e you e [Music] for for e e e e
e e e e e e 5 call call me call the TR Education meeting February 24th to order Pledge of Allegiance please
rise 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 can I have a roll
call Gerald truart present Denise Johnson present Jean buoy absent Addie Daniel V pres amen Austin Edwards present Yolanda Lopez present Sasa man
here Larry trailer present Jeanie wakam pres we have a quarum amen Sunshine Law the New Jersey public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest as
discussed or acted on is discussed or acted on on the rules of this act the TR ucation has caused notice of this meeting be publicized the date time and place therefore posted in the web page the times and the Star Ledger formal action will take place at this meeting
our mission statement all students will graduate with the vision for their future motivate to learn continually and prepare to succeed in their choice of college or career uh we have an adoption of the agenda uh we do have uh one notice we want to make is that our
regular agenda was revised to include a first reading of our policy that are on our agenda I believe it's 5,000 6,000 7,000 series uh policies uh as a first reading for uh tonight's board meeting we will now move on to our need a motion
to to approve as a as announced and amended for the minute for the agenda so moved second properly moved and second it roll call Gerald truart yes Denise Johnson yes Keen buoy absent Addie Daniels Lane yes Austin Edwards yes
Yolanda Lopez yes Sasa man yes Larry trailer yes jeie weam yes motion passed right we have our superintendent's remarks hey all right I think this is working testing all
right hi everyone welcome on this um chilly spring uh pre-spring day so it's about to get warm soon I don't know about you but I spent two days just outside getting sun and fresh air this weekend cold or not so just to get out
of the house so excited about the spring and I know you are uh also uh tonight we are delighted to hear a performance from Kilmer qu comprised of students from the fourth fifth and I think the sixth
grades uh the choir is directed by Kilmer General music teacher Miss lindita lle also joining us tonight I think I see Miss zinski is she here this evening uh who is our uh Trenton Public School supervisor of Visual and
Performing Arts and none other than the principal uh Mrs Paula Bea thank you all for joining us this evening tonight the choir will sing Black Butterfly uh Black Butterfly is a song written uh by the
songwriting Duo Barry man and Cynthia wheel in 1982 and most famously recorded by American recording artist Denise Williams Williams recording was released in 1984 for Columbia Records and is on her
1984 album Let's Hear It for the Boy the bside of the single is the song blind dated blind dating also featured on the album butterflies are widely recognized as symbols of
transformation rebirth and change due to their life cycle of metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly they can also represent hope and Recovery a sign of warmer days and New Beginnings in in the
spring endurance a testament of Hope and perseverance having started as a vulnerable egg freedom and joy a reminder to embrace Liberation and let go of burdens
ladies and gentlemen we bring you the choir from Kilmer and black butterfly [Applause]
oh yeah she said that we're good evening ladies and Gentlemen even Black Butterfly it was written by the songwriting Duo Barry man and Cynthia wheel and 1982 and is the most
famously and is the most famously recorded American recording by artist Denise [Applause] Williams black butterflies are syllables
of transformation that represent cycle of Life Death and rebirth right Williams recording was released in 1984 for Colombia records and it's on
the hear it board let's hear it for the single for the single boys let butterflies are widely recognized as symbols of transformation rebirth and change due to their life cycle of
metamorphosis from caterpillar to [Music] butterfly they can also represent hope and Recovery a sign of warmer days in Spring endurance a testament to Hope and perseverance having started as a vulnerable
[Applause] egg freedom and joy a reminder to embrace liberations and let go of burdens ladies and gentlemen we bring you black butterfly
[Applause] [Music] la [Music]
[Music] [Music]
[Music]
n e [Applause] thank you am I on thank you thank you thank you for those of you left in the
auditorium give them one more round of applause [Applause] I was uh lucky to come in during rehearsal and I was lucky to come in during
rehearsal and I passed by about 10 or 15 of the students and I gave high fives to the all of them and somewhere around 16 17 and 18 I said wow you all sound good can I sing with you and I was told
no now I understand why they were outstanding and I would have I wouldn't have done them I wouldn't have done them any good together so uh just the last few comments on uh superintendent remarks I know in the last um board
meeting we spoke about uh immigration concerns and issues we want our families to know that we have stayed Vigilant on that issue for the time that we stopped talking at the mic uh to Everyday since trying to find
the right message the right information to share with our families uh and we will continue to do so as we go forward what we do know is at this time no Trenton Public School and no school around us has had to deal with issues in
the school what I can't do is guarantee anything but we don't anticipate that in my conversations with officials that I'm able to have a uh connection with uh it's been shared that that's that
schools and uh are not the target um I think when immigrations officials arrive they have specific uh issues that they need to address if they need to deal with someone in the school and we hope to have that information prior to so we
want our families to know that children remain as safe is we can keep them in school every day uh and we know that's our charge uh even in the middle of Education we want to turn your baby's home safe to you U so we want to thank you for giving us the opportunity and
that concludes my remarks all right superintendent God bless you we now have I believe now we'll work to our comments by board committee chairs I'll go in this order I'll go policy
operations uh Mr buoy is absent tonight so we'll skip operations unless the representative can share from that committee uh teaching and learning HR facilities and then face School support so we'll start off with facilities Denise or policy or facil policy I'm
sorry I said facility I meant say policy policy thank you for correction all right thank you um so the policy committee um met to review do policies for the 5,000 6,000 and
7,000 series those policies are um up for first reading tonight um as president truhart mentioned we are going to present for second reading the 300 and 4,000
series um policies for March our March board meeting along with bylaws 0115 and I I just wanted to um thank everyone who is part of this committee um reviewing these
policies it it does take time uh so I just want to thank everyone who's part of that process and just know that it is an ongoing process so just know that as we finish up these last um few series I think we might have
one or two more series that we have to review we still have to continue to upd dat policies that we haven't looked at yet so just know that we're this con process is continuing and I just want to thank everyone for all of the effort
that they're putting in to review these policies so thank you operations um can speak to op the operations no okay so we pass operations teaching and learning D Lane L okay so um good evening I am reporting on behalf of the
um teacher and learning committee um that met on um February the 18th this report is a very brief report um in that during that particular meeting various proposals resolutions and travel requests were discussed and reviewed and uh they were approved for submission to
the board meeting that was scheduled for um tonight um as it relates to special needs students um the discussion regarding special education revolved around changes in the um BD program um and these changes related to um Staffing
some challenges within the program and student reassignments um those discussions involveed a number of people including parents teachers and families and in fact the discussion uh with those particular folks involved what are the better opportunities to service our students inside and outside of the
district and so that is the report on behalf of um the teaching and learning um committee so thank you thank you um on behalf of the HR committee I know we met uh earlier last week um I just want to say that I'm very
excited uh as always let me turn this down okay thank you um excited as always uh for the opportunities available in the district uh I know tonight we're going to be approving uh a lot of new hires I don't
know why that's I got to turn this down be approving a lot of uh new hires and different positions that are available in the district and I know weekly uh we have our HR team that gives out uh a lot of information of opportunities that are available in the district um and it's
just it's just a great opportunity and a great uh chance to come in and really affect the lives of our kids uh I know earlier today alone I shared out I think it was about 40 different opportunities that are uh open right now for people to come in um and you know literally within
you know 8 hours or so it's got like 30 shares right throughout different platforms on Facebook and you know we keep going out and promoting uh different jobs that are available so please send this around to your friends family and uh most especially uh know that we have something great where you
can come in uh uh feed your family off of a great salary and really give back to our uh kids and District as a whole so thank you uh the facilities uh committee met on Tuesday February 18th um subjects discussed were the old
Junior one building and the status of the project is is uh it's currently in progress the New Jersey schools Insurance Group has approved the removal of the underground storage tank that they came
across um the contractor is currently 85% complete with the Demolition which is in its final stages um the project is scheduled for completion by March of 2025 um Reserve Capital maintenance
projects the zegler warehouse building the contractor has mobilized on site the asbest abatement is being conducted by the contractor and has begun and is expected to take about two months demolition will begin immediately after
the abatement the project is expected to be completed by the summer 2025 uh emergency required maintenance projects uh we've got districtwide Pest Control going on um facilities has
increased School visits and Pest Control efforts for the winter months um the 2025 fire inspections inspections have gun and scheduled walkthroughs are currently underway um right to know surveys and
chemical disposal surveys are being distributed to schools and a quote has been obtained for the disposal of chemicals identified for removal from the district and that's
it yes um hello everyone I am reporting out the information for the face committee um face and school support so we discussed um our parent empowerment series which is all around all about how we can um support parents when it comes
to um strategies and skills especially around managing um the children and especially when it comes to attending school so some of the topics included uh age appropriate limit setting when it comes social media calming and D dressing techniques and building helpful
routines um we also discussed um Central registration especially with uh kindergarten registration which is opened already for the 2025 2026 school year uh we discussed uh pop grocery event that Union Baptist Church is happening on March 1st uh 2025 from 10:
to 2 and uh we discussed um support services for our students who are dealing with housing insecurity and how we can um coordinate with schools and the community around uh discussing parent rights especially for
some of our undocumented families and uh as a future conversation we talked about in our meeting was about uh School attendance data and um some more Parent Connection um engagement events that was our report thank
you thank you War members um on governance I want to first of all I want to shout out to Paul Principal Paul Bea what a great job you were doing at Kilmer I mean that's doing a great job your students are a testimony to the
work that you continue to do in your team there um really appreciate all the work and I wanted to actually talk to the board about maybe petitioning for a Grammy for your students they sang that so well um that was phenomenal and I was
actually echoing superintendent remarks when he said I heard him practicing but I didn't ask if I could join them though I knew my voice wasn't going to carry right so um great great job there and also uh Stacy Denton I see you and
Nashville Trio month in February we had a great time on Saturday uh celebrating the work that you are doing in Trio Mera County Community College and of course at our Triton Central High School and the partnership we could look forward to that continued partnership with you
again just want to continue to congratulate you on the work uh congratulations on National Trio day annual event every February fourth Saturday in the month of February so coincide with black history month that's good right so I just want to wanted to
make those few uh few comments and thank all the board members for their for their committee reports in terms of um our governance we're we're we're doing great work I think I'm enhancing uh the work that we continue to do as board members one of the things that uh we decided as
a committee was business cards for all of our board members so want to thank Lori Hopkins and Jane's office thank you so much Jane and superintendent for agreeing and of course the the committee for agreeing to get business cards for all of our board members our superintendent of course has his
business cards and others uh but we thought it was very important that we are able to communicate when we're out in the community uh with our constituents with stakeholders with parents with students to have an opportunity to say if you want to contact me about something in May this
uh committee that I'm that I'm on all the business cards have not only your name but the committee that you're responsible for uh whether you're a chairperson of a committee or member of a committee that information is there with the address of course in your email address I believe we have about maybe 20
or 30 cards here each person so we thought that was a good way of um promoting ourselves when we're out in the community when people may want to contact us about a particular issue or or or challenge that they're having that we can direct them to to go through of course the chain of command and direct them appropriately uh in the right
course of action so they can get their situation circumstance handled in decency and in in order the other thing that we have is we decided to um put together our we have our committee schedule and our chairperson's appointments done that is in front of
you as well tonight uh so you have that information in front of you keep that with you close to you so you know who's responsible responsible for what committees and who's on those committees to contact them if you have any questions prior to board board meetings uh we also I want to let you know about
the annual board meeting calendar even though our our public calendar goes through June we actually have a calendar goes through December for the board so we can kind of our part of our planning process that the governance committee decided to put forth so we have that also I'm I don't think that's necessary
in front of you but you can you we sent that to you in email Jane sent that out about a week week or so ago to all of our all of our board members uh we continue to work through our schedule for the entire year um January through December now it's of course February so
we're planning to release that information after our March 10th committee meeting our governance committee meeting uh not only to the committee but also once we finalize things to the entire board our kind of monthly calendar of events activities
presentations uh board present ations throughout the year through the month of December so we can have a planning calendar uh that was started actually under the leadership of Sasa um and also our board past board president uh Miss Lopez um so we're continuing that work
that they started and we're very proud of that work that they have started we will continue in that effort to uh plan and present that information to the board and of course to the public one of yes and Addie amen and Daddy thank you
superintendent uh we also we had article in Trenton Journal after our previous board meeting around immigration immigration rights and of course immigration Customs Enforcement uh activities of course with the national issue but as a superintendent stated in
our city we are pretty much believe we have it under control uh to to the ex every extent possible uh however we did pass a policy 518 our resolution affirming the commitment to educating all children we also had an article in
the Trenton Journal we had comments from in quotes from Sasa Sasa as well as Austin and myself around the very issue and we all were on the same page on point with uh what the board had decided in our resolution uh and also making sure that
we recognize that the superintendent is leadership of our district and he is the one who's implementing those policies and practices and procedures in our district and doing a great job I I may add uh we look to move forward uh into into febru into into
March um with our superintendent's pre-conference for our superintendent overall evaluation so that will start in March so we'll R our superintendent um and we will have his pre-conference for his evaluation starting his evaluation process uh starting in March when to get
it started early want to get done by by May um so that process will start uh in in the month of March so so next next board meeting I believe we also have a resolution on the on the agenda tonight for Howard University um yeah how how come on how
hu even though I'm a more house man but hu all right um I'll turn to spring break program that Austin n presented to to the board and uh to various committees to our superintendent and so we have that on our agenda looking forward to
that collaboration with those students uh Maryann Freeman was scheduled to be here uh this evening to present our ethics and our uh self- evaluation however she had some diffic some challenges in her family so she was unable to attend tonight uh so we're
looking to schedule her for March or April we're working out we had to work with superintendent uh and in the lead leadership team around when we do that so we do things logistically and decent in order so we'll have more information on that uh discussed in our next uh governance committee meeting want to
remind all of our board members to complete their financial disclosure statements that are due now if you haven't done so please get that done because that is a part of qac so we'll make sure all of our board members are completing their financial disclosure statements and if you can get that done by the end of this week if you haven't
already done so uh would appreciate getting that done we did send also out a student rep letter to um the principal of Trenton Central High School Miss Courtney as well as the principal of a Capital City High School uh Mr Dana
um Williams Williams Williams son Williams son Dana Williamson uh so we're looking forward to hearing back from them about student reps to the board that is also a part of our qack but also a part of our commitment to our students to have them involved with uh our board
and hear their insights and to hear uh the things that they are interested in and the challenges they may have and the successes that they're having and the achievements that they're that you're achieving so we're looking forward to um feedback from the principal princi of the of our high schools uh our two uh
upper class high schools the capital city high school and Trenton Central High School uh hopefully in the next uh within the next week or so before our next board meeting we also are we also have an enhancement to our to our we continue to
enhance we also have an enhancement to our our board agenda we now have a table of contents much like uh oper operations has there uh table of contents we have a table of contents for our HR so thank you uh thank you Charelle for that and
of course Jane Howard and superintendent to putting that together we'll have one for teaching and learning in March and the purpose of that is to make it easier for us to find information uh within looking at looking at a table of contents we think it's a good idea to have those it's very helpful in the
operations to point out things that you might want to focus on specifically so we're going to continue to enhance our agenda in those areas we'll have a table of contents for for each section of our of our agenda moving forward uh we also uh want to limit our addendums as you
see tonight there's no addendums tonight so we work working really very hard to limit the number of addendums that we have as we move forward of course at the discretion of our superintendent if there's something that is important that needs to be done uh needs for us need for the board approval we will certainly
uh bring that forth as an addendum on our agenda according the to the superintendent's recommendations to to the full board there's so much going on I'm going to stop right there um and and I'll make some more comments in my in my time as
as my board comments but don't want to continue uh to be labor and continue lot lot of stuff going on a lot of things happening a lot of positive things happening at the board level and in the schools so I'll in my report right there and I'll give some remarks under my under the board comment time of our of
our agenda so we want to move through our agenda now to Old business which are response to public participation from our January 27th 2025 meeting got you thank you uh we have ran
Collins of Saved soil he was coming here to just share with us about uh soil depletion issues around the city I believe uh just wanted to make us aware um and to encourage us to to study that uh in our school district and so I want
to thank uh Raman Raman Collins of safe soil for his his presentation to us and awareness around soil depletion we had two two responses from tea uh in terms of our immigration customs and
enforcement challenges here of course nationally in our city Jack Sullivan social studies teacher tea and John Fort Forte tea just expressed concerns around immigration and negative imp impa that has on our students and but they reaffirmed our commitment they heard our
commitment in our policy presentations and our resolution our superintendent's remarks around immigration work that he's doing with his team in the school district uh they felt very comfortable that we were on top of it and that we were moving forward with our policies
ensuring safe safe zones and safe schools for all of our students in particular our immigrant population which of course is growing all of our students we want to have education that is free from danger and free from any
kind of you know stress or turmoil that from the outside that impacts uh their learning we have concerns from tiia Duncan around a couple of issues one was around our BD program she also had insights and conversation on immigration
uh some work some information for us around HR responsiveness and some things around the issues of par parents and HR staff and some communication challenges there um but of course our superintendent his team uh responded not
only to uh special education concerns but also to human res Human Resources concerns and immigration concerns uh from um our public participation and public comment period so that concludes our January 27 2025 board concerns from
our January meeting we now move on to public participation I believe we have two people tonight two people tonight I'm going to read a public comment advisory for everyone uh before we uh go into our public comment period the Trenton Public School District welcomes the attendance
and comments from all members of the public at its meetings this public comment period is in your is your time to be heard in any school or School District issue that a member of the public may feel is a concern concern to the residents of our school district each person who signs up to commit to
comment will have five minutes you'll be notified when you're five minutes are up you can yield you cannot yield your time to another person when it's your time to speak please address all of your comments to the board president please conduct yourself in respectful and courteous manner for anyone who comments or or actions either harass intimidate
or threaten the safety of any person we will provide you with a warning or immediately in your comment time also if you curse you vulgar language or make personal attacks we will provide you with a warning or in your comment time comments that adhere to these guidelines
will not be interrupted if you have any questions please ask your questions during your five-minute comment period after the public comment period is closed the board superintendent or design will address your questions to the extent provided by law we a also ask that members of the public not interrupt
the speaker during public comment our first is Naomi Naomi Lopez LZ your please come forward junior class of 2026 come on [Applause] welcome just got to press the button
someone show her where to press the button thank you yes so the mic can turn off person a little person there you go do I start yeah okay good evening we
come to um you tonight as behalf of the Trenton Central High School student buddy um our goal as officers of a junior class 2026 um is to raise money uh for our events such as um trips and
uh esec specifically our prom um we've had many successful um fundraisers such as uh big sales um during homecoming and pretzel sales um after school um we've had we've faced a problem that we
noticed is that um many students uh no longer carry cash and we um our goal is to um see if we if they can if there can be a change within that um such as
having um digital payments um we um throughout ourselves uh we noticed that a lot of PE uh students weren't able to participate in our activities due to not having cash and asking if we could um provide them
with transactions within like sale um Apple pay or cash app um we propos that Central High uh or Central High School should be allowed to have a cell account that our principal would be running it
and we could provide them with a QR code that none not us as students or our advisers would not be um having access access to these account only our principal would have access to it and
within using that QR code um we can show it to the students and the students uh nor us can see see what happens within this account and this would allow you guys to um see every movement that it
happens within the account and every transaction that happens and it also um secures safety um for example like um there's many um issues that could happen with having cash with us um like H
having threat or loss of the money but with having this access um you guys would be having uh it would be more secure and safe for all of us and uh we noticed also that in other clubs such as
uh students helping huras they also face this issue and um not only will this profit uh benefit us but also them and other clubs um we thank you for your time and hope you consider our proposal thank you thank you thank
you all right thank you for your time presentation Jane juny Martin I see it juny Martinez from Tessa I believe that Judy is here right now so we will move on from our public participation and public comment period board member board member contact
uh comments we start with Mr trailer uh I have none thank you on down we'll come right down on line here if anybody has comments thank you
okay okay General comments right yep um so probably nobody in this room is as much a News Junkie than I am what kind of junky News Junkie News Junkie news news um but I guess this goes directed
to all of us here on the days and the superintendent I am extremely worried about the national Panorama and how that is going to affect um New Jersey being a democratic state but most directly our district um superintendent thank you for
the update on um you know the ice raids and how schools are not a Target and while I believe you it's hard for me to believe anything on a national level anymore um you know they're they're talking about abolishing the Department
of Education and as we all know they fund us directly both for our special education our children with disabilities that would be a huge disaster for our district and I was just wondering I guess directly
superintendent or or um the president you know have there been conversations about this um because I believe them when they say they're going to do this and I'm just extremely worried on how it's going to impact our kids and our
teachers I mean our district as a whole I mean I can't see losing what do we funded Jane 10 million what how much do they give us the the the how much Federal funding do we get do you know off the top about 10 million I mean that's direct cuts to faculty students I
mean it's very frightening and and so I was just wondering if you have any I mean they talked about the other thing that is is upsetting the whole Dei discussion I mean we are a de District we are primarily students and families of color and you know talking about you
cannot teach African-American studies anymore and you cannot you know these sort of things um I'm scared and I just wonder what we're going to do again we do have a state that that will fight for us but you know it's it's a big impact
for our district directly so I was just wondering so you're right there's so many unknowns uh regarding our future and what the future of Education uh federally looks like and then uh what we how it might impact Us in the state what
we do know is that our state partners are uh aware and active in seeking resolutions prior to I know in this district with you sitting here and with budgeting this year our team we've sat
for hours all 25 location all 8 to 10 departments thinking about streamlining spending being smart about spending uh not uh adding anything predicting potentially what may come our way uh and
we don't know what that number is you know like we don't know if it's millions or if it's you know small amounts we did get notice from uh the uh I want to say the governor's office or a location at the
njdoe I'm sorry that um we should be working around 3% potentially and reductions and uh I have to say this team has been really smart about making sure that uh the people that serve our young people have places to do that so
we feel secure about the coming year um what what we can can't predict is the the future years and so all we can do is wait and then when that time comes we want to be smart about what we do and my you know my theory and my whole team can
tell you I think it's important to show up and be visible so that if uh things happen and you're not protected people can say you're working and so we're going to work hard every day as we have since I've been here to do that as as it
pertains to Dei I think that uh it is my opinion as superintendent as an educational professional that that term has been hijacked and used as negative um we don't do Dei work in this
District I know you just said we're Dei District we're District about life our people need us we're going to serve them that way whether it's through Dei restorative practices trauma informed care you can tag it anywhere way you
want we serve people and so we don't we don't want to take a term that's meant so I mean it's so positive and so personal to so many people uh and allow others to take it and demean the terms
so that we all run away from it uh we're not running away from anything this is the work that we do and we don't have a choice whether they take every dime from us or not and what I've said to our team is what might Force any of us to do if
you've been in these situations and I would imagine that many of us have is go back to a day when you didn't have anything and many of our people grow up that way I know I was a kid so I can live in a whole bunch of different spaces because I've been there before
with nothing with something with half of something with half of nothing sometime in crisis and so what you do is you operate uh and you learn how to do things for uh less um because we're you
know we've arrived now and we have all these things well you know this Administration they I mean in my opinion they may not this this is not important what we have it's more important for this Administration to serve our people I'm talking about us in the room so to
serve our people so um I I don't have a direct answer to that uh what I think's important is that we show up every day to to do the work and however it's tagged it it is and that's what I see from our people we don't speak about we worry about it but we don't speak about
this CU our the people we serve need us on that word do I get it yeah and so uh I wish I had an answer I don't uh what I do know is we're planned as well as we can be for this year and we are actually
active in trying to see what it looks like in the future years not just one 2 3 4 five six down the road so the other thing I just wanted to speak about I brought this up at the last meeting was um cell phones yeah and uh the governor
has put out money I'm sure you know about that to help districts so I'm hoping that we will be looking at this superintendent so uh yes we absolutely will what we want to avoid is making uh any decisions about the device itself uh
we believe there's an appropriate place for uh technology and certainly cell phone use in a world where students are afraid to walk to school for a lot of reasons now with the addition of those things so we're going to be mindful as we Implement policy and I was just
sharing with someone who asked me about that recently we' already talked about a new procedure that would eliminate cell phones in the classroom but it wouldn't take the cell from from the child and so we're considering that but it depends on
you know what's what law is passed how you know how we get to activate it and then as a board where do you want to go do we want to strict no cell phone policy in any building which means all adults must abide too you know we hope they're doing that already yeah so so we
want to be uh consistent in what we do and yeah that that was on our radar before the governor uh started raising funds are putting money toward it and we certainly appreciate that and plan to exercise that option uh when it comes so
uh but it may not look like a total ban we don't know you know if it'll look like that we know other districts have gone in that direction it's really about the health and safety of children can they pay attention when the phones are on right you know and that's what it's about can we make sure they're learning
when they're here and then that they're protected and safe when they leave which means they need their device so we'll we'll likely always have a space for them to bring them but not in the classroom when they're learning yeah that's unless there's a need for it thank you you're welcome one of the
things I I could share with you is uh in my conversations with uh speaker Coughlin that there is some talk um of a legislation around cell phone use um but none none coming forth yet but I know there's some conversations around that
many districts uh Lawrence being one has implemented policies around cellone use of students uh in the classroom uh so I can address that that particular issue that way because I'm in a school district nearby neighboring School District that has actually implemented a policy around cell phone use for
students um and of course uh there's no legislation yet the talk speaks to that but there's some talk around conversations around that work I'm sure with Larry trailer and and of course Miss Lopez and Mr Mr Austin Edwards and Denise Johnson who are involved heavily
in Addie and and jeie uh in the community uh reyolds Jackson are s woman along with Anthony verelli and my conversations with them they are fighting uh at the na at the state level of course fighting nationally against
any intrusion on the work that we are doing in the state of New Jersey in the particularly Mera County so I know in my conversations with at least legislators and the speaker of the house and others and others on this on this Das and on this board and our conversations have
been strongly against any kind of national mandate on the state of New Jersey War merca County up to the even the county executive Dan Benson I mean we are really working around that issue and making sure that we are strong uh superintendent of course been many different meetings he's been in many
different meetings with local law enforcement and others and he he's already shared his comments but we are working to to fight and we're going to continue that fight for our kids and for our families and our community here in Trent New Jersey and Merc County and uh the state so looking forward to uh to
the fight continue to fight all right anyone any other comments from any other board members yes I just have a few comments so I'm I just want to say how happy I am to be part of the face
committee Dr Ortiz and Denise cre are doing such amazing work um and I I'm looking forward to all of the future activities that Denise has already planned Miss cre I'm sorry and
I'm just going to encourage all board members to if we can make some uh uh have some time in our schedule arrange time in our schedule so that we can attend a few of these meetings so Larry thank you so much for your report
I greatly appreciate that um Howard uh University students are on their way to uh volunteering the district I'm so excited about them coming and um pouring into our children
I don't know if it's possible is it possible like to to get a summary of their experience here in the district I don't know if that's possible I'm not sure if they are um planning to prepare anything written but if if that can be shared with the district that would be
nice I'd like to know how you know how they fared when they were um within our schools tell them Happ [Laughter] wonderful um I wanted to just make one statement
about what's going on nationally um within our within our country it it is disheartening to to see everything that's going on and I just pray that our school districts in New
Jersey that we are standing firm and making sure that our children are receiving everything that they need to be productive citizens regardless of all the
negativity that we continue to hear uh you know almost it it it feels like it's every day that we that we're hearing it so I just encourage this District to stand firm in the face of this wind um that's the only way that we're going to
survive we we we cannot fold um because that's what people expect of us but our children deserve more so that's all I have okay so just just a comment so certainly I'd like to um salute the uh Kilmer choir they were just phenomenal
and certainly that was a lift to the spirits and congratulations to to our investment in the Arts right because the Arts are so important and they're things that um engage students and encourage them to learn even more expand their um expand their worldview and so again um
kudos to them and and certainly to their school in general and also I'd like to salute the students for actually coming out to express their opinion uh regarding um this whole cash and cashless uh movement uh recently had experience of going through the airport and there are places that don't take
cash right and so you have to dig for a card so I can certainly relate to that and um however it is and I know there are a lot of rules and regulations regarding that so hopefully there's some way that we can support our students but again I know there are specific rules about how you transact business within the schools so hopefully we can provide
some kind of guidance to them as they try to move forward but I that whole idea of advocating for what you need I think that's a something that we need to applaud so thank you students for coming out and however it is that we can work with you cuz I've experienced that it's like okay where's my card and I got cash
you don't want my you don't want you don't want my cash like really um so it's just the opposite but it's the same thing right so yeah got that so however we can support them so within the rules so with with your time did you want to share anything about operations I know that you may want to miss some key
points that you want some sing points that you want to glean from the operations okay I I pull that up and then I I dropped hold on we're patient we'll wait okay all right so um the operations committee um did in fact meet on the um on the 18th and um on the 18th
the operations committee discussed the um board agenda with the committee uh Miss Howard informed the committee that there would be a student performance from Kilmer school which we just experienced um also um we were supposed to have an Ethics presentation I think we mentioned that earlier but the person uh Miss fredman was not able to be here
tonight so we'll have that at a later time um and also um we mentioned that uh upcoming superintendent uh report out on Quarter Two that will come at a later date as well um Mr truart talked about um the uh policies that would be uh on
this particular agenda and the fact that series 5,000 and 6,000 was being reviewed um Mr ro oh Mr our executive agenda and he's not here tonight so not sure where we stand exactly with that um
we talked about uh the district doing a good job with um transfers compared to other districts in New Jersey uh Miss Howard reported that um it's always good to have an outside Treasurer or CPA who reviews um everything very carefully here as it relates to the district uh
finances uh Miss Howard reviewed the warrant account with the committee she said that the cash uh the excess cash is being invested to earn additional interest income so our monies are not just sitting there that they're actually um earning um interest and Mr truart asked the question about that and so um
Miss Howard was able to respond that um we're getting interest at a a rate of 6% um for our funds that are sitting until we actually have to expend them um and so we also talked about if there came a situation that involved um our cash flow not coming in would we be able to
survive without that immediate cash flow and the answer was yes for certain time period of course not forever um and also talked about uh staff travel and the um Bill lists the facilities um usage usage report the fact that our buildings are
being used by Community that's supporting our children and uh what else we talked about uh merca County Special Services District we had to make a large payment for them and we wanted to know kind of why that was uh necessary and she explained it uh we didn't agree with
it but she explained it um also we talked about the donations that are being received for the district for the month of February the fire and the safety drill and also um the resolutions for February 2025 um we talked a little bit about um our transportation system question was
asked are we considering electric buses um and response our infrastructure does not necessarily support electric school buses at this particular time um we also talked about the budget process and where we were in the process and the fact is that um we're considering um reviewing certain proposals that had to
kind of be recirculated and let's see whatever else we talked about and basically that was it so again that was the report from the operations committee and that committee did in fact uh meet last week so thank you thank you Miss Lane are there any other board
comments you want to respond oh Austin no okay so we're g to move now move on to discussion board discussion action on consent agenda can I have a motion to approve approv the consent agenda so moved properly moved in second any questions
on the Motion Austin oh yeah I guess this is time so um uh I know it's been discussed earlier I just want to reiterate myself since I got the giant thing out right you know listen all
right um and it doesn't fall deaf on me right the fact that this is uh black history month this month right and we're able to uh celebrate the fact that uh in tions like Howard University which have been around for uh essentially since the end of the Civil War right created is
specifically for African-American and other minority communities to be able to succeed um in this country and around the world um having the Howard students here right I know myself right as you know I'm a I'm an alumni along with um a
lot of different there you go H you know all right uh a lot of um great alumni like notable alumni that have really changed American society and the world right including uh the late uh Black Panther as I call on Chadwick bosan um
Felicia Rashad who's also a teacher at the University currently um um psychologist uh Kenneth Clark right who's instrumental in what would become uh another alumni's uh third Good Marshall Supreme Court Justice third
Good Marshall seminal case of Brown versus Board ending uh segregation in our country um politicians such as Elijah Cummings uh mayor of New York David D um our former vice president
soon to be uh the governor of California uh Harris um and I think there's some guy in New Jersey that might have went to Howard that's doing something on the on the state level Governor I I don't know that guy right you know Mr RZ
Baraka um a lot of great uh notable alum I came from there and knowing that we're able to have our Howard students be a part of the education system here in our district um is amazing uh I know they're coming in uh sometime next week to work
with uh some of our alumni in our schools including uh the high school Parker Elementary and like a lot of uh other um institutions here in the district um and I'm just I'm just very glad that we're able to move this forward that we're able to make this
happen that we're building on the Legacy that we had of Howard uh Even in our 7.5 square miles here um so I'm looking forward to this getting past this evening and I'm looking forward to uh being able to fellowship with my fellow bison uh next week here in Trenton thank
you any additional questions on the motion see no question there's no questions on the motion roll call Joe truart yes Denise Johnson yes Jean Brey absent Eddie Daniels Lane yes Austin Edwards yes
Yolanda Lopez yes Sasa man yes Larry trailer yes Jeanie wgam yes motion passed okay any new business to discuss tonight anyone have any new business to discuss tonight see any no new business
motion to adjourn there is no executive session proberbly moved in second all in favor weour meetings a Jour yes okay all [Laughter] right Mrs uh Mrs Grant Mrs Grant and Mrs
sun please come to the to the front Dr Dr Conway e e e for