All right. At 7:01 p.m., we're going to call this regular meeting of the Rutherford Board of Education. Uh, I'm going to ask all to please stand for the pledge of allegiance. Allegiance to the flag of the United States to the republic for which it
stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Forgot to mention the date. May 12th, 2025. had my wife's birthday. Uh, all right. Uh, Mr. Whitford, please take role.
I need proof. Mr. Posian, present. Mrs. Cole, here. Mr. Ki. Mr. Healey. Here. Mrs. Jones, present. Mr. Maison, here. Dr. Rine here. Mr. Spayberry, present. Dr. Lahi here. Miss
Ayorio. All right. The New Jersey Open Public Meetings Act was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meeting of public bodies at which any business affecting their interests is discussed or acted upon. In accordance with the provisions of this act, the Rutherford
Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place posted on the bulletin board outside the Burough Clerk's office, mailed to the Herald, South Bergenite, and the record newspapers and filed with the burough clerk. Hard copies of the agenda are available in the meeting room and the
agenda is posted electronically on Friday before the meeting date on the district's website at www.rotherfordschools.org. Subsequent to the meeting, a video of the meeting will be uploaded to the district's website www.rotherfordschools.org. The video link can be found by opening the board
of education link and clicking on public meetings and then videos. Uh so board members in your packets their regular meeting and executive session meeting minutes from April 28th, 2025. There are any questions or comments on those? Uh seeing none, I'll ask Mr.
Whiter to please enter those. Uh and we will move now to the report of the student representative. Good evening. Spring sports are still going well. The girls track team just recently won the divisional championship and the girls softball team made it to the county
quarterfinals this past weekend. Several seniors also had their signing day where they officially signed to play their respective sports in college. RHS music students had a great trip to Washington DC. The group was honored with the Esprey Decor award which represents
positive character and is a major accomplishment considering only one school is able to receive the award. Additionally, the spring concert is this Wednesday where RHS band and choir students will be showcasing all of their hard work throughout the year. The RHS
art show is also coming up on May 21st. Students in various art classes are always working so hard on their project, and this is always a great night to see them all displayed. May 1st was commitment day where the seniors celebrated their plans for after high school by wearing merch and signing
their name outside of the guidance office. They also have a lot to look forward to coming up with their senior awards ceremony and senior prom happening at the end of May. The field days for the elementary schools are taking place soon as well. High school students involved in Heroes and Cool
Kids have volunteered to help out at each field day which is always fun for both the high schoolers and the younger kids. Also from the other schools, Mrs. Saxon shared that discovery day at Washington School was very successful and included a lot of hands-on STEM activities as well as our ELA and
physical education. The high school students were also very helpful in guiding the younger students throughout the day. At Lincoln School, one of the pair of professionals entered a lottery to win 100 books from the reading is fundamental program and they won. The books will be going to class libraries
and the school library and some will also be shared with Peron school. Peron students will be taking the NJSLA over the next two weeks and they are also getting ready for their fitness day and their art show. And lastly, Union School held their eighth grade volleyball tournament back in April which brought
together students and teachers for a fun spirited event. The games had such positive energy and everyone enjoyed the friendly competition. And that's all for tonight. Thank you. Nice job. As usual, I want to mention to the um members of
the board that the senior awards um May 30th I believe um at nine o'clock at Tryon Field, weather permitting. Um you don't need a ticket uh to come in. So if anybody um wants to come out, Dr. A lot, you presenting them this
year. Okay. So u but if any aside from Dr. Alotti who presents the scholarship, uh if anybody thinks they want to go, uh if you can let me know ahead of time because you know Mr. Morano likes to recognize anybody who's there. So I'd rather be missed. You'll be you may be
there as a parent and you may be there as a parent. Sure. But if you're going to go, just let let me know because this way you can recognize board members who are there. Um I will tell you though, it's a a rather long program and if it gets uh sunny and hot uh down at that
field with the track and the turf and the bleachers, um it's a warm day. Uh yeah, I sit on the track. We'll dark suit on and start to melt into the track at a certain point. Um but if uh if you want to come, bring sunscreen and a hat
and some ice water. Okay. But uh it's it's a very nice day and it's a great day because the uh you see the community and surrounding community support. I mean, the scholarships are are um total usually well over
$100,000 uh total uh that goes out. Uh you know, awards range from $50 to a couple of thousand dollars depending on the group and it's u and and also the number of students who receive uh recognition is always is always very nice. So, just let me know so you can be
recognized if you're there. Okay. Um, you have what? One more meeting, right? Are you running for real? I don't want to put you on the spot. Yeah, I am. But I'm gonna anyway. I am anyway. You're going to run for re-election. Are you seeking higher office? You No, I am running again for this position. Wait,
you have to be good for that? Yeah. I don't like that you appointed No. Yeah, I'm elected. It's like student council. Okay. All right. Well, if you need if you need one of those uh commercials where you could say, you know, you you endorse and support the comment, we'll we'll make one for you.
Uh thank you. Any questions or comments from board members hearing? None. As always, we appreciate everything you bring to the meeting and all your preparation. You can feel free to stay, but we understand end of your obligations. So, thank you so much. Thank you. I'm glad you like us
enough to run again. Good night, Sarah. Thank you. Thanks. All right. Uh, next up we have the report of the superintendent. Uh, thank you. Um, you all should have received either in the packet or at the table
tonight a copy of Scribe, which is literary magazine. Uh, if you didn't, let me know and I'll make sure you get one. Um tonight there'll be several agenda uh several agenda items just to make note of them. Now uh all certificated and
non-ertificated staff who either have not earned tenure yet or in a position where they don't acrew tenure are on the agenda for approval tonight. Uh it's a long list. We're also very pleased that the um collective bargaining agreement, the contract with the Rutherford
Education Association is on the agenda for approval tonight as well. And I want to um not anticipate it passing, but um assuming that it will, I want to thank the REA and I want to thank the members
of the board for um getting this done in very in a in a tough year around the county for negotiations to get it done in short order and I think a very fair contract to both sides. So, congratulations to everyone. Um, also on the agenda is a resolution
approving sending the uh business administrator board secretaries contract to the county. As you probably remember, the contract for the superintendent and the contract for the BA have has to be reviewed and approved at the county level before the board
gets a chance to look at it and approve it. So there's a need to um approve sending it forward. So that's what we're doing. And then once it gets back, then we'll share it with the board and we go from there.
Um I'll remind you all that dates on the contra uh dates in in the um communication I send are based off of the calendar. So again, if you're going to attend something, you might want to just double check that day on the on the district calendar. Um, sports dinner. I
sent something out on that. We do have uh room for one more person if anybody wants to go. Again, there's not a pressure thing. We having two board members there. We also have one board member who is running a deal. Uh, and you're you got the seat up there. You know, we were going to keep you off that
table because I think you won the pool last time, right? Yes. Yeah. Twice in a row. And I'm not not going to be there because I'm afraid of competition. I have a conflict. Now, for people who may be watching this, the pool is simply we pick what time the program is going to end and there's no monetary value. It's
just bragging rights, right? And um so Mr. Goji is the reigning. No, no, I I I lost the last one. It was the two prior that I Oh, two prior. Who won the last one? Uh I think it was Nick. Oh, Mr. Barry won. Yeah. Yeah. Well, because Yeah. Yeah. I think he threatened people
if they didn't speak longer, he would sustain them or something like that. Um, so anyway, getting back to graduation, I'm sure Dr. Lahi will speak about that, but again, June 23rd, which is a Monday night for the high school. And at some point, I'll be asking you to
let me know for sure if you're going to be there or not. Okay. Uh, the end of the year dinner, if you want to attend, please get the check and to Mrs. Sen follow up in my office. That's on June 5th. Uh reminder that we
have a professional development day. All the schools closed on on back in May on the 23rd of May. Um that for snow not using a snow day, but we're also going to be closed for students on June 10th, which is primary day. And we're going to
have a PD day. Probably 90% 95% of our staff will be working on that Atlas curriculum model uh to try to finalize that. We shared that at our last curriculum instruction meeting that come July 1, that's going to be the live
working model now for our curriculum. So, we still have a and and there'll be work to still do on it through next year, but we want to get to the point where it's ready to go come July one. Um, just mentioned that we're going to have two more newsletters this year.
One's going to be coming out probably the first week of June. SE electronic one that goes out to the parents in school and then the mailer that we do burrowwide. We'll do that most likely the last week in June. I was in contact today with our PR people and um putting
that together both of those together. So they'll be be coming out and May 29th there is a county uh school board's meeting at that meeting. A couple of board members uh recognized for the years of service. Uh they're going to mention I think me as well for u
superintendent of the year. Uh they said I can say a few words but they also have the teacher of the year for the state shows up and gives a little talk that night as well. So again if you I think you all contacted as board members if you were going to go you were supposed
to RSVP to them. Is it Hasbro Heights at the uh Holiday in? I think it's holiday in right. And uh that's it for my report. All right, any questions for Mr. Hurley? Hearing none, we'll move on to
the report of the president. Uh, so first off, I want to echo what Mr. I said about um thanking the REA for um a very um mutually respectful process of really listening
um and trying to uh come to uh an agreement for the next three-year contract for the REA that both the board felt um was uh fair u within the parameters of what we strive for um and also uh reflects some of the hopes of
the REA members as Well, so special thank you to Dennis, James, and Greg who spent their time helping to make all that happen. Uh, just a reminder for folks to complete the CSA evaluation. I need that done by the end of May. So, if you haven't done it yet, uh, please make
sure to do that. I sent it by email uh through your board email addresses. Just wanted to take a moment and say I always enjoy reading student magazines. Scribe was great. Um, so it was a lot of fun to read through that. uh want to wish uh Mr. Hurley,
administration, faculty, good luck. You're getting to uh you know, you're beyond the seven denning stretch at this point. So, uh of the school year. So, usually it heats up and there's a lot of end of year events. Feel like they're all happening and clashing crashing at the same time, but I'm sure uh um
they'll be wonderful. So, thank you and uh in advance and good luck with those. Um and then uh yeah, so you see the end of year events that Mr. put on. Just wanted to highlight uh June 20th is the Union uh school uh graduation for those
who can come. Um I will not be speaking at that this year because uh Diane Miss Jones has a great grandchild who's going to be graduating. So uh that will be wonderful. But uh of course I'll be there um to help with diplomas. And for
anyone who's able to come, please let Mr. Hurley know. Uh and then on Thursday, June 23rd, the big kahuna. Um we have a couple of uh our board members, kids graduating, so I suspect that I will potentially not be speaking there. So if you're not sure if you want to come, I won't be speaking
most likely. So come on in. Um but anyway, these are all things that um we do need to finalize soon, those pieces. So please just talk to me or Mr. Hurley about uh plans for that. I always love sharing the air, especially with those, you know, who serve on the board and um with that opportunity coming. So that is
it for my board report. Any questions or comments? All right. Hearing none, then we are going to open the meeting to the public at 7:16 a.m. uh p.m. Excuse me. Uh for anything that is related to the
agenda. Looks like we do not have anyone here this evening. So we're going to close the meeting at 7:16 p.m. and we will move on to new business where there is action to be taken. Uh and we will start with a substantial personnel uh
update. Mr. Cole, substantial it is. Good evening. Um today we have 23 resolutions to be put forward at the recommend recommendation of the superintendent and personnel did have a meeting this month. Number one is to approve the master contract between the
Rutherford Board of Education and the Rutherford Education Association for the period of July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2028. Number two is contract renewals. Um certificated staff non-tenured
um all the employees listed below are being recommended for renewal positions as listed. Just have two pages of those names. Number three, contract renewals non-certificated non-tenured. The employees listed below are being
recommended recommended for renewal positions as listed. Another two pages. Number four is to accept a resignation. Number five is to resend the approval of a long-term substitute
school psychologist. Number six is to approve a special education teacher. This is a replacement position. Number seven is to approve a legal replacement special education teacher. Number eight is to approve a
bus driver for up to eight hours per day. Number nine is to approve a bus driver pending negotiation negotiations for up to eight hours per day. Number 10 is to approve a teacher assistant. Number 11 is to approve a transfer from
Union School to Purecon School. Number 12 is to certify the quantitative merit criteria has been satisfied by the superintendent of schools for the 2425 school year and to approve the payment of a merit bonus
goal. Number 13 is to approve summer months as a clerical assistant at Lincoln School. Number 14 is to approve a clerical assistant at Washington School. Number 15 to approve the following staff members to assist
the child study team during the summer summer months as listed. Number 16 is to approve the following indisters for the summer enrichment academy as listed. Number 17 is to approve the following teacher assistance for the summer enrichment academy as
listed. Number 19 is to approve the following clerical assistant for the summer enrichment academy as listed. Number 19 to approve the following clerical assistant for the summer enrichment academy as listed. Number 20 to approve
the following substitute teachers for the school year as listed. Number 21 to approve the following substitute teacher assistance as listed. And number 22 to approve the following travel reimbursements as listed. And then for the addendum number 23 to approve the
submission of the proposed 2526 contract for the school business administrator or secretary to the executive county superintendent for review. All right. Uh thank you Mrs. Cole. Questions from board members. All right. Seeing none, Mrs.
Cole, do you want to move those? Let's move motions 1 to 23 under personnel. All right, we have a second. Mr. Healey, any last questions or comments? Hearing none, Mr. Rifer, please take role. Mr. Beosian, yes. Mrs. Cole, yes.
Mr. Kiy, Mr. Healey, yes. Mrs. Jones, yes. Mr. Mone, yes. Dr. Rine, yes. Mr. Spayberry, yes. Dr. Aotti, yes. Motion car. All right. Thank you. We will move on now to curriculum and instruction.
Mrs. Jones, thank you. Uh we did have a CNI meeting on May 5th and tonight there are seven motions under um CNI. One, curriculum guide approvals. This is for the seventh and eighth grade. Two, out of district
placements. Three, field trips. Four and five are HIV decisions. Six is NS NJ NJSI AAA which has to do with summer athletic practice for Rutherford High
School and seven is home instruction for one student. All right. Thank you very much. Questions from board members? No. Okay. M. Jones, you want to move this? I move resol resolutions 1 through 7 under court instruction. All right, we
have a second. Mr. Mone, any last questions or comments? Hearing none, Mr. Whitford, please take role. Mr. Posian, yes. Mrs. Cole, yes. Mr. Healey, yes. Mrs. Jones, yes. Mr. Mone,
yes. Dr. Rine, yes. Mr. Spayberry, yes. Dr. Elotti, yes. Motions carry. Thank you. We'll move on to finance now. Mr. Beazi. Uh, good evening. We have not had a finance committee meeting since our last fall board meeting. Tonight on the agenda, we have five motions to
consider. Number one is the routine approval of bills. Number two is the March treasures report. Number three is March budget line transfers. Number four is to approve the reallocation of title one and title three funds. And number
five is to approve a parent agreement. All right. Questions or comments from board members? Could you remind me what the parent agreement is? Uh has to do with a special ed placement out of district.
Um and um it was a I can't really say much publicly about it. Okay. I could I could um under the guise where I have an executive session based on contract. I could fill you in that under contract.
Okay. Uh, thank you. Any questions or comments from board members? Otherwise, all right. Hearing none, Mr. Puzz, I'd like to move motions one through five under finance. All right. We have a second. Miss Cole,
uh, final comments or questions? Hearing none, Mr. Whitford, please take role. Mian, yes. Mrs. Cole, yes. Mr. Healey, yes. Mrs. Jones. Yes. Mr. Mone, yes. Dr. Rine, yes. Mr.
Spayberry, yes. Dr. Ali, yes. Motions carry. All right. On to policy. Mr. Hilly. Yeah. We did not have a uh committee meeting since our last board meeting. And uh there are no motions this evening. All right. Thank you. We will move on to buildings and grounds. Mr.
Spayberry, we did have a meeting last week. Thank you, Mr. a great job on the capital project. It's not always. All right. Thank you. We'll move on to
old business. Any old business to report, Mrs. Jones? Well, it's that time again. and I'm running away to all these concerts, but I'm loving them. Uh, Pure Pond School, spring band concert, John. No, that's Michael Cloud. No, that was
on April 30th. That was wonderful. Kids get pooped from the fall. Uh and then Union's Fed concert was the following week on May 1st and that's John um Banti
and fabulous and Cooper uh Ki played the drums and I think that's it. Anybody else? No, I think that that was it. Wonderful. And then on last Thursday night was the Union Middle
School spring concert with um Tushala and um a lovely pianist that played with it too. So it was very good. Cooper was there also playing. Um they were great. They sang beautifully. They they had
solos that were wonderful. I'm very very impressed with these kids. They really do a fantastic job. Well down maybe. There you go. They were very good. Awesome. Uh, Mr. Really? Yes. Uh, are you done, Mrs. Jones? You finished it.
Um, I also attended the peer pond concert, April 30th. Um, and I also uh attended the uh New Jersey School Board Association delegate assembly this past Saturday, May 10th. And uh they elected new officers and uh
a person uh is now a new president, Tamisha D. Smith from Nolton Township know that um three resolutions were put forth and they passed but there was no uh usually they put out the notes in a couple of days after it and it's wasn't
out today but I'll distribute those notes to everybody this week since they come out. Um there's two or out of the three there was a couple that uh I don't know if we consider but uh esports someone brought it up that esports should be recognized with possibly uh
like they do with athletics as NJSIA that's up to the NJSIA and good luck with that. NCAA does. Yeah, it might happen. Mhm. Um and uh there was one that was a little bit cloudy, I think, but I'm looking for the explanation
about the school nurse requirements, you know, to address the shortage. So, well, right now you have to have one uh school nurse certificated person in district. You can then have RNs or LNS working under that. Uh we have uh five school
nurse certificated and one without. So, we're we're in pretty good shape, but um I don't know what they're referring to unless they want to eliminate the fact that you need someone with with the certificate. Uh but but we're we're we're in good shape. The proposal was to
uh eliminate the bachelor's degree requirement and have it just be associated with then would also with then with additional training and whatnot. Yes. Well, well, I will say this. Uh, you know, there's a lot of areas where we can't find staff, right?
Whether it be techn technology, um, vocational, where you have talented people who didn't have the school, you know, credentials, right? And we have alternate route programs. It would be nice if we could find a way to fill some
of these gaps with people who know their stuff, maybe need training about being in the classroom. Um, so I I'd like to see the police explore those concepts have those conversations. I think Spanish, right, French, any
language, people that are fluent, uh, even people who are teachers who may be fluent have a teaching certain one area can't teach world language. Um and the uh the school nurse requirements uh this proposal was
changed by the schoolboard association but that language was not there. So that's why you know when the notes come out I'll distribute to everybody. Um and uh the third one had to do with excused absences for students that are seeking
either position or joining a union uh program for skilled uh trade a skilled trade professional could be excused for that time. So that was it and I'll distribute the notes soon as I get them. All right. Thank you, Mr. Al. Anything else on old
business? I failed I'm sorry I failed to mention in my report QAC remember we were late had the visit last um Wednesday or Tuesday I forget what day it was uh Tuesday uh it was a um a long
visit about four and a half hours um but it was a good one um everything seems to be in order everything seems to be in that in that area of operations uh there were no hiccups uh nothing seemed to be a problem but it was a long thorough discussion and in many ways a beneficial
one you know um one of the things I I asked very early in in the the morning let's separate compliance and checking the box that we did it with discussion about best practice and how to do things
maybe differently or or better. Um and so that made it a more focused conversation. And you know to the county uh folks who do a very thorough job and a good job. They they have the luxury of seeing every school in Bergen County, every school district, and they can see things that work and things that may not
work so well. And um you know to share that kind of wide view is not a bad thing to hear how some other people are doing doing things. So, uh, we'll await the report, which we probably won't get till late summer or early fall, but, um,
we anticipate it to be a good report. All right. Thank you. Uh, we're going to move on now to legislative update. Anything for us, Mrs. Jones? Uh, yes. Senate Bill 4357, introduced May
12th, 2025. Uh, Senator Troy Singleta requires non-public schools to forward student uh, discipline, I'm sorry, discipline records of students who transfer to
public schools. I thought that would have been automatic that they would do that anyway, but evidently not. Huh. No. No. So, okay. Okay. All right. That's it. Thank
you. All right. At 7:31 p.m., we're going to open the meeting to the public for anything related to or not related to the agenda. And seeing that there is no one here this evening, we are going to close the meeting at 7:31 p.m. Uh we do have a need for an
executive session for uh we have a short personnel and a a short contraction probably 5 10 minutes. So, one personnel matter uh and one contract matter. Uh about five or 10 minutes out,
no action to be taken. Need a motion to go into executive session. James Sprayberry, seconded by James Bugosian. All in favor? All right. Thank you.