can you please take the roll call of course I will board member Jeff Bennett board member here elizabeth here [Music]
that's why here [Music] here here it's not Uh we want to welcome tonight uh the
Columbia High School Excelsier singers they've been generous enough to share their talents we'll get We'll get up yeah we'll get up thank you come on man [Music]
hello everyone uh this my name is Nick Diaz this is um Excelsier singers or really kind of twothirds of Excelsier singers the other third there's like something going around and um but luckily for us they kind of got sick in like equal se amounts per section so
it's good um we are going to sing a beautiful piece called Earth Song for you [Music] first sing [Music] [Music]
See this [Music] star with The soul cries out [Music]
in power you [Music] and the [Music] Lord [Music]
Christ have been my refuge [Music] shall be my light of
shining [Applause] hallelu Hallelu Through darkness and pain
[Music] and seeing [Music] Peace [Applause] peace next we will sing a South African
greeting song flow no low fast [Music] [Music]
you la no love no love no love no love no love no love no love no love no love no love no love no No time oh oh oh [Music] you can
You [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Oh oh yeah
[Music] [Music] scarlet [Music] I love to
[Applause] you know somebody [Applause]
beast [Music] [Applause]
thank you thank you thank you so much thank you thank you so much thanks for having us thanks for having us please take notice that adequate notice of this meeting has been provided in the
following manner that written notice was sent from the office of the secretary of the board at 2:30 p.m on January 3rd 2025 that said notice was sent via email to Maplewood and South Orange Township clerks and the editors of the news record Star Ledger Tap into Soma and the
Village Green now I'd like to motion to enter into executive session at 6:42 p.m to discuss attorney client matters personnel negotiations and hibs the length of executive session is estimated to be 75 minutes after which the public meeting of the board shall reconvene and
proceed with business where formal action will be taken may I have a second thank you second Gable uh all in favor okay let's go okay everyone we are now Seems are charging
we are now back in session did we kick this thing off there you go okay it's just going to be one of those nights um thank you all for joining us tonight uh I'd like to make a motion to What's going on it's not working i'd like to make a motion to approve the
prior board meeting minutes on February 27 2025 um and that would include the executive session minutes as well do I have a second thank you um board member Bennett all in favor please raise your hand great thank you the minutes have
been approved and now we will have student update thank you all right we have some recognitions uh if you tuned in to last month's board meeting you may have seen a fantastic group of students from Maplewood Middle School present a solution to traffic
issues during drop off and dismissals through a project challenge from the New Jersey School Boards Association's steam tank challenge uh this is obviously the steam tank team from Maplewood Middle School and thanks to their innovative thinking Maplewood Township and Maplewood Police are implementing their
proposal for a one-way traffic calming plan during peak hours to enhance student safety well done to the MMS Steam Tank students and their teacher Miss Zavaki uh I also want to congratulate my Kaplan
uh for being named uh Columbia's 2025 unsung hero by the Essex County School Boards Association and the New Jersey School Boards Association ma is a CHS senior who's being recognized for her dedication to supporting neurodeivergent
students uh she spent much of her free time working with Columbia High School's special education program particularly with students in the applied behavior analysis program and earlier this month Mrs bodner presented the award to Maya and highlighted her empathy loyalty and
commitment to inclusivity mia plans to pursue a career in special education aiming to make a lasting impact on students with special needs uh I want to congratulate Columbia High School Maya Burkwitz and sophomore Abby Gettinger for receiving awards for their
photography pieces at the Pingri School on February 28th uh the 29th annual Pingri Student Photography exhibition was on view in the Hot Stadet Arts Center Gallery through early March nearly 200 digital and traditional film-based photographs showcase the best
work of students from seven private and public high schools in the region uh next the Unsung Shirro's 2025 celebration at the South Orange Performing Arts Center last week honored remarkable women for their dedication to the community and three individuals from
SOMC were honored columbia High School freshman Student Council President Violet Kesler was recognized for her leadership and advocacy for youth chs counseling secretary Miss Petrachio was celebrated for her commitment to education and
volunteerism and Miss Nicole Josie co-president of the SOSD President's Council was honored for her tireless work in advancing inclusion and equity in Soma their contributions continue to inspire and uplift their community congratulations and thank you for your
service i also want to congratulate Columbia High School's AP Art students on the return of their annual showcase at SOPAC this exhibition running until April 26th highlights their incredible talent across various mediums from paintings to digital art and under the
guidance of visual arts teacher Ms kapuchi these students have worked tirelessly to refine their craft and share their creative voices with the community great work uh this past winter South Orange Village and the Baird Community Center helped our South Orange
Middle School immensely during a successful evacuation and reunification exercise we especially thank Chief Marillo and Sergeant Leno from the South Orange Police Department as well as Community Center Director Matt Gray for their fast acting support their
flexibility and willingness to collaborate on such short notice ensured a smooth transition for students and staff providing them stability and care during the security procedure thank you and then finally congratulations to the Columbia High School girls fencing team
uh for securing an impressive second place finish at the state championships delivering many hard-fought spars throughout the seasons their dedication and perseverance throughout the season have been truly commendable and we are very proud of their athletic
[Applause] integrity so Oliver stole my thunder once again um we do want to just shout out our girls fencing team
um Mr sanchez classified them as a Cinderella team um we want to let you know how very proud we are of all of you how proud we are of the coaches and we know getting that far is a heck of a lot of hard work so we just wanted to give
you a heck of a round of applause and have you stand up please and just take that applause in cuz you deserve it thank you ladies wonderful job unbelievable thank you you made us proud she's
here carissa here she is perfect uh one more wonderful shout out aside from the great news no she's not okay coach yep do you want
to so we have certificates for the girls um a small thank you for uh everything you've done this school year and I know trust me we know the work you put into everything so thank you very much Coach Winstead
oh the mic's gone i think it's gone is the mic gone good evening everyone and as Mr bing said they were the Cinderella team uh they defeated the rank two team Montlair and advanced to the next round defeated
the ranked number three team we fell short in the last round against Livingston so again let's give him a huge round of applause because we were ranked number seven starting [Applause] off with the Saber team carol Aguila
11th [Applause] grader maline Benson 11th grader going to our foil team ely
Benjamin 10th grader samara Bird 11th grader tegan Feman ninth [Applause] grader simone Swingle ninth grader
[Applause] malayaia Valentine 10th grader for a EPI level tia Goodson who is also going to Ryder University to as a fencing player
[Applause] silaangar 12th grader [Music] we have a couple more yep sorry I couldn't see sorry shimley Zing Alfoil 10th grader and I know she's recording right
now but without this manager a lot of our ga games will not be recorded Sonia [Music] Zenobi and I got to give a special shout out to this team member she was our clinch clinch
um fencer for all three rounds in the states we were tied we fell short the second round we lost 1413 but we advanced 1413 1413 we lost
1314 delina Oadu 12th grader epe our superstar great job ladies [Music] [Music] okay one two three [Music]
two big smiles thank you [Applause] [Music] [Music]
no good [Music] okay we are now moving on to um Mr moody for Oh sorry I forgot you have another update right yes thank you
uh good evening everyone i'm pleased to share that the Col that Columbia High School has maintained a level of consistency that we have not seen in quite some time this stability is a welcome change reinforcing the integrity and image of our school in a way that
benefits both students and faculty in a time when schools across the country are facing uncertainty and rapid changes having a sense of continuity is invaluable for both the academic and personal development of our students while there is always room for growth
and improvement it is important to recognize the progress that has been made in creating a more structured and predictable environment at CHS as student representatives Oliver and I have been dedicated to ensuring that student voices are heard and that concerns of our peers are brought to the
attention of the board of education this month we have focused on gathering insights into the current state of Columbia High School through through a comprehensive student survey our goal is to provide both qualitative and quantitative feedback that will allow the board to make informed decisions that reflect the needs and concerns of
the student body the survey covers a range of topics including school security academic programming and overall student preparedness for higher education with the help of Principal Sanchez we were able to distribute the survey v via email and so far we have
received 155 responses however we are actively working to increase participation as a larger sample size will undoubtedly help us present a more complete and representative picture of student sentiment even at this stage the results has already provided valuable
statistics for key issues at CHS here are some of the most notable findings so far 81.9% of students believe that the removal and consolidation of course options for next year will negatively impact the academic environment at CHS
50.3% of students do not feel that the presence of security guards contributes to a safer school environment only 16.8% 8% of respondents feel that CHS is adequately preparing students for higher education beyond the numerical data the
survey also included an open-ended section where students could share their thoughts on additional concerns and areas for improvement we received 75 qualitative responses covering a wide range of topics such as concerns over budgeting the role of artificial intelligence in classrooms and a dire
and a desire for greater transparency from the board of education regarding policy changes in the decision the the decisionmaking process these responses provide valuable context to the numerical data offering a deeper understanding of the challenges students
are facing as we continue to collect more responses we will refine our findings and provide a more comprehensive report in the coming weeks our hope is that this data will serve as a useful tool for the board in making decisions that directly impact students experiences we appreciate your willingness to engage with student
concerns and look forward to working together to create a stronger and more supportive learning environment at Columbia High School thank you i'll open up for any questions but I want to say thank you so much for the updates and for doing that survey and hopefully you'll get some more
respondents and then um it would be great to get like a export you know of of all those responses when done obviously you'll you'll report at an upcoming meeting but for the board to be able to just see those responses as well and whatever is it a Google survey that
you did okay great i love Google surveys so yeah you'll be able to export that for us were there any questions comments yes we I'll just note that I'm also really uh excited to hear about this survey i know we talked about it uh when we were able to have you guys into uh
our policy meeting uh a few months back and I'm really interested in hearing specifically those thoughts that the respondents had regarding uh things that they think the board could be doing differently to communicate information about how decision-m works uh which can
include you know trying to involve students in part of that and having that dialogue so really interested in uh to the degree that you have specific recommendations that you can callull from the responses we'd love to take a look at that thank you
yes thank you it's it's interesting to hear already kind of like the the initial responses that you've gotten and just to kind of build on what board member Meyer was saying I think it might also be nice to create more like birectional structures right because I think admittedly many there's often confusion about like what does a board
of education do what do we not do what are our responsibilities what can we share what can't we share and so I also think it might be a potential opportunity for us too to think about how do we have or share that a little bit better with students too so there is clarity um leading into and then to
Will's point like what are those areas of concern and and how do we better involve or create create those opportunities too so thank you okay great so next it goes to Mr moody for your business update thank you thank you President Nubia
um this is a short update uh regarding construction but uh I will power through it that we've got some good news on um a few schools essentially at Seth Bdon and Tuscan school final change orders have been submitted and are being reviewed by
the district um at the Marshall school final punch list 99% completed closeout of documents 70% completed so the existing sprinkler piping repair damage change order is being sent out for signature and processing and three
sheetrock column enclosures located at the window wall are to be constructed over spring break uh Montro School final punch list 99% completed and closeout documents 70% completed uh also at Colombia High
School the A-wing science rooms are underway the media center is completed and turned over and the commons area is completed and turned over so those are in use uh roofs coatings underway at the B-wing areas and that continues and
renovation of existing guidance area is ongoing at Maplewood Middle School uh architectural punch list items are 90% completed more work to continue receive and started work on the mechanical engineering and plumbing punch list uh the FA trouble issues
replaced water damaged smoke detector on second floor corridor continued updating graphics um on the building management system and integrating boilers uh addressed cafeteria and gym roof leaks and wrapped up remaining roof work started submitting closeout
documentation and based on the forecasted weather conditions uh scupper change order work will begin on the cafeteria roof and planning to remove construction trailer on Monday uh March 24th so uh that took place
already south Orange Middle School electric service Bennett uh they cut in and submitted the PSENG for installation of the new water meters and energizing uh up to the appropriate devices uh updated electrical drawings are
completed meetings need to be scheduled for review on site with contractor um then lastly uh the South Orange Middle School building permits have been issued uh completed demolition for the two new bathrooms new doors are on and
installation will begin in the next week plumbing inspection for the new bathroom scheduled for next week new electrical panels were delivered to the site and they're marking out areas in the classrooms where the VUVs will be placed and installed uh the ventilation units
and selective investigative demo work for the new RTUs in different areas and that kind of concludes uh the construction update [Applause] thank you questions yeah Regina thank you for that um do we have any
idea when the uh girls locker room at CHS is slated to start work on i don't have that at the top of mind at the moment it's something that I could definitely check into yeah yeah and and I know I I was I was going to bring it up to Bill as well it just kind of hit me while you were going through all of
that so thank you so I'll note that um and do you know when what the status is for the furniture at for the library at CHS i do know that it's been ordered it possessed with the the different organizations who are delivering that
furniture and I I know that it was a a significant lead time i believe it is in April but I don't have the specific date okay but it should be April okay that's great and I just wanted to um thank you and Mr jigglio for um
organizing the tours of the schools i was able to tour Maplewood Middle School and see you know um work that's being done work that needs to be done in certain places and it was really helpful to um just lay eyes on some of the
pieces that the students came and spoke about last time so I really appreciate that and um I welcome any opportunities in the future for any other um you know if there's any other work that would be great for us to to take a look at yeah thank you for that that feedback the
sentiments of our middle school students were were were heartfelt we wanted to be certain to you know engage in that birectional uh sharing of information and then also it's great that that you've been able to to lay some eyes on it as well uh as you know it's a it's the maintenance effort is is constant
and ongoing um so thank you okay great thank you for that update and for all the questions everyone um now I'll do the board president update i'd like to share a high level recap of our efforts um the board requested that the district create a fact sheet that
reminded our school community of our DEI and integration policies which remain unchanged along with the state laws that mandate diverse curriculum such as the Amastad law and the LGBTQI plus and persons with disabilities law the letter reaffirmed our commitment to fostering a
safe supportive and inclusive learning environment for every student we serve this document was sent to the school community by our superintendent on March 4th i'll provide a brief update on our progress toward the board goals for the 2024 2025 school year quarterly retreats
we've held two productive retreats focused on board governance curriculum oversight student achievement and datadriven decision-making in July we'll convene again to review our self-evaluation which we'll be doing in a few weeks and refine our oversight practices in collaboration with the
superintendent to achieve our effective board oversight goal maintaining NJSBA board certification we have secured the necessary points and are awaiting final results from the NJSBA's wellness review of our policy manual upon
compon we will officially receive our board certification our board annual agenda we continue to follow the NJSBA standard board calendar progress is reviewed regularly at exec committee meetings to ensure alignment and accountability development of best
practices through our policy and governance committee along with our board governance manual which was new this year we have discussed ways to streamline our board meetings and board workflow committee alignment and reporting we created and we created a suggested template for committee
readouts at board meetings as well as implemented SOPs mr bing's favorite phrase these days for committee structures with respect to length of committees meaning length of our committee meetings ensuring goals are covered in methods of and methods to track members questions before and after
committee meetings and lastly committee related to students and families recognizing that the superintendent has launched a children's cabinet with town leaders and stakeholders to address student resource gaps and needs from K to 12th grades the board opted not to duplicate these efforts cabinet meetings
have already begun and more information will be forthcoming by the superintendent upcoming at the April 24th board meeting reminder that there is a budget adoption vote we're also in the process of scheduling Michael Alves to come back of the ALS group to return and present the year 4 intentional
integration initiative recap finally a reminder that our superintendent shared with the school community via letter a few weeks ago that we agreed upon our salary increases for the three years of our teachers contract and are continuing to work on the salary guides with Sumea because we are under a gag order we cannot share more details publicly and
now I'll read the board's president's statement the school board meeting is a business meeting in public and not a meeting with the public oftentimes it may appear to members of our audience that the board of education takes action with very little comment and in many cases a unanimous vote before a matter
is placed on the agenda at a public meeting it has thoroughly been reviewed by the administration the superintendent of schools and the board of education after which it is placed on the agenda for board discussion and action at a public meeting okay now we will have hearing of
individuals and delegations yeah I've got it thank you yes uh thank you for coming in person and joining us online this evening the South Orange Maplewood Board of Education values public involvement and respects that you've taken the time to address the board at tonight's meeting as this is
the board's business meeting a friendly reminder to please be respectful as we take into consideration your valuable input which will inform future deliberations and work by the board of education and its committees the board does have time limits by policy and it will be enforcing those to enable as many people to speak as possible this
evening each individual will be given three minutes to speak the first public comment period is usually limited to 1 hour with priority often given to items related to the meeting agenda and the second public comment period may be limited to 30 minutes okay so first we
have Aaron Cers thank you hey it's both of us i wrote us in first and second um Jocelyn Ryan and Aaron Siders we are the current co-chairs of the schools committee of the South Orange Maplewood Community Coalition on Race um we've just been a
bit concerned lately over some of the comments we've been hearing some here but mostly in the um uh the recent community forums hosted by Mr bang and Mr moody regarding transportation and budget um regarding the integration initiative and we feel that maybe um
people the community needs reminding of why it is that we are doing this um also we wanted to ask that the notes of the Rooker implementation committee be made public like the notes of the standing committees and like the uh notes of the
special ed uh committee were before it became a standing committee here all right good evening if you ask South Orange Maplewood residents why they moved here
one of the top reasons is always the diversity celebrating diversity seems to be acceptable when talking about various housing stock houses of worship or restaurant options but when we talk about diversity in our schools and making sure our school demographics
reflect our community we hear yes but I believe in integration but my child needs to attend this particular school because there is no room for yes but when it comes to integration either you are 100% for it or you are 100% against
it period some of the reasons stated are that it's inconvenient or because the cost of transportation has to go up to make it work if you're against it for any reason then you're choosing
segregation brown Brown versus the Board of Education was 71 years ago two years ago a New Jersey Supreme Court judge found that the state had a duty to address de facto segregation in our schools before the intentional
integration initiative we had two schools that were 70% white and one school that was roughly 70% black that's what happens when you have neighborhood schools and that is de facto
segregation for 28 years the Coalition on Race has been pushing for a truly equitable school district we know that this work is hard it's messy it's complicated it's uncomfortable and it's challenging but when you believe
something is vital important necessary and valued you have to be allin even for the parts that are messy we are all in we hope that the district the board the community share our view and that there
is no point at which integration isn't worth the fight for the sake of our students present and future don't dismantle the good work because it's hard thank you thanks
thank you so much next we have Gabrielle thank you i couldn't I couldn't read your handwriting sorry I didn't have your last name there apologies gabriel Taro uh hi everyone uh esteemed board
members superintendent uh audience members uh I'm Gabriel Taro i'm a junior at Columbia High School and some of you might recognize me not least from an hour ago an hour and a half ago at this point when I sang with Excelsiers for
you for you guys and I just wanted to say thank you for having us first of all and I also wanted to thank you on behalf of all of the arts programs for your expeditious work your expeditious beginning of work on the stage because
we we really do appreciate the fact that this that you guys take this seriously but unfortunately there is another challenge facing another program which I'm a member of the the orchestra program you
see there are imminent funding cuts set for the summer or for the summer orchestra camp and well the vast majority of students in this program rely on free and reduced
lunch and we believe we as an orchestra program as a community believe that it would be disastrous to force people to pay for this program which is what has been proposed in addition there is a prop the proposal is to cut the hours of
the program which would also be a which would also be an unfair burden on those who whose families work and to be honest this is an access this is an excuse me an access and equity issue and we hope you take we treat it as such
this the entire CHS arts community not least myself urges you to reconsider what would undoubtedly be a devastating blow to the summer orchestra program thank you the two changes
cut hours and making people pay for it it is currently free thank you [Applause] thank you so much um just looking online and I don't see any any online people so
that concludes public speaks um okay so now committee reports um much of the work our board does happens in committees and the results are brought to the board meeting for action detailed minutes of each committee meeting are
posted on our website um not supposed to respond to public speaks but Ruters is every other two months we'll have a Rucker meeting in April so we would only have one Ruckers recap online right now um more to come we'll now hear from the chairs of each of our committees with a
few brief highlights from this month's meetings and we can start I think last time we start from there so we'll start for with you thank you okay okay so the curriculum and instruction committee met on March 10th at 6:30 p.m with all board me board
committee members present along with Miss Bodner Mr bing and Dr wayel we discussed progress and updates related to district goals including the following highlights regarding goal one college and career readiness we heard more details about the plans for middle
school math including the creation of a student uplifting team to encourage students to take higher level courses we heard about the use of data tools uh like link it for student placement recommendations and parent involvement in course selection because although the
district will um have data to use to make math placement recommendations for middle school parents are still able to make that decision for their children at future meetings we plan to take a look at any available data comparing the district recommendations to the parent selections and we received an update on
the selection process for new onrade level curriculum for sixth seventh and eighth grade uh courses regarding goal four family and community engagement we discussed the upcoming curriculum nights for math and social studies um as well
as participant survey feedback we didn't review any pol new policies for adoption this month and there are no curricula up for board approval we did discuss CNI related budget items highlights include new allocations for next school year
um approximately $300,000 for middle school math and $45,000 towards freshman academy future funding in school year 2627 will focus on high school STEM there are no anticipated CNI reductions
for next year this includes programming as well as supplies in addition we received and discussed other key updates the CHS scheduling process is on track so far and without issues keep hope it keeps you know on
that course uh the district is exploring a K8 cell phone ban and yonder bags for freshmen planning for Freshman Academy continues in order to support students at this transitional stage including a new parent advisory
committee um as well as gathering broader stakeholder input and developing a replic replicable framework for future improvements another one of those SOPs Mr bing regarding chronic absenteeism the district continues to monitor data
and refine intervention strategies and will provide regular updates to the committee our next meeting will be on Monday April 7th at 6:30 PM are there any questions a full recap of our meeting can be found on the district
website thank you all right the special services committee met on March 18th all members were present with Superintendent Bing Miss Jesse Maria and Dr gilbert we began with a CPAC check-in with their VP of policy initiatives Miss Nasburg
reinforcing our commitment to goal 4.2 which is focusing on increasing our collaboration by engaging CPAC more readily um in this meeting we discussed our extended school year uh the district discussed their plans for this program ensuring that it would include clear communication es especially as we are
shifting from a 5-day to a 4-day model this year uh the dates are June 30th to July 31st Monday through Thursday preschool through grade 5 is at Clinton and grades 6 through 12 at Maplewood Middle we also discussed progress reports and efforts are underway to
improve the consistency and timeliness of special education progress report with enhanced training and quality checks and finally we discussed transition to high school for students with IEPs steps are being taken to strengthen support for students who are transitioning to our high school by ensuring appropriate staff attendance at
IEP meetings following this discussion we reviewed a committee goal that is also aligned there with dis district goal 4.2 on community engagement and this goal focuses on developing an experience survey for uh families to establish a baseline measure of their experience with things like the CST process
inclusion academic social emotional and behavioral supports final feedback was provided and the survey was sent out this morning and we look forward to hearing from our families as an instructional update um as established there will be no changes for the K through5 ICRS model the paired model will continue and case managers
will continue as always to make placement decisions that are based on individual student needs we did notice in the process in discussion of this over the last couple of months that there are disparities in instructional minutes as they're allocated across our elementary schools so we're also noting
that and going to move it to CNI for discussion we talked about our professional development plan so the committee had requested a review of professional development that was provided this past school year during which no specific professional development funds were allocated for special services but internal nocost PD
opportunities were provided all special education staff participated in PD offerings for general education staff as well the 2526 budget does include funding that will be allocated for training through the Institute for Multiensory Education classroom management co-eing strategies related
services and the continuation of the collaborative problem solving training via more in-person coaching models additionally as it stands funding has been allocated to try and get all of our K- through5 ELA PO teachers to receive their uh certification from that Institute of Multiensory Education and
we're also exploring a partnership with FTU for Orton Gillingham because it's the season we did talk at length about the budget um one of our goals is efficient use of funds and educational resources for all students uh we talked about the goal of conducting an internal audit and
analysis of our legal settlement settlement and out of district spend the administration discussed having our special education attorney provide a review of our legal expenditures for the committee to review the district's also making projections for 2526 based on current and anticipated needs for par
profofessionals the administration believes keeping a close eye on projections and working alongside our school-based teams during the scheduling process will help ensure the paraprofessional support is effectively distributed and used additionally with respect to the budget the district is reviewing paraprofessional contracts
alongside all other privatized services and conducting an analysis of internal staff members as it relates to certifications in special education that could assist in filling vacancies from within for policy we reviewed in a prior meeting not this one but we did review
some mandated regulations that are up tonight for first read um and the win for this month was that Seth Biden has been successfully using the collaborative proactive solutions method and they were very excited to share their successes and we applaud them for that it's great um our next meeting is scheduled for April 3rd confirming
because we did have to toy with our dates um and as we will vote on tonight I'm looking forward to having board member Saka Gable officially join as a standing member of this committee i think it will increase our synergy with CNI and be really effective um any questions
great a full recap of this meeting is available on the district website under our board committee section thank you go ahead all right just making sure all right the uh the municipal partners meeting was on Monday March 24th uh the attendees were uh myself board member
Ben Wapatia Superintendent Mr bing uh in spirit was uh Miss Nubia Dval Wilson uh South Orange Township was uh Mayor Mayor Sheena Colum village trustee Dr olivia Lewis Chang on the Maplewood side Mayor Nancy Adams town council Debel and Pat
Wary our business their business administrator uh it was a a continuation of the uh of the school tour of the MMS steam tank presentations so uh they presented to the township which was pretty wild to see considering what we saw the a couple weeks ago from their
presentation how much has it evolved from the flow diagrams to the solutions to the actual footage it was pretty impressive and it's good to see uh the students in action i think we should make that presentation be more available to the public because it's it's pretty it's pretty self-explanatory it's a good
tour um as it relates to the budget um Superintendent Bing gave an overview of where we are with the township uh which led to uh the upcoming scheduling with the board of school estimate meeting that we are trying to schedule now for uh April 7th as a preliminary session uh
a second meeting that is being scheduled for later in April uh the meetings will be public uh the FFF FFT uh committee and the BA will be putting together a summary proposal to be sent to Bose prior to the prior to the 7th uh board member Nubia and Bill are working with
Mr moody on what will be sent over for consideration the focus will be on projects with the most budgetary implications facilities transportation special services were a few items mentioned also uh Mr bing gave an update on the Yonder program uh which was just
mentioned earlier the approximately 147 students from MMS has participated in the Yonder program so far and we are considering expanding that to the freshman academy next year um that's all we got on that one because it was a lot around the the board of school estimate and that process of trying to wrangle
everybody together to get that meeting in time so keep you posted any questions not a question but just a comment um along the lines of the um the steam tank Yeah challenge which was fabulous i just
wanted to note that we have resolution 4738F tonight um which includes a donation from the Achieve Foundation of of $3,000 to keep that going at the middle schools [Music] so hello um sorry I was updating in in
real time because I Yeah um so the FFT committee met on March 12th with board members Meyer Callahan Bennett and myself in attendance i did want to start off and share that our own Tom Jigglio has been nominated as facility manager
of the year so big and he's going to get it i want him to get it um and I did just want to thank uh Tom and Frank uh Tom Jigglio Frank Sanchez for the tour
of the facilities um you know I tell you um so much passion and work goes into keeping that uh very old building in shape and and it was great you know someone who graduated in 2004 to see so
many things not changed and so many things also changed and really updated and um the student center um in the old pool is just uh really phenomenal so awesome job to that team um
uh the committee uh received a construction update as you heard from Mr moody earlier i'm not going to do that again we also received an update that the department of environmental of environmental protection found that RSER field is not considered a wetland um Mr
moody presented the 2025 2026 tentative uh budget PowerPoint we discussed the potential smartphone ban at MMS and SAMS for the 20 2526 school year and the yonder packs for freshman academy and
for those who don't know that are these little bags you put your phone in it lock it and then at the end of the day um you know you get that phone back uh lastly I want to highlight that the Wizard of Oz will be performed at Psalms
April 5th 6th and 4th 5th and the 6th so get your tickets if you haven't already and uh these are my highlights but for more details go to the district website for a full recap of the meeting um in the board committee section the next uh
meeting will be April 9th and uh Regina we are going to find out when that uh that the CHS girls locker room is updated that is uh very important so we'll make sure we get that and that is it if anyone has questions thank you Bill um so I just wanted to
ask a question about Ritzer not considered a wetland so what what are the next steps as we know when we last went to both that wasn't included and by the way this could be Mr moody Mr bang whoever wants to jump in there um as we know
that that budget was removed from what we ended up getting so what are the next steps now that we know it's not a wetlands uh it sounds like Speizel is researching other things but then what yeah I think we do want to just verify that there's no flood hazard um you know
if we do turf we we want to make sure that there's proper runoff you know um but I I do think that the plans have changed a little bit i don't know or what should we Yeah sorry yeah no he's Oh come on no it's not uh
we still he still has parallel plans so I think next step would be working with Tom and then bringing it to the board take a look at what what they have and what we're thinking currently and what the costs are because obviously the costs have changed moving forward um and then we make some decisions but I think
he's ready to show a couple parallel plans the uh original and then one revised and then some cost breakdowns he's got he he drew out both so it's it's he showed us about them a month ago yeah that's it
all right thank you uh the policy and governance committee met last on March 4th seems like an eternity ago but here we are uh it was uh myself board member Brown board member Bennett board president Duval Wilson uh and our
terrific SLT staff uh we opened the session up with a presentation and discussion with our sort of special duty attorney David Rubin who came in and discussed the status of the executive orders and current uh uh environment we
have with the federal government right now uh the uh executive orders had come through and at that point the pending dismantling of the US DOE uh talking about what the implications would be for our district when to expect things and
the long and short is that it's not a great outlook but also not an immediate uh skyfalling so uh we're we're grateful to have you know excellent counsel on that front uh tonight we have uh a number of different policies uh that
came out of that meeting for second read uh there is a policy on athletic department and coaches one on volunteer athletic coaches one on school volunteers uh one on ID badges for teaching staff and one on ID badges for support staff all of these came through
first read uh at our last regular board meeting uh we have no changes and they're being uh put forward for adoption this evening we do not have any policies put up for first read this evening we do have four regulations that are up for first read
uh we haven't had regulations on the docket for a while because it has uh we've had sort of a dry spell in getting regulations uh come through from the administration and it is uh terrific that uh as a result of the very concerted and focused effort uh and uh
some spare time that the administration somehow found uh they were able to push a few uh through the first of uh a number that we do expect to come because we are still fairly in a rears in our regulations uh so we have four special education regulations that come through
now regulations are created by the district the board does not create them but in discussion we did give uh feedback on a few and the uh district was very uh generous and uh collaborative in making changes to add some additional protections for some of
our students with disabilities uh in these regulations which we were very happy about so those are up for first read this evening and then they would be adopted at our following meeting uh there was one policy that you'll see within our minutes which you should read for more information was considered for first read that is the acceptable use of
generative AI as it relates to students uh that policy is brand new and evolving the same way that generative AI like chat GPT is and we have a few more items to discuss there so that's going back to committee and uh may be up for first read at our next meeting we also
discussed a few other policies among them were our policy 5530 on substance abuse uh making sure that we are implementing that policy and also that the language there aligns with our code of conduct and uh the policies we need in place especially considering substance use issues at CHS and
off-campus uh we had a mention at our last uh regular board meeting regarding uh our corporal punishment policies 3217 and 4217 and the interplay that those have uh with policy 5561 on the use of restraint for students with disabilities
which is not explicitly discussed in that policy but still exists and at that meeting I completely reversed uh the discussion of uh how those two interplay which I'm correcting right here so those are a piece that we've sent over to the special services committee for further
discussion on uh and lastly we discussed policy 2418 regarding section 504 and the need to have a regulation created for that to implement certain pieces of how those procedures work that's one of the many policies for which we need a regulation and don't have one it is on
the radar of special services to get done and finally we discussed a number of the uh standard operating procedures that the district is developing uh we asked for a list and discussed some of the SOPs currently in process uh there
are SOPs being developed for physical plant department workers compensation uh procedures district social media management uh office of assistant superintendent regarding dating violence and suicide risk assessment uh in safety and security regarding our key card controls school closing procedures bomb
threats and uh uh behavior threat assessment uh as well as a special education process so those are in progress and our committee continues to uh track their development and that of other SOPs and that's all I have are there any
questions one question there's always got to be one right um just a point of clarity with with SOPs I guess similar almost to a policy and I know I'm only speaking to special education right now i know we have um planned review of particular
SOPs happening would that is that something that we envision happening across relevant committees as SOPs are developed o say one kind of has you know um some connection to FFT okay just from a process perspective thank you and no
for the record the superintendent is nodding his head yeah yes all right the personnel committee met on Monday March 24th at 6:30 p.m in attendance were board members Capadia Sacket Gable and myself along with Mr
bing Dr gilbert and Mr adoyan um as usual I'm just going to say much of what was discussed is confidential however the public facing minutes on the district website include as much information as we can divulge um among the topics we discussed were um district
goals and year one of the 5-year workforce diversity plan progress so um district goal 3.1 was to conduct a comprehensive needs assessment that has now been completed the staff survey closed on March 18th 2025 um Mr adidoan
met with the vendor earlier this week to review the data and he will be prepared to share more information at the April committee meeting and then we will share with the full board um still in progress um district goal 3.2 partner with minority serving
institutions um Mr adoyan and his team have been working hard to expand their partnership with Montlair State with um student teachers um they I think at the last meeting I talked a little bit more about the cohort of teachers involved in an educational leadership program um one of
the things they are also looking to do is to help our current staff members um gain special education certifications um and he's also looking to potentially partner with Orange School District to kind of put together one big cohort so
they can move forward with that uh along another update on that Rutgers Newark um I think that was in talks at the last meeting and so they've officially formed a partnership around student teachers from their urban teacher program one of the things the
committee asked for um as a follow-up was just providing data on the student teachers that we have in our district currently trying to understand kind of the student teacher to teacher conversion rate and pipeline especially as as we all have seen um you know the
teacher shortage across the country less and less people going into the uh unfortunately um into education so you know based on the data maybe we can um find some information there um district
goal 3.3 developing targeted recruitment materials still in progress um they've hired a professional videographer to engage in some of the services some teachers volunteering to participate um and you know the last thing I ask just
ensuring that the initiative has stayed within within their budget uh moving on we had a discussion um just in terms of tracking staff evaluations slt continues to monitor the progress and I know that um between HR and CNI
they're having the necessary discussions with appropriate leadership to ensure meeting the deadlines and I think the last uh important topic um we did talk about the budget um can't really speak much to it
but we did have a discussion around salary increases and the 25 to 26 school year staffing plans and that is all the next committee meeting will be Monday April 21st 6:30
p.m questions comments good okay great thanks everyone we'll now move to the action portion of the meeting um are there just so I know are there
any severs no okay great okay um Mr moody can you please read the resolutions into record and then we'll be open for discussion sure president Daw Wilson um essentially we we'll be reviewing uh for action items 4736
through 4746 and then there are also two additional hand carries so well does you have anything you want to add now I'll just highlight really briefly um as uh board member Sack Gable noted uh within our finance resolution
is a uh a donation of I believe it was $3,000 in the Achieve Foundation to continue the work uh that the Steam Tank is uh doing in the middle school the tremendous work they did recently around uh uh MMS and uh we you know love to see
that happen and always appreciate the donations from the Achieve Foundation we also had a great uh donation from TS Swanson from an anonymous donor for a few musical instruments which are always welcome and encouraged uh you'll note
that there was a uh a transfer within our funds the um uh beyond the bell fund uh which is also called the latch key program had been run by the district of course recently that was handed off and now is a program operated by the YMCA we had some money left over just sitting in
our account from that that was now pushed over to the general fund for application uh elsewhere uh and uh as board member Callahan noted uh Bormer Gable is being uh welcomed onto our special services committee which originally had been organized with just
three members uh we're happy to have a fourth and uh lastly we are adopting a corrective action plan for uh attendance at Columbia High School we've had a few schools that have had corrective action plans that we've adopted required by law
uh certainly we want to uh address the attendance issues and make sure that we have our kids in seats and ready to learn uh and that's something the district has been already addressing and this memorializes it in a plan uh as required by the state
um I also want to to highlight the uh committee update on our chart um when I spoke with uh board member Callahan about this I wanted to make sure she knew that I didn't purposely put only three people on special services i was
um my name was the fourth and um as a leader I think it's always good to know when you might be pushing it a little bit too much and so I took myself out and I did I did attend a special services meeting i think it was the one in January and you know we've had Bill
and and so having that rotating scene isn't doesn't um create consistency and so I was happy that um we were able to have board member second Gable join and thank you and I'm happy with not being on i got a lot of other stuff I got to
do so I appreciate that thank you any further discussion on those items okay are you ready for a roll call vote board member Bennett yes board member Brown yes board member Callahan
yes board member Duval Wilson yes board member Eker yes board member Gford yes board member Kapadia yes board member Meyer yes board member Saka Gable yes
all right great and then we have to hand carry so do you want to do a resolution 4747 of appeal first okay great 4747 first and then 4748 great thanks
so for resolution 4747 board member Bennett yes board member Bram yes board member Callahan yes board member uh board president Duval Wilson yes board member Eert yes
board member Gford yes yes board member Kabadia yes board member Meyer yes and board member Sacka Gable yes and then finally for 4748
board member Saka Gable yes board member Meyer yes board member Kapadia yes board member Gford yes board member Eert yes board President Dwell Wilson yes
board member Callahan yes board member Brown yes board member Bennett yes all right thank you okay great um now would be the time for
that concludes action portion of the meeting and now would be time for the second hearing of individuals and delegates do we have any no okay let me see online no okay okay so then that brings us to new
business and also I meant to give an update on this um after our last meeting but new business uh is for things that are pressing matters that we would need to vote on tonight if there was something that were immediately needed and I feel like for the new board members I never really properly
explained that um but yeah so if there's something pressing that would be a new business item we typically don't have them no okay great so I'll read future meetings uh the board of education will meet again in public session on Thursday
April 24 2025 at 6:30 p.m action will be taken mr moody I will now I would now like to motion to adjourn this meeting on Thursday March 27 at 9:32 p.m may I have a second second thank you board member Brown all
in favor great meeting is adjourned thank you everyone thank you