Call the TRA education meeting to order for May 12th, 2025 8 a.m. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of Roll call, please. Gerald Truhart, present. Denise Johnson,
absent. Gene Buoie, present. Addie Daniels Lane, present. Present. Virtually. Austin Edwards, absent. Yolanda Lopez, present. Larry Trailer, present. Jeannie Week, present. We have a
quorum. New Jersey Sunshine Law, New Jersey public meetings law was enacted to ensure the rights to the public to have advanced notice of and attend the meetings of the public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted on. On the rules of this act, the TR education has caused
notice of this meeting be publicized the date, time and place. Therefore, post on the web page the times and the star ledger. Formal action will take place at this meeting. Our mission statement, all students who graduate with the vision for the future, motivated to learn
continually and prepared to succeed in their choice of college or career. Adoption of the agenda with one amendment. Um it would be amendment to the human resources recommendations. Uh Hill and Robins, two
changes in teachers, Katie Hill to Robbins and KC Hill to Robins. Uh that being said, have a motion to adopt the agenda. So moved. Second probably moved and seconded. Roll call. Gerald Truhart. Yes. Denise
Johnson absent. Jean Buouie. Yes. Addie Daniels Lane. Yes. Austin Edwards absent. Yolanda Lopez. Yes. Larry Trailer. Yes. Jeannie We Motion passed.
Mark from our superintendent, Mr. Earl. Good morning. Just want to welcome everyone on this beautiful spring morning. Um, and just wanted to make a note of one thing. On Friday, we had uh
a hiring fair, job fair for candidates. And I just want to see so many people in our audience, um, district people in our audience, district staff. I just want to thank all of you from human re resources, all of our associations
uh and our administrators and buildings and the district uh for your commitment to come out and find candidates to fill empty seats. Uh we know how important it is to get teachers um in this very difficult time and other staff members
in this difficult time where we have so many shortages. So it was impressive to see the number of people come out to find candidates to fill positions. Also um it was very exciting to see a large number of candidates uh
different candidates for for different positions. So uh and I had a chance just to kind of text with the director of human resources and we are poised to be able to hire a good number of people. So, just want to say thank you publicly
to all of the people who commit on a Friday to come out and stay uh in it to make sure we find people. And then you're committed far beyond that because I know you're always calling to recommend people and get them in uh into
Trenton. So, Trenton is becoming and has been the best place to work in Mercer. Um, and I know other superintendents would compete for that, but uh I just know that uh we're doing great work and I want to say thank you to all of you.
Thank you, Mr. Earl. Just wanted to make a note note remarks about our Mercy County meeting this evening at 6:00 p.m. at Lawrence Township School District. I believe all our board members and most of our board members are registered for tonight. Many of our board members will be recognized for certifications at the
New Jersey School Board Association uh meeting tonight in Mercer County as well as uh many of our employees uh will be honored tonight for their work as teachers in our district. And so we want to honor them and respect them and congratulate them and we'll be meeting
them tonight uh at Mercer County School Board Association at Lawrence Township School District. So congratulations to our uh district employees as well as to our board members. comments by committee chairs. I'll start off uh in terms of our board vacancy. Uh
we have a letter that's going out to our candidates. We have two candidates that submitted applications. We will be establishing our interviews on June 30th. Uh we are compiling questions now from our board members for our interviews and we'll narrow those
questions down to three or four questions for our candidates. We are leaving open the opportunity for members of our public to submit uh their application, letter of interest and resume to our board secretary by May 31st. But that will be the final due
date as well as questions from our board members can be submitted to a board secretary by May 31st of this year. And then on June 30th, we'll have our interviews of our candidates that have been submitted who have submitted applications by May May 31st due date in
executive session. Uh then we'll come out in public and we will vote on the candidate that the board uh have we'll have the conversation and discussion in public and then vote uh on make a recommendation nomination and vote on the candidate that we like to select and
appoint to the board to take the seat of the vacancy of Sasa Lisa Montana board members we have uh several board meetings the month of June June 3rd 8:30 a.m. for our CSA evaluation June 16th 8:30 am for our CSA evaluation
June 30th it's our regular board meeting at 5:30 and July 28th we have a meeting and since it's summertime um I I'm kind of recommending if board members can check their calendars for an 8:30 a.m. for a regular board meeting because it is July 28th. I want to respect not only
the board members but respect the public as well because I'm sure members of the public have activities in the summer as well that they may want to uh may want to attend. That's just a recommendation for food for thought to have aced to be uh not only CSA evaluation executive session but also a a regular
meeting for for business that has to be taken care of. And lastly, our board retreat in August. We're working on we'll be working on our five-year strategic plan 2026 to 2031. Um we do have one recommendation from a board
member Yolanda Lopez to have a conversation around the book, the governance core. And so we have that book. She shared this book with us a few months ago. Um and so we want to make sure every board still has this book. We're thinking about having some dialogue around this particular book,
the governance core. So that's that's a recommendation from Yolanda, but I also want to open up recommendations from all board members for any topics other than the strategic plan, which we have to focus on in our August retreat. Any recommendations for any topics that you might want to have discussed in at our
uh um August retreat. So, please submit those um by June 30th, if not earlier, so we can get that information uh organized and ready to go for August retreat. I will be contacting New Jersey School Board Association, our rep Marian Freeman regarding strategic planning for
our August retreat. That's all that I have for governance committee. I know teaching and learning Addie is not here. Anybody can pick that up. Oh, she's Add's here. Sorry. Yes, I am. So I can't share my All right.
Gotcha. Sorry about that. No problem. Okay. And so the teaching and learning committee u met last Tuesday uh May the 6th. Um at that time we had a presentation concerning um AVID and uh we of course learned the um the acronym
AVIT advancement via individual determination. Um we found out information about the program. We had an overview. Um it is being implemented in um stages and uh the teachers are being trained and continuous training and looking forward to the program expanding
to um other grade levels um for next year. Um we then reviewed the um the agenda items. Those agenda items included um summer program opportunities, uh the course catalog for middle and high school, um evaluation
tools for um the continued use for uh staff members. Uh we also talked a little bit about um a little bit about programs that would be approved for this particular upcoming school year as well as programs for this particular uh for
the upcoming um summer season. Um, in addition, we had an update from our special education department. Uh, we talked a little bit about the um, autism awareness awareness month and activities that would take place during autism awareness. Um, there was a particularly
um, important program that took place at Mott Elementary School and certainly um, we uh, look forward to uh, highlighting the um, autism awareness uh, districtwide. Um, we also talked about um the schools that actually had autism programs and how that's uh set up. And
we also talked a little bit about the ES ESY program that of course occurs every summer, the application uh process and how that is in fact progressing. So that is the report from the uh teaching and learning committee. Uh the operations committee we met on
Tuesday morning we discussed transfers the secretar's report um treasur report staff travels uh the list of bills and that number uh is 42,747,745 and that covers April 15
through April 30th. Uh excuse me. Uh we also um what what's a part of this agenda is a request for proposal uh to provide outreach and wraparound and support for parents and students who are
experiencing homelessness. Um homelessness is a critical issue that affects us um as a district but also our city. And so it was good to see that on. And then um I would just like to commit commend the superintendent and the
facilities group um for the work that they're doing with our facilities, you know, for our children and having a place that they could go that's clean and safe. Um the fact that it's starting to get warm early now. Um it was 82
degrees last Friday and so children having air conditioned and teachers having air conditioned so they could get the work done. So, um, commend you guys on the, uh, facilities plan. And so, that's a wrap. Hello. So, the face committee, oh,
facilities committee met on Tuesday, uh, May 6. Um, I'm pleased to announce that uh the old Junior One building project is 100% complete and um Dwayne Mosley and Jame will be
meeting with the New Jersey Insurance Group on the met on the 8th to discuss the demolition cost reimbursements and get our money back. Um the Ziggler warehouse building the aspesus abatement is complete. The de demolition will
start immediately upon uh confirmation of the city and county officials to make sure that all uh utilities have been shut down. Uh electric service upgrades Harrison Cabwallet and Franklin uh we're working with PSEG to get the
transformers installed. Harrison School. They're installing a new elevator and the purchase order has been issued and the contractor is beginning to mobilize. Um there's HVAC upgrades going on Franklin and Harrison
and that's progress work in progress. Uh the renovation and alterations to the 9th grade academy. Um bids were received. However, they were all rejected uh due to discrepancy in the bid documents in the language. Um the
project will go out for rebid immediately. Um Capitol City High School and Grant uh partial roof replacements are 100% complete. This was done over spring recess. Uh Trenton Central High School.
The concession stand upgrades and cafeteria extension projects are about 85%. Um Holland the acoustical ceiling installation bids were received and the PO was issued. Uh the timeline is to be
determined and emergency projects. Um Harrison school there's a lift that they use to get the um Aramark to get food up to the cafeteria that broke and they need to repair that. And then the culinary kitchen refrigerator repairs at
Capitol City High School. Uh the repairs were required. Uh that's it. That's all I have. Okay. So the face committee met on Wednesday uh May 7th and we discussed uh
attendance initiatives. Um the district has been working hard to increase student attendance across all the schools. Um we also um discussed how the schools have been um creating different opportunities for students um including
uh working with Bank of America to give out bikes and helmets for students who have perfect attendance along with our billboard campaign. Um I know we as board members did a great uh commercial to make sure that we remind our students uh to show up on time every day.
Um, we also discussed uh um every school being participating with an attendance campaign. Uh, we discussed uh some of our upcoming um parent engagement programs. We've been working with Catholic Charities. They're going to be doing a program on May 20th at MLK
um uh talking about uh setting limits uh that liberate when it comes to with parents for ch concerning their children. We also have a teen speaks program that works with um uh curriculum that helps parents listen to their
children. Um the first session happened uh on May 6. Uh we also discussed a grant that we got from Ruckers University um encouraging SNAP um SNAP signups. Um it was uh so there was a lot
of uh outreach to different um init events to try to get parents to sign up to is a program to help um spread the awareness of SNAP benefits and um incentivize communities of um low-income communities to increase
registrations. Uh we also discussed uh uh kindergarten um registration and summer programs as as we do every year there. We have summer programs all across the district. So we um so now there's outreach. I think the last day
to sign up is May 30th um for you know some of the STEM programs that's happening this summer. That was uh the report. Thank you. We're now public participation. We did have two members who signed up from
our district. Marisol Toado who is not here and Judy Martinez Cooper who is not here. So that concludes our public participation. We'll now have board discussion action on consent agenda. I have a motion to approve the consent agenda.
Some moved. Second. All in favor? Roll call. Joe Truhart. Yes. Denise Johnson absent. Jean Buoie yes. Addy Daniels Lane. Addie Daniels Lane.
Yes. Probably on mute. Austin Edwards absent. Yolanda Lopez. Yes. Larry Trailer. Yes. Jeannie Weakland abstain from everything grant school related but yes. Motion passed.
Any board member comments at this time? Mr. Buie. Uh yes. Um I I kind of have my papers mixed up here. So I want to acknowledge donations. I think it's important that folks who give to our children um we thank them publicly. And
so the organization is vast BAS wood supplies and fasteners uh to Trenton STEM building and design uh Alpha Kappa Alpha Sarity Incorporated EP
uh epsilon epsilon Omega chapter $1,7798 for Trenton Central High School and Capitol City High School. Etna better health $2500 for family and community engagement. Shine and inspire toiletry
items and non-p perishable food $250 family and community engagement. And Taihole Oncology Incorporated 2500 book bags 900 notebooks on the value of $10,000. And then there was one um uh
one thing that came out of the HR committee um since uh um it didn't get announced, but I think it's important when we look at other school districts that are having challenges with layoffs, if you look at the the abolishments, and so the point that we like to make and
that for me it felt really good is that even with our abolishments, no staff will be laid off. And that's uh that's a big deal when you look at what's happening like Camden and Orange and East Orange. So um um that was a really
good point and I think we need to to acknowledge the work that's been done here to ensure that our people um have jobs and continue to be successful. Thanks. Any other comments? Seeing
none, motion to adjurnn. So moved. Second. I don't think we have any new We don't have any new business tonight. We didn't have any new business today, this afternoon. So, no new business. Motion to adjurnn. It's properly moved and seconded. Okay. Roll call. All in favor?
I. I. All right. Meeting is over. Thank you everybody for coming.