234 there are two outstanding policies which we will likely have to have a meeting to discuss one refers to Ai and one refers to
children that are um staff members children that are outside of District attending our schools so we have to have a discussion on that so we will schedule time for that um other than that I've working on revising the table of contents because they really don't make sense and then I I'll probably like to
have a discussion about what to do about formatting because if anybody's ever worked I mean I've been doing this for years but if you've ever worked into the stra SM system it's like formatting in notepad is horrendous and our policies look terrible so as I've been building a
list of all of our policies and like what regulations they impact what other policies they impact you know the the dates that they were last revised I'm making this big list for everyone so I set everybody up for for the future um I'm noticing that these policies are a hot mess so um you know I want to talk
probably to you know our Council to see you know at what like to what extent can we just you know revise policies from an aesthetic perspective without having to bring a million policies up for first read second read and approval um there
are some STS substantive issues where we have still the use of the word pupils which we've taken out you know of over the P I think probably three years ago so that's something else to look at but um yeah so that's really it so policy committee look forward to a meeting coming up um I'll I'll see when you guys
are available not here to waste anybody's time um and we'll talk out those two policies and then we'll be caught up thanks thank you all right operations so the operations committee met on January 27th at 4:30 in central office uh present for that was Mrs
Anderson Miss Richardson uh Mrs slam Dr Corbin Mr Martino and myself uh during that time we discussed several things uh which included our uh construction project updates uh and capital project across the board looking at things districtwide uh a couple things that
crossing the fingers here in the near future that we're going to work on is the the KDM Windows uh as well as District flooring uh for replacing some of the uh the older areas um and as was highlighted carpet in kindergart rooms it just does not mat well good match we
uh we hopefully we'll we Rectify that uh additionally looking at different uh playground options uh at uh at KDM and then some maintenance projects internally working on uh painting projects inside of the building and then refinishing the floors ultimately giving a nice uh nice
presentable look um for our buildings additionally we uh we did have a uh a budget a budget update uh looking at it Miss slam has highlighted exactly what we were uh we're going over and what we were looking at um we're all anxiously going to await what the further guidance will be uh and what our operating budget
is going to look like uh and then we uh also talked about a couple of security um security updates those a little bit more confidential But ultimately what ways uh we can allow emergency responders to be able to have access to our buildings so uh a couple of those
options out there that pending anybody's question that's all I have for operations the report so I attended the dwart PTA meeting last night and I know this has been like a six year thing maybe seven years do we have any updates on the sign so we do um but
I I don't want to speak out of turn so I would prefer that I wait and give you guys at the next meeting um but but the what I'm hesitating to say would be positive so I can say that fingers crossed I've been talking about this before I was a board member so it's like
seven years so thank you aome uh operations committee members um February 25th that works for me 4:30 yep and also hybrid if everybody's okay with that sounds good send out a meeting link I didn't
confirm with Ed committee um Mr ganella do you have your calendar available or do you want to get back to us with would the 19th or the 26th work for the committee members what was the
date again the either February 19th or 26th I can do the 26th de 26 yes what's the date February 26th yes okay 4:30 then does that
work any more committee business all right moving on to the next section recommended for board action uh our first one alpha under Personnel there's no uh discussion for this one so we'll go right to the can I please have a roll call vote on Personnel item motion oh I'm sorry you're right bye
motion look I went right over and flipped it please have a motion there you go I'm motion thank you excellent all right okay and now you can have your roll call vote now can I please have a roll call vote on Mrs Anderson items yes Mrs
killu I'm sorry I said yes oh you said yes I didn't hear you I'm sorry okay yes Miss mcgi yes Miss me m m Miss Richardson yes Miss Tor yes Dr tomasini yes motion carries thank you moving on to Bravo HIV determinations motion
approved to HIV Det so moved second okay I'm going with Alison thank you uh just to clarify here what we're looking at is Hib 284 383 is unconfirmed 284 384 is unconfirmed 284
385 is unconfirmed 28477 6 is confirmed and 284 971 as unconfirmed can I have a roll call vot please Mrs Anderson yes Mrs K laroo yes M mcgi yes Mrs mzik yes Miss Richardson yes M tor yes Dr
tomasini yes motion carries excellent thank you all right moving on to Charlie education and I have a motion to approve education recommendations so move seconded thank you all right with those recommendations
any uh board discussion um I'd like to make a motion to separate the vote for the um number eight okay if I can get a second second thank
you okay all right okay acknowledging motion on the floor separate eight motion by chrisy seconded by Lisa okay I will take a roll call to
separate motion eight from the group um Mrs Anderson yes Mrs Kur Laro I we make a motion to separate we make a motion on 1 through s it's a motion to separate first yes okay uh
sorry I lost my groove um Miss McCary yes Mrs mzik yes Mrs Miss Richardson yes Miss torren yes Dr Thomas ini yes okay motion carries so we will now
separate eight so we will first move okay one through one through s sorry so no it's okay I just got to do some writing before we do that vote is there any board discussion on 1 through S no board discussion anybody from the public want to comment on this section
you need a motion first well the motion so the motion on the floor was will stand for one through seven okay that's clarifying yes and that was what yeah that's my flipping that's what I'm doing so and as long as those who moved it are comfortable with that Lisa and Noel 1
through 7 okay so then yes public commente anybody from the public on under education have any comments seeing none can I please have a roll call vote on one through seven yes
Mrs Anderson yes Mrs killu yes Miss McGary yes Mrs mzik yes Miss Richardson yes Miss torren yes Dr tomasini yes okay motion for 1 through seven carries and now we will reopen for a motion for
eight for number eight can I a motion for eight please so moved second thank you okay any board discussion on eight anybody from the public want to comment on eight and eight only we don't have AG the agendas are at the front of
the room all right seeing none at this time well I don't think they've looked at it yet yeah they haven't looked at okay you want to just acknowledge eight refers to curriculum yes eight eight is curriculum need to tell them what page
it is on page seven oh yeah you're welcome page seven number eight so just to clarify here for the public so you're aware uh number seven under this section was the approval of the
district calendar as proposed so according to what just was approved is that on October excuse me October 13th Columbus Day schools closed staff in service that has been approved by the Rockley Township Board of
Education thank you [Applause] anybody have any comments on eight from the public seeing none can I please have a roll call vote on number eight Mrs
Anderson yes Mrs kurer no Miss mcui yes Mrs mzik yes Miss Richardson yes Miss Tor yes Dr tomasini yes motion carries just for for the good of the group also just as a note and it's perfectly fine to separate the Motions we absolutely
can do that but for future reference if you would like to vote no on one item within the group you can do that in your vote so if you would like to vote Yes on one through seven no on eight you have the option to do that just so again just go to the group although to that point and correct me if I'm wrong how would
that be handled as far as uh if you wanted to have a separate conversation about that you can you can bring that up during board discussion and also it is possible for one motion within a set to not pass okay so that doesn't that doesn't change the ability for it not to
pass the group doesn't have to pass as a whole so make sure the board conversation would still be intact as well as the right of the public to yeah the procedure is similar as if you were to have to abstain on a particular item you can abstain from that item you don't have to abstain to the group as and again nothing nothing wrong with splitting it out but just wanted to make
sure that we all know that that's an option as well okay okay all right moving on to Delta Administration can I please have a motion to approve administrative recom recommendations so moved second thank
you any uh board discussion on these items I can open it to the public if anybody has any comments on this section only you inviting the Scout up are you inviting the Scout up they okay I wasn't aware of it but we
can certainly invite is do we have a presentation okay we are okay problem come on hold on one second before you can I please have a motion to open to public comment so move seconded thank you show a hands thank you you go right ahead just
state your name and address please you can pull that down Marissa hunt 21 Dakota f um so I'm here to present my Eagle Scout project for approval
um so sorry take your time don't don't worry um so uh my name is morissa as I said I'm a part of um Rockway Township's troop 19 and I'm a senior in Morris
Morris Hills High School um I'm working on my Eagle Scout project and I have discussed my proposal with Dr corbid Mr Martino and Mr wisnoski um to make sure that my project is as beneficial as possible um I'm planning on doing my
project at Stonybrook and it will be two new buddy benches um for the two sections of play without that in addition to repainting the kindergarten black top um as all the paint is faded away and lastly a free library for the new Outdoor Classroom
Courtyard um the project will benefit the school um as a kids who need friends at recess lunch will have a place to find one the black tops benefit the kindergarteners that um that's their place to play and why should they not have an area with painted activities for
them um and then for the library for kids who may not have a chance to get the activity um get to the actual library but want to read books um and they cannot get there um and then the project would be done around early April
and it'll be completed end of April um it would take around two to three weekends depending on weather to get it fully completed and um that's it for my proposal thank you
very much you I ask a question that's awesome Marissa a quick question for you um did you go to Sony Brook yourself yeah I oh thank you so much for uh coming back and doing this I think it's great thank you thank you can I please have a motion to close
the public comment so moved second thank you show a hands all right can I please have a roll call yes Mrs Anderson yes Mrs car Lao yes Miss mcir yes Mrs mzik yes Miss
Richardson yes Miss Tor yes Dr tomasini yes motion carries excellent moving on to Echo Finance motion to approve Finance recommendations so moved seconded thank you all right any board
discussion I'd like to recommend I signed the bills on Monday I'd like to recommend that we approve them good all right any uh anybody from the public want to comment on finance seeing none can I have a roll
call vote please Mrs Anderson yes Mrs Caro yes M mcgui yes Mrs mzik yes Miss Richardson yes Miss Tor yes Dr tomasini yes motion carries thank you moving on to foxtop policy D have a motion to approve policy recommendations so moved
second thank you any board discussion I just found uh I think it's a typo but it's small is it easier for me to probably also send it to you right Chrissy yeah um just so that the Public's aware I think policy 5512
that's the HIV policy um it was on the original policy documents that you sent us it was page four but in the board approved agenda it was on the top of page six it reads the board board developed guidelines for student conduct taking into
consideration the nature if the behavior I pretty that should say of the behavior and that's it I'll look into it and see what what it's supposed to say yeah and I can adjust it accordingly and let you know at the next meeting thank you all right any other board discussion
on policy anybody from the public want to comment on policy all right seeing none can I please have a roll call V Mrs Anderson yes Mrs Laro yes Miss mcui yes Mrs mzik
yes Miss Richardson yes Miss Tor yes Dr tomasini yes motion carries awesome thank you all right at this time we're going into our second uh public session comments 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 he deems appropriate thank I see can I have a motion to open to public comment please so moved second thank you show a
hands it it's a little weird it was a little backwards but we got it backwards again good evening my name is Donna marce zinski I live at One Lake Shore Drive will this school board be following the executive order that biological males may not play on female
sport teams or use female restrooms if our district does not follow the order we could lose Federal funding how are we going to do that is that going to be put on the taxpayer as a parent whose daughter is in District I'm requesting policy 5756
be rescinded once and for all our biological girls deserve protection everybody deserves protection you can have private third bathrooms too I'm looking forward to gentelin's tonight thanks thank you thank
[Applause] you anyone else from the public is this General yes yeah yes just want to express my thanks for preserving Columbus Day it's very very important and I think that the vote you took today will res across the country
as we let all of our people know across in fact while I was here I was being texted by two reporters that w't be on the air tomorrow and you can you'll see me on a couple of news stations talking about it so thank you very much anyone else good evening uh Megan o Conor 64 Erie
Avenue so back to the referendum uh on a press release that was dated August 27th of 2024 the Board of Ed wrote and I'm quoting the district is projecting a 42%
increase in enrollment from 2020 to 2025 alone this was uh the premise uh based on buying that large Bond however I'm confused because based on the department of education site that
the numbers for the enrollment in 2019 to 2020 the enrollment was 2375 2020 to 21 was 2291 2021 to 2022 was
246 2022 to 2023 was 2437 and as of October the 15th of this year the enrollment was 20425 so I'm I am confused because this
doesn't look like a 42% increase so I think the good taxpayers of Rockaway they deserve an explanation in public on the record not through an email as to why there is a big difference between the projections and the actual numbers
thank you thank you hello good evening April Mata P 14 dudak Road Rockway um at the last board meeting Dr Corbett explained the new protocol concerning touching in the schools for both students and staff will there be a new board policy specifying
the rules in light of all the nuances that occur during the school day and how do you anticipate this affecting our students and particularly those who as some board and community members have indicated allegedly have parents who may be unaccepting or
unsupportive at home and need teachers for that support thank you thank you thank you anyone else for a public comment seeing none can I please have a motion to close the public comment so moved second second thank you show a
hands all right moving on to Old business any old business um I had mentioned um at a Mars County School Board ass association meeting or following it that our field service rep Charlene Peterson would be retiring while it's official uh she has
named that for May so hopefully we can get her in before then thank you we are looking into doing more training those dates we're going to check with shortly to see great anything else for old business on
that topic with Morris County School boards Association um the meeting met virtually Lisa coordinated with the middle school band so Copeland students performed before uh Morris County Ford Association they did a remarkable job and thank you for
putting our students in the spotlight that was great um there was a lot discussed there I learned a lot um primarily different schools who share ideas with governance first and so um was thinking that maybe we could talk
about some of those ideas that was that I don't believe I received the PowerPoint Lisa so I was wondering if you could direct me how I could find it um robera who is our County activities coordinator will be sending that out to anybody who has registered for that meeting okay thank you and then of
course you know anyone else who wants it we'll follow that too just so I could like pause it just in that spot to see how they did it sure any new business I new business well well swiped my thunder here sorry I
just want to say thank you to our um middle school music department specifically Bria spots and Casey gab uh students performed wonderfully we had I had them or I actually had Dr Corbett asked if it was okay they sent um clips
about the pledge of allei uh Pledge of Allegiance they played um to flus uh I think it was the star spangel Banger and then two other ones and it was wonderfully received everyone was very impressed that they were only middle school because typically for our
Mars County meetings we have high school performances so please extend our thanks because it was wonderful um I just wanted to thank the staff and principles at Copeland Stony Brook and KDM for opening their doors to me Mrs mzik and Dr Corbett and showing
us their schools to see the students engaging in their classwork responding to Dr Corbett and feeling the positive energy in each building was beyond evidence as a new board member and knowing that we are still looking at alternate ways to improve our schools it was really imperative for me to start these tours because our schools are in
dire need of space improvements and upgrades despite these ailments the Rockway Township teachers staff and students continue to shine and push through their push through with vigorous lessons and engaging Hands-On experiences in the near future I look forward to touring the last three
elementary schools of dwire dbo and birwood thank you I just had one thing for tonight we uh we just approved it but it was the proposal for the purple star school implementation uh a wonderful program uh that's coming from our dbo community uh
I really am thankful for such a great team over at dbo and bringing this idea forward uh what it is is it's a a way for us to connect better with our military Community knowing that we have pitini Arsenal right here and several students that attend our schools it's a wonderful thing to have where uh kids
coming from all over the world now being stationed here having uh a place to go and having uh a One-Stop shop as they put it which is I think excellently place for uh resources that are out there additionally with that it's also pairing students up with a new student to let them know a little bit of the lay
of the land and and to kind of be that positive uh guide or or somewhat Mentor uh to a new student that's coming in it's hard enough to be moving around uh frequently uh so it's nice that we have a program here and dbo is uh since we're
using shining star tonight a shining star there for coming up with the uh purple star school implementation I think it's going to be fantastic so thank you Dr Corbett for the support on that absolutely I have one thing um that stood out to me at the D PTA meeting last night I learned that the this year
um all of the PTA for Copeland is going to be parents that are graduating out of Copeland so it leaves Copeland running the risk of not having a PTA which I feel is critical to building the bridge between parents students and and especially the board so I just just want
to kind of throw it out there for anybody who's listening if you are in Copeland next year you might want to consider signing up um I heard it's a fun gig um so that's it thank you thank you I think we need uh ptas at all schools we certainly love the uh
volunteers so anybody out there that's interested please volunteer yeah all right is there any other new business if not can I please have a motion to adjourn for this evening so moved second show a hands please
thank you very much we are adjourned at 911 [Music] [Music]
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