Good, good, good. >> Okay, good. Thank you very much. All right, thank you everyone. We're going to get started quickly with the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All right. Thank you. Roll call vote, please. A roll call, please. >> Sure. >> Dr. Monaco, >> here. >> Mr. Balado. >> Mrs. Donahghue, >> here. >> Mrs. Balado. >> Mr. Pico,
>> here. >> Mrs. Herald. Mrs. Shariffstein here. We have a quorum. Thank you. Okay. This is to advise oop, sorry. This is to advise the general public and to instruct that it be recorded in the minutes that in compliance with chapter
231 of the public laws of 1975 entitled the open public meetings act Stanho board of education located at 24 Valley Road Stanh Hope New Jersey has caused this notice to be posted at the office of the Stanh Hope Board of Education mailed to the New Jersey Herald the Municipal Clerk of the Bureau of Stanh
Hope the Stanh Hope Post Office and posted at the Valley Road School and on the Stanho public schools website setting forth the time date and location of the meeting. The Stanh Hope School District in partnership with the community commits to provide a quality comprehensive education for all learners with equal emphasis on academic
excellence and citizenship through values, respect, and service. Our vision is to inspire and cultivate a community of innovative, curious, compassionate, and globally minded learners equipped with knowledge, problem solving skills, and the ability to persevere to make a positive impact on society and shape a
better future. Okay, we will start with superintendent's report. >> Okay. Um, thank you for uh to start for HIV and suspensions. Uh, since our last meeting, we've had zero of both, fortunately. Uh, we do have a couple investigations that are that we're in
the middle of. Um, and we'll report out on that at our uh April meeting. Um, remember that's a late April meeting because of the budget hearing. Um, kindergarten registration is up to 34 already so far. Uh so that is in line with our growing uh student population
um which is great um until we reach too many and then we have to open another section but we're not quite there yet. Um but 34 is a really solid number for March uh preschool registration and lottery process. So, um, to my surprise, I think I've been pretty open and transparent with the board and I've
shared that, uh, I don't know how or why we received 51 registrations for preschool for next year, three and four year olds for current students and new students, which far exceeded what we currently have by almost 10 kids. Um,
and more so than we are able to fill in, uh, the the spots that we've been approved for. Uh, so we will have a lottery process. um tonight. It'll be very quick. I'll explain in great detail how uh how it's going to be um run and how we'll communicate with the families.
Um but that said, we are very hopeful that um through the brilliant work in our business office that we can manipulate some of our current preschool funds and uh manipulate our next year budget to accommodate a third or at least a partial third section. Um the
last thing we want to do as educators is is turn kids away. Um especially when, you know, families are willing to send them to us at at such a young age. Uh so we're going to do everything that we can to get to get all of those students in. >> Um our career day event uh was held a
couple weeks ago. We had upwards of 17 or 18 vendors, um parents and community members. Miss Donahghue, thank you so much for coming um and and being one of our vendors. Uh the kids, it's all the kids love it every year. uh they're able to walk around, engage, learn about some
professions and some jobs that they may not have known otherwise. Um and uh you know, learn a little bit about what's available to them throughout the community. Um we had kindergarten all the way through 8th grade. Uh and it's something we'd like to do, you know, continually. So again, thank you to the
vendors. Thank you to Nancy Lashure. Uh she's uh my new secretary. I keep saying new. She's new this year and she will be until she's done everything once. Um, that was one of our big events uh that I think I wasn't nervous because of her, but just nervous because it's a big event and she did a a really really nice
job putting it together. Um, ReadAcross America Week was earlier this month. Um, activities, festivities throughout the week. We had spirit days. Uh, Mrs. Dataldo um decorated our our vestibule. Um, we had guest readers. Uh, really
lots of fun um was had. Uh we had reading trains and drop everything and read. Um thanks to Mrs. Datalo and her committee of teachers and staff for uh for putting that together for the students. It was really great. Um we uh are just completing now our MLL that's
multilanguage learners um uh assessments and the NAPE assessment. Uh NAPE assessment is a national assessment for educational programming that's done um I think it's every four years could be every three I'm not sure. every three or four years uh assessments for fourth,
eighth, and 12th grade students in the areas of reading, math, and science. We were selected this year to have our eighth graders participate in uh math and reading. Um and it went um went off swimmingly. Uh no issues. The kids were
great. Staff was uh was cooperative. Um unlike the the state testing that we do in house um NAPE actually sends people to proctor the test and our people are just in the classrooms you know just as an extra set of eyes. Uh so that was that was really great. Um we will not
receive Stanh Hope specific results. Um but we're hoping to contribute to you know what I believe is a great education system here in New Jersey and and in this nation. Uh last Wednesday we had a staff versus student swamp ball. If you are unfamiliar with swamp ball, it's a
combination of dodgeball and other imaginative games. I was unfortunately not able to participate this year, but it is a lot of fun. I did throw my arm out once um you know throwing the dodgeball at a few of these kids, but uh it's all in good fun and uh that the
fundraiser event was held for our eighth grade um class uh to raise money for their DC trip. Uh and then lastly, um I think we're down to one and I'm not Not I don't know who I'm not going to say it. One last financial disclosure form
needs to be submitted. Uh if that is you and if you are here please do so as soon as possible. As a reminder we are CUAC next year which is the states the county and states uh monitoring of us and if we don't have those in at time in time we will certainly lose points for that. Um
that's all I have unless anybody has any questions. >> Okay. >> Curriculum back to you I think. Um, so really the only thing I have for curriculum right now is um all referenced in in the agenda. Um, our
specials teachers and principal Datalo worked hard to build our fourth marking period quote unquote specials curriculum. Um, so for those of you who are not familiar, those of you who come on to the board more recently, uh, last
year our business office, our board worked really hard to allocate funds to return our specials programs back to full-time status. Uh, so this is my 12th year here. Um, so even as long as I've been here, um, our art, our music, and
STEM programs have been at 70%. uh that was uh initially done because of uh budget cuts and declining enrollment. Um it became very very clear at our strategic planning um event that we held about what three years ago I think it
was uh that our community wanted to bring the specials back to full-time and even more so especially our board wanted to offer a sense of choice for our students at the middle school level. Um, as as many as much as there are
wonderful things in a small K8 single district school, there are also challenges, right? I've worked in more comprehensive middle schools and kids have access to, you know, not just a grade level art, but a ceramics or a drawing and painting, you know,
something that's more specific and they have choice. We're trying to bring that here. Uh, and and in making them full-time and now developing this curriculum, we've been able to do that. So for the fourth quarter this year, students were asked to give a first and second choice uh special. Um we were
able to accommodate at least everybody's second choice. I think we got 80% of our kids in their first choice, about 20% in their second choice. Um and uh the kids are excited about it. We're excited about it and we're hoping to, you know, hopefully next year, but at the very
least within the next two years, um, make our special electives program 100% student choice throughout the entire school year. Um, so if you hadn't had a chance, hopefully you did, but if you hadn't had a chance to review that curriculum, it's pretty exciting stuff. All right. Um, that's all I got for now.
>> All right, great. So, we would be moving on to personnel, but Miss Herold is not here. Um, I don't know if you want me to give a report or you want to give it. I can if you'd like. You can >> you can keep going if you'd like. >> Sure. >> This is my time to shine, right? Talk. Nobody wants to hear me during the day.
>> Uh so personnel um we had um a bunch of appointments for substitute teachers uh um homework club uh substitute uh we had two new par profofessionals who were hired. Although one of them is working in our ASD program and the other in
preschool, they both hires were results of increased special education preschool students. We moved one person into preschool. It's why we had to hire two. Very excited about both. They've >> it's the ghosts. Sorry. >> Um yeah, they're both they're both doing
very very great. And just and just uh um to emphasize the point, you know, only when needed needed the board and I want to thank the board for putting trust in me to approve the motion to allow me to hire before the next board meeting. Um if not for that, we wouldn't have been
able to bring these two individuals in and they've been working now for several weeks uh supporting our students and supporting the the classes. So again, thank you for having trust in me. Um we had uh a student intern from Lenipe Valley who started with us. Um we did
strike it from the um agenda. However, because couple days was here just wasn't a wasn't a tremendous fit uh for him. Um but uh we're excited for the things that that he'll do um in a different internship. Uh we have extended school
year appointments. Uh we have some FMLA uh information that we have to approve. Uh we revised the main office uh secretary job description which is customary. We had a not technically a retirement but someone leave after extended period of time. We wanted to
review that job description, make sure that it's in line what they're actually doing. Um and we are again um currently posting for uh the guidance counselor position. Uh we spoke about curriculum um and uh as you can see the the revised
current school year calendar is on um for approval. question on that is the change in graduation date, right? From the 19th to the 18th. >> Yes. So, graduation we tentatively set for the 19th. We build in five snow days. We only used four snow days, so
we're going to push it to push it back to the 18th. >> 18th. Okay. >> Thank you. All right. So, business services would be Miss Bottado. Also not here. Sorry, we don't have a large group tonight, but we have enough. And >> this is uncommon. >> Yes. We have enough to get through the
meeting. So that's fine. Um again, >> do you want me to keep going? >> Yeah, you want it easier. >> We discussed uh if you want to chime in, I missed something. We discussed uh the changing medical and prescription benefits um because of the ex the almost
30% increase in um in medical. Um our business office uh went out and received some quotes. Um the short of it is that we are going to be changing providers as of May 1st. Um although we won't see an immediate um savings because uh we're
going to have a a rate freeze for 14 months and we expect another catastrophic increase in January. We're forecasting at least $140,000 savings over the next uh 14 months. Bless you. Um and we do not believe that there will
be um very much of a disruption to our covered staff. Um so far it's been really smooth. We haven't really heard complaints or concerns. >> Nope. We're moving along. >> Um moving along and and we think it's a really good thing. Um the the law states that we have to provide coverage if we
change that is equal or better than the coverage that we currently have and we believe that we've been able to do that. Um for J&B uh therapy uh it's a service that we provide. >> The door is locked. >> The right one. >> Jared, if you press the button, open it
and press the button, it'll unlock. And we pulled that from them. >> Sorry, >> we pulled J&B. >> Um, so physical therapy, uh, we've been using J&B. We are unfortunately pulling them. The the provider who's been working with us, uh,
resigned. So we will be looking for somebody to support us with physical therapy. Uh, we've done shared services in the past. We're going to explore that again with Lenipe, uh, and Netcom. Uh, we talked about preschool provider. Um the budget
budget committee, you guys will speak to that. I'm going to skip that. >> Um and then the only other um main thing is the the the parking lot proposal. Um >> uh Matia and I attended. You were at the land use meeting. >> I wasn't. You were not.
>> Anthony, our architect, and I attended um and you will be attending the meeting that we that we host uh in a couple weeks. um the land use meeting for the parking lot project that we're proposing behind the school. Uh so anybody who's had to drop
off or pick up kids from our school in the last few years um feels the pain of an overcrowded parking lot and not enough spaces. Um that's because of two reasons. Number one, the parking lot was designed to have busing. Uh we no longer have busing. And number two, we
currently have at least if not more 60 kids in this 60 more kids in this school today than we did three years ago. Um we also have more staff because we have kept students with special needs here as opposed to sending them to other schools. Um so we are overcrowded to say
the least. Uh we feel as though um a parking lot designated staff parking lot behind the building will alleviate a lot of the stress in the front of the building. uh and we got the support from from uh the land use committee uh at the meeting. Um so we're excited to move forward. Letters to residents on
Sagamore Spencer and part of Valley Road were distributed inviting them to a community forum um I think on the four 15th on the 15th uh so that we can answer any questions that and concerns that they may have. Again, in the interest of transparency, we want
everybody to understand what's happening and why it's happening. All right. Um, I think that's it. >> Good. All right. Mr. Pico, >> you mean I get to speak? >> Yes. >> Thank goodness. >> I don't know. You You may not say that when I'm done.
Policy committee is pretty uh quiet right now. We're going to have uh the second reading for nepotism, employment of the chief school min business administrator, sexual harassment staff and also the second reading for the
following regulations which is covers sexual harassment. That's about all I have unless there's some something else I missed. No, the only other thing we discussed is the new cell phone law in schools and how we're we're currently very compliant with that law and won't
require any policy changes. >> Okay, good. Thank you. >> Yeah, we already require our students to not have the cell phones on them during the day, which is essentially what the new law required. So, >> we're good there. All right, that would move us uh on to budget committee.
>> That's me. Um so right now during the budget committee we are continuing with our shared services in the area. Um as you know by Mr. Hagman's numbers um we are working on a preschool expansion program. Um it is obviously growing so hopefully we can accommodate more
students as we continue to grow the programs. Um looking for new paraprofessionals and hopefully some extracurricular activities. Um and the budget will be sent to the county office for review and approval this week. Um and I believe a formal um a formal
presentation will be given April 29th um of the budget. So um it's pretty good. Hopefully everybody can attend. Um and I think that's about it. I >> think it's a great balance of of being fiscally responsible while also um
maintaining and even adding to the the current programming that we have. So I hope the the public will feel the same way. >> Yeah. The the only thing I'll add which will be in the presentations is is um we were subject to the 6% cap by the state on the additional funding we received but at least we did get additional
funding. So uh while we were subject to the cap we were at least lucky to get what we needed based probably on increased enrollment. While they don't tell us that directly that's the best we can assume. So okay uh ed services.
>> Yes. Uh so the last meeting was primarily concerned their last meeting was primarily concerned with approving their budget uh because they don't get any state aid. They aren't necessarily they weren't subject to waiting to find
out about what aid they got. Um the budget was passed including the um and it does include the 4 million to outright purch the purchase the building next door to them to expand um into that building and expand their services.
um if the purchase does not go through, the money will be moved back to um back to their reserve fund. And they included a modest 3% increase on their services
to compared to and that was compared to significantly higher increases by other similar education services in the state. And that's it. >> Great. Thank you. Anybody have questions? All right, that would bring us to the board president's report. Um, and as you've heard, most of my time was
spent between budget and parking lot. Um, so that's what I've been up to is is those two things. Um, and just for the record, there's still no more information on the regionalization study. We are still waiting on uh the Rowan Institute to take all the data that we have sent them and start to aggregate it for us as soon as we have
anything. >> I have an update as of 1 p.m. >> Um, do Dr. Ken Green, who's facilitating the study for us, uh did reach out to us. He requested some access, uh additional access to some documents. Um they sounds like they're in their final
review. Uh and he's looking to schedule a meeting with the four regional districts at the end of uh April or early May. Okay. It's not much of an update, but it's the first time we've heard anything in several months. >> Yep. Yep. So again, the purpose of that is just to give us a whole bunch of information about regionalization uh
that we can then go through between the four boards and then all of that will become public information as well. Um so we'll see what happens from there. That is it for my board president's report questions. All right, that would bring us to our first public session. Uh we do have
public here, so I don't know if anybody would like to speak. If so, come on up. No, no, none. Okay, hearing none, that will bring us to the preschool lottery. >> Okay, so I'm just I'm going to be as descriptive as possible so that everybody's fully understanding how
we're going to run this. Um, we're using a uh randomized number generator, uh, random.org. You can find it anywhere. It's free. It's literally going to require one click. And we're going to know which, uh, of the numbers which parents have been assigned for their
their preschool eligible students. Um, we're going to read from the top down. So the top will be number one, the bottom number will be number 29. So uh the way that we we are prioritizing our preschool program as we've done the last
two years, students who are age um considered age four coming into next year, so they're pre kindergarten, they'll have one more year of preschool eligibility before going to kindergarten, they were given um first priority. So those students have automatically been enrolled. That leaves us with 29 other three-year-old
students. students will have two more years of preschool eligibility and we currently have 22 seats available for them. Um that said, we're very hopeful that we'll be able to to fund additional seats in another location at First Impressions. Um but we won't know the
answer to that prior to us needing to do um this lottery. Uh so as you can see, smallest value one, largest value 29. I am gonna first take a picture of it in case we have a catastrophic internet issue and then I'm going to read the numbers to Cararissa who's going to
record them for the minutes. So Nick, whenever you're ready, Mr. Oz, hit that number. >> Scroll up a bit. >> Okay. >> All right. So, first number, Carissa. >> Got it. 13
11 26 23 29 5 28 4 9 24
10 16 25 15 21 19 27 6 22
17 18 3 8 12 1 201 14. >> Okay. >> All right. So, the goal is by the end of
this week, if not sooner, I'm hoping sooner, uh all parents whose kids are um initially enrolled into the program will receive an email um letting them know that they've been enrolled. We will then ask within a week for them to respond to
us to verify enrollment. Um because if uh and it's happened in the past, if a child if a parent doesn't um accept the enrollment, then the order of the weight list that we just determined, we'll just start going from the the first, the second, the third, etc. Um that leaves
us with seven on weight list. Yes, >> seven on the wait list. Um so, uh that's what it is. Um as as tough as the lottery process is, we're very hopeful and confident that we'll be able to open up that third section and and service all of these students. Um but for now um
we'll communicate these numbers uh to all registered families. >> Okay. >> Okay. >> Yep. >> Thank you, Carissa. >> You're welcome. >> All right. Moving on. That bring us to travel and workshop reports. Any questions? There was just one.
Okay. Hearing one. None. Uh that would bring us to minutes for approval agenda items one and two. Can I have a motion, please? >> Motion. >> Thank you. Second. >> Thank you. >> All right. We have two items there. Regular meeting minutes and executive session meeting minutes. This is a voice vote. All in favor say yes.
>> Yes. >> Yes. >> Any nos? >> Abstensions. >> So yes to the regular meeting minutes. Abstension to the executive session. >> David. >> Oh yes. >> Okay. Any recusals?
All right. That would bring us to the budget adoption agenda items 1 through 7. Can I have a motion, please? >> I'll offer. >> Second. >> Second. >> Thank you. Give everybody a moment to read through. Again, this is the tenative budget. It will go over to the county
superintendent. There are no questions. Okay. Can I have a roll call vote, please? >> Dr. Monaco, >> yes. >> Mr. Balato, >> yes. >> Mrs. Donahue, >> yes. >> Mrs. Balato, >> yes. >> Mr. Pico, >> yes. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Sharpstein. >> Yes. >> Motions carry. >> Thank you.
>> Policy action items. Can I have a motion, please? >> Motion. >> Second, please. >> Second. >> Thank you. Uh these are the uh second readings of the policies listed below and the one regulation. There any questions on those?
Okay, hearing none. Roll call vote, please. >> Dr. Monaco, >> yes. >> Mr. Bonalado, >> yes. >> Mrs. Donahghue, >> yes. >> Mrs. Bonalado, >> yes. >> Mr. Pico, >> yes. >> Mrs. Shariffstein, >> yes. >> Motions carry. >> All right, moving on. Education action items 1 through eight. Can I have a motion, please?
>> Motion. >> Second, please. excited. >> Thank you. Give everyone a minute to go through them. >> See our summer programs are in here. >> Yep. Once approved, uh I'm hoping by Thursday to get the summer program uh
information out to the community so that parents can start registering. Deadline will be May 15th. And then um we'll collect payment from May 15th to June 15th after we've established which programs are good to run. And if there's any programs that don't have enough enrollment, we'll cancel.
>> So just to confirm the uh middle school specials curriculum, this is for next year. >> This is for marking period for this year. >> Okay. All right. That's what I thought. I just wanted to make sure um out of curiosity because I know that there was
a disproportionate amount of um choices for art and that there were kids next year when this happens again will there be some sort of aotment so that the kids that missed out on their first
choice this year at least have a chance? I'm hope well so everybody this year had art STEM music. We're not quite sure yet what next year will look like. The ultimate goal is for students to have choice throughout the entire school year. Okay.
>> Which means whether we break it into quarters or trimesters, they'll have multiple opportunities um to take different classes. Uh and it'll also so for example next year if we have so many for art we'll have the ability to offer
multiple sections of a specific grade uh of of a specific course this year because we're locked into quarter 4. >> Mhm. >> That that was really all we had. We had no way to manipulate. Okay. >> Um every student we asked for first and second choices and every student was given that first or second choice. Um,
you know, there was discussion because there's still there are still some core sizes that are really small and some, although I'd argue are not big at all. They're they're bigger. >> Um, but if we then just balance them for the sake of balancing them, that that defeats the purpose of choice. Now, I'm
pushing kids into classes that they they didn't want. Um, so we felt it was important to stay true to that. uh although one class may be small and one I think the biggest class we have is 16 um which is still pretty modest. So yes the intention will be so that
kids can get into the courses that that they want. That's that's the design of this. >> Okay. >> Any other questions or discussion? >> No. >> Okay. >> Dr. Monica go ahead. >> Dr. Monica
>> Mr. Bonado. >> Yes. Mrs. Donahghue, >> yes. >> Mrs. Battle, >> yes. >> Mr. Pico, >> yes. >> Mrs. Shariffstein, >> yes. >> Motions carry. >> All right. Personnel action items 1 through 14, addenum item 15. Can I have a motion, please? >> Motion. >> Second.
>> Thank you. >> I want to speak to 15, but I want to give everybody an opportunity to ask questions first. Um, so the the resignation of the guidance counselor, isn't that the guidance counselor that just started a few months ago? Okay.
>> All right. >> Yep. We've already posted uh we feel confident we'll be able to find um a replacement before the end of the school year. Um and once I have more information, obviously I'll share that with the board through through personnel.
Other questions before he goes into number 15? >> So, so for number 15, for those of you who have been around long enough, um you recognize the name um Tim Nazinski. He was the superintendent uh who was hired 12 years ago, who then hired me as
principal. Uh he was here for three and a half years and retired. He's now a full-time pastor, pursued his doctorate. Wonderful man. Um, in the eight plus years that I've been superintendent now with Principal Dataldo, we have not had
a time when both of us would be out of the building for any extended period of time. Uh, it just so happens that we have a conflict in May, two days where she's going to be on the DC trip and I'm not going to be I'm going to be away and
unavailable. Uh, so I asked Dr. Nazinski if he would come out of retirement after an eight or nine year hiatus from education um to cover the building and he said that he would be happy to. Um for those of you for those of uh us that have worked with him I think it'll be um
a welcomed return. Uh such a such a nice warm gentleman uh and I promised him that really he's here to maintain just normaly and to deal with any emergency. He's not looking to make any any major changes. Uh, and obviously
we'll be uh, Miss D. Catalo and I will be reachable if if we need to. So, um, with your approval, I'd like I I would feel better about having a certificated administrator in the building while we're both um, out of the building. >> Questions, comments? All right. Roll
call vote, please. >> Dr. Monaco, >> yes. >> Mr. Balado, >> yes. >> Mrs. Donahghue, >> yes. >> Mrs. Balado, >> yes. >> Mr. Pico, >> yes. >> Mrs. Sharpstein, yes. Motions carry. brings us to business services action items one through agenda items 1 through 12. Can I have a motion, please?
>> Motion. >> Second, please. >> Thank you. >> Just pointing out number eight that the parking lot project we're doing through capital reserve. So, it's not part of next year's budget. Any other discussion?
Okay. Roll call vote, please. >> Dr. Monaco, >> yes. >> Mr. Balotto, >> yes. >> Mrs. Donahghue, yes. >> Mrs. Balato, yes. >> Mr. Pico, >> yes. >> Mrs. Sharpstein, >> yes. >> Motions carry. >> Thank you. That brings us to new business. Anybody have any new business they'd like to bring up?
>> Me? >> Yep. I participated in both the book fair and the work the work uh fair helping out. Um I really think that we should get a little bit more uh help from the public
because the HSA does a wonderful job and they're limited to the amount of people they have to do it. So, who is ever listening to our meeting, if you would, please try to help out when the functions come up because they really
need the help and I don't know how what we would do if we didn't have the HSA to help us out. That's my new business. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. I know they do put out a sign of genius for everything that they do, but yeah, a little more public engagement would be great. >> And thank you for helping out. Okay. It
was appreciated. >> Any old business? Hearing none, that would bring us to public session number two, non-aggenda items. Anybody? Okay. Hearing none, that would bring us to adjournment. Can I have a motion, please? >> Motion. >> Second.
>> Second. >> Thank you. Voice vote. All in favor? >> No. Abstensions, recusals? >> None. Thank you so much.